Tuesday, 20 April 2004 11:45 am
No workplace for me! For now
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deckardcanineHeard back from Black Gate. They say my story was "fast paced and exciting" but "not as original we as [sic] might like, and the prose is a bit stiff in places." They hope I'll try again soon.
That's really the best response I could expect, for a story that wasn't written or even tweaked with publication in mind.
A company has rejected my application to become a proofreader/editor. There's been a miscommunication, possibly my own, for they thought I specifically wanted a summer job, which they wouldn't offer for such duties. They also say I lack experience with copy editing and I might try learning it at grad school. I've requested an unpaid set of trial tasks to prove myself. Sure hope it works; the job I'll probably have otherwise sounds strenuous.
When I seriously want to put off work, I tend to try something new, perhaps as a subconscious justification ("At least I'm growing..."). In the last few weeks, I've pored over the archives of potentially enjoyable webcomics for the first time in quite a while. I looked at four, finished three, and will continue to read two. But fear not that this will occupy my time even more than it already does: I've learned to drop at least one comic from my lineup, usually a daily, every time I get into another. You may think I'm nuts to drop "Dilbert" from about 25 candidates, but that's me. If any obsession of mine is worsening, it's the trend toward anthro comics in particular. (I wouldn't have chosen my LJ name if I weren't into animals.)
Maybe next year I'll give up comics for Lent. That'd strain me worse than forgoing games and sweets.
That's really the best response I could expect, for a story that wasn't written or even tweaked with publication in mind.
A company has rejected my application to become a proofreader/editor. There's been a miscommunication, possibly my own, for they thought I specifically wanted a summer job, which they wouldn't offer for such duties. They also say I lack experience with copy editing and I might try learning it at grad school. I've requested an unpaid set of trial tasks to prove myself. Sure hope it works; the job I'll probably have otherwise sounds strenuous.
When I seriously want to put off work, I tend to try something new, perhaps as a subconscious justification ("At least I'm growing..."). In the last few weeks, I've pored over the archives of potentially enjoyable webcomics for the first time in quite a while. I looked at four, finished three, and will continue to read two. But fear not that this will occupy my time even more than it already does: I've learned to drop at least one comic from my lineup, usually a daily, every time I get into another. You may think I'm nuts to drop "Dilbert" from about 25 candidates, but that's me. If any obsession of mine is worsening, it's the trend toward anthro comics in particular. (I wouldn't have chosen my LJ name if I weren't into animals.)
Maybe next year I'll give up comics for Lent. That'd strain me worse than forgoing games and sweets.
no subject
As for the survey you cited, well, if the field of options was the Washington Post's comics page, it is easy to see how Dilbert can come in fourth. There are lots of very, very mediocre comics out there that are worse than Dilbert: Hagar, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Garfield, Cathy, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, and the list goes on. Only a rare few are better: The Boondocks, Get Fuzzy, Doonesbury if Trudeau's having a good day. The fact that Dilbert comes in fourth is not praise for Dilbert so much as it is an indictment of controversy averse newspapers.
Jumping the shark usually does signal approaching doom for a TV series. But newspaper comics tend to trudge on in a bizarre kind of un-life long after the strip's premise has been milked for all that is worth. Some, like Fred Bassett -- which jumped the shark the first time its creator soiled a piece of bristol -- persist even after the death of their creators. Only Bill Watterson, who drew Calvin and Hobbes, had the good sense to go out on top.
no subject