Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[hobish]

There may be a reason for it but a letter I received from an organization made my brain hurt a little. It was a reminder that of payments due, that they had checked their records and I hadn't paid the membership fee for a few months (I actually hadn't paid it because the fee is a percentage of my wages and I hadn't been paid yet so it made sense). The letter was something like six pages lomg and page number two confused me, it said "This letter was printed by accident, ignore it. Sorry ." I've been trying to think why they have to send out letters that were printed by accident and can't really think of one.

That reminds me of the documents i get that midway through, for no apparent reason, will have a page saying

THIS PAGE LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK

right in the middle of the page. Ok, well ... um ... but it says THIS PAGE LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK ... so ... it isn't blank. And why? One day i will ask. For now i am satisfied with the mystery. It's the little things, y'know.

[artk2002]

There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button.

[hobish]

There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button.

Ahaaa...that does make sense. I figured there had to be *some* reason for it. A lot of the docs i get were in binders in their original form, and someone has scanned them to send them to me. Neat. Thanks.

[Carotte]

There may be a reason for it but a letter I received from an organization made my brain hurt a little. It was a reminder that of payments due, that they had checked their records and I hadn't paid the membership fee for a few months (I actually hadn't paid it because the fee is a percentage of my wages and I hadn't been paid yet so it made sense). The letter was something like six pages long and page number two confused me, it said "This letter was printed by accident, ignore it. Sorry ." I've been trying to think why they have to send out letters that were printed by accident and can't really think of one.

Maybe each pages had a number like 1/2 , 2/2 and so on, if the 'error' had a number (2 of 2 then for yours), they couldn't just send 5, skipping one and having you wonder where was 2/2.
It even makes sense to not print everything again I guess, 6 pages printed instead of 11..
This is the only thing that comes to my mind, now I wonder HOW could this message got on there? surely it's not hand-typed because that would mean someone actually went "oh, I'll add an useless page, but notify them of such!".
This is most likely printed from a PDF or a textfile, neither have the power to add themself do they? Can't be the printer either (unless he's sentient and went "oh no, I've made an error but I still have time to add a message to the humans!".
Unless it was handwritten? then that makes sense at least (and would explain the )

Well, too much mystery for me, the fact that it's 2am and I'm having trouble to sleep is probably not helping.

[greencat]

There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button.

Ahaaa...that does make sense. I figured there had to be *some* reason for it. A lot of the docs i get were in binders in their original form, and someone has scanned them to send them to me. Neat. Thanks.

It happens a lot in long documents with a table of contents after an editing - instead of having to rework the TOC after the edit shortens individual sections enough to reduce the number of pages in them by one, a page gets "intentionally left blank" so as to not alter the rest of the pagination.

[Softly Spoken]

AYE YI YI! Last night one phone call almost wiped out our whole family with the brain hemorrhages...

My brother is trying to log onto his bank account and pay bills online. Online system is nightmarishly behind and outdated - won't let him log in, various ridiculous tech problems, etc. He calls the bank. They give him the run around. Frustrated, he has the following exchange with the rep:

Bro: (sarcastically) Well what am I supposed to do now, go back to writing checks?
Rep: (completely serious) Yes, that would be a possible solution to the issue.
Bro:  Look, can we just do this over the phone? I need to get my bills paid.
Rep: No, we need the routing number from you.
Bro: You mean...the routing- you mean the routing number you gave to me?? 

At this point, my other brother, who has been listening to the conversation on speakerphone, turns to me with a pained look and says "But - they're. a. BANK."

To sum up: Online banking system not working. Bank reps suggest using checks or coming to the bank in person. Except make sure we have our routing number 

Yes, they are a bank. No, they will no longer be our bank.

[squeakers]

Yes, they are a bank. No, they will no longer be our bank.

My bank's website died the night before.  I figured it would be up in no time.  Nope! How will I know if I have enough discretionary money to play farmville if it is down besides trying to buy more game points and getting declined.  Guess that is a first world problem. (I got some extra cash for the holidays and I am having some fun for once with it: all bills paid, gifts bought.. now, for once, it is my turn!)

So tomorrow if it is not up I will be calling and letting them know it is down.. and then asking them to reset my password for my savings account cos I forgot the PW and locked myself out.  They started a new thing this summer where every 60 days you needed a new PW.. I kept up until a month ago and then forgot the new PW for it but managed to remember the PW for my checking account.

And now I haven't seen "put in a new PW" since 3 months ago so I think they stopped with it.. but .. I still forgotted that PW for #2 account.. sigh.

[BarensMom]

I heard on the radio that Wells Fargo's online banking site had crashed and they were recommending that everyone go to ATMs or branches.  It sounds like the CSR just wanted to get your brother off her line.

