When fate conspires to actually give you a good time...

I am very content with life at the moment. I have a great family, amazing friends,my books(all of them still unabashedly fictitious),my sansa e250, MS-Word and the clear night sky.Can anyone ask for anything more? I think not. Oh, and I bought new shoes. Yes, life is good.

The highlights of my week include celebrating a friend's birthday at her place at midnight and then keeping the neighbours up by singing along to Green day at full volume at an unearthly hour, buying three pairs of footwear at what I consider to be bargain prices at Bata (One word. SALE!), taking my bike out and enjoying early morning walks at this really nice park with another friend where, might I add, the walking was accompanied by quite a lot of talking. It's fun to watch all the other people on their early morning jogs. Some of them are just plain batty and very,very entertaining.
I got to spend time with my niece and my nephew yesterday who are both growing up too fast for any one's liking. What else? Oh yes, I paid a visit to Moore market on the noble mission of buying a maths textbook but ended up getting Twilight (as a birthday gift for a friend) and Brisingr too. How could I resist? I haven't watched any life altering movies recently, but if any come my way, I will inform you of any and all life altering changes.

My college has finally decided to cut us some slack and send us home early next week. They don't want the lot of us hanging around and increasing chances of rule breaking under minimal supervision when all the culturally inclined people shake a leg to the latest tamil kuthu songs. And the rumour on the grapevine is that my HOD is desperate to win the cults this time. The lady is apparently popping blood vessels to prove the mettle of her students and rub the other HODs' noses in their humiliating defeat. Huh. I'd like to say I'm interested but I'm really not. It is interesting however, to imagine her mood if we lose to ECE and IT as usual. I have a feeling it would put the most ominous thunderheads to shame. So I hope, for my own selfish sake and not under any delusion of departmental patriotism, that the lady gets what she wants. I can't stand her being any more temperamentally neurotic than she already is.

Feedback

I am not alone in thinking the PQT prof stinks. I do believe words like 'vetti scene', 'bandha' and 'mokkai' featured in the very colourful feedback said professor has received.(The truth is fun sometimes.)
I also have reason to suspect his colleagues are laughing their backsides off discreetly. After all, when has feedback about staff ever been a private matter?

Computer science, year two, sem four.

Here's a quick peek into what I'm learning this semester.

Probability and Queueing Theory:

Popularly referred to as the DSP(Degree Stopping Paper). This subject isn't boring or dry. But we dread it anyway because you will almost certainly flunk this paper at least once unless you're reasonably lucky. Throw in a lousy professor who acts like he's all that (very,very puke inducing) and voila! A fail proof recipe for disaster.


Computer Architecture:

A lot of theory and block diagrams, but on the whole a good subject. There's always the standard CPU block diagram to fall back on if you suddenly forget everything (Hey, these things happen) two minutes before you enter the exam hall.
And we have a really cool professor who has the best sense of humour I've encountered in any of my teaching staff so far. Hallelujah.

Analog and Digital Communication:

A comeback of the good old days when I loathed Electron Devices and Circuits. I don't loathe this one yet. That's only because I don't know what's in it. But it looks suspiciously like EDC so I think it's a strong possibility that this one's not going to be one of my favourites either.

Operating Systems:

Love it. It's a pretty easy subject and the book is a good read. I think Silberschatz even cracked a joke or two which is not completely beyond redemption. The professor's slower than an MTC bus on the Maduravoyal road but he's great. And he actually knows who Travolta is. Do you know how rare that is in a professor in my college?? We're working in Linux for the practicals. Seems simple enough...


Visual Programming:

Interesting. Only, I didn't realise that till now. I was comatose for most of the classes on account of having no clue about what was happening. The professor completely overloads us. We might thank her for it in the long run but it's a major pain right now. You will not believe the amount of code we have to remember to create a window with something crappy like 'Hello!' written in the centre.Theory and Practicals run pretty much in parallel. I have to admit though, it's not a bad subject. I might grow to like it when I actually start studying.


