The Next Step

Okay... if you saw my last post regarding my early returned missionary project, I'm sorry. I got a little overwhelmed with everything. Starting over:

I found out yesterday that a website already exists to help early returned missionaries and their families.  The focus is more on helping the families help the missionary. It also has not been updated since August 2012. I want mine to focus on the missionary: talking directly to the missionary, that is. I would also like mine to look more professional.

So, here is what I have decided to do:

1) Create a prototype for my website in Adobe InDesign.
2) Have my husband help me either find an already existing template that fits this prototype, or have him teach me how to create the website from coding. He is more of a software practitioner than a web developer, so we may have to get outside help for this. We'll see what happens. I'd like mine to have a nice look. In fact, I'd like to base my design off of this website here.
3) Once the website is up, get some initial stuff up on it for readers. Have an email address they can write to for content suggestions/story submissions.
4) Advertise my website and the need for it by guest blogging on other popular Mormon blogs by using the Mormon Archipelago.
5) Organize all of my information into a Wiki.
6) Self-publish my book.

Diigo meets DIY

I'm starting to use Diigo.

Do I like it? Kind of.

At first, I was kind of confused because I didn't understand why you would use Diigo instead of Pintrest. However, I have thought about it and I think that Diigo works well with article/blog finds. Pintrest directs to article/blog posts, but it doesn't allow you to highlight or "sticky note" your findings to make your research more effective.

To be honest, I tried the highlighting feature and wasn't sure how to access that afterward. I'm going to continue playing with it but I will probably look for Diigo DIY instructions for further use.

Which brings me to what I am curating: The DIY Movement

I found a list of 5 Ways to Promote DIY and it inspired me to create a brief list of information I've gathered while curating this fascinating movement.

1. History of the Maker Subculture - This article most interested me because Christ Anderson describes the DIY Movement as "what happens when the Web meets the real world."

2. Inspiration - This blog reflects the author's hope for youth to create a better world through the DIY Movement as we "face the economic conditions of our time with remarkable ingenuity, courage, and grace."

3.Skill set- Although this article focuses specifically on Home Decor, it perceives DIY for seekers of "identity enhancement, ...uniqueness, craftsmanship, and empowerment."


Reflecting on #3, how do you think DIY contributes to identity enhancement in the digital age? How does it provide empowerment to digital users?

Transition

We've talked about how blog writing is different from academic writing and why that is both a good and bad thing. In Dr. Burton's blog post The Three Phases of Academic Blogging, he talks about how to best transition from regular, thought blog posts to better researched topics, until finally we reach the full blown academic paper. Hopefully this final stage will help to produce an even better, more well thought out, and clear paper than anything we (as academics) would have been able to produce otherwise. That's the idea anyway.

This past midterm was definitely a learning experience for me. During the midterm interview I confessed that, "I'm good at blogging because I'm very opinionated. It's the next step that I'm worried about." I could tell that that was NOT what they wanted to hear. It's easy to be opinionated, it's much more difficult to do sound research and talk through things clearly. It's even more difficult to make an argument that is respected by an academic community that reads hundreds of arguments from undergraduates every single day. The entire point of these blogging exercises is to practice writing and to get better at it. The point is not to simply state your opinion and walk away.

This transition from "opinion" to "scholarly" is difficult for me. It's much easier (which is why it isn't as valued) to just state your views and move on with your life. That's why comments are so rampant these days. But making something really worth reading, something that people can credit as knowledgeable and reliable, now that's a really interesting feat.

That's not to say that blogs and bloggers don't have credibility. They do. As we've discussed in class, sometimes bloggers are more highly valued than journalists and especially academics. Most everyday, casual readers looking for information would much rather read an interesting blog post on a subject than read a scholarly article on it. There's a reason for this. Mainly because reading a scholarly article can confuse you rather than help you understand, and because scholarly articles expect you to try to follow them. The article that we read for class today, about Digital Humanities, had a lot of German and French words thrown in that were never explained. It also gave references to a lot of events that the average reader wouldn't automatically pick up on. It's extremely easy to find out this information: Just google it. But something (rebellious, uncaring, stubborn) inside me just wasn't interested enough in looking for the information. This is 100% a problem with my reading ability, but at the same time I can't help but feel like the writer should be doing what he or she can to keep the reader interested. Then again, it's very possible that I simply wasn't the audience he was aiming for.

That's the good thing about quick, easy, opinionated blogging. It doesn't take any effort to follow and you can agree or disagree without there being any emotional trauma. This isn't the case with academic writing. Academic writing seems to involve a whole other sphere of understanding. When I read an peer reviewed article, I'm way more careful about simply dismissing their opinion. This is the strength of it. But there has to be a way of combining the readability and ease of blogging with the respect and concise writing of the academic paper.

This is what I have to learn.

The midterm paper was tough for me. I don't think I've ever gotten as bad a grade on a paper since I've come to BYU. This was my fault, because I didn't learn to use the mediums to my full ability. I have the writing skills to do the paper justice, but I was too enthralled with the ease of blogging. I added in some sources that I found interesting, but I talked with my reader in the simple, loose language of a blog post, rather than the precise, prestigious language of a scholar. And because of that, my paper did not carry the weight that I wanted it to. It wasn't persuasive and I lost credibility. I'm irritated with myself because I know that I could have done better. I know how to write a good academic paper. This isn't a medium I'm foreign too. I'm a senior here at BYU with my degree in English. I know how to do this. What I'm upset about is that I didn't use what I know of academic blogging to mix with the flow of an academic paper in order to make it be better than my papers have been in the past -- instead of worse.

