One (full) Week to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.

This is not him. It's the First Doctor.

About a week and a half to go.

I'm still really burnt out on talking about the attempt.  Seriously, if it weren't for the love and support of Mr. Stenoray, I'd greatly slack on practicing because OMG WHO CARES it's so close in time and it's not like i'll gain any more speed this close and aslkdfja;sldkfj.  Not to mention without his encouragement, I wouldn't be in this race to begin with.  Love you, Babe.

Will I have the speed? I don't know. I'm really hoping to at least turn in a 370. On a good day I can get some stuff, and the tests will be only 60 seconds apiece, so we'll see what happens.

I'm looking forward to celebrating Thursday evening after it's over. :)

Two Weeks to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.


I must admit... I'm sick of hearing about the world record attempt.  I don't want to talk about it.  I'm so glad it's getting closer so it can be OVER with. I mentioned the Oatmeal's Blerg last week, and I've got a combination of the Blerg with Grumpy Cat instilled in my brain.  I'm still practicing. I'm just not excited about it, and I DON'T want to talk about it.

But of course that's no excuse to slack on practice.

Three Weeks to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.


Getting closer.  On a good 370 I can get something for everything and there's stretches where I'm getting it.

Other'n that, there's not a whole heck of a lot to report.

See you next week!

ETA: I thought I was done until good ol' Matthew 
Inman of The Oatmeal posted this excellent cartoon about the Blerch. It's geared toward runners, but the Blerch definitely exists for speedbuilders.  Check it out, and be sure to read the whole thing--it's five pages.

Four Weeks to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.

August 8 is getting closer.  I'm getting closer as well to the target speed, but only slightly closer.  O, had I only six more months! I had a particular thought a while back that no matter how much I'd practice, when it came time, I'd wish I'd practiced more.  Well, I guess I feel that to an extent, but I also don't feel that I've slacked off. Even during busy times.

What I'm really feeling, which I feel after EVERY SINGLE speed and/or realtime contest, is "I must shorten my writing even more."

Did I use the Fast & Furious movies analogy before?  Finger speed is like the can of nitrous that Vin Diesel or Paul Whatshisname (Walker?) uses in the races.  It's good for short bursts, but you don't wanna be using that stuff all the time or it'll harm your system. (I think. IANACM.)

Short writing is the engine.  You want it strong and powerful, and it'll sustain you over long periods of time.

"Briefs make me hesitate!" Then you haven't LEARNED the brief.  Me, I tend to hesitate more over multistroke words than with one-stroke words. Briefs and a shorter theory makes each job easier for me.  I'm always on the lookout for multistroke words to reduce to one stroke, and I review briefs with my flashcard app.

"I don't have TIIIIIIIIIIIME to learn briefs!"  Yes, you do. You just haven't found/won't find it. If you have ten seconds to write out a few briefs on a sticky note and pop that sucker on your steno machine, you have time.  If you're watching American Idle (see what I did there) or any television at all (which you're not captioning), you have time.  If you're working on supper and you have to let the food simmer for 20 minutes, there's a bit of time.  Post a few briefs by the frickin' TOILET ferkryinoutloud!!!  If you want your job to be easier, your scoping faster, and your realtime better, you'll find the time to improve your skill. That's what professionals do.

Okay, I just went all Larry Winget on y'all. Sorry about that (kinda). I can't help but feel so strongly about this though, because this past year and a half of speed practice and shortening my writing has made SUCH a difference in work!  I have long, exhausting days, sure.  However, my feed just gets better and better, the easy jobs are more frequent, and the killer jobs are farther between.  That's been my experience.

I sat down to begin this post not really knowing what to write, and this is what happens :)

Five Weeks to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.

As I write this, it's five weeks and four days to go until the Guinness attempt, 4:30 pm, August 8, 2013. It's open to the public. Come a bit early to the NCRA convention and have a watch.

I blogged later than normal last week (and forgot to click "publish" until just now), so I don't have much to share except my thoughts.  I believe I'm fast enough right now to not completely blow 370, but not fast enough that I'm confident in it.  I've been doing speed practice at approximately 500 wpm -- not at all getting it -- but after about a year and a half of training, I know what I must do at this point!  I must increase the speed. I'm thinking 530-550.

The problem with making the speed so high is that as I speed up audio, even with the newfangled technology that makes the dictation not sound like Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, the words aren't quite as clear.  But you gotta do what you gotta do!

Six Weeks to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.

Yikes! I almost forgot a blog post this week.  I had a busy busy BUSY weekend, with a partial sick day plus an out-of-town trip.  I'm getting caught up on work and stuff, but it also means I'm behind on practice.  I've had a few jobs this last weekend where I wrote for several hours, so when my hands are exhausted, I do not practice, or I practice very little.  Not much value in breaking any world record if it means my hands get stress injured.

So we fall off the horse; we get back on again.  It won't be long now.

August 8, 4:30.  Not long now.

Seven Weeks to Go

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.

What's really to update? Not a whole lot. I am getting closer and closer to the minimum speed of 370.

There's going to be a total of eight takes of one minute apiece. Two at 400, two at 390, two at 380, and two at 370.  After dictation, we'll scope 'em up and see what we got.

I practiced "slow" on Saturday, and 370 is quite sloppy and mostly indecipherable, but I got something for everything. I didn't look at it too hard to see if I could make sense out of the slop since we had stuff going on, but it's starting -- STARTING -- to feel attainable. Oh, if I only had a couple more months.  (I think I'd feel this way no matter how long I had to practice.)