3-1-10
Two snow days and a random
four-day-weekend later, we're back at work - only to be
preparing to depart for spring break in only a few days'
time. Spring break is an interesting conundrum. On the
one hand, spring break is a week-long vacation from
classes, with many students opting to take trips to
various and diverse far-flung places. Others elect to
simply chill at home and avoid having to actually go
anywhere.
But this rampant vacation-woohoo
mentality can also cause a problem. Many professors like
to assign a large quantity of homework over spring
break; some to the extent that it feels just like any
other week with classes. Additionally, some of the more
forward-thinking students will use spring break as an
opportunity to bang off a paper project or two that
isn't due until the end of the semester...many
professors also like to top-load the semester, with the
largest and heaviest assignments coalescing near the
end. For those with only a few classes, this isn't a
problem - but for your average full-time student, this
can lead to April turning into an exercise in Hell.
For myself, I tend to fall
somewhere in the grey zone in the middle. I usually try
to make serious progress (or even complete) one of my
due-in-April monstrosities, but I do tend to slack off a
bit during spring break and not really stay caught up
with my homework like I should. While this sometimes
gets me in trouble, it seems to work relatively well for
me. For now, though, midterms are a-knockin', and the
week's worth of pseudo- peace and quiet seems pretty far
away.
_______________
2-22-10
Spring approaches, bringing with it the promise of
groups meeting in the warm sun once again. We've been
lucky here in Lock Haven this winter: a number of
powerful blizzards have attacked the Northeast this
year, but the worst we've gotten from any of them was a
mere six inches of snow, while regions such as
Philadelphia and Scranton have been buried under feet.
Midterms and spring break both also are on the radar.
Some classes have provided their midterms already, in an
effort to assuage some of the pain of having many
midterms and papers all due at once within a short
period of time, but Lock Haven is relatively quiet for
the moment, waiting to burst forth come spring like a
blossom in a bustle of activity; both scholarly and
recreational in nature.
_______________
2-15-10
Concluding my three part series which I began at the end
of last semester, I'll now focus on summarizing and
concluding the large paper project.
The biggest challenge to be faced in
concluding such a large project as a twenty or more page
paper is the danger of rambling and forgetting your
original mission and thesis. The best method of
combating this that I can recommend is to reread your
paper, and frequently, as it increases in size. This
will help you to keep on track for finishing your paper.
I've also tried to reexamine the outline of my paper,
that I came up with early in step one -- but that proved
somewhat inadequate for my goals.
This semester bodes well for
opportunities with which to use this technique that I
have developed. I have several longer projects lurking
in the shadows, waiting for me later on. One of them
promises to be especially interesting: a non-paper
project that can be any format I so desire, such as a
wiki or poem. While I have at best a very limited idea
of what format I will end up utilizing, I will most
likely end up doing another short series on the process
of that decision and how I enact its creation.
_______________
2-8-10
To sum up where I left off last semester: once I
developed a core idea that I wanted to toy with and set
my rough topic, I proceeded to split the larger whole
into smaller pieces. Figuring from my outline that the
project would end up at around twenty to twenty-five
pages (an assumption which proved pretty much spot-on),
I divided my paper into four major sections with a
several-page allotment for introduction and conclusion,
as well as transitional sections to tie the whole
project together.
I then began the actual
construction. I opted to begin with the introductory
sections, which may seem like a no-brainer, but was
actually very important in grounding me in my chosen
topic. I was tempted to begin with several of the more
entertaining and fun-to-write sections, but I knew that
I then risked straying off-topic.
Once the introductory framework was
in place, I crafted a viable thesis and then shopped it
around for opinions with students and professors whose
opinions I respected before continuing any further.
After a few much-needed tweaks were made, I revised
everything that I had at that point, and then moved on
to the body of the paper. I didn't really give any
section any priority other than that I wanted to do it,
which ended up causing me a spot of trouble later on
when I had to tie all of the separate pieces together
and was reticent to finish the last few sections.
Regardless, due in part to the spread out nature of the
sections that I preferred, I ended up with a reasonably
uniform paper punctuated by slight peaks and valleys of
excellence and mediocrity, but nothing too major or
readily apparent.
Next week I'll finish this series
up and talk a little about some upcoming projects of
similar scope and structure.
_______________
2-1-10
The Wheel turns, and we resume our springward march
with renewed vigor and a lightness in our step. Or
perhaps more aptly, we end up morose and despondent...it
all depends on our individual constitutions and the
schedules that we have (perhaps unwittingly) laid out
for ourselves. For example, I have a class on
Existentialism followed in the afternoon by a biology
seminar all about hard science, doubting everything, and
relying on physical fact: if those two aren't at
completely opposite ends of the spectrum, I don't know
what classes would be!
