Hot, Humid, and History Day 2

 It was almost the same day as yesterday!

I continued the history class and went out for a walk just before sunset because it's dangeously hot and humid during the day.

it was a great choice to study history in my free time at this moment.  I am learning a lot of important historic events that happened in the 1800s.

200 years ago is not that far away, and it's surprising that the empires were greedily invading each other and other parts of the world to expand its territory and increase their presence in the world.  There is no more worldwide wars, but regional conflicts still persist.  We are always in history.  Today will be history tomorrow, and tomorrow will be history day after tomorrow.  Whatever we will do will be recorded and analyzed by historians in the future. 

My quarantine life will end on Saturday!  I'm excited to use the laundry facility and play the piano in the foyer!!

      

Hot, Humid, and History

A very nice day!  I was able to talk with a friend in Michigan over the phone and caught up with her.  It was comforting to hear the familiar voice, and it made me miss Michigan.  Still cannot believe I'm not there anymore!

I took a break of writing and continued the history class.  I'm done with Week 3.  4 more to go!  I am learning a lot from that course.  It's very interesting!  The lecturer is talented in telling historical stories in an intriguing way.  The visual aids he uses are sophisticated, too.  I'm also learning some new words like 'court system to adjudicate disputes', 'presemptuous', 'a resplendent atomosphere', 'surrender ignominiously' etc.

It's very interesting to learn about the Great Divergence, where East Asia and Western Europe diverged and followed different paths from the 1800s, which has a large impact on how the world is today, although the two parts of the world had some commonarities in the earlier time.

What is interesting about studying the history of 1700s and onwards is that events that took place  during this period has a consequence on modern day in one way or another.  It's never too late to learn things, but I wish I studied this earlier.  This is a basic knowledge that international students should know.  Why study history?  Because we can learn from the past.  What they were thinking in the past also makes us realize how far we've come through human history.  I'm so glad I have time to take this course now.

I should finish taking this course as soon as possible because I have access to it though my university account, and I am not sure how long it will last after I graduate.  I can take the course for free with a free account, but if I finish the course with my university account, I will get a certificate!  And that is why I'm trying to finish it.  For the same reason, I should finish my graphic design course soon, too.  Though I believe there will be some grace period.

It was a hot and humid day today, the daytime high was above 90F, which is crazy.  There was a public announcement/warning against heat stroke!  I did not go out during the day, and went for a walk at twilight.  Walking near the river is refreshing, though it was still very hot and humid even after sunset.  Well... One more month, and it will be OK.  And winter will be mild.

   

Dissertation and manuscript - A lesson learned

Yesterday was another writing and revising day for my manuscript submitted to a journal. 

I had to re-read it everything carefully to check if the figure and table numbers are right and the text is  coherent again, since it has been revised and formatted so many times that things might have gone wrong.  I found some grammatical errors and parts of text that do not flow so well...!! I'm glad I caught it before it gets published in a journal, but this paper in my dissertation is already accepted by the Graduate School and awaiting publication!!  I should have re-read all the chapters again before submitting it rather than just getting the formatting right.  Too late, at least published journal articles will have things more polished.  It's a lesson!  I wrote the chapters in such a hurry and they went through several major revisions.  I could have taken more time to check and revise.  I was kind of bound by the phrase "A dissertation that is done is than one that is perfect.", but I could have done more checking because dissertations will be published and will remain there forever.

Well... hopefully I learned the lesson and will not make the same mistake again!

Paper number 1 has been revised anyway.  One more to go!

しまったなあ…　博士論文の一部である論文の査読修正していたら、何か所か文法間違いとか文章の流れが悪いところが見つかった！　博士論文はもう提出してしまったのになーー　しまったーー　もっと確認すればよかった。フォーマットに時間をかけすぎて、そいで締切までに出さないと、しかもできるだけ早く出さないと間に合うかどうかわからない、って感じで内容を確認してなかったぁーー　もう一回読めばよかったな。

教訓として、やっぱり自分が書いた文章として残るものだから、きちんとしたものにした方がいいな。ということは、時間をかける必要がある。ということは、そんなに引き受けない方がいいということだ。量、質、速度、それらを天秤にかける必要がある。量を自分でコントロールできる職種なのだから、質と速度のバランスを取るべきだが、質はやはりおろそかにできない！

やっぱりそもそもスケジュールがタイトすぎたのかも。7月中旬までデータ解析してて、その結果を大慌てで論文形式にしたのが一報。論文化して提出したけど、大幅な修正が必要になってそれに追われたのが一報。それが落ち着いたと思ったらディフェンス。指導教官のコメントに添って修正しつつ、二週間で出国の準備もして…と、どう考えてもむちゃくちゃなスケジュールだった、今思うと。何でこんなに詰めちゃうんだろうと考えると、「暇な時間をもつことの罪悪感」が根底にあるのかもしれない。できるだけ多くのことをこなしたい欲張りも働いて、なんとかぎりぎりでできるのでは？と楽観的に考えて、あそびや余裕が一切なかった！　修正やらいろいろ来るし、フォーマットもここまで時間がかかるとは思っていなかった。なかなか…。物事はなんでも時間がかかるものだ。

今度はもっと余裕を持ってやるぞ――　だから、抱え込みすぎないことが本当に大事なのだ。。  

An essay about going to a graduate school abroad & more edits to my manuscript

It was a writing day yesterday. 

