Tami Carlson, thanks so much for the phone conversation this morning. After talking to the local Eclipse rep here, I've decided to hold off on the purchase until after the Tri-State conference this weekend (WA/OR/ID) when I'll get together with him for a demo and possibly talk to other vendors.

It turned out he knows some reporters I knew back in California who are both on Eclipse and I really respect their judgments, so that, with the info you gave me, convinced me not to rush into anything. I'm soooo glad we talked!

It will likely come down to a decision between Eclipse and CaseCatalyst. I really hate decisions. This is going to be agony for me...

Tami, Well, it's going to take me longer than 2 days! I had so many briefs, I've forgotten half of them.

Gwen, sounds like you've been initiated into the Magnum Steno Club!

I'm assuming you listed to "Mark Speed Method Part 1" through 4? It's very important that you listen to all four, and then apply everything to your practice, for it to work.

Actually, no! I was listening to them in the order they're listed on the archive page. I listened to the first 10 or so (and then I did a few of the speed sessions), so I see now that that only includes Part 1 and Part 2 is further down. So I guess 3 and 4 are down there too. I'll have to go looking! Thanks.

Gwen, you'll be in the Gorge this weekend? I was planning on going, but finances haven't cooperated at all. Wonder if it would be worth the trip just to pop in and say hello to everyone. Only an hour's drive for me. If I go, I'll look for you!

Yes, I'll be there. Definitely say hi if you see me! I'll be sure and wear my name tag all the time.

Is anyone attending the CCRA convention at Miramonte next week?

Got to tell you all a funny story. My daughter Madison (17 years old, senior in high school) would not like me telling it, but you guys won't tell, right??

Today after she came home from school, I asked her if she wanted to go eat with me, that I hadn't had lunch. She said, sure.

We got in the car, and I said, where would you like to go?
"Anywhere but Panda or Wendy's," she said. (Panda Express is my favorite fast-food)

I'll let you choose, I said.

How about Jade Bamboo, she suggested.
Kind of expensive, I said, but we can share and just order water.
Nah, forget it.
How about Chick-Fil-A? (all the suggestions are by me, from here on out)
No.
How about Taco Bell/Long John Silver's?
No.
McDonald's?
No.
Burger King?
No.
Fajita Willie's?
That's expensive.
True. How about Boston Market?
No.
Fuddrucker's?
Expensive.
Yeah. How about Jack-in-the-Box?
No.
Kentucky Fried Chicken?
No.
Schlotzky's?
No.
Quizno's?
I hate Quizno's.
Wing Stop?
No.
Subway?
Nah. There's JUST NOTHING GOOD AROUND HERE, she said.

(all these places are within 8 minutes of our house!!!)
Do we live in a great country or what???? And do our kids not realize it????

LOL Hope you enjoyed that. It just happened today.

Oh - we ended up eating at Cici's Pizza. LOL

Mark, I was feeling pretty good yesterday with the new Briefs video because I already had briefs for most of those. Then today on the next video I found out how many I don't have briefs for. LOL And I even learned to invert the A in theory oh-so-many years ago.

Mark,
Pizza always seems to triumph with teenagers -- husbands too :) Cute story. And, yes, we are blessed beyond measure in this country!!

LeAnne, have you completed Briefs Group 1 through 10? Have them mastered?

I have all but the one adding "the" to the contractions mastered. Because they conflict with so many of my other briefs, I've had to rework a lot of them. They're such high frequency words (that's, there's, where's), it's taking longer than the other ones to learn. I had just about given up on those, when all of a sudden during Wednesday's job they started to click, and I realized "I can do this"!

That's GREAT, LeAnne! You're only the 2nd person whom I know has completed all the Briefs 101's so far!

I have to agree with Monica. I too was trying to avoid being a Tweeter or is it Tweetee? But I can't miss MSC or any of your adventures either!! Tweet away, Mark!

Kathryn, I just deleted my Twitter comment, will re-do when I figure this out. I want to only invite MSC members, so I'm going to be sending an invite e-mail. Not ready to do that quite yet!

Okay, Kathryn, one can link Twitter to Facebook? I really need to look around in my Facebook account a little more ... Time, I tell ya'... I need LOTS more of it!

