I've learned some pretty cool stuff from the Eclipse FB group. I strongly recommend checking it out if you're on Eclipse. I also watched the full 8 hours of Eclipse basic training tutorials (bo-ring!). It was mostly about title pages and auto indexing and stuff I don't use, or stuff I already know how to do, but I did pick up a couple ideas.
I have a stroke that takes me to the bottom of my realtime feed/has me follow it, and it was always bad when I forgot to hit that after I scrolled up to look at something. But I found out about the "follow always" checkbox in the realtime tab, and now that's not a problem anymore.
I learned that you can make conflicts if you want a certain thing to happen after a number. I use P-KT for % and PER/KRENT for percent, but sometimes it's so much easier to hit P-KT, that I just don't get PER/KRENT in there. I think I've got it set up now that I can write "a large P-KT" or something and it will come up "a large percent," so that's cool. I've been trying to see new opportunities for conflicts overall. Sometimes I miss the F in I've (AO*IV) and get "aye," but why not make it a conflict with the first choice being "aye"? Just today I changed YO*U from ewe to \ewe\you're, because I miss that R so often.
The best idea I got from the FB group was about suffixes. I think someone just said something about their suffix rules table, and it reminded me about how I keep getting things like "organizationtion" when I accidentally drag an extra G into ORGS/S, making it ORGS/GS. So I made a rule that when the word ends in -tion, the suffix should delete the -tion and add an -s, and voila! ORGS/GS is organizations now, and I won't get orientationtion or objectiontion or anything like that, either.
I've come up with tons of applications for that now that I've realized I can do it. No more defectiveive if I already tucked the V and forgot about it (DE/F*EFKT/IV), no more passageage if I got confused and did PAJ/AJ, no more strategicically, or longerer if I didn't realize I tucked the R (LORNG/ER). I don't think -tor was in there as a real suffix; it was in my dictionary, but it wasn't in the suffix table, so it didn't have any suffix rules. I kept getting things like compacttor and reacttor because instead of RE/AK/TOR, I'd write RAEKT/TOR.
But I fixed that rule, so it works for -tor and -tors. And I was getting things like "humorral," so I told it if you're going to add -ral and the word already ends in "r," delete the first "r." I feel like someone who does realtime already has all these suffixes in their suffix table and suffix spelling rules, and I must've missed out on them in an update or something. I should ask on depoman or the FB group for someone's tables, but I'm afraid it might mess things up. I don't see how it could, though, really; it would only change the suffixes in English. It wouldn't have anything to do with my steno outlines. I guess I'd just have to make sure all the things I've changed were still in there.
I also changed my background color from white to gray. Someone on the FB group said it's easier on the eyes. I've heard stuff like that before, but I never really thought about actually changing it until I saw it there. I really do like it better.
I have a ton of different settings files I use for different companies, so it's a pain to change suffix tables or whatever in all of them. I asked about it on FB, and Dave Stanley said that I could just have a global.set that all settings would use for certain things. It seemed like a great idea, except that it overwrites your realtime settings if you let it change your translation settings. It also overwrites your job dictionaries no matter what you do, which is a drag.
I learned how to finally get TM to stop messing with my stroke for "a," which is awesome. I told it to stop pulling "an" and "everyone" into other words, too. I actually turned TM up a bit. The new sliders are kind of confusing, but I understand them now. My main problem was that TM wasn't being aggressive enough; there were tons of words it just left alone. So I unchecked "require an untran," and I bumped it up from whatever it was at (it might've been as low as 1%) to 30%, and I think it's doing better now.
I found out there's a dictionary entry you can use to reject the last AB suggestion and get a new one all at once, and I also found a macro for requesting a brief for the last word, which I think will come in handy.
First Quarter
I've been doing a lot more business CART now that I'm working for a new company. I get to cover lots of meetings, mostly about the status of various projects. It's really tough, because I never know what anyone's talking about. Every job is about a different topic with different speakers, and sometimes the meeting only lasts for 15 minutes, so I barely have time to get into any sort of rhythm.
