Analog life · 8 April 2025
Handwriting, cursive, and why the hand still matters
Schools argue about joined letters while adults buy fountain pens to remember they have a hand. A practical account of writing as a physical skill in Australia.
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Image: Hermann Luyken. CC0 1.0. See the image credits.
Essays on leaving the phone in another room, returning to cursive, giving a pen without embarrassment, and the tasting journal as a way of paying attention.
Analog life · 20 November 2019
Gift-giving with pens and paper
A pen is a good gift until it is the wrong nib, and a notebook is a good gift until it is a journal the recipient is afraid to spoil. How we used to wrap the ones that worked.
Analog life · 14 August 2018
Digital detox, why a notebook still beats an app
The old homepage led with a quality notebook and a slogan. The slogan aged. The notebook did not. A case for analog attention that does not require you to throw the phone in the river.
Analog life · 1 October 2014
Tasting journals, flavour wheels and slow notetaking
In 2014 we unpacked 33 Books from the United States — cigar, beer, wine — and learned that a prompt on a page is a technology. How to steal that idea without the original book.