Cowboys reporter out here spiking footballs of her own.

I have exactly two skills that I will be cocky about: Playing Scrabble and typing. Not long after I started on the desk of the first metro at which I worked, a columnist of whom you’ve heard found himself with a bad TRS-80. He called the desk to dictate, and he got me. Not knowing me, he barked, “How fast can you type?” To which I snap-answered, “How fast can you read?”

 

....... 1234567890 times

 

I never learned to touch type, even with taking typing AND keyboarding in high school. (I thought it was going to be a technology class, and as my previous post established, my guidance counselor was asleep at the switch.) I still have to occasionally glance at my hands and if I try to do the home row thing the whole process grinds to a halt. But I can still do 80 wpm or so the “wrong” way.

 

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

 

I took one semester of typing in high school. Figured it was all I needed.

When I became sports editor of my college paper, one of the perks was getting an electric typewriter. First time I ever got in front of a computer, aside from interviews, was at my first job, an old Hastech.

 

Depends on what you can make your brand.

For every 100 young women in TV news who wear their clubbing clothes on Instagram and build that brand, there is one person in TV news who actually writes about life experiences that people will seek out.

I try to be THAT person and it has served me well in “building brand” but also being relatable. I consider that my hedge in this business, which is grinding me down in quick fashion.

 

Wife got me one of those retro-looking/sounding keyboards for my birthday a few years ago. Looks more retro than it sounds.

Sounds like Space Invaders.

 

And then there's this fucking thing ...



... with THESE fucking things ...



No guidance counselor in the world could have prepared us for the TRS-80 with shitty couplers 8 minutes till deadline experience.

 

My dad, who was teaching a work-study hybrid program at my high school, made me take typing my freshman year, and it was one of the best things he ever did for me. We learned on IBM Selectrics, and I got to be pretty good.

The best I ever saw, however, was Waco Tribune-Herald sports reporter Mickey Humphrey (RIP). He pretty much typed with just two fingers, and he could always keep up with whoever he was interviewing over the phone, which was very often a high school football coach on Friday night who he managed to track down at a small town Dairy Queen. The dude was pure magic in what he did.

 

You’d be good at selling Laz-E-Boys.

 

I loved my Trash 80. It was great back in the day.