Class #8 - Copy Editing

The half-way mark has been completed. This class was the perfect storm for me to fail. The assignments were more busy work than educational, my wife and I went through a miscarriage, and I transferred to a new job. Kind of lots going on to distract me.

My grades went up and down during the 5 weeks. My test scores ranged from 102% to 72%. I think I received 2 of my 3 worst grades on tests in this program in this class. About 1/5 of each test was fill-in-the-blank. This is absolutely my Achilles' Heel in test taking. I left most of the blanks as pristine as when they were handed to me. I know from experience that if I don't know an f-i-t-b answer, guessing won't work.

Heading into the final week with the final project (that was both huge, ambiguously confusing, and required very little actual copy editing), I knew I needed to ace the project and presentation. I only lost 14 points of the 250 possible!

This helped me make the grade. I earned 93% of the potential points, giving me an A- for my final grade.

For a class called Copy Editing, we sure did very little actual editing. The class should have been called Print Media given how much story creation, source gathering, research, and layout was required.

Music Videos

I used to love music videos. But they became more and more overproduced while showing less and less of the band. This generally goes double for songs created to go along with movies. The music videos become about the movie rather than the band.

Here's one that turns overproduction into art, with surprisingly amazing results. I love it! Notice the theme of the latest Transformer movie and the transformations between the movie and the video of the band.



I remembered black skies, the lightning all around me
I remembered each flash as time began to blur
Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve

So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes
Give me reason to fill this hole, connect the space between
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide

There was nothing in sight but memories left abandoned
There was nowhere to hide, the ashes fell like snow
And the ground caved in between where we were standing
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve

So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes across this new divide

In every loss, in every lie, in every truth that you'd deny
And each regret and each goodbye was a mistake too great to hide
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve

So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes
Give me reason to fill this hole, connect the space between
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide
Across this new divide, across this new divide

Birthday Awesomeness--there is no charge for awesomeness

So, I woke up alone today. My wife is away. On my birthday. (You see what I did there?)

As I got ready for work, I noticed that my sister-in-law left me a little sisterly b-day card and some wonderful cookies from the restaurant where she works (I can't even begin to spell the name). It was a cool affirmation card about how she's really like my sister, part of my adopted family! Such a nice sentiment.

Then I got to work and found a couple cards and a letter on my chair. My wife had given a friend a card to give me. Technically, I dislike sappy cards, but this one did it with elegance and practically spoke with my wife's voice.

My boss had a card for me. I don't know how he guessed one of my humor styles. If you're reading this now, Hanna, skip the rest of the paragraph as this will be much better to see it first-hand. For the rest of you, highlight the next section to see the description more clearly. It's a card with The Joker, from the most recent Batman movie, gracing the cover. His infamous words, "Why so serious?" are writting in violently large and psychotic font. When you open it up, the card has a voice player that plays his voice, saying, "Let's put a smile on that face," in the most aggressive manner, followed by his insane laugh. What an awesome card!

I also got a letter from Home Coupons, Inc., renewing my subscription. A year ago, my wife gave me about 30 coupons to be used in various circumstances. Well, I started classes a month later and so have been pretty busy with other things. This letter, written by my wife :), allows me to renew the coupons for this upcoming year! It was hilariously executed.

My friend bought me the best Risk game created to date - called Godstorm. It's Risk, but also not really Risk. While it's similar to the original game in concept and feel, it plays quite differently. What great fun!

Tonight the plan is to have some guys over, consume food, and kill zombies in a video game's apocalyptic scenario. Amber made me a lemon cake and put it, along with other food, in my house! What a sweet lady! Some friends are coming over. And, of course, killing zombies is always good fun, because, well, they're already dead! No morally shaky ground there!