Somehow
I seem to have more time now that the semester has started, even though
I'm working the same or slightly more hours than during the summer. I
think it's because during the summer I was taking 3-5 events a day,
whereas now I typically have 2-4. It doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is. I have to sit down at least 15 minutes early for every event, or 20 for captioning.
I
set a rate for myself that I don't want to go below, at least during
the semester when there's so much work. It's really hard turning down
work for less, but I'll never have 100% work at what I'm worth if I keep
taking jobs for less.
I
feel like my skills are pretty good at this point. My tran rate is
usually 99.97%, although it's frequently higher (and I have to admit,
sometimes lower, but not by much). I almost hardly ever see any mistakes
going out. It's really hard to write with the pain and how I keep
changing the machine position around; I'm always trying to find my
footing. But I think the quality of my work is good. One of my students
told me I'm "one of the best," so that was nice to hear.
That's
for CART; captioning is another story. I still feel like I'm drowning
sometimes when I'm captioning. My average wpm is consistently at 200-215,
though (it actually hit 314 one time, and it wasn't lagging, and I wasn't doing speaker IDs or anything that would erroneously count as a lot of "entries"; and it reaches 270 at least once a broadcast), and I've even gotten up to 3700 words on a 35-minute broadcast,
so at least in terms of speed and "not dropping" I'm doing well.
I see
more mistakes go out than I'd like, but I know it still looks good. I'm
always pretty confident about the weather, if nothing else. It's tough
making it past that first 10 minutes of actual news stories, though.
Depending on the station, they like to speed through a ton of different
stories as fast as they can during that time.
Showing posts with label Progression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Progression. Show all posts
180
I really like doing CART. It's great not having to work weird hours like I would have to for captioning. And lots of times I wind up not having to actually do anything and I still get paid, which would never happen with captioning. Something's always going to be on the air, whether it's what you did prep for or not. The only bad part is that the audio isn't always that great. But I can only work with what I've got, and so far I don't think I've missed writing anything vital because of it.
I'm always more surprised by what's in my dictionary properly than by what isn't. "Hieroglyphics" came out perfectly the other day, and I already had "Micah" in there. Who knew? I have a bunch of math symbols in, like +, -, etc., and I've even got superscript set up. Auto Brief comes in handy a lot. In one of my classes, the instructor kept saying "prepositional phrase," which I write as PREP/SIGS/NAL/FRAIS, or PREP/SILGS/FRAIS if I'm feeling really confident. Auto Brief suggested "PRO*EP," which was a whole lot easier, and I wound up using that brief 30 times just for that one session.
My arm being messed up has really slowed down my progress on the Phoenix speed drills. It's just impossible to try to build speed with any kind of accuracy at this point. But I keep plugging along anyway, and sometimes I have good days with it. I finally hit a major milestone: I've got a speed of 180 wpm or better on every drill, and my average speed is 185 wpm now. Maybe that means I can finally pass the CBC/CCP this time. I'm not going to a concert the night before specifically so I won't have any regrets about it after the test, so it had better be worth it.
I've been getting some good dictionary maintenance in. I spent a couple hours on it one day, and added 956 entries. Per is P*ER because PER is per-, so I made sure all 253 -per entries were defined with P*R. I decided VAL should be Val, so I defined 84 -val entries as VA*L. I do -in and -en both as -N, so I made sure 993 -in entries and 1524 -en will work. And I guess there was something wrong with -eous words, because they were on the list, so I wrote all 126 of those.
I'm always more surprised by what's in my dictionary properly than by what isn't. "Hieroglyphics" came out perfectly the other day, and I already had "Micah" in there. Who knew? I have a bunch of math symbols in, like +, -, etc., and I've even got superscript set up. Auto Brief comes in handy a lot. In one of my classes, the instructor kept saying "prepositional phrase," which I write as PREP/SIGS/NAL/FRAIS, or PREP/SILGS/FRAIS if I'm feeling really confident. Auto Brief suggested "PRO*EP," which was a whole lot easier, and I wound up using that brief 30 times just for that one session.
My arm being messed up has really slowed down my progress on the Phoenix speed drills. It's just impossible to try to build speed with any kind of accuracy at this point. But I keep plugging along anyway, and sometimes I have good days with it. I finally hit a major milestone: I've got a speed of 180 wpm or better on every drill, and my average speed is 185 wpm now. Maybe that means I can finally pass the CBC/CCP this time. I'm not going to a concert the night before specifically so I won't have any regrets about it after the test, so it had better be worth it.
