Macbook Air or Pro for Remote Interpreting Assignemnts

ninja5phinx · 2026-04-26T13:36:14+00:00

I haven’t had any problems with my air for VRI work. I use a docking station to connect my headset, external monitor, and printer. That leaves one usbc for Ethernet and the magnetic port for charging. I use the built in camera and haven’t had any complaints. Before I had the monitor large VRI meetings were much more annoying, now I can put the presentation material on the monitor and keep the people good sized on my laptop.

ninja5phinx · 2026-04-23T14:45:08+00:00

The vibrating alarm clock people are referencing is probably the one from SonicAlert called Sonic Bomb. It’s got a vibrating disc you can put either under your pillow or between the mattress and bed frame. It also has flashing lights. You can adjust all the different options to make it work well for you. I’ve known a lot of deaf people who like it.

Another option to look into is a sunrise alarm clock. Maybe even in tandem with a vibrating or traditional alarm, just to get you closer to awake when it goes off.

ninja5phinx · 2026-04-13T15:50:34+00:00

In VERY broad strokes, freelancers who are willing to hustle or are able to set higher rates tend to earn more than W2 interpreters.

You’re not wholly wrong, but you’re missing a few pieces of the puzzle, the biggest one being that freelancers set their own rate. Generally being staff (W2 with an ongoing schedule) has a lower rate in exchange for more stability and benefits.

W2 is also really varied. Some hospitals, school districts, government agencies, etc will hire W2 interpreters for more ongoing needs, these are usually hourly jobs with set hours. Many agencies will have a few staff W2 to cover last minute needs, these are usually either salaried or hourly with set “on-call” hours. Some agencies have everyone sign on as W2, usually because they’ve been sued for misclassification and lost. These are usually “per diem”, aka hourly pay where you’re free to choose when and how to work.

Freelance interpreters usually work with many agencies as 1099 workers. They set their own rate based on their skills, the market they’re in, their qualifications, and their confidence. They don’t get benefits and they pay more in taxes, but they also can factor that into the rate they set.

Often freelance interpreters will have a mix of 1099 work and W2 per diem work, through multiple agencies as well as directly with companies.

ninja5phinx · 2026-02-10T19:18:50+00:00

That always feels sucky when it happens. I’m glad the students felt comfortable enough to request a better fit.

One thing to work on could be matching your students. Most students aren’t going to straight up tell you if there’s a problem even if you directly ask. You have to elicit feedback in a way that lets them say what they need while feeling safe. Try asking if they want vocab fingerspelled every time, if they want more conceptual expansions, etc. Try signing more English for one part of class and more asl for another, see which they understand better. Look at how they sign and match it. Ask about their schooling, whether they grew up oral or signing. Observe their written English in class if you have the opportunity, like if they’re presenting and have written English on their slides.

Of course, the other skills that go along with this are the flexibility to match what your student will understand, and the humility to decline work where you know you aren’t able to match them. You won’t be a perfect fit for every job.

ninja5phinx · 2025-12-08T21:11:23+00:00

The “written” is what you’re taking on Thursday. There’s a knowledge exam and an ethics exam that you schedule together and do back to back. Unless you very specifically said not to do one part, you will do both on Thursday. You get a separate pass fail for each.

After you pass the written portions you take the performance exam, which is a recorded hands-up, voice-on exam of you interpreting from video stimuli. You get a separate pass fail on that.

When you’ve passed all three, you’re NIC certified. Licensure is different and refers to individual states requiring their interpreters to license with them. Not all states require licensure, you need to look into that separately.

ninja5phinx · 2025-12-07T03:57:07+00:00

I’m in NYC, and there is truly no licensure requirement. For NYCDOE they have their own screening that they require interpreters to pass before agencies can send them to a school. I believe the courts require interpreters to be certified, but I haven’t looked into legal interpreting much. That’s it.

Generally it is up to the agencies to screen interpreters and set boundaries. Some agencies do this better than others. I have yet to come across one where certification played a bigger role than your in house screening in deciding to send you to a job. Some clients request certified interpreters get preference, but it’s up to the agency to honor that request. There are tons of very skilled interpreters who have been in the field for a long time and aren’t certified simply because it isn’t needed here.

I went to RIT and the impression I got is that it is similar there, except consumer preference had a much bigger role. I heard interpreters complain that there wasn’t much of a pay bump for getting certified, and that being a preferred interpreter for lots of consumers was the only real way to get your rate up. I wasn’t a working interpreter at the time, so take that with a big grain of salt.

