A Brief Outlook, and Some Vexations

Five days have passed since the last entry, and Xiǎomī (小咪) is about to begin the autumn semester of his second year as a PhD student. He has yet to take a single elective that fulfils the graduation requirements, yet he is about to study GR for the third time, study cosmology for the first time after having studied GR, study quantum field theory for the first time, and study quantum optics for the first time. Xiǎomī has noticed that the time he can devote each day to reading and research has diminished. Why on earth is that? Is it an inevitable consequence of growing older? Xiǎomī does not think so. Let us try once more!

Having a car has made it far easier to get hold of many things. There have already been several entries in a row about the car, so for now, let us leave it aside in this one. Nevertheless, Xiǎomī’s Impreza has shed its temporary plate and begun using its permanent one.

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TA Training

Who came up with this thing called TA training? Xiǎomī would like to say: I am so fucking done! Six entire hours of sitting there, bored beyond words. We worked through an undergraduate intro lab from beginning to end, although ninety percent of the undergraduates who take these intro labs will not treat the course seriously. Merely thinking about the dozen-odd hours it will consume every week once classes begin leaves Xiǎomī weary at heart. A mutual surrender to doing the bare minimum. The thing he looked forward to most all day was Friday’s free lunch.

The formulaic small talk left me, already far from outgoing, exhausted in both body and mind. After lunch, I went to the newly added recliner in the third-floor office and slept for twenty minutes. Then I returned to the tedious training and sat there until three in the afternoon.