I've been getting some good dictionary maintenance in. I spent a couple hours on it one day, and added 956 entries. Per is P*ER because PER is per-, so I made sure all 253 -per entries were defined with P*R. I decided VAL should be Val, so I defined 84 -val entries as VA*L. I do -in and -en both as -N, so I made sure 993 -in entries and 1524 -en will work. And I guess there was something wrong with -eous words, because they were on the list, so I wrote all 126 of those.
7.28.13
I struck out at the EMG test, which I guess was a good thing. The neurologist doesn't think it's carpal tunnel or a pinched nerve. He said he'd "think about it" and I should wear the wrist brace at night for three weeks and then come back and see if he came up with any new ideas. I don't think I'm going to pay to make that happen. I scheduled a PT appointment for this week, so we'll see how that goes. The neurologist also wrote me a prescription to try Topamax, but I haven't gotten it filled yet.
I've been having a good streak where I remember things that have given me trouble in the past, like TS and DZ, and remember to write them out in two strokes during realtime practice. I'm doing the same thing with words that are conflicts the "normal" way I would think to write them; nothing as simple as plague/playing, but that's the idea. I just have a general feeling that I shouldn't write it the easy way. I don't remember why right then, but it pays off. Before I would just kind of be stubborn about it and write it the easy way anyway, and then have to scramble to try to fix it.
I've had a small epiphany (can that be a thing?) about numbers, too, and I'm writing them one at a time more instead of garbling them. 12 is *really* difficult for me to write with my hand the way it is, and I realized I can just write it in two strokes, with much less chance of misstroking it.
I got Pyongyang right twice during practice today (without getting it wrong, to boot). I write it out a long way: PAOE/YONG/YANG. It's hard to start. It's almost like I want to bolt whenever I have to write it. But it's not so bad once I actually do it. I also fingerspelled a lot of names in practice today; some I knew right away weren't in there and fingerspelled the whole thing, like Lindy Boggs. Others I tried to do first (Pedro Vargas) and wound up fingerspelling them after they didn't come out right. I always do a thing where I think "I have -da defined, so I can just write Brunda, that'll come out fine."
My writing is really stilted with my hand being messed up, though. I wind up with a lot of dashes in the transcript that aren't preceeded by any mistakes. I just get lost and things start to feel wrong and I might hit one wrong letter and erase it, and then dash. At least I can pull it together and do it without dropping anything. Sometimes I don't catch the mistakes, though, and I wind up just hitting an S before writing SRAR, or hitting an N after writing something with N in it. I've got an average of 98.56% accuracy for my last five practice shows, though, so I'm keeping it together pretty well.
Words that end in -nal weren't coming out right, even though I don't think I've changed anything from theory (I just do NAL), so I re-wrote all 472 of those. I also wanted to start doing -tary with an asterisk to avoid any conflicts with tear, so I fixed 145 of those entries.
I've been having a good streak where I remember things that have given me trouble in the past, like TS and DZ, and remember to write them out in two strokes during realtime practice. I'm doing the same thing with words that are conflicts the "normal" way I would think to write them; nothing as simple as plague/playing, but that's the idea. I just have a general feeling that I shouldn't write it the easy way. I don't remember why right then, but it pays off. Before I would just kind of be stubborn about it and write it the easy way anyway, and then have to scramble to try to fix it.
I've had a small epiphany (can that be a thing?) about numbers, too, and I'm writing them one at a time more instead of garbling them. 12 is *really* difficult for me to write with my hand the way it is, and I realized I can just write it in two strokes, with much less chance of misstroking it.
I got Pyongyang right twice during practice today (without getting it wrong, to boot). I write it out a long way: PAOE/YONG/YANG. It's hard to start. It's almost like I want to bolt whenever I have to write it. But it's not so bad once I actually do it. I also fingerspelled a lot of names in practice today; some I knew right away weren't in there and fingerspelled the whole thing, like Lindy Boggs. Others I tried to do first (Pedro Vargas) and wound up fingerspelling them after they didn't come out right. I always do a thing where I think "I have -da defined, so I can just write Brunda, that'll come out fine."
My writing is really stilted with my hand being messed up, though. I wind up with a lot of dashes in the transcript that aren't preceeded by any mistakes. I just get lost and things start to feel wrong and I might hit one wrong letter and erase it, and then dash. At least I can pull it together and do it without dropping anything. Sometimes I don't catch the mistakes, though, and I wind up just hitting an S before writing SRAR, or hitting an N after writing something with N in it. I've got an average of 98.56% accuracy for my last five practice shows, though, so I'm keeping it together pretty well.
Words that end in -nal weren't coming out right, even though I don't think I've changed anything from theory (I just do NAL), so I re-wrote all 472 of those. I also wanted to start doing -tary with an asterisk to avoid any conflicts with tear, so I fixed 145 of those entries.
