work

Just your typical, average Friday

Today is Friday, and I don’t have an awful lot to say about it beyond that.

I spent the day for the most part immersed in PowerPoint, which is nobody’s idea of a great time, but at least I’m making progress on pulling these lecture slides together. I got through about seven chapters today, the first half of the book, and hopefully will be able to more or less finish in the two days I’m in the office next week. I head to San Jose on Wednesday for a 5-day conference — and maybe the world’s least exciting destination for my birthday — and there are a few projects I’d like to make somebody else’s problem before I leave.

I’m probably not going to get the latest issue of Kaleidotrope out before I go, however. It’s largely finished, beyond a little last-minute tweaking and the printing, so it will definitely be mailed out in April. But the end-of-March timing just doesn’t work in my favor. It’s a really good issue, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, now would be a great time to do so. Just indicate you want your subscription to start with issue #8. There’s almost certainly going to be three issues total this year, so now’s a good time to get on board!

Other than that, not much to report. It’s just your typical, average Friday.

Making the thirteenth

Today’s bit of Forgotten English is “monkey board,” meaning (as I’m sure you’ve already guessed) “the step at the rear of an omnibus on which the conductor stands.” Which isn’t especially relevant for today, but I do like rider etiquette, supposedly from Eliza Leslie’s 1859 Behavior Book:

If on stopping an omnibus you find that a dozen people are already seated in it, draw back and refuse to add to the number, giving no heed to the assertion of the driver that there is plenty of room. You have no right to crowd them, even if you are willing to be crowded yourself — a thing that is extremely uncomfortable and very injurious to your dress, which may in consequence be so squeezed and rumpled as to never look well again. A lady will always regret making the thirteenth.

Somehow I just don’t see that going over so well with today’s busy morning commuters. Although “making the thirteenth” does sound vaguely like a naughty euphemism.

In other news, I spent the day juggling several projects, though mostly pulling together some materials for a pair of instructor websites we’re designing. I’m not saying that Microsoft PowerPoint is pure evil or anything. I’m just saying the jury’s still out. I’m building these slides myself, based on the author’s detailed outline and the text, so it’s a little slower going. It may very well drive me crazy before I’m through — if not in need of some of the counselors this book is intended to train.

And that’s about it. Of course, my fortune cookie with dinner this evening insisted, “Your life becomes more and more of an adventure!” Although, aside from slightly burning my upper lip on the General Tso’s chicken, that so far doesn’t seem to be the case…and even that’s pretty shabby as far as “adventure goes.” We shall see.

Kiss me, I’m Irish!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everyone! Or, as we like to call it in New York, Drunk Tourists in the Street Before Lunchtime Day! Seriously, I can’t remember seeing this many obnoxious people in matching colors since my last home football game weekend at Penn State. I went for a walk around 12:30, since it was such a nice day outside, and I walked past several dozen bars with cheap shamrock decorations taped to the windows. I hadn’t had lunch yet and already some of these people — some who looked all of twelve or thirteen, I have to say — were can’t-get-up-off-the-ground or shout-random-things-at-strangers drunk. I suspect not a one of them was Irish.

For my (half-Irish on my mother’s side) part, I wore green today but didn’t even think to lift a pint. When I finally did have lunch, it was a slice of pizza and some fruit salad. I do drink on occasion, though almost never in the middle of the day — and then only in social situations — but I find the whole idea of taking the morning off to go binge drinking pretty depressing.

But beyond that, it was actually a really nice day. I sent a project I’m working on to our UK office, to get the ball rolling on a website we’re creating, and I put another manuscript into review. I also spent some time tracking down authors of some older books, with an eye towards developing new editions. So far, only one of them appears to have died since the previous edition, so that’s going well.

I did send out a bunch of rejection letters for Kaleidotrope, though, which is never fun. I noted earlier today on Twitter that when I read a story, I am looking for reasons to reject it. But, more than that, I’m looking for a story that doesn’t give me any reasons. I want to love every story, even if I don’t realistically have room for all of them, but in practice I’m going to love only a very small percentage. The number of stories I’ll hate is an even smaller percentage, of course, but that just means the vast number are somewhere in between. And it’s not that in-between stuff that I’m really looking for.

Anyway, that was my Wednesday. Right now, I think I need to take the dog out, and then I’m going to watch this new FX show Justified and go to bed.

I wonder where dem boidies iz

Today was the first day that really felt like the approach of spring to me, not least of all because it was still light out when I got home from work this evening. I still didn’t sleep terrifically well last night, but at least I got in enough hours to function properly. And I managed to finish my edits on that final counseling chapter and send them back to the author. With luck, we’ll have a final manuscript ready to go into production before the week is through. After which, my involvement with the book will essentially be over and I’ll move on to the other half dozen projects that are awaiting my attention.

I also finished reading Ann Patchett’s The Patron Saint of Liars, which I liked quite a lot, although not as much as her later novel Bel Canto, which remains one of my favorite books of recent years. (Well, of my recent years. I read it in 2006.) I’m not yet sure what I’m going to read next, though I have plenty of unread books to choose from. I’ve actually caved twice this month, including today, and bought some new books. I think it’s safe to say that my no-new-books-for-2010 resolution, which was pretty silly to begin with, is now officially a failure. It’s maybe just as well.

First I bought Joe Hill’s Horns and Dan Simmons’ two most recent books, and today I bought a few graphic novels, including Angel: After the Fall. (I’m still not really sure how I feel about them continuing the series, which I thought ended on a really great note, but I’ve been re-watching it recently and figured, why not? I think they’ve done a really good job so far with Buffy‘s “Season 8.”)

Anyway, that’s about it for today.

Beware the ides

The ides of March used to be a day for celebration. But then Julius Caesar had to ruin all that by getting murdered and everything. I mean, seriously, what’s up with that?

I didn’t sleep at all well last night, maybe because of the change over to Daylight Savings Time, and I felt lousy enough this morning that I called (or, rather, e-mailed) in sick. It’s not something I like doing, but I actually spent a good part of the day doing what I would have had I gone into the office — namely, reading the last revised chapter in that book I want to get off my desk and into production before I head off to San Jose next week. With luck, I’ll finish marking it up tomorrow, and with luck it won’t need much marking up. Then I’ll e-mail it back to the author, who will look it over and let me know if he’s okay with my final edits.

Other than that, it was a boring day spent mostly reading and listening to the DVD commentary on John Carpenter’s The Thing. I’m going to make sure I get a good night’s sleep tonight and head into the office tomorrow.