Creative sollutions

I’m always a bit sad this time of the year. It’s august and in Norway that means the summer is nearing its end. I’ve always been a child of summer, it means life to me. You can go outside without having to wrap yourself up in thick, heavy clothes. There is no ice to slip on, like that unfortunate incident I once had with a wall. To be a bit dramatic, to me winter is death. Many thinkers and poets before me seem to agree on this view. The leaves fall, most animals go into hiding, and some birds even flee this frozen wasteland. It’s just quiet and dead. The best thing about winter? It ends.

Well, august has surprised me in the past as well. We might still get a few days of summer! We deserve that. Now, some might be curious about what else I do on my spare time, well, fulltime in my case. I enjoy a good movie, different types really. Sci-fi, action, comedy, drama… I find horror movies a bit silly though. “Don’t go in there! No! Don’t… Great, now the vampire got you… They never listen!” You get the idea. Over the years I have gained a rather impressive collection. However, the time of the DVD is soon past, just like summer. However, Netflix and other movie services seem pretty great and easy too.

 Then there is of course gaming, I’ve touched this subject several times already in this blog, but now I’ll write a bit of the practical aspect. You see, using a gaming device or computer has become more difficult the last few years, so I had to get creative. Holding the Xbox controller was the first issue, there’s always one button I can’t reach! Of course this button has to be used at some point in every game. “Throw a grenade!” “I can’t! I can punch the car if that helps you guys?” it really gets frustrating eventually. I never really found a solution to that issue. Maybe someone else out there have any bright ideas? I’d love to hear it.

One of my former assistants became a very good friend of mine. He’s 40, I’m 24 but we’re both gamers! Easy to guess what we spent the night doing, shooting poor aliens and other things online. It’s different when your friend is sitting next to you while gaming. We laugh, joke, and talk about guy stuff and nerdy things like superheroes and the like. Either way, he came up with a nice way to hold the controller. We built our own gaming table, consisting of a pillow, a towel and a book. We just rest the controller on top and I quickly get a better hold. The buttons are easier to reach, all but one cursed button. Oh well, who needs grenades when I can hit you with this stick!

Using a mouse and a keyboard also became a challenge for me and this was harder to solve. I had to send a mail and inform some people of the problem. That’s how I got in touch with two creative guys from a company that specialized in such tools. They say it’s important that the buttons and switches come to the user, not the other way around. This is very true! I can’t reach every button, so they simply have to move the buttons to me. Finally someone understood this fact! They came by and we discussed a possible solution. We quickly came up with a genius plan. They attached a series of buttons to a special table, 12 of them where most surround my mouse. I can program these buttons to serve any purpose I like. It changed my computer use forever. I can finally play games I could only dream of before. I owe those two guys a lot.

There are as you understand many obstacles in my way, but there are solutions to most things if you just keep your mind open to it. Be creative! I know, many times I just wanted to give up, nothing ever works, right? Wrong. I’ve met far too many doctors and ergonomists who fail to think creative. They just see one solution and they stick to that. Now, I’m sure that solution works for some, but we are all different. My needs are different from yours. As you might have guessed I’ve always loved creative people. I’m amazed by the beauty humans are able to create around them. Some artists are afraid to show off their work, thinking they’re not good enough. To them I want to say, stop doubting yourself. Sometimes you have to jump in, no matter how scary it might seem. You might be pleasantly surprise.

  

I try to be creative sometimes and one of those times; this is what came out of it: