snowy

I know that seat all too well. Whenever we go out to eat as a family my mother arranges it so I'm not jabbing anyone with my elbow.

My parents would always complain when I was a kid and set the table because every time I set it backwards. It was perfect for me, but didn't work for anyone else in my righty family.

I love being left-handed. Some solutions I use for the writing problems (I just finished several years of taking copious amounts of notes): 1) a notebook with tear-out pages. In these, the spiral seems to be set further away from the writing area, giving you more room to maneuver. 2) Use a pencil instead of a pen if possible. 3) If you must use a pen, do use an old-fashioned ballpoint that isn't too inky and sets quickly.

Invariably I still end up with smudged hand, but rarely are my notes smudged.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Daoust

Oh this thread is such a wonderful place of relief. A place of freedom from oppressive "rightists". A balm for the weary southpaw. I am glad to share something so wonderful with you all. I too have suffered the same indignities you have... the awkward handling of the scissors, the 'left handed seat' at the restaurant... It's nice to know you're not alone...

What about this one... (not sure if it's been mentioned) Does anyone else, when they're playing cards hold their cards upside down? I sure do...

__________________
I have faith in a few things - divinity and grace
But even when I'm on my knees I know the devil preys

Charlatan

Yes, but "sinister" sounds so much cooler than "dexter".

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Charlatan

Regarding the spiral notebook, just write on the left side of the book and if you have to used the right side, just set the margin further to the right.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

leftyderek

my signature... i just write 'derek' in my own handwriting, but mirror-reflected. (yes, i can read and write mirror-reflected very well)- and no one has had a successful attempt yet to forge it.

calculators... uh, for a theatre major like me i rarely need them anymore- but in high school I used to 'calculator' with my right- so I could write at the same time

Ah those huge-ass long cooking chopsticks. It's still a mystery for me. I never understand how my mom & dad (yes he's a good cook too) can pick up deep fried food with them without any troubles (I AM a bad cook).

About bumping elbows- I learnt to eat with kinda, keeping my elbow closer to my body while I also sit a bit further. Or when I go to eat or to the pub with friends back home, I always remind them that I'm left handed and asks for the left-most seat. (It's annoying when someone slams your elbow when you have a glass of beer close to your face... especially when everyone's tipsy)..

Ha- my first thread that reaches 2 pages, I think.

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

leftyderek

Welcome to the lefty hangout place :P

Holding cards upside down? Don't they look the same either way?
(I mean, you can't even tell when you can only see the back side of the cards..)
It'd be interesting if you can explain more though- I wanna know if I do that too

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

ngdawg

Maybe he means top card on the right side? I've done that....
Another beef-school desks. Those kind with the top attached, they're always on the right! I think in High School there were a couple with the tops on the left, but the tech school I just completed didn't have any of those. At least there I used composition notebooks-no rings in the way.

__________________
Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

guthmund

My uncle is left handed. All the spiral notebooks he's written in over the years, all his writing is on the left side of the book. Dozens and dozens of spiral notebooks that just don't quite look....right.

__________________
No signature. None. Seriously.

Aladdin Sane

Yes, I'm a lefty. I'm the only one in my family.
Here's an interesting observation: I work for a well-known publisher. Lots of creative types on all sides. And an unusually large portion of us are lefties. I've never seen anything like it.

I don't feel discriminated against. Never. It's something to deal with, to overcome. And it can be fun. I like being a lefty. It's cool. Besides, us lefties are more evolved than right-handers--everyone knows all apes are right-handed...

__________________
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Mantus

I think left handed people are pretty cool.
Like if you hold a left-handed girls arm she can still do shit without having to let go of your hand.
Infact if you treat yourselves as one person you can become abidextorous - like a superhuman or something.
Both got the good arm going while still holdling hands.
No one gona mess with us.
We aint go no jab.
Know what I mean, lefties rock.
Look at Hendrix.
Yahh.

leftyderek

Ah? top card on the right side? Nah, I think I have the top card on the left side, it's easier for my thumb I think.

/haven't been playing cards for quite long honestly...

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

leftyderek

Oh my girlfriend's a righty but we hold hands with our 'good' arm (sounds like the other one's missing or something )- it just feels weird to hold something so important with my less important hand, so I always prefer holding hers with my left. Guess she thinks similar... so when we treat ourselves as one person... hm, we are... majorly handicapped?

