If you have a Remington Porto-Rite you want to be rid of (or even a #2 portable) let me know!
As far as detox, I feel compelled to check email first thing. I'm waiting to hear back from editors and agents, and I've sent my resume all over the place for potential job opportunities. I usually check messages and then refrain from doing it again for several hours. If I don't have to be at work by 8 and have the day off, then my approach is different.
Digital detox... Since my buttonless cellular phone got screwed, I decided to re-use the old one with buttons. My computer is so slow that sometimes I get lazy when I have to use it, in such a way there are whole, entire weeks being off line. And I started a programmed retire from Internet. I have to delete some profiles and e-mails...xD
As a 25 year IT tech/engineer, I do. A lot of it more or less involves what you are doing. The only reason why I am still on Facebook, is because there are people there I have known my entire life, who only use that as their sole form of communication. I don't think they even make phone calls anymore.
A laudable experiment! How about no digital devices until after breakfast? (How about asking a teenager to use no digital devices until after breakfast! ;-)
Good luck with the drive to reduce - hypothesis: the time needed for disposal of a collection may be correlated to the time needed for its acquiring...
could you please take a picture of the 50% you are about to let go? I'm probably interested in some of them, like the red INVICTA you use as wallpaper.
I sometimes will do micro digital detox things, just waiting a few hours and ignoring my phone and computer. It can be nice! Travelling is great for that, especially if you don't stay in hotels so you are untethered from the internet. (At least for someone like me who rarely uses their phone to actually browse the internet)
Purging the collection due to lack of space to display? I'd be down to one or two. I find the simplicity move as a goal, but not an attainable one. Perhaps if I still lived in VA where there are real houses with cellars, attics, and large (real) closets as well as a bit of land and a garage, then, I could live simplistically. I'd have room! Hope you can keep things simple. Spending time digital free may be the easiest to do unless stuck to facebook or a cellular phone.
Good to hear you aren't dumping a hundred or so typewriters on the market all at once. Imagine how it might devalue all of our collections. My business ALL arrives by e-mail and is generally fulfilled by e-mail or remote print. Thankfully, the good health of the battery in my Nokia brick willing, I'm still blissfully unconnected when not in work mode.
I work over night at a hotel. I have a computer in front of me out of necessity & during the slow hours I have found myself just wasting time or bidding on things I really don't need on Ebay - or scrolling though "typewriter porn." But lately I have been bringing my typewriters to work -- & the results are fantastic. As guests poor in from the bars in various states of joy & despair I wait for them to enter the elevator and then I type my observations. Sometimes I get caught typing, but the guests hardly notice what I am actually doing. Since I am behind a desk the sound of a typewriter still seems appropriate. Some actually lay their eyes on it an inquire about it's use - but more often than not it sort of blends into the environment - & thankfully no one has accused me of being a hipster. Years ago I used to write on the office computer...but one night I forgot to close out the document and one of my office mates told me he read what i wrote. I was kind of mortified. So this is a very pleasant way to privately write my thoughts and save them without the fear of unwarranted discovery. In general using a typewriter has helped my sanity...and a big part of that is trying, with each passing day, to use digital media as little as possible.
This has been my rule for the last five or so years, since I've really made a solid effort at being a full-time writer. The thing is, the Internet is all a distraction. All of that stuff -- emails, social media, newspapers -- can really wait, like you said. I try to make my mornings sacred. This is the time for creative writing and -- after breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee -- editing, revising and letter-writing.
Thank you. This is encouraging. It was a good idea to clarify that you weren't writing at 6 in the morning! (I, in contrast, am checking my blog at 9:34 AM.)
Purging 50% of your collection? You cannot be serious, Richard!
ReplyDeleteI don't have spaces to display even 50% of the typewriters I own. It's kind of ridiculous.
DeleteReally? I'd love to have one of your machines...xD
DeleteNo, but this is a good reminder that I should have. :)
ReplyDeleteIf you have a Remington Porto-Rite you want to be rid of (or even a #2 portable) let me know!
