Leah of “The Weather In the Streets” has challenged us to present a sample of our handwriting for the cyber-world to see. This definitely was a challenge! My right hand is aching from the exertion! It just goes to show you how comfortable we get with using our keyboards. One might say we have become incredibly lazy.
It wasn’t always this way. Growing up and going to school, I had the flat pink notebooks and the huge red pencils and then graduated to the slim, yellow HBs and on to Bic pens. Nobody ever even heard of a personal computer when I was going to school. Computers were room-sized behemoths that ate up rectangular hole-punched cards and spit them out the other end!
In university, we took pages and pages of notes, by HAND! Then, if we were lucky, we’d arduously type them up on portable Smith-Coronas, white-outing as we went and praying nobody in authority would dock us marks on our essays– otherwise, we’d have to rewrite them from the drafts, once more, by hand.
Is it any wonder that I have fallen into the lax habit of simply rattling off my words on the keypad? Part of me would like to find an old typewriter to regain some of that historic feel of the true artist, plucking merrily (or anxiously) away, churning out reams of masterworks. The other part of me is quite content in my lassitude– whipping off post after post at record speed (albeit, with Blogger’s co-operation).
So thank you Leah, for compelling me to try my hand at hand-writing again. It’s been interesting, but now I’m going to go rub some Tiger Balm in my wrist for my pains!
Here’s a sample of my handiwork (below). This meme is courtesy of The Wife of Riley. Feel free to swipe it and adapt to an artist of your choosing. I hope you’ll forgive me for some obtuse responses.
Kat
Click the picture for a larger image.
3-5-3, 3-7-5 
I'm thinking of the last thing I have hand written other than my shopping list. Since most is done on the computer, it is a challenge afterall! Well done, Kat, and continue to feel better!
LikeLike
Hi KatI write everyday in my diary :)And also just like Petra my shoppinglist ^___^Funny but great post !!Have a nice weekend.Anya 🙂
LikeLike
Love that Friday feast,Mmm Naan bread n curry, luvverly.Nice handwriting kat ,the upward slope of an optimist.Kate Bush, dreamy!Cloudbustin!
LikeLike
Your handwriting reminds me very much of my dear friend Laura's. Interesting how different people's handwriting resembles one another's.To refresh your memory, a sample of my handwriting can be found in this blog entry:http://cameron5408.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/when-the-power-is-still-out/
LikeLike
Love your 'handiwork'! Has a nice 'visual feel' to it. And it's a great idea for posts, too!
LikeLike
Very interesting. I bought a handwriting book a few months ago to improve mine…I've yet to crack it open 🙂
LikeLike
I have forgotten how to write anymore. My handwriting is atrocious. I remember not so fondly working on the IBM selectric day in and day out in my job, whiting out as I went along. I did have the eraser things that fit in the typewriter but when I would run out I'd use white out or the little erasure tab thingys.
LikeLike
ha. there is so little we actually write out these days. funny answers to the questions…smiles.
LikeLike
Only an hour ago, I was jotting down ideas on the back of a piece of junk mail. I was making a list of things to do next week when it will be my duty to babysit 2 of my granddaughter's while their parents go away on a 10th anniversary trip. Make rockets out of paper towel rolls, try origami, think of a simple paper mache project, cook together…you get the picture. You have nice handwriting. Mine is all over the place. It is somewhere between cursive and printing….an amalgam of loops and lines.
LikeLike
What lovely and very readable handwriting you have, Poetikat!I dare not post mine, as noone would be able to read it – it has been compared to unravelled knitting!!
LikeLike
I'm always fascinated by a person's handwriting. Your's looks just as charming as I thought it might! Here's a sample of mine:http://willowmanor.blogspot.com/2009/06/dying-art.html
LikeLike
Great fun isn't it? We must be about the same age. I remember having to earn my 'pen' license! These days, all I write is a shopping list and post it notes to get the kids into action! Come over to mine, there's a handwriting analysis tool . . see if it works for you! I think putting a line under your signature means you're pretty emphatic and outgoing as well. Fun post!
