Evidence

I don't trust computers the way some people don't trust banks.

You know the kind of folks who really believe all that nonsense about how if you had $100,000 on deposit in the bank and you went to withdraw all your funds in cash, they wouldn't exactly have it? That they'd have something like $7000 of your money, and the rest would have been loaned out to needy individuals and businesses?

Yeah, those people. Well, I'm just like that with computers.

Today I bit the paper-and-enormously-expensive-ink bullet and printed out my novel-in-progress. Then I three-hole-punched and bindered the 130 pages, and I've been smiling at it ever since.

It's a book now, in my mind--an incomplete one, a largely unedited one, but a book. It turns out I'm way more of a hard-copy kind of woman than even I knew. There's something so hopeful about finally holding in your hand the evidence of things not seen.

I've feel like I've just been to the bank and pulled out all my cash in small bills.

Posted by Katy on 09/17/03 at 06:19 PM

Fallible Comments...

I guess I'm a strange oxymoron of sorts... I adore computers, but still prefer to read and edit in hard-copy. There's just something extremely taxing about reading on the CRT (I don't yet have a plasma or LCD monitor, so maybe that's different?)... And I tend to skim-read much more onscreen.

Whether it is a condintioned paradigm or not, paper is just...real. The reader can hold it and feel it and read it in a way that seems to penetrate the core of humanness. (Maybe there's a little bit of psych-corporeal absorption going on too -- a strange kind of paper-to-human symbiosis.)

Sure, scientifically, this is all BS, but I believe it... I feel it.

-----
Posted by timsamoff on 09/18/03 at 08:27 PM
i'm definitely a hold-it-in-my-hand sort...battery run pets, computer painting programs...these things and their counterparts have no heart, soul, or warmth. i'll take a wood handled bristle brush and a book in hand any day over higher technology. (btw, congrats, katy...that's a feeling to savor! :)
Posted by lisa on 09/18/03 at 09:56 PM
I have loved reading as long as I can remember. Not growing up with a TV, books were the gateway to imagination and worlds outside my rural upstate NY bubble. Every day, I sit and stare at a computer as I design. I read many blogs and articles (which I typically print out anyway). Indeed, technology is wonderful tool ... but to me, sitting in a deep leather chair with a steaming cup of hot chocolate and a great novel (with paper pages that you turn) ... now that is a great evening.

A lady I know had been working on a devotional/prophetic writing book for several years. Recently, I helped put it all together for her - taking all the writings, organizing them and laying them out into a book. The excitement and joy expressed on everyone's part (it was a several month process) to finally see that first printout was so awesome to see. It suddenly became "real" and tangible. No longer was it a MS Word file, but suddenly there was a stack of crisp black ink on 216 white pages. Now it is printed, bound, and for sale ... but the first print out... such fun!
Posted by Joshua on 09/19/03 at 01:12 PM
Timsamoff--I'm glad you mentioned paper-to-human symbiosis. I was thinking that. Sure, I was! Yes, paper is real. Even my son Kevin--no great fan of books--thought it was "cool" to see what I was working on in hard-copy form. Now he more easily believes that I'm doing something--as do I.

Lisa--Your observations make me all the more want to meet YOU in person, though getting to know you in this way has seemed pretty real, too, don't you think?

Joshua--Upstate NY? My husband is from Rome--where did you grow up? You have really experienced my feeling first-hand--a book in hand is worth how many word docs? I'm pleased for your friend's accomplishment, and it's great that you could help her bring her book to fruition.
Posted by katy on 09/22/03 at 04:23 PM
katy...well...i've had to adjust to this medium as a way to connect with people i knew before and new friends as well. i'm sure we'd have lots to talk about in a starbucks afternoon, though that initial face to face can have its oddities. oh, the times we find ourselves in... :)
Posted by lisa on 09/22/03 at 11:15 PM
I grew up in a tiny town of less than a thousand near Amsterdam, NY. (That is about 45 minutes west of Albany). It is wonderful to grow up near the mountains. I miss them now that I live in the cornfields of Indiana. What many people do not know about NY is that the entire state is not NYC, but it is mainly rural - with sleepy towns and cities scattered all over the mountains and valleys.
Posted by Joshua on 09/24/03 at 05:46 AM
Joshua--My hubby knows Amsterdam. He says the teams from Rome Catholic High would play Amsterdam in away games. Doug moved with his family to KC at age 18, but has never stopped missing the wonders of upstate NY. I saw it for the first time last summer, and it is fabulous. I could SO be happy there!
Posted by katy on 09/24/03 at 03:37 PM
This scared me to death. I've posted almost 100 essays at my blog and they are like children to me. Granted, both my hard drives would have to go down at once, and then salon.com would have to blow up at the same time for me to lose them.

