I got an early birthday gift this week. My husband gave me a netbook with built in mobile broadband should the desperate need to google, blog, or consult wikipedia strike when a WiFi connection is not available. It is about 10" across, weighs about three pounds, and tucks neatly into my purse. It was a most excellent gift, indeed. I love it.
As I was becoming acquainted with my new toy, my husband said, "So now you won't need to carry a pen and notebook with you everywhere you go anymore."
Whoa there! Back it up a bit, buddy! The technology impresses me. It even amazes me a little bit. But a replacement for pen and paper? Hardly!
I know people who have completely given up pen and paper. They don't have landlines, either. They don't understand me any more than I understand them. (We still like each other a lot, though. Unity through diversity, no?)
I like taking pen to paper. I like writing outside and watching the ink quickly dry in the sunshine. I like the process of jotting things down. I like the very word: jot. I like writing without spellcheck - it's like working without a net. I'm adventurous like that, what can I say? I like my handwriting. It's sloppy to the point of illegibility sometimes - it's pretty and distinctive when I make an effort. It's always mine. My own personal, fallible, human font.
The netbook is great. It keeps me connected to the greater world.
The notebook and pen keep me connected to myself.
Those are both good things with which to be connected. There's room in my purse and in my life to accommodate both.
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I just renewed the newspaper for one more year - every time the reminder comes, we talk about not renewing since it just has to be recycled - but reading the paper and having coffee is just not the same without the folding over and cutting out of articles - sitting across from each other, dog in David's lap, and passing the paper back and forth is a ritual we're not ready to part with quite yet!
ReplyDeleteThere is room enough in our lives, and our purses and carry bags for it all : )
Lady S
Quite so Lady T.. Creativity should only go so far over gadgetry.
ReplyDeleteWhen i'm out reviewing bands for various magazines and websites.....some of the young blood writers on the circuit are stood in the shadows, with the pale light of a palm-piloty-i-raspberry thingy shining on their faces, as they use their electronic pens on them during the show.
Sometimes before the feedback has even died down the whole article has been sent by email to the editor. Done. Cool, sure.
Me?....jot a couple of adjectives down on a folded bit of paper out of my back pocket... ..couple of song titles..
( i'm a wiz at writing blind in the dark...try that kids ).
the rest just joggles around in my head for a night or a day or a week depending on the deadline. ripening like fruit.
One young writer even said to me the other night..."so do you remember it all do you?".... well i suppose i almost do.... which is kinds healthy in its own way, and like Lady T...I like the organic way it comes together on the page... the scribbles out, ...the fast edit...the slithering speed it goes from thought to word to paper in pretty handwriting..
I rarely keep my longhand after they are typed and published, but the time they exist they give me great amusement and joy.
I will never change. If i sent it straight away...i'd be faffing that the whole thing wasn't the best i could do, despite my extolling to singers and musicians that the first take is often the best.
Sir Dayvd ( good at giving advice he never listens to himself ) of O .....and btw Suz...i love the thumbnail sketch of domestic bliss chez Kuhn awwwwwwwww
ooooooo ooooo almost forgot....it was joggling away in there.....
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BIRTHDAY Lady T :)) from
Merrye Olde England :))
Sir D ( who is full of Poachers and pie on his way to Oxford )
You will rarely catch me without some sort of paper/pen, journal/pen in my pocket -- my Swiss Army Knife even has a pen.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I believe that I would love to have the technology with me to answer those "barguments" and trivia questions (just not there yet).
Of course, both are just tools.
What am I crafting with them that is adding happiness to my life and those around me? The critic in me says, "Nothing!" The optimist says, "Nothing, yet!"
Time to turn the page and scribble some more notes. Oh, Sir D. I, too, can scribble in the dark. Being able to read it the next morning is the problem!
Sir Bowie "who is in the process of converting garage space into a woodworking shop -- some old fashions hand tools; others more modern technology" of Greenbriar
You will rarely catch me without some sort of paper/pen, journal/pen in my pocket -- my Swiss Army Knife even has a pen.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I believe that I would love to have the technology with me to answer those "barguments" and trivia questions (just not there yet).
Of course, both are just tools.
What am I crafting with them that is adding happiness to my life and those around me? The critic in me says, "Nothing!" The optimist says, "Nothing, yet!"
Time to turn the page and scribble some more notes. Oh, Sir D. I, too, can scribble in the dark. Being able to read it the next morning is the problem!
Sir Bowie "who is in the process of converting garage space into a woodworking shop -- some old fashions hand tools; others more modern technology" of Greenbriar
Excellent post Lady Tammy. This is why I invited you to write with us! Love your style!
ReplyDeleteI always have a pen within "jotting distance", not always my Moleskine, but like Sir D, just a napkin or piece of toilet paper away from brilliance! However, I always have my iPhone, which covers the web for barguments, posts blogs, takes pictures and emails myself ideas. Increasingly it is becoming my Mobile Digital Moleskine...so, Sir Bowie, get one...then you have the best of both old and new worlds!
I agree with Sir D...it's best to let it stew to bring out all the flavors, like I saw this post in the drafts for a few days before it was shared with all.
