I'm very intrigued by Lynda Barry's observation that the people she now works with "don’t have a big relationship to their hands." I can't help but wonder how the fact that the teaching of cursive writing is being sidelined has played into this development.
I taught 8th grade Spanish and Language Arts. I, too, was amazed at the number of young people who had minimal scissors skills. Cutting along a straight line...many would take little snips rather than opening the scissors to full width and taking one big cut. Eyeballing to cut a circle was a herculean task. One day I devoted a class to scissor skills...opening and closing the scissors, circles, hearts, lines, cutting strips of paper, little snips vs. big cuts, working on manipulating the paper while cutting, and at the very end cleaning up the mess. In their eyes it was a fun day.
I put ordering Peanuts stamps on my to-do list for the weekend. Like Jane, I also love to send cards in the mail, and I love to have a variety of stamps so I can customize the envelope to the person/occasion. My mom and I are starting to play with wax seals, and I got a bunch of cute designs from Ladd Stamps recently.
I’ve never seen the ReMarkable before. Someone gifted me something similar, but not at the level of the ReMarkable. It might be just what I need for my work-related brainstorms.
Thanks for all the good stuff! Now I need to go find that pizza dough recipe. :-)
Please please please look at the Supernote tablet before you buy the Remarkable! Remarkable requires a monthly subscription, Supernote doesn’t. And Supernote has an amazing Reddit group that the developers participate in. Also, the Supernote has the Kindle app in it and I can read and annotate Kindle books using the stylus. I use mine to practice Chinese characters because otherwise I would be killing lots of trees copying characters over and over again.
ReMarkable 2. I enjoy it. There are limitations, and at times I hunger for the enhancements that are promised soon - but as a tool that doesn't distract, it's excellent. Well worth playing with. I love mine for writing study notes, or "thinking on paper". I look forward to your thoughts on it.
I don’t know if you saw or not, but Kindle is releasing a new model of eReader that has writing capabilities like the Remarkable. I don’t know how the two compare, but it’s on my radar because my Kindle Paperwhite is my workhorse reader.
Remarkable 2 looks pretty cool! And oh... Into The Spider-verse is one of my favorite movies of all time, and one of the few I saw twice in the theater in recent times -- you may enjoy this piece from Vox about "How "Spider-Verse" forced animation to evolve" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l96IgQmXmhM&list=WL&index=11) Did you watch The Mitchel vs The Machines? It's also pretty awesome!
New Skin for an Old Ceremony is without a doubt the best Cohen album, the one I have carried in my heart since my late teens. But I also think of it as the ultimate break-up album. I hope things are okay!
I own the Gen 1 reMarkable Paper Tablet. This model has physical buttons for HOME, left and right page. It's odd to use in landscape mode for lefties. My palm hits the buttons. I flip the unit to use resulting in my work flipped when offloading the data.
The buttons were removed in the Gen 2 reMarkable. You may see them referred to as rM1 or rM2. They both operate from the same fork of Linux. Both are updated with the same software.
I use an aftermarket stylus. Another $60+ purchase, but it makes all the difference for me. I use it solely for journaling and sketches. It has 77 built in templates. I'm not into adding custom templates or PDFs although you can link PDFs. Some try to use it as an iPad replacement with a calendar, checklists, planner etc. I use it more or less as a now generation Apple Newton e-ink tablet. I'm one who believes penmanship is a life-long art form. The rM1 for me disappears into a paper notebook.
The rM FB community is very active and informative. You can find used rM2 kits offered for sale. Tip: research a seller's name for potential prior posts of problems with their rM2 that could not be solved. It's typically user error or current software glitches. At this point, I will stick with the rM1. Found mine second hand for $79.99. Good luck.
1. I knew the Peanuts stamps were coming, but I didn't know they were out! Thanks for the heads up--I've ordered two sheets!
2. If you haven't written about this for your Tuesday newsletter already, maybe you could write about your favorite music critics. Hanif Abdurraqib is certainly one of mine (and one of my favorite poets as well).
3. I've been meaning to tell you that I've been using Megan's pizza dough recipe for several months now--it's the best! Now I'm thinking we need a bread/pizza oven in the backyard ...
I’ve owned a Remarkable 2 for the past year and a half and it’s my favorite gadget ever. A perfect blend of analog and digital. The only thing I dislike is there is a lag sometimes to the cloud, but it’s not too bad. It’s my must have for work notes as I get both the hand/mind connection and the practicality of organizing and retrieving notes across multiple devices. You can also screenshare to your desktop which is sooo helpful on Zooms for whiteboarding sessions.
Someone commented above that there is a monthly subscription - I’m not aware of this or have one and I have full access, maybe that is something new.
I haven’t tried the other devices mentioned here so I don’t know how they compare, but regardless get yourself one of these! I wish we had more devices like these that blended the best of analog and digital without the constant distraction.
2. Your Lou Reed posts reminded me that he spent some time doing knockoff records at the start of his career—slots in well with your imitation posts, I think?
3. What did your young ones think of those early Ditko Spider-man comics? I gave my friends' kids some of those early reprints a number of years ago and they...were not impressed :D
I'm very intrigued by Lynda Barry's observation that the people she now works with "don’t have a big relationship to their hands." I can't help but wonder how the fact that the teaching of cursive writing is being sidelined has played into this development.
I taught 8th grade Spanish and Language Arts. I, too, was amazed at the number of young people who had minimal scissors skills. Cutting along a straight line...many would take little snips rather than opening the scissors to full width and taking one big cut. Eyeballing to cut a circle was a herculean task. One day I devoted a class to scissor skills...opening and closing the scissors, circles, hearts, lines, cutting strips of paper, little snips vs. big cuts, working on manipulating the paper while cutting, and at the very end cleaning up the mess. In their eyes it was a fun day.
