Interacting With Another World

I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: a nerve where my hand and wrist meet is pinched and causing pain (I think it's pinched). To mitigate the pain I have a "splint" that keeps my hand in neutral overnight and while I work. Unfortunately this also makes playing video games on my computer near impossible because I play with keyboard and mouse. The control scheme allows me to play first person "shooters" with higher accuracy than a controller.

On the other hand, controllers allow me to play games without incurring pain in my wrists because my thumb and wrist is in a different position than it would be on my Logitech M570 Trackball Mouse. If only I can move my accurate tracking from the mouse to the controller then I would be set.

Enter the Steam Controller. The controller has triggers and shoulder buttons plus a third pair of buttons where the third, fourth, and fifth fingers would rest. It also has the standard face buttons of X/Y/A/B and the stick control. What it also has are two haptic control pads that react to my touch. The Left pad is okay but it's the right pad that gets me excited: I can use it for mouse control. That lets me play first person shooters with the accuracy of a mouse but I do not get wrist pain from the CTS. Awesome!

I have tried setting up Borderlands 2 for this and the haptic control pad requires a new level of training for my brain. I am confident that I can use the Steam Controller and will be able to stream my gameplays again.

Our Civic Duty

I live in California and registered to vote. I have voted on who will be President of the United States of America, who will be my representatives in the US Senate and House, and who are my local leaders for, I think, the next six years. I have voted on bond measures, state propositions, and changes to our state judicial system. Hopefully I voted with enough wisdom for my beautiful California Republic to continue being beautiful and honest.

So I voted. So I did my civic duty. Yay.

I did it for one day. One lousy November day. One lousy day in the over seven hundred days of the period until the mid-term elections. One lousy day where we do not get a do-over.

What the hell are we all doing between elections? Do not gripe to me about having the time to vote: this state has EARLY VOTING. The thousands of hours running up to the election is the reason that you at least know about the major ballot referendums and local issues plaguing your community. There is no excuse to not vote.

And there should be no excuse to not participate. Whatever town, city, or state you live in you should at least tune in once a month. I, myself, resolve to check on the political landscape once a month. God knows California can go down the tubes in a moment's notice.

Do not stop doing your civic duty after the election. Do it at least once a month. If anything you won't be surprised by the ballot comes two years later.