Handwriting

 My parents have tried unsuccessfully for years to get my brother and I to fix our handwriting. My dad even got me a handwriting practice book for Christmas (passive aggressive much?). I dabbled in it a bit in the beginning of quarantine but my handwriting has since reverted into scrawls again.

Early on, handwriting styles differed wildly from region to region. An attempt to standardize writing and legibility yielded Carolingian miniscule, which had lowercase letters, word separation, and punctuation. Parchment got more expensive, though, so people tried to push back against the gothic handwriting/blackletter by using a more looped, cursive form of writing. Elegant penmanship soon became a status symbol, so there were many schools to train master scribes. These master scribes were responsible for copying important documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but it was quite different among non professionals. 

Amateur writers adopted handwriting styles that reflected various professions and social ranks. Men and women had their own flourishes in handwriting based on their sex, for example. Afterwards, there were several handwriting styles that emerged to democratize handwriting and make it easier to learn. These included the Palmer method, Spencerian method, Zaner-Bloser method, and the D’Nealian method. It’s likely that your school taught cursive the D’Nealian way if you’ve ever seen this:

Clearly, though, technology has seemingly dampened the importance of beautiful penmanship. Why spend time practicing handwriting if there are typewriters, keyboards, and fonts that will do it all for you? While I agree to some extent, I still think there’s a place for handwriting in the modern world. If nothing else, it’s nice to look at, and we still need calligraphers to make new fonts for us. With all that said, how can we improve our handwriting?

The first steps are basically all the prep work. It’s important to find the right pen (ballpoint vs gel, tip size, color, brand, grip/body, etc.) or pencil. You can explore your preferences by doing some drills like loops and lines, which will also help you relax. 

Next, figure out what grip you like. While the dynamic tripod grip is widely regarded as the most stable and relaxed, there are alternative grips that many prefer as well. Google around and try a couple before settling on your favorite. Just make sure that you’re not holding it too tight, which is a common mistake that fatigues the muscles very quickly.

After the prep work, this is when methods start to disagree. Some say to model after a font or a calligrapher that attracts you and go from there. Others say to start with examining your own handwriting. That part doesn’t seem to matter as much if you practice consistently. Doing drills constantly and modifying certain letters will greatly improve your handwriting. After long enough, you’ll be left with beautiful, consistent, and personal handwriting.

-Zhaoxin

Attack on Titan: Why it is my favorite manga

    Last week was very eventful for anime and manga fans, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 6 anime was announced, the new season of Zombieland Saga debuted, one of the best action chapters in all of One Piece's 24-year history was made, and most importantly, my favorite manga: Attack on Titan, by Isayama Hajime, has ended after 12 years. I'm not going to be spoiling anything in this blog, I will only be writing about my experiences with the manga. 

Volume 20 cover art

    Upon first glance, Attack on Titan is a bit...no, extremely weird. In fact, even I used to describe it as "mindless, naked giants running around eating people." However this is far from the real hook of the story, the main drawing point of the manga is the realism even though the premise is as fiction as they come. Every single character has enough history and personality to make them almost seem real. I do not think there is any character the readers could've hated by the end of the story. Each of them has a  justifiable motive and a history that made them who they are now. And most importantly, the point that makes the manga so realistic compared to many other Shounen mangas, is that each of them could die at any point of the story, there is no plot armor and in most deaths the victim doesn't have any last words to move the plot forward. Not just the characters, but the world-building is just as, if not more breathtaking, the 2000 year history and well-thought-out geography only adds realness and engagement to the viewers' experience. 

one titan using osoto gari judo throw on another titan

  Next, I would like to talk about the action part of the manga. There is usually 2 ways a 1-on-1 fight could be: titan vs titan or human vs titan. Titans are giant humanoid figures, while they are usually mind-less and have the intelligence of a potato, a few titans are actually capable of thinking and sometimes even talking. For reasons I cannot say, each intelligent titans has a specific attribute that they specialize in, resulting in an extremely interesting and engaging fight every time 2 meets. Some of my favorite fights are from the "brawler" kinds of titans, in these fights, they would perform real-world MMA techniques such as a triangle choke, arm-bar, and guillotine. Human vs titan is also very cool due to the size differences. Humans are able to take down titans using the ODM or 3DMG (same thing, different translations) gears, these are a combination of grappling hooks, jet pack, 2 swords, and a scabbard filled with replacement blades. Because a titan's weakness is at its nape, a human would have to fly up close and cut it with the swords.

