GHhhhhhhhhh........

Busy. In short, busy.

Time flies...

Lots of things to do. Like today it's Saturday and/but I spent literally the whole day dealing with lots of stuff, including cleaning, packing, planning, replying, phoning, e-mailing, posting, among hundreds of other things... it's already 1 AM and I'm going to sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be another hectic day and I'll be out all day. Need to do more research stuff though... can't be helped.

Then going away soon.

Better get some sleep.

end

Happy New Year!

AHhhhh........

No update for weeks!!! The last year has gone and the one began... What did I do??? I was busy like always... When I last posted here I was just back from Malaysia, I remember. It was a good trip indeed. Then after that what did I do??? Those days passed so fast.

I didn't apply for a grant to go somewhere. There're other things to do.

Now the New Year Holidays are more or less over and I'm becoming busy again. Hope to get things done well.

end

It's been a looooong time!

Almost a month has passed since I last wrote here!!! Can't tell exactly what's kept me so busy but I've been super busy!!!

I soon get out of here again and am looking forward to it. It's long been a place of interest to me. There have been a number of things to do and time does fly. I wondered why December is called a month when even teachers run around; I now do understand why. Nonetheless keeping busy is good.

As for the research I've got some ideas clearer than my previous ideas, which is nice but knowing what to do there's so much stuff to deal with. Chin up chin up.

How shall I organise those bits and pieces of the stuff on mind...? It's a big challenge indeed.

end

Here's something.

See... no writing here for two weeks. I've been busy with things.

These days I enjoy studying a bit of statistics. Not sure in what ways the knowledge contributes to the research I do but it certainly is useful when reading and understanding other people's research that requires the reader to have some knowledge of it.

Going to present my research at an international conference next month. Looking forward to it. Even this morning, very early in the morning I gave a lecture about the future of Japan! Around fifty people came and I enjoyed giving that lecture indeed.

Some other things to write about but they shall follow later.

end

Weekly

Now this blog is like a weekly thing. I know I want to write something more frequently but for some reason I don't...

I slept a lot over the weekend and it was good.

It's always the case there're a lot of things to do. Towards the end of the year that is approaching fast I've got to do a lot of stuff. Hope to manage things on mind and welcome the new year.

As for the weather it's nice as it's getting colder day by day. I want it to be cold.

Some more admin work and go to sleep...

Got a new phone by the way.

end

Just a post...

I haven't written anything again in days. Not that I've been lazy; I've been busy with things.

A few presentations have been done and I feel good. All I want to do is to go to the gym and work out...

For our community project, I've found two people who have agreed to co-operate with us. Let's see what will happen. The first proper meet is happening this Thursday.

It's getting cold these days and I really like it. Let it get colder!

end

Some rest...

I've been through a few big tasks and feeling good as they went well.

Travelling again and I'm really excited about it. However, I want to prepare for what I am going to do out there! I'll make sure I'll do well.

Actually there's another possibility, i.e., a grant I can legitimately apply for. I've been blessed with grants in the past year or two so I doubt I'll get it for the third time this year. Anyway I might give it a try.

end

Research...

The weather has been good. I like autumn, just before it gets real cold and it's nice. I hope it gets colder soon.

There're some admin stuff to do too and that takes quite a little time.

Looks like I'll have a bit of free time during my next trip. Nice nice!

end

Looks like I got it...!?

YES! Not expected at all any more but today they contacted me to say they accepted it. I'd begun to feel a little down and so I wrote what I wrote below.

There's still some bureaucracy to go through but I hope, REALLY HOPE that there'll be no, ABSOLUTELY NO obstacles ahead. Let me just go and I'll do a great job out there

The sooner the better, I shall deal with things first thing tomorrow. Of course I'll also work on and finalise the stuff at hand.

end

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

It was a very beautiful beach and my presentation of course went very well and I got some very insightful questions from the audience. I also enjoyed the guest speakers' lectures so much that I felt really motivated to do more research! I swam in the sea nearby the venue with other researchers from the Asia Pacific region. Yes that's exactly the whole point of attending an international conference!

I wanted to write above...

end

BBQ

We had a wicked BBQ party last night. The meat was just good. They said that came from somewhere in the agricultural area of the country.

Time really flies and it's October now. The wind has been chilly and it's good for us but there's so much to do. The next few months will be really quick.

One problem or concern is that my skin tends to be a little dry so I've got to moisturise it regularly.

I'm waiting to hear from the admin people about the application. I really hope it'll be accepted.

I just need to get enough sleep as it's the beginning of a week tomorrow.

Just writing random stuff but I recently communicated with my old friend of mine living in the south of the country. Hope that he and I will see each other soon.

So much to think about. Thinking is fine in itself but action is probably more important.

end

Ideas and thoughts

Trying quite hard to organise my ideas and thoughts in my head and it's been taking quite a little time.

The time I spent overseas is definitely worth probably at least a couple of weeks back here. Therefore to produce even a single resume is pretty hard I find. So much stuff to squeeze into a page or two. Whenever I do this kind of productive work I almost always think that there're so many things, relevant things, that are inevitably left out for the sake of ensuring coherence in the paper. It's sad as it means the paper doesn't carry all that I have in mind, and as it's thus not as comprehensive as it can/should be. I'll stop thinking about this now.

I jogged 6.5 km this evening and feel refreshed. When I got back I had difficulty doing even 5 km as I hadn't jogged for a while, but now I can.

end

So much to do...

There's always so much stuff to attend to, deal with, etc. Haven't got enough time. Time just flies.

