apolz

[adelaidesean]

A quick note to apologise to anyone waiting for an e-mail from me, or for something of substace to appear in this particular forum.  For once it's not a case of deadlines, although they have contributed to the problem.  I'm suffering RSI and undergoing treatment for the same, and therefore exploring a variety of options like fancy keyboards and voice recognition software (not "oyster commission software" as the programme originally understood it to be)  to see things right.

But it's not all bad, not by a long chalk.  When not editing or coming up with ideas or future series, I've been watching Doctor Who DVDs, catching up on Carnivale, and seeing the odd circus act at the Adelaide Fringe.  Loving the cooler weather.  Reading some great books.  Eating chocolate.  And so on.

Oh, it's wonderful not to have to write 3 1/2 thousand words a day any more.  (Never again ...)

Comments

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Deary deary me. Fingers crossed for a fast recovery.

[drew-bowie.livejournal.com]

Geez, RSI? Do not let that screw with you dude, do what you can to rest and recover.

(btw, formerly Sithmagician)

[shadowsandice.livejournal.com]

Hey Sean, I've been struggling with an RSI for about a year also. Thinking of you. Take care of those paws.

(I'm not game to try voice recognition - writing for me is about writing, forgive my pretentiousness, heh.)

[albogdan.livejournal.com]

Enjoy the downtime! Sounds like a nice way to recover from overworking to me.

I had RSI long ago. I switched to a split keyboard at the time (the original split MS keyboard), mounted a height adjustable tray on my desk, and stopped using the tilt legs on the back of the keyboard so it would lay flat. The goal was to keep the wrist straight and relaxed while typing. I had to focus on not bending the wrist up or to the right/left while typing until it became habit. That worked for me.

Hopefully just slowing down and removing the stress load will be enough. I can't remember how long it took before it stopped bothering me, but luckily I've been able to keep it from ever happening again.

[ashamel.livejournal.com]

I have used Dragon Dictate in the past, and it worked pretty well for me. Since that was about 5 years ago, I assume things have improved further.

[deborahkalin.livejournal.com]

argh! everyone's being struck down with this plague! fingers crossed for swift recovery - and i'd love to hear about your experience with aforesaid fancy software when things settle down.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I've had it(small dose). Too much cataloguing....best wishes for revocery.
All I have to worry about now is arthritis.

[keris45.livejournal.com]

Yep. Got the same problem so you have my sympathies. Whom shall we sue??

Glenda

[keris45.livejournal.com]

The first thing I did was buy a huge study table that was completely adjustable with an ergomonic adjustable chair. For the first time in my life I was actually seated at furniture the correct height for someone originally just scraping 5'2" - and now shrinking. At the same I got a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and a larger monitor screen. (Ok, with all that, there went one book advance...)

Those changes made a wonderful difference. I still have the problem, I still have ulnar palsy as well as wrist problems, but they are all under control and not getting any worse. Only very rarely do I have to take NSAIDs in order to work.

About the only medical advice I could get was: don't do whatever it was you were doing to get yourself in this state.

Right.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

This is a club I wished I wasn't welcoming you to. The single biggest thing that helped me was a Plates program - Pilates helped me go from being told I'd be crippled for life (at that stage I couldn't brush my teeth or carry anything heavier than 1 kg and I needed to take a panadeine if I wanted to wash my hair and even then it hurt badly) to being told I had to be really careful and stop before things hurt. My problem, of course, in in the latter, but I'm still functional, which is the big thing. When I do my Plates exercsies, I'm even more functional .

Get over the worst soon and get over all the rest of it very soon after.

Spanish publisher requesting information

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Williams,

Forgive me for writing directly to the blog, I am a Spanish publisher interested in your work, I would like comment with you some details, I send you my mail address so you can get in touch with me because I do not have yours. I thank in advance your attention.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.

King regards,
Eva Díaz-Ceso
evadiazceso@hotmail.com

from kirsty

[(Anonymous)]

"Oh, it's wonderful not to have to write 3 1/2 thousand words a day any more. (Never again ...)"

Ha! I so don't beleive you Williams. After living with you writing more or less than that for about half a decade, I wonder you can't do it in your sleep. But sorry about your RSI, grandpa, there's a really cool girl who teaches at TAFE (In SF of course) who is a genius with the VRS and works on it all the time, she gave me a great lesson when my back was giving me grief (yes, equally aged, feeble and frail)

If you wanted advice on it. I'll find her details but I'm sure you're already hooked up to some machine that takes the text from your eyelids and downloads it through a portal behind your third hard drive/kneecap.
hope you got loads of chocolate for easter.
cheers, kb

Try a slate/ tablet

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Sean. So sorry to hear about your RSI problems - must be such a pain for you, literally and figuratively! I have an RSI-type-thing from writing at work, mostly due to the mouse. To get around this, for my creative writing at home I've bought a HP TM2 touchsmart computer. I can use the pen or the touch screen instead of the mouse. I can also write directly on the screen and the mostly-accurate handwriting recognition software converts it to typing. Writing uses different tendons and muscles than typing, so I thought this might be an alternative for you?
Best of luck with it
Katrina