ODM (omni-directional mobility gear) design

    Lastly, I really enjoyed Attack on Titan's theme of Freedom and becoming free from your past, family, and everything else that is out of your control. Again I cannot say much about this theme's appearances in the story, however I feel that freedom is extremely important in society right now.  I definitely would recommend you to read the manga as it is not extremely long. I also hope I didn't hype it up too much, as part of the reason I love this series so much is that I grew up with it, I've been reading the monthly chapters monthly for about 7 years now so there's a lot of memories and experiences I associate with it.  

The Giver Quartet

     

    The Giver Quartet is a series about a utopian world and consist of the books The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son. My favorite part about these books are the connections between each story. In the world that these books are set in there are many different communities or worlds and times. Throughout each book though you can see characters, settings and event from the other books. I also love the length of these books. Each book is no longer then a few hundred pages, making it an easy read for rainy day. 

The Giver

    The Giver is the first book written in the quartet. It follows the life of Jonas, A young boy growing up in a world where everything is planned out and the same. He was picked for a special job though and was given access to memories of before the sameness. Through these memories he can see the wrong in his world and works to change. What I liked most about this book was the views it argues. In the world the young boy is living in, everyone lives the same life, they don't get to choose their jobs and they are content about it. None of the people living in this community realize that there is  different world outside of theirs. Overall, this book is a great book, it well written, makes you think, and entertaining. 

Gathering Blue

    This book is my personal favorite out of the quartet, although I might have a bias, as it was the first book of the quartet that I read. Kira, a 15 year old girl with a deformed leg, is recently orphaned after her mom died of a sickness. Her community usually leaves cripples to die in a field, so to prove herself useful she begins work for the council as a sewer. While working for the counsel she notices some suspicious behavior, and discovers secrets. I really liked the characters in this book. The story is told by Kira, so you get a front row seat to her thoughts and development throughout the book. I also liked the plot of the book. You never quite know what's going on in the big picture, though the author leaves subtle hints here and there. 

Messenger 

    Messenger is a story about Matty, is one of Kira's friends from Gathering Blue. He Travels between his town and Kira's town to deliver messages between Kira and her father. The forest which he must travel through reflects the towns people's attitudes and starts attacking and hurting Matty. On his final trip through the forest he had to lead Kira back to her father, but the forest had other plans for him.  While I enjoyed reading this book and do not regret reading it, I do not think I will ever read it again. It had an interesting story line and was thought provoking, but there was just not enough action. The beginning was slow with very little action, and it was not till the end that something exciting was happening. 

Son

    Son is the story about a boy Jonas saved in The Giver and his mother. The Mother gave birth to a son named Gabriel, but due to the rules of the town she wasn't allowed to keep him. One day she learns that her son was lost, and Gabriel the town had nothing to offer, so she escapes on a boat to a remote town next to the sea. Gabriel, after leaving the town with Jonas ends up in the woods where Jonas creates a new settlement. As he grew older he became more curious, and one day, sets out to find his mother. My favorite part about this book was how part of it was set at the same time and place as The Giver, but following a different character. Throughout the book you can see glimpse of scene from The Giver and although it doesn't clarify anything, it adds more dimension to the story.  This book was my least favorite book out of the quartet, I did not like how it used magic, and I didn't find the story to be interesting. I also did not like the ending of the story, I found it to be to cheesy and not in line with the theme of the other stories. If I were to rate it, I would give it 2.5 stars out of 5. 

Overall I would definitely recommend reading The Giver and Gathering Blue. They were fun to read and brought up lots of interesting points. As for the other two books they were good, but they are only fun to read if you have already read the The Giver and Gathering Blue. 

 

Thanks for reading!

 - Sophie A