I tried some different key tabs on the IE. First I tried it "naked." I liked it at first, being able to freely slide around, but it was a little hard on my fingers. Actually, the reason I put my old leather tabs on it (Stenovations sent them back to me when they took them off the LS to calibrate it, and put the silicone ones on it) was because Jason wasn't responding to me about getting my asterisk closer to my FR, so I thought, "Why don't I just put key tabs on it, and put the tabs on the asterisk closer to the FR?"
So that's what I did, and it worked! I only have a little bit of a problem with them not being close enough now. The number key above the asterisk is still way too far to the left, but key tabs aren't going to be able to solve that. The leather still wasn't soft enough for me, though, so I ordered velcro toppers. I thought those would be really soft. They were, but they kind of gave me "rug burn." I guess I slide my fingers around too much.
The Neutrino Group (the company that makes the IEs) sells "soft rubber" key toppers. I thought maybe they would be like squishy silicone, so I ordered them, but it turns out they're foam. They also sell thick and thin; for some reason I got the thick ones, and they add a crazy amount of height to the keys. I have a problem with not being able to lower the IE enough because it runs into my legs, so having it artificially raised didn't help at all. I also felt too much friction on the foam, so those were out.
I had two sets of the leather Depoman keys, and I felt like my old set wasn't as "grippy" as it could be, so I put the new ones on the left and the old ones on the right. It turns out the new ones aren't any more "grippy," or really any different from the old ones that had already been used for at least a year, so I just left it the way it is. No hope for a softer keyboard for me, I guess. I could take the silicone ones off the LS, but I don't think they'd be any better. They were getting really worn and slippery already, anyway.
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 2
The specialist also suggested I could use voice recognition software to do my job and/or general computing. I'm definitely not open to switching to be a voice writer. I like writing on the machine. My throat always gets sore when I try to talk for extended periods of time, too. I think voice writers can only write for short periods of time because of that. I don't want to learn a whole new thing. Maybe someday if I get really desperate, but I'm not even thinking about it right now.
I don't know how much functionality it has for general computing. I don't like the idea of having to talk to it, like for right now even typing this. Talking and typing are totally different things. And in terms of voice recognition instead of mousing, I doubt that works very well.
It actually wasn't something the specialist said that made me want to try the Report-It again. I was hoping that she wouldn't just give me one of those sheets with the diagrams for proper ergonomic desk setup, but she did. Interestingly, though, it had a suggestion for resting your arms on the arms of the chair, and it said the arms shouldn't touch your elbows or your wrists. The person in the drawing looked really comfortable, and that's what inspired me to try the Report-It again. I'm not sure if it's helping or not.
Now that I've been doing it for about 6 weeks, it seems like it would be impossible to write without it, although I don't really think it's helped in any way. It feels super restrictive when I use it. If I write for even a short period of time without it, I feel so free, but at the same time, like it would very quickly become too painful to write that way. Maybe that's just because of where I have the machine positioned, though.
I think the IE in general has given me pain in my right arm, not so much the Report-It. I definitely feel a deeper, sharper pain in my left arm with the Report-It. It's really bad, but luckily I don't write for extended periods of time; usually an hour and a half at the most. It's hard to hold on for that long, though. It's all a work in progress, and I feel like if I just keep trying I'll eventually find something that doesn't hurt so much.
I don't know how much functionality it has for general computing. I don't like the idea of having to talk to it, like for right now even typing this. Talking and typing are totally different things. And in terms of voice recognition instead of mousing, I doubt that works very well.
It actually wasn't something the specialist said that made me want to try the Report-It again. I was hoping that she wouldn't just give me one of those sheets with the diagrams for proper ergonomic desk setup, but she did. Interestingly, though, it had a suggestion for resting your arms on the arms of the chair, and it said the arms shouldn't touch your elbows or your wrists. The person in the drawing looked really comfortable, and that's what inspired me to try the Report-It again. I'm not sure if it's helping or not.
