Southern California Briefs!

This newbie captioner has been busy the last few months captioning news in the Southern California area -- first San Diego and then Los Angeles.  To survive all those multisyllabic cities, area roads, etc., Steno Wizard petitioned a few seasoned captioners and some Southern California reporter friends, and I am happily sharing with all of you!

L.A.  HRAFRPLT
L.A.X.  HRA*FPL
Los Angeles HRAPBGS
Hollywood HO*EULD
Beverly Hills B*EFRLZ
San Diego STKAEUG
San Bernardino SB*ERN
Santa Clair SKLAIR
Sacramento SKRAEMT
San Fernando SF*ERN
Santa Barbara SBARB
San Francisco SFRAN
San Francisco International Airport SFA*EURPT
San Gabriel STKPWRA*EUB
Santa Monica SM*ON
San Luis Obispo SLAOUS and/or SBEUS
Santa Clarita SKLAOERT
San Bruno SBRAOUN
Santa Maria SMRA*
San Mateo SMA*ET
San Rafael SFRAEL
Santa Ana SNA*
Ontario AO*NT
Anaheim NAO*EUM
Pomona PO*EM
Oxnard SNA*RD
Fontana FAO*NT
Alhambra HA*URM
Hawthorne HA*URGT
Loma Linda LO*EMD
Tarzana TA*RZ
Wilshire WO*EURB
Wilshire Boulevard WO*EURBLD
Sherman Oaks SHO*EKZ
Mulholland M*ULD
El Segundo *ELGD
Van Nuys VAO*EUNZ
Simi Valley SMA*EFL
Compton KO*FRPT
Arcardia A*RKD
Alessandro SA*UNDR
Monrovia MO*EFRN

Sepulveda SP*UFLD

La Cienega LA*EFG

Escondido SKAOND
Chula Vista KHAOUFT

New words added to the Steno Wizard dictionary!

neurotic
vociferous
Appalachia,  Appalachian brief PLA*EUGS
waft, wafts, wafting, wafted
bolster, bolstered, bolsters
oust, ousted, ousts
insides
agave
chipotle
Paralympic
scintillate
vacillate
angelical
capitulation
dallying
fedora

In the news today

Today's news...

Amtrak

Today's briefs...

derail TKRAEUL
derailed TKRAEULD
derails TKRAEULZ
derailment TKRAEUPLT

Philadelphia TPEUFL
New York City TPHOERBGS (changed from theory brief due to "no," problem)
Washington WA*UG
Washington, D.C. WA*UGDZ

rescue REFBG
toppling TOP/-LG
-mile-per-hour PH*EURP (defined to attach to the number prior)
mangled PHAPBG/LD

NTSB N*T/S*B
passenger PAENG
passengers PAENGZ

Here's a few new words

Some words that I had to finger spell a portion of to get perfect translation while on the air and are now added to my personal dictionary.

lampoon, lampooning, lampoons, lampooned

Polarization.  I don't understand why I can't seem to write it consistently, but I'm working on it!

En route.  I would have thought I'd had it in there already, but NOOOOO!

I've now added as a result the following words just in case since I'm also familiar with them --
en banc
en bloc
en masse
en garde

Sharing!

Onward and upward!

A simple captioning brief idea

An experienced captioner shared with me her method for writing a show's name with the appropriate quotation marks.   For each show's dictionary, she defines the stroke SHO*E.  For example, "Today in New York" is SHO*E and is input into that station's dictionary, WNBC.  "Newsline" is SHO*E for the NHK broadcasts.  "AMHQ" is SHO*E for The Weather Channel.

A simple solution that works.  You definitely need to make sure your appropriate dictionaries are loaded and in the proper order so you have no on-air disaster...

I also write WEB/WEB for a station's website and define it into that show's particular dictionary. 

Gesundheit

While on the air, one of the news anchors sneezed -- a first for me.  Of course, no one said "Bless you" -- why would they?  Those words are in my dictionary.  Ha! 

