All Quiet on the Western Front

It looked like something out of Vanilla Sky this morning on the way to work. The roads were bare. The odd car made you think you were in a small town on a Sunday, but this was Calgary on a Tuesday. Once I got to work, I realized the extent of the holiday spirit. I was here, and my staff were here, but pretty much everyone else was not. Rick...Sick. Brian...still has his kid (ya right). Darren...well Darren showed up for a bit and realized that no one is in their offices around town either. There is no work really for me to do, so I will probably just go home and get cracking on some housework, or maybe rent another movie. Watched a couple of good movies last night on dvd. One was called the island, it was a crazy science fiction film, with clones and the whole bit, a good "thinker" with a super hot girl in the female lead, I need to find out what else she is in. The other was the Fantastic four, what can I say JESSICA ALBA hello, "sooooo hot, want to touch the hiney". After movies, I watched the Trailer Park Boys christmas special. TOO FUNNY. I was able to speak with Herb regarding my research paper at Lodge. He gave me some helpfull hints. The first being that I should only use reference material to back up something I have to say, and not to actually say it. So I went back, took out the quote I had used from Barclay, and proceeded with my thoughts. The outcome was awesome. The paper just seemed to flow. I hope Herb likes the new version. He has been so helpful, yet so quiet. You can tell he was a good judge. His comments are very well thought out. He doesnt say, "this is wrong" or "this is right" He just says, "You need to tell us your ideas on this", and you need to "justify your thoughts on that" I look so forward to hearing what he has to say and then fixing or adapting my work. It is nice to have feedback during the process. I really need to find a working editor for my fiction. I need to find someone I trust, who understand the vision I have for my work. Someone who sees the end product, maybe not the same way as I do, but someone who can help me along the way, and ask questions of me. Questions that I am afraid or too much of an idiot to ask myself. Herb is showing me, through simple directions, how to get from point a to point b. If it were not for him, I would have already written two papers of complete nonsense. And thus I wonder how much nonsense, is still infecting my fictional writing, without a working editor. The only real problem is cost. A final edit runs aroud five hundred smackers. I could not imagine how much I would end up spending, if I had to have someone edit my work, lets say every ten thousand words or so. I am sure in the end it would add up to five or six grand. That is way too much. Or is it? How much of a price tag do you put on a better product? That is the age old question, and one that I need to get an answer for, because right now, having an editor on this paper that I am working with, seems like a dream come true. TTYL