Well, after almost 2 months, 8 drafts, and a lot of work, I've arrived at my update dissertation proposal. This thing grew about 15 pages since my last draft.  Yes, some pages are blanks by virtue of needed to start something on a next page, or to not break-up a table, but I did end up having to explain some things a bit more based on the literature.  Hopefully I can form a committee soon, and get this thing reviewed by them, I also hope that any changes are minor ;-) I really just want to defend this proposal and officially be a 'candidate'.