Just for fun, I kept a record (or at least tried to) of the speed of all the jobs I wrote last semester. The fastest one, 201 wpm, was just one of the teleconferences I covered. Must have had a lot of people talking really fast on that one. It's pretty crazy how fast people like to go on those. The slowest one was my anthropology class, which clocked in at 136 wpm one day. It only had an average of 147 wpm for the whole semester, but the material was so ridiculously dense it felt like 250 some days. I never knew what words that professor was going to throw out.
My average for all jobs for the whole semester was 179 wpm. I'm not sure if that's more indicative of how fast people were actually talking, or just how fast I'm able to write material in general. Of course, I can go faster if it's easy stuff. During the last budget meeting, I was going at over 300 sometimes!
In successes and fixes news, I was pretty impressed with myself when I wrote counterinsurgencies and it came out perfectly right. I also wrote emoji, and it wasn't in my dictionary, but all the parts are individually defined, so I successfully built a word, which doesn't happen often. I fingerspelled it during the event, but it was cool to find out later when I went to put it in my dictionary that I could've just written it.
I found out that having ", eth-" defined as ", earth" was a really bad idea. It seemed like a good move when I was covering an astronomy class. They talked about the Earth a lot. Then, all of a sudden when I was doing anthropology, and they're talking about ethnographies and ethnographic and ethnological and everything you can think of that starts with "eth-," it was very bad. And that is why you should not define word parts as words.
I also fixed a couple of suffixes. I had "realitity" come out when I stroked "reality" and "-ty," so I told -ty not to attach if there's already a -ty there. I also did something similar to fix intellectualtual.
Finessing
The only major problem I'm having with my writing right now seems to be stacking "and." I stack it with everything. People really advise against writing APBD, so I decided to change it to SKP-P. It's super easy to stroke, but the problem is I never do it, and I stack like three things with "and" on every single job. It's really annoying. Whenever I notice myself stack it, though, I'm trying to erase the mistake and force myself to write SKP-P instead. It doesn't seem to be working yet, but I remember when I felt like it was going to be absolutely impossible to write punctuation with both hands, so I guess I'll make it happen eventually.
I also randomly stroke the initial S sometimes, or maybe it's the initial and final Ss. I'm hoping that will stop with the new machine, though. And a lot of time, I'll accidentally stroke initial T when I mean to stroke S, and then I try to erase it but I stack the S and the asterisk, so I wind up with "it S." I haven't even trade to think of a plan for fixing that one. The obvious answer would be to change the definition for S*, but then I'd have to change the entire alphabet, and it seems to work all right for the most part, so I don't really want to do that. I have used things like S-PG for that alphabet before, but I seemed to get tripped up. I also get tripped up a lot with the asterisk alphabet, so maybe it doesn't matter which one I use. It is a lot easier to fingerspell when you're captioning and you don't have to worry about upper and lower case.
I'm pretty much guaranteed to stack "can you" at the beginning of a sentence, too. I haven't been able to train myself to be cognizant of that and stop doing it yet.
I found a huge issue with my awesome "speaker IDs in slop strokes" strategy. I wound up getting words like "bliss" coming up as crazy words because I had PWHREUS as a possible misstroke for TKPWHREUS. Of course, if it's something like TKPWHR-D, which could be misstroked as PWHR-D (BL-D), then it's not a problem, because I don't want that to be a word, anyway. At first I thought I would just deal with the words as they popped up, but then they started getting embarrassing. I was on air trying to write about a "fly ball," and the only way to keep it from coming out as "glioball" was to fingerspell it. Every time I wrote TPHRAOEU, it got auto-corrected to TKPWHRAOEU, which is apparently my prefix for glio-, not that I ever use it.
