My Battle Against MSD

MSD (Muscle Skeletal Disorder) is very common in people who use the computer for a living. Constant typing damages the muscles, tendons and nerves in your hands, arms and shoulders. It is also very painful and makes what you can do very limited.

I was never officially diagnosed with this but I feel like it is only a matter of time. Although I do feel that burning sensation from time to time, i try to always take regular breaks and find better positions for typing and that includes finding a better keyboard. Most people who work as programmers see the keyboard as just one more tool to be used and give it little attention, when it's actually one of the most important equipment you'll utilize at work. A bad keyboard can cause debilitating stress in your joints a lot faster than a good keyboard. Trust me, you don't want to ever feel that pain in your hands - being unable to grasp firmly any object and losing motion on your hands is truly stressful (and painful).

So I'd like to put here the types of exercises and stretches that I do here in my office, which has helped me keep my hands pain free and away from the doctor. 

1. Buy a good keyboard -

Things like key travel and layout are more important than you can imagine. I find that the less key travel (the amount you have to depress a key in order for it to work) helps keep my fingers without pain longer, but that is really up for personal preference. However, no matter what kind of key travel you choose, the finding among typists is unanimous - you want your key press to be very smooth, in both situations. 

Then it comes to the layout of the keyboard. Traditional keyboards will have the standard, international layout - a straight keyboard. I find these truly terrifying for ergonomics since, well, they lack any ergonomic. Because they are straight, they do not correspond to the natural angle of your hands when typing. They force both of your hands to be straight, which in turn puts a lot of tension on your wrists. That's why if you type a lot, you need to go for a natural ergonomic keyboard (those are the ones that split the keyboard into two). They allow your wrist to remain in a neutral position, and some will come with a cushion for your wrists to provide support. 

I recently purchased the Microsoft Natural Ergo 4000 keyboard which are not that expensive and seriously, if you type a lot, you need to start investing in these things. The thing I like about this keyboard is that it props up the cushion where your wrists sit, so your hands sit on the keyboard angled downwards. It really makes a difference, but I know it's not for everyone. It is removable if you find that it makes your hands hurt.

2. Buy a monitor stand 

Usually monitors will not come with a height and tilt adjustment with their stands (if yours have it, good for you!) and the reason you want that is because usually the monitors will sit a bit too low on your desk, if your keyboard is on the same desk. Ideally, when sitting your eyes should be at the center of the screen, without having to move your head up or down. Having a monitor stand can make that adjustment a whole lot easier and your back will thank you by not getting messed up for years to come. I'm currently using this one. It is fitted to also hold a docking station, but you can find them without this feature as well. Well, you get the idea. In the land of monitor ergonomics, height adjustment is king.

3. Take regular breaks

Ok, so I haven't really followed this rule to the letter, but you should be taking regular breaks every 2 hours or so. Five minutes should be enough. But a break is a break - it doesn't mean you can sit there and watch youtube videos or chat with friends. Really take a break and stand up for a bit. What to do in this break, you ask me? Well, I'm glad you asked...

4. Stretch

Go to the gym and you'll see seasoned gym members taking their sweet time stretching and warming up. They say it stretches your tendons and muscles, allowing a higher degree of motion and fluidity to the movement. What happens if you don't do it? You risk hurting yourself by pulling a muscle or worse. The same goes for your fingers. Your wrist has about 13909310913 tendons (ok, maybe I exaggerated it a bit) but when you are typing, a boat load of tendons and muscles are working in synch to make that typing happen. Because we type so much and usually, so fast, we need to take a break and stretch things a bit, before, during and after work is done. You can see some examples of it here. Now, if your fingers already hurt, please PLEASE take your time on the stretching and make sure you don't pull your fingers all the way. Got at it slowly, stretching only a little bit at a time. Once your joints and tendons recover, you'll be able to do a full stretch without a trip to the hospital. 

