Week 3 (June 9th- 14th)

My Car on its way to the Hospital (Toyota)

Things I learned...

• One of my favorite things we did this week was the time we spent in the digitization lab learning the process and the time that goes into the field. Within the Digi lab, there are so many time-consuming elements that make up the process of turning physical objects to the virtual form. I learned the process but in addition I learned that I really enjoy the work that it takes to care out these tasks.

• While in the Digi lab, I learned the amount of detail that it takes to ensure proper formatting of the of the artifacts. Between the Image processes forms and the second around edits in photoshop, this process takes a lot of time and allowed a newfound appreciation of the documents I look at online and the time it takes to get them there.

• On the GIS side of this project, I learned how to join data into a map setting that allows for the understanding of topic through a visual lends. As someone who is excited about the mapping elements of this project, relearning how to join data was an important step in the creation of the physical historical map that is yet to come.

Challenges….

• One of my biggest challenges this week is that my car decided to break down on Tuesday after lecture. Although I did not think this would be that big of a deal it turned out to be a bigger challenge then anticipated when carrying out my weekly tasks. Also, Nathan, Marali, Hannah, and Jaylynn were all in the car as well, so we all had a fun bonding experience waiting in the rain for the tow truck to come take my car to the shop. Luckily, the problem was a relatively easy fix, and my lovely little red car has been returned to my possession!

• On the theme of things that prevented me from completely my best work is the mouse in the Digi lab. Although it seems small, the learning curve that required me to use more patience and skill to use it made me go a lot slower when trying to digitize my documents. I know that if we were to do that for a week this problem would be solved but the short-term learning made it more difficult.

• The final thing that prevented my best work was that Hayden and I have very similar topics. Although they are not the same, they pull from the same set of letter resources which made me worried about us accidently producing the same work. However, after a discussion with him about our individual topics we concluded that the argument that we were making with our research are different enough that we can both proceed as plan.

Accomplishments...

• One of the accomplishments that I was most proud of this week was that I formulated a plan for my GIS element of my project and how I was planning to use it as a tool rather than a show of my research. Having past knowledge of the topic, I wanted to ensure that the deliverable map I produced was something that benefited to the understanding of my research. So, having an idea for such a map was an accomplishment.

• In addition, during Wednesday night's REU trivia and pizza, the team I was on, consisting of Hayden, Jay, Jaylynn and I did not come in last. This is not to say that we won, because we did not, but rather I was proud of our collective knowledge that we were able to not come in last.

• However, the biggest things I accomplished this week was the beginning of my introduction for my paper. Often tomes when I am writing a paper, I will do the introduction last so doing it first was a change of method for me. I am feeling pretty decent about the position of my introduction as is but I think it would be able to be improved as my research develops over the coming weeks.

• Although this might be out of order, I would like my next step to be the creation of my mapping element so I can use it as a tool for research. I want to see if there is any physical correlation between the lack of confederate forces and conflict within the regions of Mississippi.