A lack of attention to details by others can be an irritation when you happen to be a hopeless perfectionist. That's hopeless in the sense of "It Ain't Ever Gonna Happen." While I do appreciate a certain level of quality, I realize that my work—and the work of anyone else—will never be perfect. I'm too busy to care about dusting my room or making sure that each strand of hair on my head is carefully positioned in the most stylish manner. However, important things in my life usually get a proofread, adjustment, or fact-check in order to make sure things are just so. Sometimes this extra step will take hours, but often it is just a quick look-up or a few extra minutes of my time that gets the job done ahead of the curve.
This basic concern for the quality of things seems to be slipping in recent years on a grand scale. Disregard for aesthetics, usability, factuality, and overall completeness, once the signature of failure, has become not only accepted, but actually embraced. It doesn't matter if it's Hollywood, Detroit, Washington, or Scranton; attention for detail is quickly fleeing from the movies, the auto industry, the government, and the University of Scranton. Ask anyone from an average small town if their municipality can understand the phrase "aesthetically-pleasing." My hometown—and the entire county, for that matter—would probably suggest a definition that crosses into the obscene; probably something similar to mastication, if you know what I mean. I'll save verbal ignorance for another day and a different article; rest your left brain in the mean time.
My hometown used to have a bridge called the Viaduct that crossed over a coal-stripped pit of despair known as Diamond Town into the borough of Mount Carmel. It was an old, greenish metal bridge, and while it wasn't pretty, it did have some historical significance. Due to years of neglect and rust, PennDOT determined that it was losing structural integrity. Point noted. The bridge was deconstructed and a new span was erected in its place; however, the new bridge closely resembles an Interstate overpass both in its beauty and utilitarian nature. Apparently, PennDOT's design plan called for visitors (and residents) to follow this train of thought, "Welcome to Mount Carmel, a Town that Hates Pretty Architecture." I understand that states' budgets are tight, but was it necessary to doom the entrance to town with a concrete monstrosity? Could the guide rails have been brick instead of concrete barriers considering that it is not a very long bridge? Would streetlights that match the architecture of the new bridge rather than the old Viaduct be too much to ask? Could PennDOT make it any uglier?
It really shouldn't come as a surprise that Hollywood laughs in the face of anything that has been thoroughly researched. There are always exceptions to the norm, such as Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander, and many others. However, for every well-done movie, I think we can all agree that there are five other mediocre ones spat out by the movie industry. For instance, The Core is a two-star DVD that I saw this past weekend. It builds its entire plot around drilling to the center of the Earth in order to drop nukes into the liquid outer core to restart it. You see, the United States Military managed to build a weapon that would make it stop spinning in order to cause earthquakes under certain countries. Still with me? Popular Science's columnists laughed at the plausibility of the movie as well as the numerous scientific impossibilities. Those mistakes are far too frequent and technical to discuss here.
However, one error that I noticed infuriated me because it was such a simple thing to correct. In one scene, a super-hacker tries to crack a top-secret government control system but a "404 Access Denied" error keeps popping up on the computer screen. There's the problem. You might say that I know a thing or two about web design and computers, which is why this little error box caught my attention. "404" is the error code that corresponds with "File Not Found" while "Access Denied/Forbidden" explains the "403" error. Don't believe me? Feel free to try out the 404 File Not Found and 403 Forbidden errors for yourself. It would have taken The Core's staff all of five minutes to make sure that they had the right error, but they chose to embrace ignorance with their greedy little claws.
Does Washington strive for perfection? Don't ask me that; it doesn't deserve an answer. That bureaucratic mess of red tape and lies wouldn't last for two minutes outside of their imaginary box where ignorance is not bliss, but rather required to ascend the party ranks.
A mid-western Newark, the Motor City has long been famous for its utter contempt of quality manufacturing and intelligent design. The examples overflow from the pages of Consumer Reports and other consumer watchdog groups. The Pinto, Firestone Tires, and the proliferation of rollover-prone SUV's should make Detroit proud. Even cars that have great potential and appear to be pondered before they are produced are plagued with serious problems. Take the Ford Focus: Consumer Reports wrote that it was an excellent car overall, with crisp handling, good fuel economy, nice interior, affordable price, and a refined engine and drive-train. The magazine also would not recommend purchasing the Ford Focus because the Focus' front suspension suddenly collapsed on a few hundred occasions. It did not wear out or deteriorate over time; it collapsed without warning. Good effort, Detroit.
Well, now that brings us to the University of Scranton. Think you're nice and perfect in Northeastern Pennsylvania, just minutes from a half-dozen major cities? Think again; attention for detail has been lacking here as well. Just ask any student on campus how much they enjoy the Residential Life department. As if the housing lottery hasn't been enough fun in past years, ResLife has decided to make it even more interesting by having it while the majority of campus is home on winter break. For some reason, ResLife felt the urge to move the upper-class lottery to January 16, 2004. Will it be easier because it's online? Unlikely. Judging by the recent Senior Class Registration Fiasco, the lottery may be more fun than a barrel of acorn-crazed squirrels. Just ask Brian McGrath about his experiences with that peculiar animal. That's where carelessness will take you, and failure is never pretty.