Now you see me, now you don't....
You'll have to excuse me being a little disjointed in this issue. My day off started with some good news on the work front, a development I'm quite excited about but that I can't be bothered to tell you about, for reasons that will soon become apparent. When I got home, I carried on working on this issue, wrote the Editorial feeling a little odd, then realised I was having a migraine and went to bed. Migraines kind of creep up on me; first of all I realise that something is not quite right, that I feel spaced out, then my vision goes and I work out what's going on. That's generally it for me, for at least a day or two. They completely floor me.
But The Post must go on, so I got up later and carried on. Then I realised that, not only did my Editorial make no sense at all, but also that I'd managed to save my Editorial over my Front Page. Starting again is a really, really horrible feeling—it makes a happy evening's editing into a complete chore.
My head still isn't right. Earlier on, I went outside for a cigarette, lit it with a match, then threw the cigarette into a wet ashtray and put the match in my mouth. Lil assures me that I will laugh about it in the morning. Tonight, everything is taking twice as long as it should, I'm struggling to concentrate, and I'm annoyed and frustrated with myself at every small error.
So my apologies in advance for the inevitable errors and omissions that will creep into this issue.
It's been a busy summer all round, and I'm a little sad to be back. It means my season of working on nature camps is over, and even in the sunny weather it feels like the year has died just a little. On the plus side, it means I have my beloved Post to come back to, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the team for filling in so ably while I was away. I'd like to thank Bel in particular - it is no exaggeration to say that, had she not been around, there would have been a completely Post-free summer. They have done a wonderful job.
Speaking of doing a wonderful job, I'd also like to say a huge thank-you and goodbye to the inimitable Peta, who is leaving us to it after almost a decade. She's been around h2g2 from the start and, as you probably know, used to be the Community Editor before the BBC got their grubby mitts anywhere near the place. Peta, you'll be sorely missed by just about everyone here, I reckon; we owe you so much, and I hope we'll still see you around, even if it's without those italics on your name. We've found a couple of Post cartoons from the early days, and we hope you enjoy them. All the best in the future.
On the cartoon front, we are looking pretty short of contributions. TonsilRevenge has been pretty much our only cartoonist for a while now, and we desperately need some new contributors for this important part of The Post. I do have some h2g2 goodies on offer to anyone who can supply us with regular or semi-regular cartoons, so if you have an artistic slant please get in touch and we'll let you know more.
We're about to take our Post summer break, and our next issue won't be until September, but we don't plan to stop work. We'll have a couple of special summer issues for you, featuring our favourite summer articles from the Post archives, and we're also planning to work with the Aviators over the next month. We'd really love to come back with a Post Poetry special, with audio versions of your poems, and we're also considering the mad idea of another full Beeblecast. We don't have a deadline for either, but we're looking for poems for the audio collection urgently—if you are a poet, or know one, please get in touch.
Finally, we are still a team member short since Mina's departure earlier in the summer. We decided to manage for the summer months, because it's not easy to show a new assistant the ropes while we're busy ourselves, but we are taking applications for the vacancy over the summer. You do need to be reliable, have a good working knowledge of GuideML and be able to work to pretty tight deadlines, and if you are able to spend a bit of extra time helping us to hunt down articles and columnists that is a great bonus. If you're interested, let us know at the usual address and we'll let you have some more details.
The next Post deadline will be Sunday 8th September - in the meantime, enjoy the summer!
Skankyrich
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