💾 Archived View for gemlog.blue › users › AutoMemoriesDoll › 1714187506.gmi captured on 2024-08-25 at 00:50:16. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-05-10)
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Hello, I'm trying different ways to practice my type to slowly increase my WPM. I normally do 25 random words on monkeytype.com. I then moved to retyping public domain books, The Communist Manifesto, and some books on Freud. I have increased my speed and understanding enough to clearly type what I want with only minimal errors. That's not to say I am proficient at it I currently sit at around 50 WPM which is still below my average speed on qwerty (a lot harder to type on my keyboard). I think I am getting ahead of myself however see, I actually started writing this earlier today however, I was writing on Gemlog Blue and am now just writing it locally in a text editor.
Growing up a gamer I always knew about mechanical keyboards however I got my first mechanical keyboard when I was in middle school. I specifically remember replacing the keycaps with red ones to highlight wasd. It was this $50-something hyperx keyboard with mx blue style switches. Terrible sound but was infinitely better than any of the cheap membrane keyboards I had to use. I watched a custom keyboard video and let it stew in my head what keyboard I would have if I could. after I graduated college and had a steady stream of income I started seriously planning it out. I knew stabilizers would never sound anywhere close to what a 1u key sounds like which led me to ortholinear boards. I generally hate working with layers because I generally need number keys at the ready I knew I needed something bigger than a Plank sized board. The XD75 is exactly what I needed with its 5x15 design I even have volume control. when hearing about how ortholinear boards my little Doll brain turned on. I suddenly wanted my own keyboard not to be better at video games or to look cool. No, I wanted to master the keyboard itself. I want it to feel as if I were plucking the words directly from my brain. just like how one practices their handwriting in grade school I wanted to start over and hone it like a sword. I had always known that qwerty was inherently inefficient because it was designed with the fully mechanical typewriter in mind. Dvorak is the first thing you generally hear when talking about qwerty alternatives but that's just because it has been around a long time, which also means it is outdated as well. Colmak was made more recently and uses our understanding of letter frequency, bigrams, and the physical finger travel distance we have today. Colmak in general places the most frequent letters in the home row. I use a slightly modified version because I do not care if zxcv is in different spots. I started myself off with blank keycaps first because there were no sculpted keycaps with my specific layout in mind and secondly because it would have been harder to unlearn looking at the keyboard than just struggling a lot in the beginning. Oh did I struggle? I felt like I had lost my voice almost like that of a toddler who can barely speak. It was ironically motivating because I felt so lame customizing a keyboard and just failed at using it in front of my friends and girlfriends. Before I switched I checked what my WPM was on qwerty and it was around 65. Even though I am statistically below that I feel much more consistent in typing which I feel allows for a more fluid typing experience. I still find it funny that I learned how to type originally from Club Penguin and Minecraft LOL. I am glad I am finding my voice again even if that means through text.