When Good Feedback Goes Awry

This week, work has been a little wonky.

For the most part, since Tuesday, I've been working on doing an unsolicited edit on a manuscript which was sent in by one of our freelancers with a note that it had no errors needing to be fixed.

Since you've seen a number of the gems that have come in via the manuscripts I work with, you can only imagine that "no errors" kind of threw up some red flags for us in the editing office. But it was a second-round edit, so we figured it was possible.

Then we opened it. And there were obvious errors on the first page. In fact, by the time I was done today (luckily, it was a short manuscript), there were an average of 8 errors per page.

Now, that's not a lot. Especially when I went back and looked at the first round of editing, where there were an average of 40 errors per page. But some of the errors were just *so* obvious. There were errors where the editor had changed some wording in the first round, but had left in some of the erroneous piece. There were errors in spelling (family's was spelled families). And... well... there were some just plain "oopses."

But we've had a lot of great work from the editor, so we went for the benefit of the doubt, and put together an email to point out what was wrong, what should have been fixed, and things to look for in the next edit. After all, from what we could tell, this was obviously a good editor who had had a bad day.

About half an hour after that email was sent, though, we got a "thanks, but I'm done" email in response. It was accompanied by a claim of "I didn't know that was required..." (umm... yes... we require our editors to fix egregious spelling and grammar errors - it just seems better that way).

It's funny, sometimes, how well-intentioned emails can result in very odd... umm... results. It would be funnier if it didn't mean that her workload was landing on my desk this week.

Barefoot at the...

...Cinema?

When did it become a thing to take your shoes off wherever you go? I mean... aside from taking off my shoes to go through security at the airport, I seldom feel like taking off my shoes in public.

I work with people who take off their shoes in the office. And while I know that the floors are pretty clean there, I just don't really want to take my chances to find out what someone dropped on the floor while bringing their lunch back from wherever.

And I have a LOT less faith in the cleanliness of the floors at a movie theater. Even in the "VIP" section of the reserved seat theater in the area. Sure, it's not the sticky-floored situation that you get in a theater with linoleum floors, but I'm not about to put my stocking feet on the carpets.

Yet, tonight before the movie, I got up to use the restroom and there were two people - one man in canvas loafers, one woman in sandals, not together - who had taken off their shoes. Which means that they were both barefoot on the theater floor.

At the end of the movie, the guy sitting next to me took the time to put his shoes - ankle-high lace-up boots - on before leaving.

So that makes three people in the same area who had all taken off their shoes. In the movie theater.

And, no, they weren't making noise or texting or anything else, so they really didn't bother me. But knowing that they were mostly barefoot did creep me out just a tad.

Bad Quote Quotient - A Light Snack

The book I'm currently working on has had a few near-misses in it. But nothing in the first 490 pages really was silly enough to call out.

Okay, so there was the issue with people throwing a "shovel full of dirt" into a grave. (Why throw in the whole shovel? Why not just throw in the shovelful of dirt?) But that, as good as it was, was overshadowed by this gem:

[The central court’s] gray austerity was softened by floor lamps that had been brought in for the occasion. They stood in small groups, drinking champagne and eating hors d’oeuvres, some of them feigning worry about the over-indulgences of the holiday season.

I walked it around the office after printing it out to post on my wall of bad quotes. After people squinted at it and did the "confused dog" head-tilt, they all started to laugh.

In my mind, I'm seeing shaded floorlamps wearing pearls, chatting with torchieres wearing bowties. How about you?

Cheers.

When Expectations Meet Reality

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but there is a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant near where we live that Christopher and I kind of use as a fall-back place to eat. It's probably what would be called "quick service" dining, where you walk in and place your order at a counter, pay, and then they bring the food out to you.

But instead of it being a burger joint or fast food, it's a steak house. In fact, it's "Best Steak House" on Nicollet Avenue, just south of 54th Street in Minneapolis.

The first time we went there was a few years back. We had a coupon for something like two steak dinners for $15 or something like that, and so we decided to try them out. We learned pretty quickly that when you walk in, you have to make a fast decision, because depending on what you order you may need to get your salad right away - as in less than 6 feet in from the door.

