Rules Which Make NO Sense

How do you indicate more than one halo? Is it "halos" or "haloes"?

Turns out, it's BOTH. Talk about a stupid rule. How do I know which my editor wants? I don't want to pester her with silly questions, but I don't want to use a version she will consider incorrect, either.

This is definitely one of those rules that makes non-Wordgeek types hate grammar--and even some of us wordgeeks, too.

My Office Exploded

Maybe not literally, but it sure feels like it!

My husband added some new equipment in his office, which also housed my printer, and we found out yesterday that wasn't going to work. I went to print something about 6pm yesterday and blew the breaker for that entire side of the house (NOT the side my office is on, incidentally).

"Come and get yer *%@&* printer, honey!"

I did. And the stand it was on. Which also held a TV and video games, etc. Essentially I've been moving plugs, shelves, furniture, electronics, books, and filing cabinets ever since. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and my carpet, yay!) but, well, if I was supposed to get back to you today about something, I hope you'll give me until this evening or tomorrow morning.

Thanks!

Frustration...

Ever have one of ~those~ days?


I am--after a couple of years of not knowing for sure if this is what I wanted to do or not, okay with it--a content and ghostwriter for small businesses & solo operators. I do web content, I do newsletters, I ghostwrite articles, I edit them pre-pub, stuff like that.

I do not know a SINGLE person who does what I do. Not one. The freelance editors group refers me to the copywriters, the copywriters laugh and tell me I probably undercharge, the writers who are also moms are all perplexed because I do not write (a) articles (b) book-length nonfiction or (c) fiction and don't seem to know what to do with me.

I had a simple question about structuring a proposal. I spent a day and a half finding the answer, checked, oh, 7+ Internet groups and websites (Writer's Digest, man, I subscribe and all, but you people are useless for my bread & butter!) and a dozen books before I finally found something close to what I was looking for.

IN the first book I checked yesterday. I was calling the form the wrong thing or I'd have found it Friday morning.

So, now I have work to do. All this fruitless searching has left me feeling like the kid still standing against the wall when kickball teams are chosen--I don't seem to belong anywhere.

Abnegation

I've had this word stuck in my head all day, so I just thought I'd share.

A B N E G A T I O N - denial, particularly self-denial, from the Latin abnegare to refute

Fully Loaded

Okay, okay, so I don't work in hospitality anymore, but I still get the newsletters and keep an eye on the biz.

There's a piece in yesterday's USA Today about the new mini-bars that just tickles me pink. I say good for them! Hotels' in-room revenue has dropped sharply with the proliferation of cel phones and high-speed web access (killing long distance and reducing pay-per-view sales).

I just assume that the hotel offering the "Get it On" minibar package (you're gonna have to go read the article now, aren't you, with a teaser like that?) must have hella good loss protection in place, cuz that stuff will disappear like hotcakes if they don't!

Homework

I forgot how much *work* homework and classes can be.

I'm taking an SEO and website marketing class (technically two classes they require you to take concurrently) to learn a little bit more about the non-content aspects of SEO for my site. I'm hoping to learn a little more about design/marketing, too, since while I love the site Kimmer did for me, it's starting to feel like time to change things up. Plus I do all my own updates and the tables are driving me NUTS!

This is work. Seriously, like WORK. Since it's all about learning to market myself, this qualifies as marketing time, right?

Patience is a Virtue

That means I'm asking my blog visitors to be virtuous for a little while.

I just moved the Ink Think blog from Blogger to my website and I'm still trying to work out the kinks in the process, so please be patient, and try not to laugh :-)

Reason Without Rhyme

I took this lovely quiz to determine my accent and it told me I don't have one:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The South
The Inland North
The West
The Northeast
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I'm thinking maybe that's why I have such a hard time with poetry, too much of what I say doesn't rhyme and we think/write the sounds we hear when we speak.

What's scary about this is that I am actually a native Texan, born here, lived here for the last 24 consecutive years, and still no accent, but, if my husband takes me to visit his family in Alabama it takes me two weeks of being at home to ditch the accent I pick up while I'm there!

Thanks to Dick Margulis of words/myths/ ampers & virgule for the link to this little quiz.