July 01, 2007

• When I was a kid, the Internet was called "books".
• The index finger on my right hand is warped with writers' whathaveyou. But this is from pre-Internet days. I have problems writing for a long time now (I sat a 3-hour written exam a few years ago and found it very sore on my hand), but this was also the case when I was sitting public exams 18 years ago. I'd leave an essay type exam with my hand crippled; unable to hold a pen any more because I'd written as much as I possibly could on 20th century European history or whatever. To me this was quite normal. I'd rather write on a keyboard at this stage, especially given how warped my writing hand became using pens. The tip of my index finger is about 10 degrees off where it should be, according to me.
• My daily read of news, upon which I thrive, was entirely impossible ten tears ago. I cannot imagine how people pretended to be informed back then. Yet in my business I continually bump into people who still do no know how to use the net and its various appliances. A client just yesterday asked me to mail back to him an e-mail he had sent me: he did not realize that Outlook had a sent items folder. People routinely do not know how to view a video, or save a web page. We live in one world and interact with another. So strange.
• One strange thing I read is that some novice Internet users mistake the Web portals they use for the Web. That is, they think that yahoo.com for instance is the Internet. But then when i thought about it, maybe it makes sense because it's a form of hierarchical thinking and there are more examples of hierarchical organizations and entities in everyday life than network entities.
• I actually still hand write quite a bit - I like scrawling notes to myself. I guess pre-internet - I read a lot more books. And stared at the wall....
• StoryBored's comment is the scary one here. I too run into people whose idea of the Web is so off base and narrow that it is evident that they have no clue. And, given that this has become the primary source of info for our culture, this means they are really out of touch. As for the original question... i seldom "write" anymore... It takes too long, it is messy, it hurts. I did read a book last week...but only because I was out of town, at a cabin with no internet... (but the fishing was GREAT!)
• Two words. Internet Porn.
• well, i never Googled myself before teh intarwebs...
• I remember penmanship, which shows how ancient I am. My handwriting now looks like a drunken six-year-old's. I typ rel gud, tho.
• I loathloathloath LOATH having to write with stick instruments. I always had shitty penmanship and would write letters then refuse to mail them because they looked like some idiot wrote them. Turning in an essay test in college HURT. Now, not only does it pain me psychically, it hurts physically, because I have huge arthritic joints. I'm a better much better writer for cut/paste/backspace/delete. And being able to read what I've written the next day? Priceless. Remember typing class? Carbon paper? That sucked, too. Before the net? I had a life I read more. Cleaned house more. Watched TV. Was outside more.
• Ditto to all that. I frequently can't read my own writing on a shopping list these days. I think it's largely arthritis and partially just that putting comments in a public space means that my attention has changed away from good penmanship, since no one would see it anyway.
• I love to write my poetry or my books out first, before I type them up. For some reason the pen and the ink gets the creative process going better for me than a laptop. Though, I have to admit, I havent been faced with trying a tablet yet. My reading...hmm, oddly my reading has probably increased because of the web. I now read BBC, ZDNet, Al-Jazeera, so much more news than I did just in the real world. But my voracious love for books and endless reading of them has not stopped either.
• I remember just sitting around and wondering about shit bcuase I had no way to look it up without making a trip to the library, and half the time they didn't have the right book, or you didn't know where to find it.
• "sitting around and wondering about shit".... what a great concept... Reminds me of that scene from "Stand By Me" where they wonder "if Pluto is a dog, what the heck is Goofy?"... we used to do a lot of "wondering"... now we just google... Are we less creative as a result?
• Before we had internet access at my editing job 10 or 15 years ago, I goofed off by either playing minesweeper or perusing the OED. Now, my eyes have just started requiring visual correction, and yep, I have trouble deciphering my grocery lists.
