[Helpers] Text editing?

[Mystress Angelique Serpent]

At 10:19 PM 16/03/2006, you wrote:
> >
> >    I'm very grateful to Goddess for the team we have here!  Tasks have
> > been
> > neatly divided up and there is progress!
> >
> >    Sachiko is handling web design, flash & FTP
> >    Gustaf will be and is handling audio and video.
> >    Sandra C is taking care of collecting the experiences links.
> >    Sandra D is/was working on updating links, and Hillary helping.
> >    Ted was working on the new site FAQ... not sure where he got to...
> > probably waiting for me to give feedback.
> >    Richard is... well, helping with a few things!
> >    Percyval is supporting, because he was so involved with the
>original
> > creation he probably knows the course better than I do!
> >
> >
>
>Hey thats great. :) Good idea to keep them organized like that too, so
>you know what everybody is working on. I had a friend once who was
>having a bunch of people help her with an online project, and it was
>total chaos because she couldn't keep track of who was doing what. Lol

   Yeah. LOL!! Well, theoretically I have some talent for leadership.  Even 
so, it has been a bit of a learning curve for me.  Realizing my 
dinosaurness. :)


> >     That pretty much leaves editing the lessons and creating homework
> > assignments, which must be mine to do... but hell, yeah I need an
>editor.
> >    I'm pretty happy with the first 6 lessons I am done editing, but I
> > noticed tendencies I need an editor to watch for.
> >
>
>Is there anything in particular that you'd like me to watch for?

   Mostly described below.

> >     Some lessons are very ADD! I jump from topic to topic like a
>mountain
> > goat fleeing a cougar.
>
>Yeah, I noticed this when we first started taking the class. Gustaf had
>no problem following some of these lessons, but I'm a more literal
>thinker, and the skipping around tended to confuse me, which is why I
>volenteered for this. :) LOL

   Ah, perfect!!  Start with those lessons!!
   I have been trying to go through the lessons in order, but doing the 
lessons most in need of repair first, may work better.  That way I won't be 
messing around with stuff that is basically fine, and burning out my ADD 
attention before getting to the more vital fixes.

> >    I keep finding stupid email shorthand that I thought I had
>deleted..
> > like spelling though as tho.
> >    Some essays were never spellchecked!! egad.  (you need a Canadian
> > spellchecker!!)
> >
>
>I'll keep an eye out for the internet slang, no worries there. I don't
>have a Canadian spell check, but I think the one I have is British, so
>it should be similar, spelling color with a u and all that. :)

   Yes, good second choice.

> >    If you can go through each lesson essay and paste it into word,
>clean
> > it
> > up, make comments about what can be cut-improved, redone, etc. with
>the
> > red
> > ink then email it back to me directly so I can be laser... if you like
>I
> > will make the word docs and add comments, then send them to you for
> > editing.
> >
>
>Either way would be fine with me. I don't know what kind of time/energy
>you have for this particular part of the project at the moment.

   I really want to get the course update online ASAP, even if the new vids 
and transcripts are added later.  Right now I am hip deep working with Lori 
West on press releases, etc. and having a flyer or press release that links 
to a website that looks archaic and neglected is just not good.

   I flipped out yesterday, realizing we sent a proposal that linked to a 
page that had not been updated since the Calgary workshop was cauncelled 
two years ago.  I fixed up the page right away, hoping the time zone 
difference meant the recipent had not read their mail yet.

   FST gets over 7000 unique visitors a month, and new membership is steady 
but    the conversion rate of visitors to members is not nearly what it 
ought to be and I am sure the reason is simply that the preview looks 
cluttered and neglected.

   The European tour is partly big promotion for FST and I want FST to look 
sharp! I'm going to take some time this weekend and see if I can get the 
preview pages done and online, even if I have to delete a few pages to do 
it! It is too long anyway. My marketing research tells me to whittle it all 
down to a single page!

   Sorry, some of this is just me sorting my thoughts by thinking out loud.

>  If you
>have the time and inclination to make the word docs and add your
>comments first, that might give me a clearer idea of what you are
>thinking on some of it to begin with.

   That is what I was thinking this morning, but having percolated all 
day,  I realize if I do it I will end up sidetracked into editing the 
essays and be back in the same stuckness.

    I know it might sound strange but my ADD brain... I am jumping through 
hoops of hard copy and pasting into Word just to get a fresh eye enough to 
be able to actually focus to *read* the essays and see the words! I skim, 
read energy and read from memory but I don't see the words!! I've noticed I 
read the first line of each paragraph and skip to the next, and I have to 
really force myself to read word by word.. it is exhausting.