5. Stress balls

These colorful balls do wonders for our hands! No need for the mucho macho hand grips that need 100 pounds of pressure (those are actually bad for you if your fingers already hurt). But stress balls are awesome and should be your constant companion. Why? Well, for starters, they are brightly colored and will bring some touch of color to your gray/beige cubicle. They are also fun because you can throw them at a unsuspecting co-worker (office warfare anyone?). The most important factor though, is that they don't require a lot of pressure to squeeze and they retain their shape really well, so you won't end up with a squished ball at the end of a day. When you're squeezing the stress ball, you are working a bit all the muscles that support your hands and giving a rest to the tendons from the repetitive movement. So while you're relieving the stress on your hands and wrists, you're also making your muscles stronger and helping them recover from whatever issues they are currently having.

Well these are about it! If you follow these, you should start having less pain at work while typing and after as well. But remember, pay attention to your pain, don't ignore it. If simple squeezing movement with the stress ball make you light up in pain, be sure to stop it and go to a doctor ASAP. These exercises and stretches are not supposed to be painful at all - so if you feel pain, stop it immediately and go see a doctor. 

And take that break!! I'm going for mine! 

See ya everyone!

Thoughts here and there...

It’s been a while since I last posted on Xanga – the world surely seemed a better place to live when I last posted here. What’s going on??

First we have that twin disaster happen to Japan – a 9.0 earthquake and then a massive tsunami which happened as a result of the unprecedented earthquake. Heard somewhere that the 9.0 earthquake is 30 times stronger than a 6.8 earthquake. That’s CRAZY! I’m not sure about how accurate (if at all, and I’m too lazy to look it up) but that puts it into a completely new perspective. And to think that the massive damage that happened to Japan wasn’t really because of the earthquake but rather due to the tsunami… wow what a well built place!

But Japanese people are resilient – they have suffered a great deal of natural and man-made disasters already and know the drill – we are tired of reading articles that praise the unity of the Japanese community and their ability to work as a group through the many challenges that they undoubtedly face. It’s easy to think that just because they’ve been dealing with and setting an example out of it, that it’s been without an inhuman amount of burdens and challenges. It’s easy to give them a tap on the back and say “oh , I’m sure you’ll do fine”. Well, it’s not easy like that, and you can prepare all your life for something, and when it really happens, be caught up running back to the drawing board. I mean, who’s ever ready for something like that?

 I read an article which really moved me on CNN – a hospital which was flooded up to the fourth floor by the tsunami, so while many people saved themselves by running to the top floors, the bed ridden patients were left there, to die. Nurses who were interviewed felt this immense guilt and regret because they could do nothing about it and went up the stairs, hearing their patients screaming for help, in horror, and later being drowned by the massive waves. That’s tough stuff – something I hope that I never have to go through. What do you do in that situation? Many staff members passed away trying to save those patients, and those who lived, will live their lives surrounded by guilt and be forever haunted by those memories. Is that life worth living? How many of these people will later commit suicide because they were unable to cope with it? Would it have been better to have died while trying to save someone, rather than taking out your own life in the future due to guilt of not having done so in the past?

 It is something that I will never be able to completely understand, grasp and acknowledge, because I wasn’t there. What would I have done? I really don’t know. I feel that I could have done either of those things. Given a clear choice and time to react, would I have ran upstairs in despair? Or would I have sat, side by side with my patient and watched in terror, the wave coming crashing towards me? Would I have thought about my family, and would those thoughts have pushed me to save my life, in order to see them once more? If I did that, would I later on live my life so ridden by guilt, that I’d ultimately take my own life away? I think these are all very reasonable and somewhat probable (although some more than others) ways to go through these motions.

