Ais's Blog - Posts Tagged "research"
research love
wow I really love researching. It's kind of silly how much I enjoy it.
It's so fun to have a 'need' to be met (such as, "I need a location that fits ___ criteria" or "I need to figure out where this picture was taken") and then go crazy with Google trying to track things down.
Some examples of fun times with google can be found at behind the scenes at the icos tumblr.
But that's really only the google maps side of things.
There are all these other sides-- for instance, there was a scene in Fade (chapter 9) where I actually looked up what stage the moon would be in on that future date at that location to be able to accurately describe the sky both in Pennsylvania and China.
For those curious, in Pennsylvania on February 10, 2024 sunrise will be 7 am and sunset 5:30 pm; in China near Harbin on February 11, 2024 sunrise will be 6:43 am, sunset 4:53 pm. Then of course there are all the distance calculations (The areas we chose in China and Pennsylvania are exactly 12 hours apart; 9:13 pm on May 4 is 9:13 AM on May 5). Flight is about 13 hours between the areas so that was how we figured out how to describe the setting and the status of the sun in China and in the US.
Or in Afterimage with all the globetrotting we looked up locations and length of time needed to travel between by plane, walking, car...
There are places that could probably stand to use more research to be even more accurate, but we also have a dystopian alternate future so some things we purposely do our own way.
Anyway, I'm sure everyone does all this research too but sometimes I have to geek out on it because it's so fun. And I figure other research geeks may like to geek out by reading an entry about it as well. At least, I know I'm enough of a geek that I would read someone else's research entry lol
It's probably for reasons like this that Mythbusters is one of my favorite shows ever.
It's so fun to have a 'need' to be met (such as, "I need a location that fits ___ criteria" or "I need to figure out where this picture was taken") and then go crazy with Google trying to track things down.
Some examples of fun times with google can be found at behind the scenes at the icos tumblr.
But that's really only the google maps side of things.
There are all these other sides-- for instance, there was a scene in Fade (chapter 9) where I actually looked up what stage the moon would be in on that future date at that location to be able to accurately describe the sky both in Pennsylvania and China.
For those curious, in Pennsylvania on February 10, 2024 sunrise will be 7 am and sunset 5:30 pm; in China near Harbin on February 11, 2024 sunrise will be 6:43 am, sunset 4:53 pm. Then of course there are all the distance calculations (The areas we chose in China and Pennsylvania are exactly 12 hours apart; 9:13 pm on May 4 is 9:13 AM on May 5). Flight is about 13 hours between the areas so that was how we figured out how to describe the setting and the status of the sun in China and in the US.
Or in Afterimage with all the globetrotting we looked up locations and length of time needed to travel between by plane, walking, car...
There are places that could probably stand to use more research to be even more accurate, but we also have a dystopian alternate future so some things we purposely do our own way.
Anyway, I'm sure everyone does all this research too but sometimes I have to geek out on it because it's so fun. And I figure other research geeks may like to geek out by reading an entry about it as well. At least, I know I'm enough of a geek that I would read someone else's research entry lol
It's probably for reasons like this that Mythbusters is one of my favorite shows ever.
Research resources?
I'm curious what research resources people might have bookmarked that they use.
These are the places I know about:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/ and http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/
http://www.scribophile.com/
http://little-details.livejournal.com/
I also like Mythbusters as a show to use for reference on things like explosions, Hollywood vs reality, and more. But you can really only find super specific information there.
I would love to find places that are accurate on research topics like medical issues, fighting, survival, etc. Does anyone have any good sites or blogs they go for that? So far I'm understanding that there isn't a good catch-all place and that a lot of it requires specialized research for individual topics. But I figured it doesn't hurt to ask :)
If no one knows about a blog, I might end up just creating one myself to keep track of the different stuff I learn through research... but since research can be inaccurate I'm not sure how useful that would be. I wish there were a place with a well-designed search engine or complete index to locate topics by various ways, and the ability for people to comment on each topic so any inconsistencies can be challenged. In that case, having a way for the challenger to specify their experience in whatever topic or cite an accurate source as explanation for their protest would be useful. (Sort of like the way they do it on Yahoo answers). Maybe also a place for people to list all the sources they've found on different topics so at least a person can easily find links/sources without having to troll the internet first to locate the more accurate places and cull out the less accurate.
