Tuesday, January 29, 2013

It's Tuesday! Worked some doing some freelancing last week which helped a bit. Still out there searching and working on some tutorials to update some of my skills.

Don't even know why I started this post as I don't really have a lot to say today. Sitting here with an empty mind, trying to think of something profound to say or talk about...

Friday, January 18, 2013

Good-Day! Cold dreary day for Florida, which makes it is a good day to do some more researching and reviewing of options, goals and motivations.

As I previously mentioned in an earlier post, I upgraded to CS6 on my home computer. While I had been working in CS5 and CS5.5 in the workplace, I only had CS4 on my home computer.

Once you load a new program (suite) you end up opening the different programs and figuring out what is new, and where to find tools that are moved and if they work the same as previously or are there new tricks to the trade.  For the most part, the work I have done in page layout has primarily been in Indesign. There have been times when I have done basic edits in Photoshop and Illustrator at work but most of those things have been handled by an art department. Of course, there has always been Acorbat for PDFing files. At times, I will start some project at home to improve and/or relearn skills in Photoshop and Illustrator .

Playing around can be very time consuming. You set up new workspaces. Then you start looking at your old projects/files and open them in the different programs and play around with them.
  • You try to figure out how you ever did that (what filter or effect you used)
    –mind you some of these files where 10 years old
  • Look up web sites and tutorials on the various programs,
  • Sart reading articles about designers and artists
  • Forget what you were originally doing
  •  Go back to the file you had open and then continue...
Before you know it the day has passed you by. AND what have you really accomplished. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. Really it is all good. Searching, tweeting, and working in files can lead you to some really interesting and awe-inspiring information. It boggles my mind how many talented people there are in the world.

That's it for today. Gotta get back to life's confusion.....

Thursday, January 17, 2013

I'm back. Today I am "wondering what happened." I have been "watching what is happening." NOW, I have got to make things happen. I'm trying, I'm trying .... honestly!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Well here I am again. Finally! I have been very negligent in posting on this blog. Time and life just seem to take over. I have a thing for quotes and attaching some sort of graphic to them. Here's one for today:
I am starting out this new year jobless. (well not actually jobless as I am doing some freelancing for a company that takes some major print magazines and makes them interactive online ready.) Once again the prepress house I was working at for the past 3 years 9 months has restructured itself with the intent of outsourcing most of its production.

So, I am experiencing the same angst that millions of other people are experiencing. Its hard for me as I have always worked. In 1997 I took a year off and went back to school to finally finished my degree. Upon completion I was hired by a company as a production artist and worked there for
12 years. When that company closed its office, I was working at another company the very next day, where I remained for the past 3 3/4 years. Now as I mentioned I am doing some freelancing work.
What it's left me with though is the same feelings I think most people have in my situation: feelings of redundancy, insecurity, anxiety, lack of purpose, etc., etc., etc.

Todays job market can be very confusing. There are lists and lists of what you should do, what you should say, how you should act in an interview. Its endless and everyone has something to say regarding the issue of "finding a job." I have never been good at selling myself or putting myself out there. There are so many job listing options out there: Monsters.com, Career Bulders, Talent Zoo, Indeed, Desktop Publishing Job Finders, Beyond,  LinkedIn, and the list goes on. It can be rather mind-boggling. Then, there are those that say online job search sites are relatively useless and few people actually get a job from these sites. Yet, there are lots of companies that only take applications for positions online. Its a conundrum, especially when you are more introverted than extroverted.

Positives are that I have gotten a lot of things done around the house, am spending more time researching information online, cleaning up my files on my computer, updating my programs on my computer, doing miscellaneous tutorials.