dhoop day.
it has been awhile.

I have a stack of MS Sculpt keyboards, most of which I bought in a lot of used-near-new that were mostly missing the transceiver. They usually last about a year, but this particular keyboard is at three plus years. I've swapped transceivers on a couple keyboards before. I type *a lot*. Recently I've accidentally shifted my right-hand home position a few times. I just figured out why. I've worn down the j key bump. (j is line down when coding with vi keybindings). Usually a key stops working and I swap, but this keyboard is a champ. I can't believe the cheap contacts inside outlasted the bump.

From 1981 until 2001 (an even 20 years with rough edges), most of the time when I was at home or with friends, we listened to record albums. Whoever was there would rotate their choice in turn. Even earlier than 1981, I listened to the radio, usually Top 40, sometimes the rock/metal-ish station. There were various stages I can tap into. For instance, 1984 was a strange blend of folk, hippie, new wave, and techno. Punk entered in 85.

In 86 I walked by a house where somebody was playing Stevie Nicks' Bella Donna. I had recently moved suddenly, and all I owned was in the back of a small pickup with a canopy, and I slept there as well, so I had few items. I missed that tape. I had no money. I was crisscrossing the town looking for work but hadn't found it yet. I knocked on the door and asked if I could borrow the tape, and she loaned it to me. I didn't even know her. I gave it back later.

This slowly changed to now, when I watch various TV shows made in cable/stream heyday before the decline in the last few years. This is how I fill blank spaces and only listen to music when I'm coding, doing the dishes, or in the increasingly rare times I just relax while grilling or sometimes even just sitting there doing nothing.

I regret filling in the blank spaces with something other than silence or music. I don't regret much that I've chosen, but that is one thing, I think, that I do actually regret. I'll have to change that.

This is also why I have a link to a song as a response to almost everything.

Why 2001? I was listening to music and reading Slashdot when I read about the planes hitting the World Trade Center. I had a small cathode ray TV (13 inch?) that I pulled out of storage and set up on a chair so we could watch the news. That TV grew and grew to the point where it takes up the majority of a wall. The shows got more and more sophisticated and replaced some genuine value with fake. I fell for it.