Category: Quick Write

Testing Windows Microphone

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I’ve been listening to a lot of tech podcasts lately. Today I learned that if you click the windows key and the letter h, a little box pops up with instructions to click on an area for text and begin speaking. I fired up google docs and this unedited script happened:

This is a testof the windowsdictationmode. So let’s seehow this

And thenuntil you learn to use thiswill it be truly beneficialI’m still not surespaceI said I’m still not sure spaceand then it typed the wordSpace space space

How do I get this program to make a spaceand not type the word space?Will it automaticallyinclude a space after the end of a sentence?It appears it won’t do that.New sentenceso saying new sentence doesn’t work eitherI could send the program just types new sentence.Nuisancenew sentence instead of new sentencethat’s pretty funny. Oh well this is my first attempt to try to dictate into Google.Maybe it’s exactly what’s expectedwhen you useWindows 10.Perhaps I should upgrade to windows 11.Would that resolve the problem?

So this is my first attempt.It may be my last attempt. Another thingI’m in the middle of a sentenceand all of a suddenI heara small little beep.Guess what happened?Dumb Mike shut down. WellI guess if the mic is going to shut down this isn’t going to be totally hands-free.Now I have to move my little cursorup to the box where it says it’s listeningand once again click on it to begin over.Well I see there are several places that are underlinedwith those red squiggly lines. Basically Google Docs has decided that those are not acceptable wordsso it looks like my next step would be to pick up my mousehighlight every area where that has happenedbackup backup backupohGang that beat againI guess you don’t tell it to back up so that you can correct your errorsbecause then it only writes the wordback upbackupbackupTacooh and by the waythat came through is3backupsas2 1/2 words with a Taco in the middle.

So they say you have to trainwindowsto understand your voice.I don’t thinkI’m muffling my voice.I don’t think I’m stuttering.I don’t think I’m mumbling.Isn’t this interesting that now that I’m suggesting I don’t muffle stutter or mumblethis seems to be working correctly.The syndicatespossibly windows has finally figured outhow I speak.

Another annoying beep.Of courseI was in the middle of my thoughtsand the annoying beepdistracted meenough so that I forget what I was writing about.Obviously I won’t be using this to write my Great American novelor my dysfunctional family memoir.

Quick Write

Quick Write

  Hot day began outside, sitting in my comfortable blue outdoors rocker, sipping coffee. Watching the birds at the feeder. Blue Jay trumps all and the little ones disappear. Gazing at the labyrinth, too lazy to pace those 55 steps in and then 55 steps out. I’ll do it later, I think. When the sun moves on. Trumpette nudges me with the mew of a baby kitten. Why is it her “voice” hasn’t changed now that she is two years old? Still a rambunctious little beast. I’ll consider a name change when she changes.
       Just found the C.S. Lewis quote on a friend’s post in Facebook. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” Something to think about.
       Morning pages, that’s what I sometimes write to get my mind flowing for the day. A place to dump the brainstorm that goes on inside. But now I try a new tool. If you manage to read to the end of this piece, you will see inside my head, all that I think and consider for this ten minutes only. That’s a scary thought. But, have you tried it? Would you dare to post yours below?
       This one seems tame. Maybe I am being careful about my thoughts knowing that I plan to share this exercise. Maybe next time I’ll use Quick Write (thank you, Len at Twenty Minutes a Day for the idea and letting me use “Quick Write” as a tag). Warning to my readers, since I made a “Quick Write” tag, I may have to do this again. Perhaps I’ll find a prompt to follow instead of just dumping my mindless chatter on the page.
       I cheated. I looked at the timer. I have two minutes left to bare my soul and bore my reader. It’s a hot day, getting hotter by the minute. The air outside is suffocating with smoke from the California fires. I long for rain to clear the air, water my plants. I’m at a loss for words. You don’t want to know what I’m thinking now. Let go of that thought. Move on.
       Okay, it’s your turn. Write me a 10 minute brain dump in the comments. You don’t have ten minutes. Okay, 10 words will do… or 5… or just one little word so I know you made it to the end of this.

By the way, I found this cool website for word art