Month: February 2007

Did he just say that?

So Kris Aquino and James Yap are having some marital problems but what does this do for Noynoy Aquino’s campaign?

Florencio Abad, campaign manager for Aquino tried to put a positive spin on the revelation, saying “The more they mention the name Aquino, (the more it will help Noynoy).”

He went on to say, “Kris has been honest and transparent about it. And the whole idea of a failing marriage is appealing to people because we are pro-institution, we are pro-marriage.”

Seriously, what is “pro-institution”? And how does being pro-marriage add to the appeal of a failing marriage?

The dude should have just kept his mouth shut or stuck to the prepared speech of “This (Kris-James marriage) is more important than my campaign”.

Breathe.Release

Yesterday the office went out to dinner at Chowking to celebrate the Bass’s birthday. Sweet and Sour Pork, Spareribs, Pancit Canton and Shanghai Rolls.

We all had a blast. After a stressful week it was great to have a light and fancy free night. The afternoon’s presentation went pretty well but we were so stressed trying to prepare for any disasters. Anticipating and preparing for failure has a way of keeping you on your toes.

Pia and I are going to watch Ghost Rider tonight with Rabang. Yes we know it is a bad movie but the opportunity for mocking is too good to pass up. And hey, it can’t be any worse than Ultraviolet.

Make it snappy

When you’re a technical writer being told that your writing is “dull”, “boring” and “full of platitudes” is the kiss of death. It’s even worse when you don’t disagree.

I’ve been reviewing my work and the constructive criticism is spot on – the writing is uninspired, full of repetition that makes for really boring reading. If I was looking for instruction with my work, I’d have my head on my keyboard having passed out after reading some of my stuff.

So how do I give my documentation some spark?

I’ve been using a thesaurus to find proper synonyms. I’ve also looking (really looking) at the text and asking myself:

  • “What are you trying to say here?”
  • “Does what you’ve written make any sense?”
  • “Is it in the active voice?”
  • “Can I tighten up the language to make it more accessible?”
  • How does it fit with other text in the section and the documentation as a whole

How do I create a sense of uniformity in the overall documentation but at the same time maintain some creativity in the writing so that it’s not all “Do this” or “In this screen you will see” type blather?

It comes down to focusing on the topic at hand while keeping the mind’s eye on the whole, just like life (platitude not intended).

The Frak-O-Meter

After Pia’s frak-filled rant, I jokingly suggested to her that she needed a plugin to keep score of the number of fraks she uses. She asked me to make it and now I present to you…The Frak-O-Meter.

The plugin just counts the total number of “fraks” in all posts for displaying in the sidebar. At Pia’s request, there’s also a Post Frak Count tag but use it with care because it increases the page load time.