... I think my arms are going to kill me

Not literally, of course. Just. Ow.

( computer stuff )

(I still haven't figured out a solution for the whole mouse thing. grumblemutter.)

(nor have I figured out an optimal way to do games. Because if I use the mouse to navigate etc, I don't have access to the right half of the keyboard, and none of the games are set up to be exclusively keyboard operated, and if I use the arrow keys to navigate I've got my right hand either in a really awkward position or in a very comfortable position that doesn't allow me to use any of the rest of the right half of the keyboard. Or the mouse.)

And then, I decided that it would be super awesome to take one of the local bead shop's beading classes, specifically a wire wrapping one, which happened last night.

( bead stuff )

Well, okay, it was fun. But omg /ow/. My arms were seriously hurting after that.

(I think, if I try this at home, it will be easier -- I have some longer-reach tools that can be used to hold things in position -- but not by much. But at least I can space it out, instead of doing one intensive three-hour session...)

mouseless navigation

The whole keyboard/mouse issue (aka Two Things Cannot Occupy The Same Physical Space Even If It Would Be Useful) has gotten me looking more into non-mouse mouse control. Even if I find a mouse that works better, it's easier to just keep my hands on the keyboard.

I am discovering that a) browser navigation can be a pita without a mouse (especially on forms that don't have good tab ordering), and b) neither WoW nor GW can be played mouseless.

Both games have arrow key (and, at least by default, awsd) navigation. Both games have ways to invoke skills by number. There are also certain things (such as opening your inventory or displaying the character pane) that can be done by keypress.

I've been playing more GW than WoW the last couple of days, mainly because WoW has a bunch more shit that needs setting up. (I was able to copy over the addons I use, but some of the settings didn't stick, so I need to reconfigure where things are displayed.) And, well. You can define keystrokes for some actions -- like targeting nearest / next / previous foe, nearest / next / previous item (loot), etc -- but not for others -- in particular, there is no set for targeting nearest / next / previous NPC. There's a keystroke for interacting (attack if hostile, talk to if npc, pick up if item, buy/sell if merchant, etc.) but no way to do anything with said interaction (accepting quests or quest rewards must be done by mouse, buying and selling stuff must be done by mouse, identing and salvaging must be done by mouse, transferring stuff to and from storage, or other bags, must be done by mouse, etc.)

Also, it treats left control/alt as separate from right control/alt (and in fact doesn't let you assign right control/alt to anything as far as I can tell), and -- probably because [control] and [alt] are commands by themselves, it doesn't allow keystroke combinations [and on an unrelated subject, wtf, firefox: 'combination' is acceptable, but 'combinations' gets a red highlight? as does uncapitalized firefox? and, for that matter, uncapitalized?] so you can't set different actions for K and shift-K and ctrl-K and alt-K.

...you can in WoW. Which is very nice. But you can't use keystrokes to loot -- it has to be done by, guess what, mouse. I can't think at all right now, so I can't recall all of what you can and can't do -- I can't, f'rex, remember if there's a way to target nearest/next NPCs; I do remember there's (now) a way to interact with them, except that it has to be a different keystroke than "attack". Selling stuff and inventory management is, again, entirely mouse-based.

And I know that something as complex as those games, it would be hard to make /everything/ possible by keystroke. But then I think about something like Vagrant Story (which I classify in my head as the same sort of game, even though it is not multi-player or online or even a recently-made game), which has ... how many controls are there on a playstation? Ten buttons (X O triangle square, L1 L2 R1 R2, start, and whateverthehell the other one is) and two joysticky things that could be considered the equivalent of arrow keys. And it handles inventory management, transfer in and out of storage, looting stuff, fighting, etc, just with those things. Granted, sometimes it's really freaking tedious (especially juggling things in/out of storage in order to combine them), and it's really not time-sensitive (why sure, you can take five minutes in the middle of heated battle to change armor and weapons and stuff; your enemies won't mind [search for "fire elemental" for the specific riff]), but it's /possible/. So why isn't it possible with the other games?

Sigh.