First Drive in Adverse weather condition

So... I had to drop my friend at the airport early morning at 5:30AM. I took my friends car and headed out. It was snowing heavily with at least 1 inch snow on the road. First the car refused to start because of the cold weather. After 5 minutes, it started and we inched slowly on the road. The sight in front of us, was like a scene taken directly out of Call of Duty:MW2. It was eerie with the road laid out like a white blanket and the rare ominous headlights of oncoming traffic. Trees covered in snow and I could only hear the heater in the car murmuring to itself. The only thing we missed out were guns and Russians to shoot against.

Out in the interstate, all four/five lanes were all blurred into one big lane and all cars were inching slowly. It is not the drive on snow that is dangerous. But the snow turns into a thin slate of ice; when you try to brake, you just skid like a player in ice hockey. At least on loose snow your car would just drift to the sides a bit and easy to regain control only if there aren't any cars near by.

So that is how I bumped into another car today. I had enough distance between him and me. I saw him stop and I braked!! but no traction on the tires. I skid and hit him on his rear bumper and broke my friend's front number plate. Anyways only a dent on the other guys car. So we stopped our cars on the middle of the road, switched on the hazard lights and got out. We exchanged pleasantries and checked both our cars. Nothing major seems to have happened. So I gave him my mobile number and we parted. The kicker is that, there was a cop car right on the side of the road when this happened, but he was busy towing an already out of commission car from the side of the road.

Anyways waiting to hear from the other guy now and I drove back home safely to type this episode. :)

-Alphy

ps: I just got my auto-insurance yesterday!!

So... this goes down in history

It was a grueling 1:30 minute session; my thesis defense. Throat was parched dry with a dry weird feeling down the esophagus. Not due to various long explanations for the committee members, but a vague feeling that persisted in my mind; have I done something incorrect in my research? But once I completed the presentation, I knew that graduation was imminent. All that preparation...phew... it is complete.

It took an entire day for the message to sink in. I am finally an MS graduate. This goes down in the annals of NCSU CS dept, as well as in my history!!

Wow!! I made a fatal decision to pursue thesis exactly 11/2 years back and I live to tell the tale now. It has had its moments, nerve wracking situations, feelings of deja vu, light bulb effect and finally it boiled down to a successful defense.

Came to US with a goal and even though it has been a long journey, that has been pitted with moments memorable and other wise. Busted my laptop; almost took down a public server due to my experiments; gulped down design issues with beer; countless nights of just watching a *ix terminal and various series; procrastination of everything from laundry to taking bath; the goal has been finally achieved.

"Mission Accomplished!!"

The story of my Laptop...

After I reached U.S, I realized that a Laptop was an absolute necessity. I found that I had a lot of free time and I liked to watch movies/series online to kill time. An Internet connection with unlimited download was the motivation I needed to buy myself a new laptop, with a minority of its time being spent for my studies (Grinning...).So Finally I got a new HP 14'' laptop with 12 cell battery and a 128MB Nvidia graphics card. It was an awesome piece of technology that I used daily to play games like Crysis I & II, CoD: MWI & MWII, AOE & CS to name a few. Man... I used to spend more time playing games and watching movies... than studying with that laptop. The minuscule amount that I spent for my studies were also productive [Big grin again...] . It has withstood my continues barrage of buggy code and never had it given up on me. The laptop trusted me. But after 2 years... four semesters down and I am trying to finish my Thesis...my laptop just shutdown's down one fine evening.

The screen flickers for a few seconds and then it goes blank. I am thinking either the OS crashed or my program crashed, so I do the most efficient way to restart a windows machine.Give is a hard reboot!!. And so it starts to boot up and then the screen freezes again. I am like keeping my fingers crossed to hard reboot again. This time even the BIOS does not execute. F***, I am screwed. All of my data regarding my Thesis is on this laptop. I am cursing my self for not taking the backup.

Like any self-respecting Computer Engineer, I try to fix it by myself by removing battery, HD and even the RAM and I stop myself there, cos I couldn't go further than that. Since the warranty had expired , I can't ship it to HP for fixing it. So I paid an expert to check on my laptop and the diagnosis: "MOTHERBOARD, kicked the bucket!!".

