New Flashcard Set! Multi-Word Phrases!

So, I am finally getting back into sharing my study tools with the rest of the world.  While I am not sharing my stenokeys shorthand with the rest of the world, I am more than willing to share my flash cards!  I now have a new bunch of cards to add to the set.  It is called Sten Ed Multi Word Phrases and has a bunch of multiple word briefs and phrases.  It took me a while to get all the cards copied over and even more time to add some new ones, but there are a total of 407 cards available for studying and a total of 213 cards that have been flagged for those who have time restraints.

I am also proud to say that I am using my stenokeys program to write this entry.  Sure, it is slower this way because I have to get my accuracy up with this machine, which has not received much attention due to school, but now I have a new use for it other just homework and studying.  Hopefully this will help me increase my speed and accuracy really soon.  It is really fun to use my machine on my blog though, and you have to admit that the fact this I am trying this is pretty cool.  Stenokeys is a whole new set of commands that are hard to memorize, and I am actually doing this pretty well even if it is miss and go at times.

Hope you have fun with the new flash card set!  I know I will.

I have life!

Alright, I know I've been neglecting my poor steno blog, but I have been really busy as of late. Between school and a series of medical problems that arose lately, I haven't had much time. I've been struggling to keep up with everything and still have a life. You know, friends, family, all that jazz. I can't be all steno 24/7.

So, I decided to start finding ways to combine studying, being able to relax, and my internet browsing together. Its been a while since I've been on Depoman, but I went back to see this thread where the topic came up about using the Steno Keyboard instead of using a QWERTY keyboard. I'm an avid gamer myself, especially on the PC, so it really caught my interest.

At the time, I really couldn't do any that was suggested because I was lacking a computerized steno machine. Over the spring break I purchased the Wave, and though I've had my moments of frustration with what my software can and can't do I finally found where we can agree with each other. StenoKeys is available through the student software which allows you to extend Case Catalyst into other programs such as e-mail, Microsoft Word, and a variety of text messaging services. It can probably do more, but I haven't tested it that far.

My cheap and sleazy friend gdwarner posted a dictionary to use with StenoKeys. It is a Phoenix Theory dictionary though, so make sure to do a full backup of all your dictionaries before you attempt to install it. A few things did indeed conflict with my theory, however, it wasn't that hard to do some simple editing to those conflicting entries. 


I now have a dictionary I am building just for gaming, which includes text acronyms such as LOL and ROFL, gaming races such as "elven," "drow," and "orc," and a bunch of software names. I know many court reporters would be horrified by this, but all work and no play makes Nev a very dull person. This will help me increase my speed and enjoy stenography even more. I'll also get vastly familiar with my software and my theory, so away I go with this. However, since I know many students who also game and want to use their stenograph as a PC keyboard, I will not be sharing my entries. If I can master this, I will likely  be the first person to do this, and I'm interested in perhaps making a bit of money on this endeavor. Its going to take hours, days, weeks, and months to perfect this for gaming and text messaging. So, if you're looking to do the same you're on your own. 

Its pretty funny though. I have a variety of cheat sheets up tac'd on my wall in front of my PC now. Its going to take ages to memorize everything I need to get this all together. I am looking forward to this though, and I'll be having a lot of fun. I have a friend who doesn't mind me using this to experiment on his messenger, so I'm looking forward to days of speed building through StenoKeys. 


If you'd like a starter dictionary for StenoKeys, here is a dictionary from the Phoenix Theory. It is only a starter, and likely you'll have to add more keys and also add more entries if you're a gamer. I don't think any sane theory is going to include the words "elven," "halfing," or "wvyern" in their dictionaries. So good luck if you want to as well.


Wish me luck!

Updated Jury Charge Briefs

New Briefs for the flashcard set StenEd Conflict Free Jury Charge/Q&A Briefs and Phrases.

