Category Archives: Books

*headdesk*

My review of the Tarot of Jane Austen Kit is currently 1,075 words. (Two and a half pages, single-spaced — argh!) This is, erm, unacceptable, as my target range is between 300 and 500 words.

One could argue that I’m reviewing two things, the deck and the book, but I don’t think that would fly with either of my editors.

I’m going to bed; I can’t think straight any more. I’ll keep on editing it tomorrow night and wrestle it down to something more manageable. (Madame Guest Editrix — I am deeply sorry it’s going to be late.)

Present

Shock of shocks: I am actually at my home computer. Liam is napping, and I have a review to write, which is due… yesterday? — WHERE has the this year gone? I don’t get a chance to be here often; I don’t have the time in the mornings and I generally fall into bed directly after dinner these days, which in turn follows dinner for Liam, his bath, and putting him to bed. (I was asleep at 8:30 last night. Seriously.)

So naturally, I am hopping about on the net while I think about how to phrase things properly.

(Later: If you run the questionnaire and the daemon’s form shifts, do me a favour and let me know what it morphs into so I can track the changes? Thanks!)

It is very odd to be working with an ergo keyboard again, because of course, my keyboard at work is a regular one. Speaking of work, as of Friday I have been on this contract for one whole month (see above re. ‘where has the time gone’). I got to invoice for another very nice amount.

We did a $250 grocery order today. It feels very, very good to have a full pantry and fridge, and even overflow in the garage. And HRH has headed off to the hardware store to buy a French door for my office, because the cats have officially demonstrated themselves as untrustworthy in it and I’m tired of how dark it gets when the office door is closed, as it shuts away the light of one of the few windows we have. We’ve been talking about a French door for this room since we moved in; it will be nice to finally follow through on it.

The general feedback I’ve been getting from people is confirming my suspicion that the Shorter OED is more useful, so that’s the one I’ll end up buying. This is fine; it means that I can buy myself an older edition of the Compact for the geek factor at some point in the future as a completely unnecessary gift.

I have a babysitter for the gig night, which means both my parents and my in-laws can come to the show! (Thank you Sam, and thank you Scarlet for suggesting her!)

Back to the review. This is the first bit of writing I’ve done in, well, a month. (Yes, that means exactly what it says, for all of you who have asked for work from me. Full time work plus toddler equals no time for anything else.)

Scratch Pad Apr 26

9:01:
I am wearing my RED SHOES today!

9:11:
Also, it is my father’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!

9:11:
“baton: a stick used by a conductor to help control the performance of a group of musicians”. I laughed, envisioning a conductor whacking away at a group of musicians desperately trying to follow the sheet music.

9:12:
I’m using all the same words in a definition, I just… move them around a bit to make things clearer. And I add punctuation. (Mostly.)

9:17:
I can’t decide between getting the two-volume shorter Oxford dictionary, which is a selection from the complete OED, and the Compact OED, which is the 20-vol complete dictionary in one volume, in microscopic print on thin thin paper used with a magnifying glass. The completeist geek in me wants the Compact, but the Shorter would probably be more practical. The price isn’t that much of a factor, as I can get a secondhand Compact for around the same price as a new Shorter. (I love eBay and abebooks; sure, it’s the previous edition, but how much has changed, and do I really need to pay another three hundred dollars for a new edition?) I’m really leaning towards the Compact because of its completeness; I look up archaic words a lot. (Who, me? Word geek? Never.)

10:03:
One of my biggest tasks is making sure the tense of the definition matches the tense of the word. Life is very exciting, I tell you. Satisfying, though.

10:35:
It appals me that a dictionary doesn’t understand the that/which differentiation.

11:24:
Have I mentioned lately that PUNCTUATION COUNTS? Sometimes necessary punctuation is missing; other times there are extraneous commas in places they have no business occupying. Maybe someone was trying to make up for the lack of commas elsewhere by putting on after every second word in certain definitions.

11:41:
Nothing like finding misspelled words in the dictionary. Not in the definitions; the actuals words themselves. Five so far. I’m hoping it’s an importation error.

13:22:
“A large bird that feeds on dead animals from South America” is not the same thing as “a large bird from South America that feeds on dead animals”. Sentence structure ALSO COUNTS.

15:44:
Um. I’m talking to myself again. I’d take a break but I promised this would be done by tomorrow afternoon and, well, it might not be. (Checks status.) Just less than halfway through. Nope; maybe Monday morning.

16:44:
Huh. Did more than I thought today. Still not certain this will be finished by tomorrow afternoon, but I can sure as hell try.

Scratch Pad Apr 25

9:01:
Un Lun Dun is reminding me of Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint (not to take anything away from the genius of China Mieville himself). It’s like Gaiman and De Lint got together in Mieville’s brain and used it to write the book, only it’s not like any of them. (Really, this makes sense to me. It’s like, but not anything like. Honestly.)

