Click-Clack, Click-Clack, Click-Crap…

I was typing away last night, listening to my keys make their strange, slightly irritating noises when one of my keys popped off.  It isn’t really an important key… It’s the + on my numerical pad.

However, it has me thinking.  I use a laptop, daily.  I probably put 20,000 words a day if you include figuring my checkbook, writing blog posts, Facebook, my novels, any correspondence (lots of emails pass through my way everyday), and any “extras” that I have forgotten (and for the record, my checkbook is QuickBooks, so it isn’t just adding and subtracting).

In the 7 years that I had my Dell laptop, I had to replace the keyboard 12 times.  I’ve had my Asus for 1 year and 2 months and my first key has now come off.  I attempted to stick it back on, but no joy.

I used to think it was my Dell.  Now, I’m wondering if it’s all the stress I put on the keys.  I type fast and hard.  On a typing test where I have to read and copy the text shown to me, I type 74 words per minute.  On a creative typing test, ie: the words just come from my brain, I type just over 101 words per minute… on average.

My laptop mouse usually gets worn pretty quick as well.  As does the areas where my wrists rest on the case.  So, I’m beginning to think it might be time to get a wireless keyboard and mouse.  The problem with that is I prefer to write in a recliner or on a couch as opposed to a desk or a table.  Would a wireless mouse and keyboard work for me?  I’ve never used one on a laptop.  I know others that have, but I haven’t.  So, I’m a little unsure about the setup and how well it would work for me.

Ok, that was my miscellaneous thought of the day…

Frenzy & Release

I am unable to work on the home computer, there is nowhere to put my manuscript to work from…

So I sit in frenzied anticipation, desperately yearning for Thursday afternoon. By then, my computer will be repaired and I will have the sweet release of being able to work again.

I attempted a bit of writing. No joy. I find it tedious to sit in the creaky office chair and stare at the back of the desk. Nothing like my studio with the ability to stare out a window when I need a moment to think. And the chair is terribly uncomfortable compared to my couch.

Instead, I read a book yesterday. It was quite good. I read it cover to cover in the usual amount of time… I had forgotten how quickly I can read a book. And it had been a while since I found one I didn’t want to put down. I enjoyed that.

Tonight I have darts. It will be the highlight of my day… Another form of release from the madness of needing to write and having it unfilled.

Until then… I will try to find another book to get lost in and catch up on Midsomer Murderer episodes…

The New Laptop

Well, my replacement laptop is here.  It’s an Asus and I don’t think we should hold that against it immediately.  It has a year warranty, we’ll see how it does in that year.

There are a few things that I have instantly noticed were different though.  Besides running Windows 7, I mean.  I’m an XP girl.  Have been using XP since it came out, Windows 7 is going to take some getting used to… but that is the easier of the tasks.

The first real difference, with serious impact on my life, is the keyboard.  It is a laptop with 101 keys.  Meaning it has a number pad off to the side.  I spent 7 years typing on the exact same Dell keyboard.  It did not have 101 keys.  There was no number pad.  These keys are closer together than my old one.  The space between them almost nonexistent   I find myself hitting wrong keys or swiping my fingers across keys unexpectedly.

Second, the mouse is not centered.  That doesn’t sound like it should have any impact on it.  The mouse is slightly to the left as I look at it.  Not a big deal, right?  It shouldn’t be.  But as I type, I find my wrist occasionally swipes along the mouse, moving where I am typing, usually in the middle of a word.  Before I know it, I’m six lines up in the text and suddenly inserting part of a word in the middle of another word.  

And the most interesting change that shouldn’t have any impact at all, but does is that the mouse is textured.  My Dell laptop mouse was smooth with defined edges.  I always knew where it was in relation to my wrist.  This one… not so much.  The wrist area is textured, the mouse is textured, there is a small non-textured line that encircles the mouse, but it is not big enough for my clumsy hands to feel the difference.  So while typing away, if I move my left hand too much and hit the mouse, I don’t instantly know it because the mouse feels the exact same as the wrist rest.  

Of course, these are all little things, I will get used to them all soon enough.  Until them, I will just have to pay a bit more attention to what I am typing.  Since I have been known to stare into space while my fingers fly over the keys at 100+ words a minute, it will require me to focus on the screen and not the great beyond for a while….

