I decided to sit for the Washington State Court Reporter Exam. I practiced takes at 200 wpm, one a day for two weeks. I had a really hard time finding any material at 200 wpm. I had some at 225, so I slowed it down to what should've been about 200. I did okay on the first few takes, but my accuracy got worse the more I did. When I ran out of those I started slowing down some at higher speeds, and I did even worse on those.
I wasn't really sure what my chances of passing were by the time the test rolled around. The information they sent said to go to the Technology Center, which was different from the building I go to for the NCRA exam. The TC was locked, but luckily the usual building wasn't very far, and that's where the exam was being held.
The staff was very friendly, and got me set up in a nice corner in the room. I had the option of writing the test on my laptop and then printing it on their printer, which was awesome. You have to bring your own printer for the NCRA exam, which I think is just silly. Luckily for the CBC/CCP you don't need a printer, anyway.
There was practice material playing, which was a little confusing because about 10 minutes before the test was supposed to start, the material said something along the lines of, "the practice is now over and we will begin the test." I didn't really want to practice much before the test. I figured with my arm problem it would just wear me out unnecessarily. I don't practice at all before I CART, and I do fine out of the gate, so I figured I don't need to practice for 20 minutes before an exam, either.
The proctor wasn't in the room at that time, though, so I thought surely that wasn't the test, and I took a chance and didn't write it. Luckily it wasn't the test. The gave me an envelope when I came in, to put my test in when I was done, and I looked inside it and there were instructions and grading rules. I was particularly interested in those since I hadn't been able to find them online before the test. I figured they were about the same as NCRA's anyway, though.
I was surprised to find out that you can turn in both transcripts if you want to, and they'll grade them both. The proctor read some instructions, and asked if there were any questions, and people actually asked questions, so I felt comfortable asking mine to verify about sending in both transcripts. The volume wasn't too loud, which was nice. It's always too loud at the NCRA exam, and it throws me off a little.
Part of the instructions for transcribing told you where each exam would stop/start being graded, since only 5 minutes out of a 7-minute take are graded. I didn't want to look at that before the exam, though, because I figured I would get nervous thinking "this is when the grading starts" or be anxiously waiting for when the grading would end.
When the proctor started the exam for real, there were two minutes of practic,e and then the exam. I did pretty well on it; not perfect, but I kept it together most of the time. I was expecting another two minutes of practice before the second take, so I was resituating and getting comfortable, and all of a sudden the second take started! I wasn't ready at all and I never regained my composure. It was a mess.
After the takes were over, we had 90 minutes to transcribe. It took me about an hour to transcribe the first take, and I felt like I had a maximum of about 11 errors. You're allowed something like 50, so I was feeling pretty good about it. One of the very first sentences said something about a man working somewhere for "# years," so that wasn't helpful at all. I had no idea what number I was trying to write. But it didn't really matter with that amount of errors.
Before the test, I thought I might turn in both transcripts. But since it took an hour to do the first one and I had mucked up the second one so badly, I didn't even look at it. I turned in my one transcript and left, and then I had the anxiety of worrying about "what if I didn't send in the right section" or "what if I didn't copy everything out of Eclipse properly," etc. Always something you can wish you had double checked.
The instructions said the results would be in after two weeks, but I thought that was a little too optimistic and tried not to think about them coming in at all. They really did come in about two and a half weeks later, though, so that's not bad at all. I was correct in thinking I had passed, so I'm now officially a WA CSR.
It's not really very exciting. It was definitely worth it to get some kind of certification, but it's not related to CART or captioning at all. It's a relief to know I can pass something at least.
I've got some new 180 takes I've been practicing this week for the NCRA exam next weekend, and I've been having mixed results. After seeing how many mistakes I made on the court reporter exam (that I was able to fix in the transcript), I felt like there was pretty much no chance of being able to pass the CCP this time. The CR exam was at 200 wpm, though, and the CCP is only 180, so maybe that will help. I think my nerves might get the better of me as usual, so I'm trying not to hold out much hope. I just have to keep trying, and sooner or later there will be an exam that's easy for me to write, and I'll pass it.
It's just so much pressure knowing I've only got one shot, and it has to be right the first time. I think knowing I got to fix it later and all I was trying to do was really get down notes for myself to be able to go off of helped a lot when I took the CR exam. I don't write well under pressure at all. Luckily when I CART I'm able to not think about the fact that someone's reading it and just do the best I can. I regularly get up to 260 wpm and I'm my accuracy is above 99%, so that works fine.
