From: godura@thorin.cis.udel.edu (Ruchir Godura)
Subject: Grad life ..
Organization: University of Delaware, Newark
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 20:39:45 GMT

I know, I know this must have appeared before on SCI, but for the sake
of those who came in late .. (like me) :
Plagiarized from an unknown source ..


>  ********************************************************************
>      
> A Grad Student emotional check-list
>      
> 7:30am	Wakeup and lie awake in Bed
> 7:31am	Realize you spent $18 on last night's dinner, means no eating out
> 	for the next 6 weeks
> 7:45 am Ready to go to school, will shave tommorrow, will eat early brunch at
> 	(Denny's/Penny's/Lenny's/Dinko's whatever cafeteria).
> 8:03 am Arrive at school
> 	Realize King Kong Pong (chinese officemate) arrived earlier today
> 	must have got more work done
> 8:04am  Pass by Advisor's office, cack with secy to find out if he is
> 	coming in today. He is, darn.
> 	Need to start work on the draft due for the afternoon.
> 8:15am	Read mail
> 8:20	Delete mail from students taking EE 434 regarding questions about the class
> 	Depression: too much work to do today
> 9:00	For jumpstart: go to coffee machine.
> 9:05 	Kick coffee machine; promise yourself to call up the company
> 	and ask for your quarter.
> 	Wonder why they would beleive you.
> 	Realize, this is america, they will beleive you than hassle 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 officemate
> 9:43	Curse your officemate in Hindi
> 	Feel good about he not knowing Hindi
> 9:58	finger everyone at the office and most people half way
> 		around the world (using the "finger" command, of course)
> 10:19	Feel sleepy, should not have stayed late playing tetrishack 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 boss(advisor)'s office and borrow something you dont need
> 	& and kinda make him aware you are working hard on xyz
> 11:05	perverted daydreams
> 11:11	read news
> 	mid-morning numbness
> 11:34 	Start typing junk at a very high key-in rate to pretend
> 	you are working hard as the boss passby from outside.
> 11:35   Press the BackSpace key for 1 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	rebuffed flirtation 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
>      
> 12:15  	Hunger pangs:
> 12:20	Yogurt/BigMac time
> 	Drink a not-so-cold can of coke from your desk.
> 	Ch-Ching, you just saved 35 cents by buying bulk coke
> 	O what a country
> 1:00	Group Meeting with boss
> 1:14	sudden awareness of one's shallowness
> 	resentment to King Kong
> 	Get reminded that you need to do some more literature-survey
> 1:51	Boss hands you the reddened copy of your draft for corrections
> 1:51:02	urge to murder boss
>      
> 1:51:52 Realize that he controls your paycheck/grade/vacation/late nights/social
>  life/getting a paper out/graduation possiblity/graduation date if
>  applicable/job opportunity and the rest of your life.
>      
> 1:52:53	Thank him
> 1:53:00 splitting headache #1
> 1:59	check mail, dont reply though
> 2:06	more coffee
> 2:17 	Oh No, it is my turn to cook tonite :-(
> 2:30	Sit through the class you were told to sit through
> 2:39	looking outside the window
> 	unrealistic plans to quit this degree program and take up a job
> 	Wonder why blonde girls are so pretty
> 2:48	perverted day-dreams
> 	Close the office door and open a few gif files.
> 	read alt.sex.pictures
> 	sharpen pencil
> 3:06 	worrying about never graduating
> 	time to write a letter
> 	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 tonite
> 	Vow to watch only 2 TV programs
> 4:58	Notice Boss leave
> 4:58:01 Sudden sense of freedom
>      
> 9:00pm	Come into the office
> 9:01pm	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 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 too late to go to the library today
> 	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 early morning tommorrow
> 	Decide to play a game 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 King Kong Pong is still at number 6 two notches
> 	above you.
> 12:20	Play until you beat King Kong Pong into the 7th place.
> 	A sense of achievment
> 	Return home to find your roommate watching David Letterman
> 	Tell him about the "hard working grad student day you had"
> 	Discuss philosophy with roommate
> 1:09	Think about becoming a philosopher and dine with 4 others
> 	Argue with him about Indian politics and why people prefer Japanese
> 	cars.
> 	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.
> 



> 
> ****************************************************************************
>                   Understanding Your Thesis Supervisor
> ****************************************************************************
> 
> WHAT YOUR SUPERVISOR SAYS             WHAT YOUR SUPERVISOR MEANS
> - -------------------------             --------------------------
> 
> Look on this as a learning            You're going to suffer
> experience
> 
> Let me explain the format of the      Let me make you even more nervous
> defence
> 
> I'm here to lend you support          I'm here to destroy you so you won't
>                                       look smarter than me
> 
> I found the overall concept           This is my token compliment before
> interesting                           ripping your idea to shreds
> 
> I would like to have had more time    I didn't read it
> to study this
> 
> I have some concerns about the        I hate the theory but I can't insult
> theory upon which your study is       the author so I'll insult your work
> based                                 instead
> 
> There are some aspects of the         I read it but I just don't remember
> study that I would like to hear       anything about it
> more about
> 
> Your hypotheses are not strongly      You came up with an innovative idea
> enough linked to the existing         and I want to make sure you never do
> literature                            it again
> 
> Your research is an interesting       Why didn't I think of this before
> extension of my own work              you did?
> 
> You have failed to take into          You failed to cite me
> account some of the more relevant
> literature
> 
> I would like you to explain...        I don't know anything about this stuff
>                                       so you'll have to explain it to me
> 
> Your statistical results don't        I don't understand statistics
> seem to support your hypothesis
> 
> Your selection of statistical         I'm the only one here that understands
> tests is rather simplistic            statistics and I wanted to rub it in
> 
> How did you ensure that you had       I had to come up with at least one
> drawn a random sample?                question and this one always works
> 
> Let's wrap this up                    I'm hungry
> 
> Could you step out of the room        We decided beforehand to give you your
> while the committee comes to a        degree, but we still want to make you
> decision?                             sweat some more
> 
> *****************************************************************************






-- 
Ruchir Godura | godura@cis.udel.edu | (302) 731-4123 (H) (302) 831-1949 (W)