Random Rants OA - I Have 71 Problems, But This Thread Ain't One

[Synobun]

This sucks, I'm sorry. What happened?

I didn't check the person's background. I offer editing and proofreading services for businesses and authors, and also have deal structures for both categories. Someone contacted me for business samples and was impressed with what they saw, asking me what my quote would be if they wanted to work with me.

Normally I check the person's background so I can personalize the proposal. I didn't with this, and I sent them my small business discount. The deal only makes sense for business owners who need occasional, but recurring, work. It's a retaining service so the pay-off for me are the business owners who don't use it to its fullest advantage but still pay the monthly fee.

I checked the person out after I sent the email and found out that they're actually a fairly large firm in the UK. Their output is significantly more than what my email was outlined for. It makes my email mostly useless and, if that didn't sink the opportunity, would end up being disadvantageous for me in the long-term since the pay structure for the deal is only personally worth it when comparing time with money earned for up to ~12,000 words. Based on what I saw, they output at least twice that.

It's an absurdly rookie mistake that I never made even when I first entered the professional world. No idea why I made it now. I'm mostly waiting now to see what happens.

 

[Takhisis]

Can't you send some sort of, well, amendment?

 

[Synobun]

It would be poor taste to do that right now but that's the plan if he is still interested after his correction of my mistake/assumption. That is, of course, assuming there's even a response.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Well I hope it works out for you dude.

 

[cardgame]

I wanted to launch KSP at 11:02 PM. But it was on version 1.4, and my mods didn't work. So I downgraded to 1.3.1, the old version, where everything worked fine. But it doesn't anymore. So I uninstalled all of my mods. But it's still broken. Now it's 11:37 and I haven't played anything...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I wanted to launch KSP at 11:02 PM. But it was on version 1.4, and my mods didn't work. So I downgraded to 1.3.1, the old version, where everything worked fine. But it doesn't anymore. So I uninstalled all of my mods. But it's still broken. Now it's 11:37 and I haven't played anything...

You left out "Thanks Valve! "

 

[rah]

As the weather warmed up, every time our furnace started there would be a huge bang as too much gas was infused before ignition. It's over 30 years old, and our AC units is 25 years old, so I guess it's time to bite the bullet. It looks like around 6.5K to replace. I guess better now than after I retire.

 

[BenitoChavez]

Car started making funny noises this morning. Loud exhaust and some sort of metal scraping sound. At the mechanic now waiting to see how much it’s going to cost

Update: The tailpipe essentially broke in two which was the cause of the sounds. The mechanic says they can weld it back together and seems confident it will hold. Only $240 to repair it and it will be fixed in an hour or so. A pretty good outcome all things considered. It still was an annoying problem.

 

[Lexicus]

Hillary may have won the election, but Bernie won the future:

http://www.latimes.com/local/educat...a-harris-to-skip-uc-1525733243-htmlstory.html

Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I'm annoyed with the media. Turned on CNN this morning and was met with "breaking news: school shooting in Palmdale!" Their "story" consisted of some hand wringing, a tweet from the principle telling students to stay away from the school, and an assortment of Google-Earth views of the school and locating Palmdale on maps. Whatever the minor altercation was, the "shooter" was immediately taken into custody, and what seems to be the only injured person drove themselves to the hospital. It wasn't a big enough deal to get any sort of breaking news special report from the local media, and of course when it didn't produce a significant body count CNN saw no reason to ever get back with a followup to their initial report, so gathering that much information without just driving over there to see for myself was pretty challenging.

 

[Synobun]

Someone got mad that my quote for editing a first draft is higher than my quote for editing something they've already revised. Fair enough, but they tried to paint it as though I were being deceptive. Not so keen on that.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Someone got mad that my quote for editing a first draft is higher than my quote for editing something they've already revised. Fair enough, but they tried to paint it as though I were being deceptive. Not so keen on that.

That's the opposite of standard practice in my field. I tell people my labor rate, then add 10% if they watch, another 10% if they help, and 50% if they worked on it first.

 

[Synobun]

That's the opposite of standard practice in my field. I tell people my labor rate, then add 10% if they watch, another 10% if they help, and 50% if they worked on it first.

For the most part, it's easier to edit something that's already been chopped at by the author. First drafts are riddled with mistakes and often contain a lot of superfluous information (or on the other end of the spectrum, don't include enough at key moments).

This manuscript in particular was a disaster. Constant tense changes from one paragraph to the next, no spacing, advanced terminology with absolutely no context given, and more. So to be the first machete in the jungle comes at a premium compared to when a lot of the underbrush has already been whacked away. I usually recommend that an author go over their manuscript at least once by themselves before sending it to an editor.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

For the most part, it's easier to edit something that's already been chopped at by the author. First drafts are riddled with mistakes and often contain a lot of superfluous information (or on the other end of the spectrum, don't include enough at key moments).

This manuscript in particular was a disaster. Constant tense changes from one paragraph to the next, no spacing, advanced terminology with absolutely no context given, and more. So to be the first machete in the jungle comes at a premium compared to when a lot of the underbrush has already been whacked away. I usually recommend that an author go over their manuscript at least once by themselves before sending it to an editor.

I understand. Just a difference in material. When it comes to material objects, if Joe Homeowner has "taken the first whack with the machete" all they have done is created a second problem, making the original problem that much harder to find.

 

[Zkribbler]

I'm annoyed with the media. Turned on CNN this morning and was met with "breaking news: school shooting in Palmdale!" Their "story" consisted of some hand wringing, a tweet from the principle telling students to stay away from the school, and an assortment of Google-Earth views of the school and locating Palmdale on maps.

Huffington Post carried something similar, then linked to "various reports." This link took me to a single report describing the shooting:

At 7 a.m., at school, one 14-year-old shot another. The shooter went into the desert, ditched the gun, then went to a shopping mall where he was arrested at 9 a.m. There was nothing about the victim driving himself to the hospital [he's 14], but he's expected to make a full recovery.

There were also reports of "shots fired" at a nearby elementary school, but a search revealed nothing.

A nearby community college cancelled classes.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Huffington Post carried something similar, then linked to "various reports." This link took me to a single report describing the shooting:

At 7 a.m., at school, one 14-year-old shot another. The shooter went into the desert, ditched the gun, then went to a shopping mall where he was arrested at 9 a.m. There was nothing about the victim driving himself to the hospital [he's 14], but he's expected to make a full recovery.

There were also reports of "shots fired" at a nearby elementary school, but a search revealed nothing.

A nearby community college cancelled classes.

Yeah, the "drove themselves" morphed into "rode with a friend" from what I heard. Main point remaining that it was apparently a minor injury. Most of the schools went on lockdown and then sent everyone home for the day, including the college.

The annoyance remains that CNN opened with nothing short of "Parkland comes to Palmdale" and never really got past figuring out where Palmdale is before they decided there wasn't enough body count so they just left the story hanging.

 

[Takhisis]

That's the opposite of standard practice in my field. I tell people my labor rate, then add 10% if they watch, another 10% if they help, and 50% if they worked on it first.

You sound so much like a sex worker that I don't understand how Synsensa let it slip by.

 

[Synobun]

You sound so much like a sex worker that I don't understand how Synsensa let it slip by.

I need to keep my infractionless streak going, mang.

 

[Takhisis]

So… you're streaking?

 

[Hygro]

Pops got rid of the daddy long legs on his (my) front porch and they've been replaced first by mosquitos and now two black widows.