As a matter of – SMAF
As a matter of record – SMAFRD
As a principle of law – SPROFL
As a result – SRULT
As follows – STPOLS
As I understand – SINDZ
As I understood – S*INDZ
As we understand – SWENDZ
As we understood – SW*ENDZ
Assault and battery – SAUB
Beyond a reasonable doubt – Y-RD
Beyond all doubt – Y-LD
Beyond all reasonable doubt – Y-RLD
Beyond any reasonable doubt – Y-RND
Beyond every reasonable doubt – Y-FRD
Beyond reasonable doubt – Y*RD
Bodily harm – BORM
Burden – BURD
Burden of proof – BR-P
Burden of proving – BRPG
Cause of action – KAUBGS
Character – KARBGT
Contract – KR-T
Contracted – KR-TD
Contribute – KRIBT
contributorily negligent - /KREUPBLGT
contributory negligence - /KREUPBLG
Deadly weapon - DWEP
Defense Attorney - /TKO*ERPB
defense attorney - /TKOERPB
Distinguish - /TKWEURB
Great bodily harm – GRORM
in other words - /TPHORDZ
informed – N-FD
informer – N-FR
informing – N-FG
informs – N-FS
irrelevant – IRLT
permit – PERMT
physician – TP-GS
preliminary - /PHREUPL/TPHAEUR
preliminary examination - /PRAOEBGS
preliminary hearing - /PRAOERG
preliminary injunction - /PRAOEPBGS
 

Flashcard Update: Jury Charge/Q&A

especially - ES/PERB/LI
figure - FIG/YUR
interrogatory- SPWROEUG

P.S. Yes, I'm still alive. Just very busy. 

Flashcards Update: Congressionals and Court

The new Congressional Brief and Phrases Flashcard Set is coming along steadily. It now contains 214 official Sten Ed Flashcards. I'm not adding my own personal dictionary entries into them though, but I'll list the new briefs I've found or made up if you'd like to look at them or use them. Suggestions always help! So If you know a source for briefs or have some of your own feel free to comment. I consider this a group effort, especially with Court Reporting Bound, Steno Poet, and Depomans' suggestions.

From the Congressional Briefs I've looked up I also found ones that would also benefit the Jury Charge and Q&A Flashcards of Briefs and Phrases set, so I added them in. The Jury Charge Set now has a total of 360 official Sten Ed Flashcards, and for those with time constraints there are only 264 of them flagged. Hope you enjoy!

Another great place to get briefs is NCRA's Steno Briefs Page, and I will probably hit them up next for getting more custom briefs for Congressionals. So far though looking up words that are listed just to double check is really helping find shorter, and official, briefs from my theory so I don't know how many I'll develop on my own. I'll list them though!

Here are the ones I developed or took from Downey CSR's Briefs and Phrases Sets. I haven't gone through all the sets yet, and some of these I made on my own. Only use these briefs and phrases if they are compatible with your theory and your software! A lot of these I derived from other Steno Sets in my own dictionary, so they go along with the Sten ED theory well.


AL/LAOEUS    allies
BAOUR    bureau
BAOUR/KRAES    bureaucracy
D*EM    Democrat
DEM    democrat
IND/PENSi    independence
IND/PENT    independent
KLOURS    Clerk of the House
KON/SNUS    consensus
KONGS/NAL    congressional
KUMT    incumbent
MAUJ    majority
MEK    Members of Congress
MEKT    Members of the Congress
NAKT    enact
NAKT/-MT    enactment
R*EPBL    Republican
REPBL    republican
SK-FRNS    subconference
SKM-T    subcommittee
STAOUNL    constitutional
STIT/WENT    constituent
STIT/WENTS    constituents
SUB/SDAER    subsidiary
THOR    author
TR-RB/RER    treasurer
W*FPLT/W*FPLT    World War
Ways and Means Committee    WAIMS

Dictionary Developing

So I'm starting to develop my own dictionary since I'm out of theory. I'm mainly looking for Congressional briefs and phrases at the moment. Steno Poet, from http://stenopoet.blogspot.com/, told me a website that had a list of Congressional briefs that could be added to your dictionary. This website is http://dascourtreporting.homestead.com/DOWNEYCSR.html and is owned by Downey CSR.

I've been going through the pages one by one and seeing what works and what doesn't. These are ones that I added, inspired by their pages.These are not official briefs from StenEd, so if you'd like to use them you'll have to add it.

allies - Al/LAOEUS
congressional - KONGS/NAL
constituent - STIT/WENT
constituents - STIT/WENTS
constitutional - STAOUNL
Democrat - D*EM
democrat - DEM
petroleum - PET/YUM
Republican - R*EPBL
republican - REPBL
World War - W*FPLT W*FPLT

Flashcards: Work in Progress

I'm working on getting some Congressional and Legislative Terms into my flashcards. A new set, which will be called StenED Congressional Briefs, is a work in progress. It will take me a long time because all of these briefs, phrases, and words I'm having to look up on my own. I'm also going to have to create a lot of these long phrases on my own because Sten Ed doesn't have briefs for them. Luckily we have Brief-It in Case Catalyst, so I'll start working on conflict free legislative terms on my own. If you guys have any terms or briefs you have for Congressionals, even if you created them on your own, please let me know! I'll not only add them to my dictionary, providing they are conflict free with my dictionary, I'll add them to my flashcards. You'll get full credit for what you provide!

