750 Words

So this happened the other day:

And no, I didn't actually do his dishes (sorry, Josh) but I did join 750words.com, and today I wrote my first 750 words.

As someone who has journaled her whole life, I found myself asking why I didn't just commit to journaling more. And obviously I blog (albeit irregularly), so why not just blog more?

It's nice to have a place to just do some throw-away writing--where no one gets to see it, and I don't have to keep it lying around the house either. It's supposed to get my creative juices flowing and serve as a place to get ideas out there and jump-start the thinking process. I'm excited to see where it takes me.

Have you tried writing a certain number of words a day, or other writing challenges? What did you think of the experience?

iPad as Academic Tool

When the Tax Return Fairy graced my bank account with her presence a couple weeks ago, I knew exactly what I was going to do with her gift (and by gift I mean money-I'd-worked-for-but-the-federal-government-was-holding-for-me). I went straight to the Apple Store and picked up a shiny new iPad 2. And let me tell you: My academic life will never be the same!

I'll probably do separate posts on some of the awesome apps I love, but I just have to sing the praises of this tablet. I'm able to do so much, and it's totally boosted my productivity.

The main reason I felt like I "needed" this tool/toy was for the ability to manipulate PDFs. It's amazing! I can search databases and download full-text articles straight to the device. Then open them in Adobe Reader or iAnnotate or GoodNotes (my fave), read them much more comfortably than on a computer screen, and mark them all up--highlighting, writing, adding pages for notes... I'm actually able to read and engage with the text, which is something I've been lacking the past couple quarters.

I also bought a stylus--the BoxWave, if you're curious--which I love, and which makes note-taking easy. I can write by hand! I actually wrote the rough draft of this blog post by hand on "ruled paper" in GoodNotes--I have a Notebook for blog planning.

I'm really pleased with the iPad as an academic tool, and certainly recommend it for students--grad and undergrad alike.

Are you a student with a tablet PC or iPad? Has it made any difference in the way you do school? Do share!

P.S. I got my super cute iPad sleeve from Pink Oasis. Notice a trend? ;)

Introductions

One of my first assignments for class was to create an introduction presentation.

It was terribly awkward sitting in my living room talking to a webcam as if it were a room full of people, but I think it turned out OK. So far it seems I'm the only one that recorded a video--everyone else has gone the voice-over-Power-Point route. I'm not sure if that makes me a rogue or a pioneer, but I guess we'll see.

I used VoiceThread, which seems to be a pretty neat program. It's not life-changingly exciting, but it's good for what it's for.

You can watch it here if you're interested.

What is your experience with recording yourself? Do you find it as awkward as I do? Have you used VoiceThread, or something like it?

Evernote Love

Call me an overachiever, but I've already begun working on my paper for LIS 500. Hey, it's posted on the class website, the info's all there, why not? Plus I'm taking advantage of the fact that the LIS 510 site isn't up yet, so it's almost like I have only one class.

But the point is not that.

The point is this: I'm in love with Evernote.

I've had the app on my iPhone for a while, but I mostly just used it for grocery lists and taking photos of pages of books when I didn't want to copy down a whole quote. Last week, though, in preparation for school, I downloaded the application for my computer as well, and realized what a great asset it's going to be for this grad school journey.

You see, you can create not only text notes, but also photo and audio notes. You can even upload files (like PDFs of class readings) from your computer to make a note. Then you can organize into notebooks, use tags, and share them on Facebook, Twitter, email etc.

The best part for me is that you can access your notes anywhere.

I've been making notes for that LIS 500 paper using the website from my work computer all day, but when I leave for the evening, I'll be able to get to them (and edit them and export them) from my laptop at home, or my phone wherever I am.

You guys, I'm telling you. It's a dream.