New proofreaders club - Big Oafish Ugly Society of Extraordinary Rectifiers

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Since I'm not blonde nor evil (well not too evil anyway) I thought, even though I will likely be the only member ever, I would start my very own proofreaders club. Membership is open to anyone who wishes to join. (Not that I think there will be any blizzard of aplications.) But I thought I might just get a few more stories to read this way. (If people know there is more than one organization out there, to whom they can look, to find people to prescreen their stories for mistakes.)

Besides if an author can mark a story "Checked by BOUSER" it has a certain 'ring' to it don't you think?

with love,

Hope

Could authors please

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

I would REALLY appreciate it if authors for whom I have done proofreading in the past could mark their stories with the OAF-icial paw-print of approval "Checked by BOUSER"

Thank you so much.

with love,

Hope

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

But what does it mean?

I'll admit there are other proofreaders than Evil Blondes AND that all blondes are not evil.

-- I had to put that last bit as my Evil Blonde sister has threatened me with ... you don't want to know --

But what the heck does BOUSER stand for?

John in Wauwatosa

P.S. Oops, I saw the title, never mind.

John in Wauwatosa

See title

John,

Based on the title, I'd think BOUSER stands for 'Big Oafish Ugly Society of Extraordinary Rectifiers'.

I'm neither blonde, nor evil (at least so far nobody had the courage to call me evil where I could hear it), but since English isn't my mother tongue I'm afraid I would make a rather bad proofreader.

Hugs,

Kimby

Hugs,

Kimby

Dear dear dear John in Wauwatosa

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

Does it hurt a LOT??? Is it more painful going in --- or trying to get it out? Are army boots or platform heels harder or maybe worse yet without shoes altogether, naked toe-jam and eau-de-ped?

You know, John dear, you could have saved yourself all these embarassing questions about foot-in-mouth problems by just reading ALL of the message, right?

Thanks for the comic relief sweetie.

with love,

Hope

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

BOUSER

I think you will be in trouble with this name, for in my honest opinion or is that my arrogance, BOUSER is owned by a company called Nintendo. Hopefully Hope you brought along a Massive Assault Reconnaissance Intelligence Offensive. due to the use of a Pretty Relax Idiotic Nuisance Crown Endangerment Suicide Specialist

IMMORTAL
- JOHN 3:16 (KJV) BIBLE

Re: BOUSER - Dear dvh

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

Hey dvh,

I think the title should be safe enough for 2 main reasons. (Maybe 3) First I have no intention of trying to copyright the title so Nintendo might never find out about it. Secondly as a proofreader's club it is a completely separate industry from a gaming platform, which most copyrighters allow for naing purposes. (eg. I have heard that it would likely pass as a copyrighted name to call a running-shoe resoling company "MicroSoft Shoe Repair", because it is a TOTALLY different industry from Bill Gates outfit - He'd probably sue anyway, but if one could afford a decent lawyering outfit one might win the case. Then Gates would have no option but to buy out the company and one would rake in the big bucks, minus the cost of one's lawyers, of course.)

Anyway that is what I was told.

Thank you for your concern.

with love,

Hope

P.S. Oh yes the third reason - *I* won't tell the Nintendo team and I'm pretty sure none of my friends here will either.

P.P.S. I - THINK - the people here are my friends?

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

Submit Application?

I think I would fit in with Hope's group better than the GoEBP. I'm not blonde or evil but I have done a bit of proofreading. I don't know so much about oafish but big and ugly do apply. Big, well if I did the measuring correctly, about a size 22W or 24W. And ugly for sure, only way I could come close to passing would be with a mask. Now if the O was older, I fit that too. Fifty seven orbits and counting.

And poor John having foot in mouth disease. It appears that he even followed the proper procedure.

1) Make remark or ask question.
2) Blush when answer is apparent.
3) Insert foot in mouth.
4) Hop off on one foot.

With humor
Nellie

Not without Hope

The idea for the Guild of Evil Blonde Proofreaders sort of evolved from John's reference to his beloved sister (be honest, John.)

Being blonde and having an evil bent, I sort of joined the bandwagon. Then Karen J came on the scene and the idea of a group of proofreaders (however one wants to define the term) seemed attractive.

Thus, the Guild was born.

I never felt that the Guild would be exclusive in any other sense than that those who participated had a good grasp of the skills needed to perform the task. (With all my experience I still wonder if I really qualify.)

If there is to be a perpetuation of this, I would like to see a group of people to whom any author, regardless of experience, could come for advice and council on their work.

I would like to think of it as my feeble way of forwarding Erin's and Bob's vision of continually high quality stories for the community.

Neither am I adverse to more than one group being organized to achieve this goal. Friendly competition is welcome... frankly, it helps us all stay alert. (Remember, be alert, lerts have more fun!)

But... 'Bouser'? I am of a generation that associates that with a mongrel dog. Cute in an ugly way, I guess.

So, I hope that there is a future for the Guild and it is one that will benefit the community. There is room for everyone.

And I wouldn't dream of doing this, at least not without Hope.

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil Blonde Proofreaders

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
TracyHide.png

To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

Lerts

I'm a lert (usually); I'm also a ware (often). People will get me a noid at times (I have a large collection of noids now.). However, I am no proof reader; I always see what I want to see; among other problems.

Smile,
Jan

Liberty is more than the freedom to be just like you.

