Skip to Content
Register · Login
About Theme

A Letterboxing Community

Atlas Quest
Search Edit Search

Read Thread: I Do Believe In Faeries...

Meeting Bingo WAS Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89122 by Pierced8x
May 1, 2007 5:47am
Thread (disabled) Board
My developement team does that when we have to meet with Directors (especially when off site Corporate Directors, or equivalent) are in attendance.

Sometimes it is very amusing and the only thing that keeps us awake. We do not stand up and shout or leave the room, but it can be hard to keep composure.

I think it would work....go for it!
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89110 by mowizliz
May 1, 2007 9:57am
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote at the end of the day,
I've got to think outside of the box,
step up to the plate,
and hit it out of the park.

those are cliches that make my eyes start spinning.


At my last job, we had a VP of Engineering that was constantly spouting off these sorts of cliches. I'm a programmer and was responsible for several products at that company. So, in what can only be termed as a "career-limiting move," I put an Easter Egg into those products. If you went into the "About" box, held down "Ctrl-Alt" and clicked on the "A" and the "S" (the VP's initials), a screen would pop up with his picture in it. I had collected several dozen of his well-known catch-phrases, and the program would randomly grab three of them and make a sentence out of them... this sentence would appear in a cartoon speech bubble above his head, and his mouth would move up and down (much like a Monty Python animation), and the computer would play a "wa-WA-waa-wa" sound, like the grownups in a Charlie Brown special. These products shipped with the Easter Egg for about 5 years, before he caught on.

The really scary part, is just how MANY of the random sentences you would ACTUALLY hear him say!

-wassamatta_u, whose currently shipping Easter Egg is the CEO's bobble-head on a penguin body... and hoping his boss doesn't read AQ!
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89316 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 10:21am
Thread (disabled) Board
I don't know where to jump in on all this but since we're talking pet peeves here we go:

I hate it when people say "That's a mute point." I got this all the time at work and people thought they were being so cool to say it and I wanted to jump up and scream MOOT, PEOPLE, it's MOOT!! But I continue to hear it constantly. I wonder if it's one of those things that people started to say wrong and the wrong way caught on....it's a silent point?? or is the point meaningless??

I know that's not grammer....and then there are people like me who use meaningless ellipses.....that is SO annoying.....

....dewdrop.....
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89320 by Dewdrop
May 1, 2007 10:26am
Thread (disabled) Board
and then there are people like me who use meaningless ellipses.....


Okay. I'm guilty of this one. I tend to use it when moving from one thought process to another, but don't finish the first though.

Like, school's almost finished, but......ooohhh, is that chocolate?

Jenni P
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89316 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 10:29am
Thread (disabled) Board
Hrm..and if we wanted to see your artistic endeavors, we'd have to purchase...?
VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89316 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 10:37am
Thread (disabled) Board
Gee, wassamatta_u, why am I not surprised that you were the one to put this hilarious easter egg in a program!

What happened when he discovered it. Were you immediately fired?

Do tell the story!

KuKu

Ross: Wanna hear something weird?
Phoebe: Always.
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89255 by Webfoot
May 1, 2007 11:16am
Thread (disabled) Board
I admit it -- we had no social capital today. We had "human capital", instead. These must have been anti-social humans. ;-)

The truth is, my group does really wonderful things, and I'm proud to be a part of the process. It's just that sometimes, the minutia of the sociological pieces of the puzzle become a bit extreme for the IT group. After all, we don't indulge in long monologues about the intricacies of code development while non-technical people are present. Our eyes glaze over when they share a bit too much and I know theirs would glaze over at some of our team meetings. It's just that as team leader for the technical team, I need to go to a bunch of project planning meetings so that I can help shape the requirements for the applications we'll be writing.

Besides, there are at least two other letterboxers working on projects that we're developing, so I do get to see marvelous folks along the way!! :)

Okay, back into the fray!

Webfoot
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89320 by Dewdrop
May 1, 2007 12:08pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Moot is a good example of a misused word, as well, not only mispronounced one.

Ah, but sometimes it is best to remain mute about moot...is it not?
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89336 by Perdu
May 1, 2007 12:12pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Another misused word is peruse. People usually mean they read through something quickly, when, in fact, it means to read through thoroughly. So, I guess I don't really peruse the AQ boards...

TTT :o)
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89326 by KuKu
May 1, 2007 12:20pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote and if we wanted to see your artistic endeavors, we'd have to purchase...?


Unfortunately, the products (V-Caster, V-TV, V-Synch, and V-Meeting... notice a trend?) no longer exist. The leading-edge high-tech company went under a few years ago (When Good Products Meet Bad Management-101), and was eventually bought by... a Dry Cleaning company! And yes, we employees WERE taken to the cleaners!

Quote What happened when he discovered it. Were you immediately fired?


Actually, he was quite flattered... which really says a LOT about the egos in this industry! No, the thing that ALMOST got me fired was "The Leaf Blower Incident."

-wassamatta_u
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89170 by The Little Foxes
May 1, 2007 12:25pm
Thread (disabled) Board
investing in social capital


what does this mean


capital is what you invest in a project
social refers to interactions with other human beings...or at least, with creatures that may be masquerading as human beings...

therefore, what sort of thing do you invest to improve human relations??

wouldn't this be the sort of behavior once refered to as "sucking up" or "brown-nosing"?

night writer
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89339 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 12:29pm
Thread (disabled) Board
the leaf blower incident?


ok, you have to tell us now

night writer
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89339 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 12:30pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote the thing that ALMOST got me fired was "The Leaf Blower Incident."


Ok, now you HAVE to share! :)

TG
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89344 by Trekkie Gal
May 1, 2007 12:52pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote the thing that ALMOST got me fired was "The Leaf Blower Incident."


Quote Ok, now you HAVE to share! :)


**hehehe.. they fell right into my little trap...***

The company was called First Virtual Corporation. The founder, Ralph Ungermann, decided from the beginning to have an "open work environment." This meant no offices, no cubicles, just one big room where everyone (including himself) worked, in an attempt to keep information and ideas free-flowing. It actually worked pretty well while the company was small (I was the first engineer there), but I think I may have had something to do with the eventual abandonment of this idea...

One of the things they did was have free lunches catered in every day. The only catch was that employees were responsible for clean-up, so we had a round-robin cleanup assignment. Well, one day when it was my turn for cleanup, I decided to sorta have fun with it... after lunch, I showed up in a jumpsuit, with goggles and a face mask, and big leaf-blower on my back (think "Ghostbusters"), and in a tremendously theatrical way proceeded to "clean up". Now, I had never really used a big leaf-blower before - who KNEW they could be that powerful??

Paper flew everywhere. It was like a Keystone Kops movie, me whirling around the office trying to get the beast under control, knocking over things and generally creating utter chaos, while my cohorts were on the floor in paroxysms of laughter. The really BIG problem was that at the time, in this open unsoundproofed room, Ralph was on the phone giving an interview to a magazine, and suddenly this loud roar made it so he couldn't hear a thing! Between that and the fact that the CFO hadn't really glued his toupee down very good that day, well, let's just say I had some 'splaining to do...

The good news was I was thenceforth left OUT of the cleanup rotation.

-wassamatta_u, who has many such tales of corporate shenanigans
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89351 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 1:26pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote wassamatta_u, who has many such tales of corporate shenanigans


Baaaahahahahahahaaaa!

I don't care who ya are, that's funny right there...
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89326 by KuKu
May 1, 2007 1:32pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Oh, looky what I found!

http://www.eeggs.com/

Find what's hidden in your favorite software now! (and blow the rest of your afternoon playing there...)

-AG
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89339 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 1:34pm
Thread (disabled) Board
the thing that ALMOST got me fired was "The Leaf Blower Incident."


I almost got fired from Intel for my quirky personality, but I have to admit, it wasn't nearly as interesting or dramatic as your leaf blower "incident."

From my very first day at Intel, I insisted I did NOT want voice mail. I had no need for voice mail. If someone needed to contact me, I preferred they used e-mail. But nobody would listen. NOOO, everyone has voice mail, and therefore I had to have one too whether I wanted it or not.

