hippyscientist

What your adviser is expecting of you seems utterly reasonable and not at all unexpected for a first year. I am finishing my first semester of a year-long MSc program, and while I don't have TA duties, I do have sufficiently more work than you seem to be describing. It is perfectly reasonable to expect you to have an idea about research projects - after all you've been in the department for at least a semester by now, surrounded by others doing research and taking classes that must have sparked some thought process that made you want to know more.
If you're being told that your performance is sub-par, this is most likely NOT a personal attack, but rather a wake-up call to let you know that you need to be doing something more in order to succeed; it is your adviser doing their job - advising you! I think you need to wake up and listen to the obviously knowledgeable responses from Eigen and Telkanuru who responded informatively to your post, and reassess your expectations of your PhD journey. 

I think too, as long as you've cited Professor Y's work too in relation to the theory, you cover all your bases. That's how it works in Biomechanics anyway. So a combination of citing the original ideas from the original works, plus the book you're using for the main theory should make sure you're fine. 

With you there. Our office is having a massive shake up with new faculty and new students, in addition to other tensions. It's going to be an interesting fall semester! Hope your office politics get resolved/calm down!

Graduate student office politics suck.

Oh wow, envious! Summer is crazy busy over here, I'm working on 7 different papers, of which 5 or 6 I am expected to be first author. Just got back from a 5 day vacation though which was fantastic! Hit the ground running tomorrow with data collection in the afternoon. I'd love to have a bit of a longer break but going to try to convince my advisor to let me work from home a bit (when I'm on writing). We have a HUGE conference in August, and another smaller one in September so lots of prepping for that stuff too. I passed my candidacy exams so officially a PhD candidate now, and got to deal with all the responsibilities that brings. It's weird to think we've got newbies starting in a few months, and that was us a year ago! 
U Penn will be awesome! I'm actually looking at a lab there for a postdoc...yep looking at postdocs now. It never stops!

oh i feel the burn out lol

Oh trust me I half live in Zenos, love that place! Penn State is like nowhere I've ever been before but it's definitely infectious. I am blue and white now.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny Lol I love saloon in winter! And I love a good pitcher but there's a time and a place!! We tend to go to the more grad studenty bars but still have to deal with the up-themselves undergrads who think they can hang out there (that came out wrong, it's more they have the attitude "I'm so mature I can go to the grad bars" but they still want to vomit at the end of the night). PSU has a party reputation and it's something the student body will not let anyone forget. If we slip in the party school rankings they will try to fix it. It's an interesting time right now with all the greek sanctions so the undergrads aren't as bad. But I have to say there's too many of them (undergrads) on campus!!! I just want to be able to get to my lab guys move!

I respectfully disagree. I think many people go into grad school unaware of the demands and stresses. That is not to say they are not intelligent enough to get a PhD, but realise that they didn't fully appreciate what a PhD is and it's not the path they want to go down. I've seen this a lot in the UK so I may have a different take to US departments. 
I will agree that departments can have an intimidating aura, my current one certainly does, but by the time we're mid-20s or older, regardless of where you're working (academia, offices, labourer, etc etc) things aren't going to be easy, there will be people you don't like and sometimes you need that "thick skinned" attitude.
Returning back to the original matter of this post, it seems to be a case in point of the OP maybe not being fully aware of the demands of a PhD before going. Now that's not to say that they will be unsuccessful, but there is a need to listen to the wake-up calls when they happen!  

What your adviser is expecting of you seems utterly reasonable and not at all unexpected for a first year. I am finishing my first semester of a year-long MSc program, and while I don't have TA duties, I do have sufficiently more work than you seem to be describing. It is perfectly reasonable to expect you to have an idea about research projects - after all you've been in the department for at least a semester by now, surrounded by others doing research and taking classes that must have sparked some thought process that made you want to know more.
If you're being told that your performance is sub-par, this is most likely NOT a personal attack, but rather a wake-up call to let you know that you need to be doing something more in order to succeed; it is your adviser doing their job - advising you! I think you need to wake up and listen to the obviously knowledgeable responses from Eigen and Telkanuru who responded informatively to your post, and reassess your expectations of your PhD journey. 

Oh my goodness, today ahs been amazing. I had a great meeting with my advisor and I guess it was kinida a review that I initiated in a roundabout way (asking about making clear summer goals and a goal for where to end up at the end of year 1) and got told a bunch of really nice things. Oh it's exciting and i'm excited and he's excited and if I wasn't so exhausted I'd be bouncing with excitement

CONGRATS coffee! And there's always opportunities for funding  

@jlt646 we must have been in chums at some point together - I'm always in there! Be great to meet up at some point this semester I'd second the weird place vibe, I like it but I do think some of that's because I outwardly don't look "different". Enjoy your visits!

