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Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

The Rainbow C put me in a Bayside Mood

Bayside - "Numb" (Live in San Diego 12-12-19)



Bayside - "Just Enough to Love You" and "Devotion and Desire" (Live in San Diego 12-12-19)



Bayside - "It Don't Exist," "Killing Time," "Prayers" and "Carry On" (Live in San Diego 12-12-19)



Bayside - "Bury Me," "They're NOT Horses" and "Walking Wounded" (Live in San Diego 12-12-19)



Bayside - "Demons," "Tall," "Duality" and "Mona Lisa" (Live in San Diego 12-12-19)



Bayside - "Interrobang," "Sick,Sick,Sick" and "Blame it on Bad Luck" (Live in San Diego 12-12-19)



The Rainbow Connection



Super Funny


https://youtu.be/hf2kzU3pL5A - John Ward on the impeachment trial.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Malta, Where is that?

This morning, there were three emails from Altaro, a software company, in my email. Two of the three emails were identical content but with different time stamps - 2:48 AM and 2:51 AM, followed by a third email at 6:38 AM. Being the curious person I am, of course I had to go look at their website and their job openings page, not because I want to leave my current (AWESOME) job, but because 5 years ago, I was looking for a job and had not received the job offer that I accepted. While scanning their careers page, I saw the following opening, which is located in Malta. Because job ads have an unknown lifespan, I've copied /pasted their opening below and added the URL of their jobs page at the bottom of this post. I don't really know if working in Malta would be an "Awesome" or "Crappy" thing but, in either case, I'm not moving to Malta.


Marketing Copywriter – Technical

LOCATION: MALTA, EU

Hire date: 1 May 2021 onwards

Due to continued growth, we are seeking a stellar technical copywriter to join our international marketing team.

In this role, you will educate and persuade by writing clear, compelling copy to promote our technologies to our target audiences around the world. As part of the Marketing Team, you will show our customers how our offerings help them and persuade them to purchase, subscribe or partner with us.

To occupy the post of Marketing Copywriter – Technical, you therefore need supreme English writing skills coupled with writing experience in the tech industry.

Your responsibilities will include conversion optimization across your B2B copywriting, as you create persuasive copy to promote the benefits of our products and services on our website, marketing materials, ads, lead nurturing campaigns, press releases, and more.

Your main goal is to emphasize our unique selling points and develop convincing calls to action (CTAs), but you must also be able to describe technical features and functionalities.

Key responsibilities:

  • Learn about our products and our positioning to craft clear, compelling copy (in English) for our website and product marketing materials, such as brochures, slide decks, and so on; with the goal of educating and selling
  • Write persuasive copy to promote our company and software solutions via mailers, letters, landing pages, lead nurturing campaigns, press releases, and ads
  • Collaborate with other team members on large- and small-scale marketing projects
  • Interview customers and partners and write case studies; create incisive templates for use by the Sales Team; research and develop white papers; etc.
  • Edit and proofread copy as needed, ensuring it is in line with the company voice and messaging
  • Keep our written materials up to date
  • Liaise with our SEO team to apply best practices to your work
  • Continually sharpen your CTA skills
  • Match the depth of technical info per piece with that of the target audience and their ‘location’ in the customer journey; and ‘translate’ concepts that are too technical into benefits that are easy to understand
  • Perform multivariate testing, log results and make recommendations on how to refine our copywriting for better conversion

Required:

  • Proven experience as a copywriter in the technology industry (English language)
  • Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills
  • Strong research skills
  • Creativity
  • Ability to research, keep abreast of and share findings on best practices
  • Experience with SEO
  • Solid communication and interpersonal skills, with a collaborative approach
  • Dynamic, proactive and structured approach to work
  • Ability to achieve goals and meet deadlines
  • Degree in marketing, English, journalism or related field

Editor's Note: For future reference, their careers page is located here: https://www.altaro.com/careers/

Saturday, February 6, 2021

Can't Get It

Due to a recent attack upon health care organizations across the United States, all permission to install a program on any work laptop has been revoked. This means that I cannot install https://www.extendoffice.com/forum/kutools-for-word/762-kutools-for-word-9-00-%E2%80%93-release-notes.html. I would purchase the program - it's $39 - and use it outside of work because it includes a new feature: Batch File and Replace. I have a macro that does this but it would be really nice to have a purchased program be able to perform this functionality as well. It looks like there is more functionality in the Kutools software than within the free macro.

Evil Clippy

Did you know that there is a tool called https://github.com/outflanknl/EvilClippy? Me neither. Per the link,

A cross-platform assistant for creating malicious MS Office documents. Can hide VBA macros, stomp VBA code (via P-Code) and confuse macro analysis tools. Runs on Linux, OSX and Windows.

If you're new to this tool, you might want to start by reading our blog post on Evil Clippy: https://outflank.nl/blog/2019/05/05/evil-clippy-ms-office-maldoc-assistant/

This project should be used for authorized testing or educational purposes only.


