Boredom

I am bored out of my wits today. And I have very few options while I wait to catch a movie, thank goodness for movies, which are, reading papers about robots on my computer which is what I did for the better part of the day, and playing scrabble which I did for the worse. My printer wont work and I simply cant read stuff off the screen, I keep losing the scroll when I press the arrow key on the keyboard and I end up reading the same page over and over and every time I read it I think of how familiar it sounds and that maybe I've read this paper before. My mental faculties are a bit cloudy and muggy today just like the weather. I was fine this morning and geared to work. I did a little reading tried to print things but no such luck. Anyhow, I wanted to have stuff to talk about at my bi-weekly meeting with my advisor but he was almost three hours late and pretending to be at my scholarly reading, as it should be without chatting or facebooking or scouring amazon, for that long is rather tedious. Finally after the meeting I was two hours past lunch and very very hungry but the only lunch buddies who hadn't eaten already wanted to go to Taco Bell and I kicked up a very flimsy lil fuss and ended up eating there. As usual I ordered twice and left with a half full half hungry guilty glutton feeling. And I tried to drown it with chewing gum and water but now I'm plain sick. And I'm quite sure I'll end up drinking coffee and it wont help.

I think I should quit whining but I really really have nothing better to do. I haven't blogged for a while and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna forget how to spell if I dont write something other than code soon. I still want to be capable of forming coherent sentences.

while(completely_jobless)
{

write_pointless_blogs ();

if(place_to_crash)

break;
}

I'm gonna keep writing coz place_to_crash=0 since I moved out of my apartment on Monday. I'm not out on the streets or anything but I have a few clothes and things at a friends place, and I'm staying with another couple of friends who are real sweethearts and have made me feel very much at home. But I'm sure they aren't vegging out at home so I'm better off vegging out on campus. I did catch a nap at the library though and I think if I hadn't, this blog would have been even more annoyingly wishy washy than it is right now.

To put an end to this misery, I move into my new apartment tomorrow, I am thoroughly worn out of moving out of my old one and I'm gonna be pretty busy moving into the new one and I'm really psyched about it and I cant wait and I dont think I'm gonna be this compelled to blog for a while so till I have nothing better to do...watch this space :P

Breathe (2 am)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPz3YaIJkjQ

iPod Signature

After finally deciding to buy an mp3 player, I've decided to buy an iPod, surprise surprise, and I'm gonna shell out a bit more and get it engraved. So I know that its my iPod. Forever. And ever. And ever. And it wont be flicked from the computer lab like my last mp3 player. Because it'll have my name on it. aHah! And a characteristic witticism for that personal touch. Now who would have the heart to kidnap such well loved, cheeky lil melody maker. It could even become an heirloom or neicenephewloom of sorts. Raise a smile, albeit an embarrased one, on some kids face. Along with my pool of old movie tickets, fossil watch, airplane locket and gothic-ish ring, all the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and my copy of Illusions complete with all the crisped flowers between its page. And my scrabble board ofcourse. I recall playfully destroying my uncles set of faber castle crayons, losing all his hotwheels and battering his roller skates. I hope the inheritors of my humble offerings are gentler souls.

Which brings me back to the engraving on the iPod. Something to inspire and amuse, maybe even warn and threaten a bit. Ok I'm getting to the point now finally. I've been trying to come up with something cool or cute or goofy or tough but I'm drawing a complete blank. As you can probably tell, brevity is not one of my sins. And two lines, twenty three characters each, is a lot, or a lot less, to ask for. Then theres eleven letters for my name too. So I'm open to all ideas. Bring it on I say! Don't be shy! Person with the best suggestion gets a special mention on my world famous widely read blog :P

Cmon! Be nice ! Do it for the kids! Its just one line ;)

The Code

This morning I was cross my heart hope to die certain that the computer vision library has a bug. I checked every line every parameter every sequence over and over and that was the only possibility. With full conviction I told my advisor, "Its not my function". But the devil is in the details, and I discover this, right after my advisor walks in on me chatting, gtalk piling on one window after another while he tells me to redeclare the error criteria. A pathetic lil flag. In the midst of all the big fish, images, arrays, classes, I missed an insignificant integer! Oh woe is me and all ...

After all these months, my code finally works! Though by no fault of my own. It was a bit of a conceded victory but it does work. I'm happy because now I can go bug-hunting through a new set of few dozen lines for the next few months.

We'd have it all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbJtYqBYCV8

We can do whatever we want to...

