I have to say, I was shocked at how bad my big-boss's handwriting is, because she's so very precise in most ways -- her speech, her deportment, etc. But her handwriting is for shit. Makes me wonder why.

I'm not exactly decrying the decline of the nation's youth because they don't teach handwriting anymore, but it makes me sad to see young men's handwriting that looks the same as a 12-year-old's script. [ETA: and I see that far more often than bad female handwriting.] I was always told that my brother's childish handwriting was because it's harder for boys to learn fine motor control, and since they don't even teach it anymore, many don't get better. But maybe that's baseless sexism.

Somewhat related: Make your own font. Out of your own handwriting. Seems kinda' cool yet pointless to me....

Cool and not pointless. We did something similar for our director at work a few years ago. Now when we send out thousands of renewal letters, his actual signature is in the Word doc when we print them and he's grateful he didn't actually have to sign them. IJS

I scanned my signature to put on documents I was faxing. Because that way you can't tell if it was ever wet.

But making a font is a whole 'nother level of complexity. I need to go check that link out, because to do it right is hard.

We love the electronic signature here, too. I wonder if our printers can handle notecards, because we're always forging those from the boss...

We love the electronic signature here, too. I wonder if our printers can handle notecards, because we're always forging those from the boss...

You can also get rubber stamps made of people's sigs, but they are easier to tell than scanned sigs.

My goofy boss was trying to make the argument recently that the stamps look better than the scanned ones. Maybe a really good stamp, maybe if the person is likely to use a felt tip pen, but otherwise, I'm thinking NSM.

Today is Michelle Trachtenberg's 21st birthday. How is this possible?

Huh, according to Wikipedia, jaguars do range in size larger than mountain lions -- though reading closely, it turns out that pumas tend to be larger the farther you get from the Equator, and the biggest jaguars are in Equatorial jungles, so I have a factual basis for my impression.

A friend of mine started printing all her handwriting in Graffiti once she got a Palm Pilot.

I've written a fair amount of fiction in longhand cursive. It's slower, but it actually kind of helps me think out what I'm writing -- it's yet another channel into the brain.

MSNBC is reporting that a helicopter crashed into a high-rise apartment building at 71st and York, and there's been some kind of explosion.