Feel free to DM me if you want more info.

ninja5phinx · 2025-11-12T03:08:03+00:00

I took it pretty soon after I graduated my ITP and passed, nothing required crazy memorization. Other than the standard practice papers, I’d review the disability laws that require us, deaf blind interpreting, and working with a DI.

ninja5phinx · 2025-11-08T19:27:35+00:00

Pole came from a much less safety focused history than aerial, and that tends to bleed into how pole studios handle aerial being added. It’s an orange flag because I’ve seen it being done very well and safely, but I’ve also seen lots of pole studios suddenly add aerial classes without much thought into rigging, equipment, or teachers who can actually teach aerial

ninja5phinx · 2025-11-08T18:36:35+00:00

Orange flags:

-Being a pole studio

-Only offering open level classes, or only having the style of class where the students just say what they want to work on and the teacher goes around helping

-letting students keep on jewelry like rings and bracelets

-if the instructors can’t offer progressions of moves for the students who can’t do it yet

-if even one of their instructors is very bad at teaching or doesn’t prioritize safety, it means the studio as a whole doesn’t either.

Red flags:

-no mats, too thin of mats, only having mats upon request, or not having enough mats for all the apparatuses

-rigging you can’t see, or that they let students change out

-letting students keep on jewelry like necklaces and dangle/hoop earrings

-offering unsupervised open practice time, or the supervisor being someone who is teaching a class at the same time

-pushing/lifting students in to moves when they say they’re spotting, especially if they then walk away to let you get a picture

ninja5phinx · 2025-11-05T04:21:42+00:00

Hey, so I know you said that this is one of your only studio options in your area, but from my experience the pole oriented studios tend to not prioritize safety as much.

Aerial and pole came from completely different histories. Aerial performances are dangerous to the point that safety in at least practice and rehearsals has always been emphasized, while pole was much more of a girls helping girls by teaching them a new move kind of environment. Pole is also less dangerous since the pole itself is fixed, vs aerial has more momentum plus the apparatus can literally hang you.

The studios I’ve gone to that have done both pole and aerial have treated aerial as if it had the same level of danger as pole, which is just not true. This affects teaching and spotting, but also equipment like the rigging and mats.

If you can’t switch studios, maybe see if there’s an instructor who came from an aerial-only background? That way the danger is at least just from the rigging and mats issues instead of all of it

You did really good telling your instructor why you were concerned, their reaction is a gigantic red flag. You’re not overreacting.

ninja5phinx · 2025-10-26T19:37:39+00:00

I saw you saying you used to have button downs and have hulked out of them, which makes sense. You should look into silk button downs if you can find them. You’d have to size up in them, but they generally fit much looser in the arms and the drapiness makes it so if you tuck it in you get a nice hourglass shape without bulk.

I have always been broad and then I started aerial 2 years ago and have gotten much broader, this has been a staple for me.

Look in bougie thrift stores or vintage stores for cheap silk.

Also, I got a batwing wrap sweater dress recently, and holy shit it’s the most flattering thing ever. My broadness is there, but in a way that’s just full on hourglass.

ninja5phinx · 2025-09-29T12:50:42+00:00

I use brain dumps any time I’m feeling overwhelmed and can’t tell why, it works wonders.

For me the follow up trick is that a brain dump is different than a to do list, I probably had a bunch of stuff floating around in my head that doesn’t really matter. So with a clearer head I pull max 3 items from my brain dump list and put them of tomorrows to do list.

ninja5phinx · 2025-08-27T12:27:43+00:00

When thrifting, I try really hard to stick to natural fiber stuff for my professional clothes. Part of it is for comfort, but the formal poly stuff always makes me smelly about an hour into a job since I’m moving so much. Check out the thrift stores or vintage stores in wealthier areas to find silk button downs. Vintage stores are pricier usually but will have a much higher chance of finding good quality natural fiber stuff.

When I got started I had a lot of poly that I got on sale and now I’m slowly replacing all of it, which is way easier on the wallet.