Basically, I want to find an awesome research super-center but have it be a place where a lot of the research can be pre-done and it's at this point searching through what's already been discussed. It seems like whenever I've found anything close to this, it's a forum. And I love forums, but they're much more unwieldy to navigate and doesn't provide a great way to get quick answers, with the choice to delve into it further only if wanted. Plus, a lot of these places seem to focus more on writing/editing tips and secondarily on research.
Most likely I'm just imagining some sort of crazy place that doesn't exist, but if anyone knows of a place like this, I would love to hear about it!
If I'm rambling, I apologize... chai makes me even more distractible than usual....
These are the places I know about:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/ and http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/
http://www.scribophile.com/
http://little-details.livejournal.com/
I also like Mythbusters as a show to use for reference on things like explosions, Hollywood vs reality, and more. But you can really only find super specific information there.
I would love to find places that are accurate on research topics like medical issues, fighting, survival, etc. Does anyone have any good sites or blogs they go for that? So far I'm understanding that there isn't a good catch-all place and that a lot of it requires specialized research for individual topics. But I figured it doesn't hurt to ask :)
If no one knows about a blog, I might end up just creating one myself to keep track of the different stuff I learn through research... but since research can be inaccurate I'm not sure how useful that would be. I wish there were a place with a well-designed search engine or complete index to locate topics by various ways, and the ability for people to comment on each topic so any inconsistencies can be challenged. In that case, having a way for the challenger to specify their experience in whatever topic or cite an accurate source as explanation for their protest would be useful. (Sort of like the way they do it on Yahoo answers). Maybe also a place for people to list all the sources they've found on different topics so at least a person can easily find links/sources without having to troll the internet first to locate the more accurate places and cull out the less accurate.
Basically, I want to find an awesome research super-center but have it be a place where a lot of the research can be pre-done and it's at this point searching through what's already been discussed. It seems like whenever I've found anything close to this, it's a forum. And I love forums, but they're much more unwieldy to navigate and doesn't provide a great way to get quick answers, with the choice to delve into it further only if wanted. Plus, a lot of these places seem to focus more on writing/editing tips and secondarily on research.
Most likely I'm just imagining some sort of crazy place that doesn't exist, but if anyone knows of a place like this, I would love to hear about it!
If I'm rambling, I apologize... chai makes me even more distractible than usual....
Research related to Fade ch 40
*****NOTE!!!! This entry contains major spoilers for Fade ch 40! Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled!!!*******
I'm on a livejournal group called little_details -- it's a pretty cool place where you can go and ask questions about specific things you haven't been able to find answers to in your research so far.
I noticed a request today that I happened to know a lot about due to recent research (about medical procedures that would follow the injury Boyd had in Fade 40).
I wrote a long reply with a compiled timeline of information based on what I'd learned in my own research and included some of the many sites and links I'd found. After I finished, I realized I didn't want to lose the information for the future, and thought it was possible someone out there might be curious about what DID go into the follow-up that isn't covered between Fade 40-42, and the epilogue.
Here it is below if you're curious.
SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW! The spoiler tag isn't working for me for some reason so I can't hide it!!!!
ENUCLEATION. Note that the person was asking about what medical procedures would be expected following the loss of an eye. This was my response:
I was recently researching this actually and this is what I found, along with links to sites that have photos. The term you need is 'enucleation' for removal of an eye.
Once the person's eye is injured, the doctors will determine whether they can keep the eye or whether it has to be removed. I think the preference tends to be toward keeping it, however depending on the severity of the injury they might remove it. One reason they sometimes remove is people can have sympathetic reactions with their other eye, in which their good eye will go blind due to the bad eye being blind. Also, some people experience pain in their eye that never fully goes away. After a point, they have to determine whether quality of life is worth keeping their eye, when they can't see out of it anyway.
