Reflection 2
Since I have never build a website before, learning how to use Weebly and decide how I want to set up the site was a challenge. I still have yet to completely discover and get better at using every feature on Weebly. It isn’t the easiest website to use and navigate. I wish there was more control on placement of pictures and headers. Having the decision on what pictures to place on the site is nice. I do enjoy designing the website. I have never had anything I did put on the web for everyone to see.
A challenge I foresee with my paper is the topic being too specific. I have find this happening, I plan to broaden my topic to brotherhood in general, and hit mainly on the fire service. I would also include the military, other city workers, hunters, and outdoorsmen. Including all of these should provide enough to extend my paper and give me more to talk about.
Reflection 3
When is it enough?
As I have been going through the research process, I find myself wanting to dig deeper in to every source I find. I have done two interviews so far but would love to do more. I would really like to interview my assistant chief, he is a captain for the Statesville Fire Department with many years of service. His insight into brotherhood would be different than that of my other interviews. He started his career in the fire service the same way I did, at the same station. It would be interesting to see how my department has changed between now and then. I am also still interested in doing research on the website of people’s stories once they got a job out of college. It was a site Crystal had in her bibliography.
As you can see, I’m having trouble knowing when enough is enough with my research. I do not want to get started on the paper only to find I run out of information on my topic. At the same time, I do not want to eat up hours of time on extra research I do not use or struggle to fit in the paper. Every paper is different but there will be a balance between too much research to fit in and not enough to complete the paper. I am struggling to find that balance.
Reflection 4
I have a week left to finish my paper and plan the presentation. I am not entirely sure what I want to present on at this time. I have several ideas but until my paper is complete will not be able to plan the presentation. I am at this point burnt out on my paper and subject. I find it hard to sit down and focus on typing. It seems I have many projects due around the same time and they are all piling up one behind the other. I have attempted to become more motivated and organize everything to be completed. The only thing that was able to accomplish was discouraging me even more due to the massive work load and poor participation from group members in other classes. I am also having trouble with my advisor with registering for spring classes. Everything is piling up and taking a toll. Hopefully a weekend at home will help relieve most of the stress. Getting away from school is always nice. I cannot wait for Christmas break.
Reflection 5
Motivation
I had trouble finding motivation to revise my rough draft and create it into a final. Every time I sat down to work on it, I would type only a few sentences before getting distracted and giving up. As time drew closer to submit the final I began trying new ways to get the essay done. I attempted writing in different areas of campus, outside, inside, listened to different music, and even eating while I work. None of my attempts worked. Finally I was attempting to play a war game. To play online I had to do an update that took almost two hours. While sitting there bored waiting at almost two in the morning motivation hit me out of nowhere. I cranked out almost three pages in just 45 minutes. After saving my work and enjoying the game for a couple of hours I went to sleep. The following day I emailed the paper to my girlfriend for revision. She stated that nothing had been changed. I quickly opened the paper I sent her only to find it did not save to my cloud drive and I had lost all my hard work from the night before. Quickly, with what I had typed somewhat fresh on my mind, I attempted to retype what had been lost. I still do not know where the motivation to do the paper came from. Maybe it was out of boredom. Maybe due to the fact it was two in the morning, I am still unsure. I am happy with how the paper turned out.
Final Reflection
My idea at the beginning and the end where not far from one another, but it had changed from what I originally wrote down. In the beginning, I planned to write about the identity of my home town of Farmington, how it had changed, how the town had grown, and how different life is now from the 1960’s. After brain storming for a few days on where my possible sources would be, I decided the topic would be hard to research. The only sources I could think of were elders of the community. I still wanted to write about something that relates to my community, and also something that impacts my life. Since the fire department is a huge part of my life and community, I made the decision to go with brotherhood of the fire department. I had interviews with friends that are active firefighters, articles from around the country detailing brotherhood, and a film shot in Detroit that hit on brotherhood several times. Thinking back, I never hit in my own department much in the essay, nor did I talk about it impacting my community. I wish I had, but it isn’t a big deal. Looking at the big picture, my essay went from one extreme to the other. My original plan and what I wrote about are two completely different things.