Now that I've been doing it for about 6 weeks, it seems like it would be impossible to write without it, although I don't really think it's helped in any way. It feels super restrictive when I use it. If I write for even a short period of time without it, I feel so free, but at the same time, like it would very quickly become too painful to write that way. Maybe that's just because of where I have the machine positioned, though.
I think the IE in general has given me pain in my right arm, not so much the Report-It. I definitely feel a deeper, sharper pain in my left arm with the Report-It. It's really bad, but luckily I don't write for extended periods of time; usually an hour and a half at the most. It's hard to hold on for that long, though. It's all a work in progress, and I feel like if I just keep trying I'll eventually find something that doesn't hurt so much.
Ergonomic Specialist: Part 1
So I skipped a month, which is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have the typical reason - super slammed with work. I haven't made much progress on the pain front. The touchpad didn't help with my right hand pain/numbness at all, but I had an ergonomic specialist come check out my steup, and she suggested "mousing" (weird word, but it makes sense once you get used to it) with my left hand. I actually had both a wired and wireless mouse (and the touchpad) hooked up to my computer when she was here, and she said, "does that mouse work?", referring to the wired one.
So I put the wired one on the left, and kept using the wireless on the right. At first I thought I would need to switch the function of the buttons (right and left click), and I was really disappointed when I couldn't figure out how to set the functions for each mouse individually - if I changed one, it changed both - but now I'm pretty used to just using the buttons the way they are with my left hand. I use the left mouse at least half the time, and it really has helped with my right hand. Mostly it's nice not to have to push through the pain when I use the right mouse; if it's painful, I just switch.
Unfortunately, I have an exciting new problem with my right hand. I saw that a few people write with their machine pods vertical instead of horizontal. I had tried it out when I first got the IE and it didn't seem good at all, but since the ergo specialist was here I've been using the Report-It, so I thought maybe it would be different now. I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. It was surprisingly not that hard to write that way, but it just wasn't going to be comfortable.
After that I had to put everything back in "normal" position (since the specialist was here I've been trying it with the pods separated all the way), and ever since then there's been something wrong with the right pod, at least for my hand. I can't reach the U without pain, and my right wrist hurts. I've had that problem with the A and the U before, where it kinks up my thumb for some reason, and then eventually after moving it around a bunch for other reasons, I get it in a spot that doesn't hurt my thumb.
My left hand is that way now - I have minimal pain with the A. But the right hand is awful. Previously I've been able to fix it by just trying to line the pod up "straight", like parallel to me, but it's not working this time. I've tried raising/lowering, titling up/down and left/right, physically moving the machine left/right, and nothing seems to fix it. I'm really at a loss. I guess I could try to "reset" everything and start from scratch, but since the left side isn't any worse than usual I'm hesitant to mess with it.
I also got a suggestion from the owner of the IE company, Jason Pardikes. He said maybe I should make my stroke deeper, to about 4-5mm. It was already at 3mm, which I felt like was pretty deep, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty crazy; like writing in quicksand. I'm sort of getting used to it, but I think I changed it while I was already having problems with the right hand, and I'm not sure if it's making it worse or not. I haven't resorted to putting it back to 3mm to see if that fixes it yet, but I probably should.
I ordered one of the new "Gen O" IEs, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully in November, although that's just an early estimate. Supposedly you don't have to use the software to calibrate it after you make physical changes on the machine anymore, so that will remove one barrier to experimenting with different depths.
So I put the wired one on the left, and kept using the wireless on the right. At first I thought I would need to switch the function of the buttons (right and left click), and I was really disappointed when I couldn't figure out how to set the functions for each mouse individually - if I changed one, it changed both - but now I'm pretty used to just using the buttons the way they are with my left hand. I use the left mouse at least half the time, and it really has helped with my right hand. Mostly it's nice not to have to push through the pain when I use the right mouse; if it's painful, I just switch.
Unfortunately, I have an exciting new problem with my right hand. I saw that a few people write with their machine pods vertical instead of horizontal. I had tried it out when I first got the IE and it didn't seem good at all, but since the ergo specialist was here I've been using the Report-It, so I thought maybe it would be different now. I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. It was surprisingly not that hard to write that way, but it just wasn't going to be comfortable.
