Free Write--Boredom

I'm bored. I'm very bored but I don't have a clue what I want to do. This happens frequently if I have a short To Do list. Problem is my To Do list is not short. I need to do something creative hence I'm writing in hopes that I become inspired to do something useful.

Aimlessly wandering the Net is not really an option as I don't generally wander aimlessly. I usually have some subject in mind. Tonight is different. I don't want to go shopping online, I don't want to read about business stuff or even dolls or raising kids and my usual forums and mailing lists are quiet with no fun threads to post to.

My eldest daughter is sick but thankfully asleep. My son is already in bed, early for a change and my sweetie decided to take a nap but is likely to get up when I decide to head to bed or go watch some movie or TV series on DVD.

I could work on a graphical project. One I can't work on at work because of a serious lack of graphic arts programs and no admin access to the computer I'd want to use to do the project but I want to do that possibly tomorrow while I'm stuck home with a sick child.

I could do laundry, theres a big pile to fold but that is boring when I'm not watching TV or movie of some sort and the TV is in with the sick child or sleeping sweetie.

I could go cook something or clean the kitchen but I don't have an interest right now in cleaning the kitchen so I can cook... too much work for this time of day.

I wish I could sew but the sewing stuff is still in totes I haven't had time to open in over a year. I could design for the doll that is staring at me from my desk but I don't know what I'd want to put on her.

I could do some website work but I think that would take too much brain power as I want to re-do the entire site lock, stock & barrel. Just the planning phase of that is a ton of work.

I'm just a barrel of laughs right now. I'm bored. Perhaps I'll open a random drawing program and play maybe that will help.

Free Write-- Good or Bad?

Since starting this class I've written more than I have previously and on great deal more subjects. I've also started updating my sadly neglected blogs in addition to starting a couple new ones. This morning I could not resist starting yet another. This time it is for my kids and the cute, funny and sometimes strange things that they say or do.

Why would I bother with a blog specifically for the kids? Well, my best friend from high school called this morning and during our chat I realized that the one area of my life that should have a blog or at least something I can update easily should be my family. I've concentrated on my business, work and school extensively and this semester, being only half time has left me with some time to breathe, think and catch up on various tasks I should have had done by now. It's also allowed me to realize that I haven't spent as much time with the kids as I should. My goal now for the rest of the summer is to spend time capturing my children saying or doing something... good or bad it'll all end up on Kidisms.

Free Write--Tutorials

I wanted to take a moment to point out that there are more tutorials available on my tutorial blog which I have mentioned before but felt that the post got buried among the assignments. I have a Google Tutorial I created for work in addition to one on Adding Things to the Sidebar of Blogger. I will also be creating another on using the Labels feature of the sidebar as well to make future classes go smoother for everyone. Beyond that I'll hopefully be posting a tutorial on the Basics of Outlook and possibly something on the Basics of Publisher. I have a to do list of tutorials for friends and family as well so I may just get busy and do as many as I can in the next couple weeks.

Free Write-- Quanista

I am a gamer. I like my table top role playing games in addition to what little time I devote to my computer gaming. Gaming is not my main activity but it is something I do for fun. My current games include playing Titan Quest, Oblivion, Sacred, City of Heros and Civilization III all of which are computer games. My table top games have included the old stand by of D&D, Cyber Punk and my current game which is Exalted. Keep in mind I don't play all these games all at once these are just the ones I've played in the past. I'm only playing Titan Quest and Exalted currently and only in an extremely limited time frame. (Boy do I wish I had more time it's relaxing and destressing to play!)

Currently my GM (game master) has asked the players to write up backgrounds and motivations for their characters. I have chosen to do so on another blog titled Quanista--- my character's name.

6.3 Body Image- Preventing Childhood Obesity

I have noticed in the last few days sitting around the mall eating my lunch, the growing number of individuals who are overweight. There are actually very few that are in the truly "skinny" category, myself included. Interestingly enough this class is including a section on Body Image and Obesity is one of the topics.

I must be among the very lucky parents who has children who want to go outside to play or who will do 50 laps running around the car when we get home at night. Yes, my children did this the other day and it continues to be a favorite pastime for them too whenever they get the chance amusingly enough.

However, sadly enough there are too many children who prefer to sit in front of an electronic babysitter aka a computer, video game system or TV and munch junk food. I am concerned that there is an increasingly larger portion of the youthful population that is doing this and it is contributing to the various health problems that we have today, in our society.

