Writing is a Habitual Thing

Writing is a habitual thing.  If you get into the habit of not writing, there's an inertia to that, and when (if) you get into the habit of writing (again?), there's an inertia to that as well.

Equal and opposite reaction?  The easier it becomes (technically) to take pictures, the harder it becomes socially.  The more easily reached audience on the Internet is countered by increased censorship pressure (from nearly all & sundry).

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/

The Key to Writing is Writing

  I learned long ago that the key to writing is to write.  Once you start writing, then you continue - a variation on the "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" thing.  I learned that when I was around ten or eleven, and while I didn't forget it, I ended up in a loop of planning to write something, then deciding there wasn't time, and back to planning, and then putting it off, etc. etc.  At the moment, I got enough sleep the night before, and I'm writing this before going on-line.

  Ah!  Going on-line!  That's something I didn't think about back when I learned to just start writing something, anything, to get going with getting text on the page!  So I guess my old standard idea of "the key to writing is to write" needs to be modified!  How about: "The key to writing is to write, and to start writing before going on-line!"  Once on-line you end up writing, but in bits and pieces in text blurbs thrown about here and there - not a bad thing exactly, but by the time you're through doing that, you've run out of energy for proper writing.

  2020 is a troubled year, to put it mildly.  Most of my life I've felt constrained while inside and more relaxed and free when outside, but that's been turned around in this Virus Era.  Now I feel constrained outside (mask, distancing, disinfecting, etc.) and only free and unconstrained at home, where I can walk about without a mask and not constantly worrying about getting sick and dying.

  So what's the good side of 2020?  Personally, living in Tokyo, which has been getting a bit trampled by too-easy-tourism, shutting down the tourism madness is a good thing I think.  I've been thinking all along that tourism is an ultra-bad thing to base an economy on - something can always suddenly turn it off.  I didn't have pandemics in mind when I thought that, but during the years leading up to the Pandemic Era, I was thinking on a nearly daily basis (while dodging idiot tourists clogging the sidewalks) that some tourism is a great thing, but too much of it bringing in too many frivolous and clueless bipeds is a truly horrible thing.  And once the tsunami of tourists begins making life more difficult and more expensive for the residents of a place, tourism is an evil thing.

  Well, lots to do today... I guess it's time to go on-line and try to make the day a productive one.

  Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/

Writing by Hand - Cursive vs. Printing

- August 2nd, 2019 (金) 8:03 a.m. (大井町駅隣) - Sitting in a coffee shop - looking out onto an Oimachi morning.  Recorded music playing in the background, a student bent over his studies to my right - very worn and marked up textbook on the counter in front of him that he references as he writes things on a piece of paper next to the book.  People walking by in front of the coffee shop window, people sitting at tables behind me - more people to my left lined up, ordering and then paying for their coffees....
- All that text above took about... four(?) minutes to write.  it wasn't rushed, mind you, as I stopped now and then to take in my surroundings, but still, all of that could have been more precisely conveyed to you with a 30-second video clip... technically anyway.  Socially it would be very difficult.  Firstly, the music industry and/or musicians might not be pleased that the recorded music the coffee shop is playing had leaked onto the soundtrack of my video.  Faces would have to be avoided.  The student might not feel good about someone sitting right next to him recording his studies....

