August 27, 2007
Orientation Week and High Quality T-Shirts
It's orientation week for a lot of schools in New York City, so I wrote a post at the other site about things that colleges and universities are doing to welcome incoming freshmen. They range from the mundane (a class on how to navigate City College's library) to quintessentially 2007 (how to socially network face to face in the age of Facebook and MySpace), which leads me to believe that the freshmen of today might very well be even more socially akward than I was as way back when. Fortunately, I fell in with a good crowd of people almost from the start and everything worked out fine. I bumped into one of that crowd this week on 43rd St. in Manhattan, completely randomly, as we were both rushing off to different destinations.
I e-mailed her today to say it was a nice coincidence, with a link to the post about college orientation, noting that it had been exactly XX years since our orientation. Her reply was a perfect storm of surprise, alarm, denial, and consternation in about a dozen words: "are you serious? that's frightening, i don't know what you are talking about! yikes." My sentiments EXACTLY!
As I wrote her back, I realized that the t-shirt I was wearing was purchased during that orientation week many many years ago; probably the first day, likely with money my parents slipped me after moving me into my dorm. My t-shirt is not as old the class of incoming freshmen arriving at Columbia, NYU, Fordham, and other schools across the country, but it is getting alarmingly close to the point where I will be able to say "I was wearing this shirt before you were born, so gimme your subway seat punk."
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 12, 2007
Typos and Postscripts
I have a considerably greater number of readers at the other site than I do here at Lexiphane.com. Paradoxically, I very rarely have typos or lexigraphical mistakes in my posts here, because I tend to read and re-read my posts over and over looking for any errors. With a high-volume site like Gothamist, I tend to get a post up and then am moving onto the next thing, or reading someone else's post, or answering one of a dozen emails sitting in my Inbox. Simultaneously, there are many readers who I suppose consider it kind of a parlor game to point out solecisms in the Gothamist Comments sections and heap abuse upon the site's contributors, especially Jen. Favored themes tend to be along the lines of
"Hey, you're a big-time professional site! Why don't you act like it?
"Hey, we know you're rolling in cash from all these ad dollars we're generating with our visits, how about hiring a copy editor off of craigslist, or at least hire some writers who've graduated from college?
"Hey, you suck!"
The other week, I actually had a guy email from France and identifying himself as David Sedaris, who said that my grammar was the worst he had ever encountered in an online environment. Maybe it was him, maybe not, but that hurts 'cause he is one of my favorites, I do have a huge crush on his sister Amy, and he was addressing a man who sits all day with a copy of Strunk & White's 'Elements of Style' at his elbow and at the ready. Yesterday, especially, was pretty brutal. But, fair enough.
Today I was doing a post on the filthy bathroom facilities for cab drivers at Newark International Airport that linked to an article from 1010 WINS, the NYC news station. The station's article had several errors. So I decided to add the following to my post at Gothamist:
I thought it was pretty funny, but Jen made me take it out. I guess it's kind of like poking a stick at a nest of hornets. You might have the best poking-stick ever conceived by nature, but it probably won't turn out that great for you all the same. Tagged:
"Postscript: In the article linked to above, we couldn't help but notice, amid all the trademark and copyright information tailing the piece, the following disclaimer: 'In the interest oftimeliness, this story may contain occasional typographical errors.' The disclaimer itself contains a run-together typo! We are frankly and totally disappointed at CBS Broadcasting's shoddy lack of professionalism in this matter. One would think that CBS Broadcasting, as part of the 'Tiffany Network,' would have some more regard for the sensibilities of its readers and would perhaps at least consider hiring a proofreader off of craigslist or something. We plan on letting them know as much via an indignant letter."
Posted by Lexiphane at 9:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 15, 2007
I WISH SPAMMERS WOULD AT LEAST RESPECT ME ENOUGH TO INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE
Is anyone else getting the impression that email spammers are just phoning it in these days? I receive about 150 spams a day, which is bad enough, without the fact that I feel like my intelligence is being insulted by a marked lack of effort put into what's landing in my Filter Box. My spams used to come dressed up with familiar names and subject lines that would make me think they were part of an ongoing conversation I was having with a friend ("From: Meg, Subject: re: Oh yeah, I almost forgot!"). Now my spam emails come from three different but never varying address IDs: myself, someone offering me oral sex, and someone who self-identifies as a jackass.
What is even the point of this? Am I supposed to be tricked into thinking "Oh yeah! I forgot that I emailed myself 40 times today. I wonder what I sent?" or "I can't wait to see what a guy named jackass is so intent on telling me that he emailed me 110 times in a row?" Here's what "blowjob" couldn't wait to tell me:
Hi guys! Cheak my home page plz... Have pleasure when open it??? I Think
Yes! Becous this is BLOWJOB! It`s The Coolest and THE Biggest site about
Blowjob! The Hotest babes take blowjob! Super sexy!!! Cheak this out and
take it easy ;)
Jackass has been entreating me to enroll in an Italian rehab clinic for the last seven months. The ones addressed from myself are actually just blank IDs that a software forwarder for another address sends me, which is actually even lamer than trying to fool me that I am emailing myself.
Things have reached such a pathetic state that late last week I actually read the entire text (and it was looong) of a message sent to me by a Nigerian who was most excited about undertaking a properous business venture with me. At least I got the impression that he cared about wasting my time.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 12:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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- I WISH SPAMMERS WOULD AT LEAST RESPECT ME ENOUGH TO INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE
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