I for some reason got a book out of my bookcase. It's a book by a great scholar in Japan. I got it out a few days ago. Today I was reading the news and got to know the author passed away. It's a big loss for Japan. I haven't read many of his books but one of the few books was just so amazing and eye-opening. It's definitely one of the books I'll never forget and read again in the future.


The book I have is about religions of the world and I think I'll start reading it. The writing style is so convincing that I even get tired after a few paragraphs.

May his soul rest in peace.

end

Submitted...

I've long been working on a grant application, hoping that it'd be fairly examined and accepted. I've been given several grants in the past so chances may be slim but touch wood it'll go well. If it does then I'll have a chance to go to a country I've never been to before, i.e., Malaysia!

Apart from/in addition to that, there're a number of things I need to do. During the research trip this time I came to realise that my language skills weren't bad at all but there's so much room for improvement, so much indeed. Not a linguist or anything myself but still I want to do what I can to further develop the skills. Also knowledge wise I've got very little. I need to strive!!!

end

Paper

It's been chilly!

The paper I read is a local paper as opposed to a national paper. It's good in three ways.

1. Someone I know is the president of its distribution centre.
2. There're many local topics ranging from an opening of a restaurant to social issues relevant to our life here.
3. Opinions and editorials are not very strong; not much in-depth analysis. This is good because it's not too opinionated.

I will sleep a lot tonight yay!

end

Brush it up!

I got this new gadget and that's really good.

It's a tooth brush!!! Not very sophisticated shape but it does the job. It's a great buy.

Lately I've been working on a few projects and they should be done sooner rather than later. Knowing that kinda pushes me. I've got to try my best anyway.

Last night I got a book out of the bookcase and that's all to do with the world's major religions and their principles. The author, a Japanese scholar, is great indeed. I just read a few pages of it but I do feel his insight into the stuff discussed.

So much to read, so little time...

On Friday I'm having dinner at my Bangladeshi friend's place. He's going back home and invited me along with a few others I met in the past. Looking forward to it. I love south Asian curry.

end

A lot to do!

Still trying/struggling to organise ideas in my head though it's taking quite a bit of time like always. This thinking needs to lead to the production of papers required by the institute...

It's getting cooler here as well and nice. Summer is fine but I prefer autumn as the latter gets my brain to be sharp.

Browsing through literature is enjoyable indeed but time-consuming as well. Also some other stuff in my personal enjoyment is sitting right in front of me.

Got to go work out later today!

end

Ahhhhhhhh...

Just a few more days remaining... I've done what I was planning to do, which has led to this peace of mind I've been experiencing since the start of yesterday. Now is the time when I should be doing what I like, exploring places but little time for that... a big shame.

Diverse and multi-cultural places are so exciting; comparable to a huge piece of magnet. I had a very good meeting with someone from an organisation based in the eastern part of the city, and I really enjoyed the conversations.

When I was based here there must have been numerous things around and yet I don't think I was even conscious of them. Just too overwhelmed by the fact that I was here doing something challenging, a degree. It was so demanding that I was unable to see what was around myself. Now I see it better, clearer.

Things're messy and rather disorganised here. This is the same as before. Never seems to change, it's the nature of the city and I even reckon it's not something the citizens here care about.

I shall do all I can till the very last moment.

end

Random thoughts

It's been a week since I last posted here!? Time does fly... it does indeed... I've been really busy with lots of things over the last week. The mission's now complete.

I had a chance to visit Edinburgh. If you haven't been there, you MUST. It's a city that deserves to be a world heritage. No doubt about that. It's so pretty.

I also had a few meetings and am now trying to organise what I heard from them in my head. Since I got here I've been reading papers to gather key issues that seem to be relevant to my research. Also trying to picture this great city with tremendous diversity in terms of race, religion, faith, political view, and types of people.

Things I've seen this time make me rethink the city. I wasn't that into the make-up, history, functions, and roles of the city before. However, it appears that the city is like a gigantic piece of magnet that brings people from all over the globe as it literally does. Sweating over small matters is a waste of time here. There're of course pros and cons about all this because it strengths can immediately be its weaknesses if something goes wrong. I'm just amazed that the city still functions more or less okay.

It can be really hard and makes you a tough guy to actually live here, because you can just be one of those people who surround you. As of now, I think that's why people seek to be recognised by belonging to groups, associations, and so forth which the city has to offer. You could be left alone if you didn't belong to anything, but you can find something that appeals to you if you just look around. By belonging to it, you gain recognition and self-esteem. Lots of people seem to do that. Of course there're individuals that prefer/choose to be free. Yet whenever I ask practitioners of community organising, I get puzzled as they don't focus on the individual. They tend to say if people don't have/find anything that suits their interest, they should form groups. Thus, groups tend to be specific in terms of faith, religion, interest, political view, and so on.

There're numerous opportunities for belonging here. It's a rather different context. It's interesting. I'll spend some time to jot down what I've found... this long weekend is going to be spent for this.

end

Busy but enjoyable...

Phew... I'm doing pretty busy these days. I enjoy it a lot thought. I see this town very differently from when I saw it before when I was actually living here. Maybe I've learnt a lot of things since I left. I do see it completely differently.

It's nice and exciting to meet new people almost every day. Also it's good to re-connect with my old friends etc.

Everywhere I go, community cohesion is an issue people talk about. They're also politically aware and active. Try talking to someone in the queue you're in while waiting to be served. S/he'll tell you at least a bit about their viewpoint about things.

I've long been interested in and attracted to this place but for reasons I wasn't very clear about. Now I know that I've been like that because of the diversity this place has to offer.

I've got to go now to collect some more data today. I really need to get down to the pending paper works... just a little too busy to do that stuff though... orz...

end