One of my classes is cultural anthropology. The teacher uses a lot of what I like to call "$10 words"; one that sticks out is "tutelage." There's all kinds of weird terms, like patrilineal, matrilateral, Ju'/hoansi, ethnography, you name it. The teacher only talks at about 160 wpm, but it's tough keeping up with all the weird stuff that's not in my dictionary, or at least not in there the way I want to write it. It's kind of fun though to fingerspell something and then look over at the Auto-brief window and see if it was already in my dictionary or not. AB shows me a suggestion for the word in one place if it's already in there as something, and in a different place if it's not.
I don't have to edit the transcripts at all for this company (most of the time I don't even have to send one in), which is pretty cool. I still go through them for myself and identify problems/add words to my dictionary, though. I also run them through a Microsoft Word spellcheck when I'm all done fixing things, and I usually catch one or two more things I can change in my dictionary that way.
I was concerned that when I need to fingerspell something, I don't necessarily remember after the event is over that I had to fingerspell it, so it will never get in my dictionary. I couldn't find anything that would really help me search a tript for fingerspelling, so I came up with my own way of doing it. I go through the whole tript and find every instance of the stroke A* (which is my &A), and check for words I need to enter. Then I go through again and check for E* (which is &E). I figure most words probably had an A and/or an E in them, and call it good. I find a lot of first/last names that way.
I was actually getting backed up on transcripts that I needed to go back and look at for a couple weeks. If I had a repeat job for the same class/person, I would edit the transcript before that repeat job, but so many of them were just one-offs that I never had time to edit. I finally got them all cleared out today, though. It seemed like an impossible dream, but somehow it happened!
I'm kind of interested to get into captioning and hopefully have some commercial breaks. CART ends early a lot of the time (never during my anthropology class, unfortunately), but it can be non-stop writing for hours. It's really tough on my arm when I have to do that. If I could get in a few commercial breaks, I think it would help a lot with the pain.
One of my classes is cultural anthropology. The teacher uses a lot of what I like to call "$10 words"; one that sticks out is "tutelage." There's all kinds of weird terms, like patrilineal, matrilateral, Ju'/hoansi, ethnography, you name it. The teacher only talks at about 160 wpm, but it's tough keeping up with all the weird stuff that's not in my dictionary, or at least not in there the way I want to write it. It's kind of fun though to fingerspell something and then look over at the Auto-brief window and see if it was already in my dictionary or not. AB shows me a suggestion for the word in one place if it's already in there as something, and in a different place if it's not.
I don't have to edit the transcripts at all for this company (most of the time I don't even have to send one in), which is pretty cool. I still go through them for myself and identify problems/add words to my dictionary, though. I also run them through a Microsoft Word spellcheck when I'm all done fixing things, and I usually catch one or two more things I can change in my dictionary that way.
I was concerned that when I need to fingerspell something, I don't necessarily remember after the event is over that I had to fingerspell it, so it will never get in my dictionary. I couldn't find anything that would really help me search a tript for fingerspelling, so I came up with my own way of doing it. I go through the whole tript and find every instance of the stroke A* (which is my &A), and check for words I need to enter. Then I go through again and check for E* (which is &E). I figure most words probably had an A and/or an E in them, and call it good. I find a lot of first/last names that way.
I was actually getting backed up on transcripts that I needed to go back and look at for a couple weeks. If I had a repeat job for the same class/person, I would edit the transcript before that repeat job, but so many of them were just one-offs that I never had time to edit. I finally got them all cleared out today, though. It seemed like an impossible dream, but somehow it happened!
I'm kind of interested to get into captioning and hopefully have some commercial breaks. CART ends early a lot of the time (never during my anthropology class, unfortunately), but it can be non-stop writing for hours. It's really tough on my arm when I have to do that. If I could get in a few commercial breaks, I think it would help a lot with the pain.
Captioning Coming Up
I did wind up passing the CBC/CCP at better than 98% accuracy (I forget what it was exactly). I'm so glad I finally passed it. It feels great to know I'll never have to take another test like that again, and I'm one of only about 230 people in the entire country with the CCP designation. People think 96% accuracy at 180 wpm isn't good realtime, but it's harder than it sounds.
Out of the 15 CART companies I applied to in December, I wound up getting work from two. One has still only been a few hours, but I got some meetings and regular classes from the other. I was hoping it would be a lot more, but I guess they have more captioners than work. That pretty much put the nail in the coffin of my "remote CART as a career" idea. I've slowly been trying to work my way into captioning.
