January 24th-26th, 2014
Fridays seem to be a little different in the office. I'd almost expected it to be crazier on Fridays to get everything in before people leave for the weekend, but it's kind of the opposite. At least from what I see. Some people are either working from home or off, others leave early--overall it's quieter, which is already odd since you're pretty much in a big room where everyone's reading something or another. It's basically a library with a kitchenette in it, and desk phones.
I'd gotten there early and ended up sketching the Accountant both the Lannister and Arryn sigils. Stark is next, I think. He's only got one House Stark poster on the outside of his desk; I want to pin them all in a group together around his generic griffon crest cut out.
So far a happy family, and it's only gonna get bigger. Like George R. R. Martin's death tolls.
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I was hefted a giant book with type-stamped numbers and handwritten titles all in lists. This is the book in which publishers assign ISBN numbers to their books. Sometimes that even means leaving seemingly random blanks for works anticipated by some author. Publishers will buy books and series that do not yet exist in advance, sometimes, because they know that author will sell and it's like the publisher is calling dibs on whatever masterpiece it may become. Faith and taxes. It's the author's job then to pull through, which does not always happen. One promised series got completely replaced by new titles by the same author because the original plan didn't work out to expectations. It was the ISBN numbers for the last two books of this non-series that I had to hunt for because for whatever reason they did not make it into the electronic file. I found them nestled together, Untitled for Series _____ #2 and Untitled for Series _____ #3!
I posted new hard copies of the updated 2014 schedules beside each editor's desk, read a couple of new manuscripts (one I really had fun reading; maybe it'll be on the DAW list some day?), and reviews--then my supervisor took me on a field trip.
Hitching a ride on an elevator up a couple floors, I was shown the "Take Shelves". They're actually speckled all over Penguin, but I guess the ones on these floors are bigger. One of the perks of being in editing and publishing is that there are shelves of extra prints that are no longer needed, so anyone can just take them home. And since Penguin prints everything, those shelves have classics like Mary Shelley up there with graphic novels and last year's best sellers--if you get there fast enough, anyway. Apparently I can come here whenever I've the time, and doubly cool is that for a DAW book I want to read, I pretty much just need to ask. I don't know if they realize what they've done in suggesting this, but I will be anticipating some rainy afternoons to dedicate to many of these unread books. For now, I just wanted a book from the Take Shelf that I'd never heard of and settled on a Dean Koontz novel called Watchers. I think I'd seen his name printed places before, but otherwise I know nothing about his writing and picked him pretty much because we share the name "Dean".
Now for: "Subway Adventures: Episode 3"
I love London's tube system. Adore it. It makes sense with clear cut lines going precisely here-to-there. The trains all have an electronic list of which stop you're at, how many stops total that train has and which ones, and which direction it is going. And the only distinction between the lines are RAINBOW COLO(U)RS.
I do not yet love the New York subways. I await that day patiently, but it is certainly not today. A-Z, 1-10...Why have 36 different lines? Oh they don't. They skipped letters. And they all still have colors. The ACE has regular C's, but A only goes down the middle track or in the direction you don't want to go, and E is out sick for the weekend. Oh did they not say? To get to A on the ACE take the C and hop one over to transfer on the A. Duh.
Then go to this German sounding street that you probably won't hear over the intercom anyway, or be able to read on the clusterfluff of a map, so look out the windows and read fast. Then get off A, get on G, get off at a presidential sounding street that'll let you exit at two totally differently named streets and STAY THERE so someone who actually knows what she's doing can find you.
I had left extra early on Sunday to make sure I got to Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on time to visit some family friends who work there. I guess I had all my adventure follies the day before, because I arrived 45 minutes early and just wandered around for a coffee shop to kill time before 11:15. I spent most of the day with these guys, and their little baby. The baby is shy to the extent that when she sees someone new she will burst into tears and King Kong-climb up her mom with fear. I think she tolerated my existence by the time I left. She almost smiled at me a couple times, but would catch herself halfway through and hide her face behind her mom or dad.
Another good thing about traveling up this way was that I got to walk through Central Park all snow covered and everything. Chilly, but gorgeous. I realize this picture in no way does it justice, but at least there are trees here. I saw a few horse and buggy rides, too.
I did come across a bunch of people wearing these aluminum looking blankets that immediately made me think of alien fanatics, but apparently they were the New York Road Runners finishing up a race.
