I've been covering a lot of techy stuff. People are always talking about Drupal, Java, Linux, servlets, HTML, RSS feeds, you name it. I feel like the fact that I know a tiny bit of HTML and tech-type stuff has helped me out. I'm always proud of myself when I get something like JSON right and think, "I bet some other CART providers wouldn't know what that is." The more teleconferences I listen to, the more wonky words I can get in there like syslog, nav, dev, etc.
Alan Peacock had a great article in the JCR about getting things like @ and # in your dictionary. I have @ in there, so that's not a problem, but I don't have anything for # yet. It never comes up in CART, but when I start captioning, it's going to be important.
I've been doing my speaker IDs as GL-[first initial of name] forever, and it was really becoming a problem when I had to do 5-30 new speaker IDs for every event, because each meeting has different speakers. The main problem was not only did I define all the IDs, I also had to define all the misstrokes for them. I thought there might be something I could do with the speaker ID table, but I wasn't really sure.
Then someone on the Eclipse FB group posted something about inflected endings and slop strokes, which was totally unrelated, but it reminded me: slop strokes! So I put all the misstrokes in as slop strokes, and now they physically *can't* come out wrong. All I have to do is define each misstroke for each initial once, and that's it! They're all set for every meeting I write after that. I'm still adding initials as they come up, but I have 36 so far.
A professor rattled off "Minneapolis, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, and even Moscow" the other day, and I was pretty relieved when they all came out perfectly. I have a great brief for Minneapolis (MIPS, which goes with IPS for Indianapolis), but the rest were just in there. I stroked out "heteronormative" the way I thought it should be and that came out perfectly, too.
I've been doing a lot of stroking things out the long way and hoping that helps them translate better. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Lots of times I think the short way was in there, but whatever crazy way I decided to do the long way didn't work. I did have to put "youse" in my dictionary the other day because it wasn't in there at all.
I turned my TM slider up to about 50%, but it was being too aggressive, so I dialed it back down to 29% based on some things I didn't want it to mess with. It does pretty well. I don't like it when it takes a word like "overly," which is just over + -ly and decides that was an untran because it wasn't in my dictionary. But that's not really a big deal.
As I go through transcripts, I still pick out words that I shouldn't have gotten wrong and add them to my practice list. It only has 12 words on it, but I'm at least that many transcripts behind on editing. I'm working on hitting "logical" with an asterisk for words like methodological and genealogical. It's really tough fingering for me, but there's got to be a distinction between "methodological" and "was the method logical."
I like to do my Phoenix speed drills every day, too. It's not even a "have to" at this point; I just like to do it. It keeps me grounded. And it's a little bit like a game. It's one way I can really see progress, and it helps me work on stuff I have problems with. I've even gotten a couple drills maxed out at 220 wpm, which is as fast as the free metronome program I use goes. I'm up to 185 wpm or higher on all the drills, and my average right now is 191 wpm.
Career Outlook
I had to practice to the news a bit to do the testing for the captioning company, and I realized that they talk really fast on the news. It's terrible. I just feel like I'm getting hammered. It's at least an average of 200 wpm. Some of my classes are like that, and I hate those ones. It's probably just because it hurts a lot to write that fast, though.
But it made me realize how much I like CART. Sometimes it's boring, but lots of times I get to hear about really interesting stuff. I've been more grateful now that I get to do CART. It's especially nice when people talk slowly and I can get almost every word out perfectly, at like 99.9% accuracy.
I've been trying to bring more of a captioning philosophy into my CART. Flow is especially important in captioning. Words are scrolling by super fast. I've been given this advice before, but I didn't take it to heart as much as I should have - the idea that if you make a mistake and you can't correct it right away, don't correct it at all, or it will be really confusing. You don't want to have a wrong word, and then 15 words later put the correct word. It won't make sense anymore.
It's also difficult for the consumer if you keep backspacing, like erasing a bunch of words and then writing them again. Plus, for me, it trips me up and slows me down to do that, anyway. So I've been focusing more on just letting mistakes go and not trying to fix them, especially if they're ones where the intended word can easily be inferred. It's really hard, though. Whenver I see a mistake, I want to pounce on it and fix it. But it's important not to do that if it's going to mean I miss some stuff that comes after it.
I'm trying to be more conscious about what I'm writing. My instinct is to write as fast as I can and as much as I can, but that stresses me out and causes me to make more mistakes. I do much better, and actually get more of the content, if I just relax and allow myself room to paraphrase if I need to.
