Yays!
I'm really not quite sure how the avatar I've used relates to this post. I just felt like using it. I'm feeling very random and hyper and exhausted. I believe as a result of a combination of too little sleep, too much caffeine, lots of mental work, and the relief of finally finishing a big project.
So I've at last finished the latest issue of the homeschooling magazine, and don't have to think about it for another three months or so - yay! It's really an incredible magazine, both godly and full of encouragement and practical advice for homeschool moms, and the women in charge are some wonderful, Christian ladies. However... As I've mentioned to Polly, I've found myself getting increasingly frustrated by editing for this magazine. And this particular issue has rather exacerbated that. When I got the email with it, I also got a deadline that was way beyond shorter than the usual one to completely impossible. I might've been able to manage it, but only if I dropped pretty much everything else to edit only this magazine, which was definitely not possible with everything going on and previous commitments I'd made. Especially since they want the editing mailed in hard copy, so I have to have it done 4-5 days before the deadline so they get it in time. So I had to write back and tell her that I could either do a very superficial job or I'd need at least twice the time they'd given me. They gave me more time, but still... *sighs*
The communication here is just not good, almost every time I get a new issue a bunch of articles are still missing, and the organization of the editing department's kinda... odd. There isn't any real head of the editing department, the woman in charge of layout/design just sends out the magazine to the people who're editing and incorporates suggestions, and there is no separation between the editing and proofreading stages - the whole magazine's just sent out to about five people, and they mail back their corrections for the entire thing. I'm not sure what criteria they use to decide whose corrections to go with if/when what the editors have marked disagrees, especially since so far as I know the woman in charge of incorporating it doesn't have any editing experience.
One of the biggest frustrations, though, is the fact that some of these articles really need help. A lot of help. Which I could certainly manage, but it's more than I can really do when I'm editing the entire magazine, especially in this way, just marking changes, without any discussion over them or contact with the writers. Sometimes it's hard to know how to correct something, because it's a bit convoluted, and could mean several things, but I don't know which the author intended. I think the people in charge of the editing think that it's just a matter of certain things needing to be changed or added, and that's that, rather than for some things there being several "right" answers, or bits that need re-writing. And some of the articles just need much more wide-scale adjustment than I can give them this way. Obviously no writing is going to be entirely perfect, but it's just... frustrating, knowing my work here's never going to be really polished in the end. Especially when I really love working with authors and helping them improve, and here I see some writers making the same basic mistakes time and again, and think if I could just have the time and opportunity to say something to them, point out the right way, it could benefit them far more and certainly be easier than correcting the same things again and again... *sighs* Okay, I'm done. It really is a great service opportunity working here, and I can gain experience that looks good on a resume at the same time, but sometimes...
Working with ROC magazine has been such an incredible contrast. I was a bit worried at first, but it's been absolutely wonderful. Lots of fun, great people to work with, very organized, and things have gone so smoothly, even when things do go a bit wrong or there's missed communication. In many ways they're miles and away more professional and organized than this "real" professional published magazine that's sent out worldwide and has been going for years. Even though ROC is monthly, rather than quarterly, it's been causing soooo much less stress. So they've kinda restored my faith in magazine work. :)
Switching tracks a bit, I'm still sticking post-it notes on badly done signs when I get the chance... And this? Is awesome. I am not alone! Though he is rather more proactive than I, actually speaking to people and fixing things on the spot. Eep. Little more potentially confrontational than I tend to get, even when irritated by such things. ;)
And a recent incident has caused me to feel quite horrible. I recommended Stargate to a family at church, who really like sci-fi, and was helping them figure out in what order to watch things and such 'cause it looks like they can get all of it from Netflix. Unfortunately, in the process I completely forgot about the pilot episode of SG-1. Y'see, apparently when they started filming, they were considering making the series into an R-rated adult show, but later decided on making it a family show instead. And the pilot reflects that. Including a scene with full frontal nudity. But, having not watched that episode in a couple years, I didn't remember it, and therefore didn't warn them, and therefore got an email this week... *wants to crawl into a dark hole* The mom was really understanding when I explained, and told her that was not typical of the shows, but I still feel really, really bad. So... for anyone who hasn't seen it... Yes do watch both SG-1 and SGA, they are absolutely awesome, but please be warned regarding the first episode of SG-1.
And on a very random completely unrelated note that I've been thinking about... How do you approach nicknames? Other peoples' that is. LOL, maybe a part of my whole over-thinking process, but I tend to be very hesitant about them, unless one, I know the person very well, two, it's a nickname I've seen/heard them use themself, three, I'm invited to use it, or four, I know them at least somewhat and have heard others who know them refer to them by it. Of course, none of that applies to nicknames that grow out of friendship, and incidents that happen along the way (thus why I call one of the mods at a forum I belong to "the poptardy admin" - yeah, there's story there. *g*). Personally, I don't mind people giving me nicknames (which is a good thing, because I have a lot of them), but when it comes to others I tend to be very afraid of being either presumptuous, or unintentionally irritating them. I know a lot of people have names with very common shortened versions that they absolutely hate, or who have been called nicknames that their name easily calls to mind, but that really embarrass/irritate them. So yeah, I probably stand on formalities too much sometimes, but... better than other alternatives, I hope. Unless it just winds up making me sound stuck up or stuffy, which is also a possibility. :P
Yes, that was random. I kinda want to go to bed now. But we have a Bible study in la few minutes, and considering it's at our house that might be considered rude. Maybe I'll have another Mountain Dew instead.
