I am a gadget hound

My Astrohaus Freewrite Traveler

Faithful readers will know that I am a gadget hound, so no real surprise will occur in your mind when you hear that I got yet another writing gadget—only 13 days after acquiring the Astrohaus Freewrite Alpha (which I'm writing this on). Despite reading scores of negative words in various reviews and posts about the Freewrite devices, I'm still incredibly curious and gearlusty for them.

USPS delivered my new Freewrite Traveler (pictured above) yesterday morning. I totally dig it, and I've already written hundreds of words on it. I typed my NaNoWriMo daily challenge on it—plus a journal entry and a batch of notes toward the book (experimental novel) that I'm planning. The Traveler is brilliant! I adore the e-ink screen and the diminutive form factor. It reminds me of a box of watercolors or paintbrushes—some kind of art tools or supplies. The keyboard is quiet, but the keys are more satisfying to press and have more travel than those on my MacBooks. My wishlist for the device is short, but at the top is a backlight (or "frontlight" as e-ink screen illuminators are technically called). I clipped my dual LED lamp onto it, next to the small screen, and that worked really well, so I'm not really that dissatisfied regarding screen lighting. And in a well-lit room, or outdoors in daylight, no extra light is needed. That’s the magic of e-ink displays. I love the font. There are three sizes, but the small and large are exaggeratedly so—I mostly stick to medium. Another wishlist item would be to add two more font sizes: one between medium and small, and one between medium and large.

I wondered if getting the Traveler would put me off the Alpha, but Astrohaus made the Venn diagram of the two just wide enough that I'm still loving the Alpha. Its backlight makes it a better dim-light writer than the Traveler; I chose the Alpha to write this early morning blog here on the couch with no lights on—only the slowly growing wan light coming through our windows. And I adore the Alpha's clacky keys and zero keystrike-to-screen latency. The Alpha is super lightweight and rugged, as well, which makes it a better machine to handle casually and even a bit roughly. The Traveler, in contrast, has a bit more delicate feel, is more expensive, and has a folding lid, all of which make me want to treat it gently.

The Traveler has a larger screen, so you can see more of your writing. I don't often look back at what I've just written, but having that text in my peripheral vision just above is somehow comforting. On the Alpha, if the words are farther back than four lines, they're out of sight. The Traveler would be better for writing poetry, I think, or lists, where I'd want to see a few more lines of text.

So anyway, on the morning after, I am happy with both of my Freewrite devices.

But wait, there's more! Or will be, haha. For my Christmas gadget, guess what I'm getting. Yes, the third device in the Freewrite troika—trifecta—trio: it’s the "Smart Typewriter," which was the original Astrohaus gadget—their classic form factor—imitative, or at least reminiscent of, an old-school typewriter. It's got a sloped keyboard, e-ink screen (with backlight), and mechanical keys. Call me crazy, because (maybe) I am! But hey, you're reading the blog of a guy who once had 45 manual typewriters—still has 17—and who owns three AlphaSmart typers (two Neos and a 3000). I love my writing machines.

Short

Fog has been growing from 5:30 to sunrise most mornings here. Today it's gotten particularly thick. We can hardly see two houses away right now (7 a.m.).

I thought it would be at least a few months before I'd get the urge to start watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. again, the series I finished my fourth run through about a month ago. But no, I'm at it again, well into season one, fifth time through. It's like comfort food for me I guess, and it helps me stay up until midnight, which is a good bedtime for me if I don't want to wake up in the wee hours for a sleepless couple hours.

Okay, short blog today. Have a good one!

Still on target

I had a lot of fun broadcasting yesterday, 4.5 hours of it. There were no annoying people in the chat, and nobody requested anything. Just DJ Mr. Random and appreciative listeners and fun banter in chat. Check out the tracklist and archived recording HERE.

NaNoWriMo project is still on target, although did I fall to 122 words a couple days ago, and yesterday was also below target average at 1398, but much better. It is very interesting to try to write to a word count goal on a daily basis. Gives me a taste of what the life of a "real writer" could be. If I didn't have the challenge happening this month, I would have stopped early last week. Had to force myself to break through some mental barriers.

Last night Mrs. Random and I activated home theater mode downstairs in our family room. That consisted of setting up a low table, putting the TV on it, hooking up the new media streamer gadget (with usb stick of our favorite movies), and plopping down on the futon couch to watch Ruthless People (1986). Such a great movie: Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater et al. Hilarious.