But suddenly nothing seems real. I'm going to print them all out and put them away somewhere.
Posted by Real Live Preacher on 09/25/03 at 04:42 AM
Preacher, Quick! Save yourself! Didn't mean to scare you. We back everything up to disk fairly often, and put the disks in a fireproof box. Someday, when I'm old and gray (OK, not that far away!), I'll open that box, pull out those passe-technology disks and say, "Honey, what in tarnation ARE these?" That's another reason to occasionally print, IMO. Thanks!
Posted by katy on 09/25/03 at 11:43 AM
RLP (and most every other person who's Blog I read) should rest assured that a few of us print out the Blogs each day for our reading. These things are being saved! :)
Posted by timsamoff on 09/25/03 at 12:53 PM
Tim, Yes. And those of us who cherish books would be thrilled to hold a RLP volume in our hands, should it ever please the Preacher to have one published. Hint, hint. ;)
Posted by katy on 09/25/03 at 01:10 PM

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Personal blog of christian writer & fallible mom Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri Katy is represented by Greg Johnson at WordServe Literary Read more Katy at LateBoomer.net Follow Katy on Twitter Follow Katy on Facebook 123 Recent Posts Try Becoming Brenda Starr Off Beat Scattered That’s It So I’ve Finally Signed With An Agent. Now What? The Spoon Sciatica Sweetheart A Woman’s Train of Thought Has No Caboose However much we own, we are all still living on borrowed time After all, when restaurants shrink portions, they don’t shrink prices. As with everything in life, balance is key. Slow down, you move too fast… Yeah, I know. I have issues. Search Advanced Search Syndicate Login E me at katy @ ngenius.com	Evidence I don't trust computers the way some people don't trust banks. You know the kind of folks who really believe all that nonsense about how if you had $100,000 on deposit in the bank and you went to withdraw all your funds in cash, they wouldn't exactly have it? That they'd have something like $7000 of your money, and the rest would have been loaned out to needy individuals and businesses? Yeah, those people. Well, I'm just like that with computers. Today I bit the paper-and-enormously-expensive-ink bullet and printed out my novel-in-progress. Then I three-hole-punched and bindered the 130 pages, and I've been smiling at it ever since. It's a book now, in my mind--an incomplete one, a largely unedited one, but a book. It turns out I'm way more of a hard-copy kind of woman than even I knew. There's something so hopeful about finally holding in your hand the evidence of things not seen. I've feel like I've just been to the bank and pulled out all my cash in small bills. Posted by Katy on 09/17/03 at 06:19 PM Fallible Comments... I guess I'm a strange oxymoron of sorts... I adore computers, but still prefer to read and edit in hard-copy. There's just something extremely taxing about reading on the CRT (I don't yet have a plasma or LCD monitor, so maybe that's different?)... And I tend to skim-read much more onscreen. Whether it is a condintioned paradigm or not, paper is just...real. The reader can hold it and feel it and read it in a way that seems to penetrate the core of humanness. (Maybe there's a little bit of psych-corporeal absorption going on too -- a strange kind of paper-to-human symbiosis.) Sure, scientifically, this is all BS, but I believe it... I feel it. ----- Posted by timsamoff on 09/18/03 at 08:27 PM i'm definitely a hold-it-in-my-hand sort...battery run pets, computer painting programs...these things and their counterparts have no heart, soul, or warmth. i'll take a wood handled bristle brush and a book in hand any day over higher technology. (btw, congrats, katy...that's a feeling to savor! :) Posted by lisa on 09/18/03 at 09:56 PM I have loved reading as long as I can remember. Not growing up with a TV, books were the gateway to imagination and worlds outside my rural upstate NY bubble. Every day, I sit and stare at a computer as I design. I read many blogs and articles (which I typically print out anyway). Indeed, technology is wonderful tool ... but to me, sitting in a deep