It all seemed so simple when I offered to run a webinar about webinars for my local society of editors. We set a date, I signed up to a platform (ClickMeeting), the society found the participants, and I planned the session and practised it numerous times. Accompanying me at each practice session was my alter ego, Jane Fonda. I would set Jane up as a …
Benefits of co-working
Over the past 2 years I have gained a lot from Six Degrees, the co-working space in nearby Coffs Harbour. It’s been a great way to network with other people working from home in Coffs and Bellingen. And through attending events and giving a couple of pitches about my businesses at Six Degrees I have found: a web designer, who created …
Bringing aquaculture into the office
I love new toys, and I like to buy things that are locally made and environmentally friendly. Happily, my latest purchase, a desktop aquaculture system from Aquaponicals, ticks all the boxes. It’s a fabulous little system, in which the water is pumped from the reservoir at the bottom up to the grow bed at the top, where I have planted mint, parsley, oregano and …
Coursera — a fantastic resource!
I discovered Coursera a couple of weeks ago, thanks to a conversation with a friend who is retired, but mentioned that he’d been taking a free course on model thinking from the University of Michigan. I looked up the organisation and noticed that a science writing course was starting shortly. I signed up for it, mainly to see how someone else …
My new standing desk
Prompted by a video-link on Twitter about standing desks, I’ve now added a standing option to my repertoire of about anti-RSI strategies (just as well, given that an editing job last week required almost 30 hours of editing over 3 days!). My solution is rather low-key compared to those shown in the video. I simply place the laptop on top of a …
Pleasant surprises
Most of the messages I receive through the contact form on my website are spam. However, last week the contact form brought me three interesting things: an offer of work from a research organisation in the US, a message from a former colleague I’d lost touch with, and greetings from someone who did a research project with me at University of …
A new home and a new CV
This blog has been rather quiet of late, due to me being busy relocating from Canberra to a delightful spot in northern New South Wales. Now that I’m settled in my new home, I’m focusing on expanding my client base. As a first step, I’ve decided to recreate my CV as an infographic. I’ve found one example that relates to editing and …
Blitz on RSIs
Although I use a lot of shortcuts, macros and Word add-ins, I find that I get a lot of aches and pains in my arms and shoulders at the end of the working day. I’ve decided to have a blitz on RSIs. My strategy involves: pausing for a quick exercise or a few deep breathes when BreakReminder tells me to …
Wordtips proves its value
I get a weekly list of tips from WordRibbontips. This week’s list included instructions for making CTRL+F work traditionally; that is, making it open the ‘Find’ dialogue box as it used to, rather than opening a search and navigation pane as it does in Word 2010. The change to this function has been driving me mad, because I find the …
Qualifications
Last week, I was delighted to hear that I have become an advanced member of the UK’s Society for Editors and Proofreaders. This hard-won qualification means that I can advertise my services on the SfEP website. I’m also currently taking a 10-day course to obtain a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. I gained a similar qualification in 2005, but …