Here I am with Patrick Healy and Anthony Kearns (of Three Tenors fame), after an impromptu serenade. "Happy Birthday" sung by Anthony Kearns... it doesn't get much better than that! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:26:00 -0500 Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:26:00 -0500 After reading AgentTim's recent post on the Party Gospel http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AgentTim/, I had to offer my two cents on this subject. I agree with Tim 100%. There is a huge difference between sinning w/ unbelievers to show them you're "normal" and ministering God's grace and love to those who need it.   I've been doing a lot of research on horse racing chaplains lately. (Yes, you read that sentence correctly!) These men minister to the people who live and work on the racetrack - people who are in desparate need of spiritual guidance and leadership. They are all trained and ordained through the Race Track Chaplaincy of America (RTCA), a non-profit organization that is run by a group of dedicated Christian professionals. In a recent interview with a chaplain, I brought up the issue of being a Christian and working on the track, and his answers came to mind when I read Tim's post.   "I don't drink with the boys or go out and gamble on someone's horse if they tell me it's going to win. I have to be an example of what is right, someone that people can look up to. It's not an issue of having a 'holier-than-thou' attitude, it's an issue of impacting someone's life for better or for worse. Often, I'm the only example they have to look up to. If I destroy a recovering alcoholic's commitment to sobriety because I have one beer and he thinks, 'Well, the chaplain had a drink last Wednesday, so it'll be okay if I have a few..." then I'm going against my comittment as a Christian to 'make up my mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in my brother's way.' (Romans 14:13) I don't pretend that gambling is okay. When people say, 'Oh, you're the chaplain! Give me a hot tip! [for a horse that will win a race]' I say, 'You want a hot tip? Keep your money in your pocket!' But I'm not going to abandon the work that the Lord is doing at this track just because there's gambling here."   "1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! 2 How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6, various verses).   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/8985/ Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/8985/ Check out my latest article in the brand-new issue of Virtue magazine!   http://www.virtuemag.org/articles/freedom-of-the-press-and-the-responsible-journalist http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/5326/ Mon, 4 Jul 2005 16:18:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/5326/ "Jogging is very beneficial. It is good for your legs and your feet. It is also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed." ~ Charles W. Schultz   Sometimes I wish I could think like that! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/3039/ Thu, 23 Jun 2005 22:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/3039/ I've decided that every Friday night will be my "link sharing" night. I have way too many links to list on my blog, so I'm just going to post the top five each weekend. They will all have something to do with being a journalist, so enjoy!   Here are some links to great Christian writing websites!   1. The Gift of Family Writing Website - Shameless promotion of my mom's site!  Great place to learn about writing from the heart!   2. The Christian Writer's Guild - according to their mission statement, they "exist to educate, train, and support writers who desire to promote a biblically based, Christian worldview through their writing."   3. Faithwriters.com - This site is nice if you want to check out different writing styles from Christian authors online!   4. Guideposts Magazine - Home of the famous print magazine. If you have a well-written personal story to share, you just might get published!   5. Gegrapha - In Greek, "Gegrapha" means "What I have written, I have written." This program is the brainchild of journalist David Aikman, author of "A Man of Faith: the Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush."   5.               http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/2073/ Fri, 17 Jun 2005 19:33:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/2073/ Ever wondered how journalists compile and reuse information without breaking copyright laws? Want to know how you can collect information and use it in your articles without getting in trouble? If your answer is "yes," then read on! (If your answer is "no," you can still read on )    "How in the world do you use all that research without plagiarizing?" When people ask that question they're usually referring to the extensive amounts of research material that I use in my articles - quotes, stories, facts, and figures. Even members of my own family have asked me to explain the difference between plagiarism and research. It's not easy - the fine line between use of information for journalistic purposes and illegal pirating is often faint - but walking that line is a balancing act that every responsible writer must learn to master.   Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines the word plagiarism as "To steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one's own: to use another's production without crediting the source." Beyond this description, plagiarism can include paraphrasing too closely to the source (intentional or not) and adopting another writer's "slant" on a subject. The former case is an obvious temptation when you're short five hundred words and facing a looming deadline. The latter is more of a subconscious transgression, but must be guarded against all the same.    