A Day in the Life of a Grad Student.

6:30am  Wakeup and lie awake in Bed
6:31    Realize you spent $18 on last night's dinner, means
        no eating outfor the next 6 weeks  
6:32    Hit snooze button.  Go back to sleep.
7:00    Wake up suddenly with heart in mouth when you realize
        you didn't hit the snooze button--you turned it off.  
7:01    fall asleep again.
7:44    Wake up with heart in mouth again.
7:45    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    Arrive at school
        Realize your  officemate arrived earlier today 
        must have got more work done
8:04    Pass by Advisor's office, chat with Secretary to 
	find out if he is coming in today. He is, darn.   
        Need to start work on the draft due this afternoon.
8:15    Read electronic mail
8:20    Delete mail from students taking CMPSC201 
	regarding questions about the class.
        Hate your TA job.
        Depression: too much work to do today
9:00    For jumpstart: go to Pepsi machine.
9:05    Kick Pepsi machine; promise yourself to call up 
	the company and ask for your money back.
        Wonder why they would beleive you.
9:33    Start printing out loads of stuff that may be 
	vaguely related to your work.
9:41    Early morning stupefaction.
9:58    Finger everyone in the department and most people 
	half way around the world (using the "finger" 
	command, of course)
10:19   Feel sleepy, should not have stayed late playing 
	tetris 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 advisor's office and borrow something 
	you don't need & and kinda make him aware you are 
	working hard on your project.
11:05   perverted daydreams
11:11   read electronic news
        mid-morning yawn time 
11:34   Start typing junk at a very high key-in rate to 
	pretend you are working hard as your advisor passes 
	by from outside.
11:35   Press the BackSpace key for one and a half minutes
	until all the garbage you typed in is erased.
        Realize that you can type more than 256 characters 
	per half minute
11:41   Flirt with the new girl/guy 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   BigMac/Fries time       
        Drink a not-so-cold generic can of cola from your desk.
        Ch-Ching, you just saved 35 cents by buying bulk cola.
1:00    Group Meeting with advisor
1:14    Sudden awareness of one's shallowness
        Resentment towards officemate for sucking up to 
	your advisor 
        Get reminded by your advisor that you need to do 
	some more work for your literature survey.
1:51    Advisor hands you the reddened copy of your draft 
	for corrections
1:51:02      The 49 second urge to murder advisor begins!!
1:51:52      Realize that he controls your assistantship/grade/
             graduation possiblity/graduation date/all job 
	     opportunities/ and the rest of your life.
1:52:53      Thank him
1:52:54      Thank yourself for not saying something stupid 
	     to your advisor.
1:53:00      Splitting headache #1
1:59	Check electronic mail, don't reply though, you are 
	too busy to do that
2:06	More generic cola
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	Look outside the window make unrealistic plans to 
	quit this degree program and take up a job.
2:48	More perverted day-dreams.
	Close the office door and open a few .gif files.
	Sharpen pencil
3:06	Worry about never graduating 
	Time to write a letter--NOT!  no time for that.
	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 Advisor leave       
4:58:01      Sudden sense of freedom
             Go home for quick, short dinner break.
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 electronic 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 its too late today to go to the library 
	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 very early 
	tommorrow morning
	Decide to play a Tetris on the system 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 your officemate is still at number 6,
	two notches above you on the scoreboard.
12:20	Play until you beat your officemate into the 7th place.
	A sense of achievment!! Yes, today was not wasted!!
	Return home to find your roommate watching David 
	Letterman reruns on NBC.  Tell him about the "hard 
	working grad student day you had"
	Discuss philosophy with roommate
1:09	Think about becoming a philosopher and dining 
	with 4 others (The Dining Philosophers problem, 
	hee hee :-)  (Comp Sci joke)
	Argue with him about politics, why people prefer 
	Japanese cars and whether it is better to set the 
	heat to "hot" or "cold" to defrost the windshields 
	faster.
1:49 	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.

(repeat)