ABQwerty Type Writer Society Kick-Off

Post-Script: Here's a shot made several weeks ago of the vintage guitar and hi-fi shop next to Rust is Gold Coffee, part of the Albuquerque Arts Collective, who hosted our meeting:



Settling in this evening as the video was uploading, I began perusing the leftover typed sheets that I usually collect from these meetings, and was pleased to find this spontaneous poem:



I assume it was written by Sandra, the lady sitting across the table from me, as I was conversing with the school teacher who acquired one of my machines for his classroom (the Smith-Corona Silent), since it contains references to our conversation. He teaches middle school computer classes, and in our conversation I was trying to make a connection between the broader concept of "mechanical logic" as it applies to manual typewriter mechanisms and the specifics of software-programmed logic. I was, as an example, explaining that each typewriter character key has two "functions" - upper or lower case; or the line spacing selector is an example of 3-state logic. In general, I was using creative analogies to help describe the typewriter as an example of a logical mechanical device, predating electronic programmable computers; an approach he might find useful in his computer classes. I'd like his students to see the typewriter as more than mere historic lineage predating the computer, but a device that exhibits its own sense of pre-wired "logic".

Further down in the poem we see references to my advice on how Sandra could clean her Olympia SM4. I'm going to keep this poem and return it to her at the next meeting. I love spontaneous creativity, since this is one of the primary goals of our society. Well done Sandra!



Typecast via Remington Quiet-Riter.