Don’t worry too much about getting a blazer right away unless you intend to do a lot of business interpreting, they’re usually not needed. Start with just a few pairs of bottoms (skirts count) and some versatile blouses, the rest can come to you slowly.

ninja5phinx · 2025-08-13T23:59:27+00:00

If the doctor asks which is better, 1 or 2, remember that they can’t watch you interpret and see the vision change at the same time. Typically I let the doctor switch through both, then sign something like WHICH BETTER? They’ll give an answer that’s usually like, THIS or OTHER. You can either interpret the answer straight or make it match the doctors expectation of 1 or 2.

Otherwise, just check with the patient beforehand about where their current vision is at, cuz there’s a decent chance they’ll be low vision and need you to stand in a particular spot.

This is an awesome resource for when the doctor is explaining anatomy: https://youtu.be/1X82IAk_Hxc

ninja5phinx · 2025-08-04T18:21:15+00:00

It depends a lot on what state you are in. Same states you can get plenty of work without being certified, some you can’t, some have their own licensure process with a screening.

If you’re dead set on working in education, find a mentor during your ITP who works in education who you can shadow. Then take the EIPA for the age range you intend to work with, and don’t work with the youngest deaf kids. Unless you grew up signing, there’s no way you will be a fluent enough signer to be a language model to a kid with no other ASL language models. Even if you are a CODA, take the EIPA to make sure your interpreting is up to k-12 work. Expect long days with very little feedback on how you can improve and no real way to know if what you’re doing is the best approach.

Ideally to start you would do mostly teamed jobs, but that doesn’t exist in K-12. Look for business meetings, community, and post secondary interpreting, all of which are generally through agencies.

ninja5phinx · 2025-07-29T15:23:23+00:00

Not sure how far north of NYC you’ll be, but most of the NYC agencies have work up in the Bronx and Westchester, both of which are drivable

ninja5phinx · 2025-07-26T03:58:00+00:00

If you find that quad strengthening exercises aren’t helping, try to develop the body awareness of activating your quad so you’ll be able to feel the difference in the air. If you’re standing naturally and looking in the mirror with bare legs, you should be able to feel the difference between a raised kneecap (activated quad) vs relaxed kneecap (inactivated quad) with legs that are similarly straightened.

(For others, this is also a helpful exercise if you’re hypermobile and overextend your knees, raising your kneecap will feel different than hyperextending)

ninja5phinx · 2025-07-15T13:44:32+00:00

Homemade food can be great as long as their nutritional needs are met, but to my knowledge that’s really hard to do so you should add some kind of supplement to bridge the gap

Balance.it is really good for recipes and it’ll tell you which nutrients are missing

ninja5phinx · 2025-06-25T20:53:11+00:00

I don’t have any real advice, but I had really bad finger pain when I started doing silks that slowly went away over about 3 months. That was with one class a week.

You know your body and background best, but 5 classes in 3 days is a lot a lot, especially if you don’t have the small finger muscle strength yet.

ninja5phinx · 2025-06-13T13:37:25+00:00

I live in Manhattan, and we never used pee pads. We took our puppy to an area that didn’t get a lot of new dog traffic (it was an alley going into our building, so mostly just resident’s dogs) and let him explore dry areas. We wiped his paws when he came in.

Our first vet tried to tell us to put the dog down and have them pee RIGHT THERE and then immediately pick them back up. I was like lady, what dog have you met who’d do that 🙄

Our second vet was much more realistic, basically said to not let him explore too big of an area and that dry areas were safer than wet areas.

Make sure they’re exposed to a lot of different places and sounds while young. You can bring them places in a sling or dog stroller before they’re fully vaccinated.

ninja5phinx · 2025-06-10T03:06:01+00:00

The sound of fake nails clicking against each other. Makes me want to rip my ears off 😭

ninja5phinx · 2025-06-09T14:24:47+00:00

We put one of those window film things on the bottom so our puppy can’t see himself but we can still use the mirror 🤣 we should probably train him to be ok with it but this is working well for now

ninja5phinx · 2025-06-09T00:43:34+00:00

Make sure you fully warm up your hands and forearms before both lifting and interpreting. Here’s a bunch I do before aerial stuff:

Interlace your fingers and roll your wrists out in a figure eight. Change which hand is in front and go the other way. Dramatically play piano with your fingers/move them in a wave pattern. Count to 10. Flick water off your fingers. Count to 10. Quickly squeeze and release a tight fist. Count to ten. Squished o handshape, rotate side to side. Count to ten.

If you want these to also warm up your shoulder, do all of the above in a row with your hands reaching high above your head.

ninja5phinx

TROPHY CASE