Now that I actually have time to update, I seem to be more interested in making notes about things I want to include. I was starting to feel like it was pointless because I never had time to write about anything. Maybe I'm just noticing more things now that I'm able to see more mistakes.
I picked up a cool tip from Kosmo's Korner, and it wasn't even the feature of the vlog. During one of the videos, he mentioned hitting "H" twice to mark two words next to each other, and it's an awesome hyperkey. Before when I wanted to global something, I had to navigate to the last word in the phrase, and sometimes I had to use Ctrl + left arrow to get there, and it was a huge pain.
Plus, even if I was at the beginning and I pressed "G" to global, sometimes it would only pick up the first stroke, even though it had combined two strokes into one word, and I had to hit escape and navigate to the end of the word, G, and then up arrow to pick up the first stroke. But now I can just type H, and it picks up the entire word; and if I hit it again, it picks up the next word, for as many words as I need! It's so much easier.
I had a weird problem where I couldn't get re-present (as in present again) to come out because "represent" is also a word. I tried manually writing the hyphen, so of course that didn't work. So I had to define RE/H-F/PRENT as "re-present." I also realized as I was going through a transcript that someone said "and you, Tara," and I thought they said a name I had never heard before, "Utara." There are so many names I haven't heard, and there are a lot of international students in that class. I didn't bat an eye fingerspelling "Utara," but I was so embarrassed when I figured it out later!
I learned A*B as "Alabama," but I changed it a long time ago to "an," with A*EB for Alabama. For some reason, I always think of Alabama as BA*EM, but that's not defined as anything, so when I'm writing I just have to delete it and write A*EB. And it finally dawned on me - why don't I just define BA*EM as "Alabama"? There wasn't anything strategic about using A*EB, so if it didn't work, there's no reason not to change it.
One of the things Word spellcheck catches that Eclipse spellcheck doesn't (probably because I don't have it set to) is repeated words. Sometimes I'll stroke my brief for "of the" and then I'll also stroke "the," and I don't write it when people repeat words like that, so there's no reason not to just define OF-T/T as "of the." After doing that for a long time, I finally thought, why not take it a step further? Because then I wind up writing "are the the," and I have to define "R-T/T" as "are the," but I could take all that out of the equation by just adding the the=the to my autoreplacements table, or making a text global for I I = I, both of which I did (because for some reason the I I=I didn't work in the table).
I come up with a lot of briefs, and they seem like a great idea, but then I totally forget about them, and down the line I think I need to come up with a brief for something, and stroke my idea, only to find out that I already made it. Sometimes I would put a new brief on my "to practice" list, but I never made it a routine, so I'm working on doing that now. I think it will help things "stick" a lot better.
Speaking of briefs, I learned DAOIGS for "diagnosis" in school, and I stroke it pretty much every single time when I try to write "diagnose," which comes up a lot more often than "diganosis." I decided to leave DAOIGS as "diagnosis" since that's what I was taught, thinking maybe it's ingrained somewhere, but I finally made "diagnose" DAO*IGS, and it's so nice not worrying about what's going to happen when I write DAOIGS anymore.
I also put in KPAOUNGS for communication and THAO*IVG for Thanksgiving. I have 30 different outlines for Thanksgiving, and I'm still writing it in ways that don't come out right. I put THA*FG in as a brief for it last year (and wrote it exactly 0 times), and that obviously didn't stick, so I'm trying THAO*IVG. We'll see if it conflicts with THAO*EVG for "thieving."
I had to change N-G from "inning" to -ing in, because I was stacking it like crazy. I think it might have something to do with gradually turning that minLR up, because I only just started noticing it. I still have it set below the default, though. I'm also stacking THAS a lot, but I'm not changing it from "that is" because I've written that about 15,000 times. I'm actually purposefully not making a lot of splitting-related entries, because I'm hoping to be able to reduce the splitting with the Gen O.
Revolutionary
There was a post on the Eclipse FB group about being able to search the transcript for times when multiple words had been deleted, in order to help find things that needed to be globalled/worked on. It hadn't ever occurred to me before, but Julie pointed out that you could just search for the steno **. Duh! I started doing it a couple days ago, and it's been absolutely amazing.
It takes me five or six times longer to scan through a transcript now, but I'm also finding (and fixing) five or six times more mistakes than before, so it's worth it. It makes it really easy to see mistakes that you make repeatedly, and it's also easier to pick out patterns with stacking or splitting. I'm getting a *lot* more splitting than I was aware of. When I was writing and something would come out wrong, I wouldn't necessarily know why at the time, but I figured the most likely reason was that I stroked or missed an extra key. It turns out a lot of it is splitting!
I think there are lots of settings I can adjust on the IE to address splitting. One that I know about is minLR. I had tried to adjust it down to fix stacking, but it never worked, and I started getting noticeable splitting. I've been gradually turning it up every time I recognize splitting, but it turns out there were tons of times when I didn't know it was happening. I've been turning it up more over the past few days, and I think it might be causing more stacking.
I'm interested to really look into all the things I can tweak for splitting and stacking, but I'm going to wait until I get the Gen O. Then I'll call support and have them help me out.
Tons of other things are also coming from searching for double-deletes. It reminds me about words I knew I was consistently misstroking, but never seriously thought about changing, like TEPD. It should be "tend," but it translates as "tepid." Whenever I've seen it before, I thought, "well, it's a valid outline for tepid, so I'm going to leave it." But the odds are good that I would write "tepid" as TEP/ID, anyway, and I know it's come out wrong over and over again when I meant to right "tend," so I finally changed TEPD to "tend" and made T*EPD "tepid."
Another one I did it with was APS for "Annapolis." It's a great brief, and I do IPS for Indianapolis, too, but I frequently get "Annapolis" when I was trying to write "answer." When it happens, I just think "that darn Annapolist again" and delete it, so it doesn't show up in the transcript and I don't think about changing it. But when I found it this time, it didn't take long for me to realize that I should make A*PS "Annapolist" so that APS can just be "answer."
That's the real beauty of it. There are so many mistakes that I erase, so the consumer never sees them, but that means I don't see them to fix them in my dictionary, either. And I certainly don't remember any of them by the time I'm done writing. Another "hidden" thing that I can see now is briefs that I tried, but hadn't entered into my dictionary yet. I knew I had a brief for "Boca Raton," and BO*EK/RA*T made perfect sense, so I stroked it, but that wasn't right. I wrote out "Boca Raton" instead, and I would normally have no way of remembering I should go ahead and enter in BO*EK/RA*T, too. But this way I can see things like that and enter them.
And it's not just for briefs - it works for new ways of writing things that haven't been assigned to all the words yet, like SAIRBL for the "-sational" in sensational. I had really stopped trying to write things the short way, because they never came out right. But now at least if I write them and they're not in my dictionary yet, I'll know I can catch them later and put them in.
I'm also finding tons more words to add to my practice list. It's mostly not words that were difficult to stroke, because I often misstroked those and am able to add the misstroke to my dictionary. But what I am getting is reminders about words that I forget how to write, like "upwards." I could write it as *UP/WARDZ, UP/WA*RDZ, or *UP/WA*RDZ, but because it takes more effort to include the asterisk, the last time I wrote it, I just did UP/WARDZ, which is "up wards." So I put it on my practice list, and hopefully the week of reinforcement will be enough that I reflexively include the asterisk next time. Even though I know it needs to be there, the fact that I didn't put it in and had to back up to re-write it means it needs to be reinforced.
I've already recognized some misstrokes that I make a lot, but always erase, so I never fixed them, and I just keep writing them and having to delete and re-write them all the time, like REP/SHIP for relationship. I found that twice in one transcript, and then REG/SHIP in the next one. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was one that I get wrong all the time, but it never stuck with me long enough to define it.
So now when I edit a transcript for my own improvement (which I do with every event that I write), I follow these steps:
-Do separate searches for glued A and E to find most fingerspelled words
-Search for */*
-Search for untrans and unresolved conflicts
-Spellcheck in Eclipse
-Spellcheck in Word
I could also just search for * and I'm sure I would find even more strokes to fix, but I think correcting things that really tripped me up and forced me to delete multiple strokes is a good starting place for now. I've made 404 entries in three days using that technique!
It takes me five or six times longer to scan through a transcript now, but I'm also finding (and fixing) five or six times more mistakes than before, so it's worth it. It makes it really easy to see mistakes that you make repeatedly, and it's also easier to pick out patterns with stacking or splitting. I'm getting a *lot* more splitting than I was aware of. When I was writing and something would come out wrong, I wouldn't necessarily know why at the time, but I figured the most likely reason was that I stroked or missed an extra key. It turns out a lot of it is splitting!
I think there are lots of settings I can adjust on the IE to address splitting. One that I know about is minLR. I had tried to adjust it down to fix stacking, but it never worked, and I started getting noticeable splitting. I've been gradually turning it up every time I recognize splitting, but it turns out there were tons of times when I didn't know it was happening. I've been turning it up more over the past few days, and I think it might be causing more stacking.
I'm interested to really look into all the things I can tweak for splitting and stacking, but I'm going to wait until I get the Gen O. Then I'll call support and have them help me out.
Tons of other things are also coming from searching for double-deletes. It reminds me about words I knew I was consistently misstroking, but never seriously thought about changing, like TEPD. It should be "tend," but it translates as "tepid." Whenever I've seen it before, I thought, "well, it's a valid outline for tepid, so I'm going to leave it." But the odds are good that I would write "tepid" as TEP/ID, anyway, and I know it's come out wrong over and over again when I meant to right "tend," so I finally changed TEPD to "tend" and made T*EPD "tepid."
Another one I did it with was APS for "Annapolis." It's a great brief, and I do IPS for Indianapolis, too, but I frequently get "Annapolis" when I was trying to write "answer." When it happens, I just think "that darn Annapolist again" and delete it, so it doesn't show up in the transcript and I don't think about changing it. But when I found it this time, it didn't take long for me to realize that I should make A*PS "Annapolist" so that APS can just be "answer."
