Thursday, 24 May 2007 09:26 pm
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deckardcanineI would have updated this yesterday, but after a family celebration and catching up with online activity, I was dog... fox tired.
Yesterday was only the second time I attended essentially a day-long meeting. It was slightly shorter, being 9 to 4 almost on the dot with an hour-long lunch and two 15-minute breaks (during which the instructor said to try her “homemade” Doritos). But unlike my longest meeting, this one on substantive editing was fun. For me, anyway. Looking over those crumby passages in exercises – reportedly based on actual submissions in different places – was like eating dark chocolate. I’m sure I heard someone say “This is sad” with a smile. The best, or worst, came at the end of the day. I kept wondering if the MST3K crew would deign to check out essays.
I’ll give one example for now: “The basement was damp and mildewy, to the point where the investigators felt it necessary to wear masks to survive the intense fustigation.” Subtler problems aside, what’s that term that resembles “fustiness”? Turns out it means cudgeling or severe criticism, according to Webster. When the instructor asked for the meaning, I said, “Something I’d like to do to whoever wrote this,” without elaborating on which of the two dictionary definitions I had in mind.
Appropriately, my dad had saved this week’s “Below the Beltway” column, in which Gene Weingarten phones PR representatives of companies responsible for needlessly jargony press releases and tries to lose them with similar language. He fails, thrice. This being a rare instance in which both sides looked silly, my mom and I found it hysterical as I read it aloud. I brought the page to the second day of the training, and the instructor gratefully photocopied it.
The second day was less fun, because we spent a while on a technical paper on gas turbines. It didn’t even have a clear purpose, which made it especially difficult and boring, but we still found glaring substantive errors. Fortunately, that was neither the first nor the last thing we looked at today.
The instructor and the 12 students other than me were all women. That didn’t bother me, but I’m interested to know if my field is disproportionate that way. Mind you, they weren’t all in proofreading/editing positions. Some were curious receptionists and whatnot.
Last night, my family introduced me to Oyamel, a Mexican tapa restaurant. We ordered 11 items and I still want to try more. My choices were largely experimental: tamarind soda, onions in a mildly chocolaty sauce, “spicy” guacamole prepared at the table, baby cactus salad (surprisingly low on tang, like string beans), and Chihuahua cheese (they must be tame little buggers!).
My presents? A replacement umbrella from my cat (who turned 19 the day before, BTW), a trio of fantasy and sci-fi books from my sister, and a Wii and two games from my parents. I didn’t even ask for a Wii! It’s the first time I’ve gotten a console less than two years into its run. But I’ll wait ‘til the weekend to try it out, believe it or not.
As much as I’ve enjoyed the last two days, I’ll be glad to go back to work as usual tomorrow. There’s no place like, um, the office.
Yesterday was only the second time I attended essentially a day-long meeting. It was slightly shorter, being 9 to 4 almost on the dot with an hour-long lunch and two 15-minute breaks (during which the instructor said to try her “homemade” Doritos). But unlike my longest meeting, this one on substantive editing was fun. For me, anyway. Looking over those crumby passages in exercises – reportedly based on actual submissions in different places – was like eating dark chocolate. I’m sure I heard someone say “This is sad” with a smile. The best, or worst, came at the end of the day. I kept wondering if the MST3K crew would deign to check out essays.
I’ll give one example for now: “The basement was damp and mildewy, to the point where the investigators felt it necessary to wear masks to survive the intense fustigation.” Subtler problems aside, what’s that term that resembles “fustiness”? Turns out it means cudgeling or severe criticism, according to Webster. When the instructor asked for the meaning, I said, “Something I’d like to do to whoever wrote this,” without elaborating on which of the two dictionary definitions I had in mind.
Appropriately, my dad had saved this week’s “Below the Beltway” column, in which Gene Weingarten phones PR representatives of companies responsible for needlessly jargony press releases and tries to lose them with similar language. He fails, thrice. This being a rare instance in which both sides looked silly, my mom and I found it hysterical as I read it aloud. I brought the page to the second day of the training, and the instructor gratefully photocopied it.
The second day was less fun, because we spent a while on a technical paper on gas turbines. It didn’t even have a clear purpose, which made it especially difficult and boring, but we still found glaring substantive errors. Fortunately, that was neither the first nor the last thing we looked at today.
The instructor and the 12 students other than me were all women. That didn’t bother me, but I’m interested to know if my field is disproportionate that way. Mind you, they weren’t all in proofreading/editing positions. Some were curious receptionists and whatnot.
Last night, my family introduced me to Oyamel, a Mexican tapa restaurant. We ordered 11 items and I still want to try more. My choices were largely experimental: tamarind soda, onions in a mildly chocolaty sauce, “spicy” guacamole prepared at the table, baby cactus salad (surprisingly low on tang, like string beans), and Chihuahua cheese (they must be tame little buggers!).
My presents? A replacement umbrella from my cat (who turned 19 the day before, BTW), a trio of fantasy and sci-fi books from my sister, and a Wii and two games from my parents. I didn’t even ask for a Wii! It’s the first time I’ve gotten a console less than two years into its run. But I’ll wait ‘til the weekend to try it out, believe it or not.
As much as I’ve enjoyed the last two days, I’ll be glad to go back to work as usual tomorrow. There’s no place like, um, the office.
no subject
Jargon is one strange beast.
Try this one:
Ever hear of the computer term "AJAX"?
It stands for "Asynchronous Javascript and XML", a way to make a page feel more dynamic and is often used for webmail.
There's a replacement for Javascript called Actionscript.
Use that instead of Javascript and it would be called AAAX.
Strange?
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language.
If someone created a replacement for it called Advanced Markup Language, it'd be called "AAAA".
Now that's strange...
Hmm, now I see I can ramble, I'll try not to again... Though no promises.
Glad you had fun with your gifts.
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