You can go ahead and check them out (click here), but note that its a work in progress and will take me a long time to complete. I'm doing everything manually in searches because my school hasn't provided us Congressional Briefs, and the reason is is that there aren't very many.

One I created on my own:

Clerk of the House - KLOURS, because Clerk of the Court is - KLOURT

Flashcards Update: Jury Charge/Q&A

Yesterday I ran into a few words I had a hard time with so I'm adding them to my flashcards:

appropriate - PROEPT
determine - TKERPL
emphasis - EFRP/SEUS
incumbent - EUPB/KUPL/PWEPBT
legislate - HREGT
legislative - HREGT/T*EUF
legislature - LEJ/SLAEU/KHUR

There are now 292 flashcards in the Jury Charge/Q&A Briefs and Phrases Flashcard Set. 

Day Eight - I'm Alive!

I know you all haven't heard from me in sometime because of the fact I headed out to see some family. I stayed with my aunt with my mother so we could play with my baby cousin. He is growing up so fast and he is trying to get my name down. I'm 'MAOEU MAOEU' in sound, which for those who aren't in my theory is sort of like 'My My'. I think its sort of cute, but it makes me irritated that on Sunday he got my brother's name down in one try. Then again, my brother usually doesn't give him attention and cruelly ignores how desperate the baby wants to play with him. So the baby has to work extra hard to get his attention.

Saturday night was torture though. I didn't realize my aunt was addicted to leaving the wood burning stove on at night to keep the house warm and leaving the floor heaters on. I realize she lives in the mountains and it gets really cold there, but my goodness we were baking. She also leaves the baby's music on and turns up the baby monitor, so we have to hear it too at night. I didn't sleep at all, because my nose stuffed up from the wood burning all night long and how hot it was. I ended up on the couch, but hey I finally got to play with my baby cousin and he enjoyed it.

He didn't realize we had stayed the night though, and I scared the bajeebers out of him when I snuck up behind him and ticked his sides. He thought it was hilarious, and had a good time throwing pillows, showing us the rabbits and horses outside, and running around. I guess we wore him out so much that when he went to his grandparents house after we left he crashed out on their floor. That's really hard to do too! Usually he gets second wind and starts terrorizing the house. I felt proud.

I had school the next day so I didn't get on. I was too busy trying to get my stuff together, like my new Hello Kitty binder since my old limegreen one fell apart, and figuring out what to take and what not to take. Of course, I took my dictionaries and my finger drill book but I left my theory books behind. It felt really weird, and it was funny to know that the other girls brought their theory books along with them just because it was weird not having their books in their bag.

I am so happy that my work load has downsized, so I have a lot more time to practice on my own. Instead of having rip and read due every day we head into class we only have it due on the next Monday after it was assigned. We have five hours of audio due, which means 1 hour on Monday, 2 hours on Wednesday, and 3 hours on Frinday. Whats great about it is that we have choice from our school's audio database online! No more audio CD's with a freaking monotone voice. On top of that we have 2 weeks to turn in transcript takes instead of just one week, so we have more time for everything so we can focus on weak points in our writing if we want to. I'm so thrilled! Now I realize why the higher-speed students looked at us with pity. They were so much more independent than we were and free from the iron, guiding hand of theory.

Today I have to get 3 hours done of audio done before tomorrow, but hurrah I get to choose what I want to turn in now!

Yes! Yes!

I didn't realize why my school called theory bootcamp. I thought everyone had to do as much work as we do. Its amazing being in 60-80!
 
Our rip and read is due every Monday now instead of everyday we go to class. We don't have a book, we have handouts for rip and read, so no more $230 books. Our requirements handouts are due only on Monday, so no more handouts everyday. We have 2 weeks to turn in transcripts instead of only one week, so no more fighting over who gets the computers and who doesn't. We have 2 teachers instead of one teacher, so now we get to be exposed to more voices. We have an audio database now instead of dictation tapes with one single voice.

