sane

[Bruce MacArthur]

On Friday 14 August 2009 04:41:19 pm Steven Vollom wrote:
> On Thursday 13 August 2009 06:24:25 pm Donn wrote:
> > On Friday 14 August 2009 00:10:15 Steven Vollom wrote:
> > > And still I have been unable to change.
> >
> > Really, how hard can it be to get a little A5 notebook and write 
things in
> > it? I am *begging* you to start a 'computer diary' -- don't rely on 
the
> > email threads because you have demonstrated that you keep 
losing the plot.
> >
> > Have a few pages for apt/aptitude stuff : record the correct 
commands in
> > the book. Then, look them up. It really saves wear on the brain.
> >
> > \d
> One of the reasons I started using a computer is because I am 
unable to do 
> what you recommend.  I have half dozen notebooks filled with 
computer info.  
> But I have to read them all just to find one answer.  Usually 2 or 3 of 
them 
> are not where I can find them.  I have very little long term memory, 
other than 
> really important stuff.  When I set a notebook down, it usually 
becomes lost 
> almost immediately.
> 
> Many times I will find an old notebook that has instructions in it on a 
topic I 
> have committed to memory and no longer need the notes.  If you 
are anything 
> like all my other friends, you don't believe my situation.  You think 
I am 
> lazy or irresponsible or something like that, and I can not convince 
you 
> otherwise.  Some of the simplest things people do, I am unable to 
do.  But 
> some of the most difficult things people must do, I can do without 
giving the 
> task a thought.  Few left brained people will ever accept the fact 
that right 
> brained people can not assimilate information the same as they do.  
> Frustration is about the only thing it produces.  That is the reason I 
make 
> myself out as stupid.  People are kinder to stupid people than they 
are to 
> right-brained people.  There are things that are so simple for me to 
do that I 
> cannot understand what is so difficult about the task for normal or 
left brained 
> people who occasionally use the right hemisphere.  Sometimes I 
can see that 
> they are overwhelmed, because they thought I was a 10 watt bulb.  
But any 
> computer related explanation provided me by a right brained 
person who has 
> fought to understand the problem, can explain it to me in a few 
words, and I 
> have 100% understanding.
> 
> Everyone I get close to eventually understands.  It is the old square 
peg in 
> the round hole thing.  Thank you for trying to help, I understand the 
> instruction very well.  But it is like making me take on a task that I 
have 
> absolutely no chance to succeed with; I will only practice failure.  
Not a fun 
> thing.  I AM NOT RESISTING YOU, I AM UNABLE TO DO WHAT YOU 
SUGGEST.
> 
> Emphasis not yelling.
> 
> Steven

Hello, Steven --

You probably do not realize it -- but you have just PROVEN that you are 
relying upon the crutch of a popular "diagnosis", rather than trying to 
resolve problems!!!  Please let me explain myself, by way of 
presenting the approach for solutions, after making another point.

When you say, "But any computer related explanation provided me by 
a right brained person who has fought to understand the problem, 
can explain it to me in a few words, and I have 100% understanding." 
-- you are still demanding that everyone in the United States must 
speak Swahili, simply because YOU speak Swahili.  This is WRONG.  It is 
time for you to (figuratively!) "learn English".  You ARE in Kubuntu-
land!


Not more than a week ago (or so) you "complained" (I use the word 
VERY loosely at this point) that someone told you that you should not 
use topics -- but only names -- for your E-Mail archive folder-names.  
Others have, since then, mentioned that this is in error, but you have 
not SHOWN us that you noticed that.  (This does NOT mean that you 
didn't notice; only that there is no specific reply to the pointers.)  
Well, it is VERY important that you take advantage of this point, and 
that you do so in TWO specific ways.

First of all, do NOT "get an A5 notebook"!  Get a dozen or two of them.  
Put ALL of them in one single place that is within arm's reach of your 
computer chair.  Put a single label (in ink) directly on the front cover 
of one A5 notebook.  Put useful insights -- on that topic ALONE -- in 
that A5 notebook.  (Don't hesitate to print a message and to staple 
or paste it into your notebook, at least if that is the best way to get 
it there accurately!)  IMMEDIATELY upon making all applicable 
comments, RETURN the A5 notebook to its rightful place.  When you 
have another topic to be addressed, do likewise with the next A5 
notebook -- indefinitely.  Buy more A5 notebooks as the topics may 
come to demand that you do so.  Whenever you have a problem, go 
through your collection of A5 notebooks, find the appropriate one, 
study it completely -- or as proves helpful.  Do what you have been 
told to do previously.  And then return the A5 notebook to its proper 
place IMMEDIATELY.

