A lifetime of writing

Lives are spent writing; whether the writing is for a book, publication, or notes for remembering certain events, writing is an essential practice of everyday lives. To some, writing comes naturally, but to others writing is compared to the fears of confronting a bear—scared of how to approach it and how to interpret mismatched thoughts into sentences that develop and flow. I realized that “confronting the bear” not only meant writing, but took a lot of work getting used to and improving.

Preschool classes were spent writing names on large pieces of paper and decorating them with crayons and finally, in kindergarten, learning to spell the simplest words such as “cat” and “dog.” Writing as a young child was probably one of the biggest achievements, when guessing was always right and handwriting was new. These were the earliest memories I had as a child, when I used to write my name in half lowercase letters and half in uppercase letters. Early years in education were filled with wide ruled paper where letters were formed and words were spelled and where writers first learned taking a pencil to paper.

Elementary teachers always ask the bold question, “Write something about yourself if you live to be one hundred years old.” Writing is not just the forming of words into sentences. Writing is personality. What forms the sentences are vivid imagination, personality, and perspective. “When I’m one hundred years old I’m not going to have any teeth,” was my response as a first grade student, with a badly drawn image of myself in an orange jumpsuit and lopsided head.

I did not even remotely start liking to write until high school. I had a high school teacher that really changed writing and the experience; he looked like Ben Folds and was dorky and had the same sense of humor as him, too. Instead of a piano, he rocked a pen and journal and was slightly less famous as a musician. He made writing fun by assigning papers but granting the freedom of writing anything we wanted within certain guidelines. “Classifications of Co-workers,” “The Best Gig Ever,” and “Having Fun At Work” were just a few titles of articles where I was given the chance to turn a requirement into an essay full of excitement, as well as writing music, movie, and short video clip reviews in class.

Throughout my middle and high school career I put out nothing but half-assed papers with little to no thought, hoping to “just get by” until I finally opened my eyes to realize that if effort and personality are put into a paper it will turn into something a world better than a piece written to get through a class. Have fun with the assignment. Sometimes all it takes to get motivation spewing is a deep voiced, Ben Folds-like, former attorney turned teacher to change the way writing is perceived and how it affects anyone as a person.

Sophomore year I decided to take a journalism class, which if I completed two semesters would get me into a publications program. I went through the two semesters of classes and joined our school’s student magazine and I wrote on the staff for two years, which gave me the ability to put my creative thinking into public view. Not only is it hard to get a high school student to pick up a magazine, but what was even harder was getting the student interested and not losing his or her attention.

Features stories were mostly my niche within the publication, where I wrote music or restaurant reviews or even defined the word “music” and what it meant to others—which was answered differently every time. Not only is writing something for others to read and enjoy rewarding, but being able to see my words in a publication is one of the best feelings to experience.

Writing can be used to put a point across, to relieve stress, or just to write a grocery list for the following day. Writing is used almost every day and is almost crucial for every job. Throughout my high school career, I found that the only bad writing is no writing. Sure, a paper with no effort may turn out a decent grade, but there is no doubt that the paper could have been better if more thought and personality was put forth. I realized that “confronting the bear” not only meant writing, but writing with confidence, effort, and personality; a lot of improvement and hard work makes for great literature.

The Ataris come to Smalltown, IN

On Saturday, September 13, The Ataris stepped foot in Bluffton, IN—but not by accident. Starting off like any other local rock and pop punk shows, Fort Wayne and surrounding area local bands took the stage, playing covers and original songs. There was only one difference tonight: the bands would be opening for a largely familiar band. The concert had been Bluffton’s biggest concert in history.

Gutshot, Rudy Can’t Fail, and The Ready Set were performing openers before The Ataris took the stage to rock down the night. Drop Anchor, Set Sail reunited this one night only for the special occasion.

“This was my favorite concert I have ever played,” Blair Williams, a Freshman, said. “It was a once and a lifetime kind of thing.” Williams is a singer and bassist from the reunited Drop Anchor, Set Sail.

Not even half of the Bluffton 4-H Quonset building was full as The Ataris took the stage, shocking all that were there who were wondering how many would eventually show up. Alas, fans were still ecstatic to watch what was about to be released by Kristopher Roe and fellow band members. Everyone waited with anticipation for the band to start their set.

Roe started off with thanking everyone for coming out to Bluffton for the show and killing time until all the musicians fine-tuned the equipment. Chris Swinney, the guitarist, lit a pre-show cigarette while tuning his guitar and getting ready to rock the Quonset building for the next hour.

“So Long, Astoria,” “In This Diary,” and “The Boys of Summer,” were played as well as a smorgasbord of other originals and cover songs. Roe politely thanked the audience for being so kind to the applause and also told a few stories.
But how did they end up in Bluffton? “Chris [Swinney] has some ties to Bluffton. He was from the band The Widow Jenkins and joined The Ataris,” said Williams. “We asked them to play a show and it happened.”

The Ataris originated from Anderson, IN in 1995. Coming is their sixth record release, so be on the lookout when the album hits stores in 2009!

New innovative pen by Livescribe

Ever find yourself in lecture and missing half of what the professor says? Do you ever wish you could fill the gaps and never miss a word again? Whether you write slow, have a wandering mind, or have your own form of hieroglyphics, the new Pulse Smartpen may be your solution to lectures, manufactured by a new company called LiveScribe. Not only is the pen capable of recording lectures with this high tech device, but also keeping what is being written synchronized with what is being recorded, as to return to a certain point in your notes at any time.

Voice is recorded through dual mono recording microphones located on the pen, which work hand-in-hand to catch every word and can be replayed through a small speaker on the pen or through included headphones. Weighing only 1.3 ounces, the pen is housed in an ergonomic anodized aluminum and is about the size of a permanent marker.

Two versions of the pen are available: the 1GB model (over 100 hours of recording time) retails for $149, while the 2GB model (over 200 hours of recording time) retails for $199. The accessories in this package include a 100-sheet college-ruled notebook, case, 3 black fine point ink cartridges and headphones.

Desktop software is also included with the Smartpen, which allows you to view pages and replay notes, as well as a search feature which allows you to search for phrases within your digitalized notes. An online community is accessible through the LiveScribe website for posting and sharing content, as well as 250MB of online storage for reviewing items from your notebook from any computer.

My favorite features on this pen would be the recording of lectures and pen strokes with the 70 frames per second high speed infrared camera. I have found this useful in numerous occasions where I wanted to hear a certain part of a lecture while studying for an exam, although there are some drawbacks to this technology. The only obstacle I have found are reluctant professors who prefer to not have their lectures recorded. I was told by a professor at the start of the fall semester, “Recording lectures is not normal—I would prefer if you did not record my classes.”

The pen may be a costly tool as an aide to education but can be compared to the cost of a class textbook. Special dot paper notebooks are also required and sold in packs of four at $19.99, which is a bit costly; LiveScribe is creating a way to have printable dot paper, which should dampen the cost of expensive notebooks in the future. If anyone has trouble with any of their classes, I would recommend this pen to help them. This is a great product and I applaud the creators at LiveScribe for such an innovative technology.