Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

Category: Rants by a Geek

Semester 5 Grad School Reflection

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This feels a bit like cheating that I am not writing this reflection until the night before the next semester begins, the day that this will be posted. But this is mainly because I did not have a break for either holiday, Thanksgiving, or Winter. I was working the entire time: either writing for my preliminary exam or a paper that I hope to have published within the next year or working on experiments. Want to know how little I had a break? I had to go in on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I pretty much went in every single day. I’m tired and want a break. Again, unfortunately, the new semester is tomorrow/today. I have no thoughts, really. I’m just tired.

Semester 4 Grad School Reflection

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Guys, I’m back after a much longer hiatus than I was expecting to. I was hoping that I would just put things off for a bit before getting back to things, but that’s not what happened. It’s actually what I was doing this semester that kept me from my planned activities.

This semester, I was preparing for my qualifying exam. One of three major steps in getting my Ph.D. Looking back, it probably wasn’t the biggest deal, but I was pretty stressed out about it, and did nothing but study until my eyes could not look at a screen anymore. The way mine went, since department and universities, can have different requirements, was that each professor on my committee would ask me a question where I was given a week to respond and then had a verbal component to expand on the answer. They could ask me anything that had been covered during my course work. Anything I learned over the last two years could have been on this exam, so I went into hyperdrive doing nothing but studying it felt like. But in the end, it worked out because I passed my qualifying exam, so I guess everything was fine. I just crashed for the next two weeks and did nothing of substance. But, yeah, totally fine.

Semester 2 Grad School Reflection

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A second semester in the bag. I’m feeling pretty good about school, even with the pandemic and everything. Full disclosure, I do have my final grades in, just checked them, in fact, and saw that I got all A’s. For that reason, I might be a bit biased about my assessment of the last couple of months.


First, I absolutely hated the fact that there was no spring break. Totally understandable with a pandemic, but I just wanted days off. Yes, I’m a grad student, and I technically don’t have vacations unless I specifically get in planned. Still, I just wanted some time to not think about classes. I wasn’t going to go traveling anywhere because I’m a homebody. Still, I just needed the mental break because moving to where spring break usually is, I felt myself getting into a rut, and I couldn’t dig myself out of it. Mental health-wise, this semester, I struggled for a bit.


Secondly, I was able to throw away my notebooks from the past couple of years. I was incredibly proud of myself because I always had this thought in the back of my head of “What if I need this information?” I thought getting me to throw them away would be to transfer the information to the cloud. It was even on my 2021 goals list. Earlier in May, I actually said forget this. I just got tired of transferring the information and tossed the notebooks in the recycling bin. This might not seem like a big deal to some people, but it is to me.


Lastly, I wanted to mention that I was able to “go” to a conference. It was interesting with everything being online and having to talk with presenters with a chatbox. I did have to deal with one incident dealing with racial undertones. It was surprising, and I had no clue what to say at that moment. Heck, I have no clue what if it were to happen in front of me right this second. It was just so weird to have something happen directly to your face. As in, me being the only African American in the virtual call with my camera on… It still blows my mind months later.
Other than that, I have nothing to really report. This summer will be enjoyable. I have many experiments going on, and I’m hoping that a paper may come out of this. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

10 September 2017

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I know that I haven’t done this for a while, but I felt that it is time to go on another rant. I know that the date is off, but for now on I’m going to write these rants before the day they go up. Just go with it.

This rant, in particular, is about school. I’ve been having a hard time dealing with things recently and need to get these things off my chest.

Firstly, I have a “group” project. Of course, the word group is used very loosely. As of this morning, I have done approximately 20 percent of the project. This project that as of now that I have done practically all of the work on is the creation of an interactive story game. My group has decided to do a memorization type of game where you have to explore one scene to find the clues on how to escape later on.

As of now, I have written and programmed everything that we have as of now. This is a group of four people, and I have kinda-sorta only given one of my group members a pass. He is currently helping some of his friends who are evacuating from the hurricane. But other than that no. Pretty much all of them agree that they are not going to be putting in any work on the weekends, which is ultimately the worse thing ever, especially when they talk about meeting during times when I cannot. Another one of my group members is never in the group chat. It’s through Google Hangout so everyone can see that last message that someone has seen. Lastly, I have a group member that literally says “Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it,” which is code for “I plan on putting absolutely no initiative into this project and plan on skating by by doing absolutely nothing.” At this point, I don’t have any hope for him.

