DIY Planner - Writing Tools - Comments

OMG! The dark ages aren't

GG — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:48:26 -0400

OMG! The dark ages aren't so long gone, are they? It's bad enough to have to deal with a backwards world without people doing things like that to you. I wonder if those teachers had ever tried writing with their left hands to see how hard it is, or if they had left-handed kids how they would have dealt with it.

Really, when you think about it, I wonder if we do things nowadays that we think are for someone's best interests that are that awful, that we don't realize are so bad? It makes me wonder.

Anyway, I'm glad you came through and survived it. I agree that there are probably plenty of people who need the left-handed things, and am glad they're out there for them.

I agree...to a point

btrgrnmal — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:25:32 -0400

with your comments on lefties fitting in with society. It wouldn't be fun to have to carry your own tools everywhere. But the old way was somewhat like torture.

When I came through the public school system they had all kinds of studies "proving" that lefties are mentally "off" and close to insanity. I remember hearing a lot that a majority of murders and psychopaths are left-handed. Therefore, the thing I remember most about 2nd Grade is being made to sit by myself for an hour every day, in a desk facing the corner, to write with my right hand. The teacher decorated my papers with little frowny stamps because I didn't do it neatly enough. Since sitting in the corner was normally reserved for those who were in trouble for something, and since the rest of the class went on with something else, while I was in my lonely corner facing the wall, it caused my classmates to see me as weird and made many problems for me. By the way, it didn't work--I never learned to write right-handed, but I DID start having migraines that year.

When I had my daughter, it was apparent practically from birth that she was a leftie. I determined that she should be allowed to use whichever hand she used naturally for each task. It turns out that she writes leftie and does most everything else rightie. She started out preferring left-handed scissors, but didn't like the ugly grips they had (so they could easily be distinguished in a classroom box of many pairs). She decided to try it the other way so she could just pick any pair and the rest is history. I suspect many left-handed childeren would do this with activities other than writing if they weren't pushed one way or the other.

Wow, writing all this was somewhat cathartic. Thanks for listening! I wonder if someone with bad experiences such as I had started all this about their human rights, which is probably a classic example of society swinging from one bad extreme to the other bad extreme (and aren't extremes USUALLY bad?).

Another leftie!

Bluetiger — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:04:32 -0400

I am also left-handed and I haven't really found any problems with writing with a fountain pen, my ultimate favourite is a Waterman Phileas that I bought off Ebay. My next favourite is a Parker 51. I have found that really cheap ones are more difficult to write with and a bit 'scratchy'. I am an 'under' writer so I don't have the smearing ink problem. I also write with a back slant too. I love calligraphy writing but it feels so alien and the letters don't form properly with the pen nib being at the wrong angle, I've tried to adapt but it doesn't work. I did get a book on left handed calligraphy and compared to 'normal' calligraphy, it's rubbish!! so now I have taught myself to write right handed when doing calligraphy.

I have adapted to most things right handed, I use scissors right handed for example. I peel potatoes with my right hand but then have to swap to my left hand to chip them - something that always amuses my hubby!

I have bought things from that lefthanded place you mentioned. I bought myself a ruler because I have always wondered what it would be like to use a ruler the 'right' way round - I can't use it! To me it is natural that 30 to 24cm would be 6cm.....I found it really difficult to see it the other way round!

I've also got a left handed chequebook - and I constantly open it upside down!

My son is also left handed but in this day and age it is considered to be 'against his human rights' to make/show him how to use right handed everyday implements, like scissors. Now he has to have his own 'special' scissors that no-one else can use - including me! I don't really agree with it, allowances like that shouldn't be made when society really is a right handed one. Unless he carries his own, he's going to struggle cutting something in the real world!!

Life isn't fair

GG — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:30:17 -0400

I used to be upset by this. Like the desks at school that were designed for right-handed people, doors with handles on the wrong side, scissors, rulers that are hard for us to use. Coffee cups with logos or other decorations on just one side face the wrong way for us. Watches aren't designed to be worn on the left wrist. I still get the letters "b" and "d" confused. And if "q" were more common I'd confuse it with "g." And I still get left and right confused all the time. Maybe that's not so surprising since I have to deal with a world that was designed by righties. I tell myself that right-handed people are like us, but backwards, but sometimes I feel that they might be space aliens, since there are so many differences.