 So I’m not here to pass judgment. Those who passed, are sorely missed. Those who lived to see the next day, are undoubtedly helping many other lives, so they are essential to the  recovery process as well. As one of the nurses who survived said in an article “the hospital and patients will heal me back, as I am healing them”. It’s not easy and I will pray for all of you. I will later go visit and spend a boat load of money in tourism to help the city. I think that’s what we should do in 5 years =)

 I often read many articles on websites where they will allow people to comment on them at the end. Often, it’s a curious mix between reasonable and crazy comments. Read an article about Obama and you’ll see 17389718937 comments ranging from “Obama, you completely rock for your decision” and “Obama, I’m completely disgusted by it”, and who’s right or who’s wrong? No one can really tell. Some comments are downright immoral and unethical, and depending on the subject, they unfortunately will make a good portion of the comments left for the article. I’m often saddened by reading those comments, saddened that some of my fellow Americans are still stuck in the past, shielded by layers of ignorance and still resorting to using aggression as a way to make their point. That, unfortunately, we can not easily change.

 However, reading those comments from articles about Japan, I was moved to see that the vast majority, I’d say 99% of the comments were incredibly kind and touching. I was often brought to tears when reading some of the words of encouragement that other readers would leave to the Japanese community. Yes, there are people who are still ignorant and will try to use it as a form of gaining attention (like that student, on youtube video of herself, saying how she hated the Asian people at her college library because they were all calling their relatives or friends on their cell phones to ask about their well being due to the disaster in Japan – she later apologized, but that is one of the things that will never go away) , but I was very happy to see that the overall majority were good people, calling their friends and family to action, to help out, to donate, to pray. Ah! That is the America I’ve chosen to call my home for now.

 And now we will go into a weirder subject. The U.S. involvement in Libya. Some say (people like hm… Obama haha), it’s because what is happening in Libya threatens our values, but not our safety. Let’s talk about that.

 First of all, I’m a crazy Obama fan. I will vote for him for reelection, I don’t care how bad our situation is. I know it takes time and the hole that our previous presidents left us in was not a small one. Obama himself said, many times, that things would get worse way before they start to get better – he knew the challenges ahead and he also knew that we were not prepared to pay the price for our unstoppable greed and ignorance (that seems to be the word of choice in this post). Well fellow Americans, someone has to pay for our wastefulness and greed. Who better to pay for it, than ourselves? So be quiet and take it like a honorable person.

 Ok so anyway, we were talking about Libya. I understand that the big dude was stepping on the little dude. The strong, preying on the weak and small, and no one likes to see that. I have no problem with helping them out – but it’s that whole duality of thought that really gets to me. So we go and say that he’s committing crimes against humanity by shelling his own people. Ok, I get that. But was military intervention the ONLY option? Remember when sending missiles was used as the last fudging option? Have we changed into becoming a nation that will shoot first, ask later?

 Well, that’s open for discussion and I don’t think there’s an easy “yes/no” answer to it.

 Again, let’s talk about the duality that is shown here. We have certain values, and we justified shooting a bunch of stuff there because they threatened our values.

 Does that sound like the all too often used, but not really understood, “white man’s burden”?

 Can we really justify military action based on our values?

 See, we have that notion, that what we believe in is real, that what we perceive as truth and good, is a common thing shared with the entire human race. “Human values” they call it. But are we not all different from each other? Then why do we all need to have this common set of values and ideals? Where is the line drawn between “common things shared by the entire human race” and “common things shared by us”? If there is no difference between these two, then we’re just plain stupid because we’re mistaking one for the other.

 Isn’t freedom the choice of believing on anything that we want, or choosing not to believe in anything? It is not a question of right or wrong. The question is about freedom. Ok, so freedom means that we are free to follow whatever we want. Right or wrong then, becomes enforced based on the rules our society has imposed to limit our freedom. And yes, they are needed, for anarchy is as free as you can get, but as dumb as you can get as well.

 So here comes a country, with its own sets of values, molded by the very different reality and history that it has. And here we are, bombing away, because they are not following our list of values? That just doesn’t sit well with me.

