Cursive to Qwerty

Indiana is the latest in a slew of states that don't require schools to teach cursive anymore, but are requiring "keyboarding."

I may be getting old, but I think this shift from cursive to querty is a shame. 

I remember being both apprehensive and excited to learn cursive in third grade. Cursive was a big-kid thing, a teacher thing. Once you learned cursive, you were practically an adult! I loved tracing the lines, writing the sentences. It was like drawing, for me, except the lines actually went where I expected them to go! I loved it.

For a while.

Once we learned it, we were required to write in it all the time, and being forced to do something always dulls it a little in a kid's eye. When I entered high school, and the teachers couldn't care less how you wrote as long as they could read it, I felt this enormous sense of freedom! I could write how I pleased (and in any color ink I wanted!) Also, having migrated from Catholic school to public school, I could wear colors! Oh, high school. I felt wild and free.

When I started college at Columbia College, the sheer volume of time I spent writing quadrupled. Quintupled. Hex-uppled? Well, it increased. Two fiction classes a semester will have your forearms muscular and your tendons screaming for relief. It was then that I reverted back to cursive. The strain on my hand was much less! I didn't have to pick up my pen after every letter. Instead of smearing my print letters together, I glided effortlessly along the loops of the cursive letters. I found myself pressing more lightly on the paper. And when I went to type up my work, by golly, I could actually read it! It was easier and faster to write, and I've written almost everything (except for short phrases and labels) in cursive since.

So maybe it's a little sentimental that I chafe at this twist towards the cold, precise "keyboarding" and away from my easy-going, flowy, tactile cursive.

Another thing: it's not cursive itself that I feel is so essential. Its the act of sitting down to a task that requires patience and attention to detail that I think is important. I realize that's hard for kids. Life is hard. Learning to do hard things is a part of life.

Also, I think "keyboarding," which I call typing, is something a person is going to learn anyway--like how to use an idiom or time a joke.  I didn't learn to type in a class. I learned to type in an IM. I DID learn to write in cursive in a class, and I write in cursive 99% of the time now. It's more legible, faster, more even, and prettier than my print.

I both write and type a lot. I think that both forms of communication are important. But hitting a keystroke to make a letter doesn't require the same amount of attention. It's easier. Teaching a kid to type doesn't add any value. They'll learn to type any way. All you need to do is teach them where to position their fingers, and they will learn by IMing friends, typing into search bars, typing out papers, updating Facebook and Twitter.

Finally, as a general observation about handwriting and typing, however a person chooses to communicate: Do everyone a favor and spend an extra millisecond in your busy, ultra-important, super cool life to make sure your handwriting is legible, your words are written out, and you are using punctuation to your advantage. no 1 wants 2 rd wat u say when u right lyke this cuz iz hard 2 rd n stuff esp wen u dont use punctuation   And no one wants to decode your handwriting.  So have a care.

And maybe if we did spend a little more time on slowing down and paying attention to detail in lower grades, the general public would have a better time expressing themselves.

The Map

I know a lot of you on #mywana have been talking about the map I made and stuff---so I thought I'd post it here so you all can see it.

Click the picture to see full size--it is quite big, so I could go into detail.

My characters don't go everywhere on this map, and there's a continent to the north that plays a HUGE part, and that's not on here at all. But I'm a firm believer in the fact that you should know everything about your world, and that is why when writing fantasy on a world that doesn't exist, a map is important.


In my WIP, there are lots of natural disasters. Their world is coming apart at the seams, quite literally. So I felt like I had to know where the fault lines were, where the impact areas would be, etc. Also, my character is on a Quest, so he travels quite a bit. This helps me know how he gets there, and what is there when he gets there.


In fact, making the map itself helped me find out more about my places. I discovered, while making my map, a new country I hadn't even known was there. I knew there was SPACE between Elira and Rohola, but not what was there. Well, if you're making a map, you have to put something there. Turns out--Lora. And Lora is important to the economy of the area, if not directly to the story.

And Meglir? Meglir became important because I needed a place for my antagonist to drop off a bunch of stolen treasure--and where better than the place where they trade in precious metals? And it had to be on the way from Rohola to Lakayazmo.  So trade, and the geographical locations of where people are trading from impact the story.


And these are the kind of world-building things I work out while mapping. Maps are important to me, and to my story. I didn't want the story to take the characters off into a place that I didn't already invent--a map is a way for me to keep track of who is where and what that place is like.