7.21.13
I did wind up calling the doctor about my arm, because it was really starting to be a problem. I got the runaround for a few days, and then they suggested I stop taking gabapentin and try Elavil. The first day I tried it was a disaster; the pain was so bad I went back to gabapentin right away. But after a week of that I was right back where I started before I took anything at all, and I decided to give the Elavil another shot.
Today was my fourth day taking it. Saturdays are usually my day off steno practice, so that could have something to do with it, but it finally felt a *little* bit better today during practice. I go in for the EMG test on Thursday, and find out the results the Monday after that, so I've got another week of painful practice at the least.
My accuracy was consistently above 98.5 for about five shows, but then the pain started getting worse. Friday it was at 97.5, and today was good but I had a drop that invalidated the results. I don't count shows with drops in my averages. There always seems to come a point during anything I'm writing where I get overwhelmed, and I feel like I can't do it, and I want to give up. I usually wind up dropping a sentence, or half a sentence, during that time, but I'm working to push through it and just keep going instead.
I'm still struggling to catch onto the benefit of fingerspelling instead of just blindly stroking things out. It elimates having to think about the words, it's faster, and it's more accurate, but it's hard to train myself to do. I did get "Laudenberg" out perfectly just stroking it out the other day, so that was cool. But it's the exception, not the rule. I also wrote "helicopters" has "helihopters" and TM tanslated that as "hell hospitallers," which I found amusing.
The longer I go without going through my theory book, the more muddled my theory becomes. I find myself just blindly stroking things and hoping they come out right instead of remembering what I'm actually supposed to be stroking. I realized three of the briefs on my practice list were so hard to write because I was writing them incorrectly.
Today was my fourth day taking it. Saturdays are usually my day off steno practice, so that could have something to do with it, but it finally felt a *little* bit better today during practice. I go in for the EMG test on Thursday, and find out the results the Monday after that, so I've got another week of painful practice at the least.
My accuracy was consistently above 98.5 for about five shows, but then the pain started getting worse. Friday it was at 97.5, and today was good but I had a drop that invalidated the results. I don't count shows with drops in my averages. There always seems to come a point during anything I'm writing where I get overwhelmed, and I feel like I can't do it, and I want to give up. I usually wind up dropping a sentence, or half a sentence, during that time, but I'm working to push through it and just keep going instead.
I'm still struggling to catch onto the benefit of fingerspelling instead of just blindly stroking things out. It elimates having to think about the words, it's faster, and it's more accurate, but it's hard to train myself to do. I did get "Laudenberg" out perfectly just stroking it out the other day, so that was cool. But it's the exception, not the rule. I also wrote "helicopters" has "helihopters" and TM tanslated that as "hell hospitallers," which I found amusing.
The longer I go without going through my theory book, the more muddled my theory becomes. I find myself just blindly stroking things and hoping they come out right instead of remembering what I'm actually supposed to be stroking. I realized three of the briefs on my practice list were so hard to write because I was writing them incorrectly.
I had NALGS for national, which should've just been NARBL (NASHL). Nation is NAGS or NAIGS, but that doesn't really translate to national. I was trying to smush RB (PRAOERBGS) into "appreciation," I guess because it has a similar sound to precious, gracious, etc. which I write as RBS. It's not necessary, though, and it's a lot easier to just write PRAOEGS than worry about what fingers are supposed to be where on that bank. And I was also doing deposit as SDPOZ because of words like disappoint, destroy, etc. which start with SD. It's not necessary at all, though. DPOZ works just fine. It's a good thing I review takes and make note of things that are hard to write; sometimes they're only hard because I've been trying to write them incorrectly.
I decided I should write all consonant + ize endings with an asterisk, which the AI couldn't figure out at all, so I went through and re-wrote all 720 entries that end in -ize, consonant + or not. I also decided there was no reason not to end words in -IT, so I updated 488 of those entries; and I made sure all 161 -ca entries work properly with C*A.
7.6.13
I have a real problem with joined words like northward and
checkpoint. My brain just can't process fast enough that they're
supposed to be two words. All I have to do is write "ward" with an
asterisk and it will join with "north" no problem, but I just don't even
think about it. And then I have weird things where I think maybe it
should be "safe-guard" and I write it that way. I know it's safeguard,
but in the moment of trying to keep up with so many things, that's just
what happens. Every time I make either mistake, I add the word to my
practice list, so hopefully that'll start having an impact soon.
I'm also starting to have a problem with AOE words that are spelled "ea" or "ae," like sear, fear, etc. My tendency is to write them as AE, and then about 90% of the time they come up as something totally wrong. I guess there are a few words that I have to write AE, and it's just all gotten muddled together, to where I write AE by default. I've been focusing on that though, and I think it's starting to get better.
