I didn’t think that retirees hated Mondays, and maybe Monday is not the cause of my frustration, but it is Monday, and I am frustrated, so there must be a connection. Â Right?
This is how it started.  I haven’t been visiting very many blogs recently because I’ve been busy.  I’ve been busy, maybe because it takes me so long to do the things I want to do, and maybe just because I want to do so many things.  Yesterday I read Russel Ray’s blog, and I left him a comment, which I often do.  He answered me, and somehow mentioned that he read 150 BLOGS A DAY.  I was overcome, because I barely get through 3-4, on a good day.  So he wrote me back with tips.  Here were his tips to me.
- Don’t leave comment SPAM. Â ie “Your picture is beautiful.” Â Just press like. Â That sounds reasonable. Â I could write fewer mundane comments, but I do like the sound of my own fingers typing.
- Learn to read faster. Â Take a course from EyeQ. Â So I went online and researched it, and quit visiting blogs – another reason I get through so few a day. Â I took the little sample lesson and went from 705 to 769 words per minute. Â I decided that for $99 that maybe fast reading wasn’t my worst problem. Â However, this morning I received a nice call from Chuck at EyeQ suggesting that for only $75 I could buy the training, and I might read as fast as 2,000 wpm. Â Well that sounded appealing, so I ordered it, and took the first of 12 sessions. Â I started at 834 and went down to 669 after one session. Â So that was interesting. Â I spent a little more time playing around with it, and tried one exercise that just wouldn’t stop, so I figured that I hadn’t comprehended the instructions. Â I tried to get out of it, and couldn’t, so I xed out of it, and decided I’d had enough reading for a day. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FF_9knFS7VA
- Use Dragon Naturally and dictate and not type.  Well I’m a pretty fast typist, probably around 80 wpm, but I have interviewed some folks, and transcribing is another matter.  You listen, then you type what you think you heard, then you listen some more, and lose your place, and IT TAKES FOREVER.  So I read and reread the  different options of Dragon Naturally Speaking I could get that would be best for me, and finally found the comparison grid, and ordered.  After it was all loaded, I prepared to set up my profile so I could start, and I was going to record my post for today.  Only I couldn’t set my profile because my remote microphone wasn’t connected.  I pressed the more info… button at the top of the screen that won’t go away, and it took me to iTunes, and I quickly installed the free application for my iPhone.  When I tested it, it worked.  YEAH!  Then I tried to set up my profile again, getting the same message.  Going back to iTunes, I tried uploading another application that looked like it might work with my computer, but when I tried to upload that one, it prompted me to sign in to Apple.  My password wouldn’t work.  I checked my list of passwords, and I was using the correct password, so I gave up on that one, too.               Â
- http://www.nuance.com/videoplayer/videoplayer.asp?p=/naturallySpeaking/dns12/&w=630&h=390&n=dragon12_inAction12_1&FileType=mp4
- Open 10 tabs at the same time and read one while the other ones are loading. Â That sounded sensible, so I tried it. Â I got about 4 open, and I think that helped, but I never did get 10 open because I still was in the habit of waiting for my computer and by the time I realized I was waiting, there were too many choices. Â I also had my reader open, and it had to reload every time until I figured out that I had to at least wait for it to load the site, then I had to click on the site before I could go back and reload another. Â Russel has the 2,000 sites that he follows on a spreadsheet. Â He just goes in order. Â He even has some of them marked in green – like me!!! Â I’m special! Â I figured that would take me too long to create a spreadsheet – even though I’ve got one started, it only has a fraction of the 500 sites I say I’m following. Â By this time I’ve spent a good two hours looking at my 3-4 websites, well maybe I got up to 9-10 because I clicked quite a few likes on photographs. Â But Rarasaur had a character survey on her site, so I had to take that, and I found out that my worst character quality is persistence. Â Actually, I think I’m quite persistent, but I just don’t get anywhere after persisting for hours, and then I give up!
At that point I was ready to visit the outdoors and take a walk, but by that time my husband, who was busy reading the news online while I was trying my new-found blogging techniques, had discovered that across the dry stream from us there had been a home invasion and a shooting last night, and someone was killed in the process.  Around here many most NO people NOW keep their homes unlocked.  Anyway, I thought twice about going for a walk after that, and decided to divide and transplant strawberries instead, which I did.  I was going to post a funny post about that experience using my Dragon Naturally, and this is what has happened.  I typed all this, and all you get about strawberries is a look because I’ve already used up 938 words.
On the positive side. Â Chuck emailed me about my lousy eyeQ and encouraged me not to give up. Â The neighbor called to ask if the police had been here yet, and they haven’t, but because we talked, I remembered that I had heard something last night, and tried to get Vince to get up, but he wasn’t too concerned, so I forgot about it. Â Turned out she heard the same things. Â Very loud cat screams. Â I even thought at the time that it almost sounded like a human, but cats do, sometimes sound that way, and it sounded way more like cats than humans. Â Whoever hears humans screaming out in the middle of nowhere anyway???
Since that’s the most positive I can get now, I can’t wait for Tuesday. Â I think I’ll go for a walk, and see if I can’t chase the police down.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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