It's amazing how much our fingers know how to do, without us having to think about each specific movement. It's like when we first learn how to type, it takes awhile but eventually our fingers move across the keyboard without much thought from us. My fingers in particular also know another keyboard, that on my cell phone. As any other avid text messager is sure to be able to do, I find myself able to spit out msgs on my phone almost as fast as on my computer. Of course a lot of this is due to the help of T9 mode, but even with T9 off (to write in english), I never have to look at what key I am hitting, or how many times I hit it. My fingers know.

Yesterday I discovered a new skill that my fingers know. One I hadn't been aware of even developeing. I can in fact use my phone to make a call, without looking at the screen. I discovered this handy skill, after the screen on my phone decided to stop working. I had been fighting with my screen for the past few days. It would occasionally go out, or be streaked with lines, or sometimes bits of image from a different part of the screen would show up in the wrong place. So far I had been winning the battle, as after a bit of poking and proding it would come back on. Alas though, I have finally lost. I've spent the last day poking my phone, to no avail.

It wasn't a particuarly nice or expensive phone, and I had bought it almost 3 years ago. Considering this, I got quite a bit of use out of it. And while I can still make and receive calls without problems, I can not see who's calling me, use my phone book, see if I missed a call, or read/write text messages. I managed yesterday to call Jackie, as I knew that her name was the first J in my phone book. So through a series of button pushes, trusting my fingers to press the right ones, I placed the call. The purpose of the call, to find out what time it was. Yes, without being able to see the screen, I also have no clock.

I think I will invest some time this week in searching for a new phone.