Tag: cell phone

National Handwriting Day 2023

National Handwriting Day 2023

Handwriting has gone the way of the dodo, and cursive even more so. When I was teaching, it really surprised me to find students who were barely able to hold a pen or pencil, much less form readable printing or cursive. Apparently kids are forbidden to use cursive in hand-written work these days because they just can’t do it neatly. And while I disliked practicing handwriting, today I will say that I am so appreciative of the fact that it was part of my public school curriculum on a daily basis for grades 1-8. Today? Well, keyboarding is taught, and learning to touch type in high school has really paid off, but I still turn to pen and ink and paper, and on a daily basis I prefer quills I have cut myself, and iron gall ink I make as well.

Here in the US, National Handwriting Day has apparently been a thing since 1977. Choosing January 23 is because the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence was John Hancock, whose signature is famous for its beauty. The expression of “put your John Hancock here” or anything similar is a way of saying “sign on the dotted line.”

Times change and we need to adapt, but there are times when I think modern technology and the wonders of the computer age mean we lose what we use to have. In a way, the book Fahrenheit 451 makes a point for preserving older technologies, and having people memorize whole novels is much like the oral traditions of countries where not everyone could write. Working together, old and new can preserve our history – and what we consider to be a daily thing (i.e. writing a letter on paper!) can vanish. Digital archives preserve such knowledge, but to acquire this knowledge again means actual, physical experience.

If you look at my little blurb in the photo, you can see my handwriting is okay, but I don’t always make my letters correctly and have to backtrack over them. When I was in school, if I had to turn in a handwritten essay, such mistakes would bring down my grade. And if I made them – well, I just started over.

So, cheers to National Handwriting Day. Reading cursive and handwriting is important and the best way to learn is to be taught at an early age. Apparently students not taught handwriting and cursive lose out on far more than just an ability to pick up a pen or pencil and communicate on paper.

Come to think of it, do kids even pass notes in class? Or do they text and hope they don’t get busted for using a phone in class?

Start of the Day

This is getting to be a rather fun project. No pressure, either. I am sort of documenting bits of my daily life with the Instax Printer Project. I am also finding out that my scanner was filthy, and probably the lens of my X100V needs a bit of dusting. Spot removal in post has been a major time sucker. Despite that, I am looking at photography as a fun adventure again! That is rather nice IMO.

Escape!

I would say that for the most of the last 6 weeks the weather has been crap. In the 90s-100s F is way too hot. We have low humidity here, so the heat doesn’t drain you as it does when it is high, but day after day, week after week, of heat, is not fun. Throw some smoke and foul air in there, and welcome to what I think is becoming the new normal. California is burning. Colorado is burning. I guess we are not raking the forests enough . . .

Yesterday, though, was the first cool day in a long time. It was overcast and rather dreary because the sky is just a single shade of grey instead of the single shade of blue. When the overcast burns off, there are clouds to be seen, and they are such a delight! I headed out to a local open space area, Wildwood, taking my Instax Wide with me. I used it to shoot a select few images. I used my phone, too, to send some pictures off to friends. Everything is faded and dried up, but many plants adapted to the area sport bright colors though they are also fading for the winter.

There are a lot of fire roads running through Wildwood with trails leading off into more rugged terrain. I seldom venture into those areas unless with someone else. Safety first!

The prickly pear cacti (cactuses?) are laden with ripe fruit – the pears – and they are quite delicious to eat! Using leather gloves, twist the red pear off the paddle or use a knife. Pack it into a bag of some sort to take home. When you get home, turn on your flame thrower to burn off all the spikes. Take your knife and slice – tasty! Some local markets carry the pears, as well as the paddles. The paddles are also tasty and edible, and once their spikes are removed, slice them up and then cook them. Cooked prickly pear paddles are called napales.

Photographing these critters can be a challenge as there are other cactus around, and none are pleasant to fall into.

The road curves around a hill and this is the view you get. Mount Clef is part of a ridge that forms the northern part of my city, separating the Conejo Valley from the Santa Rosa Valley.

This is an name-unknown shrub which borders trails and roads through Wildwood.

I hiked about another mile and then turned around. I always like to see where I have been and look at the same things from a different viewpoint.

Here, the Mount Clef ridge moving east.

Back on my road, looking south toward the Santa Monica mountains. The day is later, the sun lower, backlighting mountains and trees

The Instax Wide doesn’t perform well at times, but this little tree’s silhouette is so expressive – the twists of the branches against the sky always catch me when I walk past. Below you can see what the Instax missed and the the phone camera caught.

And home I went.

Cell Phone Reflections

Direct watercolor, paint what’s in front of me, no lines.  Those were my morning thoughts.  What is always in front of me in the morning is my messy desk, full of different debris, depending on the day and whether or not I’ve done any tidying.  As I pondered, oh so profoundly, I looked at the cell phone on my desk and really liked the reflections from my monitors . . . and here is today’s subject.

I worked to think more consciously and conscientiously about what I was doing.  First, the outline of the phone, on my rather ochre-colored desk, then the darks of the phone itself, followed by reflections and shadows.  I tried to be selective of where to touch different colors for bleeds.  Finally, I went back in and did some shadows and contrasts to make a bit stronger image.  In between, I worked carefully to avoid blooms and hard edges from backwash.