This is NOT the same thing as suggesting that you have a "computer 
stuff" notebook, and go through 50 pages of uncategorized 
information.  That approach might "tax" the best of us just as it does 
you.  Instead, those categories are ESSENTIAL.  Don't tell us that it 
doesn't make sense to you; define the categories in such a way that 
they make do sense to YOU and according to YOUR way of thinking 
and making categories.  Then USE the categories that you have 
defined so that you CAN get back to "old" information that you need 
"now".  And do NOT blame US for not wanting to repeat 25 times the 
answers that you have already received; you MUST act in a way that 
at least appears to be slightly "responsible".

Do you realize that, as you claim to have several notebooks full of 
information, and as you claim that you lose them periodically, and as 
you complain that you have to actually READ them in order to find 
information -- you are actually presenting yourself as if you were IR-
responsible?  And as if you expect the people here to do YOUR work 
for you, however often you have to do it?  Why don't you just send 
someone a free computer and properly pay them to do what you 
(otherwise) would have to do for yourself -- if you REALLY just plain 
cannot do the basics?  (While there are people here who might be 
both able and willing to work with you thusly, I have to admit that I am 
willing -- but incompetent -- to do the job, so I am NOT implying that 
you should "consult" with ME!!!)

You claim that "I have very little long term memory, except for the 
really important stuff."  You thus tell us that this stuff isn't really 
very important to YOU -- so why should it be important to US?  I have 
told you, as soon as you are done either adding information to a 
notebook or using the information in a notebook, that you MUST 
return it to its PROPER place.  If you will be just as responsible with 
your computer information as you MUST be with your tools and 
supplies for art, then you will have equal access to them -- regardless 
of your "brain type".

There is absolutely NO reason why you CANnot do this; there is only a 
set of excuses (left-brain, right-brain, artist, logician, dyslexia, 
long-term memory, short-term memory, age, learning style, preferred 
musical key, and so on and so forth) for why you REFUSE to do this!  I 
doubt that you keep your cut glass mixed in with your paints as a 
matter of routine, and then expect to find the right color of ANYthing 
-- so you CAN do it, if only you WILL do it.

Please understand that this is PRECISELY analogous to using "topics" 
as folder-names within any E-Mail "client" -- which just happens to be 
my second suggestion.  This is what YOU said that you wanted to be 
able to do.  So please DO it.

If you do as I am suggesting (based upon the suggestions of several 
other people), you don't have to rely upon correct association of 
person and topic.  This is good, because YOUR OWN person-topic 
system is obviously useless to you!  Do something that enables you to 
at least look smart.  Furthermore, this system allows you the relatively 
easy use of electronic access -- but, for times when you have crashed 
your system, it also gives you "permanent" (okay, that is NOT the 
most-accurate use of the word!) access in the form of physically 
printed resources.

So you should see that I am specifically telling you to do (1) what you 
have said that you want to be able to do AND (2) what several others 
have been telling you to do.  AND I am telling you how to deal with the 
problems that you create for yourself.  AND I am telling you how to 
deal with your own limitations (and realizing that we all have merely 
DIFFERENT limitations!) in a way that YOU have indicated would work 
for YOU.  How could it possibly get any better than that?????


IF you really have any business doing some of the computer things 
that you seem to be attempting, then you CAN do this much -- and 
you have NO business doing anything LESS than this much.  On the 
other hand, if you REALLY "canNOT" do this -- then, this fact alone 
STRONGLY suggests that these things are things that you should 
simply leave alone!  That is NO personal criticism of YOU as a person; 
it is a simple and logical analysis that YOU must complete and accept 
for yourself.

If you wish to impose your many problems on the community, and if 
you deprive us of the right to effectively recommend practical 
solutions, then the long-run fact is that you tie US all down to YOUR 
weakest point -- and to the same failure that you first experience.  You 
are like the patient who refuses to accept either medication or 
surgery -- and yet demands that the doctor provide perfect health.  
This, obviously, verges between foolishness and stupidity -- and it is 
NOT "viable" in the long-run.

So I respectfully request that YOU determine whether or not you will 
be working WITH us (rather than ON us).  If you will work with us, if 
you will "take your medicine"), EXCELLENT.  But, if you want to present 
yourself as a stubborn child, please do not expect many answers.  
Remember that nobody here has put you in your present condition!



Bruce   Mac Arthur
15875 Switzer
Overland Park, KS  66221
     913-897-4157
     bmacasuru at fastmail.us