Quals

The dark lurking cloud looms ahead... Flashes of lighting ready to tear apart the flimsy hypotheses and thundering booms of the Boss's admonishments... Only a few brave souls dare venture further to challenge the gateway to the Portal of Horrendous Despair (until they give up, graduate and return to real life..)... THE PHD QUALIFYING EXAMS! *boom* *crash*!!!

Okay, that was rather melodramatic, but seriously, that's how it feels right now. Still stuck in lab, trying to make sense of everything. Doesn't help that the whole project has been given the run around and metamorphosed too many times to count. And to top it off, even the Boss doesn't know what my main focus is... ARRGGHH! Ah well.. on the bright side, so says the other lab mate, after the Quals, things get clearer and more focused. You just have to go through the soul-rending, mind-boggling, frantic scrambling and all-nighters to figure out the details needed to pass the qualifiers. Then its not so bad after that. Relatively.

So, it's a do-or-die mission I have to accomplish by the weekend. Produce the results and figures, get the necessary slides done, come out with the whole research proposal and write a ten page report. Also, find a thesis committee and set a date two weeks from now to face the firing squad. Madness to say the least and utterly unhealthy for my stress levels. To top it off, I have to prepare for a two week trip to Italy in the middle of April for the sibling's wedding. Wonderful how things coincide together. When it rains.. it certainly thunders..

*Would gecko-on-wall survive? Tune in to the next blog entry...*