M y computer keyboard stopped working Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. I’m pretty sure that’s a date I’ll remember for quite a while. My computer is just over three years old.

I’m one of those people who’s almost always on the computer, unfortunately. Between working on columns for Technician or writing lesson plans, typing is super important, but then again, so is logging onto my computer. Yes, it was password protected. I have a nosy brother and cousin.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset when I went to log in to my computer and found my keyboard wouldn’t let me type. Well, actually three keys were functioning. My caps lock key still worked, the “M” key had become the enter key and the backspace key typed things in, but the password function wouldn’t let me see what it was typing.

I know I’m not the best person with computers. I don’t bother backing things up, I don’t use an external hard drive—heck, I don’t even understand what that is—but I think it’s time for me to learn.

I have documents on the computer that are completely and totally irreplaceable. I decided about a year ago to start a running document of things I thought were important to remember. Little tidbits of information my teachers shared that didn’t really fit anywhere else. I think the last time I looked at it, it was up to five pages.

So, if you hadn’t already guessed, my computer is at the doctor. Hopefully I’ll have it back in two weeks, but it depends on how long it takes the new keyboard to come in.

Cue shocked faces. How in the world does a college student who is taking 18 credit hours and has several papers due soon get by?  

You can’t spend all your time in a computer lab or in the library—at least, I can’t.

Between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, I spent four hours total in the computer lab. To be quite honest, I was amazed at the amount of work I got done, just with the motivation that I didn’t want to spend all day there. But, boy was I sick of sitting still by the time those hours were up.

I went home to take my computer to get fixed. Fortunately, I think, my parents have a new desktop computer they rarely use; my dad uses it once or twice a week to play Bubble Shooter. 

My weekend was spent in front of that computer writing one of the papers I’d already started, but lost when I couldn’t get in my laptop.

Now comes the amazing part. My aunt had an extra laptop she bought about three months ago. Nope, it’s not new. In fact, she said it’s about eight years old. The battery doesn’t work, and it doesn’t have Microsoft Word. It can’t handle too much at once. One tab on Mozilla Firefox is the most you can have open. But, good grief, the keyboard works!

Using this computer has kept me on task. I can’t have Facebook, Moodle, Gmail, Twitter, Texts From Last Night, WRAL and my homework open at the same time. And it’s too much to be constantly going between the sites.

I’ve only been using this computer since last Saturday, but I’m feeling pretty caught up on my work. Knocking out Hulu and YouTube makes catching up a lot easier.

I just got a text this week from the man who’s fixing my laptop saying my laptop should be ready this weekend. It’s sounding like a trip home, but for a good reason this time.

Oh, and this column was made possible by GoogleDocs. Using Works just wasn’t cutting it for me. I like my computer with my Windows Vista, Google Chrome, documents, photos and Microsoft Word. I can’t wait to get it back, but having this computer is making me learn even more about GoogleDocs. I mean, it has a word count tool. That’s amazing, but I’ll take my Word any day.