Personal Stuff

Grad Student Routine

6:30am	Wake up and lie awake in bed.
6:31	Realize you spent $18 on last night's dinner, means no eating out for the next 6 weeks.
6:32	Hit snooze button. Go back to sleep.
7:00	Wake up suddenly with heart in mouth when you realize you didn't hit the snooze button--you turned it off.
7:01	fall asleep again.
7:44	Wake up with heart in mouth again.
7:45	Ready to go to school(ie.university/college in india), will shave tomorrow, will eat early brunch at (Denny's/Penny's/Lenny's/Dinko's whatever cafeteria).
8:03	Arrive at school. Realize your foreign office mate arrieved earlier today. Must have got more work done
8:04	Pass by Advisor's office, chat with Secretary to find out if he is coming in today. He is, darn. Need to start work on the draft due this afternoon.
8:15	Read electronic mail
8:20	Delete mail from students taking CMPSC201 regarding questions about the class. Hate your TA job. Depression: too much work to do today
9:00	For jumpstart: go to Pepsi machine.
9:05	Kick Pepsi machine; promise yourself to call up the company and ask for your money back. Wonder why they would believe you.
9:33	Start printing out loads of stuff that may be vaguely related to your work.
9:41	Early morning stupefaction. Mutter racist comments to yourself about your office mate.
9:43	Curse your office mate in a low voice. Feel good about him not grasping English well.
9:58	Finger everyone in the department and most people half way around the world (using the "finger" command, of course)
10:19	Feel sleepy, should not have stayed late playing tetris last night.
10:31	Momentary panic attack!!!!!!!!!!!!
10:43	Edit .plan file. write a shell program to edit .plan more easily
10:59	Drop in at advisor's office and borrow something you don't need & and kinda make him aware you are working hard on your project
11:05	Perverted daydreams
11:11	Read electronic news Mid-morning yawn time
11:34	Start typing junk at a very high key-in rate to pretend you are working hard as your advisor passes by from outside.
11:35	Press the BackSpace key for one and a half minute until all the garbage you typed in is erased. Realize that you can type more than 256 characters per half minute
11:41	Flirt with the new girl in the department
11:45	Print out some slides for afternoon's draft + presentation
11:47	Print them again, you forgot to change the date from last presentation
11:49	Print another copy in case this one gets lost
11:51	Completely forget about sueing the coffee-machine company
12:15pm	Hunger pangs:
12:20	BigMac/Fries time Drink a not-so-cold generic can of cola from your desk. Ch-Ching, you just saved 35 cents by buying bulk cola.
1:00	Group Meeting with advisor
1:14	Sudden awareness of one's shallowness Resentment towards foreign office mate for sucking up to your advisor Get reminded by your advisor that you need to do some more work for your literature survey.
1:51	Advisor hands you the reddened copy of your draft for corrections
1:51:02	The 49 second urge to murder advisor begins!!
1:51:52	Realize that he controls your assistantship/grade/graduation possibility/graduation date/all job opportunities/and the rest of your life.
1:52:53	Thank him
1:52:54	Thank yourself for not saying something stupid to your advisor.
1:53:00	Splitting headache #1
1:59	Check electronic mail, don't reply though, you are too busy to do that
2:06	More generic cola
2:17	Oh No, it is my turn to cook tonight :-(
2:30	Sit through the class you were told to sit through
2:39	Look outside the window make unrealistic plans to quit this degree program and take up a job. Wonder why blonde girls are so pretty.
2:48	More perverted day-dreams. Close the office door and open a few .gif files. Sharpen pencil
3:06	Worry about never graduating time to write a letter--NOT! no time for that. Rearrange desk Call up bank; see if you have any money Fear of losing aid next Fall Read latex manuals to figure out how to put &$%&% in %$^% format
3:43	Watch the clock; make plans to do a all-nighter tonight Vow to watch only 2 TV programs
4:58	Notice Advisor leave
4:58:01	Sudden sense of freedom Go home for quick, short dinner break.
9:00	Come into the office
9:01	The hard working grad student you are, you have to come to the office late at night to "get the work done"
9:03	Check electronic mail Decide it would be a good time to attack those ftp sites since network wont be loaded Run into "since network wont be loaded" traffic and get the pictures into your machine. Compress all unwanted research/class directories to make space. Back up all your pictures
10:11	Admire pictures Begin work; Realize you need references Realize its too late today to go to the library Sudden feeling of having wasted the day
10:49	Sudden feeling of possibly having to waste the night Decide to turn in early and come back very early tomorrow morning Decide to play a Tetris on the system to put yourself in a good mood.
11:15	Play game after game after game to improve your score and get on the scoreboard. Realize that your office mate is still at number 6, two notches above you on the scoreboard
12:20am	Play until you beat your office mate into the 7th place. A sense of achievement!! Yes, today was not wasted!! Return home to find your roommate watching David Letterman reruns on NBC. Tell him about the "hard working grad student day you had" Discuss philosophy with roommate
1:09	Think about becoming a philosopher and dining with 4 others (The Dining Philosophers problem, hee hee :-) (Comp Sci joke) Argue with him about politics, why people prefer Japanese cars and whether it is better to set the heat to "hot" or "cold" to defrost the windshields faster.
1:49	Realize neither of you have bought milk today Get reminded of the "too much milk problem"
2:04	Forget about getting up early. Turn the phone ringer off and go to sleep.

(repeat)

Source: Grad Student Routine

Quotes [Back to the Top]

It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.
--- Albert Einstein
A majority is always better than the best repartee.
--- Benjamin Disraeli
A University should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.
--- Benjamin Disraeli
The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
--- Benjamin Disraeli
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
--- Benjamin Disraeli
The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.
--- Confucius
A great fortune depends on luck, a small one on diligence.
--- Chinese Proverb
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
--- Menander Of Athens
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
--- Winston Churchill
What I do today is important because I am paying a day of my life for it. What I accomplish must be worthwhile because the price is high.
--- Unknown
Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.
--- Admiral Hyman Rickover
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.
--- Henry C. Link
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
--- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
--- Samuel Johnson
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill ... Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance.
--- Samuel Johnson
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
--- William Shakespeare
That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in. and the best of me is diligence.
--- William Shakespeare
When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work.
--- George Bernard Shaw
Every noble work is at first impossible.
--- Thomas Carlyle
In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart.
--- Ann Frank
Some people will believe anything if you whisper it to them.
--- Louis B. Nizer
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be guarded by a bodyguard of lies.
--- Winston Churchill
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
--- James Madison (while a United States Congressman)
We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.
--- David Rockefeller
Children smile on the average 400 times/day; Adults: 15 times/day. Ever wonder why?
--- Anonymous
It takes 26 muscles to smile, and 62 muscles to frown.
--- Anonymous
Thinking a smile all the time will keep your face youthful.
--- Burgess (Frank) Gelett
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Personal

Food for Thoughts

Jaehan's Reference Guides

Jaehan's Poetry Collection

What "PhD" Really Stands For

Newton's Three Laws of Graduation

The PhD Comics Guid to T.A. Office Hours

Reimbursement

The Nine Types of Principal Investigators (PIs)

The Twelve Types of Graduate Students

The Nine Types of Post-Doctoral Fellows

Evolution of a Post-Doctoral Fellow

National Institutes of the Extramural Blues

Grad Student Routine