Reluctant Rocket Science

Pavement pine

2009-11-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

Clumsy flimsy
Willy nilly pine tree
Green and gawky
Prickling pensive passersby
Crouching slouching shadow
Unlit and in the way
Waiting to slip into
Tinsels and twinkles galore
To grandly command
Streetlights in single file
To bring in the snow

Stereo Desk

2009-11-10T15:14:00.001-08:00

New Here

2009-10-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

This is a love song. Sing it your way.

Something feels so very wrong
Looks like your things are all gone
Trailing behind you
They'll be sticking around you
I should do something with all this space
Maybe I'll move into a smaller place

This new world feels so strange
It seems familiar
But it's not quite the same
I feel so new here
It's not like I never lived here
Come back! Let's never be alone
Come back! Let's just go home

Who needs a rocket ship
To leave gravities ol' grip
I knew I was leaving this world behind
That moment I touched your fingertips
Shouldn't have let go
I gotta get back on track
I'm not sure where I drift
My shore won't pull back

This new world feels so strange
It seems familiar
But it's not quite the same
I feel so new here
It's not like I never lived here
Come back! Let's never be alone
Come back! Let's just go home

Funeral for a Friend

2009-10-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

A cool crisp morning
Is a good beginning
To a brand new life
You've been flailing
All ghoulish night long
Against the soundless
Sateen casket sides

The funeral procession
Plunged you unheeding
Into the ravenous dark
Of soil sodden night
It shuffles away with
Your cut of daylight

Your friends live on
Clutching a dim grief
Dwindling under the sun
Returning to the relief
Of routine.

Dil-e-Mann Musafir Mann

2009-10-14T01:27:00.000-07:00

Mere dil, mere musafir
Hua phir se hukm sadr
Ke watan-badar hon hum tum
Dein gali gali sadaaein
Karein rukh nagar nagar ka
Ke suraag koi paayein
Kisi yaare naamabar ka
Har ek ajnabee se poochein
Jo pata hai apne ghar ka
Sar-e-koo-e-naashnaayan
Hamein din se raat karna
Kabhi is se baat karna
Kabhi us se baat karna
Tumhe kya kahoon ke kya hai
Shab-e-gam buri bala hai
Hamein yeh bhi tha ganeemat
Jo koi shumaar hota
Hamein kya bura tha marna
Agar ek baar hota!

-Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Cover

My heart, my wandering heart
It has been decreed once again
That you and I leave our land
Crying out from lane to lane
Seeking town after town
For some kind of sign
From a friendly messenger
Asking every stranger
The way to our own home
Heading into unfamiliar avenues
We turn day into night
Now speaking with him
Now talking to her
How can I explain what it is
The eve of sorrow is a wicked curse
I could have accepted it
Had it brought me some notice
Dying wouldn't be so bad
If it were only once!

Sunday to be Monday

2009-05-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

For those who've slept
For those who've kept
Themselves jacked up
How Jesus wept
Sunday
Sunday

For those in need
For those who speed
For those who try to slow their minds with weed
Sunday
Sunday

For those who wake
With a blind headache
Who must be still
Who will sit and wait
For sunday, to be monday

Yeah, it will be ok
Do nothing today
Give yourself a break
Let your imagination run away

For those with guilt
For those who wilt
Under pressure
No tears over spilt milk
Sunday
Sunday

Sunday
Sunday

Sunday
Sunday

Yeah, it will be ok
Do nothing today
Give yourself a break
Let your imagination runaway

Yeah, it will be ok
Do nothing today
Give yourself a break
Let your imagination runaway

