Digital, Oral, Written History

Over a year ago I was laid off from a job that I had had for years. It was my third place of employment, and all of the jobs I had held had been offered to me. I had never had to look for a job, and didn't even have a resume. Luck had always been on my side. Well, left shivering out in the cold...ok fine it was June; it was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on me. I put together a resume and started hitting the craigslist pavement (among many others). 8 months later I was able to find a job willing to take on a student's schedule. It was a huge learning experience; not just about how the job world works but about my family as well.

First, my grandmother is a card sender and phone chatter- email, not so much. I had called to thank her for this beautiful handwritten congrats card she sent me, and she started telling me about her job history. (Her desire to join the war effort, when the people at Arbach's told her she was pretty enough to be an elevator  girl, her job as a lab tech, my grandfather starting in the mail room and working his way to management.)What emerged from this conversation was a look at the people my grandparents had been at my age.

Handwriting can inspire us to imagine a person's character, but their is something about the inflection in a voice that tells us so much more. I have since set out to film whatever memories my Nana wants to share. My grandparents are a living history book, and I thank them for every page.

Book Sale Nuts

Every year the County library system has a giant book sale. They send all of the books they want to sell to one library. Hardcover books are a buck, paperbacks 50 cents, books on tape...dvds..cds...blah blah blah. Now a buck is still a good price for a book, but on the last day of the sale it gets crazy. In the last few hours, they will put out a bunch of pretty good sized cardboard boxes. You can fill it up with whatever you want and each box is a dollar. $1 for the ENTIRE box of stuff. Any deal like this gets people all hyped and crazy - turns out book people are no different. It was a frenzy of book and box grabbing. Great way to grab a book or two...or five hundred.

Digital Love Letter

A few days ago this article appeared as a link on MSN's homepage. Suckered in by many a catchy title, I clicked on whatever vague wording they came up with. I viewed the video, read the article, got to the end and was amazed at the cynics' comments. It seems that YouTube scams and promotions have jaded a great many people.

The way I see it: Guy misses Girl. Guy wants to take advantage of the small world we now live in. Buddies help make video for Girl. Guy wants Girl to stumble upon "love letter."

It's like a modern day message in a bottle, that is traveling across a sea that is both never-ending and yet neighborly. It's "handmade" in the digital age.

Digital Doodles

Wow, it seems that a few people had something to say about cursive writing. I would say the vote is that cursive should still be taught in schools.

But what about books?

With the explosion of the digital age, ebooks or etextbooks are much more common. You don't have to haul around 35 lbs. of books as you hike across campus. You don't have to worry about getting that crappy used copy, although much cheaper, that somebody doodled to death and used every color highlighter known to humankind. You get a perfect copy that you can access digitally.

Yeah, you can sometimes type notes in the margins and user a highlighter function. Yeah, you don't have all that dead weight. But call me old fashioned, I like a copy that I can hold in my hands. I'm a tactial doodler who likes to handwrite my notes. Whenever I have a reading assignment that's accessed online, I always find myself wanting to print it. I find it easier to whip out a few pieces of paper from my bag that I can read anywhere. So what are your thoughts on the subject?

There's a difference between cussing & swearing?

Whenever I need to look up a word, I pop on over to dictionary.com. Well, one day this header caught my eye and welcoming the distraction I clicked it. It shoots me over to a blog called The Hot Word. Being the curious person that I am and a fan of totally weird and bizarre facts, I find it fascinating. I was completely sucked in by all the off-the-wall headers.

Bleep! What’s the difference between cussing, swearing, and cursing?

Want to meet two extinct letters of the alphabet? Learn what “thorn” and “wynn” sounded like

Why is “dog” one of the great mysteries of the English language?

The “Taser” is a serious weapon, but what the name stands for may puzzle you

What's even better than the answers are the comments posted by every type of person under the sun. Words are hot button issues.

The Death of Cursive?

I recently read an article about the furture of cursive in our school systems. The big question was should it still be taught, is it still necessary? WHAT?! My instant reaction was YES OF COURSE! It's cursive, it's handwriting, it's done on a daily basis right. Right?

