Steno Witch

Day 71/200

Got to the end of the drill list with long vowels. Also alternated some vowel patterns. 40 minutes.

Did a little bit of a podcast but lost track. It's really hard to keep myself from practicing until my hands hurt! I really like to get lost in it. I love pulling up an e-book and just writing it for hours, even if I get lost in a daydream and subtract 30 minutes from the total at the end. But no! I need to have a life! I need to do other stuff! I need to let my hands rest! This whole week at work was so smooth in terms of my writing. It may have been a fluke, but so far, I attribute it to condensing my practice time.

Limiting my practice time from the sprawling sessions I used to have--where a good deal of it had to be subtracted in the end because it wasn't exactly practice--has been helpful. I already have more of a life. Haha.

I'm dieting super hard lately, partially to lose weight and partially to reset my palate. It's the only way I've ever known to kill a set of cravings. It does make steno hard. Ugh! And of course the best snacks for one's brain while on a diet are things I'm allergic to. Just bitching about it for a moment.

The long vowel drills are still hard, by the way. That left thumb just drags down! I can't believe I didn't notice it before. It's not all of my fingers being slow on some words. It's my left thumb. I like my raised vowels, but they almost seem a hindrance. I'm not sure, though. One of my loaner machines was without raised vowels once. I thought it'd be okay, but it was muchhh worse. So I think it's not an issue with the height of the keys. It's just that I have to practice and, being a highly orthographic writer, I use long vowels far less than others might.

#finger drills #good day #steno #stenography