Musings of an Editress

What should I do in my down time?

2007-08-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

If I ever get bored of reading or hiking or cycling or wine tasting or kayaking or any of the myriad things I do when I'm not working, what, oh what, should I do?

Well, one fictional editress I just read about seems to have found her down-time niche. Jane O'Connor wrote a book, Dangerous Admissions, about a freelance-copyeditor-cum-detective. This New York Times article spills the whole scoop.

This is uncannily like a book I just finished, Goodnight Nobody, by Jennifer Weiner, in which a reporter-turned-suburbanite-mom gets wrapped up in trying to unravel a murder mystery. It makes me wonder about the authenticity of people's ideas. But, no one can argue that a freelance editor is NOT a reporter, and I haven't read O'Connor's book to really see any true connections.

And I'm sure others have had this same thought, speaking of unique ideas. :)

An ex-editor singing our praises

2007-07-25T11:14:00.000-04:00

This woman used to be an editor, and in this very well-written article explains what it is we really do:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/07/24/editing/

A grammar funny for your Tuesday enjoyment

2007-04-24T13:39:00.000-04:00

The For Better or For Worse cartoon in I think Sunday's paper was posted on the email lists I get, and I got a kick out of it mostly because at first I wasn't really amused by it, I was sort of disheartened. I feel like I repeat this same "joke" to myself all the time. But, I guess that's what's funny about it.

Turning over a new leaf

2007-04-17T12:43:00.000-04:00

Whoever says the life of an editress is boring doesn't know THIS editress! I've been jumping around the country, visiting friends, setting up shop from one coffee table to the next, and having a blast!

Freelancing is my calling. I absolutely love it. And, what's best is that while I was in the depths of despair, I got one of the best, most glowing responses from a client who asked me to take on an unorthodox project--one that another editor couldn't finish because of a personal emergency!

So, this was meant to be. Welcome to my new life, and let's look forward to the future! I feel like I'm finally getting to a good place.

Michigan in winter

2007-02-01T16:05:00.000-05:00

Pay no attention to the glue behind the counter.

2007-01-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

YES. The counter is installed. Soon to come will be the sink faucet, then disposal and water purifier, then dishwasher hookup, then all the plumbing will be done! Here are before (this morning) and after (2PM today):

The only unsightly bit is the old brown glue from where the linoleum was glued to the wall before (you can tell how far to the left the added cabinets go). Hopefully it won't affect the tile installation. Let's not think about it now...

Keep your cool with author dealings

2007-01-18T12:36:00.000-05:00

Why don't authors write back to your queries? Why don't they write back to your email asking if your queries arrived? Are they too busy to care if publication is delayed? What's the deal?

I just went through a bit of author query anxiety, in that my due date of an article, with queries addressed, was rapidly approaching. It was the first of four I had edited and the first of four I had sent a query letter for. I requested responses in 5 days, and when 6 days passed I sent a follow-up. Still no response. Oh, no! What if he is out of town? What if he just doesn't care that [insert what I would call important issues to the article]? What author wouldn't care? In the meantime, I completed all 3 of the other articles (editing, querying, cleaning up) I had started after this one.

I only say he may not care because in my previous position, the fast-paced world of grant proposal editing, many times authors really don't care about consistency, because they don't have time to. They only care about a product getting out the door by a specific time by whatever means necessary. I can understand the utter exhaustion that proposal writers feel at the end of the project, when it's in an editor's hands. It has already been through so much in the review process that there can't be anything else wrong, right? Well, that's a question for another day.

So, anyway, I finally realized that I could find this author's phone number, so I called him. I remember a certain blog post by Katharine O'Moore Klopf (editormom, see my blog links) about being telephonophobic. I am certainly that, to a degree. But it's a good thing I broke down and picked up the phone, because he never received my emails! My Gmail address was I guess blocked from his server as an unknown entity. And, he did care! I sent the queries to his personal email address, and he answered them within 24 hours.

I didn't have too much to worry about, in that the article isn't slated for publication until several months from now, but after my long wait I got the article in on its projected editorial schedule! This is very satisfying to me. Ah.

So, I have reaffirmed for myself that the authors for this new gig of mine care a lot more about their articles than people trying to kick a 300-page proposal out the door (so they can get to writing the next one).

Counters and (future) tile backsplash

2007-01-18T12:22:00.000-05:00

Another unrelated-to-editing post: The countertops were installed today! Actually, they're still installing them. But, I took a good closeup photo and want to see it next to what I think we might use for a tile backsplash:

Solution to "cat draping"

2007-01-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

Beacuse the cat thinks she absolutely must be in my lap and none of the other soft places in the house, I've come up with a solution to her draping herself over my arm and hindering my work: the cat bed. It seems to be working, though she has made it clear that it is not her ideal solution (though she probably wouldn't have called it a problem to begin with). I guess if she gets tired of it, I can leave the bed on my lap and have a few cat-free moments to type.

Cabinets

2007-01-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

There's a story behind every cabinet. And four screws.

Taking a day off (it is Saturday, after all)

2007-01-06T14:16:00.000-05:00

I just did some "spring cleaning," and I say spring because despite the fact that it's January, all of my windows are open and the thermostat is reading 70 degrees. Not too shabby for a Northeastern state. I made use of my AWESOME new Dyson vacuum, the purple "animal" version, which is just amazing. I mean, it was apalling to see what it picked up last week and this week (our old vacuum was apparently just moving dirt and fur around), but so satisfying to dump the vacuum container with one little click! So now I thought I'd post while I wait for my parents to come help wire outlets in our ever-improving kitchen.

In other improvement news, we got the final delivery of furniture courtesy of the in-laws that was in storage--piano, big TV for the basement, and a full mahogany dining room set. Now we are fully furnished (well, except for a kitchen counter and sink!). The movers did some "funny" stuff to the piano (like move it with one too few men), so I had my parents' long-time tuner come look at it, and he said all was A-OK. He also oohed and aahed over it. He looked it up in his book, and by the number on the piano determined that it was built in 1935. My grandmother-in-law bought it from friends in the late '40s, and my father-in-law and brothers proceeded to use it as a racecar track, so it was refinished (beautifully) within the past 20 years or so. It looks GREAT. Matter o' fact, here it is:

And, I've been working like crazy! Dear Husband is away for the next week, and I guess it's a good thing, because I've got so many projects going on in the next three weeks or so: magazine articles to write (2), social-science journal articles to edit (4), an impending education book to edit, and an upcoming flurry of proposal support for the research folks.

And, of course, I still try to hit my $1K power seller mark on eBay each month, but I'm not sure if I'll have time this month. If I don't keep it up, I lose power seller status. They do allow 1-month grace periods, but not two in a row. I may have to use it for January!

Parents just arrived (top down!) in the driveway...

Hardwood: Before and After

2006-12-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of photos. I am not responsible for the beautiful job that was done in my house today, except monetarily. :)

Oh, give me a home!

2006-12-19T14:07:00.000-05:00

Our house isn't much of a home right now. There is not one bit of home-like anything in either our kitchen or dining room. The flooring folk will be installing floors on Thursday (how slowly can 2 days tick by?), and after that I can put back some of the furniture and get started on the cabinets. I have been eating straight out of the fridge, and making coffee in the laundry room!

Luckily I am completely swamped with work and don't have time to stare sadly at my oh-so-naked rooms. But you can! First you see the empty dining room, which I pulled the carpet out of, and then the kitchen before and after. My dad was a major factor in kitchen demo, as you'll see. The cat, too.

Chipka in the office

2006-12-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share a picture of how I work. It involves a cuddly yet very grumpy cat draped over my right arm, groaning/growling every time I move my arm to use the mouse, even sometimes "biting" me when my arm is somewhere she doesn't necessarily like or find comfortable. (I put "biting" in quotes, because this activity includes her opening her mouth, putting her teeth on my arm, and pushing. I say, "Hey!" or "Nooo" and she stops and licks me. Then it starts over. Speaking of starting over, putting her on the floor is also fruitless.) I remember reading a copyeditors' LISTSERV email someone posted months ago about how she solved a similar problem by buying a baby sling and putting the cat in it. I thought this was ridiculous at the time as I was still in an office, but I'm seriously considering it now.

Official open-ended freelance gig!

2006-12-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

I had a phone call this afternoon with the publisher who thought I scored well on my editing test, and she asked what I was looking for, and when I said I was looking for a good "base project" for my freelance business, she said "well, that's what I can offer you"! Perfect! So, I'm going to start with about 15 hours a week, and maybe as I see that I'm really enjoying the work, I'll go for more (up to 40!). What a relief to have something STEADY, with a tangible "at least" number to hold onto as I fall into the abyss of not knowing what may or may not come down the pike in the future. That, for me, has been the hardest thing to get used to in freelancing so far. Especially now, while we're remodeling the kitchen and need all the cash we can find.

"Skyeditor"

2006-11-10T14:51:00.000-05:00

Great photo from The Onion.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

2006-10-29T16:50:00.000-05:00

I'm already set up for work in the new house (my office is a bit sparse, but will fill out nicely with time!). Today I experienced one of many interesting differences between DC and suburban PA:

I am sitting at my desk, and I hear a series of pops. In DC, I would have said, "gun," and Ben would have said, no, it's maybe just a car backfiring, or a pellet gun. And we would leave it at that, hopeful that he was right but not wanting to say out loud that my instinct could have been the right one.

But I got up out of my chair today when I heard the pops, and in front of my house was actually an antique car backfiring.

Some very "DC" photos

2006-10-09T23:39:00.000-04:00

Some classic photos of "DCness." I got awesome seats through work, in the 5th row off the 3rd base line (a few near misses for foul balls!). "Screech" even came over and took a picture with me, then took a picture OF me... then tried to abscond with our camera for laughs. Cute.

Decorating an office... what fun!

2006-09-26T14:32:00.000-04:00

I am having all sorts of fantasies about my future office, which my generous husband is allowing me to create in what other homes would call the "living room," which no one ever really lives in. The living room at my parents' house was the most lived-in living room I can think of, and that's just because we gathered around the Christmas tree there and set up card tables at Thanksgiving for me and my brothers (the "kids;" we still sit there today... I wonder what will happen when all the nieces and nephews are required to sit with us for dinner, not at the TV). I also did my homework there as a kid, which makes my using the new living room as an office just a logical step.

Oh boy, do I want to make it stylish. I know I'm already getting the brass campaign desk from the in-laws, so I'll have to incorporate that. Actually, I just looked up "campaign desk," and I don't think that's exactly what they are giving me, but interestingly that's what they call it. But regardless, it's a nice desk and I'm thinking about putting a mirrored top on it. I've been looking at Design Public for their shelving. I'm also going to use this room to do my Murami business (not the heavy machinery stuff or resin pouring, but the filing, display, photography, and web work), so I want it to reflect Murami's style. Maybe some wallpaper? Ben might scrunch his nose at that, but we'll see. Really, the most important changes to the house at the moment involve the rear windows and the kitchen, so my office being "stylish" doesn't necessarily need to happen immediately. ;) I can visualize and fantasize and develop my plan of attack.

On the Domino Mag forum, along with the suggestion to cover filing cabinets with wallpaper (ooooh), I found a few resources:

See Jane Work

Staples

The Drapery on the home office in Philly (blog by a Philadelphia designer)

Great Setup for Startup

2006-09-26T14:28:00.000-04:00

I've got a security blanket to cover me while getting other freelance work started. I'm going to continue working as an as-needed employee for my current employer from my new home. What a great deal! I'm so excited! So, I'll have this on top of the work for my previous employer (editing teacher resource books).

I'll take this good news to offset my sadness about putting my beloved cat to sleep on Friday.

Good things come in threes... and fours

2006-09-13T10:31:00.000-04:00

I've gotten several freelance gigs since I started my part-time search for part-time freelance work. I'm moving to Pennsylvania in October, at which point I will ramp up my marketing and whatnot for freelance work (I might even become part of my husband's consulting company, InkCircle, which has been in hibernation) . But I've already had three writing assignments for a magazine, and out of the blue last week I got a request from a previous employer for an edit on a teacher resource book, and we've started talking about more work for them after that.

I certainly needed that, after a few serious disappointments! Now the only problem is finding time to DO all this while still working full-time (until 10/13!), getting a mortgage, and moving to a new state! I guess it's not a terrible problem to be too busy, especially considering the large "money funnel," as my father calls it, has been installed on top of the new house, before we've even closed!

On an off-topic note, but still in the disappointment category, while I was walking the dogs this morning, I watched in horror as the Waste Management guys threw ALL of the trash AND recycling into one dump truck today, after I had just put my carefully collected bag of paper in the "PAPER ONLY" recycling bin! I wrote to customer service on www.WM.com and asked my landlord to forward a note to the condo association in case anyone else is as bothered by it as I.

Les Editeurs

2006-09-08T13:46:00.000-04:00

Merveilleux!

Major Disappointments

2006-08-21T10:33:00.000-04:00

Disappointment #1: Two months ago, when I was still considering full-time positions, I had a great interview at what seemed like a great workplace, only to never hear back, even after repeated phone calls and emails. I've gotten over this, because companies are more and more frequently using this practice of "no response means no." This was one reason I was compelled to start working for myself. It's still frustrating, even when I prop myself up with self-assuring statements like "A company that doesn't call back wasn't good enough for me anyway!"

Disappointment #2: I've been in contact with a guy who used to live in my old apartment building, because he works as a sort of head hunter for editors and other creative folks in DC and he emailed me out of the blue at what seemed to be the most convenient time, as I'm now starting to freelance and could definitely use his help. We set up a meeting for August 11. I filled out all the requisite forms, gussied myself up, and went to meet with him. He didn't show. He was profusely apologetic when I called from our confirmed meeting place ("In my 5 years doing this I've only missed maybe 3 meetings and I'm so sorry it had to be you this time; I'll blame it on the new baby.") and we rescheduled for this morning at Starbucks.

So, this morning, after waiting a week and a half, I dressed myself up even more just to show that I mean business, got myself a small iced coffee (I don't speak Starbucks), and waited. And waited. I called him when he was 15 minutes late, and he said "Are you somewhere I'm supposed to be?"

He then proceeded to say that he was just so embarassed that he'd missed our meeting twice that it must be a sign, and he was going to cut his losses [cut HIS losses???] and wish me luck in the future. And, at this point with me moving to PA he wasn't sure what kind of services he'd be able to offer anyway [even though he scheduled our meeting after noting that he does work with out-of-towners if he starts up with them before they move], and because his business thrives on his being reliable, the fact that he wasn't reliable to me means he doesn't feel comfortable interacting with me in the future.

What sort of professional screws up twice and then punishes the other party for it? I must say that I was completely shocked and crushed. He said he was "speechless" this morning, and it's contagious.

"Rock It, Man"

2006-08-18T17:20:00.000-04:00

This is totally off topic, but very funny. It was posted on the Post in an article about William Shatner's upcoming roast on Comedy Central (Sunday at 10PM): Rocket Man.

I am mad!

2006-08-15T17:26:00.000-04:00

I was browsing through some fellow editors' blogs, and came across this post, which is a funny little test-yourself quiz that will tell you if you're obsessive enough to be an editor. :)

I rated rather high... yes, I organize my pens by color, and yes I do enjoy lining things up on my desk before starting to work. Too bad I don't get paid to put all the green pens in one mug and the red pens in another.

Hyphen wars

2006-08-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

"The only way McMaster-Smith can beat Skilton is to poke him in the eye with his hyphen" - Alf Brown, football journalist, 1960s

Even one little sleight of punctuation can cause serious damage... and here's a current event to back up this statement:

From the 8/7/06 Globe and Mail (Figures are in $C. The actual sentence is at the end of the article under "The Comma Conflict"):

"A basic rule of punctuation"
Grant Robertson
The Globe and Mail
August 7, 2006

It could be the most costly piece of punctuation in Canada.

A grammatical blunder may force Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13-million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract permitted the deal's cancellation.

The controversial comma sent lawyers and telecommunications regulators scrambling for their English textbooks in a bitter 18-month dispute that serves as an expensive reminder of the importance of punctuation.

Rogers thought it had a five-year deal with Aliant Inc. to string Rogers' cable lines across thousands of utility poles in the Maritimes for an annual fee of $9.60 per pole. But early last year, Rogers was informed that the contract was being cancelled and the rates were going up. Impossible, Rogers thought, since its contract was iron-clad until the spring of 2007 and could potentially be renewed for another five years.

Armed with the rules of grammar and punctuation, Aliant disagreed. The construction of a single sentence in the 14-page contract allowed the entire deal to be scrapped with only one-year's notice, the company argued.

Language buffs take note — Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

Rogers' intent in 2002 was to lock into a long-term deal of at least five years. But when regulators with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) parsed the wording, they reached another conclusion.

The validity of the contract and the millions of dollars at stake all came down to one point — the second comma in the sentence.

Had it not been there, the right to cancel wouldn't have applied to the first five years of the contract and Rogers would be protected from the higher rates it now faces.

“Based on the rules of punctuation,” the comma in question “allows for the termination of the [contract] at any time, without cause, upon one-year's written notice,” the regulator said.

Rogers was dumbfounded. The company said it never would have signed a contract to use roughly 91,000 utility poles that could be cancelled on such short notice. Its lawyers tried in vain to argue the intent of the deal trumped the significance of a comma. “This is clearly not what the parties intended,” Rogers said in a letter to the CRTC.

But the CRTC disagreed. And the consequences are significant.

The contract would have shielded Rogers from rate increases that will see its costs jump as high as $28.05 per pole. Instead, the company will likely end up paying about $2.13-million more than expected, based on rough calculations.

Despite the victory, Aliant won't reap the bulk of the proceeds. The poles are mostly owned by Fredericton-based utility NB Power, which contracted out the administration of the business to Aliant at the time the contract was signed.

Neither Rogers nor Aliant could be reached for comment on the ruling. In one of several letters to the CRTC, Aliant called the matter “a basic rule of punctuation,” taking a swipe at Rogers' assertion that the comma could be ignored.

“This is a classic case of where the placement of a comma has great importance,” Aliant said.

Unfortunate town names in France (and PA)

2006-08-01T16:15:00.000-04:00

I was doing some online shopping and found the string republic, which has two retail locations listed back-to-back that made me giggle:

BLUE STOCK STATION
Quai Buzon Tél : 05 62 68 47 98
32 100
CONDOM

URBAN
112, av Pierre Dumont
69 290
CRAPONNE

Do you think the teen pregnancy rate is low in Condom, France? Maybe to bring in some extra tourism they could erect (HA!) a giant condom in the center of town.

After Googleing, I found even more snicker-inducing information on Wikipedia:

Given the more widespread social use, in the English language, of the word Condom, it is interesting to note that the town is located on the river Baïse; baise, without the diaeresis, is a French vulgarism for a sex act [editorial note from Jen: specifically the F word; but un baiser also means "a kiss"]. In French language however, a condom is called préservatif. The city is a popular target for street sign stealing tourists.

The street-sign stealing link led me to this article on Intercourse, PA, not to far from where I grew up. It is (hilariously) located pretty close to the PA towns of Blue Ball, Peach Bottom, and Paradise. Oh, but the very best part about Intercourse (we're talking the TOWN here people) is that most of its residents are Amish and Mennonite.

Leaping into Freelance

2006-07-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

There haven't been to many posts on here lately, and it's because I've been very busy with murami, and getting ready to buy a house in a whole new state. Along with that comes a decision to try my hand at freelance editing. I love the idea of working for myself, and I think I can handle the feast and famine lifestyle. I just am in the awkward position most freelancers are in when they start: I need freelance clients to be a freelance editor! I've looked into joining the Editorial Freelancers Association, but they're very NYC-centric and I'm sure each job that comes along is pounced on by 50 freelancers. There's also the ridiculous www.FreelanceWorkExchange.com, which seems to be just a get-rich-quick scheme, judging from the photo of the smiling man in a Mercedes. Then I actually signed up on SoloGig, though I don't know how much I'll get out of that.

CNN typo again again...

2006-07-18T16:36:00.000-04:00

I think I'll post this typo from an article about the tsunami in Java and make a generalization about CNN.com so I'm not tempted to post others: they don't have great proofreaders.

Monday's quake generated waves more than 3 meters high (10 feet) high.

Riffs on POD books

2006-07-14T15:27:00.000-04:00

This blogger sure has some colorful things to say about a batch of POD books she just read. Very funny.

Can't mess with Texas!

2006-06-30T11:27:00.000-04:00

OK, so I've been buying supplies for my side business Murami, and I bought some cast iron coat hooks from this guy called TexasWesternGifts on Ebay. When I paid, he emailed to say he gave volume discounts, so I went to look at what else he's selling, and along with confederate flag biker pins and rabbit pelts, I found "Armadillo Lone Star Beer Bottle Taxidermy." Oh. My. God.

I've enlisted typo troops

2006-06-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

So, all of my loyal blog fans (ok, it's just my sister-in-law) have taken to reporting typos to me. I love it! As she said, what spell checker misses "ptcher?"

from www.kywnewsradio.com:

Phillies Feeling Heat Over Brett Myers Incident
Local women's groups are vowing to turn up the pressure on the Phillies in the wake of the wife-abuse charges against ptcher Brett Myers.

CNN.com typo!

2006-06-20T15:50:00.000-04:00

Man, do I love exposing typos! Get this:

Janet Kettman, one of Lewis" victims, has previous said she and her neighbors on Sunset Circle are always looking over their shoulders in fear the stalker will strike again.

This is an article about a rogue cat being sentenced to stay inside, which in itself is funny.

The Joys of Editing

2006-06-15T12:33:00.000-04:00

I believe this will be somewhat of a motivational post for myself. I like my work, I like editing, and I think I have a good eye, though I, like everyone, have my "d'oh!" moments. And editing is a profession that can translate to any field. Granted, if I want to work in some particular fields, like medical or scientific editing, I would need to either garner small freelance experience bit by bit or take certification classes to get any kind of substantial work. But in general, everyone needs an editorial eye. It's been said countless times that language is living and always changing, and some (noneditors) will say that for this reason editing is not necessary. Those people believe that we should just let language go the path of least resistance, but the truth is that language needs to be reined in a bit, to weed out actual mistakes in usage. Otherwise, the whole point of having a developed language with thousands of words--to be able to clearly convey messages--is moot. If words are used to mean something other than their original meaning, and people begin to generally accept the new meaning, then its real meaning is confused and the word's usefulness has diminished. Not that this doesn't happen a lot already, and I am probably guilty of using words in a sense different from their original meaning, but I'm saying that editors are here to conserve the correct meaning of words, and therefore their usefulness. And I think that's important. So I edit.

Origins of SPAM

2006-06-09T14:19:00.000-04:00

From the SPAM corporate website:

Use of the term "spam" was adopted as a result of the Monty Python skit in which our SPAM meat product was featured. In this skit, a group of Vikings sang a chorus of "spam, spam, spam . . . " in an increasing crescendo, drowning out other conversation. Hence, the analogy applied because UCE was drowning out normal discourse on the Internet.

No wonder their show is called SPAMalot! Ben and I are going to see it on Sunday. I've heard it's great; I can't wait to go!

Copy Editors in Cyberspace

2006-06-06T15:53:00.000-04:00

Someone on the Copyediting-L email list wrote an message linking to this article about blogging editors. I thought it was worth linking to it here, despite the fact that MY blog is not mentioned! ;) It mostly talks about journalists' blogs.

Redux

2006-06-05T16:17:00.000-04:00

So I've finally pounded the meaning of redux into my brain. I think, because of its visual similarity to "reduce," I thought it meant "condensed." So if someone wrote me an email titled, "Acronyms, Redux," I thought it was a condensed version of a previous thread, and when it wasn't, I figured the person was using the word incorrectly. It also threw me off because I start thinking about reflux. Which I definitely know the meaning of. Anyway, "redux" means "revisited/brought back." So, my theme for this week is "PMS, redux."

Usage in speech - nouns as verbs

2006-05-25T13:03:00.000-04:00

I will confess to the fact that I occasionally verb nouns. But I do it intentionally and with the understanding that said noun is acceptable as a verb (or for fun, like "I just APAed those references."). There are those however who do it without knowing they're wrong, like a certain someone in my office who just used the phrase "amount up to," as in "This document can only amount up to 60 pages." Whatthe?

I was recently at an editors' refresher course where we spent a bit of time talking about mistakes vs. transitions in English usage. The usage of "they" as opposed to "he or she" seems to be making its way into modern usage, as is using NOUNS as VERBS. For example: to partner with, to factor in. The funny thing is that those two examples don't bother me in the slightest. However, I'm sure it does bother other people who were taught that these were incorrect, just like "amount up to" REALLY bothers me. It's all about at what stage of transition you were first taught. I bet few of you are bothered by using "you" in place of "thou" as a plural pronoun.

I'm finding recently that I really enjoy linguistics. I've been formally educated more in the linguistics of French than English I think. I had a great French grammar professor in college who told all sorts of fun stories about the evolution of the language. A fun example: the word for head in French is "tete." This came from the Latin "testa," or vessel, and my professor joked that this was because the Romans thought the French had empty heads. Though I guess this is etymology and not linguistics. Details!!

expergefaction

2006-05-25T11:17:00.000-04:00

From the Oxford University Press's Erin's Weird and Wonderful Word of the Day:

expergefaction: waking up, from a Latin word meaning 'make awake.' Alarm clocks could be called expergefactors.

Jen shall now use this word in a sentence (will that "make it mine?"):

Expergefaction is not one of my stronger skills, and often requires coffee.

QC and the editress (Josie and the Pussycats?)

2006-05-18T14:09:00.001-04:00

This has nothing to do with Josie and the Pussycats. I must say that while sometimes a bit of mindless QC work is a good way to work mindlessly after a long, trying day's work, doing ONLY QC all day long is not my ideal work situation. I have my little list of jobs in my notebook here--QC, QC, QC--and it's frustrating. How do people deal with down time? I know I could be reading style guides but honestly, who wants to do that when the day has already proved to be full of brain sludge. That's a rhetorical question so I chose not to use a question mark. ;)

So, I'm sitting here with a coffee and a diet coke (oh the choices!), trying to amuse myself by watching CNN videos and pondering life. I guess this post really qualifies as a musing of an editress, though I don't feel like an editress at the moment. I feel like a lump in a cube. Maybe two lumps. Speaking of "editress," I KNOW it's not a real word, and I should just be ashamed of myself for being an editor and screwing with words in the most fundamental part of my EDITING blog. But I thought it was funny, and I sort of like the fact that in French, you can use the masculine or feminine version of ANY descriptive title: acteur-actrice, edtudiant-etudiante, avocat-avocate, editeur-editrice... well maybe I'm exxagerating. I'm not sure if editrice is a real word either, but at least the construction is far more common in French than in English. In English I'd almost prefer there to not be ANY distinction, because there are so few. You know, an actor is an actor is an actor.

Comic-Book Superrman Impervious To Copyediting

2006-05-03T17:15:00.000-04:00

In the Onion:

Comic-Book Superrman Impervious To Copyediting

May 3, 2006 | Issue 42•18

NEWARK—Executives at DCC Comics have announced the debut of comic-book character Superrman, whose invulnerability to copyediting protects him from nefarious outside forces and intellectual-property lawsuits. "Thrill to the exploits of Superrman, the only child of a doomed plant! Gasp in awe at his Superr-Strength, X-Roy Vision, and his ability to leap mall buildings in a single bounce!" read a press release issued by DCC. "Superrman's only weakness? His vulnerability to Cryptonight… and his star-crossed love for sassy, sexy, trouble-prone reporter Louis Lane!" The editors of Superrman say the comic book will be released alongside those of other popular DCC characters such as Wander Woman, the Flush, and Batdan.

Musing on spelling

2006-05-03T10:38:00.000-04:00

"It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."
-- Andrew Jackson

Starling songs in the news: Origins of language?

2006-05-02T12:37:00.000-04:00

I've had a bit of a thing for starlings since I found an audio clip online of a starling repeating its owners' entire phone ringing/answering machine message/beep sequence. I read that they are illegal to sell as pets because they were introduced illegally to the country, but if you take one from a nest it's yours. There are so many starlings in DC that I don't really see why this rule needs to be in place anymore, but whatever. I looked for that audio clip again but I only found something similar: starling speak. (Note: I think this site may be pretty busy because of the NYT article, and people doing what I'm doing: Googling.) I sent this to Ben because I think it's funny. I was surprised to see today this article in New York Times about starlings giving us more information about the origins of language. It seems that the starlings could understand better grammar than monkeys. Of course, scientists are having little egotistical brain wars over whether this is actually important to the evolution of human language. I just think starlings are neat.

Scary things about pesticides

2006-04-27T10:55:00.000-04:00

So, I get an email newsletter from Real Simple magazine, and today's newsletter had a bit about which organic foods really are important to get. The thing that really scared me and made me laugh at the same time was the bit about spinach, and how I should "Vigilantly wash each leaf separately." Yeah right! I think the only thing I'd really worry about getting organic would be baby food. Maybe. I mean, I like the idea of organic foods but there aren't any regulations on what "organic" means, as far as I've heard. And the organic food industry hurts small farmers who can't spend all that money and time NOT using pesticides. I'm sure it creates a lot of "destroyed" foods if you don't use pesticides; people in grocery stores aren't going to buy those apples from the little NJ farm trying to go organic if they have little bug bites in them... they're going to buy the pretty looking apples from the big CA organic grower instead. Anyway... I probably should be a little more "vigilant" about washing produce, but I'm just lazy and I don't have cancer yet...

Clear Care Contacts Crisis, part II

2006-04-26T15:13:00.000-04:00

I saw a company-wide email yesterday on the "social list" from someone trying to get rid of a contact solution she bought by mistake, and it was the kind I use, so I went to her office to take it off her hands. She then told me that she had accidentally (though at the time it was intentional) used it to rinse and replace one of her contacts. OH MY GOD! It's peroxide! She said her eye was immediately on fire and she could barely get her eyelids open to get her contact out. Her eye was still very red, and I hope she didn't cause serious damage. It says "DO NOT PUT IN EYES" right on the bottle... though if someone's putting their contacts in, isn't it possible that they can't read that?

Musings of an Editress: Clear Care Contacts Crisis

ATM Now Available!

2006-04-26T14:46:00.000-04:00

Ben and I went to Berkeley Springs, WV, a purported "spa town," for our anniversary. The spa part was right, but "town" can barely apply here. I call it more a cluster of realtors and law offices, with a few spas, salons, and restaurants peppered through it. Ben and I of course had a great time, because we were away together and went for some spa treatments and ate a lot and eventually got to go hiking when it stopped raining, but what kind of "town" doesn't have ANY place to go after 9pm? No bars, no coffee shops, not even the bar areas of restaurants. What we could do, though the whole place was reserved starting at 10:30, half an hour after we arrived, was go to the Berkeley Springs Bowlerama! Yeehaw!

Mad at Google Maps

2006-04-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

Google Map people, if you can hear me, you need to do some serious work! I had a terrible experience with you on Thursday night. Ben was driving to PA and saw a sign that said I-83 was closed in all directions, so he called and I got on Google Maps. First I couldn't find where he was, because I typed in "I-83, MD" and got nothing. I couldn't even get results when I typed in an intersection of two highways. When I finally got enough information from Ben about where he was, I could find it. This in itself was pretty neat, because I felt like God directing a lost soul via a camera monitor. BUT, as I re-routed him away from where I thought the closing was, we realized I didn't have exit numbers on my Google map. When he got back to 83, he was right smack AT the road closing! In his words, "I just took this fakakta detour for nothing!" He had to drive over the median to get back off and go another route. Fakakta, by the way, means shit. Google results will give you nicer versions of the word, like "all screwed up" or "dizzy." I was taught that it means shit. Can you use it in a sentence, please? I used those fakakta Google maps to get my husband absolutely nowhere instead of around a chemical spill.

In memory of a great boss

2006-04-10T15:47:00.000-04:00

It's been over 6 months since the death of the head of our department. I thought I'd share a fun story about him:

After a particularly rough day involving long hours put in by the editors, he walks into a room where most of the editors are taking a break. He has in his hands red pens, Post-it notes, and Post-it sticky flags. He says, with crocodile-hunter-like amazement, "Look! Editor spoor!"

Spoor:

1 : a track, a trail, a scent, or droppings especially of a wild animal
2 : a trace by which the progress of someone or something may be followed

This editor prefers her dinner sans fumeurs

2006-04-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

The DC ban on smoking in restaurants takes effect today! I just found this out; apparently Friday night was the last time in DC that we'll ask to move because just as we're putting our order in, someone next to us lights up. We went to dinner at Old Glory in Georgetown, a classic BBQ joint on the main drag, and we sat at a booth near the bar, where actually no one was smoking, but the woman at the table next to us lit a cigarette right as our waiter came over with bread. They were happy to move us... and now I'm even happier about the ban. But I wonder, will it hurt business? Probably not, since I'm thinking to myself, sweet! We can go out to eat more. I think it will hurt two things: (1) smokers and (2) my waistline. I do think that more smokers will end up going out in VA where it's still legal, but maybe it's better that way, for people to have a choice (for now). Another year and we'll be able to go to the bars and not feel like we have to shower and do laundry right when we get home because we reek. It's hard to think of the time that I smoked (granted it was a short time, and in France) and didn't mind the smell. But smoking was so pervasive in France that it was almost impossible to be somewhere without smoke.

An insane week

2006-03-30T15:06:00.000-05:00

So I worked an overnight conference on Tuesday night, the second one of these I've done, and though I was dreading it because of the whole overnight part, it was actually pretty interesting, and the results (which I edited) were highlighted on the front page of the Post today! It was about cesarean section, and I learned a lot. Did you know that some insurance companies won't cover epidural but will cover a c-section, so some women choose a c-section because they're afraid of natural childbirth and don't know there are other ways to do it? Anyway, the general findings were that if women want to request a c-section it's not necessarily bad if they're only having 1 or 2 children.

Anyway, I didn't work the days surrounding the conference, so I got a ton of stuff done for Urban Village, and then last night we got together and finally put a finished product together, and it looks AWESOME. But where did the week go? What's going on? It's Thursday and I'm off to my hometown again this weekend (like last weekend and the weekend before!). I think the dog expects to spend her weekends at my parents' place now.

I was supposed to see some family who came in to town this week but I guess they overbooked their social schedule and chose their friends over us... which sort of was OK for me because of the craziness with the overnight, but it kinda sucked because my parents were going to come down and then everything fell apart.

So this post is just as random as my week... oh well.

Subaru's unna getchoo!

2006-03-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

So France's police force is switching to our car as its main vehicle!!! Their old Peugeots were too slow, and our Subaru WRX was just right. Haha!

Manny

2006-03-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Day:

manny, n. (pl.-nies) a male nanny: my husband would like us to hire a manny for our two boys.

ORIGIN: 1990s:blend of man and nanny.

I thought this was pretty funny. I get this word-of-the-day email from Oxford University Press. It made me think of Manny, Moe, and Jack (those car guys - The Pep Boys). Then it made me laugh more.

I'm "in the papers"

2006-03-27T10:17:00.000-05:00

OK, so it's not a physical paper per se, and my name is not actually used, but my father-in-law was spotlighted in a dermatology magazine and mentioned me as one of the valued things in his life... which was nice. But, all Jen ego aside, really the article is about him and his practice; the magazine has started spotlighting well-known dermatologists... and Bob is the fourth spotlight, just after the guy who invented Johnson's baby shampoo and Retin-A! Here's the Skin & Aging article. I just had to share it... because he likes me, he really likes me...

Now if I could just have a spotlight of my own! :)

The Cherry Blossoms are Back

2006-03-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

DC is about to get all dreamy-eyed over the cherry blossoms. The peak for the blooms is supposed to be Monday or Tuesday, according to the cherry blossom festival article in the Post. It's hard to believe (how cliche!) that it's been a year since Ben and I went down to see the blossoms. It was just a few weeks before the wedding. I had just had my hair highlighted, with disastrous effect, and we took pictures down by the tidal basin that turned out looking like Ben was on a date with carrot top. But regardless, it was fun; we discovered a huge tulip garden that I didn't know existed. And seeing as tulips are "our flower," and I intentionally included them in the wedding flowers, it made me happy to find them. Actually, if I remember, we found the tulips because there was a roasted/candied pecan stand next to it that was drawing droves of people (and us) to it just because of the intoxicating smell.

They really are beautiful, but what I think is the best part of the whole process is the petals falling and completely covering the tidal basin, so its entire surface is white.

We're going back on Sunday! I think it will make me nostalgic for the wedding. It's been long enough that the bad parts of pre-wedding planning have slipped my mind. I guess I'm lucky in that sense! Anyway, I'm excited.

Paradox of Grammar

2006-03-23T14:37:00.000-05:00

"A curious paradox exists in regard to grammar. On the one hand it is felt to be the dullest and driest of academic subjects, fit only for those in whose veins the red blood of life has long since turned to ink. On the other, it is a subject upon which people who would scorn to be professional grammarians hold very dogmatic opinions, which they will defend with considerable emotion." W. Nelson Francis, "Revolution in Grammar," in Aspects of American English (Elizabeth M. Kerr & Ralph M. Aderman eds., 1963).

Clear Care Contacts Crisis

2006-03-21T12:27:00.000-05:00

What the hell is wrong with CIBA Vision? So I've gotten these fantastic new (O2Optix) contacts that are super comfortable but they require the special peroxide-based solution, Clear Care. I found out this weekend after searching high and low at probably 15 different store in four different states that they ran out and won't have more until April. So I'm wearing the crap Acuvue Advance contacts that get dry even though they're not supposed to.

Only a mother's love...

2006-03-21T12:19:00.000-05:00

Funny cat and rooster strange bedfellows video.

Pug + Beagle = Puggle

2006-03-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

This is awesome! Well, it seems to be a bit hit-or-miss, but essentially the puggle is adorable! Here's another, even better, picture of a puggle puppy.

Funny new soft drinks and caffeine

2006-03-16T15:42:00.000-05:00

So, I was watching Regis and Kelly this morning while on the elliptical machine (YES! I'm going to the gym again), and Regis wasn't there but Anderson Cooper (whoo hoo!) was, and I was a bit too far from the TV to read the subtitles but I got the basic point that there's a new Coca Cola drink released in France (ha!) and coming to the states called Coca Cola Blak. They had a bottle of it on the show, and Kelly and Anderson, while chatting about American Idol, try it. It's apparently half coke, half "coffee essence," and the reaction was mixed; Kelly liked it, and Anderson spit it out on the floor. I thought this was very very funny. I actually used to do this myself; I would pour my leftover coffee into ice cube trays, and then use it in my diet coke instead of ice cubes. I liked it; so, I assume (but we know what assuming does) that I'll like "Blak."

So then I started researching this, and came upon some interesting information. There's this guy called Caffeine Fiend who writes about the harms of caffeine, and you can calculate how much of your favorite drink it would take to kill you. This I also thought was very very funny. But Coca-Cola Blak was not on there yet, obviously.

So, in all, I've managed to pique my interest in this "Coca-Cola Blak" crap and also entertain myself in an otherwise boring environment.

Break from mind-numbing data entry

2006-03-09T13:52:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that I was hired as an EDITOR, I am currently stuck doing data entry. It will all change soon when more documents start coming in for the busy season, but for now... it's cutting up big word files into lots of little ones and uploading them. It's driven me to buy "TAB Energy" drinks... which I would have bought anyway because I read about them in the New Yorker the other day. Ha! They really do taste like a "liquid jolly rancher" like the magazine said. But yes, I've been drinking them like a champ.

Anyway, Ben has been in San Francisco since Monday and I've had the whole bed to sleep on, which just isn't right. I've been sleeping on his side of the bed, because the alarm is there. The bonus to this is that I can set the alarm for an hour before I want to get up, so I can hit the snooze 6 times, which I, in my mind, claim helps me wake up bit by bit. It has helped; I got up "early" (7am) two days in a row and worked out. Lately in the mornings it's been "One more?" from Ben, and a grunt from me, over and over every 9 minutes, until it's almost 8 o'clock. Or, the snooze gets smacked and I haven't even woken up to know it. I guess going to bed before 11 this week has helped that. This actually means that I'm getting over 8 hours of sleep, which seems to be what I need. That, or I need to really deprive myself, like I did Monday night after going out with my sister-in-law and not getting home until midnight. Then I had to get up earlier than usual for a meeting with a small-business banker from PNC. And forgot that the cleaning people were supposed to come... it was a bit of a mess. But even though I was very tired, I popped out of bed. Frantic and frazzled, yes, but I was out of bed.

The drawback to sleeping on the other side of the bed is that I sleep funny, sort of diagonally across the bed, like half of me wants to be on his side and the other half on mine. Then my bizarre contortionist sleeping habits get even worse and I wake up all discombobulated. This morning my head was UNDER Ben's pillow and my feet were off the opposite side of the bed. And the blankets were pulled into the middle of the bed and piled on top of my head. I have no one to blame for this but myself. I'm actually rather amused by it.

I am totally rambling. Perhaps to avoid my busy work.

Faulkner quote

2006-03-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

The tools I need for my work are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whiskey.

(Granted, "a little" for Faulkner is reportedly more than I drink in a year. But hey, it worked out for him.)

Dream

2006-03-03T10:26:00.000-05:00

So, I have dreams that wake me up either crying or laughing. I don't talk in my sleep, but I cry and/or laugh, which then wakes me up.

This morning I had a very long dream about my aunt who passed away a few years ago. I was visiting her, and she was sick like she was at the end, with people looking after her and monitoring her vitals. But, she was still up and moving around, talking, being her vibrant self. My grandmother was there and kept chastizing her for being too active because she'd hurt herself or get too exhausted, and my aunt ended up making herself bleed from her side (which has nothing to do with what it was really like). Everyone rushed to take care of her, and I was sort of just a spectator. She fell over, and got up, and then went into another room.

She came back (maybe in a wheelchair?), and said that she and her friends had thought up this very important project that she wanted ME to continue when she was gone. I immediately got worried, and thought, oh my god, how am I going to do this with work and the new business, too? I asked her what it was. She wanted me to create profiles and descriptions of every charity and do-good organization, compile them, and create a catalog/directory, like a yellow pages. I think she called it a Hope Catalog. I thought it was a good idea, and I think I agreed to do it even though I had no clue how I was going to fit it into my schedule. Then she died. And I woke up crying. But not the usual no-tears dream crying, because I opened my eyes and tears spilled out and I cried on Ben for a long time, because I miss her and wish I could have spent time with her as an adult, and because the dream was very real and uncanny, especially with the sort of plea from the grave. And also maybe because of the stress of the new business, though I wasn't thinking about that consciously.

The good news is that the "Hope Catalog" already exists, but in online form. It's called the Charity Navigator, and I used it to find a charity to donate to as a wedding favor.

Peanut Butter

2006-03-02T13:31:00.000-05:00

So, I had rice cakes with peanut butter for lunch. The peanut butter is sitting here next to me. I looked at the label, and it says "60% peanuts." This means that 40% of whatever is in there is NOT peanuts. Curious and a bit worried as to what might be in there, I read the ingredients. First is peanuts. Second, to my horror, is "corn syrup solids." Corn syrup is bad enough, but SOLIDS? What ARE corn syrup solids? That's even scarier than the corn syrup because I have no clue what the difference between the two are. There's also something added to "improve creaminess" further down the list. Are we really that demanding as a culture that we need extra fake additives to make things creamier?

To corn syrup and corn syrup solids: A curse on both your houses!!

Twain quote

2006-02-23T15:02:00.000-05:00

I never write metropolis when I get the same five cents for city.
--Mark Twain

MiniKiss

2006-02-21T15:49:00.000-05:00

So, the important part of my weekend is the fact that I went with Ben and 2 of my brothers and 1 of my sisters in law to Killington, VT to ski. Skiing was fun, though the winter weather has been horrible up there and the mountain was a block of ice with two inches to no snow covering it, which, being from PA, I am used to, but still sucked seeing as we traveled all the way up there hoping for GOOD skiing conditions. AND, it was SO COLD. 5 degrees without wind chill. We had to keep buying more and more supplies and layers as it sunk in how cold it would actually be. I wore on top: medium weight long underwear shirt, underarmor tshirt, long-sleeve tshirt, ski coat. Head: Fleece gator that had a sort of nylon head-cover section (so you could see only my eyes if I pulled the fleecey part over my mouth and nose, which I wore another hat and my coat hood over, brand new ski goggles as my old ones crapped out before I even started skiing. Ski mittens with glove liners and hand warmers. Long underwear pants, another pair of tight cotton pants, ski pants, two pairs of ski socks.

We didn't spend too much time skiing because it was so cold and icy and tiring. About 3-4 hours each day. We mostly ate and drank and hung out otherwise.

But the main reason for this post is that I must explain MiniKiss. My sister-in-law and I gave up on skiing before the guys did on Sunday, and went for pedicures. Our pedicurist said that the "big thing" going on that night was that MiniKiss was going to be at "the Pickle." She said they were midgets that dressed like KISS and lipsynced to their songs. We called the guys and they said they were all over it. We actually went. There was a cover band, Lifespeed, who was actually pretty good. And then MiniKiss. There were so many drunk people there that I was really afraid for them at times. They were dressed in black with their faces painted, and the lead singer was a woman who was actually singing, and she sang really well. Is that the only outlet she could find to get on stage and sing? Maybe she really likes dressing like "Mini Paul" and being ogled. It was honestly the strangest thing I've ever seen. You can see a strange video interview of them here. All of the people at the show were completely wasted, and some jumped on the stage and grabbed at the members of the band, and wanted to take pictures with them. I just didn't know what to think. I was embarassed but I guess I shouldn't have been. The lead singer had a really foul mouth, too, which was just SO not what I was expecting, I guess, from a little person.

Freelancers' childcare

2006-02-14T11:01:00.000-05:00

This is pretty neat- found it via the DC Web Women LISTSERV, who found it via iconoculture.com:

Located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Two Rooms is a nonprofit facility that provides office + childcare + community, all under one roof!

Parents work and children play at a facility designed to meet the needs of the growing population of freelance workers who are parents – a group that requires flexibility, professional resources and childcare. Our mission is to provide a comfortable and complete work environment for parents, with quality childcare on site, to give parents and children the room they need to be creative and productive.

Two Rooms provides infrastructure and a sense of community. It is a haven for parents – a place to exchange ideas as well as clothing, to pass on job leads as well as outgrown strollers.

SNOW EMERGENCY

2006-02-13T20:52:00.000-05:00

Oh my god. It snowed. Snow! Batten down the hatches! Buy milk and eggs and bread! Cancel school!

Well... that's how the rest of DC handled it. Some normal people enjoyed it.

FOCUS!

2006-02-13T13:10:00.000-05:00

Jen! Seriously, it's time to focus! The dreaded procrastination bug is biting the crap out of me. I'm checking my email, checking my Ebay, checking my other email, checking my MySpace, checking my blog... come on, now! Will it really kill me to just CLOSE THE FIREFOX BROWSER?! Do it! Close the browser! There's a little rectangle on the bottom of the screen with a blue W on it... yes, click on THAT one... that one...

One more Gmail check.

Something to live up to

2006-02-09T11:41:00.000-05:00

My husband's great uncle Mendy Rudolph is the NBA referee that refereeing standards today are based on!

If you can't drink or smoke...

2006-02-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

Cure AIDS! BYU (mormon U) scientists have been working on what seems to be a compound that targets and kills HIV virus by disabling it from attacking T-helper cells. Here's a bit from the article:

Savage said he and his BYU research team had been studying CSAs for eight years, noting the compounds' value against microbial and bacteria infections. It was only a year ago they saw that CSAs killed viruses, too.
"They kill viruses very effectively and in a way paralleling our own, natural defenses," Savage said, noting that beyond the obvious use as a weapon against the AIDS pandemic, CSAs could help many others with non-HIV immune deficiencies.
Further, the compounds appear to have few limits on how they are delivered to patients. Although early indications are for application of CSAs with an ointment or cream, pills or injections may also be developed - if the compound gets to market. BYU and Vanderbilt have jointly filed a patent on CSA technology, which has been licensed exclusively to Ceragenix. Ceragenix CEO and Chairman Steven Porter said only further research will tell, but he was optimistic about the application of CSAs in the war on HIV/AIDS. There are indications that it could help battle antibiotic- and antiviral-resistance strains of disease as they manifest themselves.

AWESOME! But, is it wrong of me to be scared that news like this will stop people from having safe sex? The answer is an unequivocal YES, but even I had the fleeting thought that if we are so close to a cure, why bother?

one-year anniversary of sorts

2006-02-07T17:14:00.000-05:00

Today I have been at my current job for one year. Things at work have changed in some but not other ways. I'm sort of in a crappy mood today so I'm feeling like whatever I say will put my situation in a bad light right now. So... I don't know, I just won't talk too much about it. I've learned good things that will advance my editing career and allow me to keep learning. I learned some fun things about FrameMaker today.

This time last year...
Our department head was still alive
My immediate supervisor was someone different and knew what he was doing
I was getting married in 2 months
I wasn't doing a whole lot (or being assigned a lot) of work because I was wedding focused
My friend here (my urban village buddy) hadn't started yet
My wedding bands were in transit to be engraved WRONG (If only I could have foreseen that one!)
I had long hair
I had a different last name!

Funny. I guess a lot really has changed. But, is this really interesting? I'm not feeling it. I am glad I'm still here and have a stable job that pays. Who knows what the next few months will bring, though!

New Ebay feature obsession

2006-02-02T17:20:00.000-05:00

It's not new, but it's new to me: Andale Counters. This is an Ebay affiliate site on which you can see how many people view your items, and whether that number is above or below the average number of hits on similar items. It's awesome. At the moment, all of the things I'm selling (27 of them) have more than average or average numbers of hits. And over 1,100 people viewed the items I sold in January! And that's unique visitors, not page refreshes. I was getting a bit worried lately that Ebay is too saturated (which I still think is true to an extent) but at least people are still looking.

Business venture

2006-02-02T12:54:00.000-05:00

So I may be going into business with my friend Kristen, making jewelry and earring display things... I don't really want to go too much into it in case we flop or just decide not to do it, but I think it's going to get big. And we keep talking about how it might take over our 9-to-5 someday. She keeps saying, "Now you can't move to Michigan and leave me!" Ben's drawing up a plan, so we can prevent any ill will by setting things up very specifically, get a DBA, start a bank account, design a website, etc. The first hurdle that we haven't been able to jump is OUR NAME. Dammit! We've come up with a million names and nothing seems right. Maybe I'll poll my loyal readers. The words we've come up with, in different combinations with one another, are urban, collection, group, village, creation, findings, design. Maybe Urban Village? Since we're sort of planning to branch out and include other small local artists' work eventually? Gotta go email that one to Kristen...

Copular Verbs

2006-02-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you were not aware that verbs could get cheeky. But they sure do, and every time I hear someone talking about a copular verb I laugh to myself and create a mental block as to what a copular verb actually is. So, I decided to write a blurb on it to expel the term's very funny implications from my mind. Though I'll still be entertained by it, I'm sure. From www.usingenglish.com:

Copula Verb

Definition: Copula Verbs

USE:

A copula (also spelled copular) verb is a verb that connects the subject to the complement. They are sometimes called linking verbs.

EG: That food smells nice.

('Smells' connects the subject to the adjective that describes it.)

The following are the principle Copula Verbs in English that can be used to connect the subject to an adjective:

Be; Look; Feel; Taste; Smell; Sound; Seem; Appear; Get; Become; Grow; Stay; Keep; Turn; Prove; Go; Remain; Resemble; Run; Lie

Kids are cute

2006-01-25T17:08:00.000-05:00

As proof of this fact, here is my niece:

Also, on a side note, this is my 100th post.

OraSure HIV test failure

2006-01-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

So, not that I didn't already know this, but it's been confirmed that the OraSure oral HIV test is complete trash. Check the article.

A basket of puppy

2006-01-19T13:41:00.000-05:00

We have a "dog-sharing" setup for when we or our "dog sharer" go out of town. This morning Ben dropped Sugar (our beagle) off at her place, because we're going to NYC for the weekend. Our dog sharer worked at home for a while this morning, and sent me these photos. The first is what "things normally look like," meaning her cat in his basket. The second picture is of what happens when Sugar discovers said soft sleeping place.

Starstruck

2006-01-18T16:54:00.000-05:00

So, I just did a quick QC (quality control for those of you non-editorial types) for the president of the company, who I actually did not see, but as soon as my coworker said, "I wouldn't normally interrupt your work, but this is for ___" I immediately thought, Wow! and hopped right to it. Several things went through my mind, including, "don't overreact and get go-fer-y, this isn't a huge deal" "who am I kidding, my job depends on this," "I'd better not screw this up," "why do higher-ups have such hard-to-read handwriting?" etc. It made my work much harder.

The baby formerly known as Bucky...

2006-01-17T11:02:00.000-05:00

Jackson Henry Swanes, born 1.15.06!

I was lucky enough to get to see Clare and Jackson yesterday afternoon, when the little guy was less than a day old. Awesome. Mom and baby are doing very well, probably going home tonight or maybe tomorrow morning. And I must say he's just the cutest! I got to hold him for a while and even helped file his long fingernails... which was stressful! A gritty file right there by those tiny tiny fingers. Not too tiny though, considering he was so early and somewhere around 7.5 pounds. The funny (well, maybe not quite funny yet to some) part was that poor Ross ended up getting food poisoning from a Blimpie sub yesterday afternoon, so it was extra lucky that Clare's sister Anna, a nurse, just happened to be visiting two weeks before Clare's due date (that's her on the right behind us in the photo). Ross was there for the birth and went home I think pretty soon after that. I know he got to see the baby in the nursery. But anyway, thanks Clare for letting us come see you and Jackson, and I'm sorry we didn't get to see Dad! And congratulations!

If heat rises then shouldn’t hell be cold?

2006-01-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

There's a show that Ben and I stumbled upon called Brainiac, and it's British so I can't find a whole lot on Google about it, but here's the web site. They debunk myths and wives' tales, and it's funny and somewhat educational. One show we saw wanted to know the effect of electricity on the body's nervous system. So... they hooked a guy up to wires and sat him down at a table with a plastic cup of beer, and told him to pick it up. As soon as he did, they shocked him, and his hand crumpled up and sprayed the beer all over him. I thought this was very funny. Then they did the same thing about three times more, to see if the current affected him the same way, and it did. So... again, funny and somewhat educational. Anyway, there are a bunch of "teasers" on the site, like the title of this post.

Catholic priest deluded

2006-01-11T13:16:00.000-05:00

I understand that priests aren't going to advocate for premarital sex. But, a Columbian priest likened mandatory condom carrying for boys to passing out guns in the street. With the HIV infection rate in the area, it would seem that REFUSING condoms (though who would use it and have to buy another) is what's killing people. Check out the cnn.com article.

Of sound mine

2006-01-11T12:32:00.000-05:00

In the Washington Post re the Sago mine collapse survivor: Doctors treating the sole survivor Randal McCloy Jr. declined to speculate when the 26-year-old would fully wake up from a medically induced coma or comment on the extent of any brain damage suffered...

Now, I doubt that if he has brain damage that his comments would convey much about it. Wait, oh, I get it! It's just a poorly written sentence. This reminds me of going to get my marriage license and answering the battery of questions they administer before giving one to you, including, "Are you of sound mind?" This poses the question, how would I know and be able to tell them if I were crazy? Isn't that the point, that when you're not of sound mind you have no idea? They also asked if we were related and if we were under the influence. And when I asked why they were asking these questions, they said, "We don't know. It's the law."

Typing without looking

2006-01-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

I got the reading glasses today. So... I am now wearing my spiffy new contacts and spiffy new glasses. However, when wearing my glasses I have to change focus to look down at the keyboard and I am realizing how often I do that. I think I play piano the same way. That's why I never really learned to read and play music fluently at the same time, because I'm always looking at my hands. In fact, I think my old hag of a piano teacher used to write that in all caps in my notebook, "JENNY, DON'T LOOK AT YOUR HANDS!!!" This went along with "CUT YOUR NAILS, JENNY!!" Sometimes I wonder if the huge candy canes she gave me for Christmas, literally a foot long and 2 inches in diameter, were just a cruel joke. No one could eat one of those.

I digress. The point is, I'm going to try to look at the keyboard less. In fact, I haven't looked at it since I started this paragraph. I've made a few mistakes, but I certainly can automatically find the backspace key. OK, so I looked a few times.

Hereos what happens when I don't use the bakcsoace and jeek tuoiung likje I kjnow some peop;e can. THat was :"keep typing." Sing. I mean Sigh!

Dave Barry. Funny man.

2006-01-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

So, I just discovered Dave Barry. I mean, I'd heard of him but now have quite an affinity for him.

Here's a taste. Both of these made me laugh. I may just throw some of these in randomly when I want to post but don't feel like talking about myself:

Published 1992, in the Miami Herald
DAVE BARRY
Once again it's time for the popular educational feature "Ask Mister Language Person,'' brought to you this week by Ray's House of Fine Adverbs. Remember Ray's motto: "Proudly Serving You, Eventually.''
Our first grammar question today comes from concerned reader Brian Cameron of Elora, Ontario, who writes: "Just what does it mean when someone says, 'But, by the same token'?''
A. In grammatical terminology, this is what is known as a "constipating conjunction.'' It is used to separate two statements that would sound stupid if they were right next to each other.
EXAMPLES:
-- "Unemployment will definitely decrease. But, by the same token, it could increase.''
-- "In 27 years of marriage, Todd never noticed Marie's tentacle. But, by the same token, he was a fine tennis player.''
------
Q. In the song "The Joker,'' what is the mystery word that Steve Miller sings in the following verse:
"Some people call me the space cowboy
Some people call me the gangster of love
Some people call me Maurice
'cause I speak of the (SOMETHING) of love.''
A. According to the Broward County Public Library, the word is "pompatus.''
Q. What does "pompatus'' mean?
A. Nothing. Steve made it up. That's why some people call him "the space cowboy.''

The semicolon (joke)

2006-01-10T16:54:00.000-05:00

Clipping from a Dave Barry spoof column, "Mr. Language Person"

Q: What is the purpose of the semicolon?
A: It can be used to either (1) separate two independent clauses, or (2) indicate an insect attack.
EXAMPLES:
(1) "Well, I'm a clause that certainly doesn't need any help!"; "Me either!"
(2) "Be careful not to bump into that ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; AIEEEEEEE!"_________________________________
An entire original Dave Barry bit:

Ask Mr. Language Person
by Dave Barry Once again our glands are swollen with pride as we present "Ask Mister Language Person," the column that answers your common questions about grammar, punctuation and sheep diseases. Mister Language Person is the only authority who has been formally recognized by the American Association of English Teachers On Medication. ("Hey!" were their exact words. "It's YOU!") So without farther adieu, let us turn to our first question,
which comes from a reader who has just returned from a trip to England.
Q. I have just returned from a trip to England, and . . .
A. We KNOW that. Get to the point! You're wasting space!
Q. OK, sorry. Anyway, I have just returned from a trip to England, and I noticed that the English put an extra "u" in certain words, such as "rumour," "humour" and "The Roulling Stounes." Also they call some things by totally different names, such as "lift" when they
mean "elevator," "bonnet" when they mean "lorry" and "twit" when they mean "former Vice President Quayle." My question is, don't they have any dentists over there?
A. Apparently nout.
Q. Please explain the correct usage of the word "neither."
A. Grammatically, "neither" is used to begin sentences with compound subjects that are closely related and wear at least a size 24, as in: "Neither Esther nor Bernice have passed up many Ding Dongs, if you catch my drift." It may also be used at the end of a carnivorous injunction, as in: "And don't touch them weasels, neither."
Q. My husband and I recently received a note containing this sentence: "Give us the money, or you seen the last of you're child." I say that the correct wording should be "you have done seen the last of you're child," but my husband, Warren, insists it should be "you have been done seeing the last of you're child." This has become a real bone of contention, to the point where Warren refuses to come out of the utility shed. What do you think?
A. We think that an excellent name for a band would be: "The Bones of Contention."
Q. I have noticed that newspapers often state that they have obtained information from "informed sources." Who are these sources?
A. We cannot tell you.
Q. Why not?
A. Because the Evil Wizard will turn them back into snakes.
Q. As an employee of the Internal Revenue Service, I have been tasked with the paradigm of making our income-tax forms more "user friendly" for the average American citizen, who according to our research has the IQ of a sugar beet. I am currently working on this sentence from the form 1040 instructions: "A taxpayer who dies prior to the fourth trimester of the previous non-exempt year must, within 10 fiscal days of kicking the bucket, file Form 94-82348-RIP, which has not been available since the Eisenhower administration." How can I make this sentence less confusing?
A. According to the Association of Professional Tax Professionals, a much clearer wording would be: " . . . which has not been available since the Eisenhower administration (1952-60)."
Q. When should I say "phenomena," and when should I say "phenomenon?"
A. "Phenomena" is what grammarians refer to as a "subcutaneous invective," which is a word used to describe skin disorders, as in "Bob has a weird phenomena on his neck shaped like Ted Koppel." Whereas "phenomenon" is used to describe a backup singer in the 1957 musical group "Duane Furlong and the Phenomenons."
Q. What was their big hit?
A. "You Are the Carburetor of My Heart."
Q. What is the most fascinating newspaper photograph caption you have ever seen?
A. That would be the caption to a 1994 photograph from the Billings, Mont., Gazette, sent in by alert reader David Martin. The photo, which accompanies a very serious story on efforts to end the civil war in Angola, shows some bikini-clad women on a beach, looking at a man who is holding a monkey. The caption states, in its entirety: "An Angolan carries his pet monkey Sunday on a beach in Angola as leaders of the country sign a new peace agreement."
Q. Can you please reprint the top two headlines from the cover of the October, 1996, issue of Reader's Digest?
A. Certainly: FIRM UP YOUR BOTTOM
You Can Raise Your Child's IQ
Q. In Publication No. 51 of the U.S. Postal Service, which was sent in by alert reader Oljan Repic, how is the term "Special Handling" defined?
A. It is defined as "a service that is optional except when mailing honeybees to Canada."
TODAY'S BUSINESS WRITING TIP: In writing proposals to prospective clients, be sure to clearly state the benefits they will receive:
WRONG: "I sincerely believe that it is to your advantage to accept this proposal."
RIGHT: "I have photographs of you naked with a squirrel."
GOT A QUESTION FOR MISTER LANGUAGE PERSON? That is not our problem.
________________________________
A tribute to Dave Barry:

From alert readers:
David Davidson sent an article from the Tybee News containing this statement about the mayor of Tybee Island, Ga.: "He also said an older woman suffered a broken hip when a dog pounced on her and read a long letter from someone supporting the dog ban."

Tim O'Marra sent in an article from the Skagit Valley (Wash.) Herald containing this sentence: "Suspecting the action was suspicious, the officer ordered both of them to raise their hands."

Chaz Liebowitz sent in an article from the Miami Herald that begins: "Davie police are searching for a man with a .25-caliber semi-automatic handgun to rob a convenience store Wednesday."

Several readers sent in an article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch concerning a dump truck driver who "dropped more than 59,000 pounds of processed human excrement on Interstate 295" and was charged with "failure to contain his load."

Sue Colson sent in a "Police Blotter" item from the Port AransasCQ (Tex.) South Jetty, consisting entirely of this fascinating statement: "No goat was found in the trunk of a vehicle when an officer responded to a complaint on East Avenue G at about 1:20 p.m."

Post Secret and my secrets

2006-01-10T13:31:00.000-05:00

Ben and I went to the Post Secret exhibit this weekend. An artist from the area, Frank Warren, started a project in which he passed out postcards at a show for people to write anonymous secrets on and send back to him. He got a HUGE response. I don't know how many cards he's gotten, but now he gets emails, handmade postcards, and letters, and all sorts of things since he stopped handing out postcards. He created a blog, showing the postcards. We stood in line for 2 hours to see the exhibit on Saturday. It closed Sunday, on its way to a national tour.

The exhibit was in the old Staples building on M Street, for those of you who lived in DC a few years ago. When we finally got in, we wandered around the different parts of the exhibit because we were sick of waiting in line and the general snaking flow of the exhibit was just as slow as the line. There were a few tables and chairs with postcards in boxes, an area where postcards hung from fishing wire, a few blown-up postcards on the walls, and rows and rows of postcards inserted in 5-photo plastic photo album pages, hung at eye level with binder clips to fishing wire strung between the pillars. Probably thousands of postcards. Because they were anonymous and secrets tend to be bad, most were very sad and some scary and disheartening. There were a few funny ones, like "I want to take a dump on my mother's white carpet." But most of them had to do with incest, cheating, violence, eating disorders, self-loathing, etc. Some emails on the walls wrote to thank te artist for showing them they weren't alone and inspiring them to change their lives. Other people wrote to say they had given their postcard to someone in their lives instead of sending it, and talked about the good things that came of it. One made me laugh because I understood his/her plight: "I check my online journal 50 times a day to see if someone will post a comment... No one ever has." C'mon, people, don't lurk! I know you're reading this!

Bored and blind

2006-01-06T10:14:00.000-05:00

I am officially a wearer of contacts + reading glasses, but unofficially I am still a no-contacts/glasses-on-top-of-the-head girl. My reading glasses will arrive in 1–2 weeks. So, I'm here with nothing to do on a Friday, tired, drinking coffee, in a surly mood. I hit the snooze (well, I grumbled "SNOOZE" to the equally tired man next to me, whose alarm clock we both use) several times today.

The new requirement for the new status report thing we're supposed to submit daily is to include WHAT we did in our "down time" if we had any. This is supposed to push us to do professional development and online courses etc. when we don't have work to do. It usually just compels me to work slower on the things I do have to do, or just not answer. I don't think they want to hear that I was blogging, or checking my Ebay sales, or sending a thousand one-line emails to Ben. Not that I haven't taken the online classes (they're part of our internal employee services), but the ones I've taken have felt like a waste of time. And a person needs a little time here and there to relax and recharge, or at least I do, especially as an editor who needs to be focused. At the moment, I'm certainly relaxing... and I suppose the coffee is charging me for now.

I sometimes wish my blog were funnier. Sometimes Ben sends me links to collegehumor.com, and they're damn hysterical. Oh well. I have my funny moments. But I definitely don't belong in a comedy troupe by any means...

Anyway, what I do do that's redeemable to fill my down time is read the copyeditors' and the DC Pubs listservs. I also subscribed to DC Web Women, but those emails aren't very relevant, and the people who post are super crazy feminists. In talking to a coworker yesterday I realized that I always need to brush up on my grammar, not that I don't know it, but I forget the names of things, like all the verb tenses and whatnot. So, I will go do more of that...

Fly i no fly

2006-01-05T15:01:00.000-05:00

So, as I continue to live in a vacuum void of news, despite my best attempts at staying abreast of things, I bought two plane tickets with Independence Air for our trip to Killington in February. Several days later, it's all over the news that they are officially out of business. I called Orbitz yesterday for help, and the first person I talked to didn't know they were out of business, and put me on hold while she read what I guess was a staff memo about the situation. She told me that as of tomorrow, 1/5/06, I can exchange my ticket. But I can't do it with Orbitz. I have to call another carrier and see if they will honor my ticket. This seems totally ridiculous to me, as I am sure it would take hours of elevator music and "have you checked our website for more information?" recordings to get anywhere. I called Orbitz several more times, being hung up on once as I was "transferred to an Independence Air specialist" and then finally I actually GOT an Independence Air specialist (again, quote unquote). I gave her my speech again, and she said, "Didn't you read their press release?" Excuse me? Can't you just tell me what the press release said, since I'm already on the phone with you asking about it and obviously haven't read the press release? I say no, she says they're refunding tickets... but the press release doesn't exactly say that. It says, "The company is seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically refund customers with reservations for flights scheduled to depart beyond that time." I hope they get it... I don't want to buy 4 plane tickets to Vermont.

America CAN sink lower

2006-01-05T10:41:00.000-05:00

Apparently, there are now "Katrina bus tours." On said tour, according to CNN.com, you can for $35 (or $28 for children) tour the devastated areas of New Orleans:

The three-hour tour, called "Hurricane Katrina -- America's Worst
Catastrophe," takes passengers down Canal Street, where many businesses remain
boarded up after the floods that hit 80 percent of the city and the widespread
looting that followed.

You can also get a fascinating glimpse of the wreckage of the Superdome, where people starved and died and were raped and murdered just a few weeks ago! You can also see the convention center, where more of the same happened, and some of the badly hit residential areas. This is the ultimate in capitalism I suppose... but to me it's like a tour of a concentration camp two months after liberation. Gruesome. Though I doubt those tours would be led by survivors.

It seems that the actual Katrina victims are not enraged by this but have been telling people to take the tours and take pictures and spread the word that things are still horrible for them; they are living in tents inside their ruined homes, or, if they're lucky, mobile homes; there is little hope for rebuilding. After all, a whole $3 of every ticket sale is donated to "Katrina relief." So, I can't really blame the people there for making money. They're doing it for survival. And if the people whose homes on display are the ones encouraging the tours, then what the hell.

The eyes of an editor

2006-01-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

Literally, my eyes. I went to the optometrist (Is that the one who prescribes glasses? Yes, Answers.com says I am right.) this morning at 9, thinking I'd definitely be at work by 10. But every time I go I have forgotten all the steps involved in visiting him. And now, they have two more optional tests that I opted to do. So, I arrive early and walk around the block because they're not open yet. I get coffee and head back as the doctor is unlocking the door. I think his office is bizarre, because it's a fancy storefront in the West End of DC, and going to the doctor like I'm shopping in a boutique is strange. But, I guess that's how they do it in DC.

Anyway, when I arrive I have to go over the whole name change thing, which means I really haven't been there in a long time. And actually, I haven't been there since June 2004. After that, I no longer had vision insurance. As of three days ago, I became a member of VSP vision insurance, the mention of which got oohs and aahs from the staff and even the doctor. And I apparently really need this insurance.

First, a guy told me to take my contacts out. I had put them in specifically for this visit, because the last time I forgot to wear them and the doc was not pleased. I was confused, but then I was tested for glaucoma and did a field of vision test (passed!) where you look into a box at a dot on a screen and click a button when you see lines pop up in the periphery. I don't think she said "periphery," but whatever. Then I put my contacts back in. Then I took them out. Then the assistant took photos of my retinas. They came up digitally on the computer in front of her and the doctor went over them with me. There's your macula, there are the blood vessels, and this is where your optic nerve and blood vessels enter your skull. Awesome! Then I put my contacts IN again.

By this time, it's 9:30 and I am just entering the doctor's office. He checks to see how my vision is with the contacts, and we discover that my left eye, which had less of a problem previously, has now caught up with the right, meaning I now am nearsighted to the tune of a +1.5 prescription in each eye. Then I took my contacts out again. He did more tests with my face in the scary metal vise-looking thing. Which is clearer? One or Two? And so on. He looked in my eyes with a light, which I think is cool because I can see my blood vessels relfected in my eyes when the light is shining in.

I like to wear my star of David necklace when I go to a doctor that I know is Jewish, because they make fun comments about my being Jewish. Like today, when he said I was a smart Jewish girl and then asked if I'd always been Jewish because he doesn't know many Jewish girls who look like me. I said my husband tells me I look Jewish, and he said, well, the longer you're Jewish, the more you'll look it! He said he was on a cruise over Christmas and there was a rabbi who led candle-lighting ceremonies, and there were 1,500 people at the candle lighting, standing room only, and the cruise directors didn't know what to do! There were Christmas activities that no one went to. I asked about his kids, one who is a sophomore in college and a very mature 19, and the other who is a hellion 15-year-old beer-guzzling cheerleader.

So, we went on to discussing what to do about my eyes. I said I knew he had mentioned the full-time contacts with reading glasses option, but that my contacts bothered my eyes sometimes. He said, yes, but those contacts were part-time-wear contacts and there is a new type of contact with silicone in it that increases oxygen permeability from a rating of 18 to a rating of 130. He gave me a pair... and they feel great, at least they did until I got here and took them out (I don't have the new reading glasses yet, and they're replacing the left lens on my old glasses, so I'll be blind from farther than 10 feet or so until tomorrow). I will use the contact case that my brother has always used, that also looks like a little miniature torture device, because the solution is actually peroxide, and the case has to have a vent to let out the oxygen while the peroxide bubbles. I asked about laser vision correction and he said it wouldn't work for me, since I'd still have to wear reading glasses. I guess that crosses and interesting but scary option off the list.

The girl who helped me pick out my new frames and price out the whole deal told me my boots were "hot." "I didn't want to say that in front of Doctor, but they are." My VSP insurance helped get all of my costs, including a year's worth of contacts, new frames with lenses and all the upgrades, a new lens in my old glasses, and the exam and optional tests for about $400. And that doesn't include the $80 rebate I'll be sending in when I get my contacts. Awesome.

So, now I will be a full-time contact wearer, with reading glasses. I guess that's what happens when you sit in front of a computer reading ALL DAY. I had been getting sick of wearing my glasses on my head when I worked. And I'll still be able to fall back on the old pair of glasses if I don't want to wear contacts. All is well with the world of my eyes.

2006-01-03T14:49:00.000-05:00

Perhaps a new state altogether...

Is it worth it?

2006-01-03T14:37:00.000-05:00

Good house... but worth it? We jumped back in the pool yesterday and went out with our realtor again. He's a good guy. But, it's so hard to stay focused on a trip looking at houses. This is a house in the coveted Del Ray area of Alexandria, in about the middle of the road for prices in the neighborhood. We looked at places in DC that we could afford yesterday, and saw a few that were more promising than others we've seen, but still, the problem is that the DC houses in areas where Ben's commute wouldn't be any longer are too expensive, and the houses we can afford are too far away for Ben and most aren't near anything. So, we're back to the idea of moving to Virginia. Or Michigan, or Philadelphia, or who knows. We're starting to just not feel connected to any place.

2006-01-03T14:18:00.000-05:00

Frustrating home costs in DC make me want to...

Katie's African adventures continued...

2005-12-30T16:07:00.000-05:00

The day after Christmas I chased down a large, open-backed truck headed in my direction, climbed aboard, perched myself precariously on my back pack and set off for a 50 mile journey west to the paved road. With the wind in my hair, dust in my eyes, a sheep's horns poking at my sides, its wet nose nuzzling my arm, I watched the axles spinning through the loose boards on which I sat, breathed in through the bandanna covering my mouth, and thought, 'Ah, This is Africa.'
Why am I still here? Sometimes I think I really love it here. But only sometimes.
Greetings from adventure in progress. I am having a wonderful time, full of exhaustion, fascination, frustration, learning and understanding, and moments of freedom and happiness I'm so afraid of loosing once I return to the US.
In the past 5 weeks I have made a circle through south-eastern West Africa (does that make sense), I dodged mopeds in Ouagadougou, got sick in Fada, recovered in Natitingou, explored ruined palaces and voodoo shrines in Abomey, roamed streets of crumbling Portuguese buildings in Porto Novo, analyzed life after peace corps with my Fulbright scholar/RPCV friend Natalie in Cotonou, enjoyed a giant, beautiful stretch of beach and unswimmable ocean in Ouidah, walked in a circle around Lome, chased butterflies and waterfalls in Kpalimé, hiked up mountains, found waterfalls, played with monkeys and dodged snakes in Ho, restocked my book supply in Accra, wandered through the slave holds of European trading forts and tried to understand more about the legacy of the slave trade in Cape Coast, wobbled 30 meters above the forest floor on the only canopy walk in Africa in the rain forest of Kakum, immersed myself in urban Ghanaian life and Ashanti history in Kumasi, tracked elephants, baboons, antelopes, and warthogs on Christmas in Mole, spied hippos in Wechiau, and endured an endless day of transport to arrive here, where I am now, in Bobo Dialoasso, Burkina Faso. You still with me?
Just now, after about an hour in the cyber cafe, I got up to go to the bathroom, and for the first time, really forgot where I was.
I have had an amazing time. I\'m learning so much about the world right next door to Senegal and it\'s helping put the past 2 years in a broader context. I\'ve realized how much Peace Corps and Senegal has come to define who I am, at least right now, in my life. I live in Senegal still, and can\'t yet bring myself to call America home. Senegal is comfort and familiarity, and I have never felt more Senegalese than when I try to relate to people in these other countries. There was not a day that passed in the past 2 years where I did not feel American, but in the past 5 weeks, each day I see a bit of Senegal in me. I read recently a line that hit very close to home: "It is a bittersweet thing, knowing to cultures. It\'s a curse\n to love two countries." This trip and all its journeys, is giving me the time I need to reflect and understand the past 2 years. So, I love Bobo Dialasso and Burkina Faso. After 3 weeks in the anglophone, christian, green jungle, mountainous world of Ghana, I was happy to return to the francophone, Muslim, flat, dry, Savannah landscape I\'ve come to feel at home in. I\'m relaxing for a few days and enjoying this laid back, easy town before I head north to Mali to meet my friend Marielsie and trek through Dogon country. I\'m so excited! I\'m wishing everyone a very wonderful and happy new year. I\'m sending lots of love and to all corners of the world for 2006. May you all be safe where you are. I\'ll finally land in Washington, DC on Jan. 22nd and hope to see as many many people as possible. I may be afraid to leave the house for a few days, for fear of\n freezing to death . . . bear with me. I have dreams of hot showers and watching movies on a couch while eating pizza and Chinese food that has been delivered to my door. Oh, and I really need to find a job! I have no phone (my 21st century mother seems to be against fixed line telephones these days, so I need a cell phone. but first, see above . . . I need a job), so email, email, email and I\'ll try to steal my mother\'s phone to call you back :)",1]
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I have had an amazing time. I'm learning so much about the world right next door to Senegal and it's helping put the past 2 years in a broader context. I've realized how much Peace Corps and Senegal has come to define who I am, at least right now, in my life. I live in Senegal still, and can't yet bring myself to call America home. Senegal is comfort and familiarity, and I have never felt more Senegalese than when I try to relate to people in these other countries. There was not a day that passed in the past 2 years where I did not feel American, but in the past 5 weeks, each day I see a bit of Senegal in me. I read recently a line that hit very close to home: "It is a bittersweet thing, knowing to cultures. It's a curse to love two countries."
This trip and all its journeys, is giving me the time I need to reflect and understand the past 2 years.

