I decided to look at the task queue question again. I have gone back and redone this question again. I organized it into pre-conditions, post-conditions, invariants and scenario description. After looking at the question again my intuition was correct about choosing to cancel new requests but I have a more concrete answer. I think that it will be easier to do something like this on the test. I was clued into this kind of question because my adviser has been working on a language that has constructs of this type. I thought I would try to make an argument based on these principals. It looks like it worked well.

Study group was on Sunday. I attended a joint session with these guys who are studying software management also. The topic was software testing. I thought it interesting that these areas overlap and the questions, terms, etc are so different. Some terms that are important in one are not important in the other. Some terms that are called one thing in one are not called the same in the other. The consistency seems not to be there. Different people that don`t talk making different questions. The age of the data and sometimes the relevance were still in question. I did get one thing. They seem to know who is on there PhD committees. The also are able to ask there adviser for help on questions. I don`t get such a luxury. It seems that the lack of help by the SE advisers is intentional. I also learned that the SM guys are expect to quote papers on their exams. I have never been given such direction. I am going to add this to my study angles so that I lend more credibility to my answers. It will add a layer of complexity to my study with my learning disability and all but it may be worth it. I don`t remember that kind of stuff well. I will have to do word association etc. I think that it is kind of unfair to ask for that kind of information. It is not like that information lives long enough anyway. It changes who is on top and important all the time. Also, the fact that my adviser has not told me information about who is on my committee and what to expect on the test and where to look for answers tends to make me think that they may be looking for references on the test also and are not telling me.

Frustration and how to deal with it is a component of the PhD. Learn to deal with it. It is manufactured stress that is handed to you in the dark by people who are supposed to be your guide. With friends like this who needs enemies. But, remember Sun Tzu said that you should keep your friends close but your enemies closer. To be successful in the research phase I believe you will have to outrun others in the department to do something original and beyond what others have done. They will become your enemy even though you work with them closely every day. Your guarded secrets need for publishing may be stolen out from under you and claimed my someone. It may even be your adviser.