The following article from FOXnews (regarding the homeschooler who recently won the National Geographic Bee) exemplifies an ideal piece of research material. It lists many details about the subject that are public knowledge and can be used without fear of violating copyright laws or plagiarizing the article. This article is also written by the associated press, which means exactly what it sounds like - a group of reporters sharing information in order to publish news. That doesn't give me the right to copy the article verbatim and claim to have authored it, but it does make me comfortable with gleaning facts from the article since I know they're more inclined to be correct. (50% of the time, at least ) In the following article, facts that I would use are underlined.    Homeschooler Wins National Geographic Bee Wednesday, May 21, 2003   WASHINGTON — James Williams, a home-schooled 14-year-old from Vancouver, Wash., won the 15th annual National Geographic Bee on Wednesday.   Williams captured the title by knowing that Goa in India was formerly a colony of Portugal. That answer gave him a tiebreaker victory over Dallas Simons, a 13-year-old from Nashville, Tenn.  Placing third in the competition was Sean Rao, 14, from Hubertus, Wis.  Williams said being home-schooled was a big help in the competition because it gave him extra time to concentrate on things he enjoys, like studying geography.  Williams made the trip to the competition here after participating in a science bowl competition in Ohio and later in the year he goes on to another competition as a member of the Washington-Oregon science bowl team.  The top three were among 5 million students from across the country who took part in local contests that narrowed the field down to 55 local champions for the finals in Washington.  First prize is a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime subscription to National Geographic magazine and a week at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Adventure Camps. Second and third prizes are scholarships of $15,000 and $10,000.   Here are two paragraphs written using the information provided by the FOXnews article above. First, we have our obvious plagiarism:   "James Williams, a home-schooled 14-year-old from Vancouver, Washington, won the 15th annual National Geographic Bee on Wednesday. Williams won the title because he knew that Goa in India was formerly a colony of Portugal. His answer gave him a tiebreaker victory over a 13-year-old from Nashville, Tenn. named Dallas Simons."   As you probably realized, this paragraph is not a word-for-word copy of the FOXnews article. But it is still a plagiarism. All I really did was change the order of the author's words. My paragraph's beginning slant is identical to that of the one written by the AP. Now let's look at a paragraph written without plagiarizing!   Don't expect to see James Williams sitting at a desk any time soon. The  14-year-old homeschooler from Vancouver, Washington won National Geographic's 15th annual geography bee on Wednesday, and now he's on his way to a week at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Adventure Camps. Williams might be a little young to think about college, but Mom and Dad are smiling over the $25,000 scholarship he received as part of his prize. And if any of the family members get bored while they're on vacation, they can always read one of Williams' National Geographic magazines - he's entitled to a life subscription after Wednesday's competition!   Here's the difference between this paragraph and my former example - in the first paragraph, I was plagiarizing someone's style. Plagiarism rarely has anything to do with stealing facts... facts are facts! If they're known to man (i.e. the sun rises in the morning, rain is wet, etc.), no one can write about them and claim them as "their" personal facts. But "writing style," "voice," or "slant" can be plagiarized very easily. Once the offending writer allows their mind to be influenced by an article, plagiarism is the next - almost logical - step.   So what can you and your students do to avoid plagiarizing when you're doing a lot of research? It's pretty simple. Underline or highlight facts that you can use without infringing. Don't rely on one particular source or author for your research - more is less trouble in this case! (When I'm writing an in-depth article, it's normal for me to have ten to twenty research articles printed out, and some of those can be up to 15 single-spaced pages long). And most importantly, write using your voice - don't borrow someone else's. It's not ethical to take the "easy way out," because in the long run it just isn't worth it!     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/1927/ Thu, 16 Jun 2005 22:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/1927/ Rats! I've been tagged! I was so proud of myself for avoiding it, too. Anyway, here are my answers to the questions from tn3jcarter.   Q. Most books I've ever owned.  Too many! I own just about every single book there is on riding and horses, both fiction/non-fiction. If you include all my music books, my writing books, my "just for fun" books... WOW! I hope we don't move any time soon, because books equal about 1/2 of my posessions! Q. The last book I bought. Hmmm... I think it was "Progressive Medicine in the Equine Species," a big huge vet-school textbook about equine treatment. (Yes, I really did read it). The only problem is that it's from the 1980s, so most of that progressive medicine is LONG outdated. Q. The last book I read. This is a difficult question, since I can always read up to ten books at one time. In an extremely literal sense, the last book I put down before I went to sleep last night was "Horses, Hoofbeats, and Halos," the story of the RTCA (race track chaplaincy of america). I'm writing about them right now, so doing a lot of research. Other books I'm reading include "Muddy Shoes" (another RTCA book), Saratoga Days by Sean Clancy (really good "horse" writer!) a fictional book by Lauraine Snelling (she's so-so as a writer - not one of my top favs), and a book by James Scott Bell (talk about a GOOD WRITER!) I love Bell's work - it always keeps me in suspense! reading The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down by Neta Jkson right now.  