This weekend I also went to Pratt to visit one of my friends who studies architecture over there. Pratt, as well as being an institution of learning, is the proud owner of 12 cats: the Pratt Cats. They live in the engine room because that's actually a building and the warmest place on campus.
Some of the cats are show cats with ribbons to prove it, but mostly they're rescues from a nearby shelter. Some are also meaner than others, like apparently this one:
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I don't know his name. He's got a nick in his ear he probably got in a fight, and while he has these gorgeous yellow eyes, he looked at me like there was no doubt hands would be bitten if they suddenly became in range. I did not pet this cat.
Pratt is a pretty neat looking school. A good part of it seems to be classrooms shoved in old textile factories, so everything is brownstone surrounded in these sculpture gardens. I have decided, though, that my absolute favorite thing about this school is how close it is to this killer bagel shop.
TOURISTY MOMENT OF THE WEEK: Bagel and Lox
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That's right. I had my first ever bagel and lox. I went up to the guy at the counter and asked for it, and he says,
"What kind?"
Me: However New Yorkers are supposed to eat it.
Him: (chuckles) That can be a lot'a ways.
Me: How would you eat it?
Him: That also can be a lot'a ways; I just like food!
Me: Hey, me too! Let's just do that. Surprise me with that in mind.
Him: Okay, a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, fresh lox, tomato, an' onion.
It. Was. Amazing. Oh man. I'm going back.
The cream cheese array they had at this place made it all look like a gelato case! I am apparently supposed to order the lox cream cheese, next time. It's like what I got except the lox is mixed into the cream cheese so you get some with every bite.
Besides all that, this place was a normal bakery, too. I got a blueberry muffin that they cut in half and toasted with a tab of butter. Yum!
And speaking of buttered muffins, some housemates and I accidentally walked into the grand opening of a hipster sex shop.
One of the girls in my house was invited to the opening of her sponsor's gallery, and as the intern she was obligated to take him up on it. Plus she kind of wanted to, and she invited us. It was already a tiny space, but you could see people squished up against the glass unable to move there were so many people packed inside. We pushed our way through to the back anyway, just long enough to check some stuff out and mingle with the artist.
We'd wanted to go to a coffee shop after, but the one that my friend knew of was closed because it was 8:30 pm, I guess. Across the street was this little place with window paintings of The David in swimwear, pastel swirls, you know some things that make it look like a bustling artsy coffee joint. There were a bunch of people in there too, but we figured we could just get in and grab drinks to go.
We go in, and I don't know about the other girls, but first I'm looking for where they keep the barista, or where the heck this line is to order...I don't see one, so finally I focus on what is actually in this place. Next to the door there was a gumball machine, but with those plastic cup things that'll have fifty-cent rings, you know. Except they had specialty condoms in them instead. Like vegan condoms. ...Oh. Some of the other shelves had "You Time" toys on it. ...Oh. Some had HAND MADE signs next to the bondage equipment. ...Oh. There was a glass case to show where you could dip your delicates in gold paint and have them mounted on a plaque with engravings that ranged from "Lost Virginity" to "First Wet Dream". You can also get (extremely) personalized "You Time" toys of your genitalia to gift to a significant other. ...I see. Some of the girls want to come back to this store, so we decided that the code name for it should be "Not-a-Coffee-Shop".
For some reason they also had some really nice jewelry. Not like the do-weird-stuff-with-jewelry, but the nice, pretty, normal, your grandma-could-wear-this-tastefully-jewelry.
Then we found a Dunkin Donuts and had coffee.
In other less awkward-funny news, my Pratt friend showed me a little Chinese place on 14th Street that's called "Comebuy". It doubles as a bubble tea and dinner place. It is great and I'm going back there, too. She knew about it because apparently even though her school is in Brooklyn, one of her classes was all the way out here in Manhattan, and she and her friends would go crazy over this place. It's cheap, fills you up, and there's little to complain about. If I can't make it to China Town for Chinese New Year at the end of the month, I may try to hike back there.
The weekend finished with some pizza back at the house, Princess Bride on TV, tea, and also an episode or two of Adventure Time.
End of Week Two. Status: I still may be under the impression that I'm a tourist.