If there's interest in how I made it, technically (photoshop, etc) I might be able to do a post on that in future. @ me on twitter (@jajaamanda) or post a comment here, if you'd like to know what I did. I'm not a pro, so all of my techniques are pretty basic: layers, brushes, text, etc. 

The Trials of Katniss

Jennifer Lawrence

I am sure you're wondering why I have a random beautiful girl on the side of this post. Who is this person? Why is she on Amanda's blog? Where have I seen her before?

Well, I will satisfy your curiosity presently.

It's Katniss!

This is Jennifer Lawrence and she will be playing Katniss in the Hunger Games movie. She was nominated for an Oscar this year for Winter's Bone, and if she doesn't really look like the practical, ruthless, skillful, compassionate, faithful Katniss you imagined, just pull up some of the pictures from that movie.

Your faith will be restored.

I have really high hopes for the Hunger Games movie. My one big concern is that they'll do what they did to The Golden Compass and miss the entire point. I hope it doesn't look or feel like Twilight. There is going to be a pretty girl torn between two different and worthy guys, but Katniss is NOT Bella, and I hope that they don't portray her as some romantic damsel. She is NOT romantic. All of the romance in the books comes from Gale and Peeta, NOT Katniss. But Jennifer Lawrence can play it well, I think. I saw the clips from Winter's Bone, and she looked awesome. If she's tough like that, she'll make a good Katniss.

The actors for Gale and Peeta have been cast too, and I am pleased so far, although I have never seen the movies they're in. From their photos, I think they are a good foil for each other. The actor who plays Gale is kind of exotically beautiful, and the one who plays Peeta is kind of down-home beautiful. Gale and Peeta both have their strengths, and they are both good people. They have hard decisions to make, and they do the best they can, even when they make mistakes. I like the dichotomy of the two. In the books, I waver back and forth between favoring them just like Katniss does.

I am sure you have read The Hunger Games, but just to be safe:
SPOILER ALERT.

It's different for Katniss though. She is unromantic. She is practical. She has always been accustomed to putting survival first. I'm a lot luckier. I don't usually have to wonder whether I'm going to survive. Things that threaten my are usually beyond my control: the chance that an airplane I'm on might fall out of the sky, for example. No one can defend themselves against catastrophe.

But of course, I don't live in a post-apocalyptic version of the world. My strength is not continually tested. Sometimes I wish it were, and others, I'm just glad I live in a fairly stable world. On the one hand, I would like to prove to myself that I'm not completely useless. I would like to win a fight, scheme my way out of danger, be determined the fittest in a life or death crucible. On the other hand, I am just glad I don't have to.

One of the reasons I love the Hunger Games trilogy is that I can expound upon it like this. Another strong reason I love them is because it challenges my morals. It challenges what I find acceptable. Katniss is placed in a terrible situation, and she has to make some gut wrenching choices. For her, the choice is constantly between the lesser of two evils. Her position in her world is always precarious. She is balanced on knife's edge all the time. And yet she finds ways to be compassionate in her compassionless world.

In the arena, every person is a danger. No one can possibly be your ally, because every person must be your enemy. Katniss and Peeta solve this in the only way possible: A stalemate fueled by compassion. It was incredibly brave. And had a low chance of success. Most people wouldn't be strong enough to resist the temptation of a rules-devoid battle to the death, especially if you were among the last few. If you killed a few of your opponents, and began to have faith in yourself, if you thought, once, "I could win this. I could survive. I could beat all of the other people." You might be sucked into the glory of it all. A gladiatorial glory. A fight that previously filled you with terror now fills you with power. You feel like you could survive anybody. Bring em' on, and you'll lay them out. I am convinced that Katniss could have prevailed in the arena. But she chose not to.

Looking back with our 20/20 hindsight, and our detached, objective view, it seems obvious that this is the answer. But if we were experiencing it (as we do, from Katniss' eyes, in the present tense, while reading the book) how many of us would make the right decision?

Hard to know.

But I am glad none of us ever have to find out.

"I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. I give Peeta's hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a good-bye, and we begin counting. "One." Maybe I'm wrong. "Two." Maybe they don't care if we both die. "Three!" It's too late to change my mind. I lift my hand to m mouth, taking one last look at the world. The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare." - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Geology, Story, and Finding Something Worth Doing

Hey. I'm a little drunk and I want to talk. I know, I haven't spoken to you in a while. But hey. What the hey. I've said “hey” too much. But hey. What's life for:?!

