Entry 12

So it’s been quite a long time since I last wrote. I don’t have a lot to report really. In terms of the study I’ve been doing lots of reading and writing. So far I’ve been looking at what this one guy says about Human Enhancement. His arguments can be quite dubious at times so I’ve been trying to critique them. I have 8,000, which is of course a drop in the ocean (a PhD thesis is 100,000 words) but one must start somewhere. I had a meeting with my supervisor this week and he said he enjoyed reading through what I’d written. He also wants me to turn it into an article suitable for publication, which is awesome but terrifying.

I have my first official PhD progress report coming up. It’s because I’ve been here 6 months, so I have to basically have an evaluation of my work so far and if it is good enough I will have my candidature confirmed (at the moment my status as a PhD student is provisional). Part of the review will be an meeting with my supervisor and a convenor, kind of scary but should be okay.

In terms of work, there has been a really long break between tutorials, they start up again next month. I’ve been doing some article formatting for some of the lecturers though, which has been really good. Essentially they send me an article they’ve written, or co-written, and I go through and format the references. It’s not overly difficult but can be tedious. Difficulties do arise though when I’m unfamiliar with a referencing system, or the journals just make up their own, that can definitely be frustrating. I’m sure learning a lot. I’ve also been offered the position of Research Assistant to two lecturers who have been given a grant to conduct research. The position will be from next week until December. It should be excellent experience.

Other than study and work I have done a few things, like going to the Dunedin mid-winter lantern festival. That was really neat. There were hundreds of people, with lanterns they had made in workshops that were put on in the lead up to the event, who walked around the Octagon. There were also some people on stilts who were quite amazing. During the Cadbury Festival I went to the Cadbury factory, which was okay, but not exactly Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. I also went to the Jaffa Race, which was held in Baldwin Street, the steepest in the world. This year they had two races, the first was 25,000 red giant Jaffas tumbling down from the very top of the street to the bottom, the second race was 25,000 purple Jaffas.

Something else I’ve been doing recently is exercising more. I’ve been going to the gym, which has been quite good so far. This week, after learning that the pool is about a three minute walk away, I’ve been swimming for the first time in years. I’m very slow at swimming but I figure that it doesn’t really matter how fast I go but that I just keep going. I went with a friend today and did 40 laps to her 104 in an hour, but no matter, at least I made the effort.

So that’s me and what I’ve been up to in the last couple of months.