I learned it in second grade, and remember most of my classmates being excited to learn it. Hey, we were in second grade now, we actually got to use pens for our assignments. We were big kids. Adults used cursive and so did all the older kids, it was cool that we finally got to learn it. Then I remember those endless lines of repeating the same letter over and over again. Where is the fun in that? If it's not something that's going to be fun, of course kids don't want to learn it.

But the question is: Is it still relevant?

I have read more than one article on this, and have seen every kind of answer. It improves fine motor skills, it's faster, more professional, and denotes an educated person. It's antiquated, technology makes it unnecessary, it's a waste of valuable education time.

My take:

I'm a throw back to the old days, but with a practical mind set. I think it is more important now than ever to teach kids the basics of cursive. And I mean the basics. Make it fun for kids and let them develop their own style. A handwritten note is something that is going to make you stand apart. It shows that you took the time to say hi to a friend, to wish grandma a happy birthday, or to thank a potential employer. It is a personal touch, a written fingerprint that is uniquely yours, in a world of processed fonts.

Bathroom Wall Commentary

What is it about bathroom walls that people feel the need to leave their thoughts on them? Little girls room, little boys room, it doesn't matter. The writing's on the wall. Some comments are serious or deep thoughts, and then there are these life altering reasonings:



Is it the need to stand up and be heard? The act of vandalism?
Some landlords have gone the can't-beat'em-join'em-approach:


Then there is the approach that leaves our scribe so intimdated that they decide to wait for a bathroom with less witnesses.

A person could instead leave a note on a bulletin board, or in a stairwell, on a door, a garbage can, but it's the bathroom wall that draws the greatest response in commentary. It must be the captive audience. But it makes you wonder who leaves that first comment on the bathroom wall. What was that first thought that started it all? Which scribble was it and why?

Shame on me...The Power of Print

Here I have been blathering on about books, and I have totally disregarded other forms of information and the written word. Let's start with magazines. Oprah was kind enough to remind me about my lapse in written mediums. I was flipping through her latest magazine, and stumbled upon this great ad that was a total wake-up call. Thanks Oprah! And here I am about to post it on a blog...

The New Frontier

I read my first ebook three years ago. The county library had just set up a new website. The only thing I had to do was download the software, and then the book of my choice, it opens and voila. Instant reading. Instant escape from the outside world into another.

For me, this opened up an entire new way to connect with books. I didn't have to get in my car and drive to a library, only to wander up and down aisle after aisle. I didn't have to lug my stack of books to checkout and juggle them as I wait in line, only to waddle out the door to dump them into the front seat of my car to drive back home.

I can download books anytime, day or night. I can browse through books from any subject with just a flew clicks. I have dowloaded and read hundreds of books. But I still love the feel of paper beneath my fingers. Sometimes I like to take the time to wander the asiles and let the cover art and titles catch my eyes. No matter the new innovations that keep popping up, the classics are still the classics, and can still be read as they were originally intended.

If you love them, let them go...

Years ago, I stumbled upon this great website called BookCrossing.com. They are a website dedicated to connecting people through the books they read.
If you have just finished a great read you want to tell somebody about it, pass it on, discuss it with someone. BookCrossing has developed a place where you can share with people next door or around the world.

Once you are done reading a book, you can register it, record the ID # in the book, and then release it into the wild. You can give it to a friend, a stranger, or leave it in a place to be found. When someone finds it they can enter the book's ID # and report that it's been caught. Journal entries tell you what your book has been up to.

Be on the lookout, because I am planning a little catch and release of my own! Check back for the link to my BookCrossing.com page that will tell you where you can start to hunt.

The Not So Maiden Voyage

I first got the idea to explore the connection that people have with books, both digital and paper, when I was asked to do a conceptual art piece. Although I later developed a different idea (if not more brilliant then definately easier), I still couldn't get the idea of books out of my mind.

I have had a connection with books for as long as I can remember. My favorite thing before bed was to always have a story read to me, then to stumble through the words myself, and finally to read a story from cover to cover with absolutely no help. Books opened up whole new worlds that I loved to explore, and I fell hard.

Now don't get me wrong, I remember being grounded from the television like everyother kid. But the much more serious punishment was being grounded from whatever book I was reading at the time. Oh, the torture! (Darn clever of you mom).

I still find myself reading when I should be working on something else. The written word has become an addiction really. So I ask all of you: Why do you read? What do you read? Where? When?