I’ve always had a bit of a hand tremor, particularly on the right—and it doesn’t bother me shooting bows, guns, throwing darts, fencing, or anything like that…but it’s played hob with mousing, including touchpads. My answer has generally been a trackpoint (eraserhead) mouse on the keyboard or a trackball.
Finally have found a mouse that lets me put my thumb and first finger at an angle that negates the tremor. Very simple thing, but it’s amazing. No shake. And it works. Wasn’t cheap. But it also got rid of the cord that is another tremor-complication. I can do this. It’s amazing. I still like the trackpoint for writing. But for gaming, wow. The thing is a Logitech G700s, and I’m quite amazed to be able to make this thing work. In one sitting I went from—how on earth can I make this thing move the character around, what do you DO to make that happen? —to wow, this is nice!
Look out, world. I can mouse!
Why didn’t you train one of the mice from your garage?
Good luck with your returned computer.
that’s good !
Alas, I fear the mice in the garage, after years and damage, have not too mysteriously demised. I hate like everything to do in a bug, let alone a mouse, but ruined storage items and the incredible aroma last year were all too persuasive.
Loved NosenDove’s comment. — How does one go about convincing the mouse that this is a good gig?
My cats are around my desk so much, I’m afraid any mouse would demand hazard pay. At least a good hard hat.
Mice raise hob with my allergy/asthma condition. I have become rather paranoid about them.
Some species of mice are a vector of hantavirus, which you absolutely do not want. Whenever sweeping out a garage or storage area where mice or rats have or could have been, always-always-always wear a mask. Mice and rats leave urine trails to help them find their way about. You do not want to be breathing dust coated with mouse/rat pee or particles of their poop!! (which is how you get hantavirus –by breathing dust from the droppings of an infected mouse.)PSA ends.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Four_Corners_hantavirus_outbreak — believe it or not, the Navajo medicine people picked up on the fact that the deer mouse was the vector of this devastating illness and advocated immediately burning any clothing a deer mouse walked on and vacating the premises where deer mice had been seen.
But I digress (in a good cause).
I’ve always been please and impressed with Logitech products. I have one of their internet radios, one of their wireless touch mice (has a touch-pad-like surface for scrolling rather than a scroll wheel — invariably the thing that goes out first on my mouse is the scroll wheel) and one of their illuminated keyboards (I simply adore the touch on that keyboard). The thing that has stopped me getting their wireless keyboard is that I hate the touch. It’s too heavy. The backlighted keyboard has such a lovely, light fast touch. As a medical transcriptionist, the faster I can type, the more money I make . . . Plus, I have joint damage in the small joints of my fingers from scarlet fever which I had at the age of 21 (from a Strep variant I picked up in a hospital, oddly enough. Was never sick with strep throat until then.) Thank goodness it left my heart valves alone, but I have had what amounts to osteoarthritis of my fingers since the age of 21, and 28 years of typing for a living has taken its toll. My hands just cannot take the jarring of a keyboard that has a heavy touch any more.
*one would be abashed to make a grammar mistake. . .
Ignore that last line. I restructured the sentence in question and then forgot to take out my disclaimer . . . .
Logitech is my go-to in electronics for one primary reason—it’s tended to keep up with the other manufacturers and tends to install smoothly and with functionality. The gaming mouse, for an example, had an online connection to the particular functions table of Guild Wars 2, the game we play, so that we didn’t have to hunt around and cobble together our own. We could just drag and drop to assign functions to a graphic of the unit with its 10-odd buttons.
And fast response. And pretty well intuitive. I’m going to have to tailor the buttons to my own reach—the ‘back up’ button is inconvenient for me, and the ‘run endlessly’ keeps getting toggled instead. Jane helped me (as usual) figure this out—she’s the hardware and software expert in the house. And our hands are not the same size, or with the same reach: plus I tend to keep my nails quite long, and that’s a problem. I cut them for the guitar, when I’m in practice. I suppose I could for gaming. Vanity, vanity.
