NOT! I swear when it rains it pours. I awoke to a huge puddle of water in front of my house this morning. Now, the temp is -8 with a windchill of -20, so I definitely should not have had standing water. I called Bill freaked out and he had me call the village. I think it is a water main break. However, nobody bothered to come to my door. Instead, they just turned off my water. I just realized it when I tried to make Will his diluted version of juice. Needless to say, I am ticked. I called the village, and they won’t give me an ETA at all. I seriously would love to know if I need to send Bill out for water or what. I seriously am trying not to be highly irritated right now. I could be working on things like Increasing Blog Article Quality or doing some of my freelance work. Instead, I am standing in my front window watching my village dig a huge hole in my street and trying to figure out what to make for dinner with no water. Also, try explaining to a 5 year old why she can’t flush the toilet after we have spent 2 years drilling it into her head that she needs to flush the toilet.
I know there are way bigger things in life I should be concerned about, but man this is irritating.
Last week was a pretty good week. My week started off with an email from a New York Times reporter wanted to interview regarding a post I wrote about Amazon’s frustration free packaging. Once I picked myself up off the floor, I emailed him back and told him it was okay to call. I had a great conversation with their technology reporter, and I went on my merry way. Seriously, my heart was beating about 400 miles an hour while this was going on. I asked for him to let me know when it gets printed, and I thought that was the end of it.
On Thursday, I was super surprised to get a call from the New York Times again! This time they wanted to send a photographer to my house to get pictures of me and my kids! I ended up with 2 hours to get me and the kids ready and clean the house. It went well, I think, and I hope to find out soon when the article will get printed.
I feel incredibly blessed right now even though my mom is teasing about when Oprah is going to be calling.
I have been writing a lot about Dragon NaturallySpeaking Software lately. I absolutely love how it saves me time writing posts. If you see the post before this one, it is almost 700 words. I used the software and with editing (mainly because I decided to reword things), it took less than 10 minutes. This software is a bloggers dream. Life is so much easier when I can write a 700 word post in the little bit of time I catch here and there during the day. The best thing is that I am not the only one who thinks so:
Drew of the BenSpark has put together a great little video demonstrating Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Drew has been blogging for quite some time and he might just be one of the best mobile bloggers that I know. He is probably more famous for his picture a day work as he is an excellent photographer. But I can’t help be amazed at how much content he creates and the high level of quality in that content.
He’s definitely a blogger that employs best practices when he finds them. And based on this video, it looks like he might see some potential in Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Now I am not trying to put an endorsement in Drew’s mouth. Time will tell, but I do think he is off to an excellent start.
You’ll notice in his video, that the sound quality of his video is excellent. That’s actually an important aspect for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I don’t mean that you need good video quality or sound quality in a video to make Dragon NaturallySpeaking work. However you do need a good microphone, and it should be a noise canceling microphone at that. The better the sound quality, and the better able your microphone is to remove other background noises, the better your system will be able to recognize the words that you say as fast as you say them and transcribe them accurately.
Now Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes with a noise cancellation microphone that works very well when you buy it out of the box. Drew is working with a download version that does not come with a microphone, and so he had to supply his own.
As I write this article, I am using a wireless headset microphone from Logitech. I’ve been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for almost two years now, but I’ve just recently untethered myself from Dragon NaturallySpeaking and started using a wireless headset microphone with noise cancellation capabilities. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 does have the capability of working with Bluetooth wireless microphones, but my particular microphone runs on 2.4 GHz wireless technology. Now if you live in a household or work in an office environment where there are a number of systems or phones or microwaves, you may experience some interference with this particular headset. In that case, you will probably be better served with either a Bluetooth headset or a headset that is capable of being plugged directly into your computer through the microphone plug or through USB. I don’t have that issue, and so I do get excellent quality with little to no interference at all.
So if you take an interest in Dragon NaturallySpeaking and want to try it for yourself, I highly recommend that you get a boxed version of the software which you can order from Nuance online. You can even get a good deal on a Bluetooth wireless headset and a bundled option from Nuance. If you’re looking for entry level pricing, you can start using the software and get a headset microphone for as little as $99.
To put that in context, I’ve taken three typing classes over the years to boost my typing speed and spent essentially three semesters practicing at typing. It wasn’t the only thing that I studied, but I spent a lot of time building up my typing skill. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can invest $99, invest an hour installing the software (I’m being very conservative with that time estimate) and as little as 10 minutes training the software to recognize your voice before you can be off and running typing at 150 words per minute!
That is pretty amazing, and well worth the value of $99. Not to mention if you spend a little extra and get a wireless headset microphone, you can pace around your room or your office, you can exercise, or do a number of different things other than sit at a computer desk staring at your computer all day long. $99 basically gives you your freedom,and who wouldn’t want to type at 150 WPM for $99?
Best regards,
Brett Bumeter
www.softduit.com
My name is Brett Bumeter, and I wrote the article above and 4 1/2 minutes. The article is about 659 words long, and that translates into 144 words per minute. Add in two minutes for editing, and that’s still 100 words per minute!
Boy, was I surprised that I am not. You know, since I live in Chicago and all and not a small town. Don’t know what I am talking about? I didn’t hear the statement that Sarah Palin made at a rally (you know since the libel media is sooooo biased against her), but Jon Stewart sure did. Check out his thoughts:
Now, the Chicago Tribune did an article several weeks ago (and I’ll link it as soon as I find it) showing that small towns have just as many problems (if not more) than big cities. I personally am sick and tired of hearing how “small town America” is so much better. Let me show you Chicago. Granted, we have our problems too, but we sure don’t act better than anyone else. Wait, can the Olympics even be held here if we aren’t part of “real” America? Like Jon Stewart said, if you are from a big city and die over in Iraq, you aren’t a “real” American.
So if I am no longer a “real” American, do I still have to pay my taxes, since in the Republicans eyes I don’t count? Basically, what I am lead to believe with the way all these Republicans are talking is that unless you are a Republican, I guess you aren’t a “real” American.
You know, I seriously hate being negative on here. I really do. However, some thing just tick me off to no end, so you all have to hear about them.
If you are a regular reader here, you know about my struggle with the public school and that we are considering sending her to private school. Click here to read all about it.
Now, my taxes pay their salaries and getting someone to talk to me is like pulling teeth. Then they don’t really answer what I ask either. However, my favorite has to be the Chicago Tribune article I read this week that the schools districts are telling parents to ignore the state test scores since they were graded differently this year. However, at the state level, they are saying the grading is comparable to years past. So who is right? Who needs to recheck their job descriptions and find out that they have no right to tell the parents anything?
Seriously, where is the accountability? I hear over and over that public schools are better since they are accountable. Really? They won’t talk to parents, they lie about test scores, etc. Where is the accountability?
Here is what I have learned from the private school. They are very transparent. They don’t baby any parents. The principal even said at the open house that if 90% of the parents can do it right, they all should be able to and that they don’t put up with that crap. Every time I have called and talked to them, they have answered every single one of my questions. They told me the class size this year for every single grade (K-8). The people answering the phone were extremely knowledgeable. There has only been one question they didn’t know the answer to and she gave me the number of the person who would (and that person did!). I can come in anytime and tour the school, and their test scores are an open book that can also be looked at any time I want. Granted, I have to pay to get this type of service but don’t I pay the public schools too?
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