My Typewriter. [Retro Series Part I]

So I've been pondering my interest in retro stuff, old technology from the 80's and before, and wanted to write a post about something that I not only love, but use relatively often. I figured, "Hey, my Walkman sits around most of the time, as does my slide rule and old film SLR camera, but my typewriter is still pretty active." Hence, the first part in my retro series about my typewriter.

The first thing I am asked when I am seen using my typewriter is, "Why?" Well, for one thing, it's old and awesome, and it helps me improve my accuracy. (Whiting out every mistake is not something you want to have to do with any amount of frequency.) Plus, I don't have a printer, and will welcome anything that will allow me the freedom of having to lug my laptop to school and print on the lone printer outside the library. (The school library isn't open until 10 min. AFTER my class starts.) Now that I've got the intro out of the way, let's get to the machine itself.

Model: 1971 Hermes Rocket, Serial No. 9219863
Type: Portable, marketed as Hermes' most portable typewriter, at a nifty 11 lbs.

Some things I like about it:
-The sound it makes is just great to hear. Now I've always enjoyed the clack-clack of old computer keyboards being typed on at high speed, so the typewriter is just great.
-Convenience. I know this may sound strange in a world of electronic documents, but hey. If you need to get a paper typed at school when there's no computer open, and you don't have your laptop (or it ran out of battery) you've got no options left. This way I've got a last-ditch option, should I "über-procrastinate" or just not have a computer at hand.
-The look and feel of a Swiss made machine is just great. It feels as though I am actually putting in effort to get the words on the page, and that retro look cannot be replicated by even the most high-resolution printer.
-Making folder labels. Isn't it a pain to have to download that template for your printer every time you want to make one for a file folder or tab divider? It's much easier to type those on a typewriter, since you can choose exactly where the letters will show up; positioning the paper is much easier than in a printer.
-I LOVE RETRO STUFF.

Acknowledged Limitations--When NOT to use a typewriter:
-when it's needed to submit a paper online
-when you know you'll need to revise or rewrite
-if there's any chance you'll need to do more in-the-moment editing than just a letter, for example rearranging whole paragraphs
-if you need to use multiple fonts or different font sizes
-etc. etc.

It lives on my desk, except when I use it at school:

But for fun, like writing journal entries, or for a final reflection, final draft, or just what would be normally handwritten (like history outlines or lecture notes), the typewriter is a retro alternative. I love using mine, and think it's pretty cool to have.

Snow.

As is obvious to anyone around here, in good ol' Chicago, there has been a bunch of snowfall. I spent 2 1/2 hours shoveling out half my driveway along with my parents to get our car out. The snowdrifts were pretty high and it was a challenge just to get to my garage through the snowed up driveway. But there is one fact that everyone here has to keep in mind: if the weather was nice year-round, everyone would want to live here.
And two snow days in a row is definitely worth this price. Here are a few pictures I took around my house of the snow, just for kicks. (Low resolution 640x480 so they load fast)

Math Homework.

So...we all know of it, we all love it (or love to hate it). Math homework, an old time friend of some of us, eventually rears its ugly head sometime or another in a high school student's life. The question is, what's it good for, really? Why does it have to exist, and why don't teachers take it for credit most of the time?
Well, honestly, I have no idea. But should I go out on a limb (specifically, my right leg) I would come up with some reason why math homework needs to exist to make this world a better place. (OK, not quite that far.)
When we start out math, we learn the basics, and I mean the basics. Like that 2 comes right after one (integer wise) and that adding is the opposite of subtracting. Think about it for a second; would we really have the time to repeat that much over and over again today, when we are learning how to factor and graph polynomial equations to the nth degree???
No. So that's why there's homework, to buy teachers time outside of class so they can cover the truckloads of coursework that they need to teach within America's amazingly short average school year of 180 days. This is the main reason why we cannot go through homework in class as much as we used to as recently as 6th grade! We'd still be in Algebra I should we have spent that much time reviewing stuff we should already be familiar with.
But why isn't it counted for credit in most of our classes? Well, in honors classes, students are supposedly intrinsically motivated to do their work; they work not for the points, but for their own self-improvement. If teachers counted homework for credit, they also run the risk of people cheating on it and learning nothing at all. By putting the pressure on the students individually to do their homework, they save themselves the time, effort, and potential hassle of counting homework for grades. This also helps out those students who can get 100% in math on everything without even trying one bit. "More power to them," my math teacher says. Of course.
But... in higher level math classes, preparation for college is one of the topmost priorities. If the teachers do not count homework for credit, they are giving a "demo," if you will, of college. There, all you have are a midterm and a final, give or take any other small assignments. If you don't have your act together there, the teachers won't care. You're spending the money, right? By having just tests and quizzes make up your grade, the teachers make it very difficult to scrape by on some HW that you obviously BS'ed the period before.

And a final reason why math homework exists is to frustrate the hell out of students when there's a pop quiz on the homework topic that the teachers "know everyone did" the night before.