Oh, and the best thing is audio isn't piled on us anymore and we can choose what we want to work on from our database. We have 1 hour of audio due on Mondays, 2 hours of audio due on Wednesday, and 3 hours of audio due on Friday. Sure, its more audio but I can choose.

Isn't it nice when you realize you're not being lead by the hand anymore, and why all the other students in higher speeds look at theory students with pity because they're more independent?

Day Seven - Frustration, Frustration, Frustration

Yesterday really sucked. I decided I was going to go for perfect notes from my Legal Terminology book. The chapter I was going over, chapter one, was going over different courts and had terms in it like 'writ of certiorari' and was impossible. I was very frustrated when I had it all done and perfect in the vertical notes, only to realize all notes you make even if you didn't save them into the file are recorded and save into manage notes.

I was unsure how to fix this and posted a very frustrated post on Depoman, hoping that I'd wake up the next morning and get some nice answers. Unfortunately when I checked this morning I didn't get a lot of responses except from a few select few I know I can always depend on when I have a question, and bless their souls for putting up with me and my sick, twisted sense of humor and comic relief. The rest didn't exactly like my Jeff Dunham reference joke and took that as anti-sentiment towards Stenograph. Cindi, who is very popular and well liked, was kind enough to stand up for me. She understood I was just frustrated and was trying to laugh it off.

They don't seem to understand that I know there's a lot of Stenograph representatives and people there, but when I critic a company or software I don't base it in their power or the people behind it. I base it on if the software works and if the services it provides are good for what I need it for. I was mostly frustrated because I couldn't follow their help desk guide to manage notes, which failed to mention that the manage notes features were not included and I couldn't fix them unless I had a professional version. I soon explained that, but if that doesn't cool things over I always have my trusty blog. If they don't like what I have here, don't read!

I'm not shy about my opinions. I deal with and understand others' opinions well enough, I don't see why they can't deal with mine. Oh well, I just take it at face value and move on. I come out of it a little bit wiser and nothing is better than honesty. Honesty is the best policy, and hiding behind political correctness isn't my way. I suppose I'm always leaning too much weight on broken reeds, but its never done me harm.

As for today, the good news was I got a 4.0 on my grades this quarter! I got A's on all my classes, and got even an A+ in my Legal Terminology class. Its fantastic to know I did well, even though I took an extra class that pretty much sucked the life out of me. Instead of only taking the usual 3 classes, I took 4 because it was the same price as 3 and I figured I'd have the time. Boy was I wrong, but somehow I made it though. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, then go find someone who's life has given them vodka and have a party." -Ron White

Anyway, I did some updates and tomorrow I'm heading out to go see my aunt and her precious baby. I love that kid, he's my world. Though I admit he scares me to death. He's only 2-years-old and already knows how to get his own food, thinks he can cook, fetches his mother steak knives (OMG!!), and one day decided it would be funny to throw a flashlight through his grandparent's window. I just hope my machine doesn't get the brunt of the damage one day... If he snapped the keys of my laptop I'd probably snap his fingers. (Not really)

Flashcards Update: New Flashcard Sets

I added a couple new flashcard sets today. I would have told you earlier today if it hadn't been for blogger deciding to delete the flashcard page instead, and so I had to go back and repair it completely. Sorry its not as good as it used to be; it sure looked cool, but for some reason blogger is refusing to allow me to change the font on the table. We'll have to deal with it for now.

The first new flashcard set is StenED Contractions. They cover words like 'hereto,' 'whereabouts,' 'anything', 'anybody,' etc. They are from lesson 39 in the StenEd book, and so I flagged the ones that were most important according to my teacher and mandatory to memorize. They all will come around one time or another, so memorizing them is probably a good idea for everyone. There are a total of 92 flashcards.

The second new flashcard set isn't exactly new. It is Sten Ed High Frequency Phrases, and only covers multiple-word briefs and phrases, mandatory contractions, and mandatory compounds. This should make it easier for those who only want to practice those that are required by their teachers and theories. Its a total of 232 flashcards. I'll go through and flag the more important phrases, contractions, and compounds for those who have limited time.

My set StenED's High Frequency Words and Phrases also got updated and has a total of 471 flashcards in it due to the added compounds like I said I would, but I flagged the more important ones so they are separated from the others. The required words and phrases only include 224 cards, so if you have limited time only do the flagged ones. That's a lot of flashcard updates for those who use them. Hope you enjoy!

