Tuesday, August 14, 2012

One Year Anniversary: Picture Heavy!

Today marks the first anniversary of Vintage Technology Obsessions.  Before I go any further, I want to thank all of you who regularly visit this blog.  I'd like to think that I would keep going without page views, but the truth is I like to see the number go up and the comments and conversations are greatly appreciated.

In the spirit of this blog and the Typosphere, this is a hybrid post.  I think I will use a few different typewriters.  Do you recognize the machines from their typefaces?

Yeah, typewriters are real; typographical errors and all.  The machines:  Underwood Deluxe Quiet Tab, Royal Signet, Olympia SM-7, Remington Mark II (a plastic Torpedo) and a 1932 Royal known as Keylime.  I lust after a machine with German blackletter or an Olivetti Graphika.


I've been surprised at some of the posts that have picked up the most hits; mostly from Google searches.  I'm glad that I diversified content from the beginning.  I blog because I love learning about many obscure subjects that have nothing to do with my professional life.  I also love photography and this is a fun avenue for me to share images.

Here are some of my favorite images from the last year:

This little guy was a graduation gift for a friend of the family.

Svetlana Optima is our mysterious Cold War throwback.  She was manufactured in East Germany in the early '50s and has some pretty serious trust issues.  This comes from her new ribbon day.
And now for some statistics.  Thanks to readers such as yourself, this blog passed the 16,000 pageview mark on August 11.  The top ten posts by pageview, paraphrased and in descending order, are:

ITAM Special Report: The Eight Millionth Remington
Remembering Ralph McQuarrie
Zeiss Ikon/ICA Folding Camera
Juvenile Cold War Space Fiction
Happy Typewriter Day from Keylime
The Birthday Blog Post from Space
Royal Typewriter Rescue(feature Old Red, a Royal with the Vogue typeface rescued from choppers)
A Tale of Two Cameras (the modern Sony NEX3 coupled with Olympus PEN F lenses)
Mousiest Royal Futura (a not all that fun to type on Royal with an awesome cursive typeface)
B-36 Restricted Report (Features an SM-9 keeping track of the dreaded Svetlana Optima)

And here is the subject of the top post, Remington number 8,000,000.

Just full of awesome and kind of OK to type on.  This machine receives plenty of Google search hits.

If only I could keep the bench this tidy.
Being an Art Deco icon, this machine starred in its own movie "Last Stand at the Remington".
This is an outtake from the hit movie "Last Stand at the Remington".

Yeah, totally growing up would be pretty boring.
This is the first typecast with our Senatorial Olympia SM-9.  Racoons had recently dug a hole through our roof.
This man of mystery was a hit at the 2011 Kansas City Maker Faire.

The dreaded Dollar Store "Spacebot" testing out that old saw about the pen being mightier than the sword.  However, Bill has some muscle in the form of a junk part R2-C4 unit.

I'm still bitter about losing a whole summer worth of B-grade movie reruns to the Watergate hearings.

You don't want to know.

Here's our family mascot, Trollie!  Isn't that the most creative name you've ever heard?

Gotta love southern Florida.  There was a guy shooting a monster handgun towards a 40 foot fiberglass panther on the other side of the parking lot.  Ah, the memories Trollie and I have together.


Two extremely shiny typewriters.  They don't get used nearly enough what with my weird typeface fetish.  The gold Royal goes by the name of Margo.

Thank goodness we have a good copy editor in the house!  What fate awaits this tough Royal?

Like a candle in the Windy City.  Poor Marilyn is about to lose her head.

Keylime and Old Red, the Vogue typeface Royals.  The one on the right is named Keylime.  That was redundant, but I am too lazy to reconfigure the link.

Such a happy couple.  Too bad they are about to be mauled by zombies!

"Do you hear moaning?  I swear I hear moaning."

Imaging the Transit of Venus with a pair of binoculars.

Shopping for the perfect violin for Hannah.  It was a great experience.  The bow cost more than my first car.  Sure, the car was a beater, but you get the idea.

In the violin finish lair.  This strings shop is a great maker space.

My portable typecasting machine for our summer vacation.  We came back to a very long stretch of hot and a drought that came out of nowhere.

Something shiny from the Art of the Car Concours.

This is a nice rat rod from the Kansas City Good Guys show.  The Duesenberg at the Concours was worth more than a Belgian dressage horse.  The rat rod?  Not so much, but it is awesome!

3-D printing pretty much rocks.  This is from the 2012 Kansas City Maker Faire.

Souped up kiddie cars in the Power Wheels racing series.
This is Super Awesome Sylvia and her dad, the Tech Ninja doing some live science at the 2011 Kansas City Maker Faire.

This is precisely why we need maker culture.  We are so proud of Curiosity's team!  I still have a rendering of the skycrane lowering Curiosity set as my wallpaper.  We haven't forgotten Opportunity, either.

The team, as seen on my LCD during the live streaming of the landing.  Dang, where is that sexy Mohawk Guy?