Why would I be looking at this page? Because I have macros in my templates that I cannot edit. When I select the macro, the Edit button is disabled. Thus, I was looking for a solution and when I came upon this page - VBA-Project Locked - Project is Unviewable - I was initially happy. It led me to the GitHub page and that's where my happiness evaporated because I read the following:

Compilation

We do not provide a binary release for EvilClippy. Please compile executables yourself:

OSX and Linux

Make sure you have Mono installed. Then execute the following command from the command line:

mcs /reference:OpenMcdf.dll,System.IO.Compression.FileSystem.dll /out:EvilClippy.exe *.cs

Now run Evil Clippy from the command line:

mono EvilClippy.exe -h

Windows

Make sure you have Visual Studio installed. Then execute the following command from a Visual Studio developer command prompt:

csc /reference:OpenMcdf.dll,System.IO.Compression.FileSystem.dll /out:EvilClippy.exe *.cs

Now run Evil Clippy from the command line:

EvilClippy.exe -h


I have never compiled a program - EVER! It's not that I don't want to learn how to compile a program - it's that I have managed to find a simple issue I want to fix - being able to edit a macro that I created - that has a complex answer. Sigh. I'm an English major and sometimes just saying that feels like an excuse. After all, I truly do not have the technical expertise of a developer. I think Alex has more logic and reasoning skills than I do - and I'm the adult in the room! I think that because he has taken coding classes at UNI whereas I never have taken a formal coding class. Sometimes I think I'd like to do so - and to that end, I've looked at what classes are available to me on the LinkedIn training site. Perhaps I will learn how to compile a program.

Friday, February 5, 2021

Approaching 26 Years as a TWer!

I have worked as a technical writer for 25 years, 11 months, 3 weeks, 5 days (9492 days) and will reach 26 years next week on Wednesday, February 10, 2021, which also happens to be the day when I meet with my manager about my 2020 Performance Review. Before going on about the topic at hand, I just want to state, for the record, that I do not reduce the amount of time I have worked as a technical writer by the sum of the two periods during which I was in a job search situation. The sum of days in those two periods is 78 days - yes, I looked in my private journals to determine that the first period was 37 days and the second period was 41 days. Thus, in a technical frame of mind, my 26-year anniversary of being a technical writer would not be next week, but rather on the unimportant date of Thursday, April 29, 2021. I don't have any special story about any April 29th, so I am going to retain February 10 as my anniversary date because it is the day on which I interviewed at NDP and was hired by NDP. For more information, read other posts with the NDP label. Anyways, the text in red below would be interesting, the text in bold/italic would be difficult to teach in a 3-hour class. I'm not signing up for the class.


Technical Writing for the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Biotech Industries

This technical writing training program will offer attendees an understanding of how the reporting process supports products in research, development, and in the marketplace. This virtual session will highlight the mandates for documentation set forth by the regulators, such as the FDA, the ISO, and other governing bodies. The program will train attendees on effectively reviewing and revising documents and assessing your audience, in effect producing effective written correspondence. This course will address how to write effective correspondence and reports in support of your company's activities. Attendees will learn how to organize and deliver information for the intended audience. They will also learn how to write clear and readable documents, and how to revise and refine your own and others' writing. The course will provide an overview of sound grammatical conventions, address problematic areas of the English language, and afford opportunities to address specific language issues. COURSE OBJECTIVE: Upon completing this course participants should:
  1. Understand the mandates for documentation set forth by the regulators, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and other governing bodies
  2. Know how the reporting process supports products in research, development, and the marketplace
  3. Understand how documents work in tandem from initial correspondence about a project to an approved protocol, amendments, and final study report
  4. Know how to produce effective written correspondence
  5. Understand how to assess and write to the audience
  6. Know how to organize and deliver information based on the message
  7. Understand how to structure reports
  8. Understand the innate structures of English grammar
  9. Know how to create grammatically sound passages
  10. Understand how the active and passive voices work and how to choose the most appropriate one for the type of writing you are doing
  11. Have a working knowledge of punctuation marks and their role in making documents readable
  12. Know how to review and revise documents
  13. Understand your own writing patterns and know the answers to your questions about the English language
  14. Have increased confidence in writing and revising documents
Topic: 3-hr Virtual Seminar: Technical Writing for the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Biotech Industries
Date: 10th - February - 2021, Wednesday

Time: 1 PM EST

Duration: 3 Hours

Location: Live, interactive training on your computer - Includes proprietary tools and helpful documentation!

Instructor Profile
Joy L. McElroy: With 10 years of experience as a consultant, and over 20 years total experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Joy L. McElroy specializes in Quality Assurance, Process and Cleaning Validation, and Equipment Qualification. In 2013 Joy started her own company, Maynard Consulting Company, which provides top engineers, auditors, and validation specialists to pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device clients across the United States, Canada, and the world