Flashcard Update: Flagging Flashcards

So I realized today I tend to add a lot of words in that may not be so important or mandatory. I decided to use the flag feature a little bit more so that I could separate some others, especially in the vastly popular Jury Charge and Q&A section and the High Frequency Briefs and Phrases section.

In the Jury Charge section I flagged the mandatory and recommended briefs from my teacher and assignments. So instead of doing a total 285 briefs and phrases that could be useful, but not necessarily needed, you can do a shorter route and only do 244 briefs and phrases which are vastly important. I hope this helps out for those who don't have as much time as I do to warm up.

In the High Frequency Briefs and Phrases section I mostly checked phrases, contractions, and words that are combined like 'everywhere', 'somewhere', and 'everything.' People really mess up on those so instead of doing a total of 376 briefs, phrases, and words you can go down to only 175 phrases and briefs. These will be very helpful, and again will help out those who don't have as much time as I do to warm up.

I'm also going to add all the combined words like 'everywhere', 'somewhere', and 'everything. in a few minutes in a new flashcard set and  in the High Frequency Briefs and Phrases set. These are high frequency and very important to memorize according to my teacher.

Update Flashcards: Jury Charge/Q&A

I just did an update to my Jury Charge and Q/A lists. I found a new more briefs from Case Catalyst's brief it by writing from my Legal Terminology book. I'm finding a lot of good briefs that will probably come up in the future.

appellate – PAELT
appellate court – PL-KT
certiorari – SERS/RAIR
court of appeals – KPAELS
executive – KPEBG/T*EUF
federal court – FROURT
legislative – LEGT/*EUF
state government – STKPWOFT
superior – SPER/YOR
supreme court – SPOURT

Were added to StenEd Conflict Free Jury Charge/Q&A Briefs and Phrases on March 25, 2011 at 1:48 PM PST. These briefs were from StenEd's Brief It only green words, which means they are official from the theory dictionary only. There are now a total of 285 Flashcards in this set.

Day Six - Thunder

Today was so-so. I wish I could say it had been better, but if it wasn't for the storm I would have had a better day. We were supposed to go to Monterrey Bay, but because of the 53 MPH winds and my brother being sick we didn't go. Sigh, so I watched Scariest Places on Earth today which was on Marathon on SyFy. For a while that was fine until I got bored and decided to do some Wii Yoga again.

I didn't do as well as usual because in the middle of my workout the thunder, lightening, and hail hit. I was sort of like 'What the hell is that sound?' and in the middle of the Half-Moon pose I looked out the window to see hail just pouring from the sky. Not long later I saw a huge shot of lightening on the sky and whoop, the power went out in the middle of my session. I decided to cut it short since it was terribly distracting and way too cold for my joints to go along with me. My scores were horrible due to it, or perhaps it was the drive-in food saying 'Haha, you shouldn't have eaten me.'

So here I am going to just work on my machine instead. Not like I haven't missed it, but 20 minutes of Wii Fit time doesn't amount much to my usual 30.

Free Blog Advertising

As a blogger myself I understand how difficult it can be to get your blog an audience. While Google and Yahoo are fantastic searching tools it can be very difficult to be listed on them. After trying for quite a bit I found that a tool, called Pingy, is a mass advertising tool basically. Many blogs ping off a server every time they post something new, and that is how you’re indexed into search websites. Pingy subscribes you to these servers, for free, under keywords that you would like to be searched for.

Since I have a lot of friends who are also bloggers I decided I’d post this. I started realizing where I was getting my traffic from when I kept looking at my Traffic Stats. Most of my traffic came from Michelle Diehl’s blog since she had linked to me, and of course Depoman’s forum, but someone had put my blog on Pingy. I found I was getting at least three or four people to my blog from there and wondered what it was.

After a while I became pretty familiar with it. You need a list of links you want Pinged from your blog. First, get all the main pages from your blog like your profile, your main posts, labels, and any side pages like my ‘Copyright’ and ‘Dictation’ pages. After that start gathering sub-links to your blog, like any labels such as ‘Personal’, ‘Audio’, or ‘Dictation’ you may have. Copy and paste all these URLs into a notepad file. You can post up to 100 URL’s on Pingy to get yourself listed.

