The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera web browser

Bugs and I usually get along fairly well. We have an understanding: if I find them in my house, I calmly help them find their way out. If they find me in their house, they help me find my way out. As far as I can tell, it works.

I let the dog out this evening and was mildly perturbed when she proceeded to run around the yard happy as a clam and completely ignoring my rather reasonable requests for her to come inside. As I approached a bush she appeared utterly fascinated with, I noticed that the bush was rustling. Our bushes are usually pretty good about not rustling (they get a bit disorderly in the wind, but that's a separate matter). Thus, I instinctively knew something was amiss.

Alas, it's the height of the Brood X periodical cicada mania. The bushes, trees, and ground were teeming with 'em! My normal peaceful relations with insects was on the verge of collapse, so I retreated inside for a healthy dose of the heebie-jeebies. I'm sure those I tortured seventeen years ago with cicada husks (namely, my sister) feel I'm getting what was coming to me. For hours, I felt like they were crawling all over me. And I just know I'm going to hear that rustling as I try to go to sleep tonight.

Hopefully we'll be able to come to an understanding before they come again in another seventeen years.

Here's a list of the smilies Opera currently recognizes in Mail and Chat:

• Happy: :) :-) =)
• Unhappy: :( :-(
• Wink: ;) ;-)
• Surprised: :o :O :-O
• Grin: :D :-D
• Cool: 8-D 8-)
• Indifferent: :| :-|
• Cry: :'(
• Angry: :@ :-@
• Tongue: :p :-p :P :-P
• Pacman: '< (new in 7.50 Beta 1)

Here are some buttons you can drag to your toolbar. To initiate dragging, left-click on the link and drag up or down while holding down the mouse button. Then just drag the button to the toolbar of your choice. I'll add more buttons as needed. Check out Rijk's page for details on how to make your own dragable buttons.

1. Mark as spam

   Incidentally, "Mark as spam" is available both on the message context menu and as an option on the Delete button drop-down.

   NOTE: This is now included by default in 7.50 Preview 3.

2. Close page

3. Stop and Reload

   Some people have requested separate Stop and Reload buttons. There you go. :)

4. Empty spam

   NOTE: This will only work after 7.50 Preview 3.

5. Empty spam and trash

   WARNING: This will empty your trash every time you empty your spam.

   NOTE: This will only work after 7.50 Preview 3.

6. Toggle panels

   This button will toggle whatever is visible, i.e. only the panel selector, only the panels, or the panel selector and the panels.

7. Hide Opera

   NOTE: This will only work after 7.50 Preview 6.

My wrists have been hurting me more often than not recently. The pain started over the summer when I was in Oslo. Sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day is taking its toll. Sometimes I can wake up without pain, but it returns shortly after sitting down at my computer. By the end of the day, it's often too uncomfortable to hold my girlfriend's hand for more than a couple of minutes. This is the type of thing that makes a twenty-three year old wonder if God wants him to take a different career path.

Ian had these same problems, as did some of his friends. To prevent debilitating injury, he picked up a funky keyboard and the Dvorak keyboard layout. Earlier this week, I bought my own Kinesis Contoured keyboard and will switch to Dvorak when it arrives. According to Ian, my wrists will heal not only because of the Dvorak layout, but also because my typing speed will be so slow.

I'm guessing part of the problem is related to my mouse. It's quite small, which causes my hand to grasp it oddly. Finding an ergonomic keyboard was easy, but I haven't found good information on ergonomic mice. Some pages suggest trackballs, but I haven't been a fan of them when I've used them.

I can't wait to get my new keyboard next week and to try out a Dvorak typing class. Pain, pain, go away; don't come back another day!