book cover

Can we just admire this beautifully designed book cover?

It's simple. It's colorful. And, it's probably the best one I have yet to see...in my relentless slog of reading material as a doctoral candidate.

Still not sure if there are only six steps to success on the path to quality literature review, though. Further, if the steps are linear then why is the path of the arrows somewhat erratic? 

I'll reconsider those questions once I've completed the book. Meanwhile, I'll simply appreciate the bold lines and the color palette of this cover.  

source: amazon

bottling

Spent the morning bottling old vine zinfandel with my Dad. Much needed break from the books.

A little “reset” before it’s back studying. Kinda like the wine, I think I might be suffering from bottle shock. 

Upside: "bottle shock" is a temporary condition. Most oenophiles will tell you that "bottle shock" is a slight disruption characterized by muted or disjointed flavors.  

It typically occurs after wine transfers, filtration, bottling, and sometimes during transport. 

The cure? Let it rest for a few days. Let it settle...



best practice

Stop reinventing the wheel.

Stop rehashing past practice.

After all, if everyone is doing it then "best practice" is merely mediocre. 


highlighters

What is the best highlighter? Liquid, gel, pencil? What brand would you purchase again, or what is your "go-to" brand? 

As a doctoral candidate, I've spent a lot of time with "required readings" these past months. And, I have many more months ahead. About 36 months, to be precise. I knew that I would be spending a lot of quality time with analog texts, but I didn't anticipate how much I would be highlighting. 

And, most highlighters are garbage. I know that a quality highlighter exists, but I have yet to use one that made me happy. Maybe that is where I went wrong: buying whatever was on sale at Staples or Target. Some dry out too quickly. Some smear too easily. Some do not transfer properly. Some bleed through the pages. #frustrated

So, I did a little digging on the interwebs, and found a wide variety of opinions. JetPens has an entire blog post about highlighters, and I appreciate the thoroughness of the post. I don't mind paying for quality because quality pays for itself. The problem is finding the quality. I asked twitter and Instagram earlier today, and I'm curious to read the responses...but I may just have to spend the money and write my own review.