Thursday, August 1, 2013

AugNo and yeesh, that's not old.

Thanks to Shayla I discovered AugNo.  I wanted to use August to finish what I started at camp. My non-Nano routine is to write for an hour. If I write 100 words or 1,000 doesn't matter.  What matters is butt in chair for at least one hour. However, if I want to finish my rough draft in August it will take more than that.  AugNo will give me the need for word count.  So I'm off again for another month of wild writing.

 
I was reading the introductions on the boards and one gal commented that she was ancient (38).  Really?  That's ancient?  It got me thinking what was ancient really.

Ancient is using carbon paper to make copies of what I was typing.  If I screwed up I'd insert a piece of white correction paper to correct the top copy and then use a blade to carve the letters out of the three copies beneath it.  Needless to say I learned to type fast and accurate.

I still use the top row to type numbers.  Key pads to the side did not exist on typewriters.

Black and white TV was the norm.

Music was played on a stereo or portable player and the records were 45's or 78's, at least in my early years. Then there were LP's and 45's.  8 tracks were the big thing when I was in high school. (Google it)

Math was done on a slide rule. 

Ancient is knowing a childhood where during the summer we played outside the entire day.  Walked two miles to the swimming pool and never thought about 'stranger danger.'

Those are a few of the things I can think of. 
However, having said all this I don't feel ancient. 

How 'bout you?  You may not be ancient but what are some big changes you've seen.

17 comments:

  1. Good luck with your August writing! I'm aiming for a complete draft of my Camp NaNo novel - beginning, middle, end by August 31st. We'll see how that goes. :)

    I remember cassette tapes, typewriters, and Atari. :)

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    1. I remember Atari too. My brother had one.

      Good luck with the complete draft!

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  2. probably the biggest changes have been with music. I'm ashamed to say I grew up with vinyl records.

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  3. I need someone to hold me accountable to writing as well. Maybe I should find someone to be a nazi for me. I'm excited for you- wild writing in august! Awesome!

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  4. Biggest change I've seen is cell phones. I remember when no one had them. Now they are everywhere.

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    1. I'd forgotten about the change in cell phones. My boss had one of the first ones and it was this hideous brick.

      At work we used walkie talkie things to communicate with our runners and recorders.

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  5. I still have my best LPs, tho I do not have a record player... Happy writing!

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    1. PS- you know what is weird? I chose the blues background too for AugNo, as well as us sharing blog backgrounds!

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  6. It's funny how your perspective changes as you get older, eh? I also think ancient is relative. I mean, if you write for young adults, yes, you are ancient. But that's okay--because you get them AND have wisdom to add.

    Big change for me? Computers. Period. We had a Comadore 64 growing up, and there was only one other family who even owned a computer on our street. Papers were handwritten in school and penmanship was a HUGE part of your English grade. Ah, the good old days...

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    1. My mom always typed my papers for me. The woman could do 120 wpm on a manual typewriter. I blame her for my poor spelling and punctuation. = ) I still luvs ya mom.

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  7. HA! Yeah, I like that 'at least an hour a day' method myself. Depends where in the book I am on how much I can write in an hour. The REALLY nice feature is an hour is an hour is an hour, so I can use it whether I am writing, editing or mixing the two.

    And yeah... not ancient. I STARTED writing at 39... bout 8 years ago now.

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  8. If I'm on a roll I can get 1,000ish. If I'm in a word war I can get 1,500 in an hour.

    Nope not ancient at all. ;)

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  9. That's not ancient! I remember being a teacher's assistant in school and doing those carbon copies for her. I also remember getting up to change the dial on the TV and rotating the outside antenna to get in the stations!

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  10. Oh gosh maybe I'm ancient too I can relate to many of these things! I was thinking about carbon paper only the other day!

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  11. I'm so ancient that I look at the things you mentioned as "the good ole' days." (You know you're ancient when ...)

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