So, I tried bending over today. That’s not going to work any more.
Goin’ south
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Automatic parking oddly satisfying
Apparently, I have come to a point in my life when not having to walk 25 meters to get a free paper ticket from a machine, and then back to put it behind the windscreen of my car, is something that cheers me up slightly.
Handwriting headed for history?
TLS has a nice piece on two books at opposite ends of the spectrum with regards to the excellence of handwriting. One thinks and indeed hopes it will go away. The other celebrates its artfulness.
I am confident that handwriting has a future, but that future might be as an artist’s tool – as indeed was its origin. What will be lost, is a mode of expression, and it will be lost primarily for those without the inclination to learn the skill.
As the article puts it:
For those with a natural difficulty in being legible, the keyboard is a saving grace. Others too prefer it as their medium of self-expression. Yet, it is a “self” sublimated to the font choices of the corporation whose software you use. Of course, when we write by hand, we are also confined, individuality restrained by the requirements of the script, but there is a certain licence for variation and idiosyncrasy, however badly it is executed.
Happy International Feng Shui Awareness Day’vrybody!
From what I hear, it’s good to limit the presence of crystals in the East area this year. Note the moderate Fire and Earth elements in the visiting star. Also, keep your rhinoceros blue at all times. That is all.
Email (still) works
Quartz has an excellent (as usual!) digression into the topic of email today. Conclusion: It works. I wholeheartedly agree.
The quote from Devin Coldeway says it best:
“No company owns it. It works reliably and as intended on every platform, every operating system, every device. That’s a rarity today and a hell of a valuable one.”
The half monty
We have come a long way since the time when a woman showing so much as an ankle could be considered scandalously inappropriate. Even so, fashion shops promoting going commando seems to me as venturing a bridge too far.
Money is (still) no cure for ignorance
It is the weekend, and the FT is “probing” another strain of conspicuous consumption: bespoke libraries. (Is there a wholesale version?)
WTF?
Paying people to assemble a library in your home is like paying them to hunt, kill, prepare and eat food for you – leaving you with some rotting antlers to hang on a wall.
For the more serious bibliophile, it might even be akin to hire someone else to fall in love, have sex, raise a family and send you the photoalbums to display as your own.
The pleasure of a personal library (or any private collection) is foremost in the process – the search, the read, your autonomous curation – without which the display is pure theatrical scenery. Glancing over the scenery offers you no memories, no connection of your own reflections, impulses, ideas and revelations – no history. The epic story of assembling your “bespoke collection” is that you sent some nerd an e-mail, he showed up at your house with a truck, you paid him a princely sum, and now you have a room full of inked paper.
But the worst part is that it seems completely counterproductive. Instead of being seen as well-read and intellectual, you increase the risk of proving that you are not. Imagine the embarassment of being asked by a house guest your opinions of a book in your personal library, and not being able to offer any.
It is like purchasing stage 4 Alzheimer’s.
Read the full article at: https://www.ft.com/content/9b4a4542-1e17-11e8-a748-5da7d696ccab