Digital natives and candle wax

On Tuesdays, I work at home. This is because Tuesday is the evening I head through to Oxford for lectures, and it's a shorter drive from home than from work. At the moment, I have to use the family PC for my home-based work, because my laptop has recently taken it into its head not to talk to our wireless network for more than a few minutes before dropping the connection. This is usually not a major hassle.

Today, however, is a different matter. Today, the family PC's keyboard sports many keys that have developed an unhealthy fixation upon their neighbours. The cause? Candle wax dear reader. "Candle wax?" I hear you ask, as well you might. Well, it's like this...

In this house, we have two digital natives, two members of the net generation (net gen) or generation Z. These are people who conduct their relationships online and who make full use of the always-on connectivity that symbolises this age. Several hours of online discussion via msn (an instant messaging tool, for the uninitiated) with several friends at once is a daily occurrence. More power to them, I say. When the time comes for them to be remote workers/telecommuters, it'll be an ingrained habit.

However, back to my story: Torvy has put this to slightly creative use. He is trying to romance a rather beautiful girl (for those who knew her, she looks a lot like Jenni Tredoux) who is a few months older and a year ahead at school (strangely both Björn's successful relationships have been with girls a school year ahead, too). To this end, he adopted a method I shall call msn-by-candlelight. I kid you not. Very sweet. Very original. Very creative. Very romantic. Not so good for the keyboard, though.

If anyone knows of successful methods of fostering an atmosphere of romance online without destroying electronic devices, please let Torvy know. Anyone who knows of a way of removing wax from a keyboard, please let me know!