You are looking live at my first dictated blog. Playing while in the big leagues of corporate radio I always had access to someone who could "take dictation”---the best of whom was my administrative assistant, Mrs. Shelly Morgan, when she was Shelley Gordon— someone every bit as responsible for the success of 93/KHJ Boss Radio as any of those more publicized players.
So here I sit looking like millions of folks wearing a headset with microphone attached just like your basic customer service rep, phone operator or someone dictating orders about where and when the next drone strike should occur.
I have been fortunate to know and associate with noted writers, authors, journalist, etc. And I’m amazed at their productivity considering that they most often use a typewriter, word processor or pencil and paper (like Cameron Crowe has always done). Plus whatever it took to produce the Dead Sea Scrolls or carve Hawaiian petroglyphs. Wow! This thing actually typed out the word “petroglyphs” correctly and without my looking it up for the umpteenth time.
There are good things to be said about Nuance, the company that distributes Dragon Dictate. Some thoughts are quite good; others involve the non-nuanced, nightmarish experiences I have endured since attempting to use this thing back in October. This software is not particularly friendly, even to myself, someone who began using computers in 1979.
How do these ultra-prolific writers do it? One can go back to Prof. Marshall McLuhan’s works and read his 1960s distinction between oral and aural. Shoot, if this thing can distinguish between the last two words in the previous sentence it is indeed pretty amazing. Yeah, considering I have only been at this for thirty-minutes. Sorry about any typos but at least they are being “typed” almost as fast as I think and pronounce them. And surely easier and more direct–from-the brain, which is why broadcasting, MC work, one flawless Bar Mitzvah speech and hustling on the street never have been a problem. Those of you who have dealt with my interminable telephone rants, raves and redundancy know this well.
It took two months for the correct "nuance"product to arrive after three misses. Today, following a record one-hour wait on hold, I connected with Gavin in Manila who talked me through the entire process as if it were NASA giving instructions to the astronauts. Now, I can finally say, “Houston, we no longer have a problem!”
Kindly indulge my desire to post a blog straight from my mouse (not my mouse) to your monitor. It is an otherworldly experience for someone who began with carbon microphones, shortwave and 78-RPM records. The original intent of computer dictate programs was to assist people with physical disabilities, some of which are happening to me, like difficulty reading and typing. I have a kilo of ideas about how to apply this thing to my future work.
I am, by the way, dictating directly into a word processing device called Scrivener™, which can be difficult to learn. But is the choice of many professional writers because of its versatility. I have been working since 1994 on an autobiography entitled “From Doo-Wop to Duopoly.” I doubt that it will ever see the light of day or the glimmer of its contents on a computer screen or an-book, but I visited audio-dictate from time to time. Some of it strikes me as well done and arduously researched while other sections seems like they were written by a dummy.
That reflective manuscript, only takes me through the 1970s. It is on the burner behind my treatise on the death of radio, which hopefully will be concluded and my conclusions will be seen by those who pontificate and kvetch about the sorry state of a medium that many of us love as much as life itself. This is painful to someone whose FCC license is dated Christmas Eve 1952 and has seen so many changes it boggles what is left of my mind.
While hoping and praying that this thing actually would work I contemplated how I would do things that have hereto been impossible. My initial application of Dragon was to send an e-mail to Gavin thanking them for teaching me something that is deeper than Excel, more refined than MegaSeg™––the best kept secret in radio––and all the other stuff that I began learning with my 1979 purchase of the notorious RadioShack TRS–80, now the equivalent of a hand-cranked ice cream maker or images captured on Edison reels.
“Running at the mouth,” has been my problem since the moment I was born and the doctor asked me, “ What is your mother’s maiden name?” Thereafter I lived and several times nearly died by the tongue. Now, using a combination of mind-boggling soft and hardware, I am able to DLOG or whatever you call dictating into a computer. Steve Jobs rest in iPeace.
This post begins with the photo of me strapped in and ready to Dragon taken after the installation was successful and I can send it to Gavin, the tech rep in the Manilla. Ever been there? Hi-tech amidst low-tech. Growing up in Hawaii, I respect those who arrived from the Philippines for their diligence, grace and respect for authority. There would be no Aloha State without their soul and strength. RAMBLING!
Perhaps most of you this is just more high-tech razzmatazz, but my fellow writers and/or folks with disabilities should at least know of this option. Sure, I went through digital Hell to get this far. The time I put in to reach this point will pay dividends as I learn how to rap into this THING. I calculate that I have read 930 posts, reviews, comments and all da kine rabble/babble about using the confusing Dragon Dictate. But hey now, it is slowly learning Hawaiian pidgin English, my first language. I will dictate, “Hello, how are you today?” in pidgin. Let’s see what comes out! “ House and knowledge you doing how you stay today line that.” Well they only advertised English not our unique and wonderful local slang talk.
Never could I have produced what are now 1200-plus words in this short a time. Thanks to all who encouraged me to see this through; there is still so much to get down before I make, which is Hawaiian for “ death or dying.”
I recalled how in 1951 Jack Kerouac took a continuous 120-foot roll of teletype paper (above). jammed it into his manual typewriter and began to write his masterpiece, "On The Road." How about the most amazing chapter on sports ever published, “Ice,” from the David Maraniss classic, “ When Pride Still Mattered.” It was produced by him non-stop, fueled on coffee, in a day and night marathon. If you've not read the book then dig up a copy of this fantastic piece and perhaps you’ll see why I am so stoked about Dragon––and I don’t mean my street racing days in the infamous 1958 deviously souped-up draggin' Pontiac Bonneville!
All I just said was “new paragraph” to begin this one. Being neither Jack Kerouac nor David Maraniss I decided to resume my autobio by word-of-mouth, so to speak. Perhaps it will sometimes see the light of day a glint of a pixilated screen. Mega-mahalo to Todd Hewitt, world’s greatest equipment manager and the one who convinced me that this is a winning program, unlike a certain NFL team that ignominiously let him go––he and his dad served the team for 44 seasons. Ah, Todd is now with a winning program, head equipment manager for the California Golden Bears.
For old times sake I’ll sign off with my standard DJ show closing riff: “Keep your lukewarm spoon adjacent to your electric bowling bag, bunkie.” Tell me what that means and I will tell you Tina Delgado’s middle name! Meanwhile I must learn not to speak to people in this manner. One ends up sounding like a computer, barking out commands.
The previous blog goes on and on about me and written words.
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