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