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Ambidextrous (not really)
Aug. 1st, 2003 08:03 pmUsing a mouse ruins your hands and arms more effectively than typing does. While I am not a specialist in ergonomics, it seems to me that part of the problem is that most people mouse with their right hands, but modern keyboards have a long extension off to the right with the cursor and numeric keypads on them; so if you're centered over the QWERTY keys, the mouse pad is likely to be waaaaay off to the right.
I've largely been able to stave off RSI by switch-hitting: I mouse with my left hand at work and with my right hand at home. But lately I've been spending too much time at the computer at home, and also managed to make my right shoulder sore by overreaching for something that was in the back seat of my car (I can't even remember what it was now-- possibly my hat). In order to keep it from aching more, I've switched to left-handed mousing at home too.
I use a Wacom tablet that comes with a wireless three-button mouse that works on the pad. I find that I'm pretty much useless using the tablet pen with my left hand, but with the mouse I'm OK. However, most right-handers tell me that they could not possibly do this.
My mother always had a bizarre theory that I was really left-handed, and had adopted right-handedness only by imitative custom. She thought this because my sister is left-handed, and because I always held a pencil in a bizarre hooked position like a left-hander (though in my right hand), and had terrible handwriting. But I never could write worth a damn with my left hand, so I don't entirely credit this theory.
Also, when opening jars, I always hold the lid with my left hand and the jar with my right, which is supposedly not the way right-handers normally do it. But it seems to me that jar-opening is an activity with an inherent handedness to it, because of the direction of the screw thread, and which way gives you better leverage shouldn't have anything to do with whether you are left- or right-handed. And everyone gets me to open jars, even though I am an extraordinary weakling, so I think I know something they don't.
I've largely been able to stave off RSI by switch-hitting: I mouse with my left hand at work and with my right hand at home. But lately I've been spending too much time at the computer at home, and also managed to make my right shoulder sore by overreaching for something that was in the back seat of my car (I can't even remember what it was now-- possibly my hat). In order to keep it from aching more, I've switched to left-handed mousing at home too.
I use a Wacom tablet that comes with a wireless three-button mouse that works on the pad. I find that I'm pretty much useless using the tablet pen with my left hand, but with the mouse I'm OK. However, most right-handers tell me that they could not possibly do this.
My mother always had a bizarre theory that I was really left-handed, and had adopted right-handedness only by imitative custom. She thought this because my sister is left-handed, and because I always held a pencil in a bizarre hooked position like a left-hander (though in my right hand), and had terrible handwriting. But I never could write worth a damn with my left hand, so I don't entirely credit this theory.
Also, when opening jars, I always hold the lid with my left hand and the jar with my right, which is supposedly not the way right-handers normally do it. But it seems to me that jar-opening is an activity with an inherent handedness to it, because of the direction of the screw thread, and which way gives you better leverage shouldn't have anything to do with whether you are left- or right-handed. And everyone gets me to open jars, even though I am an extraordinary weakling, so I think I know something they don't.