Green! (in red type!)
Jun. 2nd, 2004 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafocI have now forcibly divested myself from the online Jargon Dictionary. I was wasting way too much time reading it.
And, reading the Jargon Dictionary, which might just as well be the Dictionary of Geekiness, I'm thinking about my Geek Points still.
Teffie, I guess that if I DID score more Geek Points than you, it's because of three things. My habit of perusing dictionaries FOR FUN has to be one of them. Second is, as you mentioned, my habit of listening to static, especially SHORTWAVE static. Third, not only do I own a pocket multitool, I own one that has a FLASHLIGHT built in. Not only that, it's a White LED flashlight. I don't know how many Geek Points you get for owning something like that because the blasted thing pinned the Geek-O-Meter.
(Granted, that was a present, but from somebody who should have known I'd like it.)
Their little article on Geek Humor says that Geeks consider it hilarious when content and context are strongly opposed-- such as when you write GREEN! on red paper. Hence the title of this screed. Now, I'm geek enough to see where the humor would come from in that, but not geek enough to think it's actually FUNNY or anything.
However, as usual, Therein Hangs a Tale.
In my job I sample stuff and send it to the lab. Sometimes it's paint or fuel, checking to see whether things are all within legal standards. Sometimes it's some unknown substance that shows up on someone's lawn furniture. Is it soot from the barbecue or soot from the coal boiler half a mile away? You have to have the lab test it to be sure.
In the Olden Days, i.e. about a year and a half ago, we still used multipart paper forms to tell the lab what the sample probably was, what medium it was in, and what we needed done with it. We had multiple colors of them, for different kinds of analysis. Pink was for tissue or biological culture samples. That was easy to remember: Pink = Meat. Yellow was for miscellaneous, such as microscopic examination of some dust to see what it was. Green was for oil-based stuff and coatings in general, that kind of thing.
I deal with industrial air pollution, so my opportunities to send blood-dripping hunks of flesh to the lab are, fortunately, extremely rare. But pink forms came in the kit, so to speak, so we had them.
One day I had to send a sample down to the lab, and sure enough we were out of the color of form we were supposed to use for that kind of sample. Now, the forms were identical except for color. So I grabbed one of the ream of unused pink forms we had. I grabbed a ballpoint pen, and in inch-high letters I wrote YELLOW across the top. I sent it in.
Three weeks later the analysis sheet came back, with the third copy of the multipart form stapled to it. The lab tech had crossed out the word YELLOW across the top of the pink form, and below it had written GREEN.
Now, THAT was funny.
S'truth!
And, reading the Jargon Dictionary, which might just as well be the Dictionary of Geekiness, I'm thinking about my Geek Points still.
Teffie, I guess that if I DID score more Geek Points than you, it's because of three things. My habit of perusing dictionaries FOR FUN has to be one of them. Second is, as you mentioned, my habit of listening to static, especially SHORTWAVE static. Third, not only do I own a pocket multitool, I own one that has a FLASHLIGHT built in. Not only that, it's a White LED flashlight. I don't know how many Geek Points you get for owning something like that because the blasted thing pinned the Geek-O-Meter.
(Granted, that was a present, but from somebody who should have known I'd like it.)
Their little article on Geek Humor says that Geeks consider it hilarious when content and context are strongly opposed-- such as when you write GREEN! on red paper. Hence the title of this screed. Now, I'm geek enough to see where the humor would come from in that, but not geek enough to think it's actually FUNNY or anything.
However, as usual, Therein Hangs a Tale.
In my job I sample stuff and send it to the lab. Sometimes it's paint or fuel, checking to see whether things are all within legal standards. Sometimes it's some unknown substance that shows up on someone's lawn furniture. Is it soot from the barbecue or soot from the coal boiler half a mile away? You have to have the lab test it to be sure.
In the Olden Days, i.e. about a year and a half ago, we still used multipart paper forms to tell the lab what the sample probably was, what medium it was in, and what we needed done with it. We had multiple colors of them, for different kinds of analysis. Pink was for tissue or biological culture samples. That was easy to remember: Pink = Meat. Yellow was for miscellaneous, such as microscopic examination of some dust to see what it was. Green was for oil-based stuff and coatings in general, that kind of thing.
I deal with industrial air pollution, so my opportunities to send blood-dripping hunks of flesh to the lab are, fortunately, extremely rare. But pink forms came in the kit, so to speak, so we had them.
One day I had to send a sample down to the lab, and sure enough we were out of the color of form we were supposed to use for that kind of sample. Now, the forms were identical except for color. So I grabbed one of the ream of unused pink forms we had. I grabbed a ballpoint pen, and in inch-high letters I wrote YELLOW across the top. I sent it in.
Three weeks later the analysis sheet came back, with the third copy of the multipart form stapled to it. The lab tech had crossed out the word YELLOW across the top of the pink form, and below it had written GREEN.
Now, THAT was funny.
S'truth!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-03 02:47 am (UTC)You know, I took, and retook, that quiz a slew of times and got the same thing. When I cut out most of the more geeky things (just to see if maybe the key to geekiness was not to admit to SCA, gaming, etc) I got "You're a good geek". *blink* No I'm not, I'm *eeevil*! Really!
And while I see your multi-tool I raise you two Ultra10s purchased for the purpose of practicing Jumpstart installations.
And all-nighters coding projects with no immediate (or even foreseeable) practical use.