After that I had to put everything back in "normal" position (since the specialist was here I've been trying it with the pods separated all the way), and ever since then there's been something wrong with the right pod, at least for my hand. I can't reach the U without pain, and my right wrist hurts. I've had that problem with the A and the U before, where it kinks up my thumb for some reason, and then eventually after moving it around a bunch for other reasons, I get it in a spot that doesn't hurt my thumb.
My left hand is that way now - I have minimal pain with the A. But the right hand is awful. Previously I've been able to fix it by just trying to line the pod up "straight", like parallel to me, but it's not working this time. I've tried raising/lowering, titling up/down and left/right, physically moving the machine left/right, and nothing seems to fix it. I'm really at a loss. I guess I could try to "reset" everything and start from scratch, but since the left side isn't any worse than usual I'm hesitant to mess with it.
I also got a suggestion from the owner of the IE company, Jason Pardikes. He said maybe I should make my stroke deeper, to about 4-5mm. It was already at 3mm, which I felt like was pretty deep, but I gave it a shot. It's pretty crazy; like writing in quicksand. I'm sort of getting used to it, but I think I changed it while I was already having problems with the right hand, and I'm not sure if it's making it worse or not. I haven't resorted to putting it back to 3mm to see if that fixes it yet, but I probably should.
I ordered one of the new "Gen O" IEs, so we'll see how that goes, hopefully in November, although that's just an early estimate. Supposedly you don't have to use the software to calibrate it after you make physical changes on the machine anymore, so that will remove one barrier to experimenting with different depths.
New Ideas
A new month already, and I actually have time to update within the first week! I don't have any interesting updates on anything, so I'll just have to write about some things I never have time to get to.
Steve Kosmata started doing a cool thing where he posts a short video once a week about stuff you can do in Eclipse; that's what inspired me to take a look at my most frequently used three-stroke words, although I had seen the suggestion to do that before. Last week he brought up the old "conflicts for not having to write puncutation" idea, which I'd also seen kicked around, but I just didn't want to get into it.
In the video, he mentioned using it for words that typically have a comma when they start a sentence - therefore, so, oh, etc. I didn't want to get *too* into it, but those seemed like they might work, so I sat down for an hour and a half or so and played around with it. It turned out to be a bigger project than I was expecting. There are so many words like that, and they could come at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence, so you might need a comma before, after, before and after, or no commas at all.
I experimented with it, and if it didn't seem like it was going to pick correctly 99% of the time, I didn't go all the way with it. A couple of them I was able to do all four choices for; some of them I could only do two; and some of them I wound up tossing out the idea altogether. There are a ton of words I didn't experiment with, so I'm going to tackle one of those a day. Now the hard part is going to be remembering what words I don't have to write commas for, and in what situations I don't have to write the commas. I really haven't picked up on that at all yet, but I only put things in a couple days ago.
I also changed the function keys on my IE to act like S, so hopefully that will cut down on untrans from accidentally hitting them when I mean to hit S. I wanted to use them for speaker IDs, but it's just a project I don't want to start right now. On the LS, I used to occasionally reach my pinky too far and hit plastic instead of a key, so maybe having the function keys in the space where that plastic will be, and functioning just like the S, will actually be helpful.
Steve Kosmata started doing a cool thing where he posts a short video once a week about stuff you can do in Eclipse; that's what inspired me to take a look at my most frequently used three-stroke words, although I had seen the suggestion to do that before. Last week he brought up the old "conflicts for not having to write puncutation" idea, which I'd also seen kicked around, but I just didn't want to get into it.
In the video, he mentioned using it for words that typically have a comma when they start a sentence - therefore, so, oh, etc. I didn't want to get *too* into it, but those seemed like they might work, so I sat down for an hour and a half or so and played around with it. It turned out to be a bigger project than I was expecting. There are so many words like that, and they could come at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence, so you might need a comma before, after, before and after, or no commas at all.