String of days

A recent evening sky from our balcony

A blogger I read, Seldom Speedy aka Kent Peterson, for years has posted a page per day, writing the words with one of his manual typewriters. He types the page, then scans or photographs it and posts that as his blog entry, sometimes along with photos he's snapped that day with his digital point-and-shoot camera. I've been constantly impressed and somewhat amazed by his tenacity for blogging this way on the daily, and have been rather enamored with his creative, deliberate, and mostly "analog" approach to life. His blogs are always interesting and insightful.

Well, recently Kent and his wife Christine went to Las Vegas for their son's wedding, spending a week there with family and friends. He intended to continue blogging every day with a small portable typewriter. But his routine was interrupted by all the goings-on associated with the wedding and constant social activity, so he missed some days while there. Then, on his return home to Wisconsin, he got seriously ill, and his very short blog entries made it obvious he was struggling to get them out. Then, a few days go, he posted an entry with the title "Taking A Break," announcing that his daily entries were done and that he needed time to regroup energetically and creatively.

This all reminds me of reading about Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripkin Jr., baseball's "iron men," who each set exceedingly long records for playing in every single game over the course of several seasons. Finally, they were unable to keep it up, and had to let go of the string. At some point, life interrupts such feats, and it's okay. Seldom Speedy, you had a wonderful run but when the daily grind becomes an object in itself, it's healthy to realize that you can stop and take a step or two back, because life is more than a consecutive string of days doing the same thing without fail.

On the couch

Freewrite is keeping track of my Alpha wordcount. Creepy?

Sitting here on the couch with my furry boy Griffey, chewing granola (Mrs. R's homemade) and cream. It's dim and foggy out the big windows. Yesterday the low clouds never lifted, and we didn't get out on the Pisgah hike we'd contemplated earlier. However, we were able to prod our feet out our deck door and up the hill to the stairs leading to the Wayne Morse Family Farm city park and get maybe 3500 steps on the lovely wooded paths up there and through the neighborhood back to our place. Not much, but it was something—so we didn't feel like utter sloths.

The new owners of our old house have arrived in town for several days of spiffing up. Not sure what all they're going to do. Probably at least some interior painting, but there's a lot of other things that need to be done. The husband has a lot of experience working on old homes, so they're in a much better position than we would be to improve things quickly. They live in Southern California, but the wife grew up here in Eugene and still has family in the area. She has wanted a house in Eugene for a long time. At some point in the next few days, we're meeting them for a champagne toast (I'll have fizzy water) to celebrate their new place, our new place, and big new phases for all of us.

Okay, this is a bit geeky, but starting with this blog, and continuing if it works out, I'm going to try writing in old-school HTML because I'm tired of Blogger putting scads of formatting code in my entries and me not feeling like I'm in control. I know enough basic HTML, so this should work. My original blog that I started in 1999 was a roll-yer-own seat-of-the-pants project, and very fun. Sometime in 2007, though, I got tired of doing all the formatting myself and switched to Wordpress for blogging. Last year I made the switch to Blogger because its owner Google allows unlimited uploading of photos, and photos are rendered better. Blogger can automatically format entries, but it also has an option for writing HTML. You might see some minor changes, such as double-spaces instead of indents (which are not super simple in HTML if I want to keep the code clean), but otherwise it will be all under the hood. End of geeky section.

Wow, the fog has gotten even thicker out there. The normally bright windows of Market of Choice are invisible (a block or so away, down the hill). Okay. Well, nothing else is surfacing in my brain to blog about. Except: my NaNoWriMo challenge is going well; we have Swarm coming up on Sunday; RFR is not attracting me lately; and I'm still quite happy with my Freewrite Alpha (typing on it now). There. Have a nice day!

Tactile and clacky

Interior detail, New Chez Random

    I first heard the term "pet food topper" last week. Apparently many people add something more enticing or flavorful on top of the regular dog or cat food in order to get their pets more interested in eating...? We've never had that problem. I am hounded multiple times a day, particularly by one feline (Fleur), for food, and it is very rare that any of the cats are uninterested in gobbling down their food allotments. But they do get a pet food topper, of sorts. And it has solved a major issue for at least one feline (Griffin): stool softener. I shall say no more.