Example URL’s:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Neva-afterTheory
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheCourtReportersOatmeal
http://neva-aftertheory.blogspot.com/
http://neva-aftertheory.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-five-movies.html

Once you have these URL’s stick them into Word and put them in alphabetical order to better organize them all. It makes it easier to know if you double posted the same link more than once. Now, think of a couple of keywords you want to be known for like ‘Court Reporting Student Blog’, ‘Free StenEd Study Tools,’ or ‘Funny Student Blog.’ List about four or five of these for you to be known by.

After you’ve done this go to http://pingywebedition.somee.com/ and post all your URL’s in the first box, up to 100 URL’s you want advertised, and make sure they’re all proper links. You know the usual http:// and www. websites with the .com at the end. After doing this go to the second box and place in the keywords which you want to be known for. Make sure they’re all proper search terms that people may look for.

Next press the button that says ‘Ping.’ It will show a progress bar with how many URLs you posted and how much has been pinged already. Depending on how many you posted it could take 10 minutes to an hour because of their bandwidth limitations. Pingy really needs the funds right now, so if you can press one of their ads please do so. If you do this though I am not responsible for any viruses or websites you get sent to, this is only to support them. If you do it just make sure you have a good pop-up blocker and updated anti-virus software.

When it is done the bar will be at 100 percent and you can exit out of the window. Voila, you should start getting an expanded audience depending on what people are looking for. Court Reporting Students are pretty low on the net, at least for social blogging and networking, and not many people are interested in our blurbs. However, it’ll put you on Google and Yahoo for those who want to know about your blog and type of information.

Hope this helps you other bloggers out! It’s worked for me, including on the Court Reporter’s Oatmeal who reached over 1,000 views in the time it was around before I left. Now I’m hoping to Ping up Nev’a-After Theory.

Day Five - Movies!

So I decided to follow my doctor's advice, and so I left my burnt hand alone. Second degree burns are serious stuff and I really don't want any scaring or any more blistering than I may have in the future. So today I started going through my DVR and watching some stuff I've really been neglecting to watch. Its 71% full still, even though I watched quite a bit today.

I have a thing for Comedies and Horror movies. I know, odd combination, but I find both strangely hilarious. I watched some Bill Engval Comedy-Specials. Between him and Jeff Foxworthy I find a relation, because my family is sometimes like what they describe. Jeff Foxworthy has the kids described, and Bill Engval has the rest described. The stuff Bill's wife puts him through is just awful, but makes for a fantastic laugh. I also watched Jon Reep's Methro Jethro with my mother and I was dying. His Gym-Nakedness Etiquette is hilarious, and when he starts talking about his father's very poor choices I die.

For example, his father makes up half of his skit. I can totally relate, since my father isn't the wisest man on the block.But like any good man he tries, he just does a fairly bad job sometimes. One day we were all in the house just relaxing when my father decided he was going to drain our inflatable pool "the fast way." He decided he was going to cut a slit in the side of the pool, and through that small cut it would slowly drain away-- or so he thought. All of a sudden we heard "Holy S***!" and this huge rush of water. Here comes my father running into the house with this wave of water from the split pool following behind him.

Our backyard was probably flooded with about 4-5 inches of water and was slowly draining into our neighbors' yards. My father warned both of them, and neither really cared. One needed their yard watered anyway, and the other had a water pump to get the excess water out of his pool. My father still can't live it down, and so every time Jon Reep starts talking about his father I immediately imagine my father doing the same thing. My mother, who was in tears watching his stand-up, did the same thing.

As for horror, I decided to watch 'The Exorcist' which was the extended cut Spike put out. It was pretty good, but curse those damn advertisements. They just have to put the advertisements three or four notches of volume above the movie to make sure you're awake and watching their advertisements. I always imagine some guy screaming into a megaphone "Hey! You should buy our products! HEY!" when I run into these. Thank goodness for mute and fast forward on the DVR.

I also managed to take a shower without screaming with my burns. I did pretty well I think, but I didn't allow my burns to touch the hot water directly. It was interesting washing my hair with one hand. I'm hoping it is a experience I never have to repeat again. No more microwave burns...

Day Four - Klutz!

Well, day four and disaster strikes. For those of you who were familiar with my old blog, The Court Reporter's Oatmeal, you'll recall how the blog obtained its name. I put the oatmeal a tad bit too long in the morning, and tripped in my morning, groggy state. I burned my hand on the oatmeal which flipped over on my hand, but I was lucky enough to shake it off and move on. After a few days of rest I was fine.

