by Kathy Brasby | Mar 8, 2013 | Stories
The photo came via a text on my phone along with a message:. “Tell Mom the daffodils have finally pushed through.”
Our mother loves to garden. She ordered the bulbs for her yard last summer, before her stroke felled her. The bulb package showed up the week after Mom’s stroke.
My sister and her family managed to get 75 bulbs in the ground before the temperatures plummeted.
You plant bulbs with hope. The bulbs look too dead to endure a harsh winter. But the vision  of the spring’s new life and colors spurred the family on.
Here in Colorado, we’ve been hammered by the lack of snow this winter. The ground is so dry that many farmers are considering parking their planters this year. The cost of buying seed and fuel may be greater than the potential harvest.
Our family has  been hammered, too, this winter. Not by lack of snow but by loss and disappointment. As I’ve mentioned before, my father died in September and my mother suffered a major stroke in October. Our winter has been consumed with therapy and fear.
For a time, we wondered if we’d lose both parents back to back. Then we wondered if Mom would regain anything stolen by the stroke.
Mom has learned to sit up again, lift herself with one arm and a grab bar, and swallow again. The therapists have her walking – stiffly, awkwardly, but one foot in front of the other.
“She’s doing great,” they tell us.
My sister’s photo of the emerging daffodils made Mom happy. “We’ll have to go see those one of these days,” she said.
When those bulbs went in the ground, we all wondered about Mom.  Would we be able to show her the new plants? Would the bulbs even grow in this drought? Would she survive the winter?
Yes, yes, and yes.
And I think those daffodils mirror our hearts as well. It’s been a long dry winter but spring’s coming.
by Kathy Brasby | Mar 6, 2013 | Hope
Participating in social media means pictures. Photos. Readers are very visual and a post with a picture is better.
I ran across this cheat sheet for social media photos and thought I would share with you. I have a lot of work to do on my social media. Maybe you, too?
Check it out:
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 27, 2013 | Stories
Last week we discussed using voice dictation on your iPad or iMac. This week we’ll look at the Windows version of dictation.
In the Windows environment, dictation is available as an accessibility feature. That makes it a little more challenging to activate than the Mac’s function key access. But not impossible.
Both Windows 7 and 8 use a similar system for turning on dictation. Once dictation is available, it works in any application that accepts text.
The simplest way to turn on dictation is to press the Start button, type Speech and wait for it to show up in the search. A small window will appear. You click on the microphone button to turn listening on and off. You can also configure Speech Recognition by right-clicking the Speech Recognition button in the notification area of your task bar.
Another route to Speech Recognition is to press the Start button and selecting All Programs>Accessories>Ease of Access.
Microsoft offers a tutorial for using dictation.
If you don’t like Microsoft’s free dictation program, consider other add-on programs. The best-known is Dragon Naturally Speaking. Dragon not only can turn talk into text, but can follow commands. You can launch programs, open files, and much more by speaking to Dragon.
Dragon packages range from $75 to $180 so it’s pricey but highly regarded.
Whether you don’t type well or you’re plagued with a problem such as carpal tunnel or, dictation options in either the Windows or Apple environment might make your writing times a whole lot easier.
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 25, 2013 | Hope
Very early in my writing career, I learned to dread Thursdays.
 In those days, I worked as the editor of a small weekly newspaper in a rural community that knew not only everyone’s name, but how they were related to one another and who had dated in high school. Our entire circulation was under 1,000 subscribers and our office smaller than some living rooms.  A secretary went through the mail and handled the financial side of things. The reporting staff consisted of me.
The newspaper hit most people’s mailboxes by Thursday morning each week. Shortly after lunch on a particular Thursday, a white-haired woman with a bright polyester dress and heavy jewelry pushed her way through the front door and leaned over the front counter. My desk sat furthest from the front but the secretary ducked her head, leaving me exposed to our readers.
“I want to talk to you,” Mrs. White-hair said. Tone of voice was everything in how quickly I moved from my desk. When she spoke, I bolted.
“How may I help you?” Maybe politeness would stem the flood.
“I just got my paper,” she said. “And our club news wasn’t in the social section. I am very disappointed.” How could the word very drip like icicles?
“We were short on room but it will be in next week.”
Her eyes narrowed and she leaned in. “You had room for the sports section. Who do you think wants to read about the football game? You had two pictures of that game. Two big pictures. We are very disappointed. This is a sorry state for our newspaper.”
And she shook her shoulders, gathered her bulging purse, and stomped out the door.
An hour later, the door opened to welcome a man in a polo shirt and sweat pants who leaned over the front counter. “I have a complaint,” he said.
My feet were like lead as I walked to the front of our office. “How may I help you?”
“I just got my paper,” he said. “And there are no pictures of the junior high football game. No pictures. How are these boys supposed to feel like we support them if you can’t even cover their games?”
“We were short on room–”
“You have room for all that club news. Who cares about the clubs? Nobody. We need better stories of our sports. Got that?”
Yep. On that Thursday, I got it.
by Kathy Brasby | Feb 20, 2013 | Stories
If you write at all and own an iPad or iMac, the dictation feature is enough reason to upgrade to the Mountain Lion operating system if you haven’t yet.
What dictation offers you is writing without typing. In general terms, when using any program where you would normally type in text, you can do dictation instead. You can now respond to an email without putting your hands to the keyboard. You can write a report while leaning back in your chair, keyboard out of reach.
Well, not totally. You do need to trigger dictation by hitting either the function key or a custom key (I use F5). Once you do so, a small window containing a tiny microphone appears and will then record your voice for up to 30 seconds before taking a break to transcribe what you said. You can press the “done” button anytime before dictation times out.
The text will appear and you can approve what’s been typed before adding another chunk of text.
For writers who struggle with carpal tunnel or other hand/wrist issues, this can be a great way to give your hands a rest. And if you don’t type very well, this can be a nice tool to allow you to skate by without learning how to type better.
There are many dictation terms which help insert punctuation and minor formatting. You can, for example, say “period” at the end of your sentence and a period appears. The same with comma, question mark, and explanation mark. You can even insert an inverted question mark by telling your device “inverted question mark.”
Apple provides detailed instructions on how to initiate dictation and also a lengthy chart on dictation terms. Note that you do need an internet connection for dictation.
Not only can you use dictation to transcribe words, but the same feature can read the text back to you as well. Proofreading often is more accurate when you hear the sentences rather than see them. Plus the read-back feature allows you to hear the rhythm of your sentences. Some sentences look great on paper but sound clunky when spoken.
First, highlight the text that you would like to hear. On the Mac, right-click to produce a drop-down menu which includes the option, Speech. Select “Start Speaking” and listen to your computer read the text to you. By going to Settings>Dictation & Speech, you can change the “Text to Speech” speaker and the speed at which he or she reads to you.
The more you use dictation, the better it will understand your voice and accent. If you have a Mac or iPad, check it out.
Next week, we’ll look at dictation in the Windows environment.