Otter's Rock

I need a beta for a story who knows Puerto Rican-American culture, as most of my story is taking place inside a Puerto Rican household in New York.  Since I know very little about either Puerto Ricans or New York, this is somewhat nervewracking for me.

So, I don't know enough about Judaism to write the seven fics required for daysofawesome, nor do I have the time to write seven ficlets.  However, when I looked on their list of Jewish characters and saw Worf listed (on the assumption that his Human parents, Sergey and Helena Rozhenko are Jewish), I had to write something.  So, it is done now, but considering I got most of my knowledge of Jewish customs from Wikipedia, it desperately needs someone to look it over who knows more about this than I do and can catch a) any errors and b) anything unintentionally offensive.  Knowledge of Star Trek a plus.

ETA: Found!

My first draft of my trekreversebang story is done and has been sent off to my artist, to see what she thinks.  (It's Sarek/Amanda with wee!Spock.)  I've sent a request for a beta to someone I think could do a good job, but no word yet; may be calling for volunteers.  I definitely need a beta; I don't know if the fic needs serious work or if I'm just being too critical with my editing brain again.

Hey, I need two betas!

One is an Uhura-centric Reboot post-movie piece about her dealing with Vulcan culture.  It is slightly under 12k words

One is a BSG pre-series fic about Daniel, the Cylon model that John wiped out.  It is 6k words.

Help!

It's a Reboot Spock/Uhura piece, set on the new Vulcan homeworld.  It's been done for a while but the person who was going to beta it never got back to me, and I'd like to post it, but I'm worried that it's too talky and dense.

I have a little story that needs to be betaed and ready to e-mail in to the mods at jacksamfriends by the 30th. Do I have a volunteer to beta?

Is there anyone who would be able to beta an Atlantis/Doctor Who crossover, and get it back to me tomorrow if I sent it to them today? It mostly needs help with plot and characterization, and a double check to see if I'm being too wordy.

It's for the Multiverse 5000, and it's due the 30th. I can get the first draft done, but it doesn't feel like it's "clicked," to me. I don't know if it just needs some polishing or if there's something that needs to be fixed. Or if I'm being a nervous writer panicking over a deadline.

Because I've had a BSG story (spoilers through Crossroads II) on the back-burner for a couple of months, and it looks like it might get finished this weekend, and I'd hate to post it without a beta. But it's got to be someone familiar with BSG, who's seen the season-ending two part ep Crossroads, because I need to know if I've achieved the proper effect--are the subtle references to what happens then too subtle, too obvious, or just right?

There's a lot of writing meta going around these days, and here's my contribution. This is an example of What a Beta Does. Well, at least once you're a good enough writer that you don't need help with the mechanics (spelling, grammar, style, etc).

Here's the process that I went through with my beta, the wonderful alixtii , for my remix fic, now that the authors are unveiled and I can tell you what story I wrote.  Regular text is mine, red text is stuff she noted, bold text is her comments.
( First Draft, with Beta comments )

And now on to the second draft.

I need someone to beta a fic for me. I have no clue whether or not I'm getting the effect I'm trying for. It's a pre-season Teal'c fic, and it needs to get betaed and posted soon, since it's for a ficathon and I'm the back-up of a back-up writer.

Poem of the Day:

The Unknown Citizen

(To JS/07/m/378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community:
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

-W. H. Auden (1940)

It's funny, we analyzed this poem in one of my lit classes in college, and there were several radically different interpretations, each well-thought-out with justifications. What do you think about it?

Update on the Greek: I'm past the forms part, thank God, and into the actual translation. It's going much better now.