I'm hoping that with practice, I'll be able to really transition between the two mediums and come up with a mix that I'll use with my remaining English classes. I'm with Dr. Burton and Kristen on not being satisfied with the usual research paper. I want to do better, write better, and be both entertaining and informative. The trick is just figuring out how. But I think this class is a pretty good way to start. ;)

My Conversion to DIY

As we were introduced to Exploration and talking about the "Do It Yourself" Movement, I briefly mentioned that I cut my husband's hair. And it's great! I'm going to explain how and why I became hooked on all things "DIY."

Last Christmas, my husband received a set of Wahl hair clippers. Aside from "man-scaping," he wanted to put them to good use so I decided I wanted to learn how to cut his hair. So for my birthday, he got me some essentials from Target (I know... you're thinking "practical gift much?" Welcome to marriage! :) ) So I became fully equipped with some of the things below.

Then Spencer and I sat on the couch and watched a couple YouTube videos until we found one we liked. Unfortunately, I've looked for the exact video and can't find it. Basically, it was a Hispanic woman giving a legitimate haircut to a boy in a salon with very home-grown videography. She  explained how to cut hair with clippers and then transition to scissors. So now you know that I'm no Paul Mitchell graduate!

I just gave my husband a haircut this past Sunday night so I thought I'd show you the result!

Before:



 

After:

 



Just for fun, I looked into DIY haircuts and found a trend among women cutting their own hair to make a statement. Elle's website writes an August 2013 article entitled, "DIY Haircuts -Why Women Choose to Chop." I found the following statement amusing:

"Kitchen scissors are generally the tool of choice. Medine uses "the scissors you use to cut open packaging." It's almost a badge of honor.  'I love telling people that I cut [my hair] in five minutes with my kitchen scissors,' Urbinati said.  'It makes me feel kind of punk.'"

Okay, I'll admit I don't use kitchen scissors. And I don't feel "punk." But it saves us money and gives me self-gratification and I've learned a new skill. And my husband looks dang good!

What new skills can you develop online? What is something you'd like to try?

Getting Started on my Early Returned Missionary Project

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how I had written a book about returning home early from an LDS Mission (a result of two parasites), submitted it to Deseret Book for publication, and a couple months later received a rejection notice from them. It was disappointing, partially because I'd worked so hard on the book, but also partially because it felt like another door shutting on a conversation that really needs to get going: the conversation about those who return home early from a mission through no fault of their own (generally the result of a physical or mental illness).

According to this article from returned missionary Drew Botcherby, "Each year 1.5 percent of missionaries come home early for health-related issues. If that doesn't sound like a lot, remember that the number of missionaries currently serving is around 74,900. That number is expected to peak around 95,000 over the next couple of years. That means over 1,100 come home every year, and that number will increase to over 1,400 each year." That means 3-4 missionaries come home early from their missions every day! This needs to be talked about!

In my post I stated that this wasn't the end of my attempts to get the conversation started. As I continued to talk to other people about my book and my desire to talk about these returned missionaries, I continued to get positive feedback for it. Yet as I talked, I realized that it really is a very niche book, and a publisher like Deseret Book would be hesitant to take it on because, well, how many copies are they going to sell? It's a long tail topic. Yet it is an important topic.

So, I've decided to use the medium that serves the long tail the best (the internet) and get a website going about missionaries who return home early. I want this website to be a place for missionaries to go when they just need some spiritual support. Maybe I'll even include some links about physical support (inspired by the same article from Drew Botcherby). Both forms of support are important. What I struggled with the most was the spiritual aspects of returning home early: the feelings of unworthiness, of not trying hard enough, of being punished by God, etc. When I later ran into people from my mission I felt "marked" as the "girl who returned home early," even though these people never did anything to make me feel that way. 

Right now, I'm in the brainstorming phase. Here's a picture of the first page of my brainstorming: 

The other page has a list of topics. I had to force myself to stop brainstorming because it was beginning to consume me, and ignite some old anxieties about having to act now or my project will never take off (which is never true. I always follow through on projects that I start--well, almost!).

Anyways, I've begun to look into things like "search engine optimization," domain names, hosting a website, etc. My husband has been a fantastic resource for the technical side of setting up a website and has done a lot of the researching for me. This has helped me a ton because I'm not really programming saavy or super tech saavy. I had no idea there was a difference between registering a domain and hosting a website. He's more than happy to help me out with it though, so I'm going to let him. I was looking at Google Sites for hosting, and my husband found other sites that produce templates for a website. For now, I'll probably use Google Sites since it offers free hosting (although I'll still get my own domain), which will save me about $60 per year. Down the road if I want more power behind my site I may pay the extra $60, but for now Google Sites will serve my purpose.

Then there are the other things like how many times per week I'm committed to blog. I think 3 posts per week about certain topics, a guest blog once a week, or a question and answer blog once a week would be good. But first, I have to get it noticed which means I need to get some blogs up there until I can do the extra stuff. And I'm in school right now and have little extra time to blog. Should I get co-bloggers? That would help spread out the workload and provide insights about things that I did not experience. I would like to stay in charge so I can monitor the tone/voice of the other authors to make sure it gets the importance of our message across, but is still respectful towards the church and respects the anonymity of those they may be speaking about. I'd need to set rules. I wouldn't be a tyrant, but I'd still like to maintain control over the website and its content. 

These are my thoughts so far. Any input from others is always welcome. I'm hoping to get this website up and going very soon.