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.’

 

This planned life

Last week I spent Tuesday in Canberra and went to the Reading Room at the National Library for the afternoon. It is an amazing room and the minute you walk in you feel inspired to work and create.

I made a plan for my ‘book’ and was surprised by the ideas that popped into my head. My characters now have a back story and I have figured out lots of storylines for them.

I am a planner. I make plans for everything but the two areas I do no planning in are studying and writing. They fit in around procrastinating of which I am an expert.

A couple of weeks ago my first exercise for semester two came in and I needed to create a PowerPoint presentation. I had never done this before and to stop my panicking about it I sat down and planned what I wanted each slide to say. It worked and when it came time to create the presentation it all came together beautifully.

My goal for this week is to create writing and study plans and promise myself I will stick to them.

Are you a planner? Do you stick to the plans you make?

I haven’t read anything other than Twitter and wherever the tweets lead me this week. I did, however, bring home four books from the library. Time to log off Twitter and read a book!

Time to set some more goals

I have been inspired by the fabulous women I have been following on Twitter and have gone through stories I had written over the years and found some which can be used in my ‘book’.

Last week we bumped into some friends and over coffee talked about my dream of writing. I came home that day and wrote up some of the conversation we had. It turned into nearly a chapter! Wow, if I can do that after one coffee I need to do a JK Rowling and write in the cafes around town.

Everyone is talking about the Olympics and all the athletes who compete have their dream, set their goals and go for it. I have my dream and am working on setting myself small step-by-step goals and will go for it.

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty is the only book I have read in a while as I have been doing a lot of 'research' on Twitter.

Successful antique shopping

Our eldest daughter has just come home from her first overseas trip. She went to New Zealand on a Contiki tour and had a ball. She now has the travel bug and is saving for Europe. We are so proud of her. She has a job she loves, is doing her degree part-time and is happy. Her sister is planning on joining her at uni next year and has one term left at school before the HSC takes over her life for a few months. We are getting used to life without the kids around.

As they are pretty much independent of us now we do have more time to do the things we love and after years of looking at antique dining tables and sideboards we went shopping on the weekend and finally made a decision. Last year we found some gorgeous dining chairs and now we have the table to match. What I love about the sideboard is that it is a 1920s bookcase but perfect for what we need. If I could find the camera I would take a photo.

I am currently reading The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty.

Hello Twitter

The last few days have been quite productive. I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to improve my social media skills. I tried Facebook a few years ago but it wasn't for me although I did enjoy playing scrabble. I do write comments on blog posts I like but needed to do more, it was time to join Twitter. After a glass of wine and some chocolate I sat down and created my account. I found lots of my favourite authors and bloggers and followed them. Some of them even followed me!

I now have to figure out what to tweet about. Any ideas?

I have just finished reading The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly. Can't wait for her next one.