Reason #1: Why Not To Write When You are Sick

Since Thursday, I have felt bad.  Yuckiness abounds in my head and chest.  However, my “day job” is pretty flexible.  I run an artisans’ studio.  People come and shop.  It gives me lots o’ time to write..  

We’ve been closed since Thursday because of the yuckiness.  And I’ve heard these two phrases a lot:  “What’s wrong with you?”  and “What are they going to do about it?”

I am not the type of person that takes antibiotics unless there is definitive proof that the infection is bacterial.  This one isn’t.  My colorful and interesting doctor called it the “coughing crude” and everybody seems to be getting it.  Take allergy meds and cold meds to help the symptoms because it’s viral, nothing else to be done.  Five days, you should start feeling like a human being again.  The cough will persist, but lessen over the next 15 days or so.  

Great.  Lots of chicken soup (blech!) and movies and sleep.  Can do.  Yesterday it was football, not movies, but same principle.

Now to the point…. The last three days or so of my writing has been filled with “Do something” and “What is it”.  Somehow, I have let reality leak over into my writing.  I’m normally pretty good about keeping reality out of my stories.

That will be something to edit out in the later versions.

I am supposed to get my new laptop today!  Woo-hoo!

Monday! Bring it on!

Yesterday, we went to the zoo.  Always a great experience.  My SO and I had a good time.  Lots o’ things to see and do.  And as the day wound down, I managed to get a couple paragraphs banged out.

Today, was football day.  My poor Chiefs lost, again, to the Bills.  So sad… It seemed to be a battle of which team would fail to meet the expectations.  KC won the battle and last the game, finally coming to life in the 4th quarter.

But, I did get excellent news.  My laptop died a horrible, painful death two weeks ago or so.  The motherboard went.  However, there was serious questions about the hard drive.  And I had made a serious error.  I hadn’t backed up my stories for the week.

That meant that the first 4 chapters, plus prologue of the second Brenna Strachan book hadn’t been backed up.  It also meant the nine chapters, plus prologue of my other novel series was also in limbo.  Tonight though, I was informed that while we thought the hard drive had gone bad.  It was only partially damaged by the motherboard and fan kicking the bucket.  The files were recoverable!

Thank goodness!  I had begun to rewrite them, but knew they weren’t as good as the originals.  Now, I can get the files.

Lesson learned… Back up the stories daily.  I can do that.  I might become so paranoid, I will be backing them up to two different externals.  Perhaps my 2TB external as well as a thumbdrive.

A new laptop is in the works.  I have looked at several models and am narrowing it down.  Next stop, compare my box store options with the direct options and see what shakes loose.  I finally decided on what I want…  No small feat since I had what I wanted (just needed memory).

Now, I’m ready to face Monday.  My mood is better and I’m ready to write.  I have the Aspercreme packed and ready to go to my writing den.  It should be a good week!

Death of the Laptop

Last Wednesday was a sad, sad day.  My laptop went kaput.  

I have spent the last six days, running around like a mad woman trying to figure out if it needed to be replaced or could be repaired.

The news came last night… it’s dead.  It will have to be replaced.

This puts me in a bit of a position.  How do I replace it?

It was 7 years old.  Needed some upgrades to memory and what not, but otherwise, it was a machine that had become an intricate part of my life.  I had written 14 novels and hundreds of short stories on it.  The keys had the letters worn off.  The spot where my wrists sit were worn to the perfect state.

Now, I have to start over.  Find a new writing companion.  What do I want in a new computer?  Obviously, it must be a sturdy, reliable machine.  But there are so many new gizmos and gadgets and what-nots available, that I stare at the website and wonder do I need this?  Do I need that?

It has also set my writing back a few days.  My goal is to be ready to publish book 2 of the Brenna Strachan series in December.  I am now six days behind, without a replacement here.  I can write on a desktop, but I don’t like the fact that I have to sit in the stuff office chair for hours at a time, slaving over the crummy keyboard that I am no longer used to using.

However, there is a silver lining.  I will be forced to do what I have been avoiding.  This weekend, I will go laptop shopping.  I will buy a new one.  One that has been a long time coming, because my need to write and be comfortable compels me to replace the broken one.