I'm getting better at writing traffic segments. They used to be a nightmare! All those numbers of highways; 405, 520, I-5, you name it, it was a problem. But I'm settling down more and not trying to write every single thing the traffic guy says, and I'm getting a lot more comfortable with it.
I found out the hard way that koi wasn't in my dictionary. But now I have "fish-cicles" in there, just in case that ever comes up again. I wrote pivot as PIV/VOT, thinking it was perfectly natural, and it came out totally wrong. I think I only had it defined as PIVT. Don't worry about it, I thought, there can't be that many words that end in "vot," I'm sure it's fine. Then the very next day I wrote DIV/VOT and it didn't come out right. Just goes to show no matter how small the problem is, you can't ever ignore it. So I checked to see what other words I needed to fix..and that was it. Just divot and pivot, nothing else in there.
"-age" words weren't coming out right when I wrote them as -AJ, so I went through and re-wrote all 652 of them to make sure they'd work. I also had a problem with normal words like "automatic" not working right when I used my theory-standard prefix for "auto-," which is AUT, so I re-wrote all 120 of those, both as AUT and AUT/TO. Sometimes I'll write words like "waxy" as WAK/SI and sometimes I do WAX/SI, so I fixed all 32 of those to work both ways, too.
I'm also starting to have a problem with AOE words that are spelled "ea" or "ae," like sear, fear, etc. My tendency is to write them as AE, and then about 90% of the time they come up as something totally wrong. I guess there are a few words that I have to write AE, and it's just all gotten muddled together, to where I write AE by default. I've been focusing on that though, and I think it's starting to get better.
I'm getting better at writing traffic segments. They used to be a nightmare! All those numbers of highways; 405, 520, I-5, you name it, it was a problem. But I'm settling down more and not trying to write every single thing the traffic guy says, and I'm getting a lot more comfortable with it.
I found out the hard way that koi wasn't in my dictionary. But now I have "fish-cicles" in there, just in case that ever comes up again. I wrote pivot as PIV/VOT, thinking it was perfectly natural, and it came out totally wrong. I think I only had it defined as PIVT. Don't worry about it, I thought, there can't be that many words that end in "vot," I'm sure it's fine. Then the very next day I wrote DIV/VOT and it didn't come out right. Just goes to show no matter how small the problem is, you can't ever ignore it. So I checked to see what other words I needed to fix..and that was it. Just divot and pivot, nothing else in there.
"-age" words weren't coming out right when I wrote them as -AJ, so I went through and re-wrote all 652 of them to make sure they'd work. I also had a problem with normal words like "automatic" not working right when I used my theory-standard prefix for "auto-," which is AUT, so I re-wrote all 120 of those, both as AUT and AUT/TO. Sometimes I'll write words like "waxy" as WAK/SI and sometimes I do WAX/SI, so I fixed all 32 of those to work both ways, too.
Back in the Saddle
It was really weird coming back to steno after not doing it for two
weeks. I haven't taken a break that long..probably since I started, four
and a half years ago. I didn't hate it as much anymore. I felt grateful
to be able to even do it again. It's still really hard to get my
positioning right. I never really feel like my hands are in the right
spot. It's kind of like when you type on someone else's QWERTY keyboard.
Your fingers aren't quite sure where to go for a while. Except when I
do steno, I never seem to find my groove. So frustrating.
And yet my translation rate is still pretty solid. I've practiced to six news shows so far since I came back, and my average is 98.2%. It's not where I'd like it to be, but it's not bad. I seem to be doing really well at correcting my mistakes appropriately, for some reason. I think maybe I care a little less about it, so it doesn't freak me out so much when I make a mistake. I'm able to stay calm, keep listening to what's being said, and fix the mistake without losing content.
It's hard to get back into the groove of fingerspelling. It's hard enough not to just freeze up when I hear a name, or glaze over it like it wasn't even said. I have to force myself to even phonetically write what I heard. But that's not helpful; then a bunch of weird stuff just comes out. I need to focus on fingerspelling those words. I'm trying, but it's definitely a work in progress. I think there's about a 50/50 chance right now that I'll fingerspell it.
It's just so hard to write anything right now. It's like pulling teeth. I feel like my max speed is about 130 wpm. I'm still hitting 250 when I practice though, so there are moments when it's not so bad. Overall, I think it was good for me to take a break. I didn't like it; I felt like a slacker. But it's good to just let things set and jell, and be away from it for a while.
And yet my translation rate is still pretty solid. I've practiced to six news shows so far since I came back, and my average is 98.2%. It's not where I'd like it to be, but it's not bad. I seem to be doing really well at correcting my mistakes appropriately, for some reason. I think maybe I care a little less about it, so it doesn't freak me out so much when I make a mistake. I'm able to stay calm, keep listening to what's being said, and fix the mistake without losing content.
