The Older Generation

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Not happy unless there’s something or someone they can complain about.

And I’m probably showing how I’m entering that older generation now.

What Do They Think?

My recent rant about people who can’t read brought a member of the older generation out of the woodwork to comment on the post. He/She apparently took offense at my request that people follow my instructions and not bother me for information about Wickenburg.

Apparently, this person thinks I should devote my life to maintaining my Web sites and serving the people who find and read them. I seriously doubt whether this person has used the Donation link to help support the site, which takes time and money to run. Instead he/she wants my services for free. And damn me if I don’t want to give it out!

I’ve seen this over and over at wickenburg-az.com. People can’t take the site for what it is: a many-authored blog related to the town and life in Wickenburg. They seem to think that it’s some kind of service that should do nothing but write glowing articles about the town and its surroundings, to paint a rosy picture of the retiree heaven they want it to be. A service run by someone who’ll drop everything — including work she does to make living — to get them the information they seek.

I don’t know where the hell they got that idea. I guess it’s because they can’t/won’t read.

This Ain’t the First Time

In my recent rant, I didn’t list the e-mails and nasty comments I’ve gotten from this group of senior whiners. Frankly, I didn’t think it was worth giving it attention. But since this recent whiner has joined the pack, I figured I’d take a moment to whine back.

Why is it that these people can never find something to be happy about? Why is it that they take offense so easily when something they know so little about is revealed to be a little less perfect than they thought? And why, oh why, is their attitude always “I don’t agree with you so I’m going to stop reading what you write and I’m going to tell you about it because I want to hurt your feelings.”

(Mommy! The mean man doesn’t like me! Waaaaa!)

A person with some guts or brains might attempt to start a reasonable debate on why I’m wrong or why I should look at things their way. A person who truly cared about the town might volunteer to join its content creators and write the articles they think belonged on the site to get their point of view out there.

But all that would take effort. It’s so much easier to say something they think is mean and walk away. (Heaven knows, their time is so limited now that they’re retired.)

Well, as my mother would say, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”

The Mittens

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In Monument Valley.

Monument Valley is one of the overnight destinations of the Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure and Land of the Navajo Helicopter Excursion that Flying M Air offers about a dozen times a year. Because of that, I get up to Monument Valley quite often.

Monument Valley, on the Arizona-Utah border, is relatively remote, hundreds of miles from any major cities. Although the roads to get to it are good, its distance from “civilization” keeps the crowds away. The vast majority of visitors are foreign tourists on bus trips. Monument Valley is pretty unique and has become somewhat iconic as a symbol of the American Southwest.

Traditional Navajo HoganMonument Valley is on the Navajo Reservation, which is the largest of all Native American Reservations in the country. Access to the rock formations we know as monuments is controlled through the entrance of the Navajo Tribal Park. There are reasonable fees for entering and driving your own vehicle into the park. But for an additional fee, you can go with a Navajo Guide who will take you places you’re not allowed to go on your own. If you have the time, I recommend this, as it’s likely to be your only opportunity to step inside a traditional Navajo hogan.

Goulding's LodgeI normally fly to the park from Page along the southeastern side of Lake Powell. There’s a landing strip at Goulding’s Lodge and after a quick, high-level cruise around the most famous monuments, I land at the strip (shown here) and shut down for the night. All the rooms have a clear view of Monument Valley’s westernmost formations, as well as the landing strip. I have to book the rooms at Goulding’s almost a year in advance to guarantee that I get them for the dates I need them.

Once at Goulding’s, my passengers take a 3-1/2 tour with a Navajo Guide. It’s done on a big tour truck with other people, but it’s personally narrated (not with a recording) and up to my relatively high standards of what a tour should be like. I give my passengers a choice of an afternoon tour (on the day of arrival) or a morning tour (on the day of departure). I think the morning tours are better for photography, but since you’re in the park so long, there are plenty of good photo opportunities, no matter what time of day you’re there.

