Why is Everyone Trying to Change Me! (RANT)

[metalmilitia]

people say the same to me brother and i'm 28.

 

[brian64]

Sigh.

Cursive handwriting disappearing from public schools
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-04/local/38274984_1_cursive-students-districts

 

[locopony]

I'm 40 myself and hold the old school values as well.

Some times ya gotta make a point with some of them to get their attention.

A good example is when the numb skulls that I work with say something about tv to me and I tell them I dont have one. They usually make some incendiary remark about the stone to which I reply. May be if you spent a little less time rotting your brain with the idiot box, you might understand why I am you boss and you are a worm that cant tell ya head from ya ass. Now get to working cause you stopped sweating and that means you are too busy talking and not doing ya job.

And another time at a tire shop when a young man told me I cant put a automotive tire on the rear of my bike. I said motorcycles have been around for over a hundred years. Motorcycle specific tires came out in the late 70s what tires did we use to use. Automotive tires ! Now I didnt come for advise from some one who knows less than me . I came for a tire! Now go get the tire I asked for on the phone before I came here.

He replied we are not mounting it for you . To which I replied , I didnt ask you too. I will do that myself sweet heart. Now bring the tire I have cash and am ready to go.

 

[taerin]

I had a woman refuse to date me because I refuse to text people all the time, I'll do it, but not very often because I just really prefer talking, she said I reminded her of her grandfather and that she couldn't go out with an old man... I was only 27 and she was like 23 or so!!!

 

[cigrmaster]

My kids are constantly bugging me to get one of those Iphones, I hate them. I have a basic phone with a keyboard so I can text my kids but that is it. I don't want to surf the net on a phone, I don't do facebook( scourge of humanity) and I have a GPS in my car that I can actually see. I will never get one of those stupid phones and if they stop making basic ones, I will dump my cell phone.

 

[brian64]

Only Neanderthals are content with just a Smartphone. You need the chip implant along with it if you really want to be hip.
Man Has Chip Implanted in Hand That Stores Info For Smartphone
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/23277646/what-did-this-man-put-in-his-hand#axzz2dHjTMRJh

 

[murf]

I will resist a smartphone for as long as I can. I go out with some friends (a guy, his girl, and another girl). Me and the guy actually have a conversation, with each other, the bartender, cute waitresses. The girls? They got their faces glued to their phones half the time!
I'm also against GPS. I'll be damned if I have a machine tell me what to do (of course, I use Google maps before trips, or go to AAA and get a triptik. but that's different, right?)
And I agree with above, thanks Old Cajun and all the other men and women for their service. I've had my heart set on joining for quite some time now, just need to make sure everything at home is taken care of first. That and I need to get my lazy ass in shape. It will happen.
People have been telling me I'm an old man, since I was at least 15 or 16 years old. To hell with them. I'm closing my laptop and picking up a book.

 

[bryanf]

I made the mistake of buying an Android phone. Razr by Motorola. I @#$%ing hate this piece of crap!
I just can't wait for my contract to end so I can go back to a normal phone with a keyboard. If I didn't have my own business, I would just not have a phone at all, but I need e-mail on my phone to stay in contact with customers around the world. Damn phone is way too complicated and screws everything up all the time.
For a business phone, Blackberry is the best phone I've had- used them many years and look forward to going back.
I wish we could still get the old style Nokia's in the US. Very popular "no BS" business phone elsewhere in the world.

 

[wnghanglow]

My phone allows me to access my e mail anywhere which is great for work, my phone finds me a route when I get lost "I have to go to very secluded and sometimes off road places for work" my phone gives me access to my patients personal records so I can better help them adjust to there medical equipment. My phone automatically calculates several complicated and long equations for me to cut my sitting there not paying attention to the patient time severely. My

Phone is the only way my sister keeps in contact with me and shares pictures of my nephew with me. The point I'm trying to make is a phone is a tool, if you use or mis use a tool is not the tools fault. Think of it as guns, some people are never going to be smart enough to own one but that doesn't make the gun the culprit.

