Archive for October 2006

The Microsoft Office Team reports that Microsoft has added 58,000 words to the US English dictionary including the following:

* Possessives, i.e. the possessive form of words that already were in the lexicon
* The most frequent male, female and last names from the 2000 Census data and other sources. Examples: Brianne, Britta, Carissa, Carolyn, Carmela
* Company names, such as Verizon, WorldCom
* Names of autonomous Native American governmental units
* Names of the official UN countries, as well as most languages in our market areas, e.g. Indic language names
* Place names, such as all world capitals and other major cities, e.g. Wuppertal
* Miscellaneous words that were missing from the lexicon: e.g. Camus, Wyeth, Woolf

Office 2007 also comes with a new feature Microsoft refers to as contextual spelling. It watches for correctly spelled words that aren’t the right word based on the sentence. We all do this. I know the difference between your and you’re; too, to, and two; and their and there — it I’ve caught myself typing the wrong word many times. Why does this happen? I guess we get a word in our heads and our fingers spew out the wrong word.

If you write, “You’re shoe is untied,” Office 2007 will mark “you’re” as an error. Nice feature to have! Even us grammar geeks make mistakes and sometimes we don’t see it when proofing.

The writer wrote Is the King’s English dead? as a reader wrote saying “PIN number” makes “number” redundant as PIN means personal identification number.

I remember writing an article and pausing a minute trying to decide whether or not to add a redundant word (I don’t remember what it was). In some cases, a phrase doesn’t sound right without the redundant word and in others, it does. Writing, “Check your PIN” sounds fine. I don’t feel the need to add “number.”

What about the plural of FAQ? Or is “FAQ” always plural? After all, what’s the point of listing ferquently asked questions if you just have one? Sometimes I feel the urge to add an “s” to make it “FAQs.” It depends on how I write the sentence.

In the last few companies I worked with before becoming a full-time content maven, we knew and heard about colleagues who work over 12-hour days on a regular basis. I’ve put in a couple of long hours over my career, but never on a daily basis. Based on my experience, I don’t understand why companies encourage and reward employees working long hours.

With each passing hour after the tenth hour, I became less effective. What took me two hours to do during overtime would take me only 20 minutes to do when I’m fresh and well-rested. Two nights ago, I got about five to six hours sleep — too little. I need seven to nine hours of sleep to do my best work for the entire day. Instead, I was sluggish all day and procrastinated. Things I remembered easily slipped my mind five minutes after thinking about them.

I talked to a client, a vice president, a couple of nights ago. He was about to go to sleep and we started chatting about sleep. He couldn’t understand how people perform well on so little sleep as he needs sleep like I do.

Early in my career especially before the kids came along, I worked longer hours whether or not I needed to because management viewed it as a good thing. Good thing equals promotions and opportunities. The other thing I noticed — working from 9am to 7pm was viewed more positive than someone who worked from 7am to 5pm even though they’re the same number of hours.

Of course, we won’t see a culture change in the near future toward returning to the 9am – 5pm work week or providing more vacation time. Not with the worries of losing your job to India or another country where its people work for less money and longer hours. However, many articles report that Generation X and Generation Y want more work-life balance.

I belong to GenX. In the mid-’90s, I wanted to climb the ladder and fast. By the late ’90s and early 2000, the ladder lost meaning. Of course, I wanted to get promotions and such, but not by sacrificing my family and life outside of work. This change didn’t come because of GenX, but rather parenthood.

However, I also value enjoying my life and experiencing new things and making friends. We reflect more on memories from outside of work than work. Sure, I’ve got fond memories of something I accomplished at work or a screw up that I can’t forget in spite of trying — I think more about memories involving family, friends, and activities.

Cliche’ but true — how many people look back on their lives and wish they had worked more? When people ponder their past and wishes, work-related regrets rarely come up. It’s more “spend time reading, spend time with family, travel…”

“Forgot password?” should be instant. The site should simply request the user to enter the email address and immediately let the user know if the email address is in the system or not. Otherwise, you could lose out on ordering opportunities.

We tried to order dinner online and Paul (SO) forgot his password. He entered the email address and the response page said it was mailed. Nothing came in after 10 minutes of checking. He tried a second time and still no avail. The place’s competitor also has online ordering and we could easily switch our plans.

Another time I was trying to order an item. I registered and tried to purchase the item. But when I signed back in (after not receiving an email within ten minutes), my account didn’t exist. The site would not accept any of the information I entered.

The next time, I registered and confirmed it worked by logging out and back in. Then I tried to order the item again… no luck. Moral: Make sure your order forms and forget password process work.

Giving up, I emailed the company (it had the best deal) and got a reply a few days later suggesting I call. I wrote back saying I prefer to order online because I’m hard of hearing. No reply yet. Another lesson: Reply to customer emails within 24 hours with the only exception being when the office isn’t open. Lesson #2: Offer the customer multiple ways to contact your company.

