Katykins Weblog

Just an update, I’ve added a new blog to my blog-roll titled “Student Bloggers”. While surfing through my blog stats, I noticed that they were one of my refers. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked them out to find that it is an “online community where we can find one another…” The organizers of this blog find student blogs and add them to there directories, which I think is a very neat idea.

They have “rules” for linkage which they have posted on there page which are:

1. You are a student at an institution of higher education or actively blogging about the application process.
2. Your blog is not officially associated with a college.
3. Finally - and this is important - you actively blog. Let’s not lead each other to dead sites

It seems that this blog is just recently started up, with archives only going back to February 2008. I think that this would be a good blog for my fellow class mates to add to there blog roll, seeing as all of us in my weblogs and wikis class probably meet the criteria to be linked.  This could make your blog easier to find by other college students, and you could also check out other students blogs. If you want to be linked on there blog you can send your blog via email to alex@studentbloggers.org.

Another interesting blog I’ve found that his related to this one is RIT/NTID student blogs! This is similar in that it is a sight dedicated to student blogs, however instead of acting as a database for many it is more of a documentary for few. They choose three students each year to have their college lives documented through blogging. This is a lot like what I am doing now. From what I understand NTID is the National Institute for the Dead, so I am guessing that these bloggers are also deaf, although it does not clearly specify this on the homepage. This makes this blog very different then any other blog that I’ve come across. When I have more time I plan to go check it out more.

I just got of my weblogs and wikis class. Today we discussed the Project Presentations, and the Writeups. We are going to be giving the project presentation in class starting next week, with mine being in a couple weeks from now. They are essentially going to be the rough drafts of the writeups, with the writerups being more complete and fine tuned.

We are going to be presenting our projects to the class using the computer and over head. From what I have gathered thus far, we are going to be creating the pages for our presentations on the wiki. So instead of using our blogs as the starting point, we are going to gather links and organize them on our presentation page. This should help keep us organized and on track during the presentation. Choosing the links should hopefully be easy. We need to pick links that suffice the following categories.

• What did you do?
• What else happened?
• What went well?
• What went not so well?
• What problems did you encounter and how did you address them

Asides from preparing the links we also need to ask ourselves the following questions in order to be prepared for the presentations.

• Where did you start?
• Where did you end up?
• What changed-and how? What do you make of those changes?
• What stayed the same? What did you make of that?
• If you did it again, what would you change? What would you keep the same

If all goes well, this presentation should be pretty painless. Completing the Writeup should be the hardest task to complete. At this point I am guessing that gathering the information should be easy. Tying it all together to form a terrific writeup may be a hefty task.

Why time sure does fly. There is less than a month left of class, and so much work that needs to be done. Studio presentations of our class blogs are coming up quick, and we meet again face to face on Monday to discuss the finer details. I think that I have done alright maintaining my blog, and creating a variety of topics to blog on.

I think that this is been good learning process for me. I’ve learned more about time management from finding the time to blog nearly everyday. I’ve also learned when the best time for me to reflect is, which is usually late at night, or between work and classes.

I have also gained some more perspective on just how much dwelling on course work  helps me to retain the information that is discussed in each class. It is easier to forget about lectures and ideas than I had ever realized. This proved to be true whenever I tried to blog about course work two days after the course was held. It was hard to remember just exactly was said, and I do not have that bad of a memory. This blog had acted as a sort of on line note-book, letting me keep my thoughts and reflections all in one place. Instead of sifting through folders and notebooks, while deciphering my sloppy handwriting, I can easily read my thoughts on authors and poetry through a click of a button.

I have completed my term paper for Physical Science. The topic had to be on the future for a type of alternative energy in Minnesota. I chose wind power because it is the first one that came to mind. When I went to college at the University of Minnesota Morris, there was a wind turbine on campus. It is a pretty big wind turbine, over 350 feet tall, powering over half of the campus.

I learned a lot while doing the research for the paper. I hadn’t realized that the state had made mandates that force some businessed to use some sort of alternative resource. Also, businesses that do use wind power get tax breaks. It seems like a pretty go idea to go ahead and use wind power. Not only is it obviously a lot better for the environment, but it is can also be cheaper than coal or nuclear power. This is because the state offers tax credits in order to lower the cost of wind power.

Wind power has also been good for Minnesota’s economy, creating jobs all over the state for builders. More and more turbines are being built each year. This is also good for farmers. The state is willing to pay farmers for partial use of their land, which amounts to a few thousand dollars for each turbine. This means more money for the farmers, and they can still farm there land due to the relatively small diameters of wind turbines.

It’s amazing how much you can learn by just doing a little research.

Exam 4 was today, and I am feeling pretty good about the outcome. The grades aren’t posted yet, but I certainly expect a better outcome than the last exam. At least a B, i hope.

