Underlining and Mind-Mapping Read Papers Pays Off

When I read academic papers, I underline information I deem relevant, and later add that information to a mind map associated with the corresponding project. I’ve discussed this previously:

This worked fairly well once for my qualifying exam research at Tulane. However, that was a relatively small set of papers in a short period of time. For a project that’s been going on longer than I’m going to explicitly admit here, it’s not possible to keep as much organizational information in one’s head. I’ve been collecting and mapping reference papers for some time on this project, and I hoped that all that effort would pay off when it came time to write the introduction and discussion.

It’s paying off in spades!

Today I spent a few hours going down the list of important notes from papers I’ve mapped, and translating that into important points with reference markers (I.e. which paper to reference). It worked like a dream. I’m quite confident now that once I finish mapping the rest of the relevant papers, things will keep dropping into place.

There’s one important bit of feedback about mapping papers that I discovered in this process — don’t even bother mapping secondary information. That is, don’t bother mapping information that your paper cites from elsewhere. Just read and map the referenced paper. I pretty much quit underlining that stuff recently anyway.

My Favorite Winter Sport: Iceboating

Many people have never even heard of iceboating, and it can be hard to explain or describe with justice. In the US, the season(s) are typically very short — when the lakes freeze but before they’re covered in snow, and after the last snow melts but the lake re-freezes. Sometimes neither of those situations takes place on a given lake. Anyway, my father found this video on YouTube, taken from a boat just like his. It’s even the same safety-orange color. I’ve had a boat like this at an average speed of 90 miles per hour.

Here’s my first attempt at embedding a YouTube video on this blog:

Just Visiting (Tulane)

I’m still in New Orleans until the morning of January 7 2007, and Amanda started classes/rotations again today, so I’m working. I rode my bike down St.Charles for the first time in probably two months, parked it under Stern Hall at Tulane, got some coffee from the PJ’s right there, and am now at my old, still-unoccupied desk in 440 Boggs.

Nobody’s here because it’s officially still vacation for the students.

It’s eerie. Five months after we left, my name is still on my file drawers. Our names and phone numbers are still on the marker board. Most of our non-perishable food and dishes are still in the “kitchen” cabinets. I needed a pen, so I went over to the can-o-pens and took a few. To use my desk, I had to clear off boxes and packing foam that the movers left when they packed up our stuff.

It’s just like parts of the city.

There are parts of New Orleans, the parts that really flooded, like where I used to live before Katrina, where time stopped when the flood waters receded. Time has stopped here. Sure, we still have a few undergrads that use one corner of the lab, but they don’t touch the rest. Amanda mentioned the other day that she’s getting sick of being asked, “How’s the recovery going?” It’s nice that people care enough to ask, but it gets harder and harder because the answer is never a great one. More than a year after Katrina, it’s not possible to drive through uptown without encountering broken street lights. The water pressure still sucks. There are still those deserted areas where time stopped.

I’m sorry if I sound depressing. I didn’t mean to be, but it’s the way the lab feels, the way Tulane and the city feel. A lot of things are improving, yes, but some things were damaged and then time stopped.

I wonder when it will start again.

Happy New Year!

An early happy new year to everyone, as I will be out later. I’m quite happy to be able to celebrate it in New Orleans. I’ll be at Igor’s on St.Charles with my wife, so come see us if you’re around! As usual, I’ll be the guy in a black shirt and khakis and a black derby hat.

Show up and mention this ad and get a free drink on me!