Picking Up Anotther Beta

As I stated earlier this week, although to many people Betas are beautiful fish, for me betas are people who I help authors with their writing.  I picked up a new girl yesterday.  It will require time that I really don't have, but I see a lot of potential in her writing and she really needs the additional help.  Again, she is a writer for whom English is a second language.  This time she is Brazilian, not German, but the basic issues are the same.  I really enjoy helping these authors fine-tune their work.  The imagination and visions are all theirs, all that I do is polish the flow, correct the word order and occasional incorrect words, and check the spelling.  After work with their pre-beta they send the story along to me for a look-over and correction phase.  Then, after one more back and forth look, they can post their story.  I don't like to do this without them having a pre-beta working for them also - changes are just too major otherwise and it's too time consuming, too much work.  But when the authors have a pre-beta I can commit.  She is asking me if I would be willing to do her next story that has 20 chapters.  I'll finish this little 3-chapter story first and we'll see if we can work well together.  If so, I might just agree, although I am crazy to want to fit anything else into my crazy schedule. 

I love these beautiful Halloween witches.
Happy Halloween

Tomorrow is Samhain, a day of celebration and renewal, thanks and gratitude, and prayers.  It is a day when the borders between the living and the dead weaken and communication between the realms happens with greater ease.  It is a day for reflection about the value of life and those who have passed ahead of us.  It is a day to spend with friends and family, enjoying what we have and thinking about the future as well as the past.  I will think about my parents, two wonderful people whose presence I miss in my life.  But I will look ahead into my own future also - it is a bit clouded and very uncertain at this point.  I am grateful for this last Sunday off for several weeks, though, and plan to enjoy the day even if I will probably spend most of it raking leaves. 

Project Runway Finale

My DH is NOT a happy man.  For weeks we have been watching "Project Runway" every week.  The show is a reality TV show of fashion designers.  The final three were Andy from Hawaii, Gretchen from Portland, Oregon, and Mondo from my old home of Denver, Colorado.  Both my DH and I really wanted Mondo to win - he has a fantastic sense of style and put together a very strong collection.  Andy was a bit unicolor, although the textures of his fabrics were wonderful, and Gretchen was the one person that my DH has disliked since Week 2 and really didn't want to win.  But she put together a really nice collection (if you ignore all of the high-cut shorts - WAY too many of those).  I knew that she was putting a strong collection out there for the final because I looked at her collection on-line last week.  I was really pulling for Mondo - I love the playfulness in his styling.  But Gretchen won the show this season. 

This flowing dress with a leather overvest was
adorable.  I would buy something like this. 
Congratulations to Gretchen. 

My DH ranted and raved and bitched and moaned.  It will take him weeks to get over this (he tends to hold onto things like grudges, etc for a very long time).  I'm over it already because I know that Mondo will still do wonderful things in fashion, whether or not he actually won the full competition.  I think DH is only upset because he disliked Gretchen so very much, but I think she deserves my congratulations.  Why not?  Although there were plenty of things she designed that I didn't like, she managed to pull it off.  But it was a bitterly contested win with a 2-2 split jury who argued for a long time before finally managing to choose her, so it was a VERY tight fight, and I also would have preferred Mondo. 

Telephones and Emails

I hate telephones.  Im my working life I have spent WAY too much time on telephones, and I have learned over the years how very easy it is to misunderstand someone while just talking with them over electronic equipment.  I find that I prefer the use of Email; at least then things are in writing and any misunderstandings can be pinned down and explained with greater ease.  But, in spite of the fact that I dislike telephones, I still have to operate with them.  And one of the things that I will have to do is telephone this Israeli lawyer who is handling a case for my cousins and me, a case that I didn't even know about six months ago. 

Telephones make a great toy, but I don't like them very much. 

My adoptive parents were refugees from WWII in Europe, my father from Prague, Czechoslovakia, my mother from Vienna, Austria.  Most of my other relatives of their generation didn't survive the war.  My father had three siblings - two full siblings, a brother and a sister, and one half-brother.  His older brother, Willy, did not survive the war and, as I recall the few times my father mentioned him, he had been shot by the Germans at some point.  Apparently he owned some property that is now pending sale, but all heirs had to be notified about this and I am an heir.  Surprise.  Not a whole lot of good came out of WWII for my family - although several people survived, more people died in a variety of nasty methods and some infamous locations.  (Perhaps this is one more reason why I am Pagan...or maybe not.)  This may finally be a good thing, but in order to make sure that I have actually been added to the action, I will need to telephone the lawyer.  I Emailed a week or so ago, but haven't heard a confirmation back, so I have to grit my teeth and phone a lawyer at a VERY early hour of my morning to catch the time difference, just to make sure that I have been added to this action.    I'll do it because I have to, but I'm not going to like it.  And I may still push it back into next week and just try one more Email first.  Have I mentioned that I hate telephones? 

Hitting The Ground Running

Today is my day off.  It is a day that I usually devote to my art, but today and next Wednesday are going to be devoted to Chickie's party preparations.  Since I'm doing a funeral for her birthday (the death of her youth - she's turning 40), I need to sew her shroud today, also get her remembrance cards formatted and printed and get her storyboard assembled.  Her Mom gave me some wonderful pictures of her growing up and I'll download some photos that I have taken of her through the years I've known her and I'll have a nice collection of pictures for her friends to look at.  I also need to finalize my seating chart (actually two seating charts).  The placeholders that I have will allow me to have two different inserts, so that if my DH decides he will attend, I can work with seating chart #2, and if not, I can work with seating chart #1.  I also need to tell the restaurant that we are 13/14 instead of 12/13 for our numbers.  It's too bad that I don't have two more people; we'd be a full surround then and would not possibly have to share our table with another couple. 