The Quiet and Scenic

Mom, Dad and Sis left at 5 a.m today and all is quiet and scenic in SC again. Sunday daybreaks are booked for bye-bye's . Mom said I'm a very brave girl to come here and be by myself to study, that she would never have been able to do so, but I'm only trying to live upto her.



The last two weeks gave me no time to think. It was just full of flights, buses, hotels, aunts and uncles and cousins, long winded arguments, catching up, ma's lap, new clothes, new shoes, coming home for lunch, ice cream, afternoon naps, late nights and shoebites. I'll talk at length about all these things. Tell everyone about skyscrapers and sculptures and arches and ferry rides and the spirit of 'I *heart* NYC'. But today I just need the quiet and scenic to sink in.

I just wish it wouldn't go so silent so suddenly. I wish everyone would have to stay where they are and I could leave, whenever I felt like it. And that I could be the only one moving around a rock steady universe. Instead of turning a steering wheel with no wheels attached to it, looking over a dashboard prop or driving without looking at the road once, black and white trees and buildings and lamp posts blurring in the backdrop, while I drop the other characters in the script off. "I had such a daaaarling time" "Thanks for the ride!" . The pleasure's all mine! Anytime!

I have to go home and do the dishes and put all the extra sheets and pillows away.

To mediocracy

Everyday I set my goals just a little higher than I can possibly achieve. My efforts are usually more than sufficient. Less often I even touch excellence. But sometimes, just for the sake of my sanity, I aim for mere mediocracy. I struggle just to try and catch up because I'm biting the dust and striving for perfection is a cruel joke. I used to be disgusted at incompetence but now I'm looking at the other side of the coin. Doing what you love even if you're no good at it. Like the proverbial bathroom singers. The inspiration for all that rhetoric is this...

I have landed myself into, or rather my advisor has thrust upon me, the daunting task of turning a regular amatuer peice of code into a more legible coherent Object Oriented Program (OOPs). Now this really is high school stuff. The problem is that in high school I was a biology student. And what about four years of college you might ask. Thats where the one-woman computer science faculty swims into the picture. I like to call her the Goldfish. Because her blinking saucer eyes and the effect of her lectures. None. The only thing I ever heard was the conviction filled "OK" after every phrase. If ever I was compelled to attend class, mostly out of courtesy, and having nowhere else to go, it was just as soothing as watching a goldfish blinking and mouthing words that will never reach a soul. I'm not saying she was a bad teacher. She came to class, graded exams, kicked classroom gamers out of the lab as per the duties of any associate professor. It was the mediocracy. The uninspired textbook lectures. She did her job, nothing more nothing less. And I can't quite bring myself to blame her for my lack of that one skill essential for any engineer. Coding. Maybe, like me, she was just doing the best she could from the confiines of her fishbowl.

Don't get me wrong. The only reason I'm setting presumably low targets right now is coz I gotta take it all one step at a time. I'd rather be an unwavering straight C donkey than a straight A quitter. I can't go straight from bathroom to broadway. I need to train first. And when I'm done learning, I'm gonna learn some more. Why would you settle for a fishbowl when you can have the whole damn ocean?

Time to crash

Hello worldwideweb!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D0zfB1l1x0

Goodnight worldwideweb!

Come on in!

Summer at last! I'm so psyched to be blogging again!

For the unitiated, here's a recap...

I have grown up studied partied in Dubai, land of sunshine, beaches, glistening skyscrapers, islands spelled out off shore, traffic jams, cheap food, cheap labor, one man families, three hour lunch breaks, twelve hour work days, gold bar raffles and all the carefree luxurious things you can be filled inside a rainbow bubble .

And now the cold shock that is the East Coast of the US of A. Trees, rodents, not rats but the nicer ones like squirrels and hare, brick houses, cheap pizza, costly food, fall, snowfall and all the bleak bare necessities that can be stuffed into a tin can . I'm sure it is the land of opportunity. But I'm a grad student. I'm very much in line right now.

My major , Aerospace Engineering, aka rocket science. I have never been much of a scholar so I'm in learning shock. I have a lot of catching up to do and it would help if I was more of a geek and less of romantic. I don't quite fit the bill of rocket scientist. It's just as well coz most high flying aviators hit the books only after they're six feet under.

Thats all I can think of right now. I'm not trying to put anything in a nutshell. You'll here more from me everyday. I hope. If C++ bugs don't plague my summer. If I watch one less television show. If nobody calls me up after nine. Sniff ;)