technology » Pragmatik

The case for cursive.

This article comes from a few Facebook pals.

Richard S. Christen, a professor of education at the University of Portland in Oregon, said, practically, cursive can easily be replaced with printed handwriting or word processing. But he worries that students will lose an artistic skill.

“These kids are losing time where they create beauty every day,” Professor Christen said. “But it’s hard for me to make a practical argument for it. I’m not one who’s mourning it because of that; I’m mourning the beauty, the aesthetics.”

Me, I went to twelve years (plus two in grad school) of Catholic school and was “schooled” in writing for the first eight. I rarely print. Cursive is also faster than printing for most people. Is typing the natural next step?

Where have all the small phones gone?

We watched Guy Ritchie’s Rocknrolla last night. Aside from it being a pretty good film, I was struck by something. The film was released in 2008 — not very long ago. The characters talked on these tiny and very thin little phones, which they held up to their faces and used on speakerphone. I didn’t think anything of it at first, aside from the fact that they just looked cool.

But there were no smart phones! This was “back when” small was what we sought, not apps and GPS and the ability to watch Kung Fu Panda in high-def on the bus. I miss the small phones!

I have a small-ish clamshell that I bought based on rumors (i.e., “reviews”) of it’s durability. So far, so good. Charlotte has chewed it, dropped it, thrown it — you name it. And I’ve dropped it weekly since getting it in the summer. My last phone went into the pool (my fault), and the one before was smashed by me (long story).

I am afraid of what I’d do to a smartphone, let alone what Charlotte might do to one.

Also: I miss Paula Cole. Where did she go?

Barely online these days, and it’s awesome.

I have a slew of unchecked email and Facebook messages, tons of blogs to catch up with, etc. It’s wonderful. I think I’ve spent less than two hours online over the last week. This is an improvement for someone who usually thinks nothing of wasting time online for that long nightly.

Charlotte’s invitations are in the mail for her first birthday party (amidst Facebook-only invitations to others’ parties) with a phone RSVP requested.

Ah, the old technology of getting people together for pizza and fun and a party.

What I think is funny is that I’ve spent most on my online time this week blogging, not just reading and stalking Flickr. Not funny. Maybe fun?

We’re off to a party today which had only Facebook invitations, and, shit, I kept forgetting what time it started and had to keep turning on my computer to check. I guess most people check Facebook on their phones, though, which they can do whenever they want.

The irony of posting this on the internet is not lost on this guy. But, well, there’s something retro these days about blogs, no?

Selling Ourselves on the Web.

I know this is true. I do it, especially with the pencil blog, which now has it’s own active Facebook page (though an inactive Twitter, er, feed?):

” Maybe you’re sending around a resume on LinkedIn, describing yourself on a dating site, or (ahem) posting a link back to your blog post on Twitter. But these are just the concrete examples. You might be selling an opinion, or a joke, a political ideology, a favorite television show or even a photo of your kids at the top of a ski slope.”

This blog turned seven freakin years old last week. Seven. I’ve officially been blogging for most of the entire time I’ve been online, which is since about April 2000. I wasn’t always so damned techy. I used a typewriter through half of college, and I didn’t graduate THAT long ago. I resisted professors who REQUIRED us to check our email daily (how dare they force me to adopt a technology that I didn’t want any part of!). I managed to use a computer (when my parents took my typewriter and when my father gave me his nice laptop to use) for most of an academic year without going online with it. But then I caved, and I spend more time online and “publish” more stuff than I’m really proud of. I’m not alone in giving into technology:

“I know plenty of former Luddites who have been forced onto Twitter and Facebook by their employers or PR people. And they’re all here now, for one reason and one reason only.”

I don’t want to, but I’ll admit that I check the stats on my websites more than my mailbox that gets letters and packages.

Online too much?

