A Cascade Failure

Today in class was jury charge. Jury charge is when the judge speaks directly to the jury. It's usually a lot of instructions and whatnot. I sort of like them because they can be quite repetitive.

Anyway, my teacher started out with a one-minute test. One-minute tests don't really count for anything but they're a good warm-up and they make you feel good when you do well on them. So, I took my one-minute, 140 jury charge, and I did pretty well. I had almost 96% accuracy! So, one would think I would do about the same on the real test. But, when it came time to take the full five-minute test, it was a totally different story.

I had what I call a "cascade failure". I start off okay, but as soon as I start to fall behind, or drop something, or make a mistake of any kind,, I just sort of "give up". I don't mean to, it just happens. I drop one word and instead of letting it go, and writing everything else, I miss the whole sentence, and then the next and then I start hitting the wrong keys and the whole test is useless. That first mistake ruins everything. I couldn't even tell you what my score was, because it wasn't worth transcribing. I just threw it away.

How do other people deal with their first mistake?

It's like I either have a really good test or a down right pitiful test. There is no medium. I'm sure it's all in my head but, I don't know how to get out of my head. It's weird. Unfortunately for me, cascade failures are becoming much too common for me. They are happening more often than not.

The thing that makes me feel better is that I did so well on the one-minute test. If I can get that close to a 140 for one-minute there's no reason I can't do that for five minutes; right? I just need to keep telling myself that over and over agin. I will try again and keep you posted. Wish me luck.

'cause we all need a laugh

My mother emailed this to me. I figured we could all use a good laugh. And no, I didn't write this on my machine. If I had it would have said Q and A not WITNESS and ATTORNEY, but copy and paste is so easy and I'm going to be doing homework today anyway, so, I will get some practice. Enjoy!

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now
Published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
__________________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: getting laid
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
__________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
__________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 pm.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
________________________________________


And the best for last:


ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.


See, court reporting can be fun.

congressional tests and club officers

Here I am day two, and I've decided that I'm going to write this entire blog on my steno machine whenever possible; it will give me a good reason to set everything up. I can be so lazy. Sometimes, I don't practice just because I don't want to take my machine out of my bag. How pathetic is that? I feel like I'm well intentioned but I have no follow through. I tell myself I'm going to practice a certain thing as soon as I get home, but after the hour drive, I always do something else. But now, I'm sitting here on my machine, I'm writing pretty slowly, but at least it's a start.

My cat is sitting here next to me staring at me. I don't think she has any idea what I'm doing. It must be nice to be a cat...I digress.

Yesterday, I mentioned different kinds of tests. Today in class we did a congressional test. Basically, it's a test that consists of a speech to, or by congress or the house of reps or the president or anything like that. It usually has very large words that seem to come very fast. There are good things about this kind of test, though. The main one is that only one person talks so I don't have to worry about putting a speaker change in there. Plus, California only requires congressional tests to be 95% accurate. It doesn't seem like a big jump from 97.5, but, I assure you, it is. Despite these two things, I did not pass my 140 test today. I didn't even pass the 130 test today. (Remember those days I told you about? Today was one.)

What I did manage to do today was meet with the club officers. I am now the new vice president of the court reporting club at Cerritos college. I'm pretty excited about it because the other officers are all friends of mine. In the past, most club officers have been high-speed students but, this year us mid-speed girls are gonna give it a go.

We are going to organize fund-raising and try to setup some fun things all the students can do. I think it's important to have a support system so, I really want to make sure everyone one knows that everyone else is behind them. It's easier to stick to personal goals that way. We also want to get some great guest speakers. Any ideas on who we should get to speak?

I'm still new to this whole blogging thing so it may take me a little while to get everything working. Please bear with me and let me know if there is something I should be doing that I'm not.

That's all for now, let me now how you feel about congressional tests. I used to say they were my favorite, but after today, I'm not so sure.

Introductions and Explanations

Hi! I'm Helen and court reporting school is kicking my butt. I thought that blogging about it would help keep me focused, hopefully. So, here's to hoping...

I started court reporting school at Cerritos College in California three years ago, against my mother's advice. She said that my strength was my social skills and that sitting quietly listening to what people were saying was not the best idea for me. Perhaps she's right, but I do really enjoy it... when I have a good day. It's weird some days I can write really well and others, I'd be lucky to get 50% of it down.

My current goal speed is 140 wpm. I still don't know how I managed to pass all my 130s, but I did.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the testing procedure it goes like this: The teacher dictates for five minutes at a specific speed. The students have their trusty machine set up in front of them and desperately pound on them, trying to get every word, punctuation mark, and change of speaker. Then, the students turn in their paper notes that came out of their machines and the teacher stamps them. The students then take those notes and have an hour to type them into a transcript. Some students, like me, use CAT (computer aided transcription) software to help them. This instantly translates steno into english which may sound easy except the software has to be "taught" how to translate all the words correctly, a process which seems never ending. After the transcript is produced, the student must correct it against the recording of the test. In California, to pass a test it must be at least 97.5% accurate. If a word is plural and you didn't pluralize it, it's wrong, if you put a period where a question mark should go, it's wrong. If, the defense attorney is speaking and you labeled it as prosecution, it's wrong, plus that counts even more so it's really minus 5!!! Basically, a transcript has to be perfect. Then, after you pass each kind of test (more on that later) in a specific speed and you start to feel good about yourself, they make you do it faster. It can be quite over whelming. I'd love to hear how some of you feel about it.