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The Road to the Speed Contest
June 30, 2008: I began practicing for the 2009 Speed and Realtime Contests. I took out my tapes, got my computer ready. I'm also using Realtime Coach to build my accuracy and my dictionary. The Realtime Contest can have some killer material.
My practice began with 240 QA speed building practice. I actually did better than I thought I was going to do. During the practice, I felt the need to shorten my writing more than I usually do. I also tucked my endings, like WAEUGT for waiting. I also briefed the names and places mentioned in the take after writing them out first.
Then, I did 45 minutes of Realtime Coach practice which was a total eye opener. Some of my statistics were dismal. However, the material on RTC is a lot tougher than any of the tapes that I have. I plan on doing a lot of work with the Barrier Busters section of RTC to improve my accuracy. What's the sense of writing if it's not accurate? I also have the QA Performance Accelerator and the Captioning version of the same series for my literary practice. And somehow I see myself purchasing the legal opinion very soon.
I have no illusions about the endeavor I am undertaking. This is going to be hard work but I need the challenge. I never had dreams of entering this contest when I was in school. I always enjoyed practicing and building my speed and improving my skills. I guess this is just a natural progression in terms of my development as a court reporter.
I think of Sir Edmund Hillary's answer to the Sherpa who asked him why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. "Because it's there." The Speed Contest is not only there, but this just marks another level of reporting that I am moving up to, and another level of my development.
I also have no illusions about the circle I am entering. The men and women who enter this contest are talented and gifted and I am raising myself to their level. I look up to them, they inspire me. I still get nervous when I see Mark K or Ed Varallo. I know the Cohen brothers, twin brothers, Bill and Arnold, whose exploits -- they each retired the SC trophy back to back -- were well known, still get me tongue tied when I see them.
Right now I plan on practicing an hour a day of tapes until September; RTC will add more time to that schedule because I need the accuracy practice. Then, I am going to move to 1 1/2 hours six days a week.
Until next time....
July 1, 2008: Ugh, not so good today. Everything was going well until I wrote a take at 230 wpm of an electrical engineer. Kicked me in the butt. Went to court and took a gulty plea and then back to practice. Decided to work on Barrier Busters in RTC, my -NT and -ND endings. On a positive note, I added new words in my dictinary like confluent, occident, and occidant.
Until next time...
July 2, 2008: Dear Diary -- lol, always wanted to do that. Well, practice was good today. I wrote the entire B side of my 240 tape. Did better today than yesterday's debacle. Then, I worked on my Barrier Busters in RTC and it's so addicting. I'm from the video game generation --I'm still an avid videogamer -- and I am driven by trying to get the highest score possible, so Realtime Coach feeds that need to get the high score. Then I finished out with a literary take -- scored 91% -- about U.S. and European relations. I misstroked and dropped but I wrote the take without any added dictionary entries. I had all the words in my dictionary already, so I was happy about that. All in all, I walked away feeling pretty good about my first tentative steps to the Speed and Realtime Contests.
Until next time...
July 12, 2008: Well, I decided that I would post once a week so that I don't have a miilion entries for this blog. Anyway, I've been staying at the 240 wpm level these last two weeks. The reasoning for this is I go on vacation next in a week and instead of investing time to try to move to the 250 wpm level, I'll just hang around at 240. RTC has been giving me a work out and I've discovered a few glitches with the program such as I'll write a take and some of the words in the accompanying text are incorrect as opposed to what was dictated. Oh, well, I'll have to take it up with the people at RTC. The last two weeks, I broke out my NCRA tapes and I'm using RTC for dictionary building and strengthening my weak spots. This week in particular, in court, i was busy.
On Monday, I took a long evidentiary hearing on a fraudulent tax preparation case that had a ton of numbers and names which was fun to watch my number conversion features in realtime. I was amazed to see I had names like Lasheem and Zion in my dictionary. It's amazing what you acquire in 14 years of work. Tuesday, I was in the office transcribing the hearing from Monday -- it was an expedite. Then on Wednesday, I took oral argument in a case involving an NBA referee who was fixing games, what they call in the law, "game manipulation." There was a lot of complicated legal argument and the lawyers were no slouches in the speed department. Thursday, I transcribed the oral argument and practiced. Today, Friday, I had calendar, proofed the oral argument, and practiced.
