Fogbow

So I'm going through the estate process with my siblings, and so far the most disheartening thing to me is the Kindle. I have 810 books on my Kindle and I paid for them all, so I should be able to bequeath them to my heirs. But it turns out, when I die, my Kindle books die with me.

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 12:06 pm So I'm going through the estate process with my siblings, and so far the most disheartening thing to me is the Kindle. I have 810 books on my Kindle and I paid for them all, so I should be able to bequeath them to my heirs. But it turns out, when I die, my Kindle books die with me.

So don't tell them that you died. Keep the account active.

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 12:06 pm So I'm going through the estate process with my siblings, and so far the most disheartening thing to me is the Kindle. I have 810 books on my Kindle and I paid for them all, so I should be able to bequeath them to my heirs. But it turns out, when I die, my Kindle books die with me.

thanks for reminding me that I need to get back to working on my "NOK Box." That's a brand name, but a good organizer. I actually have pretty much everything organized, but not documented in one place. Trying to make it easier for my kids so they don't have to paw through every file drawer (bc I know where every document is in my head, which doesn't help them).

I'm flabbergasted.

They are no longer teaching cursive in school. Most young people can't read it. It's like a foreign language to them which they require an older person to translate.

Yep. My granddaughter, in her first year of high school, has never had it. It's been a major topic of discussion.

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 2:04 pm I'm flabbergasted.

They are no longer teaching cursive in school. Most young people can't read it. It's like a foreign language to them which they require an older person to translate.

Currently 20 states require it, and more have legislation pending to reinstate it, including Minnesota.

https://www.livenowfox.com/news/us-stat ... g-students

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 2:04 pm I'm flabbergasted.

They are no longer teaching cursive in school. Most young people can't read it. It's like a foreign language to them which they require an older person to translate.

I was taught cursive. Second and third grade IIRC. But, I rarely used it. I always wrote in upper case regular text. Baffled teacher after teacher. And I signed my name that way - First two initials and my full last name. Every doc I've ever signed has that signature. Fast forward to 1982 or so, we're signing a lease on a new apartment, and the resident manager is a legal handwriting expert - if I don't sign in cursive, it's not legal. Despite all evidence, he was stuck on this. Gotta sign in cursive, or we don't get the apartment. That's when it occurred to me the exact opposite could be argued if it came down to proving I had signed his lease agreement - That's not my signature.

So, I made it flourish.

We learned cursive in 3rd grade. All the letters, in upper and lower case, were displayed above the chalkboard. Personally, I thought the capitals Q, S, and Z looked dumb. And, having tv in my last name, I always printed the v so that it could not be confused with a u. Nowadays I mostly print with some letters connected, so... sort of cursive. It works for me.

Our school district taught cursive in second grade. I was 7. To me it was as much teaching fine motor control, (appropriate for age?). Doing line after line of circular loops for instance.
All in a Big Chief tablet. That may have been a local thing though. Western Tablet Company was local. I grew up a few blocks away.

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 1:38 am ... having tv in my last name, I always printed the v so that it could not be confused with a u.

OMG, MN-Skeptic, for some odd reason I think that's hilarious.

You are so thoughtful and wise, and I have seen you on Zoom so many times ... I can really envision you making that decision at a very young age. That little girl made a firm determination that people were simply going to have to learn how to pronounce her last name correctly, and that was final.

Which isn't easy, for non-Scandinavians. And I'll admit, I have practiced pronouncing it, because it isn't easy for a bicoastal speaker.

Anyway, that fits your character so incredibly well. So very well.

Reddog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 2:51 am Our school district taught cursive in second grade. I was 7. To me it was as much teaching fine motor control, (appropriate for age?). Doing line after line of circular loops for instance.
All in a Big Chief tablet. That may have been a local thing though. Western Tablet Company was local. I grew up a few blocks away.

My younger son struggled mightily with cursive for this very reason. They did "dictation," where the teacher says a sentence and they have to write it out in cursive. He was working so hard on forming each letter, he'd forget the sentence. It was just torture and so unnecessary. I don't write in cursive, really - it's mix of print and cursive. I think you can teach reading it without forcing people to write it. No one needs to write in cursive at all any more.

I have volunteered with the state archives to digitize written records from th 19th century (it's how you can search records for stuff like on Ancestry). I was working on voter records. It was all in cursive, but even enlarging it, there were lots of names I could not read. Their cursive was different from what I learned in the 1960s. I usually just made my best guess, but rural people in the 1860s had some weird ass names.

I say, do a unit on it so kids are exposed and know how to figure out how to read it, but don't force kids to do it. Printing is fine. Keyboarding is more useful. Learning beautiful cursive could be an art elective, and someone could make good money using their talent/skill.

Interesting. Thanks!

I was about 2 points away from failing 5th grade altogether because my cursive was shit. The ONLY reason I didn't get failed was because the teacher died about halfway through the school year. My poor mother had to come to I don't even know how many teacher meetings to do nothing but discuss my atrocious penmanship. It still sucks unless I write very slowly and even then, it's combination of cursive and print. Back in the dark ages when dispatchers kept handwritten logs, I could write faster and more legibly with my bastardized writing than the old woman I worked with could write her fancy cursive.

I've always thought of education as learning something that will be useful later in life, like math or reading or even critical thinking, and other than "because I said so" cursive doesn't seem to have much useful function beyond addressing wedding invitations.

Too also, spelling. My nemesis.

My email footer says "I never said I could spell."

How I love the computer age!