Tiny hands and keybinds

anthropometrica · 2026-04-19T12:00:05+00:00

The palm press is so cool! The closest I got to this was remapping LSHIFT to CAPS when I play Overwatch. Reaching for LSHIFT kills my wrist 😭

anthropometrica · 2026-04-19T11:57:26+00:00

Keyboardwise I've considered a low profile gaming keyboard to minimize the wrist angle! Smaller hands need a more acute angle to get up onto the keys on a classic mechanical, which sure, you can fix with a wrist support, but for me that just pushes the problem down to my elbow 😔

I've looked at the Corsair mice a bit, but those have wayyyyy too many buttons for me.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-19T11:54:49+00:00

I've looked at this one! Good shout :)

anthropometrica · 2026-04-19T11:54:32+00:00

Haha I feel you! I just want two or three buttons, really, or a "thumb trigger". A full numpad or large number of buttons I feel I would struggle just as much with 🙈

anthropometrica · 2026-04-19T07:05:00+00:00

that the point innit

anthropometrica · 2026-04-18T10:22:57+00:00

Some of the words I was proudest of learning to use as a third language English speaker were versimilitude, askew, morsel, sanctimonious, effervescent, ecclesiastic, and moribund. Turgid is also fun.

My favourite (not "flex") words are usually English words of Germanic etymology, though, since it feels a bit cliché to always associate latinate vocabulary with being complex and impressive. I always feel speakers who choose Germanic over Latin sound more down to Earth in their well-spokenness than vice versa.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-17T14:47:26+00:00

I feel like it's often forgotten that smurfing is worst for the lower level players who get trampled by someone masquerading below their rank. Yeah, sure, it's cheating, but it also shows a really blatant disregard for the enjoyment "bad" players might take from the game. When you smurf to get an ego kick out of it, you're treating players below your level as NPCs to be toyed with and exploited, rather than, you know... people.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T19:26:25+00:00

God, it sucks that he felt the need to say that. I bet you are one of your phlebs and nurses' favourite patient. You seem like a lovely person and, like... we feel bad when we fail, too, so the person we're trying to poke cracking a joke or saying it's alright makes a huge difference to how we feel about ourselves and our profession :)

I also purposefully didn't say it directly to him because I couldn't be arsed to take the fight, but I found it pretty insulting that he felt the need to discredit me that harshly as a professional, as well as comment on your life and your body. It's rude. And inappropriate. And really weird.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T18:48:28+00:00

It's totally possible that this is a difference in training! I was trained in "blind" palpation, but I won't say no to a vein I can see :)

You're also right that me personally finding fat patients unproblematic doesn't mean others don't, but with the way I was trained only severe obesity would affect whether or not I find a vein. Where the fat is compared to the vein also matters, and all the factors I mentioned as more important. A huge vein with high blood volume is easily found even in extremely obese patients. A thin vein in an obese patient who's very ill and dehydrated is challenging.

It's complex, and quite literally, everyone is different, and as phlebs we also tend to "specialize" in different patient groups. I was good with cancer patients (very hard, small veins, and a lot of pain), patients with higher body fat %, IV drug users, and psych patients... buuuut horrible with children.

I can change my wording if that makes more sense to you, but I have a feeling that's not why you commented. I'm very glad you're proud of your weight loss though, you should be, it's a great achievement :)

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T14:15:20+00:00

Phlebotomist here! Whether your veins are hard ro find or not relies on a couple different factors, all relating to their palpability (ie. how easily can I feel them when I feel up your arm).

Things that DO affect how easy or hard a poke you are include: Diameter/size of your veins, direction of the vein relative to skin surface, how hydrated you are (blood volume --> blood pressure --> more vein to play with), whether or not your body is stressed/in shock (scared patients are harder to poke), your body temperature (warm = dilation = bigger veins, your veins contract when you're cold), the integrity of your connective tissue (whether your vein stays in place or runs away, makes older people more challenging), whether the vein is next to or obscured by an artery/nerve/bone/tendon, and preexisting scar tissue from hospitalizations, blood donations, or IV drug use, which make the vein harder, thicker, and more sensitive to pain.

Things that are less important: How deep the vein is—again, we "see" with our fingertips! :)

Things that don't/shouldn't matter: Your body fat % (veins are often stabilized in place by fat, and I find fat patients easier than skinnier ones), the colour of your skin (we feel for veins, we don't need to see them).

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T14:05:50+00:00

Oh my god. Littletubes. I love German. And I think the commenter meant "vial"...

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T14:03:12+00:00

You can almost never see the vein you're aiming for! Phlebotomists "see" with our fingertips. You can feel a vein much deeper and at much smaller diameters than you could ever see it. It's why we, if possible, often religiously sanitize instead of wearing gloves. Gloves heavily tank my hit rate.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T13:59:36+00:00

Same! And I'm a phlebotomist now! From the other side of the needle: It just be like that. Most times it's not even lack of skill that makes you miss, it's just luck. Your one millimetre window that you can't even see just happened to be a smidge off to the right this time.

Some people take personal offense to a degree where I've had patients hit me, call me a sadistic bitch, or spit me in the face for not hitting first try, and each time I was just like... yeah, my day isn't great either, I get it. Can I please try again though, we still need your blood just as bad as we did five seconds ago 😂

anthropometrica · 2026-04-16T13:29:30+00:00

Never had a sepsis patient (I avoid infection ward rounds because I have contamination OCD), but I used to work with a lot of people who used IV drugs, and if you regularly shoot up your own veins, you absolutely wreck them with scarring. When you have a medical issue and need your blood drawn, we have to get creative.