• So, I have this icon for LJ (yeah, I have an LJ, wanna make something of it?) that says, "Livejournal: The real reason your house is a f***ing disaster." I had a cleaner house, which I actually left more frequently; I read more (though I still read a lot) and I wrote letters. I wasn't as informed about politics. (As a result, I am now always suspect of the political opinions of relatives, etc, who I know not to spend much time online or reading magazines.) I didn't have contact with people from around the world, except for the pen pal that I got from an int'l pen pal agency. On the other hand, kids these days... they don't realize how truly difficult it was to source things prior to the late 1990s. If you wanted to buy something, you could get it in a store if you happened to see it (sometimes unlikely), or you could hope that if you ordered a specialized catalogue (if you could even learn that such a catalogue existed), the item would be in it. If you wanted a book in print, you could order it from a bookstore; if it was rare, you could initiate a book search that might take a year or two. If you liked a writer, you could send them a postcard and hope that they'd reply in a year or two. If your SO lived far away, you could spend a lot of money on phone calls, or you could write a lot of letters. People in classic mystery stories couldn't use their cellphones to get out of a tight squeeze, because they didn't have them. I was obsessed with developing pretty handwriting as a teenager, so I still have nice handwriting, even though I don't do it that often and it makes my hand hurt. But! I now "typo" much more often in my handwriting than I do on a keyboard! That's not cool! I'm always adding extra "e"s onto the ends of words. I do a lot of crosswords and pencil puzzles, and that helps, but the flip side is that I am now more comfortable writing in all caps. Like you would in a crossword! If you do want to "reform" your handwriting, you could do worse than to pick up some book on basic Italic script, one of those Schaffer calligraphy fountain pens that cost like $10, and start handwriting stuff for a few minutes every day: your grocery lists, letters to people, etc. Or just practice the writing styles in the workbook for 10-15 min per day. It will help.
• I dream in HTML.
• Now that I'm back in college, I spent the first month readjusting to using a pen and paper for taking notes. My hand cramps up still but *sniff* I work through it. I have a strong tendency to write my notes in bullet-point form now, though. This is new and I actually find it a great way to keep things concise and set up outlines for essays. I have technology to thank for that.
• I dream in HTML You Luddite. You should be dreaming in CSS. XHTML 1.1 at least, puh-lease!
• I have no trouble handwriting at all. My handwriting has even developed into a legible script from the spider-crawling mess of my childhood. Typing is quicker, however, and more convenient in many contexts. One word for all of you who are concerned: Moleskines.
• The biggest change for me is having instant access to sources that can answer my "quickie queries." Many times a day, a question pops into my head ("what's the definition of this word? what's the best way to germinate tomato plants? what does this 17th century painting mentioned in the novel I'm reading actually look like? how would one go about making a peach melba?), and it's become instinctual to type a couple of words and get an instant answer. When I'm disconnected from the net, I feel bereft, and ignorant.
• Just curious as to what some of our Monkeys did pre-Internet to slack. Well, when I was 19 and I was a theater manager for about five years, I could smoke anywhere in the building except the auditorium or the concession stand. :) I smoked a lot then. And we chatted a lot. Later when I became a library denizen the first round, again, chatted a bit. Second round of the library I discovered the Mac and the PC (Macs in the labs, PCs behind the desk) that were largely disconnected from anything and everything. So I thought. We did dial up at the university into our card catalog system that ran on whatever we dialed into (this was 1990) and I found that dialing into that system effectively put me on the internet. So, by 1990 I had discovered telnet and internet based BBSes. We still chatted a lot at work. :) During my next job, no internet access! Of course, that just meant I read every help file on every application and tried every thing I could, thus ending up going from an admin assistant to a tier 1 tech by default. After than I pretty much moved into tech support. However, when I want to write anything interesting, I go to a cafe for lunch or coffee with pencil and paper in hand and start charting out the big ideas first, and then I do some rough drafting by hand. This can be a page or five or six pages. There's something very settling about doing it that way. For one thing, you are forced to slow down how quickly you can put your thoughts out there, which I find to be VERY useful. Pouring it all out as fast as possible is what we're used to now, but it's really not always the best way to do it. The cramping? Yes, the first few times I did it. It goes away. It's like any physical activity you don't practice very much. If you don't practice it regularly and go back and do it full force you're going to be sore and get cramps.
