theDARKcorner

These were the shoes I “had to have” when I was in sixth grade.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asics

ASICS Ltd. began as Onitsuka Co., Ltd., on September 1, 1949. Its founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Onitsuka became particularly renowned for the Mexico 66 design, in which the distinctive crossed stripes, now synonymous with the company brand, were featured for the first time. In 1977, Onitsuka Tiger merged with GTO and JELENK to form ASICS Corporation.

It’s always a good idea to have another pair of eyes read over your important report or project proposal before it leaves the office.

This sample illustrates the level of review you should expect from a technical editor.

The typical review may include any or all of the following:

• check spelling, word usage, punctuation and grammar, and consistency of style and formatting, including title and subtitle consistency, typeface and type style (bold, italic, underline) consistency, and parallel construction in lists and headings;

• provide fact-checking for what should be commonly understood information;

• cross-check text with references, figures, and tables;

• check continuity and logic and question the author about apparent gaps, contradictions, or issues left unaddressed, but do not substantively change content;

• make minor changes and recommend what to delete, rearrange, reword, or rephrase to clarify, tighten, and polish and to eliminate confusion, wordiness, triteness, and jargon;

• fine-tune the contributions of multiple authors to achieve a consistent tone.

Expect to pay in the range of $35/hour to $85/hour, equivalent to about three-to-five pages per hour, depending on the level of technical detail and the quality of the original author’s work. Excessive problems with writing style and formatting may increase the time required to complete a review. Your technical editor may be able to provide a lump-sum fee after seeing the document to be reviewed.

If you’d like, send me a letter or several pages out of a document on which you are currently working and I will provide a courtesy review. All work is strictly confidential.

Scientists in Boston found that drinking one or more regular or diet colas every day doubles your risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions—high blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, and excess fat around the waist—that increases your chance of heart disease and diabetes. Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol levels, preventing diabetes, and not smoking can add 6 to 9-½ healthy years to your life.

One culprit could be the additive that gives cola its caramel color. That additive increased the risk of metabolic syndrome in animal studies. Scientists also speculate that soda drinkers regularly expose their taste buds to natural or artificial sweeteners, conditioning themselves to prefer and crave sweeter foods, which may lead to weight gain, says Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD, a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the study’s lead researcher.

Better choices:  switch to tea if you need a caffeine hit; if it’s fizz you’re after, try sparkling water with a splash of juice.

I am listening to Lenny Kravitz and “working” on some stuff on the computer. They gave me one month’s severance pay and I had about three weeks of paid leave and I had already been paid at the beginning of October for working in September, so we won’t be homeless people until January. Maybe I’ll become a homeless person for my fiftieth birthday. I also asked for and received the Sony Vaio notebook computer that I have been using for several years. It is pretty old, so not worth much to the company. I offered to let the IT guy remove company software from the computer, but he took the liberty of deleting a bunch of files that I wish he hadn’t, including personal e-mails, e-mail address lists, and reference materials that I had collected over the years. It’s been a bit of a struggle to get the computer back to working condition.

I thought it was interesting when someone said to me, “Not sure if you’re interested in anything ….” Probably a Freudian slip indicating that they consider me a Loser of jobs. Other indications I have received that people may have similar opinions include someone sending me a job announcement for an administrative assistant position and my wife pretty much telling me so to my face. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to be a stay-at-home dad on my wife’s pay, which is barely enough to cover our monthly cell phone and pizza bill. So far in my first week of unemployment I have applied for zero jobs. The resulting number of ego-bruising rejections: also a comfortable zero.