sans c.

it’s a sad day when, although the rest of a computer functions at a slow rate, but otherwise tolerable level, a single key ceases to work. you learn a lot about your relationship with your keyboard.

for my friend, it was the period. the key itself broke off one day. attempts to fashion a cardboard replacement that would mimic the real key failed to perform and so, your finger (whichever it is that you use for the period, for me it’s the fourth finger on my right hand) plunges into a rather conspicuous gap every so often resulting in absolutely no change in your typed text. i’ve learned by using her computer just how important the period is. typing a url, for instance, becomes difficult and even in your most colloquial emails, a comma doesn’t suffice as a stand-in for the period. i’ve learned to copy and paste periods when i’m over at her place. although it’s a bit cumbersome, i’ve come to accept this as a necessary evil and in fact, i am slightly grateful that it has prepared me for this day.

today, it would seem that the c key on my keyboard needs some extra attention. it can work… it just requires particular pressure applied to in a particular way in order for the letter c to appear on the screen.

you might think that this is of no major consequence. the letter c is not used all that much. it scores 3 points in scrabble, so it’s clearly not as popular a letter as a or t or even n which all score only 1 point. but you’d be amazed at how much more cumbersome copying and pasting the letter c is. this blog entry thus far, would require more than 30 c’s. but i tend to use the letter c perhaps more often than many.

for starters, my initials are cc, and often i sign my emails with just ‘c.’ if not with it full out for more formal correspondences. a friend of mine also suggested that perhaps i’d simply worn the key out because i swear so much, even in writing. her suggestion? spell it ‘fuk’ from now on not only to give the c key some relief, but also to feign txt savvy and show that i have joined the masses in adjusting spelling 4 letter economy. ‘it’s very hip hop, too,’ said another friend. thanks for the tip.

but i think it’s just an adjustment i need to make in my mind: how to press the ‘c’ key in the right way in order to work properly. similar, i imagine, to the way i’d mentally adjusted to using a german keyboard where the y and z are reversed and your punctuation on the far right are in different positions to make room for all the umlaut-ed vowels. it took some time and occassionally, when intoxicated enough, you simply carry on without the mental adjustment and continue to tzpe as if zou were on zour own computer. thez’ll be able to figure it out.

if, however, this doesn’t work and/or the key eventually gives up on me and ceases to work, i guess i’ll have to change my name to just arol. arol hoi.