About this Blog

I want this blog to be a lot of things, but I will try to keep it focused on my topic of travel and search for a career.  My other hobbies of writing poems, writing stories, and revewing restaurants have earned their own individual set of blogs.  Plus, there’s always that pink diary with a heart locket I keep under my bed filled with sparkly marker drawings of hearts and pasted pictures of crushes (I don’t even have an “under my bed”).

Chapter 1: June first-post until mid-November

It took 6 months to write about my 3 month experience studying and traveling in Japan.  It did not exactly turn out to be a travel blog, but I think there are enough life changing moments to constitute as a novel.  Those who read it in enough detail should be able to extract a lot of cultural observations and learn about my random views on life.  This was more than a pleasure to write – it was a 6-month long orgasm released all throughout the internet.  I will remember this trip forever.

Chapter 1.5: The dreaded Thesis

It’s not easy following the small routine of a Master’s student.  I dedicated many of my entries reflecting on the art of procrastination.  Everything that I did during this time was to make myself feel better in neverending cycle of deadlines and terrible economic conditions.  Interestingly enough, I have not mentioned the topic of my thesis once, but I feel like I’ve complained enough about it and it’s affects on my health.  The funny part is that most of these entries have such an optimistic point of view, but I was writing it in my most pessimistic state.

Chapter 2: Germany – The Euro-trip

I am currently studying reinforcement learning methods in Hamburg with a few professors.  The research project is a transparent cover for my desire to travel and experience the world.  It’s my first time in Europea and my first time away from my family for this long. It started with 3 months, and now it’s 6 months.  I have more hobbies than I could enumerate, but I slowly narrow down my loves in life.  The side projects continue and will fuel my fire for the next phase.  The pictures and writing obsession continues as my hobby, but now I’ve also become a microblogger in the twitter and facebook status-update communities.

Chapter 3: Maybe Japan?

I’ve been accepted to continue the artificial intelligence research in Osaka University, but I”m on the fence of whether I should pursue this opportunity. I love the material, but I know I won’t be doing this type of work for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I do not wish to acquire a PhD, so my work will just help me publish papers that probably won’t forward my career.  The worst part is that if I do too much research experience, I might be over qualified for other career opportunities without joining a company and getting real life experience.  On the other hand, it’s a big choice entering the real world especially in our economy’s shape.  I’m keeping my options open and writing more in personal entries to distinguish the benefits.  It’s a phase of personal discovery and it terrifies me as I edge closer to passing over to real life.