There isn't much talk about writer's cramp any more. Writer's block is still around but the crampiness is becoming a thing of the past.

I wonder what writers, of the feather pen era, thought about when those newfangled typewriters came along? What changed for them, if they took up the new technology? What special skills were lost as the typewriter grew in popularity? Likely, there was some skill to dipping your pen into the inkwell just right, to avoid drips. There would have been skill involved in knowing when the ink on your page was dry enough to be handled.

I sometimes miss writing long hand. It's nice to feel the flow of my words smoothing over the page. Creating stylish swirls and tall towers from the alphabet is almost as much fun as making the letters into words. Pens are fun too. I've been writing with a couple of gel pens in unique colours. In the past I've experimented with various pens, Bics were my high school pen of choice. As I evolved my pen selection became whatever was on sale at the time. Still, I always preferred black ink.

My penmanship has taken a turn for the worst due to all my time on the keyboard. After a few minutes writing long hand my words become chicken scratchings, something even a doctor would struggle to decipher.

Will penmanship become a lost art? Will calligraphy just be something you do on the computer with fancy fonts? Then of course, I wonder what the next advance will bring. Will computers have their own turn at being obsolete?

You get a letter in the mail. It has your name on it, not your parent's or an older brother or sister or Grandmother or Grandfather, just you! Isn't it great to get a letter of your own?

Now, what would you most like to be inside that envelope? A letter from your favourite Grandmother? A coupon for a year of free candy? Free tickets for you and your family to travel to anywhere in the world? A letter from someone you like at school telling you they like you too? A nice cheque giving you money and a new bank account of your very own? A coupon from your family promising you a day where you can do everything you like to do, with all of them? A week off school, without any homework to catch up on later? What would be in your envelope?

When did you last write a letter to someone? It is so nice to get a letter from your family but it's also nice to send one to them too. It's fun to buy or make some fancy paper and envelopes, maybe even fancy pens to write with. You can find pens with coloured ink. I saw some this week at the mall. Make sure to test your pen before you buy it. The one I bought didn't work so I have to take it back to the store and see if they still have the same kind.

The next thing you need to do is get addresses for the people you want to write to. Your parents will likely have all the addresses for family. Or you can get a phone number or email address and get it from the very person you want to write to. Keep all the addresses written down. You might consider getting yourself an address book and add phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays as well as the snail mail address. If you have space and want to be really efficient you can even add details like each person's favourite colour, hobbies, things they like to collect and anything else that would be helpful to know when you are writing to them.

Letters are fun to write. Just think of what is going on in your own life and tell someone about it. Did you have a good day at school? Did you do something special on the weekend or during the week? Sometimes the everyday little things are just as nice to read about as something really special. Besides, it would take you a long time to write a letter if you only wrote about the big blockbuster things in your life and skipped all the everyday stuff. You can also write to ask them how they are doing. If they write to you look at their letter and ask them questions about things they wrote. That way they know you read and appreciated their letter. Everyone likes to be appreciated.

Have fun writing letters. You can send birthday and holiday cards too once you get into it. Letter writing is a nice hobby, it's not very expensive and you can make other people happy. Don't always expect a letter back, it's very nice to get one but not everyone finds it easy to write letters in return. If you have Grandparents or Great Grandparents they love a letter from family. You would make their whole day!

We may be going to a kid's birthday party today. Still haven't heard from anyone about a time. Its a bit of a drive so it would be nice to know. It's almost 4:30, getting kind of late. I don't know why the ex doesn't phone and find out. He isn't keen on going but its a place to get out and have free conversation and food. Birthday cake too. Besides, each time I have seen this kid at a party she has managed to dive into the cake, pretty funny. She is only 2. It's the ex husband's family so it isn't likely I will see any of them again after I move.

I used to have dozens of pen pals. That was a long time ago. These days I can't keep up with anyone's life, barely even my own.

Today I'm looking over the pen pal letters. I've kept them all in a bag. Most are from the 80's. I tried to get postcards from my pen pals so I could see how things looked where they were. Some would send coins too, just local currency. It cost more for the stamps to send them than the coins were worth.

As I'm going through the letters I've been pulling the stamps off all the envelopes. I have never been a stamp collector. My Dad has a stamp collection that's been in limbo for at least 30 years. But someday I might find someone to donate all these stamps too. I doubt any are really valuable but someone might as well have them. It seems a shame to just toss them all out. I am keeping all my postcards and coins though. I don't have a good place to put them and now that I'm packing its all just one more job and one more box. But, I'm not ready to toss them this move at least.