The ol' sound off

2009-04-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

What's your problem anyway? You just don't get it! I ask you for just one simple thing, one basic task, with clear instructions, and you just refuse to oblige me. How often do I even approach you? I come to your window and you just put me down with your ruthless logic. You just don't listen. My inputs mean nothing to you. You either ignore them completely or you turn them into exactly what you want them to be. That is if you decide not to bring up ancient history and get completely nuerotic. I don't know why you can't let go of the old arguments. And I just don't know what to expect anymore. You keep me hanging all the time, waiting for you to do your bit and just make it work for once. But it never does, does it? You simply cannot help rattling off your list of contradictions for every little statement I dare to make. It's always if this or else that with you. Why is it so difficult for us to find some middle ground? I am forever trying to pacify you. I do everything the way you want me to. But you don't even think twice before you break away and point out my mistakes at every step. That is, if you don't freeze up completely while I try frantically go through the debris of everything crashing around us. I want to believe it's not you. I mean with parents like MATLAB and C++, how else could you be expected to turn out? I can imagine all the pressure you've had to deal with. But after spending some time with them last summer, I know that even though they're misunderstood, they do at least make an effort to be liked. I don't know why you can't even try to get along. I thought, I may be the one person who could get through to you. But Simulink, baby, you're something else.

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

2009-01-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/06.05/99-rowlingspeech.html

Gone again

2008-12-25T22:08:00.000-08:00

I won't be seen around these parts until the 7th of February.

I am busy pretending to study for the candidacy exam for the benefit of my mother who has travelled halfway across the world to witness the rare event.

Halfway is the furthest you can go since we live on a sphere. Hence the production. Also, although we're in wonderland right now, mum isn't here for the snow.

Dance monkey dance. Where'd that darned whiteboard go now?

Math is fun! Loving those snow capped Laplacians!

Oh and Happy Holidays! Wishing you a merry season of indolence and gluttony!

My mind is a muscle. My mind is a muscle. My mind is a muscle. 10 more laps around the text!

Lady vs. Handbag

2008-11-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

This is a rebuttal towards those of my friends who frequently get caught amidst my mad handbag hunts, and to those who scrutinize my every move to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm quite grateful but really it's not that bad. Shit happens.

How do you spot a tool bag in space?

Track the tool bag

Enlarge Image

A tool bag which floated away from a shuttle astronaut during a recent space walk will be visible over Britain this week, but how do you spot it?

Losing a tool bag can be inconvenient, but when you're 212 miles above the Earth it's a whole different matter.

Last week American astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper was forced to watch her tools - reportedly worth £70,000 - float off when the backpack-sized bag slipped out of her grip.

The accident happened as she was cleaning grease off her gloves while fixing a gummed-up joint on the International Space Station's solar panel. The bag went into orbit and has become a "must see" among some competitive stargazers in recent days.

You can calculate precisely where something will be in space at any given time thanks to Newton's first law of physics. It states that any object moving in a straight line tends to remain in such a state unless acted upon by an external force.

This also applies in space, the only difference being things move in an orbit. And because space is so vast and empty, a tool bag is unlikely to be knocked off its course by anything else.

THE ANSWER

Precise location can be plotted using Newton's first law of physics

Size of space means it's unlikely to be hit by anything else or be anything else

Calculate when to spot tool bag

As scientists know information like the size of the tool bag and where it was lost, it is possible to do the orbital calculations to determine where it will be and when.

A computer model has been developed for the tool bag (see link below answer box). But finding its exact location in the sky depends on your location on Earth. For example, it will appear lower in the sky from the north of England and Scotland than the south.

Equipped with your latitude and longitude coordinates, the model will calculate the time to see the tool bag, the altitude it will be at and the magnitude, which specifies its brightness compared with stars. Usually the bag has a negative magnitude, say astronomers, meaning it is one of the brightest objects in the night sky apart from the moon and planes.

But before that you will also need the right equipment - binoculars or a telescope and "even then it will be difficult to see," says Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society.

But the typically large distances between things in space also means it's unlikely anything else will be in the same position at the same time, says Robin Scagell, of the Society for Popular Astronomy. So what you track will almost certainly be the tool kit.

Burn up

"Most people have been playing too many computer games and think space is full of chunks of rock and debris, but it isn't," he says.

"There are things out there, but they are likely to be meteors the size of a grain of coffee and many miles apart. Even if they did hit the tool bag they would have little impact."

WHO, WHAT, WHY?

A regular feature in the BBC News Magazine - aiming to answer some of the questions behind the headlines

What you will see is another matter. The bag will have no structure or shape but will look like a faint star whizzing through the sky. But it will be easily distinguishable from a plane because it won't have red and green navigation lights.

