What are you reading?
I don't know why I like customer service jobs - but I do.
I think I like the feeling of doing a good job, maybe the recognition that I get on the street when I run into one of the volunteers that works with me? I don't know.
I do know that Christmas time invariably sucks when you work in a customer service job. I happen to have a very good customer service job and so it doesn't particularly bother me that I am around upwards of 6,000 people over the weekend. Most of them people that I will never see again.
What bothers me the most is that I haven't had time to sit down and write a damned thing, blog or otherwise, since the 17th or so of November when Christmas Carol opened.
I have been reading a wonderful book recently called Under the Skin by Michael Faber. I don't know that I would call it science fiction, but I would certainly say that it has some pretty interesting stuff in it. I would group it in with Animal Farm by George Orwell. Tonight as I was reading though I noticed something that made me really sit up straight.
For the bulk of the book (about 200 pages or so) they had used 31 lines per page. I am not in publishing, so there might be an actual measurement that people use, but I can count to 100 and I did go back and count later - after I noticed what I am about to relay to you.
The book has this character who basically poisons people in her car. Every time she does it there is a finality to it. It ends a section of a chapter (creates that funny double space paragraph) or it goes to the next chapter. On this time though, it just ends the page. When I went back and looked what the publishers had done was gone to 30 lines a page for about 4 or 5 pages. This may not seem like much, but the hook that was waiting on the next page was really suprising and I am convinced that the pagination had a lot to do with it. It was genius and it emphases why you should never buy a Penguin or Signet classic.
Now I know what you are thinking. WHOA. Where did that come from? One minute talking about a book, the next dissing Penguin. I just don't get it.
So I will explain, I have been reading and buying a fair number of books lately. The ones that I like the most are typically the trade paperbacks, they are a little bit larger and generally a better quality. But I think more than anything, I really like the feel of a good book in my hand. The weight of it, the texture of good quality paper, criminey even the smell of it. Penguin and Signet books are light, the paper is crap and they smell like glue and shitty ink. Blech.
On a total side note. I have recently found out that there are three people on my staff that have the same birthday as me. Now, that is some shit, because unlike Nicole, who somehow manages to work with a person that has the same birthday as her everywhere she works. I have met only one person, a girl in Roswell, NM, who had the same birthday as me. Now there are TWO on my staff. WEIRD SHIT. The weirder part is that I always think of myself as sort of a fuck-up because of my zodiac sign. Basically I am a Leo/Cancer cusp. So imagine two of the polar opposites of a person, one wants to go to a party and dance loudly to AC/DC, the other wants to lock themselves in a room, burn candles and listen to The Cure. That is me.
So I found this quiz on Blog things and this is kind of freaky also, I am exactly 93 % Leo and 93% Cancer. I am not sure how scientific this quiz is, but it is fun to think about.
Well anyway, sorry for all the disjointedness of this post, once I get back on to a regular schedule it should tighten up considerably.
I think I like the feeling of doing a good job, maybe the recognition that I get on the street when I run into one of the volunteers that works with me? I don't know.
I do know that Christmas time invariably sucks when you work in a customer service job. I happen to have a very good customer service job and so it doesn't particularly bother me that I am around upwards of 6,000 people over the weekend. Most of them people that I will never see again.
What bothers me the most is that I haven't had time to sit down and write a damned thing, blog or otherwise, since the 17th or so of November when Christmas Carol opened.
I have been reading a wonderful book recently called Under the Skin by Michael Faber. I don't know that I would call it science fiction, but I would certainly say that it has some pretty interesting stuff in it. I would group it in with Animal Farm by George Orwell. Tonight as I was reading though I noticed something that made me really sit up straight.
For the bulk of the book (about 200 pages or so) they had used 31 lines per page. I am not in publishing, so there might be an actual measurement that people use, but I can count to 100 and I did go back and count later - after I noticed what I am about to relay to you.
The book has this character who basically poisons people in her car. Every time she does it there is a finality to it. It ends a section of a chapter (creates that funny double space paragraph) or it goes to the next chapter. On this time though, it just ends the page. When I went back and looked what the publishers had done was gone to 30 lines a page for about 4 or 5 pages. This may not seem like much, but the hook that was waiting on the next page was really suprising and I am convinced that the pagination had a lot to do with it. It was genius and it emphases why you should never buy a Penguin or Signet classic.
Now I know what you are thinking. WHOA. Where did that come from? One minute talking about a book, the next dissing Penguin. I just don't get it.
So I will explain, I have been reading and buying a fair number of books lately. The ones that I like the most are typically the trade paperbacks, they are a little bit larger and generally a better quality. But I think more than anything, I really like the feel of a good book in my hand. The weight of it, the texture of good quality paper, criminey even the smell of it. Penguin and Signet books are light, the paper is crap and they smell like glue and shitty ink. Blech.
On a total side note. I have recently found out that there are three people on my staff that have the same birthday as me. Now, that is some shit, because unlike Nicole, who somehow manages to work with a person that has the same birthday as her everywhere she works. I have met only one person, a girl in Roswell, NM, who had the same birthday as me. Now there are TWO on my staff. WEIRD SHIT. The weirder part is that I always think of myself as sort of a fuck-up because of my zodiac sign. Basically I am a Leo/Cancer cusp. So imagine two of the polar opposites of a person, one wants to go to a party and dance loudly to AC/DC, the other wants to lock themselves in a room, burn candles and listen to The Cure. That is me.
So I found this quiz on Blog things and this is kind of freaky also, I am exactly 93 % Leo and 93% Cancer. I am not sure how scientific this quiz is, but it is fun to think about.
| You are 93% Leo |
 |
| You are 93% Cancer |
 |
Well anyway, sorry for all the disjointedness of this post, once I get back on to a regular schedule it should tighten up considerably.
posted by V. at 10:14 PM
1 Comments:
Wow I am 40% Leo and 40% Cancer. And I'm 87% Virgo, which is my actual Sun sign. Huh.
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