Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A week of learning.


This past week at work has been a little slow, so I have been filling my days with non-work pursuits - all in a somewhat creative vein, which seems fitting.

The first project was to complete the latest issue of the "Burlap Gazette" which is the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild - Teachers' Branch newsletter.  I have been the editor for a few issues, but I decided that I needed to try a simpler software program than InDesign which I had been using.

So, I dowloaded a 30-day trial of Pages in "iwork", a drag-and-drop Mac program. And, although not a total walk in the park, it was something that I could muddle through on my own and the results were great. I sent the first issue out by email yesterday, asking for feedback, and it's been overwhelmingly positive. That's the front cover you see in the picture.

Next challenge was to use the same software to start developing materials for my up-coming class at the end of October. Already, I can see that this program is going to become my staple, so I guess I'd better go download the full version. The good news is that it's only about $70 versus the $1,500 for a legal copy of InDesign. Easy choice.

I also decided to see if I could update my blog with some of the gadgets. So far, I managed to figure out how to do the blog list, which you can now see on the left side of my page. It's such an easy way to move around in the community of bloggers, and I really wanted to provide that. Second challenge accomplished.

I've also realized this week that any down-time is quickly turned into up-time by the Internet.  There are adventures in clicking that can take you as far and long as you like, if you just let yourself go. Normally, I don't have the luxury of time to do that, but this week I've quite enjoyed the ride - and it's only Wednesday. I had a bit of time to visit The Welcome Mat and catch up on things and make a few new friends.

It's fun to see that you can definitely teach an old dog new tricks, and this old dog is looking forward to the days when she can do this on a much more regular basis.

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