fleureblr

[the-barn-rat]

real tired of hearing the vegan vs. omnivore arguments when the real superior diet in terms of both cruelty and ecosystem is locally sourced

beef and pork from a farm 10 minutes away from you is more ethical and less detrimental to the environment than quinoa grown in ecuador. the future is food forests. the green revolution is food forests. if we manage to survive this apocalyptic hellscape all of your food, plant and animal, is going to come from within half an hour of where you live. plant a vegetable garden in the meantime

[clouddoggo]

As a trained conservation biologist this is the most important step we can take. You do not understand how many issues we could solve if people bought most of their food from local sources.

[jinxproof]

Kate Moss & Carla Bruni © Kevin Hatt

[crystalsncats]

I felt so at peace as I looked over this little garden in London and watched as the sun began to set 🍂🌻

[heyyoun]

rosesun moodboard

[marcelanunes]

Marilyn Monroe

[whitepeopletwitter]

[birble-bobble]

Yeah so the Big Think is literally owned by big oil. They’re making shit up so people feel too exhausted to fight for any change. Ignore this kind of environmental nihilism, all it does it help the rich avoid change.

[pearltiare]

what we’re not going to do is judge women for looking up to Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, two unproblematic queens, because they’re deemed as “cliche” or “mainstream” ; meanwhile, men are over here idolizing other mediocre men who have physically and sexually abused women and think it’s acceptable because “we should separate art from the artist”

[celes7ial-deactivated20180319]

she’s gonna pass her classes and she’s gonna graduate

[ablogofnature]

Who

[celes7ial-deactivated20180319]

the girl reading this

[kate-jam-and-diamonds]

by Mert & Marcus 

[studycalleis]

how to stop procrastinating

set up a productive work environment. if you can’t seem to work in your bedroom, go out and study in a local library or a cute cafe! also, get out some water and put away distractions!

use the pomodoro method. work in 20-40 minute intervals and take breaks in between. you can use apps like forest to set a timer and also keep you off your phone. this method is helpful because your brain can’t focus and take in information for too long, so taking breaks can allow it to rest.

although i said to take breaks, don’t take breaks if you don’t need them. if you’re feeling super productive and feel that you can go on, don’t stop and break your focus. in other words, don’t use breaks as an excuse to stop working if you don’t actually need them.

use a planner if you don’t have one already. or some kind of planning system, like an app on your phone or a bullet journal. use it to jot down everything you need to do, so you never forget a deadline!

schedule out your week. note down when you’re at school/working or when you have extracurriculars to go to. this way, you’ll know when you have free time to work. i know that not everyone can follow schedules, but if you think you can, try this! however, it’s imortant not to over schedule, as you need time to rest to avoid burnout. don’t always take away personal time for work time!

just take the first step. focus on getting started instead of finishing. if you’re feeling overwhelmed, remind yourself that all you need to do is start. you can tell yourself that you’ll work for only 5 minutes, and by the end, you will probably end up feeling that you can continue.

use the two minute rule. if it can be done in two minutes or less, just do it now.

break tasks down into little manageable steps. let’s say you have an essay to write. don’t just write down in your todo list to write the essay. write down smaller steps, such as coming up with your thesis, finding evidence, outlining, etc.

stop multitasking. while it may seem that you’ll get more don’t this way, you won’t. focus your attention on one thing and complete it. also, if you find yourself wanting to do something else, just write it down in your planner and do it when you’re done with this current task.

do a little bit everyday. chip away at a task everyday for a week instead of stressfully cramming it on the last day before the deadline. for example, if you review your notes everyday for a couple of minutes, these minutes will add up and you’ll thank yourself for when you actually have a test.

get ahead!! this kind of ties in to the previous step, but the most productive people always start working even if the deadline seems far away. please save yourself the stress later! it also might be helpful to set yourself a fake deadline to finish an assignment early.

if you find yourself not wanting to do work because you’re struggling to do so, ask for help. write down some questions to ask your teacher the next day or call a friend or go to office hours. if you’re completely stuck, set the task aside and do something else.

give yourself rewards. this can be anything from hanging out with friends, watching an episode of a tv show, reading a book, eating some chocolate, or buying that thing you’ve been wanting for a while.

stay positive. it’s impossible to battle procrastination completely, so forgive yourself for not being productive all the time. don’t be tough on yourself, and instead focus on getting back on track now. some days, you just need to rest and take care of yourself.

