Yeah, so it has been a while since I have posted anything. That is not to say I have not wanted to write. The present moment in time is very busy and stressful. I am reminded of a famous quote by one Marge Simpson:
"Bart, don’t make fun of graduate students. They just made a terrible life decision."
Well, let me tell you a little bit about what I do.
At minimum I put in 10 hours a day, showing up at the lab at 8 AM and leaving no later than 6 PM, and just for good measure I put in another 5 hours or more of studying, reading, writing or cleaning up the lab on Saturday or in the evening when my energy permits. I am almost done with the boring menial task of taking classes. I am down to only one this quarter. I am one of the lucky ones who is receiving funding from an external grant for my research (thank you very much Bausch and Lomb). That money keeps me out of the teaching laboratories where I would have to deal with the juvenile complaints and excuses from undergrad chemistry students. Instead I spend my time in my research laboratory doing as many experiments as possible. Some give me the desired result while others continually mock me and require seemingly endless patience as I try try again. It's things like that which contribute to a low level of natural inner rage* I seem to carry with me throughout the day.
After I work, I try to fit in a good solid workout because I still have this residual addiction to running due to my days of running cross country and track. That also serves as a good and necessary release for the inner rage.
Now if I ever have time after that... I try to do some leisure reading. Oh yeah... and all that other stuff necessary for running one's life, like paying bills, laundry, grocery shopping (see September 23's post for an explanation of my disdain for such activities). Those activities actually contribute to the inner rage so that brings me back to square-one!
Oh, and on top of that I am taking on the monumental task of finding and applying for a job to launch my career as I do not plan on being a graduate student forever. It's not much of a lucrative position.
And... I do have a girlfriend whom I like to spend time with. The inner rage really bites me in the ass on this one. The lack of time and extra stress adds up lately to one strained relationship with two frustrated people involved. :-( Not all things are for blogging, so that's about as personal as I am going to get with that topic.
*Inner rage: This personal phenomena (whose name I attribute to Tim) is best summed up with the fact that at any given moment there is something on my mind that is really pissing me off and if brought to light in just the right way will set me off very nicely. A healthy level of inner rage is often what pushes me through the really difficult moments of any given day.
After I work, I try to fit in a good solid workout because I still have this residual addiction to running due to my days of running cross country and track. That also serves as a good and necessary release for the inner rage.
Now if I ever have time after that... I try to do some leisure reading. Oh yeah... and all that other stuff necessary for running one's life, like paying bills, laundry, grocery shopping (see September 23's post for an explanation of my disdain for such activities). Those activities actually contribute to the inner rage so that brings me back to square-one!
Oh, and on top of that I am taking on the monumental task of finding and applying for a job to launch my career as I do not plan on being a graduate student forever. It's not much of a lucrative position.
And... I do have a girlfriend whom I like to spend time with. The inner rage really bites me in the ass on this one. The lack of time and extra stress adds up lately to one strained relationship with two frustrated people involved. :-( Not all things are for blogging, so that's about as personal as I am going to get with that topic.
*Inner rage: This personal phenomena (whose name I attribute to Tim) is best summed up with the fact that at any given moment there is something on my mind that is really pissing me off and if brought to light in just the right way will set me off very nicely. A healthy level of inner rage is often what pushes me through the really difficult moments of any given day.
No comments:
Post a Comment