It appears the idiocy present on the internet is getting worse. I sent off a bunch of emails to textile companies in an attempt to locate bolts of Silk Dupion appropriate for the bridesmaids dresses.

And it was all fine, till I got this reply from Alan Jones Agencies in Newton:

To: Elly
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 12:29 PM
Subject: Message from Yellow Online – Silk Dupion

SORRY WE CAN ARRAGE A SHIPMENT FROM INDIA , BUT DO NOT HAVE STOCKS,
REGARDS / ALAN JONES.

Now, receiving a message in capitals really really irks me. I think it’s lazy, unprofessional, and rude. It’s almost as annoying as people who email you in ‘txt-speak’, or don’t use the spell check function. As I had to reply to him anyway, I figured I’d mention it.

To: Alan Jones
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 13:04 PM
Subject: RE: Message from Yellow Online – Silk Dupion

Hi Alan,

Thanks for that, but I think I’d rather find a supplier that stocks Silk Dupion.

Also, just for the record, typing an email in capitals is considered rude, and unprofessional. You may want to refrain from doing so in future.

Cheers,
Elly

Mm. It’s entirely possible I wasn’t as nice as I could be about it, but whatever. It was just an FYI, and it couldn’t have hurt. But then I got a reply:

To: Elly
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 12:29 PM
Subject: RE: Message from Yellow Online – Silk Dupion

REALLY. YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY THEN.

Nice thumb in the nose gesture. Especially with the ‘good day’ comment. I guess I *could* have been nicer, obviously he took offense and was determined to ignore my attempt at internet etiquette. Fine, no problem. So I replied, this time with Wiki at my back, and with appropriate bolding of my own thumb to nose gesture:

To: Alan Jones
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 13:04 PM
Subject: RE: Message from Yellow Online – Silk Dupion

Fantastic sales technique, really.

Taken from Wikipedia, so you don’t just think I was taking a dig – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caps_lock

“On Internet chat systems, forums and Usenet, typing a sentence in all capitals is considered rude, the large letters akin to shouting or yelling within the social context. On a more practical level, text written in all capital letters, a result of engaging the caps lock, may be difficult to read.[1] The ‘Caps Lock Theory’, is often referred to in Internet chat forums and states that there is an inverse relationship between a person’s use of the caps lock and their knowledge of a particular subject“.

Cheers.

The internet wins. If you don’t know how to play nice in the playground of sales, then be prepared to get pwned with bad publicity and jokes at the expense of your intelligence.

I generally subscribe a bunch of design sites. It’s great for inspiration, and keeping up with new trends and new ideas, and a FANTASTIC way to gain perspective.

I was reading one of the archived Smashing Magazine articles, where they had asked 50 Designers 6 questions, and one of the questions was ‘Name one typical myth about web-development (which is not true)’.

The first answer cracked me up:

Myth: Web development is for boys.
Truth: It’s simple, and anybody can do it. Web development is for Spartan warriors. People still underestimate the amount of effort that goes into creating a great site or application. The various components are easy, but putting them together in the right way takes time and experience.

I love the implication there, that its not just for boys, it’s for Spartan Warriors, which, if you follow the logic, are also girls!

In short, hell YES I’m a Web Development Spartan Warrior! :)

As part of The Square antics, I went to meet The Third Quarter at work on Friday night, for red wine drinking and general festivities before we went and saw several local acts play.

The Third Quarter and The Fourth Quarter work together, and so I quite happily hung out at The Fourth Quarter’s desk to drink my wine and gossip merrily. The Fourth Quarter is an application designer, complete with drawings and mock ups of app’s, along with their wireframe equivalents. Which just so happened to be sprawled all across his desk.

Well. It seemed a great idea at the time to add a couple features to the wireframe and mock’s. Things like ‘features: Run App. Save App. Close App. Twist and Shout’. I added boxes with suggestions like ‘Drink Wine and Stress Less’. I drew pictures with love hearts, and dancing guys and made this application rockin!

Unfortunately The Third Quarter saw my mischief, and thought that perhaps The Fourth Quarter may not appreciate my help with his app designing. She explained that he’d been working so very hard, and the whole project was quite stressful. So I ceased and forgot about the entire encounter until this morning, when I received several txt’s from a distressed Fourth Quarter:

The Fourth Quarter: Gah!! This means war!
Me: War? Oh no! Didn’t you see the box that said ‘Drink more wine and stress less’?? Please don’t be grumpy with me!

After a long pause, I received this txt message:
The Fourth Quarter: Fine, I won’t be angry if you tell me what the smiley face button next to the minimize button does ;)

Ah, Square <3. It makes my day :)

While I’m getting bogged down with ADSL Provisioning requests, or trying to convince someone at Brightpoint that yes, they really DO want to return my call its hard to remember that occasionally, where I work isn’t an awful awful place to be right now.

It’s true, Thursday Thinker is no longer a part of my working week, and yes, there are office politics just like any other workplace, and yes my boss is horrible . . . but how many of your workplaces have running races? And then photoshop’s something entirely random into the photo taken as the winner crosses the finish line?

That’s what I thought. Here is very very unique, and I appreciate that. At times like this its important to remember that my workplace could be much, much worse.

Sometimes its the little little jobs that make designing so much fun.

For example:

Cute little jobs are the best!