Offline October

I have decided to attempt Offline October. What a great idea! I have been spending too much time wandering around the internet, reading this and that and before I know it hours have passed. I haven’t done enough CIT work this semester, I have written very little of my ‘book’ and not spent any time figuring out and writing interesting blog posts. If I limit my internet time to one hour a day imagine how much writing can be done?

As I now know how the camera works my plan was to take photos for this blog and for one of my CIT assignments. How many photos have been taken? Not one! It’s time to get out and about with the camera.

 My goals for October:

Ø  spend more time on CIT work

Ø  write blog posts and take photos

Ø  write my ‘book’

Ø  read some of the books on the pile by my bed

Ø  don't waste time on the internet!

 

Have a look at http://offlineoctober.com/

I am reading The Charm Bracelet by Melissa Hill.

Proofreading, do we even care anymore?

I have been proofreading my husband’s essays. Yes, he too is studying – we are a family of students this year. I don’t pretend to understand a word his essays are on about but he is amazed by the errors I find! They are the usual spelling mistakes and typo’s that we all make.

I have been reading a lot lately, both online and in print and have been surprised by the mistakes creeping through. I know mistakes will always get through even a rigorous editing process but there just seems to be more these days. Or is it just me?

In this instant world we live in I am as guilty as the next person of dashing off a quick response to an email, a comment on a blog or a tweet. I press the send or publish button before I have had a good look at what has been written.

I recently read something where the author didn't think it was fair for proofreaders to charge for proofing words such as ‘the’ or ‘and’ when they appeared all through the document. Isn’t it the job of a proofreader to check every word? I know I often type ‘teh’ instead of ‘the’.

Do you get frustrated by mistakes you come across?

I came across Kate Hunter on Twitter and loved The Parfizz Pitch.

P.S.  Any mistakes in this blog post are the responsibility of the author and she did try to get it right!

Technology, don’t you love it?

Semester two has started at CIT and my subject is Use Multimedia. My first exercise was to create a PowerPoint presentation. Having never done this before I was very proud of my first basic creation.

The next exercise was to add bells and whistles such as animation, sound and narration and the finished product is a work of art!

This week’s homework is to write an instruction sheet on how to use a digital camera. I have talked uni student daughter who is home for the weekend into coming out with me tomorrow to teach me how to use the camera. I have bribed her with lunch in town afterwards. We will then download the photos onto my computer and I will write the instructions as we go. My technical skills are slowly improving and at the end of this semester there will be no stopping me and this blog will be full of technical wonders!

 

Did you notice the Twitter button? I did that by myself!

I read The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do and loved the saying of his father, ‘There’s only two times in life – there’s now or there’s too late.’