Right now, I’m using a three-year old slow as hell laptop with a huge eyesore: the left palm rest has a gigantic black stain on it. That’s not the only one though, the left mouse button on the trackpad has an even worse black streak running across the bottom, and I can feel my keyboards getting grease spots every time I hit a key.
I don’t know about you, but I despise greasy surfaces. My old laptop keyboard was so greasy, that each key was basically a glossy, dented surface across which you could skate your fingers. It was a complete abhorrence to my eyes and fingers, so much so that I eventually bought a new keyboard.
But now this one is slowly starting to accumulate grease, much to my ire. I wash my hands prior to using the laptop, and still, grease happens.
The only way to stop this from happening is to get a protective keyboard cover. Unfortunately, those covers make the keyboard harder to use, and significantly dampen the tactile sensation of keyboards.
My solution to that: type on the edge of my fingernails. But since the grease-o-pocalypse is inevitable, the keys are still going to become massive grease spots one day. Here’s where my symmetry OCD kicks in. Ever since I realized how much grease had accumulated on the old keyboard, I’ve been aiming to use both sides of the keyboard evenly. That means Left and Right Shift evenly, Left and Right Control, and so on. Even within keys, I try to distribute the grease evenly, among the four sides and corners. After all, the only thing worse than a greasy keyboard is an unevenly greasy keyboard.
Next week: My Pet Peeve of fingerprints… and nose prints!
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