originals

The Differences Between Dashes

by Hugh Moore on November 26, 2012

My editor gave me a note to help me understand the differences between types of dashes when working on my book (see the original here):

Figure dash “-”
En-dash “–”
Em-dash “—”

When to use each:

Between numbers not indicating a range.
e.g. phone numbers (867-5309).
Between numbers in a range. e.g. integers from 1–10.
When connecting related words (5–year–old, solid–colored, choke–slam).
Breaking apart thoughts when a period is too divisive, a comma isn’t enough, and a semi-colon is inappropriate. e.g. “Tedmarius Bifferson walked through the haunted swamp—wait, what was that noise? Oh no! A ghost is killing me! No, not Tedmarius, me! The narrator!”

Topics: editing, english, example, funny, originals, writing

9 Kids Games Adapted to the Corporate World

by Hugh Moore on November 13, 2012

adults playing leapfrog As a kid we spent many-a-day playing games with our classmates and neighbors. Once you’ve entered the corporate world, that doesn’t change. Here are 9 kids games adapted to the Corporate World.

Leap Frog. Spend years building your skills to get promoted to your dream position. Right when you think you’re going to get that promotion, get passed over for someone new to the company or that is close friends with the boss.

Spin the Bottle. Gather for your weekly status meeting. Spin a bottle on the table. Whoever it lands on is stuck working late that night.

Kick the Plan (and Update It With a New One). Set the plan you’ve been working months on in the middle of the floor. An executive runs over and kicks it over (because of budget cuts, time constraints, or just because). Work diligently on a new plan. Repeat.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Bring the Memo Over. Email a document to a senior executive. Wait 3 days, never hearing anything. Finally print out the document and take it to his desk.

Pillow Forts and Gate Reviews. The night before a major gate review, bring in pillows for the all-nighter you’re going to pull. Build a fort at 3am when you should be working.

Hide–And–Scope–Creep. Hide out in your office before your next meeting before your project sponsor. Leave your office for just a second and get caught by your sponsor who wants to add scope without increasing the budget or moving the deadline.

Duck, Duck, Choose. Have way too many projects to work. Click on each project folder until you yell “Choose,” then run around trying frantically to complete the project before coming back and starting again.

Padding Cake. With a coworker, add in some buffer time (padding) to your project schedule to account for changes and set-backs.

Tether–Phone. Work from a remote location with your team. Have your Wifi connection drop so you have to tether your phone to access email. When you exceed your data plan, switch to a team-member’s phone.

Note: These examples are tongue-in-cheek, but studies do show that play can be great stress relief. Find out more on the value of play.

Topics: featured, fun, game, meetings, office, originals, play, project, project management, satire, strategic disengagement, text

An Unlikely Place for Inspiration

by Ian on February 20, 2011

Come on guys, the couch cushion is right!

Topics: dreams, image, inspiration, originals, snow

Wikileaks Releases Documents Linking People Magazine to Aniston-Pitt Divorce

by Pat on February 15, 2011

LONDON—The founder and spokesperson of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, announced the release of confidential documents today that present evidence of a causal link between People magazine and the 2005 divorce of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt.

The documents were obtained from an unidentified source inside the magazine. The evidence, in the form of meeting transcripts and wire transfer records, provides support for claims the divorce was engineered by People in order to boost flagging sales and circulation. Among those implicated by the leak are the CEO, CFO, and editors-in-chief of People.

The outcry of the public after the release of this information has been of a scale rarely seen. Protesters descended on the offices of People magazine, carrying signs and chanting. Aaron Reynolds, a celebrity journalism major at Northwestern and one of the protesters, said, “This is a perversion of celebrity journalism. The moral implications of causing two people to divorce aside, objectivity is a celebrity journalist’s greatest tool, and they went so far beyond violating that when they manipulated events to create their own news stories.”

The ill will generated by this release may have a significant financial impact on People magazine. Former readers have begun organizing public boycotts of the magazine. Some groups have begun distributing copies of the Wikileaks document to newsstand owners and retail outlets in an effort to dissuade them from carrying the magazine. As a symbolic gesture, Internet donation drives have encouraged former subscribers to donate $116, the cost of a year’s subscription to People, to Wikileaks. As of filing, Wikileaks had reported receiving over $1 million.

Although legal ramifications should become clearer over the next few days, members of the House and Senate have already begun debate on the creation of a regulatory body to prevent something like this from happening again. Senator Scott Withers (R, WI) had strong words about this, “Creating any kind of regulatory body for the gossip press is absolutely unconstitutional. I understand the desire to do something when presented with a situation like this, but we are flirting with an idea that clearly violates the first amendment of the constitution.”

Representative Arnold Hindemith (D, VT) arguing in favor of the regulatory body, said, “We do not, in any way, shape or form, want to limit the freedom of the gossip press. They will be just as free as they are now to print whatever they like. What needs to be regulated is the clear conflict of interest created when publications decide to make the news, rather than just report it.”

Some celebrity journalism theorists worry this leak is representative of similar policies at People’s competitors. Professor Nicholas Crane, of Stanford’s Department of Communication, said, “It’s possible that creating news has become the next logical evolutionary step of celebrity journalism. Reading these documents, it’s clear that the leadership of People felt it was in their best financial interest to cause [Aniston] and [Pitt] to divorce. Looking back at the increase of their sales and circulation over these last six years, it’s also clear that they were right. Given the immense financial pressures that we, as readers, exert by whether we buy a magazine, we are presented with the situation where we, as a whole, are complicit in People’s actions. In essence, being ruled by our base desires and reading every voyeuristic account of celebrities’ love lives gone wrong has led us to the point where we may not be getting the celebrity journalism we want, but rather the celebrity journalism we deserve.”

