My Shangrila

It was lovely day.

It was a lovely night.
There was music (soft) and there was good company.

It is again a promising day. The sunlight has found its way (after diffraction, courtesy Imaging course) through the cluster of branches, into my balcony. The cardboard cans of Low-Fat Milk are partly shining in it, and are partly covered by the shadow of the mop (that has been proudly displayed for all and sundry to appreciate).

I went to a Chinese function yesterday. Juan acted in the drama. It was interesting to watch drama where language is a handicap for you. Got a few ideas on how it could have been improved. Then stopped by to see the guitar performance in ucen (and got a free vegan pziza slice.. it didnt have cheese and it was delicious).

Talkd about making Valentine day plans. (it seems that its generally more exciting to talk about it than live it!) (I hope this year its not the case).

Saw Borat on the weekend. Crazy movie. CCCCRRRAAAAZZZZZYYY. Hilarious. Outrageous. Totally out-of-the-box. Insightful. Perhaps True.

Got emails from home. Things are changing. People are changing (drastically, or so it seems).

Last week was most intellectually stimulating. Aho,Ulman and Lynz dug my brain. THe subject is the most challenging one I have ever encountered. Loved reading for it. The mid-erm was okay. I was satisfied. Dil khush hua! :-)

Hav a mid-term tomo. Have an inerview tomo. HAve an assignment to submit day-after. Another mid-term on friday. Busy schedule. Not because of all these deadlines, but because of the heaviest course that generally begins at 11 pm and lasts for eternity.
:-)

Love life!

Recently learnt Lessons.

1. Concretizing thoughts helps.
2. Formalizing arguments by writing makes them way more coerent than talking about them
3. If you have a group of people who you want to convince about the potential of idea A vs idea B, then you need a lot more than just the fact tat idea A is ACTUALLY better than idea B. Group thoughts are not the summation of the thougths of the individuals. The two differ considerably.
4. Putting clothes in the laundry is an interestingly complicated knapsack problem. In my opinion, it can be solved using a Deterministic Push Down Automata.
5. Cleaning the kitchen floor is way more difficult than it loooks. It seem that even that can be mapped into a CS problem.
   
6. The sticky-notes software is perhaps the most helpful application on the computer.
7. Being alone helps. Walks on the wharf help a lot more. Staring at the pelicans who are unhindered by the crowds of people and who continue to chirp, is insightful.
   
8. Getting lost whole biking, and subsequently exploring untreaded paths is a great source of excitement.
9. All Taco Bells have reat veg food....except the one in Fairview! (Hail Murphy).
10. Hotchetta (or however its spelled) is nectar.
11. Hurting people hurts you. One tries to not hurt. But if there is a conflict... one can either say the truth and hence cause hurt OR not tell the truth and avoid a 'mess', then THATS a tough decision. It has always been a tough decision. But sometimes, the magnitue of the impact of the decision is overwhelming.
    
12. Writing blogs helps concretizing thoughts. Hence it loops back to the first lesson.

An unadulterated High

I saw a face.

There was a boyish charm. There was a naughty grin. There were intense eyes. There were unruly hair.
All this interspersed... with captivating wit and a focussed action.

Pure beauty has the power to move.

I was moved.

I was captivated. The eyes refused to look away (even after a lot of coaxing and eventual blackmailing).

I was mesmerized... and enjoying every moment of it.

Faced Poker

I played poker.
It was at a friends house.
And since 'the house always wins', I didnt win!
;-)
(that's a stolen joke).

There were 10 of us. I tried hard to make a poker face. Invariably failed at it.
Perhaps that helped me win in the next round. I could feel my heart-rate accelerating when I held good cards.

Liked the guys with whom I played. It is getting easier to make firang friends now. Experience. Confidence. Knowledge. Or a little of all that.

I want to fit in. I want to be able to crack the jokes they crack. They are sooo funny.

There was an entrepreneurship meeting today. The group liked my idea (Sherlock). It will. most likely, be tested for feasibility. I felt a sense of achievement. (already).

I talked to many members of Kailas today. Got somewhat homesick. Got over it. Sinusoids have crests as well as troughs. And the transtion from the trought to the crest was easy, due to someone's presence. In the presence, I feel relaxed. I feel alive. I feel excited. I feel comfortable. (Sometimes, I also feel HIM) ;-)
Totally bad joke... the operational word being 'joke'.

Now I shall get back to my companions of this quarter - one mister Aho and the other mister Ullman.

The poker host!

Happy in my skin

I have stopped sleeping. I have stopped 'pondering'.
Days are not even a function of time anymore. Nights - YOU fill up my senses.

I am enjoying all the courses, especially Automata Theory and Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship has inspired me to carry out that one small and strong dream I had in Bombay.
Automata Theory forces me to think rationally and analytically. It empowers me.

A resume has been built with someone's help. In fact, it was entirely outsourced. It has been somewhat modified.
An internship is desirable (ideally in NYC).

Shaking of the leg is going on in Salsa. It is easy and fun. Like the grooving part. I admire the guys there who dont know how to dance that well, but are willing to try. ('Have feet, will dance').

Psychology has, as always, been an eye-opener.

Girls of the house are enjoying. Getting friendlier. Sharing secrets and opinions. Passing judgements together. Advising and helping and 'being there' for each other.

Right now trying to get the assignment done. I like the good old Turo C. It had such a cooool interface, and such easy to use features.
Without it, one needs help.
The good news is - 'help is always around the corner' (literally!).
:-)

Ramble

There are some things that one stops noticing after a sufficient amount of exposure to them.

There are some things that retain their 'interest' value no matter how often you see/feel them.

Swimming back-stroke and then floating like a log staring at the sky will never stop being interesting. While doing that today, I saw a clear sky with one lone cloud. A bird flew across. The sun was preparing to set. It was sending its last few rays as a farewell sign - those slanting rays that make photographs looks beautiful. I wondered - why did the bird fly? Was it one of the random events? OR did the bird have any motive? Or my be the bird had a motive - locally. But globally, if one were to capture the position of all the birds and the irection in which they were flying.. would that be random? that would surely be random. Well... just thinking.... Is there a difference between the birds and us.. in terms of randomness of motives?

I stand at the balcony appreciating the scene. I have formed a special relationship with the tree that stands upright right out side my balcony. It reflects my mood. It talks to me. It gives me the answers to my unanswerable questions.

I look at it. It is composed of around 50 branches. The tallest branch gives it its height. The 'spreadiest' branch gives the tree its 'spread'. The other branches give it its characeristic. It can be argued that the tallest branch has contributed more to make the tree beautiful. Or that, the tallest branch is more successful. But by what standards? If success was measured by height...
But the short branches look just as good. And more imporantly, they are happy to be themselves. They aren't competing. They are co-existing. Happily co-existing. Thats probably because they do not have standards to measure and evaluate 'success'.

Well, the analogy doesnt come out right when I write about it. But I feel it.

Next Venture Idea : Blog Post Interesting-title Generator!

My fingers are itching to write and mind is trying to catch up by scanning all possible interesting things I can write (and more importantly, NOT write about).

A lot of 'new' events have occured of late.

