Damn it

Yesterday was not good. A lot of crap happened. But before studying I tried to find some information on how to solve a problem on Jackson's E&M and OMG I had forgotten how bad that book is. It is impossible to read. It appears to be in a code that only aliens or dead people can understand. Maybe it was written by Jesus. Maybe it is the bible (blasphemy, blasphe you, blas for everybody in the room lol). Or maybe it was brought by some space carrier from some distant planet. Perhaps it was introduce by Nazis who wanted to torture people (Physics Grad Students). But we all know the story. It was written by Jackson. I don't even think he understands what he wrote and in the middle of it he changes the units from one system to another. It is all crap. Maybe he was stoned when he wrote it. I guess that would have been fun. Stoned and saying the Maxwell's Equations (wow that was nerdy). After I finished studying and went home, I looked through the window and couldn't see very well outside. It was a dust storm followed by lightning and a little bit of rain. It is official people. The monsoon season is here and the freaking temperature is still above 110 F.

"El propósito muda al sabio. El necio persevera."
-Fernando de Rojas

blinky blinky

so today was fairly amusing. my advisor had two visitors in the office today, two guys that she went to grad school with and is now working on a project with. they were using these blinking lights for a physics demonstration and a few with them (they are basically these little blinking leds that you can magnetically attach to your clothes or something else. they are marketed for "discos and concerts"). so Brian and I were playing around with those for a while, and let's just say that he did something that made our advisor nearly die laughing. it was great. angel has pictures, but I doubt Brian would like them posted on the internet. ;-)

we also went to lunch (yay free food) with the other professors and we all had a good time trying to decide the best way to annoy their past advisor while we're at the conference we're going to in a few weeks. should be amusing.

anyway, studying is going ok. I am reading griffiths and I think it is helping me understand what is going on. apparently there are a lot of things that I just never understood when I was going through my undergrad stuff, so it's good to go over it so I have a better conceptual understanding of what I'm doing. I'm just worried that I'm going to run out of time.

I guess I'm at this point where I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to pass it this time around, but I feel absolutely confident that if I fail, I will be able to pass it in January. so that's good.

Angel, you need to think positively! if you go into the test thinking you're going to fail, then you have no chance at all. I am trying to be realistic, but I also have to be optimistic or there's no point at all. maybe it's just because I'm naturally a very optimistic person and can't really help but think that way, but I really believe that your attitude has an influence on what happens. please don't quit! we have exactly four weeks. it's possible!

Yay I'm posting before Cynthia!!!!!

Today was crap. I had to wake up at 8:30 am (too early for a grad student about to take the comps). As soon as I got to my office I notice the ac was broken. It was freaking hot. It was 114 F outside and like 120 F inside. I had to grade sweating like a pig. Then teaching time followed by STUDYING. I didn't do much today. E&M sucks. Brian did the funniest thing though. Cynthia might explain it better. Procrastination time was great. We watched some Daily Show with Jon Stewart episodes (the ones from the Republican National Convention). Tomorrow I have to buy another copy of Griffiths' E&M book. Mine is in Puerto Rico so it will take forever to get here. I'll get the new version (if there is one). Cynthia I need encouragement or I'll quit this week.

PS
"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."
Thomas Edison

I need a wok

So another day in the life of the slaved and crazy went by. I woke up and went to work. My work load keeps getting bigger and bigger. After all the crap and meetings I had to study (of course). I went to Cynthia's apartment and while thinking about the complexity of Electricity and magnetism and solving a complicated but interesting (sarcasm) problem I thought and said out loud: "I need a wok". After that came procrastination time and Cynthia watched Sex and the City while I criticized the program (it is a bunch of stupid lies that don't represent the truth, I think it hurts the image of women, anyways). Then we watched the new episode of Real World Austin. After that I went into the denial phase: I don't think I should take the comps. Life should only be about wanting a wok.

Woks Amazon

well today was another day. I continued with my reading of griffith's introduction to electrodynamics (but I haven't yet gotten to brian's favorite chapter, chapter 7). I think it will help a lot. although this evening while we were doing problems, it seemed to make absolutely no difference (although I will say that the problems I was working on were on a totally different topic in e&m than the stuff I went over. so of course it didn't help. *sigh*).

and here's an interesting article on cnn about how being a geek is now cool. or something like that. thanks gregg.

This sucks

Hello world of Physics!

I guess every Physics grad student knows the pain we've been going through. It is better to show our struggle with pictures.

the idea

so, while Angel and I were studying today, we realized that we had exactly 30 days left until we take the comprehensive exam (comp) that will allow us to continue on our quest to get a ph.d. in physics. at the same moment, we had a brainstorm. why don't we document our progress over the next 30 days and see what happens as the physics slowly kills us. we were obviously inspired by Morgan Spurlock's tv show of the same name (check it out here). this will hopefully give all our readers a better idea of what it is really like to be a physics graduate student.