 And the crazy thing is, we can’t dare to say that we’re against it! Thanks to our beloved former president, who coined the whole “if you are not with us in the war against terrorism, you’re against us”, it seems that not agreeing with one side, automatically puts us on the other side! How stupid is that? Can I not have a completely different opinion on how we should address the situation without supporting the other side? Ignorant.

 So the reason Obama won’t commit ground troops to Libya is that it is going to the last straw, to have our fellow Americans die because we decided to enforce our VALUES on another country. No parent will ever understand or accept that. No amount of speeches will ever make the American population accept that idea. No, so he decided to send 100 million dollars of our much needed money through those tubes. How many families will pay for that? That’s 100 million of our own tax money that won’t be used to help our economy. In that 100 million hole, there could be grants for students, hospitals, schools and healthcare. Do you not think we pay for the price? How many people will not be able to receive adequate health treatment and will ultimately pass away because of this? So do you really think no American lives will be lost due to this?

 Ultimately, for every decision that Obama or any politician makes, we pay the price for it. No one else does. We are a democracy, where the people have the power and we elect who will represent us. That also means that we will pay the price of it.

 That also means, we are held accountable and responsible for every decision that they make. If they are not reflecting the will of the people, they need to be told to step down.

 I can’t live my ordinary life here, while my money is being used in ways that I do not agree with, if I am the majority. I hope everyone starts shaking things up, saying no to policies in place for the sake of the few in power. I hope that many will rise, like so many have done in the East (although differently, one would hope) and start saying “well hold on a minute, we didn’t authorize you to do that. Let’s talk about it, and you better be sure that you have done it with our best interests at heart, or you will pay for it with your career.”

 “The People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Their government should be afraid of the People”.

 That says it all. You better be afraid. Things are changing and turning. We won’t just sit here and watch TV and be understanding anymore. We will want you to fulfill your duties before our nation, or pay the ultimate career price if you don’t.

Ferny, Have More Fun In Your Life

That's what some of my closest friends (joined by my girlfriend, at at times, my own family) tell me. Oh boy I sure wish they would say that to me when I was a kid! 

So my inablity to have fun hit rock bottom a couple of weeks ago when my manager said that life wasn't just about work, that I should also have fun from time to time. That when he asks me how I am doing, he doesn't want to necessarily know about my tickets or any questions I have from work, but rather, well, how I was doing in life. Ha! 

It's borderline insane me making a conscious effort to have fun, but it's a sad reality for me: I just don't know what to do, when I have nothing to do. Some people (oh how I envy them) just go out to the supermarket, and come back home with tons of pics of "oh, I was driving and saw a bunch of people together. I decided to stop over and ask what was going on and ended up going to New Zealand with them, here are the increadibly awesome pictures I took, worth of Ansel Adams praise, which I took with my cellphone, with one hand, while I was swimming in the best natural warm lake in the world. Literally." OK, so I exagerate, but only slightly.

This year, I have a couple of tricks under my sleeve which will make me just a tiny bit closer to that jerk mentioned above (have I told you how I hate people like that? Really. I loathe them. But that's just because they are freaking awesome). So here are my tricsk:

Trick #1: Go to an all-inclusive semi-paradise for 1 week with my family and MY GIRLFRIEND! TAKE THAT LAMENESS!
Trick #2: Enjoy 2 weeks of vacation with my sweetie pie. Doing what? Well, the first half will be spent at the semi-paradise location, and the other half will be spent in Pennsylvania, or wherever we want to go to!
Trick #3: Go back to Brazil in August-ish for more fun.
Trick #4: Hopefully have my girlfriend visit me again, now for the long(er) haul!
Trick #5: Buy a car :)

I believe that every time we are faced with questions such as "what is my purpose here on Earth?" we should do two things:

1. Meditate about it.
2. Buy a car.

Seriously. It worked for me.