10.19.13
I'm still enjoying CART, although sometimes it can be pretty boring, and I look forward to classes where the instructors say more/faster so I don't have any downtime. And sometimes I have to shower after lunch, which kind of bugs me. But I think it's worth it. I wish I had more work. I don't have any classes at all on Fridays. But I'm only working for one company, so I haven't exactly run out of options on that front yet. I'm waiting until after the CBC/CCP exam on 11/1 so I can see how I feel about that before I reach out to more companies.
I love the idea of doing remote CART exclusively, but I don't like the idea of not working during the summer. I'm not sure what else I could do during the summer, though. I guess I could do some captioning, but I'd have to buy AccuCap, which is $3k, and I'd need to have phone lines installed, and get an audio coupler and all of that stuff. I guess it would be worth it to have income during the summer, but I wish there were an easier way to get summer work.
I've been going through my dictionary maintenance list, and I've noticed a disturbing trend of finding things that I wanted to go back and fix - like "-cal" words not working when I stroked K-L - that weren't defined that way just because it was wrong to write them that way. -cal is KA*L, and K-L is -cle, so of course "magical" wasn't defined as MAG/K-L. I should probably reinforce KA*L, not define all the -cal words as K-L and KA*L. I guess it doesn't hurt to have them in there as K-L, too, where it doesn't cause any conflicts.
I think the problem is when I'm doing realtime, I just write the first thing that comes to mind, and it isn't always the right thing, even though it makes sense at the time. I don't like going through and rewriting (in the case of -cal) 580 words the wrong way, though. I'm almost reinforcing the wrong thing. I always write the the right way, too, though, just to make sure it's in there that way as well. Hopefully just by writing all those words at least some way will stick and there won't be any hestitation the next time I write them.
I'm probably supposed to do -ice words as consonant + IS, but I wrote 253 of those as IS just in case. -cept works fine as SEPT, but sometimes I do it as SE*PT, so 27 of those work now. Dis- is just DIS, but some words sound like DIZ, so I fixed about 5 of those to work that way. -ling should be L*ING, but that's hard to write and something I think I just came up with myself, so it's not ingrained at all, and lots of times I wind up stroking LG. I have that defined as -ing for misstrokes, but I fixed it so 532 of those should work as -ling now. And -ious is typically YOUS, but I fixed 670 words so that YUS works, too.
I never seem to make any progress on my dictionary maintenance list. I cross things off, but then I add more things, so it never gets any shorter. I have 19 problems to address right now. I don't always spend a lot of time working on it, though. Starting next week I have to start practicing for the CCP/CBC, so I probably won't do much with it until after the exam.
I'm still having problems where I try to put asterisks on all of my ending word parts whether they need them or not. I wish I had just left my dictionary that way after I changed it to be like that. I guess hindsight is 20/20, though. And maybe there are a lot of endings that I didn't catch and hadn't changed, so I'm not as bad off as I think I am. For now, I'm still just trying to remember which ones need asterisks and which ones don't.
I'm trying to be a little less strict with the realtime rules. I have a lot of trouble trying to remember to write devastate as DEV/STA*IT. DEV is delve, so you can't write DEV/STATE or it would be "delve state." But who's ever going to say "delve state?" Someone sometime maybe, I guess. But "delve stating," is even less likely, so I finally broke down and just defined DEV/STA*IT/G as devastating. I've been trying to think about that kind of thing more often. It goes against all the rules of realtime, so I guess I'll find out sooner or later whether it hurts or helps.
I love the idea of doing remote CART exclusively, but I don't like the idea of not working during the summer. I'm not sure what else I could do during the summer, though. I guess I could do some captioning, but I'd have to buy AccuCap, which is $3k, and I'd need to have phone lines installed, and get an audio coupler and all of that stuff. I guess it would be worth it to have income during the summer, but I wish there were an easier way to get summer work.
I've been going through my dictionary maintenance list, and I've noticed a disturbing trend of finding things that I wanted to go back and fix - like "-cal" words not working when I stroked K-L - that weren't defined that way just because it was wrong to write them that way. -cal is KA*L, and K-L is -cle, so of course "magical" wasn't defined as MAG/K-L. I should probably reinforce KA*L, not define all the -cal words as K-L and KA*L. I guess it doesn't hurt to have them in there as K-L, too, where it doesn't cause any conflicts.
