Mid summer's day hell

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I have so much work my life can be summarized into 2 things: work and work. But even though I should strap myself to my desk and burn my eyes studying Stat Mech I decided to take a little bit of time and write some crap here. It doesn't matter what as long as it helps me procrastinate. I already prepared the class I have to teach tomorrow for Dr. Martin. I guess that will be kind of scary but I can do it. Cynthia is starting to hate me. Probably she associates me with studying and with comps. It is like the comps are the devil and every time you think about them you can hear Carmina Burana (O Fortuna) playing on the background. O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut descrescis. Listen there it is!!!! BTW I have a new camera. It is the Fujifilm Z1. I can put better pictures of studying time now. I'm selling my other digital camera if you are looking for one. Ok time to "fail", I mean grade some papers. I'll post something else tonight. See you!!!!

Angel

PS
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
-Albert Einstein

physics: the musical

so I have decided that the only way I will be able to learn all of the equations, formulas, mathematical tricks, and functional relationships that I need to pass the test is to put them into a musical. and then listen to it constantly for the next three weeks.
for some reason, I can remember the most obscure lines and facts from some of my favorite musicals but can't remember for the life of me how to solve some of these problems (which clearly are more relevant to my life right now then what alexi darling's (from that sleazy buzzline show) three phone numbers are (sorry, obligatory RENT reference - I can't help myself)).
this realization came after angel and I spent most of the day yesterday and today singing along to different songs from avenue q while we were studying. luckily some of those songs seem quite relevant to our current situation. to cheer myself up, I was trying to get us to sing monty python's "always look on the bright side of life": "when life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten, and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing". too bad I can't actually whistle.

grad school, eternal damnation....what's the difference?

today's PhD Comics was especially hilarious:



the studying keeps going...

It sucks to be me!

Cynthia and I came to the conclusion that we needed to pick a song to represent the pain and suffering we've been going through. After thinking for a while we decided that these songs are the best ones. They are from the Avenue Q (Broadway musical).
1) It sucks to be me
2) I wish I could go back to college
3) Schadenfreude (German for happiness of the misfortune of others)

Today we also started with the Stat Mech part of the comps. It was a lot easier than E&M. That is all for today. I am going to bake some cookies now. :-)

another one bites the dust

Angel says that I have to post. but I'm not really sure what to write. I did some studying this weekend, although not as much as I would have liked. but it was a relatively fun weekend, so I guess that's ok. friday night we said goodbye to James, the first casualty of grad school. although many people threatened to leave during the past year, he is the only one who is actually doing it. and although I don't usually like quitters, I understand why James has to leave and he is making the right decision. he needs to be happy and he definitely wasn't happy here (or as happy as he should be anyway). he will be missed, but hopefully he will come and visit sometime. :)

I came to a realization today: no matter how much I study, there will still be more I could do. I think that is the main difference between this test and every other test I have ever taken (except maybe the gre). with a normal test, you know what topics will be covered and you can study those and practice those problems and it will probably be ok. but this is completely different. there are way too many things that could be on the test to actually fully prepare for all of them. and, I guess the point is, is that you're not expected to get 100% on it. you only need to get 50%. that may not sound like a lot, but because you have no idea what is on it, it makes it very difficult to make sure that you study the right types of things. but even then, it comes down to dumb luck, if the problems on the test happen to be ones that you have studied (or similar type ones at least). and that just doesn't make me feel good about studying. someone said all this test really is is a test of how much time you put into studying. once you put in enough time, (assuming you understand what you are studying) you will pass. so the only thing to do it to keep studying.

It is really hard to study after a night of drinks

On Friday we said bye to James. He is going back to Socorro, New Mexico. We cooked for everyone and after that we drank a lot of alcohol. For dinner we had chicken parm (it was really good), with grilled vegetables and Caesar Salad. For those of you who are wondering chicken parm=chicken parmesan. Apparently people in the west don't know that and when we went last December to a restaurant and I ordered chicken parm everyone made fun of me. So after drinking I went to sleep and woke up at 9:36 am. My phone rang at that time and I heard the Willy Wonka song (of the new movie, my current ring tone) coming from under my body. After looking for the phone for like a minute I found it under the bed. Later that day we studied a little bit and decided we were so depressed we had to do something to fix that. Therefore we went to Ikea. Where else? So after walking through their show room and dying every time I saw something I liked we stopped at their cafeteria for some Swedish meatballs (the ones that you eat). After that we followed our journey through awesome furniture at great prices. We stopped at a couple of parts to buy a grilling pan, hangers, etc. While doing this I had one of my random thoughts: "I need a truck". Cynthia laughed a lot. Why would I want a truck, is not like I'm a republican. Half way through the store we saw this red trash can that looked like the Devo hats so we tried them and took a picture. We are big dorks.


Then we kept walking and when we left the store the dust storm that started before we got to Ikea had passed and the temperature for the first time was below 85 F. It was really nice outside. Steve called us to invite us to have some drinks. Of course we accepted the invitation. Today was a completely different story. We did some work and studied some E&M. After that we cooked and I prepared the class I have to teach tomorrow. Right now I'm watching some Will & Grace and I'm getting ready to go to bed. At least we were able to go out for two nights and have fun.