So the past couple of days have been spent desperately trying to figure out how to not make my wrist hurt while I use my computer. Jackson gave me a lot of advice and whats worked for me is a combination of a homemade wrist brace and a slight change in my typing style where my right hand floats over the keyboard and the awkward reaches I was making for the 'backspace' and its neighbours are no longer happening. There is a bigger problem though because the surface that my keyboard and mouse rest on is at a higher level than where my hands naturally come to rest, which is just plain uncomfortable. Eventually when I get around to setting up a real office for myself I'll definitely have to keep ergonomics in mind. This current setup doesn't have much longer to go, and I don't have the resources to implement any sort of a permanent solution. Another problem is that I've mentally conditioned myself into believing that my trackball is comfortable for me, but I hate having to use my index and middle finger to control the ball and my thumb just can't seem to find a comfy way to scroll a lot without getting bent into an odd shape. The fact that the ball's rolling motion jams with dirt and goes from smooth to extra crunchy every 24 hours doesn't help. I wish so much that Microsoft would have a little demonstration video or even a couple of pictures on the website of the trackball that demonstrated how real people (not diagrams) are supposed to use it. I haven't given up though, I know that I've got the going better than the people with mice.
While I wasn't worrying about my wrist I went on an awesome bike ride Saturday. I got to see all sorts of Austin type things from the Holly Power Plant, to the Longhorn Dam, and some rowing races and the bats under Congress and the people-watching in Zilker Park and the ducks clamouring for food on the shore of Town Lake. Actually I made a wrong turn and instead of going over Longhorn Dam (Pleasant Valley) to cross it, I went under it and went and onto a random detour that took me all the way to Leander. I had to back track to the Dam, but damn what a great little side trip. It was a great ride, but in my infinite grace I sprained my ankle during this excursion and so since then I've been limping around like only a large clumsy brown man can. Thankfully I'm like Wolverine and can heal quickly, I should be up and about by Thursday for sure.
Then while I wasn't on my bike or spraining ankles I watched Chicago. It was a fun film to watch, but I'm still trying to figure out why it won as many awards as it did. The musical aspect of it was crazy go nuts fun, but the plot left me wanting more, classic modern Bollywood type of mistake. Most modern Bollywood blockbusters have the plot just sort of sprinkled on top of what is phenomenal music, perfect example of this would be Taal. For any of you that have watched old school Bollywood films from the 1940-50s will know what I'm talking about. The integration between the music and plot was seamless and looking at the film as a whole it wouldn't at all make much sense to try and separate the plot from the music. Chicago was very close to this where the plot integrated very well with the musical aspect of the film, but sadly the plot was just came off as being weak. If any of you disagree, please let me have it. Hollywood definitely needs more musicals though. Coming to a theatre near you Arnold Schwarzenegger in Puny Gymnasium Blues!
Being home bound I caught up on some TV watching. I was very intrigued and was quickly caught up in Dicovery Channel's new series Extreme Engineering. In the particular episode I was watching the premise was a transatlantic tunnel. Okay so I know this show is supposed to be all about whats possible, but really this tunnel idea was just so half-baked that I can't help but rage on it. The general idea is to have an underwater tunnel from NY to England suspended about 100 feet below the surface of the Atlantic tethered to the ocean floor via adjustable-tension cables. In this tunnel is a an almost vacuum, and in this almost vacuum rides a maglev train going 5,000 mph (8047 kmh)! I laughed really hard when this was laid out before me. So for shits 'n giggles lets forget that it would take a magical material to sustain even an almost vacuum at 100 feet underwater safely, then you have to maintain this vacuum, then you have to have ridiculous amounts of security and then you have to somehow magically integrate this type of train track into whats currently deployed in the UK and NY because it'd be annoying to have to change tracks for the "last mile" of your journey so to speak. This is all on top of the fact that according to the show itself this project would use all the steel the US and Europe are able to produce in 1.5 years and cost upwards of a trillion dollars. All of this precluding that aerospace makes no real progress into the future. Who the hell are these guys kidding? Why aren't they wasting their high value production money on something even remotely credible, like the anti-pants movement. Next episode of Extreme Engineering: a serious discussion on the real plausibility of the warp drive from Star Trek. Morons.
Too close out this action packed post have a go at this quiz on the male or femaleness of your brain. I scored a 43 on the Empathy Quotient and a 46 on the systemising quotient. This is called the male brain, or a brain of type S. Wow paint me surprised. You can read the article describing this quiz. I didn't read it.
Random sidenote: one of my friend's boyfriends got her a book called Wrinkle Cure, two quarts of Rice Dream and a copy of Alernative Medicine magazine as her Easter present. Man I wish I was that creative.
Quoteses:
"We didn't make Dan an ass vibrator out of a toilet paper roll and a [sic]bettery." - Akash K.
"There should just be a crash Mozilla webpage." - The Captain
"I don't know if I want a job." - Nic W.
"Guh. Making up word is tough." - Daniel H.
Linkses:
CNN.com's audience is all moron.
I hate privacy and freedom!
Pure genius that man!
Food is icky, tables are sticky, waitress has a hickey, stay home if you're picky
Gaaa! I’m autistic!
Posted by: jzlee at April 22, 2003 09:41 PM