I experimented with it, and if it didn't seem like it was going to pick correctly 99% of the time, I didn't go all the way with it. A couple of them I was able to do all four choices for; some of them I could only do two; and some of them I wound up tossing out the idea altogether. There are a ton of words I didn't experiment with, so I'm going to tackle one of those a day. Now the hard part is going to be remembering what words I don't have to write commas for, and in what situations I don't have to write the commas. I really haven't picked up on that at all yet, but I only put things in a couple days ago.
I also changed the function keys on my IE to act like S, so hopefully that will cut down on untrans from accidentally hitting them when I mean to hit S. I wanted to use them for speaker IDs, but it's just a project I don't want to start right now. On the LS, I used to occasionally reach my pinky too far and hit plastic instead of a key, so maybe having the function keys in the space where that plastic will be, and functioning just like the S, will actually be helpful.
Infinity Ergo Adjustment
I've had my Infinity Ergo for about a month now. It wasn't quite as magical as I was expecting. I had a *lot* of pain in both of my arms before I got it to a good height/position in general. Trying to move the pods apart right away seemed like a good idea, but it wasn't. I wound up needing to have them closer together, and move them gradually. I found out that you can't make a bunch of big changes all at once. You have to start more where you're used to, and change things slowly over time.
I have the pods about 4" apart now. I picked up a couple of wrist braces to see if they would help. I can't write with the left one at all; it makes the pain in my left arm much worse. I don't know if wearing the right one helps or not, but I can write with it, so that's what I've been doing. It makes it feel like it's hard to "reach" keys with my pinky, though, so I have the right pod of the IE titled so the right side is up higher than the left.
I didn't have to do as much adjusting of the "sensors" as I thought I would. I had some intial problems with the software and calibrating things, and as a result of that, I think I wound up setting it to be more sensitive than I should have. I dialed back a few of the keys, but I'm probably still getting dragged keys that I could avoid if I just turned all the keys up higher. Some of them do need to be low though, I think, so I'm leaving it as-is for now.
It was pretty easy to adjust to pressing keys again, but it still feels like it's taking a lot of effort. I can make the stroke shallower than it is now, but I have it set for the least amount of tension, and I felt like when I made it more shallow, it required more tension. So there is a small bit of depth to the stroke.
I wasn't really able to hit -DZ at all on the LS for some reason, and it's much easier on the IE. Some other keys are easier, too, like -PBLG. I'm getting a lot of weird problems with it still, though. And I don't ever feel like I can just write freely; I still have to very closely monitor what I'm doing at all times.
I did mange to do a lot of really weird things with the pod that made my hands hurt a lot. I think they're back to normal now, but it's still uncomfortable to write in general. I think I had better endurance on the LS. It's tough to tell, because I'm doing more captioning now, where I write for 10 minutes, stop, write for 2, stop, as opposed to being stuck in a class for two hours straight.
The asterisk seems really far away and hard to hit. I emailed the owner and asked him if there's anything I or he could do to bring it a little closer, because the T/D and S/Z are super close together, but he never answered me. I had that problem before I bought the IE, too. I sent two or three emails that never got answered before I wound up just calling to order it. I'll try again after the weekend.
It seems like I have to have a really wide stance with the IE, or else my legs get in the way of the machine and I can't bring it close enough. The software isn't quite as useful as the LS'. With the LS, you can import a file you've written into the software, and it will show you exactly how hard you pressed the key, if at all, which is really helpful with adjusting the sensors. With the IE, all you can do is press the key and see the gauge in realtime, but you can't look at something you've already written that didn't come out right and see exactly what went wrong.
My back pain still seems to be getting worse, although it doesn't bother me much when I sleep. I've been experimenting with different pieces of foam and towels strapped to the back of my chair, but they don't seem to be helping.
My right hand really doesn't like using the mouse. I don't think it's steno-related, but it goes numb and stays painful for hours afterward. I'm going to try a touchpad this weekend.
I have the pods about 4" apart now. I picked up a couple of wrist braces to see if they would help. I can't write with the left one at all; it makes the pain in my left arm much worse. I don't know if wearing the right one helps or not, but I can write with it, so that's what I've been doing. It makes it feel like it's hard to "reach" keys with my pinky, though, so I have the right pod of the IE titled so the right side is up higher than the left.
