As the person who was being taught the cursive handwriting I sure didn't
think it was the easy way. But now that you mention it, I always did
find cursive handwriting by other people harder to read than manuscript.
On 10/10/2016 5:40 PM, Frank Ventura wrote:
Roger, in the Catholic school I went to as a kid they would not teach us
cursive handwriting as they believed it was the easy way out. It really limited
me as I could only read longhand.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 3:32 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: do you agree or disagree
One of these items has already disappeared for me a long time ago. By joined
handwriting I suppose it means cursive handwriting. I still remember rejecting
it in elementary school. They taught me manuscript handwriting first and I got
used to it and then they wanted to teach me cursive and try to get me to do all
my handwriting in cursive. I felt like the kind of handwriting I was already
doing was plenty good enough and this cursive stuff was clumsy and did not come
naturally. Yet, I was virtually forced to learn it. By the time I got to junior
high school I had reverted to manuscript and no one ever complained again.
Except for my signature my handwriting has been manuscript ever since. It has
been quite a while since I have used that though. I have a writing guide and I
was taught how to use it at the rehab center I attended and my handwriting was
readable, or so I was told. However, most of the handwriting I had done anyway
was notes for myself. After losing my eyesight writing notes to myself became
useless. I got out of practice and the last time I used my writing guide for
someone else's consumption I was informed that my hand writing had
deteriorated. Now I have pretty much given up handwriting in favor of typing
and making sound recordings. I have a hand held digital recorder and most of
the kinds of notes I would have written for myself are now recorded on that.
The ones that are not are typed into a word pad document that I save on my
computer. Also the item about checks applies to me too and that is closely
related to my disuse of handwriting. I have a check guide for writing checks,
but it has been a number of years since I have had any checks to use it with. I
now use my debit card for most of the payments that I used to use checks for
and I pay bills on line for the rest of them. I do still use cash when shopping
in person though.
On 10/10/2016 10:37 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime
block quote
This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind.
Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt
to them. But, ready or not, here they come.
1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so
deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain
it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the
minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your
mail every day is junk mail and bills.
2. The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by
2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to
process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to
the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of
the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never
received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of
business.
3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They
certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That
may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the
paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet
devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine
publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and
the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid
subscription services.
4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your
hand and turn the literal pages I said the same thing about
downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I
quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for
half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The
same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online
and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less
than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once
you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you
find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens
next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.
5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you
don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've
always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra
service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers
using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.
6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music
industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal
downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a
chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and
corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio
conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music
purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that
the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also
true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and
disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for
Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before
the Music Dies."
7. TelevisionRevenues
To the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the
economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their
computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things
that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time
shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common
denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about
every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it.
It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery.
Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through
Netflix.
8. The "Things" That You Own
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our
lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may
simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive
and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your
software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need
be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are
all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when
you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating
system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight
into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in
the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the
cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud
provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your
books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's
the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will
it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?"
Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It
makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album,
grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the
insert.
9. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing) Already gone in some schools
who no longer teach "joined handwriting"
because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of
some type (pun not intended)
10. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it
would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time
anyway.. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings,
and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure
that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to
the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy
something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads
will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to
buy something else. Again and again.
All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".
