thechanelmuse

[thechanelmuse]

Black Cowboys and Rodeo around America photographed by Ivan McClellan 

[thechanelmuse]

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

[thechanelmuse]

André De Shields' Three Cardinal Rules:

Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you.

Slowly is the fastest way to get where you want to be.

The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing.

A blueprint for life. ✨

[thechanelmuse]

Diana Ross – 1977

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

Writing tip

I saw someone on twitter offering advice to writers. One tip was to "delete your bad writing." No.

Never delete your bad writing. I learned to stop and started archiving it instead. It’s best to revisit it for later to see how far you’ve come. You know. Growth.

Plus, you might just find a hidden gem in there that would’ve been lost forever.

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

My Mini Book Review

“Afeni asked me to write her son’s life story. For me, her request was met with a mix of emotions. Of course, I was honored. But as I pondered this huge undertaking I was also fearful.”

I’m glad she asked. 

The structure, flow, research, and attention to detail that went into creating this biography is an engrossing ode to the life, spirit, and legacy of Tupac. I'm well-versed on the life of Pac, but man oh man. This is a complete book. Definitive. 691 pages.

It almost feels like a companion to the layered docuseries, Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, that displays the parallels of Tupac and his mom.

Well done, Staci. 💕

[thechanelmuse]

You are somebody’s reason to smile :)

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

Ali defeats Foreman 1974

[thechanelmuse]

[thechanelmuse]

K Lewis

[thechanelmuse]

Express yourself in a way that feels most authentic to you and nothing else.

[thechanelmuse]

John Coltrane, My Favorite Things

[thechanelmuse]