The mouse maketh the (wo)man

As I have yet to do anything to fix my desktop, all my computing needs are handled by my laptop these days. Of course, ‘these days’ has been for the last couple of years or so. Seriously, all it needs is a new hard drive. I think. Anyway, sliding off topic.

The laptop is great. Does everything I want it to… except keeping peripherals connected when via the USB ports. One slight brush of the cable and it’s suddenly disconnected. One such peripheral is the mouse. I can’t stand using touchpads for long periods of time (which totally contradicts the need for my touch UI smartphone…). My mouse has served me well for the last five and a half years. Until now. It started double clicking everything that I wanted to only single click. Very frustrating when sorting through emails, copy/pasting files, etc.

I hear you saying, ‘So go buy another mouse. Geez. They’re only five bucks at Officeworks.’

While this is true, I find that I’m very picky about things in a seemingly Sheldon-esque way. I’ve handled and tested far too many mice than is normal until last weekend when, in sheer frustration, I bought the cheapest mouse I could find. Simply for the convenience of actually having something useable, but not wanting to spend a lot on something I’m not completely happy with.

It does the job sufficiently well, but the feel of it… It’s the oddest shape and makes me feel like I need to merge my fingers into an alien-looking talon.

So, how picky are you when it comes to your mice? Will any ol’ thing do, or do you test and feel as many as possible before diving in?

O.C.D or just a quirk

I like things a certain way. I like things done a certain way. I like my piles of paper on my work desk to be neat. Even if I'm going to throw them out in a couple of minutes. (By 'throw them out', I mean put in the secure document bin for recycling.) I like the newspapers to be in a tidy pile in the work kitchen. I like the stools to be neatly in place under the bench. One day I was rearranging the things in the stationery/printer room because they had been (messily) put in the wrong place. A co-worker saw me, asked me what I was doing and then referred to me as 'Monk'.


Now, I've always been like this. I'll tidy up the greeting cards and magazines in newsagents. But never once have I thought of myself as having O.C.D. I still don't think I do. Of course, I've never actually seen a professional about it, but I still think they would agree with me. To me, O.C.D implies something more serious than what I do. I don't let it rule my life. It wouldn't stress me to leave something be.


Surely that's just human nature? Do you like things done a certain way? Would it bother you if something was  put in a different spot?