So I looked at the possible misstrokes, and identified anything like fl-, bl-, gr-, etc. that could actually combine with things to form a word, and then I looked at all my final bank combinations with those, and got rid of any words like fleck, Greg, etc. Then I bolded those initial combinations in my master list, and now whenever I add a secondary bank combination to the slop strokes, I check first to make sure it's not a word and get rid of it if it is. I'd rather have "fly" come out when I was going for the speaker ID for "Brian" than not be able to write fly at all.
I also randomly stroke the initial S sometimes, or maybe it's the initial and final Ss. I'm hoping that will stop with the new machine, though. And a lot of time, I'll accidentally stroke initial T when I mean to stroke S, and then I try to erase it but I stack the S and the asterisk, so I wind up with "it S." I haven't even trade to think of a plan for fixing that one. The obvious answer would be to change the definition for S*, but then I'd have to change the entire alphabet, and it seems to work all right for the most part, so I don't really want to do that. I have used things like S-PG for that alphabet before, but I seemed to get tripped up. I also get tripped up a lot with the asterisk alphabet, so maybe it doesn't matter which one I use. It is a lot easier to fingerspell when you're captioning and you don't have to worry about upper and lower case.
I'm pretty much guaranteed to stack "can you" at the beginning of a sentence, too. I haven't been able to train myself to be cognizant of that and stop doing it yet.
I found a huge issue with my awesome "speaker IDs in slop strokes" strategy. I wound up getting words like "bliss" coming up as crazy words because I had PWHREUS as a possible misstroke for TKPWHREUS. Of course, if it's something like TKPWHR-D, which could be misstroked as PWHR-D (BL-D), then it's not a problem, because I don't want that to be a word, anyway. At first I thought I would just deal with the words as they popped up, but then they started getting embarrassing. I was on air trying to write about a "fly ball," and the only way to keep it from coming out as "glioball" was to fingerspell it. Every time I wrote TPHRAOEU, it got auto-corrected to TKPWHRAOEU, which is apparently my prefix for glio-, not that I ever use it.
So I looked at the possible misstrokes, and identified anything like fl-, bl-, gr-, etc. that could actually combine with things to form a word, and then I looked at all my final bank combinations with those, and got rid of any words like fleck, Greg, etc. Then I bolded those initial combinations in my master list, and now whenever I add a secondary bank combination to the slop strokes, I check first to make sure it's not a word and get rid of it if it is. I'd rather have "fly" come out when I was going for the speaker ID for "Brian" than not be able to write fly at all.
Scripting Graduations
I'm scheduled to cover three graduations, starting with two tomorrow.
I got scripts for two of them. I've never used a script before. I saw
someone use one once, and they told me a few things. I also watched the
two-hour AccuCap training video, so I at least saw what's possible
there, although nothing really stuck concretely since it wasn't relevant
to me at the time. I spent about five or six hours formatting the first
script. It took me forever just to figure out how to name segments
using script commands.
I also learned that copying and pasting from Word is not a good idea, after I had already edited the entire script. I had to go back through and take out all these weird little places where the tabs in Word didn't show up in the script, but when I pushed them through realtime, they were making this weird arrow. I had to look up how to format songs, because at one graduation they're playing the National Anthem, and at both they're going to sing the Alma Mater.
I had to put tons of professor names in my dictionary, and text global all kinds of stuff to make sure it's going to come out capitalized properly even if I don't have time to do it manually. I put a little note to myself in the spaces where someone is likely to talk and it's not scripted, so I'll have a little bit of a head's up that I need to start writing. My biggest worry right now about the whole deal is that I'm going to accidentally send out one of those notes!
I don't have a script yet for the first graduation, and it's at 1:30 tomorrow. If I have to just write it live, at least I kind of know the process since I've read the scripts for the other two.
I was able to use a cool shortcut I saw on the Eclipse FB group to help me out with scripting. I tested out how I'm going to arrange everything on the actual day, and it was tough fitting all the windows in, so I got rid of the notes display with Ctrl+Shift+F5, which was a huge help.
