What's mildly irritating you today?

[Clodfobble]

"Where has Clodfobble been?" I hear none of you asking. (That's not what's irritating me, that's just my crappy version of an apology for being in absentia for the last week-ish.) Well, first I was taking the kids to Disney--first time on a plane for them and they had a blast, maybe I'll get around to posting pictures sometime--and since returning I have been spending all my free hours going through the relentless process of copyediting, which actually means responding to each of the thousand-plus proposed copyedits sent to me. Most of them are comma deletions or sticking a hyphen in "good-bye" or whatever, but there are a couple that have made my brain explode. In a mildly irritating manner.

I think my copyeditor must surely be Indian. This shit has got to be outsourced. Because on the one hand, she wrote this:

...fighting relentlessly for an abstract child whom who I knew was out there somewhere...

<<AU: “who” is actually the subject of the clause (as if you were just saying “who was out there”; “I knew” is in apposition).>>

but on the other hand, she writes things like this:

upwards of (unclear)

<<AU: When you say “upward of,” do you mean “more than” or “as much as” or “up to”? I’m afraid this expression has never been clear to me.

The "best thing since sliced bread" The best thing since before sliced bread

<<AU: I couldn’t wrap my mind around “the best thing since,” because you were actually talking about the time before you could buy bread already sliced. Is this change OK? I don’t think you need the quotation marks.

Bugs the shit out of me that her job is to nitpick my stuff and she doesn't know basic idioms.

[monster]

the sliced bread one is unforgiveable

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Bugs the shit out of me that her job is to nitpick my stuff and she doesn't know basic idioms.

Is her job to just raise a flag, or is she trying to get you to defend your work?

Early in my career I read over shit written by attorneys, and if something read funny or didn't make sense to me, or was flat out wrong, I'd flag it, and then they just did what they wanted with my flag. Sometimes they ignored it and sometime they made a change. I didn't care because they were the boss.

Who is the boss in your situation?

[Clodfobble]

The project editor, who is a separate person from the copyeditor. The copyeditor flags, I respond, then the project editor reads both and makes the call. The acquisitions editor is over her, so if I really dug my heels in over something then in theory it would go up to him for arbitration. But at the end of the day, the publishing company as a whole is the boss. They bought it from me and it's theirs to do with as they please. I should probably just trust that the project editor knows what she's doing and will make the common sense call on everything.




Side note: When I want to protest a flag, the convention is for me to type STET immediately following it. This morning, I commented on something unrelated with an ironic "I'm hilarious!" and Mr. Clod immediately responded, "Stet."

[xoxoxoBruce]

That tells me Mr Clod has retained his sense of humor through your latest obsession. Good for him, and you.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

They bought it from me and it's theirs to do with as they please.

I can see why you're irritated then. You are defending your baby from attacks with no real power behind you other than your power of persuasion.

[Griff]

My teeth would be ground to nothing by now.

[BigV]

"STET"

So. Funny.

[monster]

Does that make minifob Stetson?

[BigV]

Texas.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by monster

Does that make minifob Stetson?

[DanaC]

Buses are irritating me. When I first started this part-time job, I had to set off around 7:30 to get to work for 9:10 for a 9:30 start. That gave a little leeway if a bus vanished from the schedule or I missed one of the connections on my three bus journey. I then left work a little after 2:30 and got home a little before 4pm. One time two buses vanished off the schedule and I was late, but that seemed unusual. One time I missed a bus and was late.

Then the schools went back and traffic started snarling up in the morning as I was leaving, and the journey back coincided with schools letting out. I was late to work and decided to get an earlier bus. Things were fine for a bit - then that bus was late, the next connecting bus was late and the last bus vanished - I ended up spending an extra fiver on a taxi for the last leg and was still 15 minutes late.

I started getting an earlier bus. Everything was fine - then calderdale and kirklees seemed to erupt in roadworks, positioned handily at all the major arteries in and out of the town I was travelling from and the town I was travelling to. I was late again - I ended up getting a warning for being late three times in a month.

So now, I leave my house at 6:50 for a 9:30 shift start and I get home around 4:30. I am now travelling 4 hours 40 minutes there and back for a 5 hour shift.


The distance, by a-road, from my village to the village where I work is 9.8 miles.

[glatt]

Sounds like you almost need a bicycle. Are there reasonable bike routes to go those 10 miles? You could save at least an hour and a half a day if you rode a bike instead.

[DanaC]

I wouldn't be comfortable riding a bike on these roads, no. There are odd stretches with a cycle lane, but for the most part it's just you at the outer edge of a road with cars, buses and trucks. It would also be a killer of a ride - this is hill country, we don't do flat.

That's if I still rode a bike. haven't done since I was a tween and had nasty accident.

[Sundae]

I really feel your pain. The ridiculous times I've had to set out just to ensure I was somewhere on time...

I was once told I could not stay over in Brighton on Sunday nights any more by my Line Manager because the trains were so unreliable; I'd been late about three Monday mornings. In about as many months. Bitch was able to decide to "work from home" if she woke up late.

On the Mondays the train was running well, I was in my seat, logged on, nearly an hour early. They ran every 20 minutes ostensibly, so I was already building in a stupid amount of leeway. And no-one in our little, close-knit team had any problem with me occasionally running late, given none of us took our proper breaks anyway, and on my usual commute (barring bombscares/ train crashes/ strikes) I was always at work early.

It ended the relationship with the chap in Brighton tbh. Sunday was the only day we were both free.
And made me hate her.