Outside of that, I have no clue how I’m supposed to get everything done. I have so much to do and so little time. I do as much as possible without pulling my hair out, but I do need time to decompress. I plan on getting hardly any sleep for the rest of the semester. I’m going to need lots of sugar.

February 14, 2017

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Okay, guys. I have been so stressed out lately. There have been so many things happening. And I’m just sooooooooo stressed out. It’s Valentine’s Day, and I am so not feeling the love. (Except for the cookies by parents got me. That was life at a time like this).

Currently, I am taking a course where my class of six is going to go to high schools and teach students how to do “science” and have them help with actual studies. That is great and all except for the fact we have to create lesson plans and all of these other things, but I have done practically everything for it. It feels that I have done the most work, outside of the professor teaching the course. I did one thing over the weekend because there was approximately one for every person. When I went back Monday to see if anyone else had done anything, there was nothing except what I had done. Keep in mind that it is literally just finding information of fill out the excel spreadsheet that I had created to hold all of the information. Nope. The logician, INTP/J (I’m about 50/50 between the P and J) in me would not let that fly. Instead of just leaving passive aggressive notes about how other people need to do things, I did the majority of what was left and created a to-do list, both with passive aggressive notes on them. I know that it is probably wrong to do so, but I just couldn’t let it go.

Another thing that I’m totally peeved about, while there is nothing I can do about it is that I need to watch about five hours worth of documentary about the Gulf War. It’s (a) going to be a total bore and (b) old. I am going to have to literally fight for the ability stay awake. I still need to do laundry.

And everyone probably knows about the Calculus class that I’m taking, but for those who don’t know, I was stupid enough to take my Calculus III class online instead of taking at 6 at night like a normal person (these were my only options, guys). Other than being about a week and a half behind, yet again, but my test is missing. And by missing I mean that I took it, got a zero, didn’t get an email from my grader like I was apparently supposed to get. I received this email and started to cry for about 20 minutes straight. My mother called be during this trying to calm be done and actually giving me the will to actually email the professor back. Since it is an online class, we have to go to a testing center, luckily I had my receipt from the to prove that I actually went to take the test. Hopefully, something good comes out of this. I’ll keep you guys up to date about this.

Talk to you guys later.

BYEEE!

February 7, 2017

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I’m writing this at a time where I’m trying to stay awake, yet ridiculously tired at the same time, so sorry in advance if there are some things that just make absolutely no sense.

I’m at that point right now where I feel like I have done everything, yet nothing at all. It is horrifying when I go back to my to-do list and see that I have gotten things done, yet I have so much left to do. Maybe it’s because I’m too stressed out. I need more time to do things, yet there are not enough hours in the day to do things, especially when I’m as tired as a am. I feel like I need caffeine to stay awake. It also could be the app on my computer. It reduces the blue light on my computer. I should really turn that off when I have homework to do to keep me awake, except that I stay up late when I do homework so that probably would work since I need more sleep. Tonight will probably be an early night after I do laundry. Also, like an absolute nerd, I’ve been watching Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. It is my childhood and is super cheesy, and I can’t find a reason to care. I am doing in symbolic protest of the new Power Rangers movie that is coming out that has none of the feelings of the original series. It feels like everyone is trying to get on the train of making childhood favorites into a more mature version of themselves, which I disagree with to some extent. Yes, characters should age with the audience that it is aimed towards, yet they should still have the same feeling that gravitated an audience towards them. This is every similar to by feelings towards the DC Movieverse, especially towards the Joker. The Joker was one of my favorite villains in DC. And then he was made very dark, and I didn’t get the same feeling from the character anymore. Yes, the Joker is crazy but it wasn’t completely crazy if that makes any sense. Hopefully, it does, or at least someone kinda sorta gets in. I also kinda want to know if anyone feels this way, especially when a movie or television company reboots a franchise that doesn’t need to be rebooted. *cough* Avatar: The Last Airbender *cough* Sorry, I don’t know where that cough came from. But I’m going to leave in here. More things to check off of my checklist.