That's the real beauty of it. There are so many mistakes that I erase, so the consumer never sees them, but that means I don't see them to fix them in my dictionary, either. And I certainly don't remember any of them by the time I'm done writing. Another "hidden" thing that I can see now is briefs that I tried, but hadn't entered into my dictionary yet. I knew I had a brief for "Boca Raton," and BO*EK/RA*T made perfect sense, so I stroked it, but that wasn't right. I wrote out "Boca Raton" instead, and I would normally have no way of remembering I should go ahead and enter in BO*EK/RA*T, too. But this way I can see things like that and enter them.
And it's not just for briefs - it works for new ways of writing things that haven't been assigned to all the words yet, like SAIRBL for the "-sational" in sensational. I had really stopped trying to write things the short way, because they never came out right. But now at least if I write them and they're not in my dictionary yet, I'll know I can catch them later and put them in.
I'm also finding tons more words to add to my practice list. It's mostly not words that were difficult to stroke, because I often misstroked those and am able to add the misstroke to my dictionary. But what I am getting is reminders about words that I forget how to write, like "upwards." I could write it as *UP/WARDZ, UP/WA*RDZ, or *UP/WA*RDZ, but because it takes more effort to include the asterisk, the last time I wrote it, I just did UP/WARDZ, which is "up wards." So I put it on my practice list, and hopefully the week of reinforcement will be enough that I reflexively include the asterisk next time. Even though I know it needs to be there, the fact that I didn't put it in and had to back up to re-write it means it needs to be reinforced.
I've already recognized some misstrokes that I make a lot, but always erase, so I never fixed them, and I just keep writing them and having to delete and re-write them all the time, like REP/SHIP for relationship. I found that twice in one transcript, and then REG/SHIP in the next one. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was one that I get wrong all the time, but it never stuck with me long enough to define it.
So now when I edit a transcript for my own improvement (which I do with every event that I write), I follow these steps:
-Do separate searches for glued A and E to find most fingerspelled words
-Search for */*
-Search for untrans and unresolved conflicts
-Spellcheck in Eclipse
-Spellcheck in Word
I could also just search for * and I'm sure I would find even more strokes to fix, but I think correcting things that really tripped me up and forced me to delete multiple strokes is a good starting place for now. I've made 404 entries in three days using that technique!
11.7.14
Some new briefs I've been using:
Bermuda = B*ERMD
classification = KLAFGS (thanks to Mirabai)
diagnostic = DAOIGT (one of the professors says this word constantly!)
San Diego = SA*EG
stereotype = STAO*IP
incumbent = KBAENT
affiliate = FA*ELT
I always had a problem with -nic, like picnic. I just wrote it as "NIK" and defined words that needed it, but then when I wrote "picnic" my instinct would be to use N*IK or N*K, since NIK is already "nick." But N*IK is Nick, and N*K is North Carolina, so I couldn't figure out what stroke I should use for -nic. Finally yesterday I decided I had to come up with a solution. South Carolina is SO*UK, so I made NO*UK North Carolina, and now I can use N*K for -nic. I think that's going to be a much better solution, assuming I can actually remember to do it (and remember that North Carolina is NO*UK now, too).
A weird thing that happened was I changed my definition for tri- from {tri^} to {tri-^}, which would normally just have it put the hyphen in if it made a misspelled word with out it, but for some reason then I started getting "tri-angle," which was embarrassing. I defined that one as "triangle," and hopefully everything else will work properly.
I also had a crazy word come up, I think in a speech about equality: "transmogrification." Needless to say, that one was not in my dictionary yet.
Bermuda = B*ERMD
classification = KLAFGS (thanks to Mirabai)
diagnostic = DAOIGT (one of the professors says this word constantly!)
San Diego = SA*EG
stereotype = STAO*IP
incumbent = KBAENT
affiliate = FA*ELT
I always had a problem with -nic, like picnic. I just wrote it as "NIK" and defined words that needed it, but then when I wrote "picnic" my instinct would be to use N*IK or N*K, since NIK is already "nick." But N*IK is Nick, and N*K is North Carolina, so I couldn't figure out what stroke I should use for -nic. Finally yesterday I decided I had to come up with a solution. South Carolina is SO*UK, so I made NO*UK North Carolina, and now I can use N*K for -nic. I think that's going to be a much better solution, assuming I can actually remember to do it (and remember that North Carolina is NO*UK now, too).
A weird thing that happened was I changed my definition for tri- from {tri^} to {tri-^}, which would normally just have it put the hyphen in if it made a misspelled word with out it, but for some reason then I started getting "tri-angle," which was embarrassing. I defined that one as "triangle," and hopefully everything else will work properly.
I also had a crazy word come up, I think in a speech about equality: "transmogrification." Needless to say, that one was not in my dictionary yet.
Conjunctions Are a Go
I decided not to wear my wrist supports anymore. It seemed like they were making my hands hurt more. My hands aren't pain-free, but they're kind of "medium" at this point. I'm pretty comfortable using the ReportIt, but I still have a lot of pain in my arms when I write. I think the ReportIt is the way to go, though. It just makes sense that having your arms supported would be better.
I'm still waiting for the Gen O IE. Upgrading cost about half as much as the machine I just bought in May, so I hope it's better somehow. Originally, they hoped to ship them in November, but they haven't even hardened the mold on the pods yet, so who knows when they'll be out.
There was a discussion on depoman about whether you can start a sentence with a conjuction, like "and" or "but" in order to break up ridiculously long sentences. Someone said that we're taught all of these grammar rules that apply to good writing, but we're not writing - we're taking down what someone has said, and you can't always force that to conform to what would be proper writing style. I would occasionally let a sentence start with "and" or "but," but more often than not I would even go so far as to delete a period I had already stroked and add a comma and the conjunction, leading to some truly long sentences.
So, with ease of readability for the consumer in mind, I took that advice into consideration. Now when the speaker seems to have ended their sentence and the next word is a conjuction, I let the period stand. I think it does help with readability, and it even allows me to break things into paragraphs more often. It's good to have discussions about things. It seems like I work in a vacuum a lot of the time, but I can't improve my style if I don't know what other people are doing.
I'm still waiting for the Gen O IE. Upgrading cost about half as much as the machine I just bought in May, so I hope it's better somehow. Originally, they hoped to ship them in November, but they haven't even hardened the mold on the pods yet, so who knows when they'll be out.
There was a discussion on depoman about whether you can start a sentence with a conjuction, like "and" or "but" in order to break up ridiculously long sentences. Someone said that we're taught all of these grammar rules that apply to good writing, but we're not writing - we're taking down what someone has said, and you can't always force that to conform to what would be proper writing style. I would occasionally let a sentence start with "and" or "but," but more often than not I would even go so far as to delete a period I had already stroked and add a comma and the conjunction, leading to some truly long sentences.
So, with ease of readability for the consumer in mind, I took that advice into consideration. Now when the speaker seems to have ended their sentence and the next word is a conjuction, I let the period stand. I think it does help with readability, and it even allows me to break things into paragraphs more often. It's good to have discussions about things. It seems like I work in a vacuum a lot of the time, but I can't improve my style if I don't know what other people are doing.
Free Time
I'm in a strange situation this semester. I have two classes over four days for the same student, and for whatever reason, that student often doesn't need CART for those classes. However, they don't notify the company, so I dutifully get all set up and ready to go every time, only to wind up with an extra hour and a half of free time on my hands. That adds up to six hours a week that I'm getting paid without having my time used up, so I've got a lot more time to work with this semester than I've had before.
I don't seem to get any more done than usual, but I do feel a lot more relaxed about things. At the moment, I'm booked solid for the next two weeks, which is a nice feeling. When I go into a week not having my normal amount of hours pre-booked, my schedule is totally up in the air. So far this semester I haven't had a time when I couldn't fill the hours by the end of the week, but it often comes down to booking something on Thursday for Friday, and it's stressful letting it go for that long. I could book something ahead of time for less money, but I'm experimenting with sticking to the rate I've set, and so far it's worked. I know I'll have to lower it for December and January, though, when there aren't going to be many classes to cover.
I thought about expanding my captioning hours during that time, but for now I think I'm just going to see what happens if I don't. I do average about two hours a week of captioning, so that will fill in the gaps at least a little bit. I've been doing a bit of government meeting work, but that's going to go away for December and January, too. I could send out "increased availability" emails to some companies that pay less than my rate but more than captioning, but I'm going to hold off on that for now, too.
I love the accuracy I'm able to get with CART. Even with captioning, my tran rate is usually 99.95% or better, and with CART it's typically 99.97% or better. And at least two-thirds of what didn't translate came out right anyway because of TM. I even get 100% all the time, and my wpm hits 300 quite a bit. My best average wpm for captioning is still around 215. I want it to be higher, but I don't get to practice captioning much. I write the news for four days straight, and I feel great about it by the fourth day, but then I have a week off from it before I do the four days again.
I don't seem to get any more done than usual, but I do feel a lot more relaxed about things. At the moment, I'm booked solid for the next two weeks, which is a nice feeling. When I go into a week not having my normal amount of hours pre-booked, my schedule is totally up in the air. So far this semester I haven't had a time when I couldn't fill the hours by the end of the week, but it often comes down to booking something on Thursday for Friday, and it's stressful letting it go for that long. I could book something ahead of time for less money, but I'm experimenting with sticking to the rate I've set, and so far it's worked. I know I'll have to lower it for December and January, though, when there aren't going to be many classes to cover.
I thought about expanding my captioning hours during that time, but for now I think I'm just going to see what happens if I don't. I do average about two hours a week of captioning, so that will fill in the gaps at least a little bit. I've been doing a bit of government meeting work, but that's going to go away for December and January, too. I could send out "increased availability" emails to some companies that pay less than my rate but more than captioning, but I'm going to hold off on that for now, too.
