Slowly inching out a future...

Well, things are slowly moving forward here as far as career stuff goes.

I talked again with Mike today about what will happen in the future, and I gave him the go ahead to talk to the head of Payson about a position for me here. If all goes well, the final arrangement will look something like this:

I'll join TASC as a full-time employee in September. They'll pay me a real wage, how much exactly has not been discussed yet. I expect about 40K, but I could easily see it being less or more by 10K. I'll also work in some kind of capacity with Tulane as a visiting fellow, faculty member, or something... some kind of capacity in which I'll continue to take about 1 class a semester and also work to build projects and a relationship with Chulalongkorn U., a goal that Bill (the head of Payson) has had a for a few years but never got going. I'll also probably work occasionally with Phuong if/when she needs some help in this part of the world (i.e. a tsunami project).

In return I'll get a real salary, tuition waiver, eventually a phd, and of course all the experience. It'll take a while, but at the end of 2 or 3 years of this I should come out very well qualified to either continue here or move to any number of other positions that requires data analysis, survey design/implementation, population surveillance, injury epidemiology expertise, or maybe even NGO management. Add a doctoral degree to that and I think I'll be in good shape. And I'll do this without having to live hand-to-mouth, which I've been doing way too much of since I left Singapore.

We'll see... it is a bit scary, I do miss home. But it's time I picked my own path and made it work, you know? And this way I get to do a large variety of interesting work that fits my skills (amazingly enough), get paid (eventually, very well I think), and travel (on company expense, hopefully!).

Now... can I get an X-Box live account?

Thupt!

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From Chulalongkorn University...

Hello again,

I am here working on what my friend calls the "magic table"... an Excel spreadsheet that does just about everything you could want an spreadsheet to do. Well, everything within reason. I'm working from Chulalongkorn University, or, "Chula" for short. I'm with a doctoral student who will be travelling to the U.S. for 6 months to study with the "Wetern Institutional Review Board" in Olympia, Washington. Her name is Orapin. We are doing our best to make sense of the Thai data set.

I've been quite busy this week... Mike is gone again, so I've been just plowing through the data. The good news is that we are almost finished. Which is good, because there's another major project lined up for me. The Bangladeshi's are setting up a monitoring system and are in the process of designing their database. I'm not an expert, but I have some experience in that from my old job at TurfCentric so I'll probably head out that way in a week or two.

Other than that, everything is moving along. BKK is hot, as usual, but a few degrees cooler than a month ago. I'm starting to dream of the beach... maybe time for a little weekend get-away!

Thupt.

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It's another boy!

Babies, babies, everywhere. No, E didn't have twins (that would make P the dark lord of the Sith, right?).

But, in case others don't know, as I didn't, Julie and Benjamin also recently had a child. I don't know exactly when, but it was very recently. The newborn's name is Thomas Benjamin (same as dad).

Congratulations.

First I watched as all my friends were married, now I watch as they all have babies. I'm falling behind the curve, eh?

Thupt.

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It's a boy!

Congratulations, E & P!

E has yet to post her thoughts... probably because she's got more important things to do. But Kristy has posted some brief news and everyone is happy and healthy.

Elsewhere around the blogosphere, Alan is taking a Llama-like hiatus from blogging, and Hunter has gone on a political rampage. Look out, Bill Frist...

Here in BKK the Bossman #1 is gone again. He'll be back in a week. So until then I'm left to produce a bunch of aggregate charts and then adjust them (i.e. find a legitimate way to increase the numbers that we want to demonstrate as large). That's one bit about this work that I haven't yet warmed up to... not cheating with data, exactly, but doing everything possible to a data set so that it will match the results that we want to show. Bossman #1 would vehemently object to that characterization, but that's how I see it...

Coffee... now...

Thupt

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Revenge of the Sith

Thank you, George Lucas.

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Short Stuff

First of all, thanks to everyone that offered their thoughts about whether I should stay here or come back to Louisiana. It was very useful in helping me to sort things out. Sometimes a point seems obvious, but doesn't actually crystalize until someone states it in the open. I haven't yet decided which road to take, but I'm leaning pretty heavily towards staying here. I wrote an email to Phuong explaining it and asking for her thoughts, and she gave her blessing if I want to remain. She says she has other students that can step in for me if I don't come back. So, that removes some of the reason for returning.

I plan to give it another couple of weeks and then commit one way or the other.