[pissvortex]

please hurry up and overthrow capitalism so that i don’t have to fill out any more job applications where i have to retype the contents of my resume into an application form after i already attached my resume

[jeaniefranklins]

the thing about “well-behaved women rarely make history” is that the author, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, didn’t write it about women who would be considered “badly-behaved;” she wrote it in a book about a midwife, about women who had been largely ignored and erased from history because as a result of their “good behaviour.” So it’s not a “BAD GIRLS DO IT WELL” kind of quote; it’s a reminder to respect and pay attention to the women who go about quietly living their lives.

[flowerais-deactivated20211031]

Things to forgive yourself for

procrastinating

repeating habits you’ve wanted to change

relapsing

going back to square one

not thinking before acting or speaking

doing negative things when you didn’t know better

waking up later than you planned

not doing everything you scheduled

anything you did in the past

You’re only human. You made mistakes, but you’re a different person now. The endless cycle of feeling guilty can make things worse. It’s unfair to be so hard on yourself. Do your best to be a better person from it, and give yourself a chance to start again. 

[luminous-studiess]

exam is in 7 hours. last push. 

[imafuckingdoctor]

How to prepare for a new semester/year:

So as you all know I’ve been back to uni for about two weeks now and I was NOT feeling it (to say the very least). So here is what I did to get out of that crappy omg I can’t believe school’s back mood:

Clean your room: Back to school shopping is a huge deal for me but personally I like to start by cleaning my room, that includes closet, desk .. etc. Not only does this give you kind of a fresh start but also you end up figuring out exactly what you have and don’t have so you buy way less stuff (and save more money)

And while you’re at it stop hoarding: I’ve had books just sitting there for nearly four years that I haven’t touched (hello histology), same goes for clothes. Get rid of the things you know you don’t use. If you haven’t used them in a year chances are you won’t magically change your mind and start using them. You can sell them or give them away.

Don’t throw away half used notebooks: This annoys me soooo much. Cut out the pages you’ve written in and RECYCLE them. Less is more people. You don’t have to use them for school, I use those for writing down workouts or tracking what I eat, making shopping lists, goals or whatever I feel like writing (so people won’t see you with the same notebook from last year, they probably won’t notice anyway but if that’s your excuse here you go) ALSO: For clothes that you like but are too long, too big or whatever get them tailored! Don’t throw those away too.

Now that we’ve decluttered, make a list of what you need: Tailor this to your schedule as much as possible. If you have long days at uni with a significant amount of walking maybe invest in comfy shoes, if you feel like a certain notebook would work really well for a certain class get it, if you know you’ll be carrying a lot of stuff around and don’t have a proper backpack get one. Write down everything you need before you go to the store.

Figure out what you’ll do regarding your meals: Do you have enough good quality tupperware? Do you have all the groceries? Watch a few videos on meal prepping and have a set list of quick and healthy meals that suit you and your schedule and your diet.

Optimize your study space: I’m not saying make it all white and aesthetically pleasing (unless that’s your thing), just make sure it’s a good environment for you to be productive. Figure out if you need to make any changes to it before school starts.

If you can rearrange the furniture in your room: You’d be surprised at how much this affects your mood, you don’t have to buy new stuff to feel renovated for back to school.

Take a look at all of your classes and try to work out a daily (& study) routine: SUPER IMPORTANT, before school starts try to plan out what your weeks will look like, what you’ll do for certain gaps (for example do you have enough time to go study off campus or get a workout in), which resources you’ll use for every class, how are you going to commute, what kind of notes you’ll take for every class ..etc. Distribute your workload evenly throughout the week (so days when you go home early, allocate more study time and vice versa)

Lurk at studyblrs and studygrams: or even start one, this community is super motivating (pretty sure you already know that)

One last pampering session: This is very very optional and not for everyone but I personally get a hair treatment done before uni so that I don’t spend as much time doing my hair in the morning. Same goes for body hair removal, face masks …etc. It just makes me feel like a new woman 💁🏼‍♀️

[solarpunk-aesthetic]

Just imagine a world full of beautiful stained glass windows which also generate electricity…

[Oxford Photovoltaics]

[fartsandprayers]

[okayto]

This is why classes need library instruction

Student: I can’t find any scholarly articles on this subject!

Me: Okay, what’s the subject?

Student: Creating a culture of sharing in west-coast technological companies.

Me: Alright, and what/where have you tried searching?

Student: I searched “creating a culture of sharing in west-coast technological companies” on the library website!

