Monday, January 16, 2017

What college major best prepares you to be a novelist?

8:42 AM Posted by Unknown , , , No comments
Depends on what you want to write. If you want to write science fiction, for example, it really does help to know a bit of actual science. If your goal is to write fantasy, you need to study religion and mythology (some Jungian psychology wouldn't hurt either).

Creative Writing courses tend to concentrate on Literary Fiction, and Literary Fiction is ... whatever the Creative Writing professors say it is. anything that is not LF is derided as mere "genre".

Meanwhile, pumping out lots of cheap genre books, often under pseudonyms, is how many writers put actual food on the table in between their LF books. If you can stomach it, one of the best gigs is writing steamy romance novels for Mills & Boone/Harlequin - not all their writers are actually women.

In fact, the best degree course to prepare you for life as a novelist is one that gets you a day job. You don't just become a novelist. It takes many years of trial and rejection. Meanwhile, what will you do for a living?
Morever, we have some things to pay attention as follows: 
 First point -  You should be really good in the language you are going to write.
These Courses might help you to get there.

Second : Writing a story or Novel is all about your imagination. You should know how people react to the different characters/emotions in your story. That will help you to make your story more interesting.

Third : Know thoroughly about the topic you are going to write. That is very important. Most of the times your knowledge on the subject you are writing will make the story very interesting.

I am not sure , what they really teach about Creative Writing. But if you are very serious about becoming a Writer, then start writing. It can be any thing, a small story,an essay or it can be about yourself.This habit helps you learn on writing, researching about your story background.

The process of mental health counseling

8:37 AM Posted by Unknown , No comments

Patricia Gustavson
Patricia Gustavson, studied at NYU Silver School of Social Work
If you are in need of counseling,  you have several options or routes to consider:
1.  Does your health insurance cover mental health benefits?  I would check with your provider,  and the service providers in the area to determine what benefits are covered (i.e. the number of sessions covered,  co-pay / out of pocket costs).  Some practitioners work on a sliding scale,  meaning they can take into account your income,  and work out a fee based on your income and current situation.   If you find a practitioner that you like,  but that doesn't accept your insurance,  you can dialogue with them about this,  or ask if they accept Out of Network benefits.
2.  Out of Network benefits are benefits covered by your health insurance to pay for services (that may normally not have been covered).   Ask your health insurance company for the specifics (i.e. what services,  providers,  etc are covered by these particular types of benefits,  and if there are additional monetary fees you may incur).  You should also check with the counselor / therapist if they do Out of Network benefits  (they will give you a form(s) to fill out).
3.  Medicaid (health insurance provided for low-income or no-income individuals) has coverage for mental health benefits.  If you apply for this service,  you can ask your social worker / the government office where you apply for this service,  if they have a recommendation for a provider that accepts Medicaid.  Be advised that the duration of time it may take for you to see a provider may be lengthy,  if you are using Medicaid.

What are the best online, college-level mathematics courses?

8:33 AM Posted by Unknown , , , No comments
There is something which very few people know about. The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste, Italy has a one year Diploma programme with courses which are somewhere in between the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in most US universities. The good thing is that, the lectures of many years are available online here: EyA Recordings of the ICTP Postgraduate Diploma Programme and the quality of recordings and voice is not bad. Some courses like Dynamical Systems, Differential Geometry, PDEs are really very good and must be given a shot it.
AdditionallyMIT OCW has a huge collection of undergraduate and graduate level courses in mathematics (and other subjects as well) which includes audio/video lectures, lecture notes, textbooks, assignments, exams and other interactive stuff etc.

Besides that there are a bunch of other online resources listed below:
  • Ted Chinburg's Lectures on Algebraic Number Theory
  1. Tables of current homework and lecture schedules
  2. Tables of current homework and lecture schedules
  3. Tables of current homework and lecture schedules
  • Lectures by Adrian Banner of Princeton University
  1. Calculus I : Calculus I (Princeton University)
  2. Calculus II : Calculus II (Princeton University)
  3. Calculus III : Multivariable Calculus : Calculus III: Multivariable Calculus (Princeton University)
  4. Linear Algebra : Linear Algebra (Princeton University)
  • Eugenia Cheng and Simon Willerton of the University of Sheffield, a.k.a. The Catsters' Video Lectures on Category Theory : TheCatsters
  • Abstract Algebra lectures by Prof. Benedict Gross, Harvard : Abstract Algebra
  1. VOD the MathNet Korea
  2. VOD the MathNet Korea
  • A mini course on Additive Combinatorics taught at IAS by Boaz Barak, Luca Trevisan, and Avi Wigderson : Page on princeton.edu
  • Lectures on Real Analysis by Prof. S.H. Kulkarni, Department of Mathematics, IIT Madras : New User Registration
  • Point Set Topology videos :
  1. Topology - YouTube
  2. General Topology
  • Courses by Stephen Boyd at Stanford:
  1. Introduction to Linear Dynamical Systems - Stanford School of Engineering
  2. Convex Optimization I - Stanford School of Engineering
  3. Convex Optimization II - Stanford School of Engineering
  • Prof. Gilbert Strang's course on Linear Algebra at MIT : Linear Algebra
  • This URL provides video lectures on key concepts of calculus : Calculus Videos
  • College Algebra taught by Professor Richard Delaware, which consists of 40 video lectures emphasizing the concepts of college algebra : Math 110: College Algebra
  • More lectures on Real Analysis by Professor Francis Su Harvey, Mudd College (The video quality of the lectures are poor) :
  • MIT OCW - Calculus Revisited: Multivariable Calculus. This course is a study of the calculus of functions of several variables (vector arithmetic and vector calculus) : Calculus Revisited: Multivariable Calculus
  • ZFC Set Theory (More oriented around Lambda ...