The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Volume 9

dystophil said:

Hugs to Tas. Hope the new meds will work out.

Fingers crossed and lots of vamp dust, Heather!

Stopped by my school this morning to pick up some books I needed to plan (I'm a masochist like that). My classroom is chaos and my admissions secretary sees me, makes a face and informs me in a woeful voice, "Oh, your classes are so full. I'm so sorry." Words no teacher ever wants to hear. Apparently I currently have up to 48 students in some of my English classes. We're trying to even them out and cap them at 45. Yikes.

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Thank you!

What age students?

elinor said:

Just had a partial request after sending them a query two days ago. WOW. So did not expect that at all. Figured since it was so fast it was a fast R. Now I get to panic about my first 30 pages the rest of the day.

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I got the same today. First 30 as well. I wonder if it's the same agent.

I drove all day, visiting my Mama is SC. Just me and my 10-year-old. I got a partial request this morning. And so far the comments on my entry for Secret Agent have been mostly positive.

Yay, that's good news, Heather!

My English students are seniors, but journalism is 10-12.

dystophil said:

Yay, that's good news, Heather!

My English students are seniors, but journalism is 10-12.

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45 in HIGH SCHOOL?

I thought maybe college. 45 is too many. >_< You deserve a medal. And daily massages. And a raise.

Heathertruett said:

45 in HIGH SCHOOL?

I thought maybe college. 45 is too many. >_< You deserve a medal. And daily massages. And a raise.

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Haha, yeah... I wish. I hope against hope that maybe we can lower it closer to 40 each English class.

Happy anniversary and hooray for hot water, Maryn!

Seven years ago today, I emigrated to the U.S. Can't quite believe it's been that long, but hey, lots has happened since then.

Happy Anniversary Maryn!

I'm not sure if I have any Doppelgangers. If I do, I clearly am the evil one.

Also, holy crap, I always underestimate how much stuff one needs when travelling. Just procured a cooler (which, like wine glasses, I consider an "adult" purchase), a sleeping bag, ice packs, random toiletries and sandwich fixings for cheaper road trip food.

Now we're at home and a-sweating, cold beer in hand before we shall embark on actually packing.

Realized today that I am still doing two spaces after a period. So my sample pages I submitted for my partial request has two spaces after the periods, and all the sample pages from the 9 queries I sent out on Monday. Now I am kind of upset with myself and wondering how that will affect the pages being read.

I'm kind of frustrated - I was taught to touch type all through grade school, so I type very quickly, and very unconsciously. I always type with two spaces after a period because that's how we were TAUGHT. It was drilled into us for YEARS. And now I have to try and get rid of this habit.

It is really difficult. REALLY difficult. Also not doing it for this post.

elinor, you could set up Microsoft Word (or whatever program you use) to automatically replace two spaces after a period with one space after a period. Saves you the trouble of relearning.

I've written 10k in the last two days. 60k so far this month. My head asplode. Book must be written.

Calla Lily said:

I had to retrain myself when I got a job as a typesetter. I was taught "two spaces" too.

From what I understand, two spaces happens a lot. You can change your current mss bu using "find and replace".

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Yeah they really thrashed it into us to do two spaces so this is going to be SUPER hard to train myself out of.

I use Scrivener (I love scrivener so much) so I'm now trying to look into seeing if it has a setting where it can automatically reformat two spaces after periods back to one space. I found a little thing where it will convert it manually, but it's manual which means I have to remember that I need to do it, and I'm not sure I can trust myself to do that.

Elinor, I think there is a way to do that.

It's one of the things that drives me absolutely insane when my journalism students do that, some of whom are sophomores who still have been taught that. Makes me mad on their behalf and yes, it's a huge hassle if your end product is a newspaper where space is a rare commodity.

So, it took us 20, yes, you read that right, TWENTY house to drive from Utah to Minnesota yesterday, but we made it. In one go. Talk about the mother of all road trips. Makes me grateful that the way back will be split, because we're stopping in Denver to see some friends, so it will be split into 13 and then 7 hours, which, in comparison, is so doable.

Today we met T's grandparents, who are awesome and played disc golf with some friends, which was a ridiculously sweaty affair. I had forgotten what 85% percent humidity feel like. Oh, wait, I have never been in that kind of humidity. Which would explain how I, who never really sweats, felt like I was soaked. Craziness.

Having a lot of fun though. Nerdy LAN party with friends now.

dystophil said:

Elinor, I think there is a way to do that.

It's one of the things that drives me absolutely insane when my journalism students do that, some of whom are sophomores who still have been taught that. Makes me mad on their behalf and yes, it's a huge hassle if your end product is a newspaper where space is a rare commodity.

So, it took us 20, yes, you read that right, TWENTY house to drive from Utah to Minnesota yesterday, but we made it. In one go. Talk about the mother of all road trips. Makes me grateful that the way back will be split, because we're stopping in Denver to see some friends, so it will be split into 13 and then 7 hours, which, in comparison, is so doable.

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What's frustrating is when two spaces after a period is treated like some terrible lazy writer faux pas as if I did it on purpose like I'd just filled my sentences with lolz and u's for you, etc. It was drilled into me to be as natural as breathing. I see a LOT of condescension out there, against those who still do it.

Fiance and I have done a few trips from GA to OR, and back again. Can do it in about 3 days each way, but it really sucks. Pretty much just a few 3-4 hour naps every night. Easier though than trying to find a motel that is dog friendly.

dystophil said:

So, it took us 20, yes, you read that right, TWENTY house to drive from Utah to Minnesota yesterday, but we made it. In one go.

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Your country is too big! If I tried to drive 20 hours in any direction here, I would end up in the sea. And a car cannot swim.

Re: two spaces. I still do it, I don't try to stop myself. If it annoys someone else, they can find/replace to fix it themselves.

Friday as I left work, there was a vehicle with Utah plates on the highway on front of me, and part of me thought "hunh, I wonder if Dys is passing through KC on her road trip." What kind of car are you driving, Dys?

elinor said:

What's frustrating is when two spaces after a period is treated like some terrible lazy writer faux pas as if I did it on purpose like I'd just filled my sentences with lolz and u's for you, etc. It was drilled into me to be as natural as breathing. I see a LOT of condescension out there, against those who still do it.

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I noticed that on Twitter yesterday.