I love the accuracy I'm able to get with CART. Even with captioning, my tran rate is usually 99.95% or better, and with CART it's typically 99.97% or better. And at least two-thirds of what didn't translate came out right anyway because of TM. I even get 100% all the time, and my wpm hits 300 quite a bit. My best average wpm for captioning is still around 215. I want it to be higher, but I don't get to practice captioning much. I write the news for four days straight, and I feel great about it by the fourth day, but then I have a week off from it before I do the four days again.
Bloopers
I can't remember the last time I actually got to the point where I had written everything I could think of; I always run out of time to write before that happens. But, here we are. I've been saving up some errors that I thought were funny, and now that it's been so long since I actually made these mistakes, I can post them without feeling bad about my work.
I was also trying to write that someone "was a Carolina Cobra" and it came out "was a kookaburra" thanks to TM, although when you think about it, it's not any more silly for someone to be a kookaburra than to be a cobra.
Apparently, I also noted that I learned the word exoteric (commonplace). Previously, I only knew about esoteric, which means the exact opposite (confidential).
- the line is beefing up = the shine beef (dragged S in "line")
- "Malinowski was going to be put in the camp as an Emmy alien" (EM instead of EN)
- "I'm going to go bang to my paper" (dragged P in "back")
- contradict trialternative (same stroke for tri- and -try)
- cyber operations = quiche operations (hit K instead of S)
- "Anything else on your ox vacations -- observations?" (dragged G)
- Forgot my stroke for "-ment" and wrote about the Garmin industry in 1911
- Evolution = "evil Louis that we've seen in workload scheduling" (dragged L)
- Santa Day O'Connor (missed K)
- motivation = meat vacation (A for O)
I was also trying to write that someone "was a Carolina Cobra" and it came out "was a kookaburra" thanks to TM, although when you think about it, it's not any more silly for someone to be a kookaburra than to be a cobra.
Apparently, I also noted that I learned the word exoteric (commonplace). Previously, I only knew about esoteric, which means the exact opposite (confidential).
10.21.14
I've always had a terrible time writing "equilibrium"; it's defined 30 ways in my dictionary, and it still comes out wrong when I write it. I noticed AB was reminding me one of the ways I have it is BR*UM. It comes up a lot in my leadership class, and I've totally memorized it now. So much easier! Another new one I use a lot is AO*LG for "algorithm." It's surprising how many different contexts that word comes up in.
I recently set my AB to remind/give me briefs for things even if it would only save one stroke. That's probably too sensitive if you're just starting out with AB, but now that I've been using it for a while, I think I'm going to like it. It's giving me lots of helpful things, and there were times before when I wasn't getting anything for words I wanted briefs for. Just today it gave me one for "annotated outline," which really saved me.
Looking that up reminded me that I couldn't figure out how to write "cedar." Luckily I fingerspelled it and got a brief for it (which I used 19 times in an hour). I just checked on what the problem was, and it's the fact that I recently changed -dar from DAR to DA*R. I was having conflicts with Darlene, Darnell, etc., and I figured it should've been DA*R all along. But it's going to take some getting used to writing it - radar is probably the first one I'll learn, although it isn't sticking yet.
A couple other items of note are that I was pleasantly surprised to stroke out "Tiananmen Square" as best I could and have it actually translate, and I successfully fingerspelled "heterogenous." I miss the asterisk in "help" sometimes, and I wind up with "hep," so I'm used to seeing and erasing "hep" quite a bit, but I finally got to actually use it the other day when someone said "hep C."
I recently set my AB to remind/give me briefs for things even if it would only save one stroke. That's probably too sensitive if you're just starting out with AB, but now that I've been using it for a while, I think I'm going to like it. It's giving me lots of helpful things, and there were times before when I wasn't getting anything for words I wanted briefs for. Just today it gave me one for "annotated outline," which really saved me.
Looking that up reminded me that I couldn't figure out how to write "cedar." Luckily I fingerspelled it and got a brief for it (which I used 19 times in an hour). I just checked on what the problem was, and it's the fact that I recently changed -dar from DAR to DA*R. I was having conflicts with Darlene, Darnell, etc., and I figured it should've been DA*R all along. But it's going to take some getting used to writing it - radar is probably the first one I'll learn, although it isn't sticking yet.
A couple other items of note are that I was pleasantly surprised to stroke out "Tiananmen Square" as best I could and have it actually translate, and I successfully fingerspelled "heterogenous." I miss the asterisk in "help" sometimes, and I wind up with "hep," so I'm used to seeing and erasing "hep" quite a bit, but I finally got to actually use it the other day when someone said "hep C."
Tips from Kosmo
I think I've settled into a good work routine. I have 13 hours a week standard with classes, which seems to be the perfect number, and I fill in the rest with teleconferences and government meetings. I wasn't too thrilled about the government meetings, but I figured it would be good to work for companies that might have work during the off season; only after I accepted the offers did it occur to me that there probably won't be that much government work during off times. It's still a good standby to have, though.
Writing this post reminds me I think it's time to make some more three-stroke briefs. Apparently I've written avant-garde 987 times, but it doesn't seem like I write it enough that I would remember a brief for it. I tried to do briefs for five words last time, and only three of them "stuck." I've written "especially" 1700 times the three-stroke way, and since I made a brief for it four months ago, I've written it in one stroke 1800 times, so that's definitely the shining example.
"Agriculture" and "organic" were also successful. Now I'm going to try to remember "invitation" and "degrees," which didn't stick last time, and I guess I'll go down the list in order and do "avant-garde," too. I did start using the degree symbol when I write the weather, though, so that's one degree-related practice that stuck.
Another awesome trick I learned from Kosmo's Korner is the "join paragraph" macro. I knew you could join paragraphs, but I never thought of doing it while realtiming. There are tons of times, though, when I start a new paragraph, and then one or two sentences into the paragraph, someone else says something, and I wish I could stick those one or two sentences back onto the first paragraph. And now I can! It doesn't affect StreamText, but it does make the transcript look a lot better. It's a little bit corny, but it's like Kosmo says - it's all about making you look better.
I had a bit of trouble making it work because I only have one space after a period by default, but when the paragraphs joined, there were two. I had noticed that in editing, too, and it was really annoying, so I called support about it, but they didn't know what to do. Then I realized that at least during realtime, I was using a macro, so I could just program the macro to delete the extra space, which I did, and now it's perfect!
Writing this post reminds me I think it's time to make some more three-stroke briefs. Apparently I've written avant-garde 987 times, but it doesn't seem like I write it enough that I would remember a brief for it. I tried to do briefs for five words last time, and only three of them "stuck." I've written "especially" 1700 times the three-stroke way, and since I made a brief for it four months ago, I've written it in one stroke 1800 times, so that's definitely the shining example.
"Agriculture" and "organic" were also successful. Now I'm going to try to remember "invitation" and "degrees," which didn't stick last time, and I guess I'll go down the list in order and do "avant-garde," too. I did start using the degree symbol when I write the weather, though, so that's one degree-related practice that stuck.
Another awesome trick I learned from Kosmo's Korner is the "join paragraph" macro. I knew you could join paragraphs, but I never thought of doing it while realtiming. There are tons of times, though, when I start a new paragraph, and then one or two sentences into the paragraph, someone else says something, and I wish I could stick those one or two sentences back onto the first paragraph. And now I can! It doesn't affect StreamText, but it does make the transcript look a lot better. It's a little bit corny, but it's like Kosmo says - it's all about making you look better.
I had a bit of trouble making it work because I only have one space after a period by default, but when the paragraphs joined, there were two. I had noticed that in editing, too, and it was really annoying, so I called support about it, but they didn't know what to do. Then I realized that at least during realtime, I was using a macro, so I could just program the macro to delete the extra space, which I did, and now it's perfect!
Now with Lifeform
After yanking me around for almost two months, Soma finally quoted a cost for changing out the
seat and backrest on my chair, and that was only because the very helpful ergonomic specialist contacted a local dealer on my behalf. I think I would still be going in circles with the owner of Soma if she hadn't done that.
The quote still isn't even for what I actually wanted, which probably would've cost more, but what they did quote would be $427. The chair only cost $762 in the first place. The last time I talked to the owner, he said I "don't need adjustable lumbar," even though that's what I'd really like to get. He didn't seem too cooperative, so I decided to just buy a new chair from a different company, since this one is so ridiculously uncomfortable.
I decided I need to buy from a company with an actual storefront here, so I went to Relax the Back. They're always super friendly there. Yelp reviews say that might not last if you need to return something, but newer reviews say they're now under improved management, so I guess we'll see. I got a chair with all the bells and whistles mine has - sliding seat pan, rocker tilt, 360-degree arms with adjustable height/width, and adjustable height/tilt back. And in addition, it also has adjustable lumbar!
The only downside is I can't have a contoured seat because I've got such a wide stance with the steno machine now, and Lifeform charges $150 extra for the flat seat since it's not standard. The standard arms are only 180-degree rotation, but they were having a special on the 360-degree pivot ones (which do more than just rotate), which is good since I was going to get them regardless.
I wound up paying $1200 for it, which is almost twice what the Soma chair cost, but I don't think I'd find anything better (Neutral Posture chairs are at least $1200, too), and there weren't any other places with a storefront here. Supposedly I can return this one free of charge for up to 30 days, which is a great deal if it turns out to be true (although hopefully I won't have to test it).
It's also a lot easier to make adjustments to the Lifeform chair than the Soma one, so it seems like a better-quality chair. I'm not sure if it will actually be any more comfortable in the end; I do like that the backrest is taller, so I most likely won't have a gap between the seat and the backrest anymore. The chair also lowers more than the Soma one (probably because the Soma is a split seat with super high springs), so I can add some kind of a cushion to it if I need to.
I ordered it in bright blue. I saw some Neutral Posture ones online in bright blue, and they looked so cheerful compared to this depressing black chair I have now. It's supposed to be here in 4-5 weeks, and they don't even charge for shipping or assembly.
The quote still isn't even for what I actually wanted, which probably would've cost more, but what they did quote would be $427. The chair only cost $762 in the first place. The last time I talked to the owner, he said I "don't need adjustable lumbar," even though that's what I'd really like to get. He didn't seem too cooperative, so I decided to just buy a new chair from a different company, since this one is so ridiculously uncomfortable.
