My newsletter is at 992 subscribers now – so close to 1,000!!! (Please sign up for fun keyboard stories, updates on book production, previews, and be the first to know when the book is ready!)https://www.getrevue.co/profile/shift-happens/ …
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Fun fact: Each keyboard received, on average, 670 megapixels.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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(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.)
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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
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Also, somehow there is also a vintage BlackBerry in my bed! I have no recollection of this.
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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.
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(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!
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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!)
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After some encouragement – here are four spreads. There are hundreds more. :·)pic.twitter.com/2KGBjba7Ng
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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
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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
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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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(Note the sign that I made at a sign-making/lettering class five years ago – the book not even an idea yet – which became something of a secret motto/rallying cry.)pic.twitter.com/7UnznvqQpn
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Had a little collaborative Figma/Zoom session yesterday with my good friend
@sall to figure out the section breaks in my book. If you’ve seen them done elsewhere or have favourite treatments, please let me know!pic.twitter.com/UGMWT9QfzPShow this thread -
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Just removed 171 ellipses from my book. Apparently… I really love ellipses. (Next stop: getting rid of “simply” and a lot of the unnecessary italicization for emphasis.)
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“Simply” went from 204 to 49 occurrences. (BTW when the book is published, I am planning to release all the drafts, too, so people interested in writing process can check them out!)
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I haven’t been giving updates on the book much outside of my newsletter, but! Fifth prototype arrived today. It’s pretty much all the words and all the photos. I feel pretty happy about it!!!pic.twitter.com/v9TJPgxW0C
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Fun fact: There are 26 Easter eggs in the book. I don’t know what that says about anything.
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There are over a 1,000 photos in this prototype and they *all* look good and they are *all* chosen deliberately and they *all* help to tell the story. Today this is the thing I’m most proud of.pic.twitter.com/Z4iB01s0T5
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It’s not even that there are things in the book that are pretty rare, and good photos of which never graced the Internet. The book will also have realistic 3D renders of things that couldn’t be shown before, or renders of keyboards that are no longer with us.
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