Monday, September 24, 2007
Twenty-20 World Cup - A New Hope
India winning the final of a big tournament; well, that's reason enough for a celebration. We had grown so accustomed to India losing out in the final (in case they made it till there), that this was a very welcome change. India won the Twenty-20 World Cup. More importantly, they did it without the big names. The young Indian side quite ably lead by Dhoni pulled off a rather unimaginable feat. They beat South Africa, Australia and finally Pakistan under such tight conditions, it has been an infallible testimonial to their never-say-die attitude. India, if you remember, is not quite recognized for that. Even with a favorable situation at hand, I have heard hardcore Indian fans not trusting their team until they really reach their target. My parents still recall when Pakistan was all out for 60 runs and yet managed to beat India or when Javed Miandad hit a sixer of the last ball to clench a sensational win. This victory is not enough to get rid of all the insecurity we have gathered over the years. But I sincerely hope that, it be the beginning of a new phase, when we will believe that Indian players can hold on to their nerves till the last minute and can win tournaments even with all odds against them.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Blog Topics in Mind
Although I couldn't come up with a post in the recent time, it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking. Here is a list of topics I thought I would write about.
T20 World Cup - Now that India is in the final, any Indian would like to talk about it. However, what is really amazing is that in the final, India is going to face Pakistan; both of whom had a humiliating eviction from the regular world cup in the group level. What is even more interesting is that they both beat Australia on their way up. This tournament will redeem their reputation and boost their confidence a great deal, no matter what happens in the final.
Drupal - Anyone with a bit of web development experience is bound to know about Content Management Systems (CMS). These are basically web-based applications which help you present your content on the web without bothering yourself too much with the technology. They offer the backgroud coding; you need to worry about the content and its appearance. The Blogger itself is an example of a CMS. However, I was planning to write about Drupal. I have used other CMS like blogger, phpWebsite earlier, but the extent of features Drupal has, I think it is the best one.
The Bahai Faith - It is a relatively new order of faith originated with Bahaullah in Iran. It recognizes all religions of the world as one. What I found striking was its similarity in terms of ideology and otherwise with the Ramakrishna Mission movement. I have every intention to write about it in more detail.
T20 World Cup - Now that India is in the final, any Indian would like to talk about it. However, what is really amazing is that in the final, India is going to face Pakistan; both of whom had a humiliating eviction from the regular world cup in the group level. What is even more interesting is that they both beat Australia on their way up. This tournament will redeem their reputation and boost their confidence a great deal, no matter what happens in the final.
Drupal - Anyone with a bit of web development experience is bound to know about Content Management Systems (CMS). These are basically web-based applications which help you present your content on the web without bothering yourself too much with the technology. They offer the backgroud coding; you need to worry about the content and its appearance. The Blogger itself is an example of a CMS. However, I was planning to write about Drupal. I have used other CMS like blogger, phpWebsite earlier, but the extent of features Drupal has, I think it is the best one.
The Bahai Faith - It is a relatively new order of faith originated with Bahaullah in Iran. It recognizes all religions of the world as one. What I found striking was its similarity in terms of ideology and otherwise with the Ramakrishna Mission movement. I have every intention to write about it in more detail.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Update
It took me more than two months to break the pause ... seemed like a dead end but hopefully, this post will mark its recovery, I mean, the blog's which is already half-dead
Well, so what's new? There was nothing important about June 12th and it's the same for August 19th. More than what have changed in my life is what have stayed the same. The Koushik which landed on 9th August last year on the US was hardly any different than the Koushik today. Yeah, it is slightly over an year now since I came to this country.
This whole year revolved mostly around two points. The adviser and the qualifier. In both cases, I got what I wanted and that's pretty much as far as it goes. As for the progress in PhD, it's null, or delta positive to be precise :) There were plans to promote this noble cause of research in summer but there was hardly any in reality. Hope things get better in Fall.
As usual I wasn't that enthusiastic about the text books but managed to go through a few fantasies. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was awesome. I enjoyed the "Ptolemy's Gate", 3rd one of the Bartemeaus series too. I watched the 5th Potter movie. This was the first movie which I had read the original book. Well, the movie is no match for the book, it's nowhere close to the original thrill of the story.