Regardless of whatever mishaps
occurred over winter break, we're here again and focused
on the onset of spring and fairer weather. So far the
weather seems rather blah - we haven't had any real
storms yet this year, and, with the exception of this
past weekend, it hasn't really been cold enough to note
it.
First up on my list of things to
achieve this semester through this blog is to finish up
my series that I started on the uber-long paper, with
Capstone relevance. My actual paper caught up with me
and I couldn't really afford to spend time writing ABOUT
the paper, and instead needed to work on writing the
paper itself. It eventually ended at just around
twenty-two pages, if anyone happened to be curious. Look
for that series to resume in the very near future...just
in time to be helpful to anyone doing a paper-form
Capstone, or so I hope, anyway.
_______________
11-29-09
My semester is winding down, but before it ends
completely, there is one last major hurdle that I must
cross: a twenty (yes, 20) page research paper. I've
decided that for my last few blog entries of the
semester, I'm going to do a short miniseries based upon
my progress with attacking this paper. My rationale is
that many of your Capstone projects will likely be
around this length, depending on the individual project,
of course.
The first step that I took was to
pick out a rough topic. The class is a science fiction
seminar (ENG328), so I knew that it had to be from
within that genre. Eventually, after picking a few
topics and discovering a dearth of research on them, I
settled on the subject of telepathy. Once I had a viable
topic, I decided to sit down and think about how I was
actually going to write the beast.
I ended up settling on splitting
the paper into six subsections: an introductory page, a
conclusion page, and four five-page sections (papers in
their own right) within the paper proper. I proceeded to
repeat the process and set a topic and select sources
for each of the five-page subsections - and that's where
I'm at now. Next week I will hopefully be farther along,
and can continue this series with thoughts and advice on
the actual construction and realization of the project.
_______________
11-23-09
A year ago, I used
this space to voice my somewhat scathing opinion of
Thanksgiving. While my opinion has not changed, I am
feeling somewhat more reconciliatory this year and will
not rehash bile already spent. We all need a break; even
some professors have mentioned being worn out. With a
scant few weeks left in the semester, the final hectic
push is on. All the final projects and tests are coming
up, and holiday (Christmas) preparations are commencing.
In all the hustle and bustle, it can be easy to forget
to look ahead. The next semester's course list is up and
a large number of the Honors students have registered
most, if not all of their classes. I am personally
waiting for a few friends to make up their mind on what
classes they are taking before I register my last two
classes. I cannot stress enough how much of a perk it is
to be able to register before everyone else. My friends
have to wait until early December at the earliest, and
there is no promise that they'll be able to be get in
the class that they want.
I've got some cool stuff lined up next season, and major
classes are usually not the most challenging to acquire.
The problem is when you run into gen-ed-esque classes
that every major requires, like Speech, for example. It
is then that the priority registration really comes in
handy. At any rate, I hope everyone enjoys their short
break before the final stretch. Good food, seeing family
again, and celebrating the destruction of an entire way
of life; have a happy Thanksgiving!
_______________
11-16-09
I am finding that
now is a time of returnings. I am returning to health,
after getting hit with a moderately dire cold last
weekend; I am returned from my first-ever trip to
Philadelphia; and I have been returning to past
projects. Recently, I discovered some older writing
projects that I have been missing for a while. I'm now
confronted with making the decision on what exactly to
do with them.
There are several options. I can attempt to revise them,
I can attempt to just do a straight rewrite, or I could
write an entirely new story utilizing the same
characters and settings. While my writing style has
greatly shifted over the years since I first began to
write (and I am fully aware of this fact), I am equally
aware that I have an emotional attachment to that which
I have written. I can look at it now and think of it as
garbage not anywhere close to my "modern" standards, but
I still love it, all the same.
This can be said for any number of things in the past,
of course. All which exists in our pasts is subject to
this cycle of revising and mournful attachment. As
another weekend comes to a close, and I am also called
to return to classes, I will ponder this problem and see
where the contemplation leads me. It may be that it is
just the nature of time; and that in time, I will
reflect upon sitting here, writing this blog post, in
the exact same way: mourning that which passed me by,
yet happily resigned that I was able to enjoy such a
life and such friends.
_______________
11-2-09
November has
dawned, and the Christmas season is rapidly approaching
- at least for outdoor lightsmiths and the corporate
sales world. Every year, I look forward to the beginning
of November, since it heralds the onset of Christmas;
for someone with a rather dim view of humanity such as
myself, the general goodwill expressed therein shows
that there may be some hope for mankind. Until, of
course, I read the news and get depressed about the
overall stupidity of humanity once again - it's a
vicious cycle.
That said, I have
two months anyway to bask in the glow of the Christmas
season. Those two months also happen to include the
conclusion to the fall semester, and feature a couple of
special events, although not as many as the earlier
half. In fact, coming up tomorrow night is a speaker
series. I believe I heard somewhere that the topic is
AIDS research, but I'll wait and let the Monday Morning
Announcements confirm or deny that. At any event, I will
be in attendance, and I hope that many others will be
joining me.
