22. Jan 2021

Colleagues AUs

We have to do a project together and it’s like the group projects in school: one is doing the work and the other one’s only sitting around and comments on everything.

We’re sharing a small office and we always fight about the temperature.

There is only one copy room on our floor and we both have to copy something, but someone’s obviously having a good time in there, so we both stand there awkwardly and wait for them to finish.

You took the last bit of coffee and didn’t make a new one. That’s unacceptable.

Since you started working here you never stopped asking me out for lunch and it always seemed like a joke to you, so today I say yes and wait for your reaction.

The company is searching for a new slogan and made a competition out of it for their employees and we both want to win the car that the winner is getting.

I hear you swearing at your computer because it doesn’t open your mail account, move over, I’m going to fix it.

One of the colleagues is retiring and we were supposed to order a cake and forgot about it, the party starts in half an hour, we have to do something!!!

You can find more prompts on my sideblog: creativepromptsforwriting

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Sometimes I open this book again every once in a while to just see these. God I miss my shitty handwriting (that's a lie. No I do not.)

spring journal prompts

things to get rid of, things to gain

something you want to learn

go out and press some spring flowers, write how each makes you feel

write what each colour of the rainbow means to you

what does birdsong make you think of?

do some mental spring cleaning; dump old thought patterns that no longer serve you

set a "spring goal" for yourself

watch the sun rise, write about it

design your ideal ecosystem

what are you looking forward to?

go outside. what do you hear? how does that make you feel?

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Physicists: the words we are using to define terms have specific mathematical definitions, so it’s important to use the correct words to talk about the correct quantity

Also physicists: Hahaha, luminous intensity isn’t an intensity, luminous flux isn’t a flux, and optical power isn’t a power!

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How to set up a research journal

This is just one way you can set up a research journal but it's helping me tremendously so maybe it also works for you. My set-up is partially inspired by this video by Answer in Progress and I suggest you check out their curiosity journal.

Preparation

First you need a notebook. The trick is to find a notebook that you're not afraid to "ruin". We all want a really neat, aesthetic research journal, but the reality looks more like hasty scribbles, but that's okay, that's where the research breakthroughs happen.

I personally bought a cheap lined notebook from Søstrene Grene that I thought looked cute and put a sticker on it. That way I feel good about using it but I also don't mind when my handwriting gets messy because it was only like 3€.

You should also stock up on pens you like writing with. Different colour highlighters and post-its are also a good idea but not a must. Keep it cheap but comfortable.

Title Page

Here you should put down all the really important information: year, title, deadlines, word count, supervisors. Maybe add an inspirational quote to spice it up but keep it simple and relevant.

Key

This should either be your next or your last page. I personally use the last pages of my journal so I can add thing and find it easier. Your key is there to list abbreviations and symbols.

For example, I have different symbols for statistics, dates, new terminology, questions, breakthroughs, important notes and abbreviations for the most important terms in my field. It's shorter to write T9N than Translation.

The trick here is to have enough abbreviations and symbols to save time and effort but not so many that you constantly have to look back and forth between your page and key. They should be memorable and not easy to confuse.

Topic Mind map

If you hate mind maps you can skip this of course or use a different method but what helped me is to visualise all the topics that connect to my research project in a mind map. I then colour-coded the main groups of topics with my highlighters. It helps me to keep an overview on how many topics I need to do research on.

Proposal

If you're writing a thesis/dissertation it can be helpful to have a page set aside for your proposal and take some bullet point notes on methodology, chapter structure, research context, aims and objectives and think of some titles. You can also do this for your lit review and a list of works to include.

Hypothesis and Question Pages

I set aside four pages for this but you can adjust this to your needs. The first page is my hypothesis. It doesn't have to be fully formed yet, it can just be bullet points with five question marks. You can always revise and update it but it is important to keep an eye on what you're actually trying to find out.

The next idea is basically just stolen from Answer in Progress: a section for big questions, medium questions and little questions. These aren't necessarily hypotheses you aim to answer but questions you have about your topic that might be good to look into (maybe they lead somewhere, maybe they don't).

Research Notes

Now comes the big, fun part. Research notes are allowed to be a little messy but you should have some sort of system so you can actually find what you're looking for afterwards. I'm currently just looking at books and articles so that's what my system is based on. You can totally adjust this to include other forms of research.