I figured during vacation I'll bring my machine home and when I get back from the NCRA convention in Anaheim this year, I'll practice in the morning before I do anything so that when i go back to work I won't be rusty and I can work up to the 250 level. My goal is to be back at 260 by September so I can make 280 and above by January. Monday I start a bench trial involving a beach goer who jumped into the waves at a Gateway National Recreation Area in Far Rockaway and wound up a quadraplegic. I remember taking the summary judgment oral argument, so at least I have a job dictionary built for this case. I'm looking forward to some of the expert testimony in the case, probably oceanography, dealing with the topography of the sea floor in that area. Never really did any oceanographic testimony so it should be cool to add these words to my dictionary.
Until next time...
July 17, 2008: As far as practice goes, well, this trial has been practice. The attorneys are fast, and this material is very technical, that I got to practice on Monday morning and that's been it. i usually don't subscribe to the notion of working as practice -- formal practice -- but this week has been far from a slow week, speedwise.
Plus, I've been realtiming the whole time and I've seen some high points and some low points. I noticed that I have a bad habit of having the wrong word in the transcript. For example, if a witness says, 'this," I have "that." Gotta go back to RTC and work on this issue. Could be a problem when the big day comes.
On a lighter note, I can't wait for vacation. I've never been to California and I'm really looking forward to seeing the sights up close and personal. My wife and kids and excited, too, except my oldest, Anthony, is a little nervous about the plane ride. My kids can't wait to see Mickey and the gang at Disneyland. Personally, I'm hoping to work in a trip to Legoland. I know what you're going to say: "Ant, grow up!' but Lego is the greatest thing ever and those bricks bring out the best memories from my childhood. Seriously, though, if I don't get there I won't be heartbroken. Hollywood is still a top destination on my list.
Then, of course, there's the convention in Anaheim and I'll be there for two of the days. One for the all-day Case CATalyst intensive and then another day for the Train The Trainer presentation given by NCRA's Government Relations Department. I'm actually help give that presentation, along with my colleagues from the ER Task Force with Nate Smith and Laura Dennis from NCRA. They are great people to know and they are so dedicated to helping us reporters. Also, I can't wait to see my friends, old and new. Hey, if you see me stop me and introduce yourself. I'd love to meet my fello CSRnation members.
So, what does all of this have to do with my road to the Speed Contest. Well, that's easy. If you don't educate yourself, then you can't progress to new levels. If you don't take the leap to realtime every day, you're never going to see your progress toward your goal and mke improvements. If you don't have a little fun in life and relax a little, you're going to be miserable. And lastly, if you don't get involved in your association (NCRA or otherwise), then we're all in trouble.
So, two more days for my trial and I'm outta here!
July 23, 2008: Well, the trial is over -- it's been awhile since I posted. Thankfully no summations on the record. The attorneys really weren't very good for the record in terms of speaking. But it was interesting nontheless.
Anyway, I'm sitting in my livingroom at 5:04 a.m. watching the rain coming down in buckets and wondering how long our flight out to California is going to be delayed.
Until next time...
My practice began with 240 QA speed building practice. I actually did better than I thought I was going to do. During the practice, I felt the need to shorten my writing more than I usually do. I also tucked my endings, like WAEUGT for waiting. I also briefed the names and places mentioned in the take after writing them out first.
Then, I did 45 minutes of Realtime Coach practice which was a total eye opener. Some of my statistics were dismal. However, the material on RTC is a lot tougher than any of the tapes that I have. I plan on doing a lot of work with the Barrier Busters section of RTC to improve my accuracy. What's the sense of writing if it's not accurate? I also have the QA Performance Accelerator and the Captioning version of the same series for my literary practice. And somehow I see myself purchasing the legal opinion very soon.
I have no illusions about the endeavor I am undertaking. This is going to be hard work but I need the challenge. I never had dreams of entering this contest when I was in school. I always enjoyed practicing and building my speed and improving my skills. I guess this is just a natural progression in terms of my development as a court reporter.
I think of Sir Edmund Hillary's answer to the Sherpa who asked him why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. "Because it's there." The Speed Contest is not only there, but this just marks another level of reporting that I am moving up to, and another level of my development.