    Okay, that was the only item at the top of my blogging brain this morning. I'm still enjoying my Astrohaus Freewrite Alpha focused writing device. So barebones but so expensive. I continue to question the "wisdom" of purchasing it. As if wisdom were really a relevant term for an impulsive hobby purchase hahaha. But I am sitting here in the early morning dimness, tapping out a blog entry onto a backlit small screen, and I can't check my Facebook or the stupid headlines or the stock market—which I'd be doing were I writing on a laptop computer. The keyboard is very satisfyingly tactile and clacky, an important feature for many of us writers. I have one job right now. This typer forces me to do it just by its simple mute nature.

Hobby gear

Good morning. I am typing this text on my new writing gadget, the Astrohaus Freewrite Alpha (second edition), the newest and least pricey unit in their lineup. It's basically a flat slab of plastic with a keyboard and a small LCD backlit screen. Dimensions of the slab are roughly 12 inches wide by 8 inches deep, and it weighs about a pound and a half. The keys are clacky, and the spacebar even louder. But I like the feel of typing on it. The price is kind of ridiculous unless you've decided this kind of "distraction-free writing device" is really for you. There is a connection to the internet via wi-fi, but it's only for syncing documents to a cloud storage service with an option for emailing the text to yourself (with the handy-dandy but easy-to-hit-by-mistake SEND button). No browsing, no apps, no notifications. The price—I did warn you!—is $350. But we are in a pay-more-to-get-less world, are we not? E.g., to get a decent new-model kitchen stove without wi-fi, you need to pay a premium, as Mrs. Random found out last week.

The Freewrite devices are for drafting, not for revising or editing. The idea is that you write out your first draft on a Freewrite and then send it to a real computer and text editor to finish it, which is what I'll do with this text when I'm done babbling here.

Like most gadgets I acquire, I don't have a monetary justification for buying it. It's hobby gear, like cameras and lenses, synthesizers and samplers. I collect writing machines. The Freewrite Alpha joins my three AlphaSmarts, seventeen typewriters, two bluetooth keyboards (for typing on a tablet and phones—old and new), several laptop computers, and a variety of pens and pencils. Raw gear lust drove this purchase.

However, I am using it to accomplish an actual current goal: writing 50,000 words in this year's NaNoWriMo (self) challenge. Yesterday I added 2,323 words to my effort, and I got those words significantly more quickly than with Scrivener in composition mode, my go-to method the last few days. So there is that. And I am brimming with ideas for the experimental novel that those 50K will form the ur-text for. So there is that, too. Bottom line: I'm having tons of fun with this new toy, be it a brilliant purchase or expensive folly—it's both.

Shrouded

Minimal deck art AKA propane fire pit.

  Most mornings are foggy this time of year, a fact we weren’t as viscerally aware of during our 35 years down on the flat land of Whiteaker neighborhood. Up here from our perch in the south hills, we see it clearly, so to speak, through floor-to-ceiling living room windows. Often the Coburg hills to the north are completely shrouded. This morning when we first got up, we could see the always-lit upper windows of Market of Choice a couple blocks away, but now they are invisible. The fog moves around, thins and thickens, rises and sinks, usually dissipating during the first hour or two after sunrise. Fog is a significant part of our morning entertainment before we move on to word games (her) and stupid headlines (me).

"Stay on target"

Interior detail, New Chez Random

It took three trips to the shop, but I got my little M1 MacBook Air’s USB-C ports replaced and everything’s good, and it didn’t cost and arm and a leg—only an elbow I guess. Just glad I didn’t have to send it away and wait for weeks, you know.

We hiked at South Eugene Meadows yesterday. It had been months, since before we moved, and in the meantime at least two new trails have been started, which is exciting. And work has begun on the long trail to complete a link between S.E.M. and a couple Ridgeline trailheads on Willamette Street, a project promised over two years ago but beset by delay. It will be nice to have new trails to add to our list.

Today is pretty open. I could broadcast a Radio Free Random transmission, and if I do—that is, if I upload the recording—it will be the 800th upload to my Mixcloud channel. Well, that’s not counting the several recordings that have been deleted over the years because of DMCA violations (too many songs by one artist or from one album, typically). But I’m not feeling very motivated to do radio today. Number 800 will happen when it happens. There’s some cleaning and organizing that’s been waiting to be accomplished. And I think I might want to write.

The NaNoNonsense thing is coming along very well. Current stats as of last night: total words = 12542; daily average = 1791.7, which is well above the 1667 per day I need to hit 50K for the month. “Stay on target” I’m hearing in my head.

Multi-CPU guy

View to the south from our kitchen.