Before that it was Captivating and before at was The Debt by Angela Hunt.   Q. The five books that meant the most to me.    First, the bible. (Is that an obvious answer or what?) I find so much comfort and peace in reading God's word, as well as direction for my life. The Purpose Driven Life is a great book if you apply it to your life instead of trying to conform your life to it! Visioneering by Andy Stanley is AWESOME! As a writer, I would have to say that The First Five Pages really helped me. And a book that REALLY means a lot to me is my Mom's book, "The Gift of Family Writing." She's a great author and she really has a freeing message for homeschoolers trying to teach their kids to write/draw. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/1298/ Sun, 12 Jun 2005 10:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/1298/ I am not having a good day. Actually, it started last night when I decided to sleep in really late, just because I had half of the day off. Well, guess who woke up bright and early this morning? Yours truly. And that made me crabby, since my mind needed to sleep in even if my body didn't want to. After deciding to be crabby, I went to check for some VERY IMPORTANT e-mails that were supposed to be in my inbox this morning. Apparently, they were only very imporant to me...No one had gotten up at 6:00am to make sure their e-mails were in my inbox when I checked it at 7:30. The nerve! That made me mad and crabby at the same time! (Notice how dangerous this is getting).   After checking my e-mail, I decided to write the last 100 words on an article that was due in two days. So I did. Then I sent it to my editor, which made me feel relieved. I decided to go eat some breakfast, but I had missed breakfast because I was writing on my article. All that was left were a few cold scrambled eggs. I don't know if you've ever eaten cold scrambled eggs, but they're pretty gross. I went to the freezer to get a few sausages to make, only to discover they were all gone (talk about a let down) which was unbelievable, since I bought those sausages yesterday! Then my mom came around the corner with two sausage patties left over from breakfast, wich I consumed with joy. My little sister complained about somthing, so I snapped back an irritated retort. Then my mom said, "Why don't you grow up? You've turned a corner - backwards!" Which made me laugh, but then I got in trouble for laughing.    I went to take a shower, but discovered that I had no water pressure. I got dressed again and walked outside to find the source of the problem (the garden hose "watering" the gravel driveway), which made me feel aggrivated. Then my boss called and asked me to come to a meeting, but she wouldn't give me any details, so I was very suspicious. I drove to work and my car's air conditioner wasn't working, so I was really hot. When I got to the meeting, my two supervisors were the only people there. That set me even more on edge! Sure enough, they announced their decision to transfer me to another department, which left me feeling all mixed up!!! Do I still want to work for them? I DON"T KNOW!!!     When I got home, my very important e-mails had arrived, so I was ecstatic. I felt like blogging, but changed my mind halfway through my entry. So I left it for another day and went to bed, but I couldn't sleep because my little sister had gotten sand in my bed! (That speaks for itself, no need to come up with a word to describe it!) ARGH!!! Has anyone ever heard of that book "Alexander and the no-good-awful-bad-horrible-nasty-day," or whatever it's called? Well, I just had a day that would outrank his BY FAR!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/1283/ Sat, 11 Jun 2005 22:32:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/1283/ This is pretty interesting...   I wonder what some people will end up being... Gena & Jen, fill me in!   http://similarminds.com/othertests.html http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/883/ Tue, 7 Jun 2005 20:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/883/ "The blood slowly dripped off his finger as he looked at it with an indifferent stare. A maroon stain had newly formed on the dark blue carpet below as it absorbed the red tears - but no one cared. Monotonous telephone conversations - ticking of the clock - apathetic discussions - the fragrance of the room reeked with painful dreariness."  ~ David Rojas   Okay, so it needs a little editing. But I LOVE this guy's writing style, especially that last sentence! Not all of his writing sounds like blood-and-guts-murder-mystery (actually, this paragraph had nothing to do with a murder mystery, as you'll find out if you follow the link to his blog) - he can morph from riotously humorous to profoundly serious in a matter of sentences. Some of his humor does go right over my head... but the best thing about David's work is his frank realism - as refreshing as it is honest - an entertaining look at the mind of a promising young author. Watch for his book in the future!   http://www.therojas.com/music   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/877/ Tue, 7 Jun 2005 18:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/877/ Here's a link to some good tips on the ethics of blogging!   http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblog_ethics.html http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/865/ Tue, 7 Jun 2005 17:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClaireNovak/865/