Typping

One thing that I'm glad of is that as a teenager I had an interest in computers and technology.  I think that's partially because the cold, hard boxes of silicon gave back more to me than the soft, warm bags of carbon we call people.  

That's a whole other blog post.

Anyway, this was important because I learned one of the most fundamental skills for today's modern society - typing.  Now I can type really fast and accurately, so I can write at almost the speed of my thoughts. Example:

"There's a rabbit named Jim who hates carrots and wants to eat broccoli all day and fart."  

See, no editing there.

In High School, like many people, I took a typing class. I should mention that my school had ancient technology for teaching typing, known as "type-writers."  These devices created text on paper through mechanically imprinting letters individually.  No spell check, no autocorrect, no easy way to correct mistakes.  It was be perfect or...mess around with correction tape.

Oh, yeah, correction tape - this was basically a plastic strip with white paint on it.  To correct mistakes, you had to get the typewriter to go back to the place you missed and then type the incorrect typing again with the plastic strip carefully held on the page.  That way, the incorrect letters were printed white and you could go over again with the correct letters.

Also, lets not forget about formatting - there was no automated formatting.  You typed and then had to remember the tabs and the spacing for certain documents and how to get the damn archaic machine of chittering metal to actually line up properly, like some test Jigsaw would give you to keep your head from being sliced off by a giant blade that swung down from the ceiling in a very under budget special effect.

So, yep, months of that and I became a very neurotic person.  Okay, I already was a neurotic person, but now I was a really good typist.  I'm glad of that because it now allows me to make these terrific words, really fast.  Also, it's been instrumental in getting every job I've ever had.  

However, I wouldn't recommend learning to type on a typewriter.  Stick with these computer things so you don't have nightmares about apostrophes.