9:12:
Sorting this alphabetically was a good idea. There are doubles, and I can also see how many words have the same definitions for slightly different variants.

9:30:
Oh, I see. It’s the air in here. I’m falling asleep. And it’s not that I’m tired; I went to bed at eight last night, fell asleep reading, was woken up by HRH to eat pizza at 9:30, then fell right back asleep again. I got plenty of sleep.

10:38:
Editing! Actually editing! And now I look at things that I marked to be edited and wonder, “What’s wrong with that?”

10:53:
Now watching the numbers skew madly as I start to adjust the levels on those words that really belong in another level of the dictionary. Oi. They should settle as I continue on, but for now there’s an awful lot of red of and blue on the totals page (these being the colours that indicate below or above our target number).

11:54:
Yay – we’re back to the “huzzah!” feeling of succeeding in a good edit. I am such a geek.

14:07:
It’s because I’m problem-solving. That’s why it’s so satisfying. I’m not just scanning lists of words to flag them for something to do later; I’m actively problem-solving.

14:20:
Why is it that a lunch of fries, gravy, and cheese would send most people into torpor, but I am more awake than I’ve been in days?

15:10:
Mellanmouse has given my name and contact info to her supervisors to proof her script when it’s locked, and has also suggested that I be kept on the permanent roster of freelancers. Am dizzy with opportunity.

15:42:
For the past week I have had the oddest desire to go shoe shopping. What’s up with that? I hate shopping for shoes.

Worth Keeping

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
– W. Somerset Maugham

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
– Niels Bohr

Scratch Pad, April 16

More stream of consciousness joy:

10:45 AM:

I am going to reward myself with the two-volume shorter Oxford dictionary after this contract, to help take the bad taste of poorly constructed reference books out of my mouth.

11:12:

I am convinced that this dictionary was written by people who thought they knew the definitions and didn’t actually look them up, because the ones that aren’t dead-on are kind of but not really right. Or they’re defined as the general populace understands them, which is not the textbook definition. I am appalled that this thing got published.

11:17:

I am also tired of correcting figurative use when the literal definition should be there first.

11:28:

No, I’ve got it: it reads as if it was assembled by schoolchildren who inferred the meaning of a word by its use in a piece of text. Therefore, someone reading the phrase “sunnier climes” might infer that “climes” means different or variable weather, as this dictionary says. Except it actually means climate.

11:33:

Does one “believe in a religion”? Doesn’t one believe in the doctrines, and follow the religion?

12:47 PM:

Looking up “pacemaker” to see if the definition requires finessing, I discover that “An external pacemaker was designed and built by the Canadian electrical engineer John Hopps in 1950 based upon observations by cardio-thoracic surgeon Wilfred Bigelow at Toronto General Hospital. A substantial external device using vacuum tube technology to provide transcutaneous pacing, it was somewhat crude and painful to the patient in use and, being powered from an AC wall socket, carried a potential hazard of electrocution of the patient by inducing ventricular fibrillation.” I’ll bet. (Thanks, Wiki.)

13:17:

Continuing the thought of 11:28 and 11:17, above — “Tether”: “having no strength or patience left”. Obviously inferred from “at the end of one’s tether”. Argh!

13:41:

From HRH, on the subject of me being too shy and lame to ask someone I don’t know to escort me in and out of the office while my keycard is non-functional: “You’re not lame, remember you’re a hot lady in an office of guys. Ask and they will comply, Ph34r t3h cut3, resistance is futile and all that.” Me: “Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?”

15:05:

Mellanmouse takes good, good care of me. I have hot chocolate and a reactivated keycard. I am no longer a prisoner. Now I can listen to Evanescence instead of the soothing Loreena McKennitt I was relying upon to keep me balanced earlier. I love her with much love.

15:24:

Looking up “exponent”, I found this example: “Jaqueline du Pré was a leading exponent of cello-playing”. I like it when my world and the world of this imaginary dictionary intersect.

15:28:

The serial comma is your friend. Do not fear the serial comma!

15:53:

Every once in a while we hear howlers from some part of the room as the team members test code to see if it functions. Some of the definitions that are pulled up are insanely incorrect. Some of them I’ve found so far; others are yet to come.

14:22:

I think what frustates me most is how *close* some of these definitions are, and yet how they still miss the mark. For example, to admonish is kind of like “to advise someone to do something”, but it lacks the implication of warning. If someone learned this word in the context for which I’m refining these definitions, they’d use it incorrectly. And I refuse to let that happen.

16:24:

I AM FINDING WORDS THAT DO NOT EXIST!

New word(s) today: pelmet.

Also? Yay me for remembering my grandmother’s birthday.