Dragon Me Down
It is the best of software, it is the worst of software. I have a profound love-hate relationship with my Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Professional Edition) program. On the one hand, hunting and pecking an on-screen keyboard isn’t much fun. On the other hand, when using my hand-mouse-keyboard combination I do know when to use “their,” “there,” and “they’re.” I would not spell “vis-à-vis” as “res of be” and would never write “three coarse meal” unless I were writing about my own cooking.
The worst is Dragon’s bewildering misapplications of the apostrophe. Why would it think I mean to write “we bought ticket’s to the show and have dinner reservation’s at White Castle"?
It is the small errors that frustrate; they can be difficult to spot. But with the quality of my speech deteriorating, the big errors are becoming more of a problem. Below is a list of phrases Dragon heard alongside of what I actually said.
These seventeen examples were collected on one weekend about a month ago. See if you can guess what I really said in each case before using your mouse cursor to hover over and reveal the answer:
WHAT DRAGON HEARD | WHAT I SAID |
---|---|
wind is the father’s | the lives of others |
This camel blows cheerier layer | this Timberwolves cheerleader |
is the Greek jar coat question | asks the rhetorical question |
Eve Penna Mize is | epitomizes |
is the balls to pay | visible through a |
how the skies to all almost Bloom | Elvis Costello almost blue |
of those discussed of | Elvis Costello |
boat some I know | books on my Nook |
wrong clothes should together | grown closer together |
booting attach | losing touch they said |
an from a year | unfamiliar |
knob fell on | novella |
And for agility | Unfortunately |
as eager owl input oh | Edgar Allan Poe |
Xlib race in my | ! |
Style list six play | stylistically |
Dimitri’s son sick of which | Dimitri Shostakovich |
DATE | TITLE |
02/28/2019 | Unhappy Anniversary |
05/12/2017 | The Eyes Have It |
08/04/2016 | YFALS National Corntoss Challenge |
07/18/2016 | Scopolamine Blues |
03/06/2016 | Dragon Me Down |
or see the Complete ALS Bites