Hmmm. Maybe I'll use this space to vent about the incredibly rude people who send email. See, part of my job is to answer feedback questions that come in through a website. Most of the time I get questions which are already answered on our FAQ pages. We even put up a page that people would see before the form asking that they read the FAQ pages and we still get people asking the same ol, same ol. No problem. I respond thanking them for their interest and link them to the relevant FAQ page or other site page.
But lately, we've been getting folks who are incredible impatient and rude. Most are uninformed about the scientific process and expect results immediately. Just because we have the pretty pics does not mean we have the results! But at least when they write to ask about the results, they are not overly profane. But I do get a few who cuss, etc. I just want to write back to these and ask "Where the heck are your manners?!" I wish there was some way I could forward the messages to the parents of some these people. Why do the feel that they need to cuss? Others manage to ask the same question nicely, why can't they? Oh well, you'd think I'd know better than to check my work email from home.
When I was growing up, my parents instilled in me the idea that education was very important. I was not allowed to have a job while I was in highschool beyond babysitting or yardwork. Today, I have a cool job.
Unfortunately, at this cool job, I come across some very uninformed people. I just want to yell at them "See, this is why you should have taken more math and science!" Actually, in many cases, I want to tell them that they really just need to go back to school!
So today, as I am checking my email, I come across a response with a link to a blog. So I check out the blog. And it is just unbelievable. How can anyone be that stupid? Well, I guess the people who read and believe that blogger. Which is very unfortunate.
In that case, the blogger needs to go back and take some more English classes and learn about comparisons. If a scientist says something is like beach sand, it does not mean that it is beach sand. It means that the substance in question has similarites to beach sand possibly in texture or composition, but that since no new word exists to describe it, that beachsand is what comes to mind. Our language is very limiting at times. Coming up with new words is not easy, so when scientists describe stuff, they often have to use comparisons.
Enough for today. I'm not exactly comfortable yet with this blogging thing. I was just so frustrated.
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