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title: Cleaning Keyboard

date: 2023-12-31T15:35:48+09:00

---

I started cleaning my keyboard to get my completely broken and shattered psyche back on track.

At the end of the year, I had a major accident. I inadvertently messed with a configuration file and the OS wouldn't start. It's not a host OS, it's a guest OS running in a virtual environment, but it's where I do all my work, so in StarCraft terms, it's home base. Once the OS went bad, it never came back. I have to reinstall it with tears in my eyes, which I'm willing to deal with if it's just a nuisance, but where the hell am I going to find my work, and I wonder why I even bothered to mess with it in the first place. Pathetic, really...

Anyway, I couldn't think of an immediate way to recover it. This is where simple labor comes in. I set about removing the keycaps from a keyboard I've had for almost 15 years, a Realforce 87 solid-state keyboard that I gave to my oldest daughter a few years ago and then took back from her. It's too heavy and big for me to say much about the benefits of tenkeyless. Still, I've yet to find a keyboard that feels this good, so I can't put it down easily. I can't imagine throwing it away, unless one key doesn't feel right.

I've been keeping my other keyboards clean for a while now, but this one hasn't seen the light of day, so it's been a while since I've taken the cap off and cleaned it. Oh, and the condition of the keyboard is ridiculous. If I could quantify the level of dirt on a scale of 1 to 100, it's almost 120. I can't believe the keys were pressed in this condition. I've tried wipes, alcohol, etc. to no avail. I thought about putting it in a hot water bath, but I didn't want to ruin my aging keyboard, so I decided to leave it alone and just cover it up. I was going to give it a proper bath for the New Year, but I decided to pretend it never happened and just clean the keycaps and live with it. I feel a little sorry for the keyboard, but what can I do?