All Thumbs: Man Says He Has USB Drive in Prosthetic Finger

File this one under the “why didn’t I think of that” category. I am not sure it would be completely practical for me, but it certainly is a good idea. I am thinking the finger wouldn’t work so good for me, but I could probably hide a full size USB hard drive in my prosthetic leg. Something to think about!

So progress on this project has slowed down some, but that was to be expected. I got off to a good start, but I have been busier than normal at work, and have been sick on top of that the last week or so. The combination of the two things has kind of put a damper on my thought process lately. I am still using my trusty notepad to write things down as I think of them, I just need to spend some more time on here writing things out in more detail.

On a side note, I have a somewhat funny story from a few days ago, but I will have to save it for later as I am still waiting on a friend to send me some pictures. I hope to get back to regular post next week.

I am a firm believer in learning something new everyday, but more important than learning something new is applying what you learn. As I get older, it gets easier to try new things. I know there are some things that I am just not going to be good at. It’s a fact of life that I am comfortable with. I also know that there are things that I won’t know if I can do them without trying. A few years ago I tried sushi for the first time. I wasn’t crazy about it at first, but as I have grown quite fond of it in the last year or so. The obvious challenge that this presents is that the preferred utensils for sushi are chopsticks. I know people that have all of their fingers who have trouble using chopsticks, so I never really had any desire to try. I always leaned towards a person using a fork to eat sushi would look better than someone missing fingers trying to master the art of eating with chopsticks. So after successfully feeding myself with a fork the first thirty three years of my life, I decided to try something new. So the last few times I have gone to eat sushi with friends I have forgone the usual fork and resorted to more traditional utensils. Now, if you have eaten with chopsticks you know that a minimum number of fingers are required to operate them properly. I am not the most graceful chopstick user at the table by any means, and to be totally honest it is quite awkward, but when has that ever stopped me from doing something? I don’t think I will be entering any talent shows with my new found skill (and I use that word very loosely here) but I am fairly confident that if I ever need to rely on chopsticks to feed myself I will not starve to death.

I think there is a lot to be said for stepping out of ones comfort zone and trying new things. A few years ago I would have been completely content eating sushi with a fork the rest of my life. I realize that this is pretty minor in comparison to other things that I have accomplished, but the fact remains that I have done something that I would have never thought of doing before. It really just adds more credibility to that old adage “you never know until you try”.

I was talking to a couple of women the other day, and the topic of my hands and feet came up. The original topic of conversation was arthritis which lead to comfortable shoes, which led to one of them asking if my feet were like my hands. Most people don’t know that I have a prosthetic leg or that anything is different with my feet until I tell them. I have only know these ladies for a short time so that topic hadn’t presented itself until this conversation. I told them about the prosthetic leg, and the ankle problems with the other foot, and one of them asked if my mother took “the little white pill”. Before I could answer, they both said they were given said pill by their respective doctors for morning sickness when they were pregnant. I told them that she had infact taken a pill for morning sickness, and explained a little more about the prosthesis and ankle joint. I don’t really remember where exactly the conversation went from there, I really just thought they way they reffered to “the little white pill” was kind of humorous.

I am working on some post that are a little less random than todays, maybe not much but a little, so keep an eye out for more.