I also learned that copying and pasting from Word is not a good idea, after I had already edited the entire script. I had to go back through and take out all these weird little places where the tabs in Word didn't show up in the script, but when I pushed them through realtime, they were making this weird arrow. I had to look up how to format songs, because at one graduation they're playing the National Anthem, and at both they're going to sing the Alma Mater.
I had to put tons of professor names in my dictionary, and text global all kinds of stuff to make sure it's going to come out capitalized properly even if I don't have time to do it manually. I put a little note to myself in the spaces where someone is likely to talk and it's not scripted, so I'll have a little bit of a head's up that I need to start writing. My biggest worry right now about the whole deal is that I'm going to accidentally send out one of those notes!
I don't have a script yet for the first graduation, and it's at 1:30 tomorrow. If I have to just write it live, at least I kind of know the process since I've read the scripts for the other two.
I was able to use a cool shortcut I saw on the Eclipse FB group to help me out with scripting. I tested out how I'm going to arrange everything on the actual day, and it was tough fitting all the windows in, so I got rid of the notes display with Ctrl+Shift+F5, which was a huge help.
Captioning Success
I didn't get any captioning jobs in April, but I did get put on the calendar for a few hours in May. Classes ended in April, so I have more availability now than I put on the sheet for that company. I kind of don't want to take on too much work until I get and get used to the IE, though. I wanted to let the company know I do have more availability before May 15th, when they make the schedule for June, but it's looking like the IE might not even get here by then. I'm pretty much holding off on all new prospects until I get used to the IE, though.
It was kind of sad when my classes ended, but it's been really nice not being locked into those classes this week. I captioned my first news broadcast last Friday. News is totally different from CART. It's harder to write. You don't really ever get time to get your footing before they switch to a new story, and you never know what the next topic is going to be. It's a lot easier on my arm, though. It doesn't hurt nearly as much. It only goes for about 12 minutes and then you get a break, and then four minutes, break, four minutes, you're done. If you only caption for half an hour, it's over before you know it.
The prep is insane, though. There's so much to prep for on a news station you've never done before. I was hoping I'd get to stick with one or two stations that I would cover multiple times this month, but I'm doing eight different stations. You could spend all day prepping news stories, too. At least the weather is nice and predictable.
It's really hard to get back into the rhythm of just letting the mistakes go when I caption. I have so much more time to fix things in CART. With captioning, if I take a second to try to fix it, I wind up getting totally hung up and missing a bunch of important stuff. The flow is just totally different. Practicing doesn't seem to help, either. It seems like the only effective practice is doing it for real. It doesn't help that I only got scheduled for weekends in May, even though I'm available at 5:00 central every day of the week. I did pick up one show next Wednesday at least.
It's pretty exciting getting to caption the news. It's definitely a wider audience than one consumer. I feel important when I do it, but there's also a lot more pressure. It's really easy to let the pressure get to me and start messing up, so I just have to try not to think about it, and pretend I'm just practicing.
It was really bad the first time I did it. There were so many things I hadn't ever done before, like putting on credits and dialing into an encoder. It was terrible thinking about it. I didn't want to do it at all. But like most things, it wasn't so bad, and I'm really glad I have that income channel now that classes are over.
The pay isn't nearly as good as CART though, and I didn't get many hours in May, so for the entire month I'm making less than what I made for a week of CART. But it's still valuable to have, and hopefully as the summer goes on I can pick up more hours. I had better; if I don't, I'm actually not going to make any profit. If it keeps going this way, I won't even pay for the cost of AccuCap/the other equipment/phone lines. AccuCap was a one-time cost, though, so I guess either way, having captioning during the summer will pay off in the long run.
I've gotten disconnected on two out of five encoder calls that I've made. I don't know if it was my lines or a problem with the encoder, but I hope it wasn't my lines, because I don't know the first thing about trying to fix them. I've heard some people have better luck with serial modems, as opposed to USB ones, so that might be the first thing I try. I know I'm not going to get anywhere with calling the phone company, so I really hope it doesn't come to that.
