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Why does my handwriting look so bad now?

bad handwriting

<edit>Penmanship update #1</edit>

Recently I’ve noticed that my penmanship has gotten really bad.  Well, really bad for me.  I used to have beautiful writing.  Well, maybe not beautiful.  But compared to my peers, my handwriting has always been very nice.  Not just legible, as it still is legible, but neat and even and…nice looking.  Not anymore.  I wrote some letters these last few days and I took a good look at my writing.  It looks terrible.  Terrible for me.  Let’s just get that clear right now.  My standard for my handwriting (read: the standard my mother ingrained into me) is rather high.  So while my handwriting is perfectly legible still and probably a lot better than my colleagues’ at work (as they are guys with fairly stereotypical guy writing), it annoys me that it has deteriorated into the state it’s in now.  I’m disgusted.

So, I’ve been poking around on the internets some to see how best to start improving my penmanship back to what it was and maybe even better.  I think I would really like to have the ornate script of ye olden times.  I’m not sure how practical that would be though.  If I’m writing something by hand, I often still need to be fairly quick about it.  Drawing in extra loops and flourishes may look quite nice on paper, but I’m sure it slows down say, your notetaking, considerably.  I don’t like that idea at all.

Interestingly though, I found a tidbit online that suggested that people take a calligraphy class to help with their daily handwriting.  I suppose that makes sense.  Learning the skills and techniques of calligraphy could easily transfer into your normal, daily script.  You could leave out all the flourishes.

Now then, I have no intention of taking a class.  I hardly have the time to breathe, let alone try and find time to take a class.  I would really like to…but again, not practical.  I am the personification of practicality here.  Ok, not really.  I might be the personification of carpal tunnel syndrome.  But that’s also arguable.  Anyway, I can’t find the time to take an actual class on calligraphy, but I do have a calligraphy book that I bought some years back when I wanted to take it up and I do have a set of simple calligraphy pens.  I would really like a dip pen and a set of interesting nibs with interesting inks, but that will have to come at a later date.  What I have now is more than adequate to start out.

So, the plan is to start working my way through the book in earnest.  I will start with the foundational hand and work my way through the hands provided.  I’ll probably provide a sample of my work from time to time and maybe even do some of the projects they suggest in the book.  Hopefully, my penmanship will start creeping back up to my ever-so-lofty standards I set for it.  Hopefully.

 

Business card box for displaying…BUSINESS CARDS!!

The other day I was getting pretty frustrated at work.  It was just a constant stream if interruptions with people asking for help or clarification or a sympathetic ear or whatever.  They were just interruptive.  All I wanted to do was complete a few tasks and I couldn’t go five minutes without an interruption.  On top if that, there were business cards everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  Because sometimes vendors would stop by and interrupt me too, which meant I would get their business card(s) and I would have to have mine out in order to complete the exchange.  So, what to do with the mess and the lack of fulfillment because you can’t complete a single task?  MAKE A QUICK CRAFT TO GET BACK INTO THE SWING OF THINGS!

So, in the five minutes between interruptions, I made a small open-topped box out of my over-generous supply of business cards (nigh two full boxes for the two hats I wear at work, although one is unofficial now despite the official business cards).  I got the idea from Jessica Jones who in turn got the idea from Ned Batchelder.

Materials:

  • five (5) business cards
  • five (5) minutes
  • tape or glue

Procedure:

  1. Fold five (5) business cards as shown on Ned’s site.
  2. My predecessor (of sorts) left me her glue stick, so I put glue on the flaps as necessary.

    A very important picture.

  3. Assemble the box as shown on Ned’s site, but make sure the outside faces of the flaps of bottom and two horizontal side walls are on the inside so you aren’t making a mess somewhere with all that glue.  For the two vertical side walls, the outside face of the bottom flap will be glued onto the bottom of the box and the upper flap will have glue on the inside face and folded over the flaps from the two horizontal side walls.  I realize now that I didn’t take pictures when I was assembling and I don’t have enough business cards on my person to make another box to show you what I did.  Sorry.  But I’m sure you can figure it out.  If you mess up, it’s ok, because you have an over-generous supply of business cards, right?

    Yes, I know how ridiculous it is for me to pixelate everything. But I like pixelating, okay?

  4. Fill your freshly assembled business card box with business cards.

    If you look carefully, you can get an idea of what kind of hats I get to wear at work.

Completing this craft unfortunately did not make everyone else less interruptive.  Sugh.