• I forgot to mention that without an internet I wouldn't have work. *gomi being web designer*
• In high school? Listened to the Cure and wrote bad poetry in spiral notebooks. *shivers* I was already at my second newspaper job by the time we got ONE computer in the office that had internet access, so it was obvious to one and all how much time you spent on it. And it was dial-up. Through AOL. But we could access the entire AP wire at our desks, so I spent a good deal of my day reading random stuff. Which is pretty much what I do to goof off now. Also, yeah, buying stuff. Unimportant as this sounds, I wear a shoe size that stores simply don't carry. I used to have one catalog that was 85 percent old-lady shoes to choose from. Now I have three or four web sites and it's not nearly as hard to find something I can wear. As for writing, my penmanship was ruined through having to write so fast taking notes on the job, but at this point when I have to actually write something myself, I literally can't get my brain going unless my fingers are touching a keyboard. Can't dictate for shit.
• Well I was born without fingers, and to write with a pen I have to clutch it firmly between my buttocks and sit on some paper. OK - I don't HAVE to do that. I actually like it. The point is that if I even borrow a pen from you, don't chew the end of its when you get it back.
• > curious as to what some of our Monkeys did pre-Internet to slack I worked some assembly line jobs and used to do lots of crosswords - read a clue then do X while thinking about it, then do Y, then write out the answer. When I worked security I used to swim, sit around reading, and build bongs and hookah pipes. I loved working security.
• My handwriting is a mess. Not good to begin with, in the pre-web/computer days, now I struggle when filling out forms, writing a reminder and the such. It has degenerated into all caps, hurried-looking ligatured cryptic messages that sometimes I can decypher. Since I deal mostly with imagery at work, this affects only storyboards and mockups, which are quite garbled and sketchy already. Goofing at work, pre-web, meant exploring every option and quirk of DTP software and early drafting applications; yes, that helped me climb up a few ladder steps. And the occasional inter-office Shufflepuck, Spectre and Tristan Pinball tournaments *cough*. I've come to realize the introduction of the web into our lives to be just like the previous generation's embrace of TV. Remember old parents' tales about long evenings with friends, nothing but a radio on the background, going out to shows on busy streets, late at night... that changed with TV. And now, looking back at my own experiences, and after several self-imposed net blackouts, in order to get pressing projects done, can't help but be amazed at the power of this two-edged sword: we can get instantly information and tools that were just impossible to obtain a decade before, but we can also sink deep into time-killing endeavors. We can communicate with people around the world, attempt to get an insight into their own perception of the reality around them, but also end up chained to virtual relationships, with only the people we want to interact to, relationships that can be controlled by clicking a button, while we neglect our own community. I still read; not a lot more, but my scope of authors has certainly widened, thank to net acquiantances' suggestions. I still try to lug myself out and go F2F, but it sometimes is dictated by net hobbies and preferences. I hardly watch TV now, but spend way too much time scouring interesting media from the net, that keeps filling discs to be perused at the slow moments. Sometimes I wonder how we will get our info-kick after a global collapse. But I guess fighting off the marauding hordes and tending the food supply won't leave much free time to let our minds wander...
• My writing is still OK. Well, printing, actually. I gave up cursive back in grade seven, recognising early on that I couldn't write worth shit. Had to fight my teachers in order to just print, which I couldn't understand, as it was just easier on everyone than to try reading my handwriting. Over time, my printing got worse, where it became a personal code, and my lecture notes were of no use to anyone but me. So, when writing for other people, it's all-caps. Given my work, I'm still writing out a lot of memos. But, I do type faster than I write, even though I'm only using about six fingers. Pre-internet, like TUM, I was just stuck wondering about shit. The obvious, 'proper' stuff, history, sciences, etc. was easily looked up at the library. The mundane stuff of life -- what the name was of the psychiatrist on MASH, who pitched to Babe Ruth for his called shot -- this was impossible to look up without a lot of work, often far outweighing my interest in the answer. I'd be wondering about some things for years. I simply could not do without the resource of the internet now. And I'm also feeling an increasing dichotomy between those of us who are on, and those of us who aren't, particularly as it applies to the inside-culture of the web. For slacking, the intertubes has largely taken its share from TV, so I haven't lost too much reading or real-world stuff.
• If not for the net I would never have seen that lizard trying to get pork chops off the foreheads of Japanese girls. I will never get over that. And what TUM and Capt. Renault said. My handwriting is worse, my spelling is better. I feel like I am learning constantly.
• My pre-net slacking involved writing a lot of poetry. And staring off into space daydreaming. Harder to conceal that from the boss/teacher.
• There was a time before the intrawebs?
