Are you there?

Suddenly I’m confused, dismay and overwhelmed… I can’t imagine anything worrying me more than successfully completing my research. But research work requires a lot of thinking, and thinking is a very difficult thing to do; but in the midst of all these thought processes are some personal demands… I’d honestly wanted to give up on life, but I’ve to hang-in there!

Impossibility is nothing!

Do you remember the popular ad by one of the very famous ‘sport foot wear coy’ - their slogan, was, ‘impossibility is nothing’ – meaning, nothing is impossible. Frankly speaking, this is true, and very true if you believe God for it. Recently, I was asked to chair a conference session in Athens, Greece. And a month later, joined a scientific reviewing group (Scientific Member) of the prestigious IEEE EUROCON 2007 conference in Warsaw, Poland. If someone had told me this would happen pretty soon, I wouldn’t have believed it. But, I’ve always known with God, ‘Impossibility is nothing!’ The next significant thing will be completing my research soon.

Should I say yes?

…Few months ago, I thought I’ll be completing my research come December’06… but it appears this is not going to happen then, completion would be most probably, some time before June’07. In as much as I had wanted it earlier, what I really want is a successful completion in time, whatever the reason for completing late (June’07). I want to believe it’s all for good. You may have been in a similar situation, maybe not, but if you were, what would you do?

What if …? You ask. From experience, most ‘what if’s’ do not seem to come to pass. However, it’s not to say, they never come to pass. Whatever happens, “it happens for good for those who love Him”.

A sound mind in a sound body ...

I have just managed to listen/watch 3 out of 7 DVD's on 'Critical Thinking' by Dr. Richard Paul. Fortunately, some of the materials by Richard are available on his home page. He explains and discusses rational critique in a manner very unique and aims at educating students. I strongly recommend it to anyone!

Paul's list of books includes:

Active and cooperative learning
Ethical reasoning
Critical Thinking
How to study and learn
Critical and creative thinking
The Human mind
Fallacies
Scientific reasoning....

Am not trying to market Dr. Paul's books, but I consider thinking as important as I consider food, this is why I strongly recommend these books - "A sound mind in a sound body"

...Everything gonna be alright!

I recently started a new role at work ... although challenging, but at the moment am loving it. I used to work as a network engineer, looking after routers, switches, vpns, mpls and routing stuff, but now, am working as a security analyst, which is a totally different ball game. Am now looking after the firewalls, sensors, scanners, threat and event monitors... all sounding great, but not to me as a starter :-( I suppose all I have to do now is it prioritise my activities, because I've got many things lined up...

I've to carry on with writing up my PhD thesis, which is quite demanding and time consuming, also, I've to plan when and how to study since, am currently doing 8:30-5, Monday through Friday. Anyway, instead of moaning all day, I probably should start thanking God for His mercies, after all, some people out there are looking for these opportunities, you know? About time I realised it.

What do you think? :-)

...A little bit to the Left, a little bit to the Right

I started off thinking I'll use this blogger as a repository for PhD materials, but it certainly doesn't look so. If it were, I won't be saying so :-)

Just remembered I can say a few kind words to my little daughter - Jessy Brown, whose pics is shown above. Because am studying for a phd and also holding a FT job, I working pattern is shift-type, which helps me acoomodate a part-time studies and family...

Today when I picked 'Brown' up from school in the evening, I told her I'll be going to work and she said that's alright. Few hours after, while at work, Brown asked her Mum to ring her Dad... my mobile phone rang ... and it was my wife, Honey was the matter? I asked, she said brown wants her Dad to come back home.... poor little brown... I suppose, its not easy on her to constantly miss her Daddy, becuase he's either studying or at work, conference etc... Although these day, I try as much as possible to take with me, my faily while at conferences or seminars, where possible.

I've to go now.... end of today's shift, to be completed later ;)...

The Hour Has Come ...

Yesterday I received an email from my supervisor... in the email was '...we are think of appoiting Dr ... Chen as your external for your PhD thesis viva'. Just as I read the line... I was horrified, I wandered off imaging what if... but the truth was, I have not started writing although I should. Again, I was frigthented because it was natural to do so... PhD viva is by His grace, and as soon as I realised that, I prayed!

The good news is that I was able to draft a tentative table of content which I've sent to my suppervisor for perusal and approval, and finally, I was also able to write my thesis problem statement, aim and objectives!:)

The night turn out to a fruitful one... if I can do same every night, I'll be through in few months. Hum...