Last day of quarantineeeeeee

Freedom day 2!  But same as before, I just spent my whole day staying at the hotel, migrating my files to my harddrive, and replying to emials.

I packed my stuff again and shipped them so that I won't have to carry them by myself!  Shipping service is a lifesaver.  But I had to reorganize my baggage due to weight limit.  It's really A LOT OF STUFF that I have carried all the way here! Plus, 16 boxes sent by sea.  International moving is no easy job.  Every time I pack, it makes me feel that I won't travel again because packing is such a hassle.  But once I pack up and travel to new places, the effort is all worth it. 

Today's wallpaper!  A deer-like animal letting two birds perch on its face and mess with it.  So cute...  I had a large TV just next to my desk and was able to use it as a second monitor. 

UP!!! Day 3

I don't have a lot of photos for day 3 because our main activity was kayaking and I stored my phone in a waterproof bag.  My friends took a lot of pics though!

Kayaking was fun!  We went very close to Pictured Rocks, and went through some holes formed by the rocks on our kayak.  We were excited as it was our first time to kayak.  It was a lot of work to row a kayak!  We took some time to figure out how to change directions and how to speed up.  It was all fun and made me use a different part of my brain.  We were paddling for good 3 hours.  We saw a shipwreck underneath, too.  It was funner than taknig the cruise.  You can take a closer look at things by yourself.  I'm thankful to my friends who suggested we should go kayaking as it's not something that I'd actively consider if I were just by myself.

It was really a long drive to go back. 6 hours in total.  My travelmates took turns to drive on the highway.  It was still somewhat scary to drive on a highway, though it was OK to drive in the city at night (not a great feeling, though!). 

長いドライブだったけど、いろんな話もできて楽しかったなー   友達と旅行ってやっぱり最高だな。一人では距離的に行けないところだったので、一緒に行けてありがたかった！ モーテルもすごくいいところだった。もう１ヶ月前なのか。懐かしい~~

Hawaiian chicken salad

 

Laundry, piano, and data migration & Cleland Wildlife Park

Quarantine finished, and I am free to do the laundry, use the microwave, and play the piano in the foyer of the hotel.  It feels great. 

I played the piano for the first time in a few months.  It's therapeutic.  I feel like I want to continue learning new songs.

Since I will lose access to MSU OneDrive, I had to move all my files to my hard disk.  It has SO MANY FILES!!!  OMG it's not ideal to make so many files, though unavoidable.  It's such a pain to copy one by one (too many folders inside folders make it just impossible to copy in one go).  I created so many files because I had unlimited storage with an MSU account, but now that I am unaffiliated with MSU, I need to keep my files on my own hard drive.  It's somewhat risky to have data in a portable hard disk drive.. a cloud storage is the best, but what can I do?  When I start as a freelancer, I should invest some money and establish a secure file storage system on my own.  A good reminder.

Making space for my hard disk drive and found some fond memory of Australia.  Cleland Wildlife Park, South Australia

 

The last day of 'quarantine'

Today's Windows desktop!

Hot and humid Day 3

It has been dangerously hot and humid for several days now.  I gave up on morning walks, and just instead take evening walks.  Even after sunset, I sweat after walking for 20 min or so.  It's good as they say I should exercise until you sweat and/or your heartbeat is risen.

Article almost done

I edited my article on studying in graduate school abroad.  There are more things to write every time I edit them.  Just like my dissertation, I should draw a line and mark it done.  I hope to regain some writing skills as I realized that my Japanese language skills has been declined.  I cannot write as sophisticated work as I used to before!

It's necessary to read a lot in order to write well.

To do: migrate my files

I need to migrate my files on MSU Onedrive and Google Drive!  I will lose access to it soon!  I was surprised that I already cannot access to MSU Zoom a day after summer semester ended!  By the way it was nice to talk with one of my labmates for preparation for her comprehensive exams. Helping each other is beautiful.  I value independence, but it's also OK to ask for help. 

I'm excited to be able to do the laundry tomorrow!

 

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。。