Saving the World

original here

By Request, A real conversation and (Indian) Geeks

What follows is a real conversation the likes of which I have had many times, with various friends, in various flavours, and it never ceases to delight me :)

All you socially successful, girlfriend toting, well dressed, well adjusted soon to be rich non and ex techies out there ! You might think you have it all, but you cant match our innocent Wodehousian humor and good natured angst :)

anyway, here goes ! :)


me: why cliff ? taken up rock climbing ?
Comet: no..i want to jump off one
me: why ?
Comet: i screwed up the one chance i got after
(i cant even remember how long)
me: chance at what ?
Comet: a girl (with a tattoo on her arm) walks up to me
and chats me up...
me: WHAT :)
wow
how ?
where ?
Comet: and all i ask her in the end is "are u on facebook"
and she says 'no'
which i take as 'I'm not interested'
and buzz off
but it turns out, she really isn't on facebook
can u believe that
me: ohho
so big deal
talk to her again na
Comet: i need to get out into the real world beyond the Internet
me: :)
yes
but who is she ?
where did you meet her ?
Comet: we had a family/friends get-together and
she was the cousin of a friend..

me: vah :)
so you can easily meet her again na
Comet: i suck man...now i cant even focus on work...
i have no contact of her, unless i ask her cousin..
who will understand I'm hitting on her
me: oh gawd
we are all from the big bang theory man.
we're all from inside the sitcom.
easily we will fit in.
Comet: haha..yeah...
me: what deep and profound problems we have !
what lives and what conversations :)
Comet: i hope i get over her quickly
me: oh god...Im laughing and everyone
in office is looking at me :)
Comet: :D
me too but nobody's looking..most have gone home
to the real world
me: we have to get over girls simply
because they spoke to us :)

Comet: what else are they supposed to do to express interest?
me: Ive got to meet all of you again quickly da..
before you get gfs and wives and settle down
and the magic is gone....
no no....you got me wrong.
we're not supposed to be so desperate
that we have to "get over" a simple
expression of interest :)
Comet: haha..yeah, but my CV on these matters does not
afford me that luxury
I'm desperate by design of nature
me: :D what does that even mean !
Comet: how the f**k can i hold a conversation with
a arts graduate (she was one)
i think I'll sign off gtalk, and bury myself
in work now.
work is worship .. work is worship
bye..
me: oh god :)
and I know what you mean.
I cant talk to them myself..mostly,
they talk rubbish :P


"..Yes I am a Nerd, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were hoodwinking people with preposterous pomposities in the temples of tomfoolery, mine were erecting the pillars of rationality and empiricism upon which our civilization stands....."
-Something I might have said in the Union Debating Society of St Andrews, but dint.

And please, my friends, No Names in the Comments please !

Off to Oxford and pondering diffraction

The OxiMUN starts tomorrow and I'm hoping to have a bit of fun and meet some interesting people. Besides that, I have some interesting diffraction phenomena to investigate and explain. When linearly polarised light is incident on a reflective diffraction grating, it does not go onto all orders of diffraction in the same proportions as does unpolarised light. When the linear polarization incident upon the grating is rotated, one can visibly see some orders losing intensity and others gaining intensity. Generally, negative orders go one way (all increase or decrease to various extents) and the positive orders go the other way (again, variable). Its not immediately obvious to me why this should happen, and it'll be interesting to see if I can figure it out Buddha ishtyle. He would appreciate a challenge like this, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, I'm to debate a New Space Treaty at Oxford. I have the vaguest of ideas about what has gone before this, and strong opinions on the subject, which generally makes for an entertaining combination :D lets see how much I can bluff among the best in the country. Well, more or less the best, I think I must be the only person geeky enough to voluntarily opt for the Space Commission !

And I find that my mental abilities have degraded alarmingly in many respects ! I am not as agile as I used to be, and simple calculations and integrals etc which I would not have had to think about at all once upon a time now seem to vex me. This obviously cannot be allowed to continue and so I have already spent lots of money and no time (typical !) on a possible solution - The Art and Craft of Problem Solving by Paul Zeitz. I intend to work through the book and see if my brain can pick up the ropes and go the old Indian rope trick again :P lame.

And on top of all this, I'm supposed to be looking into control systems for a lunar lander and lunar bus even. (Go Frednet !) I have the books, I just need to spend some time and learn some stuff ! and that's what I mean when I say Ive lost the spark and the sheen a bit, the zest for a long tough problem solving and concept crunching session has more or less been evicted from my personality by the mind numbing influence of the Internet, and instead of doing the wonderful stuff I could be doing, I spend time refreshing the same 3-4 pages over and over again for hours.

My thesis is beginning to look up too, I have some nice mask design to do now, and then some modeling and fabrication side by side. The modeling is for some innovative new devices and the fabrication is for an old device I had tried over the summer but it dint really reach a full and satisfactory conclusion. Apart from that there is all the totally fascinating slow-light stuff which I just adoore, and I intend to get into that majorly. Plus there are the awesomely exotic essays I have to do for the Lab course and the "Experimental Quantum Physics at the Limits" course (dont you just love the "At the Limits" part of it ! thats what made me take the course :D )

So all in all, life looks good :)