Office Hours
Sitting underground in the hole (the leaky, seamy undebelly of Texas A&M university), I connect to the "low" wi-fi signal and surf the net. The "hole" is my office, where I am supposed to spend at least four hours every week meeting students who might have doubts regarding material taught in class.
Until now, two students, I think, came over to ask me questions in my office. They do the cribbing in class ("Why did you cut points for this, why did you cut points for that...?"). It is indeed fortitious that this place is equipped with wireless internet, or else I would be staring at a very monotonous time.
Had a rather uneventful day until now. Have that weekly friday meeting in the evening today. I've made a quick presentation and it is on its way (by email) to my guide's inbox. Have an hour to go here ... and then I will go to the gas turbine heat transfer class.
Things seem to have fallen into some sort of order; some sort of shape right now. The work went of okay, and this weekend, I know what I am going to do. I've got to work on the project in Turbulence ... and I will discuss with my guide what exactly to do as far as this porous medium thing in concerned.
There is a possible trip to San Antonio this weekend, which I might have to cancel to make room for some progress in research (so that I can meet my cousin who will come over on Sunday).
Oh, well, that is about it then.
Rationalization of the hiatus
A long delay between two consecutive posts could mean many things, of which two are
1. I (the blogger) have been so busy that I have not found time to post
2. I (the blogger) have become so damn lazy that I have started to procrastinate blogging.
How I wish it were 1. But the answer is 2. I have become foully lazy of late. Did nothing of real consequence down the weekend. I played some tennis. Or, to put it more aptly, I was on the tennis courts with a racquet .... I don't want to call what I played tennis.
I've been wasting way too much time on Orkut and beside the television. I have been watching everything, even Bill O Rielly. I have been erratic at the gym, and even when I do pop into the gym, my exercises are really toned down.
I decided to get my life back on track today. I spent two hours (approximately) on work today (until now). I intend to spend a little more time on work right now too. There's the Turbulence project which needs to be done. I have this gut feeling that it is not going to work. Nothing significant. Just a gut feeling.
I bought one of those laptop backpack thingys. Almost everyone with a laptop seems to have them. So, I thought I might as well join the party. Plus, I really don't want this poor little thingy to get too many scratches. It already has quite a few.
Well, I'd better get to work now. Enough of time has been wasted.
I'm supposed to be working
I've got some code to run (and a project to make head or tail of). I need to read Pope's text on turbulence and make sense of certain mathematical prolixities. I've got to prepare for next week's meeting on porous media with more lit-survey results. I've got to figure out the experiments (another part of my project, this time for wednesday's meeting) - something that I do not seem to be doing. I've got to prepare for an exam on tuesday. I've got to clean up my apartment - for it looks more like a pigsty than an apartment.
I certainly cannot afford to laze around, watch T.V, blog and make merry by going to my aunt's house. So, what did I do since yesterday evening?
I slept at 9:45 (Sacrilage!) after a hearty meal of "curry tofu" in a nearby Vietnamese place with my roomie (the one who does not sleep on the couch). I woke up at 6:30, had breakfast, watched T.V, blogged, spoke to Radha, surfed the net, saw T.V., had lunch, went to the bank (to deposit a check), had coffee, got invited to go to my aunt's place, came to the library and blogged.
I've got some serious rethinking to do w.r.t. the way I live my life.
Misplaced Unit Vectors, Stainless steel foam and a subway sandwitch
The title more or less sums up my day until now. But before I elaborate, please bear with my incoherent ramblings.
I watched a rather pathetic South Park episode yesterday night. Sometimes, I just can't help feeling that those South Park guys are just immature children begging for some discipline. I watch it all the same - indicating that I too am in need of some discipline.
I managed to not go to the gym yesterday again, something that might increase my rotundity. I think I will put my foot down and make my way to the gym in the evening today at least. I want to get rid of that you're-getting-fat feeling, which I seem to be living with now.
Had to go to the class in the morning as a TA. Gave the kids back their answer scripts. They were all quite happy; it was quite a high scoring affair.
Had a rather interesting Turbulence class where we talked about the role of the "rapid" pressure and how it affects the fourier velocity amplitude when strained. This is going to be the topic for the project, essentially. Pope uses unit vectors e^_j and e^_i as "unit" vectors in the wave number space .... and he uses their magnitudes only. I suspect they're direction cosines rather than unit vectors... then they would make sense.
Have a meeting after class today. This will be about using stainless steel foam as a porous medium inside the turbine blade - since it can withstand these high temperatures. Need a conversation with my guide today. This might work. Will tell you in the evening how he takes to the idea. It was he who came up with the notion of stainless steel inside the blade, interestingly... let's see how it goes.
The roomie, strangely, was not sleeping on the couch today. I wonder where he slept. I think he is imagining the bed bugs .... my bed is all bed and no bug.
This place seems to be on an "inspired" cold wave right now. A lot of fun. The walk to Subway (where I seem to be eating a lot, thanks to the 6" veggie-delite with diet coke) was a nice .. if not on the windy and nippy side.
Oh, well. That could be about it for now.
