Post #423,563
5/3/18 4:22:17 PM
5/3/18 4:22:17 PM
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Back in the saddle again, except…
Starting a modestly-compensated project for an industry group, in the course of which I’m undertaking a fairly complex graphic in Adobe Illustrator—basically reproducing and modifying a scan of a WPA-era poster—for the first time since 2016, and I’m shocked to realize how much my fine motor control has eroded in recent years. This isn’t manifested merely in mouseworld: I can’t even sign my name legibly anymore. It’s well that I got out of the game when I did.
Fortunately, Illustrator has some workarounds to compensate for my senescent clumsiness.
c-c-cordially,
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Post #423,568
5/3/18 8:26:56 PM
5/3/18 8:26:56 PM
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Try a Kensington expert mouse
Took me about a month to adjust but well worth it
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Post #423,574
5/3/18 11:31:49 PM
5/3/18 11:31:49 PM
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Could/would you? possibly entertain
the M570 Logi- Trackman? thus freeing up lots of avoirdupois and internal muscles from shoulder onwards. It's cordless but there remain corded versions (I think, still.) The medium-size ball floats as effortlessly as magnetic levitation and I found while experimenting that a tiny bit of hand-lotion of various sorts can introduce a certain amount of desired 'resistance', should one want to increase the friction-level (say.)
(Yes, we've had the Mouse -vs- warz in these parts ..way-back.)
Observation from when I'm forced to use a mouse (never mind the Winders-shock) as recently during that Fire matter: noticed once again that the thumb has lost nothing in flexibility since yesteryears, whereas the mouse irritates even more, now. One's arm can rest in a variety of ways as suit our habits. YM of course MV.
Heuristically,
moi
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Post #423,577
5/3/18 11:43:14 PM
5/3/18 11:43:14 PM
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My wrist starts to bother me if I mouse/trackball too much.
I've got a Logitech TrackMan Wheel on many/most of my desktops. But at work I've got one of these Anker Vertical Ergonomic Mouse cordless thingies. $20. It (supposedly) keeps one's wrist and arm straight and in a more natural posture, so it's another option if trackballs aggravate things. (I dunno if it's actually better than the TrackMan Wheel for me, but it's probably good to use different kinds of pointing devices, just to not keep using the same muscles and other parts continuously.) It's got all sorts of customizations, but I haven't bothered with it much. It just seems to work fine with the standard Win10 drivers. Haven't tried it on a Mac. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #423,605
5/5/18 11:39:55 PM
5/5/18 11:39:55 PM
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I can't use the small ones
When using the Kensington expert mouse, I can flick the ball with my pinky, get it close, and choose quickly and easily. And click with my thumb by rocking my hand. No pain.
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Post #423,666
5/10/18 8:22:23 PM
5/10/18 8:22:23 PM
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The freelance client is pissed off. So am I.
So I’m putting together this printed event program on a tight deadline. Yesterday the client emails, “Oh, did we say we had X number of Oscar nominees to accommodate? Sorry, we meant X plus who the fuck knows how many.”
I took exception to this in an email. The POC responded: I can not tolerate such language and tone moving forward.
Boo-fucking-hoo. Times past, my employer seconded me to this industry group, and had I offended them like this, it would have occasioned some blowback. Today? I’m a freelancer. I told them that I’m prepared to walk away (the money would be nice, but I don’t need it) if they they like. We’ll see what happens. Blow me.
cordially,
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Post #423,669
5/10/18 8:41:18 PM
5/10/18 8:41:18 PM
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They probably get that every day as a negotiating tactic
I wonder if they'll be surprised to find that you *genuinely don't* give a fuck.
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Post #423,671
5/10/18 8:54:41 PM
5/10/18 8:54:41 PM
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Yeah, we’ll see
I truly don’t give a fuck.
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Post #423,678
5/11/18 9:13:52 AM
5/11/18 9:13:52 AM
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Best advice I ever got working for myself: Sometimes you gotta fire the client.
bcnu,
Mikem
It's mourning in America again.
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Post #423,686
5/11/18 3:43:51 PM
5/11/18 3:43:51 PM
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re 'I can not tolerate such language and tone moving forward'.
surely a perfect foil from an Irascible-One --> to an Irritated-for-cause-One.. ...
(Wish I'd seen your text; prolly a few useful phrases there) Sorry, but:
;^>
Does not a One instantly despise that "moving forward" class of biz-speak?
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Post #423,690
5/11/18 5:05:13 PM
5/11/18 5:05:13 PM
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All is forgiven
“Keep your money,” I told them. “No charge for the work done thus far. Good luck getting someone to put this together in Word, because I happen to know that’s all you got” (less acerbic in the actual communiqué).
I added, more tactfully, that we all wanted the same objective, a professional-looking printed product. Acknowledged that my language had been intemperate, adding that this was because I held myself to the same high standards to which (laying it on with a trowel) the industry group holds itself. Repeated, with a friendly shrug, that we could part amicably.
The figleaf was of sufficient surface area for the other side to fold itself face-savingly beneath it. And so to work.
cordially,
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Post #423,731
5/15/18 10:09:03 PM
5/15/18 10:09:03 PM
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two speeds: stall and afterburners
I have probably inherited this from the bipolar parent (I count myself fortunate not to have been bequeathed the entire package), but yesterday and today I went into overdrive on this project and bolted almost the entire thing together over the course of about twenty hours. I’m hoping that the client, the printer and I can put the product to bed before the holiday weekend, as my personal dance card looks to be filling up for the first fortnight in June.
There was some late grief—no harsh words being exchanged this time—when I realized that the new sheriff had, for no discernibly valid reason apart from the need to lay down markers on her territory, altered the organizational scheme of several elements of the product, thereby playing merry hell with my layout. It is well that the divine fire was upon me as I contended with these complications, else I might have said something that would have got me summarily dismissed. As it stands, my flat-fee arrangement will likely yield, by the end, something under US $20/hour. Still, it’s felt good to get back in the game.
Must say that the Mudbrick Technologies “Fetid Fog” suite has, even though this untethered iteration is four years old, performed like a champion, and the mothership in Mountain View (San Jose these latter years) has yet after almost nine months to demand that FF call home. Interestingly, the former licensee appears to have dwelt in some precinct of the English-speaking world that used the metric system and also Old Blighty’s orthography. Canada?
cordially,
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