Mind Tricks

During my freshman year of college, I went where few computer nerds go: I learned the DVORAK keyboard layout.

I first heard of the DVORAK keyboard layout by one of my Dad's co-workers while attending a company party at the Galt House for Thunder over Louisville. QWERTY was designed to separate frequently used pairs of letters, to prevent the typebars in typewriters from getting stuck. I don't know how much thought was put into the efficiency of the QWERTY layout, but it made sense to me that a layout existed that was more efficient.



And so in the summer of 2002, I began to learn a new language. To learn, some suggested switching the key caps on the keyboard to match the DVORAK keyboard or buying DVORAK keyboard stickers to cover the QWERTY letters. I went the cheap and simple route and printed a layout of the keyboard and taped it to my monitor. I switched my keyboard layout in Windows and all the sudden, my QWERTY keyboard was a DVORAK keyboard. ASDFG were no longer the home keys, they were now AOEU. I quit QWERTY cold turkey and practiced and practiced. I used typing programs to quickly teach my fingers frequently used pairs of letters and short words such as "the" and "of." Within a couple weeks, I was fairly proficient at using DVORAK.



The human mind is an amazing work of God. I had learned DVORAK without looking at the keyboard, but by looking at the piece of paper with the keys. My mind had mapped the keys and their positions by seeing the keyboard layout. Because the keys I was pressing were labeled differently, I had to rely upon this mental mapping of keys in the beginning stage of learning how to type. Soon afterwards, my fingers learned how to do the typing and I no longer had to refer to that mental map to know where a letter was on the keyboard. I imagine that a pianist may understand this concept.



I had been using DVORAK on my computer for three years. I used it at home and on my co-ops on my work computer. After years of use, I had become very comfortable and proficient with it. Because I had not been using QWERTY, I discovered that I was unable to type in QWERTY without looking at the keyboard. My mind had forgotten QWERTY! I was able to look at the keyboard to get me started at QWERTY again, and it wasn't long before I was touch typing in both QWERTY and DVORAK. My mind and fingers had both layouts memorized.




Currently, I'm embarking on an experiment; I am learning a third keyboard layout. COLEMAK appears to be a mix between QWERTY and DVORAK. It places the most used keys on the home row like DVORAK, yet keeps the undo, cut, copy, paste keys (zxcv) and the punctuation keys in the same place as QWERTY. My mind tells me that this layout feels closer to QWERTY.




The experiment is not to see whether I can learn it (because I think I can), but is whether I can quickly switch between all three layouts- mentally. Currently, I am able to mentally switch between DVORAK and QWERTY. What I'm interested in discovering is if my mind can call upon any of the two layouts that I have mentally mapped (DVORAK and COLEMAK) at any time. (QWERTY doesn't count because if I get into a bind, I can always look at the keys on the keyboard, which will trigger QWERTY to be used.)

I am currently using COLEMAK to type this post. It has taken a while, but I already feel better at it. I feel that my fingers are beginning to learn where the keys are. I'll report on the results.

Absolute vs Relative

Today at work, I saw two women in the hallway talking. I have come across this scene many times in my life, but this one time I noticed something that I had never observed before: both of the women had high-heels of the same height. Of course, this got me thinking about society, especially that of women.

The obvious, primary function of high-heels is to make one taller. Is the purpose to make one absolutely taller (so one is 5'3" instead of 5'1") or is it to make one relatively taller (5" shorter than something instead of 7" shorter)? Knowing women, I'd bet it's to be relatively taller, which begs the question: to what are they comparing themselves?

Coming upon this scene made me laugh. If the two women were to take off their shoes, one would still be looking up to the other. It appeared to me that their high-heel pain was in vain. It made me ask, "What's the point?"

Maybe the answer to my question was answered a few moments later in an unseen scene. Maybe one of the high-heel ladies came upon a different woman who was not wearing high-heels that day and, therefore, was able to tower an additional 3"? Or is it woman's attempt to compete with men in a man's world?

Heated Debate

Over a year ago, there was a heated debate. Red or black? Here is another one that I'm sure will attract the same amount of passion, if not more.

Dlo and I debated this for over half an hour last night. It only lasted 30 minutes because we started getting into the definition of Absolute Truth and whether it exists. Frankly, I was too tired last night to debate the fabric of the universe.

I know I'm right and he knows he's right. So how do we solve our differences? By placing our dilema before the world! Below is a picture of what we debated. Answer this question (include an explanation if you so desire):

WHICH REGION IS IN FRONT OF THIS PERSON'S BACK?
A or B?

Opportunity 1

The orbiter Discovery made it! It was exciting to watch the launch and the landing. This shuttle mission was the first that I had seen from start to finish. I've been fighting for the past three years to see a mission start to finish. In that time, I had three opportunities:

1.
I was a new co-op here at NASA in the spring of 2003. We had all just finished four straight semesters of Speed and I had no clue what NASA did. Before my interview with NASA, I asked Adam what great things they had been doing since the moon. He stood in disbelief and asked if I had heard of the Space Station. "Nope!" "Are you kidding?" No I wasn't. I had no idea. Now that I think about, I did know they had space shuttles because I remember as a sophomore in high school sticking around at school after classes to watch the historic John Glenn launch. I felt that someone with more zeal for NASA, like Todd or Adam, should be the one interviewing. Thanks to Adam, he was able to explain the space station before my interview, enough to land me a job with the space station group in Florida.

I had been here at the job for about two weeks and I found myself groggy in the early morning riding a bus to a VIP viewing site to watch the Columbia launch. The sun rose; a beautiful day was born. It was sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky. Three hours later and three miles away, on January 16, 2003, I saw my first Shuttle launch. The shuttle went up and all that was heard were claps and cheers. The wave made its way across the lagoon where birds flew far and fast from their places of rest. The sky sounded like it was being ripped apart- a continuous Grand Finale at Thunder. What used to be on the ground was now in space.

Two weeks later, I awoke early on a Saturday morning to watch Columbia return from space. Fortunate for me, it would be returning right before my eyes. Tickets to watch the landing were abundant- it was just another landing of a shuttle on a Saturday morning. They said that the sonic booms would be loud- two, distinct explosions. With a count-down clock and three-mile long runway in front of me, this was certainly to be unlike any other plane landing I had ever seen.

"UHF comm check" they broadcasted over and over- waiting for an answer. They lost communication with the shuttle. The count-down clock reached zero with the runway empty. The shuttle was running late. We returned to the busses and I drove home. The news said it all: the shuttle wouldn't be landing in Florida today.