I'm hyped about going to semi-paradise land. It's going to be our first time going to a resort, so I'm sure my sweetie and I will have lots of fun! I'll make sure to bring along my camera, and take lots of awesome pictures (which won't be Ansel Adams-ish because obviously he cheats like crazy) and have great memories. 

But most importantly, I'm going to close 2011 with a sigh of relief. I'm going to close my eyes and think:

"Wow I did have a lot of fun this year. I can do it too!"

Oh I also have company training some time in March in VA. That should be fun as well, although 4 days in a classroom will sure beat me... hopefully I'll have the juices to go out at night and enjoy the nightlife.

HAAHAHAHHA yea Ferny, sure... :) 

Gotta make sure I take my Vonage modem with me to all trips. That way, I can still call my sweetie and she can call back to her home while we're away.

Ferny you smart devil you~

Ok now it’s for real – the last update in 2010

“Last update” sorts of posts always make me want to write something about how the year has been a great year, that in hindsight, I'd have done this or that differently, but enough about the past (meaning, I already wrote about it haha). I’m going to write about the things that I want to accomplish in 2011!

I’m not going to talk about starting my masters because, well, I don’t want to start my masters next year. It feels like it will be soooooooo hard and completely hellhole kind of situation for me, having to work and at the same time study, but about 1803893890 people do it on a daily basis so I’m inclined to think “well, how hard can it be?” but I’m sure it is really that hard and it is really that complicated, and we have so many people (1803893890) doing it right now because none of them can figure out a way to graduate this year. So no, no masters for me next year, thank you very much.

I’m also not going to talk about changing jobs. I’ve had enough of that, and feel pretty confident that this company will be my home base for a couple of years. That is, until 2012 – because after that we will turn into scavengers a lá “The Road”. So it really has to carry me for two years, and then all sorts of paper based currency will be extinguished and we’ll be fighting for survival haha. I will undoubtedly fail at it and won’t make it past February 2013, but at least I plan to give it a good try. Unless of course, there’s a massive earthquake and the ground rips apart and I fall through it.

So what do I want for the next year? Well, for one thing, I want to be busy. But I also want to have time for my family and for my girlfriend. And friends. And for myself.

I want to take my master level classes in Reiki. I want to start teaching it too, just to family members and close friends at first, see how I do on those, and then opening up to the public. I feel that it is what I’m supposed to be doing, sort of my life calling – but I don’t think it’s limited to Reiki. Not sure, but I have that urge to learn more and more about alternative medicine, meditation and all that jazz (haha, meditation and jazz! Haha! Ok I’m stupid) so that I can teach other people that there’s more to life other than work, study and career (I for one, should really try to understand that. Oops!).

Hmmm let’s see what else. I want to enjoy my vacations, no more people from work calling me while I’m on vacation. I want to really be able to turn work OFF. Tune it out completely, and judging by how we work here at my present company, I don’t think it will be too difficult to accomplish. Hopefully.

I want to be a better friend.
A better co-worker.
A better boyfriend.
A better son.
A better brother.
A better cousin.

I also want to make more money heh. Yeah I’d be lying if more money didn’t make me happy. I mean, I believe that having money is part of happiness. Yes, it has nothing to do with “real” happiness, but I’ll take it =D. I’ll take yours too, if you think yours is not bringing you enough goodies hehe.

Hmmm oh yeah I want a new car too. That goes fast, brakes fast (hopefully) and corners flat. And takes premium too, so that I can cry my eyes out every time I go to the gas station and promise myself to take it easy on the fast and flat cornering thing. Of course I’ll forget about it as soon as I get into my car and that V6 jewel spins into stratosphere smoothly.

I want my family to be safe, prosperous and peaceful. Nothing shall harm them, stand in their way or distract them. No one will ever come in between me and them.

2011. Get here already.

Early 2010 Good bye - Thoughts

Well hello again fellow Xangans.

