Before I begin the rant about the past 2 weeks, I need to preface the post with the following, hoping it will give some of you a laugh, even if you don't read the rest of this:

I decided this yesterday as I walked home after a meeting with my advisor:
Meeting with my advisor is like being abducted by aliens. A whole lot of interesting stuff goes on, most of which you can't remember when you leave, but you're pretty sure that at some point you took it in the ass.


Well, I've had a horrific few weeks. As I predicted in my last post, my advisor did try to tell me that I had to write my thesis by the end of this Quarter, only he did it in such a way that I didn't realize what he'd said until I left his office. So I freaked out - I'm not the only one, most of the 2nd Year students were on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We had no idea what was going on, what the paper was supposed to be, what we were expected to do or not do, etc. Anyway, after several meetings with various people we found out the following:
1. Hell no, none of us don't have to write our whole 2-year paper by the end of this Quarter
2. The nitwit who organized the required (but no course credit) Seminar was way out of line in telling us that the paper was due at the end of the Winter Quarter, although we could turn it in later, but if we did, we would surely not receive any funding, because NELC regulations state it's due the 2nd week of Spring Quarter and by the end of the Winter Quarter, the readers for the papers should have a clear idea whether your paper sucks or not and will be able to pass that information on to the funding committee.
3. This years 2nd years (i.e. me) are having the toughest time in recent memory according to many older faculty members, and that sucks. But we still have to grin and bear it.
4. The OI will arrange a courier service for those of us who need to get drafts of papers to my advisor while he's in the field.

So that's something. I'm still confused and over-worked, but my advisor, in addition to being in league with aliens, has also made it clear that he wants me to stay here, so unless I really fuck up I should be okay.