I got the driving permit. That was the easy part. Now I need to learn driving and I don't know how. I have never set my hand on the steering before and quite naturally people are hesitant to lend me their car. As for the formal driving schools, the rates are way to high. I am looking for a cheaper option. Let me know if you know of one.
Last weekend was a bit different. Got to meet a few friends from college. It was nice. Sagnik drove and in spite of some initial problems, drove quite well. Shivanand and Bhujo were the chief navigators. Arnab and I were there too. There could have been six of us unless Rajshekhar had ditched us at the last moment. Well, on second thoughts it was really nice of him to come down to Chicago for just one evening to meet us. Our one day trip to Marshall park was great. Check my orkut album for the pics.
As such things are okay. Problem is that things are not good, at least not good enough. Be optimistic, man! Things can only get better.
Well, so what's new? There was nothing important about June 12th and it's the same for August 19th. More than what have changed in my life is what have stayed the same. The Koushik which landed on 9th August last year on the US was hardly any different than the Koushik today. Yeah, it is slightly over an year now since I came to this country.
This whole year revolved mostly around two points. The adviser and the qualifier. In both cases, I got what I wanted and that's pretty much as far as it goes. As for the progress in PhD, it's null, or delta positive to be precise :) There were plans to promote this noble cause of research in summer but there was hardly any in reality. Hope things get better in Fall.
As usual I wasn't that enthusiastic about the text books but managed to go through a few fantasies. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was awesome. I enjoyed the "Ptolemy's Gate", 3rd one of the Bartemeaus series too. I watched the 5th Potter movie. This was the first movie which I had read the original book. Well, the movie is no match for the book, it's nowhere close to the original thrill of the story.
I got the driving permit. That was the easy part. Now I need to learn driving and I don't know how. I have never set my hand on the steering before and quite naturally people are hesitant to lend me their car. As for the formal driving schools, the rates are way to high. I am looking for a cheaper option. Let me know if you know of one.
Last weekend was a bit different. Got to meet a few friends from college. It was nice. Sagnik drove and in spite of some initial problems, drove quite well. Shivanand and Bhujo were the chief navigators. Arnab and I were there too. There could have been six of us unless Rajshekhar had ditched us at the last moment. Well, on second thoughts it was really nice of him to come down to Chicago for just one evening to meet us. Our one day trip to Marshall park was great. Check my orkut album for the pics.
As such things are okay. Problem is that things are not good, at least not good enough. Be optimistic, man! Things can only get better.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Face it
Life's a bitch !!!
so what ????
It was a comment made on my last post by Nakul. It appealed to me so much that I decided to give it a bit more importance. I promoted it to a post. The frustration in the beginning and the attitude that follows somehow resonate with my mental self. I like it.
so what ????
It was a comment made on my last post by Nakul. It appealed to me so much that I decided to give it a bit more importance. I promoted it to a post. The frustration in the beginning and the attitude that follows somehow resonate with my mental self. I like it.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Crap!
It's been a while since this blog saw its last post. And that comes as no surprise! Those few limited souls who bother to browse through this page are pretty much aware of my (ir)regularity. It's not that I am out of ideas, but whenever my enthusiastic self gets to jot them down, there is this lethargic self which hardly allows to do that.
So what brings me back to the task? The simulation! Yeah, that's it. It's quarter to ten in the night and I have to send the results of two simulations tonight. Programs are set and run! But it will take the sloppy server a good one hour to complete. Once done I will have to FTP the output files to my lab PC which unfortunately doesn't have microsoft office (because I just have reinstalled Windows on it. It was dead slow with virus and spyware.). So email them to myself, and use the university labs to format and plot the data. Hello! Are you still reading? Are you nuts or what? Who else would go through the ramblings of a grad student writing blogs to pass the simulation time?
So what brings me back to the task? The simulation! Yeah, that's it. It's quarter to ten in the night and I have to send the results of two simulations tonight. Programs are set and run! But it will take the sloppy server a good one hour to complete. Once done I will have to FTP the output files to my lab PC which unfortunately doesn't have microsoft office (because I just have reinstalled Windows on it. It was dead slow with virus and spyware.). So email them to myself, and use the university labs to format and plot the data. Hello! Are you still reading? Are you nuts or what? Who else would go through the ramblings of a grad student writing blogs to pass the simulation time?
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