If enucleation is the way they'll go then this is the timeline (compiled from timelines/info from various sources)
**enucleation surgery takes 1-2 hours
**at the time of the surgery, they place an orb implant in place of the eye into the socket. This will never be removed. It is basically an orb which is about the size of the eyeball but doesn't go out as far as the normal eyeball did, so that a person can't fully close their eyelid on its own, and you can see a bit of white/red of the orb (depending on how recently their surgery was, I believe)
**most patients have a bad headache for 24-36/48 hours after surgery. they have to take a Tylenol every 4 hours to help
Note: He may have bloody tears for a bit after the surgery-- this is normal.
**the patient has to wear a compression bandage over his eye for 5 days (I have seen one or two sites that say 48 hours but I think that was for kids)
**he will have to have his eye checked 5-7 days, 1 month, and every 6 months after surgery.
what he's NOT supposed to do following surgery for 10-14 days:
**lift more than 10 pounds
**strain or rub his eye for up to 14 days following the surgery
**run the shower on his operated eye for at least 10 days
**bend forward to do things
**wash his hair with his head bent forward
**sustain any knock to the eye
he SHOULD wear glasses or an eye shield for protection when going out.
he will not be able to see full eye movement of his artificial eye in the mirror with monocular vision. the only way he could ever see that is if he videotapes himself straight on, looking in all the directions.
**He will have to take oral antibiotics for a week as well. also, later when he gets the pressure dressing off, he'll have to use eye drops and other medications for awhile-- including oral and topical antibiotics.
**2-6 weeks post surgery (and honestly most places said 6 weeks), he would be able to look into getting a prosthetic eye. those are usually painted to look like the normal eye. when a person is wearing it, typically people can't tell or might think they have a lazy eye. minor movement of the eye, like during conversation, works well, but larger eye movements like suddenly looking to the side might have a lag in the fake eye responding.
**the fake eye is basically like a really giant, really thick contact lens which is placed over the orb implant. that orb implant will never be removed.
Note that most places say to remove the artificial eye as little as possible, so as not to contaminate it. As far as I can tell, most people leave it in for long periods at a time. As a result, for instance when he wakes up from sleeping, it would still look like he has both eyes.
However, for times when he does remove the eye, it functions like a contact lens. The artificial eye includes the iris and pupil but also a large portion of the white of the eye-- it's larger than the opening in the eyelid and fits over the orbital implant. I would have to check again how it's stored when not in the eye but I think it was something similar to how contact lenses are stored.
((Note for ICoS readers-- Boyd leaves his artificial eye in a lot so in the epilogue, for instance, it was in when he woke up and walked over to Hsin. However, for similar reasons as are highlighted below, he often wears the eye patch when he's going to be in crowded areas or when he just feels like it. He does have scars on and around his eye from the knife wounds.))
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
some things people mentioned who have lost an eye and/or what the sites say is common:
**while enucleation is actually a very safe surgery, emotionally it's difficult for people to first get used to the idea of losing an eye
**eventually he will be able to drive-- outside of 20 feet, everyone sees as if they have one eye anyway
**he may experience some weird things at first, like thinking someone else is there when he sees his own hand reaching into sight from his blind side
**he will have to learn to turn his head a lot more often in order to account for the lack of peripheral vision on his blind side
**it's pretty scary/upsetting for people at first but they grow accustomed to monocular vision within the first few months
**some people take several months or a year to adjust to monocular vision, and have a hard time doing things like even going up steps etc because of lack of depth perception, but some people said they had zero problems and adjusted immediately
**some people never get over feeling upset about it but most people said that after awhile they don't even notice they have one eye, and most people who meet them have no idea they have an artificial eye either
**one guy said that usually he wears his fake eye when out but he will accidentally bump into people on his blind side-- he's found that wearing an eye patch makes people more sympathetic/less of a jerk because of this. (as a side note he mentioned he found it is surprisingly popular with the ladies. but usually he doesn't wear the eye patch)
There was also one teenager on a military site forum I found who said that he'd been fired from his jobs before because people learned he had one eye. He had stopped telling people about it and they assumed he just had a lazy eye and would get hired, but then later when they learned the truth he would suddenly "not be needed anymore." Whether there are extenuating circumstances to his situation, I don't know, because there are protections in place for those with disabilities, however we all know there can still be violations of peoples' rights regardless of said protections.
RESOURCES:
This is a really good blog entry by a woman who lost an eye-- she has visuals to show how she puts in her artificial eye: http://preppymeetsredneck.blogspot.co...
