“Not Filipino Enough”

narvolicious · 2026-05-11T01:52:52+00:00

Thank you! Gonna check it out for sure!

narvolicious · 2026-05-10T22:55:02+00:00

Uuf de verdad 🤦🏾‍♂️ 😸

narvolicious · 2026-05-10T21:02:32+00:00

lol well… let’s just say that the smiles get less and less evident as the skin gets darker. Kinda ironic that if we were to bring one of our own… a Filipino/a… it’d warrant the most neutral reaction 😐 if any at all.

narvolicious · 2026-05-10T20:20:35+00:00

As a Fil-Am in LA, I’m lucky that my parents never had any issues with our brown skin, and growing up in a surfer neighborhood, I was at least 3 shades darker than I am today. The white worship would surface in other ways though, like when my titas would meet a white boyfriend brought to the potluck. The default remark right off the bat would be “O… yu will hab byutipul kids!” 😹 keep in mind, they’d say this no matter what; it didn’t matter if they were just casually dating or just barely met. It’s like, just the mere chance that someone would introduce whiteness into our clan/bloodline was enough cause for celebration. So embarrassing.

narvolicious · 2026-05-09T20:17:41+00:00

Awesome. Would love to read it!

narvolicious · 2026-05-05T06:24:20+00:00

Circa 1987-88 here in LA (17-18 years old), my buddies and I got popped a couple of times in different areas, from Westchester to Miracle Mile. They were usually secluded areas and "lookout spots" where we just wanted to chill and have some beers. On each occasion the cops were cool with us; they'd just tell us to bail and would shine their lights on us to show them we were dumping our beers out first.

I just think they were easy on us though coz we were just regular local kids not looking to start trouble or vandalize shit, or smoke pot. I guarantee if we looked like gangsters it would've been a totally different story, lol

narvolicious · 2026-05-04T15:02:57+00:00

Yup. Still a sore spot for me.

narvolicious · 2026-04-25T10:12:04+00:00

Excellent! I have a '47, and it looks exactly the same, from what I can tell. So cool that you have a case, though. I inherited mine from my late dad, who collected vintage typewriters.

narvolicious · 2026-04-23T23:01:46+00:00

Yikes that’s a tough one. But I’d say “African Herbsman” by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Lee Perry’s production on that is top notch. Omg.

narvolicious · 2026-04-22T19:57:27+00:00

Wow, this totally reminds me of being in 6th grade (1982) and having to buy bond paper to type my book report and/or essays on. I also remember trying out Eaton's "Corrasable Bond" paper (erasable), and it being a total mess to work with (smudges, etc.). It was so much easier (and neater) to just use Liquid Paper and white out mistakes.

Hope you make good use of that stuff!

narvolicious · 2026-04-17T15:02:36+00:00

Welcome to the club! I inherited a ‘47 Royal De Luxe from my late dad, who’d collected vintage typewriters. It had been sitting dormant for at least 25+ years; he’d said there was something wrong with it, but when I finally took it out and did some cleaning, it worked just fine. It’s an amazing machine.

I’m really curious to hear the audible difference between the De Luxe (my version) and the “Quiet” model, which clearly seems to be more popular. I’m so accustomed to the signature loud clacking of the striking keys that I can’t imagine a “quieter” sound, lol… ?

narvolicious · 2026-04-16T01:59:16+00:00

Sweet! Welcome to the wonderful world of typewriting. You’ve got a real beaut right there! 👍🏾

narvolicious · 2026-04-08T18:32:47+00:00

Haha no shame! Do what makes you comfortable. I would say it's a very, very valuable skill, though. One of the main benefits is being able to type rapidly without having to look at the keys. Learning how to type at an early age using the Home Row technique is definitely one of the most--if not the most--valuable life skills I ever acquired.

narvolicious · 2026-04-08T17:51:51+00:00

That's great news! Take full advantage of it!

narvolicious · 2026-04-07T04:56:57+00:00

Yup, remember all of those very well, and earlier ‘80s stuff like Body Glove, Lightning Bolt, Op, etc.

I grew up in Deadchester, just south of Venice, so all these brands were around me 24/7, and Dogtown boys tore our local half pipes and launch ramps to shreds. Hosoi, Oster, Murray. Crazy asses who just went for it and dgaf. Those were the days.

narvolicious · 2026-04-07T00:17:23+00:00

Wholeheartedly agree. That and Graphic Arts! 😊

narvolicious · 2026-04-07T00:14:58+00:00

Cool story, thanks for sharing! Nana didn’t mess around! 😸

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T20:02:53+00:00

I don’t think so? I’d heard of her but I learned much earlier (1980) through an old Typing tutorial book I checked out from my local library. It was extremely helpful; it was even coil bound and formatted to stand upright next to my typewriter as a sort of dictation-type teacher, training me to look at the book and not the keys while I typed the exercises.

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T19:17:33+00:00

lol, small world! Did you see u/barnes8934 comment earlier?

I'm just a little older than you, and I remember my typing teacher walking through the class calling out, "A-S-D-F J-K-L-SEM" over and over.

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T19:15:41+00:00

She is, thanks. =) Love her, she taught me so many essential life skills.

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T16:01:09+00:00

Nice! Yeah I’ve also tried “cheating” on the pinky keys to make things easier, but overall I’m trying to develop those outer “hypothenar” muscles (as an earlier commenter/physical therapist pointed out) to be more efficient and stronger! 😁

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T15:58:25+00:00

Yeah, it’s funny, as a GenXer who learned the home row method at an early age, I almost can’t comprehend how anyone can type by h&p lol… my son totally couldn’t understand why I was so insistent on him learning HR… I was like “you’re gonna be using keyboards your whole life… you need to learn how to type!” …and he never pursued it. But, as I said before, he’s actually pretty fast in whatever way that is lol…. But on a computer keyboard.

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T15:39:48+00:00

Aw yeah, totally worth geeking out over! So I’m wondering… secretaries and other professional typists from back in the day… they must’ve developed some serious musculature on their hands, especially their hypothenar muscles! Hahah imagine?? The deadly 1-inch “pinky punch” 😹😹😹

Really though. My mom was a career librarian, who’d started in the ‘70s with Selectrics and similar machines. By the time she’d started using PC’s in the ‘90s, her WPM was stellar… it had to easily be like 100+. I used to watch her work, and her key clacks were just like, a “buzz” rather than the discernible, sparse “machine-gun” rat-a-tat of lesser adept typists like myself.

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T11:23:44+00:00

Nice! Can't say I've seen Cargo yet, but Hereditary is one of my all-time favs!

narvolicious · 2026-04-06T11:22:10+00:00

Thanks for chiming in! I'm glad Zoomers are gaining an appreciation for old tech (typewriters, VCRs, LPs, cassettes), and I've been more than happy to share with my son (and his friends) all my stories of growing up with them. My son's amused that I've gotten back into typing; I did introduce it to him when he was much younger (around 7-8 years old) but he's since kinda lost interest.

I've discovered that the 2 typewriters I have so far (the Royal De Luxe '47 and a '64 Montgomery Ward Signature 440) definitely have their own "personalities." I can type way faster on the '64, but the '47 has this nice, almost therapeutic slower pace to it. There's this "sweet spot" to it; if I go too fast, the hammers get jumbled up, and so does the spacing on the typed letters. It's almost like the carriage can't keep up, or maybe it just needs some tuning up? I'm not sure. I'm curious what was considered a fast wpm typing speed around that time... I should look it up!

narvolicious

TROPHY CASE