Closed Captioning

In the Lovin’ these Blogs section of my blog, you will notice that I follow the StenoKnight CART Blog. The author of this blog, Mirabai Knight, has started a series where she posts a variety of videos that she has closed captioned using Universal Subtitles. What a wonderful thing to do for the hearing impaired world!

So, being a curious person, I wandered over to the website for Universal Subtitles and tried it myself. I captioned a scene from Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. It's really easy and fun ~ Check it out!

Retention and memory

Last night’s class was rather interesting. Marci, our instructor, drilled us on our retention and memory skills. She started with memory drills by reading one complete sentence. During this time, we were not allowed to write. After she said, “OK type”, we could start to transcribe the sentence she just read. That doesn’t sound so tough, does it? Guess again! These sentences were laden with dates, numbers, dollar amounts and statistics. Yuck. In the beginning, most of the students totally bombed out on their accuracy. But, by the end of these drills, we were getting the hang of it. Oh sure, some of the statistics may have been off a bit, but we were close!

The second set of drills were much more difficult. Marci started dictating a jury charge, but we were not allowed to start writing until she waved her hand. The voice in my head said, OK, she’ll wave her hand after she has said five or six words, right? Nope. She waved her hand after she had read two sentences. OMG, we’re behind by two sentences?! Panic! I couldn’t keep up. My retention skills are horrible. I’m used to writing nearly on top of the speaker. In fact, as soon as I was lost, I jumped ahead to write directly on top of Marci's dictation again. Trailing behind the speaker is a skill that I MUST develop, and I must develop it SOON!

Video blog - briefs and phrases

Finger twisting drills!

I was diligently doing my finger drills tonight and I suddenly remembered that I had scribbled down some drills that my steno instructor gave us after we completed theory class. I found them on the back of a folder buried under my stack of briefs and phrases.

I don't know where she found them, but they're like tongue twisters for your fingers! (Finger twisters?) I typed them up so I could share them with you. I think these drills are to improve your dexterity. Give them a try!

Lots of audio at Podomatic!

If you're looking for fresh audio material on which to practice. Check out Podomatic. John DeCaro has recorded a ton of audio perfect for steno practice.

Here's the link to his podcasts:

Podomatic

If the audio is too fast or too slow for you, download the podcast and adjust the speed by playing it through Windows Media Player.

Sorry for the short post, but I'm itching to get back to practicing to Podomatic!

Good night, ya'll!

Under the hood of my stenograph

I've been getting a little frustrated with Eclipse and RealTime Coach recently. My accuracy scores on RTC have been falling - even during the audio takes that I have scored highly on in months past.

So I compared by paper tape with the computer "tape" on Eclipse. What I discovered was that when I write faster, I use a lighter touch and Eclipse (and RTC) doesn't read all of the characters of certain outlines. My paper tape is still legible, but RTC and Eclipse doesn't read the lightly printed letters on the tape. For instance, the world "people" (PAOEPL) will translate as "peep" (PAOEP). The word "any" (TPHEU) translates as "think" (THEU). My accuracy is actually higher than RTC is scoring. That's good news, but still frustrating.

I asked our instructor about adjusting the tension of my keyboard when I was still in theory because I thought it felt rather stiff to me. She pretty much scared me away from attempting any type of adjustments at that time, so now I'm afraid to try anything. But, with the encouragement of my newly found Twitter steno pals, I made some adjustments to the key contacts and keyboard tension this afternoon. One of my Twitter pals also suggested that I oil and lube my steno as long as I was under the hood. Which I also did. I haven't driven the Stentura Protege since it's tune-up, but from the few key strokes that I tried, I think it's going to be a lovely driving experience. I can't wait to settle in for a long practice session tomorrow.

Here is the link to maintenance instructions for the Stentura:

Stentura Stenograph maintenance

Occupational Hazard

One of the speedbuilding tips that I read about suggested that you focus your attention on an area of the floor or a picture on the wall as you take dictation. It's supposed to help you concentrate on your listening skills as you transcribe. I've been using this handy little tip and it helps, it really does.

But I'd like to add an addendum to this speedbuilding tip: Remember to blink!

I don't believe I've blinked in two hours ~ Ouch!

Pass the popcorn, I'm a slacker.

OK, I admit it. I’ve been a slacker for the past few days. I only practiced a total of one hour this past weekend. In my defense, I was trying to ward off a cold and didn’t think my steno study would have been very productive anyway.

I usually practice a couple of hours on Tuesday nights. But, last night was election night. That’s a national holiday for me! Don’t tell anyone, but I LOVE watching the election results roll in. Now, don’t misunderstand who I am ~ I’m not into politics. In fact, I hate the months and months of campaigning that lead up to election day, and the pain of watching those never-ending, horrible campaign ads is unbearable. But I love a good horse race, and election night is as good as it gets! My husband suggested that I should practice my steno while the pundits were projecting the results. I suggested he just pass me the popcorn!

So, there ya have it. Today is Wednesday – I have class tonight, and I haven’t practiced. I hope it’s not too grueling!