It looks like, it can take only so much abuse...As I am writing this, my laptop is in the corner of the room stripped of its stomach( Hard Drive) waiting to be scrapped.

I am so attached to that laptop that I am refusing to give it up, even for scraps now. It has been there with me through a lot of tough times...(:D).

And that is the short & tragic story of my Laptop.

Two years in US!!

Hmmm.... It has been two years since I have been in US to pursue my goal of finishing my Masters.Though not complete yet, but surely closer than I was two years ago :)( True that is a step forward, HURRAY for me!!). It has been a choppy ride so far... which has made my stay really interesting in retrospect. Made a lot of new friends... learnt some stuff...did some stuff...regret doing some stuff...continued the cherished tradition of boozing with fnds...watched a lot of movies...played a lot of FPS & strategy games...tried going to gym & failed... and did minuscule amount of Thesis work. Pretty much sums up my last two years.

It is the last mile that is always the most painful & rewarding, so here I am trying to finish my Master's Thesis. You must be wondering... as to why am I posting blogs when I should be working. Exactly my point even I am not able to comprehend that!

Back to work, Slaves( ma Neurons)!

_tombstone

Thoughts to be put in Order...

Been dazing the stars for few weeks now. Have a shit load of work to do, especially my Thesis that needs to be completed for my MS Graduation. It is not that I have not been working, but results does not look positive... so trying/thinking hard to come with alternatives for the problem.

Hmmm... Research work seemed so exciting.. but it is not always though. Even if it concerns your area of interest. It involves a lot of patience and structured thought process. I bow my head to all Doctoral students... for their work and their patience.

Need motivation... Can I borrow some? :P Well doodling on my comp does not help.

Come on.... I want to graduate!!!,I think this should be motivation enough? Don't you think...?

-Alphy

Master's course work complete... :)

So finally my Master's course work is complete... It feels good to know that I don't have to study for any exam no more...Though I still have a big task to complete, My Thesis... yet it feels like a big task on my TODO list has been checked.. :P

me and my lists... I still remember the first semester, a continuous nightmare for me.Studying after a four year gap from bachelors... was a nightmare but did get through it, with scars to prove my encounter.

So now full steam to do my Thesis... Till then... ciao

Alphy

Crap... Time is running very fast...

It felt like "just now the sem started", Fuck now... two months already gone and one midterm is already due. WTF? Man, I am supposed to finish my Thesis this semester ,but I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need to gear up for the work and start plowing, cos one reaps, what one sows. There ain't no karma, which is supposed to help you out for good deeds done. It is all one big shit!!

Spring 2010, A new semester....

Officially semester started for me this week and I have registered for only one class this semester.Cause I need to spend more time on my Thesis, If I want to graduate on time. Even after taking one subject, it feels so hectic. First week is yet to be over, and I am already looking forward towards the spring break, which allows me to sleep without an impending doom to wake up in the morning and goto class.

My class start at 11AM, so I need to pretty much getup at least by 10:20 ,so I can do the daily chore of brushing my teeth. I hope this time I do not miss my classes due to oversleep. Last semester I used to miss classes at 2 PM cause I overslept!! Well that is in the past and I am always thinking about the future!

yeah the future, lets c how it goes? Looks of it, I need to put alot of effort this semester apart from studying for my coursework. Keeping my fingers and Hoping for the best, waiting for God to do the rest! :P

Avatar 3D - The IMAX Experience

"Awesome & Spectacular" were the only words that I could blurt out after watching the movie Avatar in 3D. The story is not that different from a normal Bollywood/Kollywood movie, but it is made really interesting with spectacular special effects and awesome quality of the IMAX screen. The 3D adds a new dimension to view a film of this caliber.

Most movie reviews talk about the actors and their roles, but for me in this movie all of 'em took a back seat compared to the Director's vision in giving this film life that could not have been done by any other than Mr.James Cameron.

It seems that Cameron has enough story to go for a Trilogy... That is damn good and expecting the same breathe taking production quality & details for the two other movies slotted in the trilogy. The question is that ,Do we have to wait for another 13 Years?

let's hope, it is not like that... :)

-Alphy