   It is very frustrating, but that is an ADD brain dealing with something 
that is not new or novel. This stuff is old news to me and that makes it 
hard to focus.  I created this course in the first place was I was tired of 
answering the same questions, writing the same stuff over and over.

    I also sometimes lose track of what I have written in my head and what 
has actually gotten typed up... like the page I mentioned earlier. I 
thought that page had been updated and horrors no it was awful.

  Or, if you'd rather, I'll just
>start us off by editing whats out there and that might spark the ideas
>or thoughts that you want to comment on.

   Yes. If the essay shows up with red ink and comments then I will be able 
to approach it with a fresh eye. Your eye!

   I do have a few years of tea room posts archived in my subconscious. 
Some lessons trigger more questions and therefore are most in need of 
clarification.   There are some lessons,  like heart voice that some 
students were stuck on for months... and, in some cases the new content is 
probably already written some where.. the info can be edited into the new 
essay from my tea room response.

   I kind of approach writing like coding HTML, or like collage.  Many of 
the present essays were scooped from email archives or my other web pages, 
sometimes quilted together from bits. The grounding itself, started out as 
an email to the Celestine prophecy list in 1996! People on that list read 
it and became awakened and I said Hmmm...
   Sometimes it does not work, if the tone of the various bits don't work 
together it is better to start fresh from scratch.

   Maybe you and Sandra C can work together. Sandra, you are going to be 
going through the Tea Room posts for the experiences links. Can you 
give  Kimberly a heads-up if you find something I wrote in response to 
someone, that could be edited into the lesson essay to clarify it?

   Kimberly, I may be sending you prospecting the archives sometimes, if I 
know I have already written something but will get too sidetracked if I go 
look for it myself.  You may discover stuff that would be good to add as 
experiences links, so pass it into Sandra C.

   Is that workable?

   For both of you... the search engine in Windows on your computer might 
be more efficient for keyword and phrase searches than the one on the 
website. Would you like me to zip the Tea Room archives so you can dowload 
a copy?

   Very few people who sign up for FST send me a grad essay.  I think a 
certain percentage of people dropping out is normal but the percentage is 
too high... and I wish I knew what lesson people stop at.  I know the 
middle section of the course is very challenging, but it feels like 
someplace there is a fly in the ointment that discourages people or puts 
them off.  Keep an eye out.

>Just let me know which you'd
>prefer. Would you want me to take the documents from the CD you sent or
>from the web page?

   Ah. I am trying to remember. When we did the file comparison to whittle 
down the various versions, did that include files from the CD? I think so, 
because I remembered editing some lessons while preparing the CD but I 
thought I had  forgotten to paste the improvements into the web version... 
that was why we had to do version control.
   You could use the CD versions, but going with the fscnew/current/tantra 
web versions would be better. If nothing else, because the filenames on the 
CD were not changed, and the web file names are correct.  I'm giving the 
doc files the same name as the lessons they are for.

   You just need the text, hmm... I may have all the lessons in a doc file 
someplace.

> >    I need an editor to clean things up and help me focus on where
> > improvement is needed so I can be more efficient.
> >
>
>
>Thats what I'm here for! :)

   Then you are an answer to my stressed out prayers! :)

   Early this week I was feeling particularly overwhelmed by my deadlines 
and things to do list, frozen into head-spinning inertia from a racing brain.

    I felt better when I realized it was full moon... but I really did 
spend a lot of time in prayer, surrendering and asking Goddess to take it 
all, and guide me in prioritizing and focus on what She gives back.  It 
really helped to calm me down and clear my head.  I think some things 
disappeared from my mental things to do list. I dunno what, but the whole 
web of interconnected activities is seeming much simpler now.



> >     The other thing is a little printable PDF reference booklet I have
> > been
> > working on with Rich. It will be a freebie on K-teacher, but I am also
> > planning to give out copies to workshop attendants.  It will take the
>form
> > of a little magazine printed horizontally on letter size paper, folded
>and
> > stapled.
> >
> >     What is different about it for me, is I like headings to fall on
>the
> > top of the page whenever possible, and so I am writing to length...
>which
> > is normal for almost every sort of writing except web pages and
>emails!!
> > I
> > don't like seeing half or 2/3 of a page blank before the next heading,
>and
> > I am not good enough at formatting in word to make things fit! I plan
>to
> > add an essay about Kundalini, other than that it is mostly done but
>could
> > be cleaner and prettier! Hmm, I may have sent you an older copy along
>with
> > the soap & CD.
> >
> >    It can wait a month. The course update is the first priority.
> >
>
>I'd be glad to help with that too as soon as we've finished the update.
>:)

   Good!   thank you!!


>Blessings,
>
>Kimberly