Since I have never build a website before, learning how to use Weebly and decide how I want to set up the site was a challenge. I still have yet to completely discover and get better at using every feature on Weebly. It isn’t the easiest website to use and navigate. I wish there was more control on placement of pictures and headers. Having the decision on what pictures to place on the site is nice. I do enjoy designing the website. I have never had anything I did put on the web for everyone to see.
A challenge I foresee with my paper is the topic being too specific. I have find this happening, I plan to broaden my topic to brotherhood in general, and hit mainly on the fire service. I would also include the military, other city workers, hunters, and outdoorsmen. Including all of these should provide enough to extend my paper and give me more to talk about.
Reflection 3
When is it enough?
As I have been going through the research process, I find myself wanting to dig deeper in to every source I find. I have done two interviews so far but would love to do more. I would really like to interview my assistant chief, he is a captain for the Statesville Fire Department with many years of service. His insight into brotherhood would be different than that of my other interviews. He started his career in the fire service the same way I did, at the same station. It would be interesting to see how my department has changed between now and then. I am also still interested in doing research on the website of people’s stories once they got a job out of college. It was a site Crystal had in her bibliography.
As you can see, I’m having trouble knowing when enough is enough with my research. I do not want to get started on the paper only to find I run out of information on my topic. At the same time, I do not want to eat up hours of time on extra research I do not use or struggle to fit in the paper. Every paper is different but there will be a balance between too much research to fit in and not enough to complete the paper. I am struggling to find that balance.
Reflection 4
I have a week left to finish my paper and plan the presentation. I am not entirely sure what I want to present on at this time. I have several ideas but until my paper is complete will not be able to plan the presentation. I am at this point burnt out on my paper and subject. I find it hard to sit down and focus on typing. It seems I have many projects due around the same time and they are all piling up one behind the other. I have attempted to become more motivated and organize everything to be completed. The only thing that was able to accomplish was discouraging me even more due to the massive work load and poor participation from group members in other classes. I am also having trouble with my advisor with registering for spring classes. Everything is piling up and taking a toll. Hopefully a weekend at home will help relieve most of the stress. Getting away from school is always nice. I cannot wait for Christmas break.
Reflection 5
Motivation
I had trouble finding motivation to revise my rough draft and create it into a final. Every time I sat down to work on it, I would type only a few sentences before getting distracted and giving up. As time drew closer to submit the final I began trying new ways to get the essay done. I attempted writing in different areas of campus, outside, inside, listened to different music, and even eating while I work. None of my attempts worked. Finally I was attempting to play a war game. To play online I had to do an update that took almost two hours. While sitting there bored waiting at almost two in the morning motivation hit me out of nowhere. I cranked out almost three pages in just 45 minutes. After saving my work and enjoying the game for a couple of hours I went to sleep. The following day I emailed the paper to my girlfriend for revision. She stated that nothing had been changed. I quickly opened the paper I sent her only to find it did not save to my cloud drive and I had lost all my hard work from the night before. Quickly, with what I had typed somewhat fresh on my mind, I attempted to retype what had been lost. I still do not know where the motivation to do the paper came from. Maybe it was out of boredom. Maybe due to the fact it was two in the morning, I am still unsure. I am happy with how the paper turned out.
Final Reflection
My idea at the beginning and the end where not far from one another, but it had changed from what I originally wrote down. In the beginning, I planned to write about the identity of my home town of Farmington, how it had changed, how the town had grown, and how different life is now from the 1960’s. After brain storming for a few days on where my possible sources would be, I decided the topic would be hard to research. The only sources I could think of were elders of the community. I still wanted to write about something that relates to my community, and also something that impacts my life. Since the fire department is a huge part of my life and community, I made the decision to go with brotherhood of the fire department. I had interviews with friends that are active firefighters, articles from around the country detailing brotherhood, and a film shot in Detroit that hit on brotherhood several times. Thinking back, I never hit in my own department much in the essay, nor did I talk about it impacting my community. I wish I had, but it isn’t a big deal. Looking at the big picture, my essay went from one extreme to the other. My original plan and what I wrote about are two completely different things.