July 11, 2007

• The Missing "S"

  The "s" on my laptop recently came off.  I opened the case and began typing, and the "s" tried to escape under the other letters on the keyboard, the "z" and the "x" in particular.

  Really off; I tried to press it back into place, but no such luck.  I had to ask my darling wife for her help (she's the computer whiz in our house).  The "S" works now, as long as I consciously press the top of that key each time it occurs in my text.

  Well, the new keyboard is on order and will arrive sometime soon (I hope). 

  In the mean time, I am working with a defective key board.  I knew from Wheel of Fortune that "S" is the second most common letter in the English language, following "R."  However, I never realized how the missing letter would break up my typing.  Now, I'm no speed demon on the keyboard, but having to reread every word, every time, and finding it missing is disconcerting.  Most of us do not consciously think about the letters we are typing, our muscle memory guides our fingers to the right keys as they are needed.  I no longer create documents longhand, but do so while I key it into the computer (wo-pro, for my Nipponese friends). 

  Now, however, I am constantly looking back at my typing to see if my "s's" are taking as I go along!  It completely breaks my train of thought and continuity to do this constant review.  Not only is this inconvenient, but I also have found an amazing thing, in that many of the words minus their "s's" still form other words; this means that the spell checker cannot be counted upon to catch and fix the errors for me.

  Oh, please hurry up with that new key board!

  • 8:45 pm
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