From: hsb@ucselx.sdsu.edu (Hirdeypal S. Bhathal)
Subject: ****** A day in a grad desi's life ******
Organization: San Diego State University Computing Services
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 18:14:41 GMT





Day in a grad desi's life

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			STATUTORY WARNING :

The following material may be offensive to some readers: 

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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
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.
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Hirdeypal S.Bhathal

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian