What's bugging you? (2015)

[TURBO]

The AT&T commercial for the first female in major league history bugs me because Bill Brown, the batter that she faces, looks like he's about 53 years old.

 

I can not agree any more than I do with this post... Not to mention, they play that commercial, what, 20 times per game?

 

ugh!

[NeedMoreFans]

All I want to do is print some documents in black and white. Why must, then, my printer insist on using cyan, magenta, and yellow ink to accomplish that task?

[logan82]

There should be an option to print in black and white in printing options.

[NeedMoreFans]

I print in "greyscale" and it is still using all the ink colors. What's worse, is if one of the colors is empty, the printer won't print anything, even in just black ink.

[logan82]

There should be an option somewhere for black in only. Maybe in a dropdown menu.

[1992casey]

How to handle surnames that start with lowercase letters. I've run into two this week (deGrom, de la Rosa) when prepping in-game threads.

 

If they're standing alone or in the middle of a sentence, it's easy to leave things alone. What to do with them at the beginning of a sentence is another story. Some suggest capitalizing every word that begins a sentence, meaning that the first letter of surname should be capitalized in this one situation. Others are clear as mud. If you start examining how the major newspaper sites handle this, it's easy to see why there's no consistency.

[FVBrewerFan]

Never thought of that. Easy way out is to make sure you start the sentence with their first name ; ) Beyond that, I have to believe it would be capitalized. starting a sentence with a lower case letter just seems very weird.

[1992casey]

I like the first name idea. In the context of our game threads, we can probably use the first name and skip the surname.

 

Yeah, starting a sentence with a lowercase letter definitely qualifies as weird, although it can likely be justified in this case, just like capitalizing the name can be justified.

 

I believe the Chicago Manual of Style says to capitalize; that's good enough for me.

[jerichoholicninja]

I like the first name idea. In the context of our game threads, we can probably use the first name and skip the surname.

 

Yeah, starting a sentence with a lowercase letter definitely qualifies as weird, although it can likely be justified in this case, just like capitalizing the name can be justified.

 

I believe the Chicago Manual of Style says to capitalize; that's good enough for me.

 

What bugs me is that there are things like Chicago and MLA that are supposed standards but have differences. The copywriter at a place I was working at a couple years ago was in a similar situation and didn't know what to do because MLA and Chicago had conflicting standards. Our department head told her to do whatever she wanted just make sure to do it that same way all the time.

[1992casey]

It's understandable that there are differences.

 

Many rules that pretty much set in stone. But we also have to deal with:

 

• Rules that provide for two options, e.g. the serial comma.
  
• Rules that differ between US and British English. We see so much of both brands of English these days that it's possible to forget which rule we need to apply.
  
• Rules that are in a state of flux. For example, "all together" and "altogether" are both acceptable today, but "all together" would have been required 75 years ago. However, "all right" should be still be chosen over "alright" in all but informal usage.
  
• Situations that aren't covered by grammar at all (such as book and article titles, footnotes and bibliography entries, etc.).

 

Additionally, different manuals are provided for different purposes. MLA is geared toward research papers and the AP manual is geared toward newspapers. Chicago is considered to be general purpose, but it's so comprehensive that it can be harder to use.

 

By the way, I did find out that Spanish has a very clear rule stating that the first letter of a sentence is always capitalized. That clarification is probably necessary because so many words that are capitalized in English are written in lowercase in Spanish.

[GAME05]

What bugs me is that there are things like Chicago and MLA that are supposed standards but have differences. The copywriter at a place I was working at a couple years ago was in a similar situation and didn't know what to do because MLA and Chicago had conflicting standards. Our department head told her to do whatever she wanted just make sure to do it that same way all the time.

 

I was an editor for a good few years and then a proofreader for some years after that, usually AP Style. The different styles are meant for different types of media, though sometimes the outlet just has to choose which one they want to use. That last sentence you said really rung a bell because that was the answer to any conflict we had, to just maintain one style throughout, however you chose to do it. Now, I wouldn't use it for MLA when you're writing your Master's Thesis, but that way works for most everything else.

[FVBrewerFan]

As long as we all agree "orientated" is not a word.

[folly412]

Based on my retail experience, my belief is that credit card companies charge 2-2.5% of the pre-tax purchase price per transaction.

 

Yep, merchant fees are how they make the vast majority of their money. Can be a couple points higher depending on what's in place with the individual merchants. Their favorite customers are those who pay in full each month, require little to no risk consideration, and let them collect the merchant fees for hosting the IT to make it happen.

[1992casey]

I've whined in this thread when TV and radio news reports use the word "guy" instead of "man" and "cops" instead of "police" or "officers." Tonight, a news report called marijuana "weed." That's definitely a new low… or is it a new high?

