#Pitman

[roughridingrednecks]

Pittman in Florida

[unteriors]

Creek Road, Pitman, Pennsylvania.

[lesterspiffany]

Is this the Legion of Substitute Substitute Heroes?

[firedragon1321]

Self Plug Time! (Catrap Fanfiction)

"Anterograde amnesia- The loss of the ability to create new memories. While long-term memories of the past remain, people with anterograde amnesia are unable to create new memories."

I just remembered I wrote this ficlet about Catrap, a video game from 1990. It is the only fic on Ao3 in the fandom that is actually about the game (and also the first in the fandom). It's called "Anterograde". From the author's notes-

"So the idea of this fic is that this is based on a game that used passwords (so an old one). Every time the game turns off, the main character- Catboy- forgets what happened the last play-through. When the password is entered, he sometimes remembers things again- and sometimes not clearly or at all. His memory is essentially tied to the password, hence I came up with this idea."

It's here if you wanna read it.

Because this is literally the only fic for Catrap- the readmore contains some reference art. This includes the Japanese cover of the game (the English cover is shit quality), detail art of Catboy and Catgirl (yes those are their names) and some gameplay. The game is called Pitman in Japan.

[yannosh51-blog-blog]

L'actu Retro(Gaming) #3 : Jet paco, Pitman 2, Dead space, Goldorak , Mighty street fighter, Celeste

Votre nouveau rendez vous sur les nouveautés retro et gaming en Français, c’est ici !! Les liens : Jet paco : (more…) “”

[lisamarie-vee]

[comradeprozac]

I know now the span of my life. God help me!

-Johnathan Harker

[chuckbbirdsjunk]

[roughridingrednecks]

Pitman

[packpack-killkill]

Short-eared Dog | Renata Leite Pitman

[general-sleepy]

Just plain babbling about shorthand

Since reading Dracula might be the first time or one of the first times that people have heard about shorthand, I thought I'd take this thin excuse to infodump. Because I find it fascinating and want to share. (Warning ahead of time, watch out for how many darn times I say "for example" in this post).

For some background, shorthand systems of writing have existed for millennia, but in the English-speaking world, the two most common and well-established systems of shorthand are Pitman and Gregg. Odds are that the Harkers are writing in Pitman. It's the older system (created in 1837) and is to this day more common in England and the Commonwealth. Gregg is more common in America and was introduced in 1888, either only a few years after or a few years before Dracula takes place. There were also numerous other less popular systems floating around at the time.

Pitman and Gregg and most other shorthand systems are phonetic. (Teeline is a more modern shorthand system based on a simplified alphabet, which is also quite popular). Simply put, each sound is reduced to one stroke of the pen. In Gregg, for example, the sound "k" (which includes the letter "c) is a medium-sized forward arch, "a" is a large circle, and "ch" is a short, downward diagonal line. So, instead of writing "catch" you just combine the symbols for "k-a-ch." Instead of "become" you just write "b-k-m." (These "words" are known as outlines).

Some shapes represent multiple sounds. For example, a small circle stands for the vowels in "bit," "bet," and "beet." A large circle stands for the vowels in "cap" and "cape." This might sound like it would be confusing rather than simplifying, but it's generally clear from the context.

There are a bunch of other means which allow you to write more quickly. Common words are further shorted into "brief forms." For example, "the" is represented by "th," "after" by "a-f," and "were" by "e-r." Some common endings or beginnings are also abbreviated, so that "sh" at the end of a word can stand in for "-tion" and "f" can mean "for-" or "fore-" at the beginning of a word. Thus, "Permission" is "p-r-m-sh" and "forgive" is "f-g-v." Common phrases can be combined into a single outlines. For example, for "to be" you can write "t-b" instead of "t-u[space]b." "I have not been able" can be "a-v-n-b-a." (The large circle "a" is the brief form for the word "I" in one of the rare quirks of Gregg that isn't basically intuitive).

Pitman Shorthand is very similar to Gregg (or, more accurately, Gregg is similar to Pitman). Other than using different symbols (for example, in Pitman "k" is a short forward line) Pitman differs from Gregg mostly by its use of the thickness of strokes to differentiate sounds. For example, "g" is also a short forward line, with the only difference being that the line for "g" is drawn thicker than "k."

I learned shorthand absolutely because of Dracula, though for convenience I learned Gregg. As of right now, I'm pretty out-of-practice, and honestly I was never particularly fast. (At my best, I probably was on average as fast writing shorthand as cursive longhand; I think faster than printing, though).

If you're at all interested, I really recommend learning some form of shorthand. It's useful in note-taking or when you don't want people to be able to read your writing (if, you know, you're kidnapped by a vampire or trying to write fanfic at work). It's also just a fun hobby and a nifty skill to be able to say you have.

In my opinion, if you want to learn shorthand, Gregg Simplified is a solid option, because the materials are accessible and the system is a good middle-ground between easiness to learn and quickness to write. I taught myself just following along with the Gregg Shorthand Manual Simplified. The book is broken up into 67 short "lessons." I did one or two lessons a week, maybe a few hours of work, and I was "fluent" in less than a year. I also bought a Gregg Simplified Dictionary, but all you need is the Manual.

(Note that the manual is written both assuming you're probably some kind a secretary and in the fifties. So, you'll learn brief forms for super-useful phrases like "dear sir" or "remit." For practice, they have you read and copy these sample letters in shorthand, and it's almost hilarious how almost all the letters to men are about business matters and the letters to women are advertising sales. There is one spectacular letter that's a man writing to a newspaper to cancel his subscription, because he's moved into a house in the suburbs with another man who gets the same paper. I'm legit tempted to go through the manual again just to find that letter.)

Fun fact! The fastest shorthand stenographer ever recorded wrote faster than the fastest typist.

Also fun fact! It's not uncommon for individual people to invent their own brief forms based on words that they use commonly. So, Jonathan might have been writing "c-a-r-p" (or the Pitman equivalent) for "Carpathian" or Mina writing "t-b" for "Whitby" or both of them writing "v-a-m" for vampire. And I'll bet credits to navy beans they had specific brief forms for their favorite trains.

[enchantedbook]

' The Unselfish Mermaid' by Rosie M. M. Pitman, 1898

[thebeautifulbook]

CHINESE WONDER BOOK edited by Norman Hinsdale Pitman (New York: Dutton, c.1919) Illustrated by Zhutang Li.

source

[dare-g]

Deadbeat at Dawn (1988)

[mysticfoxdesigns]

Just received word that my highschool art teacher was killed on April 6th, 2024. This is the link to the family's Go Fund Me in order to bring her home from Spain. Anything helps them, whether you donate or share.

She was an amazing art teacher, she believed in me and my ability and I wouldn't be where I am today without her pushing me. Because of her I have experimented with nearly every medium, from paint to pottery. She was a beautiful soul and did not deserve what happened to her.

Ms. Pitman was an amazing woman. The only thing I regret is never being able to share what I have achieved in art with her after she left my school.

Rest in Peace Bianca Pitman

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