Recent Interactions with My Favorite Grad Student

1. He needed to schedule a room for some sort of grad-school formality. Something where he talks about math for a while and then his committee signs some form. (Not a defense -- this is even more of a formality than a defense!) He's figured out the secret for room-scheduling and revealed it to me: Wait for the staff member who is supposed to do room scheduling to be out for the day (which happens a lot) and then ask the new secretary to do it. Easiest way EVER to schedule a room. Back in February I asked for a room for May 2. I still haven't heard back.


2. Also revealed: the secret for getting into rooms that belong to Physics. He was a physics major as an undergraduate, and he knows how they think! The secret was verified by an actual physicist. If you want to break into physics' conference rooms... ask your own physicist.


3. He agreed to take over the course that was being taught by the Grad Student Who Went Missing. Every semester there is someone who can't finish out the term. My money had been on the pregnant post-doc, but I was wrong.

ps. I haven't started on the taxes yet. It's times like this that I start to think seriously about crazy right-wing plans -- like a flat tax, a national sales tax, etc.