Back-to-Back

I decided to post this entry right now because I was appalled by how bad my writing was in my last entry, and I felt that I needed to keep practicing. Plus, a song came on iTunes that brought to mind one of my all-time favorite memories, so being overwhelmed by emotion, the sentimentalist in me took over and took pen to paper (literally, pun intended 😊). 

I am also pleased to say that even with this small amount of practice there is noticeable improvement; accordingly I plan to write and post more often going forward. 2016 is the year in which I will follow through on my resolution and I am going to better myself and contribute more to those around me and thereby society as a whole. I realize how grandiose I sound, but believe me, my motives and aspirations are sincere.  

That said, judge for yourself, do you see any improvement over the last entry?

  
Thank you for reading and I appreciate your time. Please leave me your thoughts and/or any feedback you may have, even if you want to tell me I sound like a pretentious prick.

-JG

I Think It’s Getting Worse

For those of you that have taken the time to follow my handwriting blog, or can just infer from the title, the goal is to document my progress as I relearn and practice writing in cursive. Well, my time away from practicing and posting has certainly not helped, in fact, one could argue that it made me regress to a point where I was even before I started this experiment. I will not dwell on the matter, and as I stated in my other, personal blog I am living each day to the fullest this year and appreciating all it has to offer, including my deplorable hanwriting; I simply must practice more. 
Oh, and here is proof of the atrocity that I call my handwriting – parts border on legible.
  
Thank you for visiting, and please check back again here soon because I will become better!
-JG

Pork Belly Taco

In short, my brief hiatus from my “handwriting improvement” project was due to a stay in the hospital. I am fine and back to my routine, in fact, I even decided to take my mother out to dinner, and after being NPO* in the hospital, food was a priority. I was pleased to see that one of my favorite taco joints had improved the menu and I found the new Pork Belly taco to be quite scrumptious indeed. #nomnomnom  

* Nil per os (alternatively nihil/non/nulla per os) (npo or NPO) is a medical instruction meaning to withhold oral food and fluids from a patient for various reasons. It is a Latin phrase whose usual English expansion is nothing by mouth (most literally, “nothing through the mouth”). 

My mom and the ATM

I still had a little bit of work to do at Starbucks, and while I was there, I asked my mother if she could go to the ATM and make a quick deposit for me. I already knew this would be a challenge, but since the ATMs are basically self explanatory I felt confident she could complete the task at hand. I asked that she call me from the ATM so that we could go through it together, and I must say that afterwards, I’m glad I have a Xanax prescription. Listening to the phone call of her working the ATM, you would have thought she was being attacked; the blood curdling screams where straight out of  A Texas Chainsaw Massacre. All of this was because the screen prompts were confusing and she dropped her phone in the middle of my instructions (I was also trying my best to keep her calm). All and all, it worked just fine; however I wish I had recorded the conversation. I did not go into much detail as I am pressed for time tonight, but please see my notes below. As always,thanks for reading and I appreciate any suggestions on topics about which I should write.

   

My longest entry

I am beginning to like writing my thoughts down on paper; it is somewhat cathartic. I have yet to make the leap into a full time journal writer, but I am enjoying practicing my cursive more and more. For example, today I wrote three pages in my new notebook besting my previous record by two pages. Rather than include all three, I am only going to include a snippet as an example below, but I am also eager for feedback from you all for suggestions or criticism. The haiku I wrote yesterday was the most well received entry thus far even though I am not a poet. I am willing to give anything a try, however.   

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments and suggestions. 

-j

Haiku

There are a couple of changes that you may notice, first, I traded my legal pad for a proper notebook. No, I did not purchase a fancy journal with a lock and key, but I did get the ubiquitous composition pad carried by school kids of all ages. Second, I decided to break away from my habit of free flow writing and decided to try a haiku. There is really no specific reason other than that I felt no pressure regarding quality because it is my cursive handwriting, not poetry, that I am practicing.  

 What do you think? Should I give up my computers and databases and write haikus professionally?

Day 3: I’m on a roll

Three consecutive days…That does not sound like much, but as far as I am concerned it a strong beginning and gives me confidence that I will actually stick with this experiment. I suffer from chronic procrastination and easily succumb the “that which can wait until tomorrow does not need to be done today” mentality; however, I enjoy this project for several reasons. Not only do I practice cursive, my primary goal, but I also think about what I am going to write. Granted, I am not putting to much thought into the content since that is irrelevant to the quality of my pens mashup,  but I am still thinking about my day, the future and other deeper thoughts. This introspection is helping me one a very small scale right now, but I see the potencial. I am also on my third consecutive day of learning French using the iPhone app Duolingo. I know this is not much, but I am staying with the course syllabus and enjoying the curriculum. Having the lessons on my iPhone and setting reminders makes it easier than the Rosetta Stone software which I used to learn Portuguese several years ago; attempted to learn is more accurate. I am thinking about making my French learning a subsection of this blog, and while there are many directions I could take, I want to keep my initial goal the main focus. So without further ado, I present to you my update:

  
I am pleased with my progress but I also see some problems areas (e.g., my q’s are pathetic). I will work harder, but I am also interested in your thoughts. Does anyone see other problem areas, which can be anything from single letters to complete misspellings or inappropriate use of punctuation on which I need to work? 

Grammar was not my favorite subject in school, in fact, it was not until I got into business and started to receive daily emails ignoring the basic fundamentals of writing that this became my number one petpeeve. I am not trying to address these broad issues of composition since there are already countless websites written by much more qualified individuals than I doing just that, but I still would like to hear your feedback. How about a haiku for tomorrow?

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance even more for a comment. 

-Jon 

Day 2: N.W.A.

Today is my second day working on my handwriting “project” and I am beginning to also understand the rationale behind journaling. This started as a mere way to document the progress of my return to cursive handwriting, but as I only intended to write a page a day, as a sample, I feel compelled to pour out more of my thoughts. For example, I really wanted to write a brief synopsis of the movie Straight Out Of Compton which I watched today, but as I started to write my mother intruded and I was subsequently thrown off track (she has a kryptonite effect on my life). As a result I may include others sections to this blog so that I may explore more thoughts and ideas, but for the primary purpose, please see today’s passage below. 

  
Even though it has only been less than 24 hours since conception, I already feel more comfortable writing in cursive, and aside from a few hiccups, it is coming back to me just like riding a bicycle would. 

An experiment begins…

I recently purchased a nice Cross pen, a fountain pen. I thought it looked cool, but what I also quickly noticed was that my handwriting was atrocious. The reason i had not been too acutely aware of this before was because my printing was legible; it is my cursive that has regressed to that of a grade schooler. I will expound upon the beginning thought process in depth tomorrow [placeholder for detail].

Here is a sample of my new daily handwritten journal:

  
Goodnight.

-Jon