I think the problem is when I'm doing realtime, I just write the first thing that comes to mind, and it isn't always the right thing, even though it makes sense at the time. I don't like going through and rewriting (in the case of -cal) 580 words the wrong way, though. I'm almost reinforcing the wrong thing. I always write the the right way, too, though, just to make sure it's in there that way as well. Hopefully just by writing all those words at least some way will stick and there won't be any hestitation the next time I write them.
I'm probably supposed to do -ice words as consonant + IS, but I wrote 253 of those as IS just in case. -cept works fine as SEPT, but sometimes I do it as SE*PT, so 27 of those work now. Dis- is just DIS, but some words sound like DIZ, so I fixed about 5 of those to work that way. -ling should be L*ING, but that's hard to write and something I think I just came up with myself, so it's not ingrained at all, and lots of times I wind up stroking LG. I have that defined as -ing for misstrokes, but I fixed it so 532 of those should work as -ling now. And -ious is typically YOUS, but I fixed 670 words so that YUS works, too.
I never seem to make any progress on my dictionary maintenance list. I cross things off, but then I add more things, so it never gets any shorter. I have 19 problems to address right now. I don't always spend a lot of time working on it, though. Starting next week I have to start practicing for the CCP/CBC, so I probably won't do much with it until after the exam.
I'm still having problems where I try to put asterisks on all of my ending word parts whether they need them or not. I wish I had just left my dictionary that way after I changed it to be like that. I guess hindsight is 20/20, though. And maybe there are a lot of endings that I didn't catch and hadn't changed, so I'm not as bad off as I think I am. For now, I'm still just trying to remember which ones need asterisks and which ones don't.
I'm trying to be a little less strict with the realtime rules. I have a lot of trouble trying to remember to write devastate as DEV/STA*IT. DEV is delve, so you can't write DEV/STATE or it would be "delve state." But who's ever going to say "delve state?" Someone sometime maybe, I guess. But "delve stating," is even less likely, so I finally broke down and just defined DEV/STA*IT/G as devastating. I've been trying to think about that kind of thing more often. It goes against all the rules of realtime, so I guess I'll find out sooner or later whether it hurts or helps.
Chair Update
I'm feeling better about the Soma chair. I've got the arms where I
want them, and I got the taller backrest for it, although that was a bit
of a fiasco. The Soma guy was coming to Seattle and he wanted me to
wait until he was here to swap out the back, so I did - and he came to
Seattle without taking care of my chair.
I wound up having to go back to the retailer when they said I could bring the chair had have it swapped out, but it turned out no one was there and they neglected to tell me. So Chris had to swap it out himself, and it took forever. I have a feeling that back had been waiting there for a very long time, too. If I had known it was there and I wasn't going to have any help putting it on, I would've gone to get it a lot earlier.
I'm still struggling with overall position. Sometimes when I'm writing my arm doesn't hurt, but my right leg does. It seems to be exacerbated by trying to sit up straight. If I slouch in the chair, it goes away, but that's not a very good writing position. Sometimes I can't go more than half an hour without my back hurting, and then I have to lean back into the chair to fix that; but then I have to put my arms on the arm rests, and that's not good for writing, either.
I wound up having to go back to the retailer when they said I could bring the chair had have it swapped out, but it turned out no one was there and they neglected to tell me. So Chris had to swap it out himself, and it took forever. I have a feeling that back had been waiting there for a very long time, too. If I had known it was there and I wasn't going to have any help putting it on, I would've gone to get it a lot earlier.
I'm still struggling with overall position. Sometimes when I'm writing my arm doesn't hurt, but my right leg does. It seems to be exacerbated by trying to sit up straight. If I slouch in the chair, it goes away, but that's not a very good writing position. Sometimes I can't go more than half an hour without my back hurting, and then I have to lean back into the chair to fix that; but then I have to put my arms on the arm rests, and that's not good for writing, either.
Lack of Pain Resolution
I found out the wrist brace wasn't actually helping my hand when it started going numb despite the brace, so I stopped wearing it, but I haven't been having problems with major numbness in either hand for a while.