1. Essay about study abroad - graduate school in the US

This is a topic that I had been postponing for quite a bit, and finally I started it.  It's for undergraduate and master's students in Japan who are considering going to a graduate school abroad. There are many choices, not just the US, but it's interesting that the systems are quite different in each country.  For example, whether you would need to take classes and whether you need to take comprehensive exams depend on the school or program you are attending.  It kind of makes me wonder the value of a PhD is the same or different.  For those who did a PhD in the US, have most likely gone through ~30 credits of graduate level courses, comprehensive exams, and their dissertation research.  On the other hand, you would just need to do research and so it will only take 3 years or so to have a PhD in some countries in Europe, Australia, and Japan.  But the total length of time could be the same because in those countries you must have a masters' degree to get into a PhD program.  

Regardless, I am forever thankful that I was able to go to a graduate school in the US - it's a privilage to receive higher education with a salary!  It's not a chance that everyone gets.  So my goal was to share my experience and encourage studying abroad.  Almost done writing it, now it's time to revise and polish it. 

2. Another writing task of the day was to revise my manuscript that we submitted to a journal and received reviewer's comments.  Most comments were easy to accomodate, and some were really useful in improving the quality of the manuscript.  It's not the funnest thing in the world, but I just need to do it to get it published.  I remember those days with an endless loop of analysis-writing-discussion in January - March this year for this project.  Every time I submit a manuscipt (or end a project), I would swear that I will not do research again, but strangely I will be back at it again after a while.  Maybe it's a normal cycle of work.  At least the burn-out feeling does not last long. 

3. At last, my dissertation was accepted as correctly formatted!!!  Just in time, and it's a huge relief.  I cannot believe that it happened in time.  It makes me believe that it's not whether you can do it, it's rather whether you will do it or not.  It's possible to make things happen!  

   

Magnesium water laundry on a rainy day

It was a belated Sunday for me to relax yesterday.

I went to a shopping complex 20 min walk from my  hotel.  It's about 0.7 mile I think.. It was cloudy, but I thought it won't rain, so I went.  Besides, I really wanted to do the laundry.  Then it started raining when I got there. By the time I was done shopping and laundry, it was pouring, so I had to wait for 10 min.  The weather is unpredictable!  But it's OK.  After 10 min, it was still raining, but it was weaker.

20 min walk in a new place is always fun.  I went alongside a river, looked at various apartments and houses.  It seems they have to have a car to get around here, though probably a bike would be enough as the nearest train station and shops that you would normally need are all close by.  This neighbourhood is nice - it's a good mix of city and town with nature.

Anyways I found an interesting laundry machine, where it claims it washes laundry with just water and magnesium and performs just as well as washing with a detergent.  According to a video that was playing on the screen there, magnesium dissolved in water makes it alkaline, which acts like a detergent.  Even performance tests like microbial counts and odor removal were shown claiming that the magnesium water was as good as normal detergent.  I was kind of skeptical about it, but used it anyways as it was the only choice there, and it was just 400 yen.  After the wash, my laundry seemed OK.  I'm kinda surprised how many people came by and did their laundry on a Monday morning.  The coin laundry was quite busy already at 9 am.

Then I looked up the magnesium wash - out of curiosity - to find that the company has received an administrative order to prevent a recurrence for the unjustifiable and misleading labeling on their product by the Consumers' Agency.  An inspection was carried out to conclude that the effect of magnesium they are claiming is not based on scientific evidence.  And the tests like microbial counts were based on a small beaker scale and not on an actual washing machine.  Wow.. That article was published on May 31, 2021, which means the warning must have been published before that, and in August, the washing machine is still around!  The article says washing with their magnesium product is essentially the same as just washing with plain tap water.  So I just did the laundry with plain water, haha.  It's fine.  It was a lesson, and it was the best choice available because I am not supposed to use the hotel's laundry facility (which makes no sense), the laundry facility I went was the only one that was in a walking distance, and I didn't want to damage the fabric by doing the laundry by hand! 

Five more days and I will be able to use the hotel's laundry!!

I did a workout on bed on abs, thigh, and glute..  was quite a workout. 