I decided I need to buy from a company with an actual storefront here, so I went to Relax the Back. They're always super friendly there. Yelp reviews say that might not last if you need to return something, but newer reviews say they're now under improved management, so I guess we'll see. I got a chair with all the bells and whistles mine has - sliding seat pan, rocker tilt, 360-degree arms with adjustable height/width, and adjustable height/tilt back. And in addition, it also has adjustable lumbar!
The only downside is I can't have a contoured seat because I've got such a wide stance with the steno machine now, and Lifeform charges $150 extra for the flat seat since it's not standard. The standard arms are only 180-degree rotation, but they were having a special on the 360-degree pivot ones (which do more than just rotate), which is good since I was going to get them regardless.
I wound up paying $1200 for it, which is almost twice what the Soma chair cost, but I don't think I'd find anything better (Neutral Posture chairs are at least $1200, too), and there weren't any other places with a storefront here. Supposedly I can return this one free of charge for up to 30 days, which is a great deal if it turns out to be true (although hopefully I won't have to test it).
It's also a lot easier to make adjustments to the Lifeform chair than the Soma one, so it seems like a better-quality chair. I'm not sure if it will actually be any more comfortable in the end; I do like that the backrest is taller, so I most likely won't have a gap between the seat and the backrest anymore. The chair also lowers more than the Soma one (probably because the Soma is a split seat with super high springs), so I can add some kind of a cushion to it if I need to.
I ordered it in bright blue. I saw some Neutral Posture ones online in bright blue, and they looked so cheerful compared to this depressing black chair I have now. It's supposed to be here in 4-5 weeks, and they don't even charge for shipping or assembly.
Thumb Problems
I feel like I don't have much to report (that would be a pun if I were a court reporter), but I'll probably surprise myself. I'm still soldiering on with the Report-It; it might have caused more problems than it's solved, but for some reason I seem to like using it still. I don't think it hurts any less to write with it, though.
I've developed a weird problem where my right thumb hurts a lot when I stroke the U, like it's having to bend back too far. I had a similar problem with the left thumb, but somehow that fixed itself. Previously if I felt like that with the right thumb I'd just try to straighten the pod out so it was parallel to my body, but that's not working at all anymore. About the time it started, Jason (the owner of The Neutrino Group, which makes the Infinity) suggested I lower the depth of my keys since I mentioned I was having pain in general.
It was an interesting experiment, and after a couple of days, I didn't really mind the depth, but I thought it might be contributing to the thumb problem, so I ratcheted the keys up to an even shorter stroke than I had before. I feel like I have to press down on them too hard to get them to register, which is why I had it set a little deeper than I wanted initially. I had to adjust a ton of key sensitivities, but I'm leaving it where it is for now.
I hope to get the newest version of the IE in November (I got in on the pre-order, so it's just a matter of when it's made and shipped), and I got it with one step lighter springs than the one I have now (it will be 6 grams instead of 8), so hopefully that will decrease the resistance, and maybe I can do an even shorter stroke.
I've developed a weird problem where my right thumb hurts a lot when I stroke the U, like it's having to bend back too far. I had a similar problem with the left thumb, but somehow that fixed itself. Previously if I felt like that with the right thumb I'd just try to straighten the pod out so it was parallel to my body, but that's not working at all anymore. About the time it started, Jason (the owner of The Neutrino Group, which makes the Infinity) suggested I lower the depth of my keys since I mentioned I was having pain in general.
It was an interesting experiment, and after a couple of days, I didn't really mind the depth, but I thought it might be contributing to the thumb problem, so I ratcheted the keys up to an even shorter stroke than I had before. I feel like I have to press down on them too hard to get them to register, which is why I had it set a little deeper than I wanted initially. I had to adjust a ton of key sensitivities, but I'm leaving it where it is for now.
I hope to get the newest version of the IE in November (I got in on the pre-order, so it's just a matter of when it's made and shipped), and I got it with one step lighter springs than the one I have now (it will be 6 grams instead of 8), so hopefully that will decrease the resistance, and maybe I can do an even shorter stroke.
Old Fixes
I probably haven't been doing as much dictionary maintenance as I should lately. I bet there are still a lot of word groups that I don't have defined the way I write them, but somehow I've stopped looking out for them. I even have a list of stuff to work on that I've just been completely ignoring. Maybe I feel like the mistakes don't go through that often, so it doesn't seem as important anymore. I did fix quite a few a long time ago that I've never had time to mention, though.
I changed -tal to T*AL (257 instances), changed it so words like "influential" could be written like IN/FLAOUNL (198), added /ELZ for words like novels (642), a -VS for words like conclusive = CON/KLAOUVS (416), -AIRBL for
-ational, -TAIRBL for -tational (3) and KAIRBL for -casional (306), -lize and
-mize as LAO*IZ (349) and MAO*IZ (47), GA*ET for -gate (215), NALT for -nality (78), LIFK for -listic (52), changed -sen to S*EN so it wouldn't conflict with words that started with SEN like sensationalism, and changed li- to L*EU.
I feel like my prefixes and suffixes are still all over the place. I don't have a uniform system for them. Someone told me at one point to put an asterisk in all the suffixes, so I did for a ton of them, and then I didn't like it so I took them out, but now I basically do it again, except only for words that are already words; but I'm discovering that a lot of words start with the same sound, like the sen- and -sen thing, so even though "sen" isn't a word, I should still do an asterisk in -sen just for consistency so I know what to write.
I guess I should work on that. It actually shouldn't take as much time as it used to now that I figured out how to edit dictionaries in Word.
9.22.14
I've been coming up with briefs for some words that I felt like were taking me too long to write:
best practices - BIKTS
capacity - KAIPS
scenario - SAERN
criteria - CRAO*IR
apologize - PAO*LGZ
at the end - T*END (add DA*I for "of the day")
Bahamas - BA*EMZ
I couldn't believe how often people were saying "at the end of the day!" It takes so long to write out.
I have a new practice for when I can't make out much of what's being said, which can be a problem with remote work. Before I would just listen to see if I could catch any entire sentences or thoughts that made sense and write those, and leave out the rest. But now I write every word that I can hear, with a dash for any words I can't. I think it probably does actually help. Even if it doesn't totally express a complete thought, you can still get a sense of what the person's saying.
I still occasionally stroke "dun" when I'm trying to write "done," and I actually got to use "dun" the other day. The news anchor was talking about Facebook posts coming back to haunt you, and she said, "dun-dun-dun." I also correctly spelled tracheostomy, which I was pretty proud of. On the other side of the token, I had been doing a lot of Canadian meetings, and then I was captioning the news and the Pope started saying something in Italian, and I reflexively wrote "[ speaking in French ]". But then they said he was meeting with Rabbi Skorka, who I'd never heard of before, and I correctly guessed/fingerspelled "Skorka."
I love the Eclipse FB group, although as I learn more things it becomes a little bit less useful, since I already know a lot. There is one frustrating thing about it, though. It seems like whenever I come up with a problem, or something that would make my Eclipse experience better, and I'm pretty sure there should be a way to accomplish what I want, I make a post, and the only thing I ever get back is people saying, "Why would you want to do that anyway?" I guess I should be used to it by now, but somehow it's still irksome.
best practices - BIKTS
capacity - KAIPS
scenario - SAERN
criteria - CRAO*IR
apologize - PAO*LGZ
at the end - T*END (add DA*I for "of the day")
Bahamas - BA*EMZ
I couldn't believe how often people were saying "at the end of the day!" It takes so long to write out.
I have a new practice for when I can't make out much of what's being said, which can be a problem with remote work. Before I would just listen to see if I could catch any entire sentences or thoughts that made sense and write those, and leave out the rest. But now I write every word that I can hear, with a dash for any words I can't. I think it probably does actually help. Even if it doesn't totally express a complete thought, you can still get a sense of what the person's saying.
I still occasionally stroke "dun" when I'm trying to write "done," and I actually got to use "dun" the other day. The news anchor was talking about Facebook posts coming back to haunt you, and she said, "dun-dun-dun." I also correctly spelled tracheostomy, which I was pretty proud of. On the other side of the token, I had been doing a lot of Canadian meetings, and then I was captioning the news and the Pope started saying something in Italian, and I reflexively wrote "[ speaking in French ]". But then they said he was meeting with Rabbi Skorka, who I'd never heard of before, and I correctly guessed/fingerspelled "Skorka."
I love the Eclipse FB group, although as I learn more things it becomes a little bit less useful, since I already know a lot. There is one frustrating thing about it, though. It seems like whenever I come up with a problem, or something that would make my Eclipse experience better, and I'm pretty sure there should be a way to accomplish what I want, I make a post, and the only thing I ever get back is people saying, "Why would you want to do that anyway?" I guess I should be used to it by now, but somehow it's still irksome.
Clean Words
Just in time for my captioning work, Jeremy put up the list of dirty words that you could add to your "words that have been deleted from the spelling dictionary" file. If you don't have a word in your spelling dictionary, the Eclipse AI won't guess it for TM, integrated pre/suf, or anything else. All you had to do was paste the list into your file, and voila. I took an extra step, though; I wanted to text global all the words as {NULL} so they couldn't even possibly be on the screen for captioning.
It would've been a laborious process doing it by hand, but thanks to some playing around that I did for the IE (it's a long story involving importing/exporting dictionaries to use special keyboard layouts, and I don't even think I needed to do it in the first place), I realized that you can export a dictionary, edit it in Word, import it, and make changes that way! So all the times that I've wished I could "find and replace" all instances of something in a dictionary, I actually could have!
I used it to put = {NULL} after all the words, and also to change them to all caps since that's how they're going to look when I'm captioning, and I instantly had dictionary entries for the entire list. And there are some really bad words on that list, so I'm glad I'm protected now.
