Black book or Writing a thesis....

Organization is the key. My desk is filled with the many journal articles that I have printed out, the books that I have read and miscellaneous stuff. I actually had to roll over another entire desk to extend my work area give me more room. This is insane! I can't imagine writing a doctorate thesis. I can imagine how crazy that could get. I'm always saying, "oh that was in such and such article" and then I spend a good deal of time looking for that article. I am glad for a few things.

* I purchased most of my books and underlined things I wanted to remember.

* In those same books and in the journal articles I combed through the citations to see what fit my research, thus the never ending trail of research began.

* I printed out the journal articles that I found and did the same thing. This is good for me for a second reason. I am a kinesthetic learner and have found that holding the paper helps me to understand the information.
( funny thing, as I progress in my research I find that something I read a month ago has different and more insightful meaning after reading all of the stuff in between. All the more reason to have these books and articles on hand.)

* I began to file the journal articles in a binder. I wish I would have done it by subject though i.e.. Consciousness, Mind body, Religion , Creativity. And I wish I would have been diligent about it.

* I wish I would have kept an ongoing xl spread sheet listing all of the authors and the names of their articles, that way I could find one easily or if an author sounded familiar I would be able to know why.

* I'm glad I spent time with the librarian at tui. I think we have chatted about 5 times this semester. They have b been able to obtain articles that I could not get to myself. Journal articles that really helped my study.

* I am glad I extended my research into journal articles. I love them!

( as I proceed within my circle of study I find that I am coming across the same names, the research begins to be circular, with other circles coming off of them. For example There are physicists who believe in that "skeleton in the closet"-consciousness, and then there are others who dismiss it. Each has its own circle but that sits within my circle of physicists who think it is necessary to explain this quantum mechanics to little brains like my own. They sit within my own circle of study of sculpting the deceased.)

I found this wonderful web site on writing a thesis, of course this is for a doctorate but it does help http://online.sfsu.edu/~mgriffin/thesis.html

Well I find myself easily distracted anything to keep me from writing. Though I am so close.

I have decided not to keep the thesis in Microsoft word and will probably be changing to quark express. My word program does something called infinite pagination. It must be a Mac thing, but once it gets it in its little brain, it is hopeless. I want to imbed images within my text and to do so in word would be insane. I ordered a new copy of quarkxpress. I think that is what I will do it in. For those not using a Mac, I think there is actually other software that helps with a thesis. Might be worth checking out.

Well that is it for now. I must go and write, write, write!