NASA Junior High School

So I'm not saying that all NASA employees are still in Junior High School, just the ones currently controlling the Mars Rover, an $800 million dollar remote control vehicle for exploring the red planet.

Apparently, once the requisite samples were drawn from the planet's crust, measurements of the atmosphere were completed, and the general topography of the terrain was mapped, someone stepped away from the joystick and the Junior High kids took over the controls.

Dont believe me?  Check it out...

As you can see, these kids quickly maneuvered the Rover around to draw a large penis in the red sand, backed it away, and snapped a photo, which they immediately transmitted home and posted to their facebook accounts.  Unfortunately, all of the bloggers with Junior High mentalities then predictably downloaded the photo, and further amplified the foolery by promoting the image to their imaginary readers.

Getting It Write

One of the things that I formerly considered to be among my professional values is slowly migrating onto my list of things that make me seem like a caveman (or at least like a geezer*).  Namely, I think that reasonably good grammar is an important component of professional correspondence.

We are all aware of, and probably occasionally guilty of, the acronym-filled shorthand of the text, Twitter, and Facebook worlds.  There is certainly a place today for that type of communication.

For example, if you see Chad and Taylor making out behind the bleachers, you should immediately text an OMG! to your BFF's.  Under such alarming circumstances, everyone would agree that taking the time to type a salutation, or any punctuation other than an exclamation point, would be a disservice to those who need to know such things ASAP.

However, in the drudgery of "participating in the world's economic welfare", also known as "responsibly holding down a job", matters are rarely as urgent or important as the Junior High tryst I cited above.  I still believe that professionals usually have the time to construct complete, unambiguous, messages to one another.

Alas, I see that the "new normal" of text shorthand is slowly and successfully gaining acceptance among decision makers in the workplace. This recent article from the Wall Street Journal makes the sad point that my commitment to grammar is increasingly a sign of yesterday's work ethic.  It's really just a numbers game, and when those who do not value grammar begin to out-number (and/or out-rank) those who do, I will officially wear the scarlet "C" of curmudgeonry.

* Alert readers who recall my post on "geezerdom" will know that earning this label is not a personal tragedy for me.

Facebook Phenomenon

Occasionally, I forgo my morning commute and "work from home".

Of course I can't actually work at my home because there are too many short people (a.k.a. my kids) climbing my leg and poking at my keyboard while I am trying to have serious discourse on the phone. I solve this problem by working at the local public library about half mile down the road.

Over the past couple of years, I have had about a dozen "library days" and somewhere in that relatively brief time span, an interesting phenomenon has taken hold.

This library has a bank of about 15 PC's along one wall. When I first started spending "a whole day at a time" there, I noted sporadic use of the PC's. Usually, at least half the stations were open at any given time. Mostly, it was 20ish men reading profiles of women on dating sites (yes, I am one of those annoying over the shoulder readers).

Over the past six months, this has changed. Now, the PC's are essentially at full capacity with waiting lists of local patrons anticipating their turn at the keyboard. The new patrons are mostly middle-aged, a mix of men and women, and every damn one of them is logging onto Facebook.

I don't know if this is good or bad but it is clearly an epic phenomenon.