Don't belong. Dangerous, like you. Can't be controlled. Can't be trusted. Everyone could just go on without me and not have to worry. People could be what they wanted to be. Could be with the people they wanted. Live simple. No secrets.

River ,'Objects In Space'


The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...  

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


Scrappy - Mar 13, 2005 2:35:57 pm PST #523 of 10001
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Maybe you use 'worry" where you mean merely think. For me, worry has a strong negative and unwilling connotation--no one decides to worry on purpose, after all. If someone tells me they are worried about something (not specifically you--this is anyone) I assume they don't LIKE worrying about it. If they say they are thinking about it, or trying to figure it out, then I will assume that it's something that crossed their mind but doesn't really concern them deeply. Maybe this is just how I use the term, however.


§ ita § - Mar 13, 2005 2:41:50 pm PST #524 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I use it like you, Robin. Susan, in my vocab, what you were doing was wondering, not worrying. To me, worrying has an adversity to it, even if someone's just worrying a little. Wondering has no such connotation for me.


Betsy HP - Mar 13, 2005 2:57:00 pm PST #525 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

With ita and Robin on assuming "worry" is pejorative. I wonder what my children will grow up to be. I worry that they'll be axe murderers.

Is anybody around to help me wordsmith the intro to a resume? I haven't updated mine in far too long.

The idea I want to convey is that I love doing internal writing, where I influence the design as well as capture it. I keep missing the point. Here's the current draft.

Career Goal Working closely with a sophisticated development team, capturing a design in English. I prefer to work as a Mercenary Analyst; see Jim Coplien's Organization Patterns for a longer discussion. [link]


Topic!Cindy - Mar 13, 2005 3:01:12 pm PST #526 of 10001
What is even happening?

Maybe you shouldn' thave, because I did your first post to be taking inventory and concluding worrying was in order. You were just wondering how much people had on their back burners, then?
Sheeeesh. I hesitate to discuss this, after re-reading that mess I posted. I went back to look, hoping you'd had an unfortunate copying-and-pasting accident, Susan. I can't even believe I posted that. Let's assume all three kids were talking to me while I was typing that paragraph, m'kay? So erm...what are we talking about...

It's getting to where I feel like I can't talk about minor worries that are threatening to become big ones to ask for help because it seems like everyone goes into crisis-mode when I use the "w" word, which makes me worry more than I was to start with and/or makes me feel like a freak. And I'm so not crippled by worry. Even when it was a much worse issue for me than it is now, it still never defined me. Not to myself, at least.

Look even at what you've posted here: minor worries that are threatening to become big ones to ask for help. Even though I now know you're talking about (which is what I would also call) wondering, that's not what the above reads like to me. It reads like: there's a problem, it looks like it is going to get bigger. Help me.


Betsy HP - Mar 13, 2005 3:03:40 pm PST #527 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

Ignore previous; here's the revision.

Capturing a sophisticated software design in English, working closely with the development team. As I see it, a software architecture is an idea. The designer/implementors are responsible for expressing that idea (or those ideas) as code; I express it/them as prose. See James Coplien's Organization Patterns for a longer discussion: [link]


Deena - Mar 13, 2005 3:06:22 pm PST #528 of 10001
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara

I would like to lose the "a" in "a software architecture".

The rest looks good to me.


Jesse - Mar 13, 2005 3:11:36 pm PST #529 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Heh, Betsy, I was just going to paste your quote from the link and say to use more of that language.


Susan W. - Mar 13, 2005 3:12:35 pm PST #530 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Betsy, I tend to prefer using a "Career Summary" to a "Career Goal" or "Objective." It's a subtle difference, but it makes the resume "here's what I offer you" instead of "here's what I want you to offer me." And I'm not sure I completely understand what it is you do, but my first draft at your Career Summary would look something like this:

"Writer expert at translating technical specifications of software architecture into clear English for a variety of audiences."


Betsy HP - Mar 13, 2005 3:21:08 pm PST #531 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

Actually, "for a variety of audiences", not so much. I'm shooting for "hire me to help develop your design, then explain it to technical people". Done end-user, done it well, bored now. I actually do want to say "here's what you offer me". Basically, here's what you should want to hire me; if you are put off, you don't want me and I don't want you.

Note that I write an entirely different resume when it's "I need a job badly now".

Thanks, guys.


Susan W. - Mar 13, 2005 3:22:20 pm PST #532 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

And I don't think I quite use "worry" as a synonym for "wonder" or "think." I only use "worry" when the thinking/wondering is about a possible bad outcome (or lack of good outcome). But sometimes, maybe even most of the time, those worries are very, very mild things. It'd probably be better if I had fewer of them, sure, but they're just not big deals.