Writing Like Captain Kirk

I’ve been watching the new and remastered episodes of the original Star Trek each Sunday, and really loving the hell out of them.
While Next Generation is great, it really is TOS (the original series) that helped me come into my own as a person, a writer and gave me a community of others to play with for the last 30 years.

If you watch the old series carefully, you’ll see that while they are zooming around in space, there’s an old military idiom that has followed them out into space:

The job isn’t finished until the paperwork is done.

It’s just funny to see James T. Kirk save the frickin’ universe and then have some Ensign or Yeoman walk up to him with a clipboard and a pen and have him sign something.

“40 Photon Torpedoes used? Sign right here please.”
“Acknowledge receipt of one used Romulan Warbird? Sign here please.”
“One Class A Shuttlecraft, crashed on planet, Class M? Sign here please.”

You have all that spiffy technology, but yet, you gotta sign stuff, write stuff, do paperwork.

Now, in the Next Generation, I didn’t see that so much.
They were always jabbering to the computer, at the computer, having the computer record their log, having the computer cook their food, or Earl Grey tea.

Kirk had to wield the pen.
Old school Trek.
Old school technology.

Now I love technology, but I love the tactile feel of writing.
One of my favorite writing tools is a disposable fountain pen. I mean, I really, really love those things.
Because you can only order them online, I usually order 10 at a time so I always have one available, no matter where I am.

If only there were a way to combine groovy technology with the tactile and comforting feel of a pen.

Well, Ramona, your prayers are answered!

How about a pen you can write with on any paper?
How about if that pen transmits, via USB, your writing to your computer?
How about if your computer then transcribes and translates your handwriting into text?
How about if it only costs about $80?

Let me introduce you to the EPOS Digital Pen and Flash Drive.

Here’s the Engadget article that first turned me on to this little doodad.

Now that is groovy.

Of course, you still have to make your own tea and account for your own crashed shuttlecraft, but still - it’s a step in the right direction.