Month: July 2010

I is a Editor

(note to self: stop with the jokey bad grammar, peoples might think you cant be writing good)

I’ll say this quietly because I’m a little apprehensive but, for the next few months, it looks like we will have extra resource in our team. Basically we are ahead of the curve when it comes to recruiting so, until the rest of the R&D team catches up, we are one technical writer up!

Which means that we are taking the opportunity to both get ahead with some things, and catch up on others, and one of the things we’ve never tried here is to have a formal editoral review of the content. Peer review is one thing and whilst the technical content we produce is excellent, the differing writing styles and approaches each writer has does show through.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not all that bothered by this, simple business reasoning dictated that we concentrate on improving the accuracy and timeliness of the documentation and so, now we have done that, we can turn our attentions to other areas including findability and clarity.

The latter finds me taking on the role of Editor (I want to write Editor-in-chief just to conjure up images of a smoke filled newspaper office in the 50s), casting an eye over all of the content we produce and using our lightweight Writing Style Guide to prod and cajole the content towards something that, without being too restrictive, has a level of consistency for the reader.

As we haven’t had anyone performing that role before, it’s taking a bit of adjustment and the jokes about the “red pen” are already flying. Thankfully I work with smart people and it’s not taken long to see the results come to fruition.

What we need to figure out is how we change this model in the future so that we can all consistently edit each other’s work, lest I become a bottleneck in this process.

July 8, 2010

Do what you can

If you don’t have any alternatives, you can’t object.

I’m not fond of making such black and white statements but, driving to work this morning, I heard an item on the news that really annoyed me.

Apparently, immigration officials have been suggesting to gay immigrants who are being sent back to their home country, that they should keep quiet about their sexuality to avoid persecution. Not ideal, I agree, but then on came some spokesperson for some campaign group who stated it was wrong to give such advice as it wouldn’t stop the persecution.

She didn’t (or it was edited out) offer an alternative of course.

So, either the immigrants go back to their  home countries, say nothing about their sexuality and avoid being brutalised,  attacked, and murdered, or…. what? go back and announce how happy they are with their sexuality (which, of course, they SHOULD be able to do) and take whatever happens to them?

The latter option, I’m guessing, is somewhat easier to say than do.

Yes, it is wrong that people are still persecuted for their sexuality. It’s also wrong that wars are waged due to religion (I’m with Stevie Wonder on that one), it’s wrong that people starve to death, it’s wrong that people the rich get richer.

But that doesn’t stop the fact it happens. Yes we can, should, and do fight to improve these things the world over but most campaigners come armed with a different solution, or at the very least a reasonable compromise.

July 6, 2010

I’m cheating on you

I’m sorry, dear reader, truly I am. I feel bad, very bad indeed, guilty even. It’s not you though, it’s me, honestly. You are lovely, it’s just… well I wanted something different…

So I am writing blog posts elsewhere. Blog posts you might be interested in… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but it’s just not that easy to bring up in conversation, you know?

Please don’t judge me, I will write for you again soon.

Ohhh, you want to see what I’ve been writing? Hmmm are you sure? Well, ok, but only because you asked so nicely.

July 5, 2010

10 years

I’ve had a personal website for over 11 years, the earliest posts from that are in the archives here in a category titled B.B. (Before Blog). Each page was handcrafted and typically it would take twice as long to get the post online as it took the write it in the first place.

Then, along came Blogger. A way to publish at the push of a button and, on this day 10 years ago, I did just that.

Since then a lot has changed. Which seems very obvious to say but it’s only when you sit back and think on the events of the past 10 years that I realise how different I am to the person that wrote those first blog posts.

I certainly didn’t think I’d still be writing here and whilst the quality and frequency remains very boom and bust, I don’t see me stopping. Writing, for me, is a very cathartic experience and has gotten me (and is getting me) through some very difficult times in my life; the death of my Gran, and of my mother-in-law, the stress of house moves, new jobs, and the joy of marriages and the times spent with my dearest friends. It’s also getting me through the end of my (almost) 13 year marriage but those scribbles will remain private.

I blog about my professional life and I use a blog as somewhere to store my random faffings with words and sentences.

I’ve meet many wonderful, smart, intelligent and funny people through blogging, and consider them friends. There are a few I’ve still to meet, and with the advent of Twitter I’m finding more and more people with similar views, similar outlooks and that wonderful mix of interests that so many bloggers share with many of us having similar tastes in art, music, design, religion, food, and politics. Thankfully we retain enough differences for a little friction as well.

To everyone who has visited here over the years, thank you. Thank you for your comments, for your kind thoughts and emails, for your advice and general willingness to share.

And thank you to you, my silly little blog. I probably owe you more than I realise.

There are many things about me I don’t share on this blog, many moments I keep for myself, or to protect the privacy of others (and, let’s be frank, to save my Mother any blushes), but there remains a lot of who I am wrapped up in 4, 793 posts that this blog contains. You may not always see the best of me, but that’s not the point.

A long time ago I received an email from a complete stranger. They had read something on my blog, something I’d written as a way for me to understand a not so pleasant period of my life, and they thanked me for writing it, for helping them realise they weren’t the only person in the world to go through what they were going through.

To those people who don’t understand blogging, don’t understand why someone would do it, why someone would share themselves with complete strangers I refer you to that email, to that one point of contact with a stranger which helped them. Maybe it didn’t make a huge difference, but life is so much about those moments of stillness, moments of beauty, the things that turn black to grey.

So I’ll continue to blog, continue to write about things that interest me, things that capture my attention, things which I want to capture and take things from there. If I’ve learned anything at all in the past 10 years (and some would say that’s doubtful), it’s that it no-one has all the answers and sometimes there aren’t any answers at all. Only life.

And as cheesy as it is, I’m going to end with a quote from my favourite movie as, when it boils down to it there really is only one choice to make.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

I’m choosing the former.

July 5, 2010