Daily Thoughts

Ellery Queen (left), American mystery writer, and James Yaffe

Daily Thoughts

Cory Doctorow: Writing In The Age of Distraction http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html

Today was interesting. We had two rounds of meetings with local service agencies; one at 10 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. We talked about the services which are available at our library, and gave a variety of handouts to the visiting agencies. The agencies wanted a variety of improvements. They would like a service to fill out government forms; a map of the library, and many other improvements.

We had coffee, tea, fruit, and some pastries. I ended up speaking twice about the service brochure which I wrote with my colleague. This is the first time it has been shown to the public. It is a work in progress right now. I think I did fine with it. I am not that used to doing community outreach.

Something I noticed while we were working on the design of the new services brochure in Microsoft Publisher is that working on this blog has considerably changed my sense of design. Looking at lots of blogs gives you an idea of which two and three column pages work well. You end up reading lots of two and three column documents if you follow blogs. I think that it has improved my basic editing skills considerably.

Manipulating text boxes has become much easier in microsoft documents because of how blogs are broken up into discreet bites. I had previously designed flyers in Microsoft Word, but this is the first time I am using publisher to create documents. I am looking forward to further training in how to use publisher to create documents. So far, I have worked on bookmarks, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch pages, flyers, and brochures. I think I might try and design a business card in publisher on card stock.

I had a chance to finish reading The Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher on the way home. I will begin writing a review tomorrow. The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson came in for me to read. I once again have to many books to read. It has become a habit now that I have began writing about books that I have several to read.

Many books after reading the first chapter cease appealing to me. I find this happens more and more as I read more. Learning about grammar, editing, and reviewing changes your view on books considerably.