ImageOf course, to learn whether the tour would be good, I had to take one. I’ve actually taken the tour three times. I took this photo on the most recent trip. It shows two of the most famous monuments: the Mittens. They got the name because they look like those woolly things you might have worn in the winter as a kid. They’re formally called East Mitten Butte and West Mitten Butte. They stand hundreds of feet off the desert floor, towers of red sandstone that are still eroding in the high winds and summer storms of northern Arizona.

The Navajo Nation zealously protects its natural wonders from commercial exploitation. It’s for that reason that photographers who want to use their photos commercially need to get a permit from the Navajo Nation Film Commission. I’ve done this once — to get the photos I needed to show on Flying M Air’s Web site. It isn’t cheap, but it isn’t difficult. In general, the film people are pretty reasonable and will do what they can to stay within your budget.

This October, I’m flying a group of about a dozen photographers around Monument Valley as part of a photo excursion offered by one of my clients. He’s gotten all the permits he needs to make it legal for me to fly at low altitude around the monuments. This is a huge deal and something I’m really looking forward to.

Beware of the Latest Scam

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Confirmation e-mails from sites you never joined.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail message that went something like this:

From: [omitted]
Subject: Member Confirm
Date: August 20, 2007 9:05:49 PM MST
To: [omitted]

Welcome,

Thank You for Joining Web Cooking.

Confirmation Number: 769799922
Temorary Login: user4129
Password ID: qb371

Your temporary Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please login and change it.

This link will allow you to securely change your login info: http://[IP address omitted]/

Thank You,
Membership Support Department
Web Cooking

Trouble is, I haven’t signed up for any Web site with that name using the e-mail address the message was sent to. And although the clickable URL was very tempting to check out — after all, I could have forgotten that I’d signed up for something — I was hot and tired and ready to call it quits for the day.

This morning, I got a very similar message sent to the same e-mail address from another site. That’s when I became sure that something was up.

You see, just the other day, I was listening to the Future Tense podcast while washing my helicopter. One of the stories was about the “Storm Virus,” which is being spread by e-mail. One of the ways they spread this virus is by sending you an e-mail with a link to a Web site. Idiots click this link and go to a Web page, which then takes advantage of security holes in the visitor’s brower to infect the computer. You’ve probably gotten one of these messages — they often lure you by telling you that someone has sent you an electronic greeting card.

Apparently, they’ve come up with a new way to lure you to a site.

So my word of warning here — do not click any link in an e-mail message you receive unexpectedly from someone you don’t know.

And if anyone else has more information about this virus or new series of e-mail spam cons, please do use the Comments link or form for this post to let us know. Thanks.

People Who Can’t Read

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It’s one of the little things that drive me nuts.

It’s not really people who can’t read. It’s the people who don’t read.

I run a Web site called wickenburg-az.com that’s surprisingly popular as a source of information about the town. You could check it out and find out what the Town Council will be debating at the next council meeting and learn about some neat things to do in the area and read some humor by the Arizona’s Official Liar. You can also find some information about the few Wickenburg businesses worth writing about — let’s not go there right now, okay? — and see some photos of the town and read letters to the editor of the local paper that they either won’t print or won’t print before their authors get sick of waiting to see them.

And if the information you find there isn’t enough, you can go to the contact page — like so many people do — and find the following statements:

All of the information we have about Wickenburg, its businesses, and its events are included on this Web site. We do not have any additional information that we can send out to site visitors….Please do not use the form to ask the Webmaster questions about Wickenburg. Your questions will not be answered.

The bold text appears on the page in bold. I did it that way on purpose, so people would see it easier. Evidently, it doesn’t help them read or comprehend it. Because I continue to get e-mail messages submitted via the form with all kinds of questions about the town.

Like today’s messge, written by a man with a stuck CAPS LOCK key. He wants to know if our library “rents” DVDs and if he can get a temporary library card. How the hell should I know? Does he expect me to drop everything and call the library for him? Why doesn’t he pick up the damn phone and call the library himself? Did running a Web site make me his personal assistant?

