jade does sell; seek jade

 Hmm. Well, that is an odd post title, you may well think. And, on the face of it, it is sort of weird. Probe a little. . . or wait a second until I tell you why I wrote that, and it will all be clear and might even raise a chuckle. You see, the day before yesterday, my wife and I stopped at the local used book shop and picked up a copy, their only copy, of "College Typewriting," that classic how-to-type book. If you remember your school-days typing class, then you might remember that kind of book: long and tall, designed to stand on its own, and full of mind numbing and finger torturing drills. A sort of physical training program for your fingers. 

Our used copy of College Typewriting in action

And embedded in those early exercises of this particular volume, in addition to the many lines of endless letter pairs, such as ff dd aa laff daff; kk ll jj jakl; ss, come some words in interesting combinations, many of which involve the pinky working word "jade." Yes, many times thus far, I have typed see jade, sell jade, jade sells, old jade, soak jade. . . just so much jade that one might even be inspired to write a poem of sorts.

Typing practice inspires a bad haiku

Ah, but then I am not a poet, which is well and good because neither poor poetry nor jade is my point in this posting. Instead, I am writing about the experience, particularly as it has reminded me how relaxing typing practice can be. . . if you omit the timed tests bit. The rhythm, the sound, the feeling - all while emptying your mind of thought as you get into the exercise is the nice surprise that has come with doing the exercises in that book. I do a few exercises before bed just to clear my mind and get in the mode for meaningful slumber.

In an odd way, doing typing exercises - the ones with just pairs of letters and the odd word or phrase now and then reminds me of doing Taichi. When doing typing exercises, if you let your mind wander, and start thinking about the distractions. . . your life noise. . .  creep into your mind, you will invariably start making mistakes in your typing. The relaxing aspect of typing drills is that they make your focus on the job at hand, getting into the rhythm of that typing, and filling your mind with only that, leaves no room for worry, regrets, anger, and so on. It is that emptiness that brings you relaxation.

Single Whip - Typing and taichi practice are not without similarity of effect

That is very much like it is doing taichi. Doing taichi is practicing the form, focusing on the form, feeling the form. The minute you start wondering what you eat for dinner or whether or not your boss is mad at you for some slip up at work, then you will soon find that you don't know what you are doing and that you are lost in the form. Letting your mind fill with outside noise, destroys the peace of focus on the task at hand.

Well, I didn't mean to get all "relateful" on you there, haha. I just wanted to jot down that thought and share it. Maybe it will stand as a reminder to me if nothing else. That all said, time for slumberland for this reporter. Ciao for now.