Scanning the oversized volumes on the library’s small scanners seemed like days of work. Instead, I set up a tripod with my iPhone in the library, grabbed my little Bluetooth remote.pic.twitter.com/in9KmXeNoZ
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It’s been hard to read other books for a while now. As I read, my mind keeps going to either “ah, this is nice, will people be so engrossed in my book?” or “this is so much better than what I’ve done.”
Then, I keep pausing to write down new ideas, or places to rewrite, or turns of phrases to steal.
And even without any of the above, I keep noticing typographical or typesetting details, and wondering about those, too.
(For example, I am trying to read “A burglar’s guide to the city” and just spent 5 minutes wondering whether these decorative paragraph breaks were cute or not, as my eyes blindly followed sentences without my brain registering anything.)pic.twitter.com/IenJVeJlm3
Always happy when I can take what seem like an unsalvageable photo, and through the magic of Lightroom and Photoshop turn it into an okay one.pic.twitter.com/NzAIEc5LJq
Spent most of today photographing keyboards from @keyboardio’s collection. (For the book.)
After I was done, I realized I photographed 56 (!) keyboards.pic.twitter.com/T2xY9dW8rA
Also, sometimes the best part of the keyboard is its connector.pic.twitter.com/IOWwP5BoAD
Fun fact: Each keyboard received, on average, 670 megapixels.
I woke up early to visit a faraway library before work, and scan one particular photo for the book. I grabbed the volume, and it opened at the exact very page that had the photo I wanted.
pic.twitter.com/sQmw1GAud5
As much as I love words and writing, taking a nice photo of an important artifact brings me as much joy. This is today’s book-bound photo of quite possibly the best keyboard ever made.pic.twitter.com/evkXIypmuO
I keep coming back to this photo: four generations of people in awe of the Space Cadet keyboard (I’m assuming for very different reasons). Knowing what seem like more impressive keyboards, I don’t fully understand the enduring appeal of Space Cadet… but it’s undeniable.pic.twitter.com/LKgYDGsm9P
In following another thread, I found an excellent photo of an overlay on top of a keyboard – among the best I’ve ever seen. I got really excited and immediately wanted to contact the photographer. Then I realized *I* took this photo, thirteen years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2276490226/ …pic.twitter.com/sqQYw3mtbt
Can you afford to miss this week’s newsletter and learn what on the earth is this supposed to be? That’s right, I didn’t think so. Sign up here if you haven’t already! https://www.getrevue.co/profile/shift-happens/ …pic.twitter.com/S7JwUW1y4h
Today my worlds collided – historical research for the book was helpful in figuring out a weird bug at work: pressing Shift+numpad 2 wasn’t working on Windows.pic.twitter.com/IFNB8KYk6m
(Hilariously, the person I was referring to complained that this secret feature was already poorly understood and documented by mid-1980s. And here were are in very, very late 2010s, and it’s still rearing its ugly head.)
The glamour of book writing: endless days on your couch cleaning up images in Photoshop while rewatching TV + cleaning a gross typewriter to prepare for a photo… in your bed, because you ran out of floor space.pic.twitter.com/vE01VnkGtl
Also, somehow there is also a vintage BlackBerry in my bed! I have no recollection of this.
Compiling a list of acknowledgements for my book and getting… unexpectedly emotional? So many great people who’ve generously helped me, and on so many levels, too. Thank you.
(I know I haven’t updated this thread in a while, but I’ve been spending last many months working on the visual side of the book. It’s hard to talk about it and not show anything – but showing things would be spoiling things!
Still, I have So Many Great Photos for the book. I’m really excited for you to see them. And this part of the work should be finally done within weeks… and then the next newsletter comes!)
After some encouragement – here are four spreads. There are hundreds more. :·)pic.twitter.com/2KGBjba7Ng
The sticky wall is back! Now tracking finalizing the visuals for each chapter. (Green sticky instead of pink in the first column.) Each chapter is ~90% done, so it’ll happen pretty quickly. Two so far!pic.twitter.com/0k45VeJnyG
Almost didn’t go to @TypeThursdaySF this week (tired), but so glad I did: someone presented a fascinating project where a typewriter was modified to simplify its letterforms and then create semigraphics-like art. It was so good. I have never seen anything like this before.pic.twitter.com/AdAUGKIEWZ
The book pile isn’t growing as quickly as it used to (which makes sense), but it’s still growing!pic.twitter.com/L1puePJgPF
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