Minimum again thanks to bad time management on my part.

Doing my minimum 10 words or so today.  There, done!

A Paper

From an assignment of one of my classes at The Magical Circle School:

My Research Paper

(An Irreverent Look at Research Papers)

Wow.  Any topic.  But one of the resources has to be an actual, physical, book.  I decided that would be the limiting parameter.  After all, the web is wide open.  You can find at least a little information on almost anything on it. (For example, look up mule roping sometime.[1])  But I do not own an infinite supply of books.  (Nor would I want one, truth be told.  The ones I do have cost enough to move, thank you very much.  :)  )

I also thought I should brush up on what a research paper actually is.  I’d written countless numbers of them at university, but that was more than twenty years ago.  What if they’d changed?  What if I didn’t remember!  What if I’d gotten them wrong all along?!  My first stop was a Rice University page titled “How to Write a Research Paper.[2]”  It talked about general forms and styles, mistakes to avoid, descriptions of all the different sections, and so on.  After that, I found “A Research Guide for Students,” which explained “How to Write an A+ Research Paper.” [3]   Wow, I thought, I really need that!  It turned out to be a much more basic source, with a step-by-step guide.  Then, just to be thorough, I took a look at “Writing a Research Paper” from the University of Alberta Libraries.[4]  No surprises there—kind of a middle road between my first and second sources.

Alright.  I had now re-familiarized myself with research papers.  Now I needed to find a book, preferably without visiting the closest library.  I looked at my twenty or so linear feet of cookbooks, and decided that would be too easy.  The art books, computer books, and research books in the study sounded too boring. (Although I did find a book to use for my footnotes.[5]  Once upon a time I had those rules memorized, but alas, no longer.)   I then journeyed downstairs to our actual library.  I found books on dogs, on camping, on birding.  I found biographies and photography books and books on Wicca.  I found books I hadn’t looked at in years, books which I’d all but forgotten I owned.  And, of course, lots and lots of fiction and literature.  None of the non-fiction really caught my fancy, and the fiction certainly wouldn’t do!  But my eye fell on a narrative that is the basis for my favorite, favorite, favorite stage play, Wicked.[6]  I picked it up on a whim, more to glance through it than to actually consider it.  And there, though I hadn’t planned to write a paper on Wicca, was the most appropriate line, coming from this fictional witch:

“I can make no comment on the souls of others," said the Witch.[7]

---

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AswtO3dR4HE

[2] http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html

[3] http://www.aresearchguide.com/1steps.html

[4] http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/writingresearch/index.cfm

[5] Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6^th ed., rev. John Grossman and Alice Bennet (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996).

[6] Gregory Maguire, Wicked:  The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, A Novel.  Illus. Douglas Smith (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, ReganBooks, 2004).

[7] Ibid., 344.

Free Stuff

Since I've re-injured my knee AGAIN (this time with swelling and everything), I spent last week on the couch with my leg elevated.  Fun, fun, fun.  Not.  Working with a laptop actually on your lap is not the best way to work, and I got so sick of watching tv that I wanted to pull my hair out.

The knee is much improved this week--I can actually get around pretty well with a knee brace on it.  And, even better, I can sit up at the table for long periods of time, especially if I alternate elevating the leg on a chair and putting it down.  This means I can actually work and play on the 'net with relative ease.  Yay!

I've spent the last couple of days downloading free stuff off the web, from the Kindle Store over at Amazon, and from Microsoft.  The Microsoft stuff was pretty basic--I just discovered the joys of Microsoft OneNote, and I was busy downloading tons of notebook templates for it.  (And a bunch of Powerpoint and Word templates, too!)

The Kindle Store, however, was fabulous!  A friend of mine pointed out over Facebook that you could get Kindle for PC for FREE!  (Thanks, Sue!)  I also found out you can get a Kindle app for your iPhone or your Blackberry or just about anything else you can think of, all free.  The best thing, however, was all the free books you can download.  Most of them are older (like cookbooks or classic literature), or the first in a series, or some such, but still--plenty of reading material, and some really useful volumes besides!  (For you preppers out there, I found some great TEOTWAWKI materials.)

