The Marble Jar Channel

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll give you a quick tutorial of an app that I use for outlining writing assignments and research papers, CarbonFin's Outliner. I'm someone who outlines practically everything, from 50 pages research papers to 5 minute YouTube video scripts.  I have a lot of information spinning around in my head and I find I do a better job of communicating my points if I have a preset organizational structure and I work through my points in a methodical way.  I did a video recently on the 4 great tools that I have used for outlining, but in this video, I'm going to take you through one of those tools, CarbonFin's Outliner App.   This is a tool that is available for iOS devices and that also has a web-based component, which was important to me.  I don't believe there is a version for Android yet.  It is also one of the few apps that offers the ability to collapse sections,...

Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll share some of the tools that I like best to create outlines for research papers or writing assignments.  I recently did a video discussing how to organize a research paper or writing assignment.  And in it, I talk about how crucial it is to outline your paper before you start writing.  But what are the best tools for outlining?  In this video, I’ll cover 4 that I like: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and CarbonFin's Outliner app.  As an example, I'm going to use this outline for an 8-12 page paper.  I think it's important to put as much detail in your outline as you can, including the quotes, references and examples you are going to use to back up your points or arguments, so my outlines are more than just a skeleton of topics -- you can even see I have the URLs for references and studies in there.  The first 2 outlining tools are standard word p...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll give you some tips on organizing and outlining your writing assignment. I did a video a little while ago that shows the step by step process of writing a research paper, but what I don't cover in detail, is how to outline and organize the paper itself.  This video may not structure your paper for you, but it should provide some tips to get you started. There are really two types of writing: creative writing and analytical writing.  Most of the assignments that you will receive fall into the category of analytical writing.  When I was in undergraduate, I used spend A LOT of time working on a really creative introduction, literary writing, and snazzy transitions between concepts.  It turns out, I was spending my energy in the wrong place.   This is my second time going through graduate school, but during my first master's, I had my husband read and ed...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share how I make photo flashcards with the photo on the front for studying. I am a big fan of memorizing through the use of flashcards.  When I was taking Japanese as an undergraduate, I used to cut up a sheet of 8.5x11 inch paper into 16ths giving me flashcards about this big.  I would write the kanji characters on one side and the pronunciation and English meaning on the other.  I had boxes of these little cards, all bound together in sets with rubber bands.  And I swear they were THE reason that I got good grades in memorization-heavy subjects like Japanese and Biology.   Fast forward to now, thankfully for my current program I need to memorize fewer things, but I still think that flashcards are useful to drill concepts and ideas that I want to have quick brain access to.  Fortunately, there are now a ton of apps that help you to create and ...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll tell you why my family has switched over entirely to using Chromecast as our streaming technology after trying out almost all of the others. I'm definitely an early adopter for certain kinds of technology and apparently streaming tools are one of those.  We got an Apple TV back in 2007 when they released the first generation device and since then have tried Roku, Amazon Fire stick, Google Chromecast, and a bunch of different Smart TVs.  For a while, we were using Roku, but now we have entirely switched over to Chromecast and let me tell you why.  First of all it has a  Pros: Light interface - Chromecast works different than most other streaming devices.  Other streaming devices require you to fire up the interface on the TV, choose a channel like Netflix, log in with your credentials using their awful on-screen keyboard, laboriously type in a show name ...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll tell you why I switched my task/reminder app platfrom from Toodledo to Todoist. Of all of the apps and systems that I use to keep my life straight, I one I look at the most throughout the day is definitely my task/reminder system.   It serves as a checklist during the day to ensure that get things done and it helps me to remember things that I need to do in the future.  Up until recently, I had been using Toodledo for task management.  Toodledo was basically fine for my needs.  It is highly configurable and has great options for recurring tasks.  There were a couple of issues, however. First of all, it is pretty basic looking.  The interface looks like it got stuck in the early 90s.  It really doesn't try to hide the fact that it is really just a big spreadsheet. Second, the mobile app, while fine, is pretty clunky, not slick at all, and do...

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share some of my takeaways from another book by Dr. John M. Gottman, PhD. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. I did a video recently on another one of Dr. Gottman's books, Why Marriages Succeed or Fail and How You Can Make Yours Last.  I feel like that one laid out some of his more foundational ideas about marriage including the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse (criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling) and 3 different kinds of stable couples.  If you haven't seen that video, it's probably worth watching first.  This current book is even more prescriptive, describing exactly how to implement 7 big principles that support a successful marriage.  These principles are born out of the extensive research that he has done on couples in his Love Lab in Seattle, Washington.  So, it's not just based on hunches, but on well researched data. In...