Okay... sorry for being slow, but what is all of this about Twitter? lol. I don't really know how to use Twitter or Facebook, but would love to figure it out! Especially if I can get it all on my new BlackBerry:)

Oh, I'm slow, too. I've just started learning to navigate the cyber social waves with Facebook about a month ago and now this site. Hmm, guess Twitter will be next since I really don't want to miss out on MSC. I can't wait to be a MSC Court Reporter, Ph.D. :)

And, Shelley, when you find that place that has more TIME, please, please let me know where it is. I could use buckets of it.

Okay, I'm in a little Texas town so it's time for Friday Night Football! It's, of course, sold out and doesn't start until 7:30; but in this town, you get there early, as in hours early. So, I'll check back with y'all tomorrow to see what this MSC Twitter thing is all about.

Where are you, Penny? I'm in Huntsville. We're heading for the Friday night lights ourselves!!

Here are my thoughts: I've started a Twitter account, with the user name MagnumStenoClub. I was going to make it "members only" but I think I'll make it public. And during the day, during my job, I'll Twitter now and then with what I hope will be helpful court reporting thoughts: briefs, phrases, ideas - all designed to keep us growing and thinking in our profession. Your thoughts?

So all you need to do is join Twitter, search for "MagnumStenoClub" and then click "follow." (it might take 24 hours from now for "MagnumStenoClub" to be indexed in their search engine.

(Kathryn, no need to apologize!!!!!) :)

Mark
That sounds Twitterifick!!

Awesome, Mark! I have Friendbar so I will see them go by while I'm onlne.

Brenda, how does Friendbar work?

You download it and it is another toolbar on your browser. It shows all the latest updates your friends and contacts have posted on both Facebook and Twitter, including photographs (or not; it's a setting). You can post to Twitter and Facebook from that toolbar too rather than having to go to the site to do it. I have Friendbar set to post both places at once.

It's really a pretty cool deal!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10223

Brenda,
Thanks for sharing that. Sounds very streamlined -- I like :)

Good morning,

Jill, I live in Nederland, but I'm a Port Neches girl.....Nederland is our BIG rival and who we played last night. We won. Great game!!! I think we've even played in Huntsville a time or two. Huntsville is a great town and looks like it's growing.

Hope your game was as much fun as ours.

Mark,

My thoughts:

Please make it public because there's no freakin' way I'm getting a twitter.

Haha, Clay, you crack me up.

Candice! Great to see you! How's your job going?

Clay, public means anyone can access the Tweet. lol

Mark, I joined Twitter just because of you. I see you already have some new briefs posted, so it's already worth it.

How funny! I did the same, joined Twitter just as soon as I found out and went to Mark's postings. I bet Twitter's gonna have quite a few more subscribers all of a sudden. Really cool.

Mark, Thanks bunches :)

We'll see how it works out!

Are you all enjoying the Twitters today that I'm posting during the job?

Er, Tweets, I should say. lol (can't they give that site a manly name???? How about a roar? lol)

extremely - STRAO*EM

Loving this Twitter thing. Keeps my mind where it needs to be. THANK YOU!

comfort - K-FRT
comfortable - K-FRBL
S for un
uncomfortable - SK-FRBL
discomfort - SD-FRT

Yeah, I have to concentrate to write STRAEM for stream. It comes up so rarely for me that I just fall back on the phonetics, and STRAOEM is defined as extreme. If I need stream capped, STRA*EM.

Love Looney Tunes, Kathryn!!

Monica, LOVE your "in debt" as TKPHET! Putting in my dict. I wish I'd have thought of that, as that is right up my alley. Thanks!

Kathryn, I like that "tweet" much better, the giant Tweety Bird!

Penny, very welcome!! Hope you're picking up some good things.

So just so you all know CART is recession proof. There are so many students enrolled because the economy I am working my butt off. Unfortunately I haven't gotten into a routine yet and my speedbuilding has gone by the wayside a bit. :(

Anyway, I was captioning a short story class today, the class is reading a book called "An Uncommon Reader" and they came across the word amanuensis. They were discussing the meaning of the word and I am sitting there thinking how do I know this word? Then it hits me that it was one of Mark's words for the day.

Well, it turns out that I did not add that word to my dictionary - duh - So I had to finger spell it until there was a moment for me to add it my dictionary. That was a lesson well learned.

Have a good night.

Bece LOL Very good! The day I unveiled that word, IT APPEARED BY TOTAL CHANCE in the literary I was dictating!

Did someone say ... Loony ToOnez?

--gdw

Kathryn --

Someone was looking for some low speed dictation over on CRF for her daughter, and I gave her that link!

She also got this one.

Not sure how it worked out ....!