Cheerio

Well my flight to germany leaves at 8 this evening or six... I'm not sure... I should probably check that again and just make sure. But seeing that I am leaving London for the penultimate time but at the same time really leaving I suppose this will be my last post for this blog. Stay tuned for a new blog, Shanghaied in China or Wok Like me, or terrible pun... yeah I'm done take care and see you soon.

...

That's it, it's done, nothing more, I have a master's. It was this afternoon that I bound another copy and handed in my long awaited dissertation. My paper entitled On Heroes, A definition and Examination of Contemporary Change and Perception is now complete. I'm debating whether I should make it open for request or not. I'm starting to feel a little self-conscious about it and a little worried. I'm the only person that's read it completely. I think it's cohesive, probably very dense, but again I might be too close to it to really see the holes. But regardless, I have now completed the criteria for my master's. Now I just hang out in London for another week, then hang out in Germany for a week, then hang out in Canada for two weeks, then hit China hopefully running.

yep...

Well, everything is coming to a close around here. I've got my ticket for home booked, I've got under two weeks left before I get kicked out of the apt, and my dissertation is pretty much done(minus some reference details, a preface, and possibly a couple more meatier issues if I don't get fed up enough and just hand it in). It's all coming down. Actually the dissertation is probably more the reason why I'm posting right now. I'm trying to write the preface right now and I'm havint some issues figuring out what I'm gonna say. I'm not really sure. I guess I should say why I've decided to write what I've written, especially seeing it happens to be, at least compared to my peers, a fairly odd topic. So I thought I'd be honest about my reasoning here then see if any of it is suitable to type up. I'm trying to think also if there's anything that they should know about it before reading it. being the only person who's read it and at the same time being the author I'm not sure I'm the best qualified to say if there's any sort of pretext needed. hmm well lets get going and see what I come up with.

I guess the primary reason I'm writing this is to fulfil the requirements of my degree(IT"S ALMOST DONE!!!). I started off wanting to define the origins of war within the collective character of a given government. From that I moved closer to great man theory, I guess it isn't hard to make the leap from great men to heroes but I don't recall it being so straight forward. Oh that was it! I woke up in the middle of the night and scribbled "Leadership in a Post-Hero society" down on a scrap of paper next to my bed. That's how it happened, but I was still leaning towards Leadership to be the more important part. The entire time I've been trying to work out how it can be made relevant, not leadership, but my dissertation, seeing I happen to have an infinite interest in the impractical and knowing that impractical doesn't always fly... I was then looking at doing a historical look at the shift in leadership qualities through time by examining military leadership writings. but I soon realized that I would need to first define "post-hero society" and naturally what a hero society is and a pre-hero society. It was during this stage of thought that I decided that such a topic was too large for a 15000 word limit and started to look in other directions at how to limit the scope of the paper. It was not before I had started defining what it means to be a hero. Its frrom that definition and my time frame for a post hero society that I came up with the foundings for the rest of the work. The first chapter defines the hero as a being, then the second chapter looks at what the hero as a figure does, then the final chapter discusses the shift of heroes following the first world war and then discusses the impact of that shift on modern militaries of developed nations. It seems now that I've come to define a post-hero society or I could(and think I might have) call the current military a post hero society... I guess the progression to the topic as it is has been a natural logical progression and I'm only guilty of following the lines of my initial thoughts, but that isn't something I'd care to put in the preface... or would I?... hmm also I haven't quite decided on a title. I'm tempted at the moment to put post-hero somewhere in the title, it seems to be a bit of an eye catcher and seeing I have kinda found a post-hero society it might make sense but I'd prefer not to have to re orient the rest of the paper towards the title, mind you it's very possible that my confusion of what it's about is because I don't know exactly where my paper is pointing at the moment...

Tomorrow is the only day that the comupters at the library will be working so I have to get all my referencing done tomorrow, I don't think it's actually gonna be that tough though I'm slowly deciding that I'll have write out a couple quotations that I pulled out of my brain that I can't find the source of... by the way, if you know where Napoleon said "I am a man of peace, it is those who stand before me that make war" or something similar I would be vary greatful, I think it might be in Clausewitz but I can't find it for the life of me.

Still I'm missing the point, why should I write about Heroes? they are important, but why should you care why they're important. I'm not sure my being drunk on sleep wouldn't be the best explanation as to the why. Maybe it's just the facination that seems to follow them... that might be good.

