Sorrow

It has been a while since my last post, and if anyone is still reading, please click through to read the following article on the plight of copy editors.

I am a copy editor. I do not work in journalism, exactly, though perhaps I work on its academic fringe. I am a copy editor of financial research; I prepare research for global distribution, online and in dead-tree journals. My job is to take what you have written, what you have spent hours, days, or perhaps even years to create, and to turn it into prose that reflects your intelligence and hard work. I eliminate redundancies, correct logical errors, and, overall, make your work look good and be easily understood. Yes, the factual problems are yours, and the general concept of the paper will not benefit from my efforts, but when I'm done, you'll know.

Copy editors are under-appreciated. They always have been and they always will be. It is unfortunate that the world of the Internet, where news is posted ad infinitum, seems less willing to embrace the perfectionism once requisite for news sources.

For me, when I read news online and find large numbers and types of mistakes, I am less willing to accept the article at its word. For me, these mistakes signify a lack of caring, which in turn make me suspicious of any claims made within. For instance, if you can't figure out which type of dash to use, en or em, why should I believe that 365 peopled died in an airline accident. Maybe it was 36.5. It could have been 3.65 people who died in a hang-gliding accident.

Just know: A copy editor is your last line of defense against mistakes and embarrassment. We are full of knowledge--useful and useless--because we read all day, every day, for a living. Appreciate your copy editor, help him or her do their job, and appreciate it when they point out your mistakes. After all, that's why you need them.

The Internet is for Porn

This music video explicates my entire outlook on life and the many uses of the Internet.



Via Youtube via rbcp.

Greatest. Thing. Ever.

This is the greatest thing I've ever seen. E V E R. It's called Cooking with Coolio and you can find it on MyDamnChannel.com.



Things to love about Cooking with Coolio:
1. Shaka Zulu!
2. The Sauce Girls
3. Autographed bell peppers
4. Coolio waving a knife around carelessly
5. Cooking + Profanity
6. Teasing white people

I know what I'm doing at work tomorrow.

Goddamn it!

This will be twice, TWICE, in a row that I have lost my job to some reflexive-consonant-using Indian sitting in a cubicle in the outskirts of Delhi.

According to the Korea times, a company will be offering English instruction via the Internet for much less money than what is currently charged by English academies such as the one at which I work. I haven't checked out pricing yet, but if they can deliver half the product for one-quarter of the price, we're all screwed.

Mom, clear out my bedroom; I'm coming home.

Indians to Teach English via Internet By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter (Korea Times)

An Indian company is tapping the lucrative English education market in South Korea with a person-to-person online tutoring service at an Indian price, known as e-tutoring, or "education outsourcing.''

Krishnan Ganesh, the founder and the CEO of TutorVista, said the Bangalore-based firm is preparing to open a Korean-language site this month to launch full e-tutoring programs for individual students and for companies.

He also said that some 50 Korean students are already enrolled at general English programs which offer unlimited, 24-hour-open tutoring at only $100 per month, and about 200 more are in more expensive SAT, TOEFL, GMAT and GRE examination preparation courses taught by Indian teachers in real time.

"We spent six months of research in the Korean and Chinese markets,'' he said in a telephone interview with The Korea Times this week. "There is a small market on the top of the pyramid for native English-speaking teachers. That comes at $30 or $40 per hour and that is affordable only by the rich.

Preventing Buyers' Remorse

I find this hard to believe: Apparently, the government of ROK wants to check the validity of all keyword ads to be placed on the Korean side of the tubenet. Specific search engines are not mentioned in the article by the Korea Times, but surely Goooooogle must be one. I'm all for checking the pr0n-free-ness and violence-free-ness of publicly placed advertisements, but I somehow doubt that anyone wants to do this, especially a for-profit company.

The government says that it wants to make the portals themselves responsible for checking the 18,500 ads per month that would be covered by the regulation. The Korea Internet Safety Commission would take part in the process, though their function is not specified and no methods for the process have yet been revealed.

Personally, I enjoy trying to shoot ducks at the top of my screen to get that free iPod.

From the Korea Times