In Medias Resolution

with Hiroaki Takemoto, the only other guy from my lab to graduate this March. I'm wearing my special occasion watch that I got from Aiko Mizuno. A weird thing happened. As this musical performance ended, they began to lower the curtain, but the announcer was still talking, so he began to speed up his announcement to get it all in before the curtain fell completely. with the International Student Support Staff. Seriously, without their help, most of the foreign students here m

Master's thesis defense in 30 minutes. Whenever things like this happen in my life, I always hear this song. "Fratres! Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crop. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line. Stay with me. If you find yourselves alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you are already dead! Brothers! What we do in life echoes in eternity." #masters

Au Gai is on record for having expounded thoroughly on the topic of Graduate School at large, though recently my favorite of these statements is that Graduate School is "the art of pretending you know what's going on! then finally realize you actually do!" I have been finding this to be increasingly true. I often feel that I have no idea what I am doing. Recently I have been grumpily despairing often. But whenever I have a meeting and must collect the shreds of my progress up

In truth, it is never too early to begin thinking about your Masters Thesis. That being the case, I have been trying to situate and define the scope, aim, and contribution of what I hope will become a Masters Thesis that I can present when the time comes and have it not only be admissible, but actually good. Then I start folding my thoughts in on themselves and I am suddenly asking, "What is considered 'good'?" Sometimes, when writing conference papers, I get all stressed and

From the California State University Dominguez Hills "Guide to Writing and Research in the Humanities": "Every time we write we employ a set of assumptions about how the world works. The facts do not speak for themselves, nor is any interpreter completely objective. Sometimes we're conscious of them, sometimes not. The more conscious of our assumptions we are, the more careful we can be that our assumptions serve us well, and the more honest we can be with those around us abo

#acecombatzero #conference #digrajapan #game #gamedesign #gamedevelopment #gamestudiescurrently #gradschoollife #japangamestudies #japanese #japanesegameindustry #masters #paper #research #researchers #trip

My sincerest thanks to my classmates at Osaka University. It was great seeing all of you again. To those who are leaving Japan in March, I wish you safe travels and all the best. It has been a long time since I have been able to say this with any confidence, but I truly believe that bright futures lay ahead of us all. 阪大の日本語研修コースのクラスメートの皆様へ、心からまことにありがとうございました。今日のほとんど一年ぶりの再会は本当によかったわ。 僕、皆の人生で、明るい未来が絶対あると信じることは、本当に久しぶりな感じけど、今回、本当に信じています。これから、いつものように、頑張ろう！ #osakauniversity #fun

In my lab every graduating season, there appears to be a custom of placing the graduating PhD candidate's thesis near the daily newspaper for everyone to check out. This season is no different. I browsed the PhD thesis placed there, felt the negligible heft of it in my hands. To think, this was a person's life for several years, their every working thought bent towards the production of this binding of pages. I continued to silently regard the thesis this way for some moments

やっと、3月の学会の日本語の第一の原稿はとりあえず終了である。まだネイティブチェックされていないけど。先生に出した際にめっちゃ恥ずかしかったわ。「ちっちゃな子供っぽい日本語で書いたらしいと見えるかな」って怖い。10年前の教えた播南の生徒が英語のレポート、宿題などを出した気分と同じだろう。 My Japanese draft for my upcoming conference in Kyushu is finally done. I stress the word "draft" because it is a first effort and I am really afraid that it sounds like it was written by a little kid. This must be how all my Japanese students felt when they turned in their essays and assignments. #acecombatzero #conference #digrajap

Newly-noticed trend: Of course, it is always good practice to be present in one's own laboratory. But it is becoming gradually more apparent that it is particularly beneficial to be here on Fridays. This is the third time that providence has ambushed me on a Friday at the lab. Fridays--those most loathesome of days to be at a place of work, is slowly but surely evolving inversely into a day of surprise goodness. A month ago it was the boon of revelation gained from an intense