Southern Oregon Weekend

It's been a pretty quiet weekend at mom's. Right up until the fighter jets flew over just a moment ago. And now it's back to being quiet.

Yesterday, mom and I (and the dog, Gracie) sat out on the patio and enjoyed the sunshine while we visited. No real plans. No to-do list that needed items ticked off. Just us hanging out and talking about whatever topic came up and admiring her flowers.

Mom had to work on Saturday, so I spent the afternoon at grandma's house visiting and helping her get a handle on email. We're heading over to grandma's for dinner tonight. And that's really the only thing we have to do today, but we may run out to Home Depot or run a couple of other errands that we put off yesterday.

I'm just sitting here at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee looking out the front window at the plants and flowers. It rained last night, so everything is fresh and bright. And the scents of Sweet Williams and iris are being carried in to me on a light breeze. At the moment, I'm having a hard time imagining anything more relaxing.

Sounds like we're going to take Gracie out for a walk. I guess I'd better get some shoes on.

However you're spending your holiday weekend, I hope you're all enjoying it as much as I am.

(Apparently I have huge thumbs. They make blogging from the iPhone tedeious.)

Tomato Florentine Soup

We went out to dinner last night with a dear friend and had lovely time catching up. We were supposed to have met up with her for dinner back in April, but then I learned I was going to the tech conference and we had to switch up plans. One of the things that amazes me most when we catch up with someone we haven't seen for a while is how much it feels like so much has happened and yet when we sit down to talk, everything is pretty much exactly the way it was before. Even if it's still same-old same-old, it doesn't change the fact that we're exhausted.

Oh, and my god, enough with the allergies already. The constant sinus pressure and not being able to stop rubbing my eyes is not helping with the exhaustion levels. I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm not developing allergies—I've had them for years. Every April-May. I'm just cluing in to the pattern this year though and realizing it for what it is. I don't know how Scoob does this year round—I have no patience, I'm constantly tired, I'm craving sugary food (because I'm constantly tired), and I'm pretty sure Day One will be here momentarily.

I saw my first blooming Matilija poppy on the drive to work yesterday, which is mom's special mother's day flower. Speaking of which, I'll be hitting the open road (or the gridlocked road) this holiday weekend to drive up to Oregon to visit mom and grandma for a few days. Scoob will be staying home with the kitties. I sure hope the change of scenery will help with the sinus pressure, but of course it seems like it's been just as damp and cool up there as it has been here so far this year. I still have my winter blankets on the bed and it's nearly June! I'm soooo ready for some heat.

So, while we were at dinner last night, we were talking about eating better and how we really try to scale back on the amount of meat that we eat. But Scoob ran out of ideas for what to make for his lunches ages ago and he eats a lot of pasta. A lot. I've tried to explain to him before that half a box of spaghetti noodles is not a single serving, but it never really sunk in. Until last night. We needed to stop and get him some more pasta and I was reading the label to him and and he picked up on the fact that a box has 8 servings in it. He just about flipped out when he started breaking that down and comparing it to what he actually eats at a single meal.

So anyhow, I've been hitting the recipe stacks trying to find things for him to make that are quick, simple, and more balanced. I made this soup for dinner tonight and he insisted that I blog the recipe so I won't ever lose it. I guess that means he liked it ☺

Tomato Florentine Soup

Cooking time: 25 minutes
Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil

½ a medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 14oz can diced tomatoes

½ cup mushrooms, sliced

1 can chicken broth

1 cup red wine

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. dried basil

pepper to taste

½ cup pasta shells

1 cup fresh spinach

Directions

1. In a saucepan, cook onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender. Stir in tomatoes, mushrooms, broth, wine, Worcestershire sauce, basil, and pepper and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 15 minutes , then add the pasta shells and cook according to directions.
2. Stir in the spinach and cook until bright green and wilted; about 2 minutes.

This was really tasty and I'm bummed I didn't make more so we could both have left overs for lunch tomorrow. It came out very stew-like, so you may want to add some water to thin it out if you're looking for a soup. Could probably make this with frozen spinach, but we had fresh in the house, and frankly, unless it's being really cooked, like a quiche, I'll always use fresh spinach.

Ear Worm

I've been playing hide-n-seek with a migraine for the past 3 days and I'm nearing my wits' end. I had the onset aura of a migraine within 10 minutes of arriving at work Thursday morning. Within minutes I was having trouble seeing, so there was no way I could drive home. I took one of my migraine pills and found an empty office to crawl into for an hour or so and thought I'd successfully beat back the migraine before the pain started.

