A few weeks ago, an issue arose at work that highlights a generational gap between those who learned to type on a typewriter and those that learned using a keyboard. First, for those of you who don’t know, there are no more “typing” classes taught in schools. It’s now called “keyboarding”. Another noun that has morphed into a verb.
Anyway, this co-worker in his late 20s comes into my office and sits down looking somewhat bewildered. He tells me that another of our co-workers, a very nice woman in her 40s, mildly admonished him for submitting a document to her where there was only one space between sentences. She told him it was proper to put two spaces after a period.
Well, my youngish coworker wanted to know from me what was correct. He told me he had never HEARD of this two space concept. He had always used one and was never told otherwise. Until that day.
Now, I was taught to put two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence, but I learned to type on a typewriter. To this day I put in the two spaces. Writing this blog post I’m using two spaces. But that apparently
isn’t the law of the land anymore.
I know of some workplaces that require you to only use one space. I also have been aware that the need for the two spaces has long since disappeared. The two space concept started because original typewriters had mono spaced fonts and the extra space was needed for the eye to pick up on the beginning of a new sentence. Fonts today are new and improved rendering the double space unnecessary.
Well I assured my younger co-worker that he was fine with the one space and that the other co-worker was just repeating what she ha learned many years ago. Basically, I told, him both were “correct”.
However, I did an informal survey of friends and co-workers and here’s what I found: your space usage mostly depends on whether you learned to type on a typewriter or (two spaces) on a keyboard (one space). Generally speaking, that broke things down along age lines with the division being in the 30-35 age range today. However, I found one other determining factor: for those learning on the keyboard, sometimes the teacher was old school (or just old) and taught the two space method. But generally speaking, you will find those over 35 using two spaces and those younger using one space.
And by the way, the two-space thing is so ingrained into my typing that I don't know that I could ever break the habit.
Update: Will, in comments, makes a good point: whatever your choice, one space or two, be
consistent within the same document. This is pretty much what I told my
youger colleague. I actually run into this problem when I’m editing documents that were cobbled together from different sources. Anything you get off the
Internet is going to be one space while something you copy and paste from a Word doc (depending on the author’s choice) might have two spaces.
Also, to be clear, I don’t think there’s really a good reason to be using two spaces. I do it out of habit, but, my commenter’s rationalizations aside (good one College One!), it’s pointless.
Is it any wonder advertising and branding work so well? We’re all idiots.
Also, can I say something about Obama as a veep candidate? I heard 
I’ve never paid much attention to water rates since water bills have never amounted to all that much anywhere I’ve lived. And that even takes into consideration that I’ve lived many places that didn’t have a centralized water service, meaning I had no water bill at all outside of the electricity used to pump the well water. I think water is, and will continue to be, a good bargain considering how much we depend on it.
I don’t remember how the stupid story ended but for some reason the whole “tapes, I know nothing of tapes” thing stuck in my head and has been amusing me for three decades now. The problem, of course, is that no one else gets it. Now at least you all do, even if you weren't there and it’s not funny to you.
Another factor may be that your 40s can be an age of great burden when you're taking care of your children as well as your parents. This also gives you a view of life in its entirety; your lost youth and the old age that is just around the corner. You have a complete view of life and its slipping away quickly. The infinity of youth is gone. That CAN be depressing.
We don’t know who pulled off the anthrax attacks, but considering the targets were mostly liberal politicians and members of the “liberal” media, I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe the mastermind could also have been an angry conservative white male. And as we all know, conservative white males are “good” relative to the scary dark-skinned foreigners. Therefore, we just forget about those other incidents. They don’t fit the post 9/11 storyline, and are thus discounted. Note too that there are still those looking to make the anthrax attacks foreign in origin even though law enforcement and other experts pretty much universally contend the evidence discounts that. But again, for some it’s more convenient to blame outsiders.
But posts like my Le Menu item seem to maintain a life of their own because it fills an infinitesimally small niche on these internets. I know before writing the post I Googled Le Menu and found almost nothing. Now I’m king of the Le Menu world on Google.
As I’ve long said, LaHood was a LOR (Least Objectionable Republican) with whom I could mostly disagree with but still respect. And since there’s no way anyone but a Republican will ever be elected to Congress here (or so it seams), I need to seek out the next LOR. Right now McConoughey looks like he might be a better (not good, but better) alternative.
The wait for a table at Lone Star was an hour+ Saturday night. We didn’t stay. I can wait that long at far better restaurants.
At least Springfield's got Lincoln, older interesting neighborhoods with character, local shops and interesting things in its downtown, history, and events I enjoy. It has a good combination of "big city" and "small town" character. It is easy to get around. There are plenty of things to do, and I still discover more things my former hometown never had all the time. I could list more positive things if I wanted to. Sure there's problems, but they're nothing compared to what I'm used to. (Try living in a city with St. Louis level traffic that is only 1/5 the size of St. Louis, that has curvy, confusing streets and wide boulevards leading nowhere, houses - and people - that all look the same and if you want to shop you can only do so at a big-box chain store or the mall on the edge of the ever sprawling city. And the only thing famous to come out of that damn town is the crappy grunge band Garbage (anybody remember them now?). It's these kind of things keep Springfield's more small townish problems - and its advantages - in perspective for me.)
Let’s just say I’m part of that 95.7 percent. I want to know who the 4.3 percent are. I know what they are - crazy. Of course, asking this in January during a cold snap probably skewed the already unscientific results. I'm not sure my answer would change on the nicest day in May though.