I'll be running in place today, but I'll get a lot done.

I am looking forward to the party, but I still have a lot of work to do to make it click.  She hasn't had a real birthday party since she was a child, and has had to organize her own get-togethers for her birthday for years.  This party is one part of my gift to her since I know she really wanted to have a party done for her.  Her friends have come together in fine style and we'll have a great time.  The restaurant manager keeps sending me very strange looks when I tell him that it's a funeral and we need to have a great party, though - LOL.  Too much to do....too much to do....

Running in Place

I generally rather like Comcast (my cable TV and cable internet supplier).  But today was MORE than frustrating.  I awoke at my usual time (3:30 am - OK, I know I'm crazy, whatever...) and went down to my computer.  I noticed that it had not performed it's daily backup which I have scheduled for 3:00 am.  After checking to see that my settings were correct, I checked my network connection.  That's where the problem was.  After resetting the router a couple of times, I still wasn't connecting to the internet, so it was time to call Comcast.  Apparently there was an "emergency maintenance issue" that came up and the entire Twin Cities area was out of the loop for the time being.  They said that they hoped it would be fixed by 4:00 am (it was already slightly almost 4:00 am when I called them), but it would be up by 5:00 am if not earlier.  I decided to allow myself to sleep for another 30 minutes, so went up to crash on the couch.  After 30 minutes, I got up again, checked the internet again, and still nothing.  Back to the couch for another 30 minutes.  Got up, checked again - still no internet.  By now it was a little after 5:00 am.  I took my shower, thinking that maybe after that it would be functional.  No - no internet.  So I telephoned them again, and got a confirmation that the problem was still going on, still affecting everyone, and that it shouldn't be too much longer. 

I'm dancing a happy dance.

The next thing I decided to do was file paperwork and begin paying the bills that I need to pay today.  But, after filing my bills, I glanced over at my computer and noticed that my network signal seemed to be green instead of red.  So, I checked it out, and amazingly enough, my internet is back.  I'm 2-1/2 hours behind schedule and I probably won't actually catch up until Thursday, but at least I have my internet again.  I'm dancing a happy dance. 

Reviews and Betas

No, not Betas as in the fish, betas as in having a story reviewed and edited by an outside person before putting the story onto a public reading board.  I act as a beta for one author regularly as well as with a group of people who, thankfully, have even better eyes than I do and catch more quibbles than I.  The group manages to fine-tune stories beautifully and there are several members who have taught me a lot about how picky I can legitimately get in a run-through.  I'm always afraid of hurting the feelings of the author, but I can catch most spelling errors very easily and grammatical errors quite often, so I guess I hold my own with my fellow Lizards.  My hats off to them and other beta readers, though.  Because when a story is not beta-read, it can bring a good story down.  I read and reviewed at least one story last night where I did mention that they should have had their story beta-read before posting it.  The story was excellent, but the spelling and grammar errors most certainly pulled away from the tale as I was reading it. 

This is a beta fish.  This is not indicative of
the work that a beta reader will do for an author.

I have been reading and reviewing for my participation in the MEFA (Middle Earth Fanfiction Awards).  This requires me to read stories (no problem there) and review them.  The best reviews need a review of at least 1000 words.  That's really hard for me.  I tend to be quite concise in my day-to-day reviews, and expanding them to reach the word minimum is very difficult.  But I am trudging through.  I feel that I owe it to the authors who so enrich my life by writing down their visions for others to share.  At least tonight is reserved for my beta work, so I won't have to find the words for my reviews.  I just wish that the words came easier, I'll continue trying to read and review to my best ability for as long as I can, though.  It is fun to read (and in some cases to re-read) some stories again. 

The Weekend Looms

It will be rainy this weekend, so I can work on cleaning the inside of the house instead of exterior work.  That will be a bit of a change.  We haven't had a weekend of rain for more than two months, although we have had a single rainy weekend day within that time span.  I don't think we have anything on our "must do" agenda for Sunday, so I can allow myself to sleep at least until 9:00am (a true luxury for someone who is usually awake at 3:30am-4:00am).  I'm already looking forward to it. 

I am looking forward to getting some sleep.  I really need it.

I wanted to do the exterior signage at the shop yesterday.  It only took one letter to realize that I need one more item to do the lettering successfully.  So I need to order what is called "transfer sheet" for my vinyl.  That will allow me to get exact placement of my vinyl without the letters folding or buckling while I am applying them.  I think it will look great when I am finished, but I am at a stall point until I get the transfer sheet material.  So I have to hope that we will have one more sunny and warm day so that I can get the signage placed on the windows.  If not, the lettering may have to wait until spring before it can be applied. 

Spending some time sketching would be a
wonderful thing to spend some time on tomorrow. 

But to return to my weekend plans, I suspect we'll play some of Lord of the Rings Online on Sunday, and maybe I can talk my DH into spending some time with a sketch pad.  We're both very broke right now, so we won't be going out anywhere.  And I have plenty of work to do for the shop on the computer, so I suspect I will be busy no matter what.  But it would sure be nice to be able to play with my art for a little bit.  Have a creative weekend at the art of your choice (and yes, for my author friends, that does include the art of writing).