From: sokay@cyclone.mitre.org (Stephen J. Okay)
Subject: Re: tiredness.
Organization: Mitre Corporation, McLean, VA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 00:16:41 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.212844.14472@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> rfarmer@nyx.cs.du.edu (Rex Farmer) writes:
>In article <1992Sep28.171605.18299@linus.mitre.org> sokay@cyclone.mitre.org (Stephen J. Okay) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep28.145241.1804@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> rfarmer@nyx.cs.du.edu (Rex Farmer) writes:
>>>
>In a brief plug for Canada we can at least get through University here
>without being totally crushed by dept.  In a brief plug for Physics, if
>you're a resonably good student they've got piles o' money for you in
>grad school.  CS is pretty good too.

Hmmph...I knew that BA wasn't going to come in handy some day...
bah.

>> >ObAngst:I will have to
>pick up an assistantship or something somewhere after the >first year
>or so if I want to be able to keep doing this and I don't know how
>hard >that is.
>
>Teaching assistantship is not so bad, although I personally avoid it 
>because I don't think I am very good at interacting with the
>confused undergrads.  Research assistantship is much better if you've
>found a good prof.  At some universities the TA is expected to teach
>classes and stuff which would totally suck.

I'm not so worried about DOING it as I am about being able to GET it.

>I'm just worried that one day I will have to go out in the real world
>where I gather they expect performance and stuff and they tend to like
>hiring the tall suit types and not guys like me who look like they're
>16 complete with acne.

Enjoy it while you can...I've been out here for over 3.5 years now and can
attest to the fact that its NotAFunWorld. Oh to escape back to the hallowed
halls and bury myself in some totally-cool-yet-meaningless-outside-the-confines
-of-the-lab-environment type project.

To be fair, I have to say that what I'm doing is a lot better than what I *COULD*
be doing. I managed to escape the throes of sysadminship for the much greener
pastures of network programming. The kind of stuff that results in late nights in
the labs, rapid accumulation of pizza boxes and a Factor 6 tremor from the
all the caffeine.. 

>like to beat hell >to hell so to speak".--Spalding Gray "Monster in a
>box"
>
>I saw most of Spalding Gray's piece on the Killing Fields.  He's great.
>What was that one called?

Its called "Swimming to Cambodia"...I've looked for it, but haven't been able
to find it. I saw "Clara's Heart" last week, which he talks about some in
"Monster". "Monster" is about all the interruptions that happened when he went to
write a book after doing "Swimming". Its both a movie and a 2-CD set on
Gang Of Seven records..get it(Monster), its good.

Another favorite quote:"I look out the window at the Cold Grey Russian Winter and
all I see is grey white snow coming down on grey white snow. Renee' calls to me
from the bathroom and asks 'What do ya see hon?' And I go:'Naaaaaathing, Naaaathing
NOTHING!!!HAHAHAHA! It's like a Beckett play NOTHING!'

---Steve

-- 
Stephen Okay  sokay@mitre.org
"You see, I'm kind of this control freak who likes to create his own
personal hells before the real one can get to him. I like to beat hell
to hell so to speak".--Spalding Gray "Monster in a box"
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