I have never been one enthralled with what I have to say nor with listening to myself say it. I do not like listening to recordings of me speaking. This is true even when I get compliments for having spoken. More specifically, the sound of my voice gets on my nerves.
I am less annoyed when I read some of the stuff which I have written over the years. However, usually having said whatever it is I had to say, I am seldom moved to reread whatever it was that I had written (with the exception of re-reading something of mine quoted by someone else or to which I have to refer in some later piece that I am writing).
Anyone knowing that about me might be intrigued by the title of this blog.
However, there is no inconsistency between my acknowledged predispositions and my admission to having rediscovered my voice. A little less than a year ago, I bought voice-recognition software to use with computer. I did so because of the increasing effects of neuropathy on my hands. It had come to the point where there were times that even trying to rest my fingers on the keyboard resulted in severe pain in my fingers. It was only because the pain had gotten so bad at times that it adversely affected my doing what I had to do at the computer that I succumbed to the suggestion to begin using voice recognition software.
Oh, I was quite aware that many people had made the transition to using voice recognition software for dictation and other routine computer uses. I am not exactly sure why I was hesitant about making the transition to using voice recognition software, but I was. As I think about it, I'm inclined to believe that I felt that the very act of typing and composing were linked by virtue of habit. In fact, there may have been a bit of subconscious self fulfilling prophecy in my original approach to using voice recognition software to write anything which would be transmitted to someone else – i.e., it seemed to me that I was holding back in my dictation early in the use of the software.
Without realizing it, I was slowly becoming more and more dependent upon using the voice recognition software. Then, it happened. Reading one of the e-mail advertisements from the company from which I had purchased the software, I became aware that an update had become available for the software. I attempted to update the program using the program's "update" feature. The voice-recognition software froze. Nothing that I attempted we get the program running again.
I used the computer for a couple of days after that without the voice recognition software. I quickly discovered how dependent I had become on the voice recognition software. Not only was it difficult for me to adapt to the pain of using a keyboard (let alone trying to get up to a speed which was comfortable) but I had also become used to dictating at a speed which put text on the screen faster than my best typing speed.
It took several exchanges of e-mail with the technical support staff of the company which produced the software, but, thankfully, I was provided with excellent support which allowed me to completely remove the installation existing on my computer and to reinstall the software. The first thing I wrote after getting the software up and running again was the thank you note to the technical support person who helped me.
Since then, I have been able to catch up on some e-mails to which I had fallen behind in responding. More important, however, I was able to get my lesson plan together for my Sunday school class and I was able to get some research material put together for an article I am preparing.
It took only the short period of time without the voice recognition software for me to realize how dependent I have become on using it.
So, despite my dislike for hearing my own voice, I have become dependent upon the use of it to work at my computer. I was surprised to learn this, and part of me still hates to admit it (to myself, let alone to others).
Still, as a result of this interruption in my use of voice recognition software, I have rediscovered my voice, discovering for the first time in it a value I would have never guessed was there.
La, la, la-la-la-la, la. ;-)
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