21 SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery. 2. Work at something you enjoy and that's worthy of your time and talent. 3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully. 4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know. 5. Be forgiving of yourself and others. 6. Be generous. 7. Have a grateful heart. 8. Persistence, persistence, persistence. 9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary. 10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated. 11. Commit yourself to constant improvement. 12. Commit yourself to quality. 13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationship with people you love and respect. 14. Be loyal. 15. Be honest. 16. Be a self-starter. 17. Be decisive even it it means you'll sometimes be wrong. 18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life. 19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did. 20. Take good care of those you love. 21. Don't do anything that wouldn't make your Mom proud. - H. Jackson Brown Jr.

HOW I PACK MY LAPTOP/STENO MACHINE ROLLER

This blog post is a long time coming. This is for Jill who commented on my blog post "MY LAPTOP/STENO MACHINE ROLLER." Here's what she said: "Would you be willing to post pics of exactly HOW you load your steno "luggage"? I am in the same boat. Interning is a pain with even just a Jet Bag and laptop rolling briefcase. I want it all in one bag!" Well, I've finally got around to taking pics for you, Jill! Sorry for the delay. Here is exactly how I pack my laptop, steno machine, and all my cords and other gadgets in my handy-dandy luggage roller my boyfriend bought for me on SALE at Macy's. Hope this helps! :) Oh! And ALWAYS get warranty! I've used mine once so far! The handle broke! :P Guess I was packing way too much stuff in there (added lots of notebooks and other supplies). So last word: Pack with care. When you pack too much things besides the necessities, the roller tips over! And that's embarrassing! :P

STENO NOTES IN YOUR PURSE

I've started a new habit of carrying a bunch of steno notes in my purse. When I find a spare minute during my day, I'll pull out my notes, which are bound in a clip, and start reading silently to myself (sometimes mouthing them, though; people must think I'm crazy!). This quick reading practice works best when I'm waiting in line for something such as at a bank, at a store, at a restaurant, etc. If I'm able, I'll also circle my errors (something that I've learned from Simply Steno, a great online steno program to help get you prepared to take the RPR Exam), and in that way, try to analyze my notes and consequently fix my trouble spots. This is the first time I've ever packed steno notes in my purse for the occasional 5-10 minutes of read-back... and I like it! It's kind of addicting! After I'm done, I get this wonderful sense of feeling productive, of being "on top of things" regarding my speed-building progress, and it keeps my mind in steno mode. Lastly, I don't get all anxious or cranky when I have to wait in line for something. I actually look forward to the lulls in my days... because that's when I can sneak in some steno read-back. Wouldn't my teachers be so proud! Haha! :)

10 WORDS YOU NEED TO STOP MISSPELLING

Here's an awesome site that gives 10 great tips, with awesome comics and unforgettable humor, on how to stop misspelling! Click here to go to The Oatmeal where the below came from.

400 MOST FREQUENTLY USED WORDS

I'm practicing the 400 most frequently used words as a warm-up before I start my practice sessions. Here they are for your practicing pleasure as well. Enjoy! :)

61+ WAYS TO WRITE FASTER

I just purchased the book 61+ Ways to Write Faster: Speedbuilding Tips for Court Reporters and Students. I bought it from NCRA's online store for $14.95 (NCRA member price; NCRA non-member price is $18.95). Click here to enter NCRA's bookstore. Click here to enter and/or download the 2009 Best Sellers brochure from NCRA's bookstore. Although it's a bit dated (published in 1997), the info in here is pretty good. The Introduction is tedious (very wordy!), but after that hill, you get to the 61 mini articles given by court reporting instructors, well-known working court reporters, and speed champions. These mini articles vary in length from three pages long to one paragraph. The book is full of great but conflicting advice on how to build speed. The reason is everyone has their own, specific, personalized way for what helps them eventually write 225 wpm on the steno machine. So you really got to do what works for you! Still, there are lots of great suggestions in this book on how to do just that. Here's #11 of the 61+ Ways, "Make it Fun," written by Margaret Wakeman-Wells, CRI, from Bryan College in Los Angeles, California:

Save a variety of notes from classes and tapes: medical, technical, straight matter, testimony, congressional, "a little too fast," "falling off a log too slow." Always read from this variety. 1. Notes for Repetition: (Five to seven minutes of dictation, no drops.) Read one time daily for approximately 10 days, making no corrections or notations in the notes at any time. At the end of this time, you should be reading these notes at a speed significantly above your writing speed. 2. Notes for Speed Reading: (No more than five minutes of dictation.) Read once and time yourself. Read again and try to cut down the time. Read a third time and try to cut the time again. The idea is to read more quickly each time. Make no corrections or notations in the notes. 3. Notes for Listing Errors: Read the notes and circle (with a glaring color of ink) all errors, including the smallest of shadows. Hold up several folds at a time to see whether there are any patterns. (This is not to catch an isolated error on one word. It is meant to show patterns of errors.) Make a list of fingering errors and practice them. 4. Notes for General Practice: When you come to the first error, mentally or on your lap practice one of the following ways (making no corrections in the notes):

• The word in front, the error and the word after.
• The four or five words in front of the error with the error.
• The error and the four or five words after it

Make corrections right in the notes and mentally set the new outline. When you finish reading a set of notes in any of the preceding patterns, read the set all the way through one last time without pausing to make or practice any corrections.

COURT REPORTERS SITE

There's a new court reporting social network site that's been gaining new members daily -- Court Reporters Site. This is Kelli's website that she created after she and Monti went their separate ways. A few years ago, Kelli, a court reporter, and Monti, a legal videographer, created the original CSR Nation, which has been dubbed the Facebook or MySpace for court reporters. I was super excited about it! (Read here to see just how much!) Sadly, however, sometime last year, there was a riff between Kelli and Monti. Monti left CSR Nation to Kelli in order to create another court reporting social network site -- Court Reporters Connect (CRC). Since then, Monti has had CRC, and Kelli has had CSR Nation. Now there were two social networking sites instead of the original CSR Nation. I stayed active on both sites for a while, hoping that the tension between the two would die down. I was also hoping against hopes that Monti and Kelli would reconcile, and we, the online friends, would get our original CSR Nation back -- it was such a great, fun, informative tool for us all, especially us court reporting students! But the reconciliation was not to happen -- at least not now. Just last week I deactivated my account at CRC, because I personally felt that there was too much negativity on this site. The whining and complaining that I personally saw at CRC was too much for me to handle. Thus, I sent Monti and all my CRC online friends a message letting them know that I was going to deactivate my account with CRC and also the reason why. I told them all that I was joining Kelli's site, Court Reporters Site, because I did not find any bitterness there. Rather, I found it uplifting and more like the old CSR Nation I had grown to love and miss so much! I encourage you to check out both sites and see which one you like better. Maybe you can be a member at both, and that's cool. I was doing that for a while. But for now, I just can't. I would love to rejoin CRC perhaps down the road if (and only if) I find that there is no longer any animosity or bitterness at that site, to the point where I would be very proud to be a loyal member of CRC. I don't wish Monti nor any of the CRC supporters any harm. I am very grateful for all the hard work both he and Kelli put into the original CSR Nation. I still wish we only had one social networking site to choose from. But for now, while we don't, I'll be at Court Reporters Site.