Hibernation
I realized a couple of days back (and many more times earlier) that this blog has been hibernating. All this while, I just did not bring myself to sit and pen something down. This one is to catch up on those missed months.
I have been keeping myself busy primarily with my PhD coursework in my 4th semester at Purdue. This is the time when I finish most of my coursework and delve into research. I'll be taking my final oral Qualifier exams this semester and I hope it goes well and I officially become a PhD candidate. We worked on a couple of paper submissions and the reviews are pending on them.
Last Thanksgiving tempted me a lot into buying my first DSLR camera - a Canon 500D (Rebel T1i). I can see people going - "Aah, one more guy with a fancy camera", but I really hope I can impress myself with my photos. I truly believe that photos keep memories alive through the years. Anyway, I've decided to start with the kit lens 18-55mm and a 55-250mm telephoto zoom lens. I've transformed into a Flickr user over Picasa after receiving recommendations from a couple of friends and here is my Photostream. The zoom lens is producing some superb images when I use it for shooting portraits with easy background blur.
My camera is my second best companion while traveling. I prefer spending and visiting different places instead of lazing back at home. Last winter, I went on a small road trip with Ashwathi to Brown County state park. I was pessimistic at first about the worth of this trip during winter, but it turned out to be quite a nice trip. Brown county park is located near the small town of Nashville - I really mean small; the whole town is built around Van Buren street. The park was a quiet escape and the weather was in the 40s and partially cloudy with bright skies, perfect for photography. I'd love to head out to a similar park sometime in Fall to camp and spend more time close to nature. And finally, I spent a quiet and exciting New Year back home at W Lafayette with an Italian Dinner at Olive Garden.
I've also been doing this one-new-restaurant-every-Friday thing, which actually started out last Fall. A couple of us guys pick some new cuisine and restaurant every Friday and try it out. Although we've had a few experiences that were not too good, we get to try out so many different styles of cooking. And after all, its TGIF!
Meanwhile, I also caught up on movies such as Sherlock Holmes, 3 Idiots (Hindi) and Avatar (3D IMAX) and a couple of other older movies. I am so happy we discovered the Purdue DC++ network for content. We had a similar one in our GZ LAN at NITT and this brings memories back..
What I was doing – the week of 2009-05-17 (Twitter)
- Back home again!
# - @Arvind_srid Yeah man! #
- @suren Where are you now? I am leaving now on a trichy-bangalore trip and will be back to chennai on Monday night. #
- @suren Lets plan to meet. You can contact me on another person's number
(if you don have my old number) #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-05-17 (Twitter)
- Back home again!
# - @Arvind_srid Yeah man! #
- @suren Where are you now? I am leaving now on a trichy-bangalore trip and will be back to chennai on Monday night. #
- @suren Lets plan to meet. You can contact me on another person's number
(if you don have my old number) #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-05-10 (Twitter)
- @rvivek After taking a graduate course in compilers, I really pity compiler developers! The complexity!! #
- @divinjohn IIT, Madras is not on the list!
# - Its frustrating!! #
- Going back home after 8 months! excited
# - Happy Mothers Day to all mothers out there!
#
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-05-03 (Twitter)
- @verma: Which conference are you submitting it to? #
- @verma Poster went well. Got a lot of feedback and motivation to work on it
# - A hot day led to some sudden showers late evening. Weird weather! #weather #
- @rvivek Leaving home or leaving for home?
Sounds like u are running away from home (with someone?
) # - @satya3656 Introducing yourself to twitter?
# - Youtube has a better UI! Nice
# - Leaving for the last class of the semester. Damn this year got over so soon! #
- @viveknshah To get some overhead baggage space
# - @rvivek Use a 2 column database. Or use DB (Berkeley DB). They do just that. #
- 5 more days! #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-04-26 (Twitter)
- Another Mac key combination learnt! Fn+Backspace = Delete. Yay! #
- At Boston, MA #
- @themudd congrats!! #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-04-19 (Twitter)
- What a Kesari it was
# - @manian_pbs Yeah!! #
- @vatsala: Yeah!
# - Going home early friday afternoon
# - If you are a vegetarian, DO NOT go to a TGI Friday's restaurant!! (atleast in the US) #
- @anshprat: Maybe that can be Ajaxed like Gmail #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-04-12 (Twitter)
- Another weekend gone fooling around with technology! #
- Does the Indian railway have all trains in Sleeper class with 3 side berths?! #
- Barbecue this weekend!! Yay
# - @suren: before you "graduate" u mean? Pass out can mean other things
# - I want this bill to pass
- http://tinyurl.com/cpepzb # - Super brain yoga! http://tinyurl.com/csjrft LOL #
- Ctrl+a and Ctrl+e are Home and End key equivalents on a Mac. Yay!! found by accident #apple #macbook #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-04-05 (Twitter)
- Weekend comes to an end. Another week starts. Work, work work! #
- forced to leave home late... wish I had this, wish I had that.. #
- Paperwork is boring.. #
- Weird but funny.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ritubpant/3399560622/sizes/o/ #
- http://tinyurl.com/d9ft3p #
- Sick and tired of dell laptops and more with their customer care!! #fail #
- How can the sound from a laptop resemble the chirping of a bird or a laser??!! - source: dell customer care #
- Lastly, won't a sane person know if sound is coming from his laptop or his AC adapter!! #
- @cyberian I just ordered mine man
# - @anshprat Mine is a Dell Studio 1535.. #
- @sp2hari Just copying the VMWare files folder should work I think.. Doesn't it? #
- http://www.canucklehead.ca/look/i_hate_sandcastles.html #funny #
- @suren All the Best! #
- Its Shipped! #
- @rvivek @aditya87 Happy Birthday!!
# - has got his first MacBook! #
- Coconut rice lunch... yummmm #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
What I was doing – the week of 2009-03-29 (Twitter)
- Tired... Lotsa work to be done this week... #
- http://tinyurl.com/6h7dj3 #
- slow day.. just leaving for lab
# - No more classes this week
# - Obama answering a Google comp sci question!! - http://tinyurl.com/ytyuou #
- @rvivek My good friend "the coder" aka viv has the best solution till date
# - Got up early! #
- @alagu Guess all mom's did.
It supposedly came in Ananda vikadan.. # - @alagu Yeah #
- @raghavendra Happy New Year!! Party!
# - WFH.. #
- @taggy I meant PhD research work at the univ. Work in the lab.. #
- saw this somewhere - "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital" !! #
- Formula 1 race weekend! I soo wish it would come to Indianapolis, so that I can see it in person
# - @ankurkhetrapal I have not seen the qualification, but the results look interesting. Planning to stay up and watch the race!
# - @ankurkhetrapal Wish I did
# - @raghavendra You dirty statisticians
# - @rvivek What are you doing at 5:30 in the morning??! Another night out a? #
- @alagu Which macbook do you have? #
Powered by Twitter Tools.