Gesundheit!  It has now been added with about 7 different ways I may write it when I can't figure out the true spelling.  GA-ZUND-HYT, GE-SUN-HYT, GE-ZUND-HYT, etc.   I hope I don't find a new way when it comes up again on the air!

Briefs added to the repertoire in the past year!

While watching the Kentucky Derby, thought I'd share some one-stroker briefs... 

Derby TKAERB

victory SROEURBGT

championship KHOEUP

delivery TKHRAEFR

running R-G

winning W-G

spinning SP-G

Louisville HRAOUFL

unique TPHAOEBG

AND an important entry for your captioning dictionary, HA*G - defined as #~ -- hashtag with a delete space.

More dictionary building

Found on the left-hand side of the page is a list of Fortune 500 companies for inputting into the captioner's dictionary -  http://fortune.com/fortune500/#

How about weather terms?  Check out this site:  http://w1.weather.gov/glossary/ and other page on the site too:  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutgloss.shtml

The Steno Wizard Captioning Studio

Here's a pic of the captioning studio in my home.  The office is as clean as it's ever been.  I was just getting started.  :-)

The desk has been more centrally located by the maps.   At the time I was waiting for the third phone line to be installed.

The maps were purchased at a local education store in the area. The purpose of the maps are for me to write location specific briefs directly on the maps with a black Sharpie pen.  I find it easier to locate a city, state, or country in this manner than a word list. 

The smaller U.S. map has each state's governor and two senators written inside the boundaries (if possible).  Governors are highlighted in yellow.  Senators are orange.  No significance as to the colors other than those were the two highlighters that were on hand.  Go to nationalatlas.gov to find yours.  You can pick your preferred format, i.e., with state names or not, colors, etc.  You will have to adjust the size it prints --  for ease of use.  I've found that getting it on an 11X17 paper works well.  I've not figured out how to attach the file itself.  

The atomic clock is really fantastic for making sure you know precisely what time it is.  It is down to the second.  Handy for when you know you're switching off to another captioner and you want to count the seconds -- not confessing anything about that!  You can buy an atomic clock at any local store pretty much.  I bought mine at Sam's Club.  It is supposed to face a certain direction so that it can reset itself with Denver.  It's always worked and takes batteries.  I realize computers have fairly accurate times on them, but it's nice to walk to the entrance of the office and know how many more minutes before you go on air without actually walking over to the computer screen.

The huge paperclip-looking things were purchased on clearance from Office Max.  Probably less than $2 each.

Maybe you have some inspiration (SPOEURGS) to go shopping!

Captioning office before 3rd phone line installation

An atomic clock that always knows the correct time!

Up close of World Map with Brief Forms

My method to keep rosters in line of sight while captioning

Up close U.S. Map with Brief Forms

Yesterday's News

While captioning yesterday's news, both on the East Coast and the West, many stories were similar in nature and shared with the viewers.  Here's some briefs that were used with success!

debate TK-BT
constitutional STAOURBL
marriage PHAEURPBLG
same-sex marriage SPHAEURPBLG
gay rights TKPWRAOEUGTS
Supreme Court SPROURT
justice JUFS
justices JUFSZ
Roberts ROBTS
Baltimore PWHROR
Annapolis AEPS
Maryland PHAEURLD
violence SROEULS
violent SROEUPBT
violate SROEULT
violation SROEULGS
incident STPHEPBT
media PHAED
magnitude PHAGTD
ABC A*BZ
NBC TPH*BS

Oh, those politicians!

Here's some great sites to help build a dictionary that's ready for American politics.

This is the link for the president's cabinet:  http://www.politics1.com/cabinet.htm, and one can explore for other info there.

Another fantastic site for past presidents and their first ladies is found at this link:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/Presidents.  Think of how many school buildings are named after presidents and first ladies.

Next, you may need to have the U.S. Supreme Court Justices.  http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx, and if you hunt around the site, you can find past justices to input into your dictionary.  The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS (SKOE-TUS).

Need U.S. governors?  Try this site:  http://www.netstate.com/states/tables/st_governors.htm.

