A Day in The Life

A DAY I N THE L I F E

I am listening to the radio, trying to write. I remember how unsuccessful that has been for me in the past, so I turn it off…

God, the silence is killing me…

I lean back on my chair, carefully so as to prevent the tablet from falling off my knee. The distant sound of a barking dog and the infrequent passing of cars, echoes in my head. I can hear an indistinct ringing. Not sure if it's church bells or in my head, I block the sound out. The dog continues to bark…

The smell of oil penetrates my nostrils from the oil heater at my feet. Thank god it also penetrates my bones and gives me momentary warmth and protection from the cold.

If there is such great warmth in Hell, then is heaven frigid?

There are two table lamps in the room I occupy, for in this room no overhead light exists. I write in shadows, as the light from these lamps barely succeed in chasing away the darkness.

I like the light…

I thought I could hear the wind rustling through the rafters, but it's just another passing car. I wonder what it would be like to be in that car. Though I cannot see the street below me, I wish I was a passenger in that car I hear moving by, living in his or her world – a world that I will never know or have a chance to understand.

Would that dog please shut-up!

I look at the typewriter on my desk in front of me, smiling at its presence. I think of all the work involved in first writing everything in longhand, half printing and half writing, only to later two finger type it all over on a fresh piece of paper. What a waste! I don't mind the time involved, I just hate to see another fresh, clean piece of paper dirtied… What a waste. Maybe I should start using my computer. But the dust has settled nicely on it and I hate to disturb it.

The blackness that engulfs my soul comes out by way of words and spreads out to cover and taint a nice white piece of paper in the form of black. From white to a slowly growing blackness filling the page. Words defecating on the pristine white of the page, changing it forever

Maybe I should change my font color to red, or something more happy…

It's a shame that there aren't more outlets in this room so I could plug in all my lamps. It's a shame there aren't more outlets in my life so I could put to use a head-full of ideas. I can barely afford to allow two of the plugs for lamps, I need my typewriter and radio, for I am running out of sockets. My radio is off and I'm not using the typewriter, but to exchange plugs on a temporary basis, just for another couple of lights, would only be extra work.

I get tired even thinking about it.

I am glad that dog has stopped barking.

The heat from the burner feels good on my body, just as the light feels good to my eyes. I gaze upon the masses of books about, most of which are scattered allover the floor. The biggest and heaviest of the hardbacks are presently being used to straighten out a crinkled poster in the middle of the floor. I think it's a picture of mass nudes on a beach, but I'm not sure, seeing as it has been a long time since I had last seen it. It takes a long time to straighten out wrinkles in a poster unless you could bend them in the opposite direction for a period of time. But I am in no hurry and I don't mind things a bit wrinkled, a little bent out of shape.

I wonder if there is snow outside. These past days have been so cold. Running the heater continuously is a temptation, but then I would need a steady flow of oil…

Then there is the matter of the smell…

Even after getting up to look out the window, I still cannot tell if there is snow. Even the small amount of light the two lamps shed make the windows look like mirrors, so the wall behind me is all I see when I look out. I notice that the dog has not barked for quite some time as I listen to another car whizzing past. I imagine the zagged tire marks he leaves in the imaginary snow. I'm sure the snow covers those tracks before he can see them in his rear-view mirror. No one will ever know he has been down this street.

Possibly the dog has stopped his incessant barking because he has escaped and found his way to the street… the car… in such a hurry…

I have a globe in this room. The Earth. Smooth. Mostly blue. I look at it and wonder at all the water. So much water, and I – never to have seen an ocean. The land has freckles, spotted with names and bumps, but the water is smooth and a consistent blue, with fewer words written on it. The words and the land dirtying the perfection of the blue. It's a nice globe, except for the land and the writing…

I wish I would turn back on my radio, but I know I really don't want to. It's funny how my radio just sits there next to my filing cabinet, in which this article will also sit upon completion. God knows when that will be! I know that if I were to open that top drawer of my filing cabinet all the way it would topple over, probably on my radio, which really wouldn't matter because I bet if that cabinet fell it would crash right through the floor, taking me and everything else in the room with it. My own private sink hole. The top drawer is the heaviest, mostly filled with supplies. If only I would keep the heavier things in the bottom drawer there would not be the fear of it falling over. I wish it could be better arranged but that's the way things go. Some day I will learn. I hear floors are expensive.

The football pennants and the posters in this room give it a sort of presence. The various posters have a pretty wide range of topics and scenes. From spaceships to oceans and other worlds, from kittens to feathered friends, and robots and lasers to baseball players and fields. Life to death.

I would like to see if there is snow outside, but I dare not turn out the lights so I can see out. I notice a slight headache as I look to the time on my watch. I can almost hear it ticking, but I can't hear that dog that's always barking. Time doesn’t really tick, it ebbs.

I close my eyes, feeling a bit funny, but not abnormal.

If I felt fine – I wouldn’t pay it. If I felt more funny – I wouldn’t laugh. If I felt… If only… I… felt.

My stomach is about ready for a beer or two as it's about time for me to get ready to go out for the night.

I wonder what I'll do tonight?

                                                                                 ‘Til Later,

       èim  Uhr

                                    P.S: Maybe I'll see you tonight…

                                           Bet you won't recognize me.

Silence and I                        Should I let it show?

               Secrets

Off Key

Off Key

                                                           By  Tim  Uhr

Watch your ‘puter!