I think the last time I had a computer repaired was in the early 2010s. Hard drive fail, as I recall. Sent it back to Dell, took a few weeks, but I still have it and it’s still working, and even though Windows 7 is not supported, I keep it because it’s my only dependable CD burner. Yes, I still burn discs, mainly mix CDs for Mrs. Random and other music-lovin’ pals.

Anyway, I mention this because today I’m taking my MacBook Air M1 (13”) to a shop for repair. One of its two USB-C ports has stopped working, and the other one only works when jacks are plugged in one direction only, which kind of defeats the purpose of USB-C! If the one half-working port stops functioning completely, I won’t be able to charge the darn machine, let alone back up data to a hard drive. Otherwise, that laptop is working just fine, so I think even an expensive fix will be worth it. Fingers crossed it won’t take weeks. At least I still have my newer Mac, a 15” M3 Air, which continues to function perfectly, so I’m still good in the daily driver department. 

Some of you must be thinking, “Why does he need more than one computer?” Well, my friends, you apparently don’t know me! Hahaha. I use ALL my laptops… the two Macs (just mentioned—I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo on the older one, and everything else on the newer one) and three Windows 10 Dells (two for Radio Free Random and one for certain old trusty pieces of software I don’t want to live without, e.g. Art Explosion desktop publisher, Adobe Audition audio editor, and Total Recorder, which can record any audio playing on the computer—great for dubbing from streaming services), AND the aforementioned Windows 7 Dell that I burn CDs with. I’ve been a multi-CPU guy for many years, and I’m not going to stop now!

That would be rad

Once upon a time there was a thriving annual writing challenge called NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, held every November from 1999 through 2024. I’ll let Wikipedia fill you in:

National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo (/ˌnænoʊˈraɪmoʊ/ NAN-oh-RY-moh), was a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promoted creative writing around the world. Its flagship program was an annual, international creative writing event in which participants attempted to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. Well-known authors wrote "pep talks" in order to motivate participants during the month. The website provided participants, called "Wrimos", with tips for writer's block, information on where local participants were meeting, and an online community of support. Focusing on the length of a work rather than the quality, writers were encouraged to finish their first drafts quickly so they could be edited later at the writers' discretion. The project started in July 1999 with 21 participants. In 2022, 413,295 people participated in the organization's programs. Writers wishing to participate first registered on the project's website, where they could post profiles and information about their novels, including synopses and excerpts. Regional volunteers called "Municipal Liaisons" helped connect local writers, held in-person and virtual writing events, and provided encouragement.

But NaNoWriMo officially is no more. Accusations, scandals, and various dissatisfactions contributed to the shutdown of the website this year. Personally, despite thinking about it several years in a row, I never took part in the challenge while it was still going. I actually found out about the shutdown last week after deciding to go for it this year. Oops, too late! But not really, because it’s totally possible to do a self-challenge. And that’s what I’m doing, with goal of 50,000 words during November towards a “literary nonsense” novel.

Again, take it away Wiki:

Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning.

In some form or other, I’ve been writing in this genre since I was a teenager. It’s just how I naturally creatively write. Granted, it’s quite a bit harder (for me) to write than normie prose, but it’s way more fun and satisfying. I think of it like manufacturing a completely legal and safe (?) psychedelic drug. When I read the stuff I write, I feel like my brain is experiencing a (mostly temporary) rewiring. Representational thinking is right out. You gotta go with the flow and see where it takes you. Tune in and turn on. It’s experimental writing, it’s sizzling synapses, it’s nothing expected: all subversion and transgressiveness. It’s fun!

As of last night, the end of Day 5, my stats were: 8999 total words for a daily average of 1799.8. To hit 50K by the 30th of November, I need to average at least 1667 words per day. So far, so good.

Back in 2017 I wrote a zine-sized booklet of experimental/literary nonsense, much akin to the material I’m writing this month for NaNoWriMo. I called it YOU KNOW IN CHUNKS. My fond goal for the current challenge is to turn my writing (plus some other material I have written over the intervening years since YKIC) into a novel-length book. That would be rad.

Rainy and blustery

View to the north from our living room.

Wednesday is garbage pickup day at the new house. It was Friday at the old house. Recycling and yard debris alternate weeks. It is the former today. We’re finally catching up with the buildup of cardboard from deliveries of various things we purchased for the new house over the past couple months—reclaiming garage space. And speaking of garage space, I need to sneak some more styrofoam into the garbage, the stuff not marked with a “#6” so St. Vinnies won’t take it. Styrofoam is terrible stuff.

