Approaching Time T
Aug. 21st, 2004 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenThe unexpected was that I went to get a humidifier for my CPAP machine. I hope it helps. The appointment wasn't until eleven, so I just pottered around a bit, tidied the kitchen a bit that sort of thing. And got an unexpected visit from The Aunts (what we call my mother's two sisters) who had come by to give me a "cheer up" bouquet of flowers! That was a pleasant surprise!
Then when I got back from getting the humidifier I naturally unpacked it and set it up -- well, as much as I could. The real set-up requires the presence of distilled water, of which I had none in the house. So going to the supermarket was on the agenda. However I was doing other things first, like downloading stuff I would need for The Great Wireless and Graphics Tablet Setup. And having lunch. And then Mum & Dad popped by.
Then I went to the supermarket. Even though I caught the bus there and back, my feet were killing me by the time it was over -- well, to narrow down the metaphor, my bad heel was taking out a contract on me.
Did I listen? No. Instead I decided I really had to rearrange my computer desks so that I'd have room for the graphics tablet. I was a bit trepedatious when booting the computer again, since I'd unplugged everything and moved everything, and I wasn't quite sure that I'd put it all back together right, or if I hadn't knocked something not meant to be knocked, or if the disks hadn't stuck from being off when they weren't used to... but it all started, as you can see.
The new arrangement feels a bit cramped, but then most computer desks aren't designed with graphics tablets in mind -- in fact, it took a while for them to be designed with mice in mind... The setup I have is two computer desks in an L shape, because I have far too many perhipherals, they wouldn't fit on one desk (two printers; one flatbed scanner which is old enough not to be slimine, but hey it still works; an external CD burner, an external zip drive, and a modem, as well as the usual tower case, monitor, keyboard and mouse -- and now the new graphics tablet and the router). The difficulty lies in dealing with the bulky things like the monitor, the tower case, the scanner, and the two printers. I don't want to put the tower case under the desk for three reasons (a) hooking it up would be a nightmare (b) bending down every time I wanted to put in a CD or floppy would be annoying (c) I'm not exactly sure it would fit anyway. Likewise, one of the printers might fit on the under-shelf on one of the desks, but it would be so annoying to bend down to deal with it; frankly, the only thing I'm willing to put on those shelves is paper and disks. But that means that everything has to go on the desk top space, and, well, that's only finite. And the length of the cables connecting things to the case is finite too.
Maybe I need a super-duper carpenter to build me a super-duper computer setup (in your dreams, Kathryn, in your dreams)...
Does anyone ever use those slide-out shelves one is supposed to put the keyboard on? One of the reasons I tried this rearrangement is that one of the desks has a fairly wide slide-out shelf, so I put the graphics tablet, the keyboard and the trackball on it -- it's fortunate that I've got a trackball, or they wouldn't all fit on the desk. Unfortunately, I found that when I slid it out, I was too far away from the monitor. Maybe I'm wierd, but I find that I'm not comfortable if my head is more than 1+1/2 to 2 feet away from the monitor. With the slide-out shelf slid out, it was more like 2+1/2 to 3 feet, it felt like it was so far away. So I gave up on that and put them all on top of the desk. Now I have to make my chair higher because this desk is higher than the other desk, and instead of having a nice, pristine desk, with the keyboard and stuff all slid away, I've got a pristine sliding shelf that I'll probably use as a dumping ground for bits of paper.
Now I'm wondering if I should swap desks again, but I'm too tired.
Well, at least I have nicely clean desks now.
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Date: 2004-08-21 04:03 am (UTC)Me! Unlike yours, it only has room for the keyboard and the mouse. Next to it is another slide-out thingy with my scanner on it. On the desktop is my LCD monitor (lucky it has a small footprint) and a CD burner. The tower is indeed underneath and I do have to bend down to insert CDs. It's better than at my previous contract (finished yesterday) where I had to crawl under.
I hooked up my tablet today too. It's on the desktop and not in the best position; I'll have to experiment, but it's not too bad if I have the keyboard shelf pushed right in.
I've been playing with it for the last couple of hours and though I was pretty clumsy to start with, three attempts later I had a young Vila. OK, it's not great but it's going to be fun practising and seeing what I can do. :-D And the pen is so much easier than mousing.
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Date: 2004-08-21 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-21 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-21 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-21 05:25 am (UTC)Let me tell you, my touchtyping has improved amazingly since I can't see the keyboard, so perhaps not the most useful of setups for you. =)
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Date: 2004-08-21 05:41 am (UTC)I must admit, that sort of setup has never occurred to me.
Not sure it would work for me; though I can type mostly okay without looking at the keys, I still have to look for things like the function keys...
But you're right, one can't really use this sort of setup with a graphics tablet.