Mr. Karen was using the desktop earlier today and, because he’s had some repetitive stress issues with his right wrist and hand, he’d set the mouse to operate left-handed. Normally I’d just switch it back, but this time I decided to try it the way it was–maybe challenging my brain in that way could provide a bit of that intellect/creativity stimulation the secret self quiz (see yesterday’s entry) told me I needed. It was a struggle–I kept clicking the wrong button and even moving the cursor around the screen felt awkward. I experimented with using the left-handed setup with my right hand, which made the swooping around easier but didn’t help with the flipped buttons. By the end of my browsing session I had somewhat adapted but was still having to think about what’s usually effortless. When I mentioned my difficulties to Mr. Karen he was surprised–his brain maps index finger to index finger so the button switch is no problem for him, whereas my brain seems to map right finger of the pair to right finger of the pair, regardless of which hand I’m using.

In other technology struggles news, a few minutes ago I tried connecting to my work PC for the first time since some changes were made to the VPN appliance yesterday and found I could not. I could login to the agent but rather than getting the link to connect to my PC, I got this message: “You have been rejected access based on current system policy and your client environment. Please contact you administrator if you believe you should have access.” (That’s a direct cut and paste–it really did say “you administrator”.) I most sincerely do believe I should have access, and indeed did have access from this same computer from this browser on this internet connection before the change, so I contacted my admin (via my work e-mail, which I can access from outside the firewall). Guess I won’t have to feel guilty about not doing any work this weekend.

On this date in 2008: Shoulda Been a Banker
2007: WDW 3—Back in Epcot
2006: Caught in the Act
2005: Winter Count–April
2004: No entry
2003: No entry
2002: I Can See Clearly Now