Roy Peter Clark talks about neologisms — new words. In the article, he tells a story about a child who referred to something as “ginormous” because “It was bigger than gigantic. It was huger than enormous.” The child didn’t create the word as Clark points to the Urban Dictionary — so it’s not impossible for multiple people to come up with the same word.

Want to create a new word? Try blending multiple words, which are easy for others to figure out after determining words on which they’re based. Clark references Wanted Words, books that list words suggested by listeners and includes tidbits and letters. The book’s web site held contests that gave readers a chance to create new words based on a brief description. Here’s the last contest. Just click Previous to see more.

Protologism also means creating a new word… but unlike neologism, the creator wants to make it an accepted word in the language as it’s based on “prototype” and “neologism.”

WordSpy collects new terms that have appeared in multiple resources — they’re not sniglets.

Other ways to create words:

* daffynitions: Ex: “alarms — What an octopus is. (all arms)”

* sniglets: Ex: cheedle — “The orange residue left on fingers after eating Cheetos or some other cheesy snack.”

* goofinitions: Ex: “balderdash — rapid hair loss.”

I can’t find a clear definition of “stunt words” as referenced in Word Spy. All the searches refer to Word Spy’s description except for one that points to Wordlustitude, a blog that’s “a growing dictionary of ephemeral words — also known as nonce or stunt words. All readers are strongly encouraged to use these terms in their blogs, poems, prophesies, and recipes.” So “stunt words” are word fads, words with a short life.

Collins Word Exchange How to Make a Dictionary is a good read [Link from Language Log]. Still stuck? Try the Random Word Generator.

Or take an existing word and give it a new twist. “Shut up” isn’t always an insult. It can also be a surprise or a shocker that translates to “No way!” Grey’s Anatomy got my friends and me on a “seriously” kick — to mean “Yeah” or “telling the truth.”

PigPog has a nicely organized list of tips for improving your writing. Go there when you have time to spare otherwise the great resources will easily eat up your busy time.

The wallpaper border in the bathroom has been peeling, so finally got motivated to remove the wallpaper. I talked to a friend and did research online to see what method would work best. Turns out it’s a combination. The wallpaper is from 1996 — so the method may not work with older wallpaper.

We started with scoring (using Papertiger: a rolling tool that pokes holes in the wallpaper for easier removal) so liquid could go through to soak the wallpaper. However, we stopped using the scoring tool as we modified the process. My friend suggested using water with a few drops of fabric softener. This article had a similar method except it states to spray each area three times and wait 30 minutes.

I tried this first and it worked OK. The wallpaper’s outer layer (gray) was stubborn in a few spots. Since this is in the bathroom — the wallpaper was tougher on liquid. I even used a steamer we have (for clothes). Later Paul discovered we could just scrape the wall without wetting it. But I hit a lot of areas that wouldn’t budge using Paul’s method.

I noticed the gray was harder to get off with liquid, but easier to peel when dry. The layer behind the gray, however, came off easily when wet. So, we peel off the gray with a little help from something like a joint knife. While peeling, you might want to hold a grocery bag with your arm to dump the paper in for easier clean up (once in a while I missed the bag).

Spray the wallpaper’s second layer with warm water and let it sit for a few minutes. With the joint knife, it peels right off. The areas using the first method have more scratches and dents than the ones using the improved method.

Love this one:

With my first kid (1994), we used an old fashioned camera and video camera. In 1999, we still used the same equipment as connecting the digital camera to transfer photos to the PC was a pain, but I believe I started capturing some digital pictures throughout his first year. By #3 in 2003, we had over 300 pictures from his first year alone. The youngest didn’t have to worry about being the least photographed as that’s a common occurence for the youngest of the family. Furthermore, I started a baby blog with #3.

I think I got my first digital camera in 1995 and it could only hold nine pictures. My current camera has a 1 GB card and holds over 100 photos plus videos.

My independent school district is big on technology and added several new services this year. Kids hate it. Parents love it and sometimes hate it.

Meals

We’ve been able to add money to our kids’ lunch accounts for a few years now, but they switched services to one that charges a small fee and allows us to pay for other things. PayPams offers more features including the ability to see what our kids buy for lunch. This is an excellent example of outsourcing. It would cost the district more money to expand its application than to outsource the service to a business that offers more features.

Last year, a kid stole money out of my daughter’s lunch account and we had to call the cafeteria manager to get a list of things bought. There it was. Hard evidence. An order on a day she was absent. Previously, kids only needed three digits to pay for their lunches. That’s changed to six digits. Plus, if a kid “forgot” his code — he could look it up in the list and see other codes.

Grades and Absences

This is the part kids despise and parents love, but sometimes hate. Not long after school started, we saw our daughter got a low grade and asked her about it. She couldn’t believe we knew about it and we told her about the new grade viewing application. Of course, she wasn’t happy that we can ask her about any out of ordinary grades.

