Rob Barrett

March/April Roundup

Posted on April 23, 2008 at 2:14pm

I guess more fool me for starting a new blog right before going on holiday! A few days after my last post, I left Cardiff and hitchhiked for charity (Link Community Development) down through France and Spain to Morocco, where I spent a week on top of the eight days it took to get there. I had a fantastic time all in all. There were a couple of difficult days on the hitch where it all started to feel too much like hard work, but I met a lot of great and kind people who were happy to help out with the cause. I also managed to take a load of photos while I was away — there’s a few texture images that I’ll be sharing soon.

Things have all been pretty busy since I got back, what with catching up on work, having friends and family visiting for my birthday celebrations (I turned 23 while I was in Fes) and starting to look for a job and a place to live for when I move to London in the summer, so I’m going to give a short round-up of things that have come to my attention.

Business Contract

I recently had a request for work from a local school here in Cardiff. I realised that I’ve never really used a contract in my work before, and that it was high time that I did. So I’ve been on Google searching around for contract templates, and have managed to put together one based upon the offerings on the following sites:

Zenful Creation’s Web Site Design Contract, and Creative Latitude’s Resources Downloads.

Macros

When working on projects, I generally have two or three different Excel spreadsheets open, and it all takes time to open Excel, then to navigate to each file, and then to open them, so I figured there must be a better way. After a quick search on ‘windows macros’, I found AutoHotKey, a free and simple, but powerful, macro programme for Windows. After setting up the appropriate script, all I have to do now is hold down the Windows key and press X, and Excel automatically loads up and opens all three of my main spreadsheets… much more productive!

RSS Feeds

I’ve really been getting into RSS feeds recently (at last). I use Google Reader, as it has a simple, user-friendly interface, it’s free, and it’s web-based (so I can access my feeds from anywhere).

Here’s five of the feeds I’ve been reading in the last few weeks (in no particular order):

1. PSDTuts — Photoshop Tutorials and Links (RSS feed)
2. Fresh Brushes on brusheezy.com! (RSS feed)
3. Logopond — Identity inspiration (RSS feed)
4. Blog.SpoonGraphics (RSS feed)
5. Smashing Magazine (RSS feed)

That’ll do for now. I’m off to spend the rest of the afternoon updating my CV and portfolio, ready to apply for some jobs in the capital. Wish me luck!

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