Updates and pimpage

So I took the tests yesterday, and thank you to everyone who sent me White Fawn vibes. It was a bit challenging -- 90 minutes from the phone call and I had to try to understand some of the stranger instructions, while not wasting time on the instructions, so that I could do these as well as possible. The copyediting test was fairly easy-breezy, I can do that in my sleep, really, though I must have looked at the word hemorrhage for a full five minutes trying to remember how it was spelled. And then there was a series of three lines that had no errors, or at least, errors I would correct (stylistically, someone else may have thought they were wrong, but as I say, I preach tolerance), so I was freaked out because the rest of it had at least one error per line and I felt there was a trick buried in there. The second part of the test was really hard, two paragraph-long pieces involving a great deal of tech information, and I noticed right away things such as starting out with the 24-hour clock and ending with the am/pm clock, etc., but I think a lot of it was not just how I would rewrite them (they were pretty bad) for sense, though mostly how I would query the writers, and what I'd query about. The third part is the one that kills everyone, I guess -- a 1,500 word article they want down to 300, less technical info and you have to write a headline, intro, and ending. I'm pretty sure mine sucks dead rats through a straw, but it was the best I could do in the time allotted.

Unfortunately, it's really the tests she's using to distinguish candidates. She's liked everyone she's spoken with, so the only thing that's really helping her decide is the tests. I feel so much pressure -- despite the horrid commute this would entail, I want this so bad, and I just know from experience that when I want something this much, I won't get it. Yet I'm somehow too starry-eyed to learn from my lifetime experience of failure.

So anyway, that puts me in need of fun stuff, and I wanted to pimp a fantastic story in progress from Cyn. Some of you may remember (or probably not) that I'm working on a fic with Dana, the insane slayer from Damage, and Spike, but Cyn's already deep into a wonderful post-LA-apocalypse story called Ronin with Spike, Andrew, and Dana that's just gorgeous and so ringing my chimes. She's posting parts at Tea at the Ford, where the first three parts are, but there's a new section of part three that isn't up yet, and you can find all parts at her lj, jwaneeta. Her Andrew is screamingly, laugh out loud, annoyingly funny and yet sweet and good at the same time, and her Spike is just... this is one of those rare perfect Spikes I treasure in fanfic so much. And Dana so far is just as shattered as in the episode. I'm really loving this -- go read her LJ and please leave comments and encourage her to keep going. It's wonderful, wonderful.