I went back to my desk to try and at least accomplish something and found I was having a difficult time comprehending anything I was reading. Since my job is basically reading, that kinda sucked. Then a co-worker came by to talk about setting up one of our regular Drink Nights that 4 or 5 of us do every so often.

When she asked me if I could talk to Susan about drinks I said, "Sure, I can talk to Susan. Who's Susan?" My co-worker immediately knew something was wrong because Susan was my boss for 4 years and there's no way I wouldn't know who she was. But at that moment, I could not for the life of me figure out who Susan was.

Shortly after that the aura started coming back and I went home. Luckily, my current boss gets migraines too. Okay, that sounded wrong. It's not lucky that he gets migraines, but lucky that he's completely sympathetic about migraines. He and another editor and I all seem to get our migraines within days of each other. In fact, my boss went home with a headache about 30 minutes after I did.

Friday wasn't too bad. I was able to work and attend meetings (and remember peoples' names), but I was still a little spacey. Around 10 o'clock last night the aura started coming back so I went to bed. Today our neighbors called to see if we wanted to go to San Jose for the afternoon. As much as I would have liked to go, the pressure in my head is telling me that this migraine isn't quite done with me yet. It would really suck to be stuck outside in the sunshine if this finally decides go past the aura part and bring on the pain.

So I'm here at home telling you all about my brain (aren't you lucky?) and Scoob's out having fun. But I don't mind, it means I get some peace and quiet and can just relax. Though the pain pills would probably make me relax regardless.

On to something else.

One of my friends from elementary school posted this video parody to her facebook status and I can't get it out of my head. It's even funnier because her two little girls have been prancing around the house singing it!




Here's the original if you live under a rock you've never heard/seen it before:



Now, if you'll excuse, I gotta put some cream on it.


Whoa-oh-oooh Oh-oh-oh Oh Oh Oh Oh-oh-oh

(P.S.—I am not liking how videos look on this page design. Things may change around here yet again.)

Everyone, Say Hello…

…Grandma Wayward is on the internets and mom will be showing her how to find my blog. And now I'll need to go through all my old posts and make sure there's nothing inappropriate in there. That'll leave like, what, eight posts?

Maybe I should just do it like a Band-Aid and point out the most offensive and embarrassing things and get it over with. Really I don't think I have any offensive posts, but embarrassing I've got.

I think the barking spiders should be pretty high on the embarrassing scale. Oh, and how about my not-so-nice moment and making amends as a personal low. I still feel terrible about that. Apparently my parents each had a recessive guilt gene, because I've got it in spades. Oh, and this one for my stellar reading comprehension skills. Oh, and then there's my ever-so-brief foray in steamy adult writing. (Yes, that was a pun.)

More Lessons in My So Called Freelance Life

Oy. So I spent the weekend working on a freelance project and it hurt. I've learned a couple more lessons about freelancing.

• I need to establish a rule that if you don't get your job to me when you say you're going to, don't expect me to be able to turn it around on time.
• And, if you're late sending me your job and still expect me to turn it around by the agreed time, expect to pay a rush fee.

The gal I've been working with said she would send me her paper Friday night. So I made plans to set aside my Saturday to work on it, that way if we would have Sunday to do revisions. Friday night, no paper. Saturday morning, no paper. Saturday afternoon I got an email saying she would get me the paper that evening.

The paper finally showed up at 11:30 p.m. And of course it was incomplete. Again. Tell me, how am I supposed to check if your citations are correct when you don't provide me with your list of references? The references showed up at 1:30 a.m. on Monday. So knowing I really wouldn't be able to work on it during the week (because, hello? I have a day job!) I was up until 4:00 a.m. to get it done.

She also told me that her instructor had seriously docked her for her previous paper, which I had edited. See, she was still writing it while I was editing it and forgot to add what she'd written to what I'd edited, so her paper didn't have any sort of conclusion and she also forgot to include the references. Thankfully, she didn't try to blame it on me.

