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A short before-bed update...

Coding for lab proceeds slowly, but steadily. Several algorithmic problems remain, which are perhaps best attacked with a fresh, well-rested, and well-fed brain in the morning.

I am trying not to worry about various things in my personal life.

One of the UI physics profs, Prof. Vincent Rodgers, gave a talk on the Physics GRE today. He's been on the committee to write the exams before, so his insights were, I think, good ones. Same general strategies I'd expect to hear about any multiple choice exam.

The one thing was that he made the Physics GRE sound a lot more important in grad admissions than Swat profs seem to have, or at least more important than the impression one gets off of the SWAP grad school advice page. We looked at one sample problem, involving angular momentum in B-fields. This was new to me; I don't think it's in Purcell but it ought to be in Griffiths, and we should be seeing it in 112. Apparently only 6% of the candidates had answered that question correctly.

All the big physics exams coming up. This isn't counting next year's seminar exams. Then come GRE's, and then Honors exams, and then the hell that will be PhD qualifiers. UI's are coming up in a few weeks, and all the now second-year grad students are feverishly preparing.

All of this makes you question if you really want to be a physicist... But I should sleep, and I should definitely not worry about these things now.

(no subject)

Some of the graduate students are pretty nice to talk to, when they're sober and not looking to get drunk. I wouldn't mind getting to know some of the female grad students better, except for the language barrier; some of them struggle with English and my Chinese (at least my Mandarin is terrible. But for some grad students, life is now studying physics 24/7. PhD qualifiers are coming up for the 1st/2nd year students in a couple of weeks, and their nervousness seems to be starting to cast a pall. I do not look forward to the ones I'll probably face eventually, although Honors exams might perhaps be a decent taste of what it might be like.

Research proceeds. I'll post my PowerPoint when that gets done (must be finished by Monday), probably on my webpage. Much work remains. I am in lab muchly.

Am I beginning to sound like blaketh?