From Yellow to Green

I am seeing headlines about some counties in PA turning from yellow to green on June 12, but I am not seeing any indication that Philly is on that list.

I wanted to get back to being an aide for my friend Joe J, which I was doing on Fridays after work when we were pre-COVID-closures, and I was all set to do it when Philly and Delco both went to condition yellow. Trouble is, now he has freaking SHINGLES and his mom got attenuated chicken pox from his case of shingles.

So now, we are waiting for both counties to be yellow AND for them to be free of shingles and chicken pox. Grrrrr.

I am just crossing my fingers that the reopening of PA and NJ doesn't precipitate a big spike in COVID cases. I need my dose of Vitamin SEA, dang it! I will be really irked if things start closing back down right now. 😉 If that happens, I will comply, because preserving lives outranks even doses of Vitamin SEA, but I will also reserve the right to grumble about the timing.

Proofreading... more than just a good idea

Mark got a note from a vehicle service regarding his car. I don't think he's actually used them, so your guess is as good as mine as to where they got his contact info.

However... here is the part that makes me nuts: "According to your owner's manual, your [year make model] is due for *it's* 90,000 mile scheduled maintenance."

"It's"? With an aspostrophe? On a document that gets sent out to potential customers daily? Does NO ONE proofread anymore? :headdesk: :headdesk: :headdesk:

Still more from the "Proofreading is your FRIEND" files. The posting of the misspelled Nationals jerseys prompted someone else to post some vintage misspelled baseball jerseys.

And now for the latest installment of "Proofreading is your FRIEND":

Majestic apologizes for 'Nationals' error

The Associated Press

3:48 PM EDT, April 22, 2009

Washington Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman (left) and Adam Dunn are shown wearing the 'Natinals' jersey during Friday's game against the Florida Marlins in Washington. (AP photos / April 21, 2009)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Majestic Athletic spelled things out quite clearly Tuesday: It was the Palmer Township uniform company's fault that Washington Nationals Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman wore jerseys reading "Natinals" during a game last week.

Dunn and Zimmerman donned the shirts that were missing an "O" for the first three innings of Washington's 3-2 loss to the Florida Marlins on Friday night. They eventually changed into jerseys with the team nickname spelled correctly.

"All of us at Majestic Athletic want to apologize to both the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for accidentally omitting the 'O' in two Nationals jerseys," Majestic Athletic president Jim Pisani said in a statement distributed at Nationals Park on Tuesday.

"We take 100 percent responsibility for this event and we regret any embarrassment for the Nationals organization, players and fans," the statement continued.

Update: I got a nice note back from the newsradio station's webmaster.

Dear Donna:

You are right on both counts. I think our morning web editor needs stronger coffee. Thanks for pointing out those errors, and thanks for being a dedicated [newsradio station's homepage].com user!

Regards,
[webmaster's name]
webmaster
[newsradio station's homepage].com

They also corrected the two errors.

Score one for precision! :o)

For crying out loud, doesn't ANYONE proofread anymore?

Last night, I was reading an article on the local newsradio station's website, and there was a sentence describing how firefighters extinguished "a small fire in it's early stages." If there's one thing that drives me up a wall, it's seeing people confuse its and it's, and here are professional writers making the error. ARRRRGH!

The next paragraph of that article said that police were on the site to check on the well-being of the resident of that location. The parents had called them out of concern for their son, "who they hadn't heard from in several days". I can't remember the precise rule here, but my gut instinct is that they should have used whom in that sentence. Therefore, I did the only thing I could do. I politely emailed them about the typoes. Some time later today, I'll go check if they've fixed the error(s).

Anyway, fast-forward to this morning, when I got the latest email from buy.com detailing what's currently on sale. Both the email AND the website describe a "Signing Elvis with microphone"

SIGNing Elvis? What the Sam Hill? Elvis wasn't a sign-language interpreter, as far as I know. I sorta-kinda think they meant SINGING Elvis, don't you?

It's bad enough to read online forums where people post opinions that are a grammatical train-wreck, but at least under those circumstances, the people aren't being PAID to write the content. I can deal with that. As the poster says, "Pobody's Nerfect".

However, it's a major pet peeve of mine that PROFESSIONALS, who are being PAID to enter mistake-free content for a website, make grammar or spelling errors. Take some darn time to READ what you've written, for goodness sakes! Relying on the spellcheck is useless in both of the above instances, because the errors that were made actually ARE valid words. They're just words that are not valid in the context in which they were used, and that's the kind of mistake that HUMAN eyes need to detect.

GRRRR. Why is proofreading such a lost art?

Students receive diplomas with the word "education" misspelled

HAHAHAHA! Proofreading is your friend, people!

Diplomas Proof of High School 'Educaiton'

AP

Posted: 2008-06-06 10:47:17

WESTLAKE, Ohio (June 6) - A Cleveland-area principal says he's embarrassed his students got proof of their "educaiton" on their high school diplomas.

Westlake High School officials misspelled "education" on the diplomas distributed last weekend. It's been the subject of mockery on local radio.

Principal Timothy Freeman says he sent back the diplomas once to correct another error. When the diplomas came back, no one bothered to check things they thought were right the first time.

The publisher has reprinted the diplomas a second time and sent them to the 330 graduates.

I don't know whose face should be redder, the school for not catching the mistake or the publisher who sent it out in the first place. TWICE, since they'd already had to redo the diplomas once because of a different error.

When Phishers Don't Proofread...

I got the attached email this morning:

Dear Beneficial Savings Bank Client,

This is an official notification from Beneficial Savings Bank that the service listed below will be deactivated and deleted if not renewed immediately. Previous notifications have been sent to Billing Contact assigned to this account. As the primary contact, you must renew the service listed below or it will be deactivated and deleted.

Renew Now your Beneficial Savings Bank Bill Pay Services.

If you are not enrolled to Web Branch, please enter your checking account number as User ID and Social Security Number as Password.

SERVICE: Beneficial Savings Bank Bill Pay Services.
EXPIRATION: November 31, 2007

At Beneficial Savings Bank we are dedicated to providing you with exceptional service and to ensuring your trust. If you have any questions regarding our services, please check the website or call our customer service.

Thank you, sincerely,
Beneficial Savings Bank Customer Center

First of all, the fact that they used a generic "dear client" greeting, instead of my name, would be a tipoff that something's not right.

Second of all, the fact that I haven't GOT an account with them is a pretty big red flag.

Third, while they're saying "your service will be deactivated and deleted if not renewed immediately" in one paragraph, in the next paragraph they're telling me what to do if I'm not enrolled in Web Branch. (Just enter some personal identifying information. Yeah, right.) Um, if I'm not enrolled in Web Branch, there's nothing to for me to renew, nor is there anything for them to deactivate or delete.

Fourth, get a load of that expiration date. Thirty days hath September, April, June... and apparently November has a Leap Day this year. I'll mark my calendar accordingly.

Last, "Thank you, sincerely," is not the sort of closing I'd expect to see from a REAL official notice from a bank.

Fargin' crooks. I hope their computers blow up.

The latest in the "Proofreading is your FRIEND" files...



Can't people be bothered to spend a fraction of a second double-checking what they've typed?

P.S. This is not a swipe at the speaker, but at whoever set up the display in the background. Even if the speaker were W, whose mangling of the English language is an endless source of humor to me, I couldn't blame this one on the speaker.

When I rule the world, all people will LEARN TO PROOFREAD!

Gaaah! The seeds of this rant were planted a few weeks ago, when we prepped and sent out a *huge* batch of medical insurance cards for a new customer, which we'll call XYZ Management Services. Soon afterward, we began receiving complaints that the aforementioned cards contained an incorrect customer service phone number on the back.

Therefore, all those cards were reissued, this time bearing the correct customer service number. Seven people dropped everything they were doing to prep yet another giant batch of cards, including adding an insert to the envelope that explained the reason for the replacement card. This insert informed subscribers what the correct phone number should be, and told them to destroy the original card with the wrong information on it.

So there we all were, stuffing cards and inserts into envelopes like mad, trying to get the entire XYZ shipment ready for the mailroom as quickly as humanly possible. Suddenly, we were called to attention by one shout: "Pull the insert!" It turns out that the insert, which was created to explain XYZ's phone number mistake to subscribers, contained a mistake on the corrected phone number...!

Eeeeeyaaah!!! My freaking nerves!

We had to remove the insert with the error from all those envelopes, then wait for the corporate print shop to print Insert Version 2.0, with the information that XYZ Company *really* intended to send. Then we sped through stuffing the corrected inserts into the envelopes with the corrected insurance cards. I couldn't help but notice that the revised inserts were still warm from the printing press.

Like I said: when I rule the world, people will proofread. Someone else provided wrong information, but OUR department was the one to deal with the chaos that resulted.

I need some aspirin.

Finally, I think the saga of the cell phone is just about over. The *second* replacement arrived on Wednesday. (The first replacement was the NON-camera model of this phone, plus it wasn't quite working right -- it wouldn't write to the memory card.)

This time, the replacement phone is the CORRECT model AND it's writing to the storage card just fine. So why do I say the saga is "just about" over? For two reasons.

1. The good news is that this phone came with the upgrade pre-installed (Yay!) The bad news is that I now have to make a few tweaks to get some of my pre-upgrade stuff to behave properly. I'll do that over the long weekend, if all goes well.

2. In the box that I had to use to return the SECOND replacement phone to Verizon, there was a return form to fill out, to ID this device as having come from me. Unfortunately, the box for the FIRST replacement phone contained no such form. I wouldn't have even known the return form existed, if I hadn't had to send back another phone. So I'll have to talk to Verizon yet again, to ensure that they do, in fact, acknowledged that the first returned device came from me.

Eeeeee. There's never a dull freaking moment around here, what can I say?

In other news, today is my first day of flying solo with my job. Renee's maternity leave begins today. Fortunately, there's only ONE enormous shipment of medical cards that hasn't arrived yet. And we wouldn't even have THAT if the dodos who produced the original shipment had a clue how to proofread. This is Round Two for this particular mega-shipment. The first one, all 4000+ cards of it, came in fouled up; they had the subscriber's name where the ID number should be, and vice versa. (Think "NAME: 12345" and "ID NUMBER: John Doe".)

They should have caught that blatant error the first time they created a test card, and it should have been corrected before we ever set eyes on a card. Snafus like that make me nuts. And these pinheads who can't proofread their way out of a paper bag still have jobs in IT, while I got downsized. GRRRRR...

Oh, well. At least we had both Renee AND me for the vast majority of the Humongous Avalanche of Cards. That saved a lot of time.

We get out early today. :o) I love holidays.

Don't people ever proofread anymore? I mean, EVER?

I've been wandering through the Philadelphia section of Craigslist, just to see what job openings are listed with the ability to telecommute. I'm interested to see what, if anything, I can do to earn money from home via my own computer.

The list of possibilities wasn't all that long, so it was easy to spot the one with the title "Shampoo Person".

Um, what? Surely that can't mean what I think it means, can it?

So I clicked on the link. Sure enough, it's a job shampooing hair in a salon.

My mind boggles at the thought of how, exactly, a person could perform that particular task via telecommuting. What does the employee do, reach through the telephone until their hands come out of the phone receiver located in the salon? Wouldn't that entail the risk of electrocution of the employee and/or the customer? Do they have to pay someone else to stand there and position the phone receiver so the shampoo person can properly wash the customer's hair? And wouldn't it be easier and more practical to just teach the "Phone Receiver Holding Person" to do the shampooing, and forget about having the telecommuting "Shampoo Person" on the payroll?

Or maybe it'd be even easier for someone to PROOFREAD the freaking post before finalizing it for publication on Craigslist.

Nah, that last one would be too logical. Forget that.

I've regretfully decided NOT to apply for this particular telecommuting job. I don't think my carpal tunnel problems would withstand all that reaching through phone receivers, not to mention the repetetive stress injuries that could result from doing that job for hours on end.

I'm back. :o) It's no longer hot enough to fry eggs in the computer room, so it's time to reminisce some more on the events of the past week.

On Monday night, there was a rally at the Wachovia Center to celebrate the Phantoms' win. It was nice to see them all clean-shaven again, rather than looking like a bunch of lumberjacks.

I'm still working on posting the pictures from the Cup-winning game and from the rally to clubphoto.com. Albums can only have a maximum of 100 photos apiece, and I took over 300 shots on those two nights combined. It's going to require me to split the photos into several separate albums, to say the least.

That's OK -- that means I get to look at the pics again. There's no such thing as too much of that! ;o)

I was able to get DVDs from a fellow poster at flyersphans.com of games 3 and 4 (the two games in Philly. Comcast in CHICAGO broadcast all the games, which is good because freakin' PHILLY'S Comcast didn't bother to show either of those games. Nor did they air Game 1 (which took place in Chicago). I'm still working on getting copies of that one.

Yes, I did write "copies", with good reason. During the previous playoff round, when we were facing the Providence Bruins, people on flyersphans.com who were going to be attending a particular home game posted where they'd be sitting. I not only posted the location of Mark's and my seats, but I mentioned that I'd be wearing the green Neil Little jersey.

During the first intermission of that game, I was approached by a lady who asked me if I was Gabey8. When I said "yes", she introduced herself to me and thanked me for posting about the Phantoms, since it's hard to come by information about the team in Canada. I thanked her for the compliment, but I must have looked a little puzzled because she explained further: "I'm [player]'s mother".

Aha! THEN I understood. (And also made the connection between her last name and the player in question.) We talked about how the team was doing, and which discussion boards she visits for information. I knew the ones that she listed, plus a couple of others whose URLs I didn't have memorized. So I wrote my email address on the first bit of paper I could get my hands on, and told her that if she sent me an email, I could send her links to all the AHL-related news or discussion sites I visit.

She did, and I did. :o) We exchanged some emails during the Finals, which was when I told her I had made an extra tape of Game 2 (which Philly's Comcast *did* air). She thanked me but said she'd seen Game 2 since it was replayed on a Canadian channel... but did I happen to have a copy of Game 1?

Well, I didn't have Game 1, and still don't, but I'm working on it. Hence, my wish to have COPIES of Game 1... one for me, and one to send along.

