Such a simple thing, why did I not see it

[t_h_seacrest]

I didn't realize how much the computer mouse had become almost a part of my hand. Until today.

I'm one of those guys with a group of interests that are often vying for my attentionn. Writing fiction & poetry is one of the biggies. However I find I am easily distracted, often being pulled out of the writing before barely getting in it.

So I have one of those portable sheds I use for my man cave/creative pursuits, and this summer I'd dedicated it to music. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not very good, will never be mistaken for anything close to virtuosity, but it's just something I enjoy doing. A lot.

Well I decided that for this space I will devote the month to using it as my writing office. So I brought the laptop down here, but then realized I left the mouse in the house (the wacom tablet too by the way). Obvious first thought: do I want to trudge back to the house just for the mouse? Right now? Nah, didn't feel like it. Was then quickly reminded how much of a pain it can be to navigate with that little laptop pad. Yeah it's doable, but a pain.

Little else to do but.... ah yes, work on the story. Write. Write a couple paragraphs. Let them be bad. Let the story be bad. Just write the damn thing.

Reflexes reach for the mouse for a quick click to youtube or lit: oops, no mouse and too much of a pain to use the laptop pad. Back to the story. A lot of sitting and staring but somehow end up with a maybe half a k. Repeat a few times, and now it's close to 2k in one afternoon. Not great words by any means, but words nonetheless.

The computer mouse: what a sly little culprit for these last several years (and the wacom). So stealthily, unconsciously become all but extension(s).

 

[TheRedChamber]

Funnily enough, I'm in the opposite boat. The Ctrl key on my laptop is currently broken (yes, both of them for some reason), meaning I have to do a lot of the things that I traditionally did with the keyboard with the mouse, even selecting, cutting and pasting text. It's a huge pain, but doesn't quite make writing impossible yet. I'm thinking about getting a USB/Bluetooth keyboard, but that would involve moving the screen further away, which, as someone who has just gotten their first reading/distance glasses combo, is a whole other issue by itself.

FWIW, it is worth trying to learn how to write prose in Word without ever touching a mouse as it can be much more productive, but habits are hard to break.

 

[Britva415]

One time my company-managed computer at my software development job started not being able to take mouse input for some reason.I had a deadline I expected to just barely make even with a working mouse.

Replugging several different ones didn't help. The IT people couldn't get to it or figure it out. There were no other computers which had the development tools installed which I needed to do the work.

So I figured out all the keyboard shortcuts.

Even with the time I spent looking up all the different keyboard shortcuts I needed in order to replicate clicking some particular menu or right clicking some particular icon or whatever, even with that learning curve, my productivity improved so much that I met the deadline with hours to spare.

Since I had a couple of free hours left after completing the job. I spent it getting the pointer working again. But I held on to all those keyboard shortcuts I learned, and pretty much only used the pointer after that for graphical things, things where there isn't a good way to use the keyboard to drag specific screen positions.

For over a decade, this was the main reason I preferred Windows computers over Apple computers. In Windows, there is a keyboard shortcut for absolutely everything. It is even possible to use the arrow keys to move the pointer on the screen, for those times when there is really no alternative but to point and click to some specific pixel, but, it's completely unnecessary to do that just to open a menu and select a command.

Linux is a mixed bag, nothing is standardized, you can use utilities to create your own custom keystrokes for in-app and OS commands, and there is a certain limited extent to which you can use commercial third-party apps to do this in Mac OS as well, but it's obscene to me to spend money on that, and even then, it's not possible to create keystrokes for everything.

I'm no longer in the position where I need the productivity advantages of "keyboard shortcut for everything," but for years they were a very important professional tool. I sometimes had days where I wouldn't need to touch the mouse for hours at a time.

 

[jsmiam]

Funnily enough, I'm in the opposite boat. The Ctrl key on my laptop is currently broken …

Nerd alert. If you’re lucky, it’s $15, two screws and a little disconcerting prying. Unlucky it’s dozens of screws, removing motherboards and batteries and about six ribbon cables. Still probably $15. Or somewhere in between. fingers crossed for you . A quick internet search will tell you where you stand.

 

[ronde]

I didn't realize how much the computer mouse had become almost a part of my hand. Until today.

When my company first installed personal computers for all office employees (1984), each computer came with a copy of Microsoft Solitaire. We were encouraged to play solitaire during lunch and breaks in order to become proficient with the mouse.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Funnily enough, I'm in the opposite boat. The Ctrl key on my laptop is currently broken (yes, both of them for some reason), meaning I have to do a lot of the things that I traditionally did with the keyboard with the mouse, even selecting, cutting and pasting text. It's a huge pain, but doesn't quite make writing impossible yet. I'm thinking about getting a USB/Bluetooth keyboard, but that would involve moving the screen further away, which, as someone who has just gotten their first reading/distance glasses combo, is a whole other issue by itself.

FWIW, it is worth trying to learn how to write prose in Word without ever touching a mouse as it can be much more productive, but habits are hard to break.

Ah, this could indeed be something to look into. Training can begin tomorrow - keyboard navigation.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

When my company first installed personal computers for all office employees (1984), each computer came with a copy of Microsoft Solitaire. We were encouraged to play solitaire during lunch and breaks in order to become proficient with the mouse.

In the beginning... so long ago all of a sudden.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When my company first installed personal computers for all office employees (1984), each computer came with a copy of Microsoft Solitaire. We were encouraged to play solitaire during lunch and breaks in order to become proficient with the mouse.

We had a pirate copy of Larry the Lounge Lizard installed on a dozen machines. No mouse. 1987, 1988, thereabouts.

 

[jsmiam]

Also, people somehow get accustomed to things. My wife (and others) uses her laptop with just the touchpad. I can’t use it at my full speed without a real separate mouse, but she seems fine with it. The mousers and the mouse nots.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Also, people somehow get accustomed to things. My wife (and others) uses her laptop with just the touchpad. I can’t use it at my full speed without a real separate mouse, but she seems fine with it. The mousers and the mouse nots.

I'm getting better at the touchpad. Still click into the internet. It's just not as automatic/unconscious as with the mouse. I think twice before doing so. Ask myself "must I really check a forum or scroll youtube? Right now? Or could I sketch out another paragraph or two? Remember when few things were more fun than making up stuff with words? Starting with a word or two and seeing where it goes from there? Wouldn't it be great to get that feeling, that excitement, that sense of impending adventure, churning and sparking again?"

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Since going mouseless and noticing how using the laptop touch-pad tends to dampen online excursions... this has been creating situations where options are diminished, sort of a half-measure of the Write or Nothing technique. And since doing it this way, the mind is becoming re-familiarized with how good it can feel to direct mental activities towards the general idea of creative use of words. And since doing this more and more, making it the daily priority... well now I'm recapturing what the point of it all is, the spirit: something enjoyable for its own sake. I guess it's easy to get priorities turned around, simply for the fact that audience exists; and depending on where one goes, that audience might be forgiving or punishing; intimate, appreciative few or frenzied throng out for blood.

The only way to survive is to forget all that or at least drop it beneath the sheer enjoyment of doing; write what you like to read; go ahead and read it for your own pleasure. Let presentation to a potential audience be secondary.

Somethin' like that.