dead sun's Journal: The Joys of Burnout

Ugh. So here I am, sitting in front of one of my various machines at 3 AM on a Wednesday night. Or is that Thursday morning? Either way, I'm tired and should be going to bed by all means. Of course, there are good reasons as to why I'm up.

Why the heck am I writing in my Slashdot journal at 3 AM? Well, I've got my machine pegged at 100% training a neural network for a Computer Vision project. Frankly it hasn't been progressing as I'd hoped, so I'm up late. Two weeks until that's due.

So again, why am I not just letting it train while I sleep? Well, I was writing some LISP a little earlier for an AI project, involving planning. At 3 AM though, all the parens start running together, even if vi does keep track of which are in pairs. I've reached the limit of my LISPing ability for the moment. At least that project is progressing as planned, though I have a single week before I have to present that.

That's on top of three more assignments in those two classes that are due within two weeks time. I have to finish a midterm that's a take home, and then I have two more final exams coming up after everything is due in two weeks. Why do these things invariably pile up towards the end? I haven't even been procrastinating this semester...

Add this on top of trying to find summer employment, trying to be treasurer of a fencing club, and trying to actually talk with my girlfriend for more than 5 minutes a day and I'm working on massive burnout here. And I'm lucky enough to be working part time for a company that doesn't care that I haven't put in a billable hour of work for weeks. Not that my pocketbook cares for that, which only adds to the stress.

So, yeah, Graduate School is getting to me. Anybody have any suggestions? I've been getting the feeling that this is a tough it out situation, which I'm prepared to deal with, as I can see no other options. I just have this feeling that I'm going to be an incomprehensible blob of useless goo by the time finals are over.

Well, what do you know, I've reached a point where the network is closer to trained. We'll see if it is acceptably use(full|less) now. Hopefully ranting like this is acceptable form in one's journal.

Shower With You Clothes On

[Oculus Habent]

It may feel stupid and leave you with some wet clothes, but doing harmless things like that can be a stress releiver.

Recite the alphabet backwards, starting at h, q, or w.

Wear your socks inside out - they can be more comfortable that way, depending on brand.

Additionally, take slow deep breaths with your eyes closed and think about nothing for a little while. Try Progressive Muscle Relaxation [lifeclinic.com] - this can be done at your computer.

And good luck. Know that there are people wishing you well.

Re:Shower With You Clothes On

[dead sun]

I meant to reply a little earlier, but now's a decent time to do so. I just wanted to say thanks for the reply, it was good for a laugh at the shower part and that really did help. Perhaps when I'm up late again soon, as I know I will be, I'll try one of these things out.

Thanks also for the well wishing. Sometimes a little encouragement is all that's needed to keep from falling over the brink of despair.

Now, back to work with me!

I hear ya

[Jamuraa]

Man, it's just the greatest time at the end of the semester isn't it? Here's hoping that the last Computer Vision project is turned into extra credit or something.

As for me, I'm not quitye as busy I think.. My list includes the vision project of course, you seem to be farther along than me though. Then there are the projects for other classes and homeworks for classes and homeworks to grade, not to mention grading the next test and the final that is coming up. ugg.

My suggestion for stress -- make sure y

Update

[dead sun]

I let my network train overnight after finally deciding that I couldn't stay up at four. Wake up in the morning to find that it didn't make much difference. Blah. So, before running off to a full day I decided to change my net a bit, expand both the input and the hidden layers in an attempt to get some better recognition. It made me late to class (and I had to run, that sucked) but 11 hours later when I came home it was still training. I did a quick evaluation then and found out that it was at about the sam