I captioned a couple of budget presentations for cities/counties for my original company this week. They talked so fast without any pauses, it really hurt my arm. One of them even went on for three hours and 20 minutes. My right arm and hand didn't hurt too much though, so maybe something like that will be feasible once I fix whatever's wrong with my left arm. They have a lot of events that go longer than three hours, but I just can't take them. Three hours is my limit.
It was pretty much exactly a year ago that I took my first jobs for that company. I did a couple similar events back then, even. I think my writing was about a thousand times better this time. It felt totally different. Last time I was really out of my depth. It felt totally comfortable this time, though.
It was kind of sad when my classes ended, but it's been really nice not being locked into those classes this week. I captioned my first news broadcast last Friday. News is totally different from CART. It's harder to write. You don't really ever get time to get your footing before they switch to a new story, and you never know what the next topic is going to be. It's a lot easier on my arm, though. It doesn't hurt nearly as much. It only goes for about 12 minutes and then you get a break, and then four minutes, break, four minutes, you're done. If you only caption for half an hour, it's over before you know it.
The prep is insane, though. There's so much to prep for on a news station you've never done before. I was hoping I'd get to stick with one or two stations that I would cover multiple times this month, but I'm doing eight different stations. You could spend all day prepping news stories, too. At least the weather is nice and predictable.
It's really hard to get back into the rhythm of just letting the mistakes go when I caption. I have so much more time to fix things in CART. With captioning, if I take a second to try to fix it, I wind up getting totally hung up and missing a bunch of important stuff. The flow is just totally different. Practicing doesn't seem to help, either. It seems like the only effective practice is doing it for real. It doesn't help that I only got scheduled for weekends in May, even though I'm available at 5:00 central every day of the week. I did pick up one show next Wednesday at least.
It's pretty exciting getting to caption the news. It's definitely a wider audience than one consumer. I feel important when I do it, but there's also a lot more pressure. It's really easy to let the pressure get to me and start messing up, so I just have to try not to think about it, and pretend I'm just practicing.
It was really bad the first time I did it. There were so many things I hadn't ever done before, like putting on credits and dialing into an encoder. It was terrible thinking about it. I didn't want to do it at all. But like most things, it wasn't so bad, and I'm really glad I have that income channel now that classes are over.
The pay isn't nearly as good as CART though, and I didn't get many hours in May, so for the entire month I'm making less than what I made for a week of CART. But it's still valuable to have, and hopefully as the summer goes on I can pick up more hours. I had better; if I don't, I'm actually not going to make any profit. If it keeps going this way, I won't even pay for the cost of AccuCap/the other equipment/phone lines. AccuCap was a one-time cost, though, so I guess either way, having captioning during the summer will pay off in the long run.
I've gotten disconnected on two out of five encoder calls that I've made. I don't know if it was my lines or a problem with the encoder, but I hope it wasn't my lines, because I don't know the first thing about trying to fix them. I've heard some people have better luck with serial modems, as opposed to USB ones, so that might be the first thing I try. I know I'm not going to get anywhere with calling the phone company, so I really hope it doesn't come to that.
I captioned a couple of budget presentations for cities/counties for my original company this week. They talked so fast without any pauses, it really hurt my arm. One of them even went on for three hours and 20 minutes. My right arm and hand didn't hurt too much though, so maybe something like that will be feasible once I fix whatever's wrong with my left arm. They have a lot of events that go longer than three hours, but I just can't take them. Three hours is my limit.
It was pretty much exactly a year ago that I took my first jobs for that company. I did a couple similar events back then, even. I think my writing was about a thousand times better this time. It felt totally different. Last time I was really out of my depth. It felt totally comfortable this time, though.
Infinity Ergo Time
I'm trying to commit to updating the blog at least once a month. It's only been a month and four days since my last update, so I'd say that's pretty good.