After so many years maybe I've made little adjustments I'm not even aware of; maybe with these difficulties I should be surprised my brain isn't more messed up. Perhaps when you're younger you're still working out your adaptations to a world that is backwards in some ways. But have patience and don't get annoyed with yourself or with the world -- it will get easier.

It's best to try to deal with the normal things you find around you, like regular rulers and scissors. You will likely work out your own ways of using them. The annoyance of keeping special scissors and other products on hand will outweigh the annoyance of learning to use the righty products. With luck you'll be able to deal with it all. I'm sure there are people who never learn to use righty tools, but let's hope you manage it. I know that whenever I get really fond of anything, like a particular brand of pencil or calculator or whatever, it gets lost or broken and then I find that it's gone out of production so I can't replace it. So overall it's better not to get too attached to a particular kind of tool and just try to adjust to the good old standard ones.

Sorry to go on and on, but your comment really touched a nerve! That's my take on the problem. It is a problem, and one that righties don't realize is so annoying. I'm sure you'll work it out and find a way to deal with things. Good luck!

The trouble here comes when

Kori — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:52:37 -0400

The trouble here comes when you haven't any room to turn the paper that way. It's ideal for a right-hander to give themselves space while writing as well, but it isn't quite as crucial for their ability to form letters properly. When there isn't room, it's much more uncomfortable for us, unfortunately!

I'm personally just

Kori — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:48:50 -0400

I'm personally just wondering if there is any way that a lefty in this world can use everyday products without having to fork out a bundle of cash in the process, or risk damaging them in a way no righty every would, and needing to replace them (again, forking out a ton of cash in the long run)... I know my family personally doesn't have a problem that I'm left-handed, but is continuously bothered by my requests for specialized (and hard-to-find) products, though I don't ask for much, since they seem completely uneccessary. And then there's the issue of not even knowing whether they would fully fix anything, or whether I would use it enough to be worth the money... I really just wish more stores would sell the products. Or more companies would produce them, readily available like everybody else's products...

The irony is that I do a lot of things with my right hand anyway...

Resistance Crumbling

Rocket Jones — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:50:00 -0400

My daughter has used her eeePC now for an entire year of college and still loves it, while I've been resisting the urge to pick one up for myself.

She's had two hiccups. Firstly, her wireless setup was very difficult because her school uses an obscure protocol, which is apparently standard-ish amongst US colleges. She needed help from the tech support people at her school to figure it out, but they got it going and even managed wireless printing, which was an unexpected bonus.

The second hiccup happened when a software upgrade crashed in the middle of the update, rendering the wee beastie non-startable. By pressing F5 during the boot sequence, you get an option screen that can completely reset your machine to original condition for just such an occasion. Works great. Fortunately, she had current backups!!!

The eeePC can make an impression as well. She attended a conference in the Spring, doing multiple interviews for Summer jobs (she works in theater). She set up the eeePC to open directly to her online portfolio, which the interviewers could then see. She'd also hand them a one-page summary with her URL prominently displayed so they could go back and review it again later if they wanted. She got a lot of favorable comments on the setup, and more than one interviewer referred to her as "mini laptop girl" as a distinguishing characteristic.

I really want my own eeePC, but at this time it would be just to play with. That's a fair bit of money to spend on a toy, and the new model is more expensive, even overpriced, IMO.

...and after three more months...

Jon Rutherford — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:50:59 -0400

Thought I'd update my original "after one month" comment to reflect my feelings about the EeePC here in the middle of July, a little over four months since I acquired it.

I still admire and appreciate its ultra-solid construction every time I open it (with some difficulty -- which is good, since it's virtually impossible for it to open on its own while it's under your arm in the espresso stand line, for example, or if you drop it -- in which case it will most likely emerge both still shut and undamaged, amazing).