• Very funny, n00b. In my time, your kind was banned from the BBS for less than that.
• I'm another one for surfing/googling all that stuff I used to wonder about pre-internet. I did have a couple sets of encyclopedias in the house, but was often frustrated. The best time in my life was when I was headed off to school every day and had the university library within reach. I feel like I pull down a lot of superficial stuff off the intarwebs. I wonder how many compulsive computer users are depressed? I've been spending some 8 hour days/nights on the computer, and this is not a good thing for me.
• Vibrators.
• I used to do hand lettering for fun. I had the Letraset catalog of dry transfer alphabets, and I'd spend hours copying the various type styles. Because dry transfer sheets were expensive, and I was an impoverished art student. I got very good at it, and could probably get the skills back if I tried. These days I get the hand cramps after about half a page of ordinary writing. (Dry transfer was how commercial artists did them there things in the days before Photoshop and those new fangled "fonts". I don't miss it a bit. I miss acetate overlays and Zipitone even less. ;-) )
• Ah, the joys of realizing one just mangled away the last two sticky letters off the layout board... and that there were no more Es left on the transfer page. *shudder*
• When I was a wee kidling of 8, I already knew that my handwriting was less than wonderful. In fact, I was reminded of this every report card when I barely squeaked by on "handwriting." Then I discovered an amazing device that made it possible for me to express my self at length without folks' having trouble reading... it was called a "typewriter." By 9 I had already pretty much turned to keyboards as a way of life. In college I made extra cash typing others' papers and setting type for the school newspaper on a big ol' CompuGraphic phototypesetting machine. My first few jobs, in fact, involved operating phototypesetters. It was a highly specialized job that required extensive knowledge and understanding of typographic concepts. At more than one workplace I was viewed as nothing short of divine, since nobody else could deal with the phototypesetting work. It was an amazing time. THEN CAME MACINTOSH... and all things changed. My hard-won skills became anachronisms and I watched as, overnight, typographic quality degraded dramatically as those not schooled in usage took over production. It was (and often continues to be) very, very tough for this old campaigner to adjust to, and quickly ended my career in the publishing realm; when the machines went out the door so did I. Changing to my current profession would have been impossible without the Internet, however, as it enables me to find medication name spellings, physicians, as well as information on diseases and their nomenclature, with an effortlessness that at times seems nearly obscene. I initially relied very heavily on the 'net to bail me out again and again, and still Google things on a daily basis. As far as slacking goes, speaking as a person with a very naughty, distractable brain, I'd say it's like I've been given a key to the biggest library ever and the only limit to what I find is my own curiosity. That said, I still find myself avoiding computers once I go home for the evening or when relaxing on weekends. I probably got more work done without the 'net, but my work is actually better because of it.
• And then there's the cell phone. I resisted getting one, and I still don't use it as much as anyone else I know, but it's given me a sense of security I never thought possible. I'm more likely to be a bit more adventurous, knowing that I could get help if I needed it. I also loved typewriters as a kid. As a teenager I scooped them up at yard sales, and at one point had five. Each one had its own subtly different style and feel. I still keep a little portable in the back of the closet. And without modern technology, the world at large would have to get by without pictures of Mr. Whiskers.
• Ah, the joys of realizing one just mangled away the last two sticky letters off the layout board... and that there were no more Es left on the transfer page. *shudder* Oh yes. Once, in high school, someone in printing Vo-Tech in the basement got pissed off at the editor of the school paper, and sent the copy for one page back with no Es. When we complained, they sent another roll... of only Es. And being the entire "art department" I got to sit there with an x-acto knife, and... *shudder*. You want to talk about hand cramps? kinnakeet I found myself being replaced by a Mac too, about five years out of college. I suppose you can't stop progress, but it would have been nice if they'd told me before I took out those student loans.
• I've still get compliments on my handwriting, but I compose most stuff on the computer now, except for the briefest of notes to co-workers. Pre-internet, I read, played board games, cross-stitched, wrote letters and talked on the phone. I also got a heck of a lot more done at work. I remember my dad used to bring home copies of funny faxes that friends would send him - the equivalent of today's junk email forwards.