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

Mantus

That's sweet.
See lefties even think different.
All sweet and stuff.
Got the romance going,
Just look at Isaac Hayes.
I am thinking her hand is NICE.
It's important, no doubt about it.
But there are other parts that are NICE-ER.
You know what I mean.
So like, the if an oportunity ever came to go for the nice-er parts.
I don't wana be fumblin' it up with my left hand.
Poke her eye out or some jazz like that.
Won't live that down.

leftyderek

Yeah I do think we think a little bit different but that can cause troubles-
arguments have started just because I can never, ever understand her way of thinking. Like no matter what, I can't make it make sense in my head... Or well, maybe just because I am rather childish, and I have an attention span of a fruit fly and memory of a goldfish... Is it a left-handed thing too? I mean the fruit fly and goldfish syndrome...

EDIT: O/T Mantus did you draw your avatar? I really like it.

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

Mantus

Oh man that's just her being a chick.
See the thing about women.
It's not that you don't know what they're thinking.
It's that they don't know what they're thinking.
It's the most complex puzzle on earth because the picture on the box.
Don't match the picture inside.
But when you figure it out.
It's like heaven.
Then you get bored and wan't to do another puzzle.

About the fruit-fly goldfish thing.
Step one:
Check the mirror
You might actually be a fruit-fly in a fishbowl.
If not, you are perfectly normal,
Just gota use some synonyms.
Like instead of child go for something like,
CAVEMAN! - big and strong
Fruit fly is a bit small, perhaps describe yourself as a tiger or something
And substitute goldfish for a baracuda.
Then all of the sudden you are cool.
A bad ass tiger barracuda with a club!


And yes I did indeed draw that, glad you like it, thanks!

leftyderek

'we're just two lost souls
swimming in a fish bowl
year after a year...'

That song popped up in my head when I read your post...

/senses that he's killing his own thread.

So does anyone know when's the int'l lefties day?
c'mon, have a guess (without using google )

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

rlynnm

That might be my biggest fear in writing on the left side of the book...it'd look too weird, even if I read my own notes I'd be a little creeped out. Hence I've had to resort to angling the notebook an odd way..Or I can just write further into the margin, not sure who suggested that but someone did, maybe Charlatan..

__________________
The hardest thing is to be honest with yourself, especially if that means completely redefining the world you've come to know.

Don't look too hard, I'm right in front of you.

Charlatan

In University, when I did the vast majority of my notetaking, I found a local source for small hardcover note books (I think I paid a buck or two per notebook). They weren't spiral bound so no problem with my hand and they looked good on my book shelf.

I've kept up the habit and still use them for keeping notes and to do lists.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

rlynnm

Wow that's a very romantic way of doing things.

Handicapped, not at all...the world would be a sweeter place if people knew and treated the things that were vital to them as such....

__________________
The hardest thing is to be honest with yourself, especially if that means completely redefining the world you've come to know.

Don't look too hard, I'm right in front of you.

leftyderek

Romantic :-\

I mean, we both agreed that it just feels weird if I use my right and she her left... I haven't really told her That^ is the reason though (I REALLY think so- like.. the important thing in my 'better' hand thing).

Oh, since no one guessed the int'l lefties day-

13th August. It was first celebrated in 1976. Google it if you wanna read more about it.

NOTE: they don't have a int'l righties day. HA. HA losers. :P

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

rlynnm

Woohoo I love this thread!

__________________
The hardest thing is to be honest with yourself, especially if that means completely redefining the world you've come to know.

Don't look too hard, I'm right in front of you.

little_tippler

I have never felt discriminated for being left handed and it never bothers me much except the smudging what I'm writing/drawing part. I'm happy to see there are many left-handed people on the TFP! I wonder what the ratio is worldwide...

I am an artist and there are many great artists that were left-handed - that is one of my first thoughts when I'm reminded I'm left-handed

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Mantus

Last I heard it was around 10%.

I think it might have something to do with the right side of the brain having direct access to the instrument.