I didn't have to do as much adjusting of the "sensors" as I thought I would. I had some intial problems with the software and calibrating things, and as a result of that, I think I wound up setting it to be more sensitive than I should have. I dialed back a few of the keys, but I'm probably still getting dragged keys that I could avoid if I just turned all the keys up higher. Some of them do need to be low though, I think, so I'm leaving it as-is for now.
It was pretty easy to adjust to pressing keys again, but it still feels like it's taking a lot of effort. I can make the stroke shallower than it is now, but I have it set for the least amount of tension, and I felt like when I made it more shallow, it required more tension. So there is a small bit of depth to the stroke.
I wasn't really able to hit -DZ at all on the LS for some reason, and it's much easier on the IE. Some other keys are easier, too, like -PBLG. I'm getting a lot of weird problems with it still, though. And I don't ever feel like I can just write freely; I still have to very closely monitor what I'm doing at all times.
I did mange to do a lot of really weird things with the pod that made my hands hurt a lot. I think they're back to normal now, but it's still uncomfortable to write in general. I think I had better endurance on the LS. It's tough to tell, because I'm doing more captioning now, where I write for 10 minutes, stop, write for 2, stop, as opposed to being stuck in a class for two hours straight.
The asterisk seems really far away and hard to hit. I emailed the owner and asked him if there's anything I or he could do to bring it a little closer, because the T/D and S/Z are super close together, but he never answered me. I had that problem before I bought the IE, too. I sent two or three emails that never got answered before I wound up just calling to order it. I'll try again after the weekend.
It seems like I have to have a really wide stance with the IE, or else my legs get in the way of the machine and I can't bring it close enough. The software isn't quite as useful as the LS'. With the LS, you can import a file you've written into the software, and it will show you exactly how hard you pressed the key, if at all, which is really helpful with adjusting the sensors. With the IE, all you can do is press the key and see the gauge in realtime, but you can't look at something you've already written that didn't come out right and see exactly what went wrong.
My back pain still seems to be getting worse, although it doesn't bother me much when I sleep. I've been experimenting with different pieces of foam and towels strapped to the back of my chair, but they don't seem to be helping.
My right hand really doesn't like using the mouse. I don't think it's steno-related, but it goes numb and stays painful for hours afterward. I'm going to try a touchpad this weekend.
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.
Captioning Progress
It turned out that Eclipse doesn't have an iCap encoder, which wasn't surprising. So I contacted the company that asked me to get connected first, and they said they would watch me write without the encoder connection. I did a couple of sessions with them, and they felt positive about it, so I got my USB modem and my second phone line, and called Eclipse and made sure I could connect.
It was a little rocky at first. I wound up being on the phone with Eclipse for 20-30 minutes. I think all I really needed to do was reboot the computer. I had already done it after installing the modem, but I think it just needed one more go. The modem was super easy to buy/install, and getting the second phone line was just a matter of having them turn it on. Easy as pie. Then I did a third test with the captioning company, this time connected to their encoder. I was only connected for about 10 minutes, but everything went fine.
I was surprised how easy it went with them - I just dialed the number, and poof, I was connected! I don't think I need an audio coupler or a mixer or any of that intimidating stuff you read about needing. My headphones connect wirelessly to the phone, and I think that's all I'll need. So I signed the contract, and I'm officially on board with that company. The only downside is that it doesn't pay nearly as well as CART. It's still considerably more than Caption Colorado, though, and I didn't have to sign anything saying I wouldn't concurrently work for other companies.
I haven't gotten any captioning jobs yet because they made the schedule for all of April on March 15th. I don't mind, though; I have plenty of CART work to keep me busy right now, especially since I'm still doing my data entry job. I officially put in my two weeks for that, though, and April 14th will be my last day there, which is pretty exciting. It was a great backup to have, but it's been a drag for a while.
I got on with another CART company, one that's been in the works since they contacted me in November. I haven't gotten any work from them either yet, though, so I'm not sure if anything's really going to come out of that. I also tested with a company in the UK a month ago. They still haven't graded it, but I'm pretty sure I bombed it, so I'm not expecting much there, either.