• Pre intertoobs, I spent a lot of my downtime writing poetry, as did TUM. Also wringing the creative juices from my head in general (painting, singing, welding, etc). When I visited the local library, I utilized my knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System and enjoyed fingering through the card catalogues (and occasionally taking delight in browsing microfiche!). Can't say for certain how technology has changed me. I suppose instead of thumbing through old volumes of encyclopedias, dictionaries and National Geographics, I now just plop myself in front of teh puter and have at it... I love the smell of old books, and I suppose this is something I don't partake of as much as I would like to nowadays. I used to enjoy taking my bike out and getting "lost", taking adventures to unknown areas. Now, I'm sure to check out online map services prior to jumping in the car, heading out to a destination I've never been to before... I used to enjoy discovering new music, and playfully believing that I was the only person in the world lucky enough to stumble upon a particular band. Thanks to technology, I realize that I was not the only person who listened to these bands. Toast. Toast was simple and straightforward at one time. Now, I am faced with a dilemma of which combination of buttons to press, thanks to you, Technology!!
• Re: the smell of old books - I used to love, love, love that smell. Wandering into a rarely-used section of the library and smelling the old paper was heaven. But in the last few years I've deleoped allergies and asthma, and even opening the filing cabinet makes my eyes water and my nose itch. I keep everything I can electronically now, and every so often I take an afternoon to scan and shred as many old files as I can stand to on one dose of Singulair.
• I managed to ride the jump to Macs; in fact, it was a little MacPlus that one day appeared on the graphics design dept, unnanounced, what routed me to the Jobs Way. Hard to grasp at the time the concept of a page of paper that had fluidity and how a keypress did in a nanosecond what once took me a whole afternoon, but we all took the bait. What irked me after that, was the home-cumputer-based DTP explosion: every sign on the boards and streets became a catalog of every font, complete with crude clip-art. And that creeped up to 'pro' work, when companies experimented with commissioning anyone in-house to create their annual reports. Much teeth gnashing staring in horror at crimes against typography. Then, that repeated again in the late 90s, with desktop video... And, yes, I did lose one thing with the jump to computers: doodling. I used to spend my childhood filling notebooks with them, and at school, became a bit better. But once I could have a lo-res, pixellated version of what was in my mind, appear glowing (and later moving) on a screen, my hand atrophied. Which I deeply regret. Now I doodle for fun whenever possible.
• TUM, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has enjoyed the "feel" of different typewriters. When I get together with old typesetters, we can spend hours discussing how much better the Quadex keyboard was than today's computer keyboards, and how lovely it was to run Selectrics, with their type balls and "Erase" key. (Heck, I even ran perforators, which made a great sound when they punched characters.) I keep a beautiful 1920s era Royal Manual on hand to type on just for fun occasionally, and to remind myself of the skill level required to type a nice even line without tangling the keys or striking too hard or soft. To this day I kinda miss the mechanical bell ring at the end of a line, and the gratification of manual carriage returns. Condolences on the allergies. I still enjoy old books and ephemera and keep a roomful, and prefer hanging out in the yard with them to being on the computer. Other than the occasional search, I prefer my weekends low-tech and in real-life hi-res.
• > every sign on the boards and streets became a catalog of every font Ah yes, the good old ransom note approach to design.
• (Heck, I even ran perforators, which made a great sound when they punched characters.) So, K. was that in your job acting as Moneypenny to 007?
• Pre-internet, I read, played board games... You know, you can still go to town with board games, aided by the Internet. Without this wonderful Web thing I was first using since, eek, '94...well, I wouldn't have had the strange resemblance of a career I seem to have. It's been an integral part of my daily existence for about a decade. And although I still read voraciously, go outside, and do stuff, all paths seem to lead back to it. I could not have anticipated this at all 15 years ago. I still handwrite, in fact I just sent a handwritten thank you note to someone as it seemed the right thing to do. But I can do without typewriters, having sued them aplenty. I resisted getting a cell phone until it became inextricably tied to my social circle and weekends could somehow not be coordinated without it (which is to say messily, on the fly.) Later, I found it essential to my freelance existence, and now it's my main phone number. I am perhaps the latest adapter of any technology. I still use a VCR (and it does not flash "12:00" thank you very much) but have a DVD player. I make do with what works, but keep up to date on what the latest and greatest is. It's odd. Because of my job and my writing, people assume I'm quite the techie, but mainly I want things that just plain work--something technophiles don't seem to understand or at least not promote. I like to spend large blocks of time "off the grid" and have evaded the standard issue Blackberry at work thus far. A marvelous age to live in to be sure.
