The Joy of Noodling

<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Arial;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
</style> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Okay, I admit it, I’m a
research junkie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>My favorite
activity associated with my work is not crafting brilliant sentences or feeling
triumph when I figure out how to organize a huge amount of material so that my
manuscript doesn’t have “too many words” (the mantra of many editor these
days).  It happens much earlier, when I’m in the 'finding info' stage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That work used to involve
driving to the university, miraculously finding a parking spot, and heading into the stacks after thumbing through
card catalogs or, later, computer listings of holdings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Now, I rarely go there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The internet has become the ‘go to’
place for most of my research, for a couple of reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>First off, there’s just plain so much
information online, and I know how to ferret out the accurate sites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Secondly, my books now are often on
less scientific topics than before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>But once I get going, it’s hard for me to stop.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3BET5G9DpOM..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3BET5G9DpOM..." width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">I’ve found that I need to
find a balance between following thread after thread until I’m lost in a tangle
far from where I meant to be and allowing myself to wander hither and yon on
the net and stumbling onto something I didn’t know existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>A perfect example of the latter happy
coincidence came while researching my most recent book, “Dogs on Duty:
Soldiers’ Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Because of my love of canines, I’m on
an email list or two, and one had a link to the American Kennel Club Hero Dog
Awards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I clicked through just for
the fun of it and ended up finding a great dog who became one of my favorite
profiles in the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>His name was
“Bino,” and he was really a double-header hero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>First, he had worked in the military keeping bases safe and
sniffing out explosives in Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>After he retired, Bino was adopted by Debbie Kandoll, an amazing woman
who realized that Bino didn’t’ want to be retired and lounge on the couch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>He wanted to keep working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>So she employed him as a helper to
train service dogs for veterans suffering from PTSD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Debbie and Bino would take the vets and their dogs into
noisy malls, riding narrow escalators and navigating crowds of shoppers,
showing them that there was nothing to fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Bino died last year at the age of 12, working almost to the
end of his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>What a true hero
hound!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tQB4krdqv04..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tQB4krdqv04..." width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b2Y_zSiHoCA..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b2Y_zSiHoCA..." width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Now I’m working on yet
another dog book and have a confession to make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Today I was supposed to edit some documents for the Authors
on Call branch of iNK, and I was supposed to get busy writing this blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>But instead, I started on a quest for
photos for my next book—another doggy topic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I went to Google photos and got lost in the plethora of
appealing photos of working dogs, then clicking on the articles in which the
photos were imbedded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I’ve found
that while Wikimedia has photos that are usually available to use for free, Google
photos makes it easy to access the information that accompanies the photos by
ghosting the articles behind the images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
One click on the background and the article appears.  </span>I’ve found it’s an easy way to do targeted research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Today, I downloaded some potentially
useful photos, discovered a dog who can sniff out buried 600-year-old bones and added five new bookmarks to my already bloated list--and I’ve
only gotten halfway through the photos!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One of these days, I may
find the balance between hoping for serendipity and being disciplined about my
research—after all, you can only fit so much information into a 40 or 48 page
book!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>But I’m in no hurry for
discipline; noodling around on the internet is just too much fun.</span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogsp..." height="1" width="1"/>