I added on another company that I do overflow work for. It seems like they have at least a few jobs a month. It doesn't pay as well as my main company, but I think it will be good to do some jobs for them. I could also look into captioning for the original CART company I started with. For captioning, they pay about as much as the new captioning company I just joined. I don't want to have my hands in too many things, though. I think it's best to let the things I have play out for now.
It was a little rocky at first. I wound up being on the phone with Eclipse for 20-30 minutes. I think all I really needed to do was reboot the computer. I had already done it after installing the modem, but I think it just needed one more go. The modem was super easy to buy/install, and getting the second phone line was just a matter of having them turn it on. Easy as pie. Then I did a third test with the captioning company, this time connected to their encoder. I was only connected for about 10 minutes, but everything went fine.
I was surprised how easy it went with them - I just dialed the number, and poof, I was connected! I don't think I need an audio coupler or a mixer or any of that intimidating stuff you read about needing. My headphones connect wirelessly to the phone, and I think that's all I'll need. So I signed the contract, and I'm officially on board with that company. The only downside is that it doesn't pay nearly as well as CART. It's still considerably more than Caption Colorado, though, and I didn't have to sign anything saying I wouldn't concurrently work for other companies.
I haven't gotten any captioning jobs yet because they made the schedule for all of April on March 15th. I don't mind, though; I have plenty of CART work to keep me busy right now, especially since I'm still doing my data entry job. I officially put in my two weeks for that, though, and April 14th will be my last day there, which is pretty exciting. It was a great backup to have, but it's been a drag for a while.
I got on with another CART company, one that's been in the works since they contacted me in November. I haven't gotten any work from them either yet, though, so I'm not sure if anything's really going to come out of that. I also tested with a company in the UK a month ago. They still haven't graded it, but I'm pretty sure I bombed it, so I'm not expecting much there, either.
I added on another company that I do overflow work for. It seems like they have at least a few jobs a month. It doesn't pay as well as my main company, but I think it will be good to do some jobs for them. I could also look into captioning for the original CART company I started with. For captioning, they pay about as much as the new captioning company I just joined. I don't want to have my hands in too many things, though. I think it's best to let the things I have play out for now.
Chair Update
I'm feeling better about the Soma chair. I've got the arms where I
want them, and I got the taller backrest for it, although that was a bit
of a fiasco. The Soma guy was coming to Seattle and he wanted me to
wait until he was here to swap out the back, so I did - and he came to
Seattle without taking care of my chair.
I wound up having to go back to the retailer when they said I could bring the chair had have it swapped out, but it turned out no one was there and they neglected to tell me. So Chris had to swap it out himself, and it took forever. I have a feeling that back had been waiting there for a very long time, too. If I had known it was there and I wasn't going to have any help putting it on, I would've gone to get it a lot earlier.
I'm still struggling with overall position. Sometimes when I'm writing my arm doesn't hurt, but my right leg does. It seems to be exacerbated by trying to sit up straight. If I slouch in the chair, it goes away, but that's not a very good writing position. Sometimes I can't go more than half an hour without my back hurting, and then I have to lean back into the chair to fix that; but then I have to put my arms on the arm rests, and that's not good for writing, either.
I wound up having to go back to the retailer when they said I could bring the chair had have it swapped out, but it turned out no one was there and they neglected to tell me. So Chris had to swap it out himself, and it took forever. I have a feeling that back had been waiting there for a very long time, too. If I had known it was there and I wasn't going to have any help putting it on, I would've gone to get it a lot earlier.
I'm still struggling with overall position. Sometimes when I'm writing my arm doesn't hurt, but my right leg does. It seems to be exacerbated by trying to sit up straight. If I slouch in the chair, it goes away, but that's not a very good writing position. Sometimes I can't go more than half an hour without my back hurting, and then I have to lean back into the chair to fix that; but then I have to put my arms on the arm rests, and that's not good for writing, either.
Lack of Pain Resolution
I found out the wrist brace wasn't actually helping my hand when it started going numb despite the brace, so I stopped wearing it, but I haven't been having problems with major numbness in either hand for a while.
I didn't actually wind up seeing a vascular surgeon. It turned out the appointment was with her PA, who spent about two minutes with me and then told me she'd ask the surgeon what we should do. What a total waste of time and money. The vascular surgeon referred me to a rehabilitation specialist. He thinks a muscle in my neck might be too tight and is restricting blood flow in my arm. He did the EMG test on my neck and there was a little activity, so he decided to do a numbing injection. When he did the EMG again to see where exactly to do the injection, there wasn't any activity anymore.
I don't think the muscle in my neck is really the problem, especially since the numbing injection did absolutely nothing for my arm pain. He prescribed lidocaine patches or cream. The patches were way too expensive, so I tried the cream a couple times a day for a week, and then four times a day for another week.
It seemed like my arm might be getting a little better, but it wasn't exactly a controlled study because I also stopped practicing sentences with hard words. For some reason, that's when my arm always hurt the most, so I figured maybe I was doing something during that time to make it worse and I might as well stop and see what happened. As a further experiment, I stopped using the cream, since it was kind of a hassle to put on four times a day and it made my neck itch (probably from my hair sticking to my neck all the time). My arm didn't get any worse at all, so either the cream did help and the positive effects haven't been reversed by not using it for the past two weeks, or it didn't help.
I told the doctor that the shot didn't do anything, but he still wants me to try having a Botox injection to see if that helps, so my appointment for that is on 11/1. I tend to sleep with both of my arms under my head/pillow, so I've been focusing for a few weeks on trying to sleep over my shoulder less, and off of my arms more.
Sometimes when I'm writing I can get into a pretty good spot where my arm almost doesn't seem to be a problem. But I think that's always been the case, so it's not really improvement. It doesn't hurt much during the course of daily activities, but it never has. Showering is still the worst. My arm feels pretty bad after I do that, and if I try to write right out of the shower, it's a disaster. It's like I don't have any strength in my arm at all. Doctors always do strength tests, and they don't find any weakness on the left side, but it really feels weak/like I can't hold it up/use it at all when I try to write.
My hand doesn't go as numb when I do serratus punches and another weighted exercise, so I think that's a good sign. But I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, really. I do maybe an hour a day of hard stuff, and that's pretty much it. I don't do any realtime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most of the time, I still feel like it's a pretty big hindrance to my ability to work.
I didn't actually wind up seeing a vascular surgeon. It turned out the appointment was with her PA, who spent about two minutes with me and then told me she'd ask the surgeon what we should do. What a total waste of time and money. The vascular surgeon referred me to a rehabilitation specialist. He thinks a muscle in my neck might be too tight and is restricting blood flow in my arm. He did the EMG test on my neck and there was a little activity, so he decided to do a numbing injection. When he did the EMG again to see where exactly to do the injection, there wasn't any activity anymore.
I don't think the muscle in my neck is really the problem, especially since the numbing injection did absolutely nothing for my arm pain. He prescribed lidocaine patches or cream. The patches were way too expensive, so I tried the cream a couple times a day for a week, and then four times a day for another week.
It seemed like my arm might be getting a little better, but it wasn't exactly a controlled study because I also stopped practicing sentences with hard words. For some reason, that's when my arm always hurt the most, so I figured maybe I was doing something during that time to make it worse and I might as well stop and see what happened. As a further experiment, I stopped using the cream, since it was kind of a hassle to put on four times a day and it made my neck itch (probably from my hair sticking to my neck all the time). My arm didn't get any worse at all, so either the cream did help and the positive effects haven't been reversed by not using it for the past two weeks, or it didn't help.
I told the doctor that the shot didn't do anything, but he still wants me to try having a Botox injection to see if that helps, so my appointment for that is on 11/1. I tend to sleep with both of my arms under my head/pillow, so I've been focusing for a few weeks on trying to sleep over my shoulder less, and off of my arms more.