• the good old ransom note approach to design Thank you roryk! This is the most concise description of my biggest pet peeve since the obsolescence of dedicated typesetters! When I tried to transition to "graphic design" work, I was doing bar ads for a weekly when a salesperson approached me about an ad. "The customer thinks there aren't enough fonts used in this ad!" he declared. It was a 1 col. x 3" ad, and already had serifs, sans serifs, and one novelty face (plus two photos). It was at this point, I believe, that my brain simply shut down, packed up, and entered permanent earth orbit. I've been trying to lure it back down ever since. And BlueHorse, I still try to punch characters as often as possible, but they don't make nearly as nice a sound. (BTW I can't believe that old photo of me is still floating around after all this time!) Boy I'd love to critique the current print aesthetic with you monkeys. Most of the folks 'round here wouldn't know a pica from an em space.
• A lot of my work involves cleaning up stuff students have produced. I try to be tactful, but recently when one of them protested my getting rid of her four-font scheme for lesson plans in tones that made it sound like I'd murdered her sleeping child, I had to be blunt and say, "It just looks bad. People will read it and not take it seriously."
• My work involves a lot of note-taking, and annotatating, marking up and reviewing documents, so my handwritting skills are fine. There has been the occasional attempt to get people to switch to electronic mark-ups of documents, but that always goes over like a lead balloon. I can't imagine my job without a decent grasp of cursive. I also don't know how I could have made it through university without being able to write in cursive to take notes, as I learn best by writting things out by hand. It is a shame to hear that most kids under 25 now-a-days can't write in cursive anymore. I love different types of pens -- letters and cards are written with a dip pen, otherwise I prefer a fountain pen or pencil (yellow HB, well sharpened) at home, at work I use pencil or a Pilot Hi-Tecpoint. Notes in university were always taken with a Lamy fountainpen. I also still like to use a typrwritter, although it gets pulled out less often nowdays. I have five, each quite different, my favourite being a 1940's ultraportable Hermes Baby. Put a pen in my hand and give me some paper, and I'm a compulsive doodler. Although filling up page after page with doodles in the middle of meetings is probably not the best idea.
• University (and work, for that matter) was exclusively Bic pens or yellow HB pencils. Most of my work now is done in pencil. Everything but signing. I prefer Bics, not only because of my propensity for losing pens, but for the design, weight, grip, and ability to attack the paper. Never a big doodler, but I do much engineering of imaginary bridges. (*shrugs*) Typewriter in high school and university was a 1990 Smith Corona, nothing exceptional. It wasn't until about third year that my Mac Classic took over. The Smith Corona is still around. But, if I have to do any typing, I'll drag out my Underwood No. 5.
• I learn best by writting things out by hand That's how I memorize lyrics and dialog when I'm in a show. I set aside half an hour to an hour a day (usually on the bus) writing them out longhand. I'm always the first off book.
• Things I used to do to waste time before the internet: Board games (loved them)! Piano Sketching Logic Puzzles Cooking Reading Needlepoint Sewing More Reading I don't do any of them anymore (except the reading), although I am known to do the NY Times crossword on my half-hour bus ride. Add me to the list of those whose penmanship is horrible. My coworkers pick on me because even if I have to leave them a quick note, I usually type and print it. I also don't sit around wondering about stuff anymore. That's probably the best thing the internet did for me. Well, that, and let me meet a lot of people from all over the world that I'd have never met. Especially monkeys!
• I don't know why there are inches of extra space after my post. If only technology would advance far enough to give us the fabled preview button!
• Suuuure, Mr. Asimov. What do want next, atomic support hose and jet packs for the cat?
• I got an electric typewriter from my parents for high school graduation -- state of the art, let you view one whole line of text on a screen before actually committing it to paper. I never used it, though, because my roommate's graduation present was a slightly older version of this marvel of technological innovation.
• Slacking at work (and before that, at school) pre-web meant I had a novel on my knees, under the desk. There's no alt-4 or alt-tab for novels on one's knees, so I was jumpier then. It's much easier to slack off now.