Death of Handwriting

When’s the last time you received a handwritten letter?

Photo from FontFont’s flickr

Note Writing is imperative during my grade school years. I remember starting with a date on the uppermost right side of the page; 07-16-96, short for July 16 of 1996. I copy exactly what my teacher writes on the board. I will underline a word and encircle it three times like how she wanted to exaggerate on it.

I have a good penmanship. My teachers would love me to copy a passage from the book to the board when they’re feeling slack. My seatmates adore my notes. In high school, my friends begged to photocopy my notebook. I really like writing with my hands. I’m proud of it and I enjoy the attention, especially the ladies in college since it’s peculiar for a guy to have a beautiful penmanship.

But in my second year in college, I don’t write as much on paper anymore. I used my phone to take photos of my professor’s scribbles. There was this particular professor who said that his only request from us is to give him heads up if we’re going to take a picture; and he will smile or act like a passionate lecturer.

People now use their smartphones to list grocery items or laptop to write a mail. It’s easier that way. We just need this small box in our pocket to note anything. It’s perfectly legible too.

It’s convenient to write this post using my laptop than in paper. I will have to type it anyway if I handwritten this, to reach you. But I miss the praise I get from my penmanship. It’s my style; parts of my individuality are imprinted on every curve of letter a and the dot on letter j.

“Schools don’t care how a child holds her pencil as long as she can read” (Suddath, 2009). Education would only care if you fared pass on a test. It won’t grade your penmanship. And in standardized tests, we don’t need to write. We just choose the letter or shade the circle corresponding to the right answer. There’s also spur of tablet and computer use in schools.

It’s true that performance won’t be affected whether you have a legible handwriting or not. It’s just that, it’s us. Using our hands to write is human. When we receive a typewritten letter, it can be from anybody because the font is computerized. But if you open a letter and you see the first handwritten word, you know who wrote it. It’s each person’s distinct feature.

Would you mourn the death of handwriting?

Source:
Mourning the Death of Handwriting; TIME

First World Work Problems

Parts of this post are hypothetical. Maybe.
by Becca Cord of 25ToFly

Photo from photoXpress; stock.xchng

I read a post today by Lament’s and Lullalbies that I thought was brilliantly human, which is odd, because I know internet people aren’t people at all, they are aliens. Cool aliens, but aliens nonetheless. Don’t worry, I am not phoning the MIB… yet.

Her post addresses the human condition of struggling between making ends meet and making your dreams come true. She writes in a way that is synonymous with the mosh pit of a thought process that I assume begins in most people’s minds when thinking about these issues. Everyone has an ideal career, or two, or three, or is at least on the search to finding one. Everyone also faces the ongoing obligation to provide for themselves at the same time. It is all a huge balancing act and we don’t have the proper equilibrium. In my case, I am just drunk.

We have to work. Most of us have to work jobs we are less than enthused about because: money. All too often people become barricaded in these jobs for years and years of monotony and turmoil. Why? Scum bag employer syndrome.

This scenario includes two pawns: the dreamer (also known as you) and the force you think you can duel but ultimately are powerless against… the scum bag employer. Here is how it goes:

You: I need to quit my job and pursue my dream of becoming a renowned [insert your dream here] if I ever want it to really happen. That’s right, no more wasting time. I make good money, but it’s not enough worth enduring the bored/grumpy/blase feeling at the end of every work day. I’d rather take a pay cut in exchange for fulfillment. I am going to do this.

Scum Bag Employer: Oh yea?  Really now? You are finally going to make the plunge? How about I go ahead and give you a hefty raise at the precise moment that you get the balls to leave me. Oh yea, and that 401K  to which you just began to contribute? You won’t get to keep even half of it if you bail on me in less than a year. You are getting your own office too. With a real live plant. Looks like you will be bringing the fruit cake to this year’s Christmas bash after all. See you Monday!

You: Well fuck.

Share a conversation with your Scum Bag Employer!

About Becca Cord: I am a twenty-something year old southern ballerina turned business student.

Life’s Best: Novels

There are movies and TV series remakes, but it cannot replicate the same gratifying experience of reading a novel.

Novel Reading. Photo from readbreatherelax.com

There are fast-reading gifted people, and there are those who consciously reads fast to keep the upbeat pace of finishing books. I’m neither of them, because I take my time in the feast of a read.

