Monday, September 7, 2009

Caption the fun

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm at the lake and in the company of 30-somethings. I was, anyway. They drove off into the horizon not long ago.

The morning was spent discussing the career of the married man. There was a round table discussion, as most there had careers which were well in place. There was mention of blogging your company's progress and inspirations, creating a bio for potential clients and what sort of photo such a bio should have.

The Dude is beginning just such a career in photography. I have no such thing. My job is to watch television at home. This in many ways is what I would have put down as my dream job when as a child I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, had I known this would actually be a option. My mother had always insisted to me that it was not an option when she wanted me to be more productive with my time.

I do closed captioning. I've been doing closed captioning since I was 22. In fact I was hired just prior to my 22nd birthday. I'm in my fifth year of this profession. I need not advertise, I don't have to keep samples of my work. Hell, I can turn on the TV and find samples of my work any time.

I never thought I would be doing this sort of thing for a living. I used to have to at least leave the house and go to an office. Now that's a thing of the past and I live in my pyjamas and every time I go out of doors, it's kind of an event. I will carefully select an outfit, apply makeup and mosey around until I'm good and ready to make an appearance to the world, which will not notice what I look like anyway because this is Toronto and no one notices anything about anybody. But still.

By now doing closed captioning is terribly easy for me. I still have an entry level position and would enjoy some new challenges. As it is, I can churn out my work at top speed and sit back and marvel that I'm getting paid for this. I use dictation and can now speak in grammar, "Hi comma have you been waiting long question mark new line no comma not really period new line." I sometimes "caption" real life to annoy the Dude, repeating everything he says in caption speak. In absence of him providing me any material, which usually follows him saying, "Shut up! Stop it!", I then "caption" various noises around us.

"Shut up exclamation point stop it exclamation point"
(Footsteps)
(Groaning)
(Chuckling)
"Knock it off exclamation point"
(Sighing)
(Pause)
(Extended pause)
(Traffic din)
(Exasperated sigh)
"I hate you period"
(Chortling)

One finds one amusements where one can period

1 comments:

Alek said...

I can appreciate the humour in this period semi-colon right bracket.

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