Or the woman who wrote asking for information about the gated communities in town. What the hell does she think Wickenburg is? A suburb of Scottdale? There are no gated communities here.

Or the retired couple who were looking for the 55+ trailer park with the cactus sculpture out front. Do they think I drive around town looking at trailer parks? I actually made the mistake of answering this e-mail message, telling them I had no idea what park they were talking about. They had the nerve to write back and ask me to look for it.

Like I don’t have anything else to do with my time.

And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten requests for information about events that might or might not be held in town. wickenburg-az.com has a calendar of events online. If an organization doesn’t submit event information to me, how am I supposed to know about it? So not only is it not listed, but as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t exist.

So now, when I get these messages, I delete them. I just press the old delete key without sending a response, leaving the sender wondering if their message ever got to anyone. It’s the best way to deal with it. They don’t write again. At least not to me.

Call me a bitch. You won’t be the first — or the last.

But if people can’t take the time to read simple information in bold type above a form, why should I take the time to answer their unwelcome questions?

Copy Editing – Part III: Editing for the Sake of Editing?

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That’s what it sometimes looks like to me.

In the first two parts of this series, I told you what I think copy editing should be and told you about my experiences, over a period of 10 years, working with copy editors for the annual revision of one of my books.

In this part of the series, I’ll sum up with a few of my conclusions and observations.

Stet!Editing for the Sake of Editing

I don’t think a copy editor should make a change unless there’s an error in the text he’s editing. Error means something wrong. Not something that’s equally correct his way or the author’s. If an editor’s change does not make an improvement, it should not be made at all. Period.

This is my opinion, but I think that most people in the publishing industry — especially the authors, of course — would agree. In fact, it seems like a no-brainer.

But it does not explain the commas that have come and go with each edition of this particular book. Or numerous other changes that have not improved the book’s content. Those, I think, are edits for the sake of editing — the editor’s way of proving that he’s on the job, doing what he’s being paid to do. Almost as if he’s being paid by the edit and wants to maximize his revenue or worth.

Unfortunately for these copy editors, it’s the copy editor who understands his job and does it as instructed who will be called for the next job. My recent copy editor certainly won’t be working on any of my books again. (Most likely because the PE doesn’t want to have to deal with my complaints.)

A publisher has no need for an editor who pisses off all the authors — even if some of them are prima donnas. Who wants headaches when you’re putting together a book? Why make changes when the changes aren’t needed?

Frustrated Writers?

A lot of writers (note that I didn’t say authors here) believe that editors are just frustrated writers. The thought goes something like this: If you can’t do, teach. If you can’t write, edit.

Double-ouch!

In general, I don’t think this is true. I think some people just like to edit. They might have the skill set or patience for it. They might enjoy reading an author’s work and fine-tuning it to make it better for the reader. They might simply lack the desire to do what’s required to write a book: organize, research, compose, etc. for 300+ pages of text. That doesn’t mean they can’t do it. Just that they’ve chosen not to.

[In my case, the reverse might be true: If you can’t edit, write. My editing often comes down to rewriting. That’s not a crime if my name is on the book cover, but it is unforgivable if my only mention is fine print on the copyright page. So there’s no career as an editor in my future.]

But like other writers, I also suspect that some editors are frustrated writers. They just haven’t had the break they need to get their own work published — for whatever reason.

After all, it isn’t exactly easy for a writer to become a published author. (Again, I think there’s a big distinction here.) Sure, in the era of Web 2.0, anyone can write and be published. But it’s still a more traditional publishing process — one that involves acquisition, project, copy, and technical editors — that turns a writer into an author. And that process isn’t as easy as writing your thoughts in a form and clicking a button to publish it on a blog.

Got Something to Add?

If you’ve got something to add to this discussion, don’t be shy. Use the comments link or form to add your comment to this post so others can take advantage of your insight on this matter, too!