Alphasmart Writing Devices

There is a neat little contraption that the traveller Loren Everly showed to me in Mongolia. It is called an Alphasmart and is essentially a battery powered keyboard with a small screen that can remember 60- 250 pages of keystrokes, which can be easily loaded up onto any word processing program on a computer and then published online. They are light weight and the old models are cheap (ebay for 10-30 dollars). This little device would be a clutch companion while writing on the road.

No longer would I have to sit for as many long long hours in cramped, cigarette smoke filled internet cafes wiling away money and good daylight tramping hours. I could simply write on the Alphasmart keyboard wherever I am (outside, in a park, hostel bed, a friggin mountain top!), stroll into a café in passing, load everything up onto the computer from the Alphasmart, publish it, and be off exploring again within a few minutes. Thank you for showing me this contraption, Loren!

It is either an Alphasmart or a laptop. Laptops are heavy. Alphasmarts are light, cheap, and looseable. If an Alphasmart is stolen or broken there is not much to lament- maybe I will loose a few pages of writing and be out thirty dollars. If the same were to happen to my laptop then I would find myself in a slightly more regretful position.

I do not like wasting thought on my property in travel. I travel to be free from things. Why would I want to carry anything?