Tentatively, if I manage to get my ass off the ground and contact the AVA people, the logistics for trip to pekanbaru over good friday weekend is as follows:
20 March (Thursday)
- skip Bahasa Indo class
- take 8am boat to Batam
- transfer boat to Pekanbaru and pray we don't get lost
- check into guest house
21 March (Friday)
- visit Pekanbaru farm
22 March (Saturday)
- go Bukit Tinggi?
23 March (Sunday)
Option #1
- 3pm AirAsia PKU to JKT (5.25pm arr)
- 630pm AirAsia JKT to Johor (9pm arr)
- 9pm crawl our way home from Johor
Price: Approx 150-200SGD
Pros: Cheaper
Cons: Burn the whole day and might miss flight
Option #2
- 5pm Garuda PKU to SIN (7pm arr)
price: $239 SGD (incl tax and zuji svc)
Pros: more time
cons: burn money
Option #3
- 8am take slow boat back to Singapore
Pros: cheaper and take same amount of time as AirAsia
Optimistic Total budget for the trip, including lodgings = SGD$400
Friday, February 29, 2008
Why is my honors thesis interesting?
I got an email today from my prof, asking me to write why my honors thesis is interesting. This is because he wants to "sell me" to the faculty newsletter who are looking for interesting student research to feature.
Ok, that totally stumped me. I needed objective opinions! Thank goodness Ria came online and gave me a few points which I managed to spin into the following points:
- offers a multi-dimensional perspective of a landmark event in nature conservation in Singapore
- a holistic understanding of events from insiders' perspective, previously unpublished
- a dissection and analysis of environmental NGO strategies in conservation campaigns
- tracing the historical evolution in NGOs form, structure and organization in Singapore
- topical and current, of ongoing interest to conservation groups interested in emulating the success at Chek Jawa
Sounds impressive enough. *grin*
Thought I should keep a record of this in case people ask me again why my thesis is interesting and I get totally stumped. Like, wtf!
Ok, that totally stumped me. I needed objective opinions! Thank goodness Ria came online and gave me a few points which I managed to spin into the following points:
- offers a multi-dimensional perspective of a landmark event in nature conservation in Singapore
- a holistic understanding of events from insiders' perspective, previously unpublished
- a dissection and analysis of environmental NGO strategies in conservation campaigns
- tracing the historical evolution in NGOs form, structure and organization in Singapore
- topical and current, of ongoing interest to conservation groups interested in emulating the success at Chek Jawa
Sounds impressive enough. *grin*
Thought I should keep a record of this in case people ask me again why my thesis is interesting and I get totally stumped. Like, wtf!
Tips for NUS fund application
I realize after quite a multitude of administrative work within the faculty and university that there are a few things needed, especially when money is involved.
1) Travel expenses must include justifications for every single thing - airfare must include proof of where you got the quotation from, even if it's the document provided by the university.
2) If there are different exchange rates involve, include a print out of the calculation, the rate, the source which you got your calculation from.
3) Always have an updated CV ready.
1) Travel expenses must include justifications for every single thing - airfare must include proof of where you got the quotation from, even if it's the document provided by the university.
2) If there are different exchange rates involve, include a print out of the calculation, the rate, the source which you got your calculation from.
3) Always have an updated CV ready.
Research Assistant
Recently I took up on trial a research assistant position for the head of department. Her RA is going away for her PhD in UK soon and was looking for a part time replacement. As such, I expressed my interest and now we're trying it out to see if I wish to continue.
I just had my first piece of transcribing work 2 days ago. It's a 1 hour 40 minute interview and I took 12 hours to transcribe it!
Transcribing is really hard work. Mostly because I've to keep going back and forth between the text and audio file. And sitting in front of the computer continuously is tiring too. I couldn't hear a lot of things because I didn't have headphones which the RA suggested.
Anywho, I think I'll try it once more. If I really think I can't take it I'll probably "resign". The standard amount of time taken for a 1 hour interview is about 4-5 hours. A 1 hour 40 minute interview in this case should take about 7.5 hours max to transcribe! I took almost double the time. Understandably the RA mentioned most people under report their time taken. Sigh.
We'll see. My prof did say that I must make sure I don't take on too much work and overstretched myself. I am somewhat behind others in my own research.
The rate is pretty good. It's $15/hours plus CPF contributions. Unfortunately I can only work 4 hours per week during term time and 10 hours per week during holidays. Miserable. On the plus side, it's excellent for the resume to say I was a RA for the head of department!
I just had my first piece of transcribing work 2 days ago. It's a 1 hour 40 minute interview and I took 12 hours to transcribe it!
