NewBoss Anais wanted some edits to the first draft of the newsletter (I loathe and despise people who refuse to proofread before the blue line, but then I loathe and despise everyone at this moment) and I was pretty much fine with it until I got to her request to add more white space here and there in each article.

I had to go outside and walk it off, I was so angry.

Because, yes, what this stupid newsletter needs is more white space.

It's not ugly and confusing enough that the titles already float in a sea of white, with an inch-wide gap above and below them, disconnecting them from the articles they supposedly introduce, no, now we need the bullet points separated by empty spaces.

Considering that these people have tendency to use bullet points because they think it makes the article look professional and not because they have any kind of list to incorporate, this turned out to be just one step further into the mire of stupidity than I was willing to go today--at least, without cursing, stomping, and invoking the gods of style to come down and smite whoever decreed that "rules" don't apply online and whoever decided that everyone with a keyword can "write."

For a few minutes, I was just filled with ugliness. I'm still pretty angry.

I can't understand why this stupid newsletter affects me this way. I took my name off of it long ago--a year or more. I don't read the blasted thing--not even when I'm coding it. Other than wasting four or five hours of my day once a month, it really doesn't have anything to do with me or my job. Why, then, do the related idiocies that I'm unable to be unaware of have the power to drive me right to the brink of insanity?

I'm serious. You wouldn't think that anyone with my personally cavalier approach to grammar and punctuation would go so ballistic, but mention "newsletter" and "white space" in the same sentence and I'm looking at the world through blood-red glasses.

Even now, at this moment, I'm blogging about it because I have so far been unable to force myself to go back in, override the template ("correct" ) style, and recode it all manually so that not only article titles but individual paragraphs can swim in a sea of white.

TGIF

One hour later....

Oh, fine.

I fought with the software for half an hour and then told NewBoss Anais that overriding the default settings would mean the newsletter could not go out today and she said, "okay, then, forget it, it was just an idea."

And then from the Webstrainer forum I haunt, one of the Webstrainer people sent me an email and wants to arrange a call to explain all about how I'm about to be named one of Mother's Little Helpers on the forum (I was already user of the week a little while back) with associated (one assumes) responsibilities.

Way to waste a good mad.