Just another day... Nothing really special about this one.

I was in the office last night until after almost everybody was gone. And I was back in the office today before almost everybody was here. Why the "almost"? Well, there is a person that had a seminar today and was preparing for it at the last minute. But now the seminar is gone and the person is gone too! Nobody is in the office or in the lab, and here I am... Waiting for some intermediary results before I can continue working on one of my final projects.

All this "lack of work" made me think. There is something wrong with the attitude of the people in this lab. The person that is mostly to blame for it is who takes care of the lab, our advisor. But I will never say that he is the sole reason. I'm still here, right? I think people lost appreciation to what research is, to what sitting down almost the whole day and reading and trying things really means, what is the joy it brings to people. I want to help, but I'm received with a "whatever", or with a lecture about how they don't know where to go, or how they feel that our advisor doesn't really want them to move on.

This last statement is very untrue. But the first statement is, unfortunately, true. We are in a confused lab. We have an advisor that tries to show us the need of graduating and writing papers, while around us there is nobody with this kind of pressure. And there is no threat! He never (for the best of my knowledge) kicked anybody out of the lab because they were not working. And one of the reasons for that is that he wouldn't be able to tell. As he has no idea of what each person is doing, he can't really say if this person is working or not. There are always some people that know how to "do meetings" and are able to convey some kind of impression that they worked during the week, while actually they didn't do anything. Moreover, there are some people that really work a lot during the week, but can't relay that to him. He has a "black" list of students in his mind, but the list is very wrong!

Oh, well, as I've lost "authority" a long time ago in this lab, I'll try to keep everything to myself and let them enjoy their lives the way they want. If they are having more fun than I am, and making more money than me, well, the world outside is unfair too! I'm getting experience on feelings I'll eventually go through anyway!

But tonight I'll try to forget all this. I'll finish my program here, let it run and go to Tulsa. I'll be back tomorrow morning/early-afternoon. I may even go to the Football game!

Oh, talking about football, I suddenly observed something very strange today. I was looking for the time of the game tomorrow, so I tried to access the athletic department homepage. The university's homepage is www.okstate.edu, right? The athletic department homepage is www.okstate.com! This explains everything about where they want their money "invested"! Yes, this is a "higher education" institution. I'm "officially" not enrolled in a sports club.