2006-08-02 - 9:58 p.m.
I don't think of myself as a particularly mean typist, but I am now on my third (and definitely the best) keyboard since I got this computer. My just-previous one was a "Belkin" and a pretty-cheap product, all-told. I was trying to duplicate my original standard Microsoft PC keyboard, on which the "B" key and maybe a couple of others stopped working reliably, but Office Depot didn't have anything like it except for that Belkin. All they had were these horrible "ergonomic" keyboards which look like they were broken in half and then bent open. That MAY be better for the hand, I don't know, but I've been typing since the summer prior to sixth grade (WAY before there even WAS such a thing as a computer keyboard) and I'm not about to change the position of my hands and fingers now. And if I don't have carpal tunnel by now, I doubt I ever will, since keyboards have been my constant friend and companion for 47 years.
But the Belkin pretty much bit the dust with not only keys that wouldn't work reliably, but keys that stuck, most detrimentally the backspace key, that instead of deleting a missed letter or two, would destroy whole sentences and paragraphs before it would stop.
I lived with this disability for too long, but I didn't want to repeat the same Office Depot mistake. But a thorough search of the keyboards offered on Amazon.com, all of which were reviewed, bore no fruit. The keyboards they offered were either the ergonomic kind, or huge misshapen monstrosities (more oval than rectangular) with built-in wrist-rests that I not only didn't want or need, they wouldn't fit where I wanted them to on the desk. Oh, Amazon.com offered some "plainer", "rectangularer", "non-ergonometric" keyboards that were more my speed, but the reviewers all pretty much agreed that they were awful--key-stick city right away, or else were less-wide-than-standard keyboards (even smaller than laptop keyboards), which, to me, were even a greater sin than the ergonomics.
So I dealt with the sticking backspace key.
However, yesterday I was in the vicinity of Office Depot and needed to get some cardboard filing boxes (as I am going through a major house-cleaning-up) and figured they were as good of a store as any to go to for that purpose. Well, while there, I happened to go past the keyboard section and decided to take a look. Even more awful than before--this time the ergonomic keyboards were built up like a pair of pyramids. They're getting stranger and stranger and I am, well, getting more and more conservative the more and more they try to change everything. Oh, and another thing, it seemed that most of these keyboards required Microsoft XP. What's up with that? It's not enough that a person can no longer buy a cassette deck, a CD deck, or a VCR (okay, one or two cassette decks at Circuit City, but no desired features, such as microphone jacks; the CD players are all CD-changers, and the VCRs are double DVD-VCR players only when I already HAVE three DVD players--my multi-standard player, a DVD-changer, and my I-Book laptop; so what about my 6,000 movie titles on videotape, or hundreds and hundreds of record albums, CDs, cassettes, and reel-to-reel tapes?), and so I am having to take my old dinosaurs to the repair shop when at this point I'd be perfectly happy to just buy new ones if they only SOLD them. But not even to be able to buy a standard computer keyboard is pretty bad.
However, after looking at, studying, and then rejecting every keyboard they had in that area, I was lucky enough to stumble on the PERFECT keyboard a couple of aisles over in an entirely alien section. Don't ask me why they put them there, but at this point I don't care WHERE they put them, I'm just thankful they had them at all.
This is a Hewlett-Packard keyboard, rectangular, no wrist-rests, no broken in half and crooked and pyramidal, just exactly what a keyboard should be, and also worked on Windows 98 all the way up to XP. Not only that, but it has a ton of extra features that I really don't need, but as it was the absolute lowest-priced keyboard in the store, I'm happy to have these little time-saving gimmicks. With just a push of a button I can open up Word or Excel, or a list of my documetns, or my e-mail, or even the calculator. All the normal Internet control functions are also available at the poke of a button, such as Favorites or Refresh or Search or Backwards and Forwards. This is actually the HP "Media Player" keyboard, so buttons turn on my media player and then I can skip through tracks or pause or stop, etc. and there is even a volume knob and a mute button. Finally, there are twelve function buttons that do various software steps such as new document or cutting and pasting functions or saving or sending or instantly turning on the speller. The button that turns these functions on (toggles on and off from regular F keys) also turns on gorgeous back-lighting behind the software keys in my favorite blue color. The whole keyboard is beautiful, silver and black, and types very quickly and easily. What a winner! HP scores again!
Again, simple, every-day pleasures are what are making me happy these days. I'm on my fifth day of sunbathing via floating on my air mattress on the apartment's swimming pool and even snorkeling in Fiji could hardly be as delicious. The bright blue water is the perfect temperature and I am getting noticeably darker. This just wouldn't have worked if I had gone to some beach resort, because it wouldn't have been worth the airfare and hotel charges for less than an hour a day. Here I can have the sun and the water and then accomplish something else.
I'm being very clever with my clean-up, learning how to be efficient, getting rid of the killer clutter. It's still very much of a zen experience.
I'm also being very self-indulgent with reading, getting LOTS done on that score. Strangely enough, it's turning into a truly wonderful vacation.
I'm also "dreaming" a lot, and by that I mean "getting in touch with true dreams", not sleep-type dreaming (although that is happening, too). But I am somehow feeling empowered...that I really can have anything I want, but I have to know WHAT they are, first. I have to keep remembering that it is an ABUNDANT universe, infinitely so, and the limitations we feel are mostly self-erected. There are miracles and surprises all around, and usually the answers are right under our nose.
Also, good people are working behind the scenes, coming up with amazing solutions to long-held problems. For example, look at this electric sports car. Now, there are lots of things about this that bug me, but those are more my problem than anybody else's. There are some problems here, such as just WHAT will this thing cost? One news report I read seemed to think $80,000, but the car's website indicates a $100,000 deposit for those who want to reserve one, and otherwise, they seem to be very "if you have to ask, then you can't afford it" about it. And this is for a car that you couldn't just get into and drive from L.A. to San Francisco or Las Vegas in one sitting, because after 250 miles, you'd have to stop and recharge overnight. But this is better than a local-commuter car. It's probably a very cool toy for the person who would otherwise buy a Ferrarri, maybe.
Still, what amazes me is that seemingly from out of nowhere some people came up with this amazing high performance electric car. I mean, what ELSE is waiting in the wings to entice us?
I'll tell you what I am waiting for, something that I read about in the mid-80s and then stopped hearing anything about. It probably died, I don't know, but maybe not. Some automobile engineers working in Davis, California were designing a car that was like a Harrier Jet. Remember the DeLorian in "Back to the Future," where the car flew, the wheels became jet engines that could be turned down so that the car could lift straight up, and then pointed backward so that the car could soar through the air? "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!" Like that (except without the time-travelling feature!). And that's really where we need to go, I think, be freed of the chains of the road altogether, and yet not stuck with having to go to just airports, etc. Now for a vehicle like THAT, I'd spend the money. And the thing is, somebody really WAS trying to make one for real. Not impossible.
So that's me, running the gamut, thinking of all the possibilities. And meanwhile, being genuinely happy with a not-too-fancy computer keyboard and soaking up the Sun's rays floating on an air mattress in my apartment's swimming pool.
�
 |
 |
�
