Author

Author

n. The person responsible for the creation, collection, and/or reorganization of a body of printed work. —v. To produce such work.

NOTE: Mostly my authorship has involved taking a few hasty notes while on the job, and then spending hours upon hours of my personal, free time to turn those few scribbles into what you see here.

My basic Authoring process is:

1. Quickly gather STOCK CLERK-related words and concepts while on the job
2. Organize the collected terms and information
3. Compose appropriate definitions
4. Incorporate my own experience and things learned from others
5. Occasionally, as necessary, create new terms, definitions, etc.
6. Publish it all on the Internet
7. Print everything out, duplicate and then circulate hard-copies to gain additional input
8. Continue gathering info while revising and expanding new editions

Wherever I've invented new vocabulary, it was to describe something where the answer to the questions, “What's this?” or “What do you call this?” was either a literal or metaphorical shrug of the shoulders. SHARK-CUT is one such example. I couldn't find any other name for it, it's pretty descriptive, and so, there you go.

The submerged part of this Titanic-style iceberg is the aspect of Internet publishing. In case you didn't know, Blogger was not designed to host online GLOSSARIES. The architecture is all wrong.

Well, almost. I found just enough stuff that I could co-opt through my own personal stubbornness and truckloads of HTML and CSS brute force that I was able to get up what you see here. I imagine that, among others, the Blogger-dudes and -dude-ettes themselves are going to be somewhat pleasantly surprised. At least, I hope so.

Along the way, it's certainly been a lot of fun figuring out how to “MAKE IT GO!”

Wanna Speak "Grocery?"

Wanna Speak “Grocery?”

  I work part-time on weekends as a stock clerk in a large, regional chain grocery store. When I first started a few years ago, I kept on having to ask my manager what on earth he was talking about. For instance, he'd say something like, “Shelf out the pickles 3-way and kill the pasta.” I'd then say something clever, like, “Huh?”

He was very, very patient with me, and slowly I learned to speak “grocery.”

Then, one day recently I wondered: Hey—has anyone ever collected all these special grocery words and phrases? I looked around, but couldn't find anything else on the Internet, so I decided to start my own list. And boy, oh, boy, it grew!

Every time I went to work I'd put a scrap of paper in my pocket, and whenever I heard or saw something new that was specifically “grocery,” I'd quickly jot it down. I thought I'd be done in a month, at most.

A year later, I'm still at it!

The specific area I work in is called “Non-Perishables,” meaning mostly cans, boxes, bottles, jars, and cellophane packages. However, I've tried to also include things from other departments such as Produce and Customer Service whenever I come across them.

Obviously, I'm having a lot of fun. Part of the fun is collecting the information. Another part of the fun is trying to present it so it's interesting, convenient and easy to use.

Hope you like it!