{"id":32528,"date":"2020-03-24T18:58:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T23:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32528"},"modified":"2020-03-24T19:03:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T00:03:15","slug":"wrapping-up-the-catalog-copy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32528","title":{"rendered":"Wrapping Up the Catalog Copy"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>I don&#8217;t know about anyone else, but my sleep patterns have turned to utter chaos these last three weeks. One night I might have bifurcated sleep (sleep, significant break, sleep), the next restless near-insomnia, and the next ten solid hours of sleeping like the dead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>That, at least, has been my pattern over these last three nights. I woke at eight, feeling quite refreshed.  May that be the new normal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"\/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QRImi65hUk\">pic.twitter.com\/QRImi65hUk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnFetterman\/status\/1242538787500175360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 24, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"\/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>My efforts yesterday to get my wireless USB adapter to work in Linux Mint were a failure. I suppose it&#8217;s just not meant to be.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>I put on a pot of coffee, I had a bowl of Nutter Butter cereal,<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20200324_093643-640x640.jpg\" alt=\"The writer, at his desk\" class=\"wp-image-32524\"\/><figcaption>The writer, at his desk<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>My tasks for the day:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Prep Import Toys for layout<\/li><li>UK text<\/li><li>New Release list for DBD<\/li><li>Liqudation list to start on Thursday<\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The first was the matter of about fifteen minutes. When finished, I sent an email to the Graphics team, letting them know that the section was ready for them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The third ended up being nothing; new shipments to retailers are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.diamondcomics.com\/Home\/1\/1\/3\/597?articleID=241552\">ceasing next week<\/a> due to the COVID outbreak, so I had no list to prepare.  &#8220;New Releases&#8221; is a misnomer, by the way.  The &#8220;releases&#8221; in the spreadsheets I receive are for next week and the following week, and I would create articles in the CMS from these spreadsheets for next week. to start on Sunday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The main task for the day was to finish the text for the catalog&#8217;s UK supplement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Of all of the catalog&#8217;s sections, the UK section is the most labor intensive. The other catalog sections are edited in a database &#8212; title, text, priceline, etc. &#8212; and various flags are set so that when I run an export fuction the text comes out structured and formatted the way I want it. With the UK section, it&#8217;s all done manually. I start from spreadsheets sent to me by the buyers, I take the information I need from the spreadsheets and dump into into a Word file, and then I go through and edit the Word file into the shape of what I want. It&#8217;s a little bit more time intensive, too; the equivalent number of items in another section would not take as long.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This sounds like a complaint, but it&#8217;s not. The writing takes as long as it takes. That&#8217;s just the reality of being a writer. Sometimes I have to flesh out some bare details. Other times I have to consult various fandom wikis (<em>Star Trek<\/em>, <em>Transformers<\/em>, etc.) to say something specific about a generic product listing. And I&#8217;ve worked on the UK section long enough that I slip fairly seamlessly into using British spelling and punctuation. I just have to remember when I&#8217;m done to turn my brain back to American English.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This was wrapped up by early afternnon. This involved some search-and-replaces I run to fix some of the formatting. (I have &#8220;Autocorrect As You Type&#8221; turned off in Word.) That done, the file was emailed to the UK buyers, and they&#8217;ll email me corrections in the morning, before I even get up.  And with that, the catalog copy for the May catalog was done.  Finished.  Finito.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>At this point, I took a little break, went outside, and walked around. It was a nice afternoon, though a little on the chilly side. And very quiet, almost no traffic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-image size-fullwidth\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20200324_155247-1200x675.jpg\" alt=\"A quiet, early spring afternoon in Yoe\" class=\"wp-image-32525\"\/><figcaption>A quiet, early spring afternoon in Yoe<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>After, I worked on the liquidation lists. Those two words, &#8220;liquidation lists,&#8221; sound simple, but they encompass so much. There are html tables to create from a spreadsheet, articles to create using those html tables in the corporate CMS, and a text file to create, again from the spreadsheet, to put online Thursday morning. I developed VBA macros for Excel and Word years ago to automate creating the html tables and the text file as much as possible.  It&#8217;s funny &#8212; I was hired to be a writer, and I had to learn to be a programmer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>As Scrooge McDuck said to Huey, Louie, and Dewey in the original <em>DuckTales<\/em>, &#8220;Work smart, not hard.