A little writing distraction
I can blame it on the Typewriter Brigade, but really, it’s just my own interest in retro gadgets, especially those to do with writing.
I brought out my Olympia portable typewriter just now and placed it on the breakfast counter. This is the machine I brought to England with me to type my class assignments.
I put in a sheet of recycled paper, aligned it, and pressed the letter “t”. Nothing appeared on the paper. I pressed harder. Still nothing. Actually, “pressed” is the wrong word, “tapped” doesn’t quite describe the action either; the best word is “pounded”.
Finally, I figured out why nothing was appearing on the paper. The typewriter ribbon had dried out.
I wasn’t too sad to put the typewriter away. I’m sure I can find a new typewriter ribbon, but I’m not sure I have the strength to pound enough combinations of keys to type up a page. Besides, my apartment doesn’t have space to accommodate a manual typewriter – it requires twice the width of the physical machine for the carriage to move for the words to be typed across the page.
Strange, but I can use a manual notebook, but I can’t use a manual typewriter.
To console myself, I registered for a software that I tested recently. It will let me feel I’m using a manual typewriter, but without having to hurt my fingers or find physical space for it in my little apartment. It’s a retro word processor and it’s called Visual Typewriter.
In a way, it’s the best of old and new.
Yes, I should be writing instead of checking out writing tools.