The owner of the captioning company said that "newbie" captioners tend to start out getting around 2000 words per half-hour broadcast. My tests were between 2800-3000, and she said 3000 was what a veteran captioner would get. So I'm not leaving out too much. I'm surprised I'm even getting that much. I checked on some transcripts from when I practiced to the news about a year ago, and they were around 2200. I guess I am getting better, whether it seems like it to me or not.
It's hard for me to believe I really am a professional. I've been working at it for so long, and it seemed like I wasn't making any progress and I wouldn't ever get here. I wasn't fully confident in myself when I got my first job. But now I've passed the CBC and CCP, and passed tests to get hired at numerous companies. All I see is the mistakes I constantly make every day, and it makes it seem like I'm not good at this. But I get great feedback from the consumers. My skills must be solid.
I'm finally earning enough to make a living doing this, and I really do do it well. I just wish it didn't hurt so much! I feel like I could take on a lot more work if I weren't limited by the pain. It seems like I can work about 4 hours a day without being in complete agony, so that's where I try to draw the line. I get jealous hearing about people who can work for 8 hours a day without pain, though.
It's scary thinking about when I do start captioning. I blocked off anything before 5p CT for CART, so I'm only available to caption during nights and weekends. I'm covering a class right now that meets 4 times in 8 weeks at 6p my time, and it seems like my arm hurts way worse at 6p than it does in the morning, regardless of how much writing I've already done that day. I'm dreading having to write an average of 200 wpm at night.
I have to have some kind of income during the summer, though. I might be able to piece together 20 hours of CART a week during the school year (it hasn't happened yet, but hopefully I'll land more permanent classes next semester than I did this semester), but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be getting much during the summer. And you can't just work for a company during the summer; you have to be available year-round if you want summer hours.
It all takes so much time to put together! I feel like I'm on the right track at least, though.
The worst is having to CART 3-hour classes. For some reason that seems to be a lot of what I get. My arm just doesn't hold up for 3 hours. I can go for about 45 minutes before I start really running into trouble. On the one hand, I wish I could just not offer to take those classes, but on the other, I don't think I would get much work if I didn't do them. There's usually a 10-minute break in the middle, but that doesn't help much.
I have 3 hours of CART scheduled for Sunday morning. That will be my first time working on the weekend, so it should be interesting. I had this Tuesday off, so I guess that was my Sunday. It just occurred to me that I get paid 15% extra for working on the weekend. That's the policy that the main company I do work for has. I love that company! They're the best. I want to try to do as much work as I can for them, but the problem will be if other companies offer me full-semester classes before that one puts out their schedule.
But it made me realize how much I like CART. Sometimes it's boring, but lots of times I get to hear about really interesting stuff. I've been more grateful now that I get to do CART. It's especially nice when people talk slowly and I can get almost every word out perfectly, at like 99.9% accuracy.
I've been trying to bring more of a captioning philosophy into my CART. Flow is especially important in captioning. Words are scrolling by super fast. I've been given this advice before, but I didn't take it to heart as much as I should have - the idea that if you make a mistake and you can't correct it right away, don't correct it at all, or it will be really confusing. You don't want to have a wrong word, and then 15 words later put the correct word. It won't make sense anymore.
It's also difficult for the consumer if you keep backspacing, like erasing a bunch of words and then writing them again. Plus, for me, it trips me up and slows me down to do that, anyway. So I've been focusing more on just letting mistakes go and not trying to fix them, especially if they're ones where the intended word can easily be inferred. It's really hard, though. Whenver I see a mistake, I want to pounce on it and fix it. But it's important not to do that if it's going to mean I miss some stuff that comes after it.
I'm trying to be more conscious about what I'm writing. My instinct is to write as fast as I can and as much as I can, but that stresses me out and causes me to make more mistakes. I do much better, and actually get more of the content, if I just relax and allow myself room to paraphrase if I need to.
The owner of the captioning company said that "newbie" captioners tend to start out getting around 2000 words per half-hour broadcast. My tests were between 2800-3000, and she said 3000 was what a veteran captioner would get. So I'm not leaving out too much. I'm surprised I'm even getting that much. I checked on some transcripts from when I practiced to the news about a year ago, and they were around 2200. I guess I am getting better, whether it seems like it to me or not.
