Academia

I started off my school day at the meeting for dissertation writing at 9:00am. Well, that's a bit of lie - I started off my school day on a bus navigating its way through very bad traffic, causing me to be late, which infuriates me like nothing else. Perhaps I was have premonitions earlier, when I was a bit terse this morning... Anyway, I was somewhat relieved and disappointed to find out that the talk was no more than the lecturer reading from the 12 page handout that she emailed to us the week before. Grrr! Don't read to us, we can do that, tell us something! Having said that, the process has begun. We need to come up with a research question that will essentially occupy our thoughts and time for the next 5 months. Joy.

After speaking with 5 professors and chaning the the question, hell the topic, 5 times, I have my latest idea:

Why have American immigration policies become increasingly restrictive in numbers and type of immigrants since the country's inception (or perhaps since WWI or WWII, etc)?

I'm emailing it to a 6th lecturer today, so we'll see how much it changes by the time its due (Thursday).

Tonight: Tim, along with John and Mary and two of our faculty, Janet and Jim are meeting me at Deacon Brodies for a drink and then we are going to a lecture given by Irene Kahn.

6.30 pm, Assembly Hall, The Mound - The University of Edinburgh Enlightenment Lecture Series
Irene Khan (Secretary General of Amnesty International):
"'The War on Terror'....A War on Liberty?"