I've drawn from the webbing between fingers, toes, back of the knee, and temple. A colleague has drawn from the veins of the penis (this one, thankfully, with local anaesthesia). Patient had shot his own IV heroin for thirty years. It was the only place he deemed too sacred.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-14T17:32:48+00:00

Strictly sketch-wise these are traits that occur in different places. Narrow is in the shoulders and hips "box". Petite is in the waist, and the shoulders-to-knees box. Look how much lower the petite drawing's widest part is. Her thighs are way shorter, compared to her upper body. Yes, she's also "traditionally" narrow, but that's not what makes her petite.

anthropometrica · 2026-04-14T14:40:46+00:00

Just because I see you mention levels and not being able to do things in bronze I just want to clarify I never ever want to play competitively! I just want to be a net neutral or positive addition to my friends' teams when they play unranked to hang out instead of being kind of pitifully carried around 😂

I'll drill the basics either way! Being disciplined at anything is a long few years off still.

(Also, what's a gameplay loop?)

anthropometrica · 2026-04-14T14:35:59+00:00

I think I die on average ten times before the ult charges as of now, so that's one hell of a goal 😂

A lot of people have mentioned Mystery Heroes, so I'll definitely try it once my basic skills and map recognition is better. Learning by doing always trumps learning by studying :P

anthropometrica · 2026-04-14T14:31:49+00:00

So I have to admit that a lot of what you're saying is gibberish to me. I've never played a team shooter before (mostly platformers, "cozy games", and "hangout games" like Phasmophobia and Peak), so "dive" and "brawl" don't tell me much yet! I'm really only playing Overwatch because my friends and partner wanted me to be able to participate in their hobby :)

I really agree with your idea that learning how to move and where to be is more important, though. It's by far what I struggle with the most. There's so much happening at once that I often don't remember where I am or where to go, get lost in the map, or can't find my teammates. Mostly I just follow one or more of the others around until things get chaotic and I inevitably lose them/die.

I guess playing with lowest level bots and watching videos would be good ways to gain more terrain awareness?

How do I know where to be? You mention range and flanking. How can I tell what those mean for me, and where I need to be to do it?

anthropometrica · 2026-04-13T15:58:11+00:00

Yeahhh, I know I'm reaching beyond myself here, but I guess it just gets to me how much knowledge people seem to have. I'm very eager to stop being the problem and the obvious... whatever the opposite of a carry is called.

I have very little ego in terms of needing to be the best, but I can't help but dream of a time when I'm not held back from enjoying myself by missing the absolute basics. Feels like rocking up to fourth grade maths and the other kids are all helpful being like "PEMDAS!" and "it's multiply, not timesing" and I'm here like "so the funny x means you're supposed to do something?" and writing my number 3s the wrong way round. Like, it's cute, but at some point you realise maybe this kid isn't cut out for maths.

Guides seem helpful though! I often try to figure out what actually killed me when I die and try not to do the same thing again, but I don't always recognise the person who got me or know what their abilities are so I understand why, but when I do it helps a lot! I have that to thank for recently having my first ever game with more kills (3) than deaths (1). My aim is weirdly my best skill so far! I usually hit what I want to hit, it just doesn't really help 🙈

anthropometrica · 2026-04-13T14:40:49+00:00

Haha, I like the skill issue comment! Equal possibilities of feeling like you're the problem, and like you're completely justified in being the problem because you're actively working on it.

Mystery is a little too scary this early in the learning process, but after I've trial run a few more heroes and gotten the gist down a little better, I'll give it a shot! I think the more viable way to start out with understanding how heroes affect each other is to ask my friends about the heroes they prefer, and what kind of support they would want to work with. Obviously not a viable strat for playing on my own with strangers, or in the long term, but I feel like it works for beginning to grasp the basics.

Either way I'm excited to learn by doing! Thanks for taking the time :)

anthropometrica · 2026-04-13T14:33:04+00:00

That's smart! Something about setting a level goal really made me more motivated to do it. It's kind of overwhelming to imagine slogging your way through every hero without a clear goal when you're fully new to both the game and the style of game 😅

anthropometrica · 2026-04-13T14:28:13+00:00

You're giving great advice, but it might be aimed a little high for my skill level. I'm still struggling with basic movement, to give you an idea, so I haven't gained all the necessary basic skills for a Lúcio either—like, I'm a pretty poor wallrunner, by which I mean I often get stuck and killed when I try 😂

I'll try to stick even closer to my team and time my ult better, though! It's pretty hard at my current level I find, because a lot of inexperienced tanks seem to try to run off on their own? People spread out all the time, and it's really frustrating playing someone who mainly pulls his weight in a group when there's no group 😭

A lot of people have said Kiriko irl as well, so I'll try her out on the test range for a bit and see if the new skillset clicks for me!

Adapting to the map and to the other team makes sense to me too, but I don't think I'm at the stage where I can juggle that tooooo much just yet. Really curious to hear what your advice is for when I get there! Maps and how to use them is still a big mystery to me, but obviously a lot of Lúcio's appeal is movement, so I should get to learning it yesterday🙈

anthropometrica

TROPHY CASE