Some new briefs I've been using:
Bermuda = B*ERMD
classification = KLAFGS (thanks to Mirabai)
diagnostic = DAOIGT (one of the professors says this word constantly!)
San Diego = SA*EG
stereotype = STAO*IP
incumbent = KBAENT
affiliate = FA*ELT
I
always had a problem with -nic, like picnic. I just wrote it as "NIK"
and defined words that needed it, but then when I wrote "picnic" my
instinct would be to use N*IK or N*K, since NIK is already "nick." But
N*IK is Nick, and N*K is North Carolina, so I couldn't figure out what
stroke I should use for -nic. Finally yesterday I decided I had to come
up with a solution. South Carolina is SO*UK, so I made NO*UK North
Carolina, and now I can use N*K for -nic. I think that's going to be a
much better solution, assuming I can actually remember to do it (and
remember that North Carolina is NO*UK now, too).
A weird thing that happened was I changed my definition for tri- from {tri^} to {tri-^}, which would normally just have it put the hyphen in if it made a misspelled word with out it, but for some reason then I started getting "tri-angle," which was embarrassing. I defined that one as "triangle," and hopefully everything else will work properly.
I also had a crazy word come up, I think in a speech about equality: "transmogrification." Needless to say, that one was not in my dictionary yet.
Showing posts with label Dictionary Holes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dictionary Holes. Show all posts
Bits and Bobs
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.
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.
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.
Struggle
I wound up doing a lot of CART/captioning work for the first three weeks. I got to cover a lot of the floor sessions for a state House of Representatives, so that was really cool. Now that it's summer, though, there's basically nothing. I also learned that writing for hours at a time sucks. Even just going for an hour, I couldn't find a comfortable position.
I think there's definitely something wrong with my left arm. I've been trying all kinds of stuff, and it's driving me crazy. I can barely write it hurts so much. I went to a Relax the Back store and checked out some chairs. They were nice chairs, but they didn't help with the pain at all. I was able to pivot the armrests to pretty much anywhere I wanted, and using one just made it worse. So a good chair isn't going to solve the problem.
I found a nice adjustable chair for $13 at Goodwill, and it beats the folding chair with pillows I was using before, even though it's not terribly comfortable. The seat is actually short enough that I can use my tripod with it, so I've been trying that out. It's nice to be able to vary the height of the machine so easily, although it doesn't seem to be helping much with the pain.
I always feel like I'm really struggling when I write these days, and so many errors could be avoided if I could just get comfortable. I'm still practicing to the news, and I'm always surprised that my accuracy is still above 98%.
The whole thing is frustrating though, because it's really holding me back. I'm not ready to apply for more places until I have it figured out, and I'm so close to being able to make a living with this! I got a taste of it, and it was great, and now it sucks going back to low-paying ways of making money.
I've been working on "sub-" words, trying to get myself to remember that I want to write them as S*UB. My instinct is to put the asterisk in the attached word, but that usually doesn't work out very well. I actually wrote "subculture" properly during a job because of it, so that was a good moment.
I found out that "loon" wasn't in my dictionary at all. Crazy (no pun intended). I've been making good progress with the dictionary maintenance. 227 -ma entries corrected to MA*, 404 -ler as L*ER, 319 -gy which I guess I just needed to enter even though I haven't changed the way I write it, and the same for 2512 -ation. That last one was a project for a while.
I think there's definitely something wrong with my left arm. I've been trying all kinds of stuff, and it's driving me crazy. I can barely write it hurts so much. I went to a Relax the Back store and checked out some chairs. They were nice chairs, but they didn't help with the pain at all. I was able to pivot the armrests to pretty much anywhere I wanted, and using one just made it worse. So a good chair isn't going to solve the problem.
I found a nice adjustable chair for $13 at Goodwill, and it beats the folding chair with pillows I was using before, even though it's not terribly comfortable. The seat is actually short enough that I can use my tripod with it, so I've been trying that out. It's nice to be able to vary the height of the machine so easily, although it doesn't seem to be helping much with the pain.
I always feel like I'm really struggling when I write these days, and so many errors could be avoided if I could just get comfortable. I'm still practicing to the news, and I'm always surprised that my accuracy is still above 98%.
The whole thing is frustrating though, because it's really holding me back. I'm not ready to apply for more places until I have it figured out, and I'm so close to being able to make a living with this! I got a taste of it, and it was great, and now it sucks going back to low-paying ways of making money.
I've been working on "sub-" words, trying to get myself to remember that I want to write them as S*UB. My instinct is to put the asterisk in the attached word, but that usually doesn't work out very well. I actually wrote "subculture" properly during a job because of it, so that was a good moment.
I found out that "loon" wasn't in my dictionary at all. Crazy (no pun intended). I've been making good progress with the dictionary maintenance. 227 -ma entries corrected to MA*, 404 -ler as L*ER, 319 -gy which I guess I just needed to enter even though I haven't changed the way I write it, and the same for 2512 -ation. That last one was a project for a while.
4.30.13
I finally got to do some CART work. My first day, I wound up covering four events. Two classes, one bidder's meeting that ran short, and one council meeting that I covered the last hour of because it ran long. I wound up working from about 8 in the morning until 11 at night, trying to get all the transcripts out. It was a crazy day.
I was supposed to cover a class the next day, but it got cancelled. I did a couple the day after that, and that was last week. I did another one this morning. I haven't officially checked my accuracy, but it's looking good. I didn't have any drops, and everything made sense. I think the semester's about to end, though. There might not be any classes to cover after this week.
It took me less than the length of the class to edit my transcript today. It probably shouldn't take as long as it does, but I like to go through and global everything, and make the transcript look perfect. It'll take less time the more practice I get.