I looked you up in the art forum - I am delighted, very nice work! Especially the black/white/red abstract one.

alpha phi

My wife and I are both Lefties...
So I guess we are of the same mind
scissors used to be a problem....untill I learned to use them upside down.
I always print...except my signiture
otherwise I can't even read my writing.
I do play guitar right handed
Other guitarists say it gives me a unique perspective
Although it takes me longer to learn new rhythms.
Power tools have the safety button on the wrong side!!!!
The left handed mouse is just confusing
Being left handed in the workplace can be a benifit
the jobs righties think are akward are completely comfortable to me.

__________________

Carno

The thing that bothers me most about being left-handed now is having to fly the aircraft with my right hand while I write something on my kneeboard.

__________________
http://how-to-spell-ridiculous.com/

leftyderek

It's cool that both of you are Lefties! (It's also interesting that you capitalized 'Lefties' ) I have always wondered, is left handedness a genetic thing? Like, is it some kind of recessive genes? Because I've heard left handed parents having right handed kids (which is weird if it's genetic), or vice versa (which makes a bit more sense if both of the parents are something like Rr and Rr- then they can have 'rr' kids... hope someone get what I mean here-)

Uh? How do you use scissors upside down? I mean... aren't they just the same even if you hold them upside down?

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

leftyderek

But then don't righties have to fly with their left while they write something on their kneeboards? (I don't know much about flying an aircraft, correct me if I sound stupid...)

__________________
-Imagine how beautiful the world would be if we could only do things for the first-and-last time. Imagine this is the last time you would ever be able to imagine. Imagine that.

-Die Lust der Zerstörung ist gleichzeitig eine schaffende Lust.

-...and god said
Lx1,go!
and there was light...

alpha phi

I never realized I capitalized Lefty
My grandfathers paternal and maternal are Lefties
A couple of uncles too.
My wife's dad too, don't know the rest.
It does seem to have genetic trends.

the slant goes the other way upsidedown
thumb goes into the big hole
index finger in the small hole

edit: That sounds kinda' dirty Scissors!

__________________

zz0011

Great quote!

"Leftists are among the first to speak of their rights." ~ Anonymous

Oh. Wait. This is about lefties not leftists...

Sorry.

But still a pretty good quote?

And yes, I be a lefty...

__________________
10th sig ~> "How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?" -- Aristotle

zz0011

I think I might be bothered if I knew you were flying the plane...

__________________
10th sig ~> "How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?" -- Aristotle

Carno

Hahaha well the only people in the plane are my instructor and I.

Pilots learning to fly always sit in the left seat of the aircraft, so regardless of their dominant hand, everyone flies with their left hand. The right hand is used to change radio freqs, manipulate the throttle, push annoying passengers out of the door at 15,000 ft, etc. So righties have to fly with their left hand too.

Flying in the right seat means that you will always control the yoke with your right hand, and do the various other things with your right. My roommate who is right handed says it's awkward for him to fly in the right seat since he is used to controlling the aircraft with his left hand. It's kinda like using a mouse on a computer I guess; you learnit on one hand, and it feels too awkward using your other hand, even if it's dominant..

__________________
http://how-to-spell-ridiculous.com/

doncalypso

Is this the meeting place for Left-Handed Anonymous?

I'm a lefty and I'm damned proud of it.

__________________
Doncalypso... the one and only Haitian Sensation

Coppertop

You're wondering why chalkboards haven't affected the evolution of written language?

MexicanOnABike

august 13th right?

zz0011

Oh. Sure. Right.

So YOU say.

Where's that Amtrack schedule...?

__________________
10th sig ~> "How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?" -- Aristotle

Suave

A lot of rifles are being made to accomidate your sad, sad people.

__________________
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

zz0011

At least we know how to spell "accommodate" and proper usage, "you sad" rather than "your sad."

Being in our right minds helps with that!

__________________
10th sig ~> "How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?" -- Aristotle

Suave

I'll give you accommodate, but I used excellent grammar in "your sad." They are your people, the ones to whom you belong, and who belong to you. :P

__________________
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

zz0011

Ah, but if they are not YOUR people, then wouldn't it be better grammar to say, "A lot of rifles are being made to accomidate you sad, sad people."

Unless of course you're left-handed too? And then boy your sentence is screwed...

But nice try!

__________________
10th sig ~> "How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?" -- Aristotle

Coppertop

Suave is not a leftie, you are: therefore lefties are your people. Right mind, indeed.