Speech recognition woes (WOAHS!)

2004-05-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I've started using the speech recognition software that comes with microsoft office, and I must say, it's quite cool. It's not perfect by any means, but if you're careful you can get it to dictate for you in word pretty well. I may have a lot more stories now that I can do this.

Here's a sample from the first paragraph of Podunk, China that I dictated "Once upon a time, there was a bridge for more than ten lived in China. He was a poor farm, he was he was, but he got by with what he could scrounge from neighbors, with little rice he was able to sell. Tim was so poor he had to borrow his tools from his neighbor, who didn’t farm, but had in the past. One day, as Tim was wading through the water with his fellow, attempting to harvest what little he could in order to sell at market. All of a sudden he heard a honking off in the distance. I thought he was only on a SP, so he ignored at the first three times; but on the fourth, he looked back toward his house, and a large black woman was sitting outside his house."

Not perfect, especially about the large black woman, but other than that it did pretty well.

-treyford

Still working on Podunk, China

2004-04-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on Podunk, China. I gave it to my english teacher to see what she thought of it, but she hasn't had time to read all of it yet. I'm thinking about expanding upon it and turning it into a full fledged novel. I'm sure, however, that won't happen for a while. I've already got some ideas of stuff I can add to it. I thought about doing a chapter by chapter switch off between Tim and Amily, and telling their story before this short story began, and then continuing for a while after it ends. I really want to tell about how Tim got poor, and how Amily got rich because I think it's a wonderful contrast to see. I also want to know what you think about it....if anyone even reads this besides my closest friends, so please send me an email with your harshest criticism to toaovmprhntrd@hotmail.com I would greatly appreciate it. I'm working on a revised copy of it right now. It's got more detail, and I made some parts clearer so as not to leave you confused.

On a side note, went to a prom alternative with my church tonight. Was great fun. My youth minister (and wonderful friend), Barry, set it up so that we had 5 courses of 3 items each from a menu, but the menu was in a different language. We were only given a plate to start out with and had to order our utensils and food. CRAZY. I'm stoked about tomorrow as well. We're going to OKC to go do lasertag and ice skate (oh joy!).

Yeah, maybe I'll write another story soon, I've got one on the tip of my mind that's really blistering my brain. I MUST get it written. I've had this idea for a while, and the perspective it's told from is quite an interesting one. Instead of doing the traditional first person, I'm going to do a first person point of view of a person who is telling the story. He's a part of the story, but only a small part. He's recollecting a past event that happened in his friends life that only involved himself a little. It's already sounding quite intriguing in my mind, I hope it translates well onto paper.

Waking up early tomorrow, night!

treyford

Podunk, China

2004-04-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not sure this story is even accurate at all. A friend asked me to tell her a story tonight, with romance and a little spice of action. After about a minute I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go with the story, so I proceeded to write it on the fly without much editing. I present to you the first draft of "Podunk, China" ENJOI!