As far as newspapers...the only time I buy one is when I'm in another city that might have some interesting article. I, for the life of me, can not understand why someone would want to subscribe to the Evansville Courier and Press, which a 5th grader could edit better...besides I get all the latest news on my iPhone sometimes days before you'll read about it in the newspaper...plus news you'll never get if that's your only source.
I agree, the domestic bliss picture is romantic; however, Lady A doesn't like to read newspapers, and has to be to work by 7am. She eats breakfast while I predict the news for her on ABC because I read it on my iPhone the night before, then I hit Starbuck's for my morning coffee. If I'm feeling nostalgic I'll pick up the New York Times without paying for it and read a few articles while I'm there and then put it back in the rack.
But, enough about me...back to the blog at hand...AMAZING THOUGHTS!
"Writing without spellcheck (by the way if you spellcheck spellcheck it will give you spell check)-it's like working without a net." (Of course I've found working with spellcheck to be just a thrilling, like when you meant to write "were" but wrote "where"! CORRECT...at least to the mindless chipster!)
"My own personal fallible, human font." (I wonder if the Pope views his that way? LOL!)
"The net keeps me connected to the greater world. The notebook and pen keep me connected to myself. There's room in my purse and my life to accommodate both."
SIMPLY BRILLIANT KMSA MATERIAL...Girlfriend!
Sir Hook Who Just Got Home From Indy and Getting Ready to Party on Sir Bowie's Boat Tonight of Warrick
Bowie ..no taking iphones and laptops with you to pubs....all web-based gadgetry should be banned from bars as cheating and being UNMANLY!!!
ReplyDeleteyou get into a bar-guement based on what you know and what you have bothered to assimilate thru life...lol.... taking web-based articles into bars defuses fights and arguments..... and if you are going to sneak one in hidden in a pocket in your skirt nancy then you buy the rounds for the rest of the night...
Remember the Fort Sumter barguement in the Turf tavern... plenty of shouting and fingerpointing and growling and people convinced they were sooooo right ( me ) wasn't it wonderful under a starry Oxford sky...all full of rosie cider... Internet...Pah... do your schoolin' like a real man LOL....
Sir dayvd ( who if he sees anyone going online near his pint, they will be having it surgically removed from where the sun don't shine ) of Oxford...
Hike your skirt up Nancy...me and the IPhone will be having our way with you! You should be a real man and hang out with us and the toothless wonders of Warrick County at the Old Fox.
ReplyDeleteNeed I remind you that I didn't need my iPhone to proove you wrong at The Turf! Get over it...or bend over and take it like a proper Englishman! LOL!
Sir Hook, Sir Bowie, Lafy Allwinky and Lady Suzanne in Warrick County with iPhones and Pool Cues
heh....thats the point Samantha-Jane...... ..agreeing to disagree after a heated bar-guement then waking up next day with a sore head to check that you were actually wrong on that occasion and owning up to the fact.......makes for a good dose of Hubris and the formation of a well-rounded character...lol... none of this oooohh...i'll nip to the toilet and check my i-phone so's i don't get into any embarressing situations...lol...
ReplyDeleteBowie...don't join the ladyboys...Join my " More Real Ale and No Googling in Bars" Campaign....Fight for your Right To Be Wrong sometimes ...lol..
What ever next....Calculators in Math Lessons????
Sir D ( who knows that the real Ladies of the KMSA, know that all men are Blow-hards and should help around the house more, rather than know who won the World Cup or Super Bowl in 1974 ....and no checking that on your i.phone hooky-ann ) Of Oxford
Guys, keep me out of this.
ReplyDeleteJust because I'm to frugal to tech-up and too daft to learn to use one...
Sir Bowie "hitting the "Esc" button and heading to Indianapolis to visit my nephew and watch a baseball game (a.k.a. rounders)" of Greenbriar
Ah, Unity Through Diversity doesn't get any better than this! LOL!
ReplyDeleteSince Sir Bowie has so graciously bowed out from our tag team WWF Match...I'll close this interesting chapter with the following facts:
1. I never "nip" into the toilet to check my iPhone....NO...I do mine, like a seasoned flasher, in public.
2. I always used a calculator in Math class.
3. I now have an iPhone App that does the housework for me.
4. Why would I even want to know who won the World Cup? And the 1974 Super Bowl was won by the Miami Dolphins, their second in a row. Is that all you got, Nancy?! LOL!
Sir Hook Who's Still Plenty Wrong and Proud of It of Warrick
lol... well there you go Cindy-Lou.. I can't beat a gal in a Bar-guemnt who has to keep an extra brain in her handbag...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Aileen would love to see your I.phone Housework application in action...
and of course West Germany won the 1974 world Football Cup final... ( the game where all the nations of the world play against each other using their feet...... rather than the parochial interleaque handball Superbowl )
beating the Netherlands 2 -1 for their second title.
You'll have to tell me about the last time you were wrong.....that should be interesting...lol...
Sir D ( i must open some windows and let some of this testosterone out of here...) of Cow City
If the iPhone has a housework application, I'm in!
ReplyDelete(Thanks for all your kind words, and for the only slightly pre-mature birthday greeting!)
Lady T. (who would rather be writing on ANYTHING and who would even rather LOSE a bargument than do housework) of a sty somewhere in Pickerington.