Bad English runs Rampant

Posted by Greg March - 17 - 2009 - Tuesday ADD COMMENTS

I spend a lot of time online. If it’s not for work, it’s for my own enjoyment. I simply like finding entertainment online more than I enjoy flipping channels.

As I weave in and out of the various sites I come across, I often notice typos or outright spelling/usage errors on people’s sites. Usually, these are small businesses who probably have a limited budget for marketing, and don’t see hiring an editor (or even a proofreader– not the same thing!) as a priority. 80% of the time (unless I’m on a mission), if I think the person might care to fix it, I drop them a line. I do not correct anybody’s informal language if I can help it. Lard knows there’s gonna be a bunch of it on this blog. In any event, most people are appreciative… particularly if it’s just a typo that had somehow escaped their attention.

But when I really get to head-scratching is when a site is owned and developed by a company with enough resources to get the job done right (ie. they can hire someone), and I see a typo in what seems to be priority-positioned sales or marketing verbage. If you ask me (and you didn’t), you’re going to have a hard time selling when your credibility has been crushed in one quick blow.

I mean, seriously. A typo I can live with. An informal site with informal language and some spelling errors, I can live with. But a serious website with some fundamental mistake like “Do things you’re own way”? Just about drives me batty.

It occurs to me that in a well-written blog, this is where the link or list of examples goes. ;-) Maybe I’ll get to that some day. Until then, how about some Bad English instead? (also gives me an excuse to see if I got the idea of Viper’s plugin right):

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On beginnings and finding a Wordpress theme

Posted by Greg March - 17 - 2009 - Tuesday ADD COMMENTS

Like many things, this blog is late in coming.  It was too late coming to chronicle my time as a teacher in Mexico, my year in Northern Ontario in Kashechewan, a 1200-km bike journey from Ottawa, my blooming romance and subsequent marriage to the love of my life (she doesn’t know I plan to call her Mama Monkey on this blog… we’ll see how she takes to that!), or the first 6 months of Mama Monkey’s pregnancy.

But, better late than never.

As somebody with a certain degree of design acumen (or at least a reasonable sense of aesthetics), I thought the thing holding me back would failure in finding a non-generic blog theme that I liked.  After all, when I taught myself CSS and XHTML (polishes knuckles on t-shirt) to seamlessly integrate WP 2.2 into my website (gregdpettit.com) I had no excuses, right?  Well, after burning up my energy creating the site, I pretty much abandoned it and there it has sat for 2 years waiting to be something.

So, no, it wasn’t the theme holding me back.

That said, it looks like the cycle is beginning all over again.  I’ve installed 2.7.1 to my new domain here, and I thought, “just grab a decent theme and start blogging.”  Except, it doesn’t have my personal touch.  Even the header needs some CSS tweaks (let the height of the header be fluid) to get the original (crappy) logo I made to work right… no energy, no energy. On hold, on hold…sigh… ;-)

So What’s This Blog About, then?

I started blogging for the company I work for (blog.filecatalyst.com) and realized sometimes I would just want to ramble about random stuff. Some of the stuff that will appear here (assuming my beautiful wife never joins me in writing):

  • Being a new dad
  • Music (in particular, guitar playing and general home studio recording)
  • Home Renovations
  • Reviews of any damn thing I feel like reviewing
  • The glory of Mutton Chops; one of the grandfather facial hair styles of the genealogy of beards!
  • Having a pair of very different dogs in my family
  • Being a husband
  • Board games (my library is not deep, but my geekiness is profound!)
  • Art
  • Web Design
  • …and if I feel like doing here what I never did at my personal website….

  • English grammar and usage
  • Education and teaching

I know, I know… people tell me if I want a well-traveled blog, I either need a strong personality to carry it off (check out Mariel Hemingway from my blogroll), or focused content (check out Saunderslog.com). I have neither! But no matter, I will either find my niche, my niche will find me, or I will simply never have an audience. No problem!

Oo Oo Oo!
Greg

About us

Monkey House is populated by three lovely and wonderful simians–Greg, his wife Alex, and their son Cole. He is a jack of all trades, she is a scientist/athlete, and their son is a poopsmith.