Skills Assessment

Every time a new class begins, the instructors always wants to find out what we already know how to do....hence the "Skills Assessment" is usually the first assignment. And every time I see that first assignment, I swallow hard and think "why don't you just teach me something first".....like maybe a little refresher? Anyway, that never happens and I'm left to muddle through on my own. One good thing, though, I've realized that it doesn't take me as long to get up to speed as it once did. Must be actually assimilating some of this stuff, after all.

For this one we were supposed to create a 4 page brochure about anything we chose. We had to use Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign....packaging the document for print with InDesign. He gave us a list of things he wanted us to do, but beyond that free reign (which to me is check all the things off the list and pass it in). Thank heaven for lynda.com and her online tutorials, the best refresher course ever. I think it was over 2 years ago that I last used InDesign!

Well, here is Project 1 all packaged and ready for the printer.

Onward and upward....Project 2....an interactive travel brochure for the web and the iPad. It looks like this will be the last print document for this class. I'm really excited about being able to design and produce web pages with InDesign....no more coding (at least for some things). Not sure how they are getting around the "Flash" thing for iPads, though....this InDesign for the web thing seems to be based on just that.

Weird Names For Things

Since we don't know the language and can't read the signs and a lot of the labels on things, we've developed a form of communication to describe many of the things we encounter in our daily lives. It's all kind of an organic thing. No big plan in place or anything like that, but I've noticed that we have our own names for things that helps us communicate.

It all started with "Backwards R"....which is what we call orange juice; because Backwards R is the only orange juice worth drinking around here. Finding it can be a challenge since there is one supplier of BR to all of the local grocery stores (big or small), so either they all have it or no one has it. Since we've been back after Christmas we have started stocking up on it when we find it.

We have the statue of "John Travolta"...an important historical figure and landmark.

There is "Flash Flood Market"....the place where we get our produce. We have no idea what it's really called but we know how to get there. Our name, "Flash Flood Market" derives from the fact that if you are in there when a torrential rain happens, you can expect to get caught in a flash flood. That happened to us back in the fall. There were some pretty ominous clouds off in the distance when we were parking but we ignored them. We were at the back end of the stalls meandering slowly to the door to the street when it occurred to me that the drumming sound on the roof was some pretty serious precipitation. It has one of those wavy metal roofs....nice and loud! I figured it was time to vamoose (since this might be "Collapsing Roof" Market for all we knew) but there was no way out into the street.....er....actually....river, since the street was under a good foot of water by the time we got to the front of the building.

We hung around one of the front entrances watching the water in the street rise higher with each passing minute. People inside the market were getting plastic bags from the vendors and tying them around there shoes before wading out into the water filled street. It wasn't long before the water level rose above the curbs and began to encroach upon the doors to the market. We looked behind us and saw that some vendors were now standing on top of their tables because the water was rushing from cracks in the concrete floor.

As we watched the water get higher and higher, we had to make a decision....stay or make a run for it. The car was parked at the corner of the building about 40 feet from the entrance. There was still a band of dry ground extending about a foot from the wall of the building. It might be possible to make it to the car without having to wade through the garbage filled stream in my sandals.

We decided it was now or never, so we bolted for the car. John ran ahead, got soaked halfway up his calves getting into the car which he drove up as far as he could on the sidewalk to let me in. My feet got a little wet but not nearly as bad as his.

The drive home was crazy! Water flowing everywhere. People baling out their basement shops as fast as they could move their buckets. A few well placed storm drains would be nice. If you have them...appreciate them. I was amazed at how fast the streets turned into rivers.

Why I Don't Blog Very Often....

Well, this week got me back in the saddle again.....two classes on the go now. One design one, and one filler...."Exploring World Religions". I guess the college doesn't consider the Humanities requirement 'filler' but being as I'm as well rounded as I ever expect to become, it's filler. The first project we had in Digital Publishing was to prepared a 4 page brochure on anything of our choice, as a skills demo. I think I am FINALLY getting to the point with all of this that I can take months away from my Adobe programs and yet come back to them with relative ease. Used to be, I felt like I was having to relearn everything each time I started another class. Thank goodness! I was beginning to think I was hopeless.

Our next project in this class is to design a web travel brochure for any place we choose. I'm looking forward to this one and have begun to compile some images of my own and some from the web to round them out. Next I'll do an outline of what I want the content to be, and follow that up with some thumbnails. Feels good to be designing again!

John is at the office preparing bonus packets for the guys. He hasn't been paid yet this month....which is not unusual. He gets paid when his boss remembers to do it, and if the end of the month comes and no money has shown up, John feels it's okay to ask about it. Small companies, eh? There is this job I found online that would be perfect for John....it's back in Dubai. But he does like this one....a lot. Hmmm......

No pressure or nuthin'