I decided it was time to buy the Infinity Ergo. I think it'll help with the pain in my hands if nothing else. I started by finding someone in my area who was willing to let me try hers out. I got to go to her house and write on it for as long as I wanted to, which was about 45 minutes. It was really nice being able to position the pods any way I wanted to. You can tilt them right to left, forward and back, and move them farther away from each other. I was surprised that it actually wasn't comfortable to move them apart, but I think being able to tilt them will help a lot.
So I ordered one, and the owner of the company, Jason, said that it would take about three weeks to get here. That was almost a month ago to the day. I emailed him on Monday to see what was up, and he said it was going to ship this week. He thought it would be shipping today. I didn't hear anything about that happening, so I'm guessing it didn't. I'll have to check back again next Monday.
The numbness in my right hand is really painful and annoying. I think it's probably more related to the mouse than anything else. It hurts to type on a keyboard, though, so I'm writing this on my steno machine. I've come a long way in my writing since the last time I tried to do this. It used to be frustrating to try to write anything, but it's pretty fluid now.
I decided to hold off on the nerve numbing thing for now. Nobody from that office ever called me to let me know it was approved by insurance, anyway. I want to see if the pain will go away once I get the IE.
I'm still experiencing pretty terrible back pain. I took the mattress topper off my bed. The pain started right when I put it on. It's really soft and nice, but I couldn't ignore the correlation. I've had it off for over three weeks now, and my back pain hasn't really improved. I tried tilting the seat pan of my chair forward a little, and then I also unlocked it so I could rock back in it, and then when I went to go back to normal from a tilted-back position, it got stuck.
So now the seat pan is stuck tilted back even farther than I had it originally. It's been kind of a mess. I think the pain has leveled off again, though; it doesn't seem to be getting any worse at this point. Maybe it'll turn around and start getting better.
It's pretty uncomfortable trying to sleep. I can't stand for any period of time without it hurting. But at least it's not too bad when I'm sitting, for now.
I decided it was time to buy the Infinity Ergo. I think it'll help with the pain in my hands if nothing else. I started by finding someone in my area who was willing to let me try hers out. I got to go to her house and write on it for as long as I wanted to, which was about 45 minutes. It was really nice being able to position the pods any way I wanted to. You can tilt them right to left, forward and back, and move them farther away from each other. I was surprised that it actually wasn't comfortable to move them apart, but I think being able to tilt them will help a lot.
So I ordered one, and the owner of the company, Jason, said that it would take about three weeks to get here. That was almost a month ago to the day. I emailed him on Monday to see what was up, and he said it was going to ship this week. He thought it would be shipping today. I didn't hear anything about that happening, so I'm guessing it didn't. I'll have to check back again next Monday.
The numbness in my right hand is really painful and annoying. I think it's probably more related to the mouse than anything else. It hurts to type on a keyboard, though, so I'm writing this on my steno machine. I've come a long way in my writing since the last time I tried to do this. It used to be frustrating to try to write anything, but it's pretty fluid now.
I decided to hold off on the nerve numbing thing for now. Nobody from that office ever called me to let me know it was approved by insurance, anyway. I want to see if the pain will go away once I get the IE.
I'm still experiencing pretty terrible back pain. I took the mattress topper off my bed. The pain started right when I put it on. It's really soft and nice, but I couldn't ignore the correlation. I've had it off for over three weeks now, and my back pain hasn't really improved. I tried tilting the seat pan of my chair forward a little, and then I also unlocked it so I could rock back in it, and then when I went to go back to normal from a tilted-back position, it got stuck.
So now the seat pan is stuck tilted back even farther than I had it originally. It's been kind of a mess. I think the pain has leveled off again, though; it doesn't seem to be getting any worse at this point. Maybe it'll turn around and start getting better.
It's pretty uncomfortable trying to sleep. I can't stand for any period of time without it hurting. But at least it's not too bad when I'm sitting, for now.
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