QWERTY
I just finished taking the typing test for the employment agency. I average about 70 words a minute, despite the fact that my accuracy blows, and rather than just going back and correcting mistakes later, I'll delete a word or two to correct a typo and then re-type what was missed. I blame it on how I developed my typing skills.
I have a confession to make that might qualify me for the "Biggest Nerd Ever" award. I took typing the summer between 7th and 8th grade. In summer school. Just for fun.
My brother was in summer school that summer as well. He had failed some course necessary for high school graduation, and was making it up at that time. I just wanted to take typing. We each had our Tri-Met bus pass, and would go every morning and hop the #65 which took us straight up 185th to Aloha High School.
The only problem with taking typing as an 8th grader (at least circa 1984) is that you're not going to use those skills until the 10th grade, and by the time you have any typing to do you've completely forgotten how to do it. That led to several years of speed hunt-and-peck. I full re-learned my typing skills my Senior year of college. Oregon State University's computer labs had a typing tutor program installed on them that had you type words quickly to avoid alien invasion, or some similarly cheesy sort of activity. I used to play on that when procrastinating or taking a break from a paper. Yeah, see, World's Biggest Nerd!
But I don't regret it, because were it not for that summer school typing class I might not have such an affection for public transportation. Because were it not for that class I don't know that my parents would have gotten me a bus pass. The pass got me to and from school in the mornings, but after that it was all mine. For the next year or two it got me to the swimming pool, which I would go to almost daily. A year or two down the line, it would get me to the local mall or downtown. The summer I was 15 it got me to and from Driver's Ed classes. A lot of suburban kids don't know how to get from here to there without a car involved. Mom and Dad drive them everywhere until they're 16, and then they've got a car of their own. Me, I had the world at my doorstep. Or at least the West side of Portland.
All because I'm a nerd who took typing. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
I have a confession to make that might qualify me for the "Biggest Nerd Ever" award. I took typing the summer between 7th and 8th grade. In summer school. Just for fun.
My brother was in summer school that summer as well. He had failed some course necessary for high school graduation, and was making it up at that time. I just wanted to take typing. We each had our Tri-Met bus pass, and would go every morning and hop the #65 which took us straight up 185th to Aloha High School.
The only problem with taking typing as an 8th grader (at least circa 1984) is that you're not going to use those skills until the 10th grade, and by the time you have any typing to do you've completely forgotten how to do it. That led to several years of speed hunt-and-peck. I full re-learned my typing skills my Senior year of college. Oregon State University's computer labs had a typing tutor program installed on them that had you type words quickly to avoid alien invasion, or some similarly cheesy sort of activity. I used to play on that when procrastinating or taking a break from a paper. Yeah, see, World's Biggest Nerd!
But I don't regret it, because were it not for that summer school typing class I might not have such an affection for public transportation. Because were it not for that class I don't know that my parents would have gotten me a bus pass. The pass got me to and from school in the mornings, but after that it was all mine. For the next year or two it got me to the swimming pool, which I would go to almost daily. A year or two down the line, it would get me to the local mall or downtown. The summer I was 15 it got me to and from Driver's Ed classes. A lot of suburban kids don't know how to get from here to there without a car involved. Mom and Dad drive them everywhere until they're 16, and then they've got a car of their own. Me, I had the world at my doorstep. Or at least the West side of Portland.
All because I'm a nerd who took typing. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
posted by Swankette at 8:08 PM
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