rainy monday and grad school thoughts

yeah, i'm sure your day was pretty interesting too, but so was mine.

monday usually means showing up at the office a little before 8 am. today's suspension of work was annouced a little after 9 am.

ISH was at WORK.
WORK was SUSPENDED.
SUSPENDED = SINE.

Therefore:

ISH ---> SINE!

(of course, this was totally high school mentality, but that realization came when we were already halfway towards Liz's car, so what the heck.)

we watched Lady in the Water. you HAVE to watch this. and m. night --- dude, is it me or is that cameo looking more and more like a career?

during the ride home, that inevitable wave of guilt came over (conveniently right after the movie, of course). as soon as i got home, i changed into bum clothes, set up my laptop and opened the Service Desk to say hi to the issues awaiting. they weren't that many; apparently they also appreciate a good stay-in-and-bum day too.

i took the time to surf everything that i still haven't the guts to surf during work. no, not porn, you pervert. games, google jobs (whoops), and grad school. i got this sudden urge to plot for the future (which was rare). i narrowed down the good grad schools for computer science studies --- Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Berkeley (dammit, these names scare me to death). i came across some good scholarships too. what i didn't expect to come across was some good tips:

- Graduate school is all about research. Training about research. Papers, papers, papers. If you can't stomach any more research, SCOOT. Maybe it's just not for you.
- An MS or PhD is for obsessive people, people who get more excited about digging deeper than actually having a job.
- Also ask yourself, what's after grad school? Probably teaching, or even more research work. If you can't stomach that, then SCOOT. Cmon now, I gave you a second chance.
- Graduate school's all about depth, not breadth.

I nailed the first four - I'm obsessive about details and unanswered questions, teaching college brats could be cool, and I hell do want to meet other obsessive weirdos like me. But one essential question left me stumped:

WHY DO I WANT A PHD?

The lady who wrote the tips said that it was imperative that this question be answered. Since I very well took her other tips to heart, I can't just ignore this one. Honestly, I don't have an answer. Yet.

Here's to hoping that 'yet' has a purpose.