Last night I bought another ergonomic keyboard so I wouldn't have to keep carrying my good one back and forth to school. I hope to get through this internship without becoming really crippled, as opposed to more-or-less crippled as I am now, and I may manage it with the ergonomic keyboard, touchpad pointing device, and making sure I have braces on both wrists anytime I touch a computer. Because I am not officially disabled, I have to provide all my accommodation out of my own shallow pockets and just hope that no one I work for stops me from using my potpourri of assistive devices. I'm not sure why I've been having so much trouble, probably because the setup is enough less optimal than my setup at home and the activity level is enough different from what I'm used to.
This afternoon I am in the lab, trying to make LEDs light up because they won't and I must find out why. I do find my stupid oversight eventually: I didn't have them fully implemented in the code. My wrists are doing okay, but my right elbow has gotten all inflamed so I'm still not comfortable.
The Absentminded Dean wanders in with a group of the trustees who are holding a meeting of some sort today. He likes to drag visitors through the labs to talk about all the research projects. The Gambler (I'm not sure what his job here is. What he does for hours on end is play four simultaneous games of video poker while IM-ing people.) and I are the only ones in this lab today and none of the cool-looking projects are ours, so we are not much help to the dean. I rather wonder what the trustees thought when they saw all those video poker games up on the 20" LCD display that the Gambler uses. The Absentminded Dean herds the trustees over to me and asks to be reminded yet again of my name. Thinking one of these days I'm going to snap and say something really obnoxious, I tell him my name.
"And what project are you working on?"
"Right now I'm trying to make these little lights turn on, but this is part of the…" I go on for some time about the project.
One of the trustees asks about my wrist braces.
Figuring the short answer is best, I sigh, "I have carpal tunnel syndrome."
"And you're still using a computer?" The Absentminded Dean asks.
"Well, I guess I could just starve," I snap, drawing nervous chuckles from the trustees and making myself such an asset to the school. But really, how does one complete a computer engineering degree without using a computer? Or hold down any kind of job that doesn't involve manual labor (also not an option for me)?
After a few more questions about the project and my wrist braces (and my unsatisfactory—to the Dean—answer about the speed of the Sun workstations in the next room), they all troop out and leave me to my LEDs, my sore elbow, and the happy prospect of the Dean possibly avoiding me in the future.
525 words | May 25, 2004 09:36 PM | Rocket science