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Haha. I owe the commonwealth of Virginia exactly $5 in taxes.

Just read an article at nytimes.com about how the slow job growth in recent recessions (including this one) is leaving people who used to have good jobs and were always employed with no job options. They quoted a woman who has been jobless for two years, and is living with her husband on his disability check of $1,595 a month. And because their rent is $1,380 they have no choice, the article says, but to get food from food pantries. Another person quoted is in this situation: “And now they find themselves in this desert of joblessness, her paycheck replaced by a $702 unemployment check every other week.”

I understand the cost of living is different, and that where I live is pretty low. But is it seriously impossible to live on $700 every two weeks? Seriously? That is what I’m currently getting paid, and I know lots of people who are making less. I don’t consider myself living paycheck-to-paycheck. Didn’t these people save any money for emergencies? It’s hard to feel sympathetic for people when every person quoted in the article was making more on unemployment than Mitch and I live on now.

One example was of a single mom with three kids who made $10,000 a month at her job. If she was making that much, she probably could’ve been saving at least $40,000 a year. It does NOT cost $120,000 to raise three kids for a year. Now she’s unemployed and, the article reports, the job she’s in training for will pay only $15 a hour. That’s $3 an hour more than I’m making. Cry me a river. >:(

Makin’ some basmati rice. So delish.

I add cinnamon, and a tiny bit of garlic. Not sure it makes any difference in taste, what with all the curry-sauce foods that’re dumped onto it, but it smells really good while it’s cooking. :)

The other day I went out for dinner break with some fellow copy desk n00bs. There was a big group of younger dudes leaving as we were paying… One of those groups of guys. Waitresses, you know what I mean. Where everything that is said is hysterical, no one is aware that it’s his turn to order but everyone else knows and tells him, loudly. Ugh.

It reminded me why I am so happy to finally have that copy-editing degree.

Thanks to my awesome boyfriend, I will be getting purple plaid flats and black/grey flats that will be perfect for work. :D Will put up photos to share the joy once I get them.

One of my favorite parts of my copy-editing job is that the office is so close to my apartment. Google Maps says it’s .6 miles away - about 8-10 minutes of walking for me. For the first two months, I did walk there, and sometimes walked back, too. When my parents visited me in July, they brought my bike - a dark maroon single-speed that used to be my grandma’s. Having the bike has been enlightening… Protip: Do not purchase a single-speed cruiser if you intend to do most of your biking in a place nicknamed “The City of Seven Hills.” Some days it seems all seven are located on my commute. :)

theshoepolygamist:

juliebee, i thank thee for following me!

i do love your name,

it does indeed put mine to shame.

for polygamist does not rhyme with many,

in fact, i cannot think of any.

love,

the shoe polygamist

Those Frappaccino 4-packs are on sale super cheap. Must. Resist. Tasty. Coffees.

My new favorite portmanteau: Squash + pumpkin = squmpkin. It’s a real veggie.

Spoilers ahead! If you’ve not read “The Count of Monte Cristo,” be warned!

Now then. Finally finished Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which I greatly enjoyed. I’ve got to say, though, the fate of Mercedes is kinda lame. Seriously, Danglars was way more evil and got away with $50,000. Not fair. And he barely liked his family, so that’s no loss. Mercedes was far more contrite about what happened, even though her actions weren’t based in cowardice or malice, like the guys. The book is all about redemption and paying for your crimes, and it seems Mercedes wasn’t given a fair chance.

But I did like it. :)

There’s something very freeing about deleting numbers from my phone. For example, the one for the Charleston Jimmy John’s.

One of the things I love best about Tuesdays is that I work an early shift (or early for me, anyway), so when I get out of work the sun is just finished setting. It’s very refreshing to walk home with the light all gloamy, and the humidity dying down at last.

It probably won’t be as much fun in winter, but for now I’m enjoying it too much to worry about that.

I think maybe i’ll ease into this biking thing. My arms are ouchy today. Also, there were kittens in the office and i want one.

Biking is exhausting. But i think i did a decent job of it considering i haven’t been on a bike since high school.

