Consider taking a leave

[leecarrot]

First, happy new year to all and wishing FF an upcoming happy birthday ;-).

I don't know how to start asking for advice...Looking back at 2009, it has been a difficult year to focus on anything. It's so easy to get lost in loneliness and sadness from falling behind in so many things... I really failed to make the best out of it. The Wen Qu (Hua Ji) document problem for 2009, coupled with the Wu Wu self punishment in the decade luck seems to manifest. After so many unsuccessful attempts to understand what Yi Jing was trying to tell me, I think I should just post this.

The registration deadline is less than two days away... Since the professor I asked to supervise my thesis was away until Jan 19, he probably didn't have time to reply to my email and read the proposal I sent last week. It is all my fault for waiting so long to contact him. Plus I didn't get him to officially become my supervisor yet.  The school wants to know if I decide to stay or transfer to the other university where he's teaching (as it is a joint master program). If I stay, I need to find a co-supervisor from my uni with the same research interests. I have asked the graduate director, but it was not his area of expertise.

I procrastinated a lot until I deserve this. Last year, it was very nice of the prof to agree to supervise. Since he was out of country for a while, we only communicated by emails without making it official. He assigned me initial readings to help me arrive at a topic for my thesis, but I was having hard time understanding the papers. It was really tough to compile different papers into something new, that nobody has done before.

Then I was too occupied and stressful with the class I was taking. Again, didn't manage to do much about it... Finally, I pushed myself to read more papers during the holidays. It was a long process to make a small progress, but I guess it's too late now :'(.

I have considered asking other professors who might be available since I didn't hear from this professor yet. But the more I think about it, I will feel guilty if I proceed. It is no surprise he will not be happy with me, but I still want to talk to him properly and apologize.

So the last option will be to take a leave this semester, despite the fact of not being able to finish by August. Perhaps I can just look at it as a way to save money for the tuition fee, and register again in May. I can still keep working from home. Another thing I can probably take up during the leave is to contact the founder of a start-up company (recommended by a professor). Soon or later, I will need to get a relevant work experience (I'm not even sure how much this master degree would help sometimes). They started hiring back in December, but I didn't contact them as I wanted to focus on my thesis. The company designs visualization tools to help other companies identify their business market or ecosystems.

Well, I guess I will find out tomorrow if the school accepts my reason of taking the leave. Any advice is welcome and will be appreciated. Thank you very much.

[Ken]

Hi Leecarrot,

I got this

本卦   互卦 变卦 错卦 综卦 
火泽睽   水火既济 天泽履 水山蹇 风火家人 
▄▄▄▄▄    ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄ 
▄▄　▄▄  x ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄ 
▄▄▄▄▄    ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄ 
▄▄　▄▄    ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄ 
▄▄▄▄▄    ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄ 
▄▄▄▄▄    ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄　▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄ 

《易经》第三十八卦 睽 火泽睽 离上兑下
  睽：小事吉。彖曰：睽，火动而上，泽动而下； 二女同居，其志不同行；说而丽乎明，柔进而上行，得中而应乎刚；是以小事吉。 天地睽，而其事同也；男女睽，而其志通也；万物睽，而其事类也；睽之时用大矣哉！象曰：上火下泽，睽；君子以同而异。
初九：悔亡，丧马勿逐，自复；见恶人无咎。
象曰：见恶人，以辟咎也。
九二：遇主于巷，无咎。
象曰：遇主于巷，未失道也。
六三：见舆曳，其牛掣，其人天且劓，无初有终。
象曰：见舆曳，位不当也。 无初有终，遇刚也。
九四：睽孤，遇元夫，交孚，厉无咎。
象曰：交孚无咎，志行也。
六五：悔亡，厥宗噬肤，往何咎。
象曰：厥宗噬肤，往有庆也。
上九：睽孤， 见豕负涂，载鬼一车， 先张之弧，后说之弧，匪寇婚
媾，往遇雨则吉。
象曰：遇雨之吉，群疑亡也。

It says you are bugged by a document issue.  Now you are looking out for something.  The process may on the surface seem deterimental to you, but overall is a blessing in disguise.  The end result is to your advantage and the name of the Hexagram 履 suggest you should travel or stand by what you have said or promised.

[leecarrot]

Hi Ken,

Thank you very much for looking into this. It's a relief to hear this, as I couldn't sleep waiting for his reply. I will wait until the professor comes back and talk to him. Hopefully, he can give some feedback on my proposal. I prepared the form for tomorrow. Instead of asking for extension (since my time was up last year), I will just ask for a leave and continue to work from home. Really have to learn from my mistakes, it's always difficult to get started on a new task.

Thanks again & best regards. Will update my situation ;-).

[leecarrot]

Hi Ken,

I want to thank you again for giving me the assurance that things will work out. I still can't believe how things unfold. The professor is very nice... Two weeks ago, on the 20th - Geng Wu (ding fire: direct officer) day, I received an official letter from the faculty of graduate studies that they approved my leave of absence, and also granted an extension for another semester. I heard from the prof on the same day too.

Finally met him in person on Monday. It was very unexpected that he really went through my proposal carefully and supported the new idea to be investigated. He said the most important is my availability and willingness to work. He isn't concerned about my registration issue at all, and the fact that I was originally registered at the partner uni - we can easily switch me over in April.

I think it is good to finally have someone to push me, something that had been missing for a while. A bi-weekly meeting is scheduled so I can report to him verbally on my progress. He suggested to enter my proposal to the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Symposium. The news was so sudden on Tuesday that I have mixed feelings about it. I just don't think my work is good enough as I'm still in the early stage of research. But I'm touched that he has some faith in me than I do. He wrote me a letter of recommendation for this, and I submitted the paper to meet the deadline today.

The biggest challenge is always myself holding me back. I over-analyze things that I sometimes miss out the time to actually put my thoughts in action. When I submitted my package online, I noticed the submission was already number 50. Although I have always dreaded presentation, it would be nice for the paper to get in to benefit from the feedback/advice from others. But I also don't want to put my hope too high. Regardless of it's accepted or not, it has been a good motivation.

[Ken]

Hi leecarrot,

Great that things work out fine for you!  Hope the divination was of help.

[leecarrot]

Hi Ken,

The Yi Jing divination was really of help. I have been trying to do it myself for half year now, but I think my mind was not clear enough to understand the result. Especially if I do it too many times on the same question, then it becomes pointless. I'm very happy that I could turn to you for help.

Besides the ZWDS course, do you also offer a course in Yi Jing? Or plan to offer it in the future? Although my current situation does not allow me to invest time on this, it would be nice to learn from you once the study is done and work is stable. I hope I have the affinity to learn.

Thanks again  :-).

[Ken]

Hi Leecarrot,

Yes, I do intend to offer Yijing course.  You can contact me when you are ready to take it up.

[lucy]

ken,

when U intend to conduct the course , how long is th ecourse and what is the cost like?? like to know more on the application