At a press conference discussing the leaked documents, Julian Assange said, “We have also released some diplomatic cables, if anyone is interested.”

Topics: celebrity, fakenews, fame, originals, text, wikileaks

Good Morning Astoria

by Ian on February 2, 2011

View in the morning from the subway in Astoria.

Topics: cool, image, inspiration, morning, nature, originals, snow, sunrise

5 Work Resolutions You Shouldn’t Make (And One You Should)

by Drew on January 4, 2011

It’s that time of year again. No, not when you realize you haven’t done any real work since December 5th and can’t remember your password; it’s time to make some work resolutions so your New Year is filled with success, opportunity and awesomeness.

Maybe you already have your resolutions in mind (promotion here you come), but what if they’re the wrong ones? Here are 5 resolutions you should avoid in your successful New Year:

1. Give your computer liposuction.

Your computer is fat32.

Why It Seems Like a Good Idea: It’s understandable, your computer has gained a few pounds over the years what with the extra RAM, webcam and all the sticky notes on the monitor. That extra weight could make your computer move slower, might lead to computer depression and is certainly a nuisance when you have to move the old guy.

Why It’s Not: Even while your computer has gained some bloat, it’s not a good idea to just start cutting pieces off of him or ripping out his hard drive. Sure, there could be extra stuff in there, but there’s definitely necessary stuff there too. You might accidentally take out his cooling fan and that’s only going to make him more temperamental. If anything, put your computer on a diet of less applications and help him trim the fat of old, unnecessary files from that Downloads folder on his desktop.

2. Pursue your dream of being a space cowboy.

Why It Seems Like a Good Idea: Remember when you were a kid and everyone told you to follow your dreams, and that you can do anything you set your mind to? This year, you might be thinking of finally pursuing that dream job because it will motivate you, make you happy and you’ll make oodles of money. As a space cowboy.

In space, no one can hear you "Mooo."

Why It’s Not: 2011 might be the year for a new career, but if that dream career combines cattle AND outer space, you may want to reconsider. Cows don’t like space and it makes their milk taste weird. Better to stick to something earthly like teaching or project management.

3. Take Up Smoking for the Breaks

When the cancer can't come fast enough.

Why It Seems Like a Good idea: Every 2 hours, you see Jim from Accounting take a break from his number crunching, leave the office and enjoy a breath of fresh air (and several of smoke). Not only is he not working, he gets to go outside, and look really cool like the people in Mad Men!

Why It’s Not: First, there are much more productive things you can do when taking a short break (such as enjoying some office humor). Second, all that smoking will eventually get Jim another kind of break — hospitalization for all the ailments caused by smoking and/or by being hit with a falling piano while standing outside.

4. Spend More Time with Your Unborn Child

Why It Seems Like a Good Idea: Family is incredibly important and the best gift you can give them is your presence. And, if your husband or wife is pregnant, what better way to kick things off than to spend all of your time with your future son / daughter / alien?

A missed movie collaboration.

Why It’s Not: While spending more time with your family is a worthy goal, you should resolve to do it with family members who are a little bit further along in their gestation. Not that you can’t spend time with the baby in the belly, just don’t follow her around everywhere she goes or mommy (or daddy) will put you in time out. Sometimes the baby just wants some alone time so she can sort out if Tommy, the other fetus from Baby Yoga, likes her.

5. Work More on Your Boss Impersonations

How can you impersonate the boss when you don’t know who it is?

Why It Seems Like a Good Idea: So you read about the power of humor in the workplace and figured what better way to cheer up the old gang at work than through spot-on impersonations of the boss. After all, it always works out well for the people on The Office.

Why It’s Not: This is a bad idea for two reasons: 1) When the target of your humor is a person, no matter how thick-skinned or thick-headed they seem, it might offend them. 2) That offended person can fire you.

Instead, why not resolve to use more positive humor that will boost your productivity, improve your relationships, upgrade your health and be more fun? To learn how, check out our sister site on humor at work.

Topics: featured, funny, goals, originals, resolutions

Delicate Cleaners

by Ian on January 4, 2011

“This” does not “bode” “w”ell”“.

Topics: advertising, business, image, originals, sign, uncertainty

Coziest Socks in the Universe

by Ian on December 4, 2010

Something tells me we neglected to check with the other Galaxies before printing this.

Topics: advertising, image, marketing, originals, unlikely

Meeting Humor: One Liners & Jokes

by Drew on December 2, 2010

I don’t know about you, but with the amount of time I spend in meetings, I need some work humor. Here are some of the best one liners and jokes about meetings.

On Meeting Length:

I propose a new rule: meetings can not last longer than my laptop battery or my bladder.

On Committees:

There’s a reason they’re called committees. When you’re on one for too long, you start to think about committing something else- suicide, murder, yourself into a mental institute.

On What You Learn in Meetings:

I learn a lot in meetings. For instance, did you know that by bending a paper clip once, you can make a pretty cool ‘S’?

On Nodding in Meetings:

I think the reason we “nod off to sleep” is so it almost looks like we’re just emphatically agreeing whenever we’re in a boring meeting.

On Conference Calls:

I don’t know what ferences are, but based on how I feel about conference calls, I must be proference.

On Early Morning Calls:

My alarm clock broke so I’ve started scheduling early morning calls at the time I want to wake up.

On Meeting Topics:

My biggest issue with meetings is that, despite their name, they are rarely about me.

Topics: featured, jokes, meetings, officehumor, oneliners, originals

Thumb Exercise

by Drew on November 21, 2010

A simple thumb exercise to get the mind warmed-up.

Topics: brain, creativity, exercise, featured, originals, warm-up