Warning: Rant on

If you ever catch yourself saying in an email the phrase “Please advise” please be advised that 1) you are an idiot and 2) I hate you.

It’s just one of the stupidest if not the stupidest of all the “buzzword” phrases that I’ve ever heard. I love too how it’s always just “please advise”. Not “please advise what you want me to do” or “please give me some advice” or “please advise how we should proceed”. Just “please advise”

I think that a good rule of thumb for emails or other similar things (message board postings) is to say things that you would normally say if you were having a regular conversation with this person. Obviously there are exceptions but I think it’s a good rule of thumb. Have you ever heard anyone say “please advise” in the context of regular conversation? No! because it’s stupid!

The other thing I hate is that it’s generally completely unnecessary. An example from a message board I was reading just a bit ago trying to figure out a problem I’ve been having at work.

“Still, the image is not accessible from the webpage. What would I be missing? Please advice.[sic]”

There’s no need to stick “please advise” on there. Without it, the post means exactly the same thing. WE KNOW YOU WANT ADVICE! IT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF YOUR POST!

Anyways….. **Rant off**

Stuff has been going pretty well here. I’ve played basketball the last 2 Wednesdays as Lost has been a repeat. I plan on going occasionally over the next few months – it’s fun to play, even though I feel like I’ve lost a few steps and am no longer the player I once was (not that I ever was *that* good in the first place). Halloween was fun, even if Amy was quite umm, forthright? in her candy picking, as Carolyn has already pointed out .

We’re planning on going to visit my dad in Blacksburg over Thanksgiving and heading up to Clev-o over Christmas some time, but still not sure on the exact dates of the Christmas trip. My mom will be coming down sometime near Joel’s birthday (on the 19th) so that will be nice.