Comments on: “Realer” vs. Real Life http://www.gordsellar.com/2008/09/14/realer-is-better-than-real-life/ Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:51:03 +0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/2008/09/14/realer-is-better-than-real-life/comment-page-1/#comment-32220 gordsellar Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:39:31 +0000 http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=4138#comment-32220 Wait, wait, that hint of sympathy I dropped into my last comment? I take it back, after having received something this evening that MUST be edited for noon tomorrow, which <del datetime="2008-09-17T15:46:24+00:00">is full of</del> has more than its fair share of garbled content, which was written by people who simply shouldn't have been tasked with writing said content. (And whose work makes me wonder about how they go about teaching these "important" grammar points!) Nested inefficiencies have something to do with it too, at least in the organization I'm talking about. (I've seen the same in Canadian businesses too, but not to this degree. Not in a company that stayed afloat for very long, anyway!) But unlike the army, I actually signed up for this willingly. Silly me! I should have been writing my novel! :/ After this conference thing I have, we should try figure out a time to get together for that chat! Wait, wait, that hint of sympathy I dropped into my last comment? I take it back, after having received something this evening that MUST be edited for noon tomorrow, which is full of has more than its fair share of garbled content, which was written by people who simply shouldn’t have been tasked with writing said content. (And whose work makes me wonder about how they go about teaching these “important” grammar points!)

Nested inefficiencies have something to do with it too, at least in the organization I’m talking about. (I’ve seen the same in Canadian businesses too, but not to this degree. Not in a company that stayed afloat for very long, anyway!)

But unlike the army, I actually signed up for this willingly. Silly me! I should have been writing my novel! :/

After this conference thing I have, we should try figure out a time to get together for that chat!

]]> By: gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/2008/09/14/realer-is-better-than-real-life/comment-page-1/#comment-32219 gordsellar Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:03:54 +0000 http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=4138#comment-32219 Junsok, Ah, yes, that's familiar to me, and I've experienced it before. I hadn't thought to connect that dynamic to the massive overtime here. Makes me glad to be a freelancer... a friend was trying to convince me office work would be better than teaching but it sounded unlikely to me! As for in the army... brr. To be fair, these editors have been through much worse themselves, as you point out. I won't get into details here except that, um, I didn't think it was physically possible for women late in their third trimester of pregnancy to put in the kind of hours I heard about. Junsok,

Ah, yes, that’s familiar to me, and I’ve experienced it before.

I hadn’t thought to connect that dynamic to the massive overtime here. Makes me glad to be a freelancer… a friend was trying to convince me office work would be better than teaching but it sounded unlikely to me!

As for in the army… brr.

To be fair, these editors have been through much worse themselves, as you point out. I won’t get into details here except that, um, I didn’t think it was physically possible for women late in their third trimester of pregnancy to put in the kind of hours I heard about.

]]> By: Junsok Yang http://www.gordsellar.com/2008/09/14/realer-is-better-than-real-life/comment-page-1/#comment-32218 Junsok Yang Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:24:36 +0000 http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=4138#comment-32218 The editors are doing it because *they* want to go on a holiday. Boss sending work to be done "by tomorrow" or "by Monday" is a typical Korean maneuver. They want it to be convenient *for them* because they are the bosses. They send assignments before they take off from work, and expect it to be done as soon as they come in so they can check on it. It's also one of the reasons why many Korean employees don't work all that much during working hours, and have to do so much overtime. Most Korean employees do not have the luxury of saying "screw it" like freelancers. :) It happened almost every other day in my unit when I was in the Army. The editors are doing it because *they* want to go on a holiday.
Boss sending work to be done “by tomorrow” or “by Monday” is a typical Korean maneuver. They want it to be convenient *for them* because they are the bosses. They send assignments before they take off from work, and expect it to be done as soon as they come in so they can check on it.
It’s also one of the reasons why many Korean employees don’t work all that much during working hours, and have to do so much overtime. Most Korean employees do not have the luxury of saying “screw it” like freelancers. :)
It happened almost every other day in my unit when I was in the Army.

]]> By: gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/2008/09/14/realer-is-better-than-real-life/comment-page-1/#comment-32208 gordsellar Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:12:53 +0000 http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=4138#comment-32208 Nah, I have some editing to do, and the editors sent it on Friday with, "Please give it back at the end of the holiday." Because I don't need a holiday, right? Well, I might get some done today, but I'm not going to knock myself out, as I figure it's an unreasonable request. Nah, I have some editing to do, and the editors sent it on Friday with, “Please give it back at the end of the holiday.” Because I don’t need a holiday, right? Well, I might get some done today, but I’m not going to knock myself out, as I figure it’s an unreasonable request.

]]> By: Val http://www.gordsellar.com/2008/09/14/realer-is-better-than-real-life/comment-page-1/#comment-32205 Val Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:22:43 +0000 http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=4138#comment-32205 why looking at textbook editing? Or is that talk going into some sort of conference paper collection? why looking at textbook editing?
Or is that talk going into some sort of conference paper collection?

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