• Roomies (Erica, Juan and I) planned to go 'partying' before the quarter could get the better of us. We 'dress up' (with Erica looking hot in a sexy spagetti and Juan and I, typical Asian girls, dressed in full-sleeve polo neck t-shirts and 2 layers of sweaters and sport-shoes!) One cant be too careful these days with the temperature.... Anyway, we reach the bus-stop at Embaracadero hall where 'Joe's bus' (or whoever it belongs to) leaves. There we see a bevy of beauties and a huge bunch of guys putting on their 'cool' and hunky-dory look. We feel out of place with our excessive clothing and 'maturity' and all... And as soon as the bus arrives all hell breaks lose. We are caught unawares as the party-junta rush in a way that would put the Bombay crowd in the locals to shame! Its a huge uproar and people start waving out 10 buck notes to the conductor who is showered it money. There is a shoe lying somewhere (soem poor 'sole' would surely miss it...) and there are other unmentionable things thrown around. We somehow manage to loudly 'excuse me' our way into the bus (past the stoned and the totally drunk guys... and their female counterparts). We stand amidst the crowd, not knowing what to do. The lights go off and there is another uproar of approval as the bus makes an unsuspecting turn on 101S at break-neck (literally). The people are going berserk and radio is being played. We are about to lose our heads to this unbearable din. There's a guy next to us who wants to throw up and is banging the windows (sometimes with his hands, other times with his head... and hoping for the stubborn wiondow to listen to him). Girls behind him are busy callling him a 'loser'. We thankfully reach sane! And do our 'bad deed of the day' by cutting the queue at the club. We go in. Order drinks. (Rum and coke is arghhhhhhh). Erica is with other freinds. Juan and I are left to ourselves... And the other guys take it on them to not allow us to dance alone. We try hard to 'enjoy' without gettting drunk or hooked. Difficult. We have another drink (This time vodka does the trick), Now we are liking it. We are shaking our hips and grooving to the tunes of 'Shakira Shakira'. There are african-americans who really know how to move their body, goras dancing a robot-dance, asians with the beckham hairdo moving around in clusters... and other creatures. Posting more details is detrimental to a peaceful stay in Santa Barbara. One shall wisely refrain. It was fun biking back totally drunk! (what extends mankind can go, to empty the bladders ;-)

• Have taken interesting coures. 'Cognitive Psych' keeps my mood upbeat. cs220 is intresting in that I am trying to apply cognitive psych to it. The undergrad 130b course is getting 'boring'. Imaging is interesting (coz he's stil talking about physics). Entrepreneurship (I'll never gt the spelling right) is a lot of fun. And seems promising.

• Also joined Salsa dancing. Loved it! The instructor totally defies that Newton's law about inertia.
  

• Attempted making a new friend. Was rahter keen ontalking to him. However, his friends got into the way. And he let them :-(

• Got very very interesting gifts. (no place like 127.0.0.1). Totally geeky. Also other more 'senti' gifts. One is pleased. Not just because the gifts arrived, but the gift-giver arrived.
  

• Danced with the girls and ate gaajar ka halwa on sankranti.
  

• Had a thoroughly interesting conversation with the neighbour at a more interesting time (and a still more interesting state). One looks forward to such conversations that light up the LED of one's mind.

• One is trying to contain one's fat content by biking up and dpwn arbit lanes. Thats not helping because one is also hogging Parle-G (courtesy ma-ka-pyaar).

• One feels happy again. (Wonder when the process stopped, if at all). But, the point is one is bus smiling. One likes to do things one's way. And its working. There is sunshine after rain (Knopfler knows it all).
  

• One also likes to add bullets. One is still not adept at it though. Whenever one presses the enter key, it goes to the next line, but doesnt leave a line in between. One likes a clean and clear lay out... and well-spaced and all.. So one presses enter twice, gets out of the bullet loop and then again clicks on the option of inserting a bullet.
  Enlightening ha?

• One sometimes doesnt like being a female. Too many issues - cant bike down without getting bothered by hair flying into the face, cant sleep comfortably facing the bed (physically challenging), cant stop thinking about the conditioner that would go well with the shampoo, cant work with saliva - need fancy 'lip balms', cant organize all the clothes into the wardrobe coz they dont fit in, cant decide whether a blue comfortor would match or a pink would look better on the bed, cant go swimming on all days (dam!).

• Sometimes like being a female. Can get away with ALOT of nautanki and nakhra.

With all due respect to Asians, they look really really funny when they are drunk coz their eyes shrink further and you cant make out whether they are sleep-dancing or high or in trance. This cannot be enjoyed or understood until one sees a totally drunk Asian.

One still wants to write more.

One shall continue to write... just switch from the blog to the ASS-ignment!