[Ereine]

There may be a reason for it but a letter I received from an organization made my brain hurt a little. It was a reminder that of payments due, that they had checked their records and I hadn't paid the membership fee for a few months (I actually hadn't paid it because the fee is a percentage of my wages and I hadn't been paid yet so it made sense). The letter was something like six pages long and page number two confused me, it said "This letter was printed by accident, ignore it. Sorry ." I've been trying to think why they have to send out letters that were printed by accident and can't really think of one.

Maybe each pages had a number like 1/2 , 2/2 and so on, if the 'error' had a number (2 of 2 then for yours), they couldn't just send 5, skipping one and having you wonder where was 2/2.
It even makes sense to not print everything again I guess, 6 pages printed instead of 11..
This is the only thing that comes to my mind, now I wonder HOW could this message got on there? surely it's not hand-typed because that would mean someone actually went "oh, I'll add an useless page, but notify them of such!".
This is most likely printed from a PDF or a textfile, neither have the power to add themself do they? Can't be the printer either (unless he's sentient and went "oh no, I've made an error but I still have time to add a message to the humans!".
Unless it was handwritten? then that makes sense at least (and would explain the )

Well, too much mystery for me, the fact that it's 2am and I'm having trouble to sleep is probably not helping.

Sorry, I was probably confusing, the whole letter was sent by accident. The note was typed by a human and signed with her name.

[Thipu1]

Some years ago, an Egyptologist friend served as consultant on the animated film, 'The Prince of Egypt'. 

While looking at one of the story boards, he noticed that the inscriptions on a temple wall were gibberish.  In an attempt to be helpful, he offered to provide an inscription that would actually have been there at the time.

'Oh no.  We don't want it to actually say anything.  Some people might find that offensive'.

 
 Any one who could read a hymn to Amun in the background of an animated film would consider the effort impressive rather than offensive. 

[Virg]

artk2002 wrote:

"There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button."

I agree with this which is what makes my particular experience much more brain-hurty.  I was leafing through an old manual for a product that we use in the office (remember when manuals used to be a binder full of pages?) and I encountered the "This page intentionally left blank" message.  On both sides of a page, but not facing.  That's right, pages 101 and 102 both said that, so there's a sheet of paper in the middle of the manual that says that on both sides.  Does not compute.

Thipu1 wrote:

"Any one who could read a hymn to Amun in the background of an animated film would consider the effort impressive rather than offensive."

On the flip side, the producer is probably gun-shy of putting something in the movie that's coherent but that he can't understand, due to the risk that someone will decide to prank him, put ancient Egyptian erotica on the wall and cause an unnecessary uproar.  This sort of thing has happened before with signs or book text in film.  There's a story around (no idea if it's true but it illustrates the fear) that an actor playing a martial artist wanted a "really cool Chinese tattoo" for a movie so the artist who painted it on put really cool stylized characters that read "I can't act" on his arm.  So the producer was likely just playing it safe.

Virg

[greencat]

artk2002 wrote:

"There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button."

I agree with this which is what makes my particular experience much more brain-hurty.  I was leafing through an old manual for a product that we use in the office (remember when manuals used to be a binder full of pages?) and I encountered the "This page intentionally left blank" message.  On both sides of a page, but not facing.  That's right, pages 101 and 102 both said that, so there's a sheet of paper in the middle of the manual that says that on both sides.  Does not compute.

Virg

As I posted a bit earlier, this is due to revisions shortening sections, and leaving the pages blank allows them to handle that without needing to change the page numbers in the entire document.

[Virg]

greencat wrote:

"As I posted a bit earlier, this is due to revisions shortening sections, and leaving the pages blank allows them to handle that without needing to change the page numbers in the entire document."

I can see that happening, but it's been a long time since word processing software required manual repagination and even if this manual was written on something that old, given the choice between sinking a man-hour into doing it versus sending out a bunch of manuals with that in them I'd want to avoid looking dopey or lazy to the people who are buying my stuff.

Virg

[dawbs]

greencat wrote:

"As I posted a bit earlier, this is due to revisions shortening sections, and leaving the pages blank allows them to handle that without needing to change the page numbers in the entire document."

I can see that happening, but it's been a long time since word processing software required manual repagination and even if this manual was written on something that old, given the choice between sinking a man-hour into doing it versus sending out a bunch of manuals with that in them I'd want to avoid looking dopey or lazy to the people who are buying my stuff.

Virg

But it's not just manuals and in-house stuff.

I just finished helping revise a textbook.
1/2 the students in the book will likely have the 'old' version (and I'd rather not have to make them buy the new one!), 1/2 will have the new one.
I'd rather that 15 instructors dont' have to completely redo their homework sheets and course expectations.

Being able to say "do the homework on page #37" and knowing that they'll all have the same page 37 is incredibly important. 

[Ms_Cellany]

I once put "this space unintentionally left blank" in a document.

ETA: on purpose.