Once upon a time, there was a rice farmer named Tim who lived in China. He was a poor farmer, he was he was, but he got by with what he could scrounge from neighbors, and what little rice he was able to sell. Tim was so poor he had to borrow his tools from his neighbor Yian, who didn't farm, but had in the past. One day, as Tim was wading through the water with his hoe, attempting to harvest what little he could in order to sell at market. All of a sudden, he heard a honking off in the distance. He thought he was only hearing things, so he ignored it the first 3 times, but, on the fourth, he looked back toward his house, and a large black limo was sitting outside his house.
The driver was standing in front of one of the back doors and as he opened it, a ravishing young white woman glided out of the opening and lightly stepped onto the gravel in front of the car. Tim wasn't stupid, he could tell she was rich and immediately began to wonder, for what, besides making trouble, could she have come to some random house in the middle of this podunk town in China.
He promptly began the short journey back to his house. The woman, not noticing his loud sloshing, proceeded to go knock on his door. Tim cried out "That's not necessary, mam, I'm the owner. What can I help you with?"
The woman, who had already outstretched her arm to knock, withdrew her arm and sweetly replied "We were on our way to Beijing. As you can plainly see, though, we have run out of gas." Tim couldn't plainly see. He was blind in one eye from a terrible incident when he was 7 involving his little sister and a pitch fork. "We need to make a call; do you by chance have a phone about the house?" It became evident to Tim that she was from Australia. Her accent was distinctly British, but had the twang that is common to Australia. This made him happy because he despised Americans with a passion.
"I don't have a phone, but I've got a car. I can go get gas for you in the morning, but it's too late to make it into town tonight." Tim said as the sun sank behind the mountains with the yellows and purples he had become so used to. "I've got a few extra beds if you'd like to stay the night inside. I've can also prepare you a dinner. Well, that is, if you haven't already eaten."
"Oh, would you? You're so kind sir. By the way, I am Amily Forten. I've come from Sydney to train my martial arts skills. I was invited to train at a very prestigious Dojo in Beijing by an acquaintance." Tim hadn't noticed her physique earlier because she was wearing a rather loose fitting dress, that was typical of rich tourists in China.
Tim approached her, opened stance to fight, and said, "My name is Tim Chang, I've had a little training as well, care to do a little sparring before dinner?"
She retorted "Ah, I see from your stance you come from the dojo in Tai Pan. Very good, I would not expect a farmer of such humble means as yourself to be experienced by such an expensive and highly experienced dojo."
"Why do you think I'm poor?" Tim said still in stance, and with a slight smirk.
"I would love to fight you, but I'm afraid that I'm far to hungry to be a worth opponent to such a noble adversary," she grinned, "Allow us to eat first, and then we shall see."
"HA HA! Fair enough, Amily, fair enough. Let's go inside and enjoy a rousing meal of rice!" Tim said excitedly.
"You know, I always keep a fridge full of food in the trunk of my limo. Care to take a look?"
"Why....I never heard of such a thing. Let me see..." Tim said. They went over together to the back of the limo, and as the trunk cascaded open, sure enough, there was a whole fridge full of chicken, sauces, eggs, bread, milk, and everything else you could possibly imagine would be in a Chinese person's fridge. The one thing Tim noticed, though, was that there were several packages labeled "Fried Rattlesnake." This struck Tim as a little odd, but then again, she was Australian.
Tim picked out what he thought he knew he could prepare and they went into his house and he cooked for her. The driver and Amily sat patiently on the couch just to the left of the door, place flat up against the wall and watched Tim cook, from across the room.
Tim's house was rather small. The kitchen, dining room, and living room were all rolled into one large space right in the center of the house, and the three bed rooms and one bathroom branched off from that, 2 on each side, with the bathroom being on the left of the front door.
Amily asked questions about Tim's life, and how he ran out of money, and was forced to farm rice. Tim asked about Amily's riches, and what experience she had with martial arts. They talked and laughed and talked and laughed and ate and talked and laughed and before they knew it, they were all finished eating and they question once again, found its way onto Tim's tongue. "Care to spar?"
Amily replied, "Perhaps in the morning, I don't feel quite rested enough to put myself up against such a formidable opponent such as yourself" she grinned twice as large as she did earlier.
Tim agreed, and said that he was tired also. He showed them to their rooms and all was quiet in the house.
Tim, accustomed to rising at the break of dawn to tend to the fields, woke up, but this morning was slightly different. He woke up to a new color in his house. Through his window, a light shade of green peaked.
He peered through his window. The pane on the lower left side was cracked up to about half way to the top, and he saw that behind the mountains, there was a hint of green in the sunrise. This was a first for him in a long time. He hadn't seen a green sunrise since he was a little child.
Tim was only 12 at the time, and he had just got out of school. As he was walking home, a girl ran past him and grazed his shoulder just enough to make him lose his balance and fall to his knees. The girl helped him up and apologized. She introduced herself, but he could not remember her name now. He can dimly remember her mentioning that she was a foreign exchange student from Sydney, but he had no idea where that was, and he didn't really care at the time. He was more concerned with her beauty. They walked together for a little while, talking all the way, and ended up getting lost in a small town they didn't recognize. They knew they couldn't be too far out of town because they had only been walking for a little while.
The sun began to set on them and they realized they had walked much farther than they thought. They decided they would find a spot in the trees and sleep for the night and finish walking back in the morning, because you'd have to be deaf, dumb, and stupid to walk the streets of China at night. You're liable to get mugged by gangs if you're even close to the streets at night. So they wondered off into the trees a little ways. By this time, they hadn't realized it, but they were holding hands. Whether out of fear or out of a faint glimmer of love, he couldn't remember, but it didn't matter. They found a spot and slept until dawn. They arose and walked back to the street, and to each other's astonishment, the sunrise behind the mountain was green. The whole way home, they held hands, with their heads cocked to the left, staring off at the sunset.
Tim knew that town was only about an hour away, so he took his truck and filled up his gas can, and came back before either of the two woke up.
As he drove up the gravel driveway to his house, he noticed Amily standing outside the house. She was dressed a little differently than last night. Her attire was much more form fitting now. He hopped out of the vehicle and got in his ready stance. She did as well. They ran toward each other at an incredible pace. Tim swung at her, she ducked, Amily swung her leg low, and he jumped over her. They began throwing punches wildly in directions only a trained eye could detect, each meeting each other's punch with a duck, a block, a bend, a side step. They continued to duke it out for 10 minutes without either landing a single punch or kick successfully. They were evenly matched. No winner could emerge, no victor to claim the spoils. Stalemate.
Exhausted, they both laid on the ground. "Tim, this morning I looked out at the sunset and I noticed it was green. Is it usually that color?"
"No, I can only remember one of time in my life that the sunset was green, but that was a long time ago. I was still a child." Tim heaved a few breaths out.
Amily, sort of confused, replied "you remembered it too?"
"Too? I assumed you lived in Australia all your life," Tim said suprisedly.
"I lived here for a year when I was 14. Foreign exchange program." Amily replied, “I remember walking with a boy for a long time, and then spending the night in some trees, and then when we woke up, we saw the sunrise, and it was green."
They met eyes. Still lying on the ground breathing heavily, Tim said "that was me..."
At this revelation, a smile cascaded across Amily's face, and seemed to almost transpose itself onto Tim's. With a warmth inside her heart she said, "Care to rekindle an old fire?"

The Beginning

2004-04-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my first post...I've never read a blog before, so excuse me if this one seems a little unorthodox. I will start by introducing myself and why I even bothered to make a blog on some second rate blog hosting service that for all I know is logging my keystrokes in attempt to steal my credit card number.

I am treyford and shall be addressed as such. That's actually just my nickname and my last name molded together. I am cynical...ok, got that out of the way. I like telling stories. That is one of my great passions in life. I love to create worlds for people to explore and interact with, so I've made this blog so I can vent out some of those stories. Some are false, some true, some are both. Some are neither this nor that, but should be off in a world of their own. Regardless, that is why I have this blog, to tell stories. I know that I don't like reading crap like this when it's really super long, especially when the beginning really sucks, so I'll shut up now, and post a story later.

-treyford

I'm like a discount flashback warehouse here.

Speech recognition woes (WOAHS!)

Still working on Podunk, China

Podunk, China

The Beginning