It's hard to get back into the groove of fingerspelling. It's hard enough not to just freeze up when I hear a name, or glaze over it like it wasn't even said. I have to force myself to even phonetically write what I heard. But that's not helpful; then a bunch of weird stuff just comes out. I need to focus on fingerspelling those words. I'm trying, but it's definitely a work in progress. I think there's about a 50/50 chance right now that I'll fingerspell it.
It's just so hard to write anything right now. It's like pulling teeth. I feel like my max speed is about 130 wpm. I'm still hitting 250 when I practice though, so there are moments when it's not so bad. Overall, I think it was good for me to take a break. I didn't like it; I felt like a slacker. But it's good to just let things set and jell, and be away from it for a while.
4.20.13
I have had a couple of minor successes. I seem to be writing faster when I "talk to myself" during practice. It used to be always around 150, but now it's consistently getting up to 214. Maybe that's a sign of a faster writing mentality overall. I'm also getting better at realizing that a word probably isn't in my dictionary - or at least not the way that first comes to mind to write it - and fingerspelling it on the fly. I did a great job getting Adriatic and panacea like that the other day, without skipping a beat.
I also had the brilliant idea to start defining things that I often immediately dash, like cruise for crews. Crews is supposed to have an asterisk, and lots of times I'll remember that - right after I stroke cruise. So I defined "cruise -- crews" as "crews." I've done that with about 40 entries now. It hasn't actually helped yet, but it should in theory. According to the dictionary, the only stroke like that I've ever actually used is H-F D-RB, which would be me stroking a hyphen followed by a dash, which I wanted to translate as only a dash. Since creating it a month ago, I've used it 14 times. Apparently I write "hyphen dash" a lot.
I'm also trying to fix a problem where I'll write something, know or hear that a new speaker is coming up, stroke the >>, and then read that something in the previous speaker didn't translate properly. I have time to fix it, but not time to delete the >> and fix it, and without thinking, I just dash and fix it. It's weird, though. The new speaker isn't saying the correction. I have to just let it go. I'm past the point where it makes sense to fix it. So, what I'm trying to do is wait until everything tranlates out before I stroke the >>. I'm not having much success with that yet.
I finished all my -ia corrections, and now I'm working on 1086 entries that end in "i." I put most of these things on my list so long ago I don't remember exactly what was wrong with them anymore. Back in my "defining suffixes" days, I defined all the "-i"s as consonant + I + *P, so -ni is N*IP. I was really only intending to use it for name-building, but I use it for pretty much everything now. Unfortunately, nothing is defined that way, so it creates a lot of problems.
Proficient
I tested out my skills on QVC and The Weather Channel, and I did
great. I even got above 99% on the weather. I did those two, plus three
national news broadcasts and four local ones. My lowest rate was 98.1%,
and when I averaged them all together, it came out at 98.55%. So, obviously, I don't always hit 98.5% accuracy, but 98% is the minimum to get hired at some companies, at least. And if I could get a gig captioning something like QVC or the weather, I'd be set.
I decided to start out checking back in with the company I shadowed classes for in November. They said my notes looked good, so I got all set up with them. I bought the professional version of Eclipse, since I'll be using it for profit now. I didn't need to get the AccuCap portion, so that was $3,000 off the price, but I'm sure I'll wind up getting it sooner or later. Since it's the middle of the semester, the only CART work they've got is basically just filling in during emergencies. I was hoping I'd get more experience than that, but I guess it's only logical.
I still hate doing "homework." It's such a drag practicing for two hours every day, first thing in the morning. I would feel bad if I didn't do it, though. Lazy. And it's not like I'm doing anything else all that important or interesting. I was so disappointed the first time I failed the CBC, feeling like "now I have to go back to doing homework." For some reason I thought if I passed, I wouldn't have to do it anymore. I felt the same way to a certain degree when I was getting set up with this company. I had planned to keep up with the reinforcement/speed drills/dictionary maintenance, but at least I'd get paid for the "realtime practice" part, instead of doing the news for no one every day.
But the reality is, I don't think I'm anywhere near "perfect" at this yet (and I suppose no one ever is). As long as there are words that are difficult for me to write (which will probably be forever), I have to carve out time every day to practice them. Until I can do all the drills at at least 225, I have to keep doing them. And until there's nothing in my dictionary that's incongruent with how I'm writing it, I have to keep fixing things. No matter where I get hired, for how many hours, the "homework" isn't going away. That doesn't make it any easier to keep doing, unfortunately.
