It writes itself...or it gets the hose again. Ha ha!
No, seriously. Term projects. In a 10-week term with weekly readings and reaction papers and so on, you have to identify a topic by week 4 in order to be able to get any research done before you start writing. Yesterday I finally hit my breaking point of boredom with reading about coffee (most of the histories of coffee have been written by economic historians. They are not what we call "gripping prose") and started making the website. It turns out that HTML is like riding a bike: you will fall and hurt yourself before remembering how to do it right. Also, it turns out that it's really hard to find good copyright-free images online (I feel weird citing someone's flickr page or whatever as a source.) After that I wrote up a draft of my presentation of Marx-on-Information Technology (the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a goldmine for that one...) The good news there is that, well, it's easy to apply Capital Vol. I to IT.
My point is that I had forgotten the golden rule of writing: you're never actually ready to start writing. There's always more to be read, more to be found, more to be done, before you feel adequately prepared to dive in and do it. My advice is to do as much research as you can before you claw your eyes out, then start writing even if you know you're not ready. This will both prevent you from clawing your eyes out and make it possible to accomplish term projects in 10-week terms.
Hey, did you know that some funny guys made a Silence of the Lambs Musical? My favorite song is, predictably, "Put the Fucking Lotion in the Basket."
Happy Sunday, Sunday, Someday, everyone.
2.18.2007
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2 comments:
Can you teach my term paper to write itself? It's not cooperating.
Uhm yeah, me too. Ditto on Tweak's message.
By the way, the key to HTML and CSS is to steal as much as possible from other websites. There's nothing wrong with copying someone else's shit and changing what you need to fit your own stuff. I'm not great at designing so I usually borrow from other people and then work from there. If you need help let me know. I have two people I can ask to try and come up with a cool graphic for you to work around.
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