Blogging past the classroom

You know, while I do enjoy writing in general as a way to express myself and my ideas, I do not think I will continue this blog past this class. The reason for this primarily has to do with the busy schedule I keep. With more classes yet to come, an upcoming move scheduled, a new job to be starting, and two small children to care for, my plate has all it can handle. Couple that with the fact that my youngest son is still receiving dialysis 3 x/week along with 9 hours of therapy/week and you can begin to see what I mean. I simply do not have the extra time to continue with the blog and to be honest am only doing it as a requirement for this class...

The peer review process

I think oftentimes we as human beings do not like the review process because it entails criticism just by its very nature. However, it has been my personal experience that the feed back I receive from others has often allowed me to see things from a perspective I may not have considered. Perhaps it is like talking to a neutral party about a crisis you may be facing in your life; you may not like or even agree with what is being said but it allows you to see things differently. This is the same with writing. When a person writes they are often seeing things from only one perspective, theirs, and thus cannot see where errors may have occured or possible new information may be added (or deleted). for this reason I am a fan of peer review because by looking at things in a different light the point you yourself are trying to make may be able to be done more effectively.

impact on ES research

I do not know if the way I feel about the importance of stem cell research will ever necessarily have any real impact on it one way or another. However, I do believe that just as is the case in voicing your opinion in an election, getting your opinion and points heard can alter the way others think of the idea. There are probably a great many people out there who really do not even know what stem cells are or where they come from, but simply know only that which they have heard through friends or the media. Perhaps they have not heard of it at all. I will never argue that ES research is not without risks; it definately has many hurdles to jump as of yet. It is for this very reason I think it should be funded on a national level. I cannot think of a single technology within the medical arena that did not require enormous amounts of research and/or clinical trials. With every new discovery comes all the "kinks" that need to be ironed out. Keeping this in mind however, I feel if illnesses that devestate families across the globe can be cured, or even treated more effectively, than every possible option needs to be explored. I guess then the impact my ideas could potentially have would be in educating people to this idea.

The number one thing that seems to cause me conflict between school and home life would have to be, like most people I imagine, a lack of time. I tend to be a perfecionist so I will spend a ridiculous amount of time on my assignments which makes it hard for me to have the time I both want and need with my family. I keep telling myself that I do not have to receive a perfect score on every assignment , and that my kids will only be little once, but for some reason I just cannot accept less than my best. I know in the academic setting my dedication will be viewed as a good thing, but like I said, the day will come all too soon when my babies are no longer babies and stop WANTING to be around me. Sometimes when it gets really crazy around here, I find myself asking "Lord why cannot I just accept mediocracy?" Perhaps one day I will have the aswer to that, but for now I'll just keep marching forward.

The Importance of giving credit

It is so easy to remember something someone has said and repeat it without stating where the information came from, just as I'm sure we've all said "you know the saying goes..." without saying whose saying it is, but the people who have stated these things first need to be recognized. Imagine you finish writing this paper for this term and it becomes published. Now how would you feel if somebody else took your ideas for their own and they in turn were given the recognition for that which you have done? Let's go a step further, suppose your work resulted in an important discovery through somebody else presenting it as their own. How would you feel to know that you were the one that first thought of the idea, but were never given any credit for it? This is why it is important to cite the sources for the information we use in our wrting. Even if it neve ramounts to any great discovery, taking something that does not belong to you is stealing and I think we can all agree stealing is wrong. This holds true for the  words we use, as well.