I try to be a nice guy to everyone. But some people think I’m a bit of a word snob. (Tammy would say I border on word jerk.) You can blame my mom. She’s one of those folks that reads “Enriching Your Word Power” every month in Reader’s Digest. Growing up, she constantly corrected my grammar and worked on my vocabulary. I’m glad. I like being able to speak well.

But there are down sides. Often I’m told that people are intimidated by me; that I make them “feel stupid”. I haven’t yet figured out a way to correct someone’s English without coming off as a know-it-all jerk. And I’m way too Monkish to just stand by and let someone speak incorrectly. I can usually let one faux pas slide, but repeated abuse just eats at me.

Another thing I can’t stand is bad English in print. I’m honest about the fact that I suck at spelling. I use dictionary.com all the time. (I just looked up faux pas, for example.) My grammar is usually spot on, so that’s not a worry, but I try avoid posting anything that’s incorrect. I feel like it makes me look stupid. Thus, I feel I must question the person who puts something like this on a professional web site.

“Firstly”?? What is that? Yes, it’s a real word, but not a good choice, and where’s the “secondly”? I know that I abuse ellipses, but this, along with the weird word choice was just too much. You’re trying to convince me to use your service. Hire a copy writer, dude. Seriously.

This is why I refuse to write copy for a web site. I’ll give you a cool layout and neat functionality, but you provide the words. I’m a programmer. Never trust a programmer to write good English. (Not even one whose mom taught him well.)

Yesterday I won for the second time on Blingo. Blingo is essentially Google wrapped in a different interface and run by Publisher’s Clearing House. Every time you perform a search, you have a change to win a prize. The idea is that if you use their search engine, you’ll see preferred links and ads that are paid for. But there are no pop-ups or anything too annoying, so it’s really no pain all gain.

I’ve now won two Fandango movie tickets, so Tammy and I can go see Spidey 3 for free! (Which, from what I’ve heard, may still not be worth the money.)

You can sign up for Blingo by clicking the mini-banner at the bottom of my side-bar.