Stone Cold Failure & Shopping Addiction

Alright kids - a-post-a-day failed.
Failed miserably!
I had good intentions, but I let a few things get in my way: i.e. attempting to access the internet after school hours is marginally easier than getting water from a stone; I had recently discovered Asos.com and spent any time online with a window on Asos browsing through coats and some ugly overpriced bags; I was totally uni-student-on-holidays LAZY!

It is the second reason that really catches my attention though - the shopping thing. I read an article a few Sundays ago in my local paper (The Sunday Mail - getting a bad rep from every corner these days) about people that had changed their lives by doing something for a year. An example was Julie Powell of Julie & Julia fame, there was one lady/girl/lady-girl who wore the same dress for an entire year(theuniformproject.com - and may I say, woah. Have a look & get yoself some inspiration!) and in doing so raised enough money for 200 underpriviledged children to go to school. The article focussed on one woman in particular, who admitted to having a shopping addiction and had given up ALL shopping for 365 days.

I realised - I don't need these ridiculous things in my Asos shopping bag (I'm sorry Asos, you're wonderful, but I need to see other hobbies). I don't need a new dress for the party this weekend (I had actually been considering spending $70 AUD on getting a $40 dress to me for said party). I do not need to be shopping for a new dress for the next party I go to either!

... I will admit that I bought a fabulous skirt the other day. But! But! It was fifty per cent off! (Who pays $74 for a skirt anyway??)

So, here I am. I admit, I am not completely cured of all shopping. I feel like the next step toward that would be volunteering overseas and having the absolute shock of my life.

I'm definitely again on that inspired path again. I just need a little nudge every few days or so to remember to stay on it and not get so distracted by the lupins on the side of the road. (Lupins are these MAGNIFICIENT flowers in New Zealand that grow by the thousands on the side of the road).

So! I'm setting some new goals. I apologise, I'm probably going to keep doing this. I figure it's ok if I alter some of them if they really don't work, so long as I'm not just procrastinating in changing them.

Goals for 2011:
- Read 100 books by 2012 (holy crap)
- Do an international internship (I'm a dazzling PR graduate if anyone's interested :)
- Figure out something meaningful for this blog!
- Write an article for publication in print/online media... and get it published!

The book thing stems from my friend telling me how many books she read last year. If not for the extremely large fascinator adorned on my head, my eyes would have popped out of it. If I am to be serious about writing then I need to spend less time Asos-ing (sorry dude, you've been totally bagged in this post) and more time strainin' the ol' eyeballs!

Books read so far in 2011:
- It Had To Be You, Susan Elisabeth Phillips (awesome)
- Heaven, Texas, Susan Elisabeth Phillips
- Bet Me, Jenny Crusie
- Rose Madder, Stephen King (woah NELLY)


P.s. check out goodreads.com. Addictive!

Head to head, paper to screen: differences in design

As technology rumbles by in a flurry of dust and money, change is thrust upon all of us. This is clearly visible when we observe the contrast between designing for a traditional print publication, as opposed to the way we would design for an online one. According to DC Reep, the purpose of document design is to "provide readers with the information they need" (2006, p 134). The aim is to both organise your information and capture - and hold - your audience's attention. Designing for any mode requires patience, and a willingness to learn and experiment.

General principles shared by both online and print publication design are balance, consistency, headings and graphic aids such as pictures and colours. The contrasts between the two media modes stem from the way we read them. Reading is our brain's method of decoding and analysing the information our eyes are showing us. It involves and prompts not only decoding and analysis but response, comprehension and critiquing - all in a matter of milliseconds (Walsh 2006, p 25). When we (members of the Western culture) read a print publication, we do so in a linear fashion. We look first to the top left corner and "work our way across and down, going from left to right and back again, until we reach the bottom right corner" (Wheildon 1990, p 8).

An online publication is different, in that we usually 'scan' the screen, rather than 'read' it the conventional way. Our reading path has little or no set direction: we can go where we want to, when we want to, and at the click of a button. Graphic aids are especially helpful in attracting the attention of the reader. When designing an online publication one must keep in mind that the colour scheme should be kind on viewers eyes; as prolonged exposure to a computer screens is a strain on eyes (Parker 2003, p 270).

This is just a brief overview of the design process, and the similarities and differences that exist within that process. However, I believe it is especially important to take stock of the following statements before you begin any form of publication design:

- Universal rules do not exist in the realm of publication design - only suggestions do.

- That "tools and techniques that [work] effectively in one situation won't necessarily work in another" (Parker 1990, p 1)

- Finally, consider your intended audience during all steps of the design process, and tailor it to them.

References

- Parker, RC 1990, 'Beginning observations', Looking good in print: a guide to basic design for desktop publishing, 2nd edn, Ventara Press, Chapel Hill NC, Chapter 1.
- Parker, RC 2003, 'Designing documents for web distribution', Looking good in print, 5th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale AZ, Chapter 14.

- Reep, DC 2006, 'Document design', Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York, Chapter 6.

- Walsh, M 2006, 'The "textual shift": examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian journal of language and literacy, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2006.

- Wheildon, C 1990, Communicating or just making pretty shapes, 3rd edn, Newspaper bureau of Australia Ltd, North Sydney.