Fridays seem to be a little different in the office. I'd almost expected it to be crazier on Fridays to get everything in before people leave for the weekend, but it's kind of the opposite. At least from what I see. Some people are either working from home or off, others leave early--overall it's quieter, which is already odd since you're pretty much in a big room where everyone's reading something or another. It's basically a library with a kitchenette in it, and desk phones.
I'd gotten there early and ended up sketching the Accountant both the Lannister and Arryn sigils. Stark is next, I think. He's only got one House Stark poster on the outside of his desk; I want to pin them all in a group together around his generic griffon crest cut out.
So far a happy family, and it's only gonna get bigger. Like George R. R. Martin's death tolls.
I was hefted a giant book with type-stamped numbers and handwritten titles all in lists. This is the book in which publishers assign ISBN numbers to their books. Sometimes that even means leaving seemingly random blanks for works anticipated by some author. Publishers will buy books and series that do not yet exist in advance, sometimes, because they know that author will sell and it's like the publisher is calling dibs on whatever masterpiece it may become. Faith and taxes. It's the author's job then to pull through, which does not always happen. One promised series got completely replaced by new titles by the same author because the original plan didn't work out to expectations. It was the ISBN numbers for the last two books of this non-series that I had to hunt for because for whatever reason they did not make it into the electronic file. I found them nestled together, Untitled for Series _____ #2 and Untitled for Series _____ #3!
I posted new hard copies of the updated 2014 schedules beside each editor's desk, read a couple of new manuscripts (one I really had fun reading; maybe it'll be on the DAW list some day?), and reviews--then my supervisor took me on a field trip.
Hitching a ride on an elevator up a couple floors, I was shown the "Take Shelves". They're actually speckled all over Penguin, but I guess the ones on these floors are bigger. One of the perks of being in editing and publishing is that there are shelves of extra prints that are no longer needed, so anyone can just take them home. And since Penguin prints everything, those shelves have classics like Mary Shelley up there with graphic novels and last year's best sellers--if you get there fast enough, anyway. Apparently I can come here whenever I've the time, and doubly cool is that for a DAW book I want to read, I pretty much just need to ask. I don't know if they realize what they've done in suggesting this, but I will be anticipating some rainy afternoons to dedicate to many of these unread books. For now, I just wanted a book from the Take Shelf that I'd never heard of and settled on a Dean Koontz novel called Watchers. I think I'd seen his name printed places before, but otherwise I know nothing about his writing and picked him pretty much because we share the name "Dean".
Now for: "Subway Adventures: Episode 3"
I love London's tube system. Adore it. It makes sense with clear cut lines going precisely here-to-there. The trains all have an electronic list of which stop you're at, how many stops total that train has and which ones, and which direction it is going. And the only distinction between the lines are RAINBOW COLO(U)RS.
I do not yet love the New York subways. I await that day patiently, but it is certainly not today. A-Z, 1-10...Why have 36 different lines? Oh they don't. They skipped letters. And they all still have colors. The ACE has regular C's, but A only goes down the middle track or in the direction you don't want to go, and E is out sick for the weekend. Oh did they not say? To get to A on the ACE take the C and hop one over to transfer on the A. Duh.
Then go to this German sounding street that you probably won't hear over the intercom anyway, or be able to read on the clusterfluff of a map, so look out the windows and read fast. Then get off A, get on G, get off at a presidential sounding street that'll let you exit at two totally differently named streets and STAY THERE so someone who actually knows what she's doing can find you.
I had left extra early on Sunday to make sure I got to Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on time to visit some family friends who work there. I guess I had all my adventure follies the day before, because I arrived 45 minutes early and just wandered around for a coffee shop to kill time before 11:15. I spent most of the day with these guys, and their little baby. The baby is shy to the extent that when she sees someone new she will burst into tears and King Kong-climb up her mom with fear. I think she tolerated my existence by the time I left. She almost smiled at me a couple times, but would catch herself halfway through and hide her face behind her mom or dad.
Another good thing about traveling up this way was that I got to walk through Central Park all snow covered and everything. Chilly, but gorgeous. I realize this picture in no way does it justice, but at least there are trees here. I saw a few horse and buggy rides, too.
I did come across a bunch of people wearing these aluminum looking blankets that immediately made me think of alien fanatics, but apparently they were the New York Road Runners finishing up a race.
This weekend I also went to Pratt to visit one of my friends who studies architecture over there. Pratt, as well as being an institution of learning, is the proud owner of 12 cats: the Pratt Cats. They live in the engine room because that's actually a building and the warmest place on campus.
