Comfortable being uncomfortable

I have had a revelation. 

This is never going to be easy.

I'm not used to that.  I'm used to sailing.  Smoothly. 

And now I know those days are over, for the time being anyway.

But I also realize I'm never going to get anywhere in this game without really and truly pushing myself, and dealing with the resulting uncomfortableness that entails.  And the self-doubt and frustration and anger and the urge to drink and smoke heavily.  Especially that urge.

This process is inevitably going to entail struggle.  I'm learning slowly and begrudgingly that it's a righteous struggle that will pay off in proportionate dividends.  Otherwise nobody would ever put themselves through this rollercoaster.

Pressure

I thought I knew pressure.  Now I'm learning steno, that is, if I don't explode first.

Dr. Seuss dictation results

Not even Dr. Seuss is fun anymore.  
As if anyone talks like that anyway.... 
I never thought Dr. Seuss would kick my ass.
But he did.

Fallen behind

My worst fears have come true: I've fallen behind.

This is officially not fun anymore.

After a close, dear friend's death in May and then spending a good week getting over illness, I have fallen behind.  If it weren't for my instructor's patience and understanding, I would be in jeopardy of failing rather than falling behind. 

Harsh words have been spoken.  Tears have been shed.  It has not been pretty.

Every bit of momentum I had has been sucked out of my sails. 

But I'm still in it.  I will get through this if I have to claw and scrape my way through.    

Still grunting after all these years

Stenography: Really professional codependency?

The following comes from a popular website listing signs of codependent people:

- Feel most comfortable when they are giving

- Find needy people to take care of

- Try to please others instead of themselves

- Have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility

- Try to be all things to all people all the time

- Have difficulty saying "no" and/or setting boundaries

- Feel empty and bored when they are not involved in a crisis

- Seek out chaos and then complain about it

- Tend to have a self-esteem that is connected to "doing"

 - Are afraid of making mistakes

- Try to be perfect, and expect others to be perfect

- Have self-blame and put themselves down

 - Must be in control at all times

Hits a little close to home, don't it?

Would you wear that to a job?

Jeans have become a staple of fashion in our society.  Jeans Friday at the office seems like it's been around forever, not just a couple of decades.

But I never wear jeans to school.

First and foremost, denim is not the softest, kindest fabric to begin with.  Denim was initially designed for the working man in the fields, mines and factories.  Now, people with too much money spend hundreds of dollars on the same comparable pants I can find at the thrift store for $4.

At school?  Really?

This profession involves a lot of sitting.  Jeans and their stiff, unforgiving waistlines are not conducive to sitting comfortably, especially compared to a softer, stretchier fabric.  End of story.  If your jeans are that comfortable to wear when sitting, they're too broken in for school.

But more than anything, I want to be perceived as a professional.  I want to show my teachers, staff, and guest speakers and prospective future employers that I know what it means to dress as a professional.

Some of my fellow students' attire includes spaghetti-strapped camisole tops with exposed bra-straps, second-skin-tight leggings, and "fashionably" ripped shirts.  Some students look like they're going either to the club or to Walmart, but definitely not to school.  I'm not THAT old, but when did people start thinking it was okay to dress sexy or sloppy in a professional environment?

Inside Prince Institute

This video was NOT included in my promotional materials.  My theory teacher even makes a brief appearance!  And believe it or not learning steno is more fun than it looks here, I promise....

Wrist Stretching Part I

The first of an indefinite ongoing series to preserve your writing tools.

There are two ways of meeting difficulties

You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them. 

  
- Phyllis Bottome 

Briefs and phrases are my friends.  Briefs and phrases are my friends.  Briefs and phrases are my friends......my tricky, unpredictable, pain-in-the-ass friends.....

Bart rips on the court reporter

Bart: Ladies and gentlemen, I am a big dummy with a stupid job. I write down whatever they say like a big dummy would. Could the court reporter read that back?

Court Reporter: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a big dummy with a stupid job?! Hey!

Bart: HA HA HA!

Ergonomic stenography

Looks weird, yet functional.....will probably go as far as ergonomic keyboards.

Most interesting witness alive

Why steno?