Me:

[okayto]

I’m still mad about this because it happens frequently. Students at all levels of education need library and research instruction–they should get it before graduating high school, they should be getting it in several different classes in college, and there should be something in grad school–seriously, there are people in my master’s program who don’t know anything besides Google.

And don’t say “they should have learned in [previous level of university education].” Do you think every person continues education within a few years of their first degree? THEY DON’T. Even if they did get a then-good introduction to research, you think nothing changed between 2008 and 2018? How about the doctoral student I met today whose last degree–and last experience with academic libraries–was in 1996? How about the guy in my master’s cohort who got his bachelor’s degree in 1987?

Because look. See that very specific topic the student wanted? There may or may not be actual scholarly articles about it. But here are a few things you can do:

First, zoom out. Start broad. Pick a few phrases or keywords, like “tech companies” and “culture.” See what comes up.

Actually, back up. First, does your library’s website search include articles, or do you have to go into a database? My library’s website searches some of our 200+ databases, but not all. And you’ll need to find (in advance search or adjustable limiters that pop up after your initial search) how to limit your search to scholarly and/or peer-reviewed articles.

What other keywords are related or relevant? For the search above, you could use a combination of “silicon valley,” “company/ies” or “organization/s,” “sharing,” “collaborative,” “workplace culture,” “social culture,” “organizational culture,” and those are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head.

Did you find something that looks promising? Great! What kind of subjects/keywords are attached (usually to the abstract, sometimes in the description section of the online listing)? Those can give you more ideas of what to search. Does it cite any articles? Look at those! Some databases (ilu ProQuest) will also show you a selection of related/similar articles.

If you’re researching a very specific topic, you may not find any/many articles specifically about your subject. You may, for example, have to make do with some articles about west-coast tech companies’ work cultures, and different articles about creating sharing/collaborative environments.

That said, this student did the right thing: they tried what they knew to do, and then reached out for help.

[beradan]

They tried what they knew to do, and then reached out for help.

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

I get goddamn professors pulling this shit, there is not one single level in the academy where research literacy isn’t lacking.  

[plaidadder]

Also: Everyone has forgotten how to browse the stacks. As in, find a book that’s relevant, go to the stacks, then look at what’s near it on the shelf. You will find stuff that way that would never turn up on a search. It really works and can be a useful supplement to electronic research even though it involves your corporeal form and books made out of paper. 

[scary-murphy]

my law school requires a legal research class. you take it as a 1L, and it’s mandatory. you are signed up for it automatically along with all your other 1L courses. it’s a wise thing to do, because you’re fucked as a lawyer if you don’t know to find, you know, the law.

[christina-articulates]

I have a library and information science degree, which I often refer to as a degree in google, and I’m only being a little facetious with that. I often impress people with my ability to find things online, but it’s only because I’ve taken so many classes in research methods that I know how to phrase a search well. It’s so important, not just in school! 

[thebraveandthebroiled]

Goddammit there is so much information and so many way to access it that it burns my biscuits when we don’t give students the tools they need to succeed at this. Hell yeah all y’all above!

And here’s what I’ve got to add:  

Ask a Librarian

Seriously guys librarians are here to help. We would love to help you find the right resource for your particular informational need and we’ve been trained to do so as efficiently and effectively as possible. Nowadays you don’t even have to go to the library in person as many libraries offer online chat services as well as the option to contact via email. Further, and I think very importantly we are dedicated to our patrons rights to privacy. To quote the American Library Association the “rights of privacy are necessary for intellectual freedom and are fundamental to the ethics and practice of librarianship.”  

Search the Stacks

This is one of my favorite ways  to immerse myself in an area of study. While a good subject or keyword search will lead you to some good results sometimes is just as fruitful to go the library and plunk yourself down in section and browse all the books in a topic area. Libraries will label the (book)stacks based on whichever classification system they use and you can use the links below to figure out which area of the stacks you’ll want to look through.

Dewey: used in public libraries

LOC /Library of Congress: classification system used in university libraries

http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit03/libraries03_04.phtml

Online Books

Some websites like gutenberg project are dedicated to making public domain books accessible to the public. Using the search term public domain books is a good way to go about looking for more sources of them. Open sourced is another good term to use when trying to find freely accessible books online and that’s not just limited to fiction books but textbooks are also offered by various sites.

Project Gutenberg is an online archive of tens of thousands of  books that have enter the public domain that can be freely accessed.

Openstax is one website that provides access to Higher Ed and AP open sourced textbooks.

