Day 165: Peripherals

I don't often discuss the tools I use to write, but I thought now that I've had a few days with this new keyboard I would make a post about what it is and how it's been performing.

I bought this keyboard on MechanicalKeyboards.com. It's an outlet for ... you guessed it ... mechanical keyboards. Here's the model I got, the Ducky One 2 Phantom, which sounds extremely cool now that I'm typing it out, but that wasn't why I bought it. I read some great reviews, especially from typists like myself, and it has everything I wanted. The right dimensions, key type, and price point. It's been been extremely satisfying to use so far, and actually it's helped me stay focused for longer just because it's more fun than my last keyboard. If you have trouble staying focused when there's no direct feedback to make monkey brain go 'mmm' while writing, then I highly recommend investing in a mechanical keyboard. When I start to slow down, or my mind wanders, I'll just continue typing nonsense to feel the keys go clack. It keeps me engaged just long enough for the train of thought to come back. That might sound weird, but it works ok?

It's also a lot faster than my last keyboard. I got an extra ten words per minute out of this thing when I took a speed test for comparison. To be honest, I don't think that matters much for me because I'm more limited by how quickly I can think up the words than how fast my hands can put them down, but still. Every little bit helps.

I have one small complaint about the switches I went with though. The switch is the part that actuates when you press on they key, and I went with the Cherry blue variety. These switches are built primarily for typing and while they perform well, I would like to try a different key type in the future, maybe the Cherry brown switches. This is how the key works:

As you can see it kinda goes 'pop' as it goes down, which feels great if you hit the key correctly every time, but if you get a half press there's a bit of play that feels rather muddy under the finger. I'm not sure the other switch type would alleviate this, but I'd be happy to try it out. Other than that though, they feel great, and they make a satisfying noise, very reminiscent of a typewriter. All I need is a slide to pull back whenever I hit the end of a line, a double of bourbon, a cigar, and I'd finally feel like a real writer.

That's all for the keyboard, but keep an eye out for the first of the spy novels next week. I'm kicking it off with 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' so it ought to be a good one. Happy Friday!

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley