a byte of me

Christmas Lighting in SLC 
Tagged: Salt Lake City, Christmas

Another home (christmas lighting in SLC) 
Tagged: Salt Lake City, Christmas

Funky Lighting art! (naah! just a shaky picture, hehe) 

Utah mountains
Tagged: Utah, University of Utah, Utah Mountains

College within the mountains 
Tagged: Utah, University of Utah, Utah Mountains

One of the truths of my life is: I am obsessed with India. I think, like many other Indians (except Laloo P. Yadav, who can't), I have a say about it and its future. Unfortunately, the government ignores Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and considers us Non Required Indians. We aren't even allowed to vote in the national (prime-ministerial) elections if we live abroad. Its ridiculous!

So a friend, and I have started a blog. Its http://india2go.blogspot.com Its a medium for us non required indians to express our opinions about our country. (We've got nothing against those resident Indians though. They're invited to contribute also. In fact we need them too. To give us the day to day ground reality.)

Basically, its just meant to be a medium for everyone to express where we want to take our country in the future. And hence (at least currently) we intend to make it an open team blog where people who are interested in contributing material towards this area can join up by sending me an email. Lets see how it comes along. I worry moderating might be an issue. But then again, maybe it wont be. Anyways, if you'd like to check it out here

Tagged: India, India: Politics, India: Future

I finished my last exam today at 3:30 pm. I chilled mostly all evening after that by going to the funky Salt Lake City Library and browsing books for a few hours. I found a very cool book on Jainism (my religion) which I have checked out. Hopefully I will dig deeper into it and learn more about it.

Then, I came back, watched TV for four (I cant believe it, four hours!!!!) hours (of very funny comedy) including Friends, Everybody Loves Ray, Sex & The City and Yes Dear. Then I had food at midnight. I cooked my favorite Chinese style Tofu Brocolli Stir Fry and had it with rice! Then I partly watched Kate & Leopold until I got bored of it. I find the pace of the movie too slow. And its too cheesy!

Then I decided to get down to work that I had planned to do once my exams were over. For one thing, I wanted to empty out my office. I did that at 3 am. The housekeeping and cleaning staff in MEB must think I work really hard since I am always there late at night when they are working there. Usually I am working. Today I wasn't. It was sort of different. Felt very awkward being in MEB late at night without having some study work on my head.

I wanted to empty my office because I wont be a TA anymore sinceI have been offered research assistantship for next semester with Dr. Regehr. So most likely I will have to move next semester and have to work in a lab (instead of my own office). Hence, I wanted to leave the office clean for who ever is assigned to it next. This is what it looks like now. Compare it to what it looked like during the semester when I had all my stuff there to make it cozy (since I probably spent more hours here than anywhere else).


After that, I came back home and started watching the movie Closer for the second time. It had already begun playing; I started watching it somewhere in the middle - where it really matters anyways. I had last watched it with Sneha (the Shendiputra) over last summer at OWU. I must admit, what I thought of this movie differs drastically both times. More details about that are better left to some other post, though.

Just talked to my cousin from Buffalo. She just woke up (its 6:30 am there) and still needs to finish some more study for her networking final. Earlier this evening, after I got back from the library, I tried to save her some time from reading the textbook by teaching her certain concepts on the phone with both of us having our textbooks open in front of us and on the same page (since both our classes used the same text and I had studied it recently for my networking exam on Tuesday). It felt good. A new approach in distance learning I must say. :) Sort of like when two people watch the same television show and are on the phone at the same time too! Been there, done that too! Anyways, wish you luck for the exam, Mallika. Start studying sleepyhead. Im going to bed soon.

Tomorrow I need to take care of mundane tasks that I have been putting off for quite a long time, like return some stuff I had bought, go to student health and prove to them I have been sufficiently immunized and all! Argh! Why is the list of such mundane tasks always longer than cool stuff (like doing research! or skiing! or reading!) I will never figure it out. Maybe it just seems longer because these things I keep putting off and over a period of time the list builds up. Ah well! Thats how such things are to be treated anyways. Life is too short to pay much attention to such stuff, right?

Its 3:30 am and I'm still studying for my operating systems exam tomorrow (or rather, today). It goes from 1 - 4. To think, in about 12.5 hours I'll be a free bird. Wow! The whole semester will come to an end. What a semester its been. Oh well, I should muse about it later on. My 5 minute break from study is over. Back to Operation Study! Ciao!

Pariksha yet aahet
Abhyaas cha patta naahi
Basun me wachto lokanche blog diwasbhar
Laagnar aahe chaangli buch maajhi!

My attempt at a writing a quatrain in Marathi :) hehe!

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
- Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
- Russell Beland, Springfield

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
Unknown

More Worst High School Analogies. Hilarious!

This and the previous month have been a roller coaster ride for me. They've brought great news on academic and career fronts. I've also faced many crunch times academically when many things in different classes piled up on me at the same time, and I somehow managed to successfully handle them all. It felt awesome. I was on top of the world. At the same time however, on a personal front, the same period has been a bummer. It shown me the lowest of lows. Lots of things have changed. Unexpectedly. Unreasonably. Many things I would have never imagined could go wrong have gone wrong.

I care about my work a lot. I believe in maintaining a strict work-life balance (Work-life balance and how I have maintained it so well in the past - especially working an internship and an on-campus job, while being a full time student at the same time - is another topic I want to blog about some other day), and even though I am in graduate school I treat it seriously like I do any work. However, when the hours are long (I'm working until 4 am in the morning most days and then usually get up and go to "work" (school) again at 8 am) the lines between work and life often get blurred. I have worked hard to not let my personal life affect my academics, many times with success, however failing sometimes as well.

Recently however, my own faith has emerged as the sole way that could help me stay composed and focussed. I must admit that it hasnt always worked out for me. But I believe that that is solely because I have been spending lesser time believing, thinking and working on my own faith. Actually thats true since I began college four years ago. I forgot God when there was too much work and too many things to think about. In fact, as much as I hate to admit it, there have been times when I have gone months without even thinking about my faith.

Hence it is only reasonable and expected, that it would take time for me to build my belief in my religion back to the level when it was an important part of my life. Back to the level where it helps me face any quirk life throws at me. Not that it ever took up a lot of my time, but I at least spent some time almost everyday thinking about it, about God, my life and so on. Somewhere along the way, I gave up God's company and started walking alone. Funny how now that I am alone, I seek God's company.

In difficult times, people rediscover their faiths and so have I. I am glad for it. Its God's way of reminding me that I have forgotten him. I wish God has less evil tactics of reminding me that. But seriously, how much importance should one give to faith in day to day life so that we consistently maintain that connection throughout our life - be it when we are really busy and the going is smooth or when we are still really busy and the going is bumpy.

Dear Mom,
Tomorrow is your birthday. Wish you many many happy returns of the day. I hope you have a great day and a wonderful year ahead. I miss you.
:) Kumar

So I've added another ambition to my list of things/adventures to do in Viet Nam that already includes backpacking from north to south in Viet Nam. Next time I am there, I'd also like to rent a Minsk (pronounced as Min) bike and drive off into the mountains in the north with a few friends. I came across Emma Sedgwick and Russell Skingsley's old blog and read the article about their relative riding a Minsk motorbike up north and having a blast! What an adventure! Many years ago, I read a Nelson DeMille book called Up Country where the plot of the story is based in Hanoi, HCMC and up north in the country side. Although the plot was fiction, the places he describes in the book are absolutely real. (He is a Vnam vet and he went back to Vnam to research while writing this book).

Reading about the country side fascinated me then and it still fascinates me. I remember something about the Montagnards - the tribals that reside up in the country side - that they are hostile towards the Northern Vnamese government (or anybody that is there with the motive of establishing authority over them. They very much like their own independence and want to stay that way.) Otherwise they are a very friendly lot. I am not sure what the situation is today, but if others have taken trips up there, I am sure its quite possible and although dangerous, quite adventurous.

So now that I am bubbling with excitement, I am going to try to convince some Vietnamese friends of mine from school (OWU) to go there with me sometime. We'll have to come up with a time that works for all of us, but I'm ready to go as soon as next summer when school at Utah ends.

In this space, I actually made a post about breakups and what makes them so sad. But later, browsing the internet, I came across another blog, that I really enjoyed reading and felt like I should let my blog reflect my positivity too. Too often we fall prey to blogging about sad things in our lives!

So heres to that blog. That made me change my perspective.

Although I dont mean I wont post anything sad if I'm really sad, but I want my blog to be a reflection of me. I want it to reflect what I am feeling that day. And if I am not feeling sad, bad, or down, my blog shouldnt be about those things.

So have a great night everyone. See you tomorrow.

First a little background into the story.

So, I had this TITAN sport watch that I loved wearing. It was gifted to me by my dad on a special occasion two years ago. It has a lot of sentimental value and moreover its one of the most comfortable watches I've ever used.

Over the past summer, the battery died and since I was shopping for something at Wal Mart, I noticed their watch center and gave my watch in to have its battery replaced. The person at the counter went like "Wow, its a foreign watch! We dont get to see many of these here." Or something like that. I didnt know that it would eventually mean "Aaah I dont know how to change its battery and I may screw your watch up." So she changed the battery and handed it back to me and it seemed to work. A little later I realized that although it showed time, the buttons on the side were busted. They no longer worked. I took it back and they tried to fix it and when they returned it, neither the buttons could be pushed in, nor did it show the time anymore. They had made it worse than it was and they basically gave it back to me because they didnt know how to fix what they screwed up. I was furious, but didnt say anything out of politeness. I even paid the bill for the battery.

Then I went ahead and bought a new Columbia Sportswear watch for myself, which I liked, but later I found myself not wearing it since it was too bulky (and not as comfy as my old one). So basically I was going watchless for the last few months, using my cell phone as my time keeper.

So coming to the main point now, I was missing wearing my old watch a lot today. I had been waiting until I go to India next summer and get it fixed. But I could wait no longer. So I sat down on my computer desk with two screw drivers and opened it up very carefully taking out six tiny screws. It took a few moments to take the mechanism out of the plastic casing, examine it and then I realized that the Wal Mart watch lady had broken one of the four contacts. Then the next 10 minutes were used to fix it and I finally got the time to show up on the screen. I put the digital mechanism back into the casing and found that the buttons still didnt work. It took a few times of inserting and removing the mechanism from the casing to figure out a flaw in the design of the button system. It now required me to take all the buttons out from the casing as well and then put the watch mechanism into the casing and then put the buttons at the end.

Eventually, an hour spent, but I got the job done! And no, I am not an electronic engineer and dont know jack about watches. Looking back I realize this knack of solving problems is what drew me to engineering and computer science in the first place.

Since its beginning, I have been a vehement supporter of Yahoo! mail. I love it a lot. When Gmail came along, I created an account only to capture my id before anyone else did. I refused to switch my primary mail (yahoo based) over to gmail mainly because I had no complaints with Yahoo and secondarily because its a pain to change email address and notify everyone etc.

One of the biggest reasons I support yahoo is for its spam detection capabilities and its efforts to reduce spam in this world with Yahoo! DomainKeys technology. Some rough observed statistics: Yahoo correctly identifies the 80-some spam I get everyday and throws them in the 'Bulk Mail' folder. I mean its almost precise. Once or twice a week I get to see one or two spam mails that escaped detection and ended up in my inbox. Thats a pretty good job on Yahoo's part. Also, there have been very few (almost none) false positives - mail that was not spam, but yahoo identified it as spam - its so good that I haven't had any false positives since the last 2 months or so.

Also, one of Yahoo's anti-spam efforts is to use captchas to prevent unscrupulous advertisers from creating new free accounts and spamming the hell out of everyone. A captcha is an image with squiggly letters, which you have to identify and enter to prove you are a human and not a bot, that we often get while registering for a new account on many sites. I know that sometimes when you send mail, especially to multiple recipients or groups, Yahoo asks you to verify using a captcha to ensure you're not spamming.

However these days, Yahoo captchas me on every single mail I send. Even when I am corresponding to people within my address books. Whats happening? Its ridiculous!

Also, one would think that their automatic learning algorithm (that learns things specific to your mailbox/email activity), where if you've exchanged a few mails back and forth in a conversation, the next time you reply to an incoming mail, it'd be reasonably sure that its not spam. But these days I get captchas even if its the 3rd or the 4th mail in a conversation and I'm replying to a previous mail sent by the person I am writing to.

I have no clue what has changed and from the little information I have, my conclusion is this: Either someone has been spoofing my email address and spamming the hell out of a ton of yahoo users. Hence Yahoo is suspicious and has flagged my account and captchas all my outgoing mail. If its not that, something is seriously wrong with their spam checking algorithm. Either way, its getting very annoying. I hope it gets resolved soon, or else I'm moving to Gmail. One can only have so much loyalty!

Words of Wisdom on Peace from Pravs:

"We often say that we want a peaceful life.
We wish to be at a place where there is
no noise, no trouble or no hardwork.

But this does not actually mean peace.
To be in the midst of all chaos of life,
and still be calm in your heart -
is what 'peace' is."

Take a moment to think about it. Think whether your heart is truly peaceful?

At this moment in my life - indeed, there is a lot of chaos. The work related part of it will be gone in 2 weeks when school ends and we break for Christmas. The other part will stay. However, I strongly believe that it is possible to achieve true peace of heart even in the midst of this chaos. And hence I have started to work on it. I know it will be a while (like all things good for us that we wish to achieve), but eventually if we put our mind to it, nothing is unachievable.