kareina

While poking around in the archaeology department wiki today I saw a tab for "working with long documents", and within it was a recommendation for Scrivener, with a comment that there are often student discounts. I remembered hearing writer friends referring to using a program of this name before, so I clicked on the link provided and did some reading. What I read made me think that it might be rather useful for someone starting a new PhD project, but I couldn't find anything on their pages that mention citation management. Therefore I filled in their form asking about using EndNote with Scrivener, and went on with other tasks. Much to my surprise and delight, they replied to me very promptly, with a link to instructions on how to use EndNote with Scrivener. Since their advice boils down to what I tended to do in Word (leave the citations as code for where they will be inserted till ready to print), with only the details differing, this sounded quite reasonable to me. Therefore I sent a quick thank you note to them, and went and downloaded the trial version to see what I think.

I totally approve of their trial policy--it is a 30 day trial. That means thirty days of using the program, not 30 calendar days. Today all I did was go through the full tutorial (which took around 3 hours to try all of their suggested tasks, and quite a few variations besides). I am convinced that this will be a useful tool. Tomorrow I will try creating the project that will, ultimately, become my thesis. I fully intend to do a thesis by publication this time (since I didn't last time I did a PhD), which means that I will publish four or five papers over the next few years, and use them as the main body of the thesis, adding an intro and conclusion section. This will be easy to manage in Scrivener, which will let me have as may sub documents as I want, and give me the option of labeling them with their status (e.g: to write, early draft, final draft, submitted manuscript, published version).

I have only barely scratched the surface of this new research project I am undertaking, however, since deciding to become a PhD student again I have started adding more and new tools to my repertoire, and I think that this will be a much higher quality project than my first PhD was (not that there was anything wrong with it).

Yesterday, while in a fabric store picking up something else, I noticed a product on display by their cash register. The sign asked "Zipper problems?" (ok, it actually said "Problem med dragkedja?", but I could understand it), and it showed a photo displaying how their product would solve your problem--it was a small elastic band which one pushes through the hole in the zipper tab, loops one end of the band through the other, and then hooks it over the button of the jeans or trousers.

Since I happened to be wearing a pair of jeans just then which have a zipper which doesn't like to stay up, the sign caught my attention. However, I wasn't about to spend the cash on their product when I have a fair few small elastic bands that started life as pony-tail holders, but then got over-stretched and now has a non-elastic bit next to the metal join. I grabbed one of the "dead" ponytail holders I happened to have with me, tied a knot in it to make it shorter, clipped off the metal bit, threaded it through my zipper, hooked it through itself, and looped it over the button. It works! Brilliantly. Such a simple solution to an annoying problem--it is so much nicer to wear these jeans now that I don't have to keep pulling the zipper up, which is good because other than the zipper issue they are my favourite pair.

I have previously tried waxing the teeth of the zipper, which helps a bit, but never for long. This is a much more elegant solution.

While out getting my photo done done today, I stopped to make use of facilities at her house before heading home, and was delighted at the system they've got for hand-washing. The sink is on top of the toilet tank, so that when you flush the toilet water starts running into the sink, with which you can wash your hands, and that water then fills the tank ready for the next flush. A truly brilliant idea. I bet that it will encourage folk to actually wash their hands, because the water runs till the tank is re-filled, so if it is there, you may as well use it! And you don't need to touch the knob to turn it off afterwards, which is good since you turned it on with your un-washed hands. It is also set up in typical Australian fashion with a choice between "half-flush" and "full flush" depending upon what needs to be flushed this time.