What I do is that I put down and underline the author and title of my source. Underneath that I use my highlighters and mark the topic of the paper based on how I colour-coded them in my mind map. You might have to do this after you've finished reading. For example, if a text talks about censorship and dubbing in Germany, three of my topics, I will draw three lines in light blue, dark blue and red, the colours I chose for those topics. This way you can easily browse your notes and see which pages are talking about which topics.

When it comes to the actual research notes, I include the page number on the left and then take bullet point notes on whatever is relevant. These are often abbreviated and paraphrased but if something is especially important I will write down a full quote.

As mentioned earlier, I have a key of symbols I use so I can simply put down a '!' in order to differentiate a research breakthrough from a normal note. You can insert your own thoughts much more easily when you know you'll be able to tell them apart later on. At the end of each article, book or even chapter I write down my main takeaway.

Other Notes

This is your research journal and you can do with it what you want. I also added lists of films that might be relevant for my research, a list of databases and publishers to check for papers and tips on research strategy.

If you're working with interviews or surveys you could write down your questions. If you're nervous about your research you could include a list of reasons why your research project is important or why you're doing it. You can include a to-do list or a calendar to track meetings with supervisors. Anything that helps you with your research.

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How to Finish

I drew this poster for Jon Acuff and his FINISH book tour. Big thanks to Jon for this collaboration, his book has some great ideas about how to complete creative and life goals.

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Fantasy Sociology (what would it do to agriculture if there was dragons)

Fantasy Psychology (the mental effects of having certain patterns of thoughts that generate fireballs)

Fantasy Biology (what if u had lighting sacks in yr cheeks)

Fantasy Chemistry (these r the elements and what u can do with them)

Fantasy Physics (orbital mechanics and magical floating rocks: a guide)

Fantasy Mathematics (its just normal mathematics)

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Hi Steph! I love your blog and your fic recs! I was wondering if you could please help me find a fic I read a while ago but lost. It's post-Reichenbach, where I remember it takes ~42 days for "the fog to lift from John's mind" and he realises what Sherlock meant by his 'note', and John works on clearing Sherlock's name, then moves to a lil house by the sea, and patiently waits for Sherlock, who shows up after a year and a half, I think? Please, it's driving me crazy aha!

Hey Nonny!

Ooof, I have no idea which fic this is, but it sounds vaguely familiar... anyone able to help me out with this one??

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math help bc i can’t watch ya’ll suffer anymore

I’m in my fourth year of engineering school and I didn’t get here without lots of outside help bc assigned math textbooks are lame and confusing and professors/teachers are more worried about feeling superior to bunch of groggy teenagers than actually teaching.

I have personally used all of these websites without receiving any security warnings from Bitdefender TrafficLight or AdGuard AdBlocker. They are all either completely free or have a free version that isn’t shit.

Wolfram Demonstrations (animated graphics)

Khan Academy (arithmetic through differential equations)

She Loves Math (arithmetic through differential equations)

math24 (calculus & differential equations)

Paul’s Online Math Notes (algebra through differential equations)

MIT OpenCourseWare (calculus through graduate-level mathmatics)

OpenStax Math (precalculus, trigonometry, & calculus)

Wolfram Alpha Examples

Desmos (online calculators)

GeoGebra (online calculators)

SparkNotes Math Study Guides (pre-algebra through calculus)

eMathHelp (calculators, but more specific)

Software for your TI calculator

ticalc (programs for your TI calculator)

Wikibooks Math Department (all the math)

Andy’s Cheat Sheets (calculus)

Cheatography (find free cheat sheets)

Open Access Math Textbooks

Engineer4Free (Calc, DiffyQ, & Linear Algebra tutorials)

Flammable Maths on YouTube (general high school/college level problems and derivations)

3Blue1Brown on Youtube (very, very good for understanding spacial concepts in calculus and beyond)

Vihart on Youtube (explaining math with doodles)

Bonus: Stay hydrated, take vitamin c, study next to a window during the day if possible, and remember not to let people base your worth on your aptitude for math. 

Free Astronomy Resources

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Inorganic Chemistry

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