At 13:14 24.9.2003 -0400, Isidora Zamora wrote:
>At 11:19 AM 9/23/03 +0200, you wrote:
>>At 13:55 19.9.2003 -0400, Isidora Zamora wrote:
>>
>>>Are you left handed? (I am.)
>>
>>I'm actually ambidextrous. The long story is that
>>I'm lame since shortly after birth. I máy have been
>>originally lefthanded since my mother is, but all
>>the physiotherapists concentrated on exercising my
>>right hand! In spite or because of this I've ended
>>up with a rather clumsy right hand on a strong right
>>arm, and a more nimble left hand on a weak left arm.
>
>That's got to be rather awkward for you. I've noticed at times that my
>(non-dominant) right hand or arm is actually slightly stronger than my
>(dominant) left hand and arm. However, it is only the left hand that is
>truly coordinated.
My right hand is coordinated but stiffer. I have trouble
moving the fingers of my right hand individually
-- a typical cerebral palsy thing.
>My right hand is much more coordinated than most
>right-handed people's left hand is, but I am far from being ambidextrous.
That's normal for left handed people, I've come to understand.
>I truly believe that my daughter was born left-handed. When she first
>started reaching for things, it was invariably with her left
>hand. However, she started avidly sucking her left thumb
[snip rest of interesting story]
That's another way to switch handedness!
The hero of Swedish author Frans G. Bengtsson's novel
"Röde Orm" became left-handed because of rowing a left-
side oar as a galley-slave!
>>>The way that left-handed caligraphers using
>>>Roman characters have typically gotten around the problem is to turn the
>>>page on its side so that they write top to bottom and in columns (rows)
>>>that go from right to left. When it's done and the page is turned upright,
>>>the characters move in the same direction as a right-handed scribe's.
>>
>>I have done the right-handed equivalent of that when
>>writing Devanagari. I first tried with a slant-cut nib,
>>but found that it tended to tear the paper when I did
>>pushed strokes. This was back in the days before my
>>arms started to tremor...
>
>I can sympathize. Most of the medications that I am on have tremor as a
>side-effect.
May I ask what you medicate for?
>It's not a real problem when it's only a very fine tremor
>limited to the fingers, but sometimes the entire hand (or even forearm)
>will have a coarser tremor.
Exactly the same with me, except it's never just the fingers.
>However, I don't have the best handwriting to begin with (though it has
>improved radically since I have had to teach my daughter how to write),
I actually re-taught myself to write at about 18 years old,
at the time I got interested in calligraphy and understood how
literally lame my handwriting was. I got books on Italic
handwriting and grinded ground myself through it[1]. Later
my handwriting deteriorated again as I started to use a
roller-ball instead of a fountain pen, which in turn was
because I had taken to use shorthand, which demanded a
fine-pointed writing tool. With shorthand I can write
almost as fast as non-lame people write longhand...
> and
>I do have a slight tremor at all times. I am not at all certain that I
>will have much success in developing native scripts for my conlangs (should
>I chose to do that) because of my general lack of precise cordination when
>it comes to handwriting. I am more likely to come out with a sloppy mess
>than a useable font.
You can always use Metafont, though that requires
knowing some algebra and learning to use TeX.
FWIW my problem is rather with deciding what I
want the shapes to look like!
>>>I do know that the pens are cut at the opposite angle for a left-handed
>>>scribe, and I don't know whether that has a subtle effect on the shape of
>>>the letters or not.
>>
>>Slant-cut nibs are used to enable left-handed scribes to write
>>left-to-right while the letter-shapes remain similar to those
>>a right-handed scribe produces with a straight nib. In India
>>the situation is reversed, the slant-cut nib being normally
>>used by right-handed scribes. Come to think of it this must
>>mean that there's a natural occupational niche for lefties there! :-)
>
>That's interesting to know, the bit about slant-cut vs. straight nibs and
>the situation in India.
Actually I saw in a book that lefties and righties make the
strokes in opposite direction when writing Devanagari.
Vèry interesting!
>I know that I have left-handed calligraphy nibs
>and that they are cut on a slant. I didn't realize that the right-handed
>nibs had no slant.
Oh I see. IME writng with a straight nib on a turned paper
is much easier than using a slanted nib. Perhaps you
should try it.
>Isidora
>
>
/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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