[lbo-talk] Twitter: >40% pointless babble

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Fri Aug 14 17:27:11 PDT 2009


At 08:04 PM 8/14/2009, RicardoStarkey at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 8/14/2009 3:50:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
>shag at cleandraws.com writes:
>
>
>At 05:31 PM 8/13/2009, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>"I personally don't give a crap about 'u' or 'k' or 'ty' 'tx' or 'r'
>or any of that. who cares?"
>
>
>
>It bugs me because we have one writer who can exercise a little
>discipline, thereby saving hundreds or thousands of readers extra work,
>but because
>the writer wants to save a few keystrokes, the readers are called upon to
>expend additional effort to make out what the writer is saying. If writers
>follow the established conventions, readers could read very quickly and
>easily, but by contravening them, readers are slowed down.
>
>Speaking of established conventions... My eyesight isn't what it used to
>be, and reading the output of those who eschew the upper case can be a
>problem. The older I get, the tinier those periods/full stops appear to
>be.
>What are you who don't use the shift key saving? A few seconds? A few
>calories?

yeah. I thought that the first time my boss used 'u' and 'r'. I have also noticed that very few people I work with use these conventions while at work. The people who do are from other countries.

I understand the objections; I have thought the same. But in the end, I guess I just can't get terribly upset about it. I have a million and one other things to worry about at work, getting upset when someone types "can u look at the API?" at me. I'm probably likely to blow a gasket about the fact that boss is asking me to do that because he won't say no to his boss and i'll try to tell him it's a bad idea zombie. He'll nod and agree and say, "chalk it up to the executive multiplier" which is shorthand for, "It's a bad idea zombie from the big boss." In which case, the use of 'u' falls right off my radar. Because the Bad Idea Zombie has to fall off my radar too unless I want to pop Tums every hour.

as for lowercase: I do it when my hands are tired. So: bite me. Same thing with not profriding everything. I have plenty to do. You get my brilliance avec typos, dropped commas when I know better, and shagslippages. My typings are a natural product. Slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance their individual character and beauty and are not to be considered flaws or defects. Michael Pollak once told me that they make me look careless (as in uncaring about other people) and maybe a little ignorant. Oh well. I figure that's your problem if you think so.

shag



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