We, as parents should be watching our children and what they eat, what they do and for how long but instead parents are working longer hours to make ends meet thus ignoring the next generation. I am guilty of this as much as the next parent but when I am around I try to go out and actively play with the kids. We hike or take walks and now that I'm thinking about it I think I'll find a nice badminton set or volleyball set to put outside to play with too as I need to be more physically active and spend less time on a computer.

I think that if children and adults alike spend more time outside "playing" we as a society would have fewer health problems.

6.1B More Research

More on research.... hmmmmm well my blog writing style is definitely different than my technical writing skills so here's what I've learned for researching more on what we talked about last week.

Recap:

Last week I was asked to put together my "dream job description" and do the accompanying cover letter and resume to go with it. I was surfing around on AKCIS and About.com and thinking about what all my "dream jobs" would have in common and started discussing it with George, my sweetie, as I was describing what I'd love to do it came to him: "look up Technical Writing" was his suggestion. I had never really thought about technical writing as I didn't think I was technical enough. To me Technical Writing is writing manuals on how to do things and other instructional materials. Well, yes, that is exactly what it is and in reading about it more I realized that my writing doll pattern instructions, my Crash Course and my Pattern Making for Dolls and Pattern Drafting for Miniatures books along with my other blogs (see list on the side bar) and my huge website and a myriad of other items I've done in the last few years.

So I read more and search around more and stumble on Guru.com which is where people look for freelance consultants for various industries including a specific category for technical writing. I'm now getting postings from companies looking for consultants for various things from RFP's (request for proposals) to business plans to other writing assignments.

Between all those things plus Career Builder and Monster.com I was able to cobble together my own job description and from there it didn't take very long to get the cover letter and resume done since it is what I do for a living at least part of the time now a days.

Overall, I am extremely happy with what I have now thanks to my co-worker, classmate and instructor.

Add on to 6.1A and the whole Portfolio Project

I started the Portfolio Project just a mere 5 weeks ago and here it is midterms already. I spent time going through archives of CD's for files I could put in the binders and sheet protectors to show off my work. I talked to the instructor about career options and my original career intents. I've researched several options but nothing prepared me for the paradigm shift that I had Friday night.

I was doing some of the research and reading about various things for a couple hours after work doing a little "fun" reading working towards the project. I walk in to the bedroom where my sweetie was taking a nap and start jabbering about what I had been reading. He's only half awake but stops me for a sec and pops off with "What about Technical Writing? You do that all the time when you do tutorials and stuff" I run off and go looks stuff up and sure enough, I've been a writer in one form or another most of my life and for about 15 or so years I've been a technical writer.

Now, I want to do consulting work but I think I have a focus for a consulting type business finally.... Technical Writing which encompasses resumes, cover letters, tutorials, blogs, web site content, grants and many many other things I love to write about.

My list of resources is now huge including resources for learning some specific tech writing stuff so I guess I'll have to compile my list of resources as part of the project now too..... will a print out of my favorites list and Google Notebooks do? ;-)

6.1A Identify Online Resources

First, only 2? Sheesh, I have about a dozen I've already used in not just researching for this project but also for a STEP Grant (warning PDF file) for which I am part of the research/writing team at work. I have been all over the Alexsys Job Site. In addition to that I have been all over O*Net and About.com's Management, Business, Marketing and several other sections of the site that are related.

I have numerous articles I've read and gathered information about including several blogs. Beyond that I have just received a couple books I'm now reading on one high interest area that I feel might end up one of my main focuses of the paper. The books are "Consulting for Dummies" and "The Consultant's Manual" both of which seem to be helping guide me to a future in consulting based on the skills and community contacts I already have.

Imagine Your Trasition

What stage are you at right now? Why? Note the Date and your response to this question below. Return periodically to determine whether you stage has changed and why.

I am not currently in any stage of transition as I am roughly 9 months away from dealing with transition which is why I am looking at all viable options early so that I can transition smoothly and have as little family upset as possible.

Supports. What supports do you have for the transition? You can expect the upcoming transition to affect several different areas of your current life-- your roles, relationships, routines and assumptions. How much support do your family, co-workers, friends and community give you? Will your transition from Americorps disrupt any of that support?What do you thing your own support options are? Can you think of ways to increase these options? Take some time to think about the level of support you have, and then write your thoughts out.

