↓
 

My keyboard is unheathy

Head Rambles Posted on by

I know how to spell [usually].

I know how to type, though I'm not a touch typist.  I can fly around the keyboard provided I can see the keys.

Why the fuck can't I combine the two?

Yes – the old Keyboard Dyslexia is getting worse.

Somehow a word form in my mind, and the spelling of that word is intuitive, but when I try typing that word something else entirely appears on the screen.  Sometimes it's transpositioning of letters [when I typed "something" above, it appeared as "smoething"].  Sometimes I go to type a word and a completely different word appears.  I go to type "the" and "a" appears on the screen.  It's not a case of typing too fast or anything like that – it just happens.

Lately the Dyslexia has taken a new turn.  It has started omitting letters.  It's not a case of stuck keys or breadcrumbs under ["unter"???] the keyboard, as the letters can be quite random.  In a lot of cases it's the letter "l" so instead of typing "In a lot of cases it's the letter", I get "In a ot of cases it's the etter" which frankly ["franly"? Now the fucking "k" is at it!] makes my musings somewhat more unintelligible than usual.

I have started typing a lot slower and am being very deliberate with the keys I press.  That isn't having much success as in revenge it is doubling up on letters, so instead of "letters" I get "lletters", which sort of proves that the particular key isn't being under sensitive, or maybe that it is being latently over sensitive.

My scribbling has now slowed to a crawl.  Instead of flying across the keys I am picking away, one finger at a time, and then spending a considerable period going back over each sentence clearing out all the errors.  Damn those squiggly red lines!

I used to publish my musings around [“are”?] one in the afternoon.  I don't know why as I never thought of myself having a deadline – it just happened that way.  But now I'm publishing later and later because of all the damned editing.

Maybe I need a new laptop?

Or even a new aptop?

 

 

Comments

My keyboard is unheathy — 22 Comments

  2. It's a common phenomenon, Grandad. Sometimes I intend to type a specific word and a different one appears. EG, I might intend to type the word 'they' but the word 'and' appears. I don't know why it happens either.

    • Thank God  for that.  I did write about "keyboard dyslexia" [as I called it] before and was surprised at the searches that used the term.

  3. Yes, I get the same problem sometimes, as Junican illustrates. My problem is that I'm basically a two finger typist, and although I know where the keys are and can type at a sort of reasonable speed (or so it appears to me), my mind is always way ahead of my fingers, and that's where the errors creep in.

    I envy people who can touch type. My wife is incredibly fast, and never has to look at the keyboard.

    And not only can she touch type in her native language (Thai) which has 44 letters plus accents and uses all the number keys at the top as letters (she always uses the key block on the right of the keyboard for numbers – she doesn't have to look at that, either) , but can type just as fast in English. I feel like a particularly dim three year old when we're both sitting here next to each other writing stuff on our computers. Talk about feeling inadequate! Oh well, I'm a carpenter, not an office wallah, and she's an accountant. That's my excuse, anyway! And she does have to ask me about spelling, grammar and punctuation when she's writing (typing) in English, which sooths my bruised ego somewhat.

    • My problem, and therefore my excuse is that when I really started typing in earnest it was writing code.  Anyone who has written code will know that it's not straightforward abc but more "special" characters. 

      when I was in France a few years ago I found mysef trying to cope with a French keyboard layout.  Talk about one finger pecking!  It was a nightmare.

  4. I'd suggest a new keyboard – they cost from pennies to a fortune. I learned to type on a sand-filled manual typewriter in a desert which means I tend to beat keyboards to death with my fingers. Which is why I use external keyboards most of the time. I really like IBM Model M keyboards as they will take being hammered, filled with ash and then hammered some more. Under that regime they last for around twenty years, but everyone within fifty feet will know you are typing.

    • Welcome Joe!  I have a spare USB keyboard [I use it on a laptop where the keyboard is dead] but the same problem applies to that.  The fault apparently lies somewhere between the keyboard and the chair.  They keyboard on this machine is lovely – quiet, positive and gentle.  I would rather replace it than use an external jobby. 

  7. I learned to type on a manual office typewriter in an intensive course several decades ago, and was satisfied with the effectiveness of the course and the benefits the skill of typing brought to me over the years. Every second level school student should have learned how to type, how to cook a pot stew, how to swim and how to drive a tractor or car by the time they sit for the Leaving Certificate. Like Grandad I find that as I get older I tend to make tspelling mitstakes and punctuation oversights when typing blog comments and longer documents. I put it down to age-related keyboard dyslexia, not dwindling intelligence and physical reflexes. Nothing to get agitated about.

    • Couldn't agree more.  They taught me a ton of useless stuff and none of the important stuff.

      I'm glad [glan?] to hear I'm not the ony one though.

    • Speech to text would be grand but it's one of the tiny areas where Linux falls down.  I have tried a couple of packages but they're more trouble that they're worth.  Vlog?  Feck off!  Blog is a bad enough word.

  10. I was taught to type on a manual typewriter which was hidden under a massive board of wood. We had to look at a giant keyboard on the wall as the teacher recited a,s,d,f, semicolon, l,k,j RETURN!!!!!!!! 25 or 30 girls all doing that at the same time. hehe

Hosted by Curratech Blog Hosting
↑