I've joined a new team to relaunch my village's newsletter, the K'nocker.

My initial offer was simply to proofread: I haven't even been living in the village for a year yet so to do such a 'personal' thing didn't seem right. But I didn't know there wasn't another editor on board and I can't help but bring in my experience.

A is for Agnes, still able at age 6 and waiting to be used at full capacity;

B is for Birch, not quite getting into fusion like she used to;

D is for Dochan, doing just fine, and also Darwin, who did a hell of a lot;

E is for Elder, living quite happily in a black and white world;

F is for Fennel, living in service for us all;

G is for Gentian, small enough to come out with us;

H is for Hyssop, the postie;

I is for Ivy, well connected;

J is for Jasmine, the traffic warden;

K is for Kowalski, 'the ghost of the machine', the founder, and the root of it all;

Last Saturday morning found me lucky. Someone had cancelled their place on a spinning workshop and I got their place at the last minute, 8.30 in the morning. Three hours later and I had travelled the 100-plus miles from home to Bonar Bridge (head of Dornoch Firth). 

I was musing on this over the weekend while warping up my loom: good project planning manages to avoid most snitches, just like keeping warp threads tidy. So I'm pushing the analogy: here is a list of must-dos for each.

Keep the warp tidy on the warping board, keeping an eye out for any flaws in the yarn.

Create a top-level plan of each stage from beginning to end, chunking into manageable items.

There's a large set of ellipses since our last posts in February ... ... ... This is mostly because I've been engrossed in my role as voluntary director of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) -- for marketing and PR, somewhat ironically in that Reedmace's marketing has been rather passive. But it's time to now juggle both at once.

The latest news: you can find me on LinkedIn, where I'm now connected with colleagues and friends old and new.

I’ve been trying ebooks and reading software today. This subject can become very involved, so this post is focused what is available for those without a dedicated ebook reading device. The hardware I had available were an iMac, Windows XP, Palm OS and Linux (on an Eee netbook).

First, let’s take a look at the PDF format to justify why looking at ebook formats at all.

For those of you who did not attend MSBC today, or for those of you who did and would like a record of my presentation, these are the salient points from my ten-minute presentation to the MSBC (Moray Small Business Club). I gave this presentation to share an idea as small business owner to small business owner.

We have all become used to reading on screen nowadays; we don't print to read an email, a blog, maybe even, for some of us, business or research reports, or news. So, how about using screens without computers, or reading books without paper? The technologies that are making electronic readers pleasant to use are starting to coalesce, and digital ink is rapidly becoming the accepted standard: no visual difficulties in bright or dark conditions.

When it comes to running a business, the less of the humdrum in our heads the better. 

The old adages were ‘Make a note’, ‘Put it in the office procedures manual’. Now we should be saying ‘Get it in the wiki’ as a matter of course.

Across the distances that we have to cover to talk, what is the best way of keeping in touch, letting you know what interests us, what we want to know more about? Blogging. It is the only way.

I'll be using the director's blog to cover the bigger issues in the industry and as a business owner.

The editor's blog is going to be about editorial matters; the office's blog is for anything related to admin and computers in the broader sense.