LikeLike
I've just spent a few days with my older sister, who does not spend most of her time sitting in front of the computer. She actually writes letters. On paper. With a pen. I watched her write a note, and her handwriting was lovely. Mine may start out okay, on a good day, but it soon deteriorates, as I quickly lose patience with the process. On the other hand, a friend of mine said that I make my “a” just as Anaïs Nin did, so I guess I'm in exalted – or at least, notorious – company. ;>)
LikeLike
I did a Kate Bush meme a couple of years ago – same idea, different questions. this is a good oneand I love seeing peoples handwritingI wonder if people will ever completely abandon pencil and paper?
LikeLike
Hey! This is even clearer than Baino's-LOL! I'm guessing your right-handed….?
LikeLike
I like your handwriting Kat.Taking notes so fast during lectures wrecked mine, it used to be so neat and legible. Taking notes during interviews (I was a careers adviser) at meetings and on visits at work didn't help either. So now it's a total mess. Weird but I can't write slowly now. long live my laptop even though through using it I've developed dyslexia!
LikeLike
I love your handwriting Kat. I have a had a couple of compliments on mine over the years, but now I write much too quickly and it is messy most of the time. I would be afraid to show a signature on the internet for fear of someone stealing it for whatever reason. Not very trusting in that way, I guess.My mother had beautiful handwriting..so perfect. I am fascinated with handwriting in general. I think it can be a beautiful form of art.Great subject for a post. Enjoyed it.
LikeLike
As an Educational Consultant/Therapist, I am often called upon to work with those who are diagnosed as having, “graphomotor difficulties.” So much comes into play when called upon to write. By supporting the interaction of eye-hand, and the neurological signaling, handwritng improvement is facilitated. The understanding of breath awareness, posture, focus, and intent underlies the improvement program, all with a spirit of play!Thanks for the post!!
LikeLike
Love your answers. You have good handwriting–mine is illegible to practically everyone but me (& to me it's not even legible 100% of the time!)
LikeLike
Sometimes I think about writing, and that means I turn on the keyboard. Sad!
LikeLike
I think I could have picked your handwriting out from a crowd. It somehow does seem so *you*.
LikeLike
this is fascinating, Kat! I loved seeing your handwriting…makes you seem so much more “real.” though of course I already know that you're real. 🙂
LikeLike
I am enjoying the handwriting posts. Yours reminds me very much of my aunt's.I've fallen down on my letter-writing project of late, need to get back to it!
LikeLike
That is an interesting request and resulting list. I love the Kate Bush answers! I write every day for different reasons-at work on post it notes and narrative observations of the children, lists, in my journal, though not often very long pieces of writing. I love writing but I do love the convenience of the computer as I ma lawyas mkaing msitakes! Have you seen those things that show that when we read we mainly look at the first and last letters so any sepllnig msitkaes in the mddile make no difference? THe film was THe Shining and you were the only person who got it!
LikeLike
yeah cool I love that tag!
LikeLike
such a wonderful list. I sense it is true that so many of us do not write as often. I am a list person. I also seem to scribble poems on any scrap of paper I can find before it hits the key board. I enjoyed your post.Spirithelpers
LikeLike
Beautiful handwriting, clever list. Some of my “neat” handwriting on red ribbon over at my place – a little bit of echo in the ether!
LikeLike
I swiped your meme and did it on my “Butterflies and Candles” blog. I enjoyed reading yours and decided to try to answer the questions also. But, I didn't write them out by longhand. I just did mine with my apple. But, I did write them in longhand before I posted them. But, I was to lazy to take a picture and upload it and so on and so on. I just decided to do it “My Way.” Climb on your Butterfly and fly on over for a visit, sometime.Ann
LikeLike
Hi Kat,Just popping back to let you know I have an award for you-a circle of friends award. Thank you for being my friend!
LikeLike
I had to laugh at the computer description and the white-out Kat. I was a secretary in my dim and distant past, but prior to that I was a member of the “typing pool”. We had electric machines but had to white-out or “snopake” out the errors. If you lifted the document to the light you could see how many there were…embarrassment.In my exam days I can remember writing very fast for several hours and my hand almost dropping off at the end. Those were the days. I love to see handwritten things though. So much more personal.
LikeLike
Oh, neat! Thank you so much for joining in the fun with this. It's incredible how much my hand hurt from this, too. But you've reminded me of the thousands of pages of notes taken by hand throughout high school, college, and graduate school!Because of this meme, I've gone back to doing some handwritten notes for my book.and p.s. I like the double meme here!
LikeLike