A Minor Success and Other Bits and Pieces

Well, I successfully registered for the Freelance Writing for Magazines class. Just got in under the wire, too - only two seats were left. Whew! Nothing much else to report due to the holiday and other issues. Found a set of online tutorials regarding oceanography. Worked through a couple already and even took notes which I rewrote into my class notebook. I'll just do this directly with the rest - I wasn't expecting so many pages of notes per tutorial. I passed the quizzes at the end of the first two. It looks like the tutorials cover most of what my class will cover - so, it's a good review and study guide. Speaking of study guides - we're having our first exam next week - so, I'll be busy with studying for it. However, I plan on getting back on track with the research work as well - even if only for a change of pace to give myself a break. No, I haven't yet done that task of looking for past attempts to start this Pleistocene project. Hopefully, I'll get that started tomorrow - and by the end of the week possibly have a nicer rough draft to work with. Still working on the organization situation as well - one step at a time. I really must go through paperwork to sort it and toss out anything unnecessary. Well, gotta get to class! Until later!

Indecision About Upcoming Class

I am undecided about whether or not to take the writing class next month. I want to make a decision on it as soon as possible because I want to register for it by next week. It's only a couple weeks away. I think that my resistance is causing a wee bit of anxiety. I really don't see what harm it would do. At worst, I would realize that trying to get articles published in magazines would be a bad idea - but at least then I'd know this instead of trying and finding out later after months and years of trying this route - that it just is not meant to be. Much better than wasting valuable time, energy, and resources with no chance of success. I'd rather be prepared beforehand one way or the other. I don't like wasting my time. I prefer to get on with things - take action - but I like to be prepared and plan ahead - because I've experienced unexpected situations coming up that have blown me way off course - at least that's how I see it and how I feel about the whole ordeal. It's a royal pain and wastes so much of my time - and I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast. So, the pros and cons have to be weighed. I do believe that my resistance is actually some bizarre fear that if i take the class then I'm committed to seeing this entire idea through - which is wrong thinking. Once the workshop class is over, I don't have to ever consider actually writing articles for magazine publication if I do not wish to do so - or feel that it's just not right for me. I mentioned to a family member about the class and said that it's just to test the waters - so to speak - since I'm a good communicator, a good writer, good researcher, and like to simplify technical scientific concepts into regular language for regular folks to understand and comprehend - of course I would be writing scientific articles - this is just to get my work out there into the professional world - if not in high tech scientific journals - then maybe into more general audience oriented publications - Discover, National Geographic, etc. Of course, this would be the ideal situation - but once I have at least one article to send out, I can by then have a good working list of these kinds of magazines to submit my articles to. Then it's just a matter of when and where I send it - and patience - lots of patience. Yes, this is part of my strategy - one little tiny route. This one class is not a commitment - it's merely an info-gathering session to see if this is something that might just work out for me. It's a very valuable opportunity and could be potentially very beneficial and helpful to my entire career. Even if I could somehow pull off a couple published articles - they'd be excellent resume builders. I may as well attempt to see if this route bears any fruit. As the old adage says: nothing ventured, nothing gained! It is my turn to venture out of my safe little world of academia! Tallyho!

A Bit of Progress

Well, I did accomplish what I set out to do - and by the deadline I set for myself. Yes, I did get a rough draft written before Tuesday night's class. It's only a mere five pages handwritten - and really, really rough. However, while going through some old notebooks looking for something else, I found an old attempt at a rough draft - so, maybe it's a bit better. I have attempted to start my research projects numerous times in the past - with only a few minor successes - and those mostly due to my being in a class with a term paper assignment. Apparently, I need the structure of a class and deadlines to make progress - at least at this stage in the process. I am also working on a strategy for making significant progress - it will be helpful when I'm not taking a class related to my research - hopefully. As for the oceanography class - it looks like it might just be very helpful to my efforts. We're going to cover a lot of different concepts - and some may even be directly helpful to more than one of my projects. Also, a non-credit one-time class on writing for magazine publications is being offered locally through another college. It's next month and does not interfere with my current class schedule. Actually, it's a Saturday night - so I'm seriously considering registering for it. Hey, anything helps! So, my challenge for the coming week is to locate and meld as many of my old past attempts at this Pleistocene project - some are in notebooks - others saved on diskettes. Once finished, I might just have a really viable rough draft to work on. I feel like fate is helping me along - as long as I take action and help myself, serendipitous happenings come along to help me out. Maybe, the more I focus on my research projects - the more "assistance" I'll receive. Hey, the more help the better! Signing off!

Interesting Finds

Just want to get a heads up out here in cyberspace. I've been busy with various things - all progressing well enough. Got some serious organizing started - though with still much work to do. But at least I've been in a cleaning and organizing mood all week. That isn't to say I've completely forgotten my self-appointed challenge for these days - the rough draft of my Pleistocene project. I did get a bit of the preliminary reading started - and with some really great and possibly evidence-boosting effects. Granted, this is merely preliminary readings - but they can and often do give me some interesting directions and avenues to follow. For instance, it looks like population increases - significantly large ones might just be the norm following glacial retreats. It turns out that the Cambrian Explosion was preceded by a massive Ice Age - resulting in a veritable Snowball Earth - when all but the equatorial regions was covered by massive ice sheets. This is quite informative and very helpful - though it seems to be a controversial issue - though why that is the case remains to be seen. Also, lighter isotopes in rock and ice cores indicate mass extinctions. This information, too is very helpful. We should be able to track if and when mass extinctions - especially global scale ones - took place with respect to various ice ages - especially at the end or melt-off stages. Also, an interesting bit of information may show that we humans may have stopped the glacial/interglacial cycles - or at least seriously slowed them down - with global warming. I guess it's something we have yet to see.

Progressing in Bits and Pieces

I'm trying to get my strategy into a workable format that will work for me. I can add to it as I go along. I'm challenging myself to get a rough draft of the Pleistocene project out by the time the Oceanography class begins on May 15. This means that I'll be doing computer work next week - typing ideas to get a good start. I'm still working on the organization situation while I'm at it. Hopefully with a little luck and initiative I can get some preliminary sources read to get a feel for the overlying issues. What are the prevailing theories? Taking a critical analysis of the ones already established is one goal. Then doing some more technical background research on them to get more detail, will be in order. I am progressing - though from my point of view, at a snail's pace. One of the reasons why I prefer to work along via a class setting is for the prearranged deadlines - it 's a good structure to work with. However, I won't be able to do it that way forever - too expensive - and at some point I will have taken all possibly significant classes. So a workable strategy structure will be in order and I think I may have come across a design of my own making - an amalgamation of different steps - techniques - etc., that look like a good start. But I am not focussing on the strategy building any longer- because I want to get the real research underway. Since I'm still at the beginning stages of my work, I feel like I can work the strategy process out better - streamline it for organization, efficiency, and effectiveness. Yes, the Contract is going to be worked into it. Also, I figured that this strategy could conceivably work on different projects - not just scientific research, etc. That's something to think about for the future. I'll see if I can apply it to other areas as well. I am presenting myself with a challenge for the next several days - to get a rough draft together - even if it's merely based on preliminary sources. At least I'll have my basic ideas out on the drawing board in my own words and then I can just apply the more technical information to it as I go along - tweak the rough draft into a more finished format. But for this coming week - just the rough draft! Tallyho!