This explains what I said in more detail and also has pictures: http://www.rbsociety.ca/ntreatment.html
Check also http://www.beltina.org/health-diction... which, again, has photos and explanations of the surgery etc.
I recommend also artificialeyes.net for post-surgery information
Regarding stab wounds:
Article: http://lubbockonline.com/stories/1029...
Stab wound to the left eye and surgical repair: http://www.anatomicaljustice.com/cmi_...
These are stories of people who have had eye loss and could help you get a better idea for what your character would be going through: http://geelen.com.au/stories-of-eye-l...
The American Foundation for the Blind also has a message board which has a lot of information from people: http://www.afb.org/messageboards.aspx
This is a previous little details question which was related to stab wounds in both eyes and had good comments: http://little-details.livejournal.com...
There's also http://www.losteye.com/driving.htm -- that's where I got the information on driving but you can find more information at that site.
In addition, there are a number of sites out there which are for companies that make artificial eyes or eye patches, and they might have more forums, message boards, or About pages that have even more information. And there are a lot of surgical sites that show you in detail how enucleation surgery is performed, what to expect, and so on. I left out a lot of the links I had for miscellaneous real life stories and articles because I thought it might get to be too much.
I'm on a livejournal group called little_details -- it's a pretty cool place where you can go and ask questions about specific things you haven't been able to find answers to in your research so far.
I noticed a request today that I happened to know a lot about due to recent research (about medical procedures that would follow the injury Boyd had in Fade 40).
I wrote a long reply with a compiled timeline of information based on what I'd learned in my own research and included some of the many sites and links I'd found. After I finished, I realized I didn't want to lose the information for the future, and thought it was possible someone out there might be curious about what DID go into the follow-up that isn't covered between Fade 40-42, and the epilogue.
Here it is below if you're curious.
SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW! SPOILERS BELOW! The spoiler tag isn't working for me for some reason so I can't hide it!!!!
ENUCLEATION. Note that the person was asking about what medical procedures would be expected following the loss of an eye. This was my response:
I was recently researching this actually and this is what I found, along with links to sites that have photos. The term you need is 'enucleation' for removal of an eye.
Once the person's eye is injured, the doctors will determine whether they can keep the eye or whether it has to be removed. I think the preference tends to be toward keeping it, however depending on the severity of the injury they might remove it. One reason they sometimes remove is people can have sympathetic reactions with their other eye, in which their good eye will go blind due to the bad eye being blind. Also, some people experience pain in their eye that never fully goes away. After a point, they have to determine whether quality of life is worth keeping their eye, when they can't see out of it anyway.
If enucleation is the way they'll go then this is the timeline (compiled from timelines/info from various sources)
**enucleation surgery takes 1-2 hours
**at the time of the surgery, they place an orb implant in place of the eye into the socket. This will never be removed. It is basically an orb which is about the size of the eyeball but doesn't go out as far as the normal eyeball did, so that a person can't fully close their eyelid on its own, and you can see a bit of white/red of the orb (depending on how recently their surgery was, I believe)
**most patients have a bad headache for 24-36/48 hours after surgery. they have to take a Tylenol every 4 hours to help
Note: He may have bloody tears for a bit after the surgery-- this is normal.
**the patient has to wear a compression bandage over his eye for 5 days (I have seen one or two sites that say 48 hours but I think that was for kids)
**he will have to have his eye checked 5-7 days, 1 month, and every 6 months after surgery.
what he's NOT supposed to do following surgery for 10-14 days:
**lift more than 10 pounds
**strain or rub his eye for up to 14 days following the surgery
**run the shower on his operated eye for at least 10 days
**bend forward to do things
**wash his hair with his head bent forward
**sustain any knock to the eye
he SHOULD wear glasses or an eye shield for protection when going out.
he will not be able to see full eye movement of his artificial eye in the mirror with monocular vision. the only way he could ever see that is if he videotapes himself straight on, looking in all the directions.
**He will have to take oral antibiotics for a week as well. also, later when he gets the pressure dressing off, he'll have to use eye drops and other medications for awhile-- including oral and topical antibiotics.