 

[sjfine]

Cursive handwriting disappearing from public schools

etc.
So, I have been thinking about this for all of four minutes, and I am wondering about the lament-of-the-decline-of-cursive-writing. At some point, it seems excessive to pine for the old days. Yeah, there are aspects of today's social-network-nation that I find invasive, intrusive, and downright insane. But cursive? What is really wrong with losing that?
Now, I don't mean to suggest that people be able to read it, or that children should not be exposed to it in school. But I cannot jive the rise of the keyboard with the downfall of society. After all, I consider myself somewhat cultured and I write is all caps. It's just my (legible) handwriting. e.e. cummings did it in reverse.
We stopped using long s's (the ones that look like f's) a long time ago, and yet the banner still waves.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

I'll never understand why the 40+ crowd is so anti-technology. Smartphones, email, Facebook, youtube they can all be very helpful. Yes there are downsides to them, but there are downsides to everything in life. You have to learn how to take the good with the bad.
I'll also never understand why people like John Wayne and those God awful western movies. Give me a Humphrey Bogart movie any day over a John Wayne.

 

[tbradsim1]

You have been raised in a different Era, while I love his movies, here is a grown fuzzy ass man that did not go in WW2, he was booed in a hospital tent by wounded vets, so many of his companions went and were Heros in my book, him, NOT.

 

[sjfine]

I'll also never understand why people like John Wayne and those God awful western movies. Give me a Humphrey Bogart movie any day over a John Wayne.

I was gonna write that, but decided against it for fear of ...

You have been raised in a different Era, while I love his movies, here is a grown fuzzy ass man that did not go in WW2, he was booed in a hospital tent by wounded vets, so many of his companions went and were Heros in my book, him, NOT.

I would have added, however, that it wasn't so much the actor that I love, but the characters that he played. Like so many celebrities, I would rather not know. And, my WWII hero was my great uncle Willie, who lost his leg on the beach in Normandy. Played ball for the Flat Tires after the war.
My ultimate decision not to chime in about this rested on thread-hijacking factors.

 

[dermotfahy]

You have been raised in a different Era, while I love his movies, here is a grown fuzzy ass man that did not go in WWII, he was booed in a hospital tent by wounded vets, so many of his companions went and were Heroes in my book, him, NOT.

I assume you are referring to John Wayne, since Bogie would have been ~43 when Pearl Harbor occurred. I have never held his staying out of the service against him, there were a lot of men who used the sole provider clause to avoid military service. Even if he had joined up, the military would probably have just put him to work making patriotic films, which is what he spent WWII doing anyway.

But if you want to choose your film stars according to how brave they were in real life:
http://www.wonderfulworldofimages.com/wwii-movie-stars/wwii-movie-stars.html
Of course, the actor most distinguished for his military service is Audie Murphy, who (Besides being the most decorated American soldier in WWII, with 33 medals including the MOH.) is my second favorite actor, after John Wayne, and before Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Yakima Canutt, and James Stewart. Walter Brennan and Yakima Canutt both served in WWI, and Walter Brennan was mustard gassed.

 

[dermotfahy]

So, I have been thinking about this for all of four minutes, and I am wondering about the lament-of-the-decline-of-cursive-writing. At some point, it seems excessive to pine for the old days. Yeah, there are aspects of today's social-network-nation that I find invasive, intrusive, and downright insane. But cursive? What is really wrong with losing that?

Well, if your lifestyle does not involve personal written interaction, then I guess it is useless for you, but I think that you should still be able to at least read it. Until about ten years ago I could not write legibly, but I am very glad I taught myself now, as I use this skill almost every day. There are times when an email is not only unfashionable, but downright rude. I would never send an email expressing my condolences to anyone, even if I did not like the late individual, and I would certainly never send one to a woman I was courting. Even if it is just communication between friends, I prefer utilizing the services provided by the United States Postal Service.

 

[dermotfahy]

Speaking of Yakima Canutt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yhZsHYq4LU
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/05/pl_prototype_canutt/
http://thewildwest.org/cowboys/wildwestshowbizcowboys/301-yakimacanutt.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0134831/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C43x88DbuIY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima_Canutt
He did stunts in 240+ films, acted in 186, AD'd 57, directed 15, produced 5, and wrote 4! He is the most influential stuntman in history of motion pictures, and most stunts that you see today he created. He paved the way in stunt safety, cutting stunt casualties in the film industry by 95%. In many big films up to the mid 60's he coordinated the stunts, Including Ben Hur, The Swiss Family Robinson, Cat Ballou, Spartacus, Rio Bravo, Stagecoach, The Fighting Seabees, Flying Tigers, Only the Valiant, and literally hundreds more.