I decided to start out checking back in with the company I shadowed classes for in November. They said my notes looked good, so I got all set up with them. I bought the professional version of Eclipse, since I'll be using it for profit now. I didn't need to get the AccuCap portion, so that was $3,000 off the price, but I'm sure I'll wind up getting it sooner or later. Since it's the middle of the semester, the only CART work they've got is basically just filling in during emergencies. I was hoping I'd get more experience than that, but I guess it's only logical.
I still hate doing "homework." It's such a drag practicing for two hours every day, first thing in the morning. I would feel bad if I didn't do it, though. Lazy. And it's not like I'm doing anything else all that important or interesting. I was so disappointed the first time I failed the CBC, feeling like "now I have to go back to doing homework." For some reason I thought if I passed, I wouldn't have to do it anymore. I felt the same way to a certain degree when I was getting set up with this company. I had planned to keep up with the reinforcement/speed drills/dictionary maintenance, but at least I'd get paid for the "realtime practice" part, instead of doing the news for no one every day.
But the reality is, I don't think I'm anywhere near "perfect" at this yet (and I suppose no one ever is). As long as there are words that are difficult for me to write (which will probably be forever), I have to carve out time every day to practice them. Until I can do all the drills at at least 225, I have to keep doing them. And until there's nothing in my dictionary that's incongruent with how I'm writing it, I have to keep fixing things. No matter where I get hired, for how many hours, the "homework" isn't going away. That doesn't make it any easier to keep doing, unfortunately.
3.16.13
I started using the plastic case my LS came in as a lapdesk for the LS when I write, which is awesome. It's great not having to take anything extra to balance it on. I still haven't quite gotten my sitting position down perfectly. I feel like I have to write at speed for about 10 minutes before I can get into the groove, no matter how much other practice I do beforehand.
I've got a new system for my "reinforcement" practice. 50 words, and about 20-30 sentences. I was working on writing fractions properly - "two-thirds" in general, 2.5 million, 2 1/2 bars, etc. I'd been always doing "2.5" because I got a little mixed up when I read the style guidelines once, so that was totally natural. It didn't take too long to get used to "two-thirds"-style, and then I started working on things like 2 1/2. Now that's my default, and I have to focus really hard on using the other two when it's appropriate. My system for writing the latter is to just do 2/*1/*2, which seems to be working so far.
I've still got some sentences I'm practicing with that. I'll be practicing "an" sentences forever. I am slowly starting to remember to write A*N during realtime practice, though. Right now I'm also working on "-nent" sentences; pertinent, imminent, etc. I have a tendency to write the ending as -NT, which is my "n't." I could (and do) define the words that way, but I feel like it's better to write them properly, which would be NENT.
I ran into a major roadblock in my project of re-defining groups of words. I had a few that just related to the way I started writing ending word parts a long time ago, to help with writing names on the fly. It's not really intended for use in words that aren't proper nouns, but now that I've learned to use it with proper nouns, I tend to use it with everything. So I went back and fixed 360 instances of consonant +-ie (+ AO*IP), 515 of + ey (+ AO*EP), and 392 of -ee (AO*EP).
Then I ran into "-ive." I had 1544 "-ive" entries in my dictionary. The problem is, at best, I've got three ways to write those words. Take "combatative." I could write it COM/BAT/TIVE, COM/BAT/IVE, or COM/BA*FT. None of those are incorrect. For every word that's in there, I wind up writing it 3-6 different ways, and it's only actually in my dictionary one or two of those ways. Terrible. So I've been working on those for a while, and the other issues I've identified are piling up like mad. But I think I'm getting close to the end on those, finally.
I'm starting to regularly hit 250 wpm when I do realtime practice, which is awesome. I'm getting a pretty good feel for when/how to fix something, and when to let it go. Just not freaking out/freezing up when I make a mistake is a huge factor, and something I'm working on. I think my two biggest hurdles are still fingerspelling names, and not getting tripped up. I still have instances where I focus so much on one thing that's not working, that I lose what they're saying for about a sentence.
I've got a new system for my "reinforcement" practice. 50 words, and about 20-30 sentences. I was working on writing fractions properly - "two-thirds" in general, 2.5 million, 2 1/2 bars, etc. I'd been always doing "2.5" because I got a little mixed up when I read the style guidelines once, so that was totally natural. It didn't take too long to get used to "two-thirds"-style, and then I started working on things like 2 1/2. Now that's my default, and I have to focus really hard on using the other two when it's appropriate. My system for writing the latter is to just do 2/*1/*2, which seems to be working so far.
