After surviving exams, surgery, the Charles De Gaulle airport, and a horde of relatives saying, "Oh my child! How thin you've become!", my life is slowly coming back to normal. Until I'm back at my desk in Penn State at the end of this month, though, I'll continue to be a little detached from the online world.
The solution to life, the universe and everything does not appear to be 42, but a series of little 42s. For instance, look at the trials I mentioned above. Exams? Attend classes more regularly and pay better attention. The Charles De Gaulle airport? Never fly Air France again. Being thin? Er... regain those lost pounds (somebody tell me how!) and don't give my relatives an opportunity to make such statements. I feel like I'm in one of Nissim Ezekiel's poems... the cosmos conspiring to keep me thin, and my own negligence making it worse.
And of course, there are the unavoidables. What was the surgery for? I can hardly spell it. What was the cause? Even the doctors aren't sure. At least they knew how to treat it, I should be grateful for that. I feel a little vexed that this prevented me from having fun for a while - couldn't meet up with my good ol' pals or play at the local bridge clubs, but I tell myself, it could have been a lot worse. I did get to read a ton of books, so I had something to occupy me, even if I've been reduced to reading masala authors like Clive Cussler.
The leap from epic fantasy to pulp fiction is rather painful, and I'm itching to get back to the public library in State College, but hey, I'm in one piece, in reasonably good health, and the future is worth looking forward to.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Too much....
I have too much on my plate at the moment. It must be obvious to the few people who read this blog that I haven't been around much on blogger the past month or so. It's going to continue this way for a couple of weeks more, until things cool down around here. I haven't really lost interest in blogging, it's just that blogging has to take a back seat to real life.
My rambling mind makes a weird connection to this: when I play bridge, I get awarded masterpoints for good finishes. As I gain more points, my ACBL ranking improves. Initially I would keep track of such things, but in the past few months I realized the futility and vaingloriousness of it all. There are a lot of important things in life. Things like bridge and blogging may be fun pastimes, but they don't come under the category of important things to deal with. They are things to do when one has leisure time, which for me has been increasingly at a premium.
At present, I'm sitting at one of those cusps in life when everything can change; in another year or so, my life might be unrecognizable from what it is today. I'll be back to the blog world after two weeks. In the meantime, wish me luck.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
My rambling mind makes a weird connection to this: when I play bridge, I get awarded masterpoints for good finishes. As I gain more points, my ACBL ranking improves. Initially I would keep track of such things, but in the past few months I realized the futility and vaingloriousness of it all. There are a lot of important things in life. Things like bridge and blogging may be fun pastimes, but they don't come under the category of important things to deal with. They are things to do when one has leisure time, which for me has been increasingly at a premium.
At present, I'm sitting at one of those cusps in life when everything can change; in another year or so, my life might be unrecognizable from what it is today. I'll be back to the blog world after two weeks. In the meantime, wish me luck.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Degrees of Freedom
It's a rather stupid pun, actually. That the more degrees you study, the more degrees of freedom your career has.
Education may not be necessary for making a good career for yourself, but it certainly helps. For all the people who roll their eyes at grad students and claim that a bachelor's degree is more than enough to start you off and the rest is up to your ingenuity, I feel only pity. Not everyone has a love of learning, but at least be smart enough to acknowledge that having an additional degree to your name will take your farther in your career.
The thing is, I am considering extending my Ph.D. by a year to get a masters in math. If I do that, I'll be qualified as a mechanical engineer, manufacturing engineer, industrial engineer, operations researcher and a mathematician, all before my 27th birthday! Strangely, I do not think any part of that education is wasted. As a matter of fact, I do not think any education at all is wasted. Education is the one of the few things that nobody can take away from you. It is a source of respect, from the self and from others.
Now, I feel that the more diverse your education is, the more breadth of problem solving methods you can bring to bear on your work. I have made it a point to take courses from fields as diverse as electrical engineering and chemical engineering, and I am constantly surprised by how useful it would be to approach a problem in my field (er... fields, if you prefer) from their perspective. It's so interesting, sometimes I think I could do another couple of degrees after this one.... kidding! Three is enough... a fourth I am considering. End of story :)
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Education may not be necessary for making a good career for yourself, but it certainly helps. For all the people who roll their eyes at grad students and claim that a bachelor's degree is more than enough to start you off and the rest is up to your ingenuity, I feel only pity. Not everyone has a love of learning, but at least be smart enough to acknowledge that having an additional degree to your name will take your farther in your career.
The thing is, I am considering extending my Ph.D. by a year to get a masters in math. If I do that, I'll be qualified as a mechanical engineer, manufacturing engineer, industrial engineer, operations researcher and a mathematician, all before my 27th birthday! Strangely, I do not think any part of that education is wasted. As a matter of fact, I do not think any education at all is wasted. Education is the one of the few things that nobody can take away from you. It is a source of respect, from the self and from others.
Now, I feel that the more diverse your education is, the more breadth of problem solving methods you can bring to bear on your work. I have made it a point to take courses from fields as diverse as electrical engineering and chemical engineering, and I am constantly surprised by how useful it would be to approach a problem in my field (er... fields, if you prefer) from their perspective. It's so interesting, sometimes I think I could do another couple of degrees after this one.... kidding! Three is enough... a fourth I am considering. End of story :)
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
The Uncertainty Principle in Life
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that the more accurately you try to measure the position of a particle, the less accurately you can measure its velocity, and vice versa. It is not that the particle itself does not have an exact position or velocity; rather, the act of observation itself is associated with such uncertainty.
