Bloglet, the gentleman's mock turtle soup -- Moss made it sweeter than myrrh ash and dhoup
Yes! Success! Name Droppers, a game specifically designed for steno students, was working well, but it was slow, buggy, didn't show me my mistakes, and was graphically sort of hideous. But then I realized I didn't need a steno-specific program-- anything that accepted keyboard input would work. I remembered the ridiculous typing games of my youth and went searching. Lordy, there's some lame-ass stuff out there, and most of it wasn't suited to my purposes (had to accept custom word lists, forgive inaccuracies, and execute completion automatically) but finally I found one that was just right, not to mention freakin' beautiful: Typestriker. Functional, exciting, and freee! It even displays my undefineds! Yeehaw. Now I'm gonna convert all my chapter lists into level files and go pound me some steno spaceship arse.
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11:07:22 PM,Thursday 8 December 2005
It's quite true. I'm extremely wonderful just now. I dare say in fact I'm quite fantastic, and I should n't be at all surprised if I were mad.
Henry James, The Ambassadors_
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02:49:08 PM,Thursday 8 December 2005
In steno class on Monday, I learned how to write "whore", "gimp", and "I enjoy watching kangaroos frolic about".
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11:06:51 PM,Tuesday 6 December 2005
Holy Tango of Poetry online! Via Heaneyland, of course.
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08:09:42 PM,Tuesday 6 December 2005
As Edith had promised he should do, Dr. Leete accompanied me to my bedroom when I retired, to instruct me as to the adjustment of the musical telephone. He showed how, by turning a screw, the volume of the music could be made to fill the room, or die away to an echo so faint and far that one could scarcely be sure whether he heard or imagined it. If, of two persons side by side, one desired to listen to music and the other to sleep, it could be made audible to one and inaudible to another.
"I should strongly advise you to sleep if you can to-night, Mr. West, in preference to listening to the finest tunes in the world," the doctor said, after explaining these points. "In the trying experience you are just now passing through, sleep is a nerve tonic for which there is no substitute."
Mindful of what had happened to me that very morning, I promised to heed his counsel.
"Very well," he said, "then I will set the telephone at eight o'clock."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
He explained that, by a clock-work combination, a person could arrange to be awakened at any hour by the music.
-- Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
Dude, his name is Dr. Leete.
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01:34:09 PM,Tuesday 6 December 2005
That's the fourth glass of water I've knocked over in less than a week. I'm really, really talented. I guess it's good I don't drink red wine.
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01:06:24 PM,Monday 5 December 2005
Just learned a new word: Mangiacake.
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10:12:18 AM,Monday 5 December 2005
Told you so.
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02:45:40 PM,Saturday 3 December 2005
Just to report that the rechargeable battery on my steno machine ran out for the first time today, having been charged only once in August. Either I'm not practicing enough, or that is one seriously impressive battery.
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12:02:18 AM,Tuesday 29 November 2005
I think the ultimate test of a cultivated accent is being able to say "I didn't intend to effect anything" and have people understand what you meant. I can't do it. Can you?
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04:02:58 PM,Wednesday 23 November 2005
I've had to use the word "ceili" for work twice in two days. Weird.
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11:59:57 AM,Wednesday 23 November 2005
Inspired!
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01:08:42 PM,Tuesday 22 November 2005
Zl snibevgr zvfglcvat bs lrfgreqnl:
V'Z IREL CVPXL NOBHG JUNG V CHG BA ZL FXVAX.
Zl snibevgr npghny dhbgr bs gbqnl (fb sne):
GUR ARJ XVGPURA VF GUR PNG'F NFF.
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09:39:35 AM,Tuesday 22 November 2005
This is adorable. It baffles me why there are so few boys at my school-- currently down to a single representative of the sex in each of my classes. There was a dude I kinda wanted to get to know, who read books and had studied Jazz composition at the New England Conservatory, but he dropped out a couple weeks ago. It's not that I have anything against women, exactly, but it's always made me nervous to be stuck in a room full of them, and though the ones at my school are a pretty congenial lot, I would be a lot happier if the ratio could be leavened a bit. But what's so inherently feminine about stenography in the first place? For a while it was tangled up with the secretarial biz, but since bosses learned to do their own typing, that avenue dried up. Is there some sort of stigma I'm not aware of, or is it just habit? It's a lucrative field, and doesn't demand a good figure or a "nuturing touch" the way nurses, teachers, and flight attendants' careers are purported to. The world speed champion is a man, and I've heard of plenty who've earned their cred in the business, but even in the working world, the situation seems to be sort of wonked. Any speculations?
Via Binita.
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11:02:57 PM,Monday 21 November 2005
Damn, I'm happy. Slacky, but happy. On the demerit side of the register, I've got five red squares, a yellow, and only three greens. Also a Steno test tomorrow and a seriously pongo fridge. But on the other side, my room is no longer curdled custard queasy mustard nasty-ass horrible yellow! It is a beautiful, beautiful slate gray with just a tinge of blue. Makes my ears wiggle just sitting in it. Glory be to God for tall and obliging girlfriends, that's all I can say. What would I do without that girl? We had steak last night to celebrate, anyway. What's more, I bought myself a really nice 5.1 speaker system for an extremely decent price last Wednesday, so the room's as full of music as it is of NOT-YELLOW. Oh oh oh. Also, my Steno teacher finally buckled and gave me a copy of NYCI's dictionary, which rocketed my number of entries up from 1,000 to 30,000 and means I can play Name Droppers 'til my teeth buzz. That game is scarily addictive, in a Macblaster kind of way. Which, I suppose, is all for the best. So tonight I do laundry, go to quartet practice, eat leftover steak, and steno myself silly. Yar. Woo! Yar.
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(3)
04:08:48 PM,Sunday 20 November 2005
A smoroye in your gruel
makes the waking world less cruel.
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09:26:14 AM,Thursday 17 November 2005
Duuude! An actual real life water clock-- that doesn't even cost 1,000 gold or diminish your movement allowance or anything!
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10:05:13 PM,Monday 14 November 2005
I just identified an Alsatian accent. I am awesome.
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12:32:57 PM,Monday 14 November 2005
K. made a blogswap CD! Mine's coming along nicely, and should be done by this weekend. Who-all are we sending 'em out to?
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03:14:09 PM,Friday 11 November 2005
Another example sentence vignette, this time from chapter 22. We finally learned the last letter of the alphabet: initial G! Now it's all about expanding and applying the rules and, eventually, getting into polysyllabic word constructions, woo! I'm very happy, if a little behind on my homework. Can't wait to get my paws on the school's dictionary.
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"Your kind words may help make the point. It would help us if, however, you can determine the difficulty."
"Get a grip, Geoff. That sect will act very soon. Who can determine what the difficulty is?"
"From your knowledge, has Gus joined a sect?"
"Depend on it, Art."
"Are you sure he was sure?"
"Our guide showed us where to fish. Each gift was washed and cleaned. They grew very tall. Year after year, I made out well."
"Did the open gash bleed much?"
George brushed by Jeff.
"Join us, George."
"Act now, talk tomorrow. Hand me the ax."
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(9)
02:20:48 AM,Thursday 10 November 2005