Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Of Testing & Touch Screens



"Pointer finger as both a gusher and mouse".
Photo courtesy of my iPad
#macismycrack. 
I have an old macbook pro (which I know I don’t utilize to it’s fullest potential, but I digress) and I love my iphone - Even though it’s old and I need a new one, and once I figure out how to save the voicemails from my late mom I will.
 BTW, any advice on that subject would be greatly appreciated! 

And speaking of #macaslegalcrack, I recently purchased an iPad instead of a new laptop for both economical and portability reasons. 
On the diabetes side of things, I test my blood sugars at least ten times a day, and for some reason I mostly use my left hand (and I’m left handed, so go figure) to test my blood sugars. 
All my fingertips on both hands are calloused beyond belief. And alas gentle diabetesalicious reader, my dream of being a Hand Model (KIDDING) is pretty much shot to shit. 
Now back to the iPad and iPhone. As much as I LOVE them, I not very good when it comes to the cutting and pasting of links, etc on those products. If truth be told, I SUCK when it comes to touchscreen cutting and pasting on those two products. For some reason I can never “grab” the words, sentences and links I want and it makes something that should be so easy - SO FRUSTRATING. 
So because my brain thinks about diabetes A LOT, I started to wonder if my calloused/freckled fingertips had anything to do with my lack of touchscreen cutting and pasting skillz. 
So am I crazy? 
Ok, let’s take a beat and rephrase that: Am I silly to think that my lack of coordination in the touchscreen command department is somehow related to my calloused fingertips? 

And has anyone else in the DOC experienced this phenomenon regarding touchscreens and the ability to "grab" or is just part of the wonderfulness of being me?? 

"See my point?"
Photo courtesy of my ipad

6 comments:

Karmel said...

It is not just you. I am always trying to work around my callouses with my iPhone. When my hands are also cold, there's no chance. I generally try to use the pads of my fingers more than the edges for the touching, which seems to help, but makes me look a little like an iPhone newb.

Rachel said...

I haven't used this, but I'm told it would allow you to archive your old voice mails to your computer: http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/ I have yet to wipe and sell my old iPhone because of voice mails from my dad on it. I hope it works for you!

I've sucked at touch screens so I'm not sure if I can blame diabetes for that. When I was in the hospital at diagnosis, I remember getting so angry that I couldn't use my phone or iPad for long because my bruised fingertips didn't like it. (I'm actually babying my most recently assaulted digit as I type this)

Erin said...

Definitely not just you - the cut & paste functions on Mac products are really - to put it into technical terms - sucky. I am a diabetic (testing about 4-5 times/day) but friends and family members without diabetes also complain about the functions. Now, if they'd incorporate a blood testing app I'd be more forgiving :)

Cara said...

I have the same problem with touch screens. I can't grab when I want to and when I don't, I end up grabbig random stuff. :/

Anonymous said...

I also have rheumatoid arthritis besides T1 for many years so my fingers are a disaster. What helped me a great deal was to buy a stylus at Best Buy. It works great and I attached it to the iPad with a piece of yarn to prevent losing it down the chair.

Sara said...

A stylus does help - Best Buy has a few different options in that regard.

My mom has a VERY old answering machine on her home phone with some VERY precious voicemails from her sister.