In this machine I have at least 3000 images, though despite their number they are rarely the ones I want, Perhaps the problem is Parkinsonian “freezing’ – I tend to be almost “locked’ into my uncomfortable chair for half the day, especially if i am stressed, unable to use even the laptop well- i am still looking for a tool i can use as a substitute for my once learning to type to type like an old fashioned journalist, with two index fingers and my peripheral vision engaged. Before that i actually wrote things out in ink , in a blocky print style patterned after my dads mapping style on survey documents. Nowadays , I can’t read it!
But the two finger typing style was more common than not in the previous generation– what, you think there were typing schools on the street? Working repoters over 80 now were mostly two finger men and women.Even Betsy Huntington, who should have learned better at BU, typed like that.
This is one of my big problems right now–I am pushed to the edge of using new tools, of dictation software and weirder things (EYE typing?), as my body continues to fail, and I MUST learn them. Ssome may require me to use “my own” software, that of my body, to work, effectively requiring me to become a raconteur, thinking with my voice, rather than a writer, thinking with my hands. It is scary as hell ,but maybe it is time
And it is not like I have a lot of choice.
By the way, this tiny essay took me over two hours, because I could not stop making mistakes … WHY?
I don’t have Parkinson’s but it still takes an hour to do some posts. I can’t type like I should, which I regret for not learning.
One thing I learned is not to compose in the blog software. I type in something simpler like gmail which has my frenemy autocorrect and spell check. I can make the type bigger too to help my eyes.
I’m a two-finger typist for the same reason I can’t speak Spanish. Evalou Leasure kicked me out of Spanish class for being a wiseass, so I didn’t have the guts to take her typing class.
Re: “Thinking with my hands”, just ran across this piece by Sally Adee at The Last Word On Nothing.
https://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2024/06/05/is-that-when-you-decided-to-remove-your-implant/
The relevance was a bit chilling…
That is terriifying stuff, mark.
you know i have one, only to make the PD better, and it doesnt work, for that anyway. But it must do SOMETHING.. I am mor e determined than ever to find ouyt wHAT. But how?for one thing i do not talk to those neurologists,as they WRONG PLACE. Not seriously wrong mind you, but enough so that every consultant on my “neuro tour a few years back saw it and said so (my guess is that the the neurosurgeon, an arrogant fuck, bullied my neurologist into everything.Be that as it may, i need that data.
The neurosurgeon’s first words to me, as i lay i my bed awaiting surgery, , were “So , why do you want to have surgery that has a non – trivial chance of turning you into a vegetable?”
Because it’s like slipping a hound or I don’t fly birds but perhaps when lift off too – blind faith. They’ll come back and all hope that surgery, any tweak, will kick in. best, -Margory
I can’t type worth S&@)
But at 73 I don’t care because my friends and what’s left of my family can’t either
So we laugh at each other and that’s worth a hell of a lot because we love each other and have for years