Maybe it’s the year end, maybe it’s just a combo of events that happened or maybe I’m just not in very good working mood, but today seems like it will be a slow day. Hey, I have to validate a process for importing customers, and I should only do the validation in staging environment. With yesterday’s DB refresh, not sure how, but my access was wiped, or modified. Call it fate, but I’ve decided to log a couple of non-productive minutes into writing here on Xanga.

I don’t think I’d have time to update Xanga with worthy content before the next year, so I’ll be using this time to talk about 2010.

By far, the change that impacted my life the most was definitely… *drum roll* getting together with my sweetie! Boy I still remember how tough it was for me to just spill the beans out that I loved her, have liked her for the longest time, and it was an “all-or-nothing” time. But I guess the starts aligned on that night and in the end she was laughing like crazy while I was going “wait, but do you like me? Why are you laughing? Are you not understanding me?” haha but of course, she was laughing because she too, had the same feelings for a while (I had feelings for her for a much longer time though heh) and was very happy to learn that the feelings were mutual. Not only am I with my best friend, she also helped putting my entire life into perspective and already taught me many things about myself and about my future together with her. Sweetie, you know this, but can’t say it enough – you rock my world.

The second change was the new job. While I was stuck at my old job, it was like my whole life was already fixed based on where my previous company would be able to take me and that so familiar ceiling, the most I would be able to achieve within the company. What I had seen had stopped to motivate me a long time ago and still I was unable to will myself forward towards getting out of my comfort zone and not only accept the undeniable truth that it was no longer serving me a purpose, but also that I did not know enough of the world to allow myself to settle in. Changing jobs, for me, not only reflected into a better position professionally but also marked a transition period when I stopped reacting powerlessly to the events in my life and started becoming the active modifying agent. It is something that I hope I can carry forward with me in this new upcoming year.

Not all things that I think were important in 2010 were isolated to events in my life however. What happens to my friends are also very important to me, and definitely an important thing in 2010 to be remembered, cherished, and sometimes, put aside and forgotten.

Congratulations were once in order for mr. Joe Fangtastic, who got himself MARRIED with now Mayu Fangtastic. September 2010 is a month that the LC will probably forget (we’re not too keen on dates) but the event shall live on in our minds for the remainder of our lives. Yep, it was that special.

But events, in order for them to be meaningful, do not have to be so big. Small things are also important – more like, small victories here and there that combined, make up the majority of one’s self.

Like Matt and Kathleen, hitting it off and going towards a much firmer and enriching relationship for both parties. I hope you guys can learn so much more in 2011 about yourselves and each other.

For Bum, going off to no-man’s land NY and doing his best. Things may not have worked out for now, but it is the experience that counts and you are now much better prepared. And thank goodness you have left your previous job. We are all thankful for that.

I believe 2010 was a very positive year, with lots of growth for everyone. Was it all positive and no negative? Absolutely not – but I try my best to learn from the negatives as well as the positives. From what I’ve experienced, I don’t grow as much when only good things are happening, maybe I got used to learning in the line of fire haha but as true as in my life, so are (for me anyway), the spiritual teaching that says that you should be thankful for whoever ill treated you – for only that time, you are able to really apply the teachings of compassion, patience and tolerance. I firmly believe that. Maybe I’m not too good on the “being thankful for those who have ill treated you” part, but hopefully I will get there some day.

There were also many deaths this year. Thankfully, not from my immediate family, but rather from people who are close to me. I am hopeful that they are now in a better place, watching over each one of you. As they have moved on, at your own pace, you should also do the same. Yes, it is much easier said than done, the more when you’re saying it to someone else. But I’m also undoubtedly going to face the same situation one day, and I can only hope to have people comforting me and nudging lightly to move on with my life.

So here’s to 2010, a good year, full of life changing events. Thank you for watching over my family, and let’s clear out our hearts, organizing and keeping all that is good for us, and discarding, shaking it off, everything that brought us pain and toil.

And here we go 2011!!

Ferny