How To Become A Curmudgeon

seems i'm pretty much all those things, though i wonder if a real one would read that list to see if they are one.

wish it was easier to spell.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Love it. I must be at last 80% curmudgeonly :D

- Richard Reeve
ReevePhotos.com

very insightful..the way i've always defined it only highlighted the negative characteristics.
I'd proudly wear some of those positive ones!

I'm getting there. ;-)

Been there for years. Don't need to read the list.

Dictionary.com defines curmudgeon as this: a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person. Your outline doesn't match the dictionary definition. Let's ask the Dali Lama to clear up the discrepancy.

Most coins have two sides. This is a great article for the positives, and some good warnings about the stereotypical negatives.
I intend to revel in my curmudgeonly glory, and try, at least a little, to minimize my curmudgeonly faults.

Yup... Just read it... I be there already! lol

Jim, curmudgeons don't do spin. ;)

Spinning it, I consider myself individualistic.

The video at the bottom was fun.

Dave

"...I intend to revel in my curmudgeonly glory, and try, at least a little, to minimize my curmudgeonly faults."

Ditto, Gregory. :)


The secret is to know when to turn it on, or turn it off. I've inadvertantly ticked people off at a little league baseball game, just because I expressed my thoughts about things relating to organization. I have a low tolerance to BS. :)

Wow.... getting that one well under control. & you all thought I was cheerful.

@ Mike - I did think of you ; )

I will get really bore with being so nice, sweet, perfect words, etc. No fun at all. Life is not like that.

When I mentioned to my husband I was practicing to be one -- he ever so succinctly inquired "Practicing?" ;)



carmenhathaway.com

Suddenly, I really like the concept of curmudgeon.

They look like self-absorbed creatures.

Utterly and completely. They're drawn to threads like this. Many lurk ;)


carmenhathaway.com

I REFUSE TO ALLOW THIS TERM."CURMUDJUN" TO BE USURPED BY WIPPERSNAPPERS !!

( If I could only spell it.)

Cute...Roger, Whippersnappers came first. I like it better.

Well, I could relate. I often think popular opinions are extremely stupid. I mean what the F is wrong with owning a mini-van??? Who decided you were emasculated if you drove one? That's just stupid. As is only wearing designer labels, not wearing a hat when it's minus 20 outside because it doesn't look "fashionable" or it might mess up your hair....I can think of many, many more. Yeah, I'm probably a curmudgeon. People are lemmings......

Most of what is in the how-to just makes sense - dress comfortably, tell the truth, think for yourself, don't fall for the latest trend, save money, don't get angry, find humor in the world around you...

Not quite seeing how those things are curmudgeonly except by the author's personal definition which is quite different from how the word is usually used - more like the definition from the dictionary that Jim posted.

The author says it's a myth that curmudgeons are crabby. Yet according to Webster, a curmudgeon is "a person (especially an old man) who is easily annoyed or angered and who often complains"

That seems like a crabby person to me.

I get easily annoyed and angry when people who don't really know the meaning of a word use it incorrectly and try to get to others to do so, too.

So I guess I'm a curmudgeon by the real meaning of the word ; )

So if all curmudgeons are crabby, does that mean they are Cancers?

Good one, Andy ! : )

Ahh, no. The author of that article is out to lunch.

Curmudgeon. Somebody considered to be bad-tempered, disagreeable or stubborn. A killjoy, a wet blanket.


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

if not going along with the crowd is a kill joy, then i guess so. following trends and doing everything else everyone is doing, is just being a sheep.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Edward,

Are you saying that they should not teach cursive? Haven't finished my coffee yet, so still foggy here. :)

Many schools no longer teach cursive.

Check out waldorf schools....they are gong completely back to basics....no technology allowed and many parents in hi tech industries are sending their kids!

they stopped teaching it, there are too many other things to learn. how they will read it, i don't know.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike, im ' guessing you are about my son's age....do you write cursive or print? My kids both print.

Until mirror image cursive is an acceptable alternative (for lefties)...Leave cursive to the calligraphers

Roger, Roger, Roger...we've been down this road...mirror image cursive doesn't solve any problems for lefties. We don't have issues reading the written word.