You know, I miss writing. I miss school. I miss people expecting things from me. Now, if I even go one step out of the way to do something at work, Erin, my sales rep, praises me to no end. “Thank you so much for doing that!” Hey, I say. Just doing my job. Job. Damn. I hate that. I hate that I'm the lowest person in the company. I'm worth more than that, dammit!

And that's why the decision has been made. It was made under my covers, with tears of frustration running down my face. Sobbing. “I want to be a geologist!” And it seemed like the world rolled out a red carpet before me.

It dawned on me. Literally. Like the sun coming up in the east, and flashing in my eyes so I had to squint. Why the hell not? If I could go back to school to teach, why couldn't I go to school to study rocks? School is school! And this time, I wouldn't go just for fun, like I did at Columbia. I would go with an aim to work in the field. If I could work with rocks, with the earth, and write when I got home, and marry the man I love and have children... the world would be a perfect place. I could do two of those things now—I could marry Gordon and write. And kids, I'm sure, would not be far behind. But I have missed geology ever since my class ended. And I love it. I mean, I'm so curious. Science intrigues me like no other. Especially about the earth.

My god! I love the earth! It's a fabulous, fantastic place, with interesting things at every turn! Maybe its because I live in Michigan, and my whole life has been shaped by the geology of the place. The lakes. The dunes. The inherent nature. I live in a mid-sized city that has not dominated the land, but thrived with it. Coming down the East Beltline northward as it turns into Northland Dr., I can see the lay of the land. It grieves me to see Lake Versluis, which is man-made, the evidence of a gravel pit that is now perhaps a quarter mile north. But other than that, I can see the hills! And looking out my front yard, I see a mass of greenery and trees, which hides a hill. I know that if I take Jupiter up to Post and drive up there, I'll be on top of the hill, but I have an urge to walk it. I want to dig into it, see what it's made of, and why it's there. I want to feel the land beneath my feet. One thing I love about geology is that you don't have to a far to experience it. It's at your feet, wherever you are. It is the science of the earth. And it affects you every single day. It tells the story of our tumultuous planet.

Another reason I love geology is because I love creativity. And perhaps I, personally, did not create the earth. But it was created. And I love reading the story of that creation. And all things are affected by the land. Land creates stories. It's a melding of things I love. I have been writing a story for a while now, than in my head I simply call, “Torin's Story.” He is on a quest. He is not a person of any renown. He is in fact, someone like me. He's studying, and working nothing-jobs. It's his friend, Amycus, who leads him to adventure. Torin experiences each of the seven hells, and in consequence, spends his life searching for the seven heavens. It is not like Dante at all, especially since I haven't referenced Dante to see what seven hells would be like. It is my own imagining. But during Torin's quest, he travells across his world. And the geology of his world influences the decisions he makes. It's like the actual shape of the ground beneath him leads to his story and conducts it. It is because Torin was born in a thriving harbor city that the chance to board a ship was available. And other reasons.

I was watching Naked Science today about a 114 degree Farenheit degree cave of enormous gypsum crystals. Perhaps Torin goes to a place like this. Who knows? I am still writing. I have recently read a book written by a cartographer and I learned that I must be careful not to let my love of geology weigh my stories down. The geology should enhance them.

And I should seek my bed.

To bed!Show all

Sweet dreams world. I surrender my waking self to thee. Goodnight!

The Burning

Earlier this month, while driving around in my big ole SUV (which I love and inherited from my cousin, who is off in Germany being a good little wifey-poo) I noticed that the the tops of many of the trees were a gut-wrenching orange-yellow-crimson cocktail of fall color. It's been a while since I've experienced a West Michigan fall, and I think I actually moaned at how pretty it was.

Of course, my Great Escape, the fantasy story I'm writing, was hovering over my shoulder. I turned to it, and said, "You know, Torin's from a tropical area. When he gets farther north, I bet it's fall. I bet the people there call it 'The Burning' and have really wild harvest festivals. I bet they have death rituals and lilting dances to haunting melodies."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how ideas come.

A few days ago, my dad locked his keys in his car at a Meijer in Lowell. I'd never been out to Lowell, and on the way back, we took back roads along farms carved out of the woods. It was about 6pm, and had that nice honey-colored late afternoon sun that seems to last all day in the fall. I took out my phone and took a video of the drive. And now here it is, for you!