Design and Analysis of Algorithms:

Easy. And it's a nice subject. Not very difficult to score in it. Professor's pretty good when it comes to teaching too.
The system software lab is fun. We just type in the code and have a good time after the first half an hour.
It's funny...we have this program which creates a text editor okay? It is probably the suckiest editor in the whole wide world but I'm still unaccountably proud of it because I spent half an hour typing out the code. It's a beautiful, beautiful moment when I hit the F2 key and the rubbish I typed in it actually gets saved.


So these are my subjects. I can't say I hate any of them. They're pretty cool actually. But...Oh wait, no bitching right?
Right.
So that's about it. Have fun, enjoy life and try to survive whatever it is that you do. Ciao.

That's it. For now.

I'm trying to get a fresh perspective on things.
For the past year and a half I haven't exactly been the most cheerful person to be around.
Well okay, I've never been the most cheerful person to be around. But at least I used to be less whiny. I had been feeling a little restrained (read:frustrated/annoyed/irked) because of my circumstances and God knows I've complained enough about my college to make even my best friends politely change the topic to Johnny Depp to take my mind off things.

Starting from now things are going to change. No, not big changes like body piercings, tatoos or running for president. Small changes. Like not bitching about my college. (Despite my sister telling me that that's the best part.)
About my college? Who cares??? This is actually a fact. NOBODY cares.
The maduravoyal road? Way too used to it.
And my HOD? Not going to waste my brain cells even thinking about her.
The fact that there's no fattening, unhealthy food to get me through the day in college...?
No...sadly,not over that yet.


There are so many things I left hanging when I entered hell (as we fondly call it) so I'm going to pick up where I left off.
I'm going to spend hours on the terrace, looking at the stars.I'm going to take impromptu trips when I'm jobless dragging any poor,unsuspecting friend who's available with me. I'm going to start writing another book. I'm going to start reading non-fiction again. I'm going to learn to cook.(I know...drastic but I can't survive on Maggi noodles and Act II popcorn forever.)
I'm going to actually study...not just mug five answers the night before my ints and vomit it on paper the next day.(This, naturally does not include the current internals.)

I'm going to start going to church, even if it's only for five minutes every once in a while, before anyone else gets there. Not exactly a quest for spirituality... maybe just some time alone with God.
And I definitely should start paying a little less attention to me and a little more to the people in my life. The thought of waking up one morning to find that we've moved too far apart is very disturbing, now that I think of it.

I could go on...But one more thing before I sign off.
I'm not going to worry about the future. I'm serious. No more debates in my head about whether I should take up higher studies or risk it and look for a job. No more worrying about if I'll ever get to do half the things I want to do before it's too late. And I'm definitely not going to worry about anything which doesn't (at least) approach the magnitude of global warming. Since I'm not a placard holding, save-the-planet type I doubt I'll lose sleep over it. Which is okay with me.No guilt trips about the disappearing Amazon forests either.

So I'll let you know how all this works out. I just hope it lasts. But expect a little angst from time to time. And a lot of slip-ups. I'm not usually so optimistic. Angst, making resolutions(and breaking them, more often than not) and raving about injustice is all part of the package deal I call life.

It's that time of the sem again...

Internal exams…it’s nostalgic how I actually used to study for these a year back. Now, I prefer this one week of college to normal working days because I'll take three hours of writing an exam to seven hours of boredom in my college anyday.
This is how internals usually work:

One week to go:

Oh damn, the ints are starting in a week and they are not even close to finishing the stupid portions yet. We’re going to flunk.


Four days to go:

Wait, we have HOW much?


Three days to go (generally a Friday):

Students: “Sir, important questions!”
Professor: “Everything is important.” (Smiles cryptically)
Students: (groan, lament, curse the professor…)


Two days to go:

Forwarded message: “Guys, question paper’s out! These are the important questions…”


9 pm, previous night:

Class/batch mate: “Oh my God, completed anything?”
Moi: “HA HA. Are you trying to be funny…?”


After the exam:

It’s official. We’re going to flunk.


And yet, I’ve never actually flunked in my internals so far. I think it has something to do with that dreaded torture called coaching class. Professors generally want to pass as many of us as they can so they don’t have to put up with us after college.

Stay an extra hour and a half in this place everyday?? I'm sorry but give me liberty or give me death.