I have a number of my friends in the Mat-Su Valley where I want to move back to as soon as college is completed in December next year. Once I am done with Americorps there is also the chance that I might stay with Nine Star as staff or simply work on campus for a while until I am done with school. I have the ability to get just about any job I want due to working in Career Development and I have the confidence in my skills both old and new that I can apply them wherever I decide to work. In addition I have a number of community resources that will assist my kids & I in this transition.

"Free Downloads Play Sweet Music" 5.2

I think that allowing users to share and download music is helpful to the industry and agree with the author. Listeners are allowed to see if they like a piece of music or new artist without having to spend $$$ for an entire album that there may only be 1 or 2 songs on it that they like. This is one reason I do not have a huge music collection of modern music. Yes, there are options to listen to tracks in the store but that takes up precious time when you could simply download an Mp3 and put it on a player, listen to the various tracks and delete ones you don't care for, compare your list on your player to the download list and voila! you have a setup of a variety of music by multiple artists.

When I was a teen I was into New Kids on The Block. I had several of their tapes but there were several songs on each one that I didn't care for. I re-recorded ones I liked with a plain old tape recorder and had my favorites on one tape and the originals sat in a dark corner under my bed. The other thing about those tapes is that I had traded or borrowed from friends to get the tracks I like. This same thing happened later on with CD's and burning technology. I have many CD's from friends that I burned a track or two I really liked rather than go out and buy a whole CD that had parts I wouldn't listen to.

Downloadable music is not hurting the industry as the listeners are being given more choices and spending hard earned and saved money on things they really need or want instead of dropping a lump on a CD they may not totally need at the time. This can only help the economy as a whole and is a minor spit in the bucket of revenue for the music industry.

If the music industry was smart they would release music digitally first and then allow users to create their own CD's in the store if they are so worried about large chain store sales. Those who do not want or have the technology to build their own CD's or even collection of Mp3's for a portable device can go into a store, pick the music they want at a per track price and build a custom CD or play list for the store clerks to compile. Hey, even I might go for that kind of service!

Life After Americorps- Imagining Your Transition

I feel that the questions that are asked in the book can be answered for the most part in my blog here. I will provide the question in each case and then endeavor to write up something short about my goals for after I have finished my second term of Americorps Service. If this is not something I should have on this blog I will move it to a separate blog.

4.4 Continued & Revised

Well since the portfolio looks to be the more useful item at this time and I am currently in the middle of it, I will continue to develop it into the 4 binders I now have for it along with all the dividers.
Current sections consist of:

1. General Ed Term Papers
2. Business Major Term Papers
3. Resumes -- archived from my teen years along with possibly some client resumes with names changed and my Kris Kringle fun resume and the CV's I've done for clients also with names changed of course.
4. Awards --believe it or not this section is about 1/4" thick and it's only the last year and a half worth of awards!
5. Business-- Mine, archives of business plans, marketing plans etc, list of patterns that are completed
6. Web Site --archives of my home page printed out to show how my web skills have changed over the years. In addition current printouts of pages that are online now
7. Books-- Complete current print outs of my 2 self published books and their copyrights
8. Other Work-- other things I've done for work or just fun stuff including a list of links and other items
9. Career Development-- research on occupations and occupational fields that I am interested in
   

There might be more stuff than this so I'll add that later on.

Yes, there are additions and revisions to this:
I am going to work through the Next Steps: Life After Americorps book that my company provides. Americorps for anyone who doesn't know, is equal to the Peace Corps only domestic. Meaning it is community service work or volunteer work but Americorps Members are provided a living stipend so it is not pure volunteer work but it is definitely a labor of love. A love of helping people in a community.

MLA Paper 4.4

I'm not too clear on this project but I have a Portfolio in progress and hope to edit some current papers that have recently been completed. In addition I hope to add my Alaska History Essays from this semester to the package I have which currently fills a 3"- 3 ring binder. I also want to spend time beginning to adjust my websites into something that I can more easily maintain in the near future. This part of the project will have me studying several programming languages and learning new applications. In addition I am working towards my MOS Certification in Excel.

My main concerns with this post:

• Am I defining my semester long goal?
• Am I choosing to create a term paper on a specific topic?
• Was this item even supposed to be blogged?

Once I have the answers to these questions I'll know what I need to accomplish.

Argument Construction 4.3

Knowing your topic and knowing what you want to convey to your audience is incredibly important in the process of constructing an argument. You need to understand key elements in the process of constructing your argument. Some of these points will be covered here.

