being jake wood

With the new age of digital texting and computers, have we seen the last of the formal skill of writing in cursive? I remember spending years perfecting my own style of cursive. Whole chunks of time in school were devoted to perfecting your cursive handwriting. But in the age of iPhones and laptops, is it really practiced still? Should we still spend the educational time to train students in a dying art? Will we see less and less of the written word and more of the digital word? Like it or not… it’s here.

JW

Have you ever went to go check the local weather, maybe on your iPhone or on the web and get this wonderful information:

cloudy  32 degrees

… and then somewhere close by you read

“feels like 40 degrees”

What’s this all about?  I’ve been doing this for years.  Checking the weather and saying, “oh, it’s 50 degrees out, but it actually feels like 40″.  If it actually felt like 40, wouldn’t it be 40 degrees?  Am I crazy, or do we have another new way to measure what it feels like rather then what it actually is?  And how exactly are we getting these “feels like” temperatures?  Is it some flunky weather guy going outside and saying, “yeah, I guess it feels more ike 40 degrees instead of what it actually is” and then posting it?  From now on, please don’t tell me what it “feels” like,  but tell what the temperature is.  Leave the guessing up to me.

So I like to do these rambles on things in life that I think about way more than I should. These thoughts usually are petty and mean very little to most, but since you’re still reading this, it at least intrigues you.  Today’s deep thought is about bathroom doors.  About 85% of all public bathrooms that I go into have a metal door that swings towards the toilet.  Why?  Why not outwards? Is there an obvious reason that I’m missing here?  All I know is that when I visit one of these public stalls, (which is an emergency all in of its self) I’m stuck having to maneuver around a dirty toilet because the door swings back 2 inches from the toilet seat.  

And while I’m at it, why do most bathrooms have a “pull” door handle on the exit where I have to pull open in order to leave.  Doesn’t it make sense to have a push door, so I don’t have to grope some dirty handle?  

Am I all alone on this?

Next time you’re in the elevator and glance down at all the shiny buttons, you’ll notice 2 different buttons that will open or close the doors when pressed.

I have a theory.

I’ve decided that the “door close” button on every elevator is just a ruse to get me to look like an idiot.  Because I hate waiting for anything, I’ll get into an elevator and press the “door close” button repeatedly.  And 99% of the time I look like a dummy who can’t wait 3 seconds for it to actually close.  Sometimes I think by pressing that button, it actually keeps the doors open longer.   Am I the only one who tries this button?

Why is there an unwritten rule that no one should talk with each other on an elevator?  Even when I’m with someone I know and someone enters the elevator, I have to continue my conversation in a “quiet” manner.  If you really want to freak people out, then next time get in the elevator, turn around, wave at everyone and say “would you join me in a chorus of ‘You Are My Sunshine’?”  That’ll change the atmosphere.