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YOLO

I really thought the Lonely Island was the one who coined "YOLO".  Boy was I wrong.  It was Drake.
Yes, I have been silent for the past few months.  It really is difficult to find time to write, when I am exerting so much energy in writing up stuff for the office and for studies.  A little piece of advice for those out there who are thinking of graduate studies.  Don't do it with a full time job.  Look for scholarships.  But we know that scholarships in the field of humanities are hard to come by.

If you're thinking of doing a PhD in humanities or social sciences perhaps you should read this.  I did not quite read through the blog, but I think it is along the lines of a PhD student realizing towards the end that the PhD he/she was working on might not be really what he/she wants.  Nonetheless, he/she assures us that if we realize that PhD is not for us just before we defend our dissertation, we don't need to be alarmed.  There is still hope for us.

My PhD journey has been quite interesting so far.  This afternoon I spent at least two hours looking through a list of self-referencing pronoun "I" clusters with their accompanying verbs.  I was trying to decide which one is factive and which one is existential.  I don't think I went far.  But I did learn that it is not entirely up to the verb to decide whether the meaning of that verb is factive or existential.  The context of utterance is important as well, especially if you're looking for existential presuppositions.  At times it is within the noun phrase itself, existential information, that is.

Amidst research nonsense, I have been blessed to inherit a writing course that a colleague had been teaching.  She had to bequeath the class to me because of some scheduling conflict.  I am still not sure how I feel about this.  I like teaching writing.  Helping people express their ideas have always been fun for me.  But fun ceases to be fun when you are dealing with writers with different writing abilities.

I am coming close to my six-month sabbatical.  I'm taking off from my regular job to really just focus on writing up my dissertation.  Who knows, I will write more frequently.

Till then.  

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