Last night at Gulliver's they were showing "professional" wrestling. It was the return of Hulk Hogan. Guy was looking pretty old, but still had more muscles than you can shake a stick at. It was both funny and embarassing, though, to see these blatantly fake punches and kicks and overly dramatic flops all done against an American flag backdrop. Especially when the very same television will show on other nights muay thai and this other crazy extreme fighting show... in both of which the violence is very real and very dangerous. To see the two up against it each other... it just seemed the perfect metaphore for America's relationship with the world.

That's it for now.

Thupt.

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Decisions, decisions

Well, opportunity is knocking.

I've said all along that there was a chance I could stay here in Thailand for longer than 6 months, if the work was rewarding and if I proved my worth as an asset to the organization. Well, at least one of those questions has now been answered, at least partly.

As you may or may not know, I've been accepted into Payson's phd program. This is good news, of course, but pretty much expected as I did well at the Master's level. It has also been confirmed that I have a source of graduate-level income (i.e. small) from my teacher, Phuong, who has offered me a research assistant position working under her. The only question mark regarding Payson then is if I will get a tuition waiver from the school for the 12-16 hours of course work still required. Phuong wrote to me an email saying that she was lobbying for me... but no answer as of yet.

Meanwhile, I spoke with Mike (Bossman #1) about this yesterday. He asked me what I wanted to do as far as tying my work here in with my phd. I responded with a fairly arbitrary decision that I made a few weeks ago: my first choice is to take classes remotely and continue to work here, for TASC, in Bangkok. The work is stimulating, rewarding, and relatively low stress; and the environment (Bangkok) is more intellectually, culturally, and personally stimulating that taking the safe road back in Louisiana. I could easily move back there and be happy, but here I feel I have more opportunity to grow.

Anyway, Mike steps up to the plate and offers to use his personal connections with the head of Payson to get me a tuition waiver, if I stay here. That's great news, right? Yeah... but, I really didn't think I'd have a choice in the matter. I figured I'd either have to come back to Louisiana to work with Phuong, or if that didn't come through I'd really need to stay here because this is where work is. I thought the decision would be made for me... but it looks like I can go either way now. What to do? I miss everyone and my gut reaction is a little bit of dread about staying for more than 6 months, but, for the reasons I stated above, intellectually I think i will be better served by staying.

It's a big decision... what to do, what to do?

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The Return of the Mac

Who's Mac, anyway? Not I, that's for sure. I might be a mic... maybe a muc. Definately not a mac.

I have to say the appearance of Bang Bang Boogie brings happiness to my heart. So glad to hear from you, man.

Ok, so what's up? Bangkok is... well, not quite as hot as it once was, but still hot enough to boil a monkee's bum. We don't quite get all the hype about everything over here at near the same level as you do in the States, but I am so geeked about Revenge of the Sith. I don't know why... I watched Attack of the Clones again last night and it didn't hold up as well as I hoped. Well, part of it was because I was watching on this little computer with tinny sound out of an on-board sound processor. Once again I was impressed with Hayden Christensen, though. I know he was widely criticized for wooden acting, but I just don't see it. The real problem is the lines he was given by Sir George.

That's a tangent. The only thing I'm trying to say is that I'm looking forward to the next one, fully plan to see it at least twice within the first week, and already have plans with some folks at the office to see it on opening day. Woo. Hoo.

My sister is coming in July... yay! She'll have a blast, especially on the beaches. The kids will love the elephants, the monkees, and Disneyland Thailand! No, just kidding, of course. If anyone else would like to saunter over, you can stay at my place. Pretty much anytime is fine with me.

I feel like I should write something curious about Thai life... but I think I'm becoming used to everything enough that I don't really notice the pecularities anymore. Oh, here's one. When you buy yogurt at the quickstop or even a full grocery store, they always give a little plastic spoon with which to eat it. And when you buy a drink, they give you a straw. Sanuk, chai mai?

Chok di na krap

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For immediate release

Greetings, Earthlings.

The human that used to write in these spaces has been unable to post due to an unforseen (on his part) abduction (on our part). The human was less than thrilled with the various tests to which he was subjected, but I am happy to report that he has come through all in one piece (mostly). He sends his deepest regards to those friends and family that were thinking well of him, and his condolences to those that were not quite as supportive (the human was kind enough to provide us with your earthly coordinates; we'll be in touch).

I suspect he will soon be able to resume his irregular postings - that's assuming that the new appendages we grafted onto him hold up. But until you hear directly from him, allow me to pass along this brief message from the human:

"POOORK!"

Sincerely,

Granthar, Probe-Master General
Earth Observation Unit
Pan-Galactic Development Force

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