The Dead Tree Lives Again

One thing which makes life with Groupie interesting - and always has done - is the fact that we're quite different in several ways. There's a few things in life where we find ourselves on opposite sides, ranging from the trivial (she watched Swap Shop on the BBC as a child on Saturday mornings, whereas I was a huge fan of their competitors Tiswas over on ITV) to the more serious (she's generally supportive of the death penalty, I'm very much against it) Probably the most striking difference between us is our attitudes to technology. Groupie has no computer and no real wish for one, and prefers to write letters to penpals. I of course have my trusty Apple Mac and use email and social networking to keep in touch. In fact, I find it difficult to write for a prolonged period now as I'm so used to typing things, which I can do much faster.

I never used to be like that though. Obviously back in the 1980s when I was at school and had exercise books, I was into paper-based things a lot more. I had all sorts of notebooks stashed away where I'd write things down on - all sorts of random things. In fact, my Dad often said my bedroom was a fire hazard with all that paper! For a while back then I had the names of the Top Twenty records written down on strips of paper which I'd stick on my wall in the order they were in that week's chart, moving them up and down and replacing them with new strips each week like my own version of the displays at record shops. I was also into pen-pals back then, and wrote to them on coloured writing paper which you could buy (by the sheet) at a printer's in the nearest town, with envelopes to match!! Then, around the end of the decade, I was given a typewriter for my birthday, and the rest is history... Now I've got things like Evernote and the like, there's probably no need to write down anything. Just type it in as an email or a text file and there you go.

Recently though I've found myself scribbling various things down on backs of envelopes - idle plans, notes, etc. and while I could type these into a textfile, sometimes that's not always convenient. I reckon I stare at a screen a little too much as it is. And what if I need to draw something to illustrate these notes? Get a graphics tablet? I've always wanted one of those, and they're dirt cheap nowadays - but even a technophile like me has to admit that sometimes pen and paper is the best solution. So the little notes appear on the backs of the envelopes, and then they start adding to the clutter which invariably surrounds me. I started thinking to myself "I should be scanning these into the computer and then recycling the originals - but sometimes that feels like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Maybe I need to get hold of a notepad for this sort of stuff". Yes - there's not even a notepad in my house these days!

So I went out and bought one today. It's an A6 journal, with 192 pages and a ribbon bookmark. My first notepad of the 21st century. I can imagine being curled up in bed with it and writing down stuff from my thoughts - maybe planning out projects. And if I want to, I guess I can scan the pages into Evernote if I want them in the digital sphere, can't I?

Maybe Groupie was right after all...

elvis costello & the attractions

everyday I write the book

punch the clock 1983