Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Curiosity almost killed the Kbd

As I type this, I'm slowly recovering from sore fingers, heavy breathing and cross-eyedness. Sounds like I've been watching a po... er, nevermind :P

Actually, out of sheer curiosity, this stitcher decided to take a look at what was beneath the little tabs on her laptop keyboard, lifted one with her finger and snapped it out.

And that started two hours of wondering what two little plastic pieces were for (if you yank out your keys of the computer, you'll see what I mean, but if you don't want to risk fixing it back ... well, don't say I didn't warn ya)... first, they overlap and have this effect of regulating the pressure of your finger on the pressure-sensitive little red button 'neath the tabs.

When the time came to shut off the computer and fit the little plastic things back ... ngggghhh... something short of hell. It wouldn't fit, it wouldn't let the tab slide back, and after jiggling, poking, rolling, pressing, prodding ...

I know it sounds like a massage, but trust me, it's not... it's worse than 5 hours of non-stop spinning class and a fascist instructor screaming at you "fasssssssstahhhhh, MOVEMOVEMOVEMOVE, feeeeeeel the burn, listen to the beat MOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE...but getting back to the original post :P

... it finally snapped back properly (sheer luck). That would've been a cue to stop then and there, but while everything came apart, I noticed how absolutely filthy what lay underneath the tabs was ... 5 years of uncleaned crud, dust, fine hairs (I don't even want to wonder where it came from) was in there. And remembering that I had sometimes eaten cookies while working on the laptop, and not to mention probably dead pieces of epidermis.... yukkk (c'mon, humans shed it all the time, we just don't talk about it)... it was just awful ... I unpicked about 50% of the rest of the keyboards and took out the vacuum cleaner and went to town.

Surprisingly, I feel a lot better now :) (and I reckon, so does the keyboard I am typing on). Readers, if you ever want to have something useful (but kinda stupid) ... clean your keyboard's 'underwear'. lol. it's much needed, I reckon, unless it's new.

On a side note, I got a number of great comments regarding the Midnight Tree picture ... wow ... quite overwhelming, because it does build a little confidence as an (vewy amateur) artist. I had a very nice comment from Holland saying that I should look at doing faeries next... what a super suggestion (thanks, Novia! btw, Novia is an absolutely gifted stitcher... she does really stunning things ... blog is at the frames on the right... go see!) ... my ego's getting bigger by the minute, even if my brain has shrunk from keyboard dismantling the idiot amateur's way.

With so much encouragement, I'm no longer so scared to pick up paper and pencil again(plus I know the comments come from people who mean it, and aren't good for lip service), and now, I sorta know that improvement is a process, not an immediate result kind of thing ... for this, I owe a debt to a few supportive souls out there... all of you know who you are and however it is, I'll always be grateful!

1 comment:

Rachel Leigh Smith said...

Canned compressed air works WONDERS for cleaning out keyboards. They also make little computer vacuums, but they're overpriced compared to the air- which works just as well! And the canned air has so many uses, like dusting silk flowers, lol.