Pandemic Life

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It has been a few weeks now since the coronavirus arrived in the United States and spread across the nation. Although I was apparently in the proximity of someone that tested positive for the virus in mid-March, I didn’t have any of the requisite symptoms. Not sure if I was just one of those with mild or few symptoms, or if I was just lucky enough to not contract the virus.

I wish I could say I could go get tested to confirm whether or not I contracted the disease. But alas, even though our Fearless Leader said that millions of tests would be available. Fortunately, local leaders including Mayor Bowser have stepped into the gap and led competently and compassionately.

Life is now full of working from home, stockpiling of groceries, and gathering of masks and sanitizing wipes. All while watching Fearless Leader transform what should be daily informational sessions into hubs of hubris and misinformation. We chose this and we are getting what we deserve. Even though he claims he isn’t responsible for this, it is us who will pay the price for what we as a country chose as our leader. Instead of competence, we chose someone whose main skill is ridiculing others. That was entertaining once upon a time, but now we need leadership, not bluster.

In the meantime, millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and millions more will in the near future. This may make the 2008-2009 recession seem small in comparison. Hopefully this won’t be the case, but to be fair, we were overdue for a recession. This time, the cost to small businesses may be extreme. Only time will tell.

Welcome to the Pandemic

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Unlike the swine flu pandemic, coronavirus seems to be much more serious. Schools, stores, companies, all shutting down. The Democratic debate: audience free. March Madness and the NBA season: canceled. MLB Opening Day: canceled. This is going to be a wild ride.

Keyboard Bliss?

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As part of the standard deployment of equipment at work, they gave me a traditional purely flat keyboard. It probably came with the docking station for the admittedly quite nice Lenovo X1 I have to work with. But the standard keyboard is nothing special.

The firm issued input device set

So I went out and spent some of my own money to at least improve the keyboard. The mouse might need swapping soon too because the mouse wheel is acting a little wonky, but that’s a later problem. But where to turn for the new keyboard?

Given the amount of typing I do at work, I decided that I wanted an ergonomic keyboard of some type instead of the straight keyboard I use at home and at work. I tried out Logitech’s new K860 Ergo keyboard at Best Buy but I didn’t like the amount of travel the keys had. Not that I’m some mechanical keyboard connoisseur, but I do want a little bit more travel than that if I’m typing for extended periods. Although I’m lucky enough to live near several Microcenter stores, I did not go and try out any other ergonomic keyboards because right next to the Logitech was a cheap and pretty acceptable solution: Microsoft’s Surface Ergonomic Keyboard.

It allegedly has a slightly different curve and annoyingly moves the Menu button over to the left to make room for an Office and emoji button. Which are useless in my work configuration because I cannot install any special software to enable these buttons. I knew that going in and it has been an annoying change. But after three weeks with the keyboard, I think this periodic annoyance is worth the improved typing comfort. And the angle is appropriate for both sitting and standing typing positions. I’ve found myself standing to work more often as a result.

Not bad for about $45.