I am feeling more confident in my capabilities in science. It’s kind of funny, since this is the last science class that I will ever have to take and there is only a month left in the semester. My main problem has been taking the time to study. Thinking about this now it seems so trivial. After taking the time to study last night and actually learning the topics, I am kicking myself for not studying more before. It is such a simple notion, and yet when faced with it I find it hard to get in gear.

I know that if I would have studied I would have been capable of getting an A. However, I am sure that this is true for a lot of students, so this all isn’t really that important. Taking the time to reflect though, it seems all to easy.

So after studying I took the online portion of the test and scored a B, the second highest score that I’ve earned on the online portion thus far. Hurray!

If things work well I’ll score a B for my over all grade in the class, then I’ll be finished with my generals. It’s going to be such a big weight lifted from my shoulders. No more courses that don’t relate to my interests in the least bit! No more subjects that I am totally inept at (science)!

I recently received some feedback on one of my posts “Looking to the Future”.

The feedback was from a  grant writing blog, stemmed from livingwellgrants.com. The purpose of this blog is to inform people of what is going on today in the world of grants, as well as possible paths and careers that are popping up for grant writers. I think that this is a useful website for anyone interesting in professional writing.

I love being able to find any and all information that I need, so I find sites like this one to be very useful and informative, not only for it’s content, but also for all the links and sources it provides.

Just getting the word out about this new information. I still have yet to set up a meeting with my adviser about possible career paths, as well as additional courses I am interested in. I am finding lately that most things that influence me have been coming from chance.  The more information that I randomly acquire, the more my views and goals are changed when it comes to my education.

I think that I need to start reaching out more to my fellow writers. Becoming a member of a “writing community” might be able to help me keep my head on straight. The more my feet stay on the ground, the better my capability will be to make good decisions.

I’ve been working on my studio tours project today for my weblogs and wikis class. It hac actually taken more time than I thought it would. I have three different projects to look at; one wiki designed for B.S.U faculty and staff, one personal blog, and one music review blog. The purpose of these studio tours is to provide commentary to the authors and the stregnths and possible weeknesses of their work, and to motivate them to move forward.

I hope that my advice is relevant.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of what jobs I will be able to get with my creative and professional writing major. One career that seems to be getting more popular is grant writing, which got me thinking, does my major cover grant writing?

I am not entirely sure of the answer. I need to set up an appointment with my adviser to figure out what my option are. I did talk to my dads fiance, who writes grants, and she told me that they offer the courses at B.S.U. She didn’t really elaborate on how long the courses take, and if they are for a license or degree, all she said is that they are very hard(possibly hinting that they are too hard for me).

I guess I’ll just have to prove her wrong. I think that if I set my mind to it I would be great at it.
I think that grant writing would be the right direction to go in, because there are jobs popping up all over the area. Matt(my fiance) works for a non-profit organization, and they rely on grants to survive. This is the case for many organizations in the area, so there must be a substantial need for grant writers.

Hopefully by the time I get my degree this will all still be true. I don’t want to have to move too far away from the area. I think that Matt would love to pick up and move to Texas, but I can’t honestly see myself living that far away from home, not to mention acclimatizing to the hot weather.

These are the things that I’ve been thinking about, but I’m sure by next week I’ll be on to my next new career idea.

Tomorrow we are meeting for the first time in my weblogs and wiki’s class since about a month ago. I’m excited, but nervous to hear my professors feedback. I know that I didn’t quite meet my goal for the number of blog postings, but over all I think I did well.

I think that the purpose of us meeting again tomorrow is just to check in and to make sure that everyone is on the same page as far as goals are concerned. I’m not sure if he is going to give us any advice, or instructions on things to change in our project. The advice will be good, but I hope it doesn’t entail too terribly much added work.

 I’ve been putting off incorporating my blog roll in my blog. I have a few blogs added, but I don’t really know where to go from there. I’m sure that Professor Morgan will probably mention this tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll understand, and will be able to figure out how to relate a blog roll to my project.

So as April is getting closer I am becoming more anxious for summer. I love being outdoors, and I love the feeling of melting snow and changing weather.

I want the semester to be over. I scored a really bad grade on my Science Exam, and am now pretty discouraged that I won’t make the Dean’s List. Granted that one of the exams scores will be dropped, I was just hoping for better.

In less than two months it will be over. I think that this year went pretty well. It was better than last years anyways. Last year I was going to college at the U of M Morris. It’s a good school, but I hated it there. I hated being away from home. I hated not knowing anyone. I got decent enough grades, but felt completely unmotivated.

This year I am motivated but am working 20 hours a week at JC. Penney’s. It’s not a whole lot, but still this leaves me feeling run down with the 16 credits I am taking. I don’t have time to do a whole lot. I would like to join extra-curriculars, but still want time for friends and family.