I don’t necessarily think it would hurt any to have some real work experience while also doing grad school… Many employers also offer to reimburse school costs (to an extent).
The number of fresh college graduates I see enter professions around me and my job is staggering. The number of them that know fuck all is even more staggering though… This certainly wouldn’t apply to you if you had work experience AND a doctorate.
I thought most people did both? Work in the field while developing professionally?
I’m going for a PhD. It’s full time.
In my field, it’s very rare to go straight out from undergrad. If I do get in, 95% of my cohort will have a masters degree, years in industry and or experience as a full time research assistant. For the programmes I’m applying to, none of them have accepted people straight from undergrad in the past 3 years actually
I’m a bit of an unusual case because I got into research very early (I was an RA about 3 weeks into freshman year and have run several independent projects) and some extremely well regarded/connected professors took a liking to me, including one of the founders of the subject I’m studying
This is all that matters really. Even if your grades sucked (they don’t), knowing the right folks will still get you in.
I went tanning for the first time in ages yesterday and caught a nice sunburn across most of my body.
I confess, this is likely to derail my plans to train legs today.
And here I am in my fourth year of my PhD program feeling like I take it less seriously each year…
My best bud got his PhD in math while increasing his frequency of recreational drug usage each year playing in his psychedelic rock band. Maybe, maturity is overrated.
A PhD program sounds like the perfect opportunity for that if one is so inclined.
I did that too, except for the math and music stuff.
Parent confession:
Got my kids all excited to go climbing at our “rock gym” (as my girls call it) in the dark with headlamps. Thought for sure it was tomorrow night. Got them to clean their play area to go.
Yeah…I got the date wrong. It was today 
I confess that I’ve missed you guys a lot.
I didn’t wanna bore you guys with my whole rehab process, but since April, it’s been a very long journey. I don’t really deadlift anymore because it still aggravates the left side of my lower back, but I’ve been hammering squats and overhand pull-ups in their place.
I’m not sure how much I used to weigh back then, but I feel like I’m getting stronger. Really, I’m elated to be training at full strength again. I was so depressed for months because I was in constant pain, and I was overeating so I got up to 210 pounds over the summer.
Nowadays, I weigh 195 with partially visible abs.
I did 19 overhand pull-ups in a row the other day, and I’m consistently doing 90-100 pull-ups on upper body days. Last week, I squatted 365 x 7 and today I squatted 315 x 15. My press is still sort of crappy compared to where I was, but I can hit 135 x 10 strict.
Anyway, my warning is that the Hepburn Method did not do me any favors. I was training, not eating well enough to recover (I guess), and showing up fatigued. I thought I could handle it, but my muscles couldn’t.
I’m back after a long hiatus, but at least I’m back. Maybe I should change my username to “round3lifting”. Honestly, I look on-par or slightly better than I did 6 months ago. I won’t be pulling 500 anytime soon, but I will be squatting 500 at some point next year.
Next goal - 315 x 20. I wanted more tonight but those commercial gym bars love to roll off your back, and the barbell sleeves started sliding around when I was on rep 8. Lol. Can’t win em all
today also marks 601 days since I made the decision to get clean for real. Haven’t checked in a while but that’s pretty astounding to me. My entire life is vastly different in a good way. I’m doing things I never thought I’d be able to do, holding down a good job, acing all my college courses, and staying on top of my shit like an adult. I moved out months ago and I’m glad I did.
Life is still crappy and some days are better than others, but I’m focused on achieving goals and hustling right now, so in a few years hopefully I’ll get some breathing room. Anyway end rant! Good to be writing here again.
That’s awesome dude! It’s been awhile!
I confess I’ve never tried those “figure of 8” lifting straps and I’m too dumb to understand how they work lol.
@T3hPwnisher , @twojarslave I only remember both of you mentioning having used them before. Any real benefit to normal ones? Lost my straps and looking for a new pair. Really curious about these.
Anyone else please feel free to chime in. I only recall 2 of my bros here mentioning them and I think the latter was saying it made a huge difference or something. That was a few years back so I dunno.
I mean, seriously, I think I get the mechanics when it comes to deadlifts but what about other exercises like 1 arm barbell rows? I can’t figure it out lol.
Thanks!
Oh, and… da fuck… there are “portable blenders” being sold now? Fucking manufacturers claim the can blend ice. And they’re charged with USB? Anyone tried them? Is this a load of nonsense?
I confess I find figure 8 straps to set up much faster on deadlifts, which for me means a better setup.
More of a discovery than a confession but it’s oddly meditative to cook a stew. I have been cooking a huge stew each weekend for the past few weeks and it’s a very calming activity for some reason.
My wife has one. It’s legit at crushing ice. Doesn’t blend frozen fruits very well though. Especially mangos.
I will stick with my ninja blender.
Honestly, I don’t care for figure 8s. I got them because a new rule in strongman was “strap in on your time” which meant a faster strap got more points, but for training I like the traditional style. I can set up MUCH tighter with that.
I confess…
That. I confess that.
I’m just gonna leave this here… 
I confess life pulled a fucking “Charlie Brown” on me but I’m too amused to be mad right now.
I bought an expensive bicycle lock (I’ve posted before I can open most cheap to mid-priced ones easily from silly skills I picked up when I was a kid so I had to get one I had absolutely no confidence I could open. And they’re not cheap.). My doorbell stopped working without my knowledge.
The delivery guy didn’t dare open the front gate for some reason. I’ve bought lots of items online and everyone just opens the gate and leaves it at my doorstep. So he stuffed into the mailbox. What they do next is take a picture and send it to you as proof of delivery. I did not read my messages until several hours later.
The dude stuffed it halfway in.
It got STOLEN. Someone stole my fucking LOCK. LOL.
And my wife is upset that I’m NOT MAD since it was a pretty pricey item. 