I didn't actually wind up seeing a vascular surgeon. It turned out the appointment was with her PA, who spent about two minutes with me and then told me she'd ask the surgeon what we should do. What a total waste of time and money. The vascular surgeon referred me to a rehabilitation specialist. He thinks a muscle in my neck might be too tight and is restricting blood flow in my arm. He did the EMG test on my neck and there was a little activity, so he decided to do a numbing injection. When he did the EMG again to see where exactly to do the injection, there wasn't any activity anymore.
I don't think the muscle in my neck is really the problem, especially since the numbing injection did absolutely nothing for my arm pain. He prescribed lidocaine patches or cream. The patches were way too expensive, so I tried the cream a couple times a day for a week, and then four times a day for another week.
It seemed like my arm might be getting a little better, but it wasn't exactly a controlled study because I also stopped practicing sentences with hard words. For some reason, that's when my arm always hurt the most, so I figured maybe I was doing something during that time to make it worse and I might as well stop and see what happened. As a further experiment, I stopped using the cream, since it was kind of a hassle to put on four times a day and it made my neck itch (probably from my hair sticking to my neck all the time). My arm didn't get any worse at all, so either the cream did help and the positive effects haven't been reversed by not using it for the past two weeks, or it didn't help.
I told the doctor that the shot didn't do anything, but he still wants me to try having a Botox injection to see if that helps, so my appointment for that is on 11/1. I tend to sleep with both of my arms under my head/pillow, so I've been focusing for a few weeks on trying to sleep over my shoulder less, and off of my arms more.
Sometimes when I'm writing I can get into a pretty good spot where my arm almost doesn't seem to be a problem. But I think that's always been the case, so it's not really improvement. It doesn't hurt much during the course of daily activities, but it never has. Showering is still the worst. My arm feels pretty bad after I do that, and if I try to write right out of the shower, it's a disaster. It's like I don't have any strength in my arm at all. Doctors always do strength tests, and they don't find any weakness on the left side, but it really feels weak/like I can't hold it up/use it at all when I try to write.
My hand doesn't go as numb when I do serratus punches and another weighted exercise, so I think that's a good sign. But I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, really. I do maybe an hour a day of hard stuff, and that's pretty much it. I don't do any realtime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most of the time, I still feel like it's a pretty big hindrance to my ability to work.
I didn't actually wind up seeing a vascular surgeon. It turned out the appointment was with her PA, who spent about two minutes with me and then told me she'd ask the surgeon what we should do. What a total waste of time and money. The vascular surgeon referred me to a rehabilitation specialist. He thinks a muscle in my neck might be too tight and is restricting blood flow in my arm. He did the EMG test on my neck and there was a little activity, so he decided to do a numbing injection. When he did the EMG again to see where exactly to do the injection, there wasn't any activity anymore.
I don't think the muscle in my neck is really the problem, especially since the numbing injection did absolutely nothing for my arm pain. He prescribed lidocaine patches or cream. The patches were way too expensive, so I tried the cream a couple times a day for a week, and then four times a day for another week.
It seemed like my arm might be getting a little better, but it wasn't exactly a controlled study because I also stopped practicing sentences with hard words. For some reason, that's when my arm always hurt the most, so I figured maybe I was doing something during that time to make it worse and I might as well stop and see what happened. As a further experiment, I stopped using the cream, since it was kind of a hassle to put on four times a day and it made my neck itch (probably from my hair sticking to my neck all the time). My arm didn't get any worse at all, so either the cream did help and the positive effects haven't been reversed by not using it for the past two weeks, or it didn't help.
I told the doctor that the shot didn't do anything, but he still wants me to try having a Botox injection to see if that helps, so my appointment for that is on 11/1. I tend to sleep with both of my arms under my head/pillow, so I've been focusing for a few weeks on trying to sleep over my shoulder less, and off of my arms more.
Sometimes when I'm writing I can get into a pretty good spot where my arm almost doesn't seem to be a problem. But I think that's always been the case, so it's not really improvement. It doesn't hurt much during the course of daily activities, but it never has. Showering is still the worst. My arm feels pretty bad after I do that, and if I try to write right out of the shower, it's a disaster. It's like I don't have any strength in my arm at all. Doctors always do strength tests, and they don't find any weakness on the left side, but it really feels weak/like I can't hold it up/use it at all when I try to write.
My hand doesn't go as numb when I do serratus punches and another weighted exercise, so I think that's a good sign. But I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, really. I do maybe an hour a day of hard stuff, and that's pretty much it. I don't do any realtime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most of the time, I still feel like it's a pretty big hindrance to my ability to work.
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