Brainbottle

Please note: all links open either an outside website or a watermarked, locked PDF file. They are posted in chronological order, from newest to oldest.

AlchemyForge Revamp: The first project I've coded by hand since 1995. A couple of the pages are still a little rough (and there's some discontinuity between the new and old pages) but I consider it an ever-evolving work in progress.

Moe Grinder Assembly Instructions: I purchased an industrial-type grinder from Wayne Coe to use in my metalworking hobby. He asked me to offer suggestions to improve his two page assembly instructions. This is what I came up with.

English 368 (American Novel to 1900): Research Paper. For this project I looked at both Frederick Douglass' Narrative and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl from the perspective of blacks (slaves, escapees and freedmen) participating in local economies. My professor began her comments with "This is a really fascinating paper."

Deadliest Warrior: The Game- blog. As promotion for the upcoming Deadliest Warrior: The Game, Spike TV/ MTV Networks contacted me to expand on the blog entries to give users more information about some of the weapons used. The first post was scheduled to be posted during July 2010.

Psychology 499 (Seminar- "Why We Believe Weird Things"). This will be a favorite project for a while. The purpose of the seminar was to show that for many topics, information is thrown at readers without much context to give validity to that info (frequently, context is removed so that the data can say whatever the author needs it to say). Worse, people rarely stop to think about whether the info seems reasonable or jibes with what they know of the world around them. The text, Terence Hines' "Pseudoscience and the Paranormal" is an interesting read, though once his thesis is established, succeeding chapters and topics become "more of the same." This paper is a review of evidence for the Lake Champlain "monster," named Champ.

History 418 (U.S. from 1914 to 1945)- Newspaper Project. Alternately referred to as "the newspaper project" and the "New Deal Paper," our assignment was to review a year's worth of our hometown newspaper from any year during the New Deal. I chose 1935, and was fascinated by how much journalism has changed (the "articles" back then really resemble modern blog posts).

Sociology 430 (Society and Technology)- Network TV-style interview (website). This project required that we interview someone significantly older than we are (or over 60) and produce a multimedia product. I interviewed my mom and wrote a "top ten" blog entry for the fictional "Uncovery Channel." 

English 355 (Multimedia Web Authoring)- Final Project (website).  For our final projects were were required to complete a web site using Google Sites that incorporated images and links along with the text. I ask the viewer to bear in mind the limitations in color and layout choices with Google Sites.   

English 402 (Technical Writing)- Grant Proposal  This was the grant proposal to fund my ongoing semester project research.  I did not submit this proposal.  There is a lot of interesting information in this that I wasn't able to include in the completion report.  Dr Pepper is a made up person and the CVs are fictional (culled from real CVs of archaeologists and historians found through Google).

English 402 (Technical Writing)- Wootz Completion Report  This was the final project for this class, and is the paper I included with each of my graduate school applications.  I spent the semester researching the history and methods of production of traditional Indian steel, wootz, and this is the report of my findings.

English 402 (Technical Writing)- Feasibility Report Students were given four scenarios to base feasibility reports on.  I chose to research the best place to buy the textbook for this class.  The report compares various outlets.  

Biology 330 (Conservation of Natural Resources)- Protecting Biodiversity in Region X  This assignment asked us to take an imaginary pool of funding and purchase land in order to best protect the species that are native to the area.  We were expected to justify our purchases and discuss what conservation principles we were applying.  The only constraint was that we were not allowed to write about wanting more money or what we would have done with a larger pool of funds.

Biology 330 (Conservation of Natural Resources)- Controversial Resource Management.  In this assignment we were to choose a topic that was controversial and discuss how we would resolve the issue.  I looked at the Rainier elk herd that has been invading/visiting the town of Packwood, WA.  I'm certain that those who are more knowledgeable than I will take exception to some part of my reasoning or decision, and I welcome constructive criticism.

Anthropology 350 (Speech, Though and Culture)- Food's Effect on Conversation  This was my term project for this class.  We were required to observe several conversations that had something in common.  I chose to observe people while they were eating and engaging in conversation.  

MAD Dwarf Workshop- website revision.  A couple of young blacksmiths at Don Fogg's bladesmith forums have set up a website.  I think it's really well done, but it had grammar, spelling and punctuation errors that detracted from the message they were trying to send.  I offered to review it for them, they agreed and this is the Word document I sent. 

This is the link to my most current resume. I try to keep it geared toward writing related positions.

This is the link to the blog for this site at

brain-bottle.blogspot.com 

I try to keep it germaine to what's going on with this site, though I have been trying to branch out some to keep the writing-juices flowing.