Rainy and blustery out there this morning. Yesterday we got some real downpours. I guess there’s another “atmospheric river” snaking around up there in the sky. That’s a term I do not remember before this century, and definitely not when I was growing up. We didn’t have “super moons” either.

We did make it out for a hike yesterday morning, to a trailhead that’s quite close to our new neighborhood: Martin Street, which leads up to the Amazon Creek Headwaters path. Ran into Blake at the top end (Fox Hollow Rd. parking lot, across from the Raptor Center), where he starts his route and where we turn around and go back down. He joined us and we had nice chat walking through the woods. Mrs. Random and I were quite proud of ourselves for getting out early (before 10 o’clock!)—well, actually, getting out at all. Weather was sunny and mild in the morning, before the precipitation got going.

Free day

Our time changed Sunday morning, from Daylight Saving to Standard. Six a.m. became five a.m. Yesterday and today I got up at five. Mrs. Random (as I write this) is still asleep. The kitties are happy to have a functioning human at this early hour, scooping out some food into their dishes and keeping them company. No doubt I’ll have to balance this hour of wakefulness with additional or longer nap(s) later today.

It’s a “free day” for us—no scheduled appointments or chores. That’s not to say there aren’t things to do, things that ought to be done. But it won’t be like yesterday for me, when I had a veterinary appointment and a dental appointment to attend to. And not like tomorrow when we have an HVAC tech coming over in the afternoon to inspect the furnace and heat pump and ducting. And not like Thursday when Griffey has a $olensia appointment. No, today is free. We could take a hike, but it’s likely to be raining hard enough to put us off that idea—we’ll see!

I just checked the weather app, and it looks we could walk this morning and avoid rain. Or we could take our umbrellas and go out this afternoon. Either means attaining escape velocity, which means motivation. It’s hard to leave our cozy house!

The whole psychogeography

Fleur’s got a $olensia appointment today, and I’ve got a tooth filling appointment. I need to shave.

Yesterday’s hike was fairly glorious. Great weather, dramatic clouds and fog, lots of little birds. We’re proud of ourselves for getting out and doing 6000+ steps two out of the last three days. Probably not happening again today, but perhaps tomorrow.

It feels like we’re settling in to our new place all over again, what with the old house selling so recently and the accompanying internal adjustments to that (it’s all in our heads, of course).

The trailheads to several of our favorite hikes are much closer to our new house, or at least involve fewer red lights. The whole psychogeography of our town, the one we’ve both lived in for 45 years (well, 44 for me), suddenly changed with the move. We have a new perspective or point of view on everything: new routes, even new values in terms of, like, where to go out to eat, where to shop, and so on. We’re on the other side of downtown—we have different routes to the freeway and nearby towns, and so on.

Here we don’t have a designated “TV room” like we did in the old house. But on Halloween I did set up our TV temporarily in the family room so we could watch The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Some couples have their song, and we do too, but we also have our movie: that one. We’ve watched it many dozens of times, and I always catch something, some little detail, that I hadn’t noticed before, every time we do. Several actors in it—early in their careers—went on to be famous for other films. Peter Weller is probably way more known for Robocop than for Buckaroo Banzai, for instance. But he’ll always be Buckaroo to us!

Into the green

We sold the old house!! The deal closed late last week. Such a load off our minds, and quite lovely not to have to drive across town every couple days to make sure nobody’s camping on the porch. We’ve been very fortunate with both houses—neither one went on the market; we were able to complete private deals on the new one and the old one—with significantly less hassle (and expense) than the traditional route would have taken. And the whole process, from initial inkling to now, was pretty darned fast. We first had the idea of looking for a new place on March 9. Less than 8 months later, here we are: in a new house and with our old house already transferred to new owners! We’re still pinching ourselves.

Mrs. Random is making Sunday morning pamcakes ‘n’ eggs in our new spacious kitchen. I’m sitting on our new long (“nap-size”) couch. We’re listening to a “groovy 1960’s instrumental” compilation on the hi-fi. It’s foggy out there to the north, through the big living room windows, and we have a nice view of big trees whose leaves are turning yellow and orange and red. Later this morning we’re planning on visiting Suzanne Arlie Park for a hike. It’s been many weeks since we’ve done that traditional Sunday jaunt. The City has been “developing” the site, and we’re curious.

Maybe with the house situation(s) all settled I’ll have more mental and emotional energy to blog more regularly! Being able to focus on just one house is kind of amazing after many weeks in a kind of “between” state. Already I can feel the stress meter lowering into the green.