"It will be a speck of light which will not be visible to the naked eye," says Dr Massey. "I wouldn't waste too much time looking out for it. Looking at the actual space station where the bag was lost is far more interesting."

Eventually very faint traces of atmosphere will act on the tool bag to slow it down and it will come out of orbit, says Mr Scagell. But this could take years and when it does happen the bag will be burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Disclaimer: It could equally as easily have been a gentleman.

Way to tick off

2008-11-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

Calm down
I am calm

Calm down
I am calm

Calm down
I am calm

Calm down
I am calm

Calm down
I !#$%* am %^&* calm

The shoemaker and the elves

2008-10-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Remember the story about the shoemaker and the elves? Shame on you if you don't, go ask any 6 year old.

You don't have to look too closely to notice all the things that happen in the cover of the night while you sleep. The anonymous early morning set of emails concerning local news, half price shoes, flat screen televisions and a new fortune should you provide the number of your bank account, that you sleepily check and delete. All those leaves you crushed on your way home have assembled themselves neatly into a hill on the grass and there's no crackle in your step on your way out this morning. You find a line of sparkling white toilets with raised seats, quite unlike the careworn washroom you grumbled about yesterday.

Ever wonder how the bulletin boards get plastered the way they do even though you never see a mob of people having a stapler fight to punch their piece on that precious space. I wish I could tell you that you can catch them red handed in the half lit corridors outside the library late in the evening. But I was there last night, with my posters and my stapler, and there was no one there to fight. So I just tried to be considerate, under no force, and posted my little ads only over events that were over. I roamed the corridors, merrily stapling and solitary. And then I was spotted, by a man with a vacuum cleaner, piling chairs on desks lifted off the carpet. I met his glance and kept moving without a nod. When I step onto the deeper blue fiber in class today, I will know the face behind the cause of the clean carpets. And the carpet cleaner will have solved the mystery of the sign sprouting bulletin boards.

Challa

2008-10-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Challa is a punjabi folk song that's been around forever, obviously. Since Indian music is dominated by Bollywood now, the folk songs that you hear now are ones that have survived the test of time. They strike a chord whether you heard them from your parents while you worked in the fields as a kid way back when or if you were sniffing around on youtube and clicked something that seemed vaguely familiar. The latter would be me, in case you didn't get that. So, several days ago I rediscover this song and find this lovely version of it sung by one of those rare present day sufis, Rabbi Shergill. I've been completely hooked to it, and for the first few days it made me really sad. It's so heart wrenching, it remind me of a part of myself that's always stuffed away somewhere and brought out to try on every now and then and then put away again. Like an old dress that you got from your Mom that you wore so fondly before but looks sorta silly on you now and doesn't go with any of your shoes. The song is lovely to me in its abstractness and its willingness in being interpreted any way you like. The word "Challa" literally means "Ring", the kind you wear, which is made quiet obvious in the Dali-esque video. I don't know much Punjabi, I took the liberty of translating it and putting it in my own words. I'm not really competing from accuracy here and have just put down my interpretation, with some help from other blogs and discussion boards. Don't read it if you consider yourself an independent thinker. Before I spoil all the fun, heres the video...