Today (January 27) Amazon is offering Logitech products as a Deal of the Day. Up to 60% off. You might want to take a look.
CJ, saw this from a family member up north today and knowing you and Jane’s love of figure skating, thought I’d pass it on. Very sad. But he was such a joy to watch! http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/canadian-figure-skater-toller-cranston-dies-at-65-1.2204276
Indeed. Very sad.
CJ: Anyone else getting Live Bookmark Feed fail to load messages from Firefox? The last half-dozen posts haven’t shown up in my feed reader (AOL) and I’m getting here by using bookmarks.
We are working on the problem. We have Paypal acting up in CC and this artifact in here and do not know whether it’s the new VAT tax in Paypal plus some revision in WordPress that’s causing problems here or whether it’s something with the server itself or what. Jane and Lynn are trying to figure it, but thus far it’s a host of weird manifestations.
Thanks, it’s really just a minor blip on my end.
If they are stronger than the ’tissue paper’ nails that grow from the tips of my fingers, It counts as a useful affectation, rather than vanity. They are tender enough that scratching my head tends to let my head hairs make breaks in the sides of my nails.
I used to have that problem…my nails would just shred in threads and come apart. Then Revlon came out with a blue mystery potion you brush on your nails that strengthens them—Sally Hansen may have something similar. In addition to that I began using 3-4 coats of something like Sally Hansen’s Diamond Strength, a clear lacquer that can be worn with or without nail polish. Now I can literally use a thumbnail as a screwdriver for light fastening.
I wonder how that would look on my fingers……my nails are getting to the point where they’ve got so many faults in them that they split at random times……sometimes painfully so….I think I’ll pass on the blue mystery potion, though……maybe see if the Sally Hansen’s works, though….I’m just going to have to endure the strange looks people would be giving me, I guess……
Lol—the blue mystery potion just evaporates, soaks in and conditions nails. Your fingers aren’t blue. You might buff the shiny topcoat with a fine sanding to take the sheen off, if it’s a worry.
Oh, I don’t know…. ooooo!!!! Shiny!!!! LOL….and yes, they are shiny….I suppose I could buff them a bit, but I didn’t see the matte coat that Tommie mentioned…this is more of a base coat, though, from what I gather. Well, when my nails decide to split, they hurt…..I’ve tried using regular clear polish before, but well……somehow, it just didn’t go with the Navy uniform……;)
But, I’ll give this a try and see if it works for me….I’ve got the means to dull the sheen if they’re too noticeable….or I can just tell people I habitually lick my fingernails……
Please give us a heads up when Close Circle’s PayPal difficulties are resolved.
Thanks
I shall—it’s been crazy-making, when you don’t know whether a glitch lies with us, our server, Paypal, WordPress, the freeware designer, or global politik!
They now make a Matte top coat, should that be of use!
Lol—Honestly,with the abuse men give their hands, I don’t know why gentlemen’s grooming aids wouldn’t include the treatment for split nails somewhere short of a pricey manicure.
The regimen women’s manicurists use is a soak in a softener, a shaped ‘orange stick’ to move the cuticle up and off the nail, and then a variety of buffers, files, and shaping. But most effective is probably a non-polish brush-on vitamin-mineral treatment, such as http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00F65M6U6/ref=asc_df_B00F65M6U63468385?ie=UTF8&condition=new&tag=pgmp-683-97-20&creative=395169&creativeASIN=B00F65M6U6&linkCode=df2
dried off and allowed to dry, then followed up by a good sealer-strengthener like the Diamond Nails clear stuff, which keeps water from getting in. Start filing and shaping and using the stuff religiously and you may see your splits heal up and pain of such things becoming a non-issue.
Well, maybe part of my problem is putting the Diamond Strength hardener on my nails with nothing under it. I’ve already seen places where it’s chipping a bit. I did look to see if the vitamin-mineral treatment in the link was available locally, but apparently, the only outlet is Amazon.com. If I’m going to order from Amazon, I would like the shipping cost to be significantly less than the cost of the actual item. The treatment costs $6.49, shipping is $5.71. I suppose that if I combined it with any other item, it would still be $5.71……so, they estimate delivery in 2 to 3 weeks…Feb 9 – Feb 17…..