I've still got some sentences I'm practicing with that. I'll be practicing "an" sentences forever. I am slowly starting to remember to write A*N during realtime practice, though. Right now I'm also working on "-nent" sentences; pertinent, imminent, etc. I have a tendency to write the ending as -NT, which is my "n't." I could (and do) define the words that way, but I feel like it's better to write them properly, which would be NENT.
I ran into a major roadblock in my project of re-defining groups of words. I had a few that just related to the way I started writing ending word parts a long time ago, to help with writing names on the fly. It's not really intended for use in words that aren't proper nouns, but now that I've learned to use it with proper nouns, I tend to use it with everything. So I went back and fixed 360 instances of consonant +-ie (+ AO*IP), 515 of + ey (+ AO*EP), and 392 of -ee (AO*EP).
Then I ran into "-ive." I had 1544 "-ive" entries in my dictionary. The problem is, at best, I've got three ways to write those words. Take "combatative." I could write it COM/BAT/TIVE, COM/BAT/IVE, or COM/BA*FT. None of those are incorrect. For every word that's in there, I wind up writing it 3-6 different ways, and it's only actually in my dictionary one or two of those ways. Terrible. So I've been working on those for a while, and the other issues I've identified are piling up like mad. But I think I'm getting close to the end on those, finally.
I'm starting to regularly hit 250 wpm when I do realtime practice, which is awesome. I'm getting a pretty good feel for when/how to fix something, and when to let it go. Just not freaking out/freezing up when I make a mistake is a huge factor, and something I'm working on. I think my two biggest hurdles are still fingerspelling names, and not getting tripped up. I still have instances where I focus so much on one thing that's not working, that I lose what they're saying for about a sentence.
CBC Strike Two
I did much better this time. I still didn't pass, but I think I improved my score by leaps and bounds. I'm estimating about a 94%, which is a lot better than the 85% I got last time.
Last time, even though I arrived almost an hour early, I was the last one in the room. This time, I got there first, even before the chief examiner. It was nice to be able to set up without anyone else there. I still had to leave my seat about halfway through my warmup to check in. I managed to stay fairly calm while I was warming up, but it was really distracting that the examiner started playing some practice takes to "test the audio system."
She started playing the audio, and then left the room. It seemed to go on forever. I didn't want to listen to it! When she got back, she asked if we wanted to practice to that or our own material. I said I'd prefer our own material, so she didn't play anything else...until a little while later, when she asked again, and unfortunately someone said they wanted to hear it.
I was just about to start my own speedbuilding practice for the first time that session. I think it was about 8:10. I figured the best strategy for me would be to start with the non-audio stuff I do at home before I start speedbuilding practice, and then do a nice easy speedbuilding take that I already had the hang of to calm me down and get me in the groove of "getting" it.
So when the examiner started playing a different audio, I was less than thrilled. I turned up the volume loud enough that I could hear my own audio over what was coming out of the overhead speakers, and then took my earbuds out to make sure I wouldn't be bothering anyone else. It was distracting writing that way, to say the least.
Finally both sets of audio ended, and the examiner said they'd be doing the CRR first, again. I didn't listen to the recorded instructions because I thought they'd be played again before the CBC/CCP. Then I had to sit for 7 minutes and listen to the CRR practice and exam. It seemed way too fast. I didn't want to write it, get all tripped up, and have that be my mindset going into the CBC.
I also didn't want to sit there and do nothing for 7 minutes when I was all warmed up and ready to go. I wound up doing a little of both; not writing for most of the time, but jumping in once or twice to slowly see if I could get anything. Being Q&A, it wasn't geared toward what I'd been practicing at all, so it was hard not to stumble over the material.
Eventually it ended, and the examiner asked if it was okay if she didn't re-play the instructions. Ugh. Hope I didn't miss anything important. I did okay for a while once the CBC started, but I think I lost it a minute or two in. I just wasn't able to relax and write my best. I didn't "drop" any words this time, so much as I just couldn't exactly remember what the speaker said anymore by the time I was ready to write it, so I just kind of made something up that made sense. It's so much easier to write things when they don't have to be verbatim!
Last time, even though I arrived almost an hour early, I was the last one in the room. This time, I got there first, even before the chief examiner. It was nice to be able to set up without anyone else there. I still had to leave my seat about halfway through my warmup to check in. I managed to stay fairly calm while I was warming up, but it was really distracting that the examiner started playing some practice takes to "test the audio system."
She started playing the audio, and then left the room. It seemed to go on forever. I didn't want to listen to it! When she got back, she asked if we wanted to practice to that or our own material. I said I'd prefer our own material, so she didn't play anything else...until a little while later, when she asked again, and unfortunately someone said they wanted to hear it.
