Wither Goest the WeB LOG?

I've been enjoying participating in the live stream of Type Pals which, if you aren't a member and are into typewriters, I encourage you to sign up. Gregory Short hosts the site and does a great job of making us typists feel right at home. There's a Sunday morning (10AM Pacific Time) hosted live-stream, and also a non-hosted version that runs 24/7. There's also members' discussion forums and a space for sharing files.

I've also been using the OBS software with this Mac Book Pro for the New Mexico Film Photographers monthly live stream (their Facebook group link is here.)

I also finally took the time to document my entire typewriter collection for Ted Munk's Typewriter Database. If you are a collector, please think about doing so, it helps us crowd-source information needed to more accurately determine the age and histories of our machines.

For my collection I first wanted better gallery photos, so I bought a large while cloth to use as a backdrop, draped behind my video table, onto which I photographed each machine. Then I carefully made type samples of each machine, onto Southworth 32 pound white resume paper, ensuring the machines had clean type slugs and fresh ribbons. Some machines, such as the IBM Selectric and thermal machines, offered a variety of type faces, so I had to make samples of each. For the thermal machines, since I lacked the original film ribbons cartridges I typed the samples onto heavy Brother-brand thermal paper and pasted them into my Look Book (see below). Then I had to upload and organize these images in folders, with file names indicating which machine, so it'd be easier during the upload to the Database.

In the process of doing all this, I also made a "Look Book" of my collection, each entry onto 3.5" by 5.5" resume paper sheets, including a Polaroid Zink instant print of each machine, its serial number and date of manufacture, and the type sample. These pages were then bound via Acco prong fasteners into a compact notebook that is a handy reference for my collection. Because the pages can easily be unbound, I add addition pages for each machine indicating repair history, when ribbons have been replaced and documenting any ongoing issues that might need addressing.

Speaking of prong fasteners, we have our friend Ted Munk to thank for turning us on to these little gems, that make it easy to create notebooks and other bound works that can easily be reordered and reorganized. Here is a link to Ted's recent blog articles regarding using them for his Every Day Carry Notebook (EDCN).

Of course, I've also been busy creating videos for my YouTube channel. If you have some time, please click on over and enjoy the show!

I'm hoping to keep this blog updated on a more regular basis, otherwise I'll incur the wrath of Star Fleet Command!