I bought AccuCap, and I watched the Eclipse webinar on it. There doesn't seem to be too much to worry about in terms of learning new things. I understand how to blank and/or pass, and I made dictionary entries for that as well as moving the captions around the screen. I've already got a dictionary set up where a new line follows all punctuation. I set up some speaker IDs for the reporter, announcer, interpreter, etc. I've got parentheticals for applause and other noises already.
I did get a good idea from the AccuCap webinar, which was to make a "dirty words" dictionary that has text globals for any words that I don't want to go out on the air. That way if I had something like "damn" and I didn't ever want that to go out, I could do a text global and change it to "darn." Then if TM changed something to "damn," or if "damn" showed up for any reason, it would just get changed to "darn." I haven't set up that dictionary yet.
The big hurdle is getting all the equipment I need to connect to an encoder. I got one land line in anticipation of getting iCap software. I couldn't believe all I'd need was an internet connection, but it turns out it's true. The iCap software is free, so I downloaded it and tested it to make sure it's communicating with Eclipse, and I seem to be good to go.
I asked about captioning at the CART company I'm getting some hours from, but they don't do a lot of captioning. They're looking into getting me started for it, but even if they give me the okay, their technical person said they're "almost exclusively" on traditional encoders that won't work with iCap. It seems like it would just be a lot of prep for not a lot of jobs. I'm going to give them until Monday to get back to me, though, and then I'm going to move on to the next thing.
The next thing is that one company said once I can hook up to an encoder I should let them know and they'll watch me write some stuff and we'll go from there. I'm not sure if they have an EEG encoder (for iCap) or not, but I'm going to call Eclipse and see if they have one so I can make sure my connection's working. If that company doesn't do iCap, I guess I'll have to move forward with getting another land line and the rest of the equipment I need to connect to traditional encoders. Only working for one company that can offer me a couple of classes a semester at best just isn't a secure enough career option.
It really took a lot of time to get the land line set up; I had to actually buy a cordless phone, which meant I had to research cordless phones. I wanted one that I could use with my Bluetooth-capable headphones that have a built-in mic. And then the cable company sent a new "gateway," which was a router and modem in one, so I had to get that set up, and set up the phone, and everything.
It all takes so much time! I'm glad I'm getting started on it now. Hopefully I have my foot in the door somewhere by the time these classes are over. The last day is April 30th - only two months away! And I probably won't even get paid for the preceeding week because it will be finals week or something. I don't like not having any work lined up for the summer, and not knowing if I'll even get any classes next semester.
Out of the 15 CART companies I applied to in December, I wound up getting work from two. One has still only been a few hours, but I got some meetings and regular classes from the other. I was hoping it would be a lot more, but I guess they have more captioners than work. That pretty much put the nail in the coffin of my "remote CART as a career" idea. I've slowly been trying to work my way into captioning.
I bought AccuCap, and I watched the Eclipse webinar on it. There doesn't seem to be too much to worry about in terms of learning new things. I understand how to blank and/or pass, and I made dictionary entries for that as well as moving the captions around the screen. I've already got a dictionary set up where a new line follows all punctuation. I set up some speaker IDs for the reporter, announcer, interpreter, etc. I've got parentheticals for applause and other noises already.
I did get a good idea from the AccuCap webinar, which was to make a "dirty words" dictionary that has text globals for any words that I don't want to go out on the air. That way if I had something like "damn" and I didn't ever want that to go out, I could do a text global and change it to "darn." Then if TM changed something to "damn," or if "damn" showed up for any reason, it would just get changed to "darn." I haven't set up that dictionary yet.
The big hurdle is getting all the equipment I need to connect to an encoder. I got one land line in anticipation of getting iCap software. I couldn't believe all I'd need was an internet connection, but it turns out it's true. The iCap software is free, so I downloaded it and tested it to make sure it's communicating with Eclipse, and I seem to be good to go.
I asked about captioning at the CART company I'm getting some hours from, but they don't do a lot of captioning. They're looking into getting me started for it, but even if they give me the okay, their technical person said they're "almost exclusively" on traditional encoders that won't work with iCap. It seems like it would just be a lot of prep for not a lot of jobs. I'm going to give them until Monday to get back to me, though, and then I'm going to move on to the next thing.
