ASDF JKL;

I learned to type more than 20 years ago on a standard typewriter. I hated it. Absolutely hated the class. It was so hard to remember the keys and train my hands...and NOT LOOK AT THE KEYBOARD!!!

BUT that class was the best class I ever took. I use the skills I learned in that class every day. (Even right now.)

From an electric typewriter I moved on to a keyboard.

In college I had this machine that looked like a large keyboard and it had this little screen about twice the size of a search window (yes, very small). It had I think four different storage areas (kind of like fm1 fm2 am1 am2, on a car radio.) I could type in a paper and save it. I could go back and forth reading over what I wrote in that tiny window until it was done. (And hope to God the electricity didn't go off or something horrible like that while I was typing away.)

In the 'computer lab' at SUNY Geneseo, there were a bunch of computers set up in a room as well as a bunch of dot matrix printers. Remember those? Fun, fun. Remember fixing paper jams in those? Or trying to fix them when the holes got out of alignment? Good times.

In the lab we even had instant messaging - or it's forefather (this must have been before Gore invented the internet). You'd sign on to this program, pick a college, and be randomly assigned to a student to chat with at that college. I have no recollection of a single one of those persons, but I remember the excitement and mystery surrounding it. It felt a little scary. Almost like something from a movie...I'm watching you...

Then in the early 90's I got AOL on my first computer (a 486 I think) I was in my apartment I shared with a friend, in my room, at my desk, and boy oh boy was that exciting! The first time I hooked up to the World Wide Web. Like I was transported out into the world, travelling to a different place, part of a huge group of people all having a party that not everyone was invited to.

The internet is still pretty exciting. You feel like you've entered a live place.
This is the regular world, outside, the trees, the roads, the cars etc. And the internet is the global world. This is where everyone is. This is where it's at! My day is almost not complete unless I log on at least once.

I like it. I like being connected. I like being able to communicate with YOU, almost whenever I want.

I think about the writers who only had typewriters. When I do, I think of Steven King and my next thought is of Jack Nicholson in the Shining and his huge stack of paper.
"All work and no play make Jack a dull boy."