Roommate advice would be quite nice.

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Bluntness alert:

1. I am familiar enough with you to know where you're coming from, but - you're using a computer (phone?) to post here, in your circumstances you'd be better off to use it while writing too - if you don't have one, take up the lovely blazingstar on her offer.

2. I know it sucks, but once again - listen to music on your computer (phone?) and use headphones.

3. Use coasters.

4. See point one - password-protected computer.

5. Get an eye-mask and earplugs.

Look, I know all this sucks - I'm merely being pragmatical. When you live with someone else, especially sharing the same bedroom, your freedom/options will be limited in significant ways. Turning the whole thing into a fight or power struggle will only make it worse - you either adapt to some extent or you work your way into being able to live by yourself, there's no way around it. (I'm telling you this as someone who learned to type on a typewriter I still have and use, have and use an old record player and am generally a nostalgic in more than one way).

What are your other options in terms of living arrangements?

Thanks to everybody who's responded! Things are working out a little bit along and along.

Generally speaking, I don't want to bother this guy because he's definitely suffering from OCD, and the comorbidities of anxiety and depression. But that doesn't give him a right to move in and interrupt the work done at my desk in daylight working hours, not when he has all of downstairs to use. He thinks I should get rid of everything I use and modernize like him. Dude, my stuff is 100 years old and still works. Your stuff depreciates every day. When I downsize people pay me for antiques. When he downsizes they telephone the city to pick it up for the landfill--carbon footprint much? (I know, I write on paper. I got family in forestry. We grow the paper.)

Well, TheGrandInquisitor--I don't know right now. I'm living with a bunch of folks as an apprentice/intern with a startup and let's just say I am a lot more competent than roomie so there's a chance if anyone leaves it will be he. But if not, I am going to have to find an apartment in Nashville. Or I could sleep in my car...but you don't have room in an old model Corolla to put on a pair of pants!

BenderRodriguez: No worries about being blunt. This is the autism forum; I rather expect it and am grateful for hearing from a real straight shooter. Your points are all valid. I do keep all final drafts of work on a password-protected MacBook. However, the only reason there are still these ancient typewriters on my desk is because it's easier for me to write draft on them and not get lost on the Internet. I have Will Power--but what I need is Won't Power. He has the entire downstairs of the house. All I want is to use my desk up here. Unreasonable? I think not.

Blazingstar: Thanks for the offer, but I do own & enjoy a 2009 Mac. It's a big upgrade from the old HP Notebook I used to own and has a real upgraded OS on board so it's about like a modern computer. I use the typewriters because they are much, much easier to compose on. As far as speed goes I am much faster at typing than keyboarding. (All my machines are painstakingly restored by Yours Truly and are probably some of the better-running ones of that vintage around here.)

Kraftiekortie: For us Aspies who can't deal with blue light, sometimes it's nice to avoid screens. But you're right. Computers are a lot simpler...and a typewriter that hasn't been serviced is a real pain to use. IBM Selectrics are nice but I don't know how to work on them, so I avoid them usually. If I found a working one that would be a different story.

cberg, I can't put more audio gear on board, but that sounds like a nice setup. I haven't room right now but someday I have been planning a nice quality sound system or at least putting headphones on an old Capehart or Stromberg-Carlson electric! Currently, though, the only thing I have that's linear tracking & uses diamond needles is an Edison cylinder phonograph.

Try this on your PC:
https://justgetflux.com/

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Why can't you do your writing on a laptop? I could certainly see the typewriter being annoying.

I mean I don't get it are you trying to be some kind of super hipster using an old-fashioned type writer in a dormitory situation? That seems more appropriate for a living situation that's not in a relatively small room shared with another person. Just get yourself a laptop, doesn't have to be something fancy if its just for writing plus then you can save your work on it, edit it easier and pick up the laptop and go downstairs yourself some of the time.

I mean how often are you in the room doing work? If you are kind of hogging the room and just expect him to go relax somewhere else every time then that isn't really fair. You kind of also have to be willing to give up the room to them at times if you want them to consider that.

However if some sort of compromise cannot be reached and its just constant conflict perhaps it would be necessary to look into having a different room-mate or if there is any way you can have a room to yourself(I don't know how likely that is).

cberg--thanks for the ideas. I'll look into it. Usually I turn down the brightness and go to settings and turn up the color temp so I can actually use it, and I wear screen glasses (which I have to wear every day just to work outside or under fluorescent lights.) Wrists hurt, eyes hurt, I'm distracted, wasting electricity--I really am not 100% sold on computers in general. They're nice for the Internet and for storing final drafts of work, for Excel and other cool stuff, but I DO NOT want to be like the rest of everybody and live my whole life on one. I used to be addicted to them and that kind of sucks. But that program looks really great; I'll try downloading it.

Sweetleaf--No, I use it because that's how I've always done creative writing. No hipsters here. Without going into the whole process I use, it makes the difference between people's usual reaction to my work: "This is great, I can't put it down!" and the reaction they give to my work done solely on a computer: "You know, Borromeo, you'd be good at this if you practiced." Three times through, first typed, then keyed into Word, then edited, gives it polish. And I have written on a typewriter for the last 14 years. It must work! My publisher's all excited about it!

They can be a bit rough to listen to--even back in their heyday nobody liked the sound. My Remington Paragon has some primitive soundproofing in place and I run it on a 1/2"-thick woolen mat to deaden the noise. Platens on both machines have been softened with brake fluid to cut down the sharp clattering. So they're not quite as bad as the average rusty heap you find in an antique shop.

And I do have a laptop. It's kind of a decent one but I have to keep saying that screens bother my eyes. Also, I write for hours at a time (if someone's not interrupting me because they want to lie in bed, play The Sims, and look at memes at 2 PM) and the dinky little keyboard is crap. I work with keyboards--and am very picky about the kind of keys I use to write. So far the ones on a typewriter are impressive. Maybe it's the Aspie in me but a friend saw my Corona portable and immediately snatched it, then yelled out "Oh, f--k fidget spinners, this thing's awesome!" Yes, friend, it kind of is. I don't get the comments about how hard they are to use.

He got the WHOLE ROOM to himself today. I didn't get a damn thing done. He's not spoken three words all day but spent the day with the window shades closed, every one of the electric lights on, and I get in and the place reeks of air freshener to the point my nose starts to burn and he's laying in bed. He makes his washing-up at 3 PM instead of the morning like everyone else. The guy's got issues and I'm trying not to pester him, but seriously, I'm not going to give him an inch and let him take a mile--and ruin my 8 square feet of literary Eden while he's at it.

The downstairs is a guest area & common room. I don't want to inconvenience the whole house with a bunch of stuff scattered out there.

We've got some stuff worked out this evening but he is still mad that I dared impugn his character by calling him a cad, ungentlemanly, untrustworthy for reading stuff off my desk, and that locking the papers away is a personal insult. He's gonna have to get over it.

Other than that things hopefully will be improving.

As an update, nothing has improved much; he's using a scented wax warmer that stinks the place up and it's cold so the windows have to stay closed. It smells like cherry death in here.

Also, he's moving away in a few weeks, and I hope to dance a celebratory haka as he leaves, play the gramophone loud as I like, and actually get some writing done for the first proper time in about a month. May he not let the door hit him where the good Lord split him!

It should work out really well for both me and for roommate. He's moving somewhere else that should help him thrive instead of sitting about being depressed and on his phone, and I'm going to be able to get some sleep at night and work in the daytime.

While my regard for him drops below politeness, that does not diminish his human value and worth in the slightest. He is going through a tough time and hopefully will come out all right, somewhere else, and that should be good.