Finally!

The first snowfall of my life is here. And it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I had always heard that snowfall always brought happiness and joy along with it. Today, I truly experienced it. 

The blissful snowflakes make their way down to Earth,

Sprinkling the ground with a serene flavor,

So light, they fly around with the wind

This day is beautiful, this day I savor!

I wish to see more. And I hear its coming...

Viewpoint

I think mental strength is much more important than physical strength.

You might get kicked once in a while, but you'll never get robbed of your life.

Apology

Strong coffee breath smells like a cig. Yes, I just realized it. So I send in an apology to all those people I called smokers when all they did was to just get high on caffeine.

:)

:D

Sometimes it take a really long time to realize that something or someone makes you truly happy.

I've realized it.

:)

And I'm happy.

Truly.

Reaching new heights of bad luck - Part 2

Clearly, my bad luck has a major crush on me. Its so freaking possessive, that I never get a chance to break up with it. Not that I don't love it or something, I do. But you know, it gets creepy at times. It follows me wherever I go. Stalking kinds. Poor thing has insecurity issues. Uh. I really think if I ever do break up with it, it will do something disastrous...

:D

Nevertheless, continuing with my continuous crossroads with bad luck, this time its my Research work (whatever there is). So, there is this code that I need to run. And obviously, I was happy that there were over four computers available to get all knocked up with the code-running process. So I enthusiastically run the code for different conditions on all of them. And guess what, the bad luck steps in. Three of the four computers run out of memory! (apparently some mldivide problem in MATLAB). No worries, so now that one computer that didn't run out of memory (it has some kick ass memory, so I've heard), I was intent on running all my codes on that. 

I run the code. It runs, runs, runs, keeps on running, keeps on running, keeps on running... And running. So I decide to head back home and come the next day to check on it. Obviously, that computer isn't that slow that it wouldn't stop running the next day. It did stop running. I jump to the upper orbital. I save the figure and clear. And run another code, wait for another day, process repeats. Then, then, I realise I needed some values from the first code I ran. Remember the clear, (it was on MATLAB). So all data gone. Nevertheless, I still stick on and run it again. Haah, but this time I'm smart. I save the necessary data. And process that data again for some other results. But I don't get the results I expected. I keep thinking where I made a mistake in the code, find a few, correct them, but again the results are strange. THEN, then I ask myself ,"You crazy ass, which all values did you save in the first place?". And guess what, by the end of this question, I'm slapping myself like crazy (It was looking crazy :P ). So in the end, I RAN that fuckin' code, waited for God knows how many hours, just to NOT save the data, AGAIN!! 

:) This, my dear friends, is called being engaged to bad luck... But some call it Research.

(PS: I'm planning to do Post-doc too! I have this faith that my world will come crushing down then.)

Peanut Butter

It's the best thing that man has ever created.

The chunky, creamy, mildly salty taste.

The crisp peanuts crunching between your teeth,

Releasing that impeccable buttery peanut flavor.

It touches your soul to a level which is beyond any bliss ever felt!

Plain butter just got an upgrade. :)

PS: Yes, I am a foodie.

The first one, in a long time.

Yes, so the blog is active again. I'd been thinking of writing for a while now. But initially didn't have a laptop, and now I do, but no time. Actually I do have time. But never mind that!

Now that it has been a while since I practiced my typing skills, let me begin from the beginning. I graduated from IIT Madras and joined MIT for Graduate studies (Master's right now, and hopefully PhD in a couple of years!). Research field - Underwater Acoustics and Remote Sensing, very very different from what I though I wanted to join initially. But nevertheless, I'm here and everything is great. Perfect. In fact, perfect is an understatement. 

Its 11.14 pm, and I just finished a PSet in 6.003. Its funny how lingos change. Back in insti, it would've corresponded to an Assignment in B slot! So essentially, its a problem set a.k.a homework a.k.a assignment in 6.003 a.k.a Signals and Systems, an undergrad course I've taken here. Too much pondering over a minor point, but thats what's a blog is all about! Moving on, I've super-graduated from a desktop to a Mac. Its different, its hot, its a beauty! And now that I'm introducing random topics, one more won't do any harm. Pens have become extinct in my life, and pencils have phoenix-ed. Most students I've seen around here write everything in pencil, from names to notes, PSets to post-its. Everything! Resulting in the leads taking a lead. It's actually pretty convenient, coz you can rub all you want! And re-do the crap you did 3.4 seconds back. And rub. And re-do. 

So, the first set of Quizzes just got over, and for most of you, my mood is evident from my Facebook status. Yeah, facebook, that too, hmm. Another graduation from Orkut. Its better I'd say. And manages to take up a lot of time. But considering the fact that the machines in my lab have no memory for me to run codes, I think its a pretty good time-pass when I'm trying to run them again, knowing that they won't in the end. Oh oh, and the machines in my lab have funky names - Hydrophone, Dipole, Geoclutter. Very cool. 

My head is empty. Literally. I've started comparing my life as depicted in PhD Comics. I think they are pretty true. Grad school does stuff to you. I've started cooking and doing laundry. I've become a psuedo-housewife. Although, thats not a bad thing. Now I know how difficult it is to make really awesome food, unless you have the blessing of serendipity in your kitchen. 

