#369 - More Dictation Experiments

I woke up this morning at 9 o’clock feeling rested and ready to work.

I felt somewhat relieved that today was Friday and I had the weekend to look forward to. I started my day by making myself an espresso with milk and sweeter, because I believed I would need the caffeine to help get me through the day.

The first bit of good news I got this morning was that all my working meetings were cancelled meaning I had the rest of the day to just get work done. My job today was to go through approvals and make revisions on the next episode paintings. The first batch of work was easier to work on, because I had done some revisions yesterday already, and I had sent back four paintings to be revised by the painter. The second batch however would require more work and brainpower.

At noon we were both ready to take a walk in our favourite spot in the Brontë provincial Park. It had rained the night before so we were expecting muddy conditions on the trail. It was a relief to see that the trail wasn’t too bad and Robyn lamented the fact that she had worn her her rain boots.

The weather was cool and there was a nice breeze which made the walking all the more enjoyable. We didn’t run into any cyclists today, probably because they were worried about the muddy conditions. We did however run into many dog walkers.

Upon returning home, I ran into a neighbour who told me that their car had been stolen out of the driveway the night before. The police had found the vehicle early this morning with a smashed window parked down by the lake. The vehicle was a Honda CRV and not the type of car people bother to steal when there were BMWs Lexis and Mercedes about.

The only reason I can see them stealing back our is because they already knew how to start the engine or because they just needed a ride possibly to commit a crime.

Returning to work with much of the same as before, revising and approving paintings. There was plenty of chatter on the team apps as other departments tried to finish her show and get it out to the client. Friday is often a delivery day in the animation industry.

One of the things we have to do before we send the work to the client’s is to run the show through the Harding test. This is a test that checks for the type of flickers that can cause certain types of seizures in children.

What causes something to pass or fail the test is often a matter of trial and error. Eventually we got a version that passed the Harding test and sent it out to the clients.

The day was cooler and I found as the day went on my hands became cold and started to ache. I thought perhaps they were fatigued from the multiple days of typing for 10+ hours. Speaking with Robyn, she stated that her knees were feeling the same way. Likely it’s just the weather and the dampness starting to seep into our not so young bones.

My friend John contacted me to ask if I would be one of his references to get a new passport. I agreed even though I am incredibly jealous that he and his wife are going to Jamaica without us. Nonetheless I’m a good friend and I said yes.

I spoke with my sister today about Thanksgiving dinner and our schedules just don’t line up this year. Will be going up to the cottage, and Perry sound, to spend a few days with Robyn’s side of the family at Thanksgiving.

It turns out my nephew Carter won’t be there either as he’ll be with his girlfriend and her family. And my niece Lindsay is having her wisdom teeth removed the day before and won’t be able to eat anything but pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. My brother-in-law Jeremy is cooking a prime rib that day which makes missing the occasion all the more painful. At least I won’t have to watch my niece eating pumpkin pie. Because who in their right mind likes pumpkin pie?

Today I’m experimenting with dictation again, although this time I’m upstairs in her bedroom broadcasting my computer screen onto our TV. This allows me to walk around the room and pace while I think my great thoughts. The mic many is working well and the only issue I had was that I need to make sure it is chosen as the microphone in Dragon before starting. It took me 15 minutes of horsing around to figure this out. I assumed it would just use whatever microphone the laptop was pointed to which was the DJI Mic. But it turns out you need to make sure you’re using the right profile. And sure enough when I went to look at the DJI Mike was listed as one of the options.

I really enjoy the ability to move around and type with my voice. Not being strapped down to a chair or computer is very liberating. In theory I could also be doing this and recording to my phone in the word up using the DJI mic transmitter. In the short period of time I was able to record almost a thousand words of this blog. It’s definitely getting faster to write this way and then getting used to speaking in a manner that the software can understand. One thing I do need to try and test out is how fast can the software understand what I’m saying continuously.

So right now I’m going to do a speed test run talking fairly fast and I’m going to see if it picks up on everything I say while walking around the room. The first test seemed to work very well and the sound quality of the DJI microphone is working really well. In fact, after all my initial struggles and experimentation, I’m quite impressed at how well this is working.