I was just about to start my own speedbuilding practice for the first time that session. I think it was about 8:10. I figured the best strategy for me would be to start with the non-audio stuff I do at home before I start speedbuilding practice, and then do a nice easy speedbuilding take that I already had the hang of to calm me down and get me in the groove of "getting" it.
So when the examiner started playing a different audio, I was less than thrilled. I turned up the volume loud enough that I could hear my own audio over what was coming out of the overhead speakers, and then took my earbuds out to make sure I wouldn't be bothering anyone else. It was distracting writing that way, to say the least.
Finally both sets of audio ended, and the examiner said they'd be doing the CRR first, again. I didn't listen to the recorded instructions because I thought they'd be played again before the CBC/CCP. Then I had to sit for 7 minutes and listen to the CRR practice and exam. It seemed way too fast. I didn't want to write it, get all tripped up, and have that be my mindset going into the CBC.
I also didn't want to sit there and do nothing for 7 minutes when I was all warmed up and ready to go. I wound up doing a little of both; not writing for most of the time, but jumping in once or twice to slowly see if I could get anything. Being Q&A, it wasn't geared toward what I'd been practicing at all, so it was hard not to stumble over the material.
Eventually it ended, and the examiner asked if it was okay if she didn't re-play the instructions. Ugh. Hope I didn't miss anything important. I did okay for a while once the CBC started, but I think I lost it a minute or two in. I just wasn't able to relax and write my best. I didn't "drop" any words this time, so much as I just couldn't exactly remember what the speaker said anymore by the time I was ready to write it, so I just kind of made something up that made sense. It's so much easier to write things when they don't have to be verbatim!
1.05.12
It's been a while since I updated. I'm still liking the tripod with my LS. I'd like to move away from it and go to a lapdesk at some point, but that's down the road when I've perfected my positioning. I think I'm making progress on that front, but it's definitely not dialed in yet. I've been working on my sitting posture, starting with getting comfortable in the legs and back, and adjusting everything else from there, on a daily basis. The past couple of days it's worked out pretty well.
I got probably about 3 minutes into my last piece, and then I was ready to try out a new strategy I've been planning to start for a while. I completely abandoned the speed "tapes." The VITAC book suggests recording national news and practicing to that, and that seems like a pretty solid strategy. I really need practice writing spontaneously, and it's great for practicing a variety of names and terms instead of the same ones for two months at a time.
The book suggests breaking the episode up into each individual story. First you listen to it in its entirity, and write down/practice any words you think might trip you up. I always come up with an alarming number of them, way more than I feel like I should have at this point. I've tweaked my theory so much though, I just don't have any of it in my muscle memory at all. Which is why I'm also going back through my theory book. That's something I've been trying to do for a long time, but I let myself get sidetracked with dictionary maintenance.
Speaking of which, I got a lot done there. I finished all of my P and B inflected endings, and did 2-3 other things that I don't remember anymore. I have yet more I need to do, but I'm going to try to do that during non-practice time.
After you run through the story without writing anything, you write the introduction alone until you've got it perfect, then the story, then the follow-up. It's awesome not having people blazing along at a constant 250 wpm anymore! I don't pick it up nearly as fast as I should; sometimes it takes me 2-3 hours just to get a 3 minute segment. But hopefully, you can't go wrong practicing at real speeds.
I'm up to at least 130 wpm on all of my Phoenix drills, with an average speed of 150. I've been using the drill book for 30 weeks so far. Only another 30 to go if I keep up at this rate..
For those of you following along, perhaps in your own dictionaries, here are the rest of the possible word-boundary errors I've fixed.
Final word parts:
light, ground, long, box, fish, hound, fight, shot, saw, bag, book, cuff, cap, string, sick, strong, break, sight, knife, pot, sake, proof, seed, spring, hood, cure, night, week, stop, pick, suit, shop, coat, drop, sack, paper, track, bite, lash, pipe, place, berry, play, lance, piece, field, spread, bug, bird, port, pit, beat, wood, weight, word, guard, bed
Instances that only affected one word:
heartthrob, hedgehog, henpeck, hitchhike, hoodwink, inkblot, ironclad, jackhammer, landlord, livestock, mankind, nightclub, paycheck, pinstripe, shoptalk, skyrocket, smokestack, spendthrift, sunroof, wisecrack, carefree, shipshape, sideswipe, switchblade, bedfellow, bellhop, jailbait, kidnap, netherworld, nosebleed, postpaid, postscript, snowplow, stopgap, teacup, wastebasket, watchdog, waterspout, wiretap, shopworn
I discovered that I was writing "fore-" and "fore" the same way (thanks StenEd), but I don't think I'm going to fix it. I also had a lot of problems with words that start with "up" (uphold, uphill, etc) and "air" (aircraft, airstrike, etc).
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