forestofglory

I went to the library to pick up up more books on hold. (Also an issue of Califorina Fish and Game, form the 40's for my thesis, I do love Link+ the state wide inter-library loan system.) On picking up the books I had a moment of intense anxiety that I would be able to read them all before they are due. Which is silly, because I can renew them easily, and if for some reason I can renew I can get the books again. Anyways having lots to read is something to be happy about not something to be anxious about. (I wish my brain would agree with me.)

I have just finished Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand which is surprisingly domestic book and full of amazing worldbuilding.

I'm working my way through large pile of thesis related non-fiction. I have been skimming through Kevin Starr's multi-volume history of California, and have just read the 1st few pages of All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management by Carmel Finley, which I hope to read the 1st chapter of after dinner.

A while ago R suggested that I take the cards that I didn't need out of my wallet. This seemed like a good idea at the time, so I took out my home library card and couple of other things. Then I forgot all about it. This resulted in me leaving my library card in Iowa. So I had to get a new card. (This also meant that I couldn't put any books on hold before I got back.) However the new cards are very nice. They now have a bunch of different pictures and I got to chose one, and also got a matching key ring card. I now have the maximum number of holds (12) and am eagerly awaiting there arrival at the nearest branch.

I have learned the hard way that the "mirco" setting on my camera works better for taking legible photo's of documents than the "Copy" setting. Not sure what I'm going to do about all the super blurry documents. I may have to go back and photograph them again. (I don't know when though.)

The next door neighbors have chickens, which our free ranging an wander around in the backyard. (There is no fence between the yards.) They are

Apparently yesterday was Blogging Against Disablism Day 2013. I've been meaning to use this to talk about my experience of having a learning disability. So, I was diagnosed with some kind of learning disability when I was six, and not learning to read, and more specifically with an auditory processing disorder in my teens. (My friend who studies neuropsychology says that this a popular diagnosis these days, but I've never met someone else with a auditory processing disorder.)

So mostly it isn't a big deal but here are some ways it effects my life:

I can't spell very well, and I am not great a punctuation. I'm very lucky to live in the era of spellcheck, but I also make sure a real human prof-reads all my papers.

I can't listen and write at the same time, which makes it very hard for me to take notes in class. I mostly compensate for this one by just having a very good memory.

I'm tone deaf and I can't carry a tune.

I can't work with too much background noise -- especially people talking. If I'm watching TV or listening to a pod-cast I can't also read something at the same time. I can't listen to music while I work.

In fact I generally just don't listen to music, so if people ask me what type of music I like there tends to be a rather awkward pause.

If there is too much noise (especially conservations) my brain just kind of shuts down. I don't do well in noisy bars or at big parties.

I do get accommodations, mostly extra time on tests, and in theory a distraction free room to take the test in. (The rooms vary in distraction level.) Generally each new educational institution wants to have new evaluation done. Since I've had about five done already I don't see why they all feel a need to check.

Anyways that's about it. Have a learning disability is for me is mostly something that is just in the background of my life. It effects my day to day existence but I'm used to it, and it feels normal to me.

We are out of milk so I'm having oatmeal for breakfast. I don't know why it is considered boring to talk about what one eats for breakfast. I really like learning about what other people eat. I suppose that if I wrote about my same cereal every day, it wouldn't be interesting.

There are two weeks of classes, left and then finals week, and we are done with the year. R will be done with his BS. I do not feel on top of things. In fact I'm feeling rather stressed about how much I have to get done. I'm behind on my grading, and on my final project for my food planning class. I'm not behind on my poster for watershed management, but I wish the instructor would give me feed-back already, I turned it in weeks ago! Also work on the the thesis is bogging down -- it's hard to know what to write.

My sleep hasn't been great the last few days. I don't know if it is because I didn't stick to my schedule or just general stress. Probably both.

In good new I have friends visiting this weekend. I am trying to plan a hike. We may see bison and elk! The weather is even supposed to be warm.

Yesterday in my watershed management lab we went out to take some measurements in a riparian buffer. This planting around a stream, to help control run off form fields. It reduces the amount of sediment and nitrates that get into the stream and also provides some habitat. I've finally bought myself a pair of wellies for field work (My other pair is at home in California) so I got to wade in the stream a bit -- but my jeans got wet an dripped onto my socks. It was most nice out, but there were moments when it was quite cold.

I'm trying to get back in the habit of working on my thesis everyday. I haven't done much work on it since I got back form spring break. It is hard, because it such an amorphic task. I still find being self motivated hard work. Right now I have two tasks: writing what passes for lit review in history, and organizing all the pictures I took at the archives. I've set myself a goal of writing 300 words a day (about a double spaced page -- but I prefer a word count.) Today I met that goal my coping and pasting bits of stuff form other places, with a minimal of new writing.

One of my teachers sent my an article about a method of daily writing. I don't know if I want to try it -- it's based on timing your writing and I generally find that I do better setting myself tasks then allotting myself certain amounts of time. It is also very aimed at academics and goes on about how important publishing is, and I'm not sure I care.

The other thing I'm doing for the thesis right now is that I have book that I'm skimming and I've been taking that on the bus with me -- it's not something I need to have deep focus on so it works as bus reading. Sometimes I try to read stuff on the bus that is too complex and I just end up not reading it. So that's making me feel productive.

So if you have big task, especially a writing task, what strategies do you use to get it done?

I saw Theodore Roosevelt's signature today. That was neat.

I'm now done with my week at the archives. I think it was successful trip. I'm planning to return for few days this summer, to wrap things up. I'm really tried though. And school starts again on Monday, and I have to organize a seder somehow by Monday night when I haven't had much time to do any work.

I'm on lunch break at the National Archives in Denver. I've looked through a folder and half so far this morning, and I've found a lot of useful things for my thesis. It's excited. However the altitude seems to be tiring me out -- I don't seem to have lot of energy.

The research room here has nice wooden tables, and rolly office chairs. They won't allow any bound paper in, so I'm taking notes on my laptop.

The drive over here went well. I came out with a friend who's family is around here. I was passenger the whole time. (I would have offered to drive but I can't drive a stick shift.) We had yummy pastries, and listened to the audio-book of Prodigal Summer. Along the way we could see migrating sand-hill cranes standing in the fields we pasted.

I'm so sick of cold and snow. It's March and I want daffodils, and sunshine. Instead we have gray skys and snow everywhere. I have a lab outside this afternoon, and I wish I was more excited about it, and less I'm going to be cold.

I was planning on taking an environmental history seminar next semester, but it is not being offered. I was really looking forward to it. Now I have to figure out another class to take. My adviser thinks I should take GIS, because it is good skill. He's probably right, but it won't be nearly as fun as the environmental history seminar would have been.

I'm writing my thesis proposal, in small bits. It feels very slow to me, but my adviser seems to think I'm in good place. Today I wrote about 200 words, yesterday about 250. I had less to do on Sunday and wrote 500 words. I have no idea how novelists manage, as these smallish word counts felt like a lot of work to me.

We had another outdoor lab in watershed management. This one was not as much fun as the snow lab. It was really cold out much colder than when we where out in the snow, but also less snowy. So my fingers and toes were cold. Plus we'd been having a freeze thaw cycle so all the paths were icy in places. I slipped and fell on the ice, as we where heading out of the woods. So far I don't seem to have any bruises but I do have several aches and pains.

I ordered a used book that I need for the thesis and it somehow got shipped to my parents instead of to me. Very frustrating as I really need to read it as soon as I can. Hopefully my family will mail it to me soon and the mail will be quick.