&#8221;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Tomorrow I will make any UK corrections needed, send the UK to layout, and start work on the catalog&#8217;s editorial copy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>That&#8217;s another work-from-home day in the books.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"\/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MuseumBouquet?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MuseumBouquet<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CherryBlossoms?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CherryBlossoms<\/a> is for our fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/smithsonian?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@smithsonian<\/a> museums and all of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NationalMall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NationalMall<\/a> neighbors!?<br><br>Kawase Hasui&#39;s &quot;Washington Monument (Potomac Riverbank)&quot; in our collection. Copyright with the artist, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/OpenFS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#OpenFS<\/a>: S1998.159.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Smithsonian?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Smithsonian<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YEQ1qqdTDE\">pic.twitter.com\/YEQ1qqdTDE<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Smithsonian&#39;s National Museum of Asian Art (@FreerSackler) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FreerSackler\/status\/1242490826770571266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 24, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"\/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This meme went around on Facebook this afternoon. I remember the days when Facebook was filled with memes like that, memes that told your friends a little bit about you and your interests and your personality. They seemed to disappear six or seven years ago, but I&#8217;ve noticed them making a comeback in the past two weeks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>You have only one movie of each genre to watch over and over. What do you pick? Here are my choices:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Western Movie: <em>\u00a1Three Amigos!<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Monster Movie: <em>The Bride of Frankenstein<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Fantasy Movie: <em>The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Action Movie: <em>Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Thriller Movie: <em>The Hunt for Red October<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Horror Movie: <em>Alien 3<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Slasher Movie: <em>From Hell<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Mystery Movie: <em>The Hound of the Baskervilles<\/em> (the Hammer 1959 version with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Drama Movie: <em>The Natural<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Science Fiction Movie: <em>Contact<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Comedy Movie: <em>That Thing You Do!<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Musical Movie: <em>A Hard Day&#8217;s Night<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Disaster Movie: <em>Deep Impact<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Romantic Movie: <em>Dave<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Independent Movie: <em>Monty Python and the Holy Grail<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 War Movie: <em>Empire of the Sun<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Bond Movie: <em>The World Is Not Enough<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Animated Movie: <em>The Little Prince<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>1 Super-Hero Movie: <em>Batman Returns<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>My choices are occasionally quirky. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"\/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When the President looks the nation in the eye and says some lives lost are acceptable to save the stock market, he means you.<br><br>Not some abstract percentage.<br><br>You.<br><br>He means your mom, your grandad, your kid.<br><br>He means you personally should die if it makes him lose less money.<\/p>&mdash; Catherynne M. Valente (@catvalente) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/catvalente\/status\/1242422417605242880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 24, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/figure>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t know about anyone else, but my sleep patterns have turned to utter chaos these last three weeks. One night I might have bifurcated sleep (sleep, significant break, sleep), the next restless near-insomnia, and the next ten solid hours of sleeping like the dead. That, at least, has been my pattern over these last<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32528\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Wrapping Up the Catalog Copy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[4081,89,4855,4856,4857,752,4858,4859,855,4860,4861,426,176,4862,29,539,4863,46,98,4864,647,4865],"class_list":["post-32528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-work","tag-baseball","tag-batman","tag-bifurcated-sleep","tag-cherry-blossom-festival","tag-copyediting","tag-facebook","tag-facebook-meme","tag-insomnia","tag-james-bond","tag-linux-mint","tag-microsoft-excel","tag-microsoft-word","tag-monty-python","tag-nutter-butters","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-sleep","tag-social-distancing","tag-the-lord-of-the-rings","tag-the-beatles","tag-three-amigos","tag-uncle-scrooge","tag-vba","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}