Editing Hell

Argh. I'm stuck in editing hell... I've had this book on my to-do list for waaaayyyyy too long. It's late. Very, very late. And I just can't get through it. It's soooooo s-l-o-o-o-o-w. All tell-ing and full of extraneous information.

I don't want to trash my authors or anything, but dayum... this book is killing me.

So, I'm trying not to let myself play (blog, surf, read, watch tv) until I get this thing finished. I'm not even halfway done. *sigh*

In the meantime, go check out my renter, Izzy over at Moonshine. She's another great read. Just don't forget to come back *grin*

And if you want a good laugh, google March 20th. Mr. Pink is so darn excited he's got the date circled on the calendar... *grin*

Eddie Cibrian Eddie Cibrian Eddie Cibrian

Heh. Ok. I know I'm a geek. And after this, you'll all really know how much of a geek I am. Yes, I still watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch. :) hey, it's in syndication and it's on all the time... what can I say? :)

Last night's episode gave us the passion spell. Say something three times and it might come true. Sabrina's wish? Eddie Cibrian:



Ooooh. Good choice :)

Too bad this doesn't really work...
A million dollars A million dollars A million dollars.

Dammit.

Pink goes on yet another rant.

Ok... Taylor Hicks, the voice is ok, but the jerky "I'm trying to be Joe Cocker" movements is really getting on my nerves. And quite frankly, he's no Billy Klippert (who I've met! squeee!) If I had any idea how to link mp3 files on this thing, I'd give you BK's Leavon, but I don't, so you'll have to find it your own darn self. *grin* (hint, check his music page :) )

So, I've been taking an HTML programming class at the local college... First, I'm totally loving it, so don't be surprised if you see all sorts of wierd-ass shizznit going down in here :)

Now, that being said, I have a huge issue with the way the class is being taught. First, I'm a kinetic learner. (For those going huh wha?, studies have shown that people learn in one or more of three different ways - auditory (by hearing), visual (by seeing) and kinetic (by doing). Personally, kinetic is best, but I can also learn visually... but auditory, I'm completely lost.) Second, this class *should* be run with the assumption that students have a basic understanding of HTML and the Internet, and at the very least, computers. Case in point: if you don't know how to find a file on the J:drive? you shouldn't be in there.

Only this time 'round the powers that be got rid of the prerequisite and shortened the class from 14 weeks to 10. We just (about an hour ago :) )finished week 5 and we're at least two weeks behind. The reason? The instructor a)is self-taught and is teaching her bad habits; and b)spends half to three-quarters of the class babying half to three-quarters of the class. So tonight, we had it out with TPTB. There's no adding extra weeks to the end of the class, there's no taking work out. We have a set curriculum, and we're going to follow it.

Only, not ten minutes after instructor stands up and says, ok, we're just gonna run through the work, I'm gonna lecture you and you'll have to do it on your own, she spent the next two hours hand-holding the people who aren't getting it. Five weeks in, do we really need to be told *again* to copy and paste code rather than rekeying it six times?

Worse, we were learning image mapping. Pink poses the question, ok, so how does one calculate the coordinates of your image, without the textbook giving us the answers?
Instructor: you don't. Go on the Internet and download an image mapper. Ummm... I'm pretty sure that's not the answer. Pink: So maybe one would take the image and blow it up to like 1600% and count the pixels? Or is that a really long way of doing it?(it's the only one that makes sense to me...)Instructor: I don't know, real web designers don't have time to do it manually, they download a program to do it for them. Fine, that's what they do in the real world, but I'm paying to learn to program myself. You need to know the rules before you can break them. (Also, to the idiot who said the number of pixels in the image would vary depending on your program. um. no. If your image is 300 dpi, it's 300 dpi, whether you're in paint, photoshop or word. duh.)

So, lots of handholding, lesson didn't get finished and Pink is pissed off. I should have saved myself the money and just bought the book and taught myself. I'm pretty much doing that anyway. What makes me really mad is the real beginners dropped out. So we only have three or four stragglers. So tell me why 8-10 people have to sit around staring at the walls while she coddles the stragglers? Especially when we're this far behind... I've started to work ahead, but I get to a point where the stuff I need to know is in her head and not on the powerpoint. Argh.

So here's the thing...

First, thanks to everyone who commented on my troubles with Mr. Pink, especially for the offers of the bat *grin* (And, *I'm* the one who decided that I had issues with the status quo, so I'd rather not take you up on that, hee.) After many long talks and tears, we've decided to try and work on things, neither of us quite ready to give up on four-and-a-half years of coupledom. So, we'll see.

Second, the internet company that I'm thinking of starting. I've had some very interesting conversations with some very encouraging and helpful people about my plans (all still very much in theory right now...) And it's going to be slow going as I make sure everything is in place and such, but I think I'm definitely moving forward on it. For the curious, the company is actually an e-publisher (The Pink Pen Papers... heh :) ). Yeah, definitely bigger than selling a few things from my website *grin* So, you can see why a lot of planning. But I'm pretty darn excited about it... I'll keep you posted.

Which leads me to my third thing. I'm a little cautious about revealing the real me on the Internet. Y'all know me as Pink here, and I'm happy with that. But, as I'm building up my freelance editing/writing company (which I am doing) I'd kinda like to link y'all to the website I'm building, and vice versa (y'know, try to build a little business :) ) But of course, there's my real name, phone number, etc. sitting there. Kinda weird. And, I get a little, um, swear-y here :) And I ogle half-nekkid men (tho, not for a while now. Will definitely be remedying that this week *grin*) And I bitch about my jobs. None of which is exactly the kind of thing you want potential employers to read. So here are my options as I see it:
1. Create a new blog under my real name and maintain two blogs (yeah, right)
2. Keep PinkPen and all blogging out of my real life writing/editing
3. Edit the heck out of this place and really rein myself in in future posts (no fun)
4. Just let it all hang out.