I'm going to check for the Peanuts stamps, too!
I put ordering Peanuts stamps on my to-do list for the weekend. Like Jane, I also love to send cards in the mail, and I love to have a variety of stamps so I can customize the envelope to the person/occasion. My mom and I are starting to play with wax seals, and I got a bunch of cute designs from Ladd Stamps recently.
I’ve never seen the ReMarkable before. Someone gifted me something similar, but not at the level of the ReMarkable. It might be just what I need for my work-related brainstorms.
Thanks for all the good stuff! Now I need to go find that pizza dough recipe. :-)
Please please please look at the Supernote tablet before you buy the Remarkable! Remarkable requires a monthly subscription, Supernote doesn’t. And Supernote has an amazing Reddit group that the developers participate in. Also, the Supernote has the Kindle app in it and I can read and annotate Kindle books using the stylus. I use mine to practice Chinese characters because otherwise I would be killing lots of trees copying characters over and over again.
The Peanuts stamps are perfect, and I ordered the fold & mail stationery sets for my older grandkids. I keep in touch with the littlest grandkids in Switzerland with weekly cards in the mail. And I love mailing cards to people to thank them for their work. I almost always hear back because it's so rare. https://store.usps.com/store/product/cards-envelopes/charles-m-schulz-peanuts-fold-and-mail-stationery-set-S_561766
ReMarkable 2. I enjoy it. There are limitations, and at times I hunger for the enhancements that are promised soon - but as a tool that doesn't distract, it's excellent. Well worth playing with. I love mine for writing study notes, or "thinking on paper". I look forward to your thoughts on it.
I don’t know if you saw or not, but Kindle is releasing a new model of eReader that has writing capabilities like the Remarkable. I don’t know how the two compare, but it’s on my radar because my Kindle Paperwhite is my workhorse reader.
Remarkable 2 looks pretty cool! And oh... Into The Spider-verse is one of my favorite movies of all time, and one of the few I saw twice in the theater in recent times -- you may enjoy this piece from Vox about "How "Spider-Verse" forced animation to evolve" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l96IgQmXmhM&list=WL&index=11) Did you watch The Mitchel vs The Machines? It's also pretty awesome!
Thank you for the BAD SISTERS-Leonard Cohen-PJ Harvey connection!
New Skin for an Old Ceremony is without a doubt the best Cohen album, the one I have carried in my heart since my late teens. But I also think of it as the ultimate break-up album. I hope things are okay!
I own the Gen 1 reMarkable Paper Tablet. This model has physical buttons for HOME, left and right page. It's odd to use in landscape mode for lefties. My palm hits the buttons. I flip the unit to use resulting in my work flipped when offloading the data.
The buttons were removed in the Gen 2 reMarkable. You may see them referred to as rM1 or rM2. They both operate from the same fork of Linux. Both are updated with the same software.
I use an aftermarket stylus. Another $60+ purchase, but it makes all the difference for me. I use it solely for journaling and sketches. It has 77 built in templates. I'm not into adding custom templates or PDFs although you can link PDFs. Some try to use it as an iPad replacement with a calendar, checklists, planner etc. I use it more or less as a now generation Apple Newton e-ink tablet. I'm one who believes penmanship is a life-long art form. The rM1 for me disappears into a paper notebook.
The rM FB community is very active and informative. You can find used rM2 kits offered for sale. Tip: research a seller's name for potential prior posts of problems with their rM2 that could not be solved. It's typically user error or current software glitches. At this point, I will stick with the rM1. Found mine second hand for $79.99. Good luck.
1. I knew the Peanuts stamps were coming, but I didn't know they were out! Thanks for the heads up--I've ordered two sheets!
2. If you haven't written about this for your Tuesday newsletter already, maybe you could write about your favorite music critics. Hanif Abdurraqib is certainly one of mine (and one of my favorite poets as well).
3. I've been meaning to tell you that I've been using Megan's pizza dough recipe for several months now--it's the best! Now I'm thinking we need a bread/pizza oven in the backyard ...
I’ve owned a Remarkable 2 for the past year and a half and it’s my favorite gadget ever. A perfect blend of analog and digital. The only thing I dislike is there is a lag sometimes to the cloud, but it’s not too bad. It’s my must have for work notes as I get both the hand/mind connection and the practicality of organizing and retrieving notes across multiple devices. You can also screenshare to your desktop which is sooo helpful on Zooms for whiteboarding sessions.
Someone commented above that there is a monthly subscription - I’m not aware of this or have one and I have full access, maybe that is something new.
I haven’t tried the other devices mentioned here so I don’t know how they compare, but regardless get yourself one of these! I wish we had more devices like these that blended the best of analog and digital without the constant distraction.
Hope you will share more about remarkable products if you get one.
1. Heard a recent audio interview with Steve Keene interview here in case anyone is interested (15 mins or so, no ads)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guest-painter-steve-keene-returns-from-jun-10-2022/id214243338?i=1000566107813
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/116593
2. Your Lou Reed posts reminded me that he spent some time doing knockoff records at the start of his career—slots in well with your imitation posts, I think?
https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/downtownpopunderground/story/the-primitives-at-pickwick-records/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM ("Do The Ostrich", surprisingly wild pre-VU novelty record by him)
3. What did your young ones think of those early Ditko Spider-man comics? I gave my friends' kids some of those early reprints a number of years ago and they...were not impressed :D