I also have no illusions about the circle I am entering. The men and women who enter this contest are talented and gifted and I am raising myself to their level. I look up to them, they inspire me. I still get nervous when I see Mark K or Ed Varallo. I know the Cohen brothers, twin brothers, Bill and Arnold, whose exploits -- they each retired the SC trophy back to back -- were well known, still get me tongue tied when I see them.
Right now I plan on practicing an hour a day of tapes until September; RTC will add more time to that schedule because I need the accuracy practice. Then, I am going to move to 1 1/2 hours six days a week.
Until next time....
July 1, 2008: Ugh, not so good today. Everything was going well until I wrote a take at 230 wpm of an electrical engineer. Kicked me in the butt. Went to court and took a gulty plea and then back to practice. Decided to work on Barrier Busters in RTC, my -NT and -ND endings. On a positive note, I added new words in my dictinary like confluent, occident, and occidant.
Until next time...
July 2, 2008: Dear Diary -- lol, always wanted to do that. Well, practice was good today. I wrote the entire B side of my 240 tape. Did better today than yesterday's debacle. Then, I worked on my Barrier Busters in RTC and it's so addicting. I'm from the video game generation --I'm still an avid videogamer -- and I am driven by trying to get the highest score possible, so Realtime Coach feeds that need to get the high score. Then I finished out with a literary take -- scored 91% -- about U.S. and European relations. I misstroked and dropped but I wrote the take without any added dictionary entries. I had all the words in my dictionary already, so I was happy about that. All in all, I walked away feeling pretty good about my first tentative steps to the Speed and Realtime Contests.
Until next time...
July 12, 2008: Well, I decided that I would post once a week so that I don't have a miilion entries for this blog. Anyway, I've been staying at the 240 wpm level these last two weeks. The reasoning for this is I go on vacation next in a week and instead of investing time to try to move to the 250 wpm level, I'll just hang around at 240. RTC has been giving me a work out and I've discovered a few glitches with the program such as I'll write a take and some of the words in the accompanying text are incorrect as opposed to what was dictated. Oh, well, I'll have to take it up with the people at RTC. The last two weeks, I broke out my NCRA tapes and I'm using RTC for dictionary building and strengthening my weak spots. This week in particular, in court, i was busy.
On Monday, I took a long evidentiary hearing on a fraudulent tax preparation case that had a ton of numbers and names which was fun to watch my number conversion features in realtime. I was amazed to see I had names like Lasheem and Zion in my dictionary. It's amazing what you acquire in 14 years of work. Tuesday, I was in the office transcribing the hearing from Monday -- it was an expedite. Then on Wednesday, I took oral argument in a case involving an NBA referee who was fixing games, what they call in the law, "game manipulation." There was a lot of complicated legal argument and the lawyers were no slouches in the speed department. Thursday, I transcribed the oral argument and practiced. Today, Friday, I had calendar, proofed the oral argument, and practiced.
I figured during vacation I'll bring my machine home and when I get back from the NCRA convention in Anaheim this year, I'll practice in the morning before I do anything so that when i go back to work I won't be rusty and I can work up to the 250 level. My goal is to be back at 260 by September so I can make 280 and above by January. Monday I start a bench trial involving a beach goer who jumped into the waves at a Gateway National Recreation Area in Far Rockaway and wound up a quadraplegic. I remember taking the summary judgment oral argument, so at least I have a job dictionary built for this case. I'm looking forward to some of the expert testimony in the case, probably oceanography, dealing with the topography of the sea floor in that area. Never really did any oceanographic testimony so it should be cool to add these words to my dictionary.
Until next time...
July 17, 2008: As far as practice goes, well, this trial has been practice. The attorneys are fast, and this material is very technical, that I got to practice on Monday morning and that's been it. i usually don't subscribe to the notion of working as practice -- formal practice -- but this week has been far from a slow week, speedwise.
Plus, I've been realtiming the whole time and I've seen some high points and some low points. I noticed that I have a bad habit of having the wrong word in the transcript. For example, if a witness says, 'this," I have "that." Gotta go back to RTC and work on this issue. Could be a problem when the big day comes.
