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Long time no post, again. I've still been plugging away with my two hours of practice every day. I kept up with my routine of using the actual live news for my speedbuilding practice until June, when I started doing the Caption Masters Series. I didn't exactly test into it, I just signed up for it, figuring I was probably good enough to do it. That's been true in some senses; I don't have any trouble at all keeping up with the homework, but I have yet to pass a test. You have to get 98.5% accuracy first-pass on live broadcasts, and I'm not quite there yet.

So far I've practiced the news and the weather. I can occasionally get a 5-7-minute weather segment at 98.5% accuracy on the first try, which is pretty cool. The teacher suggested we use "smart writing," which involves dropping adjectives and other things that might not be super important if it keeps us from dropping things that are important. It's been pretty effective. On the one hand, it's easier because you don't have to write things verbatim; on the other hand, it's harder because it adds an extra level of things you're thinking about the whole time. "What phrase wasn't important? What don't I have to write? How could I paraphrase that to make it quicker?" Of course, verbatim is always your ultimate goal. But it's more important to convey everything loosely than to convey half of it verbatim. Unfortunately, it's a strategy that's going to work against me whenever I take the CBC exam.

I don't use the tripod anymore. I felt like I couldn't reach the machine, so I went back to putting it on my lap. I just use a little leather portfolio folder to give it about 3/4 of an inch of extra height and keep it flat. That seems to be working out okay. I still feel like I'm a little shaky 75% of the time in terms of "finding" the keys, but I'm doing a lot better in that area than I was before.

I have a ton of free time to do steno stuff now, but I don't do it. I did spend about an hour working on a list of 30 "to-do" items I had come up with in the past few months, though. Here's what I fixed: 

-Defined "out-" as "O*UT," yet I still had ~50 words in my dictionary defined like RAED/O*UT.

-Finally went into my pre/suf table and deleted all the StenoMaster stuff I don't actually use - the integrated -able, -en, -ful, -ive, -ize, -ment, -ness, dis-, and -ly. Hopefully that will result in TM suggesting fewer of those, although I've already got so many defined it's kind of a mess.

-Deleted 300 entries I made using "DZ" for "-ing."

-Fixed problematic word endings with -lick, -rat, -line, -rid, -rig, -man/-men, -woman/-women, -ard, -son, and -gan.

-Updated my "ego-" to AOEG.

-Updated "TAIR" to "TA*IR" in 100 words.

-Decided to do LAM/NAIT, etc. and NA*IT for Nate; COMP/KAIT, etc., and KA*IT for Kate

-Finally got around to changing all 113 of my leftover "nk" words from "*NG" to "FRNG"

I came up with a couple more things to fix after I did that. I also just started defining conflicts. I think I've stayed away from them all this time because I didn't want to take the time to sit down and train the AI. But I defined one, and it picked up on it almost immediately, so I thought, what better time to work out the kinks than when no one can see them?

10.16

     I'm trying out something new with the Report-It: focusing on my wrists. Trying to make them straight instead of tilted down. So far I can either get into a position where my shoulders/arms are comfortable, or I can get into one where I can actually stroke the keys, but not both at the same time. Someday.

     I got all of my drill speeds up to 120, and my average drill speed is now 140. I also spent about two and a half hours going through my dictionary and deleting all the briefs for phrases that I didn't even know were in there, because I never learned them. They just came pre-loaded on the StenEd dictionary. I wound up deleting 2400 (or actually, moving them out of my dictionary into their own dictionary, since I'm trying to remember not to actually "delete" anything anymore).

     While I was doing that, I discovered some more things that could have been word boundary problems. I found some phrases like "bill folded" that made me wonder if BIL/FOELD was defined as "billfold," and, in fact, it was. I wound up fixing issues with -fold, -rest, -watch, and -end. I also realized I was using the same stroke for fer- and -fer, and in fixing that I also fixed -vent and -tile. I'm trying to remember to asterisk any word ending that's also a word on its own.

     My next big project is to go through all the entries in my dictionary that have B and/or P in them and add inflected endings to the verbs. Eclipse 5 has the awsome feature of automatically translating your integral prefixes and stuffixes, which is great except in the case of N. NG and ND cause way too many conflicts, so I don't want them to be automatically translated, which means I can't have BG/BD or PG/PD in the table, either, and I'll have to manually enter all of those.

     I've got 45k entries with B in them, and I only knocked out 4500 in my first go at it today, so I'm not going to be moving on anytime soon.

Report-It Fail

     No real progress to report on the speedbuilding, although I was writing at 260 at one point yesterday.  My accuracy has also been pretty good so far; I just wish I could write the minute without any drops with that accuracy, and then I’d be set.  I realized that I hadn’t finished setting up my capital typing alphabet, so I did that today, and I also edited my integral prefix and suffix table.  Trying to incorporate endings in words that end in R, N, or L causes way too many conflicts, so I’ve decided it’s better not to do it at all, and I fixed my table to stop suggesting -ing and -ed for those.  I’ll have to go back sometime and delete all the entries I’ve already made that include endings for those, too. I also need to go back and add an alphabet that attaches single letters to the last word.

