World Press Photo of the Year 2011

Samuel Aranda of Spain, a photographer working for The New York Times, has won the World Press Photo of the Year 2011.

The Sun Also Rises.

Finished reading The Sun Also Rises. Took over a month to finish the book. Couldn't find consistency in time, read it in between essay deadlines, textbooks and journals for classes, which explains the length of time it took me to finish it. I particularly love how the book used a lot of Parisian images during the 'Lost Generation' era. Its like you can really feel you're 'there', if it makes sense. Ernst Hemmingway really knew his things. It didn't take long for me to be a fan. Anyone who wants to start reading Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein or Dos Passos, this book will be a really great start!

Day trip to another city.

Wouldn't it be nice to just get out and travel to another city just for the day? I have this traveling fantasy in my mind for awhile. I love the idea of unpremeditated and aimless excursion out of town. The closest I had to this was an unplanned day trip to London sometime last year. I think I just had a deadline and was trying to ease off before exam season kicked in.

Ahh, the idea of randomness: go online, book a flight somewhere and spend a few hours in a different environment and go back in the evening. Just walk around the streets, getting lost and at the same time finding out new things. I almost had that opportunity a couple weeks back. Book a ticket to Milan and return the next day. However, due to the circumstances at that time, I had to abandon the plan. If only it was an avoidable one.

I'm currently setting my sights on a day trip to a particular city. But I know it'll be a difficult one considering that its early of the year; and for scholars, academics, students and so on, that's a few months away from the finals. Or in other words, crunch time! The upcoming academic break is in March for Easter, but I won't be around then. The only logical time of the year I can go is between the month of February and early March, provided I have the financial means to go.

Oh well, only time (and money) can tell...

Setback

Apparently my research paper has come to another stumbling block. Looking at it positively, seeing it as a setback. Setback will come once in a while, but not letting it slide as a total failure.

Me being an optimist..

Final Year Research

Its 1 am and I have an early day tomorrow. Yet here I am, wrecking my brains and gathering thoughts on how I am going to tackle December and January workload. I (might) have GRE test at the end of the month, though I've yet to register for the tests but that is the plan, two essays due and a specific idea that I need to prepare for my Final Year Conference awaiting in January. On top of that I have a dissertation project to think about and that is 8,000-10,000 words I've yet started.

Back home during the summer I thought I had a general sense of where I was going with my dissertation. My topic: 'To what extent does China practised their claims of non-confrontational assertiveness policy towards the US and her neighbours.' I was so sure, that I had drafted about 1,000 words and I was ready!

...or so I thought.

Fast forward to November, I started to question my own research topic. But more enlightening was when I attended my 2 week of dissertation class and was told that a 'to what extent' isn't the kind of question you should approach. So I had to rethink, and upon continuous reconsiderations, I realised that my original research was a bit blergh! Even worst, I had this sense of realisation a week prior to my research design deadline, and coincidentally, I had an important class the same time and day as my supervisor. I tried to contact my supervisor but my email came unanswered. I was screwed.

But then, I reached an epiphany. That same week, President Obama was due to arrive in Bali, Indonesia for the East Asia Summit, the first with the US and Russia's inclusion. Then it dawned to me that this meeting was to described as an important one because the American inclusion came the same year when the South China sea is the current hotspot of the world to some extent. This Summit will surely have a certain impact towards three main countries' in contention: US-China-ASEAN, especially with the territorial disputes and navigational freedom issues that tainted the three countries' relations.

My research heading and question, I decided are:

'ASEAN to China: Its South China Sea, not China owned Sea. Understanding the role of East Asian Summit in solving regional issues':With the recent inclusion of the United States in the East Asian Summit (EAS), how crucial will the EAS in setting the conditions for key regional cooperation, in particular with the recent territorial dispute in the South China Sea?

The main crux of my issue is China and her relationship with ASEAN and the role of the US in EAS whether their presence is seen as a balancing act or a re-engagement of relations with Asia, a region where they have neglected largely, until recently. The main hypotheses that I wish to answer are:

1. Whether the East Asian Summit (EAS) will be the main forum for a continued regional cooperation and conflict management for East Asia but specifically ASEAN in this case as now the United States has been included as a member.
2. Whether China is holding to their claims of a Non-Confrontational Assertiveness policy with her neighbors, specifically ASEAN now that another territorial dispute had occurred in the middle of 2011.

I'm really looking forward with how I'm going to tackle this!