I also realized that for captioning, you want to have a lowercase "s" with your acronyms; like if they say there were multiple DAs, you don't want that coming out as DAS; it doesn't make any sense. So as I was editing and I noticed letters next to "s," I slowly just defined them with a lock case, but eventually I actually had time to write/define them all. I hadn't missed many, and it turned out to not take that long (I probably should've just done that in the first place, but I thought it would be more time-consuming than it was).
I had 1st defined as "first," which was really annoying. I don't know how that happened, but I definitely fixed it. I've also been defining common phrases like "10 or 15," "10 to 15," and "10 and 15" with the 10 as a numeral, because otherwise it comes out as "ten or 15," and I don't think about it fast enough to use my numeral trigger before the "ten."
According to my list of things I wanted to write about, I also spent some time paying attention to getting things like YA*RD and WI*CK in my dictionary as ^yard and ^wick, but I don't remember about that anymore. Probably a good thing to do anytime I'm writing something with an asterisk, expecting it to stick, and it doesn't. Maybe I'm not seeing them anymore because I get the delete space in there instead now.
I got into the suffix spelling rules and fixed it so I can't get things like "creativetivity," "establishmentment," and "streghtenenned" anymore, too. Really you would think the AI would be smart enough not to do those in the first place. I guess I don't have those things defined properly in the pre/suf table.
It would've been a laborious process doing it by hand, but thanks to some playing around that I did for the IE (it's a long story involving importing/exporting dictionaries to use special keyboard layouts, and I don't even think I needed to do it in the first place), I realized that you can export a dictionary, edit it in Word, import it, and make changes that way! So all the times that I've wished I could "find and replace" all instances of something in a dictionary, I actually could have!
I used it to put = {NULL} after all the words, and also to change them to all caps since that's how they're going to look when I'm captioning, and I instantly had dictionary entries for the entire list. And there are some really bad words on that list, so I'm glad I'm protected now.
I also realized that for captioning, you want to have a lowercase "s" with your acronyms; like if they say there were multiple DAs, you don't want that coming out as DAS; it doesn't make any sense. So as I was editing and I noticed letters next to "s," I slowly just defined them with a lock case, but eventually I actually had time to write/define them all. I hadn't missed many, and it turned out to not take that long (I probably should've just done that in the first place, but I thought it would be more time-consuming than it was).
I had 1st defined as "first," which was really annoying. I don't know how that happened, but I definitely fixed it. I've also been defining common phrases like "10 or 15," "10 to 15," and "10 and 15" with the 10 as a numeral, because otherwise it comes out as "ten or 15," and I don't think about it fast enough to use my numeral trigger before the "ten."
According to my list of things I wanted to write about, I also spent some time paying attention to getting things like YA*RD and WI*CK in my dictionary as ^yard and ^wick, but I don't remember about that anymore. Probably a good thing to do anytime I'm writing something with an asterisk, expecting it to stick, and it doesn't. Maybe I'm not seeing them anymore because I get the delete space in there instead now.
I got into the suffix spelling rules and fixed it so I can't get things like "creativetivity," "establishmentment," and "streghtenenned" anymore, too. Really you would think the AI would be smart enough not to do those in the first place. I guess I don't have those things defined properly in the pre/suf table.
Good Ideas
I've been leaning in a new direction with my speaker IDs. I started out thinking the fewer keys I used the better, so I would do the first letter of the person's name, or the last if the first letter was already being used. But now I've found that it's better to do a predominant sound in the name, because I'm probably going to have a lot of names. It's especially good for captioning when you have to get the whole news team in there, but I actually had a CART meeting where I was given 40 speakers the other day.
Some good ones I use are AUL for Paula or Paula, AIV for Dave, O*B for Bob or Rob, O*N for John, IS for Chris, AIS for Jason; the list goes on, and it's particularly helpful if I can use the same one across jobs. Chris is one that I can pretty much guarantee is always going to be IS; and for anyone who's not familiar with my speaker IDs, it's actually GLAUL, GLAIV, etc.
There was a really inspiring thread on depoman about writing verbatim or not. A lot of people are in the camp that they don't write repeated words if they don't change the meaning of the sentence, so if the person says
"I went -- I went to the store," they only put in one "I went." Someone said they've even had attorneys comment on how nice their transcripts look because of it. I don't know why I had previously been such a stickler about getting all those repeated words in if I had time, but I realized it does look much better without them, and they don't add anything, so now I don't put them in! It saves me strokes and time, and it looks better!
I also got on a little macro-making kick for a while. Brenda on the Eclipse FB group was talking about some real time-savers she came up with for actions she does often, and I thought, "Why am I even hitting Ctrl+Shift+Pg Up and then Esc to get to the top of the document?" The first command highlights your way up there, and then I had to unhighlight. I go to the top multiple times every time I review a transcript for fixes, so I just changed my keyboard map so that "V" takes me right to the top! I have E for the end.
I also check each transcript for any time I fingerspelled A and E to check for words I might've fingerspelled that I need to get in my dictionarly, so now I just hit S and W respectively to find the next instance of those. And when I'm done checking in Eclipse, I paste the file into Word and spellcheck it. Captioning files are always in all caps, so I had to navigate to the proper settings tab to uncheck that, but now I just hit Ctrl+Space bar and it automatically does it all! It's so much easier. There are so many key combinations, there's no reason to be using the mouse or pressing multiple keys for actions you do often.
Some good ones I use are AUL for Paula or Paula, AIV for Dave, O*B for Bob or Rob, O*N for John, IS for Chris, AIS for Jason; the list goes on, and it's particularly helpful if I can use the same one across jobs. Chris is one that I can pretty much guarantee is always going to be IS; and for anyone who's not familiar with my speaker IDs, it's actually GLAUL, GLAIV, etc.
There was a really inspiring thread on depoman about writing verbatim or not. A lot of people are in the camp that they don't write repeated words if they don't change the meaning of the sentence, so if the person says
"I went -- I went to the store," they only put in one "I went." Someone said they've even had attorneys comment on how nice their transcripts look because of it. I don't know why I had previously been such a stickler about getting all those repeated words in if I had time, but I realized it does look much better without them, and they don't add anything, so now I don't put them in! It saves me strokes and time, and it looks better!
I also got on a little macro-making kick for a while. Brenda on the Eclipse FB group was talking about some real time-savers she came up with for actions she does often, and I thought, "Why am I even hitting Ctrl+Shift+Pg Up and then Esc to get to the top of the document?" The first command highlights your way up there, and then I had to unhighlight. I go to the top multiple times every time I review a transcript for fixes, so I just changed my keyboard map so that "V" takes me right to the top! I have E for the end.
I also check each transcript for any time I fingerspelled A and E to check for words I might've fingerspelled that I need to get in my dictionarly, so now I just hit S and W respectively to find the next instance of those. And when I'm done checking in Eclipse, I paste the file into Word and spellcheck it. Captioning files are always in all caps, so I had to navigate to the proper settings tab to uncheck that, but now I just hit Ctrl+Space bar and it automatically does it all! It's so much easier. There are so many key combinations, there's no reason to be using the mouse or pressing multiple keys for actions you do often.
Including the Final P
I have two things I'm focusing on with my writing right now: -P and commas. I'm still working on that "stacking SKP" business, but I got it nailed down once classes started. I put SKP in as a conflict - with "and" as both choices - just so it would show up in green every time I stroked it to remind me to stop stroking it.
For some reason it didn't help much when I was mainly doing captioning, but almost the first day I switched to more CART, I got myself doing SKP-P at least 90% of the time. Maybe it's because I don't have much time to think during captioning, and even having just a few times during CART where I got to really think about it before I wrote it allowed it to become reflexive.
I completed my project of entering conflicts for "words that typically have commas after them." I had a list of 35, and I experimented with one a day until I had gone through the whole list. Some worked with two, three, or four options, and some I could tell weren't even going to work with two. Now the problem is that I never remember they're in there, and I just write the comma anyway. They come up in green, though, which reminds me that I'm supposed to be not putting the comma in.
I actually had myself pretty well trained with "so" and "okay," until I came into a bunch of instances where the AI wasn't picking correctly and I had to delete them. I'm doing the best with "well" and "all right"; I'm pretty sure none of the others have stuck at all. I seem to write "therefore," "however," and "in other words" the most, though.
Speaking of conflicts, I have an awesome one that works great: day to day versus day-to-day. The software is really good at knowing which is which, probably since one is just some words and the other is an adjective. I bet there are other things I could do that with (once-in-a-lifetime maybe?), but for now I'm just happy with "day to day."
Another thing I'm working on is waiting until the new sentence starts to put punctuation for the last one, so I can avoid when I think they're done, and I put a period, but then the next thing they say isn't a sentence on its own. It's hard to wait, though. Lots of times I can delete the period that turns out not to belong, but also lots of times I don't have time.
I also had to change my outline for a question mark. I think the S- key is stiff on this IE. It won't matter since I'm getting a new one, but I was almost never hitting the S- in STPH* for my question mark, and it kept coming out as N. I had the probablem occasionally with the LS, but it started to get really bad with the IE. I initially made a conflict, but the software wasn't choosing correctly often enough, and I would erase the N and re-write it three times and still get N, so I had to do something. It was getting bad! I wound up just making my question mark STPH*P, and I was so relieved to have a way to actually get a question mark to come out that I picked it up almost instantly.
The strange thing is that I drag the S in weird places on the IE, too, probably because I have the sensitivity set low since the key is stiff. Maybe it's not so strange, after all. The worst is when I think I've written "he," but it actually came out "she," and I don't notice it until it's too late. I keep getting "snot" for "not," too. I hope it's all better on the new machine!
For some reason it didn't help much when I was mainly doing captioning, but almost the first day I switched to more CART, I got myself doing SKP-P at least 90% of the time. Maybe it's because I don't have much time to think during captioning, and even having just a few times during CART where I got to really think about it before I wrote it allowed it to become reflexive.
I completed my project of entering conflicts for "words that typically have commas after them." I had a list of 35, and I experimented with one a day until I had gone through the whole list. Some worked with two, three, or four options, and some I could tell weren't even going to work with two. Now the problem is that I never remember they're in there, and I just write the comma anyway. They come up in green, though, which reminds me that I'm supposed to be not putting the comma in.