Anyhow, I got an email from her Monday night saying she was going in a different direction with her project and would send me the new version of the current paper later. Um, let's discuss what you already owe me before you ask me to do it over. Because it's not my fault you didn't completely think through the details and implementation of your curriculum project before you sent it to me to edit. And believe me, I've done some serious rewriting on this paper to make it coherent and I have some mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, it's completely acceptable to work extensively with an editor when you're submitting something for publication. That's why editors have jobs. And these papers are clearly intended for submission to nursing journals. On the other hand, the reason she's doing the paper in the first place is because she's required to as part of her grade. And that's where I'm beginning to have concerns.

It's one thing to have someone proof read a paper to help you spot spelling and grammar errors, it's quite another to have someone completely rewrite entire sections of your paper because you can't write with enough focus to take a reader through your subject. I discovered this was going to be an issue when I completely rewrote the first 4 pages into a 1½ page introduction. At that point I sent her what I had done—1) so I could make sure that in my rewriting I was choosing the correct things to focus on, and 2) to try and express my concern. Here's what I wrote to her

I don't know how much guidance your instructor has given regarding the use of an editor, but at some point, the more rewriting that is done, the more the paper becomes a collaboration rather than your independent work. I'm worried that your instructor will notice a significant difference in tone and style from the previous two papers when compared to current paper, and I don't want you to get into trouble.

To which she replied, "This looks great. This is exactly what I need." Yes, I know. Believe me, I wouldn't spend my weekend sitting around rewriting an academic journal paper if it didn't need it. So, if her instructor comes back and accuses her of plagiarism or fraud, at least I warned her that there might be a problem.

But I have to tell you, I seriously hope I don't get sick and need a nurse any time soon. I know plenty of good nurses out there, and I'm sure she'll make a fine nurse. But based on my experience with with her the last few weeks, let's just say this is not the person I want making sure I'm being given correct dosages at correct times. Then again, maybe I'm just cranky from lack of sleep.

Budding Opportunities

So, at the beginning of April, a gal I graduated college with posted to her Facebook status that she desperately needed an editor and she was willing to pay. This gal and I haven’t remained close by any means, but we shared the same major and a lot of the same classes, and we co-chaired the annual pow wow together.

I didn’t comment on her status right away and she was getting a lot of responses from friends willing to read over her paper, but I kept coming back to it. She’s currently a nursing grad student and since I see her posts on Facebook I knew she needed the editor for an academic paper she’s been working on. And because we had several classes together in college, I already know what some of her challenges are when it comes to writing.

Scoob and I talked about it and even though I was willing to help her out for nothing because she’s a friend, Scoob convinced me that editing is a valuable skill and something I’m trained to do and I should charge for my services. Not to mention that I’d be giving up my free time to do it.

So I commented on my friend’s status reminding her that I work as a book and web editor, and from there things just sort of took off. She sent me her chapter at the end of April and is getting ready to send me the next chapter of her paper. She also liked what I did with her first chapter and has referred me to a few of her classmates.

I recently finished my first referral job, chapter 3 of a paper, and that person now wants to send me her chapters 1 and 2 to re-edit because the editor she hired wasn’t as thorough, I guess.

I few things I’ve learned so far:

* Academic editing goes much more slowly than book editing.
* Academic editing is typically more expensive than book editing.
* Different levels of editing should be billed at different rates.
* I need to build time for administrative, correspondence, and revisions into my rates.
* I need to charge more to make it worth my time.
* The definition of contraindication.
* American Psychological Association (APA) style is not so very different from the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), which I use at work
* The latest edition of the APA style guide is woefully flawed and the publisher and editors should be forever shamed that they allowed such an inferior piece of work to make it to publication. It’s a sad, sad thing when the style manual that so many professionals and students depend on is riddled with style errors, as well as, basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Anyhow, I’m trying not to get too excited about all this. It’s not like I’m looking to quit my job because I still enjoy what I do. But this has given me a boost in confidence that I really can do what I supposedly do, as odd as that may sound.

What I mean is, at work, I don’t usually start my editing until after a book has completed the print process, and at that point there’s really very little of what would traditionally be called editing left to do. As a result I don’t think my fellow editors at work see me as an editor; to them I’m a strange editor/marketing/web hybrid.

But I am working on several books in addition to my web duties this season—7 or 8 actually. And I’m doing a lot of developmental work with these books beginning at the outline stage. It’s interesting being on the other side of things for a change, but it’s also intimidating since I’ve never done this before. Not on this scale. My boss is very supportive and is providing lots of guidance. But doing this work on the side is also giving me some confidence.