Anyways, I'm gnona have a short nap. Nevermind that it's quarter after 8 I seem to work better at night.

Pipe dream

after careful deliberation it has been decided, after a brief administratal stop-over in Canada the next destination for Brett is China. Once I get my act together I'll by the ticket home and get on track to head to the far east... or west depending on where you are...

P.S. Dissertation is going... slowly... soon there will be a fire under my ass and the pase will quicken... somebody shoot me

Oh thank you Matag God of laundry for blessing me with your bounty. I shall proudly display the sock you have blessed me with for all to see your greatness. But not online... you're not that great, and I'm not sure I want to go through the hassel. Well I got a new computer, I've hit a brick wall at 4000 words with my dissertation and haven't been able to write anything in just about a week, and I think I'm slowly(or not slowly) losing(or have lost) my mind.

The computer is lovely, I'm only having slight issues entering the Mac world. That's right people, I've thown off the oppressive yoak and utilitarian design of the PC for the relatively comfortable, incredibly engineered, yoak of the apple world. It's a very pretty MacBook, 13.3" monitor, white, 1.86 ghz intel duo processor(runs like a dream), 1gb ram, and good times. The only issue I've been having, apart from learning the new system, is the renewing of all my presets. It's like losing that couch that you've worked in that [insert name here] shaped groove and left a new couch to start over with. But that's alright, it's kinda what I was looking for, unfortunately because it's a different system it's taking a little longer to work that groove in. It'll come in good time.

My stagnant dissertation... What to say of it? I think the only appropriate words wouldn't actually involve words at all. At most it the only audible "words" would sounds more like grunts and sobs as I flail my various appendages about blindly, nearly soiling myself. Closely related I believe is my appearent loss of sanity. I can't think anymore, I'm desprately missing moments that don't involve school hanging over my head. I miss my summer work. I think I need to get drunk[the cause and solution]. Now just where will I find someone to drink with me? I think I'm stressed out. I've also noticed that I haven't been eating much lately. More that I haven't even been getting hungry. Lately the only sign that I should eat comes in the form of a headache. Maybe I should go somewhere for a day or two, but at the same time all I want to do is sleep(probably has something to do with the lack of food). ugh. I have a meeting with my supervisor wednesday, should be interesting seeing I've lost sight of what I was doing. Tuesday I go to the Opera, they're doing Turandot at the Royal Opera House. I'm rather excited, it happens to be my favourite Opera. I got a descent seat I think. Anyways, I think I'll see about some food or something, some sort of distraction from the nothing that seems to be hovering over my dissertation.

Much Love
Brett

P.S. the children in the park seem to be overly obnoxious today.

to lose twenty pounds

I've gained twenty pounds before, I've spent twenty pounds, I've eaten twenty pounds, and god knows I've drank twenty pounds. But never, until tonight, have I lost twenty pounds. Perhaps it's my niavity, maybe I'm just too nice, maybe I was just drunk, but he got me.

"Do you have change for a twenty?"
"no"
"Are you sure? I really need to catch that..."
"pretty sure, but lets see... I have fifteen... and seventeen... nineteen... fifty... ninety..."
"Oh that'll do"
I hand him the change, he hands me the "twenty". But just as he handed me the "money" I noticed something. It didn't feel right and I didn't see the sparkle of the security band. Before I could look up he was gone. On closer inpection there was no hollogram, or watermark either. I'd been had.

At first I was mad, but that quickly dissapated. More was that I felt stupid, but still wiser for the experience. The bill will be pinned to my board as a stern reminder of the pitfalls of curtesy and kindness. Possibly I could try to rationalize it that it was surely someone more sorely off then myself that took advantage of my trusting nature and that my money will actually do more good then contribute to my future cerosis(never mind the spelling, I'm too lazy/drunk to care) but really it will probably only contribute to someone elses liver problems. I wish I could promise that it won't happen again, but I refuse to compromise my ideals of humanity. I prefer to remain nieve and be fleeced then to grow calous and lose my humanity/maners.

hitlercats?

http://hitlercats.motime.com I don't even know whether I should comment on this or not... I just think it's rather frightening to think that there are people out there with more time on their hands then me, seriously. I nearly have 1000 words of my dissertation complete!