Home Sweet Home
I came back day before, and the stale smell of dust welcomed me home. I was greeted by the sight of the usual unsightly mess that home usually is; the roomie's bedding still on the couch; the remotes for the television in as much disarray as usual, and lots of fungus in the kitchen.
Rice concocted before the trip to Purdue was catching fungus in the kitchen; so was some food left in the sink. The sight was ghastly. Maggots would have looked nicer. Needless to say, the mess found its way into the dust bin. Yours truly washed it all up yesterday. Intrepid, ain't I?
No groceries at home, save a decaying onion, age-old pasta and some unopened sauce. A quick pasta was made a meal of (avoiding the particularly decayed parts of the onion).
The next day dawned - and yes; the roomie was asleep on the couch again. I seriously need to talk to him about it - I just cannot keep getting shunned out of the living room this way! For the record, he was on the couch today too. I'm going to use the TV sitting on the ground from now on.
HEB was visited yesterday; armed with the trusty old backpack. Food was bought (for that capsicum-potato-onion affair which I attempted in the evening). Also bought those dino bites which Radha thinks so highly of.
Have a meeting by 11:00 today. Need to hurry up.
Bye.
Lessons From The Recent Trip to the North
With two hours to kill, blogging at O’Hare International airport seems to be the appropriate thing to do. Having had an exciting trip to Purdue (pronounced Pur-doo), blogging about the trip also seems the appropriate thing to do. And therefore this “report”, nay, blog.
Before I talk of lessons learnt, I believe it would be prudent to present a terse account of recent tourism related activities that were engaged in, in the days that have just passed. The trip to Chicago was a lot of fun. Sears tower was scaled; the field museum was attacked. The lake-shore drive was traveled in – twice, both by bus and by car; an Indian buffet at Devon street was hogged.
There were four of us, viz. Radha, Rishi, Harsha and self. It really felt nice to be in friendly company, company that I shall miss when I find myself in A&M again, later today. Roughly two-hundred-and-forty-fix photographs were clicked on my good ol’ Panasonic Lumix (by Radha, obviously). They reside on my computer now, and the best shall, undoubtedly make it to Radha’s blog.
The Sears tower was tall, to say the least. It is such buildings that make you glad that you are an engineer, and that one of your kind actually was responsible for building the thing. The field museum won over the aquarium as a destination, more due to its queue being smaller than anything else. It was drab, to say the least, save a rather menacing stuffed Cheetah.
The other Walmart was visited the next day in Purdoo. It was more exciting than the Houston Space Center, at least! Nothing was bought save a Wrigley winterfresh (which is being consumed right now). An Arab restaurant was eaten in at night. Good. Did not like the tiramisu though.
This trip taught me a lot. I shall enumerate what I believe I learnt in the trip:
- Eat rice with chips and side dish. Harsha’s flat does it. Tastes pretty damn good.
- Eat Arab food. It’s not that bad.
- Watch movies on TV with Laptop on Lap. Radha does it. Make sure there’s a good internet connection, though.
- Every mall in America is the same. At least in small towns.
- Every downtown (Mumbai, Houston, Chicago) looks the same, save the building height.
- Exotic dishes like bisibela bhath are within the realm of self’s culinary range. Or is it because Radha cooked it, that it looked so easy?
- A car is as essential as oxygen in the US of A.
- Money should not be saved – at least when one is a PhD student in the US of A.
- Hard work is a lot of fun. Rishi enjoys it.
- I am not the only coffee addict in the world. Rishi and Harsha are too.
- Dino Bytes taste quite good. Maybe I could top my Honey Bunches of Oats with them.
- Mani Ratnam makes movies. And a lot of them. That is what Harsha, Rishi, Matt and Radha seemed to be obsessed about all the time.
- America is a punctual country.
- I can never see snow in my life. Five inches are expected to come down in Laf. Tomorrow. And guess where I will be? Balmy old Texas.
P.S
I am posting this after coming back home. My flight was delayed by 2 hours. This places assertion 13 on shaky ground.
Radha with D-70 in front of the Purdoo Memorial Union
Circumstantial evidence that I have traveled to Purdoo. Not conclusive, but should suffice. This was on the first day: days after that were spent in the Mall, in the ME lab or waiting for UPS delivery guy at (Radha's) home. At this point of time, there is only one yet unvisited tourist attraction in here: the Lafayatte Wal-Mart. There is some talk of Rishi or someone driving us down there. That point in time is awaited for with bated breath. Apparently, you just cannot complete a trip to the Lafayettes without going to the two walmarts.
Snow ruins Chicago Trip
We planned a trip to Chicago yesterday, Radha and I. We intended to go in the morning by the amtrak and come back by the amtrak in the evening. We thought we'd see the Sears tower (as tall as any other buiding in the world, I guess) and the Shedd aquarium.
We we were done in by the snow that never fell. Chicago had one of those eerie "winter storm warnings" with snowfall in excess of 4 inches expected. After this fateful perusal of weather.com, our trip went ka-phut. The day was to be spent at home, doing nothing, really. Of course the snow never fell. You should never believe weather.com, especially in these areas. It is usually right on target when it comes to Texas though,
And it was spent at home, doing nothing. The Chicago trip stands postponed to tomorrow (Saturday). Yay. And this time, we're using a car. Harsha and Rishi shall drive down with us, the latter never having seen the downtown before. All is well that ends well, I suppose.