A strange thought struck me this week. The more sure I feel about where I stand, the less sure I feel about where I am going. If I manage to decide upon where I am indeed going with my life, I feel insecure about where I stand right now in the context of that goal.
Profound, or profoundly stupid? I don't know.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
A strange thought struck me this week. The more sure I feel about where I stand, the less sure I feel about where I am going. If I manage to decide upon where I am indeed going with my life, I feel insecure about where I stand right now in the context of that goal.
Profound, or profoundly stupid? I don't know.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Table for one, please
It happened again.
I walked into a restaurant, and said those words. And they had to ask, with raised eyebrow, "Just one?"
What is it with these Americans? If you have lunch alone, is there something wrong with you? I'm a poor Indian graduate student... this is hardly unusual for me, anywhere.
In India, if you saw a guy working late in his lab on a friday night, you would think, "That's one hard-working guy." Here, if you see the same, you're supposed to think, "Loser." The culture conditions you to think like that.
Wake up, America. You can't complain about offshoring when party culture rules work culture in your midst.
Btw, Jorge Cham knows where to hit the humour nail:
Say Cheese,
Prashanth.
I walked into a restaurant, and said those words. And they had to ask, with raised eyebrow, "Just one?"
What is it with these Americans? If you have lunch alone, is there something wrong with you? I'm a poor Indian graduate student... this is hardly unusual for me, anywhere.
In India, if you saw a guy working late in his lab on a friday night, you would think, "That's one hard-working guy." Here, if you see the same, you're supposed to think, "Loser." The culture conditions you to think like that.
Wake up, America. You can't complain about offshoring when party culture rules work culture in your midst.
Btw, Jorge Cham knows where to hit the humour nail:
Say Cheese,Prashanth.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
I'll never understand...
- How I can be an expert on cooking in theory (thanks to a lifetime's worth of influence of Tamil Nadu's foremost expert in the field) but suck at it in practice... big time!
- How I can consider it a compliment to be described thus: "Prashanth is a nice guy but very, very weird."
- Why there is a Northern Blot, a Southern Blot, and a Western Blot but no Eastern Blot. And the fact that none of those blots have anything do with the cardinal directions (they are names of experimental techniques in biology, for those who are wondering what on Earth I'm talking about).
- Why I do a lot of day-dreaming but little of regular, ol' fashioned night dreaming.
- How I can clench my teeth stoically at physical pain but cry like a baby when watching a sentimental movie.
- How I can be a systematic and analytical thinker when it comes to academics but keep messing up the mundane matters in life.
*sigh* What can I say, that's me.
- How I can consider it a compliment to be described thus: "Prashanth is a nice guy but very, very weird."
- Why there is a Northern Blot, a Southern Blot, and a Western Blot but no Eastern Blot. And the fact that none of those blots have anything do with the cardinal directions (they are names of experimental techniques in biology, for those who are wondering what on Earth I'm talking about).
- Why I do a lot of day-dreaming but little of regular, ol' fashioned night dreaming.
- How I can clench my teeth stoically at physical pain but cry like a baby when watching a sentimental movie.
- How I can be a systematic and analytical thinker when it comes to academics but keep messing up the mundane matters in life.
*sigh* What can I say, that's me.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Looking forward to....
Eragon: The Movie
In a kingdom ruled by an immortal and tyrannical king, people cower in fear and pray for a saviour. Some whisper about the days when the Dragon Riders were the guardians of people, and used their magical abilities for the good of the realm.
Eragon is the first person to be marked with the sign of the dragon in over a thousand years, and becomes a magnet for danger, and a beacon for hope...
Incidentally, Christopher Paolini wrote the book Eragon at the age of 15! Unbelievable, isn't it?
Pssst... girls... do you find the hero smart/handsome? Maybe the next generation of people like me will be able to talk to girls about dragons without feeling weird :)
View the trailer for the movie here.
Neverwinter Nights 2: The Game
The Sword Coast teeters on the brink of war, at a time when the realm desperately needs to stand united against dark forces gathering under the banner of a legendary evil. A lone hero comes into possession of a mysterious relic, whose secrets hold the key to a situation that threatens to enslave the world...
I've never pre-ordered a game in my life, but I've done so now. NWN2 is the most looked-forward-to computer game of the year, because it will combine the party-based strategies of Baldur's Gate with the 3D graphics and character-building mechanism that was so successful in the original installment of NWN.
View the trailer for the game here. (takes a minute to download)
In a kingdom ruled by an immortal and tyrannical king, people cower in fear and pray for a saviour. Some whisper about the days when the Dragon Riders were the guardians of people, and used their magical abilities for the good of the realm.
Eragon is the first person to be marked with the sign of the dragon in over a thousand years, and becomes a magnet for danger, and a beacon for hope...
Incidentally, Christopher Paolini wrote the book Eragon at the age of 15! Unbelievable, isn't it?
Pssst... girls... do you find the hero smart/handsome? Maybe the next generation of people like me will be able to talk to girls about dragons without feeling weird :)
View the trailer for the movie here.
Neverwinter Nights 2: The Game
The Sword Coast teeters on the brink of war, at a time when the realm desperately needs to stand united against dark forces gathering under the banner of a legendary evil. A lone hero comes into possession of a mysterious relic, whose secrets hold the key to a situation that threatens to enslave the world...
I've never pre-ordered a game in my life, but I've done so now. NWN2 is the most looked-forward-to computer game of the year, because it will combine the party-based strategies of Baldur's Gate with the 3D graphics and character-building mechanism that was so successful in the original installment of NWN.
View the trailer for the game here. (takes a minute to download)
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