JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Personal blog of Jessica Zafra, author of The Collected Stories and the Twisted series
Subscribe

Archive for the ‘The Workplace’

Helpful worms, sprayable corn, stamp-on make-up

June 28, 2008 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, The Workplace 1 Comment →

The proceedings of the 2008 Young Entrepreneur Award regional finals at the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong.

Pitches included a spray-on acoustic application (Philippines), worms for waste management (Malaysia), weeds as fertilizer (Bangladesh), and waterproof make-up you apply like a temporary tattoo (Thailand). The winner was the make-up.

Elegy for the Copy Editor

June 19, 2008 By: jessicazafra Category: The Workplace 1 Comment →

“Copy editors are the last set of eyes before yours. They are more powerful than proofreaders. They untangle twisted prose. They are surgeons, removing growths of error and irrelevance; they are minimalist chefs, straining fat. Their goal is to make sure that the day’s work of a newspaper staff becomes an object of lasting beauty and excellence once it hits the presses. . .The copy editor’s job, to the extent possible under deadline, is to slow down, think things through, do the math and ask the irritating question. His or her main creative outlet, writing clever headlines, is problematic online, because allusive wordplay doesn’t necessarily generate Google hits.” In a Changing World of News, An Elegy for Copy Editors by Lawrence Downes, NYT.  

Thanks to the fabulous Stella for the link. We’re the two newspaper cynics (Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday is my model; if only I could find a hat to fit my giant head)  you see sitting in cafes having large, stiff drinks, bemoaning how everything’s gotten dumber. The world needs more ruthless, hardcore, steel trap-brain editors, it just doesn’t know it yet.

Spot your boss

May 25, 2008 By: jessicazafra Category: Movies, The Workplace 1 Comment →

Star Trek, originally uploaded by Koosama.

io9’s 7 Types of Bad Bosses According to Star Trek and How to Survive Them.

They forgot to add “Terrible ham sucking in gut in tight-fitting clothes as intergalactic hotties for some reason throw themselves at him.”

When I saw the teaser for the next Star Trek at the cinema I shrieked, “NCC-1701!” Karl Urban plays Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy, and I love Karl Urban (We actually watched idiotic Pathfinder), but won’t everyone on the starship be hauling themselves to sickbay at the slightest sneeze?