- I was just talking about this in a JV/EV video set this morning, and that was hard enough.  Generally the JV/EV videos are easy, as the main point of them is the audio, but I walked into a set of narrow izakaya streets to do it and people kept suddenly appearing from around corners, etc., and the narrowness of the streets meant there was nowhere to aim the camera but down while passing.
- Stopping to think about it now, I see there were two factors I didn't foresee (I should have, but...): 1) While there are moments and places in Tokyo without people, they tend to be few and far between.  You should never assume any place at any time in Tokyo will be devoid of people.  2) A narrow lane with innumerable side pathways that people can suddenly pop out of is - as I discovered this morning - not an optimal place to record if your aim is to avoid recording faces.  So, almost ironically (not really ironic when you think about it, as it's just logical), a fairly wide open space where people are walking about (of course - this is Tokyo) can be ideal for avoiding faces.  After all, the goal isn't to have no people in the video, it's just not to show their faces in detail.  In an open space you have ample visual warning of approaching humans and can aim the camera elsewhere before their faces come into close range.
- The student to my right has put away the well-worn book, pulled out a smaller (and newer) one, as well as a laptop computer.  He now alternates between reading from the book, looking thoughtfully out the window, and typing text into the computer - writing a report for school no doubt....
- ... A coffee shop employee came around and explained a multi-use plastic coffee filter newly developed - along with a sample of coffee made from it.  なるほどですね - いつか買うかも....
- How am I writing this?  Onto an A3 sheet of paper (folded twice to make it A5, and with the A5 sections numbered 1-8.  I'm now on page/section-3).  The more I write, the more I will have to type into a computer later.  If I were rich, I'd have one of those very thin, very light new laptop computers with me and I'd just type this straight off... but I'm poor (financially challenged?) and the laptop computer I have is thick and heavy....  Since my backpack is really too heavy already, it doesn't seem worth the wear and tear on my spine to have it with me.  At this moment, I'd like to have it with me, but once I leave this coffee shop, I'll be glad not to have that bulk and weight strapped to my back.
- However - there's something else....  There's a very real difference between typing text into a computer and writing it by hand.  There are multiple elements to this.
- The first thing that comes to mind is the flow of the words onto the page (written in cursive - I don't think I would enjoy writing by hand if I had to print each letter out.  Wait, let me write a sentence that way:
- OK - this is being written one letter at a time.  It's more legible - but tiring, since the pen is constantly being lifted on and off of the page.
- Phew!  Just those two sentences were surprisingly tiring to write!  A few months ago I read an article on-line (regarding fewer and fewer students being taught how to write in cursive) that stated the original reason for cursive writing had to do with quill pens that needed to be dipped in ink.  That might also be a factor (I've never written that way, but I don't think the author of that article has, either), but right here, right now, in comparing the two writing styles on this page, with the same pen in my hand, I can unequivocally state that it is much, much easier, smoother, and faster to write in cursive.
- The other thing is the lack of distractions.  All you have to think about is physical space on the page, ink in the pen, and your thoughts.  With a computer there are any number of distractions:  How much battery time is left?  Keep saving ([Ctrl]+[S]), when did I last back up these files I'm working on?  Incoming YT message from Australia regarding 1992 video of Sydney... it's an insult (higher blood pressure "Don't respond! Don't respond! Never respond to sub-human neanderthals!"  Back to writing... "Forget the troll! Forget the troll!"  Writing resumes... Incoming YT message from Japan... a friendly and constructive comment, along with a question... "Alright - better respond to this one."  Switch text entry over to Japanese, compose answer, check kanji in a dictionary, send... Get back to writing.  "Where was I...?  What was I about to say...?"  Write half a sentence and... incoming FB comment on post from yesterday, etc. etc.
- So, right now?  I write away onto paper in blue ink with my ball-point pen.  I'm on A5 section #5 now (reverse side of A3 sheet of paper).  No interruptions (aside from the new-type coffee filter deal), but some fatigue from writing for close to an hour....  Well... time to go, so I'll stop here.
- (2019/08/04) - Typing up the above didn't take too long... it's more about the extra steps involved than time really.  Reading over the text, I wonder what I would have written had I been using a computer at the time instead of pen and paper.  I'm fairly certain it would have been something quite different....  I don't want to exclusively write by hand, but from time-to-time, I enjoy it, and it's a wonderful thing that all you need to write is paper and pen.  Going on and doing something with that text requires machinery, but the act of writing itself requires no machines at all.  Well... I suppose you could almost call a pen a sort of simple machine, but then there are pencils, or anything that can leave a mark.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
youtube.com/lylehsaxon
lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
lookback1997.blogspot.jp/