You are what you eat. Today, I enjoyed a lot of delicious sweets that I got from the admit I hosted. She brought us gummies and chocolate all the way from Germany! This brings me to thank my housemates (and the other two admit guests we had) for taking on the bigger load of hosting a guest and a greater apology to my guest for not being able to show her around more.

I had a paper deadline at midnight Pacific time yesterday which really means 3AM for us. This is all the norm but depending on the working style of your research group, this could mean that you are up very late with your advisor for the days before a deadline (and submitting to the last second). For me, this was the case. I knew about this before I chose my advisor in CSAIL and opted for this style as a personal preference. All things considered, I really appreciate the attention in the group.

On the other hand, this research style means balancing classes, social life and sleep. In the case of classes, I like to take a lot. I generally find that even if you only get a fraction of what was taught in the course, it will eventually be useful toward your own work. Different people have different opinions on this and perhaps my own view will change in the future. All things considered, however, I consider myself a student and I like to take classes (both in and outside my area). As an institution, Area II requires you to take four (and get three passing grades) to pass quals.

In the case of social life, I find myself very bursty. This past weekend, I had to offload spending time with my guest to my housemates (and the other admits in the house). Given other weeks I would have really enjoyed showing somebody around. Perhaps that means you should visit again!

I love sleep. Again, depending on the group you join, you will have different sleep patterns. Back when I was at the Media lab, sleep was on the shelf during demo deadlines. In my current group, sleep is on the backlog around paper deadlines and camera-ready deadlines. Overall though, as with most things, there is always time to catch up later.

So thats the shimmy on circadian rhythms. It’s probably not that much different from your current lifestyle. I hope you’ll come back to visit… but if not, I’m sure we’ll catch up later!