A day in the life of a grad student...
 
7:30am Wakeup and lie awake in Bed
7:31am Realize you spent $18 on last night's dinner, means no eating outfor 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 schoolRealize your officemate arrived earlier today must have got more work done
8:04am 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.
8:15am Read mail
8:20 Delete mail from students taking EE 434 regarding questions about the classHate your TA jobDepression: 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 companyand ask for your quarter.Wonder why they would beleive you.
9:33 Start printing out loads of stuff that may be vaguely related toyour work.
9:41 Early morning stupefactionMutter racist comments to yourself about your officemate
9:43 Curse your officemate in a low tone he would not comprehend Feel good about he not grasping English well
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 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 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 newsmid-morning yawn time
11:34 Start typing junk at a very high key-in rate to pretendyou are working hard as the boss passes by from outside.
11:35 Press the BackSpace key for one and a half minute until allthe 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 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 can of coke from your desk.Ch-Ching, you just saved 35 cents by buying bulk coke
1:00 Group Meeting with boss
1:14 sudden awareness of one's shallownessresentment towards foriegn officemate for sucking up to the boss Get reminded by the boss 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 The 49 second urge to murder boss begins
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
1:52:54 Thank yourself for not saying something stupid to your boss.
1:53:00 splitting headache #
11:59 check mail, dont reply though , you are too busy to do that
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 look outside the window make unrealistic plans to quit this degree program and take up a jobWonder why blonde girls are so pretty
2:48 more perverted day-dreamsClose the office door and open a few gif files.sharpen pencil
3:06 worry about never graduating time to write a letterrearrange deskcall 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 clockmake plans to do a all-nighter toniteVow 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 theoffice late at night to "get the work done"
9:03 Check mailDecide it would be a good time to attack those ftp sitessince network wont be loadedRun 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 picturesBegin work; Realize you need referencesRealize 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 nightDecide to turn in early and come back very early tommorrow morningDecide to play a computer-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 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 LettermanTell 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,:) )Argue with him about politics, why people prefer Japanesecars 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 offand go to sleep.