Quality novels are ingenious. It’s one my best chosen creative work of all. It’s meticulous, containing both reason and emotion while nobility uncompromising. I like it more when I invest emotions with the characters, and I appreciate the intricate characters buildup and story conflicts and surprises.

From writer’s hardwork of first drafts, then to editing phase, only to be critiqued and reduced by agents, more by editors, until it was in its prestige for publishing. This game is a damn miraculous progress. I appreciate the hard work and persistence of authors.

I devour Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Michael Crichton’s Next, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons, even Homer’s The Iliad. But I always go back to my home genre, Young Adult.

J.K. Rowling, thanks for your share of story.

What novels are your favorites?

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PhotoLedger: Camera View

See a live concert through your phone’s screen?

Photo from Fredrik Smedenborn

HD video recording is almost in every smartphone now. I believe the one in iPhone is among the best, with 8 Megapixel capture embedded in their elaborate light capturing technology. With only a clutch from our pockets, we can capture movie-like scenes.

A pitfall I see is people tend to use it extensively, and for the wrong purpose. In a recent Pyro Olympics that I’ve been to, people everywhere just shoot the entire show in their phones. Accounts of an eagle-eye told me they mostly watch the fireworks gleam against the Cimmerian sky through the small rectangular screen of their phone or camera. Their view is very limited, and they miss out the entirety of exaggerated lights show. I call it a camera view.

Another instance is in a concert. People just record it all; perhaps YouTube is a reinforcement. I went to the concert to loosen up, jump, wave, scream for the artist and all those fanatical liveliness. People recording missed that hella of fun. Sometimes they do jump and scream while recording, which only messed up the video so why bother then?

That’s the way I see video cameras. It is best for familial moments, or moments dear to us like our first born, graduation, or a legendary outing with friends. It saved us the bulk of VHS recording of the past and gave us the ease of digital sharing.

What’s your view on this?

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Oddball Interview Questions & Answers

Prepare for interview questions, but you can only anticipate so much.

Photo from photoXpress

Being interviewed for a job is a thrilling experience. The first time I’ve had my chest is heavily pounding. You don’t know what questions the interviewer will ask you, and the strenuous task for you is to casually answer, as if in a normal conversation.

The ones I’ve had in the past are traditionalists. They started with asking me to describe myself, strength and weakness and the rest of those rehearsed questions. What is interesting then is to throw you a question that ought to be asked in a talk show.

I’m talking about the Oddball Interview Questions I’ve read from Yahoo! Apparently, interviewers ask questions like who would play you in a movie, which I find firm interest. For fun, I’d want to answer them, but they do not necessarily mean they are good responses in an interview.

Who would play you in a movie?

– Easy, Ryan Reynolds because I’m as buff. HAHA fine, I want Johnny Depp. He’s just incredible in so much roles he had. Viewers believed he’s a pirate, vampire, barber, tea party organizer and many more of his roles. I want his craft to liven up the role of me.

If you were an animal, which one you’d be?

– If I were an animal, I would be a Gull. I want the privelege to invade three territories – wander in land, drift in air and dive in the sea. I’ll have so many friends then so when I have an enemy, it’s easy to track him down. Plus, I’ll experience so much from the world.

What superhero powers you would want to possess?

– I want to read minds. I mean, some powers are attainable now by most people. You can fly via airplane, gulp gasoline and breath fire, or be invisible by not talking. But with cutting edge technology of today’s, no one can read exactly what’s on the person’s mind. That’ll be cool. I could read thoughts all day.

If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?

– If it’s on, I’m dead obviously so it has to be off. It seemed to be impossible to climb since it’s glass and you’ll just slide back. But I have one that’s so gruesome, yet clever. I’ll shit all over, and use it to spell H-E-L-P on the glass so giant people could recognize.

How you would survive on a desert island for 30 days?

– Do I have an iPhone? No? Because I could ask Siri to bring my chopper then. Kidding aside, I will need water at least to survive 30 days. If there’s zero reserves, I’ll improvise a boat. If there’s no material other than sand, then I’ll swim away. There’s no way you could survive 30 days in pure desert, so I’ll take the risk.

What you would do if you inherited a pizzeria

– This is a no-brainer. I’ll run it. But I think employers will be looking for resourcefulness here so I’ll increase word of mouth marketing by having free pizza party every Friday.

What are your answers?

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