Grammar pet peeves [Updated]
Am I the only one who notices or is bothered by the following grammar issues? One is the increasingly popular use of the word “impact” as a verb. As in, “The high price of gasoline impacts me in a very negative way.” I’m not even completely certain this is technically wrong, but it bugs the heck out of me anyway. It seems more correct to me to write, “The high price of gasoline has a very negative impact on me.”
Another grammar issue that really gets to me is when people use a plural pronoun — their — in a sentence referencing a singular subject. For example, “Anyone who wishes to avoid the high cost of gasoline should not drive their car.” Argh. That really really annoys me. I find this mixup to be increasingly common, not just in personal use but in formal business language, and I simply don’t get it. If you want to avoid using “her/his” in this kind of situation, just make the sentence all plural, as in “Those who wish to avoid the high cost of gasoline should not drive their car.”
I may be making my high school English teacher smile (or she would if she knew these things bug me).
[Update: Maybe I'm not the only one bugged be these things after all. Just a short time after posting my mini-rant, I noticed the following news item: Facebook to users: Let's cut grammatical errors (AP). Interesting!]
Free is good
This weekend we were able to get a popup camper for free. That’s right, free. You can’t beat free, right? Free is good. Well, the camper needs some TLC and repair, actually, and it’s 36 years old. But still, we’re pretty excited about having it and we are already planning some camping trips. Below is a gallery of photos Michele took of it yesterday in our driveway.
All you need to know
After a lot of thought, I’ve come to the following conclusion. All you need to know about a particular workplace is revealed by how it chooses to handle parking for its employees. E.g. if you work in a place where there are classes of parking depending on how “important” you are, that tells you a lot, and reveals the truth about an organization no matter what facade and platitudes and even external recognition your workplace may possess about what a great place it is to work.
The course so far…
Last weekend I was glad to meet my students in the course I’m teaching for UIUC GSLIS in the summer session. They are a great group of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. One person is originally from Argentina and was a professional chess player. Another is — I think — originally from South Africa and is choosing a new career after working in finance/accounting for many years. Someone else joins the class from Alaska; others from Colorado and Oregon. Another person happens to be someone who used to work for the same company I work for. Someone else in the class is a grad student in the Latin American and Caribbean library services unit at UIUC; the exact same position I held when I was in grad. school!
Aside from the panic I felt in needing to be in two places at nearly the same time (NASIG in Phoenix, AZ and Urbana-Champaign for the on campus class session), everything went smoothly. I’ll write a bit more about my NASIG experience in a separate post. Fantastic location and great conference.
I love teaching. These people are really smart, ask challenging questions, think broadly about the role of technical services within the library organization. It is heartening to hear them tell me that they feel a course like this should be required, not optional in the library school curriculum. I’m biased but I completely agree, because I believe that what we call technical services is the very backbone of library service.
Brinley and the big “seagulls”
When we were up in Three Lakes, Wisconsin a few weeks ago, I took each of the younger kids on a short canoe trip. When taking Brinley for her special trip, she told me to look at the big “seagulls.” Turns out they were a pair of bald eagles and I was able to video one of them catching a fish. It’s rather hard to see because it was far away. The video linked above requires the Quicktime viewer and may take a while to load.
Extreme focus on user experience in the context of the web
A recent post from the Publishing 2.0 blog really got me thinking. Somewhat provocatively titled, “If Your Users Fail, Your Website Fails, Regardless Of Intent Or Design,” the author shares his views on the extreme importance of user experience in the context of the web. He holds up Google as the gold standard and frankly, I think he has a great point. He says that Google succeeds, and deservedly so, because of its intense focus on the user experience. One statement of his captures this view:
“Google is obsessed with making sure its users never fail, no matter how “stupid” they are. Google makes users feel smart. That’s why they keep coming back.”
Wow. All I can say is, read this post and think it through very carefully and you will gain some insight into the problems we who work in libraries face when it comes to user experience. This model or viewpoint — making users “feel” smart — is so radically different from what many libraries have tried to do in the past. I’m encouraged by the noticeable proliferation of job announcements or library initiatives that contain tasks relating to user interface design. See here and here for examples.
A great (but too short) vacation [Updated]
[Updated 6/5/2008: My wife clued me into the fact that the link to the videos was incorrect, so I've updated that link to allow anyone to access them.]
From Thursday through last night I and my family were on vacation in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. We had a blast. So many interesting sights and events to tell about; I’m not sure I can remember them all. But we made sure to take lots of photos and I’ve loaded them into daily albums (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5). I’ve also loaded some short video clips here.
We went to Honey Rock Camp near Eagle River, WI. We’ve been there as a family one other time, about four years ago. That was when Michele’s symptoms first began. This time around she did fine and we all had a good time. The weather cooperated and although there were tons of mosquitoes and other bugs, I came away without one bug bite. Pretty amazing.
Among the wildlife we saw were the following:
- several black bear sightings
- a fawn born right outside our cabin
- many bald eagles; I even got to see one dive to the water’s surface to grab a fish
- ospreys
- wild turkeys
- a badger
- a stoat
- of course, lots of fish especially northern pike, bluegill, rock bass, perch, and muskie
- beautiful birds such as nuthatches, flycatchers, and more
Keegan caught a 32″ northern pike; Brian caught a muskie that was bigger than that. I caught a few smaller northern pike, some panfish, and a 2-3 lb. largemouth bass using my brand new spinning rod and reel from Gander Mountain.
Death of a friend
A short time ago I received word that a friend and librarian colleague, John Fawcett, died earlier today. I’d mentioned him and his family before a few times. His wife and little children really need prayer and support. I know it must have been unimaginably hard to see your husband and father waste away and suffer like he did.
Then too I was thinking some more on the way to work this a.m. about Maria Chapman, the little five year old daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman, who died after her older brother accidentally backed his car over her in their driveway late last week. (This kind of thing happens a lot more than people realize, I think.) We have a little five year old daughter as well and I can’t imagine how the Chapman’s are dealing with this sudden loss.
A free (yes, free) XML workshop
Few people are as good as Eric Lease Morgan at explaining technical things in a way that is easy for just about anyone to understand. Eric has been at this for a long time and has a rich history of innovative applications for libraries and I like the way that he is so passionate about libraries and technology. Therefore I was pleased to read his announcement on the code4lib discussion list the other day about the availability of all of the materials relating to his XML in Libraries all-day workshop. I’ve never attended one but I am going to review this material very carefully and I am sure I’ll learn a lot of new things. Highly recommended. (And it’s free.)
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