Happy Holidays to All

[AdobeAce]

Hi All,

Just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays. And a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year.

Are there any presents that you're really hoping to get?

Have a Happy!

Ace

[GuyB]

The same to you Ace, and to everybody else on these forums.

[PoetOfZwan]

Merry christmas all!

[The Repro Kid]

Happy Holidays to all and (a very un-politically correct) Merry Christmas!

:)

[AdobeAce]

Hi Repro,

To me political correctness, in most cases, is just not being truthful. If someone has to stop and think about every greeting they make (as to not to offend someone) the thought of the greeting is totally lost.

What's more important, wishing someone a Happy Whatever or being overly concerned with saying the "wrong" thing?

So much of what is considered politically correct nowadays is just plain silliness.

A quick example from my own experience --

I lost my left arm in an accident over 30 years ago and wear a prosthetic arm.

Recently, I went to a new doctor who kept calling my stump a "residual arm." That has to be the stupidest term I ever heard. To me, it made what was left of my arm sound like a piece of garbage. So how insulting was this politically correct terminology?

I've come to the conclusion that a lot of political correctness is just plain ridiculous. The terms of political-correctness are in many cases more insulting than the terms they replace. Why? Because they make a big deal out of something that shouldn't be a big deal.

So -- Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy New Year!

And thanks Repro. Your posts always seem to have a way of making people think.

Ace

[The Repro Kid]

Hi Repro,

...And thanks Repro. Your posts always seem to have a way of making people think.

Ace

Howdy Ace, and Happy New Year. It's a blessing and a curse, and a far heavier burden than it may appear to anyone on the surface.

About your lost limb (and am very sorry to hear that), I once knew a one-armed pressman. No kidding. He could run a Heidelberg, single pass, sheet fed. And he was good. He could strip negs too. He'd hold down the neg with his "stump" and wield his x-acto with his one hand. and he was a nice guy.

I almost lost the end of my right index finger two octobers ago. It was horrific scuba diving accident, my finger was crushed between the 70 foot boat and its swim-step ladder. The ladder sliced clean through the bone. The tip would have been sliced clean off but my Kevlar lined lobster-hunting gloves prevented the soft tissues and tendons from being severed. No tendons were severed and my nerves were crushed, not severed. My finger looked like a hot dog that exploded in a microwave oven. They could not get a hand surgeon that night so the emergency doc brought my whole finger together with only 14 stitches. According to every one, I am very lucky. It is a bit disfigured and doesn't look quite normal, but after a great physical therapist, I have just about full range of motion. Since people see it move they don't understand that my manual dexterity is very clumsy. I find it hard to elegantly wield small things, like forks, knives, pencils, brushes, etc. and I constantly drop almost everything I try to pick up. Handling sheets of paper and thin things is most difficult. Buttons, zippers, opening any sort of packaging, such as what food comes in. Not a good good feeling for a former sculptor/artist who once had a touch as delicate as a surgeon.

But I still have my finger, and over years it should keep getting more and more coordinated.

Now, more than ever, I need to become a trainer like you. Actually I've started writing photoshop instructional material, we'll see if anything pans out.

So much for war stories...
Keep up the good work

[AdobeAce]

Hi Repro,

Recovering from a major accident is no small feat. And it sounds like you've done very well.

In my own case, learning to draw with my right hand was not all that hard. But after being a lefty for 20 years, writing with my right hand was much harder to get used to. Like you were describing, the more delicate, precise part of manual dexterity takes a lot longer to pick up. Now my handwriting is just about as bad as it was with my left hand (my penmanship was always awful).

Oh, and about the one-arm pressman. It does not surprise me one bit.

To me, finding ways to do things with one hand is not all that much different than solving problems in Illustrator or InDesign. I always ask exactly the same question of myself -- What do I have available to me to accomplish this task quickly and efficiently? I've even gotten really good at hanging wallpaper. No kidding! Once I realized that gravity is my biggest ally in the process, it actually became easy to hang paper perfectly straight.

Sometimes the computer and my physical limitations overlap. Keyboard commands can be fun. My favorite is in InDesign -- Unlocking locked objects from Master Pages (Command + Shift + Click on the Object) I press the Command and Shift keys with my right hand and Click my mouse on the Object using my elbow.

As far as your becoming an instructor, I think that's a great idea. You're really good at describing exactly how to accomplish complex tasks in Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. very simply and clearly. And just as important, you really know the ins and outs of the programs. As we both know, there are lots of very talented artists out there doing incredibly beautiful work who don't know half of what an application has to offer. This means they're working a hell of a lot harder than they need to.

Have a Happy New Year!

Ace
:)

[The Repro Kid]

Yep, I'm doing okay, at the hospital they expected me to put an "X" where my signature belonged but I signed everything with my left hand, being mildly ambidextrous. (Why is it I can spell words like ambidextrous without sounding off a spell-check alarm, but can't handle simple, everyday words?)

Art training is what allows us to draw, paint and sculpt with our "other hand." When oil painting, your main hand gets so tired of brushing that you simply switch hands and keep on painting, without even noticing. But people don't seem to do that when writing. Writing and food table utensils would be the toughest thing to switch. I could just use my left hand or my other fingers, but I'm supposed to use my "bad finger" (I love saying that) to force it to get better.

But enough of that.

Happy New Year everyone. I mean it. :D