Thoughts This Cold, Snowy Morning

For awhile now I've been having trouble with my keyboard. It's wireless, and I've had it four or five years. The last few months, when I try to type, nothing happens or all kinds of gibberish covers the page. When I try to back up, delete, re-type, the cursor doesn't do anything. It reached the point of being extremely frustrating trying to type in my password to my computer. I end up restarting my computer or shutting it down for a few minutes then booting back up to see if the keyboard will behave. A few days ago, I couldn't do anything. I ended up pulling out the laptop so I could get some work done.

An hour or so after rebooting, my keyboard decided it was going to behave. I put a message in the family chat about my keyboard woes, and Funny Delightful Son suggested I purchase a mechanical keyboard, one that is not wireless. Angel Baby jumped in and educated me on the difference between a wireless keyboard vs. a wired keyboard. After it was all explained, I knew I needed a new keyboard. Thankfully, I know someone who works at an office supply store who could get me a good deal on a new keyboard. And the store actually had a mechanical keyboard in stock. 

Now my keyboard matches my mouse 
with the rainbow colors.

As soon as I started typing, I wondered why I had not taken this step way sooner. Why did I hang on to the wireless for so long? The mechanical keyboard sounds like a good old-fashioned typewriter, and best of all it actually works. No more gibberish. No more having to wait for the letters to appear to see if what I typed is actually what the keyboard communicated to the computer. No more having to delete then re-type. The first time I went into Fallout 3 and started moving through the game, I was amazed with how much faster I could move. I struggled for a long, long time using that wireless keyboard. Dopey me. But then again, my kids are always telling me I work harder instead of smarter with some things.

This morning we awoke to our first real snow of the season. We had ice the first week of the new year, which is typical of Illinois. Many winter seasons we end up with more ice than snow where we are. I can do without the ice. Snow is fine. Ice, not so much. Murphy loved getting out and running this morning. Now both dogs are conked out. I really should be getting some work done while they give me the peace and quiet.

My school made the decision to give faculty the room to go remote or stay f2f. It's up to the individual faculty member. I chose to stay f2f, and I'm glad I did. Being able to see the students has been so nice. As far as I know, my students are happy to be in the classroom, too. I still have a couple of online classes, though, and I really need to buckle down and get the next eight or so weeks in place. I like the peace of mind that comes with having everything in place for at least half of the semester. That way, if I end up needing to take some days due to illness, I won't get behind and overwhelmed. 

Recently, I watched Dopesick. I knew very little about the opioid crisis, just that it exists. Because I don't know anyone who has struggled with opioid addiction, and I have never struggled with an addiction of any kind, I've never sought out information about addiction. It's difficult for me to understand how a person ends up going down the addiction path. While watching each episode, though, I felt like I was better understanding how an addiction like this can happen through no fault of the person in the situation. The idea that Purdue Pharma knew the dangers yet kept pushing the drug makes me incredibly angry. What made me even angrier was how the pharma reps bought the company line and pushed it as well.

I'll admit it. I have a bad attitude towards pharma reps. I think many of them are the scum of the earth. And yes, I happen to be married to one. Perhaps this is why I have the attitude I do. For years I watched the behavior demonstrated by the reps in Dopesick. Reps are given the information about the drug they are peddling by the company, and all they do is parrot what the company tells them. Just because a rep takes a "class" on a drug doesn't mean that rep knows what the drug is all about. The "class" is created by the pharma company, and the company is only going to tell the rep the positive things about the drug. Sure, some negatives might be addressed, but these are the least harmful negatives. Being a pharma rep is all about the money. Big salaries. Bonuses. Trips. Driving a company car. It's all about what they can get in return for selling docs. If nothing else, the show just reinforced how disgusting I find pharma to be. Don't get me wrong. I understand how pharma does wonderful things, like creating a vaccine for COVID and getting it to the people at no cost to the individual. I know pharma does some incredible work. But it has also hurt a lot of people.

If you can't tell, Dopesick got me going. 

Now, however, I must get to work. Enough blathering on about pharma and pharma reps.