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.
- 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).
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 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!
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.
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.
