I had planned to get my NaNo writing done in the morning while the 10yo does his zoom classes, but so far that hasn't happened. Mostly because my keyboard is messed up. Several very important keys (W,S and X mainly) usually don't work when I first warm the laptop up. No amount of banging on them will get the to work. So I end up sitting there for twenty minutes just hitting those keys, trying to warm them up or make a journal entry at 4thewords that is complete gibberish because those letters are missing from every word. After twenty to thirty minutes, sometimes the keys will start working.
But by then, I've lost the motivation to write. Yesterday it too so long to get them working, that by the time I did, I was literally too tired to focus on writing. I did manage to write 1,458 words, but they all sounded really forced and will have to be totally rewritten in editing which is going to be more work. I could barely concentrate on them. And that's how I'm feeling now despite all the coffee.
***
And now it's nearly 11am. I had to stop to deal with the oldest who is freaking out about filling out her first ballot. And then I found out the 10yo probably has lice again so had to cut and comb through his hair. We've had nonstop lice pretty much since the 14yo got it at 6, but the 10yo had been lice free the last two times I cute his hair. He must have gotten it from one of his sisters who just refuse to let me treat their hair anymore. We can't get rid of it because I don't have the energy to do the treatments on everyone in one day along with all the washing and vacuuming that goes along with it. Ugh.
Now he's supposed to be doing a homework help lesson, but needs to change all of his bedding before he can sit on his bed and he gets too much lag if he sits at his desk and oh, my god, I'm never going to write anything today.
I've been up since 7am (nearly four hours) and still haven't started working yet.
Now I'm really stressed out between the lice and my daughter talking about the election tomorrow. I know tomorrow is going to be a shit-show like the US has never seen. It doesn't matter who wins, I'm sure there will be rioting tomorrow night. We are in a pre-apocalypse scenario, and it's not going to take much to tip us over. Honestly, I'll be shocked if the election coverage goes orderly. I'm not sure if I should just avoid all social media tomorrow or get blazing drunk to deal with it. And not knowing is giving me more anxiety.
Of course, now I've used up what little energy I had today dealing with my son's hair and doing dishes this morning. I don't know how I'm going to get any actual writing done. This is how I failed NaNo the last couple years. Stupid chronic fatigue.
Need more coffee!
Keyboard issues are the worst. You could copy-paste the letters (keyboard shortcuts make this a lot quicker - ctrl-c for copy, ctrl-v for paste) but that's still a pain for a letter as common as S.
I always replace keyboards when certain keys stop working, heck this laptop I'm typing on right now had a broken key and I'm typing on a new keyboard.
New laptop keyboards are about $20 - $30 from eBay, and then you can watch a tutorial online on how to replace them for your specific model. I've purchased and replaced laptop keyboards many times myself, first time was in middle school for some generic Dell Latitude laptop. It's just unscrewing some things, plugging in and unplugging the keyboard, anyone can do it.
@JustMegawatt I've thought about doing it, but not sure how well it will work. I have a Dell, and apparently lots of people have the same issue with the same keys. Not sure if it's a connection thing or the keyboard. So getting a 3rd party keyboard that fits this laptop might fix it, but if there's something wrong in the connection... I don't know. I did get them all working for a couple days by opening the back, taking out the battery and pressing all the connections down, but right away they stopped working again. Then I can usually get them all working, including ones that haven't worked at all in over a year, when I play Sims. The only thing I can think that's different is the game really heats up the laptop. Like really hot. But suddenly all the keys will work again just fine for hours after playing. But I can't keep turning the game on. It takes longer and longer for he game to do its thing to make the keys work which is a distraction I can't afford during NaNo.
I'm still considering getting a new keyboard, though. I have looked at the schematic to replace this one and it looks like ugh. I built the desktop we have downstairs so I know my way around the insides of a computer, but this is still intimidating. Most likely, I'll end up with a USB keyboard I use when I can't get the keys working. It's just very frustrating as a writer to not have a working keyboard. Right now I can't afford to buy anything so I'm stuck with it. Even worse is this laptop is only a couple years old and was $1300 (got a gaming one specifically so I could play Sims with high settings which it does very well).
@Achaius I do often have to do that, but it's an even bigger pain with both s and w not working. I'm a writer. I type fast. Having to slow down just to get those keys working each time I need to use the is excruciating. They sometimes work if I hold them down and tap the key next to them but that also put the other letter in front of the one I want so then I have to stop, move over a letter, delete the one I don't want then go back to the end of the word. It takes freaking forever.
I'm just so frustrated right now with everything.
@justanotherjen Yeah I have had several Dells that had some keyboard keys stop working after a while, replacing the keyboard itself fixed the issue each time. Always buy a replacement keyboard that comes with a new connection cable, it's a blue ribbon that is attached to the bottom of the keyboard.
But yeah getting an external USB keyboard is the safest and easiest solution, it's just not as convenient since you'll have that extra keyboard to carry around. I have a few external keyboards but prefer the keyboard replacement for convenience.
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