My Shitty Setup (Sucks)

Hello everyone! I don’t know what I’m doing here – I surely don’t have some repository of inspiration I’ve tapped into but – but let’s try it anyways.

This is sort of a continuation of this post. The post where I casually mentioned my temper and how I had broken my old-ass, ancient, and shitty laptop that I did about 95% of my writing on. I used that laptop for anything remotely ‘professional’. It just feels so much nicer to pay bills on a computer, or write, or edit video, or blog, or shop on Amazon, or almost anything. Sure, phones work just fine for some things but others are better served by sitting down at a desk. Taxes are a good example. You probably could file your taxes on a phone but who would want to do that? Just plop down on the couch and file taxes in your pajamas? No, you need a fucking desk to do that shit at.

Back in the day when I took up my flying hobby in hopes of stumbling into a career, I bought a Samsung Tab A tablet. Not cellular of course because I hate recurring fees, just a shitty WiFi-only tablet. The idea was to move into the modern age with my flying supplies; aviation charts and maps expire every few months and once again here with my hatred of recurring costs. Basically, there are apps that provide you with all the charts you need, and for free! Instead of downloading .pdfs on your own from a clunky government website the apps do it for you. No fucking around with ordering paper charts, or realizing you have an expired chart, or the airport being out of the chart that you need. It’s just easier. And it’s a lot less shit you have to tote around in your flight bag.

Since I’ve burned out on flying, the Tab A has been purposeless. I don’t like tablets because they’re basically big phones. The limited UI and operating system that doesn’t let you do quite as much as a PC. The touchscreen bullshit. I’ve just never had a use for a tablet that isn’t nicely filled by either a phone or a PC. Tablets are in the shitty middle ground. I’d use it to watch YouTube videos on a bigger screen, or dick around in Sheets when I don’t want to do so on my phone, and that’s about it. And there was that little stint with digital artwork last year…

That’s what I’m writing on currently. Recall my hatred for writing on touchscreens; I despise it. Especially something as large as a tablet. It works on a phone – non-stop texting helps keep your thumbs nimble and accurate – but not on a tablet. I’m talking chicken-picking with the index fingers as inept as a fucking six-year-old who’s never seen a keyboard in their life. Fuck. That.

My wife bought me a bluetooth keyboard for Christmas/my birthday literally years ago; I’m guessing something like seven years ago. I’ve used it a handful of times. Despite her best intentions, the keyboard never really had a use. The idea was for me to use the keyboard to write on my phone, but that never worked out well. I’d try to write with it in bed but lying on your side propped up next to a keyboard is…not fun. Clunky. Shitty. It just didn’t work. So off it went into a stack of junk, then into a corner, and then into an old shopping bag. Our basement flooded a few days ago and while rummaging through water-soaked derelict electronics I found it, dry, and in mint condition. I’d forgotten all about the little bugger, and isn’t that an opportune time to stumble upon it again?

And here I am, blogging, desperately trying to write as if I still have a working laptop despite my past anger. And I’m fucking doing it despite the universe’s best efforts. It’s honestly pretty funny. I have the tablet propped up on my legs and this little shitty keyboard in my lap. Both battery-powered and two extra things to charge, but dammit if it isn’t actually working out pretty good! Some of the keys are in a slightly different spot (the ‘backspace’ and right ‘shift’ key are half sized and I keep hitting the wrong fucking buttons…) than I’m used to but I’m adjusting quickly.

I suppose there’s some undercurrent here, some cliched saying about working your way through adversity, spurred on by the will of being creative and to hell with any problems that you face, but fuck all of that. I’m an idiot – I broke my own computer – and now I’m dealing with this shit. Writing with a janky setup thanks to my outburst. It works, it doesn’t work really well, but it does work. That’s something, right?