I already sent along copies of Games 3 and 4. Or at least, they'd BETTER either be sent along, or on their way even as I type. See, after the rally, Karla and Al and Mark and I waited around the back of the building where the players drive out (which I believe I mentioned in my previous post). One of the players who pulled over to sign autographs for fans was Our Hero, so I waited my turn. Then I handed him the DVDs and told him, "I've been exchanging emails with your mom". (At which point, he grinned. :o) ) "These are copies of Games 3 and 4 of the finals. Give them to your mom". He promised to.

When I got home, I sent out another email to let her know that he had those DVDs for her. "So if he doesn't get them to you, hound him. Um, I mean remind him". :o) Like I said... those DVDs'd better be in Canada right now, or on their way in the forseeable future.

In other news, work has been STUPENDOUSLY BUSY. It sure makes the day disappear quickly, but BOY do I come home tired. I don't mind, though -- busy = job security, plus it's just plain mentally stimulating. I'll take it.

I had a bit of a laugh this afternoon. It came about because we had a doctor calling in to get his wife an appointment with one of our Higher Ranking Doctors. When someone wants to become a new patient of any of our Higher Ranking Doctors, we can't just add them to said docs' schedules. We have to fax a form to the would-be patient's refering physician; and once it's filled out and faxed back, we give it to the requested Higher Ranking Doc so he or she can decide whether they'll see the patient themselves, or assign it to the Fellows Clinic.

Normally, once this procedure is explained, would-be new patients are willing to just get the first appointment with the first doctor that's available. Personally, that makes everyone's lives easier... the patient's, the doctor's, and the office staff's.

But some people are insistent that they want that Higher Ranking Doctor and no one else. That's what today's call boiled down to... this caller wanted THAT PARTICULAR rheumatologist for his wife, and no other. Fine. I got the form ready so I could fax it to his wife's referring physician.

The caller gave me the physician's phone and fax numbers, and mentioned that said referring doc was located at [nationally famous clinic]. I'm not sure if this was intended to make me feel impressed or intimidated... possibly both. But since I have to follow our office's procedure no matter WHO the referring doctor is, I have to admit that it made little impression on me.

Now... most fax machines will display the name of the fax machine that they're connected to, when you're sending a fax. I presume that's how you know that you've called the right number. Imagine my surprise to see that the fax machine in Nationally Famous Clinic's Rheumatology Department is named... RHEMATOLOGY.

I spent a few moments trying to identify the source of my "What's wrong with THIS picture?" sensation. Then I realized that Nationally Famous Clinic had spelled their own department's name wrong on their fax machine, and I had to stifle a burst of giggles. LOL... someone, somewhere needs a reminder that proofreading is their friend!

I still wish that the caller in question would've just gone with the first available appointment, though. If he had, his wife would already HAVE an appointment. As it stands now, she's unlikely to get an appointment with the doctor they're trying to request until OCTOBER at the earliest. And that hinges on our getting the form faxed back to us promptly, as well as requiring our rheumatologist to take prompt action to schedule this new patient. Personally, I don't think the delay is going to do anybody any favors, but hey. It's their appointment. I can't tell other people what to do.

untitled

So I delivered a fax this morning to a Higher Up. It apparently was
printed out from my employer's job-search-related area of their
website.

The person filled in their current contact and employment information,
printed the webpage out and handwrote the attached note on the page: "I
hope to learn more about your co and to appointmet to write ins your
co". Then they faxed it here.

With spelling and grammar like this, I was surprised to see that the
applicant's qualifications listed a current job title that included the
word "Manager". Don't people PROOFREAD anymore? I don't know if there
even IS an opening here (if there is, it's not posted on the bulletin
board yet), what it might be, or what the Higher Up thought when he
read the fax. But I can tell you what *I* thought. I'd have big issues
with a person who didn't take the time to ensure that their spelling
and grammar were accurate, when they were sending correspondence
related to a job request.

I realize that not everyone is a perfect speller or has perfect
grammar. But that's what proofreading is for. And if necessary, that's
what your friends/family are for: to lend a fresh pair of eyes to
review a document and catch the errors that the original author might
have missed.

On another subject: here we go with the good news/bad news again.

The good news: I called the animal shelter this morning and all is
well. The cats passed their blood tests with flying colors (yay!) are
neutered and vaccinated, and are ready to come home. As I spoke to the
lady at the shelter, the kitties were together in the front window,
sleeping in a basket. (See? They're so cute that even though they're
adopted, they're being used to attract interest. :o) )

The bad news: the weather has turned to slop and the shelter, which is
normally open late on Wednesdays, might close early today. DRAT. I want
my cats! I don't WANT to have to wait until Friday night!

I guess we'll see what happens. I'll call the shelter before I leave
work, to find out if they're going to remain open during evening hours
today or not.

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