Piled Higher and Deeper

I have stumbled upon the Piled Higher and Deeper comic strip about graduate student life. Now my own life makes so much more sense. Apparently, everything from the self-inflicted stress to never-ending procrastination are common symptoms in one's PhD life. The comic author, Jorge Cham, himself was a successful engineering PhD graduate from Stanford. I felt miserable before thinking that they were problems of "lesser" PhD students like myself.

I particularly like his three Laws of Graduation:

1) http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=221
2) http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=222
3) http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=223

and his graphical pieces on the PhD work output
(http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=124) and motivation (http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=125).

Almost painfully incisive. It makes me wonder why those of us identifying with Jorge Cham's graduate student life bother doing PhDs anyway (note: he also argues that procrastination is actually not such a bad thing. Hmhh...).

If there is to be a "high" note in my PhD in the last few months, I would nominate last week. It was great to start courses again, especially challenging ones in the Economics Faculty (no matter how stupid game theory mathematics makes me feel) which give you the illusion of having learnt something. My supervisor meeting last Friday went OK - more importantly, it was the post-meeting relief and a vague sense of direction (which didn't last for long, refer to the "PhD work output" graph).

One PhD fellow from Kenya was admitted to the hospital when the doctors found liquid in her lungs. They suspect tuberculosis so she is staying in the hospital for monitoring. Meantime, we have been taking turns to keep her company in the hospital. Especially after her thoracic endoscopy surgery, she was rendered physically weak. She is expected to leave the hospital on Wednesday so I reckon that it is not as bad as it sounds ("T.B." reminds me of TVB drama characters coughing blood and subsequently removed from the series). In such times, I see the importance of familial care, which we sadly take for granted when young and living away from home.

A real mix bag of events of late. While I will be stopping by the hospital on Saturday morning, I am also organising a "welcome back" party for Kwan, my Thai classmate, and his new wife, Lin on Sunday. Hopefully, there will be ample time for research work before then. ;)

cheng