In case you’re wondering why I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet lately, it’s because my means of communication has been hindered; every so often, the ‘o’ button on my keyboard will sporadically cut out.
Why did it have to be O, of all things? Only one of the most commonly used letters in the entire alphabet? Look at that last sentence to prove my point right! I can’t even lament and say I’d prefer if it were Z or X- both of those I need for handy shortcut functions, and I don’t know which one would grate on my sanity faster.
For now, I’ve taken to keeping a copy of O on hand in my clipboards, that way I can readily paste it into whatever word I need it for. It’s a real hassle when taking notes in class, especially when quick keystrokes are the difference between copying the whole slide and only three sentences.
I’m still ever thankful when it comes back online. The first time it started going out, I thought perhaps I had a piece of lint or a crumb stuck in there; that was common for a key fault for me, and yet when I cleaned it out several times, I started developing the sneaking suspicion that that wasn’t the case. In my fifteen years of owning computers, I’ve never experienced a keyboard going out before. Well, that’s a lie. I just remembered I had a little laptop of mine whose keyboard started going out significantly- it was fourteen or something letters that I took to clicking on using my on-screen keyboard with a trackpad! Ah, to be twelve and writing on WordPad again. Not.
So far, it’s also spread to my screen brightener key and, most recently, my +/= sign. That was one I discovered today, when I was trying to plan my future move to elsewhere and discovered I couldn’t add a + to my “pillows plus blankets plus covers” bullet point. It seems to be working fine now.
As for the brightener key, that one is gone for good. I think I’ve had maybe one instance of it returning to me in the past several weeks or so, but nothing concrete. The same thing is happening to my keyboard backlight key, too, where it’s working also at the same rate of frequency as O.
I’m enjoying my time using these as much as possible before they go out again. I’m not quite sure when they’re going to go back to not functioning. There’s no trigger to it, no pattern; it simply intermittently comes on and off when it feels like it. Too bad it wasn’t a dust bunny.
Oh, and I’ve also been enjoying my time abroad as a student, though that’s a story for next time- one that will hopefully happen with a functioning O key.