Ramblin' 'Riter
November 24, 2008 9:42 am
I want to talk about traveling and writing. Most writers have a place they write, an office, a room. Right now, in my life, a room is not an option. Therefore I have to write where ever and whenever I can. Usually at work, breaks and lunch, or when I'm just sitting around doing nothing.
As far as supplies go, with the slight arthritis I have now, holding a pen or pencil for any length of time is difficult. I try to use that time for drawing, sketching or painting. so I use an AlphaSmart Dana. I could use a Neo. I got the Dana though for a good price and I enjoy working with it.
Just a few things about using an AlphaSmart. They are light weight, run almost forever on a charge. The rechargeable battery pack is available from the AlphaSmart site for fifteen dollars. They are almost indestructible.
I have the 8mb hard drive and four sd cards I use. A word of caution, just to save some one else the frustration I went through, the Dana won't read anything bigger than a 1 gb card. It holds two cards in the back and sends them back and forth to my laptop with ease.
The nicest thing is, I can use it anywhere. No start up required, it's instant on. It also has a two key on mode so that you can't hit the on in your bag and turn it on by accident and wear down your battery. I get a lot of mileage from the battery pack and have only run it down a couple of times, usually when I leave it for months at a time. After a month or so it will go dead, but charges right back up again. Unfortunately anything on the hard drive gets erased. I back everything on the hard drive and keep important stuff, i.e. my latest works in progress, on the cards.
Trust me, you can put a lot on a card. I printed out the entire Dana manual, it's well over 200 pages, yet it's only about 4 kb's (that's kilobits folks, it takes 1028 of them to make a megabit, fun huh?). The dictionary works fine and Spell check is a godsend. My spelling isn't too shabby, but still, like anyone else I will ocassionally get a brain fart. You know how it is, something really stupid that you use fifty times a day and you go blank. Enter the magic world of spell check, and we're off.
I do miss the fact that my Dana does not store pictures. Once in a while it would be nice to have my reference pics with me. That in itself is another story. I find I can write anywhere. Planes, trains, and automobiles. It makes no difference what so ever. Alphasmart goes, powers up and does a damn good job.
Last week Steve and I took a trip on the 1880's train. We went on the wine train. I didn't take my Dana on the train but I used it later to start several new articles, this is one of them. I got the idea from my favorite art magazine, Sketchbook. Let's hope my interest in this lasts longer than the mag did. It's out of print now, but I still use all the issues I own for reference.