Apparently, some species of cockroach give birth to live babies, while others breed by asexual reproduction. Others still are more than 8 centimeters long.

I asked the little visitor in my cabinet, and his friend from my ironing board (both of whom were quite tiny, luckily), about their reproductive habits, but they were very shy and would reveal nothing.

Logan, the opinions editor at the News & Advance, got a new puppy recently. He’s been bringing her to work so she’s not lonely during the day. She is a little black and tan spaniel named Abby, and is basically ridiculously adorable. I keep trying to be the last one to proof the editorial pages, so I can walk over there and pet Abby. Having a baby dog in the office really makes for an excellent working environment. :)

A quick update, as I’m at work and shouldn’t use up all their Internets.

I promised an assortment of people that I would blog about my adventures in Virginia, and I would be happy to do so - but Mitch’s and my apartment does not have Internet service yet.

First and foremost, the apartment (despite the lack of Internet) is awesome. :D We’ve ventured out to a Kroger (typical grocery store) and a Dollar General (exactly like every other Dollar General). At the latter a bath rug and toilet brush were purchased, along with an assortment of freezy pops.

Work is good so far, and I feel mildly useful. I’m the only gal copy editor for now, but they’re still rearranging schedules and might hire another person next week. (To all my journalism peeps - APPLY, DURNIT.)

I am 23. This is similar to 22, but drastically older.

meeeha:

You know what I hate about YouTube? How they mute all songs now. Bastards. Anyway. This is my wishlist for 2009. If you really love me, you’ll (at the very least!) remember me in your prayers and hope I get at least one of the things on the list. 

1. Kawasaki 1700 Vulcan Voyager Motorcycle. I’ve talked about this endlessly, but srsly. It’s in my dreams. Whenever I surf through movies and TV, there’s a commercial or show featuring a motorcycle. God is trying to tell me something, I swear! 

2. Aston Martin One-77. *Cries* 

3. Porsche 911 Turbo Cabrio.  I think I’d look good in yellow, don’t you?

4. Ferrari California, 2009. I’ve wanted a cherry red Ferrari convertible since I was 11 years old. And it still looks awesome. 

5. Canon EOS Camera. Gearing away from the list of unobtainable cars, I’m also searching for unobtainable cameras. And I’ve got my eye on this one. A photographer friend of mine uses it sometimes, and his pics come out amazing. 

6. Flip Mino HD. Much more affordable, and easier for me to use. I hear the sound quality isn’t great, but you can just upload the footage via the USB, which is more than a little convenient. 

7.  AT&T Quickfire, in Lime Green. I don’t know why I want this phone in particular. It’s definitely not as cool as the motorcycle. I don’t even know what features are on it. I just know it matches my current phone, where the lime green sides have mostly scraped off. Sob. 

***EDIT***

8. BLACKBERRY BOLD. How did I not know about this little piece of awesomeness before? I’m so out of it. And I could definitely use the “fastest Blackberry.”

Now. Get praying. I neeeed to have one of the above before the summer hits. 

I have recently been reading the site stuffjournalistslike.com. There is much truth to be found here, and many examples of why the copy editing profession exists.

Jan. 12 was the first day of class. This is my last semester. It’s a pretty exciting moment - beginning of the end and all.

My second class of the day was Religion in Preliterate Societies. “What an awesome topic,” I thought. After going through the usual Syllabus Day activities, the professor started talking about a presentation project we were going to have later in the year. He has certain speech requirements, which he detailed for the class.

The main one: No speaking in dialects, or with heavy accents. Specifically, no Ebonics. O_O

He began this by talking about how important good public speaking is to your career, and went on to explain that points would be taken off if he couldn’t understand you. This seemed harmless enough - obviously, you do need to be understood when giving a speech. But then phrases like “dialect” kept popping up.

There were a few black students in the class, and you could feel everybody getting kind of uncomfortable as the professor went on. After a particularly cringe-inducing comment about “African-American accents,” a black guy raised his hand to ask pointedly “What exactly is an ‘African-American’ accent?” This led to the part about Ebonics, and its subsequent ban from our list of acceptable presentation languages.