Don't forget those senators!  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Some briefs:

lawmaker LAURK
lawmakers LAURKZ
governor GOFR
government GOFT
governance GOFRNS
constituent KWAENT
incumbent BAENT
Washington, D.C. WA*UGDZ
Pentagon P*G
White House WHOUS
congressional GRERBL
President of the United States PO*ETS - Think POTUS (poe-tus) -- common nickname for the president.   ** I've taken to writing it PRO*ETS lately, and so I have both entries in the dix.
First Lady of the United States FLO*ETS - you guessed it!  FLOTUS  (Floe-tus)!
politics PHREUBGZ
political PHREUL
politically PHR*EUL
politician PHREUGS
Republican R*P
Democrat TK*M
Democratic TK*MT
candidate K*D - I think of a candidate wearing a bow tie.  It works for me!

Proper names

Steno Wizard has been trying to add to the SW personal dictionary loads of Hispanic (HEUPS) surnames and first names.   That was one thing that has been lacking for realtime captioning perfection. Yeah, there's no such thing, but I'm a work in progress and am continually striving!

Here's a site that SW used for common U.S. names and interestingly enough it has lists of Hispanic names.

http://names.mongabay.com/data/hispanic.html

It's fairly easy to navigate to the other lists.

SW is going to investigate the Asian names particularly since NHK is a common work assignment.

Here's the link for most common female first names.  SW input these into the dictionary years ago, and the site is still active!

http://names.mongabay.com/female_names.htm

Most common male first names can be found at this link.

http://names.mongabay.com/male_names_alpha.htm

Onward and upward!

Recent additions to the repertoire!

Steno Wizard has been a little remiss (well...maybe more than a little) in blog entries since making the leap into captioning, so this early morning before going on the air, Steno Wizard decided to look into that always growing personal dictionary to share recent additions.  Perhaps you have them, perhaps not. 

Some weather additions include some regions of the country that were unbeknownst to this Midwesterner.   No briefs for the following at this point in time.  Perhaps if the term were being brought up on the air more than occasionally...

Delmarva -- comprised of the general area of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.  There's even a Delmarva electric company.  This captioner has seen it also written as Del-Mar-Va and is currently trying to determine if it's with or without or if it's merely up to whimsy (another word for the dictionary).

Texlahoma - Texas and Oklahoma.  Supposedly at one point in time there was a proposal to create a 49th state comprised of some of the counties in Texas and Oklahoma.

Arklatex - Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.

Arklatexhoma - Arkansas, Lousiana, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Shenandoah, Steno Wizard struggled with this word for a good solid day before a fellow coworker shared her brief from.  SH-D   -- of course, after getting the brief, the weather person didn't say it the next week on that station's broadcast.  Grrr!

Firenado!   Pretty interesting phenomenon (TPAOPB).  This was a term SW learned last year, and it is still in usage this year.  Maybe it's always been there?  No brief!   SW is thinking of maybe having a "nado" suffix.  Sometimes "sharknado" is popping up too.  Still pondering that...

Till next time!

Let's Celebrate!

Checking in!

Steno Wizard has been so busy with the captioning side of realtime!  Loads of work out there to be had from the comfort of your own home...just sayin'  

Steno Wizard is starting to feel more and more comfortable captioning television.  Last week, Steno Wizard got to caption -- get ready for it -- the State of the Union address.  Talk about a nerve-racking experience.  In my quest to not look a total fool, I spent 45 minutes prepping for a speech that was a little over an hour long!

How does one prep for the State of the Union?

You've got to make sure you have all those Congressional names in your dictionary just in case.  I had many from before the election, but I needed to update them with the newly elected people. 

I went to the whitehouse.gov and looked around in there for a bit.  Input the First Lady's guests names -- good thing because the President mentioned a few along the way.  Rebekah definitely had to be in there. 

Here's some briefs that were helpful--State of the Union STAOUPB
Michelle PHEURBL
Congress TKPWRES
Congressional TKPWRERBL

Now a word I wish I'd had in my dictionary that the President didn't say but the television reporters did say -- rotunda!   You can bet it's in there NOW. 

Anyway, Steno Wizard survived that particular journey.