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John,
That's my thinking, that and I'm still old-fashioned. I like being the only one in the coffeeshop who still is scribbling with a pen, while being surrounded by laptoppers.
posted by
Blanche.
on April 3, 2006 at 7:53 PM
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Blanche
You're right Blanche. The writing captures the idea and then you can relax becuse you know it didn't escape you.
posted by
johnmacnab
on April 3, 2006 at 7:51 PM
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JohnMcNab,
Well, I won't claim I can read my own writing. It's the writing that sort of primes the pump. After that, I scarcely look at it. BTW, I love the word "screed".
posted by
Blanche.
on April 3, 2006 at 7:42 PM
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jacenta
Ell and I are both well, jacenta. Thank you for asking. After reading your comment I looked around my desk and I have five different sized pads and 4 pens lying about - not to mention a container with another 20 pens and 5 pencils. I think computers are OK after you have the idea sussed out on paper - and as long as you can read your own printing.
posted by
johnmacnab
on April 3, 2006 at 7:37 PM
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johnmcnab...
Hello! How are you and Ell?
Thanks for visiting my post.
I enjoyed reading your post. Whenever I get the notion to really write something, that I feel I must express, such as poetry, I grab a pencil and spiral notebook, just as I have for years. I also print, as you do and as the thoughts flow the printing gets pretty bad. hahaha I guess, I've conditioned myself through the years to write in a notebook. It just feels right! hahaha Please don't take my pencil & paper from me. I love modern tech, but I like the old way, too. hahaha
Take care and I will catch ya later. 
posted by
jacentaOld
on April 3, 2006 at 5:35 PM
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Blanche
I am impressed, Blanche. I have different sizes of notebook on my desk but the one I use most is the small 5x3" I keep in my pocket beside the 4" long pen. When I do use any of the notebooks I print. No longhand for me as even to its author it is illlegible. I find the muse is kind to me. I have about 12 blog headlines ready to be written - and all I have to do is write the entry. Not only that, I have screeds of 'articles to be written' and etc. It is laziness that keeps me back - mmm that doesn't sound good - let's make it 'lack of time that holds me back.'
posted by
johnmacnab
on April 3, 2006 at 11:17 AM
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JohnMcNab,
LOL at MerryAnne's comment about her muse being a lazy twit, and your stream of consciousness battle with the pad of paper. If I have a muse, she ought to be fired. I do both: write a journal longhand (after all, people still have scruples, I think, about picking up and reading a diary) and then blogging. So, I've kept my "hand" in, so to speak and use a grade school looking composition book (they're cheap at Office Depot, and I've found I don't write any better in an expensively bound jounal), while I"m at the coffee shop.
But, I've sat that way many times with a fresh yellow legal pad, which MG and I still buy eagerly at the office supply, I think because we still harbor the magical thinking that if we buy legal pads, the ideas will come.
posted by
Blanche.
on April 3, 2006 at 10:15 AM
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I'll be watching the mail Mac!
posted by
ginnieb
on April 3, 2006 at 6:26 AM
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ginnie
Thanks ginnie. I'll send you and MerryAnne a 24 carat gold invitation. I'll even do the autograph in gold ink.
posted by
johnmacnab
on April 2, 2006 at 5:21 PM
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Those are mighty neat dreams Mac...
...but still awfully cool that you had your funny stuff published and broadcast...I'm impressed!! And of course you have to invite me to your book signing one day...MerryAnne and I will be there (among others!) with bells on...a little Canadian content at your Canadian book launch! You can do it Mac!! I love your book!!
posted by
ginnieb
on April 2, 2006 at 3:27 PM
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ginnie
A quick correction, ginnie. I have never written a situation comedy - not one that was broadcast, anyway. What I did as a hobby was write humorous articles which were published in newspapers and magazines, and comedy
sketches which were broadcast on television and radio. I can appreciate your Dad's dreams, cos I have the same ones, as well as being number 1 on the New York Times best seller list for a couple of years, and reading about in the Bahamas.
posted by
johnmacnab
on April 2, 2006 at 11:22 AM
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Just at private functions Mac...
...like at PTAs...(Parent Teacher Association Meetings), church functions, and family get-togethers. THere were upwards of 100 people at some of these functions and many people took part in them, often reading the scripts for the first time on stage. They were all humourous sketches...kind of the line of Wayne and Shuster scripts. Have you heard of that Canadian duo? I have all the plays in a big box and about 15 years ago our family performed one at a Christmas Eve gathering. His dream was to write a TV sitcom. Sound familiar?
Although I know you've already acheived that!
posted by
ginnieb
on April 2, 2006 at 10:56 AM
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ginnie
Were your Dad's plays ever performed, ginnie?
posted by
johnmacnab
on April 1, 2006 at 10:58 AM
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LOL Mac!!
You are from long ago! Hahaha! My father never went anywhere without a pad of paper and pencil. he used to write constantly and while I do have many of the plays he wrote, I wish I had those pads of paper!
posted by
ginnieb
on March 31, 2006 at 8:32 PM
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MerryAnne
I carry a small notebook and pencil everywhere with me (it tends to get dampish in the shower), and all I do is take a quick note of anything that interests me. I may never use it, but taking notes means that they are there for the time when, as you so well know, the computer screws up.
posted by
johnmacnab
on March 31, 2006 at 8:23 PM
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LOL John,
you don't want my muse, lazy twit that she is... But I have to admit that I have been making a lot more notes with pencil and paper since my computer woes... because I just don't trust this heap anymore not to eat my best ideas!
posted by
MerryAnne
on March 31, 2006 at 7:58 PM
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Anthony
A recent report said that being single is bad for the heart. Myself, I would have thought it was bad for the soul. It didn't affect my heart when I was single, but it did make my soul lonely, young man.
posted by
johnmacnab
on March 31, 2006 at 2:02 PM
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JohnMcNab
There now, I know what was missing out of my life as I was being trampled to death in a relationship. Och now, as ye might say John, the single life is grand ya know
posted by
WileyJohn
on March 31, 2006 at 12:06 PM
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ginnie
Not only that, ginnie, I had to cut down the trees by myself.
posted by
johnmacnab
on March 31, 2006 at 10:16 AM
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It's these lil successes Mac...
..that make a day happy! :) Did you have to mill your own paper to write on with a quill? ;)
posted by
ginnieb
on March 31, 2006 at 6:31 AM
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ginnie
Yippee, Yippee, Yippee.
posted by
johnmacnab
on March 31, 2006 at 6:26 AM
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ginnie
I find that I have to print words now, ginnie. I get so irritated at the slowness of writing longhand, that it becomes nothing more than an illegible scrawl. As for being old, I started writing by using a quill, so there! Hey! This looks like it is now allowing me to write without cutting me off. Fingers crossed it may even allow me to post it. Here goes.
posted by
johnmacnab
on March 31, 2006 at 6:25 AM
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So Mac...
..did time away from the computer give you a creative surge?? Sounds like it!! As for the pen/pencil/paper deal..first of all you should send this blog to a Writer's mag...they'd love it! I've found that my fingers can't even form letters anymore! Thankfully I have a lil laptop that keeps me up to date with the world while my PC sits collecting dust in it's very quiet (see dead) state. Your blog reminded me of being introduced to the 'pen' in grade 3...though the pen was a dip-in-the-bottle-of-ink type! Geesh..I'm old!
posted by
ginnieb
on March 31, 2006 at 6:18 AM
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