I love grad school and the emotional rollercoaster that comes with it. The past 6 months I've learnt more than I ever thought was possible in that time, purely out of necessity. Most of that learning has come outside of classes. i do wish weeks were 8 days so I could work 6 and take 2 off. 5 days working is too short, but only having 1 weekend day isn't enough! Agh!

@Neist YEs! I go in cycles of getting 8+ hrs a night to about 5hrs a night. the 5 hr nights are great, I have time to work out and relax and get work done. But then it catches up on me and I need a week of sleep and 7.30/8am starts instead of the usual 5am starts.

Oh do I feel this! We should try and grab a coffee at some point this semester if you have a free minute!! I cannot believe a year ago I still had no idea if I was going to be going to grad school in the US. It's amazing how much things can change in a year. 
@Pink Fuzzy Bunny going back to your earlier post about the bans, I am so grateful for my department right now. Today 3 separate professors came up to me and said regardless of what goes on politically they have our backs. It actually brought me to tears and I don't cry very often. Feeling like I made the right choice ending up where I did.
@Neist I feel that too. My advisor is trying to push out two papers from the work I'm doing right now and I have a very nearing deadline. But on the positive side we're making progress at lightening speed so hopefully we'll make the deadline.
So, I have a little bit of a dilemma and I want to ask you guys' opinion on "labcest" (aka dating someone in your program who you work closely with). Do you think it's okay or to be avoided? 
 

In a shocking turn of events, I felt mostly competent for one day this week. I had my weekly meeting with my advisor, but due to various scheduling shenanigans we hadn't met since before break. So in the past month and a half I managed to get something done so I could show her some stuff. I even got my simulator in a passable-enough state to show her what I did. But now this means next week is going to be a let down since I'll have made incredibly minimal progress in comparison. (Bonus sadness: I now have a github repo with my code in it, so I have visual evidence of how little I get done.)

So, essentially, both. I'm doing the 30 days of yoga/yoga revolution through online youtube videos (Yoga with Adriene). This is good, but I don't get nearly enough out of it compared with studio sessions. That's not to say you can't get by just with YWA but I do find the alignment corrections, the community feel and the guidance of skilled and knowledgeable yogi teachers means I get more from the practice. But I definitely do yoga more for the spiritual/mental health goodness! It's a good supplementary workout, depending on what style you practice. YWA is hatha yoga, whereas my studio does all sorts and so I mix it up. Yoga can be core focused, spiritually focused, hip-opening, shoulder-opening, powerful (something like power yoga, or vinyasa will give you a workout!), challenging (for me any inversion class), peaceful & restful (restorative & yin...although be aware yin can be very much a mental battle). YOu get the picture. IF you can, most studios have a free trial class (sometimes week), and I'd suggest going so the teacher can show you correct positions and alignment. I find sometimes youtube videos would go too fast if i was trying to figure out what position they were trying to get me in. E.g. I know what downward dog is but maybe I get confused about lotus or fallen side angle or if they call the asanas by their sanskrit names. Sorry I think i've gone on a massive rambling here - I'm passionate about my practice! Hope something is useful in that mass of text!!

That's exciting! Fingers crossed for you.
So today I had my conference/research symposium and I'm just on cloud 9. I have 2 surgeons who leapt at the chance to collaborate, have invited me to sit in on a surgery so I can better understand the procedure, there's an untapped source of orthopedic funding for collaborations who could fund this research and we're talking about starting as soon as the summer, putting together an IRB as soon as the details are worked out on the new method me and my advisor are creating. I'm so excited! And there might be an another collaboration with another surgeon but this one looking at a different lower limb joint, and slightly different concepts. Today was the first time I felt like I might actually be becoming an expert in my field - I could keep up with the surgeons and researchers, had interesting things to contribute, we had some stimulating discussion and my anatomy isn't as shocking as I thought. Oh and my advisor and I had an amazing "nerd" conversation!! I'm so freaking happy right now  Then to top it off, I went to yoga class and it was better than medicine and I am SO HAPPY with my studio. I can't stop smiling!!