As an aside, Hebrew is written from right to left and if the Israelis haven't come up with help for righties, I seriously doubt its a real issue.

it depends how you define it... its sort of a jumble at times.

my science teacher taught us to write in all caps because its easier to read, my text curved down the page. he forced using a ruler on us, that is writing on one. now i write perfectly straight lines of semi legible text that are mostly in all caps. unless i write my name then its sort of a mishmash of cursive and greek.

the shopping list is a combo of caps and lower case, print and cursive-ish.

and of course online i type only in lower case because i'm too lazy to hit shift. but i don't capitalize when i when i speak so i guess that's ok. i think the american/english alphabet has too many characters in it. upper, lower, and the same in cursive - and maybe even in old english as well. i think we are the only ones that do that.

i never cared for cursive, it was mostly used for quill pens so you didn't have to lift them up. i'm guess because every time you lifted and placed there was a chance of all the ink coming out. so i guess if you left the point down, you can make one long flowing word. but today we have keyboards and such, and not that many even write with a pen. today, i have issues using a pen because i don't use it as much as i did when i was younger.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

you describe exactly what my kids do....and this is the result of hat was happening in the 70s in public schools...

Edward, I thought they weren't worried about teaching people to write cursive so much as reading it? It could come in handy when researching correspondence for a doctorates or reading ship passenger lists for genealogy. Or if you're writing a historical novel set in some obscure period, you can dredge up some juicy details.

i went to school in the 80's and graduated in 90 i think. learned the caps thing in the 7th grade. i'm just glad we do have keyboards, it makes it possible to read what people are saying. for the most part.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

my bad, i meant 80's...born in the 70's

In AZ, they were already introducing Denealian (sp?)
It was just adding a loop to the end of a letter to hook it to the next.....

Marlene,

It's not only the reading

It's the writing.

Refusing to contort my hand, I always had to deal with the smudge of ink, on the side of that left hand,


Edit:

...,as I smeared and made a complete mess of what I wrote

It's perfectly possible for lefties to write with their hand below the line they are writing on - I know, because I do it. I think the whole problem comes from teachers trying to twist lefties round to make them mimic righties in dragging the pen instead of pushing it sideways. Arabic is written right to left without it causing problems - and I doubt if there are many Arabs writing with their left hand.

You have to also learn to read more than one version of cursive, too. I wasn't aware of Denealian but Zaner Bloser is still too current, but you can sort it out enough with some work.

Paul, so true. Or not letting kids write with their left at all.

I recall when my granddaughter announced her school wasn't teaching cursive..why would she ever need it?
I wrote her a check and we took it to the bank to cash.
I winked at the teller and asked her to cash the check...she said she would need a signature to endorse the back of it.
My granddaughter at least, learned how to sign her name that day!

To write cursive properly and comfortably, one's hand must be at a 45 degree angle to the writing and with the right hand only...

I'm a tad younger than you, Roger and my teachers turned my paper at a 45 degree angle the opposite way....still proper and accommodating.
Lefites are no longer forced to write rightie.

Marlene,

You still had to push the pen, rather than pull it

i don't think so, Roger.
It's the same difference, unless you are using a fountain pen or a calligraphy pen.

As I have said before, mirroring is about reading, not writing....

While I identify with a lot of the traits, I must admit that I have worn quite a bit of spandex in my day, ... AND thongs (male dancers call them "dance belts" for the support purposes for which they are designed).

... too much information, perhaps.

... guess that makes me a less pure curmudgeon [ had to scroll all the way back to the top to see how to spell it ].

Interesting thoughts concerning cursive writing, and having worked in the school system I find it interesting. Who would like to volunteer to start a separate thread on it? Just trying to keep this thread on topic, in my best non-curmundgeonly way. :)

Robert, you are right..TMI lol

RE: Cursive Writing

Is that written swear words?

Asked by a befuddled old curmudgeon.

How To Become A Curmudgeon.... claim photographers aren't really artists.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

(written in modified cursive script)

Sorry Roger, I can't read that. Can you rewrite it in CAPS please

Roger, funny and funny ( your last two posts)