Hi, friends! I’m trying a new approach. I’m going to handwrite a post and see how I feel about it. I’ve been journaling a lot with pencil and paper, and I’ve found that it’s really unlocked my creativity and made me actually look forward to writing on an ongoing basis, rather than making it a whole event where I sit for hours and put pressure on myself trying to make it perfect.

I think the very medium of pencil and paper lends itself to imperfections and so you have this built-in expectation already that it probably won’t be a super-polished product. But you know, too much polish can destroy character. In an age where everything is increasingly getting sucked into the vortex of artificial intelligence, I’m trying to bring back a little human touch.

(For accessibility purposes, I’ll also include a digital typed-out version. That way you can also copy/paste my words if you feel the need. Or maybe you just don’t like my handwriting, and that’s okay too.)

I’m also trying to post more regularly rather than waiting for an essay to hit me fully formed. My ongoing journaling practice has been stirring up a bunch of things I’d like to post publicly in a more public forum.

My 39th birthday is coming up on the 30th of this month. My wife, Amber, is getting me a vintage Royal typewriter that’s being refurbished by a guy fairly local to us who is well-known in the typewriting community. Did you know there’s a typewriter community online? It’s got kind of a punk/anarchistic ethos about it, which I’m super into.

I must say, I took a little inspiration from Kent Peterson. He has a great Substack where he posts a typewritten page a day. I haven’t seen anyone else emulate his model yet. I’m also a fan of Duane Toops, who creates some wonderful collage art to accompany his posts using old photos, magazines, advertisements, etc.

I may be hopping over to a platform called Beehiv soon. I’ll keep you posted. But I’m here still, at least for now!

I’m nearing the end of the page. Fuck fascism, power to the people. Peace and love to you all.

— Jared Caraway