On a lighter note, I can't wait for vacation. I've never been to California and I'm really looking forward to seeing the sights up close and personal. My wife and kids and excited, too, except my oldest, Anthony, is a little nervous about the plane ride. My kids can't wait to see Mickey and the gang at Disneyland. Personally, I'm hoping to work in a trip to Legoland. I know what you're going to say: "Ant, grow up!' but Lego is the greatest thing ever and those bricks bring out the best memories from my childhood. Seriously, though, if I don't get there I won't be heartbroken. Hollywood is still a top destination on my list.
Then, of course, there's the convention in Anaheim and I'll be there for two of the days. One for the all-day Case CATalyst intensive and then another day for the Train The Trainer presentation given by NCRA's Government Relations Department. I'm actually help give that presentation, along with my colleagues from the ER Task Force with Nate Smith and Laura Dennis from NCRA. They are great people to know and they are so dedicated to helping us reporters. Also, I can't wait to see my friends, old and new. Hey, if you see me stop me and introduce yourself. I'd love to meet my fello CSRnation members.
So, what does all of this have to do with my road to the Speed Contest. Well, that's easy. If you don't educate yourself, then you can't progress to new levels. If you don't take the leap to realtime every day, you're never going to see your progress toward your goal and mke improvements. If you don't have a little fun in life and relax a little, you're going to be miserable. And lastly, if you don't get involved in your association (NCRA or otherwise), then we're all in trouble.
So, two more days for my trial and I'm outta here!
July 23, 2008: Well, the trial is over -- it's been awhile since I posted. Thankfully no summations on the record. The attorneys really weren't very good for the record in terms of speaking. But it was interesting nontheless.
Anyway, I'm sitting in my livingroom at 5:04 a.m. watching the rain coming down in buckets and wondering how long our flight out to California is going to be delayed.
Until next time...
Views: 27
Add a Comment
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Comment by Anthony D. Frisolone on July 18, 2008 at 6:45
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Thanks for everyone who has been reading my blog. More to follow...
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Comment by Tami on July 17, 2008 at 20:21
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Anthony,
Just thought I'd put my two cents in about Legoland. I just took my first trip there with my six year old on Monday. What an awesome time we had. I thought it was such a great day. I only live about an hour away, so taking my youngest was way overdue.
My husband had taken one of my older kids when they were in grade school, and he made it sound boring. I think it's changed a lot since then. It really was such a blast.
If you go by a Dairy Queen before you go (if you go), right now they have coupons for kids free with a paid adult. Probably would save you a hundred bucks or so.
It was crazy busy, though, especially for a Monday.
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Comment by Tonya on July 12, 2008 at 16:50
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Anthony,
I've been a reporter for about 14 years and have accepted Breck Record's "challenge," as you have, to grow and improve. I'm attempting the CRR in earnest, so I found your blog very inspiring from a planning standpoint.
Good luck in your challenge and thanks for motivating the masses :)
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Anthony,
Just wanted to tell you I enjoyed reading your blog and share some of the same feelings you've shared with us. I consider myself a speed contest groupie myself. I've competed three times and even qualified on a couple legs. I'm just thrilled to be in the company of such awesome writers.
Now that my son is a soon-to-be reporter, I feel compelled to keep plugging away at it. It really is so much fun.
Hope I'll make it to the '09 contest. I'm going this year. It's in my backyard.
I thank you for sharing your journey, too.
Tami
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Comment by Kimberly on July 5, 2008 at 17:50
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Anthony,
Thank you for sharing your journey with us. It tells me one never stops practicing or improving on their writing. I'm using RTC as well, but I'm not hooking up my realtime right now. I find the takes very challenging and I have fun working with the various drills. I know you'll be very successful and will achieve your goal. If you have time to answer a question, are you using more briefs in this path to the speed contest?
To the next speed champion!!
Kimberly
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Comment by Patricia Babits on July 1, 2008 at 19:53
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So the Realtime Coach is good for speedbuilding as well as realtime?
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Comment by Rhoda Collins on July 1, 2008 at 16:13
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Anthony,
thanks for doing this! I am going to enjoy seeing what it takes to prepare. I 'hope' to do this in the years to come, but being a 'new' CR....1yr out now....I am SO not ready for it, lol!
Rho
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