Time is a Flat Circle & I’m Fingerpainting

Technology has come a long way in my lifetime. I used to have to sneak into the community college of my home town to print off my papers for high school but kids today have computers issued to them, rarely do they even have to put their papers on actual paper. This is a good thing, I’m not trying to sound like a “I had it so hard in my day” kind of grouchy old man, progress is good as long as it’s moving forward.

I do have a problem with technology and creative work though. When I sit down with a laptop, word document open, the cursor flashing at me, I find something better to do. Writing is not an easy job, better writers than me described it as starting a campfire in the dark where your characters come out of the woods to introduce themselves. I’m not the kind of writer that can just sit down and go, I get lost on the internet and hours fly by, the next thing I know I’m doom scrolling and I haven’t written anything just vibes of a story.

Vibes are the best part of writing for me and the hipster cred is important. I’m not man-bun levels yet but give me some time to grow my hair and existentialism. Avoiding AI and the saturation of technology is difficult though, voice to text reminds me too much of my childhood doctor who used a Dictaphone and handwriting gets old over long sessions. Enter an obsolete technology that I never had experience with growing up: the mechanical typewriter.

These symphonies of metal and magic are an entire event. They’re loud, they’re inconvenient, and you almost have to wrestle with them to get words on the page. They don’t type hundreds of words a minute even for me that grew up with typing class and keyboards, they don’t backspace, every letter has to have an intention to it. I can’t delete entire chapters of me chasing plot bunnies because I suddenly hate my work, everything is actually out there and on the page, literally. Long story short, these things have a hipster vibe and I am here for it.

With the living situation what it is right now I rescued an Olympia Socalite and it is almost ready to go. I changed out the ribbon but the paper doesn’t line up and the whole thing needs a tune up. The pedestrian creme color doesn’t really suit me and I don’t want to sticker bomb the whole thing so that leaves me with a to do list.

I have to figure out how to gut this thing and clean it up

Replace the calcified midcentury rubber so it can actually grab some paper

Make it look like it works for me

With the covers off you can see all the crazy going on in there and suddenly I’m afraid I’ve been off more than I can chew.

This gives me a new reason to pull my hair out! I’ll keep updating as I figure it out.