It's hard for me to believe I really am a professional. I've been working at it for so long, and it seemed like I wasn't making any progress and I wouldn't ever get here. I wasn't fully confident in myself when I got my first job. But now I've passed the CBC and CCP, and passed tests to get hired at numerous companies. All I see is the mistakes I constantly make every day, and it makes it seem like I'm not good at this. But I get great feedback from the consumers. My skills must be solid.
I'm finally earning enough to make a living doing this, and I really do do it well. I just wish it didn't hurt so much! I feel like I could take on a lot more work if I weren't limited by the pain. It seems like I can work about 4 hours a day without being in complete agony, so that's where I try to draw the line. I get jealous hearing about people who can work for 8 hours a day without pain, though.
It's scary thinking about when I do start captioning. I blocked off anything before 5p CT for CART, so I'm only available to caption during nights and weekends. I'm covering a class right now that meets 4 times in 8 weeks at 6p my time, and it seems like my arm hurts way worse at 6p than it does in the morning, regardless of how much writing I've already done that day. I'm dreading having to write an average of 200 wpm at night.
I have to have some kind of income during the summer, though. I might be able to piece together 20 hours of CART a week during the school year (it hasn't happened yet, but hopefully I'll land more permanent classes next semester than I did this semester), but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be getting much during the summer. And you can't just work for a company during the summer; you have to be available year-round if you want summer hours.
It all takes so much time to put together! I feel like I'm on the right track at least, though.
The worst is having to CART 3-hour classes. For some reason that seems to be a lot of what I get. My arm just doesn't hold up for 3 hours. I can go for about 45 minutes before I start really running into trouble. On the one hand, I wish I could just not offer to take those classes, but on the other, I don't think I would get much work if I didn't do them. There's usually a 10-minute break in the middle, but that doesn't help much.
I have 3 hours of CART scheduled for Sunday morning. That will be my first time working on the weekend, so it should be interesting. I had this Tuesday off, so I guess that was my Sunday. It just occurred to me that I get paid 15% extra for working on the weekend. That's the policy that the main company I do work for has. I love that company! They're the best. I want to try to do as much work as I can for them, but the problem will be if other companies offer me full-semester classes before that one puts out their schedule.
Captioning Progress
It turned out that Eclipse doesn't have an iCap encoder, which wasn't surprising. So I contacted the company that asked me to get connected first, and they said they would watch me write without the encoder connection. I did a couple of sessions with them, and they felt positive about it, so I got my USB modem and my second phone line, and called Eclipse and made sure I could connect.
It was a little rocky at first. I wound up being on the phone with Eclipse for 20-30 minutes. I think all I really needed to do was reboot the computer. I had already done it after installing the modem, but I think it just needed one more go. The modem was super easy to buy/install, and getting the second phone line was just a matter of having them turn it on. Easy as pie. Then I did a third test with the captioning company, this time connected to their encoder. I was only connected for about 10 minutes, but everything went fine.
I was surprised how easy it went with them - I just dialed the number, and poof, I was connected! I don't think I need an audio coupler or a mixer or any of that intimidating stuff you read about needing. My headphones connect wirelessly to the phone, and I think that's all I'll need. So I signed the contract, and I'm officially on board with that company. The only downside is that it doesn't pay nearly as well as CART. It's still considerably more than Caption Colorado, though, and I didn't have to sign anything saying I wouldn't concurrently work for other companies.
I haven't gotten any captioning jobs yet because they made the schedule for all of April on March 15th. I don't mind, though; I have plenty of CART work to keep me busy right now, especially since I'm still doing my data entry job. I officially put in my two weeks for that, though, and April 14th will be my last day there, which is pretty exciting. It was a great backup to have, but it's been a drag for a while.
I got on with another CART company, one that's been in the works since they contacted me in November. I haven't gotten any work from them either yet, though, so I'm not sure if anything's really going to come out of that. I also tested with a company in the UK a month ago. They still haven't graded it, but I'm pretty sure I bombed it, so I'm not expecting much there, either.
I added on another company that I do overflow work for. It seems like they have at least a few jobs a month. It doesn't pay as well as my main company, but I think it will be good to do some jobs for them. I could also look into captioning for the original CART company I started with. For captioning, they pay about as much as the new captioning company I just joined. I don't want to have my hands in too many things, though. I think it's best to let the things I have play out for now.
It was a little rocky at first. I wound up being on the phone with Eclipse for 20-30 minutes. I think all I really needed to do was reboot the computer. I had already done it after installing the modem, but I think it just needed one more go. The modem was super easy to buy/install, and getting the second phone line was just a matter of having them turn it on. Easy as pie. Then I did a third test with the captioning company, this time connected to their encoder. I was only connected for about 10 minutes, but everything went fine.
