International Typewriter Day 2015

It's just a week away, Tuesday, June 23, the anniversary date of the U.S. patent filed by Christopher Latham Sholes and company for an "Improvement in type-writing machines" which is a good enough reason to throw a type-party at the midpoint of the year.

Any plans for marking the date this year? Share in the comments!

The Rhinos are back! The Rhinos are back!

Pour the coffee and get a fresh ribbon, for the NaNoWriMo Typewriter Brigade has risen again for 2014. C'mon over and join us for a month of noisemaking, won't you?

What Does the Rhino Say?

Another NaNoWriMo is in the box/bag/container of your choice and the Typewriter Brigade came out in force this year with typebars swinging. For the stats wonks in the room, here's NaNoWriMo 2013, by the numbers. Remember that the Brigade has an open-door policy to membership, mainly because the Rhino ate the door. If you so much as look at the topic, you're considered a Brigadier for the year.

All figures are as of December 6, 2013, as of my highly-scientific copy-and-paste of the forum text...

• Total novelists posting in the topic: 77
• Total "fans" posting (did not set up a novel): 8
• Total posts in the Brigade topic: 1,202
• Occurrences of the word "rhino" in the post bodies: 148
  
• Post count that used to break the forums: 250
• Total words written by Brigade novelists in 2013: 2,973,180
• Approximate number of double-spaced pages @ 250 words/page: 11,900
• Average number of words per Brigade novelist: 38,613
• Median number of words per Brigade novelist: 50,062
• Most words written in 2013 by a single Brigadier: 112,140
• Number of Brigadiers that exceeded 100,000 words in 2013: 3
• Total number of winners (met or exceeded 50,000 words): 46
• Narrowest win margin, in words: 0
• Percentage of Brigade winners: 59.74%

Personally, I think that last stat is a little wrong, since you're all winners in my book. Trying to squeeze the time and motivation to draft a novel in a month is challenge enough. Rocking it old school automatically wins you non-redeemable Bonus Points. In short:

Well done, Brigadiers! 

For more than a few of us in the 'sphere, the Brigade was the gateway drug to getting into typewriters and retrotech in general, and despite the cries of "hipster!" and the usual level of mockery and disbelief that Brigadiers had to face this year, I'd say we kicked some serious rhino hindquarters. Same time next year?

Change "Bench Grinder" to "Burroughs-Moon-Hopkins Adding Machine Typewriter" and you'll understand

Wondermark is a regular web comic put together with Victorian-era clip art and contemporary dialogue. I think today's strip is especially apt for typewriter collectors with long-suffering significant others, at least around my household.

Be sure to hover over the comic for the bonus "alt text" joke.

The International Correspondence Initiative

Reposted with permission from A Machine for the End of the World:

The International Correspondence Initiative

What it is: A project to make the world a smaller, more engaged and more interesting place the old-fashioned way: via snail-mail

Who it is: Anyone who is interested can participate!

Where it is: Global

Materials used: Typewriters, pens, pencils, paper, business card stock, cameras, braillers, steno machines, adding machines, craft supplies, greeting cards, scanners, computers

Purpose: To send out and receive unique correspondence (dubbed 'Typograms') and to post it to the Typosphere once it arrives at its intended destination

Content: The sky's the limit, as long as it's tasteful and safe for work/younger viewers

Comments: This is quickly becoming a pet project for me. I'm excited to get started with making and sending things! And I have some creative ideas for what I will receive, too. If privacy is a concern for any would-be participants, rest assured that your address would absolutely not be made public. Of course, all participants are to be held to the same privacy standards.  Participants will receive addresses in round robin fashion; once a Typogram is sent to and received by one addressee, the sender will get another, random addressee. It will be up to the individuals involved as to wether they would like to continue correspondence with one another after the initial Typogram.

Contact: Please email any questions, comments or requests to Anna here.

The Convenient Typer

Could this be the realization of the Maker/Typosphere confluence?

http://blog.makezine.com/2012/02/08/the-convenient-typer

Max Lupo of Barrie, ON, built this rig by which three people can cooperatively type out “it is as it is” using four key-punchers and a space bar presser.

OK Max, you've proven your skills. Now let's see you rig up something to type my novel for me next November.

I Fail to See the Problem

Adopt a Typewriter Today, says Ashland Creek Press. I know the video is supposed to be funny, but how did they get into my brain?

Typewriter Brigade: Take Note

We need to get these things rigged up for next year. Who's with me?

Typewriter Day 2011: Schedule of Events

• TIME: Whenever you can
• PLACE: Wherever you are
• EVENT: Type

Typewriter Day 2011 is nearly upon us. Take a typewriter and camera in hand tomorrow and share a little digital postcard with the rest of the typosphere.



Typewriter Day NAQ (Never-Asked Questions)

What should I type?

• How about a letter to someone else in the typosphere?
• Got a friend with you tomorrow? Have a speed-typing contest with pangrams.
• Puzzle-masters take note: you've got an assignment due.

I'm shy/not photogenic/a vampire: I don't want to film myself.

• There's good precedent for only showing your hands. (Barbie typewriter not required.)

OK, fine, but then what?

• Upload your video/photo gallery/radio interview to your favorite sharing service. Tag it, if you can. Post a link here in a comment. Check out the other links that have already been posted, and then wait for the super-mega-after-the-fact-roundup-post here.
• Any public sharing service will do, as long as we're allowed to link to the content. Embeddable content would be better, but not required.
• If you have a Yahoo address and a typewriter blog, you can request to join the "Anablogger Archives" group that I administer. Please include the URL of your blog so I can sort out the real requests from the random ones. Flickr can host videos as well as slide shows, though be aware of their upload limits for free accounts.

"Tag it?"

• Most services allow you to attach keywords to uploads. TypewriterDay2011 was suggested in the comments, and I think this sounds excellent. Feel free to use a hashtag if you're tweeting, too. #TypewriterDay2011

Anything else?

• It's a little late now, but I think t-shirts decorated with Sholes' patent drawings would be an excellent idea. Any typospherian who is both highly creative and independently wealthy is encouraged to follow up on this. (Click the above image to jump a Sholes patent.)
  

Typewriting Around the World?

Quick, before Blogger melts down again!

A few years ago, I got all ambitious over on Clickthing and declared an elaborate celebration of Typewriter Day, known to mortals as June 23. This is the anniversary of the date when Christopher Sholes received the U.S. patent for his device that in time grew to become the one we know and love.

Inspired by shordzi's excellent videos, I wondered... do you think we could get everyone to shoot a little video of themselves typing on June 23rd? Perhaps write up a little bit about where you were, what you were typing, etc.. Post on your favorite video-sharing site, and we can make a gallery here after the fact.

What say you all?

Round Ribbon Results #1

The results of the first Round Ribbon to be completed:

Call for mail fiends

Dear typosphere,

If you aren't getting enough awesome snail mail, consider emailing me at typed.letter@gmail.com to get in on our web-of-mail that we have going.

If you are already in on it, but want another person to write to, leave a comment on this post and I'll send you a new participant.

-Ryan (the one in Seattle)

Round Ribbon

If I already have your address, you can just leave a comment here.