I work on computers during the day, and then, since Jan 1, I've been going home and typing up my 2750 to 3000 words at home. I use a split-keyboard and "ergonomic" (not that that means anything these days) pointing device both at home and at work, and have good posture, and have never worried about RSI or any of its siblings, largely because I also play guitar and some keyboard (music)--and the variety of motions between computerwork and musicianship have been enough to cancel each other out in the past, I guess. Of course, with the million word goal, there isn't much (read: any) time for music or ASL which I also used to practice, so my wrist exercise lately has been limited to the computer keyboard (in light of this, I'll be adding some forearm exercises and stretches to my workout routines).

But working 8 hours per day on a computer at work (and where do I spend my breaks? Typing a way at the Rumor Mill...) and then going home to another 2-5 hours on the computer at home is apparently too much. I think I could do one or the other without much problem, but if I keep up this regimen I'll probably do enough permanent damage that I won't be able to do either by this time next year.

I'm now trying to get my Voice Recognition Software (I was thinking ahead when I bought the latest Wordperfect which included Naturally Speaking, but of course it doesn't work on my Windows version and neither Corel nor Dragon offer support for it since it was "free," meaning I only spent an extra fifty bucks to have it included, thank you) to work and have been looking for free patches and updates since the beginning of the weekend. I'll probably end up having to buy a new version of it, but I'm sure it'll be worth it, providing I can adjust to the new way of producing words.

I'm rereading the articles from the RSI issue of Speculations, but I think I'll be all right so long as I keep most of my typing limited to the dayjob and revisions-only for now. We'll see.

Maybe I'll jump back in when or if the voice powered software works, but at least I have some projects i can take my time on in the meantime. Cheers.

Filed under Journal, Vanity Smurf, Writing Dares

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