First and foremost what is your topic? Who is your target audience? What do you want them to get out of your writing?

On the first idea-- define your topic.

• Do you know what the specific topic is? A general topic is a good start but within a general topic are a large list of specific topics. Define what specific idea you are writing about.
• Is the topic suitable for the assignment you are faced with? If your topic is broad you need to pick specific points to hit on and then support your ideas with facts. It should match with who ever gave you the writing assignment. If you're not sure then check back with the person who gave you the topic to write on for additional guidelines.
• What is my opinion on the topic? Do I even have an opinion? If you don't then start reading about the topic and form an opinion so that you can intelligently write on it.
• How might others disagree with my opinion? Discuss or read about other points of view on the topic.
• Can I change their opinion to match mine? This is possible if you're passionate about the topic and know your facts.
• Can I support my opinion with evidence? Always keep a list of sources of information even informal conversations with co-workers and friends. Everyone has an opinion of some form and it may or may not agree with your own. Be open to listening to what others have to say, your opinion might change.

Identify your audience.

Is your audience a broad one. For this writing assignment it is for the professor but also there is a good chance that others will read it so it is also for classmates. Since it's a blog online then it's also for the search engines and those who might read it through searches for keywords. I would not normally format my own notes like this but my audience is a large one and thus my notes on this chapter are different based on the audience.

Structure the Argument
Begin by thinking about the main idea of the argument or topic. What is the purpose of your writing about the topic? If it's just for an instructor and just an assignment see if you can find another topic that you have an interest in. The more you are interested in learning about your topic the more fun it can be to write about your topic.

An outline is an incredibly useful tool in figuring out how to write a paper or essay. Currently I have an essay in Alaska History to do. My outline for the essay might be as follows:

1. Major Idea-- Russians in Alaska and their impact on the Natives of Alaska
		a.		Supporting Idea—
				i.		Supporting Detail
						1.		Minor Idea
								a.		Supporting Detail
						2.		Minor Idea
								b.		Supporting Detail
2. Major Idea-- Spanish in Alaska and their impact on the Natives of Alaska
	a.		Supporting Idea—
			i.		Supporting Detail
					1.		Minor Idea
							a.		Supporting Detail
					2.		Minor Idea
							b.		Supporting Detail
3. Conclusion

Now while this paper is still in it's early phases I have a general idea in mind for it especially since it's a logical paper and a comparison opinion type paper digging for the main idea of the articles used for sources.

Once I have thoroughly read the articles once more and know my material well I'll fill in the outline more and write the essay more efficiently. Now I do not use the outline method as shown above other than as a mental thing in the imagination. I can visualize this outline and generally fill in the blanks as I am writing. Others I know must have an outline to work from in order to write. It's all personal preference.

Picking your types of argument is based on the assignment for the piece your are writing. There are 3 main ways to structure the argument. These are:

• Classical
• Introduction, statement of background, proposition, proof, refutation and conclusion

• Rogerian
• Introduction, summary of opposing views, statement of understanding, statement of your position, statement of contexts, statement of benefits

• Logical
• Inductive Reasoning
• experiences, anecdotes, statistics and quotations

• Deductive reasoning
• identify conclusion, examine reasons carefully, formulate premise

Any of these methods and formats will work for a majority of papers, however there are always exceptions to the rules along with ways to combine each method with other methods.

Reflection on Study Aids 4.1

I use neither method of study process, as over the years I developed what worked for me and I doubt I'll change just for one class. I find SQ4R clunky and awkward, however I recognize that it may not be so for those who don't' have a study process. That was why on Friday morning I did a mini workshop for a fellow Charter student who has just started and 2 young ladies from West Africa on the process. All 3 were furiously taking notes on how it works and started actively applying it to their computer studies.

So while I don't like it, others find it incredibly helpful which is fine with me. I like to try to teach as many ways of doing something as possible because as an instructor I know that everyone learns differently.

My personal process includes sticky notes and not marking a book during a lecture, then writing/typing out notes based on quick jots from the sticky notes. If I know a professor offers open book and open note tests I use the glossary and index extensively during the test. This type of process works incredibly well for me. It may not work for others. It may not work for all classes and as the need arises I modify th method to the needs I have to cover the information being provided.

I adapt and love it.

