We'll see about that

I have worn out a total of ten keyboards in the last twelve years. On PCs, that is... neither of the Apple keyboards in my house shows any significant wear. PC keyboards, though, even from name-brand makers, seem to wear out in all the same ways. Keys get sticky, the shift key goes unresponsive, and eventually the space bar wears out.

The visible sign of wear, though, is that the heel of my left hand polishes the left-front corner of the keyboard to a mirror shine, instead of the original textured finish. It goes without saying that most of the keys (except the now-rarely-used F-keys) are already incredibly shiny. In fact, I like 'em that way. I used to prefer the Selectric II keyboards on IBM typewriters to the later Selectric IIIs specifically because the IIs (and all previous IBM electric typewriters) had shiny keys. All the later ones had textured keys.

Yeah, I know, it sounds picky, but when you spend most of every day writing at somewhere around a hundred-something words per minute, small things magnify.

After work last night, I met a new person. She's a writer and editor and lives in Baltimore, and we met at an upscale noodle place in a neighborhood on the north side of town. I am deliberately not letting myself speculate on the possibilities, but she's attractive, smart, loves cats, can't stand Bush, and likes raspberries. We're nearly the same age, of similar temperament, and I already have a great concern that I'll be one of those "can we just be friends" guys in her life.

I would really have a hard time with that with this particular woman. She was that appealing.

Still, I'll distract myself by going to this speed-dating thing tonight and see what the cat drags in.