Freelance Tutoring: almost there

Bonjour Readers,

For the past couple of days, Runner J and I focused on surface-level editing.  I went over Chapters 4-6 checking for redundant ideas and sentence structure.  For most of the thesis, I checked for consistency of verb tense ( in the past ), list of references, and most importantly, clear ideas that could also be understood by non-specialists.  We also started to address recent comments from the panel and the 2 chair advisers ( 5 total ).

At the Master and above level, most of the times, the personal is difficult to "extract" from the academic, thus personal stories are inevitable.  For Runner J, he saw a job ad ( for his current position ) and didn't think much of it.  He rationalized that the University would just hire from the inside ( common practice ), but he still applied believing that a higher power was involved in such serendipity. Not expecting much, he got the job, and everything that came with it was just "extra bonus."

Personal and professional growth were benefits Runner J reflected most about.  In managing people, he learned to be more flexible.  University policy aimed for retention of employers, thus he couldn't just fire for simple incompetence.  The firing of employers should be the last resort after every option had been exhausted.  So he focused instead in changing himself: leading by example to influence his subordinates to change themselves ( self-initiated more than external factors ).

I continued reading his thesis and one of his primary sources.  The information about a water shortage in 2025, and the outdated and dilapidated ( or even non-existent ) sewage system in the Philippines sounded scary.  With all this information, how do you stop yourself from growing crazy? Especially when there's a paucity of action? Is the government doing something about it? What are the people doing about this? Do they know?

Paraphrasing his approach of managing people through examples, he said, Start in one's home, then community, then town, and so forth.  ( I was thinking that with this "slow" method, world destruction would come sooner, BUT then again, if people were to keep their destructive ways, forcing them to change would only delay the apocalypse.  Changing and saving the world required changing people's hearts and outlook: thinking globally, while acting locally. )

In spite of the looming apocalypse, Runner J believes life can still be good.  One can drink coffee and tea, go fishing, or watch snow falling while clothes can dry faster in an air-conditioned room.  Reality of nano waves and quantum physics can give a different perspective on the ever expanding universe (infinity) as illustrated by our constantly updated technology ( smaller and faster devices with bigger spaces for memory ).  He's registered to complete his dissertation by the end of August (2011), and he's in the process of renewing his electrical engineering license.  As long as there's light, then there's life, even enough for the smallest bacteria to thrive, he says.