I was surprised how easy it went with them - I just dialed the number, and poof, I was connected! I don't think I need an audio coupler or a mixer or any of that intimidating stuff you read about needing. My headphones connect wirelessly to the phone, and I think that's all I'll need. So I signed the contract, and I'm officially on board with that company. The only downside is that it doesn't pay nearly as well as CART. It's still considerably more than Caption Colorado, though, and I didn't have to sign anything saying I wouldn't concurrently work for other companies.
I haven't gotten any captioning jobs yet because they made the schedule for all of April on March 15th. I don't mind, though; I have plenty of CART work to keep me busy right now, especially since I'm still doing my data entry job. I officially put in my two weeks for that, though, and April 14th will be my last day there, which is pretty exciting. It was a great backup to have, but it's been a drag for a while.
I got on with another CART company, one that's been in the works since they contacted me in November. I haven't gotten any work from them either yet, though, so I'm not sure if anything's really going to come out of that. I also tested with a company in the UK a month ago. They still haven't graded it, but I'm pretty sure I bombed it, so I'm not expecting much there, either.
I added on another company that I do overflow work for. It seems like they have at least a few jobs a month. It doesn't pay as well as my main company, but I think it will be good to do some jobs for them. I could also look into captioning for the original CART company I started with. For captioning, they pay about as much as the new captioning company I just joined. I don't want to have my hands in too many things, though. I think it's best to let the things I have play out for now.
Dead Ends
I only waited one month to update instead of three this time, so that's an improvement! I wish I could say I'm seeing improvement in my pain level. I started having problems with my right arm in Feburary, and that isn't getting any better, either. It's not so bad generally, but my right hand/wrist has really been acting up lately. I think it's because of where I put the steno machine to make it more comfortable for my left arm. It seems like my left arm works better if I bring the machine in close to my body and angle the top left corner away from me. Unfortunately, when I do that, I can immediately feel pain in my right hand/wrist, which seems to be more comfortable if I have the machine farther away and angled with the top right corner away from me, which brings the top left corner closer to me.
I think an Infinity Ergo might be the solution to that particular problem. I've been thinking I should probably get one for a long time, but I didn't want to spend the money and take the time out to learn how to write on one. A lot of tweaking of key sensitivity would need to happen, just like when I got the LS, and that's a scary prospect. It's also tough to find one. I checked with the owner of the company, and they don't have any sales representatives in my area. He said he would check with customers in the area. That was a couple days ago, and I haven't heard anything back yet. I figure I'll give it about a week and then start posting on groups/forums and try to see if there's anyone around that would let me try theirs.
Even if I do decide to buy one, I think it takes 2-4 months before you actually get it.
I went to the pain clinic, and the doctor there suggested taking Lyrica and a ton of other mediciations. He said I could talk to my PCP about those. I don't want to try any more medication. It would just be masking the symptoms, and I don't like the idea of potential side effects. The pain isn't so bad that I physically *can't* write at this point, so I'd rather just deal with it than take medication. He also suggested a process of coming back for six sessions where he would numb different nerves in my arm to see if that stopped the pain, and try to hone in on which nerve is affected.
I think that's a good idea. It will require me not taking any jobs for the rest of the day, though; he said my arm might not work properly for up to 12 hours after being numbed. And of course there's the scary prospect that the arm would be permanently paralyzed, but hopefully that won't happen. I had that appointment over a week ago, and he said they would get it approved by my insurance and then call me to set up an appointment. I haven't heard anything back yet. I should probably call and follow up, but it's kind of not something I really want to do, so that's why I haven't yet.
I'm still trying to just get in different positions and see if something will fix it. I started rolling up a towel and putting it behind my back vertically when I sit. The physical therapist suggested doing something like that. It might help a little with the back pain; I'm not really sure. It does feel like it adds some support when I write, at least.
I tried leaning back into the chair and writing with the machine on my lap yesterday, and that was a disaster. My back was comfortable, but both of my hands/wrists hurt a lot. Right now I'm trying out tilting the machine towards me (I just tried tilting it away, too, and as usual, that makes it hurt worse) and having it a little farther away than usual. And I'm focusing on sitting up really straight, and keeping my neck straight/head high/chin tilted down. I have a tendency to scrunch down and forward when I write. I think it's just comfortable. But it might not be the best thing to do.
