Research topics and silly car issues

Quick update...

( Car weirdness )

Class is okay, but I've hit a bit of a dilemma: namely, the group project. Being one of the 10 grad students in the class, I need to pick a topic by September 30 and recruit and organize a group of undergrads. When handing in the assignment today, another grad student asked, "You haven't picked a topic yet??" Argh. No.

( Here's why... )

On a more amusing note, I discovered I am not the most oblivious person in class: a guy came up to the professor and said, "I thought we were supposed to turn in those exercises [the ones in the Lecture section]. I've never seen this [Assignment 2, which was just being turned in]. Where on the Blackboard is it?"

When you log into the online Blackboard for the class, the first thing you see is the big, bold, blue letters that say that all class assignments are under "Assignments." *sigh* The professor did give him an extra day.

More later.

Quick grad school update.

Okay, a quickie now that the headache's subsided.

Said headache was achieved when I went to the UMBC library, found an open workstation on the second floor and started browsing through online journals to get an idea of what kind of info was out there on ADSL, IPv6, gigabit networks, ATM networks, multicast routing - at least, those are the example topics left over that I can recall. (Wireless technology and firewalls are taken.) The topics allowed are fairly broad - anything related to data communications and networking that isn't covered in class. Read: specific types of technologies.

After about 10 minutes skimming through IEEE journal articles, I swear my brain tried to escape out my ear.

Common sense led me to run a few Google searches to find broader info of the "for Dummies (or grad students who've only learned up to RS232 and checksums)" variety, which helped slightly. I'm going to have to get to UMBC early and catch my prof before her class tomorrow - which means I have to get into work at 6 am. No ifs, ands, or buts. Sigh.

Anyway, I think I've figured out the three major factors that have led me to be really sore this past month:

1) Stress. I was running around like a crazy person all through August.
2) Lack of sleep. I was averaging 6 hours a night.
3) Too much sugar. As much as I hate to admit it, I need to cut back. Big time.

Given that I need to be at work by 6 tomorrow and that #2 is a big factor in my comfort level, I need to be in bed by 9 in order to be asleep by 10 at the latest. (Why? Well, my upstairs neighbor, the second I'm in bed, seems to pick that moment to start bustling around in his room, stepping on all the noisiest spots over my head that even earplugs won't block out. I know he can't help it, but it's not like I can follow his sleep schedule - he goes to bed at midnight and gets up at 6 am. Forget that.)

Maybe I can get some insight by talking to my professor. I hope so...