ReplyDeleteAs far as detox, I feel compelled to check email first thing. I'm waiting to hear back from editors and agents, and I've sent my resume all over the place for potential job opportunities. I usually check messages and then refrain from doing it again for several hours. If I don't have to be at work by 8 and have the day off, then my approach is different.
Digital detox... Since my buttonless cellular phone got screwed, I decided to re-use the old one with buttons. My computer is so slow that sometimes I get lazy when I have to use it, in such a way there are whole, entire weeks being off line. And I started a programmed retire from Internet. I have to delete some profiles and e-mails...xD
ReplyDeleteAs a 25 year IT tech/engineer, I do. A lot of it more or less involves what you are doing. The only reason why I am still on Facebook, is because there are people there I have known my entire life, who only use that as their sole form of communication. I don't think they even make phone calls anymore.
ReplyDeleteA laudable experiment! How about no digital devices until after breakfast? (How about asking a teenager to use no digital devices until after breakfast! ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the drive to reduce - hypothesis: the time needed for disposal of a collection may be correlated to the time needed for its acquiring...
Your hypothesis may be right, which would mean that I'll be well into my 70s by the time I liquidate my collection. I'd better get started.
Deletecould you please take a picture of the 50% you are about to let go? I'm probably interested in some of them, like the red INVICTA you use as wallpaper.
ReplyDeleteThat beautiful red Invicta is just an ad, not part of my collection!
DeleteI will gradually start putting typewriters up for sale, one by one, probably on eBay.
Two very challenging things!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes will do micro digital detox things, just waiting a few hours and ignoring my phone and computer. It can be nice! Travelling is great for that, especially if you don't stay in hotels so you are untethered from the internet. (At least for someone like me who rarely uses their phone to actually browse the internet)
Purging the collection due to lack of space to display? I'd be down to one or two. I find the simplicity move as a goal, but not an attainable one. Perhaps if I still lived in VA where there are real houses with cellars, attics, and large (real) closets as well as a bit of land and a garage, then, I could live simplistically. I'd have room! Hope you can keep things simple. Spending time digital free may be the easiest to do unless stuck to facebook or a cellular phone.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you aren't dumping a hundred or so typewriters on the market all at once. Imagine how it might devalue all of our collections. My business ALL arrives by e-mail and is generally fulfilled by e-mail or remote print. Thankfully, the good health of the battery in my Nokia brick willing, I'm still blissfully unconnected when not in work mode.
ReplyDeleteI work over night at a hotel. I have a computer in front of me out of necessity & during the slow hours I have found myself just wasting time or bidding on things I really don't need on Ebay - or scrolling though "typewriter porn." But lately I have been bringing my typewriters to work -- & the results are fantastic. As guests poor in from the bars in various states of joy & despair I wait for them to enter the elevator and then I type my observations. Sometimes I get caught typing, but the guests hardly notice what I am actually doing. Since I am behind a desk the sound of a typewriter still seems appropriate. Some actually lay their eyes on it an inquire about it's use - but more often than not it sort of blends into the environment - & thankfully no one has accused me of being a hipster. Years ago I used to write on the office computer...but one night I forgot to close out the document and one of my office mates told me he read what i wrote. I was kind of mortified. So this is a very pleasant way to privately write my thoughts and save them without the fear of unwarranted discovery. In general using a typewriter has helped my sanity...and a big part of that is trying, with each passing day, to use digital media as little as possible.
ReplyDeleteThanks. That is an inspiring story.
DeleteThis has been my rule for the last five or so years, since I've really made a solid effort at being a full-time writer. The thing is, the Internet is all a distraction. All of that stuff -- emails, social media, newspapers -- can really wait, like you said. I try to make my mornings sacred. This is the time for creative writing and -- after breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee -- editing, revising and letter-writing.
ReplyDeletep.s. I feel the need to add that my comments are posted on Paris-time; thus 6:06 AM is 12:06 PM here :)
ReplyDeleteThank you. This is encouraging. It was a good idea to clarify that you weren't writing at 6 in the morning! (I, in contrast, am checking my blog at 9:34 AM.)
Delete