End of Chapter 2

2013 is drawing to a close. The last few days though have been very hollow. I defended my dissertation in December but that did not bring the feeling of relief I thought it will. Productivity has been zilch and a sense of emptiness is creeping in. A need to start afresh. 

Of this and that

Last one month has been busy but productive, a bag of joy and disappointment but generally good. It started with writing the comprehensive report for which I was already late and in the end only had 3 days to document almost 5 years of my work. Didn't do a particularly good job but at least I’ll have a second chance when I write the dissertation. Then there was the hastily arranged comprehensive exam which went OK  Relieved to say the least. In between all this, worked on the papers, submitted some re submitted and re re submitted. In between all this my phone decided not to cooperate and stopped working. Took it to a repair shop, which charged $44 for opening it and then the incompetent fellows returned it back. So repaired it myself and upgraded it to jelly bean. Hope to be more productive and get more work done this week.

Image: Mauna Kea, Hawaii  http://link2hawaii.groupsite.com

Things to do in 2012

Graduate
Graduate
Don't get old
Take a vacation before the world ends.
See a lava lake.
Watch Sachin's 100th 100.
Burn my underwear in protest of unfair treatment of humanity
Escape the 2012 apocalypse (of course with a pretty girl. Who wants to live alone on an island?)
Repopulate the earth.

It's a New Year Folks

Didn't realize it was a new year until the first day was over and somebody called me up. Well for the first time I did celebrate the new year and during the celebrations forgot why we were doing it. Unlike last few years haven't retrospected and made any list ....maybe sometime later ... haven't got any alone time yet.

One thing I wish though is that Sachin starts this year with a century again also that I finish my PhD. At least one of them is possible.

Well Hapy New Year

A Random Walk

Any ideas on, how do you do a random walk in real life? You do what we me and Dylan did yesterday. We wanted to go for a walk and didn't know where to go so we decided not to decide anything at all and leave everything to chance. We started from Alex's and on each intersection made a totally random decision on which way to go :), that's a random walk in real life and it was fun walking without purpose and no destination.

It's been almost a month and a half since I wrote here last that's because I have been keeping quite busy and sadly I don't fore see any respite in the next few days. Writing something was on my list for almost a week so I decided I should take some time out and write something..... anything.

Talking about anything, yesterday was a good day. I had a poster presentation and had to stand next to my poster for three and half hours which almost succeeded in breaking my back, fortunately the presentation got over just before the breaking point. Then we went to the "goat", had coffee and the free pizza at Alex's :). The Tradebot guy who sponsored the pizza was a nice one. I guess Me and Dylan were the only guys there without a resume. PhD students are so easily satisfied, they don't need no jobs, all they need is free pizza :P. Then we did the random walk thingy untill we ran into AJ and the broken car (unrelated events :P) and we talked about the "Rat Attack" in northeast India. That was something I learnt yesterday and I had no clue whatsoever about it. A cycle which occurs every 48 years. Every 48 years millions of rats come, no one knows from where and destroy all the crops. It has an interesting reason which I leave you to explore. After the discussion I went back to the lab and actually worked for sometime till I decided to call it a day and head home and guess what I met Jeremy on my way. Actually he wasn't in my way but you know you sometime have that urge to poke a mad bull and see what it does :P. I kinda like talking to him and listen to how a conservative Christian’s mind works.(..and you thought I had had enough of conservative Hinduism) Well God is one of my favorite topics and I can't resist talking about it. Every time I talk to Jeremy I learn something. How to be patient when someone is talking so highly of something you have zilch beleif in and then how to coerce them into your way of thinking. Was too tired after that so went home listened to Jason Mraz ... I love the geek in the pink live version..had dinner and slept ... to wake up the next morning and write this post. :)
Have fun everybody !

No more presentations!!!!

Finally no presentations for a few days ...I know I have another one next monday, but i have the weekend to start working on it. I've had 4 presentations in the last 3 days, and now I have started to wonder whether MBA would have been a good option rather than PhD.

It started with my advisor announcing an ill timed lab meeting. My presentation there ended in total humiliation, with my advisor dissecting each and every word of what I presented. I cannot thank my lab mates enough for coming to my rescue when my advisor was still not tired of inflicting more than an hour of disgrace on me.Inspite of all this, I had a lot to learn and take away and it helped greatly in the couple of presentations i had yesterday and the one today.

No more presentations till monday, and I have some time to rest before the harakiri of end sem and the final exams begins. May I rest in peace :D.