I actually had myself pretty well trained with "so" and "okay," until I came into a bunch of instances where the AI wasn't picking correctly and I had to delete them. I'm doing the best with "well" and "all right"; I'm pretty sure none of the others have stuck at all. I seem to write "therefore," "however," and "in other words" the most, though.
Speaking of conflicts, I have an awesome one that works great: day to day versus day-to-day. The software is really good at knowing which is which, probably since one is just some words and the other is an adjective. I bet there are other things I could do that with (once-in-a-lifetime maybe?), but for now I'm just happy with "day to day."
Another thing I'm working on is waiting until the new sentence starts to put punctuation for the last one, so I can avoid when I think they're done, and I put a period, but then the next thing they say isn't a sentence on its own. It's hard to wait, though. Lots of times I can delete the period that turns out not to belong, but also lots of times I don't have time.
I also had to change my outline for a question mark. I think the S- key is stiff on this IE. It won't matter since I'm getting a new one, but I was almost never hitting the S- in STPH* for my question mark, and it kept coming out as N. I had the probablem occasionally with the LS, but it started to get really bad with the IE. I initially made a conflict, but the software wasn't choosing correctly often enough, and I would erase the N and re-write it three times and still get N, so I had to do something. It was getting bad! I wound up just making my question mark STPH*P, and I was so relieved to have a way to actually get a question mark to come out that I picked it up almost instantly.
The strange thing is that I drag the S in weird places on the IE, too, probably because I have the sensitivity set low since the key is stiff. Maybe it's not so strange, after all. The worst is when I think I've written "he," but it actually came out "she," and I don't notice it until it's too late. I keep getting "snot" for "not," too. I hope it's all better on the new machine!
Standards
Somehow
I seem to have more time now that the semester has started, even though
I'm working the same or slightly more hours than during the summer. I
think it's because during the summer I was taking 3-5 events a day,
whereas now I typically have 2-4. It doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is. I have to sit down at least 15 minutes early for every event, or 20 for captioning.
I set a rate for myself that I don't want to go below, at least during the semester when there's so much work. It's really hard turning down work for less, but I'll never have 100% work at what I'm worth if I keep taking jobs for less.
I feel like my skills are pretty good at this point. My tran rate is usually 99.97%, although it's frequently higher (and I have to admit, sometimes lower, but not by much). I almost hardly ever see any mistakes going out. It's really hard to write with the pain and how I keep changing the machine position around; I'm always trying to find my footing. But I think the quality of my work is good. One of my students told me I'm "one of the best," so that was nice to hear.
That's for CART; captioning is another story. I still feel like I'm drowning sometimes when I'm captioning. My average wpm is consistently at 200-215, though (it actually hit 314 one time, and it wasn't lagging, and I wasn't doing speaker IDs or anything that would erroneously count as a lot of "entries"; and it reaches 270 at least once a broadcast), and I've even gotten up to 3700 words on a 35-minute broadcast, so at least in terms of speed and "not dropping" I'm doing well.
I see more mistakes go out than I'd like, but I know it still looks good. I'm always pretty confident about the weather, if nothing else. It's tough making it past that first 10 minutes of actual news stories, though. Depending on the station, they like to speed through a ton of different stories as fast as they can during that time.
I set a rate for myself that I don't want to go below, at least during the semester when there's so much work. It's really hard turning down work for less, but I'll never have 100% work at what I'm worth if I keep taking jobs for less.
I feel like my skills are pretty good at this point. My tran rate is usually 99.97%, although it's frequently higher (and I have to admit, sometimes lower, but not by much). I almost hardly ever see any mistakes going out. It's really hard to write with the pain and how I keep changing the machine position around; I'm always trying to find my footing. But I think the quality of my work is good. One of my students told me I'm "one of the best," so that was nice to hear.
That's for CART; captioning is another story. I still feel like I'm drowning sometimes when I'm captioning. My average wpm is consistently at 200-215, though (it actually hit 314 one time, and it wasn't lagging, and I wasn't doing speaker IDs or anything that would erroneously count as a lot of "entries"; and it reaches 270 at least once a broadcast), and I've even gotten up to 3700 words on a 35-minute broadcast, so at least in terms of speed and "not dropping" I'm doing well.
I see more mistakes go out than I'd like, but I know it still looks good. I'm always pretty confident about the weather, if nothing else. It's tough making it past that first 10 minutes of actual news stories, though. Depending on the station, they like to speed through a ton of different stories as fast as they can during that time.
Already Waiting for Summer
I did a lot of captioning over the summer. About the middle of July, I realized that if I didn't make any changes, I was going to have the same amount of CART work for fall semester as I did for spring semester, and I didn't like the idea of that at all. So I started sending out my resume to some companies, slowly at first, and then doing more as I wasn't finding any with rates that I wanted.
I wound up applying at 35 places, which, in hindsight, may have been a bit much, but I wasn't getting any confirmations on fall classes being available, so I felt like I had to keep going. I actually wound up getting more offers for classes than I could even take from my main company; it seems like they have more work now than they did in the spring.
So right now I've got 13 hours a week in classes from them, plus this month I did 3 hours a week of captioning (trying to take it down to 2 for next month), and then I'm pretty sure I could fill in the rest with non-class hours from the main company. But if I were only with them, I'd have to do captioning during the summer, which isn't really where I want to be. The company I'm with now pays considerably less than CART, but I could always look for another company.
But, if I can cobble together enough CART companies with work over the summer, I may not need to do captioning at all. So I'm trying to balance about ten companies right now, hoping that they'll have summer work, too. Two of them have a lot of government meetings, though, and I guess those aren't going to carry over into the summer, so it might not actually be helpful at all. It's tough balancing all of it and I wish I could just drop the captioning hours now, but I feel like I need to wait and see what happens during the summer before I do that. Summer is so far away, though!
I wound up applying at 35 places, which, in hindsight, may have been a bit much, but I wasn't getting any confirmations on fall classes being available, so I felt like I had to keep going. I actually wound up getting more offers for classes than I could even take from my main company; it seems like they have more work now than they did in the spring.
So right now I've got 13 hours a week in classes from them, plus this month I did 3 hours a week of captioning (trying to take it down to 2 for next month), and then I'm pretty sure I could fill in the rest with non-class hours from the main company. But if I were only with them, I'd have to do captioning during the summer, which isn't really where I want to be. The company I'm with now pays considerably less than CART, but I could always look for another company.
But, if I can cobble together enough CART companies with work over the summer, I may not need to do captioning at all. So I'm trying to balance about ten companies right now, hoping that they'll have summer work, too. Two of them have a lot of government meetings, though, and I guess those aren't going to carry over into the summer, so it might not actually be helpful at all. It's tough balancing all of it and I wish I could just drop the captioning hours now, but I feel like I need to wait and see what happens during the summer before I do that. Summer is so far away, though!
Goldilocks and the Three Keytoppers
I tried some different key tabs on the IE. First I tried it "naked." I liked it at first, being able to freely slide around, but it was a little hard on my fingers. Actually, the reason I put my old leather tabs on it (Stenovations sent them back to me when they took them off the LS to calibrate it, and put the silicone ones on it) was because Jason wasn't responding to me about getting my asterisk closer to my FR, so I thought, "Why don't I just put key tabs on it, and put the tabs on the asterisk closer to the FR?"
So that's what I did, and it worked! I only have a little bit of a problem with them not being close enough now. The number key above the asterisk is still way too far to the left, but key tabs aren't going to be able to solve that. The leather still wasn't soft enough for me, though, so I ordered velcro toppers. I thought those would be really soft. They were, but they kind of gave me "rug burn." I guess I slide my fingers around too much.
The Neutrino Group (the company that makes the IEs) sells "soft rubber" key toppers. I thought maybe they would be like squishy silicone, so I ordered them, but it turns out they're foam. They also sell thick and thin; for some reason I got the thick ones, and they add a crazy amount of height to the keys. I have a problem with not being able to lower the IE enough because it runs into my legs, so having it artificially raised didn't help at all. I also felt too much friction on the foam, so those were out.
I had two sets of the leather Depoman keys, and I felt like my old set wasn't as "grippy" as it could be, so I put the new ones on the left and the old ones on the right. It turns out the new ones aren't any more "grippy," or really any different from the old ones that had already been used for at least a year, so I just left it the way it is. No hope for a softer keyboard for me, I guess. I could take the silicone ones off the LS, but I don't think they'd be any better. They were getting really worn and slippery already, anyway.
So that's what I did, and it worked! I only have a little bit of a problem with them not being close enough now. The number key above the asterisk is still way too far to the left, but key tabs aren't going to be able to solve that. The leather still wasn't soft enough for me, though, so I ordered velcro toppers. I thought those would be really soft. They were, but they kind of gave me "rug burn." I guess I slide my fingers around too much.
The Neutrino Group (the company that makes the IEs) sells "soft rubber" key toppers. I thought maybe they would be like squishy silicone, so I ordered them, but it turns out they're foam. They also sell thick and thin; for some reason I got the thick ones, and they add a crazy amount of height to the keys. I have a problem with not being able to lower the IE enough because it runs into my legs, so having it artificially raised didn't help at all. I also felt too much friction on the foam, so those were out.
I had two sets of the leather Depoman keys, and I felt like my old set wasn't as "grippy" as it could be, so I put the new ones on the left and the old ones on the right. It turns out the new ones aren't any more "grippy," or really any different from the old ones that had already been used for at least a year, so I just left it the way it is. No hope for a softer keyboard for me, I guess. I could take the silicone ones off the LS, but I don't think they'd be any better. They were getting really worn and slippery already, anyway.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 3
The specialist also
suggested that maybe I find a couple of positions for the machine that
don't hurt to much, instead of just one, and switch between them, maybe
one in the morning and the other at night, so my body doesn't have a
chance to start hurting in the same position. It's an interesting idea,
but I haven't really tried it yet. She said I could even switch between
the IE and the LS. The LS was so painful to write on, though, I don't
even want to try it again.