Some of the cats are show cats with ribbons to prove it, but mostly they're rescues from a nearby shelter. Some are also meaner than others, like apparently this one:
I don't know his name. He's got a nick in his ear he probably got in a fight, and while he has these gorgeous yellow eyes, he looked at me like there was no doubt hands would be bitten if they suddenly became in range. I did not pet this cat.
Pratt is a pretty neat looking school. A good part of it seems to be classrooms shoved in old textile factories, so everything is brownstone surrounded in these sculpture gardens. I have decided, though, that my absolute favorite thing about this school is how close it is to this killer bagel shop.
TOURISTY MOMENT OF THE WEEK: Bagel and Lox
That's right. I had my first ever bagel and lox. I went up to the guy at the counter and asked for it, and he says,
"What kind?"
Me: However New Yorkers are supposed to eat it.
Him: (chuckles) That can be a lot'a ways.
Me: How would you eat it?
Him: That also can be a lot'a ways; I just like food!
Me: Hey, me too! Let's just do that. Surprise me with that in mind.
Him: Okay, a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, fresh lox, tomato, an' onion.
It. Was. Amazing. Oh man. I'm going back.
The cream cheese array they had at this place made it all look like a gelato case! I am apparently supposed to order the lox cream cheese, next time. It's like what I got except the lox is mixed into the cream cheese so you get some with every bite.
Besides all that, this place was a normal bakery, too. I got a blueberry muffin that they cut in half and toasted with a tab of butter. Yum!
And speaking of buttered muffins, some housemates and I accidentally walked into the grand opening of a hipster sex shop.
One of the girls in my house was invited to the opening of her sponsor's gallery, and as the intern she was obligated to take him up on it. Plus she kind of wanted to, and she invited us. It was already a tiny space, but you could see people squished up against the glass unable to move there were so many people packed inside. We pushed our way through to the back anyway, just long enough to check some stuff out and mingle with the artist.
We'd wanted to go to a coffee shop after, but the one that my friend knew of was closed because it was 8:30 pm, I guess. Across the street was this little place with window paintings of The David in swimwear, pastel swirls, you know some things that make it look like a bustling artsy coffee joint. There were a bunch of people in there too, but we figured we could just get in and grab drinks to go.
We go in, and I don't know about the other girls, but first I'm looking for where they keep the barista, or where the heck this line is to order...I don't see one, so finally I focus on what is actually in this place. Next to the door there was a gumball machine, but with those plastic cup things that'll have fifty-cent rings, you know. Except they had specialty condoms in them instead. Like vegan condoms. ...Oh. Some of the other shelves had "You Time" toys on it. ...Oh. Some had HAND MADE signs next to the bondage equipment. ...Oh. There was a glass case to show where you could dip your delicates in gold paint and have them mounted on a plaque with engravings that ranged from "Lost Virginity" to "First Wet Dream". You can also get (extremely) personalized "You Time" toys of your genitalia to gift to a significant other. ...I see. Some of the girls want to come back to this store, so we decided that the code name for it should be "Not-a-Coffee-Shop".
For some reason they also had some really nice jewelry. Not like the do-weird-stuff-with-jewelry, but the nice, pretty, normal, your grandma-could-wear-this-tastefully-jewelry.
Then we found a Dunkin Donuts and had coffee.
In other less awkward-funny news, my Pratt friend showed me a little Chinese place on 14th Street that's called "Comebuy". It doubles as a bubble tea and dinner place. It is great and I'm going back there, too. She knew about it because apparently even though her school is in Brooklyn, one of her classes was all the way out here in Manhattan, and she and her friends would go crazy over this place. It's cheap, fills you up, and there's little to complain about. If I can't make it to China Town for Chinese New Year at the end of the month, I may try to hike back there.
The weekend finished with some pizza back at the house, Princess Bride on TV, tea, and also an episode or two of Adventure Time.
End of Week Two. Status: I still may be under the impression that I'm a tourist.
I am amused by the fact that your first Dean Koontz book was my first Koontz book. I liked Watchers a lot. Let me know what you think!
ReplyDeleteI will! But first on my list is to finish "Ship of Theseus". It's pretty cool. Two stories in one, written several decades apart and one of them is told through hand written margin notes through a research dialogue between two people.
ReplyDelete