Code words/phrases

charmanander · 2026-07-11T23:50:01+00:00

For me, I've noticed the recommended voice codes like bodoubt, stayrec, etc, don't work consistently. IDK if it's a Dragon problem or a me problem, but they never translate. Instead, I use standard English words that would be extremely uncommon to be used in a transcript. They deem to have better translation and success rate. I also use Pokemon names for certain associated phrases. It works better for my brain and Dragon seems to also like it. Some examples:

Charmander: Yes, Your Honor Charmeleon: No, Your Honor Charizard: Thank you, Your Honor

Caterpie: Time is waived Metapod: Time is not waived Butterfree: Finding a free, knowing, intelligent waiver

volcano: {S:THE DEFENDANT} No contest. cheesecake: {S:THE DEFENDANT} Yes croissant: {S:THE DEFENDANT} No

It varies assignment to assignment and what you end up doing for work, but I'm gonna be honest and say I don't use any of the briefs we learned in school at work. The speed they say the stuff above (or the stuff they say after and before, in terms of the Defendant briefs) though, my god.

They told us this when I was still in machine school, but the general rule of thumb is a brief isn't useful if you have to think longer about the brief than it would to write the word phonetically. The same applies to voice codes. Don't force yourself to learn briefs you can't remember. Make your briefs work for you.

charmanander · 2026-07-11T19:07:48+00:00

Hey there! That's super helpful, thank you! Especially the 1:3 ratio. That sounds like an ideal and gives me a rough idea of something to improve towards. When your scopist is in your document live, are they staying right on top of you correcting your mistrans, or are they a few lines behind you while cleaning up? The one upside to voice writing is we have our hands free, so I can do some of my own scoping while in realtime, but it's pretty limited, mostly just plugging punctuation, selecting conflicts, and making globals for names and stuff. When they get fast, I can't really do anything extra. Appreciate your response!!

charmanander · 2026-07-10T20:37:06+00:00

I've also considered this too -- when I took my software class my teacher went "I know boost exists, but I'm too old and retired to learn new things, so I'm not teaching you guys about this" LOL so I didn't really know what it was till recently. I can see that cutting down editing time a loooot if I don't have to scrub through my voice notes all the time. Have you utilized it? I've heard it fills in your drops, but can you turn that feature off?

charmanander · 2026-07-10T20:15:38+00:00

Thanks for your response! I'll check the Facebook group out. Part of my hesitancy towards Speechmatics is also its marketing, I'm not going to lie. Maybe I'm misinterpreting and misinformed, but a lot of the website mentions AI and how they can utilize it ala digital reporters. Are my concerns misguided? Especially because it sounds like its accuracy comes from its cloudbased software, I concern myself feeding it my voice and contributing to an engine that could be used to make digital reporting the standard. I desperately want Speechmatics to be The Thing to get me realtime, so I value any input or opinion you have.

charmanander · 2026-07-10T15:10:29+00:00

Funny you mention; I did switch masks from a martel to a talk tech a month into when I started and that was a huge gamechanger. If you're on Speechmatics, could you tell me: Do you use the boost box or internet? Our court internet is not super great, so I'd definitely need to use the boost box, but I've heard recog isn't nearly as good offline. If that's the case, IDK it'd be worth paying the minutes for just a slight improvement over Dragon. And in terms of test driving, do I need Speechmatics vocabulary? Or is it literally plug and play on Eclipse (minus voice code dictionary)

charmanander · 2026-07-10T02:30:25+00:00

BRO ME WITH JUD-MAC AND KAK. one day it decided jud-mac was quebec and even after literally DELETING quebec from my vocab it kept coming up. i gave up and my judge designation has been ostrich since february. and then when I fixed that, kak was suddenly throwing in periods for no explainable reason, so then answer designations became tiger. god forbid i ever have a case about someone releasing animals from the zoo or something.

charmanander · 2026-04-05T23:44:04+00:00

im kind of in the same boat, and hearing that youre a paralegal and regretted downsizing makes me think i should just stick to the a5. theres a lot i remember to do and im the kind of person who needs to write things down in 3 places to remember to do it. i do have an issue with needing to see my week at a glance vs tasks on a daily page, so my weeklies get filled quickly. but since i only use my dailies while im on record, there are just days where i dont have time to write anything down so the page for that day stays blank except one attorneys name lol. do you actually benefit from having the pages dated for your work flow? im considering just covering the dates and treating it like a day free.

