Also included is the introduction that was left out of the final book. Enjoy!

I did this in 2010 as part of the official 24 Hour Comics Day, the last one we had at what is now the Root Cellar in Columbia. The idea was for each hourly page to reflect an hour in a day of Keeley’s life. Starting at the start time of the event, I was supposed to keep pace and draw in that hour the same hour as in the comic. I actually went ahead of schedule and got around six hours ahead so I could take a nap at around 5:00AM in my car. Still, I got a full day’s worth of comics drawn and I think it is a neat story revolving around Keeley’s dual lives. Enjoy!

If you want more, you can poke around the comics section and look for the other new(ish) stuff that is now there.

Update: I’m guardedly optimistic that the comics section is working properly. Give the link a click in the header!

As I came into the building I found that the stairwell door to the third floor was locked. I went back to the second floor and got in the elevator instead. The elevator took me to my floor and I noticed that the door from the medical school was open. So why lock the stairwell door? Oh well. I’m just glad I could get to my office.

8:33
I panicked when I couldn’t get into the fourth floor coffee room but I found coffee in the second floor copy room. I’m also going full speakers today. No earbuds for me!

10:29
I found one article that references another article we could use, that references another three articles. This is getting complicated. A little while ago, someone who works on this floor walked by but I haven’t seen her since. Someone from the second floor was here as well.

10:55
I saw someone I didn’t know in the student lounge. She was watching the same slideshow that has been on the TV there since I started this job. I’m afraid that if I describe this person to one of my coworkers, they’ll say “Why that person died five years ago!”

12:10
Let’s see what the cafeteria has for lunch!

1:12
Their special was ham so I just got the usual pre-fab hamburger, onion rings, and a soup. Their soup was a super thick wild rice and chicken stew. I forgot to get a spoon so I ate it with a plastic knife I found in the lounge.

Later
As it turned out, the rest of the work day was uneventful. I got a lot done, took a few walks around the deserted floor, and left for home, ready for my flight to San Diego!

While on the way to drop of medical supplies, the Enterprise investigates an odd planetary phenomenon. Spock and his away team crash land on the planet (of course) and are attacked by what appear to be giants offscreen. Examining a left-behind spear, Spock makes this observation:

Folsom is a real place in New Mexico, and Folsom points are a real thing. This type of stone spearhead is very important to archaeology because the discovery of one of these points embedded within an extinct bison’s skeleton was the first definitive proof that humans were in North America during the Pleistocene Period, over ten thousand years ago. It was nice for the writer of the comic to include this piece of real archaeology in the comic. The problem is that Folsom points actually look like this:

Also, they are this big (or, more apt, this small):

From the Royal Alberta Museum. Scale is in centimeters!

Since it’s unlikely that the Spock, the Enterprise’s science officer, would not be so wrong in his assertion, my only conclusion is that Folsom points really are giant (even for giants) and shaped like trowels in the rebooted Star Trek universe.

GradHacker
I actually found this site after starting my own tips series. The posts there are extremely valuable for grad students and benefits from having many opinions on an issue instead of just one. Start with their recent posts (which range from “Grad School Extracurriculars” (an interesting take on my own Tip #1)to “Writing my Dissertation”).

Chronicle of Higher Education
My advisor was the first person to tell me about the Chronicle of Higher Education when they were predominantly a print publication. Over my years as a graduate student, I have seen their website grow tremendously as a resource for the grad student or budding educator. Some sections are for paying subscribers but there is plenty of free content to browse. There are helpful articles for every aspect of handling a career in academia, from being a student, to teaching students.

Academia.edu
Basically Facebook for academics. This is a great place to find people who share your interests. You can follow other scholars, their papers, and journals. I think this site is a great place for the more timid to reach out and network without the gravitas of sending an email or talking at a conference. If you’re uncomfortable adding professionals to your Facebook friends, definitely use Academia.edu as a alternate way to keep contact with other scholars.

Use Your Committee
A graduate committee can be thought of as an easy version of the type of interaction you will encounter in the field at large. The core purpose of your committee members is to help improve your research so it reaches your institution’s standards. Make good use of your committee and consult them before the big exam(s). If for some reason a committee member is deviating from this mandate and is working with an agenda that doesn’t help your work (note: not you personally but your work. See below), it may be time to replace him or her.

Use Your Peers
Interaction with fellow graduate students is a vital part of the grad school experience. While one may be more inclined to listen to the professors rather than their peers since the professors are the seasoned scholars, don’t discount your fellow students. Learning in groups is highly effective. Also, remember that the grad students of today will define the field thirty years from now! Get a head start on forming bonds with your peers, both within and outside your department.

Remove the Ego from Your Work
A good mindset is to keep your work separate from your self as a mental construct. People will criticize your work, your ideas, your writing style, your work ethic, and many other aspects related to school. It is easy to get angry at them since they seem to be criticizing you as a person, but consider if what they say has value in improving your work. Maybe you really are using than/then in the wrong places and maybe you didn’t consider an important theory in your proposal. Accepting criticism doesn’t mean you are a fraud, but actually means that you are an excellent learner, which is a good thing. Criticisms such as these could lead to changes that make you a better scholar so they should be considered without negativity.

There Will Be Haters
…though at some point there will be someone who just doesn’t like you and/or your work. You are more likely to run into these people outside of your committee, in the academic world at large (for example at conferences). These people are different from your committee members because your outside critics may actually be out to get you and hope/make you fail. If you encounter a hateful person, do your best to stand your ground if your position is based on knowledge. Don’t let mean people win just because they’re mean! Take their criticism with grace to show that you are a scholar who is influenced by knowledge and not force of personality. Once you have determined that someone is mean, break off all contact if possible to reduce their future influence.

On Griping
One tip from experience: don’t talk smack in your department building! Sound definitely carries and you don’t know who is around the corner. Once, when I was waiting for a meeting, I overheard a group of students complaining about their TA. Guess who was working in a side room separated by a wall that didn’t reach the ceiling? Awkwardness was to be had when the TA made herself known.

That’s all for now. I may have a few more odd tips here or there but I have the most important stuff covered. Good luck with your grad school career!

The aviary was especially cool, with birds hanging out only a few feet from the visitors with no barriers in between.

The SeaLife Center had an observation deck that overlooked Resurrection Bay. Outside, I saw a wild sea otter sleeping in the water.

The SeaLife Center was a good end to the ship cruise. At Seward, the passengers split up into separate ground tours, though many shared the same destinations. We were placed on busses that drove us to the train station. Thus began the ground tour!