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David Swindle is the associate editor of PJ Media. He writes and edits articles and blog posts on politics, news, culture, and entertainment. He edits the PJ Lifestyle section and blogs about political culture at PJ Tatler. Contact him at DaveSwindlePJM @ Gmail.com.
He has worked full-time as a writer, editor, blogger, and New Media troublemaker since 2009. He graduated with a degree in English (creative writing emphasis) and political science from Ball State University in 2006. Previously he's also worked as a freelance writer for The Indianapolis Star and the film critic for WTHR.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their Siberian Husky puppy Maura.
And so too, are tube amps far more warm than Darlington Pairs. Especially when they are exposed so you can see the glow of the plasma harmonies.
Great piece. The only people who seem to be able to write nice longhand anymore are those trained in old school Catholic Schools — thus the Filipinos have a hand up over us, for they still teach it.
I remember very well when LP Vinyl “high fidelity” was much, much the preferred sound, being noticeably physically easier on the ears that the harsher, more strident highs of those new digital recordings.
And, also remember when the conventional technical wisdom of that day stated that the reason for that actual harshness was due to the “flickering” effect of the sampling of the digital techniques, as opposed to the continuous-flow signal obtained and recorded during the “analog” recording session….the comparison was made of a very rapidly flickering flourescent light versus the steady, uninterrupted electrical flow in the filament of an incandescent bulb.
The new harsh digital sound would be alleviated theoretically by vastly more “samples” of sound being captured per instant as the technology improved. Skepticism remains.
Radio Shack then had a new “digital player” which was so awful sounding that I took it back.
New generations growing up without the advantage of this comparative insight/experience will no doubt smirk at this observation……they only listen to thumping “rap” where sound quality is of no interest…..classical music is where the fidelity fallacy of “digital” is revealed.
What is “An Army of Guidos”?
The worst kind of army…
– a Moleskin notebook and improve your grip.
That is a moleskine in the photo. My third. It’s the only journal I’m interested in these days.
Your penmanship is awful. Stick with typing.
Same reminder to myself. I recently wrote a short note, and found my writing was like a two years old’s.
I can read it no problem.
“Your penmanship is awful.
Stick with typing.Practice more.”Fixed that for you! (Assuming the HTML comes out correctly, that is…)
Agreed. My penmanship, even the block-letter version that has become so common when someone has to actually pick up a pen, has deteriorated markedly.
On a similar note, one of our great insidious enemies is PowerPoint. I despise it for several reasons.
It makes cut-and-paste rather a PITA.
I gave up script writing in 5th grade when they no longer required it. From that point on I printed. Now I can barely do that. But I type da bomb.
If you are going to write out what you want to say, do it in Lincoln’s handwriting, or study the French cursive hand. Both are pleasing to the eye and relatively easy to accomplish, without the overly decorative flourishes.
Now when are we going to be able to comment using the same technique? I think that it would be an even more interesting experiment.
I say good riddance to handwriting. Tough to read and not appealing in the least.
Interesting comparison with vacuum tube hifi, but I see nothing satisfying about having to decode nearly unreadable text.
And mine’s even worse, by the way …
D
A couple years ago I walked into an Apple store with my son. One of the sound systems for iPods they had on display was a beautiful dark blue device, about the size of a brick, with two golden-glowing tubes on either end. The salesman said that, yes, there are some people who prefer the “old” sound from these systems, and I had the immense good fortune to have my son try a side-by-side comparison with his iPod on the tube system and the top-of-the-line new one next to it.
No comparison — he immediately said that he liked to tube system better. A “warmer” sound — hard to explain, but once you hear it you’ll know.
I should have bought it then. It was gone soon after and I haven’t seen one since.
When it takes you as long to hunt and peck as I do, you don’t lose a thing going from longhand to typing. In fact, when I type I actually have more time to think about what I’m writing. Is that a good thing? My sons say it’s torture to watch.
I disagree that writing via typing is writing impaired. I can type far faster than I can write longhand and I don’t lose my thought process due to the slowness of committing to medium. The flow, once going, is more coherent.
“I disagree that writing via typing is writing impaired.”
I never said that it was “impaired.”
Writing by hand is awesome. . .I’ve actually started doing it more and more, especially since its practically “extinct” nowadays and gives a nice personalized touch.
One tip. If you’re going to go “old school” with ink and paper, go all the way “back there” and make the switch to a good fountain pen. They do take a little bit of getting used to, bu they offer several real advantages:
Less force necessary to write improves handwriting quality and reduces hand fatigue during writing. If you’re writing just a few sentences maybe you won’t notice the difference, but I guarantee that you will notice if you’re writing pages at a time.
Fountain pens can be filled with the ink of your choice, in a wide variety of shades NOT available in ordinary ball point or felt-tip pens (yes, including “highlighter” colors, or even “invisible” ink, if you like). And of course using flexible or italic type nibs on the pen can also improve the “character” of the writing.
I also actually stopped writing in cursive thirty years ago when I finished grade school but having picked up a fountain pen recently, I tried it again, and it made all the difference. Suddenly writing in cursive made “sense” in a way that it never seemed to with ball point pens. Not only can I write cursive faster than print, and with less hand fatigue (pen only leaves paper once per word) but its actually neater, to boot.
Thanks for the nudge and reminder toward the fountain pen. Learning how to use them is one of the things on the to-do list….
Definitely check out fountain pens! One of my husband’s hobbies is handwriting; he really enjoys Spencerian (sp?) script for example, and a good fountain pen is critical to beautiful writing.
For what it’s worth, I think your handwriting isn’t bad at all. I had no problem reading it, so I think you’re off to a fine start!
Oh, Oh, Oh….this octogenarian can’t believe I read these words…”Learning how to use them [fountain pens] is one of the things on the to-do list….”
A hand-written note of best wishes, thanks, sympathy, or condolence [penmanship is unimportant as long as it can at least be read] is vastly more meaningful that a ….tweet or an email…..don’t use those.
I wrote this longhand on my touchscreen and nothing happened except I need a new touchscreen. So I’m typing again.
That’s funny, my brother is a recording tape fundamentalist who hates all things digital (even clocks).
My mother, at age 90, still writes a beautiful, legible Spencerian cursive hand (though it’s a little shakier now). My handwriting looks like crap.
Alton Brown (Food Network) tweets using post-it notes. It’s fun and he calls them “analog” tweets.
Write first drafts long hand, edit digital. There is something (for me) in the physical formation of the words on paper the sparks creativity that is missing when I type.
The process of moving from written word to type is a built in editor.