Can you write?
 

Recently I bought a bottle of Arabian ink as a souvenir of a Middle Eastern Souk, and also to get me inspired me to start using some lovely fountain pens that have been languishing in the desk drawer.

To my horror - I have found that I can no longer write.

So-


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Barely

Illegibly

4+ years of college class note taking as fast as humanly possible ruined what pathetic writing skills I did have when I started. I can't read my own writing any more.

I adopted a upper case print style to keep up with note taking in college. Cursive was too slow. My writing is now horrible. Like worse than a doctor's - lol. Quick, write a cursive capital "Z". ;)

Exactly- Uni exams of 3 and 4 hours, some of them solid hand writing the whole duration. A long time ago. Now, Ive found Ive degenerated from being exhausted and illegible after one page, then to a para- and now to being barely able to write more than a sentence or two without error.

Handwriting has gone the way of the manual transmission....an arcane, forgotten and apparently useless skill.

Been doing that since HS.

I dropped most punctuation as well.

ltst mssn, drp vwls alltgthr

Vowels are overrated.

I like the question mark. Whimsical, like a hot air balloon.

Today’s society is all about quantity, not quality. Too much “engineering” and practicality and pure efficiency used as the barometer of value and not enough expression, beauty, style or elegance.

For one, I don’t mind if something takes longer if it adds what I call “soul capital” - in other words it’s something that gets noticed and appreciated or sparks interest or conversation. Those things matter - it’s not only about what can be quantified or subjected to metrics.

I remember hand-lettering drawings but don’t often get the chance to do it. Occasionally on field sketches, etc. (and yes, I still sketch by hand too even though most people today would use some app or widget). I find it communicative and reasonably fast / efficient too - it’s not about being a Luddite, it’s about having a way to communicate ideas in more than one way.

I wish mine looked that good.

Gave up cursive ages ago as I couldn’t read what I wrote. Looked like a third graders as well.

Yes, I can. Cursive, block letters, backwards, left-handed.

No problèmo...

Still? My handwriting was always rubbish.

Never. I should have been a Dr. I went to a private school for grades 5, 6, 7 and the first half of 8. We were graded on penmanship. There were several instances where I had all A's or all A's and B's but I wasn't on the honor roll because I had C's in Penmanship. You had to write in cursive. Printing wasn't allowed. Now I spend 99.9% of the time typing. Hell, these days I can barely print.

Yea, my name!
I guess that is a signature. ;)

I had to fill in some forms recently and realized how bad my handwriting has become. Glad I don’t have to pass a 2nd grade test I passed easily back in 2nd grade.

They don’t even teach it in schools anymore, kids almost can’t make a signature anymore

My handwriting is acceptable if I write with a wooden pencil. I don’t get it.

Any pen and it looks like I used my feet

I was a failure at handwriting from the get go in elementary school and never able to elevate myself. We used to have to make those loopy circles, and mine never resembled circles. I can seldom read anything I've written a couple of weeks before.

Very nicely said!
The thoughts of a gentleman for certain.
+1

Yes I can write, but it's taken work over time.

Childhood - crap of course. It was the '80s and "keyboarding" was getting big.
College - engineering school, clear drafting printing and all that
15y of work - slowly degrading drafting printing

Then for some stupid reason a colleague got me into fountain pens. Eventually got into custom nibs and the whole deal. I forced myself to step back and learn cursive. No, it wouldn't satisfy old Mrs. Thompson in 1985, but I can write a page of it, quickly, and hand it to a >40 year old and they can read it easily. Younguns think it's some strange code though...

It was worth the mental exercise to re-develop the skill. Other than at my desk, I work in a non-electronics environment so written notes are everything. No paper - it didn't get written down. Not written down - it didn't happen.

Yep...I just can't read mine.

Sharpens the memory ;)

Jeff is an architect (artistic?)....what do you do? The rest of us IT geeks and engineers think yer FOS :)

I handwrite many labels every day, and still write notes to myself on sticky notes (don't use my phone)....so handwriting is still neat, and legible.

I like to send handwritten notes in cards and letters, the typewritten ones I get on occasion are nice in content but lacking in some way. Writing can be meditative as you have to sit and slow your life down a little to do it effectively.

That said, my signature, on nearly anything short of a legal document, is nothing more than a long N-shaped wave. Just a swoosh. I get slightly annoyed at people in self-checkout lines carefully, and slowly, glacially, writing out their signature with the stylus on the tiny screen.

Yes,

Cursive and technical

Write all day long.

was given a choice of learning to write cursive or type in 4th grade, and since the typing was on the computers.....

So I can write cursive, sorta, but you ain't gonna read it. Maybe a nurse after a few years of hospital work can. Actually, have a hard time reading not-quite-great cursive writing.

But I can type like a mofo, feel mis-strokes and auto correct w/ backspace, etc. Freaks the coworkers out when I'm talking about coding and typing, and when done with both, the code is mostly written.

For the truly lazy amongst us, somewhere in my Stuff I have a cursive printing ball for a IBM selectric type writer...

Absolutely. I see it in old machinery. They put some style in the most mundane things 100 years ago. I miss it.

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1918


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2018

^^
Having said that, no, I cannot write well. I try, but my handwriting still looks awful.

You can't read my signature. It looks like ^>^<

My dad wrote in printed caps and so do I to the extent that you can read it. I write on the grocery list, that's it. Oh, check once in awhile.

One of my friends laughs about his 12 and 14 year old boys. When they were lots younger my buddy would spell many words to his wife when they did not want the kids to know what they were talking about. He says now his wife just writes cursive to him, he will laugh and reply in cursive. It drives the kids nuts, he tells them to get educated, and learn how to read and write by hand.

I write notes to myself or in the middle of a project. It is weird how my brain tells my hand to write a word and my hand will transpose the letters, or leave out a letter. The good news for me is that I can decipher my notes to myself. It is simple lack of practice.

Yes

My signature is illegible, but repeatable and I can do it very, very quickly.

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