rhetorical, Ryan...if you would be so kind....

[RyanLanane]

Thanks Morgan ... Wow i have got more business related advice here the last week then... Well, in a while. It could have to do with the fact I am taking business more seriously.. but none the less - It's nice

Morgan would of helped me anyways because she is just one of the coolest, sweetest, and most kind people I have met. But I have also seen snippets of advice here and there that have been very helpful

[MorganGrayson]

Originally Posted by RyanLanane

Morgan would of helped me anyways because she is just one of the coolest, sweetest, and most kind people I have met.

I've got the lad totally fooled. I'm really just after phone sex with him!

Originally Posted by Sin

Thanks Morgan, its good to see you again too! Hope you had a great New Year & Holiday season!

Hi, Sin! Had an absolutely wonderful holiday season...but - per usual - I am SO glad they're over with! I'm packing to move now, which is physically killing me, but exciting. I've never picked up more objects and muttered "what *is* this and why do we own it?" in my life.

Originally Posted by rhetorical

Sometimes I wonder what happened to public education. I am not the most literate of souls but what I see "graduating" from high school today makes me cringe.

You are very literate, and depending upon where you are currently standing, a Rhodes Scholar equivalent. They lowered the standards and kept lowering them in public education. I remember my mother looking at me and saying "What do you mean, you've never read Moby Dick?!?!?!?" (She was a graduate of Cathedral High School in Springfield, MA, which means her high school education was most likely the equivalent of a Master's Degree today.) By the time my children were in high school, I was reduced to "what do you mean they never taught you to diagram a sentence?!?!?!?!?" To this day, my youngest says "oh, I got a great education...but I got it at home."

I've tried reading Moby Dick, for my mother's sake. I can't get past page 119, no matter how hard I try. Seven pages explaining why the damned whale was frightening because it was white. I counted. Seven damned pages explaining why white was frightening. Oh, for heaven's sake....

[softball]

Originally Posted by MorganGrayson

:




They lowered the standards and kept lowering them in public education. I remember my mother looking at me and saying "What do you mean, you've never read Moby Dick?!?!?!?" (She was a graduate of Cathedral High School in Springfield, MA, which means her high school education was most likely the equivalent of a Master's Degree today.) By the time my children were in high school, I was reduced to "what do you mean they never taught you to diagram a sentence?!?!?!?!?" To this day, my youngest says "oh, I got a great education...but I got it at home."

I've tried reading Moby Dick, for my mother's sake. I can't get past page 119, no matter how hard I try. Seven pages explaining why the damned whale was frightening because it was white. I counted. Seven damned pages explaining why white was frightening. Oh, for heaven's sake....

Our parents read. Our grandparents read. That was their primary way to absorb information about that which they may not have been able to experience. Times have changed. We have many, many more ways of absorbing info, from documentaries, radio, television, and getting on a plane and experiencing that which they could only read about. Now along comes the internet and whatdayaknow? Kids have to read again, but much more succinctly. They can answer any question you like in under five minutes with a high speed terminal. You don't need to "know" as much, you just have to know where to find it. That leads to another problem. Spelling. If you can't spell it, you can't find it (well, certainly not as quickly). It is an evolutionary process. Our penmanship sucks, but we type 130 wpm, so who needs a pen.
We have email, so long letters have become less necessary. We can squirt off a couple of paragraphs three or four times a day. It is a different style of intercourse, but it certainly is effective and useful

What we have lost is elegance, and I see no hope of regaining that in the future. It is lost to the common man.

[MorganGrayson]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

What we have lost is elegance, and I see no hope of regaining that in the future. It is lost to the common man.

Are you deliberately attempting to seduce me, or is this just a lucky by-product?

Back in the beginning of my career on the internet, whenever someone would attempt to explain something technical to me, I took to whining "I write with a fountain pen! I don't understand any of this!"

During a recent period of "taking back my own life" I resumed the long habit I once had of handwriting letters. I still prefer them. I like things I can touch. I like knowing that the recipient knows I went to the trouble of handwriting it, that I held it in my own hands. I fuss with stationary, note cards, stickers for the envelopes and select just the right stamps. Quaint, archaic...and very emotionally fulfilling. I use e-mail and frequently send e-cards, but...they're just not the same.

One of the "banner days" of my life as a parent was the day we sat down with the Encyclopedia Brittanica saleswoman and paid heavily for a *brand new, up-to-date* set. This was pre-internet and my children didn't quite understand why Mommy was in tears over the whole thing. It meant the world to me, that MY kids had a brand new set...at home.

I still prefer books to television. I don't knock the internet as an information source. But you do have to be able to read and spell to use it. (There is a search engine that enquires "do you mean this?" when you search for something and nothing comes up, though. I don't know whether to be happy about that or not.)