Ahhhh!!!! Not only is he adorable, the Christmas Squirrel will bring your family socks and undies.  Part 1 on "The Origins of the Christmas Squirrel" is found here.  Yes, there is a Part 2 and the story involves Nikola Tesla, Erwin Schrodinger and a certain Mr. Edison.  It was cold outside and I was on vacation.

Claire's most awesome repurposed Christmas present to me.
This is one of Claire's friends.  She is a convert to the ways of the typewriter.  We gave her an Olympia SM-9 with the Senatorial (robot) typeface.  She is a total typeface junkie and can tell you about the history and design of many typefaces.  That may be atypical for the average eleven-year-old.

Claire (aka: gingercat) and the Six Fingered Man's twin brother at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Thanks again to all of you that follow or have happened upon this crazy, mixed up blog of mine!  It's gotten a little serious in the last couple of months.  Me thinks it is time to break out some Hong Kong knock-off robots and a jumbo Machinder.  Yes, that would do nicely!

Copyright:  The Copyright is a noble beast that I, the owner of the blog known as Vintage Technology Obsessions, claims for my own.  With the exception of the images of the amazing Curiosity, all images and text are mine and are copyright 2011 and 2012.  Regular readers would not need to be reminded that, in addition to legal recourse, if someone were to pilfer my images for use without attribution or for commercial use of any form they would likely be awakened in the middle of the night by the buzz and hiss of a flying, steam powered Oliver Number 99 hovering over their bed.  Thieves, you have been suitably warned.

19 comments:

  1. Congrats good sir. I guess I can call you Ric now huh? (I really need to go watch Casablanca again - Claude Raines is such a hoot.) Thanks, too, for the shout out. It's so cool knowing I've inspired a few folks to such happy and entertaining lunacy.

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    1. I'm not as suave and debonair as Ric. I might be as rascally. You would have to consult with my spousal unit on that ;) We have a proper mailbox in our living room, now. I'm afraid we got out of the habit with all of the summer camps, but the inter-family mail will start again in earnest.

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  2. Nice to know you're out there in the world, Dwayne. I remember that gorgeous Deco Remington of yours, but had completely forgotten about the gold-plated QDL. Happy 1st Anniversary!
    Don't go changin', to try to please me.

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    1. Thanks! The photos in the wild I would do anyway. I just didn't have a good place to put them. I still give you credit for the Last Stand at the Remington inspiration.

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  3. Congratulations on the first anniversary! You're running an awesome blog - just my type. ;)

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  4. Always entertaining. Keep it up! I wish I was your kid.
    p.s. It was "Casablanca" that got me to look up the French 75. Remember the scene?

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    1. That is a high complement. Thanks! I will have to look up that reference. It has been too long since we've watched Casablanca.

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  5. Happy 1-year anniversary, it's been an entertaining run so far. I especially like the forays into Retro-Future land, and robots are always fun!

    I missed my own 1-year - maybe I should celebrate my 2-year in October, or maybe my 250th post coming up soon. Wowser, it seems like so much longer. :D

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    1. Congrats on making it close to the two year mark. In plugging in random Blogger names, I have come across many a blog that fizzled after the one year mark. We'll see if I can keep it up. And yes, more robots are bound to follow :)

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  6. Love your copyright notice at the end!

    Congratulations on a year. Here's to many more typecasts!

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    1. As the copyright holder of the copyrighted copyright text, I hereby grant you license to use the essential concept as you see fit. However, the flying Oliver 99 is reserved for my twisted pleasure. I understand that Svetlana Optima has been stealing more state secrets to help the Oliver cause. More posts will no doubt follow!

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  7. Cheers on your first year!
    I really love your Remington-Godzilla shots. If there is a signature concept for your blog, it's got to be the creative mishmash between your interests in typewriters and retro pop figures (robots, Godzilla, etc.). Hope to see more of these.

    Like Ted, I missed commemorating my own first year. Oh well.

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    1. Oh, you have set the bar high! I must play with robots...

      I only remembered my one year mark because I scheduled a blank placeholder months ago. Wouldn't it have been funny if it had gone live with the entry "Insert typecast here"? Anyway, here is some blog lovin' back at you.

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  8. What an exciting blogging year it has been for you and your family!

    Thanks for the photo retrospective -- many of them are my favorites, too.

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    1. Yes, it has been way too fun! Society at large is likely better off since I have this means to reset the brain away from work things.

      I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. I had fun looking back through the hundreds(!) of images I've uploaded this year. The best part of blogging is the creation of some semblance of an ordered diary. Order is not necessarily my strong suit.

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  9. Congratulations, Dwayne, over the last year you've really created a blog with personality and quirky delight, and you've shown us some unique and gorgeous typewriters. Keep it up!

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    1. "Personality and quirky delight." That's one of the best compliments I could receive :) Thanks for reading and being such a great resource for the new initiates to the ways of the typewriter.

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  10. Congrats Dwayne!
    You definitely have a lot of humor and imagination and your blog entries always have a few surprises and it makes it real fun to read. It's been a pleasure and looking forward to year 2!

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