Weather and Updates and Random Bits

As I picked my way across icy snow this morning, it was some comfort to think that, a week from that time, I would be heading to Florida. We got under six inches of crap this weekend, but the icy frozen layer atop the snow is a pain, and it's not going to be warm enough to melt today before we get more tomorrow. Awesome! (Use sarcasm font here.)

Overall, it wasn't the worst weekend but it wasn't the greatest. I had a mild, on-and-off headache, probably due to hormones, that made getting things done harder even than usual (not from the pain, which wasn't awful, so much as the frustration about the pain). It was cold, and Carlos wasn't happy that the window was closed. Because of the snow, I had to put off test-driving a friend's car (she has a Kia Soul, and is one of at least three people I heard from following my do-I-need-to-replace-my-car talks who loves it). Not awful, just ... eh.

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At work today, my boss commented, regarding a piece the other editor sent in, that she couldn't see any changes, and she hoped that the editor had used track changes (as we always, always do). I opened the document in question, and found that it opened in Final view; as soon as I switched to Final: Show Markup, there were the changes.

I told the boss this, and she asked where I switched that, and seemed completely unfamiliar with it. Which ... how? I use Final view all the time, to check my work, and make sure that my changes "read right" ... the more changes there are, the harder it is to read the track-changes version.

If you're not an editor, and one who works online rather than on paper, this may not make much sense, but trust me. It's as if she said, "Dictionary? Where do you find that?" Baffling.

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Follow-up to the office "party"/appreciation day: we're still getting lunch, in addition to dinner, on Thursday, but we are no longer getting the hour-long presentation with the 2013 recap/looking ahead to 2014. Because? Apparently, because they aren't doing that in the NY and London offices, and people there would be "jealous" if we did.

...?

Really? Is this the world I live in?

I am NOT complaining about missing the presentation; it was, in my mind, only preferable to the fondue party from last year. But the idea that it would be seen as a bonus, a treat that others would be jealous of, leaves me nonplussed.

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It's interesting to me that non-native English speakers have such troubles with the word "the," not just leaving it out where it should be, but adding it in where it shouldn't.

Another thing that interests me: how capable humans are of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously. Something nice has happened to a friend, and I am, at the same time, sincerely happy for her (no one deserves it more) and so, so envious.

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Some of the job-listing e-mails I get are still showing one of the jobs I didn't get further than a phone interview for. I wish that would stop.

There's also a posting for the company that laid me off the last time: looks like they're trying to get a "consultant" instead of rehiring a permanent editor. That one could go away, too!

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Anyone who doesn't think cigarettes are addictive should look at the faces of smokers outside when it's 25 degrees.

Not that I'm judging that look. Make me wait outside for a chocolate buffet, and I'd look the same.