The display continues to impress me with its clarity and ease on my eyes. I thought my desktop 19-inch Princeton monitor was easy to look at, but now I actually prefer using the EeePC when I don't need all that screen space.

I loathe the built-in touchpad, though, and pretty much refuse to use it. A wireless mouse I found on eBay for about two dollars (that's right, $2) is so wonderful I lack words to describe it. Problem solved. (The "dongle" that goes into the USB slot on the EeePC even stows in the back of the mouse, and turns it off at the same time, when you want to wrap things up and move on.)

I generally do all my work (mainly, I admit, email, a spreadsheet, and browsing and doing research on the Web; I'm retired) in the living room on the EeePC and rarely even visit my desktop machine anymore. If I can fire myself up to get involved heavily in photography again (I hit a slump when I resigned from Flickr), then I'll do all photo editing on the desktop machine.

I would rate my satisfaction with the 701 at 9 on a scale of ten. I would probably rate the larger machine even higher, but I don't have any plan to get one, at this time.

Eee PC

selang1 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:49:01 -0400

Love mine can use free wi-fi in my local bar while I wait for friends and most of our express buses have wi-fi too.
Great for on the move. Storage, I just use my cards and pen drives. It is a sweetie

Compiz???

jonglass — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:16:57 -0400

Wow... I hadn't thought about that! I can't use it either on my Mac, or my ancient Dell box, so I kind of forgot about that! But if you can run that on the eee.... hm.... I might have to have my son buy me the 901 while he's in the States this summer. ;-) (I fear the 10" is too big--and I _know_ the 701 is too small--my wife has one)

Thanks!

-Jon

Eee PC Desktop

dougj — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:07:40 -0400

I was using KDE when I had Xandros still installed, but now that I have Ubuntu on it, I'm using the latest Gnome with most of the bells and whistles. I actually find it fast enough for my purposes: mostly web and writing, plus the occasional movie in VLC, graphical touch-up in GIMP, or playing tunes from my iPod via Rhythmbox.

I've tweaked the interface for the smaller screen size, upgraded the memory to 1 GB, and nixed daemons that I don't need to have running all the time (e.g., Apache).

I've used icewm, fluxbox, wm, etc., on other computers but not this one, so I can't tell you how those perform here. However, even with Compiz --normally quite the hog-- the Eee PC is snappy enough not to bother me. Note that I haven't spent much time in Eclipse (all those tabs in the perspectives don't work well with a small screen size), so if that's your thing I have no advice.

Hrm. Guess I should test this rig hooked up to a larger monitor....

Hope this helps!

all my best,
dj

What DE/WM?

jonglass — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:46:44 -0400

Doug-

What desktop environ or window manager are you using on your eeePC? If Gnome or KDE, does it seem fast/snappy enough? How about KDE4?

If you've used others (icewm, lxde, fluxbox et al) I would be interested in your impressions on how well the run.

-Jon

Chandler?

jonglass — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:44:21 -0400

I just downloaded Chandler Organizer onto my Mac (haven't tried it on my Linux box yet), and it looks like it's more notes-oriented, while not forgetting the calendar side, and that seems robuse enough, also. I would give it a look:

LINK

-Jon

Thanks for the tips!

Rocket Jones — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:01:11 -0400

I'm going to drop her an email right now.

Newest Lightning

caligatia — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:00:07 -0400

I just checked and there's a new version of Lightning for Thunderbird. And it seems awesome so far. So your daughter might want to take a look at it, too. (In fact, I'm liking it better because of the page layout and the syncing with Google Calendar!)

D*I*Y Planner - Writing Tools - Comments

OMG! The dark ages aren't

I agree...to a point

Another leftie!

Life isn't fair

The trouble here comes when

I'm personally just

Resistance Crumbling

...and after three more months...

Eee PC

Compiz???

Eee PC Desktop

What DE/WM?

Chandler?

Thanks for the tips!

Newest Lightning

DIY Planner - Writing Tools - Comments