I've been making my way through the book "How To Make A Journal Of Your
Life", by D. Price. It's a small, mostly inspirational guide for how to
keep a traditional paper journal about your life.
I've made it through just about three chapters, and the flow has been
focused first on writing, then sketching and now photography. The idea
being that each new technique helps add to the value of your journal.
One of the primary reasons I maintain this blog is to keep a journal.
I'm hoping that many of my posts will be glimpses I can look back on and
use to trigger memories, 5, 10 and 20 years down the line.
The similarities between paper journaling and blogging are many. And
while one usually thinks of a journal as a private affair, it is assumed
that years down the line you will share your journal with your family,
friends and perhaps even the world.
The advice given about writing and photography map well from journaling
to blogging. This led me to thinking, what about the sketching
suggestions?
Price makes it clear that there is special value in recording sketches.
First, because they require less hardware than photography, and perhaps
more importantly because sketching relies heavily on your ability to
really see something. If you took the time to draw something, then you
really understand it (in fact, Price recommends learing your camera by
sketching it from memory!).
OK, I'm sold on sketching. But how does that fit in with my blog? And
especially with my mobile blogging requirements. My first though was
that I could simply sketch on paper and then scan the results. I guess
that would work, but where's the fun in that? Which leads me to the
actual point of this post...
As a hacking project, I'd like to convert/build some device that would
allow me to make sketches and post them to my blog. The device should
be relatively small, lightweight and durable. At the very least it
should sketch black and white lines, though color, multiple pen tips and
perhaps even pressure senenstive entry would be great.
In terms of form factor, the device should be as thin and light as
possible. A device the size of a steno notebook, or even as large as an
8 1/2" screen would work.
The software should be painfully simple, just storing multiple pages
which one could browse through. Add an erase page function and you
would be all set. Battery life is a big concern, so less software
functionality should help here.
Connectivity could get interesting. Most ideal would be built in wifi.
Push a button, have your sketch on flickr. Next desireable would be to
store images (postscript files?) on a usb thumb drive or MMC card.
Finally, a simple USB connection to a computer would work.
Devices like the new Fly Toy or the Nokia digital pen come close to
solving this need elegantly. But, the pens are bulky and not condusive
to drawing (IMHO), they are fragile and finally you have the issue of
having to pay for paper. In an ideal world you could draw as much and
as often as you wanted, and the digital ink would be free.
I would think that I could find some old device to convert to a digital
sketch pad. Perhaps even an old palm pilot or ancient failed tablet
PC. I'd also take a close look at kid's toys, as they are getting
savvier all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if the gadget I want is
already used by two-year olds everywhere.
Once I have this device I'll only have one issue left - I can't draw to
save my life. But I figure that's just a matter of practice.
--Ben
