Setbacks

Setbacks

Very recently I spilled water on my laptop keyboard. It was an accident and I was running out of the house anyway.  Trying to act quickly, I grabbed a nearby face towel and ran it through the various keys, trying to soak whatever liquid got inside.  I thought I did an okay job, put on my coat and ran out the door, thinking nothing of it.

It wasn't until the next morning where I turned on my computer and tried to log on that I realized something was wrong.  The keys weren't working.  The first two letters of my password showed up in form of those black dots designating a letter but nothing else worked.  The tab button worked, two letters worked, backspace didn't work.  

I was a little concerned, but was surprised that I didn't freak out more at this possibly devastating accident.  

I took some time away, left it alone and threw the laptop in rice, as the home remedy for wet electronics is to put them in rice, a dessicant, and allow the rice to absorb all the moisture.

After a day, I restarted the computer, still no luck.  I researched ways to fix the problem, there seemed to be only two options: replacing the keyboard, or taking the keyboard out and completely drying it.  As one alternative was both quicker and less expensive, I took apart my laptop, extracted the keyboard and put it in bag of rice.  It is day two currently - the bottom is still somewhat wet.

The more time that passes the more I get frustrated.  Of course I wish I wasn't clumsy enough to spill water, or stupid enough to have water near the laptop, but it happened and I need to deal with it.  It hasn't been easy - I have not touched Photoshop, or my tablet since, and I can't get any actual work done.  But I don't think I'm beat.  In a few days, I'll put together my laptop and see if I can't get the keyboard working again.  Worst-case scenario, it doesn't, I have to order another one and wait some more, but it's a problem that CAN BE FIXED.  

What does this mean for my art?  It means I'm limited to pens, pencils, brushes, watercolors, acrylics, charcoal.  Sounds like a lot.  And it is.  I shouldn't use this unfortunate circumstance to justify inaction on my part, I just need to be resourceful and keep on working.  If things start to get really bad, I'll use my smaller, weaker laptop for specific things.  While it's not the workhorse my older laptop is, I'm sure getting the right programs on my new laptop can't hurt.

Unfortunately, because all my art is on the other laptop, I can't show you anything new, or anything new from the computer.  There's a few non-digital things I'm working on, but it's best to save that for next time.  I apologize for not having a short post, but that's what life is - unexpected, full of surprises, whether good or bad.  Yes, I had a plan, but plans never work out as expected.  This is an unfortunate consequence of that rule.  Hopefully, by next Wednesday, I'll have a longer post and actual art to show.  Til then!


Thanks for reading,

Josue