As I walked to another building later, I was talking to my friend Slingblade, who was also in the class. He’d taken one of the guy’s classes before, and knew the rant was coming. He has a Southern accent, and was joking that he might get up there for his speech and start off with “Howdy, y’all!” in his best “hick” accent.

Awkwardest. Class. Ever. And it only lasted 25 minutes.

Last Thursday, I was editing stories and listening to the Daily Herald copy deskers chat. The paper, like much of the newspaper industry (and much of the American economy), has not been making as much money lately as it’d like. Several copy editors were joking with me, telling me I should get out now and change my major.

I think that would be a bad idea, seeing as this is my last semester. But the idea has crept into the back of my mind. Also Thursday, Colleen, a copy editor whom I didn’t work with much in the summer, talked to me for a while about my plans for after school. She wondered what Eastern was doing to teach us journalism newbs how to survive the future. I explained that they talk about multimedia stuff a lot, and there’s Murley’s classes. But there’s not much else. She pointed out, and I agree, that it must be hard to teach when nobody really knows what we’ll have to be doing in ten years.

When I came in to the DH on Friday, everybody on the copy desk was in a meeting. I didn’t think much of it, but I later said to Jaime S. (who was my mentor during the summer, and rocks), “You guys don’t usually have staff meetings on Fridays, right?” Her response was disheartening: “Not unless there’s layoffs.” :-|

Should I abandon journalism? I like it. I’m reasonably good at it. But it would really suck to still be waitressing ten years from now in an effort to finance my copy editing career.

I was copy editing a story today about a company that’s advertising “AntiPoleez” lozenges - you suck on a lozenge and alcohol won’t be detectable on your breath. I thought it was a good idea for a story, but one thing bothered me.

The reporter spoke to police officers, who said it wasn’t at all likely the lozenges work. The story also included a link to the company’s Web site, where the lozenges could be purchased (a pack of 8 costs $2.99, apparently). My complaint - it would’ve been really easy to buy a pack of these things, have a staffer drink a few beers, and ask the University Police Department to help us test the lozenges with a breathalyzer. And then we would know for sure if they don’t work, rather than reporting that the UPD thinks they wouldn’t.

That doesn’t compromise our journalistic objectivity. In fact, it allows us to say “This is a lie; this product does not work” or “Underage drinkers, rejoice!” We’re supposed to inform our audiences, and half-hearted attempts to rewrite press releases on “exciting new products” does not do that.

A recent post at Language Log talks about this very issue, as it related to a number of articles on SpinSpotter, a FireFox plug-in that claimed it could be used to detect “spin” in writing. Language Log writer Geoffrey K. Pullum tried it out, and found it did nothing. But news organizations reporting the story did not mention that fact, leading Pullum to wonder if they’d even bothered to try it themselves. Based on my experience with our article… most likely they didn’t.

Disappointing. Disheartening. Not good journalism.

From You Don’t Say, by way of Regret the Error:

http://www.regrettheerror.com/behind-the-scenes/how-to-spot-a-plagiaristfabulist

If you edit copy, or are involved in journalism in some way, this is good reading. A number of my friends in college papers have struggled with this problem, mostly because college students tend not to have much journalism experience. This article also has helpful tips about what to do if you suspect that someone has plagiarized or made stuff up.

I’m debating getting rid of my MySpace. I have barely any use for it anymore, and I rarely blog there often enough to justify having it around. Most of my friends have Facebooks or LiveJournals anyway, so I don’t use MySpace to keep in touch.

One of my friends from community college blogs there fairly frequently, and the main reason I haven’t deleted my account is that this person doesn’t have a Facebook or LiveJournal site. If I were to go MySpaceless, I would no longer be able to read his blogs. I haven’t seen the friend in nearly a year, and we really don’t speak anymore. This is not likely to change. So, is my curiousity about the life of one (former?) friend enough to justify keeping an otherwise useless MySpace account active?