Misc

Last Sunday (because I’m terribly slow with these things), I ran my first authentic 10K1, in roughly 58 minutes. It felt great. I had the most “flow” I’ve ever had while running, and my infernal (and eternal) cold shut up for once. I’ve long tried to associate my running with summoning the will to achieve something (usually my research work). I certainly hoped that this would hark a new wave of awesome. Unfortunately, the analogy proved to be ephemeral, as is the case with most analogies. Right now, a more apt analogy would be chasing my own tail, for that’s all I seem to be doing (instead of, say, chasing an ICML deadline). I have reached a new level of stagnancy in my professional life, seeking even to run rather than do (any) work2. ...

It’s been far too long since I came up with decent material to put up here. Rather than let my blog die, the organic creature that it is, I thought I might as well look deep in my archives of half-baked articles and post something from there. This is one such article that I have no clue why I haven’t published as yet. I wrote it loooong ago, around the time of my rant about PlasmaPong, and is of a similar theme (and no surprise it’s a rant too). Anyways, here it is, in it’s raw un-edited format (oh, the value addition of lazyiness): ...

I’ve recently watched Randy Pauch’s last lecture (I know, I’m behind the times). It was amazingly inspirational, and couldn’t have been delivered better. It also got me thinking about my own childhood dreams and I realised that if I don’t pen them down somewhere, I’ll forget them or manipulate them. So here’s a list of my childhood dreams (as best as I remember them) in no particular order: Be an archaeologist and dig up some dinosaur bones (I was a huge dinosaur fan…). Get into MIT (this was a semi-promise I made to Mr. Derek Mosser, my 4th standard teacher, before I actually knew what that entailed). Compose and play live a blues piece similar to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Vinnie Moore. Do Jackie Chan-level stunts (if I recall correctly, this was back when I was horribly fat but not willing to acknowledge the fact). Be a Jedi Knight. Write a novel. The list isn’t as long as I had thought, but good god, I have no idea how to achieve any of them. This is an extremely meme-able topic, so I’d love to see anyone else’s list. Finally, I’d request you all to please comment, my blog is getting lonely :-P. ...

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. While the litany, (devised by Frank Herbert, I take no credit), was intended to tide one through fear, I find that it works pretty well for everything; love, hate, anger, disappointment, envy (I’d go with all the rest of seven sins, but I don’t think it’d work with Sloth). Perhaps it appeals to my narcissist tendencies. It does not seem to be working on this growing realization that there are only 2 days left to this “vacation”. ...