My mother, on the other hand, refused to learn to type because she was NOT going to be a secretary,

This was my mother. She was born in 1931 and there were two tracts for women in her educational setting. Secretarial or Nursing. She chose nursing, and that did not include typing. So she never learned.

Born in 1985, I never learned to type.

it was in response to the asshat who would "misremember" what was decided in the meeting and just do what he wanted. When that shit happened (with stuff I cared about), I would respond "my notes say . . ." He said "well, if you take such good notes, why don't you do it for every meeting?"

Wow, a true asshat. Damn.

"I'm happy to take my turn occasionally, but I can't participate in the meeting and take the kind of notes that would helpful to anyone but me. If you think that there is more value in me taking notes than participating in the meeting, then it sounds like I don't have anything meaningful to contribute and my time would be better spent elsewhere."

Vortex, I think I'm gonna steal it and use it when the time comes. With your permission, of course.

In other news, I have no idea why the government of my country is really into starting another unnecessary war, but I do not like. At all. And they've been trying. (For those who are not following, mandate on government forming is now in the hands of Netanyahu, who is also on trial. If he fails, mandate will probably go to Lapid or Bennet. And per the newspapers, in the past months Israel has been attacking Syrian and Iranian targets because reasons. So. Do not like. We're still handling the pandemic and post-pandemic here. A war would be even more terrible than usual).

War as a distraction from the trial and endless failed attempts to form a government seems a super bad plan to me, but probably not to the powers that be. I'm sorry, Shir.

Oh no, Shir. Good luck with all of that.

In high school (back in the 1960s), my mother insisted I take typing so I'd "have something to fall back on" and my father insisted I take Home Ec because when they were first married, my mother had no idea how to cook or keep house. Her mother had not let her do any housework, wanting "something better" for her. I learned how to sew and took over most of the housework by the time I was 14 (my mother had an outside job ... where she refused to learn how to run their switchboard because she wasn't a receptionist) but I wasn't allowed to cook. I learned cooking from cookbooks ... my basic was the Settlement Cook Book (which I still have and call my "everything you need to know about chicken Julia Child won't tell you" book).

My mom wanted to be on the college-prep track in school, and the school wouldn't let her, because she was the youngest of six kids of a divorced mother. They made her take the secretarial course instead.

This bit me in the ass in a few ways, 30 years later. She let me take typing, but she wouldn't sign off on me taking cooking, sewing, home ec, or, for some reason, technical drawing.

Cindy, a while back I came across an abandoned adding machine with receipt at work and I was SO EXCITED but it turned to not actually print. It was a sad day when I understood that no amount of tinkering on my part would fix it.

-t, I don't suppose it needed a ribbon?

This was a while ago, but I think I replaced the ribbon. I replaced everything that was replaceable, basically, to no avail. In any case, it's gone now.

2nd shot complete.

No typing in my highschool, but mother tried to get me to self teach at home. It failed. I type using mostly two fingers on each hand and make lots of mistakes if I do not look at the keyboard.

I had a whole long, ranty post about jobs and respect, but it sounded all preachy and shit, so... cosigned on people and jobs (paid or unpaid) deserve respect. Maybe just people deserve respect covers it. I mean, until they blow it.

Now I need to start breaking down the packing boxes to get them into the recycle bin to go out tonight, which is probably why I was procastiranting in the first place.

askye, that really is a lot. Best of luck getting everything taken care of.

I never took typing in school because it was an elective and I didn't have the space for it. I was 4 years Drama, and 2 of Spanish then 2 of Adv Choir (for 2 elective slots per year). I tried on my own as an adult (I found an online typing course and somehow got my job at the time to pay for it), but it turns out that with the nerve damage in my right shoulder, I have a really difficult time lining my hands up correctly, so it never really worked for me. I type pretty quick one handed (my right is shift key, but not much else), but I'll never truly touch-type because the one hand has to cover the whole width of the keys. And I was pretty quick with the 10-key, but since I do that left handed as well, it was never ideal in a customer-facing job (bank teller, cashier at K-Mart) because I would always have to turn my body so far away to reach the keys on the right side with my left hand.

Like Vortex, I gave up my acting dreams with the consideration of how few actors make it, plus the acknowledgement that I have waaay too thin of a skin to take the abuse for my physical appearance that would come with the territory.