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Is Penmanship Dead?

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  • Funnily enough, the number of signatures I use has been going down a lot recently.
    That's been my experience as well. For purchases under $25, no one asks for a signature on credit cards anymore.
    In Australia and England, they now give the option to either sign or input your PIN instead.
  • Japan uses the rubber stamp method. They can be forged, but at least it takes more effort. We could have been using those prior to the computer.
  • Not learning cursive or being indifferent to it is a form of self-handicap. There might very well come a day when it's not needed. That day is not now. Until that day comes, if you don't know how to read and write in cursive, you're handicapped in the adult world.
    As an adult, I have never in my life run into a situation where reading or writing in cursive was necessary. ^_~
    Since when have you been living in the adult world? You're not out of your twenties yet. You're still living inNick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Come talk to me after you've had a heart attack and a divorce, when you start living inDefinitely, Maybe.
    No true Scotsman would be opposed to script!
  • For purchases under $25, no one asks for a signature on credit cards anymore.
    Depends where you go. I work at a big grocery store in the area and we require signatures on any credit card purchase (you don't have to sign for debit though, but we require a PIN). But, as some of you have pointed out, you can sign whatever the hell you want. As a cashier, I've seen numerous things. I've seen dicks, smiley faces, straight lines, scribbles, obviously bullshit names, printed names...the list goes on and on. No one cares, no one checks to see if the signatures match up on the back of the credit card.

    Anyways...I've missed a lot in the past day from this thread, so I'm reviving some old posts to quote them:
    Wrong. I've only seen one typed police report in my life
    When Rym said "printed", he meant writing in print. He didn't mean typed out...
    Try signing your will in printed capital letters and see if that works out for you.
    As I pointed out above, that would work perfectly fine at the store I work at.
    Hey - maybe you missed a day of class. I know you think you're so smart you don't need to take notes, but what if you want to use someone else's notes in order to see what happened that day? Probably not, because the class is unimportant, your grade is unimportant, it's unimportant whether or not you graduate . . . because, of course, you're so fucking smart that you shouldn't even be in school to begin with.
    If I miss a day of school, maybe 1 or 2 out of my 7 classes will have taken notes the day I missed. Whether or not I actually need those notes has been pointed out by Rym when he said that most teachers just parrot the textbook. Roughly half of my teachers are just parroting shit from the textbook. In the other classes, I can either get a powerpoint that they posted online, or get the notes right from them or from another student. Shit's not difficult...
  • Try signing your will in printed capital letters and see if that works out for you.
    As I pointed out above, that would work perfectly fine at the store I work at.
    Your will is not a grocery purchase, and you can't really compare the two. It would be nice if people did check signatures on all credit purchases, but they don't. However, if you fail to have a proper signature on your will, it can cause innumerable problems for the people you leave behind.

    Say that you leave some widget to your friend Bob. But your brother Jeff really likes that widget and thinks that you really wanted him to have it, despite evidence to the contrary (your will). He can contest your will, and if it doesn't follow the legal requirements for your state (which usually include a signature), your will can be declared invalid, and it is left (lawyers, correct me if I'm wrong here) up to the judge to decide who gets what, which may or may not follow what you actually wanted.

    A printed signature might fly if the executor of your will has other documents that you have signed that prove that that's really how you sign things, but otherwise, probably not.
  • Alright, well in that case then just scribble out some chickenshit like Scott and Rym have suggested.
  • Since when have you been living in the adult world? You're not out of your twenties yet. You're still living inNick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Come talk to me after you've had a heart attack and a divorce, when you start living inDefinitely, Maybe.
    I hate this argument. You essentially said "I have lived longer and therefore that means you are not experienced enough to know what you are talking about." That is extremely condescending, and, I daresay, immature. Age != Experience. Growing older merely means you have gained the chance to make more mistakes. Life is not something one knows more than anyone else. The only difference in life amongst people of different ages is perspective, nothing more. Facts are facts, and opinions are opinions, no matter what you may think of them.
  • Since when have you been living in the adult world? You're not out of your twenties yet. You're still living inNick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Come talk to me after you've had a heart attack and a divorce, when you start living inDefinitely, Maybe.
    I hate this argument. You essentially said "I have lived longer and therefore that means you are not experienced enough to know what you are talking about." That is extremely condescending, and, I daresay, immature. Age != Experience.
    I love it when the kids call me immature. People don't become more Spock-like when they age. They can still try to be goofy if they want.

    Look, it wasn't so much of an argument, but an attempt at humor. I was really trying to get a laugh out of the difference between the two movies more than the difference between ages. I'm sorry if you were offended and I'm sorry if you didn't think it was funny.

    However, if you want to argue about it, do you think that a six year old has all the life skills that you do? Do you know more about life now than you did when you were a freshman at your school? Were you better at playing Counterstrike the first time you played it or after you've played it for a year? Sorry, but age does impart experience, oftentimes wisdom, and sometimes even a little maturity. I daresay I have a slightly better knowledge of how the adult world works than you do. I certainly have a better knowledge of my field of work than someone who is just starting or who has never worked in my field.