Sadly, I cannot say I learned anything from the first time. Today I had just come home from one doctor when I decided to have some lunch. I decided to have some Cup of Noodle Soup to save a bit of money and popped it in the microwave, again, a tad bit too long. When I took it out I discovered I put a little too much water in the cup and it splashed into the crease of my thumb and down over my wrist. I jumped, which gave me a second splash of scalding, burning water before I set the cup down on the counter.

I was not supposed to put ointment on Second Degree Burns, which I did not know at the time, because it burns the burn even more than it already was. By the time I washed it off I was already in extreme pain, and my cheeks were more wet than my hand which was under the sink. My primary doctor was not in, so I was sent to an Urgent Care Center.

I was told I had second degree burns and was prescribed a cream to help soothe it, which I discovered my parents were well familiar with when I was a child. Supposedly, I walked into my mother's curling iron still hot in her hand. So apparently hot things and Nev do not mix at all.

Sigh, so no practice today and no exercise. I'll start up again in a couple of days but I was told to give the hand a rest for the next five days and use it as little as possible. Aren't I a good listener? Hopefully by tomorrow I'll feel well enough to just pick up and move on, but if not I'm not going to push it. If I don't feel up to par tomorrow to exercise, I'll see you guys again in a few days I guess. 

Day Three - Sucess!

I'm starting to see some success in my Wii Workouts. I couldn't believe when I did the standing knee pose that I got 100 pts on my balance. I felt pretty successful, since a four days ago I couldn't get anything over 80 pts. It was a great feeling. Even though I took a rest from it yesterday, I think exercising everyday that I'm able to is really going to strengthen my posture and my wrists. I'm noticing less pain after typing for long periods of time, and I'm noticing my stamina is starting to improve.

I know four days isn't a big successful achievement, but doing an hour every day for that long is a lot more than I've ever done. I've never felt a real motivation until I started realizing that a hurt wrist and bad posture means early retirement for court reporters in the profession, and never reaching that big 200 WPM goal for students. I even added some Wii Bowling and Donkey Kong bongos in as a reward. The Donkey Kong racing really takes the wind out of me. Its harder than it looks.

I don't have as much time to blog since I need to hop in the shower. My mother and I are going to head down to Target, and nobody wants to smell my after-workout pits. ...Sorry, excuse the image.

I'll come back and write more later after practicing on my machine.

Day Two - Exhausted

I'm absolutely exhausted right now. Last night my area of the valley got up to 50 MPH winds, and I couldn't get a wink of sleep. I decided to read to see if that would calm my mind down enough and it didn't. At 1 AM in the morning the power went off and stayed off until the morning. It was wonderful stumbling around in the dark a few times. I thought about writing another blog entry during this time, but even though I have a netbook I depend on the family router and WIFI.

I'm getting ready to get into practicing at the machine after a weekend off, but part of me wants to take a nap. I'll probably practice getting some weak spots out of my writing and take a nap then. Sometimes after writing for a while you wake up and those concepts are drilled in. I probably got less than 3-4 hours of sleep though last night due to the wind and extreme noise, so I'm just going to write from hardcopy. I still have my theory book, and I'm planning on keeping it for a while.

I'm going to write from my book and try to get perfects all the way down the sentences I choose. If I don't get them perfect I'm going to start all over again. No more miss and go with the asterisk key; I'm a bit trigger happy when it comes to fixing my errors. I should be depending on getting it right the first time. When I get a set of perfects I'm going to print them out and stick them in a binder. Later on I can go back and read the steno.

I'll probably read the perfect steno sheets on our trip Thursday. We're heading out to Monterey to have a nice family lunch. I'm looking forward to eating some smoked salmon, or some yummy clam chowder. The weather is supposed to be a bit cold, so I'm going to dress warm and hope for the best. Wish me luck.

As for exercising I'm going to give it a beak just for today because my body is just too tired from last night being so insomnia stricken. I'll start back up tomorrow, unless somehow I get a second wind. I doubt I will. 

Day One - Wii Fit Yoga

Last night I started doing some of the Wii Yoga poses. I have the original Wii Fit game, not the Wii Fit Plus, but it does well enough for what I need it for. I tried out a few poses, and I found ones that really focus on my wrists, arms, and posture.