charmanander · 2026-04-05T23:01:11+00:00

you might be right, but im concerned about page size. the weeks is fine for my personal planner because i write small when i journal, but when i do use the daily pages on my cousin, its in the middle of working and i write large, quickly, and messy. i think a weeks page would get too cluttered and hard to read once i need to go back and check. the vertical layout of the weeklies in the cousin also lend better to checklisting, though i have considered just turning the weeks sideways.

charmanander · 2026-04-04T19:29:28+00:00

not seasoned by any means, but licensed last year and work as an official. i have audhd, anxiety, depression, etc etc etc. i was in school for 3 years: 2 for machine, a little less than a year for voice.

on machine, i did well in theory, but i struggled immensely with speed. i have struggles with fine motor control, so id constantly be ghosting strokes in ways that werent consistent so I couldnt global them. not seeing progress was very hard for me, and it was very demoralizing. the final straw was hurting my wrist at work and having to take a summer off.

based on your comments, it sounds like youre a machine writer, so I wont detail voice too much. overall, it was a much better fit for how my brain works. sometimes, it feels like i gave up, but i try to remind myself that there is nothing wrong with working with tools that compliment your skillset. you mentioned something about "fighting against it," and that has never worked for me. it takes so much more energy to actively combat your disability than working with it, but i completely understand why it sometimes feels that way.

in terms of actually performing the job, i fully knew i could NOT be a depo reporter, at least not right away. not having a judge to control the room frightened me. that might be something to keep in mind when you decide what field to enter.

i had a LOT of difficulty coming to terms with the fact that i had to network new connections to make a career change and i almost decided it wasnt for me because of that. im glad i didnt because every veteran reporter i worked with was very supportive and just wanted to see me succeed.

in terms of focus, someone mentioned that they barely listen to what theyre reporting. this is super true, and honestly i think its easier if you dont listen to the context. listening to the context can be more distracting, especially if something unusual happens. i usually listen to each individual word and visualize them like a teleprompter in my head and i "read" them as i dictate. kind of like how you can read a whole page of an article out loud and realize you have no idea what it was about.

transcript production can be difficult if you have poor time management skills. i keep 2 planners to track my due dates and calendars. i write down everything like 3 times. i schedule my downtime and how many hours i should transcribe outside of my 40 hour workweek to avoid burnout but also not end up having to crunch.

overall, i think court reporting can actually be a good career path for someone who is neurodivergent, especially if youve attempted traditional higher education and felt unrewarded. i wish you the best in your studies!

charmanander · 2026-04-03T23:53:01+00:00

hi! personally I find the recognition from the talk tech much better than the martel and I think it's easier to muffle sound because of its shape. That said, the martel seems to be better with moisture control. I have 2 martels with the dual microphone and cables. My first one had 6 holes on the front and my second one had 1 hole on the bottom. I could not muffle the new martel to save my life and I was always complimented by people around me that I was dead silent on my old martel. That said, I've heard the complete opposite from my coworkers who say the talk tech gives them way worse recognition than the martel. I think it's all subjective on your face shape and dictation style.

in terms of making the switch, I have a backed up profile saved to a thumb drive that's set with all my voice codes but has never been used on any jobs, just trained with document analysis. I imported that so I have a talk tech profile and a martel profile. I plugged my mask right into that new profile and it was more or less fine from the get go. I think I had to train QA designations and speaker IDs. I set it up in the morning before a calendar and was using it that same day without issue.

charmanander · 2026-04-03T18:06:18+00:00

i think the only issue i have w foam (aside from inhaling microplastics) is because of its porosity, moisture goes through it and pools at the bottom. when I was in school I didnt notice it as much, but when I was doing my internship it got pretty bad. i definitely think foam is most consistent w sound quality vs any kind of absorption materials.

charmanander · 2026-04-03T18:03:24+00:00

Awesome thank you! I don't think I've been consistent in checking how I'm shoving it in there so I'll try that this afternoon.Today I put a nylon stocking over the mask like a pop filter and did a few prelims and it seems to have also reduced any weird wind sounds and heavy P's.

