When I was heavily into physics, I used to enjoy filling up pages after pages of rough white paper with equations using a B2 wood pencil.  I used the B2 pencil because it felt similar to chaulk on blackboard and rough paper made that nice scratching sound as you write on it.  The idea that I could be creative and productive anywhere with nothing more than some paper, a pencil, and some quiet was very attractive to me similar to the way one might feel with a powerful laptop these days.

I have similar feelings about the old IBM buckling spring keyboards, the kind that clicked loudly and pushed back sincerely to every keystroke.  It as lively as the Selectric keyboards but better because I didn't get the feeling that keyboard might bolt out the window any minute like I did while using a Seletric typewriter (maybe it was the lack of that electric 'trembling').

With today's mushy keyboards, typing feels like a chore and boring with my palms never leaving the palm rest.  But with old IBM keyboards, typing felt more exciting, as if I was playing a piano, with my palms bouncing up and down with my fingers coming up for air and diving down again for another bout with the feisty keys.

I missed that feeling so googled and found PCKeyboard.com.  Nice.