The treatment came yesterday, Eveline SOS, all the way from Mississauga, ON. I’ve been there a few times…. instructions say to brush it on, reapply once per day for the next 3 days, then remove it with nail polish remover and start the treatment again. It’s not as shiny as the Diamond Strength, but let’s see if it helps the nails…..
I always heard it’s a property of one’s own protein synthesis genes. My Mom always had trouble with her nails. She always envied mine. They don’t split, or flake. I may catch an edge and rip one, time to time, but I file the edges square so there’re no thin bits, “bull-nose” the ends, and that usually prevents it. I’m 6’2″ but have small hands for a man my size–for work gloves I buy hard-to-find mediums or women’s size.
The only time I made a real problem is when I was bolting the head back on my riding mower after short-blocking it and got a thumbnail between the wrench and a boss on the head. That sheared a 3/8″ cut in the middle of the nail. Not a problem until it grew out and one end came free. For that I went to a nail place and had a clear artifical covering put on to hold it together. Not the nail’s fault!
We can’t count the two times I had a fingertip crushed and made “hamburger” as the ER doc described it.
and working in a factory around heavy machinery isn’t a picnic, either. One place I used to work at had various types of presses for metal forming. I used to work on an aluminum siding forming machine, and at one end there was an embosser to form a rough wood grain effect on the metal. The metal strip kept popping out of the guide rollers, so my foreman had me hold the strip down with my hand as it slid through. Well, my hand caught on the metal at one point and it pulled my hand toward the embosser, but fortunately, the pinch rollers that kept the metal from jumping up or down stopped me. But, fitting a 1/2″ thick finger into a 1/4″ space is painful, and I had 3 fingers caught in there. I’ve also seen men who lost fingers, whole hands, and one of my friends had lost both arms due to the presses in that plant. Even working with my power tools, especially the table saw, I don’t fool around. There are guards in place, and unless the tool requires those guards be removed, I use them. I also have various devices that I can use when the guards are removed so that my hands are a safe distance from the blade. I’ve lost a small bit of the tip of the middle finger of my left hand due to a piece of sheet metal slicing it, but for the most part, I’ve still got all of my fingers on both hands.
Problems with nails can indicate various illnesses and vitamin or mineral deficiencies.
And in case anyone is taking sleeping drugs on a regular basis:
Study suggests sleeping drugs can increase risk of Alzheimer’s
Nytol, Benadryl, Ditropan and Piriton among the medications identified by scientists as raising likelihood of dementia
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/27/sleeping-drugs-increased-risk-alzheimers
With all of the tests they’ve run on me, all the blood they’ve tested, etc., you’d think they’d know. So far, they know I’m anemic, so I take iron supplements and Vitamin B12. Almost every other reading is at or near normal, with minor exceptions, and they aren’t a factor, apparently. Although, it’s important to remember that we’re a complex system, not an aggregate of individual processes.
I remember how people used to mix unflavored gelatin in orange juice to help improve nail health, although that has long since been debunked as not effective.
I’ve had one nail that has a fault at its root, and it easily splits lengthwise, sometimes painfully as it tears away from the quick. Other nails are starting to follow suit, so maybe there’s another cause….
I only take Ambien CR when I absolutely CANNOT sleep and I know that I don’t have to get up early the next day – which is rare.
DH’s geriatric physician firmly believes that Benadryl affects the memory in the older population.
Wrong choice of words … the doctor isn’t geriatric by any means. He’s a gerontologist.
I got into the habit of trimming all my nails very short when I was working with ceramics. No one wanted to spend large portions of their day cleaning clay out from under their nails, and long nails are very inconvenient when you are throwing pots. It prevents you from accumulating clay, paint, glue, gardening dirt, engine grease… a multipurpose habit if you habitually work with messy things. I also type better!