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You know, people get damn *emotional* about cursive writing!

And they say such silly things. If you want your preferred writing style to be taught, try not to defend it with gems like "You need it to sign your name". Not only is that not true, but it's easily avoidable - people could learn cursive just for namesigning and not for anything else! Alternatively, learning to type isn't something that you can't do after a certain age. Unless your kid has serious motor control issues they can probably wait until they're 10 or 15 to do it, they really *don't* need to learn when they're six... although this article is fascinating, I must admit!

When I was in elementary school, the other gifted first grade class learned cursive that year. The rest of us learned in the third grade. I guess they sorta re-learned it? I didn't learn it at all, for various reasons. (A word to the wise? Attempting to bully a child into learning by saying they'll "need to know this next year" and "won't pass if they don't know it" is just not helpful. Especially when it's not true. My seventh grade English teacher should note that by high school (her personal benchmark) all my teachers didn't care and liked stuff typed anyway.)

And then we moved to Staten Island, where I became acquainted with a totally different style of penmanship than the one I'd failed to learn in Brooklyn. I'm not sure if the people using it developed it on their own, or if my school in Brooklyn just taught differently than their schools here, but it was different. No slant, and very round. The general shapes of the letters are the same (I'm having a fun time on Google looking at different examples of cursive script as taught for handwriting in different countries), but they're all round. It's very neat, and it's very careful, and it's a pain in the butt to read because all the letters look alike, like variations on os and as. (Picture that as an Ariel a, thanks.)

I think I could spend all day doing this - but! I just woke up (I had intestinal difficulties and didn't make it to bed until the birds started chirping) and wish to go *do* something today.

If you want, though, I'd appreciate images of your own handwriting (cursive or otherwise) and your handwriting if you were writing for a strict teacher. Just for my own edification. Location, times, etc. are useful.

Oh, also, a random video I found on the subject of overcrowding, from the 50s! It's absolutely fascinating for reasons I can't quite articulate, though surely the fact that "classes in boiler rooms" is a popular (and not altogether non-existent) boogeyman in NYC today helps with that.

Oh, hey. I have invite codes for dreamwidth again.

Remember that it's in closed beta, so don't go getting overenthused. And remember that the best way (I'm told) to get a code is to sign up for an OpenID account and hang around, or else to wait until open beta.

I have three codes, and I already promised one away. Anybody wanting one of the remaining two can comment here with their email - and kynn, you can do the same if you don't know my email, I know it's you!

I'd rather give these to people I have name recognition of, so if you're not using your main account, seriously, tell me who you are. Comments are screened. I'm heading into the city to buy books. (No, really, that was always my plan, even before this weekend!)

For those not interested in Dreamwidth, I present this unintentionally hysterical letter to the Obamas about organic gardening. Another link is here.

Listen, if you're gonna get your nose in a snit because the Obamas dare to not want icky pesticides all over their garden, at least get your grammar standard. I'd never stoop to such a thing, but others are just sitting and waiting for their time to pounce. The concept of organic gardening doesn't make "so-and-so and I shudder" it makes "so-and-so and me shudder"! Except it doesn't, because I don't, in fact, shudder at that concept. Because that's silly. Links courtesy of l33tminion.

I'll eventually be by to unscreen comments about the farming.

Edit: Codes are gone, and spoken for in the future as well. Sorry!

Didn't go into the city. JUST as I was about to, my mom called and asked me to dinner at Vida's.

So I went to eat, of course! Mmm. Even if they *don't* have apple cheesecake anymore :(

It's drizzling out. The neighborhood boys are playing skateboard in the street in the drizzle. Youngest one is probably about 7 or 8, but all the other ones are a head and a half taller. Sometimes I do love this neighborhood :)

xianghua and ancarett, if you don't get codes from elsewhere I'll pass the next two I get on to you.

Now I have to sit down and think a while.

This is troublesome.

In the wake of Amazonfail there were a few mentions of other problems with Amazon. They've largely been ignored, but I thought enough about it to go straight to Google, which lead me straight to Wikipedia. (Honestly, sometimes I don't know why I even *bother* with Google!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Controversies

Some of this I've seen elsewhere, like in the Times, where I can only hope they did basic fact-checking. The tax thing, definitely, and the thing about self-publishing, I knew that. But unions? Bullying publishers? Some of these things aren't easily explained away as a "glitch", nor as easily fixed.

So other than do a lot of research (does anybody else get the doing-things bug when they're PMSy, or is that just me?), I don't know what I'm going to do, ultimately.

If nothing else, I'm expanding my online shopping (when I shop online) to other retailers. I always *say* we should support small businesses, but I too often, I think, take the convenient and easy route.