Also rapidly
approaching is the deadline to submit an application for
the spring semester's Regional Honors Conference, to be
held in Harrisburg sometime in April. I was planning to
write up a sample proposal and send it around to various
professors that I hold in high esteem for critique, but
the weekend's email server crash has unfortunately
stymied me, as I have been unable to access the prompt.
Hopefully I will have more to report on the process of
writing such a proposal next week, once the email server
decides to cooperate.
_______________
10-26-09
As promised last week, my Halloween rant has arrived.
I'll be upfront
and honest: I dislike modern Halloween. I think that it
makes a mockery out of things that should not be taken
so lightly. All people fear that which they do not
understand (or at least most of us do). Ironically, most
of the modern Halloween traditions which exist now are
not native to the holiday. American Halloween is a mix
of the Celtic (Pagan) holiday of Samhain and the
Christian All Saint's Day. The extent of the Celtic
roots, which are arguably much stronger in evidence than
the Christian equivalent, is that the veil between this
world and Otherworld becomes thin on Samhain. The result
is that spirits of all types, good, evil, ancestral, and
mischievous all, are able to traverse the boundary
between worlds and mingle with us mortals.
This liminality
was the original limit of the holiday. Now, however,
after centuries upon centuries of writers,
cinematographers, and cheap hacks blending the efforts
of previous - and much greater - men, we have modern
Halloween: a day for dressing up as whatever you want on
a lark, for making fun of various archetypical
characters from humanity's collective unconscious, and
for generally abusing an ancient and beautiful custom.
I recognize that
this seems a little scathing - especially to an Honors
community that makes much of the only legitimate holiday
that lies within the fall semester. As such, I don't
request that the revelry be avoided or altered in any
way. By all means, party away and be content. Just keep
in mind the ancient and powerful legacy of the day...the
"reason for the season," to quote Christians who wish to
keep Christmas close to the way they perceive the
tradition of that holiday. But that, my friends, is a
rant for a different entry.
_______________
10-19-09
Halfway through October, and the Haven has snow! Or
rather had, as warming temperatures have caused what
accumulation we had to melt. This weather event makes
the earliest accumulating snow to have occurred in this
region in recorded history. The previous record was
October 17th, from 1977. If this storm had hit us in a
few weeks, Lock Haven would be snowed under, as it
snowed for almost two days straight without pause.
Unfortunately,
due to the inclement weather, my plans for the weekend
were interrupted. I was going to go out to a hiking spot
out Route 87 known as Sandy Bottom, and stop at the High
Knob Overlook while I was out there, to enjoy the fall
foliage and try to get some good shots of what has been
the best fall color in the past five or six years.
However, due to the heavy, wet nature of the snow, the
danger of falling tree limbs became worrisome, and the
road to High Knob was most likely impassable. At least
the weather has returned to some semblance of normalcy -
perhaps I will yet get the opportunity to enjoy some
true central Pennsylvania fall.
At any rate, the
snow that was has not interrupted the flow of the
semester. Midterms are upon us, bringing with them their
usual onslaught of papers, study parties, and long
evenings. The Honors House is rapidly being decked out
in its Halloween decor, in preparation for the party
next Monday (the 26th). More on my feelings on Halloween
next week.
_______________
10-11-09
Even as we near the halfway point of the fall semester
(already? amazing how time can fly when it so wills), my
semester has yet to slow down. The onslaught of papers,
busywork, and projects seems unending. So too for the
Honors Program. The week upcoming is especially busy, as
in addition to the standard fare of activity groups,
FDGs, and special teams, there is a speaker series as
well as a UN Pathways Conference.
Although I will
be at work and thus unable to attend the Pathways
Conference, the topic is very interesting, and I urge
all who read this to check it out. The topic of NGOs
(non-governmental organizations) as a whole is a
mind-numbingly immense one, as NGOs can comprise
everything from AARP to a grassroots organization
dedicated to preserving a local forestland, and anything
in between. My hope is that the topic will be centered
around such grassroots organizations, as they can still
in this cynical age maintain the illusion of enabling an
ordinary citizen to make a difference.
By extension, of
course, the problem with these grassroots NGOs is that
they are often not taken seriously. While it would be an
interesting topic for the UN to discuss how these groups
can better make a difference, I somehow doubt that such
a discussion is to be the thrust of the Pathways
Conference. Regardless, I'm sure it will still be quite
excellent and well worth the time to check it out. I'll
have to find out how the course of conversation goes and
perhaps respond to it next week.
Until next time,
that horde of notions known as a research paper is
crying my name.
_files/image001.gif)
Kevin
McKee