Goals for the Near Future 4.2

1. grades, MOS, Dean's List	review goals
2. pay off loans	set schedule
3. bus analyst consultant	*action plan
4. STC	*action plan revision
5. Kids	review steps, research methods, practice
6.portfolio	*schedule
7. Degrees	in progress
8. moving	*plans

Updates:

#1 and #7 are again tied together and there is very incredibly slow progress on these other than the classes I am currently taking. I need to set a schedule of time for MOS studies and then stick to it. This is an incredibly difficult goal as there are a number of things pulling at my attention but I will make the time to get the MOS as that is my main priority so that I may continue taking classes in the coming semesters and finish on time.

#4 and #6 are now tied together as my business being my “playground” for learning is part of my portfolio. I am in the process of finding all my books and pattern files along with all my term papers and essays. In addition, I am working on finding all my awards for Dean’s List and my certifications in various things. I will place copies of most things in the portfolio and carefully file the originals.

#8 is currently on hold until I can contact the people I need to contact which will hopefully be Monday and I should have an update on that shortly. As for the house portion of this project, I will be tackling that closer to graduation as moving back to the Valley depends on graduation/finish time.

#3 I am waiting for book that I ordered for item #3 Business Analyst/Consultant so that I may do research on the field more thoroughly.

#2 is a future goal that I should be able to set next summer when I know what my chosen “real job” will be and what my possible income might be. I have a transition to make next spring before I can seriously consider moving forward with this goal.

#5 Kids is a daily ongoing thing I am constantly working with teaching lessons and communicating with the kids on various issues including lying and chores.

Adding to Blogger... Free Write Tutorial

I was asked to work up tutorials for this class and I decided to put them all on a seperate blog. You can find the latest Tutorial on Adding to Your Sidebar by following the link.
I hope it helps someone in the class.

My Job -- Free Write

I was asked to write up a list of various job duties I do on a daily basis, now for both what I did in the Career Development Center and currently in the Computer Lab. Here is what I have so far:

Assessment development

Attendance

Business letters

Citrix

Client notes

Copies

Copies

Cover letters

Curriculum development

Faxes

Form creation

Generate ideas

Google maps

Infectious giggle

Phones

Problem solve

Resource finding

Resumes

Supplies fetching

Teach computer skills

Template creation

Tutorials writing

Stats

Improve processes so that things take less time to do

Keep in mind that this is not all I do as I also greet clients and answer the phones as needed but those are to me assumed duties that go with nearly every job in the world at some point especially those in Human Services.

Practice Pursuasion 3.8

Logos would likely be what I would use most although ethos and pathos might come into play at some point as it is definitely more effective to use all three in tandem.

Some of my arguments might be:

• We are the top performing team in the company (backed up with statistics of jobs and satisfied clients which is one of my job duties)
• We always test everything for the Work Services Team as far as work search goes
• Every time we've tested something it always improves thanks to the dynamic team that is here
  
• You know our team is the best or we wouldn't be on the 5th Ave team nor would Nine Star Education & Employment be The Leading Entity for helping people "Get a job, Keep a job and Advance on the job!"

Knowing my boss and we've had this discussion in reality argue with any of this logic. He knows it's all true!

I chose to use a real situation and all of the above statements are true.

Interesting add on to this:
I showed my supervisor & boss this post and it got adopted into some team meeting information. I get the feeling that it might also get adopted into a team Mission or Vision Statement somehow as that is what we seem to be discussing recently.

Second example:

Tuesday I was meeting with my boss and we got into a discussion over marketing and market share for Microsoft. His argument was that MS has 90% of the market because it's so user friendly. However I knew from my reading various articles that was not true and that Linux and Mac were eating away at that percentage steadily. To convince him I Googled all 3 companies and found out that the market shares are a lot different than what both of us thought. I still won the debate.

Third Example: Same meeting. That the website needs to be updated and optimized more efficently. I do not maintain my business website because I'm busy working and doing school work plus raising kids and the many other tasks I have. I pulled up Google again and did a basic search for our discussion looking for Nine Star once more but not finding it and then proved the point by pulling up main keywords for my own site and showing that through optimization two years later my website still comes up #4 for some of it's main keywords. To effectively spread the word about the program we are building and developing we need to update the website and market the program to get the client base we need. Result: I won

Using logic (logos) works best with my boss but also showing that I argue from ethics and honesty (ethos) is incredibly important in the Human Services Industry I serve.