Anyhow, back to this freelancing thing. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a good thing to keep doing. Not only is it going to bring in extra revenue, adding a proficiency in academic editing to my resume will definitely make me more marketable should I ever need to look for work.

After all, every city Scoob and I have considered moving to so far is a college town, which means there will be a demand for this specific skill wherever we end up moving to, and if I cut my teeth and get my references in place now, all the better. I just need to make sure I know when to say no to new jobs and not allow freelancing to suck up all my free time. I don’t know that I’ll ever want to live the freelance lifestyle as my primary source of income, but it’s nice to know that I could if I needed to.

Oh, but guess what the very best part of working on my friend’s paper was? The topic of her paper involves teaching contraception to Native teens in a culturally appropriate way and I was actually able to put my Native American Studies degree to work! Although, by the time I’m finished with both their papers, I’ll know more about teaching about contraception and breastfeeding (the topic of the other paper) than I ever thought possible.

Geeky Escapades

I know I’ve blogged about my day job on the website at work before but I haven’t really gotten into it here. Our website is driven by an open source (read as free) content management system called drupal. The developers we’ve hired for the site do all the heavy lifting; researching what tools are available, adjusting and writing and testing code for those tools so that they do what we need them to on our site. In the end the developers deliver us a graphic interface, like a fill-in-the-blanks form, that allows us to use those tools.

Usually.

There are a couple of tools absolutely necessary to maintaining and adding to our website that the developers have never built out a graphic interface for and we have no idea how to use them for ourselves. So every time we need to load new content to the website or otherwise use those tools, we end up paying the developers $100/hour to do it for us. It’s been 2 years since we started working with them, and we thoroughly expected to have these tools turned over to us by April 2009. Needless to say, they’re beyond late in delivering the final product.

What I’m really trying to get at is that we know enough to be able to use tools built with drupal, but we don’t know how to build with drupal.

Anyhow, at the beginning of this year I noticed a drupal-specific event coming up on the calendar for April in San Francisco and made sure to pass the information along to my boss saying that it would be interesting to attend the conference if only to make contacts with other area developers so we can at least see what our options are.

The company ended up sending me and another gal to DrupalCon San Francisco in April to get our geek on. Which reminds me, I still need to submit my expense sheet for reimbursement.

A few things that really struck me about the conference:

• we were one of the few drupal clients attending while the majority of the 3,000+ people were actually developers and it was interesting to observe the drupaler species in the wild, in their natural habitat
  
• this was really an international event and the Eyjafjallajokull eruption really effed some things up for a lot of people—another 6,000 people were attending various DrupalCon sessions via live feeds because they couldn’t get to the conference
• it’s awesome to be a woman at one of these things. It’s one of the few times you’ll find no lines at the ladies’ room for an event this size! (It was doubly cool that the guys had to queue up for a change!)
  

Another thing I realized was that I knew enough about drupal to be able to follow along for many of the sessions I chose to attend and I could actually have intelligible conversations with other people. One of the sessions, PHP for Non-Programmers, actually had me writing some basic Boolean, integer, string, and array variables with functions and conditional statements in PHP code by the time I left the 50 minute session.

I know! I don’t understand it either, but I did for that brief moment during the session.

When I came home and told Scoob what I’d been doing that day, he went to the kitchen and made me my very own tin foil geek crown and said, “Now you know what I do.” Except he works with the Java script language instead of PHP.

I’ve always known I lean to the geek side, but I never thought I stood squarely in the Geekdom. That either means I’m geekier than I realize, or drupal really is as user-friendly as it’s touted to be. Maybe a bit of both.

Another thing I realized, and this is probably a life lesson not just a drupal lesson—it’s okay to eff up. It’s okay to write a screwy piece of code that breaks a widget or web page layout. It’s okay to forget to install a module that you’re going to need. Mistakes can be fixed. Yes it’s time consuming, but it’s a learning process, and the more you do it the better you’ll get at it.

With all the little sayings and axioms we hear about mistakes (making mistakes is what makes us human) and practice (practice makes perfect), you think I would have had this aha moment long before now. But maybe it’s something we need to relearn periodically. So, for anyone else wanting to relearn, here are some quotes for thought about mistakes and practice.

So anyhow, I’m toying with setting up a basic drupal-based blog website and migrating this blog over there. But then you get into server configurations and a whole bunch of other techie stuff that I’m not sure I have the time to get into and learn about right now. But it’s an idea I’m toying with.