Supposedly Stenovations is coming out with a QWERTY keyboard that's touch like the LS. That will be really cool. I am interested in one of those to make regular typing less painful. They're coming out with a new more ergonomic/more sensitive LS, too. I'd love to get one, but I think the IE's going to be a better bet for me until they can put the LS on split pods like the IE is.
I certainly didn't get the answers I was hoping for out of the ergonomic specialist visit (and "maybe you just can't be a captioner" is the one I liked the least), but I did get inspired to try a few things. It's always good to get someone else's perspective.
I was really hoping I could tell her, "my hand feels kinked, I have to do this a lot" or, "look, I have to bend my hand weird here" and she would tell me what to do to fix it. Or I was hoping she would say, "try your machine lower, try tilting it this way," etc. But she recognized that I had pretty much already tried everything, and basically she just went with "if you tried it already and it isn't comfortable, don't do it."
She did say she wished she had some better answers for me. She said it looked like my posture was good already, with everything lined up just right. It's frustrating to hear that you're doing everything right and it still hurts, because then there's no solution.
Supposedly Stenovations is coming out with a QWERTY keyboard that's touch like the LS. That will be really cool. I am interested in one of those to make regular typing less painful. They're coming out with a new more ergonomic/more sensitive LS, too. I'd love to get one, but I think the IE's going to be a better bet for me until they can put the LS on split pods like the IE is.
I certainly didn't get the answers I was hoping for out of the ergonomic specialist visit (and "maybe you just can't be a captioner" is the one I liked the least), but I did get inspired to try a few things. It's always good to get someone else's perspective.
I was really hoping I could tell her, "my hand feels kinked, I have to do this a lot" or, "look, I have to bend my hand weird here" and she would tell me what to do to fix it. Or I was hoping she would say, "try your machine lower, try tilting it this way," etc. But she recognized that I had pretty much already tried everything, and basically she just went with "if you tried it already and it isn't comfortable, don't do it."
She did say she wished she had some better answers for me. She said it looked like my posture was good already, with everything lined up just right. It's frustrating to hear that you're doing everything right and it still hurts, because then there's no solution.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 2
The specialist also suggested I could use voice recognition software to do my job and/or general computing. I'm definitely not open to switching to be a voice writer. I like writing on the machine. My throat always gets sore when I try to talk for extended periods of time, too. I think voice writers can only write for short periods of time because of that. I don't want to learn a whole new thing. Maybe someday if I get really desperate, but I'm not even thinking about it right now.
I don't know how much functionality it has for general computing. I don't like the idea of having to talk to it, like for right now even typing this. Talking and typing are totally different things. And in terms of voice recognition instead of mousing, I doubt that works very well.
It actually wasn't something the specialist said that made me want to try the Report-It again. I was hoping that she wouldn't just give me one of those sheets with the diagrams for proper ergonomic desk setup, but she did. Interestingly, though, it had a suggestion for resting your arms on the arms of the chair, and it said the arms shouldn't touch your elbows or your wrists. The person in the drawing looked really comfortable, and that's what inspired me to try the Report-It again. I'm not sure if it's helping or not.
Now that I've been doing it for about 6 weeks, it seems like it would be impossible to write without it, although I don't really think it's helped in any way. It feels super restrictive when I use it. If I write for even a short period of time without it, I feel so free, but at the same time, like it would very quickly become too painful to write that way. Maybe that's just because of where I have the machine positioned, though.
I think the IE in general has given me pain in my right arm, not so much the Report-It. I definitely feel a deeper, sharper pain in my left arm with the Report-It. It's really bad, but luckily I don't write for extended periods of time; usually an hour and a half at the most. It's hard to hold on for that long, though. It's all a work in progress, and I feel like if I just keep trying I'll eventually find something that doesn't hurt so much.
I don't know how much functionality it has for general computing. I don't like the idea of having to talk to it, like for right now even typing this. Talking and typing are totally different things. And in terms of voice recognition instead of mousing, I doubt that works very well.
It actually wasn't something the specialist said that made me want to try the Report-It again. I was hoping that she wouldn't just give me one of those sheets with the diagrams for proper ergonomic desk setup, but she did. Interestingly, though, it had a suggestion for resting your arms on the arms of the chair, and it said the arms shouldn't touch your elbows or your wrists. The person in the drawing looked really comfortable, and that's what inspired me to try the Report-It again. I'm not sure if it's helping or not.
Now that I've been doing it for about 6 weeks, it seems like it would be impossible to write without it, although I don't really think it's helped in any way. It feels super restrictive when I use it. If I write for even a short period of time without it, I feel so free, but at the same time, like it would very quickly become too painful to write that way. Maybe that's just because of where I have the machine positioned, though.
I think the IE in general has given me pain in my right arm, not so much the Report-It. I definitely feel a deeper, sharper pain in my left arm with the Report-It. It's really bad, but luckily I don't write for extended periods of time; usually an hour and a half at the most. It's hard to hold on for that long, though. It's all a work in progress, and I feel like if I just keep trying I'll eventually find something that doesn't hurt so much.
Soma Problems
The specialist was really sympathetic towards me wanting to work with the chair I have, and she tried to lean more towards that than even adding cushions or things to it. She said I looked tilted back a little instead of straight or forward, and I told her that I did think the chair broke and was doing that, so she suggested I look into having it fixed, which I did. I called the company and their technician was very helpful, and made some suggestions, and I think I fixed it, although it's hard to tell. Unfortunately, the forward tilt made my back hurt a lot, so I wound up just going back to the backward tilt.
She also made me really think about getting a new seat and backrest for the chair. She found a Soma supplier called Keeney's, about 45 minutes away from here. They had a Soma chair, so I went and checked it out. I was also able to sit in a *lot* of other chairs. I figured out that the seat on this Soma chair is ridiculously hard compared to some of the other ones. The Soma chair at Keeney's had an adjustable lumbar, and I think that would be better than the fixed one that I have.
I stopped in at Relax the Back since it was in the same area. They had fewer chairs than the last time I was there, and nothing that really seemed better than what I think I'll be able to do with the Soma. I didn't like the chairs with taller backs much, so I think the height of my backrest is probably where I want it.
I've been working for the past month to try to get Soma to send me out a new backrest and seat. They said they would look into it, but they're moving super slowly on it. The only person you can communicate with is the CEO. He's understandably busy, but it's kind of annoying how unresponsive he is. He's going to be in the area about a month from now, and he said he'll try to work something out then.
My backrest has some kind of a defect where the adhesive is leeching through, so if nothing else I think they should replace that, since it's under warranty, and I might as well get a backrest I'll like better since I'm getting a new one, anyway. I might be able to look into getting some kind of a more comfortable pad to put on the seat if he won't replace it, but it's already taller than I want when it's lowered all the way, so an additional cushion would only make that worse.
I currently have a foam block wedged in the chair between the seat and the backrest; they don't meet, and there's a gap there. I've heard some people are more comfortable in chairs without a gap, and the physical therapist suggested putting a cylinder of foam along my spine to see if that helped with back pain, so it would make sense that the gap wouldn't work for me. My back pain might be getting slightly worse, but in general I think it's staying about the same.
She also made me really think about getting a new seat and backrest for the chair. She found a Soma supplier called Keeney's, about 45 minutes away from here. They had a Soma chair, so I went and checked it out. I was also able to sit in a *lot* of other chairs. I figured out that the seat on this Soma chair is ridiculously hard compared to some of the other ones. The Soma chair at Keeney's had an adjustable lumbar, and I think that would be better than the fixed one that I have.
I stopped in at Relax the Back since it was in the same area. They had fewer chairs than the last time I was there, and nothing that really seemed better than what I think I'll be able to do with the Soma. I didn't like the chairs with taller backs much, so I think the height of my backrest is probably where I want it.
I've been working for the past month to try to get Soma to send me out a new backrest and seat. They said they would look into it, but they're moving super slowly on it. The only person you can communicate with is the CEO. He's understandably busy, but it's kind of annoying how unresponsive he is. He's going to be in the area about a month from now, and he said he'll try to work something out then.
My backrest has some kind of a defect where the adhesive is leeching through, so if nothing else I think they should replace that, since it's under warranty, and I might as well get a backrest I'll like better since I'm getting a new one, anyway. I might be able to look into getting some kind of a more comfortable pad to put on the seat if he won't replace it, but it's already taller than I want when it's lowered all the way, so an additional cushion would only make that worse.
I currently have a foam block wedged in the chair between the seat and the backrest; they don't meet, and there's a gap there. I've heard some people are more comfortable in chairs without a gap, and the physical therapist suggested putting a cylinder of foam along my spine to see if that helped with back pain, so it would make sense that the gap wouldn't work for me. My back pain might be getting slightly worse, but in general I think it's staying about the same.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 1
So I skipped a month, which is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have the typical reason - super slammed with work. I haven't made much progress on the pain front. The touchpad didn't help with my right hand pain/numbness at all, but I had an ergonomic specialist come check out my steup, and she suggested "mousing" (weird word, but it makes sense once you get used to it) with my left hand. I actually had both a wired and wireless mouse (and the touchpad) hooked up to my computer when she was here, and she said, "does that mouse work?", referring to the wired one.
So I put the wired one on the left, and kept using the wireless on the right. At first I thought I would need to switch the function of the buttons (right and left click), and I was really disappointed when I couldn't figure out how to set the functions for each mouse individually - if I changed one, it changed both - but now I'm pretty used to just using the buttons the way they are with my left hand. I use the left mouse at least half the time, and it really has helped with my right hand. Mostly it's nice not to have to push through the pain when I use the right mouse; if it's painful, I just switch.
Unfortunately, I have an exciting new problem with my right hand. I saw that a few people write with their machine pods vertical instead of horizontal. I had tried it out when I first got the IE and it didn't seem good at all, but since the ergo specialist was here I've been using the Report-It, so I thought maybe it would be different now. I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. It was surprisingly not that hard to write that way, but it just wasn't going to be comfortable.
