Nice Mommy~Evil Editor

You know, on any given day when I’m reading a website, something for pleasure or editing, I can read a sentence wrong. Who knows why, but maybe I’ll switch words around or miss words that are there (the other day I substituted “merge” for “manage” in my head). Or maybe it’s not a sentence I’ve read wrong, but a mention of something, that I missed or read but didn’t register. When in edits, I’ll leave a comment for the author, requesting a fix or asking a question. When I’m wrong or I’ve missed it, they’re happy to point it out to me or go…huh? They like it when they can do that and I’m okay with it. It actually happens a time or two every manuscript. I strive for perfection *snort* but realize I’m just as human as the next person. I’m thinking I’ll hit perfection right around the same time I hit the lottery. And my guess is the lottery will come first. Wouldn’t that rock?

But there’s a new visitor to my blog who wants you all to be warned. So, uh, consider yourself warned. And you know, I totally feel her pain about that darn comment box causing her errors. I’m pretty sure the WordPress Dashboard is to blame for all of my blog errors too. Lesson of the day: It’s always someone (or something) else’s fault when it comes to your own errors. Everyone else is just doing a shoddy job. Unfortunately, you won’t get to experience the full joys of her critique of my “cute Web site” because she wrote it to me in a long and…um…interesting email that I don’t have permission to share with the world (you see how I can be discrete and all? Can I have a cookie?) but she does think you’re all paying me for my advice. Could someone direct me to the account that’s being deposited in, because I need a new wardrobe. Who needs the lottery?

But here’s my warning for you all: If you expected perfection from my BLOG you probably ought to seek another one to read. This is my personal blog, my stream of consciousness. It’s not the Samhain website or a blog I get paid to maintain or a manuscript I edited (though those often have errors too-even with three or four or ten people reading them–and THOSE are embarrassing). It’s my fun place. If you suck the fun out of it (or try to, at least) I will get cranky. Yeah, maybe I should take the high road but sometimes that’s just not possible, that whole perfection thing again. Maybe I should try harder. But in the meantime, I run spellcheck as I type (thank you, Firefox) but other than that I don’t sweat the missing words, misplaced punctuation or the misused English. The other day my friend Erin commented in a post about something I misused. She’s my friend, she can do that. We go out drinking together. If you can’t do it in a fun way, and if it’s unlikely we will ever go out drinking together, you don’t have that right.

And here’s the other thing: The only person allowed to be pretentious here with any regularity is me. Because it’s my blog. The rest of you with inclinations to be pretentious. Or pompous. Or any other “p” word. You all have the option of not reading my blog, and of going to your own blogs and acting however you like (but try not to land on Karen Scott’s “Behaving Badly” list because that’s just something you want to avoid at all costs. I have nightmares about it). I’ll make exceptions for visiting dignitaries and drinking buddies, but that’s it. Unless you want to help pay my hosting fees. Then we’ll talk.