In no time, we had all Elvis material in the store (which wasn’t much at first) displayed in one place. In fact, the only actual book about Elvis we had in stock was one called 
Anyway, apparently there is now an anti-Hillary Clinton group called Citizens United Not Timid (you do the acronym). Cogitamus blogs about it 
But it’s fucking Ringo Starr and nobody would care. 
Seriously, this is a bad thing to do, but it’s nothing new. It used to be called drag racing. Now I guess it’s not.
Why? Do they think we’re going to go in and pee all over the seats? Don’t they share bathrooms with the opposite sex at home? Or maybe male pattern bad-aim is why they don’t want to share restrooms at work too. One other problem may be that some (not all) of the “Mens” rooms have a urinals in them in addition to the standard stool. Maybe that freaks the women out too. I will confess this though: in a couple of situations I have gone ahead and used the “Ladies” room. Hah. And nobody died.
Sometime during the morning I got a call from home from one of my daughters about this, this CREATURE that was sleeping in our garage. I told her to just leave it alone and it would go away. When I came home for lunch the lazy-ass raccoon was still sleeping in the garage and someone had locked the door leading into the house. Yes, because the raccoon might get up from his/her nap, walk over to the door to the house open it, come in and devour everybody. At least that’s the explanation I got for the locked door.
And why in this picture is Barack Obama orange? Orange-Americans now have a tough choice too.
There is, I’ll admit, a man bites dog aspect to a Republican politician actually going off to war, but still, enough’s enough.
Technically, we haven’t used the TV in a few months because my daughter was abusing the privilege, so we unplugged it and removed the cable line. But I still consider that TV to be on “active duty” and I’m sure it will be used again at some point, probably in a few months when my older daughter goes off to college and we turn her room into a guest room (I know I’m kidding myself thinking she won’t be in that room A LOT over the next ten years).
A lot of work was put into it and I’m kind of surprised it took only eight days. We even repainted the walls, something I’ve wanted to do for some time. Expect the quality of blogging to soar!
…
In fact, I’m so ignorant that I didn’t realize that there was still an air traffic controllers union. I though Ronald Reagan destroyed that back in the ‘80s by firing all the striking controllers. However, what union there is doesn’t seem to be too effective:
This is a stupid decision that, it seems to me, only affects the individual who gets the split tongue. And no one really cares to enforce the law anyway, so why bother. Be sure to read 
While the air service out of Abraham Lincoln Grand International Capital Airport is somewhat anemic, I can think of a dozen other reasons Reno might be more appealing then Springfield. I mean, if you’re looking for fun beyond the gathering.
And speaking of Back to the Future, it’s funny to watch now because all the modern (1985) references they use to contrast with the past (1955) now are dated too. I’d like to do a blog post sometime about how ordinary props in an older movie actually become fun distractions (to me, anyway) while watching the film, thereby changing the way the movie was intended to be perceived.
That, in my mind, greatly differentiates the information from some tidbit someone relays to me by saying, “I saw on the news…” Now, both pieces of information may be false (or true), but I only put the former in the rumor category. Forwarded e-mails that are simply false aren’t rumors, they’re lies. Someone deliberately created this bogus stuff to mislead, often for political reasons. They may be passed on by some without malice, but they aren’t rumors, they’re lies.
However, I think any person over 65 (or 70, whatever) that turns in their driver’s license (or doesn’t have one already) should be allowed to ride for free. This might help get some of the elderly drivers, who should not be driving, off the road.
That sucks, all those drugs. Not to mention the pain. I wonder if hallucinations like that are determined or facilitated in anyway by a person’s normal way of thinking.
Right now my office has all of the furniture piled in the middle where the floor remained dry. A dehumidifier and a couple of those round floor fan things left by the cleaning crew make it sound like Capital Airport as the 183rd readies to take to the air. IT’S VERY LOUD. CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Twenty years ago or so (iirc) the caucuses were mentioned almost as an afterthought and barely covered in the press. New Hampshire was the traditional first vote that mattered. I’m not sure why the Iowa caucuses were seen for what they were then, but aren’t now. I suppose it’s the media’s desire for an ever longer horse race that gets readers and viewers to pay attention sooner. However, the process is clearer to me now because I saw a guy on CNN a little while ago explain the caucuses using a chess board and chess pieces. Thanks CNN!
If you aren’t familiar with the series, it involves the struggles of a small western Kansas town (Jericho) after most of the larger cities in the U.S., including nearby Denver, are devastated by atomic blasts. It’s got a good cast and a compelling storyline. It does occasionally suffer from TV clichés and over-simplifications, but is otherwise thought provoking and addicting to watch.
I’m sorry, but I can‘t suspend disbelief enough to believe a virus that devastates the population of the world actually enhances the physical capabilities of most of those who survive. I mean, come on, these digital-looking former humans can scale the sides of buildings better then Spiderman and have the strength of the Terminator. Give me a personal break. And that lion-like roar they have is cheap and stupid.
One trend I’ve noticed is that I have fewer posts each year. However, the number of hits I get (using 
If you absolutely must have a handgun for “protection”, keep it in the house and only get it out when you are 100% certain that there is an intruder in your house who isn’t your 17 year-old daughter sneaking in late. And you sure as shit don’t go out launching bullets into the air to celebrate the new year. Anyone caught doing that should have their gun and FOID card taken away. Forever.
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