Computers are evil… but for you young-ins, the damnation started even before these wicked devices were invented. Long before The Net captured us all and all that wicky leaking begun bloodletting our great corrupt system, maybe it was something simpler that led us down the path of destruction and deception. Before we Surfed and turfed, and faced books, and yittered and tweeted, and Fried our Space. Look no further than the keypad, or keyboard on your computer, laptop, smart phone, Pi-book, or whatever. This depravity started way way back to something not many people remember anymore, an ancient contraption called a typewriter.

I have made some marginal errors in my life. My typewriter doesn't always return to the same spot on the page when starting a new line. Speaking of typewriters, have you ever noticed, and wondered why, the keys on typewriters aren't in alphabetical order? The manufacturers say it's because it would be harder to type if they were arranged alphabetically. Supposedly it wasn't just a mistake they made when the machine was in the planning stages. But I don't believe it! I think that it only took one dyslexic person working in a factory to frustrate all future typists. They try to say that each letter was put in its place for a reason. Letters usually typed next to each other, like "t" and "h” are placed near each other to make it easy to type. If this were true the "t”, "i” and "m" would be all in a row so I could type my name quickly. Also, why aren't the numbers at the top arranged the same way, instead of their correct order? Certain combinations are used more frequently in numbers too, like the "2" and "0" to make dates easier to type. They didn't arrange the numbers in some cockamamie order to make it "easier to type."

Bullonie on their excuses! I am here to expose the truth about all of these typewriter companies who have been fooling a lot of innocent people for years. I am ready to take on the wrath of these powerful companies. In a brave example of investigative reporting in the likes of Watergate, I am here to expose the truth. Every now and then you have to buck heads with the big guys even when the odds are high. I am just the one to do it, And The Time Is Now!!!

McCarthy is turning over in his grave…

Through years of grueling research and interrogation of the most noble and trustworthy of sources I have come to the undeniable conclusion that these big, powerful typewriter companies made a slight mistake when they started production and they didn't want to recall the thousands of machines they had already sold before they caught the error. You watch, after they sell all the machines made with the mistaken alphabet they will suddenly announce that after years of research, they found that alphabetically correct keyboards are actually better to type on after-all and they will soon start making them that way. Then millions of people will be stuck with the old-fashioned ones that will be worthless once the truth is out. This mistake is actually going to make the typewriter companies money, it’s called planned obsolescence!

I figure, with the add of my pocket calculator (it's buttons are correctly in order), that by the year 2107 all the typewriters they made bearing the mistaken keyboards will be have been completely sold out. That is when they will announce that through years of research and through massive group studies it has been shown by their analysts that alphabetically arranged keyboards are best. As a public survive alphabetized typewriters will then flood the market, and to top it off these new typewriters will cost a good deal more, you will have to pay for the "innovation.” All the old typewriters will become conveniently out of date.

Remember you heard it here first! When in 2107 I say, "I told you so!!!", you will remember that I said I was going to say "I told you so," today.

Doubters!? There may be some unbalanced people out there disposed to have the audacity to question the validity of my well-researched scientific facts. You, the irrational, ask how they could have made electric typewriters and computers back when the mistake was first made when such things as electricity and ram chips weren't invented yet. Yes, it's true that these things didn't exist when the mistake was made and it was caught long before they were thought of, in fact they found the mistake on the first day, it's such an obvious one! The keys are all basically the same no matter the device, they fit the same into any typewriter. So while it's true that electric typewriters and computers weren't around yet, when the mistake was found, they had all those keys that they hadn't used up before they could stop the pressing of the mistaken keys. It's a well-known fact that the keys are made to fit on the keyboard only a certain way, like a jigsaw puzzle, and can't be switched around. Even though there is hardly a typewriter left in the world, still the computer companies bought all these keys that the typewriter companies had stored up, at a huge discount – I might add – that would also make it absolutely unfeasible for them to correct the original mistake. I think that some people call it the original sin – and we’re still paying for it.

Thank mass production. Just take a look up in the attic of any typewriter manufacturer… I mean Computer Company… and you will find boxes and boxes of typewriter keys that were printed up years ago. It would be financially foolish to admit to their mistake and have to throw out all those keys.

And now (a drum role is in order), to finally prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt that it as a mistake and not done on purpose… Take a look at the letters. "q,w,e,r,t,y,u,i,o,p,a,s,d,f,g,h,j,k,l, z,x,c,v,b,n,m." Now if they really meant to make the letters so that they are easier to type to form common words, then why did they stick, so obviously close to the alphabet?

The letter "v" is only one letter away from its regular position in the alphabet, if they were arranged correctly, and so is the letter “H". I could see if just one letter was close to where it should be it could be chalked up to coincidence, but twice? Both the "v" and the “H" are close to their normal positions! Sorry, but that is just a little to hard for me to believe that both these letters would happen to fall only one slot away from where they would be if the keyboard were arranged alphabetically. Coincidence? HAH! Who are these thieves trying to kid?

"Surely not I." said the wise man. Mr. Qwerty, I believe.

No wonder I have always been a two-finger typist! I spent all those years, struggling to learn the alphabet and I just can't forget it like that. I am sorry, but I just don't see why I should have to suffer and rack my brain to relearn the alphabet, just over a mistaken keyboard – which was the typewriter companies fault anyway, and will probably be corrected by 2107.

I can wait. I shouldn’t have to… but I can wait.

I think that we should all boycott any device with an incorrect keyboard on it until they fix the problem.

Maybe I’ll join an action group, or start a charity, or something…

Pfok! People for orderly keyboards!  

What is this world coming to?

                                                                          Orderly yours,                                                                                                                              .                                                                                              èim  Uhr

P.S: By the year 2107 I'll probably have the hang of these mistaken keyboards and will be up to three fingered typing, only to have them change it. 

                                video