So I've at last finished the latest issue of the homeschooling magazine, and don't have to think about it for another three months or so - yay! It's really an incredible magazine, both godly and full of encouragement and practical advice for homeschool moms, and the women in charge are some wonderful, Christian ladies. However... As I've mentioned to Polly, I've found myself getting increasingly frustrated by editing for this magazine. And this particular issue has rather exacerbated that. When I got the email with it, I also got a deadline that was way beyond shorter than the usual one to completely impossible. I might've been able to manage it, but only if I dropped pretty much everything else to edit only this magazine, which was definitely not possible with everything going on and previous commitments I'd made. Especially since they want the editing mailed in hard copy, so I have to have it done 4-5 days before the deadline so they get it in time. So I had to write back and tell her that I could either do a very superficial job or I'd need at least twice the time they'd given me. They gave me more time, but still... *sighs*
The communication here is just not good, almost every time I get a new issue a bunch of articles are still missing, and the organization of the editing department's kinda... odd. There isn't any real head of the editing department, the woman in charge of layout/design just sends out the magazine to the people who're editing and incorporates suggestions, and there is no separation between the editing and proofreading stages - the whole magazine's just sent out to about five people, and they mail back their corrections for the entire thing. I'm not sure what criteria they use to decide whose corrections to go with if/when what the editors have marked disagrees, especially since so far as I know the woman in charge of incorporating it doesn't have any editing experience.
One of the biggest frustrations, though, is the fact that some of these articles really need help. A lot of help. Which I could certainly manage, but it's more than I can really do when I'm editing the entire magazine, especially in this way, just marking changes, without any discussion over them or contact with the writers. Sometimes it's hard to know how to correct something, because it's a bit convoluted, and could mean several things, but I don't know which the author intended. I think the people in charge of the editing think that it's just a matter of certain things needing to be changed or added, and that's that, rather than for some things there being several "right" answers, or bits that need re-writing. And some of the articles just need much more wide-scale adjustment than I can give them this way. Obviously no writing is going to be entirely perfect, but it's just... frustrating, knowing my work here's never going to be really polished in the end. Especially when I really love working with authors and helping them improve, and here I see some writers making the same basic mistakes time and again, and think if I could just have the time and opportunity to say something to them, point out the right way, it could benefit them far more and certainly be easier than correcting the same things again and again... *sighs* Okay, I'm done. It really is a great service opportunity working here, and I can gain experience that looks good on a resume at the same time, but sometimes...
Working with ROC magazine has been such an incredible contrast. I was a bit worried at first, but it's been absolutely wonderful. Lots of fun, great people to work with, very organized, and things have gone so smoothly, even when things do go a bit wrong or there's missed communication. In many ways they're miles and away more professional and organized than this "real" professional published magazine that's sent out worldwide and has been going for years. Even though ROC is monthly, rather than quarterly, it's been causing soooo much less stress. So they've kinda restored my faith in magazine work. :)
Switching tracks a bit, I'm still sticking post-it notes on badly done signs when I get the chance... And this? Is awesome. I am not alone! Though he is rather more proactive than I, actually speaking to people and fixing things on the spot. Eep. Little more potentially confrontational than I tend to get, even when irritated by such things. ;)
And a recent incident has caused me to feel quite horrible. I recommended Stargate to a family at church, who really like sci-fi, and was helping them figure out in what order to watch things and such 'cause it looks like they can get all of it from Netflix. Unfortunately, in the process I completely forgot about the pilot episode of SG-1. Y'see, apparently when they started filming, they were considering making the series into an R-rated adult show, but later decided on making it a family show instead. And the pilot reflects that. Including a scene with full frontal nudity. But, having not watched that episode in a couple years, I didn't remember it, and therefore didn't warn them, and therefore got an email this week... *wants to crawl into a dark hole* The mom was really understanding when I explained, and told her that was not typical of the shows, but I still feel really, really bad. So... for anyone who hasn't seen it... Yes do watch both SG-1 and SGA, they are absolutely awesome, but please be warned regarding the first episode of SG-1.
And on a very random completely unrelated note that I've been thinking about... How do you approach nicknames? Other peoples' that is. LOL, maybe a part of my whole over-thinking process, but I tend to be very hesitant about them, unless one, I know the person very well, two, it's a nickname I've seen/heard them use themself, three, I'm invited to use it, or four, I know them at least somewhat and have heard others who know them refer to them by it. Of course, none of that applies to nicknames that grow out of friendship, and incidents that happen along the way (thus why I call one of the mods at a forum I belong to "the poptardy admin" - yeah, there's story there. *g*). Personally, I don't mind people giving me nicknames (which is a good thing, because I have a lot of them), but when it comes to others I tend to be very afraid of being either presumptuous, or unintentionally irritating them. I know a lot of people have names with very common shortened versions that they absolutely hate, or who have been called nicknames that their name easily calls to mind, but that really embarrass/irritate them. So yeah, I probably stand on formalities too much sometimes, but... better than other alternatives, I hope. Unless it just winds up making me sound stuck up or stuffy, which is also a possibility. :P
Yes, that was random. I kinda want to go to bed now. But we have a Bible study in la few minutes, and considering it's at our house that might be considered rude. Maybe I'll have another Mountain Dew instead.