**2-6 weeks post surgery (and honestly most places said 6 weeks), he would be able to look into getting a prosthetic eye. those are usually painted to look like the normal eye. when a person is wearing it, typically people can't tell or might think they have a lazy eye. minor movement of the eye, like during conversation, works well, but larger eye movements like suddenly looking to the side might have a lag in the fake eye responding.
**the fake eye is basically like a really giant, really thick contact lens which is placed over the orb implant. that orb implant will never be removed.
Note that most places say to remove the artificial eye as little as possible, so as not to contaminate it. As far as I can tell, most people leave it in for long periods at a time. As a result, for instance when he wakes up from sleeping, it would still look like he has both eyes.
However, for times when he does remove the eye, it functions like a contact lens. The artificial eye includes the iris and pupil but also a large portion of the white of the eye-- it's larger than the opening in the eyelid and fits over the orbital implant. I would have to check again how it's stored when not in the eye but I think it was something similar to how contact lenses are stored.
((Note for ICoS readers-- Boyd leaves his artificial eye in a lot so in the epilogue, for instance, it was in when he woke up and walked over to Hsin. However, for similar reasons as are highlighted below, he often wears the eye patch when he's going to be in crowded areas or when he just feels like it. He does have scars on and around his eye from the knife wounds.))
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
some things people mentioned who have lost an eye and/or what the sites say is common:
**while enucleation is actually a very safe surgery, emotionally it's difficult for people to first get used to the idea of losing an eye
**eventually he will be able to drive-- outside of 20 feet, everyone sees as if they have one eye anyway
**he may experience some weird things at first, like thinking someone else is there when he sees his own hand reaching into sight from his blind side
**he will have to learn to turn his head a lot more often in order to account for the lack of peripheral vision on his blind side
**it's pretty scary/upsetting for people at first but they grow accustomed to monocular vision within the first few months
**some people take several months or a year to adjust to monocular vision, and have a hard time doing things like even going up steps etc because of lack of depth perception, but some people said they had zero problems and adjusted immediately
**some people never get over feeling upset about it but most people said that after awhile they don't even notice they have one eye, and most people who meet them have no idea they have an artificial eye either
**one guy said that usually he wears his fake eye when out but he will accidentally bump into people on his blind side-- he's found that wearing an eye patch makes people more sympathetic/less of a jerk because of this. (as a side note he mentioned he found it is surprisingly popular with the ladies. but usually he doesn't wear the eye patch)
There was also one teenager on a military site forum I found who said that he'd been fired from his jobs before because people learned he had one eye. He had stopped telling people about it and they assumed he just had a lazy eye and would get hired, but then later when they learned the truth he would suddenly "not be needed anymore." Whether there are extenuating circumstances to his situation, I don't know, because there are protections in place for those with disabilities, however we all know there can still be violations of peoples' rights regardless of said protections.
RESOURCES:
This is a really good blog entry by a woman who lost an eye-- she has visuals to show how she puts in her artificial eye: http://preppymeetsredneck.blogspot.co...
This explains what I said in more detail and also has pictures: http://www.rbsociety.ca/ntreatment.html
Check also http://www.beltina.org/health-diction... which, again, has photos and explanations of the surgery etc.
I recommend also artificialeyes.net for post-surgery information
Regarding stab wounds:
Article: http://lubbockonline.com/stories/1029...
Stab wound to the left eye and surgical repair: http://www.anatomicaljustice.com/cmi_...
These are stories of people who have had eye loss and could help you get a better idea for what your character would be going through: http://geelen.com.au/stories-of-eye-l...
The American Foundation for the Blind also has a message board which has a lot of information from people: http://www.afb.org/messageboards.aspx
This is a previous little details question which was related to stab wounds in both eyes and had good comments: http://little-details.livejournal.com...
There's also http://www.losteye.com/driving.htm -- that's where I got the information on driving but you can find more information at that site.
In addition, there are a number of sites out there which are for companies that make artificial eyes or eye patches, and they might have more forums, message boards, or About pages that have even more information. And there are a lot of surgical sites that show you in detail how enucleation surgery is performed, what to expect, and so on. I left out a lot of the links I had for miscellaneous real life stories and articles because I thought it might get to be too much.
