Anything but what I should be doing

I wanted to write about this last night but.......

Rebecca has shown us the work of Piers Steel and his formula for calculating our procrastination response.

More than that she points us towards Procrastination Central where one can spend several happy hours discovering all there is to know about procrastination!

Do the test! Explore the links! You know it makes sense.

I've not done the test because I was re reading Paul Graham's magnificent essay on Good and Bad Procrastination.
Read it ..... learn how to do it well.

To be serious for a moment, Rebecca's Pocket is one of the great blogs. Rebecca has been blogging since 1999 and should be on every one's favourites list. Her book is a classic and can be found in the library at Treforest.

Rebecca's blog posts use very few words, but are eloquent.
When will we learn?

Blessed Fools

In my time as a teacher I encountered and worked with several mildly autistic children and many who now would be categorised as being "somewhere on the autistic spectrum". I also worked with teachers who found it difficult to work with those children who were "different" and a nuisance in the classroom.

I have no doubt that there are students in college who could be placed on this "spectrum" who may present certain challenges to their lecturers, tutors and peers. Many children will have passed through our education system without having their needs specifically diagnosed. Indeed many of us will know someone who is different. We may even suspect that we ourselves are different and do not see the world as others do.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen's work at Oxford is important and needs to be promoted. I wonder if similar materials will become available for adults.

William Allen has written an excellent article for Slate; The Autism Numbers, Why there's no epidemic. He points to a new book by Richard Grinker, to be released in this country in February. I've not read it so I can't comment upon it but I will be adding it to my wish list.

My attention was drawn to the phrases used in other cultures and times to describe autistic children; "green children, blessed fools, eternal children, marvelous children" are all so much more inclusive and wonderfully descriptive of these children and their needs than the medically precise labels provided by modern society.

Critical Friends or the Comfort of Strangers

I came across The Huge Entity this evening and have been intrigued by a recent post.

Huge Entity is the blog of a student in Roehampton studying for a MA in Creative and Professional writing. Here Danieru practises his craft. Blogs are well suited to students of creative writing and Danieru's deserves reading.

His course requires submission of a non fiction article which will be assessed.
Danieru has written his article entitled "Myth, its Evolution and the Problem of Perspective" and has posted it,
"in the hope that someone might read through it and give some honest, no-holds-barred, criticism."
He suggests that
"it's hard reading back through a work objectively when you've spent so long slaving away over it."

For what its worth I enjoyed his article and found it informative, interesting and well written. Had I come across it in a magazine it would have attracted and held my attention. Danieru offers us ideas to consider, a logical argument and a great deal of common sense. Well done. I'm not competent to offer critical advice but I do applaud his enterprise in seeking criticism in the public eye. In his introduction to the work Danieru asks "Does the essay draw you in?" The answer irrefutably is yes.

Huge Entity is an established, well read blog, he has an involved audience, some of whom were happy to take the time to criticise his work. I have no doubt that his writing is the better for the criticism. No trolling here, no sarcasm, no foolish comments; just careful scholarship.

We must also remember Danieru's readers, those travellers through cyberspace who took the time not only to read his work but became involved by leaving constructive comments. That's where the real power of blogging lies, in an involved community of participation.

I shall be looking for more of Danieru's work. Good luck with the Masters.

Books.

One of the joys of being a research student is the freedom one has to explore.
The Internet offers many distractions, links lead to strange and interesting places; following those links exploring the world world allow my mind to float free.

I have tried to explain to many of my friends how exciting a place the world wide web is, it reminds me of the time I spent as a student in libraries and bookshops. In a well laid out bookshop or library one should be encouraged to browse, your eye should be led from the book you have picked up or are about to pick up to the next book. Modern book marketing has drawn on this with the "Let us Recommend" shelves and displays, libraries use our curiosity with "recently returned" displays. Amazon uses the same feature to extra ordinary effect on their "Customers may also find this interesting' pages.

When working in the bookshop I always felt sorry for the reluctant shoppers, those poor unwilling souls dragged into the shop by their partner. I could never understand how they could stand there, so obviously bored while their companion browsed. How could they not feel the urge to pick up a book and turn its pages? Equally here in cyberspace one cannot help feeling sorry for those who never go further than the first click, those for whom the first line of a search query is enough.

As a child I was often tempted by the internal references to be found in Encyclopedia Britannica that would take you deeper and deeper into information stored in those mighty tomes. The Internet still does that for me, but even more so. Even the simplest of searches can take one on a journey of discovery. The urge to click the save to favourites button lies deep within me, which is why my favourites / bookmarks lists are such a mess.

This week for some reason I've stumbled across several links related to books that attracted my attention.

Andrew Marr writes "Once upon a time I used to like novels". He could be right. Right now I'm reading Imperium by Robert Harris, in which he combines successfully the craft of the novelist with the skill of the biographer in his telling of the rise of Cicero. It could be a novel it could be a biography.

In the Penguin blog is a wonderful description of "Books by the Greats, Covers by You". Penguin are to publish some of their books without covers, ready to be decorated / doodled on by the purchaser / owner. Its an interesting idea. Examples can be found here.

While tidying my favourites (more of that later) I came across this article from the Guardian offering guidance on the art of browsing, "Feel free to browse". I know its been written about elsewhere but I love the page 69 advice.

Rebecca pointed me in the direction of the Encyclopedia Britanicca blog.

The wheel turns full circle.
Will I ever be able to concentrate on my research?