 

[brian64]

But cursive? What is really wrong with losing that?

There is actually a lot of research regarding the significance of children learning cursive handwriting. Below is an excerpt from an article on this, and a link to the full article.

Cursive Writing And its Importance
Research highlights the hand's unique relationship with the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas. Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says handwriting differs from typing because it requires executing sequential strokes to form a letter, whereas keyboarding involves selecting a whole letter by touching a key.
She says pictures of the brain have illustrated that sequential finger movements activated massive regions involved in thinking, language and working memory—the system for temporarily storing and managing information.
And one recent study of hers demonstrated that in grades two, four and six, children wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard.
Writing increases neural activity

A recent Indiana University study had one group of children practice printing letters by hand while a second group just looked at examples of A's, B's, and C's. Then, both groups of kids entered a functional MRI (disguised as a "spaceship") that scanned their brains as the researchers showed them letters. The neural activity in the first group was far more advanced and "adult-like," researchers found. It showed that learning had taken place.
“There's some pretty powerful evidence of changes in the brain that occur as the result of learning to overcome a motor challenge," says Rand Nelson of Peterson Directed Handwriting. The act of physically gripping a pen or pencil and practicing the swirls, curls and connections of cursive handwriting activates parts of the brain that lead increase language fluency.

Full article:
http://www.theworldofhandwriting.com/3/post/2012/12/cursive-writing-and-its-importance.html
EDIT: I also have a theory of my own that writers, especially fiction writers, may find that they could achieve greater creativity through handwriting rather than typing because it can be a conduit to the subconscious.

 

[murf]

I don't think it's that anyone here isn't smart enough how to figure out how to use a smartphone. And I don't think that comparing use of a smartphone and use of a firearm was a very good analogy.
It's that some people simply don't want a smartphone. And I can't blame them. Who wants to spend $100/mo for a cell phone? And who wants to spend $200+ on a cell phone? What makes it worse, is some companies sell the phones for $500 or so, but offer a $300 rebate if you sign a 2yr contract. That's $2400 right there.
If you want to surf the web, check your facebook, use google maps on your phone, by all means; Go Ahead!
If you just want to talk and text on a simple phone? Go ahead!
If a smartphone makes your life, work, etc, easier; go for it. If you're the type of person who likes to disconnect from the world, to be left to yourself (even if it's just for a few hours a day), then maybe a smartphone isn't for you.
I completely understand watson's original post. A salesman was trying to sell him something he didn't want. I've never liked salesmen. If he would have tried to guilt me into something, I would've asked to work with someone else, or walked right out of the store. The customer is always right. Do your job.
As far as everything else; 99% agree (I like PBR, but not miller). Pot heads protesting the government or current laws, but believe the anti-smoking propaganda BS that's been shoved down their throats. They'd be more likely to die early from all the crap the chow down on when they're stoned. You smoke weed, but tobacco's evil? Why do people feel the need to tell smokers that "that's bad for you."? like it's the 1st time we've heard it. Like you're the 1st person to tell me that in my whole life? Get bent. And everyone thinks their opinion is so important, when it doesn't mean jack. Sorry to rant

 

[effektor]

I would hate to give up my smart phone, I wouldn't mind getting rid of the voice portion of the service, but the internet and texting is actually very useful!
I can navigate with map and compass, but own a GPS. I still shoot iron sights but have optics on most of my rifles. I'm not afraid of advances, I embrace the ones a that make life easier and better. Texting is far superior to calling people much of the time, but there are still people who insist on inconveniencing people to ask a yes or no question. I try to always use the best tool for the job.

 

[wnghanglow]

Murf, it probably wasn't the best analogy but the best I could think of at the time. I was trying to stress that a smart phone is a tool, and it's usefulness or uselessness is determined by the user. As for John Wayne you can count me a fan, lots of fond memories watching his movies