Here is an interesting fact you didn’t need to know that I learned in physiology: the placement of letters on our keyboards was actually created to slow typing speeds down back when typewriters used to get jammed up. See, typewriters have arms that reach up and smack the letter onto the page: if you get typing too fast, these arms will catch on one another and jam up the typewriter. So, the layout you are currently using was created to trip people up and get them to type more slowly. You know how they sold this new key layout? Look at the top row of keys on your “modern” computer keyboard. What’s the longest word you can spell? Typewriter. Coincidence? Nope. Mostly likely there to help salesmen sell the new typewriter key layout.
Yet, here we are today, typing on keyboards designed to make us type slower. Yes, there are alternatives, such as the Dvorak layout, but we’ll never use ‘em.
Things have been crazy moving Ryan and Mykala into their new apartment. Trips to Target, Ikea, Saver’s, have all been successful in furnishing their new digs. My first trip to Ikea was more overwhelming than I thought it would be, but I am particularly impressed with some of their items (100% virgin wool area rugs, for one). In the moving process, I’ve learned about steam cleaning (specifically, lime deposits from dried hard water are REALLYREALLYHARD and clog things up REALLYBADLY), old toilets, lead dust, water filtering, utilities, security, and hanging things on old walls. To that final point:
You know that part in the Matrix (the first movie … the best movie), where the whole crew is trying to escape a building by moving down the inside of a wall? That is what I suspect these apartment walls are made out of. That is, a split lath back (a wood lattice) covered by plaster (gypsum and horsehair, generally). This means, for lighter applications, the entire wall is a stud. However, because plaster repair is rather a bit more complicated than simple gysum board spackling, I do hope the landperson doesn’t mind us mounting things on the wall and leaving them there. Ooh! Which reminds me, I bought a house-warming present for the … apartment (can we call it a house and apartment?). It’s from Target: an above-the-toilet-shelf curvy towel miscellaneous bathroom item holding chromed hopefully won’t rust shelving unit!
What I’m getting at, is, beginning to live in the real world outside of sheltered college means concerning yourself with every aspect of life: paying for electricity, stopping up leaks, keeping things up to code, painted, and ensuring your home is secure. It’s amazing how many of these things I intellectually acknowledged as “taken care of” here in the dorms, but never realized how important they are when taking a step off campus.
The move must be a great feeling of liberation and a sometime-stressful mostly-enjoyable learning experience. Mykala and Markoe, I’ll help you guys out with everything I can, and I wish you the very best in your first real-world abode.
Best FTP Server - What’s the nice thing about running an FTP server on your computer? You can access your files anywhere you are online. Great for last minute projects.
Break Free TShirt - What a great image: a line of lemming men walking, but then a man trailing star dust rising above them with the words “Break Free.” If only it wasn’t $30.
Handheld Ninetendo 64 - This is amazing - Ben Heck’s hobby is to squeeze full size consoles into handheld devices. His completed designs are neat, tidy, and professional.
CSS3 Multi Column - Holy crap. I will definitely definitely have to give this a try - multiple column layouts (they kind you see in a newspaper) are all too awesome and all to rare.
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse - About 4 years ago, in the midst of my troubled adolescence, my Dad recommended I read this book. I checked it out from the library, and got it to my desk. I never read it. I think I should.