Transcribing is really hard work. Mostly because I've to keep going back and forth between the text and audio file. And sitting in front of the computer continuously is tiring too. I couldn't hear a lot of things because I didn't have headphones which the RA suggested.
Anywho, I think I'll try it once more. If I really think I can't take it I'll probably "resign". The standard amount of time taken for a 1 hour interview is about 4-5 hours. A 1 hour 40 minute interview in this case should take about 7.5 hours max to transcribe! I took almost double the time. Understandably the RA mentioned most people under report their time taken. Sigh.
We'll see. My prof did say that I must make sure I don't take on too much work and overstretched myself. I am somewhat behind others in my own research.
The rate is pretty good. It's $15/hours plus CPF contributions. Unfortunately I can only work 4 hours per week during term time and 10 hours per week during holidays. Miserable. On the plus side, it's excellent for the resume to say I was a RA for the head of department!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Academic Resumé
Seems like almost every piece of application I submit these days require a 1-page academic Curriculum Vitae. Thus I've created an overly simplified one and published it on google documents.
Monkey's Curriculum Vitae
Monkey's Curriculum Vitae
Proposed ISM Outline v 0.1
Singapore and its Transnational Agricultural Hinterlands:
Mere economic linkages or an encroaching ecological footprint?
Outline
Singapore and its Transnational Agricultural Hinterlands:
preconditions of a city-state or an encroaching ecological footprint?
Singapore and its Transnational Agricultural Hinterlands:
agrarian capitalism or an encroaching consumption footprint?
Working towards publication in Asia Pacific Viewpoint (August issue) and presentation at ARI Graduate Forum (July).
No longer than 8000 words;
Manuscripts should be typed on one side of the paper, double-spaced, with ample margins and bear the title of the contribution, name(s) of the author(s) and the address where the work was carried out. The title and full postal address of the author who will check proofs and receive correspondence must be included. An email address is essential unless impossible to provide.
Contributors should include on a separate sheet an abstract of 200 words or less. Please note that abstracts should be an informative summary of the content and conclusions of the text of the article. It should be self-contained and intelligible by itself. Please reproduce the title on this sheet, but do not include author details.
Keywords: The abstract should contain key words and phrases that could be used to index the article. These keywords should be listed below the abstract.
Quotations: Please use single quotes and double quotes within singles.
Mere economic linkages or an encroaching ecological footprint?
Outline
- Introduction of Singapore’s transnational agricultural hinterlands
- Concept of transnational hinterlands
- Literature review of Singapore and its hinterlands
- Bioregion perspective
- Historical perspective
- Economic geography perspective
- Resource politics perspective
- Transnational Rural-Urban discourse
- Ecological footprint perspective
- Positing an integrated approach
Singapore and its Transnational Agricultural Hinterlands:
preconditions of a city-state or an encroaching ecological footprint?
Singapore and its Transnational Agricultural Hinterlands:
agrarian capitalism or an encroaching consumption footprint?
Working towards publication in Asia Pacific Viewpoint (August issue) and presentation at ARI Graduate Forum (July).
No longer than 8000 words;
Manuscripts should be typed on one side of the paper, double-spaced, with ample margins and bear the title of the contribution, name(s) of the author(s) and the address where the work was carried out. The title and full postal address of the author who will check proofs and receive correspondence must be included. An email address is essential unless impossible to provide.
Contributors should include on a separate sheet an abstract of 200 words or less. Please note that abstracts should be an informative summary of the content and conclusions of the text of the article. It should be self-contained and intelligible by itself. Please reproduce the title on this sheet, but do not include author details.
Keywords: The abstract should contain key words and phrases that could be used to index the article. These keywords should be listed below the abstract.
Quotations: Please use single quotes and double quotes within singles.
Scheduling Writing
Duck sent me this link about how to schedule dissertation writing. it's quite standard advise that i've gotten from seniors and professors alike. Dedicate a few hours each day for undulated writing. In fact, this is how I manage to work for the last week and got quite a bit accomplished.
Unfortunately while others spend the early part of their day working, I prefer to work after dinner. *grin* not very healthy but after which I will spend the weekend crashing and totally slacking off.
As such, the latest update stands at:
1) Got accepted for SEAGA conference
2) Submitted conference funding application
3) Submitted GRSS application
4) Submitted IRB application
5) Submitted Los Baños dissertation workshop application
Unfortunately while others spend the early part of their day working, I prefer to work after dinner. *grin* not very healthy but after which I will spend the weekend crashing and totally slacking off.
As such, the latest update stands at:
1) Got accepted for SEAGA conference
2) Submitted conference funding application
3) Submitted GRSS application
4) Submitted IRB application
5) Submitted Los Baños dissertation workshop application
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