Doesn't mean I had to use it, though, and for the first year I worked at Intel, I never changed the message by the person who had that number before me. I didn't even know what the password to get into the account was, and I didn't really care. The only people I ever talked to were my immediate coworkers who worked in the cubes next to me. Send me an e-mail or walk up to my cube but for heavens sake, don't try to call me!

Anyhow, after a year or so of this, I stumbled onto the password for the voice mail account somewhere and someone told me they tried contacting me but all they got was voice mail for some woman they didn't even know. (Yes, that's me, I told them. Never changed the message!) I finally decided to update the voice mail message so at least people would know it was me in the unusual case that someone actually tried calling when I wasn't in my cube.

I don't remember the exact wording, but it went something to the effect that they reached the Strategic Nuclear Defense Institute and to please leave their name, number, and country they wished bombed into oblivion and we'd get back to you as soon as we could.

And that's how my voice mail was for the next year or so. Occasionally, once every couple of months, one of my co-workers would walk up to my cube, chuckling and commenting on the voice mail message. They thought it was hilarious.

A couple of months before I was scheduled to go into the redeployment pool, however, I guess someone from our team in Arizona tried calling me while I was on vacation in California and didn't think my message was very funny. Especially considering our group was to be shut down and everyone in it (myself included) was going into the redeployment pool and possibly later to lose our jobs. Whoever it was--and I never did find out who it was--decided to report me to security, and they didn't think the message was very funny at all either.

So I come walking in on Monday morning and noticed my boss set up a meeting with me for 8:00am. That was EXTREMELY unusual. Nobody has meetings at 8:00 in the morning--most of my group doesn't even get in that early in the morning. So I walked over to the conference room where my boss was waiting and told me the whole story about security wanting me fired since they feared I was likely to 'go postal' and she had to beg and plead with them that it was only a joke, yadda, yadda, yadda.

After that, I stopped leaving joke messages on my voice mail at work. (But I still had one on my answering machine at home--nobody could fire me for having it at home!) I'm pretty sure security did change my message, but I didn't know the password anymore to see what they put for it. Anyhow, I was in the redeployment pool a couple of months later, and did get laid off four months after that, so it's not like I ever needed to use it much.

The lesson to learn from this? When an employee tells you they don't want voice mail, DON'T GIVE THEM A VOICE MAIL ACCOUNT! *rolling eyes*

-- Ryan
Voice Mail message I've never done
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89362 by Green Tortuga
May 1, 2007 2:13pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Okay, the message I have never put on my home phone but wanted to follows. You have to understand I am THE Wizard of Oz fan and have tons of stuff and can do a spot-on impression of the Wicked Witch of the West.

"You've reached Susan's voicemail and if you don't leave a message, just try to stay out of my way. Just try. I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too! (wicked laugh) No, Toto, don't lift your leg! Augghh, I'm melting, melting. . . .(BEEP)."

I just don't have enough guts to actually have that on my voice mail. But if anyone else wants it, I'd be glad to record it for you!

KuKu
(there's a reason that's my trailname)
Re: Voice Mail message I've never done
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89368 by KuKu
May 1, 2007 2:15pm
Thread (disabled) Board
That is hilarious!!! You could put it on your cell phone maybe if you dont get as many calls on it. Or if you dont get any business-y kind of calls.

I would crack up if I called someone and heard that!!

crazyolis
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89351 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 2:22pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote The good news was I was thenceforth left OUT of the cleanup rotation.


Yep, and therein lies the method in your madness. ;-) What a Great Story!

Some people will do anything to keep from cleaning up after themselves.

Knit Wit
Re: VP Easter Egg
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89351 by wassamatta u
May 1, 2007 2:22pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote -wassamatta_u, who has many such tales of corporate shenanigans


Oh my goodness! Well Heeled and I were laughing hysterically! Please feel free to share more of these shenanigans. :)

TG
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89337 by Samsonite
May 1, 2007 6:21pm
Thread (disabled) Board
This is an excellent example! Although I always use it wrong. But I KNOW I'm using it wrong, doesn't that count for something??
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89320 by Dewdrop
May 1, 2007 7:10pm
Thread (disabled) Board
....and then there are people like me who use meaningless ellipses.....that is SO annoying.....

