Libb

Disclaimer: I speak as a 50+ (French) dude happily sharing his life with his spouse for the last 25+ years and counting.

I am getting over it

This may take time. What you need to not do is ruminating. Once a story is over, no matter how heartbreak it feels, it’s over. The more time you spend grooming your nostalgia and regrets, the harder it will be to move on.

If you want something, you do everything you can to take it. He just wasn’t emotionally mature and it sucks.

I will completely disagree with this. Maturity is not doing whatever is required to get whatever it is one wants. Even less so in a relationship. Accepting the other is not the perfect faultless ideal person one may dhave dreamed of and then being able to listen and accept the other’s limits, doubts, fears and, obviously, feeling that it’s ok to share yours as well, is what maturity is supposed to be. At least that’s how I see it.

+1 to that question.

No elevator. I would teleport. Or take the stairs (it’s good for the heart). And no music playing either because music is always an hint at who’s the bad guy in a movie ;)

Maybe one could ear in the background the noise of my devotee evil assistant’s mechanical typewriter because for obvious reason I would not trust any digital device to write anything related to my secret plans to conquer the world [here, one should ear a mad scientist laugh].

I doubt anyone here is looking to spend that much money to make a fashion statement.

Sure, we would know it by now if ‘fashion’ was working at all to drive sales. And if it was, by now we would be surrounded by ads absolutely everywhere, and our landscapes would be filled with mountain-like piles of trashed useless craps that we would feel the need to regularly throw away in order to make room to buy the newest and latest whatever trendy crap. That’s obviously not the case. Aren’t we lucky.

Let me ask you this: for what reason do you think most people buy the latest $1000+ smartphone?

Is it because they need the hardware, be it the titanium or whatever metal body because they regularly heat their phone so much that titanium is the only reasonable option? Or is because it looks somehow cooler? Or maybe it’s because they need more pixels in order to share a sharper video of, say, the latest revolutionary brain surgery procedure they devised? Or is it in order to share some video of their cat, or their latest shopping spree, or film themselves in front of whatever touristic destination they fancy visiting? Please, do note that I wrote ‘most people’ and not all of them, as I certainly don’t doubt a few targeted consumers do indeed need whatever new features are made available.

So, as a matter of fact, I do think a lot of people are more than willing to spend whatever amount of money they consider reasonable, be it a couple hundred bucks on e-ink device, or 1 million dollars on a diamond incrusted fountain pen, or even 50 billions to buy their own Twitter (which is also a writing device, mind you). Or do you think a 1 million dollars fountain pen write that much better? Hint: it doesn’t.

Do I think the OP is one of those person? I have no idea and how would I know? But, contrary to you, I don’t care at all because I don’t think it matters.

I simply offered a cheap (answering the OP exact concern) alternative to e-ink, an alternative I know is very often overlooked because, well, it’s so low tech (which is not great in a society that has a constant hardon interest for high-tech).

Thank you very much, you’re more than welcome.

As long as people know how to and are willing to socialize outside of the internet, and as long as they realize most knowledge is available outside of the Web (and away from those trying to take hold of it), they should not be that much different.

BTW, that ‘outside of the Web’ place filled with knowledge are libraries ;)

• 25 years and counting with my spouse. We’ve had our share of rough times but that helped us realize how lucky we were to be together and to realize how deeply we could rely on one another no matter what was happening.
• Be ok with shit happening. Constantly.
  No matter how well one think they’re prepared something can happen that will wreck havoc on their perfect plan. I mean that in a very pragmatic way, not as a metaphorical way of speaking. Stuff happen all the time and one can either cry and rage and blame the world, or deal with it. Imho, the least inefficient answer is to learn to deal with it.

You got a point :)

So, Ive recently gotten back into writing and been thinking about how much more fun it would be to write Outside.

I know it’s not what you’re looking for but since it’s the tools I’m using for the exact same purpose you’re mentioning, maybe they’re worth suggesting?

There is no copy paste, no edit, no syncing either but depending what you wish to write, you may not need that—I certainly don’t, and I even prefer this to more high-tech solutions for my purpose.

• It’s dirt cheap. Less than 30 cents for the Bic (I buy mine in bulk, normal price should be approx. 1.5€), and less than 3 euros for the notebook itself and they both offer at the very least a few weeks worth of writing autonomy. I reckon most countries should have local manufacturers for those tools (less shipping and less waste are always a nice option). Here in France, I like to use the French Bic ballpoint pens and the French Clairefontaine notebooks/papers (it also helps that they’re excellent products)
• It works great under the sun, on the beach, at the pool, or under the rain. Ballpoint ink is waterproof and quality paper (like in this notebook) can work under the rain and it can even be immerged under water. It will buckle but it will be usable (and readable, if one is using a ballpoint or a pencil) after it dried.
• Highly portable. It fits in any pocket (and small bag), and the Bic sits nicely within the spirals so no risk of losing it and I never need to search for it.
• It needs no charging. It needs no software or firmware updates. It has no bugs.
• It works great with any pen you fancy, be it this cheap Bic pen or some multi thousand € fancy fountain pen.
• One can use it to write absolutely anything. Poetry, the next best-seller, a secret plan to conquer the world, a list of errands,… You can also use it to sketch, to mindmap, to outline, and so on.
• It’s not unbreakable but one will need to put in some real effort. Meaning the thing can take a few beatings without any issue. Plus, if it’s too damaged, it’s cheap to replace.
• Thieve appeal? None. Try letting a tablet or a phone, even a cheap old one unsupervised on any table in a public space…
• Privacy? OK, it’s not encrypted but at the very least no corporation is spying on my notes, ever. And I’m free to write anything I fancy, without worries.
• Backups? None. I don’t need any since I use for quick notes that I then reuse back at the desk: ideas, dialogues, short descriptions (a few keywords will often do it’s rare I need to write complete sentences), or stuff like that. Even stuff I want to write about in my journal (that stays at home) I will simply write a few quick words so when I read them back later one I will remember what it was all about.
• Icing on the cake? Zero distraction. No social, no games, no Notifications to distract me, and no endless settings and tweaks for me to use as an excuse to fool around and to not be writing ;)

I know it’s low-tech and not trendy at all, but it works great and have been doing so for… centuries (for the notebooks in its current form) if not for millennia (handwriting) and has been used by many authors whose work we’re still enjoying/admiring to this day.

Don’t be a dick.