Jim S.... I've never heard of the "Cirque" pad, but if it's a 'touch pad," I'm uncomfortable with 'em. Also trackballs are a problem, tho I liked 'em when I was physically able to use 'em... I'll be going to one of the large electronic outlets later this week, and'll take a look-see at the Cirque pad if they carry it. Thanks, Jim! Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange On Behalf Of James F. Slattery Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 11:57 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: "Frozen shoulder" > From: Barbara Mallut <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: FW: "Frozen shoulder" > Date: Wednesday, 23 April 1997 6:04 > I find that my mind positively SCREEEEEAMS when confronted with virtually > ANYTHING related to learning a computer program from a technical manual. I > mentally 'zone out" when confronted by an Microsoft manual, and immediately > buy one of the "Dummies" series (blush). The problem is that as an employee > of MSN, we're working with alpha-beta test programs that don't even HAVE > formal manuals yet, and I have no natural instinct as to how to use a new > program. As an IT teacher, you have my unqualified sympathy! :-) > I have to buy third-party books for each of the major Microsoft business products every year, it seems, in order to find practical examples not contained in manuals. This comes out of *my* pocket, not the college's. :-( > So this isn't TOTALLY a "mouse problem," rather it's a > mouse-aggravating-a-shoulder-problem Have you tried the Cirque pad, or something similar? I am rapt with it. It sits just to the left of my keyboard, as my PD is mostly right-sided. The feature I find most useful is that I can move the cursor about 1 foot on the screen for about 1 inch on the pad. > As I reread this I don't know if nay of it is making sense or not, but I > actually feel MENTALLY disabled as well as physically disabled to a certain > extent. In my "off" times, I can seem to "freeze" mentally at the computer, starting or continuing something less important than what I *need* to be doing, and not seeming to be able to stop it. I think this is called a "fugue state". Jim