Testing!

Six months — wait, maybe seven — since I last blogged. Batting a thousand with this one!

I’ve been dying to do more blogging, but I’m blocked every time I start. I have also been ignoring my laptop more during the day, opting to check and reply to social media on my phone. I just got a new one, so typing isn’t even as big a hassle as it was on my old one, which didn’t have Swipe. However, I’m far more prone to typos when typing on my phone, so I haven’t even tried blogging from there at all.

I have a tablet, too (it’s gadget-tastic around here), which also has Swipe, but I guess I just kinda decided that blogging from something that doesn’t have a real keyboard attached to it is just too much of a pain.

The real problem is that I’m lazy and uncreative right now, so blogging is WAAAAAY down the to-do list, along with “dusting”.

However . . . my laptop is getting a little long in the tooth for traveling. The battery is wonky, and it requires a backpack with a padded pocket. It’s just not as great a travel companion as it used to be. It takes up a lot of space on the kitchen table (or anywhere, honestly), and I can’t go more than an hour or so without having to plug it in. This is not good for use on a plane, in a car, or anywhere else I might not be able to plug in for several hours.

Enter the Bluetooth Keyboard! I’d thought about picking one up a while ago, so I wouldn’t have to lug my computer everywhere if I felt like working on a story or blog post when I got a free minute. We went on a trip in April, and I really didn’t want to bring the computer along. I almost left it home, except that it played DVDs (which we didn’t watch, anyway). I realized later that it would have been MUCH more convenient to just have my tablet and a keyboard, which might just fit in my purse.

I’m about to go on a trip to Texas, which will require a couple of long flights. I decided it’s time to find a good keyboard to go with my tablet, so I could reduce the number of devices (and chargers and accoutrements) I’m bringing with me.

I went to Best Buy to see what they had, and out of, like, 25 choices, only two were Android compatible (it felt like some kind of gadgety Brady Bunch tagline: “iPad, iPad, IPAD!!”). They were good choices, but not great prices. So off to Amazon.com I went, to see if I could find the same thing or something similar for a better price. I found a bunch, but nothing quite struck my fancy until I saw the Sharkk Backlit Keyboard, which has a bunch of different backlight colors (it comes with all the colors, and you can change them with a button!) and great reviews. Even better, it was on sale and fulfilled by Amazon Prime.

I ordered one, and it came a day early. I plugged it in to charge while I was gone this evening, and it was ready to pair with my Google Nexus when I got home! 

It’s a sturdy little thing, but it will require a more robust carrying case. It came with a cloth pouch to store it in, but that won’t protect it from being jounced around in a bag. My husband is a leather worker, though, so I might be able to talk him into make me a cover. 🙂 There are tablet cases you can buy that have the keyboard already installed, but since I already have a great case for my tablet and don’t plan for my tablet to actually fully replace my laptop, I wanted something separate. However, this will be perfect for traveling! And the occasional blog post when I can’t sit in front of my computer. 🙂