I was watching a YouTube video today talking about the best book on writing. The book that came up was won by John Gardner called The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. The YouTube creator went into great detail about the book and mentioned its pluses and minuses. I felt it was interesting enough to order a copy. Mind you I got a used version because it was so much cheaper. But it’s still qualified as a prime a delivery and will arrive tomorrow for my reading entertainment. And since I have nothing planned for tomorrow other than working on writing, I should have time to give it a look.

I also plan to read the short story that was at the back of another how to write a book. The book is called Brick by Brick by a Canadian author named Douglas Smith. I’m not sure I found his book illuminating as much as others would, simply because I had taken the courses that he obviously had as well with my mentor in writing teacher, Kristin Catherine rush and Dean Wesley Smith.

In fact I sent Dean Wesley Smith and email today checking to see if the adventure workshop that was meant to Take Pl. in Las Vegas in 2025 and then 2026 was going to be happening in January of next year. Since I paid for this in advance and have not received a refund with the hopes that the course would in fact a place it is one of the few writing expenses I can afford. And only because it’s prepaid. However having said that, I still need to book a flight and accommodations near the condo where they live and work in Las Vegas.

Robyn’s left to go do her second job and when she gets back I’m hoping we’ll get to watch a little bit of TV before the end of the night. Last night just being able to relax the two together was wonderful. I know we have an episode of mob land to watch this evening. It’s one of those shows I really enjoy. All the actors are fabulous not just Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan. All the supporting actors are great as well. It seems no matter how small the role they managed to find just the right person to play that character.

Slow horses also manages to pull this off. They have really good casting directors.

I’ve been thinking about one of the other benefits to setting up the microphone transmitter’s is that I can use it while I’m walking on the treadmill. That lets me get more writing done while I’m doing another activity. And if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know how much I love the idea of writing and what would otherwise be wasted time.

I’m also getting more used to talking out loud then I have been in the past. I still don’t want to do it in front of a crowd of even one, but I’m not as self-conscious about it as I was the first few weeks of trying this. They say it takes 20 to 30 hours of talking out loud to yourself before you become comfortable and proficient. Which when you think about it, isn’t really a lot of time to invest in a new skill.

Robyn went to pick up kiddo number two from school and brought back McDonald’s for dinner. I probably needed to meet something much more healthier than fast food, but I wasn’t going to complain about not having to cook anything this evening. I just haven’t had the energy to put into cooking, which is normally something I really enjoy doing.

However I will need to cook something to bring up for Thanksgiving at the cottage as well as being responsible for some of the meals that weekend. It’s what we did last time with each group taking a day and it worked out really well.

My thing is to make something ahead of time that would normally take too long to do at the cottage and bring it up. I brought chicken Ruby twice so far so I think will have to come up with something else.

Another thing that’s bothersome with dictating into Word and wanting to see the text at the same time is that it often gets hidden at the bottom of the page or is a bit tricky as a goes on to the second page. Working in something like Neo would be much better that has a typewriter view that keeps the cursor in the centre of the vertical axis at all times. Which makes way more sense if you think about it. I’m not sure why a big corporation like Microsoft hasn’t made that an option when they do everything else so well. I’m also surprised that somebody hasn’t written some code that allows you to bypass the standard view.

But for now, this set up is very useful, even though you occasionally need to be able to move the cursor or scroll the page. I suspect Dragon has commands for doing this but I haven’t bothered to learn what they are. I suppose I should learn some navigation commands for Dragon to execute and make my life easier. The question is will I remember any of these commands if I don’t use them every day?

But today’s little test has been a success, I have managed to write 2000 words in less than an hour while Robyn was at her second job. I count this as time wasted being used for something creative. And I’ve managed to hit my daily quota while pacing around my room talking to myself and experimenting with this wonderful new technology.

The more I keep using dictation, the more I realize how useful it is going to be. In fact it’s going to be a game changer as I ramp up in the new year in my quest to become a novelist.

Time to relax.

Until tomorrow.