....dewdrop.....


Hi... My name is Teressa.... and I'm an ellipse-aholic
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89430 by Shadohart
May 1, 2007 10:42pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and incorrect grammar can annoy anyone, but what really gets me is when people don't proof-read. I guess it is a bigger eye sore in an academic paper than in a dicussion board post -believe me I've peer reviewed plenty a papers. Nonetheless, I've always felt that if you expect me to take the time to read something, I have the right to expect the same out of you. It so important to be communicate perspicaciously.

Claudia (Oooo rants are fun)

Oh and another thing, I just starting using the dash (-) in my writing. I never used it before this year. I'm not sure exactly when it is appropriate, any thoughts on the dash?
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89465 by Claudia and Alex
May 1, 2007 11:15pm
Thread (disabled) Board
any thoughts on the dash?


I love the dash. Actually, the em dash, to be precise. A short dash has not life, no character. No—it is the long em dash I love to use. Where writing a true em dash is hard or impossible, I'll sometimes take the shortcut of using two short dash (--), but it's the em dash (—) I love.

I tend to use them where most people would use parenthesis. I'm not fond of parenthesis to interject a thought of my own into a sentence—parenthesis seem to imply that "this thought isn't as important as the non-parenthesised though—but that's never true. It's a different thought—not an inferior thought.

And they're so fun to write. Just one, simple stroke of the pen. No complex turns, no T's to cross or I's that need dotting. Whoever invented the cursive G should be shot. In fact, I deliberately write my cursive G's incorrectly—the capital ones, I mean, since I have no problem with a lowercase G—because that's such a messed up letter. My capital, cursive G's look more like printed G's with a single extra stroke to connect it to the next letter—BUT I digress!

The em dash is a beautiful thing. The en dash (–) is okay, and the short dash is to be avoided. Unless it's part of a hyphenated word, of course, because the en dash and the em dash never belong within a word. They are strong symbols used to separate words. Never forget that, young grasshopper.

-- Ryan
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89468 by Green Tortuga
May 2, 2007 1:13am
Thread (disabled) Board
The em dash is a beautiful thing. The en dash (–)


How do you type them? I only seem to be able to do _ and -

Just recently I have acquired a fondness for ~ but that is more flowery and I really only use it in clue titles.

YT
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89465 by Claudia and Alex
May 2, 2007 3:30am
Thread (disabled) Board
I've reviewed plenty OF papers too. s.p.
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89468 by Green Tortuga
May 2, 2007 8:32am
Thread (disabled) Board
I happen to think cursive capital Gs are cool. Now, the cursove capital Qs are another thing.

Btw, how do you make the em dash?

TTT :o)
Re: Mad Grammar & George Carlin
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89337 by Samsonite
May 2, 2007 8:53am
Thread (disabled) Board
As a George Carlin fan, I learned quite a bit about vocabulary and usage from his routines and books; starting in the 70's with his Seven Dirty Words routine.

I can't think of a single stand-up routine or book of his that is not about words, grammar, etc.

Peruse was one of the words he learned from his mother, but had to look up, then brought her the newspaper the next day asking if she’d like to peruse it, but instead of being impressed that he learned this word she said that maybe later she'd give it a cursory glance. This sent him back to the dictionary.
Re: Mad Grammar
Board: Postals
Reply to: #89341 by Romana
May 2, 2007 9:08am
Thread (disabled) Board
Rather than “social capital,” we call that "user buy-in” or "user investment" to indicate that the requesters of the project are behind the project and will continue to be supportive of it. Usually, because we hold some piece of data or process hostage until they agree.

I find that using punctuation marks in different ways is extremely helpful in this type of discourse (board posting). It is not the sort of punctuation that I would necessarily use when writing a letter, a memo, a white paper, a poem, technical specifications, etc.

~Perdu