Dissertation edits in HURRY!! & Blackout

Dissertation formatting

Yesterday was a Sunday, but I worked all day formatting my dissertation!  I did not notice that I got an email from Graduate School about necessary edits to be made.  It's good and bad that there is no notifications for Emails classified as Updates in Gmail.

Anyways the final deadline to submit my dissertation for summer graduation is Wednesday 8/25!  I should do it as soon as possible because Graduate School seems to be busy and takes some time to check the formatting of submitted dissertation.  It's a highly time-pressured job. What if they got hundreds of thesis/dissertations to review on the due date?  I think they will take some time to review all of them anyways.

Formatting a long document is a pain!  I learned a lot about functions in Word like making table of contents, list of tables and figures, and center a text from top to bottom.  Other than that, there are detailed rules to a lot of things -

• Do not start a page with an empty line
• Do not end a page with a title (heading)
• Put 'Table X (cont'd)' if a table spans on multiple pages
• Single space references
• No duplications for table numbers - so, if you have regular tables and supplementary tables, they should be numbered sequencially: Tables 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, Tables S1.4, S1.5, S1.6 etc.  This rule does not quite make sense though, because with this numbering scheme, Tables will not appear in the order of their numbers.  E.g., the main text it may say "This was this (Table 1.1). ... Then that was that (Table S1.4). ... Then it was like this (Table 1.2)."

It took a whole day to get those things right!!  I hope they will get to my submission before the deadline and will accept it as is!

I thought Sunday at 9 pm will be Monday 8 am in MI, but it was wrong!  It will be Sunday 8 am!  I could have done it today, too, but I'm glad I finished it regardless.

Blackout

There was a sudden blackout last night while I was almost done with editing my dissertation!! Well, of course, an unluckly event happens when you don't want it most.  But it wasn't too long.  Also I was amazed that the hotel seems to have a backup power.  One ceiling light turned on when power went out, and it kept my room nice and bright, which made a huge difference.  There was also an annoucement through the ceiling speaker that the hotel is experiencing unexpected power outage, and that it is not due to a natural disaster.  That kind of explanation calmed my mind.  After 20 min or so, power came back, and so did WiFi.  They were still doing some safety check, but within 45 min or so, things were back to normal, and elevators could be used as well.  I am quite impressed by how they handled the situtation and how well they are prepared!!   

博士論文の体裁確認がやっとこさ帰ってきた。細かいルールが山ほどあるな。。締め切りまであと4日！ やっば！最優先でおこなう。日曜にも関わらず…。 なぜ日曜に頑張ったかというと、日曜夜9時がミシガンの月曜も朝8時で、それが見てもらえる最短時間だから！と思ったから。間違えたわ…ミシガンの日曜はいまから始まるんだわ。まあいいけど。

ホテルが停電したけど非常用電源のお陰で部屋は明るかったし懇切丁寧な日英二言語のアナウンスもあって、す、すごい、素晴らしいホスピタリティ！と感動した。しかも20分くらいで復旧。いやーー 帰ってきたな…と実感するときでした。感謝感謝。

ミシガンと打とうとすると綴りのとおりMichi と打ってしまうからミチガンとなってしまう。笑 ミシガンをミチガンと発音する人がいてすごく気になっていたのを思い出した。あなたミシガンに何年いるの？？と突っ込みたくなる。その他、シカゴをチカゴ、ランシングをランズィングと発音する人もいて、自由だなーと感じる…。そんなことを思い出した。

A Saturday off - Laundry by hand and Nitzsche walks

I will resume morning journaling from now on..

It's quite nice to wake up to the sunlight.  I like my east-facing room.

I did laundry by hand!!  Easy things to wash by hand only, but it's quite an effort to squeeze drain my clothes.  Winter clothes would be much more difficult.  I'm thankful to the invention a washing machine.  Looking forward to be able to use a coin laundry facility next week!!

It reminded me of the old days when people did laundry all by hand.  It was most likely a women's chore.  Coincidentally, I'm studing the world history since 1700s, and they must have been doing the laundry by hand at that time.  I am learning so much about what happened in those eras that had an influence on today's world.  It's just surprising that only 200-300 years ago, people's (or at least the rules') mentality was invation, expanding their empire, going into war, and making money to their own empire's advantage, and take slaves from Africa to work in the New World.  Considering that those were the norm just 2-3 centuries ago, we humans have come a long way.  But still, turmoil and unrest are happening here and there in parts of the world, which is more than heartbreaking.    

It was a very relaxing Saturday, did not turn on my computer because I wanted to take a rest from work.  I took a walk, drew some, and listened to Youtube videos about philosophers.  Nietzsche's words and deeds are very inspiting.  Especially an anecdote that he took hours-long walks in the alps to clear and organize his thoughts.  I will do the same in the evenings when it's cooler and less humid..  (Nietzsche is such a complex spelling...)