TWIB-III: 30 (5/11-5/17)

[akujunkan]

Well, for the first time in three years I'm going to break a record (kind of). Although I did read a book this past week it is not something I am going to post about on this lj.

In other news, the defense of my thesis proposal yesterday went much better than I'd anticipated (I'd been dreading it for a week (IOW: the entire period during which I knew I would have to do it--thanks for nothing, office usetards!). My presentation was not anywhere near the level of what I expect from myself; on the other hand, I really (really, really, really) dug one of the professors on my judging panel, and we had a good fifteen minute discussion on my presentation. This is a good thing since, as I am a foreigner, the uni assigned me to a zemi instead of allowing me to interview each zemi's professor and choose on my own. Or, to put that more simply: I'm stuck writing my thesis under someone with little interest in my topic and in whose area of expertise I have little interest. So the presentation has actually given me an opening to drop in on this guy and bounce around ideas for the area on which I'd like to focus.

Also, he basically told me that the subject around which I'd written my proposal (at the strong urging of my zemi professor) is only tenuously connected to my area of interest, and that I should change my focus accordingly. So that gives me an opening to drop the old proposal without causing me or my zemi professor to lose face.

Yay.

That will be all.

Comments

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

Sweetness. What is a zemi?

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Basically it's a class where you discuss what you'll be writing your thesis about and anything else your zemi prof wants you to talk about.

[metal-dog5.livejournal.com]

Excellent :) Have you got some idea now of what you would prefer to do over what you have been assigned?

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm still looking at something involving the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-ROK alliances in the face of the DPRK threat. Just what from amongst that field I'm actually going to write about, I will hopefully figure out when I have more time to actually read everything under the sun on this subject.