I'm also trying to focus on practicing for the CBC. That's been going well. The 180 takes are a lot easier this time around than they were in January. I'm just trying to focus on staying calm. Lots of times I've written a take for the first time, and thought I didn't get it, but I did. So that's giving me confidence to just keep focusing, keep going, and know that there's a real possibility that even though it doesn't feel like it, I might pass the take.
I finished -i endings, and I'm working on 1765 for -o now. I don't remember why I wrote down that I need to work on -o. I write it "OE," which hasn't changed. But it doesn't hurt to write a bunch of words; lots of them aren't defined the way I'm writing them.
I found a bizarre dictionary hole. "Pens" wasn't in my dictionary as PENZ, and it translated as "ends." I also discovered, during CBC practice, that I need to take out my glue stroke when I take the test. I have it in as DRA*ES, since I use it before a web address. DRAES is just "address." I wrote DRA*ES in a take without realizing it, and glued the entire rest of the take together! That would've been an instant fail.
I'm still working on positioning. My left arm still isn't cooperating. I can almost never seem to get it in a position that's comfortable. I don't know what the problem is, but I wish I knew what to do about it, because it makes it really hard to write for more than about 10 minutes at a time. It's supposed to be so much better to write on the LS, but it's just not working.
It didn't work on the Stentura, either, so it's not the LS' fault, but I know I would write a lot better if I could ever get the positioning down. It's gotten to the point where I dread having to CART a class because I know it's going to hurt. It shouldn't be that way, but I just don't know how to fix it. It only hurts when I write, so it's got to be something about the way I sit or hold that arm when I write. I don't have any problem at all with the right arm. If only I could figure it out!
I was supposed to cover a class the next day, but it got cancelled. I did a couple the day after that, and that was last week. I did another one this morning. I haven't officially checked my accuracy, but it's looking good. I didn't have any drops, and everything made sense. I think the semester's about to end, though. There might not be any classes to cover after this week.
It took me less than the length of the class to edit my transcript today. It probably shouldn't take as long as it does, but I like to go through and global everything, and make the transcript look perfect. It'll take less time the more practice I get.
I'm also trying to focus on practicing for the CBC. That's been going well. The 180 takes are a lot easier this time around than they were in January. I'm just trying to focus on staying calm. Lots of times I've written a take for the first time, and thought I didn't get it, but I did. So that's giving me confidence to just keep focusing, keep going, and know that there's a real possibility that even though it doesn't feel like it, I might pass the take.
I finished -i endings, and I'm working on 1765 for -o now. I don't remember why I wrote down that I need to work on -o. I write it "OE," which hasn't changed. But it doesn't hurt to write a bunch of words; lots of them aren't defined the way I'm writing them.
I found a bizarre dictionary hole. "Pens" wasn't in my dictionary as PENZ, and it translated as "ends." I also discovered, during CBC practice, that I need to take out my glue stroke when I take the test. I have it in as DRA*ES, since I use it before a web address. DRAES is just "address." I wrote DRA*ES in a take without realizing it, and glued the entire rest of the take together! That would've been an instant fail.
I'm still working on positioning. My left arm still isn't cooperating. I can almost never seem to get it in a position that's comfortable. I don't know what the problem is, but I wish I knew what to do about it, because it makes it really hard to write for more than about 10 minutes at a time. It's supposed to be so much better to write on the LS, but it's just not working.
It didn't work on the Stentura, either, so it's not the LS' fault, but I know I would write a lot better if I could ever get the positioning down. It's gotten to the point where I dread having to CART a class because I know it's going to hurt. It shouldn't be that way, but I just don't know how to fix it. It only hurts when I write, so it's got to be something about the way I sit or hold that arm when I write. I don't have any problem at all with the right arm. If only I could figure it out!
8.8
Lots of things have happened since I updated last. I got a new job, which I like lot better, and that kind of takes the pressure off of getting done with "school" as soon as possible. My boyfriend of six years broke up with me a week ago, but I didn’t take a single second off from homework. I think it actually helped me focus a little bit. I also didn’t care about much of anything for a few days, so I wasn’t stressed out about trying to get everything perfect when I was writing.
I got the 2 minutes together that I was working on last Saturday, at 97.8% accuracy, and 250 wpm at the end. I was also going at 250 wpm when I got the next minute last Wednesday (I just barely got it – 95.01% accuracy). That one only went so quickly because it was at about 210 wpm, though. Now all I have left to finish the piece is the last 2 minutes together!
Unfortunately, because of scheduling with my new job, I had to take 2 days off in a row. I used to take a day off once a week, and I haven’t been doing that for about seven months. Now I get to go back to it, which is great, but this particular set of weeks, the days had to be next to each other, and that didn’t help at all.
I feel like I spend 95% of my practice time writing in a position where I can’t properly reach the keys, and then, that one magical moment when I manage to get in the right position is when I get my minutes. I guess I’ll figure it out eventually. I discovered that slog, spake, and slub weren’t in my dictionary. I also got "boric flay" out of trying to write "work and play," which was interesting.
7.09
Erik on depoman was talking about "quality" practice the other day, and he brought up a good point about being interested in your homework. He said that as soon as you lose interest, you might as well not be practicing, because you're not learning anything anymore. This week I've been focusing on focusing (har) and trying to make sure I don't ever go on "autopilot" when I'm doing any part of my practice.
It seems to be paying off, because I already got the minute at 235 wpm. I got it yesterday at 95.9% accuracy, and I was going at 260 wpm at the end. My new minute is only at 208 wpm, but it has a lot of ages and numbers which are making it hard. I’ve already gotten up to 231 on it, though. Thanks to the drill book, I also discovered that "smirk" wasn’t in my dictionary.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)