So Much Work, I'm Wearing Letters Off the Keys!
Date: March 13, 2005
This is definitely a good problem to have. The dream of being self employed was a dream for so long, and then it was the dream to be busy enough to make ends meet. Well, they're meeting. I dont' know if this should be a rant; It's a happy rant!
I am working 6 days a week, forcing myself to take one day off per week. I am writing so much php code that I dream about it and will often figure things out in my sleep, get up, hammer it out, then go back to bed. A Day in the Life of a programmer, I suppose.
I do love it, but look at this poor keyboard. I just got it in October, before the big redesign of United States Masters Swimming really took off. At that point, a lot of artwork was going back and forth, and once the coding commenced, it was nonstop work. I am typing the letters off the keyboard!
It sort of takes me back to Jr. High School when I took typing in summer school. Oh, how I hated it. The typewriters were not electric; they were that kind that you really had to hammer to get it to print a letter. And - they had no letters on them. There was a large cheat sheet hanging at the front of the class, but after a few weeks, the teacher would make rude comments if you looked at it.
I really didn't get much out of that class. I took typing in Jr. College and that was a great, self-paced course with film strips and tapes. It was a very good course. But what really got my typing speed up was my first marriage. Yes, seriously. I would get so upset, I would go up to my little den and have at it on an electric typewriter I had. When I got divorced and re-entered the work world, I went for a data entry job, got tested and was scared to death - I always freeze in tests, but found that I typed 80 WPM!!!! Last time I was formally tested for employment purposes was about 8 years ago and they came out and said "We wish we had a medal for you." I asked why. I had gone along pretty slowly and carefully and typed 123 WPM with 1 error. They freaked out. So did I. A boss of mine a few years ago came in while I was coding and said "it's the Indianapolis Keyboard Speedway here..."
I took a typing test on the web and I type around 150 wpm. I guess I'm fast, especially for a QWERTY keyboard, but I don't think I'd do so hot on that manual typewriter back in Jr. High...
Whenever someone asks me what software I use to build websites, I always hold up my hands. Hey, if keyboarding were an olympic event, my hands would be gold medalists.
Until next time...cheers!