[NeedMoreFans]

Being a teacher, I obviously get summers off. We have two young children (4 and 12 months) and we pull them out of day care for the summer to save on costs, which means I get to watch them all summer long. This is the first time I've had 2 kids to watch. When I tell people what my summer plans are, everyone always keeps telling me, "oh, you are so fortunate" and "enjoy every moment of it. You will make so many memories." Well, my 4 year old is high spirited, demands constant attention, and is prone to having major temper tantrums. My 12 month old is nearly walking and gets into everything. The older one always thinks the younger one is going after her stuff, and tackles her, causing the younger one to cry. This is routine. I have not enjoyed it at all and I can't wait until school resumes in August. I give tons of credit to those who stay at home full time...I could never do it.

[JimH5]

Being a teacher, I obviously get summers off. We have two young children (4 and 12 months) and we pull them out of day care for the summer to save on costs, which means I get to watch them all summer long. This is the first time I've had 2 kids to watch. When I tell people what my summer plans are, everyone always keeps telling me, "oh, you are so fortunate" and "enjoy every moment of it. You will make so many memories." Well, my 4 year old is high spirited, demands constant attention, and is prone to having major temper tantrums. My 12 month old is nearly walking and gets into everything. The older one always thinks the younger one is going after her stuff, and tackles her, causing the younger one to cry. This is routine. I have not enjoyed it at all and I can't wait until school resumes in August. I give tons of credit to those who stay at home full time...I could never do it.

 

This 1000 times. Non-stay-at-home parents visualize a life of leisure and free time. But we know better.

[rwa12]

Thirded. My wife is a nurse practitioner, and until recently, worked crazy hours. I have a special needs 8 year old, and a 3 year old. I love them more than anything in the world. However, it would be easier to work 12 hour shifts all weekend, than have to keep them occupied and entertained. They wear me out more than work does. Stay at home parents and day care providers have the hardest jobs around.

[TURBO]

Stay at home parents and day care providers have the hardest jobs around.

 

...I'd throw teachers into that mix as well.

[NeedMoreFans]

...I'd throw teachers into that mix as well.

 

Teaching (at least high school kids) is so much easier than watching two young kids. Staying at home, I find myself exhausted at the end of the day and often want to take a nap midday, but my 4 year old won't let that happen. That doesn't happen teaching.

 

More recently, we cannot go anywhere in public without a meltdown happening. I have been that parent who had had to drag their screaming, kicking kid out of places on numerous occasion so far this summer. It's embarrassing.

[tmwiese55]

You guys are pretty much nailing why I have no desire to have kids.

[LouisEly]

All I want to do is print some documents in black and white. Why must, then, my printer insist on using cyan, magenta, and yellow ink to accomplish that task?

You have a HP OfficeJet 6600 (or similar)... just like me! It doesn't print black/white using those colors, but every time you print it is programmed to clean the print heads which uses a little bit of all three colors. I've had times when I can count the number of color pages I've gotten from the CMY cartridge with one hand before they were empty. And then - my favorite part - it will refuse to print in black ink only if any of the CMY cartridges are empty. HP thought, "Hey, we'll make a ton of money with CMY cartridge refills by depleting them with these settings! No, the consumers won't mind, they'll just pay up." Yeah...

 

If it really is printing b/w with those colors, I am assuming you have done this: Print > Properties > Advanced > then click the "Print In Grayscale" setting select "Black ink only". Do that in the Control Panel under Printers to set the default.

 

Tip - buy the recycled CMY cartridges off of eBay. HP printers can't sense the ink levels in those so they assume they have ink and will let you print in black ink only even if the CMY cartridges are empty.

[Funketown]

Printers, in general, are the worst.

 

Out of all of the pieces of office equipment I can get frustrated with (computer hardware/software, tablets, projectors, copiers, etc.) it's always the printer that I want to smash a la Office Space. My (new) home printer won't recognize half of our devices. We replaced our old one because it wouldn't recognize half of our devices.

[NeedMoreFans]

I actually have a Canon, and it won't print even in grayscale if one of the cartridges is out of ink. I take them to Costco to get them refilled, but it still costs $9/each to refill, and it seems I am always getting them filled.

[Godspeed]

I picked up a compact, black/white laser printer for about $50 on Amazon last summer. (Looks like it lists at $92 now.) Best printing decision I've ever made. Still on the original toner and replacements are < $20.

[LouisEly]

I actually have a Canon, and it won't print even in grayscale if one of the cartridges is out of ink. I take them to Costco to get them refilled, but it still costs $9/each to refill, and it seems I am always getting them filled.

$9 each? I don't know about Canon, but for my HP I can get all four (BCYM) in XL for $10 on eBay.