So it looks like I won't keep up with my resolution of getting one post per week for this month of February. Whatever, we'll take a month to be 4 weeks and sum February and January's post together for a total of 8 posts. That'll even out to 4 posts per month right? Good.
Lately I've been running a lot of tests at work - it's all about making sure nothing is completely busted and observing all possible cases. That's what life is about right? You're constantly changing, but you always need to make sure you're on the right track and that you didn't screw anything completely. If you did, corrective measures are taken, right? So with all this testing, and a discussion with nien, a diagram was born.
This picture was designed in the ever so high-end application that you all should be familiar with. After being around for so long, this application has undergone surprisingly few changes! Come to think of it, Paint from way back in Win3.1 wasn't much different! For some reason I remember it even had a feature the current one doesn't: selective color erasing. Or maybe I'm confusing it with another application - I very well could be... I was, what... at most 8 years old when I was using Win3.11. Anywho, back to the topic at hand.
I was at work when this masterpiece was created; as you can see, it even includes transparancy of the two colors at the region where they overlap. Truly, MSPaint is a powerful application. This chart basically is concerned with Doodle Time - time at which one may constructively doodle without interfering with any form of legitimate work whatsoever. Thus, the diagram says. All code compile time is doodle time and all test time is only sometimes doodle time. I'll let the impact of that settle in.
What do I doodle? There's no real trend. Lately I've been imagining what kind of ofice/manroom/entertainment room I will have when I get a house. I began some rough sketches of that:
But I didn't get very far. It's quite confusing, but I'm too lazy to go into explanations. Next topic!
This post deserves a horizontal rule line break because I believe this to be a fairly thought provoking matter - unlike the previous topic. Have you ever written semi-formal emails to people? The reason I thought about this was because sending emails around to co-workers / supervisors causes this issue. I do, however, encountering this issue when emailing my Japanese professor. I emphasized what type of professor due to some issues that I'm going to explore.
The body and the footer of these emails are the easy part. The body contains what you need to say, it doesn't truly need an introductory paragraph or anything because it's only semi-formal. The conclusory paragraph : same thing applies. The footer is easy, "Sincerely" is an accepted standard. If you're feeling like mixing it up, "Regards" will work as well.
(There is most probably a guidebook or handbook or set of rules that govern what I'm about to explore, but bear with me. This is just something that irks me.)
Now, the issue is... you guessed it, the header. What should the very first line be? Let's say we're writing a letter to Bob. I will now explore a few possibilites.
To whom it may concern,
Straight up wrong. You know who this email is directed towards. It's formal, but not useable.
Dear Bob,
This just feels weird and out of place in an email, don't you think? Plus, this is a person you know, and whom you see fairly regularly. It doesn't feel right to me.
To Bob,
Again, this is an email; the person already knows that it's addressed to them. After all, they're the recipient of the email! No good.
Hey Bob, / Hey Bob-san,
This works in cases where the recipient is on friendly basis with you, but this does not work with people who require respect - if only a little. Take the case of your professor - some may be completely fine with this address. Try it with the Japanese professor and you're in rude-territory.
Bob, / Bob-san,
This feels weird to me. I can't pinpoint why. But here's my attempt. These semi-formal emails are akin to talking to the person... in person. This is the best solution I have to my uneasiness about headers in emails. It works in the all the situations that a semi-formal email entails, but I still don't like it.
[Blank]
There's also the option of leaving the header blank and immediately starting the body. This... sometimes works, but I always feel uneasy doing so. There's the "rude-complex" that I have. It just feels rude to not address the person you're "talking" to.
With that said, there should be some kind of universal passive-feeling word that is not rude, but does not feel weird in a semi-formal situation. Something like... I dunno... "Fortu Bob," The only problem with that is getting the word into circulation and everyday use. The word needs to be instantly recognized as an addressal, but cannot be offensive at the same time.
I think I've wasted enough of your time. I do hope that the topic made you think a little. Until next time, take care and take it easy!
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