     One thing that’s kind of frustrating about the Phoenix drill book is all the words that are mixed in to help with transitions.   I think that’s a great idea, and an important thing to work on, but it seems like those are the words that always throw me off, because they’re words that I have trouble with to begin with. "Merge" and "starve" are in with the words that end in -rt.  I don’t really have a problem with -rt, but then I have to record a low speed because something like merge or starve tripped me up.  Doing the drills is good for focus, though.  It’s so hard to pay attention to them and not let my mind drift, especially to think about how I just got a word, or how I barely just got a word.  Of course, that’s the kind of thing you have to be constantly trying not to do in regular writing, too.

     I had no idea I would have such a hard time writing mammogram.  I have 17 entries for it in my dictionary because I misstroke it so many different ways.
     I ordered a Report-It a while ago, and it came today.  I just spent about an hour and a half messing with it.  I tried the method outlined in the manual first, which is to position yourself properly for posture and align the Report-It and your machine accordingly.  That didn't work, so I tried sitting like I usually do and getting the Report-It under my arms, and that didn't feel good, either.  I just felt really restricted, and I couldn't get in a spot where my arms were comfortable and I could reach the keys at the same time.
     So, now I have the option of either keeping the thing for $160, or sending it back for $40.

5.15

     I got my minute today!  I practiced writing it for about half an hour, and then on the very last runthrough before I was going to take a break, I decided to loosen up a little and not be so strict about accuracy, and I got it at 250 wpm (at the end, anyway) and 96% accuracy!  It took me exactly a week, which isn’t bad at all.  I think it was easier material than the rest of the piece has been, though.

     I realized that I really like writing to a metronome.  It’s almost calming, knowing that everything is going to happen at exactly the same speed.  I also like how there’s not really any pressure, at least not right now when I’m just seeing what my top speed is on all the exercises.  Yesterday my average speed actually went up from 125 to 129, but today it went back down to 127.  I had to record something at 75 wpm, which is insanely slow.  It had to do with PL-, which I’m apparently very bad at. “Fruit” was thrown in, too, though, and I guess all of those PL- words with an FR- word in the middle really threw me off. I think I have problems with F- in general.

     The Phoenix book talks about how important keyboard position is, so you’re able to reach all the keys easily.  I decided to try lowering my machine a bit.  I use the plastic case it came in as a lap desk, so to lower it, I opened the case and started writing on just the thicker half.  It looks weird and I don’t know if I could do it if I had a desk in front of my legs, but it seems to feel a lot better.  I should probably buy a real lap desk, but I like the idea of not having to bring it with me or spend money on it.

     I think the new position has helped, though, because ever since I got the LS, I’ve had to actually put my fingers on the home row to figure out where the machine is every time I take my hands off it, which I never had to do with the SRT. I had to define 150 null strokes because I would of course never hit the home row, but it would still help me know where I was.  I created my last one on the 6^th.  I can’t really be sure if I’m using the null strokes less, but it seems like I am.

     I don’t know if it was inspired by the Phoenix book or not, but I also decided to file my nails extremely short.  I always kept them short to help me write, but I was never truly writing with my fingertips like you’re supposed to.  I filed them down yesterday after my practice, as low as I could go without hurting myself.  They look really pathetic now and it’s actually rather depressing.  I like writing with them short, though.  It feels like being barefoot.  I can feel the keys a lot better.  I’d like to say that’s why I got my minute today, but I don’t think that was it.  I’ve been feeling more confident about it for the past couple of days, and I think I was successful in focusing on being slow and accurate with this minute.

     I started incorporating endings into my root words about nine months ago.  I went crazy with it and added everything you could.  It turns out that it wasn’t quicker for me to write that way, at least not right now, so I’ve backed off of some of it.  I added -L as an option for –l and –ly, but it created this problem where it would suggest it for both things on the same word, and I just now got around to taking it out of the integral prefixes and suffixes option.  I went ahead and added it as an option with an asterisk, although sometimes I do write it without one, like SLOEL for slowly.  I always get things like that popping up as suggestions, and I’ve started declining them when I think I won’t use them, to leave them open for Translation Magic to do something else with.  I wonder if I should just take them out of the table altogether?

     I found out yesterday that all the spots for the Caption Masters program in July are full.  I was going to re-test at some point before July, and I checked the status every day, and it magically went from three seats open to none, so I guess they weren’t updating it, because I doubt all three filled up in the same day.  That kind of pulled the rug out from under me, but maybe I can change the way I practice on my own.  I want to get a copy of the VITAC book because it deals with how to change your writing and your dictionary to get ready for realtime, and that’s definitely something I’ve been trying to work on (and struggling with) recently.  The only problem is you can’t buy the book anywhere!