I start with the standing knee pose, which requires you to balance on one foot while pulling your knee in to your chest. On inhale you pull the knee into your chest, and on exhale you relax a bit. It stretches out your legs, makes you focus on your posture to stay in the yellow dot, and also helps strengthen your wrists because majority of the weight from relaxing your knee goes into your hands.

The next pose I do is the palm tree. I find this one extremely difficult to keep balanced. You lift up your heels into an almost tip-toe position and then bring your arms outstretched behind you, palms up. It really helps stretch out your arms and shoulders. Its just difficult to avoid falling on your face.

The third pose, which is vastly popular with those who enjoy yoga, is the warrior. Its a bit difficult to explain, but you place one foot facing forward and then stretch your other leg out behind you. You then turn your other foot and make it face horizontal. Then you bend your knee to focus some of your weight on the foot facing forward and stretch your arms out. It not only stretches your arms, but your legs and back.

I then switch to strength training, and go into the torso twists. You stand straight and stretch your arms out to each side. Then you begin to twist horizontally first at 3 reps, and then go diagonally for another 3 reps. I do 6 reps of each and usually this tires me out and makes my shoulders real tense. I need to get better strength in my arms and wrists. This will help.

After that I play different aerobic and balance games until I get a total of 30 minutes. This usually takes an hour between doing the daily body test, watching the explanations, and changing where the Wii board is sitting. Sometimes I get out Wii Sports and play a bit of bowling when I'm done with the Wii Fit.

Yesterday I did pretty well, but this morning when I went to do it again I noticed my shoulders were sore. I didn't push into any extra games, but focused on my Yoga and Strength training. I really felt the burn in my shoulders.

I'm now going to get to practicing on my machine. Hopefully I won't feel any pain, but I'm going to be working on my Wave, not my manual Stentura. The Wave has a lot lighter touch than the elephant stomp Stentura.I shouldn't feel any tension from working on my machine, only from my new Yoga Workouts.

Nev'a-After Theory

So I'm Nev, and I've finally passed through six months of court reporting theory. I am looking forward to getting ahead with my 60-80 class. I am already getting into 80 WPM takes. I have spring break away from school, and I'm starting to notice some fatigue in my wrists and in my body. I know its bad, and I need a new direction to keep myself going and to prevent burnout. I started watching some videos on MSN the other day, and this one (clicky) really piqued my interest. It gave some pointers for those who truly want success such as I do in the court reporting profession.

"You know how good it feels when you devote your energy to the things you care about, but in order to keep doing everything that matters to you it’s essential that you care for yourself first." ~ Anna Lappe

"The first key is recognition: Check in with your body. How are you feeling? How is your stomach, are there butterflies? How is your anxiety level, do you feel peaceful? If you say no, that you're off the edge, you better do something about it right away. The first step is to check your priorities. Are you giving away time to things that don't matter? Have you left time for things that are important?" ~ Joan Borysenko

"The second thing is friendship. Most of the data on stress reduction shows that we are the medicine for each other...or pets. I've got a couple of dogs even when friends are nowhere to be found if I pet them those dogs my brain hormones change and the stress level goes down." ~ Joan Borysenko

"...The third thing, its gratitude! Can you imagine if you just got up in the morning and list five things you're grateful for, or before bed you think of one thing you're grateful for that you never really thought much about before. It actually reduces your stress, it improves your immune function, and it makes you more motivated for success. ~ Joan Borysenko

"Centering and Meditation is very important for preventing burnout. Whether you sit and meditate, or do yoga or Qi Gong, it brings you into the present moment so you can let go of fear and worry." ~ Joan Borysenko

"Diet and Exercise, you have to eat right and exercise. Nine servings of fruits and vegetables, and lots of whole grains, will change your body chemistry and put you in a much better mood. And exercise is practically a <unknown>, I can tell you that the Joan who goes out for a bike ride, and the woman who comes back are two totally different people. All my cares disappear." ~ Joan Borysenko

I decided to follow these five pointers in my goal to reach 200 WPM in our class. I'm hoping that by including these in my studies I'm going to start improving myself and getting closer to my goals. I have been especially neglecting  myself and my health, so exercising will be a must through this. I'm probably going to get my Wii Fit out again, which is terribly cheesy, but its a good fun start and it has a timer to keep track of how much time you've spent on it. I think by spending an hour on the Wii and its Yoga/Strength exercises, four hours on my machine doing various activities, and focusing an hour a day on writing this blog will help me improve and get myself back in better focus. Hopefully it works, and wish me luck.