Category: General

Travelled far away to get my keys for an office space. Yes, I am now the proud (well, probably not proud.. hmm ok, proud) occupant of a cubicle at the Computational Mechanics Laboratory.

Purchased my mouse on Newegg. Extreme service.
I like, very much.

Read title.

It was weird, found a LARGE monitor outside an office in Dow. But I had to finish HW, and before I could get back to it, it was taken. Damn.

My walk home last night had a wonderful experience in store for me. I was done with my work in college and ruing the walk back home at 1 am or so. It had snowed pretty heavily and the whole area was completely blanketed by a thick white carpet. It reflected and dispersed all the sources of light. From the lights in the parking lot, to the media union, all the way to the moon. That and the mild flurry made it as bright as dawn. Pretty colors and a beautiful haze. My face lit up, literally and it stayed that way all through my walk home. God it was breathtaking.

These are the times I wish I owned a camera. I really do.

Made my first official spending today. Nothing fancy. A couple of cheap books at Amazon.com. Cheap, as in cost wise. Hopefully, not quality.

The “First Year Doctoral Student Meet” on Friday was quite an experience too. Got to meet some new interesting people, had a free lunch and a reason to go to central campus.

Unfaithful was one of the best movies I’ve got to see in a long time. So powerful, so moving. I have to admit I really was almost in tears.

I really do need to start looking out for a camera. Somethings are just too special to be forgotten.

Got my first pay check today :). In other news, worked on some code for the picture page. Shaping up well, though I don’t have any pictures yet.

Disconnected desi? Is that a good thing? I think yes. I should have been here much earlier. Somehow I fit in easier here than where I should be logically. Weird but true.

Even scarier is that I don’t miss anybody or anything. Not one.

Not entered anything for the past 10 days or so. Nothing major happening. Had last Monday “off”, it being M.L.K (Martin Luther King) day. There were some events organized, though I had some work to get done. The theme for this year’s celebrations was “We must be the change we wish to see in this world.” – Mahatma Gandhi. Pretty profound.

Finalized classes this weekend and settled for the two, elasticity and fem. The rest of my credits have to come from research. It’s not as easy as I had initially envisioned it. I mean, non-linear, variable order, coupled differential equations are not really nice things to deal with.

Really.

Some of the other highlights include me walking to the shopping mall to buy groceries and it being -10 or something in evil units. Seen quite a few movies recently. The Austin Powers series is awesome.

Yes, those were the highlights. Now I’ve got to go learn FORTRAN.

Site’s moved out of beta and the transition seems complete. Now I’m officially a GSRA at the ME department :D. My brother can dream of college and my parents needn’t end up on the streets.

Fridays are good. No classes no nothing. Not really nothing, but pretty much. Had my first “meeting” as a GSRA and have my work cut out for me over the weekend. Heard that my B.E degree certificate has arrived. Cool, I’m officially an “engineer”, though whether that’s what I want to be is still.. pretty hazy. I’ve been sitting in applied physics.. APPLIED physics classes, not even the “real” thing. I’ve been feeling like a scientist at times, and those classes bring me back to reality. When I try to think of an analogy, it has to be we’re like the mechanics when they are the mechanical engineers or some such thing. Scary, but there are tons of people in this world who do stuff at a WAY more abstract level than I can ever fathom. I have to live with this realization. Makes me feel sick in the stomach, but that’s the truth. Life must go on.

Haven’t had the time to updated this in a while. Decided to do it while calculating some Green’s function gradients for strain. Anyway, Mathematica still bugs me at times.

Finished most of the paperwork regarding the RA. It’s official now, I am an RA at the mechanical engineering department at the U of M. Only teeny things to sort out like get a new “free” insurance plan as I’ve cancelled the other one. Hope nothing extremely evil happens ;) in this “crossover” period. Finishing up on my previous work to not abruptly end my association with the other group.

Talk about an office space came up today. hmm.. interesting :). But will it fit a bed? I guess it won’t be appreciated. Damn formality.

Heard today was Pongal, from Prof. BSM of all people. Nice to hear from him and that our “work” was of “reference” material to other people. Heard our work ended up in India Today? or some such. Have to ask Amma/Appa for a copy if it’s something substantial. Yes, show off material, you’re right.

Told amma and appa about the suddenly improved financial situation. They seem very happy.

But, is it only me who manages to see things in the negative, ok, not so positive way at all times? I mean, being physically away from my parents is one degree of separation. But, until now, I’ve atleast needed their support for almost everything. This changes things quite a bit. Now I am more on my own. Am I farther from them? Time will tell. If yes, is it a good thing? I don’t know.

Saw this dialogue on a sitcom yesterday. Have to add it to my “safe”, it sounds like it’ll come in handy someday.

“Saw this and thought of you. See everything and think of you”

Messed up my favorite navy blue sweater last evening attempting a cleaning project. I know the cleaning spray bottle did warn that clothes should be kept out of contact with the fluid but it was an accident. I must have leaned on one of the surfaces I had just wiped. Thirty seconds later, the blue is ORANGE, from wrist to elbow on one hand. There I did it, single handedly managed to ruin a piece of winter clothing.

Met the other two teachers and they started on the paperwork. I’m almost through :).

Also, to celebrate again, spent $25 on posters. Homer J. Simpson, the Power Puff Girls, and the Transformers. Nice.

Told my roomies the news last night. I had to, it came up in a conversation. Not yet told Amma and Appa though, won’t until I see it “physically” in wolverine access. In another weird money making scheme, you’d expect the fine on a $96 insurance payment to be small if the fine on $13,000 and odd is just $30. But NO, it’s $30 even for $96. How weird is that?

Well, in the state I am in right now, I’d be happy to part with the $30 if it means that’s all I have to part with.

Seen two cool posters in the poster sale and just hope they don’t get sold before I have the time to go buy them. One awesome Transformers – The Movie poster and another ultra cool one of the Power Puff Girls, the coolest cartoon characters, ever?

Mathematica isn’t as cool as I’d hoped it would be. Yes it works, but not when it really has to. Those GiNaC developers better get cracking and make Mathematica redundant. I can’t take another night of letting it run only to find out next day it “Ran out of memory”. 512MB system memory and 30GB swap? Come on, I could work it out on pencil and paper with less. Ok, exaggerating but it’s just bugging me.

Sat in on many classes today. Life is going to get real hard, real fast. Had to drop an advanced solid state physics class where extreme quantum mechanics, d dimensional spheres and such are “normal” before it totally destroyed my self confidence.

Already missed one day on these journal updates. Yes, I’m a busy man. Getting all excited thinking about the prospects of financial assistantship and hope this isn’t a false alarm like last time. I really do. Anyway, feeling all good with myself and treated myself to a scrumptuous lunch, yes a large sandwich. Was cool. Being the negative guy I usually am, I would be telling myself something like “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” or some such. But enoughs enough and I deserve a break.

Just chilling, listening to music and things.

Don’t know whether to break the news to parents just yet. I don’t want them to go through this roller coaster style bunch of emotions like I am. Amma’s started violin lessons. Good, and hope she has a great time.

On a side note, our house is becoming more of a home, atleast physically. Though I am more than happy with my one piece of furniture, my bed.. (which functions as my work space, my book shelf, my computer docking station, my couch, and of course.. where I sleep) my roomies are a bit more “wasteful”. They actually need a table and chair, a bed, a bookshelf, a DINING table.. (sheesh) and such. Well, with all the new acquisitions, home seems a bit more cramped.. in a nice sort of way.