Cacao Research and Learning Apple Script

The characters in my novel live and breathe the chocolate business. They possess various levels of expertise which I must develop. Costa Rica is one of the cacao growing nations in the 20/20 zone and I am taking full-advantage of my time here to increase my knowledge. As part of the research I have decided to record plantation tours as well as any conversations with plantation owners and workers.

The first tour was at the Tsiru’Ue cacao plantation. That was fun, but now comes the boring part: transcribing, which is tedious work compounded by not having a transcription machine with foot pedal.

Entrance to Talamanca Cacao Plantation, near Puerto Viejo Costa Rica.

I recorded with my lovely red iPod Nano and Belkin Tune Talk Stereo attached. Wonderful. However, transcribing is stop and start work and this will take forever without a way to slow down the play back speed. As I pondered this problem, I began to wonder, is it possible to turn my laptop into a transcription machine? I had to find out, so I googled turn mac pro into a transcription machine and the number one result was Turn Your Mac into an Audio Transcriber. Horray!

Red Jade, my 5th Gen. Nano with Belken Tune Talk Stereo attached. Cover Image: Piero Pelu's Presente. (Italian rock star - purrrrrr!) Photo location: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

David Battino has written a script to convert his Mac into a virtual audio transcriber: pedal emulation, copy and past audio into transcription. Great.

After I read the article I though that I should learn Apple Script to understand what I’m doing instead of just copying and pasting instructions. I found free lessons. After I’ve finished them I’ll get to Battino’s transcription script. I hope it works.

Related links:

David Battino’s Script

Apple Script Tutorial

Write or Die

I use Write or Die to limber up before writing much like a singer performs vocal exercises or a pianist practices scales. I vary the word goal and modes to keep the activity interesting.

clipped from lab.drwicked.com Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing The idea is to instill in the would-be writer with a fear of not writing. We do this by employing principles taught in Introduction to Psychology. Anyone remember Operant Conditioning and Negative Reinforcement? Negative Reinforcement “strengthens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior.” Consequences: Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing. Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write. Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself These consequences will persist until your preset conditions have been met (that is, your time is up or you’ve written you wordcount goal or both) clipped from www.youtube.com Watch Video