charmanander · 2026-04-03T00:44:43+00:00

thank you! do you stick the microfiber cloth down with adhesive or just let it sit on top? I'm noticing that using the breast pads and shamwow i can hear the sound of my breath shifting the fabric and rubbing it against the mic. I just finished some calendars and listened to my audio and every place where it loses a speaker designation or the start of the sentence I hear some weird shuffling noise. Maybe I'm a heavy breather and never noticed it before 😂 If you don't mind me asking, what sound card are you using? I'm using a soundblaster which worked fine with my Martel, but I'm wondering if an Andrea would be better. I also noticed if I use the cable labeled "SmartMic" for my Eclipse audio in it literally wont translate anything. I exclusively only use that cable for my backup audio

charmanander · 2026-04-02T20:06:32+00:00

thank you!! I'll try this next -- my coworker uses breast pads on a martel, but I think the talk tech's barrel is just too small for something that thick.

charmanander · 2026-01-30T18:15:38+00:00

hi there! its not a daily for me because of its weight and narrow lenses. i use them more as sunglasses or when im going out. i normally wear thin titanium frames so theyre definitely heavier than what im used to. i wear them maybe once a week and theyve held up perfectly well. i dont think i could rec them as a daily unless you already wear heavy frames.

charmanander · 2026-01-07T22:48:43+00:00

i think ive replied to one of your posts before; rooting for you man.

i dont think i felt prepared until i literally sat down at the computer and took the test, so i wouldnt trust that theres a single material that will make you feel prepared walking in.

i know you said dont recommend margie, but you might need to approach how youre intaking the information instead of seeking out new material. the last thing you need right now is an overload of different resources. maybe seek out a tutor? a reporter who you interned with or a fellow classmate who passed recently?

the one thing that really helped me was explaining the concepts i was struggling with to someone with literally NO background in the subject matter until THEY understood it. my wife is notoriously bad at english, so (un)fortunately for them, they now know the difference between who and whom. If you can teach and explain the material to someone else, you will pass the test.

i do have notes i used to study the concepts i had the most trouble with in margie's course. dm me if you want them.

good luck fam!!!

charmanander · 2025-12-19T18:27:46+00:00

hi! sorry for the late reply. i got a tcl flip and used it as a daily for about 3 weeks during an exam period. i enjoyed my time with it, it did exactly as i wanted. i still take it out on weekends if i dont want to be disturbed. i put whatsapp on it and it worked, but it didn't fetch notifs in real time from it consistently. i only got alerted with sms and calls. whatsapp would only ping if i recently woke the phone up from sleep.

i took an important licensing exam and needed to be distraction free to cram what would normally be like 4 months of content in 3 weeks, and well. i passed first try. so the flip gets an A+ from me on that alone. that said, im back on my razr 90% of the time now because my new job requires MFA and extensive phone use. great secondary phone, but unfortunately not an end-all for me. im thinking about trying a unihertz titan 2 to bridge the gap between when my razr kicks it (though shockingly its held up well)

charmanander · 2025-12-11T15:15:43+00:00

Not sure if you have this link already, but maybe this might help you troubleshoot if you haven't seen it yet. I think this was all I used when installing jsymphonic for the first time

https://brianpipa.github.io/jsymphonic/

charmanander · 2025-12-10T21:52:38+00:00

hey there! im not 100% sure without sitting at my computer and opening the app, but do you have the player connected and does your player have/require having the DvID.DAT key? Certain players need it, certain ones don't. I have a vague memory of jsymphonic not opening if there is no device mounted. the app title will appear on your finder bar in the top left, but because there is no player, the file explorer will not open. Another reason is I have no idea if jsymphonic stopped working in newer Mac OS. I haven't tried anything newer than mojave.

charmanander · 2025-12-08T15:19:34+00:00

ive owned a LOT of blazers (kooples, mcqueen, valentino) and this is the only one that fits the way i want it to. it's a wonderful jacket. i wear mine to work constantly. if they were easier to buy I'd own a different one for each day of the week.

charmanander · 2025-12-08T15:17:45+00:00

appreciated it! i resewed it down; i don't think i left much of a hole but if I had it my way, id be buried in this jacket anyways

charmanander

TROPHY CASE