After that I had to put everything back in "normal" position (since the specialist was here I've been trying it with the pods separated all the way), and ever since then there's been something wrong with the right pod, at least for my hand. I can't reach the U without pain, and my right wrist hurts. I've had that problem with the A and the U before, where it kinks up my thumb for some reason, and then eventually after moving it around a bunch for other reasons, I get it in a spot that doesn't hurt my thumb.
My left hand is that way now - I have minimal pain with the A. But the right hand is awful. Previously I've been able to fix it by just trying to line the pod up "straight", like parallel to me, but it's not working this time. I've tried raising/lowering, titling up/down and left/right, physically moving the machine left/right, and nothing seems to fix it. I'm really at a loss. I guess I could try to "reset" everything and start from scratch, but since the left side isn't any worse than usual I'm hesitant to mess with it.
I also got a suggestion from the owner of the IE company, Jason Pardikes. He said maybe I should make my stroke deeper, to about 4-5mm. It was already at 3mm, which I felt like was pretty deep, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty crazy; like writing in quicksand. I'm sort of getting used to it, but I think I changed it while I was already having problems with the right hand, and I'm not sure if it's making it worse or not. I haven't resorted to putting it back to 3mm to see if that fixes it yet, but I probably should.
I ordered one of the new "Gen O" IEs, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully in November, although that's just an early estimate. Supposedly you don't have to use the software to calibrate it after you make physical changes on the machine anymore, so that will remove one barrier to experimenting with different depths.
So I put the wired one on the left, and kept using the wireless on the right. At first I thought I would need to switch the function of the buttons (right and left click), and I was really disappointed when I couldn't figure out how to set the functions for each mouse individually - if I changed one, it changed both - but now I'm pretty used to just using the buttons the way they are with my left hand. I use the left mouse at least half the time, and it really has helped with my right hand. Mostly it's nice not to have to push through the pain when I use the right mouse; if it's painful, I just switch.
Unfortunately, I have an exciting new problem with my right hand. I saw that a few people write with their machine pods vertical instead of horizontal. I had tried it out when I first got the IE and it didn't seem good at all, but since the ergo specialist was here I've been using the Report-It, so I thought maybe it would be different now. I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. It was surprisingly not that hard to write that way, but it just wasn't going to be comfortable.
After that I had to put everything back in "normal" position (since the specialist was here I've been trying it with the pods separated all the way), and ever since then there's been something wrong with the right pod, at least for my hand. I can't reach the U without pain, and my right wrist hurts. I've had that problem with the A and the U before, where it kinks up my thumb for some reason, and then eventually after moving it around a bunch for other reasons, I get it in a spot that doesn't hurt my thumb.
My left hand is that way now - I have minimal pain with the A. But the right hand is awful. Previously I've been able to fix it by just trying to line the pod up "straight", like parallel to me, but it's not working this time. I've tried raising/lowering, titling up/down and left/right, physically moving the machine left/right, and nothing seems to fix it. I'm really at a loss. I guess I could try to "reset" everything and start from scratch, but since the left side isn't any worse than usual I'm hesitant to mess with it.
I also got a suggestion from the owner of the IE company, Jason Pardikes. He said maybe I should make my stroke deeper, to about 4-5mm. It was already at 3mm, which I felt like was pretty deep, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty crazy; like writing in quicksand. I'm sort of getting used to it, but I think I changed it while I was already having problems with the right hand, and I'm not sure if it's making it worse or not. I haven't resorted to putting it back to 3mm to see if that fixes it yet, but I probably should.
I ordered one of the new "Gen O" IEs, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully in November, although that's just an early estimate. Supposedly you don't have to use the software to calibrate it after you make physical changes on the machine anymore, so that will remove one barrier to experimenting with different depths.
More New Stuff
Another new idea I picked up comes courtesy of Phoenix theory, via Jade King on her FB group. I think Phoenix doesn't use the asterisk for conflicts, and they teach the idea of stroking R-R after something there might be a problem with. So, mat might be MAT, and Matt would be MAT/R-R. I absolutely love it! I've used it for all sorts of things - Mayhew, Wei, Wie, Barr, Busch, Cannes, Pitt, Starr..the list could be endless! I'm fairly good about being able to use the asterisk for things like that, or being creative like KA*UN for Kahn, but there's only so much I can think of. As with all things, now the problem will be remembering which things I used R-R for. But if anything comes up frequently enough that I can actually remember it, it will be an easy stroke to use.
No one ever really said a.k.a. much in CART, but it seems to come up a lot on TV. Not only is it annoying having to fingerspell it every time, it looks weird in all caps when the rest of the sentence is also in all caps, so I came up with AIK/R-R as an outline for it.
I've also made briefs for a couple buzzwords that come up a lot - best practices (BIKTS) and takeaways (TA*EZ).
It took me forever, but a few weeks ago I finally figured out how to do credits properly. They're supposed to pop on in their entirity regardless of the fact that most captioning is roll-up and done in two or three lines. At first I thought I would just have a stroke with the entire caption as the definition, but that was still roll-up. Then I figured out how to read in a block file, but with the stations that do two lines, for example, only two out of three credit lines were showing up. I knew I could probably just ask the captioning company or a FB group, but I was determined to figure it out myself.
I finally happened upon the answer in the sports section of the new NJCaptions (now C2CC) captioner's manual. You can put a "position" tag in your stroke that reads the block file; and you put the pop-on as a script command in that block file, and voila! If you're doing an opening credit, you can put the position tag for the rest of the programming in its own stroke, and stroke that after you do the opening credit to put it back to two lines or however many you need. I feel so much better now that I can do the credits properly!
No one ever really said a.k.a. much in CART, but it seems to come up a lot on TV. Not only is it annoying having to fingerspell it every time, it looks weird in all caps when the rest of the sentence is also in all caps, so I came up with AIK/R-R as an outline for it.
I've also made briefs for a couple buzzwords that come up a lot - best practices (BIKTS) and takeaways (TA*EZ).
It took me forever, but a few weeks ago I finally figured out how to do credits properly. They're supposed to pop on in their entirity regardless of the fact that most captioning is roll-up and done in two or three lines. At first I thought I would just have a stroke with the entire caption as the definition, but that was still roll-up. Then I figured out how to read in a block file, but with the stations that do two lines, for example, only two out of three credit lines were showing up. I knew I could probably just ask the captioning company or a FB group, but I was determined to figure it out myself.
I finally happened upon the answer in the sports section of the new NJCaptions (now C2CC) captioner's manual. You can put a "position" tag in your stroke that reads the block file; and you put the pop-on as a script command in that block file, and voila! If you're doing an opening credit, you can put the position tag for the rest of the programming in its own stroke, and stroke that after you do the opening credit to put it back to two lines or however many you need. I feel so much better now that I can do the credits properly!
New Ideas
A new month already, and I actually have time to update within the first week! I don't have any interesting updates on anything, so I'll just have to write about some things I never have time to get to.
Steve Kosmata started doing a cool thing where he posts a short video once a week about stuff you can do in Eclipse; that's what inspired me to take a look at my most frequently used three-stroke words, although I had seen the suggestion to do that before. Last week he brought up the old "conflicts for not having to write puncutation" idea, which I'd also seen kicked around, but I just didn't want to get into it.
In the video, he mentioned using it for words that typically have a comma when they start a sentence - therefore, so, oh, etc. I didn't want to get *too* into it, but those seemed like they might work, so I sat down for an hour and a half or so and played around with it. It turned out to be a bigger project than I was expecting. There are so many words like that, and they could come at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence, so you might need a comma before, after, before and after, or no commas at all.
I experimented with it, and if it didn't seem like it was going to pick correctly 99% of the time, I didn't go all the way with it. A couple of them I was able to do all four choices for; some of them I could only do two; and some of them I wound up tossing out the idea altogether. There are a ton of words I didn't experiment with, so I'm going to tackle one of those a day. Now the hard part is going to be remembering what words I don't have to write commas for, and in what situations I don't have to write the commas. I really haven't picked up on that at all yet, but I only put things in a couple days ago.
I also changed the function keys on my IE to act like S, so hopefully that will cut down on untrans from accidentally hitting them when I mean to hit S. I wanted to use them for speaker IDs, but it's just a project I don't want to start right now. On the LS, I used to occasionally reach my pinky too far and hit plastic instead of a key, so maybe having the function keys in the space where that plastic will be, and functioning just like the S, will actually be helpful.
Steve Kosmata started doing a cool thing where he posts a short video once a week about stuff you can do in Eclipse; that's what inspired me to take a look at my most frequently used three-stroke words, although I had seen the suggestion to do that before. Last week he brought up the old "conflicts for not having to write puncutation" idea, which I'd also seen kicked around, but I just didn't want to get into it.
In the video, he mentioned using it for words that typically have a comma when they start a sentence - therefore, so, oh, etc. I didn't want to get *too* into it, but those seemed like they might work, so I sat down for an hour and a half or so and played around with it. It turned out to be a bigger project than I was expecting. There are so many words like that, and they could come at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence, so you might need a comma before, after, before and after, or no commas at all.
I experimented with it, and if it didn't seem like it was going to pick correctly 99% of the time, I didn't go all the way with it. A couple of them I was able to do all four choices for; some of them I could only do two; and some of them I wound up tossing out the idea altogether. There are a ton of words I didn't experiment with, so I'm going to tackle one of those a day. Now the hard part is going to be remembering what words I don't have to write commas for, and in what situations I don't have to write the commas. I really haven't picked up on that at all yet, but I only put things in a couple days ago.
I also changed the function keys on my IE to act like S, so hopefully that will cut down on untrans from accidentally hitting them when I mean to hit S. I wanted to use them for speaker IDs, but it's just a project I don't want to start right now. On the LS, I used to occasionally reach my pinky too far and hit plastic instead of a key, so maybe having the function keys in the space where that plastic will be, and functioning just like the S, will actually be helpful.
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