The lengths to which we go

The other night I was just starting a chat with a friend online, when I suddenly knocked a glass of water over onto my keyboard- that is my computer, since it's a laptop. "Oh no!" I said, or something to that effect. I unplugged everything, opened up the computer and dried it out... and when I reattached it it seemed to be working fine. What a relief. However...

Obviously I didn't do the job very well. I should have let it drain out longer, or used a hair dryer on "cool" to finish it. A few random keys are no longer working- the ~, the =, the [, and the up and down arrows. What a narrow escape, you may say! Who needs those keys anyway? Not being a programmer or needing to type in Spanish, except for web addresses, I seemed to be (mostly) saved. But alas... my new relationship with the bracket key as an essential letter in the Arabic alphabet forced me to find a solution.

Take it in to get fixed? Buy a new keyboard? I couldn't face the thought of not being able to type in Arabic. Without the oh-so-important ج (j), I would be hopelessly hobbled. But just now a bright idea came to me- I could select a different keyboard layout for Arabic! It would mean relearning the location of the letters and moving all the stickers, but it could work. Better yet, though- I can just open the little "Keyboard Viewer" window and click on the right letter from my old familiar layout... Yay! Of course this could slow me down just a little...... and somehow clicking on the up and down arrows doesn't attract as a time-saving device; but I really do feel glad- temporarily. I think an attempt at repair would still be wise.