Handwriting and Stuff
You must check out 
ohiblather's post today ( http://www.blatherings.com/archives/002539.html ), a handwritten post on handwriting, it's way fun.
I've never liked my handwriting. It's legible enough, but it has no style and no flair. My mother has beautiful handwriting, though, sadly, I did not inherit that gene from her. I'd like to blame the fact I'm left-handed for my dubious handwriting, but I'm sure there's lots of lefties out there who write well. Even in elementary school, while I got high marks in most language subjects, my printing and handwriting marks were always lower than my reading and creative writing marks.
In high school I took a course in short-hand, anticipating it would come in handy, especially once I got to university. The course taught me weird ways to combine letters that crept into my actual handwriting and makes it look even stranger to me now. Ironically, despite the permanent influence on my writing, I didn't ever end up using short-hand to take class notes, creating my own system of abbreviations and point form notes, instead.
Handwriting became a real challenge once I became a teacher and started teaching printing and handwriting myself. Yikes. I have to be careful with every stroke and every cursive curl so that I don't pass my bad writing habits onto another generation. When kids have trouble with a letter formation I'm much more likely to point to the meticulous alphabet chart I always have up then to demonstrate how to write the letter myself :).
In other observations, kudos to Teasel and others in the Tolkien LJ community who launched a LJ campaign today encouraging American LJers to register for the vote in November. I first saw the campaign inbaylorsr's journal this morning ( http://www.livejournal.com/users/baylorsr/164150.html ) and I found her post particularly interesting since she has the perspective of working in a government office and she knows the influence of registering to vote. As someone who is still disillusioned that only 60% of Canadians bothered to vote in our June election, I do encourage my American friends on this list to register to vote and make a difference.
Lastly, I want to say thanks again to the folks who recommended I check out Sharyn McCrumb in my mystery author posts last week. I've finished "Bimbos of The Death Sun" and I'm part way through "Zombies of the Gene Pool" (both books were in the same volume) and both stories are great fun. Loved McCrumb's take on sf conventions in "Bimbos", though I thought that story ended a bit weak. I'm finding "Zombies" even more fun and somewhat stronger in character and plot, at least so far. I enjoy her observations on sf fandom, too, both from the characters within fandom and those who consider themselves "recovering" fans. The books are easily the most affectionate, though pointed, satires of fandom I've come across since "Galaxy Quest". I'll look forward to tracking down her folksong mysteries later in the summer.
ohiblather's post today ( http://www.blatherings.com/archives/002539.html ), a handwritten post on handwriting, it's way fun.I've never liked my handwriting. It's legible enough, but it has no style and no flair. My mother has beautiful handwriting, though, sadly, I did not inherit that gene from her. I'd like to blame the fact I'm left-handed for my dubious handwriting, but I'm sure there's lots of lefties out there who write well. Even in elementary school, while I got high marks in most language subjects, my printing and handwriting marks were always lower than my reading and creative writing marks.
In high school I took a course in short-hand, anticipating it would come in handy, especially once I got to university. The course taught me weird ways to combine letters that crept into my actual handwriting and makes it look even stranger to me now. Ironically, despite the permanent influence on my writing, I didn't ever end up using short-hand to take class notes, creating my own system of abbreviations and point form notes, instead.
Handwriting became a real challenge once I became a teacher and started teaching printing and handwriting myself. Yikes. I have to be careful with every stroke and every cursive curl so that I don't pass my bad writing habits onto another generation. When kids have trouble with a letter formation I'm much more likely to point to the meticulous alphabet chart I always have up then to demonstrate how to write the letter myself :).
In other observations, kudos to Teasel and others in the Tolkien LJ community who launched a LJ campaign today encouraging American LJers to register for the vote in November. I first saw the campaign in
baylorsr's journal this morning ( http://www.livejournal.com/users/baylorsr/164150.html ) and I found her post particularly interesting since she has the perspective of working in a government office and she knows the influence of registering to vote. As someone who is still disillusioned that only 60% of Canadians bothered to vote in our June election, I do encourage my American friends on this list to register to vote and make a difference.Lastly, I want to say thanks again to the folks who recommended I check out Sharyn McCrumb in my mystery author posts last week. I've finished "Bimbos of The Death Sun" and I'm part way through "Zombies of the Gene Pool" (both books were in the same volume) and both stories are great fun. Loved McCrumb's take on sf conventions in "Bimbos", though I thought that story ended a bit weak. I'm finding "Zombies" even more fun and somewhat stronger in character and plot, at least so far. I enjoy her observations on sf fandom, too, both from the characters within fandom and those who consider themselves "recovering" fans. The books are easily the most affectionate, though pointed, satires of fandom I've come across since "Galaxy Quest". I'll look forward to tracking down her folksong mysteries later in the summer.