The gyms are brilliant. The facilities rock. Free food is available a-hell-lot. Basically, I'm lovin' it. :D

Cheerio

I wish I were...

This might seem the very old and familiar topic to write in a standard 5 English exam, nevertheless, dreams and aspirations never die out. Not even at the age of 3, nor at 21. So here is my I wish I were..., dedicated to the ones who've helped me travel this journey called life!

I wish I were a butterfly,
Soaring in the air, up and high,
Hopping free with each breeze,
These moments I'd long to seize.

I wish I were a turtle,
Could do without a pipe to snorkel,
Lethargy so intense to govern my life,
Where time is plenty and happiness, rife.

I wish I were a ladybird,
Colored red on yellow, unheard,
Beating the sunflower in glow,
Absorbing life, in sips, slow.

I wish I were...me,
But thats not happening to be,
'Coz I am me right now,
To all who made me me, I bow!

Reaching new heights of bad luck

For those observant fellas who are on my Gtalk list, this was one of my status messages sometime back, and very truly so. The previous post I wrote was about my bad luck in my BTP, I think my bad luck charm in relation to the same has been working ever since I came back from holidays back in December. Considering the fact that I need my computer to work properly for this last semester, anything going wrong with it was like a crumpled piece of irritation thrown down by God!
So, the hard drive stops working. Then the RAM, hence the monitor. Then the SMPS. Sigh!
Four months. Just four months.
Four problems, FOUR problems!!
BTP. BTP!!
Sigh.
So I drag along a friend of mine with my CPU to the most trusted computer shop for all IITians out here - Devraj Computers. The owner of this place literally swims in the money earned by selling computers and laptops to us. Rich bugger.
The CPU was heavy.
Problems don't end.
Nope.
First, we don't have the change for Rs. 500/- to pay the auto-wala 70 bucks. After 15 minutes of bouncing off other shops saying no for any change requests unless I buy something from them (Argh!) I realise that there was a crisp 100 rupee note relaxing in between my SBI ATM receipts.
Okay, nothing bad happened for a little while.
We start back for the campus when the repair work is done.
The CPU was heavy.
We get an auto and after a little bit of bargaining, we convince him to take us back in Rs. 90/-. Loss of 20 bucks, but whatever!
There is a straight route from Devraj back to our campus, but the auto guy tries to act like a smart ass. Actually he ended up being just an ass. A big one. Real big. His auto stops working right in the middle of nowhere. Not a main road, not even a gali. Some deserted place in Chennai where the two of us had never been. Two stranded ladies. Okay, it wasn't that bad, I'm over dramatizing it. :)
So we get off and ask the auto wala to look for an auto for us. Now, as previously mentioned that he was trying to act as a smart ass, he again tried. Again cupped.
So obviously we got off and started looking for an auto for ourselves, on foot. The CPU was heavy. We finally find another auto and the driver refuses to come down from 55 bucks to 50. He had dropped his price from 80 earlier to 55. Argh.
So giving him the benefit of shit, we mutually agree on 55.
Campus gates welcome us. Grin. Nothing can possibly go wrong now. We had taken the auto till the hostel and not till the gate, and although the bus waiting for passengers at the gate, the thought of the comfort of an auto came over us. So we carried on in the auto taking the route where the bus doesn't run. 'Coz nothing could go wrong. But it did. Again.
The auto ran out of petrol. :D
No auto, no bus, 1.5km, CPU was heavy.
It was a Saturday. :D
Saturday=Movie at OAT=People coming from outside insti to watch it=Cars=LIFT!
Elation. But no car for some 10 minutes.
So we start walking. Soon, we manage to convince an uncleji and auntiji to drop us off at GC.
We thank them. We get off the car.
Thud. We drop the CPU.
Silence. Hysterical laughter for 4 minutes.
End.

So thats basically it. My computer is in good health and has shown no side effects of the fall. No mental derangement, although I still suffer from some damages.

Touchwood!

Tsk, Tsk..

Yeah its been long, very long since I've blogged. Actually I had given up on the fact that blogging can be used to utilize time between codes that take hours to run. Not the point, I was chatting with a friend of mine, KVM, about a really trippy incident that took place and he encouraged me to write about it. So here goes.

The past two weeks have been good and bad in such a wide variety of ways that trying to fit it in one post will cost me not only my patience, but a hell lot of patience! So, I'll just mention the top ones. Good in the sense that I've been getting a lot of time for myself and my sleep. Bad in the sense that my BTP got stuck at a point like a 3-DOF hinge (I kept rotating about the same point, unable to move forward in any direction). And so my days over the past weeks turned gloomier. And then suddenly I had Mentos - Dimaag ki batti jala! (Ok, I had Polo but I think it had the same effect). I realised that in the formula of

where p=pressure, I=impulse, t=time of impact, A=area; I had been reading 'I' as '1' ! And what added to the whole stupidity is that I was confused as to how the guy has given no dimensions to an impulse term. Oh come on, everyone knows Force times Time is Impuse and should be 'Ns'. But no! I kept on getting elastic response for my plate with this pressure pulse. And why wouldn't I, when I later realised that I=31Ns!

I guess all's well that ends well is partially true. I'm happy to have resolved the problem, but not happy to have wasted so much time on a silly reading error.

Oh well!