Horizons Magazine
Andrea de Michaelis, Publisher
Photo taken 2005
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AUGUST 2005
Upgrading, using the "right" terminology, filling in the blanks with wrong info, everything is connected
Hello and welcome to the August 2005 issue of Horizons Magazine. It's been an eventful,
transformative last month for me. Part of the transformation is that finally, 13 years after we
began, I am learning how to use the color management system in my magazine layout
program, so beginning this month we have lots more color! If I did it right, that is. If not, then
right now you're probably laughing your head off at what the pages look like *smile*
I didn't plan on or train for becoming a magazine publisher and I came into it knowing very little about graphic design. I knew nothing about layout. Back in the early 90's, Kristy Bassham and I taught each other to use Pagemaker under the guidance of her brother, and we hit the floor running. In 1997, when Kristy opted out of the magazine to pursue other dreams, I began doing the magazine myself and the daily running of it kept me busy. I kept thinking I should take a Pagemaker and Photoshop course so I could learn to utilize all the features of my programs, but you know how that goes... A decade later I still had not made it a priority and done it. I just talked a lot about doing it. And by talking about it, I ran into people every so often that knew the programs and gave me helpful tips and hints.
But many of these tips and hints were not useful to me, because I didn't understand the terminology they used, although sometimes I thought I did. Most people thought I knew more about the topic than I did, since I published the magazine every month, so they didn't use the Beginning 101 language that I could understand. Here they were trying to teach me to write, yet I didn't know my ABC's! But at the time, neither of us knew that, and the result was me just plugging along each month at the same old rate, doing minor variations on the same old way I always did it, because it was comfortable to me and it was working. It was only when it stopped being comfortable that I did something about it. And it stopped being comfortable a couple of months ago when my printer told me they were transferring over to new technology and I needed to begin getting my job to them each month electronically. AAAAAAuuugggghh!
Thankfully, under the tutelage of Tana T, The Delightful and Patient One, I was guided through the complex process in small, baby steps. Abraham says you can eat an elephant, one bite at a time, and that's what I was doing. The first time she told me the format the images had to be in, and how linking worked, I thought I understood it. When I got the July issue back, despite all my hard work, I saw errors all over the place! How could this be? I called Tana to *hehehe* point out "her" mistakes, and she patiently told me again about the images and the fonts and the linking. She told me where to look in my program manuals to learn how to properly do what I wanted done. She told me how to set the Preferences so I could accomplish what I set out to do. She reminded me to check everything all over again at the end, to make sure it was done properly. She had me do it over and over until I became very practiced at the keystrokes and eventually it felt very comfortable to do it. About 100 pages later, I became familiar doing it the new way, and - surprise! - the new way gave me the results I wanted, far more so than what I'd been doing up to now.
As I got brave and went page by page in my Pagemaker and Photoshop manuals, I now recognized terminology Tana had acquainted me with and it all began to make sense. Especially when I looked back to what I handed in to her last month and how it turned out on the physical page when I didn't do as she had instructed. I'd made plenty of notes as she spoke the first few times time, but pieced them together all wrong once I was on my own. Have you ever done that? Gone to a great talk and made lots of notes, and came home and none of it made sense? I filled in the blanks of what she told me with inaccurate info, so what she told me didn't sink in. Although I thought it had. It wasn't until I saw the physical evidence of the result of my actions did I realize that I wasn't doing what I thought I was doing.
Wow, what a metaphor for my entire life right now! Doing something wrong a few times, and seeing the result of my wrongdoing in physical form in front of me, was my indication that something needed to be changed. And if I wanted it changed quickly, I needed to ask at the source exactly what steps to take to get it right this time. Much of it had to do with linking files to each other, so they all worked together to produce a successful result. A group effort! That metaphor wasn't lost on me, either. Those who know me know that I am a private person and spend a lot of time on my own. Half my life is spent on the telephone, so I communicate with a lot of people every day, just not in person. Having Sun, Venus and Mercury in Aries in my 12th house, I like to accomplish things from behind the scenes, and don't even mind not getting credit for it. Deepak Chopra says, It's amazing what can be accomplished when it doesn't matter who gets the credit. So I look forward to getting involved in some exciting new group projects.
So, this month I've learned or been reminded of:
1. We don't always end up doing what we've been educated and trained for.
2. We can find ourselves dropped into a new profession with no training, and be guided to succeed in it.
3. If I don't make changes on my own to something that's not really working well, the Universe will give me a wake up call and make me change.
4. The Universe always sends an angel to guide me through a troubled time.
5. I CAN eat an elephant one bite at a time.
6. I'm not always learning what I think I'm learning.
7. I'm not always understanding what I think I am understanding.
8. Basic knowledge and terminology is important for clear communication of thoughts and ideas. We all have our own idea of what particular words or phrases mean to us. If those words have a different meaning to the one I am talking to, she is not hearing what I am saying. If I am entering a new arena and want to understand it, I need to know what language the natives are speaking, and what particular words and phrases mean to them.
9. I can tell by how it shows up in front of me whether I understand how something works.
10. Even when I understand how something works, I must make myself practice it until it becomes second nature and an automatic response if I want the full benefit of the knowledge.
11. Everything is connected. What I do "here" always affects someone or something "there".
12. Everything is connected. The thoughts I think "in here" always produce visible results "out there".
13. It's amazing what can be accomplished when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.
And I also realize I could have learned all this stuff years ago if I had made it a priority and forced myself to take a class and otherwise connected with people who were doing what I wanted to do. Hindsight is always 20-20, right? Although it's been a fun and exciting journey as I took the long way to get where I am, I'm not kicking myself for being lazy and not getting here quicker. If I got here quicker, perhaps the lessons wouldn't have been so manageable and I might not have had so much fun along the way. And even if I didn't get the message and the lesson years ago, I have them now and that's all that matters. Onward and upward!
In the future, when I feel like I'm dragging along and not getting anywhere and not understanding something, and maybe kicking myself when the ole inertia starts to set in, I'll remember this time. I'll remember that small steps get me there. I'll remember that the longer journey might be the more comfortable journey. I'm the only one who knows what my comfort zone is. And to paraphrase Anais Nin*, when the day comes that it's more painful to stay in the rut I'm in than to do something different, that's when I'll finally change... Enjoy our offering this month. Hari Om.