Chhalla vas nahi oo mere

Chhalla vas meri maan de

Ghallegi tan jange

Ve gall sun chhallia

Khaure keeta kis is ‘te toona

The ring, it heeds me not

The ring, it heeds only my mother

It will leave if she wishes

Listen to me, my darling

I don’t know who cast this spell

Chhalla bambi da paani

Kithhey veh gaye ne jaani

Asan khabar ko na jaani

Ve gall sun chhallia

Teri beri ik uggia ey kanda

The ring, water deep in the well

Who knows where it seeped away

I have no news from it

Listen to me, my darling

On your vine grows a thorn

Chhalla gut ik lammi

Asan supne chummi

Hoi neeyat si anni

Asan dil di si manni

Ve gall sun chhallia

Hun de lai jehrhi deni ey sazaa

The ring, a long braid

I kissed in a dream

I was blinded by desire

But I listened to my heart

Listen to me, my darling

Then punish me as you will

Chhalla boharh ik ‘kalla

Unhe farhia ey palla

Thalle dharat utte Allah

Ve gall sun chhallia

Khaure jandian kinni dunghian jarhan

Es gall da os khud nu nahi pata

The ring, a lone banyan

Where it sprouted it held fast

To the Earth below and God above

Listen to me, my darling

How deep his roots run

He himself does not know

Chhalla ambian kachian

Mattan de koi sachian

Laiey lekhe jo bachian

Terian merian gharian

Ve gall sun chhallia

Langh javan ain na umran khaali

The ring, unripe mangoes

Somebody give me some true advice

Let’s think of what’s left

Of your time and mine

Listen to me, my darling

Lest our lives should go to waste

Notice for Chubby

2008-10-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hellos and welcomes

Thank you for gracing with presence at lasts

Person awaits comments

Thank yous

Negative gradient

2008-10-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

Before this day goes totally and utterly downhill, I want to at least shout out, while my last remnants of sanity dwindle.

My life has been taken over by numbers, symbols and loops of stubborn logic. I count my words when I speak, or write. I force my feet to take bigger steps and just get there already. I shove food down my throat and guzzle coffee for sustenance.

I'm on the negative gradient of my function right now and it keeps getting higher in magnitude. For instance, factor in the girls upstairs who decide to have a tete-a-tete at 1 am, but unwittingly share their boisterous enthusiasm with their pretty sleepy and very gruff neighbor downstairs. Add in lack of sunshine, two powerpoint presentations, a not-quite-right research project bordering on a thesis deadline topped with a nitpicking pessimistic attitude like yours truly and your really on a roll.

It's therefore time to open up my parachute, slow my descent, take a nap.

Saturday afternoon snoozefest

2008-09-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's another overcast albeit lovely Saturday afternoon, and all's well in my Universe. At least according to my observation model. The last time I checked my universe was completely observable for everything that did want to keep track of, which isn't much. So if I left a sock in a dryer somewhere sometime, I don't know and don't care and all's well.

As for inputs, food, sleep and physical and mental exercise have been wired in. Since the system is operating on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday schedule, the latter two are negligible and may be ignored. States reaching the limits of the operation envelope were damped by home cooked chicken. Disturbance rejection is functioning as designed and pulses of blue spectrum emotions were rejected by a nap and a chocolate brownie.

All states in the universe are stable and running. The system will now switch to the next task.

Hey you :)

2008-09-19T12:47:00.001-07:00

I've been gone forever from this blog which I created so lovingly and full of promise, to channel my thoughts, to keep everyone posted without whining on a one on one basis, and possibly to live vicariously by. And it wasn't suddenly finding focus, contentment or fulfillment that kept me away. Nor was it lack of time. I don't know why I stopped writing and I'm sure if you're reading you couldn't be less interested in finding out. But since this is my blog I hope that you can at least permit me to say I've missed it, and you, and now I'm back and that's all thank you.

Fog

2008-01-28T16:20:00.001-08:00

Fog

Churning crunching crushing

Creeping guilty convict

Regret rattling round his neck

Half wish

Half heart

Half tongue

A nostril

And An eye

Conglomerate of halves

Rising as one

Inhaling

Exhaling Lung

Clutching at wholes

To grab his Half

Half nose

Catching Half a cold

A sneeze that went unblessed

Squeezing out one last vapid Half puff

Of a Half tossed Half glowing cigarette

Half a heart

Pockets a Half conscience

Left aside for Half the night

And for his Half tongue

A Half promise

A Grey truth

A White lie

Mocking me with my lost love’s

Last Half wish

Dangling his catch before me

A Half Dead

Dew filled

Tingling Half Sigh

Snickering Half consummate

Slithered away

Claiming for his arid eye

Half a tear

That I didn’t cry.

Boredom

2007-08-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-07-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

iPod Signature

2007-07-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

We can do whatever we want to...

The Quiet and Scenic

2007-07-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

Hello worldwideweb!

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

Goodnight worldwideweb!

Come on in!

2007-05-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

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 ;)