Summer Vacation

1st Month:

Practising typing to get used to this curvature. Typing is is supposed to be easy and intuitive, but typing on this curved keyboard is going to take some learning to do. Let’s see if it is actully comfortble to type on this keyboard. I can already feel my hands cramping up. May be my palms are supposed to hug the keyboard like a bear. But the remote keys simply refuse to get pressed. I don’t think this meant for typing. It is probably more suitble for playing games. Let’s try a different orientation of the keyboard, may be it’s not supposed to be tilted. It probably is supposed to be straight. And so continues the rant about the keyboard where the a key is so far behind that my left pinky simply cannot reach it in time for the word to spell correctly. But with concentration on typing, rather than on actual work, I can push down the a key. But this is a lot of overhead on the part of the brain, which should be spending time on the code, rather than typing.The keyboard continues to pose trouble in terms of speed. I still have to think about typing when I’m typing. But pressing the a is a lot simpler now. Well, not really, missed the ‘a’ when I typed that last sentence. Just like the a, I tend to miss the comma. P and l are relatively easier. A new week and the keyboard adjustments keep happening. Still cannot press the A effectively. Have to concentrate hard before doing that. But the keybord is very smooth, makes no noise which is sort of unsettling. Keyboard noises are very gratifying when in a confined environment, it gives an appreance of working even when I’m only wasting time writing a journal. It is very tiring to press a as hard as I have to here. Let’s see if it can happen intuitively. FOr the next few sentences, I’ll press a again and again. I’ll not correct any typos. Okay? Okay. A for apple, b for ball, c for cat, d for dog, e for elephant, f for fat. OKy that’s enough. Let me see how many I missed. Hmm, not many. Good.

2nd Month:
Whoa, just found this journal lying on the desktop. Typing speeds have improved a lot with accuracy. Pressing the a is no longer a big effort. I have settled into a keyboard position that is straight, but not parallel to the screen. But I am guessing that it is more the fault of the screen being tilted than my position. But looking a t people around me, my speeds are just a waste of muscle energy. Nimble, smooth typing is not a good thing for typing. Besides, it does not give the impression of typing. It looks like I’m chatting with someone, not caring for punctuation and accuracy. My typing speeds have been reasonable when coding, using keyboard shortcuts etc, but when it comes to accuracy and first-attempt correctness, there is no beating my team members. Let’s try the alphabet again. a for apple, b for ball, c for cat, d for dog, e for elephant, f for fat, g for goat, h for house, i for Italy, j for jam, k for koala, l for lime, m for Mumbai, n for Nagpur, p for Parrot, q for queue, s for state, t for turmeric, u for Uruguay, v for van, w for why, x for Xylophone, y for Yen and z for Zen. Well done my boy, speeds are great, typing while not lookng at the keyboard or the typed text is also good. Accuracy is fine, but coding at this speed seems impossible. It is hearteninng to hear and see my teammates typing at lighteningn speeds when coding. The repetitive or rhythmic patterns like ing still need more work and concentration. But it is okay. I can handle it so far, if I read the text when I type, I’ll correct these mistakes immediately. Code has compiled, so, later. Doing a make-install takes a lot of time. I mean really, a lot of time. While there is nothing to do when I wait for the compile to finish, I cannot but help admire the way my fingers move when I’m typing. Because I don’t have to look when I am typing and only get a few errors when I do that, I really never look when I’m typing. A mistake i sforgivable with the right excuses. So wile I watch a long list of c and cpp files being spewed up on the screen, I am thinking of why I can smell coffee in front of me, only to realize that there is indeed a cup of coffee in front of me, between my screen and myself. How can I not see that? Because I am not really looking at anything. I am just listening to clickety clacks of the keyboard. Looking at my wavy finger movements, only ocassionally looking at the screen to make sure that I’m not done. people are busy an are working seriously to meet a release date, however, I am waiting for a respnose from an equally busy person to have my own work go forward. I can research other stuff, but while I am doing that, It is necessary that I do not lose track of what I’m supposed to be doing according to plan. Making and then reverting a change is much more expensive than not making a change and sitting idle. Not that yping a journal is a good utilization of time. But I have to wait for this compile to finsh. So after a quick glance to check if I’m making any glaring errors, I return to mundne typing, butt derive a strange satisfaction from the movement of my fingers on the god-awesome soft keyboard that is this curved beauty. I was wrong about the curvature. It is indeed fun to type on this, regardless of the errors.

3rd Month:
I feel like a mountain lioness waiting for her next victim when I wait for the next build result. Mountain lions hunt in the dark. But I have to build in the day. It takes hours, and I have no option but to wait, patiently, stalking my victim like a mountain lioness waiting for her next. Hungry hyenas rattle the still of the night with cacophonous laughter. But I cannot give myself away. I have to sit still in the dark, praying that my prey does not notice me, praying for the cacophony to drown out all my mistakes. The chopping sounds made by my keyboard are the loudest pins in this cushion of darkness, except when the hyenas come around. My results are building up, waiting to fail. or pass; I do not know what kind of a job I have done; I do not know if I have fixed the errors, or just hidden them, only to be exposed by my results. I do not have much long to live. Soon, all my frailties will be exposed. The laughing hyenas will start scratching their paws on my seemingly perfect fur. Soon, these scratching paws will rip through my tender skin, I have had many a prey in my time here, but each one of them as hard to get as racing a rat aginst a tortoise.Yet, I lurk in the darkness, hoping I have many more deer to catch, hoping I have the energy to ward off my loud, laughing cousins. I see a herd of deer approaching. They’ve run away from me before. I am not as fast as I used to be. I have started making a lot of mistakes, but I still know how to get them. How to get them with my current abilities is a question. I can leap, but the deer are too fast. I can ambush, but they are too smart. I can chase them, but they will outrun me. But I have to have my supper, I have to catch my prey. It will happen. But will it happen soon enough? Will I starve and spiral into death? May be I should let this herd go, hunt rats instead. For shame.