The act of typing is something people take for granted once they’ve learned to do it. Most people don’t have to think about where each key is when they type. The thought process isn’t “oh, there’s the T, and then the A is over there, oh wait, the B is a stretch down to the bottom.”

The very idea that our fingers can keep up with our mind without our telling the fingers specifically what to do is amazing. That I can write a blog post, a poem, a short story or a novel without ever once telling my fingers which key they need to hit next, brilliant.

For me, I only have to think a word for it to show up on the screen in front of me. Sure, sometimes I have to think slower, because I am not a fast typist yet, but it’s better than writing things out on paper, since my mind always wants to jump ahead to what’s next, and not focus on what I’m writing here and now.

It seems to me, though, that typing is being taken for granted. People just assume that everyone else knows how to do it. When our parents were in school, typing was a required course to graduate high school. My sister graduated knowing how to type with two fingers. Typing was never a required class for us, and if I hadn’t taken an exploratory elective class when I was in the seventh grade—typing was one of three subjects we learned that year—I wouldn’t have learned how to type until college, when a typing
class was required for a business degree.

In fact, I don’t think I really learned how to type until I was 19 or so, when I took the college class. It was the first time I had used a computer program to learn how to type; previous classes were typewriter and lesson books. It was hard to learn how to type without looking at my hands, a habit I had picked up when I started using the computer at 14, because I didn’t know where the keys were.

I know I frustrated my typing teacher, because at the same time I was in the typing class, I was taking a web programing class. Typing instructors teach you to let yourself make mistakes. Your WPM is much higher if you don’t go back and fix things, because accuracy doesn’t count on a computer like it did on a typewriter. You can always go back and fix things at the beginning of a document on a computer, where you couldn’t fix anything but the row you were on on a typewriter.

I can’t no fix my mistakes as I go along. I hate seeing misspelled words when I know how to spell them. But even more so, if I made a mistake while typing out code and I saw it, if I didn’t fix it write away I would never see the mistake again. I sacrificed my WPM count to ensure that I wouldn’t make stupid code mistakes based on my lack of skills at typing. I explained this to my teacher, but I’m not sure if she ever got it.

Even though I don’t do much coding now, the fix-it-as-you-go approach is the only one I have. The backspace key and I are fairly good friends, seeing as how I probably use it more than any other key on my keyboard.

I am so grateful that I know how to type. I can’t imagine going back to the days before I knew how to do it. While I still struggle with my number keys (I don’t think I ever finished those lessons), I hardly ever think about my typing at all. I just do it, and that’s the way it should be.

Just imagine how different your computer experience would be if you couldn’t type. That’s why typing is so amazing.

—”I Want to Save You,” Leaving Through the Window: Something Corporate

My mind is blissfully blank, although I do wish there was something that I felt the pressing need to write about. As it is, I feel like I’m wasting everyone’s time. Perhaps I should be telling you to all run along and play nicely until my mind comes back?

No, I didn’t think that would work, either. I suppose with the semester being over, I can take the energy that I was pouring into my papers, and instead work on in-depth, hard-hitting blog posts. But, that’s not really going to happen either. But, I will finally stop putting off all those topics that I’ve been wanting to write about, but have been too lazy to actually write about them.

I could jot down a list, but then people might expect me to follow it, and those who know me know by now that that’ll never work out. I always set out with big ideas, and they get whittled down to the one easy thing that I couldn’t get rid of. Because I’m lazy and all that.

I also realize that this post is almost like a recap of yesterday, but I need to work through this funk to get to the good stuff. Not that I’m sure there is good stuff. But, I’m sure it can’t all be bad.

I’m going to quit while I’m ahead. I’ll spend the rest of the evening knitting, and then perhaps I’ll have something worthwhile to write about tomorrow. Perhaps. But I’m not making any guarantees.

In my 302 class (English 1C), I have to write a 6-7 page paper on how education (high school, college) is depicted in film, and how that differs from reality. To help me, what I really need is to have numerous people fill out a small survey.

The films I am using for my paper are 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (if I can rent it somewhere). However, you don’t have to have seen these movies to answer these questions, so please, if you’re attending college, have attended college, or are thinking about attending college sometime before you die, please take pity on me and answer my questions!

Please please pretty pretty please? With a cherry on top?

Alright. Thanks. I owe you one. And if you have a questionnaire , I am so there to fill it out for you.

1. Before you entered college / high school, which movie (can be any one you’ve ever seen) did you most associate with how college / high school would be once you arrived?
2. Why?
3. Were you disappointed if your ideal didn’t match up with the reality of college / high school?
4. Were there any parts of “film life” that matched up with real life?
5. Anything else you’d like to add?

To answer the questions, don’t bother rewriting the questions (I know it sounds lame to actually have to state that, but I would do it, so I don’t doubt others would too). Either leave your responses in the comments, or drop me a line at lisa@unsympathetic.net.

If I use your responses, I’ll email you and let you know, because I will need a little bit of info to fill out my “Works Cited.” And as always, I’ll be posting the essay as soon as it’s done, so anyone can read it.

Thank you so much for your help!

If it’s not so obvious, I thought I’d let you in on a little secret—I usually future-publish my posts. Oh, not too extended into the future. If I went on vacation, I wouldn’t write posts to be published in the interim. Usually, I write the posts the night before. I’ll spend an hour or two, even on the short posts, because I write in between homework assignments, and while I’m surfing the internet.

I hope you don’t think I’m a cheat because of this. I just remember looking at my post after I had finished writing it, and thought to myself, this can wait until tomorrow. Especially since I finish my posts after 10pm or so, and I’m sure I don’t have a majority of my readers drop by after then.

Also, it turned out to be handy, because even though I use Ecto, I have to go in and hand-edit all of the posts in the wp-post panel, to tag them correctly. It is my fondest wish that Ecto and WordPress will play friendly one day, but then it’d have to be WP-Ecto, because there are features involved that I know would involve a core hack of everyone involved.

This delayed posting, though, can get me into trouble sometimes. When I write about something that happened today, I have to stop and remind myself —no, that’ll be yesterday tomorrow. That’s why there’s a lot of “yesterday, such and such happened, and it reminded me—” I try to avoid that to keep from becoming repetitive, but it’s a very slippery slope I know I’ll fall down one day.

The best thing about delayed posting, though? The part where I get to really think about what I’m going to post about. Nearly nothing I write about is dependent on the day I post it. If I write about a math class that happened today, I could just as easily tell you it happened last week. Being able to take my time leads to much better posts. I’m not rushed to get something up in the morning, and when I think about something I want to write about, I know I don’t have to immediately get to it. If it’s still rattling around in my brain a day, a week, or even a year from now, I know it’s something that I really want to write about.

Although, there is something to be said for-on-the-spot blogging. This post is nothing near what I wanted to write about last night, or what seemed like a good topic when I got of the train this morning. So, now I have this diatribe explaining my process, and two more ideas to round out the week, along with half-baked ideas that are whining for me to write them from Ecto.

Oh, and the reason I didn’t have time to write last night was because I had to do four math assignments—which took me three hours—and by the time I was done, my hand was cramping horribly. Also, I had to get up early to finish copying the last two assignments out of my note book (why I thought the notebook was the way to go, I have no idea), so I just went to bed at 10:30. I know, lame of me.

—”London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines,” A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out: Panic! At the Disco

Like most everyone else, probably not.

I went to San Diego this last weekend for a Fall Out Boy concert (what a surprise!), and I am so tired. It was fun, but long. I didn’t get home until 1am, and I had to get up at 6:30 for school. After a good, long nights sleep, I should be good.

I know you’re all dying to hear about the trip, and let me tell you… podcast. There is no way I could write about this, so if you’re at all interested in what went down, you’ll just have to download and listen. It will definitely be up by Friday, I think. And K took a shit load of photos at the concert, so I should have a few good ones to post by the end of the week as well.

And I wanted to let everyone know that I think I’m losing my mind. I’d been waiting a month to tell You this story that just had to be told, and when I started telling it to him on Sunday night, I was halfway through before he finally interrupted me (which he never does) to tell me that I had already told him. And I don’t even remember the conversation the first time around!

So, that’s it. Just playing catch-up on sleep and school work. Perhaps a real post tomorrow, when I can finally think without getting a headache.

—”Wasting Time,” Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid: Collective Soul

You’re thinking that I’m just another brash up-start, trying to make it big in the blogging world. Well, you’d only be half right. I’ve been blogging for what seems like forever. But the last two years, I’ve been blogging over at Daria Unplugged, and well, it just didn’t fit me anymore.

Not the domain name, not the style of blogging, not anything. I’ve made a conscious decision to move to a new domain without the baggage of the old posts. That’s not to say that they won’t be around. I don’t plan on letting Daria Unplugged go anywhere until I figure out where to store it for long-term access.

So, while I’ll still write about knitting, it won’t be all about the knitting. The lack of a digital camera has really made me think hard about what I wanted to write about, and the things I’ve been avoiding writing about.

So, it’ll be different around here. And I’ll probably piss of some people. Maybe everyone. But, that’s okay. I really am unsympathetic.

Update (12/23/08): Obviously this is still the first blog post, but I removed the link to the old domain name, as I lost it ages ago. It seemed silly to still link there.