Friday, January 29, 2010

The Meanness of Strangers

During my day off yesterday, I thought I'd check out Omegle, a variation on social networking where you can have a conversation with a stranger and "meet new friends."



With friends like that . . .

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Editing-free Zone

I've declared my office as such today. The language cop needs a break.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Dondé está Manuel?

Craigslist wants to know.

Manuel, call ASAP. There's a job awaiting.

"Manuel/Curriculum Writer"

Thursday, January 21, 2010

ICM

Right after I logged into Facebook around midnight, I stared at the screen and realized that I had reached my Internet Critical Mass.

ICM was brought about by the now overwhelming combination of the Gmail notifier, online editing, my news and music habits, blogging, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter, and probably more.

I'm pulling back, way back, before the Internet totally consumes me.

Less Net. More Movement.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

A Noble Profession

I (and countless other editors) often complain about how our profession is a thankless one.

At best, we're invisible, taken for granted, overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. At worst, well, the litany is too long and painful to get into here.

But there are days—and today is one of them for me—when my work transcends being just a job and feels like the noble profession that it truly is.

This morning I've been doing my online article editing. And my article queue has been a blessing of a kind, a true gift from above. It has been rife with articles that, through my editing, will, I believe, enrich the lives of the those poor computer-challenged souls, some of whom might be developmentally challenged as well. To wit:

  • "How to Read Help Files on Vista"

  • "How to End a Software Installation in Progress"

  • "How to Delete All Messages in Outlook Express at Once"

My cup runneth over.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Dead Man Walking Dumb Man Reading

To borrow a phrase in order to summarize the ruling principle on the use of arguably the most hated punctuation mark:

It’s better that 10 dumb men not be confused than one intelligent man be insulted.

(Hyphen Day continued below.)

Will you take the Pledge?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Pain in the ass

In recent days I've been at the computer way too many hours, for long uninterrupted stretches at a time.

My gluteus maximus muscles have become gluteus minimus.

This is one of those times when less is not more, but is in fact less.

Sometimes editors complain about their minds turning to mush. News flash: Mush can spread.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Multiple choice quiz

Which would you rather do?

___ Have a root canal done?

___ Go through a lengthy manuscript and replace hundreds of linked footnote numbers with unlinked superscript numbers?

Friday, January 8, 2010

Milestone of sorts

As of this morning, I've edited 2,010 articles for my online editing gig, which began last May 13.

I can say without hesitation that, as a result, I now know hardly anything about a great many more subjects.

SAFE Holidays

The Society of Associated Freelance Editors today released its 2010 holiday schedule.

In a press release, SAFE president Zsolt Vahlqist stated in part: "These special days are not holidays in the traditional sense, that is, days off. Nevertheless, we are encouraging all of our members to celebrate them in their own special ways for what they are—the work-at-home freelancers' substitution for the variety of occasions celebrated throughout the year by their office-bound counterparts."

  • 1/20: Love Your Computer Day


  • 2/17: Bring Your Dust Bunny to Work Day


  • 3/30: Ignore Email Day


  • 4/16: Staff Meeting Day


  • 6/17: Plastic Bag Lunch Day


  • 7/23: Oil Your Desk Chair Day


  • 8/6: Clement Weather Day


  • 8/18: Uncasual Day


  • 9/27: Annual Happy Hour (1-2 P.M.)


  • 10/8: Eight-Hour Coffee Break Day


  • 10/29: Unhalloween Day


  • 11/29: Staff Appreciation Day


  • 12/23: Overt Santa Day

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Wall

As I'm wrapping up a book edit on the history of Major League Soccer, a very familiar feeling has crept into my effort. And it's fitting that a sports book has spawned that sensation, one I remember all too well from my personal sports experience.

Back in '83 I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. Like so many marathoners, I hit "The Wall" at the 20-mile mark and then hung on for the remaining 6.2 miles, somehow conjuring up some adrenaline for a strong finish.

The Wall came 76.3 percent into the marathon. It just occurred to me that I usually hit my book-editing wall at just about the same point.

So I'll keep scrolling through the MS, hit one key after another, and then dig deep within to find the energy for a sprint to the finish line.

Long-distance running and manuscripts into the hundreds of pages: no pain, no gain.

This hurts my brain.

From an article I'm editing on how to install a modem in a computer running Linux:

Step 11

Edit the file "etc/ppp/options" so it contains the following lines:

debug - log transactions to /var/log/messages
/dev/ttyS1 - ( S1 = COM2, S2 = COM3, S3 = COM4)
115200 - Baud rate. Max supported bu UART chipset, not modem.
modem - Serial link is connected to a modem
crtscts - Use hardware flow control (RTS and CTS) to control serial line
asyncmap 0 - Choice of mapping of control characters
defaultroute - PPP becomes the default route to the internet
noipdefault - Not a static IP address. IP address assigned by ISP.
lock - Don't let other processes besides PPP use device (/var/lock/)
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -t 240 -f /etc/ppp/chat-isp"