Tonight the moon is almost, if not already full. This means a sky full of those backlit, white edged clouds I love so much but have yet to sit down and learn to paint consistently. According to the weather reports and a phone conversation I had earlier today, the clouds bring with them the threat of possible snow flurries and ice storms. As I type this, the moon is directly above with no cloud cover in view. I hate to miss the visual, but my balding tires and I can do without the frozen precipitation.

I made a stop by Circuit City today in an attempt to solve a keyboard problem I’ve been having. The problem comes from working at my desk all day with the daylight from the window providing visibility. As the sun goes down, so goes my ability to find the white characters on the all black keyboard that I need for pulling my shortcut keystrokes in Painter. If I get really busy, the change in ambience can sneak up on me and I’m bent over with my nose an inch above the space bar hunting for the ctrl key before I know it. I could just get up and hit the light switch, but if I’m rolling, I don’t want to risk that momentum for something as meager as saving my sight. Enter the Saitek backlit USB keyboard. What a great idea!!! Although the inspiration for it stems from the world of computer gaming, everything about it’s design is based around being easy on the eyes. In a well lit situation, the keys are a reflective silver with black characters; not too different from the all white keyboards most of the planet has seen before. In low light, two available levels of blue illumination define the keys and the characters on them, making hunting and pecking as simple and easy as it would be with the room lights on. Not quite as “clacky” as the old Dell keyboard it’s replacing, but nowhere near as mushy or quirky as the Virtually Indestructible version. It’s also pretty quiet; might work well in a learning / student apartment environment. I’ll miss the convenience of the VIK sleep, wake, and power keys (just have to roll ‘em up and save ‘em for the road…), but I think the Saitek and I will get along.