#reference library

I love a good craft or hobby related book. I love looking at them, I love collecting them and I love finding all the different kinds that have been published. Old crafting books are also a great place to see old trends and styles to inspire your current projects.

This guide will be tailored specifically to knitting and crocheting because those are my main hobbies. Books are a great resource to add to the internet and can be helpful in learning new techniques.

Scientific Journals: - Sci-Hub - NCBI - CORE - ICD Online - OpenStax

Writing Tools: - Reedsy Name Generator - Fantasy Name Generators - Grammarly - Plagiarism Checker - Wordtune - Hemingway - Portent - Visuwords - FadeOut - Creative Writing Exercises - Etymonline

Art Tools: - Pixilart - Kleki - Aggie

Photo Editing Tools: - Pixlr X - Remove BG

Thursday August 24th

Today is my second last day of work. It’s crazy to think of how fast the summer has gone. Time is strange like that. I have one more project to complete before the end of day tomorrow. Then I’m officially done. I feel like I’m in a good spot and that I’ll get it finished.

I had a rough morning, so I got myself a venti pumpkin spice latte as a treat to have while working this afternoon. Today is the first day they’re back here and to say I am excited is an understatement.

Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys For Writing An Outstanding Story is a really useful tool for writers who haven’t been formally educated in the craft of writing and language structure (like myself). K.M. Weiland carefully breaks down, using references with which most people will be familiar, just what goes into making up a successful story and how to replicate that successful structure when planning and writing your own.

While the examples given are in some cases films, they are all based on successful books, illustrating the fact that story structure is pretty universal across both screenplays and novels.

Weiland breaks down the structure of story into first the three acts with which many may already be familiar, and then further into the specific turning points and events and where they should occur within the story. Finally, she breaks down how to write a scene, with action, sequel and setup for the next scene.

I’ve read a number of books on the structure of story before and found some of them really heavy going, but this one is easy to understand, with examples I was familiar with. I got a lot out of it, useful techniques I hope to apply going forward.

If you are a writer, or have ambitions to be one, and you haven’t formally studied creative writing or story structure, I highly recommend this book. It’s definitely made me look at my own scenes with a more critical eye and helped me understand why some of them are falling flat. Five stars.

Are these real tusks? Research in the conservation lab is often focused on identifying materials like ivory and bone. It can be difficult to determine the source of decorative material once it has been incorporated into a work of art but protections and regulations on the transport of these materials have made it increasingly important that they are correctly identified by museums.

This Pacific Island headdress features curved tusks that have been integrated into the design. Because the tusks are whole and incorporated in their entirety, tracing their origin is relatively straightforward. Conservators work with a reference library of materials to compare under the microscope. More advanced analytical techniques can be used in some instances to provide more specific information on the species of animal the materials came from. 

X-rays show the inner structure of the tusks, which are actually large teeth, and have hollow interiors where the blood and nerves once were. These tusks likely came from wild boar on the island of Tomman where this headdress was made.