    You might know more about computers than me. Why do you think that could be? I'll bet you've probably spent more time using computers, fixing computers, and so forth, and what is that time spent but a type of age? Your computer age is probably older than mine. However, my age at dealing with the adult world and adult problems is older than yours. It's all a question of skill and the time it takes to acquire it.

    Adulthood is not a discrete, digital value. You aren't granted all adult knowledge upon hitting some arbitrary age. Like other skills, you acquire it bit by bit. Someone in their twenties simply hasn't had the time to acquire as much adult experience as someone in their fifties. Remember, my response was to an assertion that a person had a certain level of skill in the field of being an adult. I'm just disputing that level of skill.
    Try signing your will in printed capital letters and see if that works out for you.
    As I pointed out above, that would work perfectly fine at the store I work at.
    Your will is not a grocery purchase, and you can't really compare the two. It would be nice if people did check signatures on all credit purchases, but they don't. However, if you fail to have a proper signature on your will, it can cause innumerable problems for the people you leave behind.
    Many will disputes revolve around the verification of signatures. If you want to arrogantly ignore this as "too old school", that's your call. However, as misakyra says, you might be causing some problems for your heirs.

    This is just the easiest example. Now, as I've said before, there might come a time when tech is so good that cursive writing is dead. Based on my experience, I don't believe that time is now.
  • edited February 2009
    I love it when the kids call me immature. People don't become more Spock-like when they age. They can still try to be goofy if they want.

    Look, it wasn't so much of an argument, but an attempt at humor. I was really trying to get a laugh out of the difference between the two movies more than the difference between ages. I'm sorry if you were offended and I'm sorry if you didn't think it was funny.
    An attempt? Well, I can say that it fell flat. I wouldn't have reacted that way if I had known it was a joke. After posting this, I realized I know nothing about those two movies. Maybe that's why I didn't catch it.
    However, if you want to argue about it, do you think that a six year old has all the life skills that you do? Do you know more about life now than you did when you were a freshman at your school? Were you better at playing Counterstrike the first time you played it or after you've played it for a year? Sorry, but agedoesimpart experience, oftentimes wisdom, and sometimes even a little maturity. I daresay I have a slightly better knowledge of how the adult world works than you do. I certainly have a better knowledge of my field of work than someone who is just starting or who has never worked in my field.
    I believe you said the following:
    You're not out of your twenties yet.
    How do six year old kids fit into this argument if you were discussing people not yet out of their 20's? If you are talking about expertise in a career, or knowledge in general, then yes, a six year old and a freshmen would know less. A twenty-something knows significantly more than a six year old. In the nearly six years since my freshman year of high school, I am astounded by how much I have learned since then. But it is not a result of age. I have had several things happen to me all at once. I began to learn in a manner different than I had in high school. I had many crises at home with my parents thinking they had "lost" their son, and that was before they found out I was an atheist. My political leanings changed when I saw the response to Hurricane Rita by Bush and my own state, not to mention my dad continually having his pay cut. He's an oil operator. Has been for nearly 25 years. He worked hard (and still works hard), and yet he was treated like nothing. I may not know everything, but that comes with learning. You have to learn to get experience. And as for maturity, I was referring to (what I thought was) your condescending behavior in your initial post. You could have been less blunt. But you can't say they know nothing of life, just that they have had less time to learn.

    Perhaps I should explain why I reacted the way I did. I hear this one all the time from my parents, the crazies. Who think the Bible tells the truth. Hence my argument Age != Experience. I should have explained this in my earlier post, I suppose. It just bothers me, because I see examples all the time of older generations who have the same attitude. and who know very little. Maybe it's different for you. I don't actually know you, so I can't say.
    Post edited by Diagoras on
  • How do six year old kids fit into this argument if you were discussing people not yet out of their 20's?
    I wanted to say something that you could relate to, and since I don't know your age, I asked if you feel you know more about life than a six year old as I'm pretty sure you're older than six. Also, the difference between your age and a six year old's is probably proportionally similar to the difference between my age and a twenty-somethings.
    I hear this one all the time from my parents, the crazies. Who think the Bible tells the truth. Hence my argument Age != Experience. I should have explained this in my earlier post, I suppose. It just bothers me, because I see examples all the time of older generations who have the same attitude. and who know very little. Maybe it's different for you. I don't actually know you, so I can't say.
    Here's what I think about that, and please take it as no offense to your parents. Some people choose to stop growing. Some of my family members are eternal nineteen year olds. Their experiences and opinions have ossified and, even though all kinds of things happen to them that should incite growth and changes and refinements of opinion, they still pretty much view the world and everything that happens the same way they did when they were nineteen. They also still have nineteen year old expectations for themselves, and so they can become very bitter and crabby.

