Well, it’s Friday the 13th -a day I dread.  Although I (Cathy)  have never been a particularly superstitious person, I do believe in the law of averages.  And I have been  in three car accidents on Friday the 13th- never my fault!  What has this got to do with keyboarding you might ask?  Well, neck pain or whiplash (a common  condition resulting from car accidents), is exacerbated by constantly using a laptop placed on the lap.  Letting the head drop down towards the chest to view the keyboard, and letting it stay there for extended periods of time, worsens the condition.   Sooo, to help myself heal from all the unlucky car accidents (and acquire a 21st  century literacy skill ) I recently decided to learn to keyboard.  I now have an external keyboard attached to my lap top and a large screen monitor on my desk.  To view the screen I have to  keep my head up, neck erect and hands somewhere down there on the keyboard.   The goal, of course, is to not look down.  Yikes!  For those of you who are proficient at keyboarding, this might seem trite.  But there was a time when you didn’t know how, so try to be empathetic.

About one week ago I finally managed to make the transition.  My index fingers now automatically search out the little marker on the ‘j’ and ‘f’ keys so I know I am on the home row.  (My own children found this fact hilarious as they had forgotten those keys were even marked.  My husband , however is very impressed.  He says its too hard to learn).  Most importantly, I can now type without looking at the keys!  But dear, oh dear, m y    t y   p  i  n  g  i s ss ooo   ssss lll oooo wwww.  (If you only knew how long it took me to type this blog post!)

Yet, I persist.  Daily, I engage in a variety of  speed tests and even play typing video games.  (Yes, I can save the city from the aliens if I  type the correct word fast enough).  It’s actually quite fun.  I am constantly searching the net for new typing courses. My two favourites so far are:

Learning to Type at  http://www.learntyping.org/beginnertypinglesson3.htm

and

Typing for QWERTY   at  http://www.powertyping.com/qwerty/lessonsq.html

It’s amazing that effective courses like this are available on-line for free.

Now, if I coukd only type  bti faster, but stll be acrate, i might be able to find more ocurses… Sigh.  I wish I could just stay home today – not because it’s Friday the 13th-  I just really want to practice my keyboarding!