Author: Melissa

  • Job applications

    Applied for three part-time admin positions I found on Seek, all located not far from where we live which is a bonus.

    Update: below is the one I scored an interview for. The second one, I didn’t get as far as interview but received a nice rejection letter.. heard nothing back about the third one!

    IPSWICH HOSPICE ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT
    Ipswich Hospice Care is a non-profit, non-denominational community owned and run facility which provides care for the terminally ill, their families and bereaved people in the Ipswich & West Moreton Region.

    The Hospice Team includes a Management Committee, Staff, Volunteers, as well as the patients and their families.

    The role of the Administration Assistant is to support the Development Manager in the promotion, fundraising and marketing requirments of the organisation.

    To be considered you will have:-
    Competent computing skills – Microsoft Word, Publisher, Excel, Access, MYOB and email
    Good written and verbal communication skills
    Experience in a similar administration role
    Strong organisational skills including planning and co-ordination of community events
    Cash handling skills
    Professional phone manner
    Attention to detail
    Ability to work within a team and autonomously.

    The successful applicant will be employed under the guidance of the Social and Community Services (SACS) Award, level 4 – with salary sacrificing optional after probationary period.

  • Road signs 2.0

    Apologies for the gratuitous use of “2.0”. Being a web-head it is tempting to apply this term to anything that is an improvement over an older version (it all began with Web 2.0).

    In the U.S.A., a new typeface has been developed to make road signs clearer, and comparing the before/after shots in this New York times article by Joshua Yaffa attests to its effectiveness. The signage is clearer, and less time spent squinting at road signs to work out what they say can only be a good thing.

    New highway typeface

    Not only are the signs clearer, an added benefit is they also halve your mileage as the above example shows..

  • The Perks

    Dad forwarded this email funny to me – The Perks of Being Over Sixty. I love items 5, 7 and 13:

    1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
    2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
    3. No one expects you to run–anywhere.
    4. People call at 9 PM and ask, Did I wake you????
    5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
    6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
    7. Things you buy now won’t wear out.
    8. You can eat supper at 4 PM.
    9. You can live without sex but not your glasses.
    10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.
    11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
    12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.
    13. You sing along with elevator music.
    14. Your eyes won’t get much worse.
    15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to payoff.
    16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.
    17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.
    18. Your supply of brain cells are finally down to manageable size.
    19. You can’t remember who sent you this list .

    And you notice these are all in Big Print for your convenience.

    Forward this to everyone you can remember.

    Ha ha ha ha!

  • Demands on the Poor

    At present, the positive efforts [toward reducing poverty] are being affected by the still largely unsolved problem of the foreign debt of the poorer countries. The principle that debts must be paid is certainly just. However, it is not right to demand or expect payment when the effect would be the imposition of political choices leading to hunger and despair for entire peoples.

    It cannot be expected that the debts which have been contracted should be paid at the price of unbearable sacrifices. In such cases it is necessary to find – as in fact is partly happening – ways to lighten, defer or even cancel the debt, compatible with the fundamental right of peoples to subsistence and progress.

    – John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 1991

  • LetterPop – quick and easy newsletters

    I stumbled on this cool newsletter service LetterPop, very easy to use. It lets you add your own photos to some very nice looking templates worthy of digi-scrapping. I created this test newsletter about Boss in the space of five minutes.

    boss-news.jpg

    The basic (free) service lets you email up to 10 newsletters a year to up to 25 recipients, or you can print or publish the page. My test page sits at http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=55728-280dce

    Paid subscriptions give you more options – $25 US a year lets you send a weekly newsletter to up to 500 recipients. $15 US a month lets you send a daily newsletter to up to 10,000!

    I noticed however that the email message only contains a link to the page where the newsletter is published online, the message doesn’t display the newsletter. To me this is a sensible idea (Jeffrey Zeldman agrees) but it might not suit some people.

  • Not just for kids

    As a follow up to my post last week about people paying others to “level” them in role-playing games, this news item came up today – in the last financial year Australians spent $1 billion on games software and hardware!

    According to a report, the average age of a gamer in this country is 28, and players are found in all walks of life – it’s not just kids anymore. And the games are not all coming from overseas – Australia’s game industry is growing with over 40 companies employing over 2500 people. The industry is pushing for the same level of rating standards, tax breaks and funding enjoyed by other local entertainment industries such as film and television.

    External links:
    Billion Dollar Baby – posted by Jason Hill