The next thing is that one company said once I can hook up to an encoder I should let them know and they'll watch me write some stuff and we'll go from there. I'm not sure if they have an EEG encoder (for iCap) or not, but I'm going to call Eclipse and see if they have one so I can make sure my connection's working. If that company doesn't do iCap, I guess I'll have to move forward with getting another land line and the rest of the equipment I need to connect to traditional encoders. Only working for one company that can offer me a couple of classes a semester at best just isn't a secure enough career option.
It really took a lot of time to get the land line set up; I had to actually buy a cordless phone, which meant I had to research cordless phones. I wanted one that I could use with my Bluetooth-capable headphones that have a built-in mic. And then the cable company sent a new "gateway," which was a router and modem in one, so I had to get that set up, and set up the phone, and everything.
It all takes so much time! I'm glad I'm getting started on it now. Hopefully I have my foot in the door somewhere by the time these classes are over. The last day is April 30th - only two months away! And I probably won't even get paid for the preceeding week because it will be finals week or something. I don't like not having any work lined up for the summer, and not knowing if I'll even get any classes next semester.
MRI: Check
It's been approximately forever since I updated, but I've been pretty busy so far this semester. When I went back to the rehabilitation specialist on December 17th, he thought the problem with my arm could be a squished nerve from sleeping with my arm over my boyfriend sometimes. He decided to do an MRI of my brachial plexus, where the thoracic outlet problem could be, and also an MRI neurogram of my arm to see if there's anything going on there.
That was a lot of work to get done. My insurance approved it pretty much right away, but the specialist's office was pretty disorganized, and I didn't get the MRI until February 11th. It's taken from then all the way right up until today for the doctor to finally look at the report and call me. The MRIs didn't find anything, so the doctor doesn't have any other suggestions. He thinks I should go back to the vascular surgeon and have her tell me if she thinks it would be worthwhile to have surgery or not.
Since none of the TOS treatments helped, I don't think treating the TOS by having surgery is a good idea. Surgery is super risky, and I don't think it would do any good. The doctor said he would refer me to a pain clinic, so maybe they can do something to help. I kind of have my doubts about that, though. It seems like a pain clinic would just be treating the symptom (the pain) instead of what's causing it.
I've been trying to work on my posture and get in a position that's better for my back, and relax my arms/shoulders. It makes it harder to write, and I'm not really sure it's helping anything, but I have to try something. I still feel like I'm typing on someone else's keyboard whenever I try to write, and it really slows me down. It's so frustrating.
I stuck it out through all four weeks of the chiropractor, but that didn't help at all. It seemed to make my back way worse than it's ever been, though. I have pretty much constant pain whenever I try to stand or walk now, so that's annoying. I tried not using the mattress topper and it didn't seem to help, so I have no idea what's causing the pain.
That was a lot of work to get done. My insurance approved it pretty much right away, but the specialist's office was pretty disorganized, and I didn't get the MRI until February 11th. It's taken from then all the way right up until today for the doctor to finally look at the report and call me. The MRIs didn't find anything, so the doctor doesn't have any other suggestions. He thinks I should go back to the vascular surgeon and have her tell me if she thinks it would be worthwhile to have surgery or not.
Since none of the TOS treatments helped, I don't think treating the TOS by having surgery is a good idea. Surgery is super risky, and I don't think it would do any good. The doctor said he would refer me to a pain clinic, so maybe they can do something to help. I kind of have my doubts about that, though. It seems like a pain clinic would just be treating the symptom (the pain) instead of what's causing it.
I've been trying to work on my posture and get in a position that's better for my back, and relax my arms/shoulders. It makes it harder to write, and I'm not really sure it's helping anything, but I have to try something. I still feel like I'm typing on someone else's keyboard whenever I try to write, and it really slows me down. It's so frustrating.
I stuck it out through all four weeks of the chiropractor, but that didn't help at all. It seemed to make my back way worse than it's ever been, though. I have pretty much constant pain whenever I try to stand or walk now, so that's annoying. I tried not using the mattress topper and it didn't seem to help, so I have no idea what's causing the pain.
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