Another Random Hate-Worthy Pet Peeve

The word 'verbage'.  I heard it today at work.  It really set me off.  It should never be used.  In general.  EVER.

Why?   Why not just say 'wording'.  Or 'words'.  I cannot think of any time either of these are not an acceptable choice.

This word just reeks of 'corporate speak' (see aslo: touch base).  It just sounds stuffy.  Intellectual wannabe-esque.  Every time I hear it, I want to counteract it with something highly undignified, such as 'DUDE' (which I find more socially acceptable).

Anyone else HATE the word verbage?  Anyone willing to voluntarily admit he/she uses it?

Expressions I Hate, AGAIN

The expression 'touch base'

As in, 'Let's touch base on this matter later' or 'I'll touch base with John'.

I hate it mostly because it's classic corporate speak. It has no use in real every day life. If it somehow does appear, it's either
a) force of habit (excusable) or
b) an attempt to sound more educated/important/dignified (horrific)

Anyhow. There's no real reason to choose these two words. It's an inflated way of saying 'talk about' or 'reach out to'. Who 'touches base'? Is yet another everyday expression relating to baseball? Don't people 'tag the base'?

Ugh. This reminds me of the pandemic 'All Your Base Are Belong to Us' back in high school. (Anyone else remember that?!?!)

Anyhow. I guess I don't really want to know the origin of this expression. I just watn to bitch about it. I'd ask if anyone else out there feels the way I do, but I googled 'the expression touch base' and one of the first responses was: 'when people use the expression touch base, do you have the urge to crack them in the chops?'

Does anyone like this expression? Anyone else find him or herself unfortunately using it from time to time?

One of the Google Ads that Came Up....

Geek 2 Geek Dating
A Geek You Can Love is Nearby Meet & date other geeks
www.Gk2gk.com


Should I be offended? Are any of my readers interested in this site?

Pimpin' the Blog

Due to our current economic situation, I need to turn to alternative means of making money. And the traditional industries for 'alternative means of making money' are also suffering in this current economic crisis, so get your mind out of the gutter. Long story short - this blog needs to be more profitable. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this happen (specific ones), yours truly would greatly appreciate it. Also, as always, I love it when people click the ads. ;-) Much appreciated. Thanks.

A Stranger's Review of Jaime's Blog(!!!)

I previously posted about a company called 'Oh Nuts' on October 19.

Oh Nuts replied:

HI,

 

Thank you for choosing Oh! Nuts to serve your sweet needs! and Thanks for the blog ( it is a nice one, and I see you posting often).

Would you please send me the order number so I could apply the credit to your Mothers CC.

 

Thanks!

Ari

Oh! Nuts 

They called my blog 'a nice one'.  :-D  

At 10:35pm today, my day has been made.  Thank you Nuts.  

Is Anyone Self-Proclaimed 'Corporate Material'?

So, I'm reading a book called "Slackonomics" which lists a lot of observations about "Generation X".  There's an entire chapter dedicated to the fact that many young adults, throughout the late '80s to the present, have declared themselves "not the 'Corporate America' type".

I find this amusing because almost EVERY FRIEND I have has declared him or herself as such!  I  have quite a few friends who have gone back to grad school to get out of Corporate America and into the school system or some other 'non-corporate' field of work.  Aside from them, I have a lot of friends who are working corporate jobs and feel 'misplaced'.  

Here is my question - is anyone out there 'the Corporate America' type?  Or, more simply, does anyone consider him or herself 'Corporate America material'?  Also, realistically speaking, there are however many corporate careers and there are only so many non-corporate jobs out there - someone's going to need to do the corporate jobs and some of the 'non-corporate' people are going to be out of work (or forced into Corporate America, which some people might say is what is happening now).  

Also, what, exactly, do these people define Corporate America as?  Is it every job outside of self-employment, the arts or the educational system?   Is it really the nature of corporate jobs, or is it just some stigma associated with them (being stuck in a cubicle dead-end job under florescent lighting doing the same monotonous tasks without any creativity)?   

Another point the author brought up was back in the late '80s and early '90s, people did things that went against the mainstream and called it 'alternative'.  Soon alternative became the norm.  Will Corporate America become the alternative career choice?  (and possibly become more appealing in the process?)  What are your thoughts?

Getting Corporate

So, my mom ordered something from a company and got and e-mail back from them saying this:

So, with no further ado:

Marcia's critique:

Hi sweetie,

If you talk about them on your blog (you don't have to - doesn't matter) I can tell you that they have really fast service.  This is the second order I am placing w/them and their matlow dairy coffee candy is one of the best coffee candies i've had.

Ok, that's all.

Love,

Mom

Hmm....

I am wondering what it is I can do to attract more readers to this blog.   Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the readers I have - I just want more of them.

Do I need better advertising?  I have the link on facebook and myspace...where else can I put it?  I certainly talk about this blog plenty, so that can't be it.  

What could make this blog more appealing?  More posts?  Fewer posts - only posts of high quality?  

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Getting Sensitive...

So, as I'm sure you all know, the google ads that appear on this blog relate to topics discussed in this blog (note the many obama/biden/mccain/palin ads - and there are many more to come).

However, once in a while, and ad will come along that will have nothing to do with anything but will eerily apply to me personally (note the Lasik vision ad).

Kind of like the Dianetics society, I sometimes take these unrequested implications about myself a bit personally.

Today's "supposedly" completely-out-of-the-blue-nothing-to-do-with-anything ad:

Managing Adult ADHD

:(

...And Your Tina Fey Glasses!!!!

Over the past couple days, I've noticed multiple ads for Lasik Eye Surgery.  Random, because I have not blogged about anything regarding eyesight (and that's where the ads typically come from - things I've blogged about - hence the dating sites and halloween costumes).  