I considered starting pen paling again a few months ago. But even the couple I found interesting I never wrote back to more than once. I have plenty of nice stationery left over from the last bout of letter writing. I just don't have anything settled right now and I do need to get some kind of focus back, a routine would probably be a good thing too.

It sounds like my Mom will drive down on Monday. I hope so. Things are not bad here but not good either. I'm definitely ready to leave and work on whatever comes next. I'm really looking forward to seeing Zack, my nephew.

Anyway, this is enough blabbling for now. I was looking at college courses online but they are too far away, too expensive or too many hours (months, years). Maybe I will find something yet. All I really want is some clue about CGI, Perl and CSS.

"If my doctor told me I had only six months to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." Isaac Asimov

If you've never tried being a penpal you're missing out on a world of fun. Penpals come in all ages, nationalities and cultures. Write to kids your age in Germany, Hawaii, Australia, England, or Japan. Anywhere you can exchange letters in any language you can write. With a little researching you can even find a penpal at the north pole.

There's more to writing letters than good grammar and punctuation. Writing is a great way to practice your grammar and punctuation but more important is the letter itself. At first you may think you have nothing interesting to write about. So, make a list of things you like to do, your hobbies, what you especially like about school, who your friends are, your brothers and sisters, pets, places you have been, your after school routine, favourite websites, things that you like and things that make you angry. From this list you have an endless supply of things to write about. Also, you can ask questions about your penpals routine, their life and family.

One of my favourite things to find out about was dandelions. Doesn't sound like much of a question, maybe. But think about it. Is there any place in the world where they don't have dandelions? So far, I haven't found one. Maybe you will. Can they really be everywhere. Anyway, you will develop your own questions from things that interest you.

Finding penpals is not too hard. You can choose to have penpals or keypals. Keypals write through email and penpals write through the regular old mail. Keypals have the advantage of not needing stamps. Penpals have the advantage of being an actual letter, its nice to have something just for you in the mailbox. Also, you can trade postcards, stamps and anything else light and flat enough to fit inside and envelope. I always enjoyed having nice stationary to write with too. Sometimes I would find pens with different coloured inks. You can't do that with keypals unless they can get HTML email ok, not everyone can.

Look for penpal clubs on the Internet. There are clubs for keypals, penpals and both. You might have your parents check for the best places for kids to find penpals. Adults and teenagers are sometimes looking for romantic penpals and not just fun friends. So its a good idea to be sure you are looking in the right place for you. Once you find a good club choose a country you would like to know more about. Maybe you don't prefer a country but are happy to write to other kids in your own area. All you need to is look for other girls or boys your own age then. When you choose your penpal or penpals keep a copy of their address and write down any other information available about their interests.

Now you are ready to write that first letter to introduce yourself. Its kind of hard to know what to say to a total stranger. If you feel chatty go ahead and write. Mainly, you need to tell them who you are, where you are and why you would like to write to them. That's really enough information for a first letter. Not everyone you write to will write back. There is a chance they have moved, have enough penpals already, lost interest in writing or just didn't think you had a lot in common with them. Don't write to more than a couple of penpals at once, when you get started. It can be a bit more time consuming than you expected. It may take a week or a few weeks for letters to go back and forth but writing them can take quite a bit of time. Always try to write a couple of pages, make it a letter not just a note.

Penpals also make and pass around friendship books. Those are small booklets made by stapling together cut up paper into a booklet. They are decorated and the person who starts the book writes their name and address as the first person sending the book. Most people hope to see the book again once its full so they add their return address to the back cover of the book too. Friendship books are fun, you can see where they have been in a trail back to the original sender. If you get one try to pass it on as soon as you can. If you want to make one remember to keep it light, too many pages will cost more in stamps to send for yourself and everyone else.

Of course, there are other ways of finding penpals and other ways of writing to them. Get creative. Try writing to a company in another country and ask if anyone working there has kids that would write to you. Photocopy something interesting in the newspaper and write your penpal letter on the back of it. That gives your pal even more to read. Send a postcard of your local area. If you pick up a travel brochure send that too. Ask for letterhead from your school and use it for stationary in your next letter. There are all kinds of things you can do with letter writing. You are only limited by your own imagination and the envelope you mail your letter in.