Whats on your mind?

[EmeraldRose]

Happy Father's Day and belated Mother's Day for those who've been celebrating! Ours are not until Summer here, but it's pretty cool to hear when the celebrations are around the world

It is time to start giving up my sleep. There are just not enough regular waking hours to get my paper and exam done, so it needs must be done at night after the kids have gone to bed and I can have access to my computer again.

Time to stock up on the coffee I think.

If I start typing funny, it is probably from shaking hands.

[Art in Heaven]

If I start typing funny, it is probably from shaking hands.

Really? With me it's from beer!

[EmeraldRose]

Really? With me it's from beer!

Good point.

coffeeandwine.jpg

[EmeraldRose]

Finally! The littles are in bed and there is time for some wine and research! The best outcome will be locating enough articles to begin skimming for my paper. Hopefully I will not be too distracted by spider solitaire and Facebook...

[Snake]

^I can tell you from personal experience that research is only productive if you really are passioned about the subject. You will probably given in to the temptation and play solitaire and facebook.

[Maya]

^She is not you, don't discourage her

[EmeraldRose]

^I can tell you from personal experience that research is only productive if you really are passioned about the subject. You will probably given in to the temptation and play solitaire and facebook.

Oh it is something I am passionate about. Trust me on this. I would never have chose the topic if I wasn't. I already have 14 articles saved and 3 books requested from the university library (they just have to locate and send them to me) and I will easily double that tonight.

If you are interested I will tell you what my topic is, but it is pretty specific to my career goals and may not be something you are interested in. Just let me know.

^She is not you, don't discourage her

He won't, no worries. My biggest issue has been deciding to get sleep over doing the research, so I could function during the week at job/internship/being a mom...but I hope to have enough articles from tonight to get a good start on my outline and draft.

[Maya]

See Snake? She is passionate about it.... Tell us about the topic, I'm curious.

[EmeraldRose]

So, in terms of the hats. I haven't really had time to devote to figuring out the pattern. The hat itself is easily done, and I really like how they turn out. Though, at the moment, my middle son was wearing it this morning and I currently have NO IDEA where in my house it might be...

I am incredibly tempted to buy a bunch of patches and just sew them onto the hats, but that wasn't the point. I can just ask you each what color you like best and make one in that color for you, but that would be really disappointing.

I have searched for crochet + patterns and I just can't find them. Crosses, yes. Letters, yes. +, no. I am just not experienced enough to create my own patterns yet, and it is really really frustrating.

Theoretically, I shouldn't even be worried about this right now and should instead be concentrating on finishing school, but this problem has been bothering me for weeks now and it's driving me crazy.

I think I will have to put the project aside for now and finish school, and then look at the patterns fresh again or something.

[EmeraldRose]

See Snake? She is passionate about it.... Tell us about the topic, I'm curious.

I may have told you I am studying for my Master's degree in Social Work? My family has a strong military history, and my husband is a former member of the military, so it is a culture I have grown up with.

Something I've noticed in my career is that while practitioners are very careful to be culturally sensitive in the general sense and respect various regional or religious or lifestyle cultures, the military is almost completely ignored in this context.

So I am researching the current literature available in similar areas and will create a manual for non-military practitioners (of whatever type, medical, legal, etc) who work with the military and veterans. Sort of a primer about the military culture.

[Maya]

Wow, it sounds interesting and very useful. My sister studied Social Work too.

[Maya]

So, in terms of the hats. I haven't really had time to devote to figuring out the pattern. The hat itself is easily done, and I really like how they turn out. Though, at the moment, my middle son was wearing it this morning and I currently have NO IDEA where in my house it might be...

I am incredibly tempted to buy a bunch of patches and just sew them onto the hats, but that wasn't the point. I can just ask you each what color you like best and make one in that color for you, but that would be really disappointing.

I have searched for crochet + patterns and I just can't find them. Crosses, yes. Letters, yes. +, no. I am just not experienced enough to create my own patterns yet, and it is really really frustrating.

Theoretically, I shouldn't even be worried about this right now and should instead be concentrating on finishing school, but this problem has been bothering me for weeks now and it's driving me crazy.

I think I will have to put the project aside for now and finish school, and then look at the patterns fresh again or something.

Maybe when you finish school you'll find the solution easier. Maybe there are programs online to do patterns, I know there are programs for cross stich

[EmeraldRose]

Wow, it sounds interesting and very useful. My sister studied Social Work too.

Cool! I like social workers! We are crazy people

That's part of what I wanted to do, make something useful. I could easily have just done a literature review, which would basically just be like a 25 or 30 page paper about the current literature on the topic, but I decided that I wanted to do something that would actually be useful to my company and maybe to other practitioners. I've debated bringing in literature from other countries regarding their military culture, but I decided to stick to US military for this paper.

Mostly because I need to draw the line somewhere in order to actually get the thing done.

Maybe someday I can continue the research to include a comparison between US military culture and other countries' military cultures. Because honestly that's what it comes down to. It's about educating people that military members have their own culture and it needs to be respected and treated as such.

Oh geez...ok I'm done now. No more soapbox...but yes, definitely something I am passionate about.

[Snake]

Maybe you are the right person to ask this question and give a succint in enlighted answer: what the fuck is social science/work?

I am asking it because I've already ehard about it many times, but can't imagine what it actually is.

[EmeraldRose]

Maybe when you finish school you'll find the solution easier. Maybe there are programs online to do patterns, I know there are programs for cross stich

I have actually debated doing it in a cross stitch pattern, just for my sanity. Or maybe one of you can do the cross stitch part and I will do the hats and it can be like a group effort? Who knows...but don't worry, I won't forget. Gotta do something with the yarn and the hats that I make...