Not sure I like any of those.... so I have some thinking to do.

On a writing note, i've been so busy editing other people's stuff (and how much am I enjoying the author I'm working with right now...) that I haven't really had time to work on my own writing, which is bugging me on an almost constant basis right now. Yeah, Chase, Leah, seriously can't wait to get it on, darn them. I'm targetting their story as a Torrid Teaser, with a sequel to follow up... (It Happened One Night and It Happened the Next Night. Yeah, I suck at titles. :) ) It's actually a story that first sparked back in University... so I've been fermenting it for a reeeeaaaaalllly long time :) ) I've really got to add writing time into my already busy schedule, because they're driving me nuts...

So. [exhale] here goes.

More Decisions

As you can probably see, I chose the Rock Bitch, to hang out with me this week. It was going to come down to eeny meeny, but something RB said struck a chord and there we have it. So go click on her link and tell her I say hi.

For those of you who just happened to wander over here and have absolutely no idea what the heck I'm talking about, renting out space on your blog is a perk of Blog Explosion, to drive traffic to your blog. You earn credits and then spend them renting out space on someone else's blog, then hopefully all their traffic pays you a visit too.

In fact, I'm hanging out at two cool blogs this week, both of whom happen to be on my blogroll - The Daily Bitch and Whatchu Tawkin' Bout, so I'm pretty darn excited about that. Feel free to head on over and pay us all a visit :)

On another note, and sort of crappy timing considering I'm trying to bring people here... Someone once told me that you can have a great relationship, a great apartment and a great job, but you'll never have all three at the same time. Needless to say, now that the drama is over, I'm enjoying my job, and as the clutter leaves my home, I'm liking it much more too.... so you can pretty much guess what that means. I swore I'd never have one of those kind of blogs, so if you'll excuse me for a while, I'm probably going to have sporadic posting while I deal with the ramifications.

Decisions, decisions

So, I'm running a campaign to rent my blog right now, and there are eleven bids. The problem is, I find most of them really interesting. So much so, I can't decide who to pick!

So please go and visit her
And her
And her, mostly cuz she thinks chocolate should be a vegetable (it totally should!)
And her
And her, a fellow Canuck
And her
And her
Aaaaaaaaand him

Still not sure who I'm picking tho, but go read them all anyway :)

Deep in thought

So, I've become rather obsessed with this one thought over the past few weeks, and I haven't really shared it with anyone.

I'm thinking of starting a company. An internet company. More than that I'm not ready to say just yet. But I wrote a business plan in college for it, had it looked over by an accountant, and I think I did pretty well. Of course, I'm not entirely sure where that business plan went, but still.

So, where do I start? I have the idea, the name, the plan, even the tagline (look up, waaaaaaayyyy up *Grin*). I have a mission statement. I know what I want to sell. I'm pretty sure I have the talent to make a darn good product.
What I don't know... how does one start a business? Do I just set up a website and start selling? I don't know a lot about e-commerce. I mean, it looks like I just say, ok. here's my product. Buy it. You can pay me by paypal or credit card. Right? But there's probably a lot of background stuff that I don't know.

So here's my question. If you run a business on the internet, how did you start? What references did you use before you started? Any tips you can give me? Or did you just hang a shingle and say, here I am?

I've been tagged!

I was the geek girl that everyone picked on in junior high. It's ok. I admit it now. :) And, I'll confess, there's still a bit of that thirteen-year-old girl hiding in my heart, wanting to be part of the cool crowd. To be cool enough that I'd get tagged on someone else's blog.

And now I have. I feel so loved. :) Rachel has tagged me to list my 8 perfect partner requirements. Granted, I'm not single, and if I could, I'd make Mr. Pink not be sick, and he'd actually quit smoking, instead of promising that he will soon. Heh, I wonder what would have happened if I'd actually listened to my "I don't date smokers" rule, when Mr. Pink first asked me out. We still laugh about that... He asked me to give him a shot, I thought, what the hell. I'm never gonna see him again after that first date. And now here we are, four and a half years later... *grin*

But, I digress:

Pink's Perfect Partner

1. He can make me laugh, and he'll laugh at my bad jokes.
2. He's honesty and trustworthy.
3. He gets me.
4. We can sit and talk for hours about absolutely nothing and have a great time doing it.
5. He finds me attractive, even when I look like crap.
6. I can be completely comfortable around him, without having to worry about whether I'm saying or doing the wrong thing.
7. He's loyal.
8. He says what he means and means what he says.

And a cute butt wouldn't hurt. *Grin*

And I must say, it's a darn sight better than my requirements from before I met Mr. Pink... "He has to be breathing." heehee.

And Pink emerges...

Seven. Hundred. Pages. of how to install telephone equipment. Yikes.
So, I've been a little buried.

I also started a Clean Sweep of my office. I'd post before and after pictures, but I'm actually too embarassed by the before. *Grin* And, since I'm moving my office into another room, I now have to Clean Sweep that room, too. There's seven bags of clothes headed to the goodwill, six bags of recycling (mostly shredded bills and pay stubs... from 1995!), five bags of garbage, four empty boxes, three broken computers, two ripped up carpets and a very stressed Pink. heeehee.

Oh, yes, you did read that right. Two ripped up carpets. I left the room for five minutes and my mom pulled up the carpet. No, I can't afford to lay down new flooring. No, there isn't nice shiny hardwood floors under there. It's plywood. Unsanded, dirty, water-stained plywood floors. Woo-fricken-hoo. Anyone know where I can get 1000 square feet of laminate that fell off a truck? *grin*

But, I'm back, and I promise to post more soon... :)