Earlier today I was at my grandparents watching TV, reading newspaper and basking in their company. My grandpa uses snail mail to keep in touch with all his friends, mostly because he couldn't quite care for using computers, not that he completely can't but I guess it's just a matter of preference.
One of the many people he keeps in touch with is my grand-aunt, his younger sister, and every Sunday, without fail, he'd cut out 2 comics - Chew on it (Yes the definitive Singapore comic strip) and Pickles. So once in a while when the comics build up to a certain number, he'd mail them, together with a lengthy letter over to her. Whether she responds similarly, I have no idea.
Anyway the thing is that I notice that in letters (informal), people generally write a lot of stuff (judging from the amount of text squeezed into a piece of paper at while sniping glance at a distance).
On the other hand, it might be just my experience, but emails (informal) are usually so bloody short, and to some extent just don't convey the same warmth and/or character as handwriting and a real personal signature does. The longest emails I get are usually chain emails...
I guess that's why they call it the good old days.
---------------
Later in the evening, I watched some history channel. In my opinion, they've taken over showing the cool stuff that discovery used to show. Anyway, I watched some show about body language.
It was pretty cool to learn about the various clues that give how someone is really feeling away, as well as when there might be more questions to ask. Stuff they showed included the bodily gestures, like placement of hands.
E.g. If someone starts using one hand to hold another or fold their arms or grip something in way that they could do so tighter or grip something that doesn't need gripping, it probably means that they are on the defensive, or said something that they may have doubts in saying.
By the end of the show, I realized that I tend to fold my arms a lot, and am generally pretty defensive anyway. Another question came to my mind, if these people are experts at identifying body language, would they be experts in masking their own too ?
Other than that, I think I should go dig out my secondary school art stuff, and start practicing painting, because I think it is the single most valuable skill to have in art. I was a bit inspired after reading the recruit section at the back of the classifieds. The guy does caricature as a job AND hobby.
