News Flash: "Children Willing to Consume Gummy Bear Snacks Daily"

My 2 year-old is mildly obsessed with gummy bears. So when I came across a report titled Xylitol gummy bear snacks: a school-based randomized clinical trial I had to skim it. Given my experience with children and gummy bears, I was not really taken aback by the following finding: "Parents are accepting and children willing to consume gummy bear snacks daily."

But I hope some day I can publish a paper with a figure as great as their Figure 1:

Procrastination: The First Law of Research

The first step in any research project is to procrastinate. As a first year student in the Social Research Methodology (SRM) division at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Science, it's a shame it has taken me this long to reach this first and crucial stage.

Students in our division are expected (i.e., required) to complete an independent research project some time within the first two or three years of the doctoral program, and definately prior to jumping into a full-blown dissertation. It's akin to a master's thesis but those with the proper institutionalized culture refer to it as the 299 project -- based on the 299 course sequence students take to prepare for the project.

It's now spring (not technically but academically), less than two months until the end of my first year, and it's time to plan for this research project. So the natural thing to do is to start a blog ...