Illumination: The Fyrefly Jar Weblog

The journal of a new mom and freelance editor who blogs about both when she has the time!

Friday, November 30, 2007

After wrapping up the last project and having left a completely appropriate time frame to get my next project completed, I reviewed the next project in depth and realized that it is more than twice as large as I anticipated. Huge, people. Oh bugger . . .


Okay ... I can think of two red buttons that will help:








and then after that ...









and as a last straw ...






Friday, November 23, 2007

All of my holiday wishes have just come true!!!!!

Welcome aboard!!!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Just was driving around after the farmer's market, my car smelling of sweet basil and fresh French bread, listening to these great Thanksgiving Eve* songs:

Greg Brown: "Canned Goods" (but the live version with his awesome story about visiting his grandma!)

Dan Bern: "Thanksgiving Day Parade"

Loudon Wainwright III: "Thanksgiving"

Split Enz: "I Got You"**

___________

*Is this a new term this year? I have heard today referred to as "Thanksgiving Eve" a whole bunch o' times! Maybe I should give myself today off!!

**Not really a Thanksgiving Eve song, but a great one for any day of the year.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Monday, November 19, 2007

Good article by Matt Bai from the NY Times mag on workers at home: "Home-Office Politics" Yes, that social security percentage is going to hurt. Can't wait to see if this experiment will really work for the long term ...
For anyone who needs a little laugh (or just a smile?) ...

Jokes related to editors, agents, etc.

Dim Bulbs

Sunday, November 11, 2007

An older piece but right up my alley ...

Copy Editor's Revenge Takes Form of Unhyphenated Word

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Here is an article on Dealing With Dark Moods of Freelancing by Amrit Hallan

I haven't hit any "dark moods," but these article points are good to review.

  1. Track your success: Yes, I do this to a fault, keeping a detailed database of everything that has come in, gone out, gross, net, etc. ... "I’m not suggesting that you should get obsessed with your goals and objectives and again end up working all the time" .... oh! Well, I do.
  2. Maintain a healthy environment: "A neat table and properly stacked papers and files are definitely a good start." Oh!! Well, forget that. "Check if there are some other negative factors around you that sap away your energies ." Hmmm ... the cat ...
  3. Automate: "Hire a programmer to make you utility programs and macros" ... Yes, that would rock.
  4. New skills: I have twice tried to take a medical editing course, and I hope that I can get to do this very soon. I do need some new skills, especially health care.

We went this week to a museum exhibition of comic books. I was entranced by the original covers, the actual paste-up of the different parts like the title and the price, the light pencil lines to properly align the text.

I do miss paste-up and light boards. Used to do that with our journal covers way back when. The Exacto knife, the smell of the adhesive . . . ah, those were the days.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

This might happen to you too. From time to time, when I wake up I have a line of something in my head, like the first line of a poem or a line from a song. When this happens, I take note of the words and then read through the whole song or passage or poem to see why my semiconscious mind has thrown those particular words up to my conscious surface to bob around. Maybe it is only to get some air. In any case, I feel that there must be a reason for it, so I hunt for one.

This morning it was "When one has lived a long time alone," of course referencing the poem by Galway Kinnell. Maybe, because we are in autumn, I am thinking of poems I relate to autumn, having always seen Kinnell in autumn. Or maybe it is that I slept alone last night, the first time sleeping alone here in the house since my husband became my husband, but of course "long time" doesn't apply, although other references and lines might, if I could read the poem. But I can't read the poem, apparently, because my Kinnell books do not have this poem in them. Strange. I have heard him read this poem live a number of times, and I really like it, so why I would not own it in a collection baffles me. During a quick search, I didn't find it on the Internet, but I didn't think I would, as reprinting poems online is usually chancy. Humph.

Well, I will read the poem as soon as I can and try to see what this is all about. Probably nothing, but maybe something.
 
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