What Some Clients Try to Do to Freelancers

Here's a short video on what some clients try to do to freelancers in today's economy:




Learn how (here and here) to keep this from happening to you.


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Inventive Terminology

For the last few days, colleagues on an editing-related e-mail discussion list have been posting about words and phrases that they dislike. Most of those either are overused or add no information to sentences that contain them.

But one colleague reported reading online that someone has an aversion to the word nostril.

Every time I see that word, I want to laugh: I remember how one of my precocious sons, lying in his bed and unable to sleep because of nasal congestion, phrased his complaint about the stuffiness. He didn't use the word nostril, because at 2 years of age, he wasn't yet aware of its existence. My husband and I, trying to sleep in the next room, heard him mutter:

Stupid one-hole nose-breather!

We had to stifle our snickers so he wouldn't know we were listening.

That 2-year-old is now a 14-year-old high school freshman, by the way.



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Wiggling Back to Attention

On editing-related e-mail lists I subscribe to, some listmates have often recommended sitting on an exercise ball, rather than a desk chair or computer chair, while working, to help with back problems and strengthen core body muscles.

I just read about another reason for using a ball as a chair that might help some of you: The print version of the summer issue of ADDitude magazine, a publication that focuses on living with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), notes that working while sitting on a ball aids concentration. Lots of people with AD/HD have found that sometimes fidgeting and wiggling can help refocus wandering attention. Maintaining a seat on a ball would definitely entail some wiggling. Even for those who don't have AD/HD, I can imagine that wiggling on a ball could help them get through really boring projects with their eyes still open. ;-)


Updated 12:50 a.m., 5/20/09: Here's a study (or here; requires payment for access to the full article) showing that allowing children with AD/HD to wiggle in their seats (with the aid of a special cusion) helps them focus better in the classroom.



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Results of Spring Showers

Here are some shots of the flowers in my yard, for your enjoyment. They were taken by Neil, my 14-year-old son. Top left are blooms from our Mother's Day azalea, and next to it is a flower from a regular old azalea. Kathy F., this one's for you: Underneath are some lovely wisteria racemes.



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A Perfect Afternoon

Ever have one of those perfect afternoons?

I'm having one now. My two sons are home after school, and because it's Friday, they have no homework. It's 72 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny outside with a light breeze, everything is green, I'm editing an easy article for a medical journal, and oh my God spring smells so damn fine!

A little while ago, 14-year-old Neil was out in front of our house playing basketball with some other neighborhood high school guys, and for just one moment, I had a flash vision of him in the near future—he's going to be a really hunky guy. And as my husband, Ed, says, "He's not nerdy either, the way I was until adulthood." (I always did have a soft spot for cute nerdy guys.)

The windows are open, the fans are blowing, 7-year-old Jared has cartoons on the TV. The only thing that could make this moment any better would be for Ed to get done very, very early tonight with his second job.

No, I have not been snatched away by aliens and replaced with a happy robot. Why do you ask?


Updated at 5:45 p.m.: Neil just started mowing our lawn without being prodded to do so. I just may have to faint in delighted amazement.



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Geekish Excitement

Let the massive confetti shower begin!

Annual subscriptions to the new searchable online version of the 10th edition of the AMA Manual of Style are now available!

You don't know what the excitement's about? Then you must not be a medical copyeditor who's been wishing only for forever that the style bible of medical editing would be made available online. No more fruitless searches through the hard-copy index!



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