First of all, steno is not court reporting.  Okay, it's mostly court reporting, but even most court reporters are freelancers doing depositions.  So steno is many things.  It's captioning, it's CART, it's wherever and whenever there needs to be a guardian trusted to preserve the official record.  An honor really.

So I look at learning this skill as the key to my freedom, financial and otherwise.  I can't wait for the day when I get my certification and can realistically fantasize about where I want to go and how I want to preserve the record - in a court room, a law office, in my slippers in my house watching tv.....

A recent speaker at our school said something that got me all excited, she said that as the guardian of the record,  "You control the room."  Aah, the power..... Now she said this in the context of an unruly deposition where communication broke down and she was forced to maintain the civility, but I like to think of it as license to keep the peace and make sure people don't degenerate to the level of....t.v. pundits.  Maybe need to put more thought into captioning.....

And last but certainly not least, steno makes me feel good about myself.  It's a real accomplishment and not something many people can do.  Conquering the challenge of theory and speed is a warm fuzzy feeling. 

When it's time to walk away

- When you realize you never knew you are dyslexic.

- When the letters start dancing on screen and page.

- When you realize that pulsing sound is coming from inside your head.

- Your spelling skills degenerate to a first grade level.

- When your curved fingers start balling into fists.

- When you start yelling at your writer.

- When you realize just how light your writer is and how easily it could be thrown through a window.

Don't be afraid

of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.

Chinese Proverb

Get to work

The greatest accomplishment

is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.

- Vince Lombardi

Faith

is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is how I feel learning theory.   

Healing aches and pains

I recently got a bad poke from a student phlebotomist and experienced some nerve damage and a range of scary pains.  Knocked me off my game for the past couple of weeks, I'm just now gettin back into my groove.  These products helped my healing along, I can't recommend them enough.  They work on any kind of trauma - muscles pain, bruises, small invasive stab wounds, you name it....

If you have the guts

to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.

Holly Near 

If this were true I would be a freakin genius..... 

Naughty funny steno story

My instructor told this story in class today.  Had to pass it along.

A teacher (who happens to be a man) is dictating a list of low-frequency words to students when he comes across the word:

Teacher: Penis.

Student: How do you stroke that?

Teacher:  It doesn't come up very often.

Most embarrassing thing I've ever said in class

This one's for the steno students.

   KWR
S     RA*
   HRA    RPBLG
 PW       U        G S

Thank God only the women showed up to class today.

Because deaf people like good food too

Listen up trivia buffs:  The French Chef was the first show to ever be captioned on U.S. tv in 1972, on PBS of course.  Julia is and always will be Queen of TV Chefs.  There is something so oddly captivating about her....a bit on potatoes from her first season.

Sh*t court reporting students say

It's good to know I'm not alone.

One way to keep momentum going

is to have constantly greater goals.

- Michael Korda

Practice Goals

I'm starting simple.  Each week I try to increase the number of pages I submit for homework, even if it's just a couple.  I'm also trying to practice six days a week, even if I can only squeeze in twenty minutes instead of two hours.  Something is better than nothing.  Goals are a great way to measure your accomplishments, and learning theory is all about building on the little victories.  I savor those little victories.

There is nothing like the feeling of going into class and nailing a new concept without hesitation.  And as momentum builds more momentum, I get the undeniable feeling that falling behind, and the frustration that comes with it, is the kiss of death.

I was an accomplice

in my own frustration.

- Peter Shaffer

I find frustration to be my greatest enemy as a student.  You gotta know when to walk away.  Don't let those homonyms and mandatories get the best of ya.

Frustration

although quite painful at times, is a very positive and essential part of success.

- Bo Bennett

Guess I'm well on my way to success.... 

Hilarious captioning error

Firefighters have so much to deal with these days....

"Get in their face"

Aka networking.  This is what graduate, court reporter and firm owner Angie Baca said during her presentation last week.  In other words, get yourself out in the field.  Introduce yourself to people.  Smile, shake hands, and make that all-important first impression.   This is what our graduate celebre Wendy did, and she now works for Ms. Baca after interning with her.

As they say, its not what you know, but who you know.

If you have a life

you're not practicing enough.

