Category: typewriters

Abstraction versus The Thing

April 2nd, 2023

Today I discovered that the tilted text isn’t an artifact of the scanner, which is great! Unfortunately, it’s a byproduct of how I’m loading paper into the typewriter. I’m a little biased towards my left hand since I crank the platen around with my right. I can probably fix that more easily than trying to correct all these documents after the fact. At least it’s an interesting problem.

I wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for scanning it in and looking at it devoid of the context of the physical thing itself. I feel like that is, again, strangely appropriate given the subject matter of the post itself.
Focusing Machine

March 30th, 2023

I feel like I’m getting the hang of making fewer errors. It requires more concentration than I’m used to bringing to bear to be able to pull that off. A few mistakes still aren’t preventing me from publishing! Mostly I don’t want to use a ton of paper to get something just right.

I’m thinking about maybe setting up to stream some typing work on Twitch, somehow or another. I envision it as kind of a place to hang out and maybe enjoy the (admittedly quaint) sound of a typewriter going to work on the page. I’m not fully sold on the idea yet, though.
Temperamental

March 29th, 2023

I can’t believe that the Olivetti decided to pitch a fit while I was writing about how I perceived printers to be temperamental. I know I made some errors in spelling up there but the star of the show is really how egregiously bad the ribbon messed up (it didn’t switch feed direction as intended, the little eyelet that’s supposed to swap it over got stuck) and how it inserted an extra space a few times.

It was still more fun to use, though.

I think it might be time to clear up one of the goals of this little “post typewritten documents online!” project. Aside from knowing that I can’t really play the SEO game, so I’m trying my level best to produce something maybe you’d want to read, the goal is to get used to producing work and publishing it.

This one, in particular, would’ve been something that I would’ve preferred to refine and keep back for a while. From experience, I know that means the article would’ve died a slow death lingering among files on my PC somewhere. It’s definitely not the most valuable article I’ve ever produced, but getting over the trepidation with regard to publishing work is valuable along a different axis.

I’ll probably discuss that more in some upcoming typewritten page or two.
Talking About Goals

March 28th, 2023

Daily writing prompt
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
View all responses

I thought it might be neat to answer the writing prompt with a typewritten document. Couldn’t hurt, right?

Immediately upon completing that page, I added a new long-term goal: dramatically improve my typing accuracy. You don’t know how often you use “Backspace” until that key doesn’t delete unfortunately-placed characters anymore. I had a few pages with errors so egregious that I actually had to start over. I try to keep that to a minimum otherwise the fun wears off. That means a few errors sneaked into this one but they were small enough that I felt I could live with them.
Choosing Your Technology

March 28th, 2023

I feel like this one is slightly less slanted? I’m making progress with this weird little workflow.

For those interested, this was produced on a Royal Quiet DeLuxe from, near as I can tell, sometime in the late 40s. I might be wrong about that!

Anyway, we’re beginning to wander away from using the typewriter to discuss the typewriter, which will be ideal. I’m not into the idea of endlessly navel-gazing about the tool that produces the work. I’m working from some procession of ideas that make sense to me, though, and I just have to get some of this out of the way, first.
Old Tech in Modern Times

March 27th, 2023

At least one mistake sneaked through on this one, but such is life. I’m not terribly interested in going through another sheet of paper to correct it, so just imagine the missing “o” in the word “philosophy” above.

Also, my scanner seems to want to put a bit of a tilt on these things but I imagine that’s just because it’s my first day using it and the alignment is my problem. The rest of them won’t be tilted that way, even if I end up having to manipulate them post-scan.

In accordance with the topic of the post itself? It sure is strange to have computer-formatted text on a webpage hanging out below a typewritten page. This feels nice and modern. Up there? It feels weirdly antiquated even though I know the words are mine from just a bit ago. It’s kind of neat!

Anyway, next up is indeed the topic hinted at in the last sentence!
The Beginning

March 26th, 2023

Update, months after I originally posted this:

That’s some awful readability on the text on that document, huh? If this is your first encounter with this work, don’t worry – it gets quite a bit better when I figured out that some of this didn’t come across super well on a computer screen.