Sometimes when I'm writing I can get into a pretty good spot where my arm almost doesn't seem to be a problem. But I think that's always been the case, so it's not really improvement. It doesn't hurt much during the course of daily activities, but it never has. Showering is still the worst. My arm feels pretty bad after I do that, and if I try to write right out of the shower, it's a disaster. It's like I don't have any strength in my arm at all. Doctors always do strength tests, and they don't find any weakness on the left side, but it really feels weak/like I can't hold it up/use it at all when I try to write.
My hand doesn't go as numb when I do serratus punches and another weighted exercise, so I think that's a good sign. But I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, really. I do maybe an hour a day of hard stuff, and that's pretty much it. I don't do any realtime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most of the time, I still feel like it's a pretty big hindrance to my ability to work.
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.
Headway
I'm finally starting to feel good about my realtime. Out of the last three news broadcasts I've practiced, my lowest accuracy was 98.83%. I'm starting to not get freaked out when I make a mistake, and be aware of what's being said while I fix mistakes. I still haven't gotten any work from the company I signed a contract with, though. I'd really like to get my feet wet and see where I stand on some actual CART work.
I'm feeling so confident that I even sent out "applications" to five CART/captioning companies, but I haven't heard anything back. It's frustrating because I've been working so long to be "ready," and now that I've put myself out there, no one seems interested in taking me on.
I'm intimidated by the captioning aspect, too. I live in an apartment, and we don't have a single landline, let alone the three or four I might need for captioning. We only have basic cable, and if I started captioning the traditional way, I'd have to buy a TV, modem, coupler, and amplifier, at least, plus AccuCap, which would be $3k alone. I have enough saved up for all of those things, but I'd much rather not have to get them.
In less stressful news, I finally hit an average of 180 wpm on all of my speed drills! I've been gunning for that goal for a while. I'm also doing a lot better making my corrections make sense when I practice realtime; making sure I have a dash before and after the correction word, if it doesn't come right after the error. I was having a problem with dashing before and using a comma after, but that's only happening rarely now.
I finally finished all my -NAIR corrections, and I've moved on to -ia, which I now write as KWRA*. Nothing in that group of 744 words seems to be defined the way I write it now, so that's my next project.
I made some changes to auto-brief; namely, I learned that you can tell it not to suggest certain letter combinations, which is really helpful. I don't ever write -TD or -SZ (or at least, not on purpose), and now I won't get suggestions with them. I also noticed sometimes it would suggest a brief with -TZ in it, which was just crazy (for me, anyway). For some reason after I did that, I lost my pop-up window. It was really weird, and I couldn't figure out how to get it back, until a few days later, it magically reappeared on its own!
I'm feeling so confident that I even sent out "applications" to five CART/captioning companies, but I haven't heard anything back. It's frustrating because I've been working so long to be "ready," and now that I've put myself out there, no one seems interested in taking me on.
I'm intimidated by the captioning aspect, too. I live in an apartment, and we don't have a single landline, let alone the three or four I might need for captioning. We only have basic cable, and if I started captioning the traditional way, I'd have to buy a TV, modem, coupler, and amplifier, at least, plus AccuCap, which would be $3k alone. I have enough saved up for all of those things, but I'd much rather not have to get them.
In less stressful news, I finally hit an average of 180 wpm on all of my speed drills! I've been gunning for that goal for a while. I'm also doing a lot better making my corrections make sense when I practice realtime; making sure I have a dash before and after the correction word, if it doesn't come right after the error. I was having a problem with dashing before and using a comma after, but that's only happening rarely now.
I finally finished all my -NAIR corrections, and I've moved on to -ia, which I now write as KWRA*. Nothing in that group of 744 words seems to be defined the way I write it now, so that's my next project.
I made some changes to auto-brief; namely, I learned that you can tell it not to suggest certain letter combinations, which is really helpful. I don't ever write -TD or -SZ (or at least, not on purpose), and now I won't get suggestions with them. I also noticed sometimes it would suggest a brief with -TZ in it, which was just crazy (for me, anyway). For some reason after I did that, I lost my pop-up window. It was really weird, and I couldn't figure out how to get it back, until a few days later, it magically reappeared on its own!
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