Bad mascara

Ladies, don't let an eye zit happen to you!  I had to go to school wearing a black eye patch.  A black eye patch!  Basically a pirate eye patch.  You don't want to go anywhere, let alone school, wearing an eye patch.  Imagine being a professional, going to a depo, or worse, a trial, and having to sport a black eye patch.  You can hear their thoughts: where's her parrot and peg-leg..... And yes, it throws your practice.
Moral of the story: throw out the old mascara, don't risk the chance.

 

Wearing that questionably old mascara

Can lead to this

I don't really think

in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

- Steve Earle

My secret is

practice.

- David Beckham

(I thought it was being totally hot.)

Audacity rocks!

If you know of a superior voice recording program, please let me know.  Invaluable practice tool.  Makes the "microphone" that is (somewhere) in my laptop sound goooooood.  Super easy to use and it's free.    Audacity

Assembly

I attended my first awards assembly for the winter quarter last week.  It reminded me of a pep rally a little bit.  One lady I went to class with last quarter received an award for completing TEN tests in one quarter!  Impressive and inspiring.

Our director also unveiled the new, redesigned school program.  If I wasn't at the beginning of my theory and was more along in the program, I'd probably be more than a little irritated about switchin things up midway.  We do get two weeks between breaks (likely a mixed blessing), and we finally get a real half hour for lunch instead of twenty measly minutes.  No complaints there.

And I have to hand it to our staff for finding and showing a court reporter funny on youtube.  It's worth the bad quality.

Uh oh

Dear Brain

You can shut up now, and let the fingers do the work for you.  The fingers are in charge now, dear brain.  Follow them, trust them.  Let the memory of their muscles guide you.  Yes brain, the fingers are not always right, but that's okay, because neither are you.  The fingers know what to do, and they can even fix their own mistakes, if you just practice.  Congratulations brain, you can take a few months off from school and let the ears and fingers take over.   You're not needed right now, and frankly you tend to get in the way.

Court reporting vs captioning

A former graduate spoke at our school today.  She now owns and operates her own reporting firm.  Most of what she talked about regarded the details of dealing with lawyers and depositions.  Captioning is beginning to sound more and more appealing....

If yuo can raed tihs

I stumbled (with the app) on this a few years ago.  The principle operating in the text is sorta like the principle at work in steno theory.  Sort of.  But supposedly only about 50% of people can read the text (not sure if I buy that), so one's ability to read this could serve as a sort of litmus test for one's ability to grasp steno code.  Sort of.

if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

Failure

is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.

Morihei Ueshiba

A person who never made a mistake

never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein

I know you've heard it

a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

Ray Bradbury

On the cutting edge: Phoenix rising

I am so thankful I am learning stenography at this point in time.  From where I'm sittin, now is the ideal time to learn the new realtime theory, Phoenix theory.  Up until the very last few years, stenography writers always had a printer for the steno notes.  Not anymore.  Now laptops and a new theory have replaced the old writers and way of transcribing.  Those reporters who knew the old theory had to either learn the new technology or retire, thus opening up the profession to a new generation of realtime reporters.  Who knew my laziness and procrastination to embark on a real career would ultimately have an upside.  BAM!

I don't know if I could've handled having to learn a new theory after mastering an old one.  I feel for those making the switch, I truly do...

Green eggs and ham

I learned the mandatory spelling for the word egg today.  There's also lots of single-syllable rhyming going on in class.  We even have some Dr. Seuss books piled in a corner.  In honor of Dr. Seuss and eggs, I submit a funny:

The truth about practicing

My instructor said this during the first week of theory.  Takin it to heart.

The first day of the rest of your life

What an exciting week!!  I wasn't sure how I would take to learning the actual theory and method of stenography but I am pickin it up so far!  I know I have a long way to go, but the initial getting-to-know-your-writer period is over and I can say with a sigh of relief that I think I picked the right career move for the foreseeable future!  Whew!

I put quite a bit of thinkin into this possible career path before I committed the second half of my financial aid to a venture that is, ultimately, a bit of a gamble, but so far a sound one.  Can't live life without takin risks.

So what has been a fantasy is now becoming real.  Exciting and a bit scary at the same time!  But I really like my instructor and the support staff at school which is comforting and reassuring.

Monday really did feel like the first day of the rest of my life.  A warm fuzzy feeling.