A more productive day

I managed to get a fair amount of work done. Alas, it wasn't writing, but more research. I had two interviews this morning that I had scheduled when I was back in the UK. It would have been nice to do them when I was there as they both resided in the UK, but unfortunately their schedules did not mesh with mine. However, I managed to figure out how to call them cheaply from home and record the conversations.

Skype is a wonderful little program that allows you to communciate computer to computer (much the same as msn messenger) or computer to landline telephone. You can even get a phone number through Skype. It is pretty AWESOME! (that's for you Kate, I hope you are reading this) All you have to do is buy minutes and you can phone anywhere in the world. And it is amazingly cheap, I couldn't believe it. I am not sure how I am going to use up the 10.00 Euros I purchased. I only used 1.40 Euros this morning to talk to my participants in the UK for a total of 70 minutes. That is much cheaper than if I would have used my regular telephone line. And the reason that I know this. I just got our telephone bill today, and the 4 minute collect call I made to Jeff was $30.39. Ouch!

Also, after many hours of frustration, I managed to find a program that would record the interview through my laptop.

Both of my interviews went well. It was definitely exciting to know that they confirmed a lot of the ideas and opinions that I have proposed in my paper. I was actually a little surprised how excited I was. It is just school.

The most exciting event of the morning was when my second interview extended an invite to email her in the future about helping me 'get into the industry.' "If you get too homesick for Europe, just let me know." Although I have made a number of great contacts in the industry, she was the first to offer me help in finding a job. I think I will take her up on that offer.

I wanted to try and get both interviews transcribed today, but I am not sure I want to tackle the second one. I just finished the first one, and I am exhausted. It usually takes me around 3 hours to transcribe one 25-30 minutes interview, and my second one was much longer than that.

It is a good thing supper is soon, I won't feel guilty about taking a break.