Learning Aesthetics

Normally I post links to things I like, occasionally to things I hate, but every now and then I stumble on to something that seems important or maybe useful but I’m not sure whether my reaction is positive or negative. A case in point: Deena Larsen has put together a site for high school and introductory college teachers of electronic literature as a creative writing or rhetoric course called Fundamentals: Rhetorical Devices for Electronic Literature. I offer it without comment beyond, interesting.

And speaking of devices; you may remember that I’ve changed keyboard layouts in an effort to improve my typing speed, futile so far. A side effect has been learning some interesting things about how my mind works, or as often as not, doesn’t work. I’ve always been a lazy typist; despite the best efforts all my high school typing teachers I’ve cheated by watching the keyboard as I type. Obviously that’s not real productive when you shift over to the Drovak layout because now the keys are all mislabeled. However, today I discovered that I type faster and with more accuracy if I watch the keys as I type. I can ignore the labels and sort of visualize the letters and the layout, weird. You never know what you’re addicted to or how hard it’s going to be to break the habit.

Image Mark Wubben