The place has a bit of a Greek leaning, so you can get gyros and Greek-spiced chicken (and baklava), but it mainly focuses on steaks. And they may not be the greatest steaks in the world, but they're also not the most expensive steaks in the world.

Monday night, Christopher and I ate for about $23. He had the 12oz Sirloin special (which comes with a salad and choice of baked potato or fries), and I had the Gyros platter (with fries), and we each had a soda. And it was $23. For all of that.

Sure, the decor is a little lacking, but on Monday we had the choice of watching the pre-game show for Monday Night Football or a Telenovela - depending which way we faced. And there was no line, we didn't need reservations, and the staff were actually friendly.

The first time we went, I think that our expectations of a place called "Best Steak House" were pretty high. But these days when we go we know what to expect and... really... it may just be the best steakhouse in our neighborhood.

(Just don't ask me whether or not it's the only steakhouse in the neighborhood...)

Summer Storm... Sorta

(Just realized this afternoon that last night's post didn't go up. Not sure why it didn't, but here it is.)

We're having a really nice summer thunderstorm tonight. The only problem is that it's the second of October.

But we've been really short on rain, lately, and we really need it, so the rain is a welcome thing. It's just weird to have all of the lightning and thunder tonight, especially since there is a chance of snow in some areas this weekend.

Yeah. Snow. The first weekend of October. Not a lot, but even a few flakes will be weird after having been in the 80s

A Very Monday-ish Monday

There are some things in life which simply seem predisposed to happening on a Monday. 

(And, yes, I'm strongly sticking with that being "Monday" and not simply "the first day of the workweek," because there were plenty of years when I worked on schedules which didn't actually start my week on a Monday, but Mondays still felt like Mondays.) 

Today was a definite Monday. I woke up feeling kind of "off" (this is the time of year when my seasonal allergies are in full bloom), but actually got out the door in decent time and got to work with a couple of minutes to spare. Heck, I even got to walk in with someone I like talking to, so the workday started out pretty darned well. 

But then I sat down to do work. And, yes, some of the problems do stem from the fact that clients (and potential clients, and freelancers I work with), tend to forget that just because they can contact me 7 days per week does not mean that I'll be responding 7 days per week. For that matter, if someone sends me a message (or three) at 11pm on a Tuesday night, I'm not going to respond at that point, either - even if she does copy my boss on the third message (sent at 11:28pm). So, anyway, Monday mornings always have more messages to deal with than other mornings, but that's not a big deal. 

And there's often a virtual stack of paperwork to deal with that has built up since Friday at 5. But, again, this morning was no different than any other Monday - or any other day, really. And, yet, something about today just felt very Monday-ish. 

Perhaps it was when about 85% of my co-workers all left for lunch at almost the same time. Some went to area cafes, but most went to the new Whole Foods market which just opened a couple of blocks away and apparently has "an awe-inspiring salad bar and deli." (I haven't gone there, yet, because... well... I'm cheap and I take my lunch probably 8 out of every 10 days.)

So, when everyone was coming back with their lunches, and I was sitting at my desk eating my from-home lunch, something in me twinged with that Junior High feeling of not having anyone to sit with at lunch. Which is especially weird because I used to have lunch with multiple people almost every day. In the old building we would meet up on different floors and "picnic" on the floor, just so we could be out of the office and talking about outside-of-the-office stuff. 

And that's when the serious case of the Mondays set in. 

But tomorrow is Tuesday. And I have lunch plans with someone in the office. And I'm pretty sure life is going to be better. At least it won't be Monday.

Serendipity-doo-da

Having posted the "Sesame Street" themesong the other day, I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email from a good friend of mine which included a video - and it featured the Muppets.

What's even stranger is that - to the best of my knowledge - he's not a regular blog reader. So it was simply coincidence that he sent me the Muppets the day after I had posted my video.

I fully admit that I couldn't understand all of the words in the video, but by the time I got the end of the video, I know I was happy. And, really, doesn't that make it worthwhile?

Enjoy.