@Need Coffee in an IV no way! Seahawks fan here too  Nice job on remembering the bones!
I'm completely nerding out right now because I have a research symposium all day tomorrow with the medical school & I looked at the talks and ALL of them are exciting and interesting. I'm so excited and I really need to calm down so I can sleep. It feels like my Christmas present has come a little late. Plus my advisor wants me to talk with one of the presenters because he thinks he'd be a good collaborator. Eeeeeeee orthopedics really is my passion and I get to dedicate a whole day listening to interesting things YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY

phew! glad that mess has a satisfactory  conclusion

There's some excellent suggestions already given but I'd throw in yoga really helps my mind switch off and to destress from the day. It might take a while to learn to empty your head but I find giving myself 45 minutes at some point during the day to stretch and be mindful and only in the present really helps. Exercise in general is wonderful, but not always possible - e.g. if you're injured. I agree that reading is great but I find my mind drifts a lot when watching TV. You know you best. If you're on a hike and find your mind starts drifting, bring it back to the present. Focus on the colour of the leaves, or the rhythm of your breath or the noise of the insects or something. Acknowledge the thoughts that pop into your head but say to them "this is not the time for you to occupy my head. This is me time." and return to focusing on the thing in the present. 
If you can get some social interaction, that's wonderful but sometimes you can just end up talking about research. So if you hang out, maybe allocate 20 mins for research venting then make it an off-limits conversation. 
Just a few suggestions that I've found really helpful. Hopefully there's something on this thread that works for you

Thanks nevermind, hope your first day back was good! I had the most amazing day today, I didn't think days like this existed in grad school but they do and I''m flying so high right now! Things that happened today:
1. Woke up to an email from my MSc advisor inviting me to present my work at a conference in Hong Kong this summer.
2. Had a great impromptu meeting with my advisor who told me my writing was "exceptional and an example of how essays should be written"
3. In our official lab meeting my advisor assigned me host duties for a big name in the field whom he invited to talk to us in a month or so, but he has to go to a conference meeting (he's conference chair) and he trusts me over his other first year grad student to act as host.
4. I managed to write the abstract for the HK conference in a day! and my Msc advisor replied saying he was very impressed and can't wait to introduce me to his colleagues in the field.
5. One of the conferences I'm submitting to is very specialized and one of the guys on the committee came to give a job talk just before the break, and I was the only student at his talk. We chatted afterwards about our research interests, and hit it off - hoping this stands in my favor when they're reviewing abstracts.
6. My advisor asked for my help with the conference he's organizing because I have a background of organizing them (admittedly not academic conferences but still).
7. My IRB proposal is almost done
8. I did 15,000 steps, and did my C25K day even though I had food poisoning at the weekend.
9. Got the syllabuses/syllabi? for my two classes and I'm really excited about them. They're going to really complement what I'm doing with my research this semester.
10. Got to hang out with my friends and we went and shot hoops for a half hour instead of sitting around drinking coffee! 
I'm so sorry if this sounds like bragging, it really wasn't meant to! It's just been the most unbelievable, great day and I wasn't sure they actually existed! 

Thanks nevermind, hope your first day back was good! I had the most amazing day today, I didn't think days like this existed in grad school but they do and I''m flying so high right now! Things that happened today:
1. Woke up to an email from my MSc advisor inviting me to present my work at a conference in Hong Kong this summer.
2. Had a great impromptu meeting with my advisor who told me my writing was "exceptional and an example of how essays should be written"
3. In our official lab meeting my advisor assigned me host duties for a big name in the field whom he invited to talk to us in a month or so, but he has to go to a conference meeting (he's conference chair) and he trusts me over his other first year grad student to act as host.
4. I managed to write the abstract for the HK conference in a day! and my Msc advisor replied saying he was very impressed and can't wait to introduce me to his colleagues in the field.
5. One of the conferences I'm submitting to is very specialized and one of the guys on the committee came to give a job talk just before the break, and I was the only student at his talk. We chatted afterwards about our research interests, and hit it off - hoping this stands in my favor when they're reviewing abstracts.
6. My advisor asked for my help with the conference he's organizing because I have a background of organizing them (admittedly not academic conferences but still).
7. My IRB proposal is almost done
8. I did 15,000 steps, and did my C25K day even though I had food poisoning at the weekend.
9. Got the syllabuses/syllabi? for my two classes and I'm really excited about them. They're going to really complement what I'm doing with my research this semester.
10. Got to hang out with my friends and we went and shot hoops for a half hour instead of sitting around drinking coffee! 
I'm so sorry if this sounds like bragging, it really wasn't meant to! It's just been the most unbelievable, great day and I wasn't sure they actually existed! 

@MarineBluePsy Congrats on your half point sending the university into an apocalypse!