leather chair with a steaming cup of hot chocolate and a great novel (with paper pages that you turn) ... now that is a great evening. A lady I know had been working on a devotional/prophetic writing book for several years. Recently, I helped put it all together for her - taking all the writings, organizing them and laying them out into a book. The excitement and joy expressed on everyone's part (it was a several month process) to finally see that first printout was so awesome to see. It suddenly became "real" and tangible. No longer was it a MS Word file, but suddenly there was a stack of crisp black ink on 216 white pages. Now it is printed, bound, and for sale ... but the first print out... such fun! Posted by Joshua on 09/19/03 at 01:12 PM Timsamoff--I'm glad you mentioned paper-to-human symbiosis. I was thinking that. Sure, I was! Yes, paper is real. Even my son Kevin--no great fan of books--thought it was "cool" to see what I was working on in hard-copy form. Now he more easily believes that I'm doing something--as do I. Lisa--Your observations make me all the more want to meet YOU in person, though getting to know you in this way has seemed pretty real, too, don't you think? Joshua--Upstate NY? My husband is from Rome--where did you grow up? You have really experienced my feeling first-hand--a book in hand is worth how many word docs? I'm pleased for your friend's accomplishment, and it's great that you could help her bring her book to fruition. Posted by katy on 09/22/03 at 04:23 PM katy...well...i've had to adjust to this medium as a way to connect with people i knew before and new friends as well. i'm sure we'd have lots to talk about in a starbucks afternoon, though that initial face to face can have its oddities. oh, the times we find ourselves in... :) Posted by lisa on 09/22/03 at 11:15 PM I grew up in a tiny town of less than a thousand near Amsterdam, NY. (That is about 45 minutes west of Albany). It is wonderful to grow up near the mountains. I miss them now that I live in the cornfields of Indiana. What many people do not know about NY is that the entire state is not NYC, but it is mainly rural - with sleepy towns and cities scattered all over the mountains and valleys. Posted by Joshua on 09/24/03 at 05:46 AM Joshua--My hubby knows Amsterdam. He says the teams from Rome Catholic High would play Amsterdam in away games. Doug moved with his family to KC at age 18, but has never stopped missing the wonders of upstate NY. I saw it for the first time last summer, and it is fabulous. I could SO be happy there! Posted by katy on 09/24/03 at 03:37 PM This scared me to death. I've posted almost 100 essays at my blog and they are like children to me. Granted, both my hard drives would have to go down at once, and then salon.com would have to blow up at the same time for me to lose them. But suddenly nothing seems real. I'm going to print them all out and put them away somewhere. Posted by Real Live Preacher on 09/25/03 at 04:42 AM Preacher, Quick! Save yourself! Didn't mean to scare you. We back everything up to disk fairly often, and put the disks in a fireproof box. Someday, when I'm old and gray (OK, not that far away!), I'll open that box, pull out those passe-technology disks and say, "Honey, what in tarnation ARE these?" That's another reason to occasionally print, IMO. Thanks! Posted by katy on 09/25/03 at 11:43 AM RLP (and most every other person who's Blog I read) should rest assured that a few of us print out the Blogs each day for our reading. These things are being saved! :) Posted by timsamoff on 09/25/03 at 12:53 PM Tim, Yes. And those of us who cherish books would be thrilled to hold a RLP volume in our hands, should it ever please the Preacher to have one published. Hint, hint. ;) Posted by katy on 09/25/03 at 01:10 PM Page 1 of 1 pages Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Next entry: Role Model Previous entry: Today << Back to main


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Personal blog of christianwriter & fallible momKaty McKenna Raymondin Kansas City, Missouri

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Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri