Flying Fingers

No, my fingers don't actually fly as they are attached to my body.  Rather, I am talking about my fingers flying over a keyboard.  I have our regular computer back and everything is working quite smoothly.  The virus or malware is gone and none of our data or saved information was compromised.  Perhaps the best part of getting the regular computer back is the speed with which I can type again.  I really don't know what is wrong with my other computer.  It could be the fact that it has a slower processor or is so packed full of programs and saved information that it can't function as quickly as it used to.  I guess one other option would be that I need to update certain programs in order to get the best functionality out of the computer.  Whatever the cause is, it was a real test trying to type the past two days when I couldn't see what I was typing instantaneously.  I am sure that most people reading this haven't even thought too much about typing without seeing the text appear on the screen right away.  Most of us are used to the quick response of our computers and our ability to quickly correct any mistakes that we make while typing.  The past two days made me infinitely more conscious of what keys I was actually hitting while typing.  I wasn't concerned with how it came out on the screen as I couldn't see and a few times actually closed my eyes while typing.  To be perfectly honest, I made fewer mistakes over the past two days than I am making right now.  The last two days reminded me of being back in high school in a class devoted entirely to learning how to type on a computer without looking at the keyboard.  For some reason, I loved the class and became one of the quickest typers in there.  I guess at the time I viewed it as a challenge, a game almost, in which my only opponent was myself.  I remember trying to beat my own "words per minute" score and get the highest possible.  Even being quite fast back then, I was never as quick as some people that I knew, one of them being my dad.  But anyway, the way I learned to type in that class has stayed with me for over a decade now and I can still fly along without glancing once at the keyboard. 

Typing for me is actually enjoyable most of the time as I don't really have to think about what keys I am hitting or look down every few seconds to re-align my fingers to hit the proper keys.  The only thing I have to do while typing is actually think about what I am writing.  Creatively speaking, sometimes it is harder to think and type on the computer than it is to think and write something by hand.  While typing on the computer, I often times exceed my thought process with my typing speed and have to go back and consider what exactly it is that I am typing.  Its either that or I have to pause mid-sentence to finish thinking before finishing typing.  I don't know if any of that made sense, but that's the way it works for me.  The obvious benefit of typing over writing by hand is that if you mess up, it is a lot easier to just hit the backspace button and quickly correct any errors.  Everyone knows that though.  Seeing as most people know the benefits of typing over writing, I will not go through a list comparing both.  I do, however, still enjoy writing creatively by hand as it forces me to put more thought into what is going down on the paper.  Knowing that I don't have the ability to correct something when using a pen and paper makes me take more time when writing.  The only problem with actually using a pen and paper for extended periods of time is that my hand gets a cramp from writing.  As most of my "writing" is now done on a computer, my hand is not used to holding a pen for long periods and executing the fine movements needed to write something on a piece of paper.  One day, I am sure, there will be no more pens (maybe still pencils), and paper will be a valuable commodity traded on various exchanges.  That is the way of the world, however, and there is nothing we can do to change it. 

In any case, my fingers will continue to fly over my keyboard, typing away till the thoughts disappear from my head and end up on the screen in front of me.  If you think about it, typing will probably be a thing of the past one day as voice recognition software improves and spreads in usage.  One day, maybe, we won't even have to talk into a device in order to write something, all we will have to do is think.  I am not entirely sure how that would work yet, but it would be cool to just stare at a screen, think of a sentence, and then see it appear.  They already have mind controlled games out there, not very many and not available to the masses, but they are out there.  I would be interested to see how they would come up with a device that distinctly takes what you want to say and translates it into the typed words on a computer.  That, by the way, is way above my pay grade and far beyond my brain's meager ability to understand technology.  Speaking of technology and writing, I saw a cool device on Facebook the other day that I would love to get.  There is a page on Facebook called "Interesting Engineering" that posts really cool, new, gadgets along with other awesome ideas.  The device I want to get is a pen that recognizes what you write on paper, records it on a USB built into the pen, and then transcribes it into typed words on a computer when you plug the pen in.  Now that is what I call awesome.  Anyway, I need to get my but in gear for the day, get my son out of bed, and get breakfast cranking.  So till tomorrow when I will not be writing about writing, enjoy the day.