    A strong reliance on religion can stunt growth in that way as can a poor education or a voluntary cessation of education (and by education, I don't just mean formal education - you should always be reading and learning even after you graduate and allow that learning to actually help you grow, instead of just collecting learning that verifies beliefs you've always held). If a person allows himself to ossify and stop growing, then I think your attitude that age != experience is valid, because even though that person is collecting experience, he's not growing as a result. So, even though that person's calendar age might be 55, in reality you're dealing with a nineteen year old.
  • Someone in their twenties simply hasn't had the time to acquire as much adult experience as someone in their fifties.
    That is sometimes the case, but certainly not always the case.
    What if the 50 year old was just some average everyday guy that went to high school and college, held a few jobs along the way. got married, had a family of 4, and has a steady career?
    Does he have more life experience than a person in their 20s who had a child in their teens, got married early, had financial problems, suffered from a natural disaster, went to war, etc?
  • Someone in their twenties simply hasn't had the time to acquire as much adult experience as someone in their fifties.
    That is sometimes the case, but certainly not always the case.
    What if the 50 year old was just some average everyday guy that went to high school and college, held a few jobs along the way. got married, had a family of 4, and has a steady career?
    Does he have more life experience than a person in their 20s who had a child in their teens, got married early, had financial problems, suffered from a natural disaster, went to war, etc?
    Depends on who is happier with his/her life.
  • Depends on who is happier with his/her life.
    The question wasn't of who is happier. The question was of who has more experience.
  • edited February 2009
    Depends on who is happier with his/her life.
    The question wasn't of who is happier. The question was of who has more experience.
    What is the meaning of life? Is it not to find happiness and its preservation? And if is not, why do you keep on going? We go through life trying to achieve happiness and in that journey we gain experience. However, it really doesn't matter how much experience you have at the end. Because, if you are not happy then your memories and experiences are not worth it for you, who at the end is who matters the most. Many soldiers survive the horrors of war, and yet I read that they don't want to keep on living and commit suicide, what are their experiences worth now? It makes me sad. But is the true.
    One must cherish each moment of life because those memories are precious, those memories won't happen again, they are more valuable that any treasure in this world.
    They are your experiences and they will make you happy. If not just ask good old Scrooge McDuck :D
    Post edited by Erwin on
  • edited February 2009
    Listen, I realize that you need to be happy and all that shit, but you really veered off the initial question/argument. The question was not "who is happier in life?" or "who has a more fulfilled life?", it was "who is more mature, and how much do personal life experiences factor into that?".

    A soldier who has lived through war...or even things like Joe suggested (divorces and heart attacks) are all experiences. Negative experiences, for that matter. None of which will make you happy. But again, they provide experience which leads to being a more adult person, which is what Joe's initial argument was in the first place. I am 18 years old and I am damn sure that there are 15 and 16 year olds out there who have experienced many more things in life than I have, and are likely more mature than I am. Happiness doesn't really matter when the question is about maturity.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • A soldier who has lived through war...or even things like Joe suggested (divorces and heart attacks) are all experiences. Negative experiences, for that matter. None of which will make you happy. But again, they provide experience which leads to being a more adult person, which is what Joe's initial argument was in the first place. I am 18 years old and I am damn sure that there are 15 and 16 year olds out there who have experienced many more things in life than I have, and are likely more mature than I am. Happiness doesn't really matter when the question is about maturity.
    If you learn from your experiences and your mistakes then you will be enlightened and happy.
  • I am 18 years old and I am damn sure that there are 15 and 16 year olds out there who have experienced many more things in life than I have, and are likely more mature than I am.
    That may be so. There may also be 5 year olds who can do math better than you. Those people do exist, but they are rare. Similarly, there might be 18 year olds somewhere who has had more experiences, is wiser, more mature, and more adult than many 55 year olds, but those people are rare - maybe not as rare as the 5 year old who can do math better than you, but rare nonetheless.
    If you learn from your experiences and your mistakes then you will be enlightened and happy.
    Absolutely right, and a 55 year old is statistically more likely to have had more of a chance to learn from those experiences and mistakes than an 18 year old. There's no shame in it. Statiscally, all other things being equal, it is simply a better bet that the 55 year old has more experience than the 18 year old. The 55 year old has simply lived longer and had more time to acquire experience and learn from experience. This is not an insult to the 18 year old.
  • I am 18 years old and I am damn sure that there are 15 and 16 year olds out there who have experienced many more things in life than I have, and are likely more mature than I am.
    That may be so. There may also be 5 year olds who can do math better than you. Those people do exist, but they are rare. Similarly, there might be 18 year olds somewhere who has had more experiences, is wiser, more mature, and more adult than many 55 year olds, but those people are rare - maybe not as rare as the 5 year old who can do math better than you, but rare nonetheless.
    Not meaning to butt in, but I think they are a lot more common than you think, at least in some circles. For instance, most likely, a lot of people on this forum tend to be more intelligent and mature than other people in their respective age groups. In some cases, an 18 or 19 year old person on this forum might be more mature and intelligent than a normal 25 year old person (or maybe even older) would be. I'm only saying that of course because these forums, for the most part, tend to be a place where more intelligent and mature people hang out.
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