return void;

I’ve heard of graduate students referred to as “zombies,” as being a shell of a former student merely shambling from lab to classroom. Until 2 weeks ago, I never really believed that. Two weeks ago, I hit a very busy time with my school work. On Thursday, I had a rather involved project due, and then yesterday (Tuesday), I had my a mid-term. This was no ordinary mid-term, this was my first test as a graduate student.

For 3 straight days, I studied and crunched the material in the library and at Starbucks. I pushed every bit of knowledge that was covered and even some that wasn’t. In just over an hour of taking the test, I felt as if I had wasted the entire time studying. I completely missed the mark on what I expected to see on the test and my grade will likely suffer. But from what I can ascertain from my professor (I don’t have an adviser yet) and from other students, grades have a much smaller impact in the education process.

Graduate school is no cake walk. It requires a serious time investment. I used to laugh when I heard people say that undergraduate school required 3 hours of work for every 1 hour of class; it was almost always untrue. In graduate school, it is very true and usually not enough time (more like 6:1). Imagine the toughest class you’ve ever taken. Imagine that that course is taught in half the time and is twice as hard. That is what my Advanced Operating Systems course feels like.

I found out that I will eventually have to take the qualification exams if I plan on rolling into a PhD. So basically, I am enrolled as a masters student, but I am working as if I am a PhD. I need to speak with an adviser to see if I can obtain an actual MS-in-passing that I can walk away with if I decide not to continue my education. Maybe then I can be classified as a PhD student and receive all the nice benefits that come with that (read: funding, aka free money).

I just got done watching the 2006 gubernatorial debate in which Bell (D), Friedman (I), Perry (R), and Strayhorn (I) battled wits on the television. I usually watch debates, but I don’t remember the last one in which half the participants were independents. I am a Libertarian and intend on voting for James Werner on 11/07.

So I noted a few things that I observed during the debate that I thought I would run through in no particular order:

Strayhorn and Friedman avoided answering questions. Most questions were direct and were met with indirect answers and references to either how Perry (or other politicians) have corrupted the government or other unrelated rants. In several of the 15 second answer sections, Strayhorn and Friedman were asked questions in which they did not have answers and instead started spewing campaign rants.

The two independents said a few things that definitely lowered their perceived intelligence. Friedman once said that the “Internet is the work of Satan.” Strayhorn kept saying “in a Strayhorn administration.” Friedman kept saying that politicians are crooked and he wanted to throw them out, he even equated them to “blood sucking parasites.” Friedman refrained from answering the question as to whether his comments that “negro is a colorful word” is borderline racist. Both Bell and Perry refrained from saying anything hair brained.

Okay, so the debate clearly became a campaign propaganda platform for the Independent participants. Perry mostly spent his time defending the last 6 or so years of his policies. Bell mostly spent his time explaining how he planned on being heard over the other parties. Friedman spent his time complaining about current politicians and how he wanted to replace them with his friends like pot-smoking Willie Nelson; he also neglected to say why the current politicians need to be replaced Strayhorn spent the whole time complaining about Perry and saying “in a Strayhorn administration,” things will be different but failed to explain how.

All in all, Rick Perry was the best debater. Watching the Independent candidates against him was like watching a a 130lb greasy nerd attempt to tackle Terrel Owens. It’s no wonder people generally don’t respond well to third party candidates; if this is what they are using to judge all third parties at a glance, these two candidates did not do a service to other third parties. It’s a shame there wasn’t an intelligent third party candidate who was capable of forming a fluid thought to answer the questions posed.

See you at the polls.