Somehow, it's just intensely frustrating and tremendously cruel to be told that you have two extra surprise assignments due before the next class period, right at the moment when you've just settled down, calm, relaxed, assured that you have all your work done, and - perish the thought! - you might actually be able to enjoy something normal like watching a movie without impending work of doom hanging over your head.

Maybe this is how grad students are supposed to operate, but it's driving me nuts. It's one thing to tell me I have something due to turn in when the weekend's over and quite another to e-mail after the weekend is over and before the next class period, telling me that same thing - which, conveneniently, requires trekking to labs with just the right version of Matlab. It completely destroys my sense of calm and makes me want to be violent, particularly towards the professor that instigates such madness. Bastard.

It also makes want to cry if this is what being a grad student is about. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh. Frustration. Intense frustration.