Floating

Well, yesterday's post caught the attention of Barbara at Helium, and she's working to find the answers to my quandaries.

Thanks, Barbara, for the excellent customer service!

In other news, I started my copy editing project today. I had to work on an iMac, which I haven't done in FOREVER. Happily, that was my biggest challenge. I started off my day in a production meeting, which was mercifully short. Then I read The Copyeditor's Handbook until somebody brought me something to proof. The work was fairly steady, but not overwhelming. The office is cool, with lots of fun details (one of the bathroom doors says something like "employees must wash hands of predictable ideas"), and--SCORE!--they offer their associates free lunch. Today's was a yummy salad with cilantro dressing, and several varieties of organic chips. Beats the crummy sandwiches I usually make for myself!

A lead balloon

Helium continues to confound me.

There's a "My Helium" page where you can keep track of the articles you've written. I decided to look at it yesterday, despite the fact that I've only written one article and the deadline passed several weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when I saw that my article had gone from "closed" status to "active" and that its ranking had changed.

I can't figure it out, and there's nothing on the site to help me. Has the publisher not yet picked a "winning" article? Did something happen with the original winning article that caused it to fall from grace? Do articles continue to stay in circulation, being rated against other articles despite the fact that a winner has been chosen?

If there is anyone out there who can explain to me the enigma that is the Helium rating system, I would be ever so grateful.

In the meantime, if anybody wants to see what an article that ranked 12th out of 20 (at least that was the ranking as of this posting) looks like, check it out here. I think there is a comment section, and I believe you can also read the other 19 articles.

My kingdom for a laptop

We're having our bathroom remodeled, and demolition began today. The ruckus is so loud that I cannot think straight. Add to the noise the overpowering scent of mildew (the main reason we decided to remodel--water damage behind the shower walls), which is making me feel like I'm drunk. And because I don't have a laptop, I have few options other than working from home.

Fortunately, I start my 3-day onsite project on Thursday, so that will get me out of the house. Until then, though, it's going to be a fun couple of days.

Copyediting on the road

To gear up for my upcoming gig, I mentally edited the road signs I saw on my way home from Tennessee. I saw these two within 100 feet of each other:

• Rollin Smokes (my mental red pen changed it to "Rollin' Smokes")
• Add on CD's (changed to "Add-on CDs")
  

All's well that ends well

I got a call from the creative staffing firm that I landed the project with the agency. Guess I did something right at the interview!

And on that happy note, this will be my last post for a few days--vacation time!