Web Writing Workshop – Courtesy of Moi

Today I’m headed over to Televisa, “the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world” to hold a workshop on “news writing and editing.”

My friend Susana, who works there as part of her journalism fellowship, will be the translator. (And she’s the one who convinced me to give the talk.) I’ve put together a little PowerPoint prez, and practiced it in front of the dog — who watched intently, head cocked, the entire time. Good sign, right?

Here’s what was sent around Televisa to advertise my workshop:

Taller con Joy Victory

“Escribiendo, editando y optimizando su contenido en los buscadores”

Viernes 7 de marzo 10.30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.

Joy Victory es una editora freelance para About.com, propiedad del New York Times. Antes de mudarse a México DF, hace cinco meses, Joy trabajó como editora de tiempo completo en About.com en Nueva York. Empezó su carrera como reportera de salud para varios periódicos estadounidenses. Después de varios años en la prensa escrita, trabajó como productora multimedia en temas de salud para ABCNEWS.com. En About.com, Joy edita artículos, verifica el uso de gramática, estilo, precisión y search engine optimization (SEO).

En su tiempo libre, Joy escribe su “Blog de Joy”
http://joyvictory.wordpress.com/

Back by Popular Demand: More Photos of the Mexican Home Office

“Blog experts” like to tell you to never focus on the mundane details of your life, but whenever I do, I somehow get demands for more details. A few weeks ago, I wrote about my new home office — how I moved it out of a dark, spare bedroom and into our spectacularly sunny, happy dining room.

When I let it be known that we did a little house painting, I got requests for more photos of said “renovation.” I have always wanted a red room — always — and I finally got my wish granted:

(The chair behind my desk is holding a space heater — it’s frigging cold in Mexico City in January!)

Have I mentioned the nice view of Parque Mexico?

And because I haven’t posted a photo of my favorite perrito in a while (yes, he now prefers to wear Mexican blankets, and no, how dare you accuse me of staging this photo to make it look more Mexican!):

Photos: Before and After of the Home Office in Mexico City

Ever since moving from a one-bedroom apartment in Queens to a three-bedroom apartment in Mexico City (with far, far more space in all the rooms) we’ve felt a bit like our old furniture was sized for a dollhouse. Our tiny dining room table looks like a mere end table now. But most pitiful was my home office set-up. Namely, I didn’t really have one. We started to pull chairs from our dining room to serve as desk space.
So, a couple of weeks ago we ventured to a huge furniture market in the southern portion of Mexico City and bought a new desk for me, a cabinet, two side tables and a large room divider. I decided to move my office out of our dark third bedroom and into our extremely sunny dining room.

What a refreshing change it’s been:

Before:

After:

My view as I sit and work:

This weekend we plan to paint the apartment, and I still need to get a real office chair, and set up our desktop computer and printer out there.

Poco a poco, the apartment is coming together.

Where in the World Is Joy?

_{(Photo by Mattron on Flickr)}

I’m somewhere in that hazy big mess of concrete, steel, glass and air pollution in New York City. We’re in an Upper East Side hotel this week, as we wait for our Mexican visas to get finalized (allegedly ready tomorrow!) (Note: This photo was uploaded two months ago, but it sorta looks like that today!)

I’m on Day Four of working as a freelancer, and so far, I love it. I work from the hotel room, on the computer, singing out loud to myself, and dance like a maniac whenever the mood strikes me. (Although the guys on the scaffolding fixing the terraces of this building have caught me a couple of times. Yikes — but it was probably more frightening for them than me.) I also get to avoid this bizarre sweltering weather blanketing the Northeast.

So, in other words, I am living a life of comfort and have absolutely no complaints! “For once!” as those who know me might say.

Chupacabra in Texas – Sarcoptic Mange aka El Chupacabra

Of all the many newspaper and online articles I’ve written over the years, my favorite is the one I wrote about el chupacabra, a goat-beast that plagues (the minds of residents of) South Texas:

Texas’ Blood-Sucking Monster, abcnews.com

So, it is with a morbid glee that I discovered this news of a recent chupacabra sighting in Cuero, Texas, complete with gruesome photo. The article debates whether this is a genuine chupacabra (which, would be awfully difficult to confirm, all things considered), a new species, a hyprid coyote-dog species, or simply what it really is — a dog that died with a severe case of sarcoptic mange.

Mange isn’t typically lethal, but it often leads to a dog becoming weak, emaciated, hairless and prone to dying of something else. It’s no wonder that, in the minds of my fellow South Texans, we’ve decided to turn into something far more fantastical, instead of what it is: A terrible but persistent infection, common in any place with lots of feral animals ( aka Texas).

God Bless Working at Home

Dear Lady Luck –

Thank you so much for letting me work for a company that allows me to work at home. And, going farther back in our relationship, thank you for letting me enter a field of work that requires only an internet connection to be productive and, thusly, a wage earner.

As you know, today every single subway line was affected by flooding, stranding many people in the 102-degree heat index weather.

But not me. Or Brendan!

Again, thank you. I’d write more, but I’m working, from my air-conditioned apartment. I’m sure looking forward to that “commute” home. Wink-wink!

– Joy

In Big Cities, Young Women Earn More than Men

The New York Times reports today that in large U.S. cities, women in their 20s now earn more than men of the same age (on average.)

While I am tempted to celebrate by popping open a bottle of champagne and handing out a huge collective pat on the back to my mother’s generation, who are, after all, who we should primarily credit for this milestone, I also feel the need to state that, as a feminist, my perspective is not that women should be paid more than men for equal work, but that they should be paid the same as men. And have the same advancement opportunities.

It’s been a long, tough road to get salary parity, and in most parts of the country, women still get paid far less for the same work, and are not offered the same advancement opportunities.

But, because of the rise of jobs like mine, which require only brain skills — and not bicep skills, or networking-at-the-strip-club-or-gulf-club — and tend to pay a solid salary, offer fabulous benefits, and flexible hours, women surpass their male peers in the big cities.

In other words, thank god for the internet.

(Editor update: The huzzband brought to my attention that I slightly misinterpreted the article, but since he disapproves of blog comments, I’ll just post his email here: “The NYT takes pains to point out that much of the reason for the women’s gain in NYC isn’t that they’re getting paid more for the same work, but that they’re more likely to be educated and therefore more likely to have a better job.” Editor here, again. Ah, yes, he’s right. Well, either way this is good news for my gender.)

Shih Suz, or Things I’ve Keyworded Successfully Yet Mysteriously

A large part of my day job is spent analyzing and editing documents for SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO means how to get your stuff on Google, preferably in the first page of returns (aka rankings).  I have to know how to use keywords successfully.  Keywords, for my less internet-savvy readers, are simply the terms people type in when they search on any search engine.

For my blog, I take a far less serious approach to keywording, not worrying about it too much. Still, it’s amusing to me to see when I have (usually inadvertently) optimized something nicely. And I just love to see the keywords that inexplicably brought people to my site.

A holiday work party — in January?

Because I work for a fairly quirky company, we’re holding our annual “non-holiday” party tonight. On a Tuesday night of the last weekend in January.

It’s strange, but, once you think about it, the doldrums of winter is definitely a good time for a party. It’s 20 degrees outside, windy and dark. There are no holidays to look forward to (unless, like me, you have scheduled an upcoming week off to spend here. But that’s beside the point. And yes, it’s OK to feel envy, or even rage, as you look at that link. )

I’m all for free food and booze on a miserable Tuesday in January.