So, I love Bobo Dialasso and Burkina Faso. After 3 weeks in the anglophone, christian, green jungle, mountainous world of Ghana, I was happy to return to the francophone, Muslim, flat, dry, Savannah landscape I've come to feel at home in. I'm relaxing for a few days and enjoying this laid back, easy town before I head north to Mali to meet my friend Marielsie and trek through Dogon country. I'm so excited!

I'm wishing everyone a very wonderful and happy new year. I'm sending lots of love and to all corners of the world for 2006. May you all be safe where you are.

I'll finally land in Washington, DC on Jan. 22nd and hope to see as many many people as possible. I may be afraid to leave the house for a few days, for fear of freezing to death . . . bear with me. I have dreams of hot showers and watching movies on a couch while eating pizza and Chinese food that has been delivered to my door.

Cassettes 2 CDs in Seattle saved my memories

2005-12-28T15:15:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Cassettes 2 CDs! I sent about 30 cassette and VHS tapes to a little company in Seattle, and they worked their magic and sent back all the originals along with CDs and DVDs. As I type, I am listening to the CD of the tape that was the impetus for this project: an interview I did in 1997 with my grandparents about WWII. It's pretty amazing to hear my grandfather's voice again 4 years after he died, and to know that this CD will last much longer than the cassette.

My Grampy was a very very smart man; a math degree and a PhD in psychology. He wrote IQ tests for the army that could be administered to illiterate enlistees. But, as I think most grandchildren would say of their grandparents, I didn't know much about them, and still don't know as much as I'd like, but the things I learned in this interview (as narrow as it was subject-wise) blew me away. My Grampy worked in the army in NYC writing his tests, and commuted in from NJ. The picture I have of my grandparents is either in Oxford, MS, or Valley Forge, PA, doing their parental/grandparental thing. It's also interesting to hear the interaction between my Grammy and Grampy, and to compare that to the way my Grammy acts now. She depended on him to complete all of her missing memories: cities, dates, names. Now her memory is worse and he's not around to help. I think each of those factors exacerbates the other.

Other tapes and videos I had converted: old tapes I recorded at parties, some performances in sound booths at amusement parks, my brother's wedding video, the compilation of all of my college videos... and now I'm listening to the CD made from the recordings I did of myself playing the piano. Good foresight, seeing as I don't know if I'll ever have such a repertoire ever again. I can still play bits and pieces of the songs, but I bet I'd need to take lessons again to whip myself back into shape. Moonlight Sonata, Reverie, Maple Leaf Rag... I must say, I wasn't horrible. Not great, but not bad either. I had my moments and enjoyed it toward the end. After 10 years of lessons I actually started to enjoy playing! Maybe I never considered quitting because my grandmother (not the one mentioned above) was a pianist and I felt like she was watching me.

Chicken found her Rooster

2005-12-21T10:23:00.000-05:00

And I will be her best hen. I know, we're silly for continuing to call each other chicken, but that's beside the point... Lindy got engaged! She called around 7ish last night to ask me to be her maid... no, matron of honor. I am, of course, honored. So, after all of the weddings I've been in, this will be my first spotlight performance as maid of honor. Whoo hoo! Oh, and I think Lindy and Dave are really great together. There was "old Dave," who somehow disappeared and became Awesome Dave who does all sorts of wonderful things for my chicken, like make her breakfast in bed. And he asked her parents' permission to propose to her, and basically did everything she said she "would want if he were to ever propose." Here's a photo of them on their trip to Disney last week (note the left hand, naked for the last time...). Congratulations, Lindy and Dave! (See "Hebonics" response to engagement in post below... does not apply here!)

Hebonics

2005-12-20T17:04:00.000-05:00

Another forward from my best friend's dad:

The New York City Public Schools have officially declared Jewish English-- now dubbed Hebonics -- as a second language. Backers of the move say the city schools are the first in the nation to recognize Hebonics as a valid language and a significant attribute of American culture. According to Howard Schollman, linguistics professor at Brooklyn College and renowned Hebonics scholar, the sentence structure of Hebonics derives from middle and eastern European language patterns, as well as Yiddish.

Prof. Schollman explains, "In Hebonics, the response to any question is usually another question -- plus a complaint that is implied or stated. Thus 'How are you?' may be answered, 'How should I be.... with my bad feet?'"

Schollman says that Hebonics is a superb linguistic vehicle for expressing sarcasm or skepticism. An example is the repetition of a word with "sh" or "shm" at the beginning: "Mountains, shmountains. Stay away. You want a nosebleed?"

Another Hebonics pattern is moving the subject of a sentence to the end, with its pronoun at the beginning: "It's beautiful, that dress."Schollman says one also sees the Hebonics verb moved to the end of the sentence. Thus the response to a remark such as "He's slow as a turtle," could be: "Turtle, shmurtle! Like a fly in Vaseline he walks."

Schollman provided the following examples from his best-selling textbook, Switched-On Hebonics.

Question: "What time is it?"
English answer: "Sorry, I don't know."
Hebonic response: "What am I, a clock?"

Remark: "I hope things turn out okay."
English answer: "Thanks."
Hebonic response: "I should be so lucky!"

Remark: "Hurry up. Dinner's ready."
English answer: "Be right there."
Hebonic response: "Alright already, I'm coming. What's with the 'hurry' business? Is there a fire?"

Remark: "I like the tie you gave me; I wear it all the time."
English answer: "Glad you like it."
Hebonic response: "So what's the matter; you don't like the other ties I gave you?"

Remark: "Sarah and I are engaged."
English answer: "Congratulations!"
Hebonic response: "She could stand to lose a few pounds."

Question: "Would you like to go riding with us?"
English answer: "Just say when."
Hebonic response: "Riding, shmiding! Do I look like a cowboy?"

To the guest of honor at a birthday party:
English answer: "Happy birthday."
Hebonic response: "A year smarter you should become."

Remark: "A beautiful day."
English answer: "Sure is."
Hebonic response: "So the sun is out; what else is new?"

Answering a phone call from a son:
English answer:"It's been a while since you called."
Hebonic response: "You didn't wonder if I'm dead yet?"

Ghananian roadside sign

2005-12-20T16:20:00.000-05:00

This came from Katie today and REALLY made me laugh:

Seen today from the roadside:
HIP POP BODY WEAR
With GOD All Things Are Possible
Below:Pictures of white women lounging in their underwear

Pieces of me all over the world

2005-12-20T15:34:00.000-05:00

EBAY. Not only has it supplemented my income significantly, but it has also been fun to think about all of the things that used to be ours that are now flung across the globe. Shoes, clothes, books, any old junk we can scrounge from the closets or storage space. I've sent things to Germany, France, the Virgin Islands, and all over the states. Whenever I find something that I didn't know I had, I sell it; I obviously had no need for it. Even if it's "cute" or I "might use it someday" I sell it. I'm sick of junk and things. Not that I've ever really had an overabundance of junk and things (I suppose that's subjective), but still, I don't like owning things that I have no use for. It makes me feel burdened. I think about moving in the future and am terrified about the amount of stuff we'll have to pack up. I want to minimize!!! If you want to see what I'm selling... enter jen.rudolph in the search by seller page on Ebay.

Down with Chrismukkah!

2005-12-19T17:04:00.000-05:00

Christmas and Hanukah are two distinct holidays. You don't see people lobbying for, oh, I don't know, Rammukkah? Or Yom Rammadan? Easstover? No. These are all their own holiday, with histories of their own and I don't have any gripes with celebrating all of them, but I do have issues with blending them all together. I guess that's the beef I have with universalist churches. A coworker goes to one and explained to me that they had seder at her church. Though, I guess it's better than calling it the universalist church jewish meal or something. I got a funny forward from my father-in-law about Christmas and Hanukah:

1 Christmas is one day, same day every year, December 25. Jews also love December 25th. It's another paid day off work. We go to movies and out for Chinese food and Israeli dancing. Chanukah is 8 days. It starts the evening of the 24th of Kislev, whenever that falls. No one is ever sure. Jews never know until a non-Jewish friend asks when Chanukah starts*, forcing us to consult a calendar so we don't look like idiots. We all have the same calendar, provided free with a donation from the World Jewish Congress, the kosher butcher, or the local Sinai Memorial Chapel (especially in Florida) or other Jewish funeral home.

2. Christmas is a major holiday. Chanukah is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat.

3. Christians get wonderful presents such as jewelry, perfume, stereos... Jews get practical presents such as underwear, socks, or the collected works of the Rambam, which looks impressive on the bookshelf.

4. There is only one way to spell Christmas. No one can decide how to spell Chanukah, Chanukkah, Chanukka, Channukah, Hanukah, Hannukah, etc. [Personal sidebar: Jen spells this word with as few letters as possible, to satisfy her editing bent!]

5. Christmas is a time of great pressure for husbands and boyfriends. Their partners expect special gifts. Jewish men are relieved of that burden. [This is subjective.] No one expects a diamond ring on Chanukah. [Also subjective.]

6. Christmas brings enormous electric bills. Candles are used for Chanukah. Not only are we spared enormous electric bills, but we get to feel good about not contributing to the energy crisis.

7. Christmas carols are beautiful... Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful.... Chanukah songs are about dreidels made from clay or having a party and dancing the hora. Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren. And don't Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond sing them beautifully?

8. A home preparing for Christmas smells wonderful--the sweet smell of cookies and cakes baking. Happy people are gathered around in festive moods. A home preparing for Chanukah smells of oil, potatoes, and onions. The home, as always, is full of loud people all talking at once.

9. Christian women have fun baking Christmas cookies. Jewish women burn their eyes and cut their hands grating potatoes and onions for latkas on Chanukah. Another reminder of our suffering through the ages.

10. Parents deliver to their children during Christmas. Jewish parents have no qualms about withholding a gift on any of the eight nights. [They don't??]

11. The players in the Christmas story have easy to pronounce names such as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The players in the Chanukah story are Antiochus, Judah Maccabee, and Matta whatever. No one can spell it or pronounce it. On the plus side, we can tell our friends anything and they believe we are wonderfully versed in our history.

12. Many Christians believe in the virgin birth. Jews think, "Yossela, Bubela, snap out of it. Your woman is pregnant, you didn't sleep with her, and now you want to blame G-d? Here's the number of my shrink."

13. In recent years, Christmas has become more and more commercialized. This makes sense. How could we market a major holiday such as Yom Kippur? "Forget celebrating. Think observing. Come to synagogue, starve yourself for 27 hours, become one with your dehydrated soul, beat your chest, confess your sins, a guaranteed good time for you and your family. Tickets a mere $200 per person." Better stick with Chanukah!