But the drawback is that we panic more often than before. A couple of times, she had a low grade — when it came time for report cards, she got a good grade. Knowing how she’s doing helps us help her. She’s fiercely independent and usually doesn’t like to ask for help. She can also see what tests and quizzes are coming up (if the teacher enters it ahead of time).

Report cards don’t come out for over a week after the reporting period ends. We don’t have to anxiously wait for it and there are no surprises. Parents can also set up the system to notify them when a grade for a class falls below a number of their choice. The application also sends emails with grades based on the parents’ preferences.

One time I discovered she had an unexcused absence by signing on to the grade viewer. It was my fault and I corrected it right away. No waiting for the report card with the unexcused absence marked.

PTA

All levels of the PTA have great resources online. Guides for officers, logos for use in newsletters and web sites, rules for contests and much more. I manage the web sites for two school PTAs and one council PTA.

I manage the Reflections contest for one school. The form and rules are posted on the school’s PTA web site — so no killing trees by leaving forms at school where the middle schoolers often take for doodling purposes. I left forms at school in the office plus I made small postcards with the web address and spread them throughout the school.

Sports

I can see how other school volleyball teams are doing. I knew about the web site, but thought there was no information on volleyball because the pages were blank. The coach confirmed that this was the place to go for scores. I didn’t dig deep enough (the site isn’t well designed — even Paul thought the same thing).

The site shows scores for all middle school and high school sports. The scores, however, depend on the coaches entering the information.

School District Information

Our local district sends an email newsletter and schools can create their own distribution lists for sending emails. My child’s middle school emails every Friday with the upcoming week’s events along with any news and announcements.

Volunteers must register every new school year because the district runs criminal checks. Volunteers could commit a crime any time between school years. Our district’s web site allows us to register online every year. We have to do one thing offline — have a form notarized for the school.

The district’s web site also provides a web page for each school so we can get email addresses, contact names and phone numbers, and links to the school’s official web page. We also access grades, absences, and meal accounts from the web site.

Our newsletter editor and volunteer hardly has to set foot outside her home to get the newsletter approved and copied. She emails a PDF version for approval and then emails it to the printer for printing and delivery.

School Cam

My youngest attends preschool and we can view his classroom as well as a couple of central rooms like the gym and playground. Parents can only access the room their children are in and not others. I love checking on him and watch him interact with other kids. Kids tend to behave differently around parents, so it’s great seeing how he is with other kids.

What technology have you seen schools use to help parents and children?

The name “prunes” comes with a stigma leading people to think of them as a yucky (apologies to those who like them — just reporting the facts) food item to help relieve (ahem) backup. Furthermore, the poor prune got a reputation of being associated as a product for older people — turning off the younger generations.

In 1999, the California Prune Board — with help from Ketchum Public Relations — got the idea to change the name and went to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to request changing the official name from prunes to dried plums. Not only did it get approval, but it also changed its name to California Dried Plum Board.

The result? “More than 563 million media impressions have been generated to date. Interest in the name change was immediate. We received a groundswell of media attention from such much-watched outlets as ‘NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw’ and ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ to an entire series of Mallard Fillmore comic strips.” (More background is available from Failure Magazine).

This backs up Marcia Yudkin‘s recent Named at Last newsletter article, “Naming Can Change Perceptions.” She uses “Math Club” as an example. What do you think of when you hear that? Nerds, intellectuals, uncool, not fun, right?

Yudkin tells the about Karen Treber of Frostburg, Maryland who wanted to change the name to make math cool. What do kids think is cool? Sports and athletics. Treber coined “Mathletics” to promote these (shh…) math club events. Yudkin writes:

In keeping with the appealing name, learning activities involved doing things like slicing pizza to understand fractions and measuring the perimeter of the gym with a ruler. Nearly half the student body turned out for the school’s first after-hours installment of “Mathletics.”

Even better, a year later, for the first time, 100% of the school’s fourth graders passed the state assessment test in math. The new name had paved the way for a change in image and performance.

Another example from Yudkin is tapioca pudding, which often appears in the “10 most hated foods” list in the U.S. and U.K. I must admit I’m one of those who wouldn’t try it because the name and the mystery food sounded blech. Yudkin says, “Probably many people who know only its negative reputation and not its taste could be persuaded to give it a try by renaming it in comparison with something more beloved or more glamorous, such as ‘vanilla mousse,’ a ‘white sundae’ or ‘Thai pudding.’”

She’s right. I’d try it if I knew of tapioca pudding as “vanilla mousse.” To explore renaming a product, Yudkin recommends brainstorming negative and positive qualities, then explore names that combine the two qualities and get rid of the name seen as negative. What are other examples of products’ names that have negative connotations?