My neck hurt a lot for a few days. I'm not sure what was up with that. It was probably related to some posture thing I was trying to do, who knows what. It seems to more or less be back to normal now, though. I noticed for some reason when I try to relax my shoulders/arms, I feel a lot of strain in my neck. I'm not sure how to avoid it, but I'm definitely looking out for it now.
This really should be so simple! You sit and you "type" on a machine. It shouldn't be stressful on the body at all! I still want to get an ergonomic specialist in to watch me write and tell me what I'm doing wrong, but that's not as easy to make happen as I thought it was going to be. The doctor at the pain clinic didn't know of anyone who could help, so I emailed the physical therapist, but she didn't know, either. She said she would check with their work injury specialist and let me know, but that was a week ago and I haven't heard anything, so I guess that's not going to happen.
I got a little elastic wrist compression brace to try out. I tried it on both wrists when I wrote, but it either made it worse or didn't seem to help. I tried it during data entry/regular computer work on the right hand with the same result. I also just tried putting some padding in it and using it just as a padded wrist rest, without any compression, and I didn't like that, either.
I think an Infinity Ergo might be the solution to that particular problem. I've been thinking I should probably get one for a long time, but I didn't want to spend the money and take the time out to learn how to write on one. A lot of tweaking of key sensitivity would need to happen, just like when I got the LS, and that's a scary prospect. It's also tough to find one. I checked with the owner of the company, and they don't have any sales representatives in my area. He said he would check with customers in the area. That was a couple days ago, and I haven't heard anything back yet. I figure I'll give it about a week and then start posting on groups/forums and try to see if there's anyone around that would let me try theirs.
Even if I do decide to buy one, I think it takes 2-4 months before you actually get it.
I went to the pain clinic, and the doctor there suggested taking Lyrica and a ton of other mediciations. He said I could talk to my PCP about those. I don't want to try any more medication. It would just be masking the symptoms, and I don't like the idea of potential side effects. The pain isn't so bad that I physically *can't* write at this point, so I'd rather just deal with it than take medication. He also suggested a process of coming back for six sessions where he would numb different nerves in my arm to see if that stopped the pain, and try to hone in on which nerve is affected.
I think that's a good idea. It will require me not taking any jobs for the rest of the day, though; he said my arm might not work properly for up to 12 hours after being numbed. And of course there's the scary prospect that the arm would be permanently paralyzed, but hopefully that won't happen. I had that appointment over a week ago, and he said they would get it approved by my insurance and then call me to set up an appointment. I haven't heard anything back yet. I should probably call and follow up, but it's kind of not something I really want to do, so that's why I haven't yet.
I'm still trying to just get in different positions and see if something will fix it. I started rolling up a towel and putting it behind my back vertically when I sit. The physical therapist suggested doing something like that. It might help a little with the back pain; I'm not really sure. It does feel like it adds some support when I write, at least.
I tried leaning back into the chair and writing with the machine on my lap yesterday, and that was a disaster. My back was comfortable, but both of my hands/wrists hurt a lot. Right now I'm trying out tilting the machine towards me (I just tried tilting it away, too, and as usual, that makes it hurt worse) and having it a little farther away than usual. And I'm focusing on sitting up really straight, and keeping my neck straight/head high/chin tilted down. I have a tendency to scrunch down and forward when I write. I think it's just comfortable. But it might not be the best thing to do.
My neck hurt a lot for a few days. I'm not sure what was up with that. It was probably related to some posture thing I was trying to do, who knows what. It seems to more or less be back to normal now, though. I noticed for some reason when I try to relax my shoulders/arms, I feel a lot of strain in my neck. I'm not sure how to avoid it, but I'm definitely looking out for it now.
This really should be so simple! You sit and you "type" on a machine. It shouldn't be stressful on the body at all! I still want to get an ergonomic specialist in to watch me write and tell me what I'm doing wrong, but that's not as easy to make happen as I thought it was going to be. The doctor at the pain clinic didn't know of anyone who could help, so I emailed the physical therapist, but she didn't know, either. She said she would check with their work injury specialist and let me know, but that was a week ago and I haven't heard anything, so I guess that's not going to happen.
I got a little elastic wrist compression brace to try out. I tried it on both wrists when I wrote, but it either made it worse or didn't seem to help. I tried it during data entry/regular computer work on the right hand with the same result. I also just tried putting some padding in it and using it just as a padded wrist rest, without any compression, and I didn't like that, either.
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