A word of warning to Canadians and anyone else not residing in the U.S.--You can only get the books at the U.S. Amazon site, and the prices are in U.S. dollars.  Also, not all volumes are available outside the U.S., and some of the ones that are available are at different, usually higher, prices.  Most particularly, some of the books that are free in the U.S. are NOT free if you live elsewhere.  All in all it wasn't too bad, though.

Especially worth it if you're somewhat bedridden, and not sick!

Back to Your Semi-Regularly Scheduled Reading

Alright--I've been off for almost a month, it's pretty much time to get back to my regular schedule, and to my computer!  You see, around our house, we have holidays starting at the Winter Solstice (around December 21st), through New Year's Eve and Day, and continuing through both DH's and my birthdays in the first half of January.  We still have our anniversary in the first week of February,  but that's usually a weekend or less--not nearly so disruptive.  And then there's Valentine's Day, which some Pagans refer to as Aphrodite's Day, but that, too, takes a weekend at most, if we even choose to celebrate it.

It actually used to be worse, when we DID celebrate US Thanksgiving.  At that point, our holiday season would start in the last week of November, and continue through all the Christmas parties and New Year's celebrations and birthday merriment right through until now.

Combine all the revelry during the holiday season, and add to that the amount of vacation DH usually takes at this time of year, and you can imagine how different our lives are for this past month!  Nonetheless, I'm determined to get back to normal!  I caught up on a bunch of personal tasks yesterday, and today I'm getting back to this!

Of course, I'm simply trying to get back in the habit, such as it was.  I don't have anything earth-shattering or particularly insightful to say. 

Maybe tomorrow.  :)

Holiday Blahs

Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I've had fairly little to write about.  Unless you count being cold, cold, cold after our furnace went out and the subsequent replacement of said furnace.  Not really interesting stuff.

I was talking to my mother yesterday, and she has about a gazillion activities planned for the next couple of weeks.  Me?  I don't have a one.  Nor am I upset about that--I just can't seem to get into the holiday spirit this year.  (I think it was the whole furnace problem that really put a damper on things, and maybe feeling down for US Thanksgiving started it.)

At any rate, we haven't decorated, not at all.  We haven't put the tree up or made our library-turned-ritual-room seasonally appropriate or put the wreaths up.  We certainly haven't put up holiday lights.  Even our altar sits bare and unadorned.  And with every day that passes, the very idea of doing any of it grows more futile.

We're playing with the idea of camping for Yule.  I'm really wondering about it after being cold all last week, but DH is really excited by the notion.  If we do, it means we won't have not-decorated the house in vain--we won't be here to have enjoyed the decorations anyway!

That thought actually does cheer me!

Big Changes

Don't worry--there's nothing wrong with your screen!  In honor of this blog's 2nd anniversary today, I'm giving it a facelift, so it will change constantly throughout the day. 

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause!

Missing

I'm sorry I've yet again missed many days of posting, Dear Readers.  Life reared up its head and blogging went down in priorities for the last couple of weeks.  I hope you all had a Happy Halloween, a Blessed Samhain, or both.  (I'm bummed I missed posting everything I had planned for the holiday, but there's always next year.  :)  )

My own holiday went much better than last year.  DH and I are getting better at blending the two aspects, and hopefully will continue to improve.  We managed this year to combine honoring our ancestors and dearly departed with watching a couple of scary movies, and did justice to both, if I do say so myself.

On to Yule. 

My HappyHappyJoyJoy Isn't Your HappyHappyJoyJoy

Did you ever see a movie at a different point in time than your best friend did, and you had totally opposite reactions to it, even though if you'd seen it together you would have agreed on it? 

I just unsubscribed from 1000 Awesome Things.  I originally signed up because the first couple of posts I saw were about issues/things I did consider awesome.  Since then, however, only about 1 in 5 have been about things that actually make me happy.  It's funny how we as human beings can share some feel-good items, and not others.  It's a good thing, because it makes us all individuals, but at the same time it's weird.  Why does one person like blueberries, and another prefers strawberries?  One like blue, another prefer yellow?

Huh.