Monkeyshines?

erin's picture

Isn't Bowser the name of the monkey in Wanda's The Fairy King? I know this club is spelled Bouser but who said monkeys can spell? Look at what 500 monkeys did for Shakespeare! Talk about needing proofreading, the man spelled his own name 14 different ways. At least it wasn't one for each monkey. :)

- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Doo wop!

When I see Bowser, I always think of the tall, lanky bass in the doo wop group Sha-na-na. ;-)

Amelia

"Reading rots the mind." - Uncle Analdas

"Reading rots the mind." - Uncle Analdas

Monkey's namesake

erin's picture

That's who the monkey in TFK is named after, apparently. :)

- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

500?

Um, Erin, I think that was an infinite number of monkeys, not five hundred.

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil Blonde Proofreaders

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
TracyHide.png

To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

500 Count'em 500

erin's picture

I dare you to count 500 monkeys. :)

The way I heard it was 500 monkeys working for eternity. Some very old monkeys. :)

- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Thank you all and BOUSER doubles in size

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

I just had the first official membership application, accepted OF COURSE.

I posted this Forum topic really only to let people know there are people 'out there' who are willing to help improve their stories --- not the content ****** that is STRICTLY up to the author ****** but word usage and grammar, which I find difficult to overlook when reading - even in commercially published novels.

By the way the actual meaning attached to the acronym BOUSER is completely open to each individual's interpretation.

If the blondes find they have too much work, I'd be willing to help.

There might be stories that I for various reasons I might refuse to proofread, it might be something I might find offensive or overly violent or such. I mean this as NO offense to any authors - it is merely my own conscience. I would ask that all stories be read through by the author AT LEAST once, AFTER completion of the story, to assure the story flows as the author intends it should.

I will not make any solid statements for other members of this group, each proofreader may have different standards.

with love,

Hope

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

I'm not blonde, but. ...

... if you allow redheads to join, even ones who are beginning to need dye to keep it that way ...

BTW John, I just remembered I owe you a couple of big files.

Holly Logan

One of the most difficult things to give away is kindness.
It usually comes back to you.

Holly

Wow ANOTHER 100% increase - Now we are 3 X the size of yesterday

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

Dearest Holly,

Of course we would be MOST highly honoured and happy to have you join our ranks.

To All,

My desire would be that we could co-ordinate our proofreading so that each and every story sent to ANY proofreader would be sent from that one to at LEASE one other so that the greatest number of errors might be eliminated.

Thank you to all of you who have answered my forum post and offered to help writers "do their thing".

with love,

Hope

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

Congratulations!

On your increase of membership.

I look forward to a long, mutually profitable, and enjoyable friendly competition. =)

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil Blonde Proofreaders

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
TracyHide.png

To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

Ah, yes

Holly,

I keep meaning to look over the original Timeout series you cleaned up and maybe post it here as replacements for the current postings or as an all-in-one file amybe at Stardust but my muse has gone gaga, looney toons and fruit loops on me as of late.

I have at least two -- I think there are two, more keep trying to purswade me to write them -- Oddfellows Day stories in the works, several chapters of Timeout 4 in progress and I am getting VERY serious about a MORFS story -- Legacy is the working title.

As a redhead, with Amelia_R snaking her way into GEBPR, you'd be better served as a GEBPR than as a BOWSER. Frankly, you are too evil to be stuck with *that* group of goody-two-shoes. Blondes have more fun, well my sister certainly is since she got enguaged, but it's the redheads who show them how.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Joint membership

Holly,

I agree with Hope, regardless if you join BOUSER or GEBP (or both for that matter, I'm not picky), I agree with Hope that anyone posting a story make sure that their offerings are reviewed by at least two or three proofers. While it is possible to have too many eyes on a new project, it's important to find the right 'blend' of talents to work with. Not always easy.

My humble thoughts for what they're worth.

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil Blonde Proofreaders

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
TracyHide.png

To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

If there be competition - Let it be to leave the fewest errors

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

Thank you Janet,

I didn't really mean to set up any sort of competition for membership. The ONLY reason I began BOUSER was to "make public" my offer to proofread for virtually anyone. (I'm afraid I do have a hidden agenda for wanting to proofread for people though. *blush* I want to be able to read the stories before everyone else. Does that make me evil? hee hee hee MAYBE!)

with love,

Hope

P.S. John in Wauwatosa dearheart - you need to increase your testosterone blocker and estrogen intake, or maybe you are eating too much red meat. You are being as confrontational as as as some ------- MAN. YIKES!!!!!

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

I never took it that way

Hope,

I never thought of it as a competition per se, if I implied that somehow, I'm sorry.

I think what we have going, though, is a really good thing. Let's get as many authors as we can using our services. After all, that's why we're here.

And what's wrong with getting an advanced look at some of the best contemporary writing on the web? ;-) Evil, maybe, but who cares?

As for John, I'm afraid that regardless of his actual age, he has the mind of a 13-year-old boy. That's okay, though, there are enough evil blondes around to keep him mostly in check.

Besides, even if I'm not into guys, no reason for him to cut back just for a little male exuberance. ^_^

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil Blonde Proofreaders

Janet

Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
TracyHide.png

To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.

13 Year OLD?!

Janet,

I have the emotional maturity of at least a 14 year old.

-- sticks out tongue and blows vicious rapberry --

John in wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Quoting...

...but I can't remember who: Robert Bloch? Alfred Hitchcock?

"Underneath it all, I have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar in my desk."

Why do rectifiers have to be competitive?

Live and let diode, I say.


(append: the name of this group reminds me more and more of one of the pirate names used in Muppet Treasure Island... I never did find out who that woman was.) -k