Update

I want to give an update on my well being. I had thought that I would be able to be back on track by this time, but things aren’t progressing as fast as I had thought. Nevertheless, things are moving in the right direction. I have to keep telling myself that I am making good progress.

I will tell you all of some things I have done in the way of progress. I am certain that these things will pay off in the long run. I would like to tell you first about some things I am doing to get my speed up in typing.

About 30 years ago I had heard of the Dvorak keyboard. It is a replacement for the Qwerty keyboard. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, the Qwerty keyboard is what you use now, unless you are one of the few who use Dvorak. The Qwerty keyboard was designed to speed up typing by reducing jams. When the keyboard was invented in the 1870's all of the keys worked on metal arms. To force the user to slow his typing down the Qwerty keyboard was designed. Due to the difficulty of teaching a new keyboard design, the Qwerty remains with us today.

 












Qwerty Keyboard

The Dvorak keyboard was invented in 1932. Its name was taken from one of the inventors names rather than from the layout of keys. The Dvorak is supposed to place the most commonly used letters under the home row (the 2nd row of letter keys).

Dvorak Keyboard

A second drawback I had to encounter was the tendency of a stroke to overemphasize either the right side or the left side. In my case it was the left side. I needed a keyboard that would make me type with both hands. This led to my purchasing the Kinesis Advantage keyboard.

Kinesis Advantage

These were rather expensive keyboards. I got mine for about $180. I am seeing benefits from it already. I am far less tempted to favor my left hand with the keyboard.

Note that I have moved my mouse to the left side. I will leave it there until my right hand is back to full coordination. At this time I am also marking the Dvorak keys on the keypad with overlays. The letter keys that are not marked are not letter keys.

It seems like a pretty good time to make this change for they say it takes about 3 weeks to get it memorized. I have been using it for 1 week now.

It seemed like a pretty good time to make the change for I had a set of friends whose laptop computer got struck by lightning. I needed to get rid of my laptop so I gave it to them. I could not handle the laptop keyboard anymore. Since I had just gotten my desk installed I had plenty of room for a desktop.

This is my new system. I got it for sale on Amazon. It was $330 less than other models on sale. It is a Dell computer.

At this time I have gone ahead and printed newsletters for prisoners on the new computer. I got the difficulties worked out in doing so. I had to print all new address labels for them because they left off the prison name and the mens Department of Corrections number. All of this takes time because I have to rely on other people like my daughter to get things for me. It took me an extra week to sort things out, between getting the mailing labels and figuring out with my Excel report expert what the problem was.

Now that I have my problems fixed and my newsletters all printed, my Xerox printer has come up with an error that will require a visit by the Xerox repair person. My printer is 10 days past its one year anniversary so I have to use a new source for repairs. I will see how that goes. I did purchase the 4 year extended warranty through Amazon.

On another note, I took Girlfriend, my female dog, a few weeks ago to get her spayed. She was a bit sore for about a week, but she bounced right back. She is back to her normal speed now.

Well, that is enough news for now. I appreciate the mail and the news. I have to ask that you not ask me to write back right now. It has taken me all day to write up this letter. Of course I have had to download and install a new graphics program. I wish you all well, and I especially at this time want to thank all of you who continue to support me with your financial gifts.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063