BYEEE!

P.S.: I mean the movie and not Korra. Just wanted to make that clear.

February 5, 2017

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Last night I got back super late from watching the RWBY finale. It was amazing, per usual. Unfortunately, there is no set day for when Volume 5 comes out, but I cannot wait. Also, Tumblr has been hilarious over the ending. In other words, do not go on social media if you have not seen the most recent episode. I have personally made that mistake several times. There is no open spoiler button, unfortunately.

Another thing, I have a test Monday, so I really need to get on that. I still have four lectures to watch that I did talk about Monday. Still questioning why I’m taking an online class. I am now scheduling when I’m going to watch the lectures because that is honestly the only way that I’m going to remember it. The problem with that is that my schedule is all over the place. There is no set time every day that I’m free. Woe is me. But since I still have to get that homework done, as well as try to get some videos recorded, I’m going to let you guys go now. See you guys later…

BYEEE!

February 3, 2017

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Let’s start this by saying happy two year anniversary. It’s been two years since my very first post on this website. Though I do sometimes post few and far in between, but I do end up back here. But on with everything else.

Today was a long day. Not because I had a lot of things to do, but because I was just completely done with this week since Monday. I just had so much to do. That homework that I mentioned yesterday, barely got it done. I made sure to get at least 50% on all of the assignments before giving up and doing something else. I also barely slept last night, so it is sheer will-power that is keeping me up so that I can do this. That, and I haven’t really done something review wise in a while, and I really need to.

I’m a terrible person, but the Volume 4 finale of RWBY coming out tomorrow, I might have some things to say, probably including squealing. If you don’t know what RWBY is, you can click here for a short-ish blurb about some of the basis. Also, be warned in advance, there will probably be spoilers in the new post, but I will also renotify you of that. Somehow… I’ll figure that out later, but it will probably come out Monday if nothing happens before then.

I also have stuff to do because instead of doing work, like I should have been doing, I’ve been binge-playing Minecraft. I finally played BedWars on the Hypixel server and loved it. I was horrible at first, still kinda am, but I had loads of fun playing it. Would totally recommend. Maybe you will see me on there one day. No promises, though. College is still a thing. But I did get a 95% on my Physics test. Was pretty proud of myself and Minecraft is usually my reward for getting through the week. I also plan on live streaming Minecraft over the summer once I figure something out. Really hope that works.Maybe some videos may come out. Nothing solid planned yet. Crossing my fingers that it all works out. But until next time…

And for the future, I plan on live streaming Minecraft over the summer once I figure something out. Really hope that works.Maybe some videos may come out. Nothing solid planned yet as my laptop isn’t the best at processing lots of things at one time. (Me and my hundreds of tabs know this well.) Crossing my fingers that it all works out. But until next time…

BYEEEE!

February 2, 2017

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It’s been two years, to the day tomorrow, and I haven’t really done something like this before: “Rants.” I’m really doing this because I have tons of things going on in my life, and just want to get it off my chest to the people of the internet in a kinda anonymous way. And also some things that I just want to say, in an angry fangirl kind of way because life is just like that. So this will be the first “blog post” of the site, so here we go…

My roommate and I finally watched the Lucifer episode from Monday, January 30, and it was super hectic. Not because of what happened; the episode was amazing, but afterward when watching the promo for the next episode it said it would not air until May. I cried internally. I have to wait three months to find out what happens next. And it was an epic cliff hanger. I’m not going to give any spoilers, but it you have not watched it, you should. Catch up now during this three-month hiatus. You won’t regret it. (Shameless plug for this show.)

But in sadder news, I am stressed out from college. I am a second-year student of Chemistry and things are just getting more hectic. We just got started first rounds of tests. I’m also behind in some of my classes. On top of having about 18 credit hours of work to do, I decided that one of my classes should be an online class and because I’m an idiot who forgot to plan in time for this class to watch the lectures. So now six lectures behind, and I have homework in it due tonight. So I’m going to leave it here, do my homework, and hopefully see you guys tomorrow.

BYEEEEEE!

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