Libguides and Pathfinders

As stated above librarians are in the business of connecting people to resources. If we can’t do so in person then we also do so by creating guides that can be found and used when we aren’t around. These guides are filled with search terms, books, articles, reviews, lists, links, and anything else we think would be helpful for patrons trying to explore a particular topic area. 

Pathfinder is a particular term used for these guides. Libguides is a particular platform which to host these guides. Using either word at the end of your search terms online will bring up guides that have been created in that particular subject area. Or you can explore libguides directly with your search terms to find what guides librarians across the country have created.

Note: Using pathfinder in your search terms may pull up resources about Paizo Publishing’s same titled tabletop RPG series and while dragons are cool you can modify your search to library pathfinder to exclude these resources.

Other than using a search engine or libguides directly I find a great many pathfinders on university library sites. Usually what I do is find a university’s library webpage, find their pathfinder/research guides/guides section, and then browse through their lists of guides. These are generally organized by field of study so just pick the one you are interested in and look through the resources they have listed.

Some of the resources will be accessible for anyone while some might be locked for students of the particular university.  If the article, book, or resource is locked by a school portal you can either search for it online outside of the university portal or you can go to your own university/public library to see if they have access to the resource there. Even if they don’t have it currently in their collection libraries are often connected with other branches and may be able to request an interlibrary loan of what you need.

Online Reference Resources

Sometimes the problem isn’t finding information but finding good information. Below are two sites that I use regularly to help me with this issue when searching online for resources.

The Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association gives a list of the best free reference sites on the internet

The Ipl2 is a good authoritative source to find general information on a variety of topics. Even though the website is no longer updating there are still a plethora of subject guides that can be explored.

Open Sourced Journals and Articles

Just as there are open sourced books and textbooks so too are there open sourced journals and articles available. Again  you can add the term open sourced when searching for these resources.

DOAJ is the Directory of Open Access Journals and you can search through here to find both articles and journals freely available to access.

Journal Article Tips

Finally whenever I’m searching through journal articles there are a few things I always like to keep in mind.

Build context. Once you find an article that is relevant to your search you can do this by exploring the citations. Both those that the article you are using references in its bibliography and those that reference the article itself. 

Every database is going to do this differently but generally with a few clicks you can find out who has cited an article that you have read. If nothing else try popping the title of your article into google scholar and you’ll see a blue ‘Cited by’ below the description. Also in some cases you can click on the author directly in a database to see what else they have written in the subject. Totally ask your librarian for help navigating the particular database you are using again they will be stoked to do so. 

Building this context of literature by finding and reading these extra articles is important to building a critical understanding of your topic and will allow you to build the best possible defense of your arguments. This will also allow you to see if the article you’ve initially selected is in itself a viable position or if it is an outlier of its field.

If you can try and find reviews of literature articles and special issue/special topic editions of journals. These are your best friends in the resource world as these types of articles and journals compile a great deal of information on particular topic in a tiny space. They are immensely helpful in building context in an area of thought and useful to finding out what to read further to be informed in an area of study. Add those words to your search terms to see if you can get some useful resources.

[mandalorianreynolds]

Goddamn…

We should be taught this in MIDDLE SCHOOL.

This is a more important skill than being able to WRITE COHERENTLY.

This is not just a writing or academic skill, this is a CITIZENSHIP SKILL.

[kamikaze-kumquat]

Did…did they take this out of school? When I was in middle school we were taken By Class to the school library and the librarian gave a lecture on how to us the library and it’s resources. Of course, at the time all they had was the card catalogue, but we were taught how to read the cards. We were taught the dewey decimal system and how to search the stacks. Then the teacher gave us an assignment that made us go to the public library and use the knowledge we were given. I don’t remember if I was taught to look through journals then or if that came later, but I eventually learned it. Either way, I was taught that way back in the 80s…

WHEN THE EVER LIVING FUCK DID THEY STOP TEACHING THAT IN SCHOOLS? IT’S A GODSDAMN NECESSITY IN THIS AGE OF INFORMATION. INFORMATION IS FUCKING USELESS IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIND IT!

Gods…we are failing kids so fucking hard in this fucking country…

[emi--rose]

I was lucky enough to have great library education in elementary/middle school, university, and medical school, and it has made me LOVE my librarian friends so so so much <3

[ruffboi-mags]

I didn’t learn how to do this shit until I taught myself as an adult.

Some people are lucky enough to learn it, but most people aren’t.