I can only wonder if the google ads are stalking me (maybe they're taking a cue from the Chicago Dianetics Society), because, let's be honest, I have TERRIBLE eyesight.  I have the worst eyesight of anyone I've ever met.  

I always meet people who comment to me on how bad THEIR eyesight is - I'll then ask them their glasses prescription and they'll say 'Oh, it's like negative four!'.  UMM, mine is over negative 10!!!  In order to find my glasses on an empty table without contacts in - I have to put my arm out and 'slap around'.  Without my glasses, I cannot recognize people from more than three feet away, nor can I read the giant "E" at the eye doctor's office.  

Maybe these google ads are trying to send me a hint.  Has anyone out there had Lasik Eye Surgery?   Any recommendations/warnings?  Let me know your thoughts.  

Slow and Steady....

So, as I'm sure you know if you regularly read this blog - I have turned this blog into an independent business (where's my tax break??).    I always love and appreciate it when people click the ads.  :)

Anyhow, enough of that - I'm not the Cutco knife saleswoman here; I know that's not what you came here for.   However, I do have something very exciting to report - this blog has STEADILY been making one cent a day for the past couple weeks.  

It might not sound like much, but it's something I didn't have.  And you all know about 'slow and steady'.  Besides, it's more symbolic than anything - people are regularly visiting the blog.  That makes my heart smile.  And I am not the Hallmark card type.  

Knowing I have readers only makes me feel more compelled to post regularly and give my readers what they're looking for.  However, there are times I can't force inspiration for a long rant.  Therefore, expect many more posts in the 'pointless' category in the near future.  I'm not sure if this is good news to Jaime's blog's readers - but it is news about Jaime's blog, and that's what I'm here to report.  

Living the Dream?!?

So, when I was much younger, I wanted to be a writer.  It started as a young adult fiction series writer (Ann M. Martin, anyone?!?!), which then progressed into an advice columnist (Dear Jaime...), which then progressed into a journalist.   I wanted to specifically write an opinion column (the kind where I could rant about anything I wanted to).

However, somewhere along the line, partially because of the journalist lifestyle, partially out of the dwindling number of journalism jobs in the country, partially because of a need for stability and a decent income, partially out of having other dreams as well (don't we all?), partially for a lot of reasons, I became disenchanted and took a different career path and majored in advertising.  So here I am now.

Only, I was thinking - the whole idea that our career should be what we do in our spare time; what we would do if we didn't have to work...   I have this blog where I get to write reviews, critiques and commentary on politics and current events.   Through this, I kind of am living out my dream....

Only, I'm not getting paid for it.

Small technicality?!

Ad

Ok, I promise I will stop pimping the ads on my page...however, isn't this one hilarious?

Ad

You know, cause you really want to shop for Jaime...literally.

Call Me Perez Hilton!

Something exciting has happened - Jaime's blog is (almost) on the radar!  

I signed up for google ad sense (as I'm sure you've picked up on from five prior posts on the subject matter) - and over the weekend, Jaime's Blog got 131 hits in a span of two days!!!  

Granted, these are not necessarily 'unique' visitors.  So let's be honest - let's throw at least 25 hits to me (I'm a narcissist, I like to admire - and sometimes edit- my work) and a good 25 to my mother.   That's still 81 hits unaccounted for!  Ok, maybe we can boost my mother to 35 - still, 71!!!!!  My blog was visited 71 times!!!

This only inspires me to write more quality posts.  (Much unlike, ahem, this one.)

If You Look Very Closely....

You may have to refresh the page once, but....

The google ads are illustrating my point from the breast cancer blogs!

Nothing like Corporate America to stick it to ya.

Ads!

I think I finally got them!

I see my first ad is for "Protestant Singles". I do not know why this came up, out of all the subjects I have discussed on said blog. I have mentioned being single, perhaps, but I am not Protestant, nor have I ever mentioned anything about them.

I suppose this should be filed under 'baby steps'. At least the ads are here....

The Next Time You Need to do a Google Search....

See that little box on the right side, by my picture? Just come here and search with that! There might be something in it for you if you do - nudge nudge wink wink.

Administrative Professionals Day

So today was the ultimate Hallmark holiday, Administrative Professionals Day (formerly Administrative Assistants Day, formerly Secretaries Day, etc.). I know this because, well, I'm an Administrative Assistant.

Now, I knew my bosses wouldn't remember. And I knew this Hallmark holiday existed - and I honestly was confident I wouldn't care when they very predictably forgot. Come on now - it's not Christmas or my birthday - it's not a time one "expects" something, for lack of a better word. It's certainly not a day I was eagerly anticipating.

However, when I got in to work and I saw all the other "secretaries" (I personally prefer this title - it seems to convey more importance, like secretary of state) getting flowers, gift cards, etc., from their bosses and all I seemed to get was a list of random "urgent" tasks, well - I'm not going to lie, I felt a little bit bitter.

Maybe it's because I know precisely the reason they didn't do anything for me - because they were completely unaware of the event. This is because they count on ME to point out things like this. They BLINDLY rely on me to remind and alert them of many important things. Had I ordered myself flowers and billed it to their department, they would have signed off on it without even reading it. However, this defeats the purpose.

The purpose of this holiday (and yes, I realize the term needs to be used loosely) ASIDE from Hallmark, etc., making money - is to remember someone - to show that her effort hasn't gone unnoticed. It's the thought that counts, if you will. It's not a matter of a tangible gift - it's a matter of thinking someone took five minutes of his time to do something to make me feel good, to make me feel remembered. And on this day, I feel, well, forgotten. :(