Found a very interesting article via Metafilter on research into what happens when we’re on the freakin computer too much (or other devices). I have been struggling with this myself, now that the pencil blog has picked up to a readership exceeding that when it was the only pencil blog around in 2005. I’ve largely curbed my own “addition” to Flickr (unless I’m bored at work) and haven’t played my favorite FSP in a year (and probably won’t again). Also, I find myself on Facebook much less and am relieved when I see a family member at a gathering who says, “I haven’t been on Facebook much lately.” I’ve actually been pretty successful at using the internet for information and communication, to some extent, and less for entertainment. I live in an apartment with more books than I can count. I have plenty of entertainment after Charlotte goes to bed.

And plenty before that, too, since my daughter is crazy and adorable.

Excerpts from the article:

“Now that there’s no escaping the digital world, research is getting more serious about what happens to personalities that are incessantly on…

We even buy new technology to cure new problems created by new technology: There’s an iPhone app that uses the device’s built-in camera to show the ground in front of a user as a backdrop on the keypad. ‘Have you ever tried calling someone while walking with your phone only to run into something because you can’t see where you’re going?’ goes the sales pitch…

It used to be that some people would say, ‘Well, I can be myself online.’ But what’s worrisome is that offline life is starting to be more like online life. We’re becoming more impatient, more narcissistic, more regressed even when there is no browser in sight…

A new form of industrial hygiene, not yet well developed for the current tolls of the information age, will need to be invented to help make sure these powerful technologies are used safely…

Psychologist Stephanie Brown, director of The Addictions Institute in Menlo Park, notes that ‘the internal experience today is one of hyperanxiety’ and that ‘there has been a devaluing of quiet thoughtfulness’…”

Dropping out?

I wonder if it might be good for me to drop out of all this internet/cyber crap. Digital cameras, Facebook, blogs, Flickr. I spend a lot of time putting [carefully selected parts of] my life on display and checking out other people’s. I don’t think this is healthy for me as a father struggling to live in the proverbial moment.

Then again, this could be brought on by my frustration over having to send my relatively expensive camera to Canon again, after they got crap under my lens last time they repaired it. And the sudden jolt when I realized that I won’t have my camera Friday when my old friend comes to town — as if it didn’t happen if I don’t record it all as a JPG.

I sent paper cards to a few folks recently, folks to whom I used to write regularly. And it felt great. I miss spending time reading books and writing, rather than reading about pens and authors’ silly personal secrets on the web. I used to write more than I read about pens and Moleskines, and this is no longer anywhere near the case.

I was going to start a serious, full-time dad blog latter this summer. Now, I don’t know.

It feels like the whole world is online, though, and you miss everything if you’re not. But then again, what are we really missing?

I’m spending too much time consuming and not enough time creating.

Windoze indeed.

I just want to point out that when I boot my office PC at work (Windoze XP on a very fast machine, way faster than my new mini or my old desktop), it takes fifteen minutes for me to be able to check my email and do ANYTHING. In that time, I hit the potty to make room for coffee, get the coffee, check my paper planner and then still have enough time to be annoyed by this big slow box.

So, in the name of productivity, I don’t always turn it off at night and thereby waste power. They want us to turn them off, since we’re in the midst of a 30% energy reduction plan. I know all the naysayers like to point out that running a desktop computer uses “only” the amount of energy of a lightbulb. I like to ask: do you leave your stupid damned lamps on all the time? No. And if you do, you’re a poopface.

I realize part of this slowness and waste of time is my job’s network crap and probably also them spying on me (I work at a state university, and they warn us, yadda yadda — HI, GUYZ!). But still, this happens at home, too.

My home desktop with two hard-drives (one Windoze, one Ubuntu) does something similar, on the same freakin machine. Ubuntu getting ‘er done time (power button to writing an email in Yahoo! webmail): a minute tops. Windoze (power button to writing an email in Yahoo! webmail): 3-5 minutes on a good day, and I don’t use it enough to update my VP software anymore, either.

Ugh. I think I need to start bringing my mini to work? Or maybe boot Ubuntu on a live disk, since my work machine is so loaded with RAM?

Paper, a phone and a typewriter?