Yesterday was more or less spent at home, save a rather quick trip to drink some coffee in the p.m, followed by an equally quick trip to a shop they call "food mart" where Indian food is sold in bulk to the multitudes.
An Indian restaurant was visited day before and some food was eaten. Harsha paid, for he had got through to Shlum - and was on the verge of being paid a lot. Have you noticed how there is always a shortage of Indians in thes Indian restauraunts? There's usually a higher density of the same at Taco Bell or something!!
That's about it from me today ... I have do be busy doing NOTHING
Bose et. al.
A Bose desktop desktop speaker was procured by Radha, perhaps to irk her roommates, or perhaps else to listen to Carnatic classical music. The speakers are little thingys which pack an intense bassy sound. They were procured at an expedition to the Tipp Mall, which is the stereotypical small-town-america mall - and just looks like Post Oak Mall down at College Station.
The weather gods decided not to be deviant anymore. They sent a cold wave to Purdoo .. and this place has been freezing ever since. I did not sweat while sleeping at night yesterday. A brilliant sunny day outside now - but that comes with really frigid temperatures. Nice. Something that I was missing at college station all along.
Life here seems to be fun. There's this hostel atmosphere in these apartments - people like each other and talk to each other, in stark contrast with where I stay, where conversations are terse if any. It feels nice to have friends somewhere in the globe at least. We had fun down in Texas in the winter, when the atmosphere was similar - friends had come over.
What else did I do yesterday? Nothing much. Pretended to study a little while. Have an appointment with a "long lost" friend today ... should be fun. Mohan. Used to be quite pally with him in those GT days long long ago. Looking forward to meeting up with him now.
But work beckons. There's a couple of projects to do .. there's a couple of papers to read (which, I must add, I should never have forgotten down at home!). I have been experiencing the power of procrastination until now. It is immensely powerful.
The Heat is on
If you look at the map of the United States, you will find that Purdoo is perched at a somewhat high latitude. Plenty of cold and snow, that's what one would reckon happens here. The last place you would expect the average human being to sweat on the bed unable to sleep. Such a phenomenon would be common in sultry places like Chennai. But not the frigid American Midwest in winter.
So, it came as a shock that I was unable to get a good sleep at night - my shirt was wet because of all the sweat. It was bloody 21C outside and 27C inside. Chennai would be like this. And the air conditioner is not designed to work unless the ambient dips above that 28C (80F mark). Perhaps this will go down the record as one of those over-cautious energy saving measures.
It is appropriate to note that this trip is, in many ways, a nostalgia trip. Bumped in to lots of "long lost" friends yesterday. Memories of IIT: even in the misery in sleep.
All that said and done, expecting the cold to make a return of sorts tonight. I might yet get to see my first snow shower. A little work sometime soon. I really need to comprehend that RDT. Will do so soon.
RDT, of course stands for "Rapid Distortion Theory" in turbulence. A mention surely has been made of that earlier.
Two great cities ...
The journey having been sucessfully accomplished, inroads have been made by yours truly into West Lafayette. Incidentally, Indiana has no shortage of Lafayettes: there's a west Laf. and a Laf., neighbouring cities seperated by a "great" river.
I have heard that this town has three major tourist attractions: the University (Purdoo, one of those millions of places that rejected me last year.); and two Walmart supercenters (one each in East and West L.). A walking trip showed me most of the university yesterday. I had a chance to see what I missed out by getting rejected. Impressive. But all universities are impressive when you look at them from outside. But I do understand that this place has a scarcity of Minute Maid vending machines.
Walked through "downtown" Lafayette, a place dominated by antique and coffee shops. Met Harsha and Co. too. Felt real nice to meet friends for a change. Us IITians seem to get along the best with each other. I went to one of the Walmart supercenters yesterday, courtesy Harsha. It was cleaner than the College Station Walmart. And had a lot more stuff. (But H.E.B beat the crap out of this place). These department stores in America are like mazes. You always get lost and can never find the exit.
Went to olive garden yesterday evening. Eggplant parmesan or something on those lines. Nice. We had a rather animated waiter who seemed to like Dave Chapelle a lot. Couldn't really see eye to eye with him. Did not have the heart to tell him that I preffered more refined comedy such as Jeeves and Wooster.
Intend to do at least a modicum of work here (thanks to ezpoxy at the TAMU library). Weather here has been quite cooperative of sorts..... this place has been "abnormally warm" or something on those lines. A cooldown of sorts is expected ... hope I'll see my first snow outside the fridge soon.
I'll keep posting about adventures in Purdoo .... till next time then. Bye.
A post from IAH ...
I am posting from the George Bush Intercontinental airport in the Houston on my way to West Lafayette. As I promised, I shall talk about how my meeting went yesterday with my guide.
Firstly, when you originally plan for a meeting exceeding half and hour in duration and are forced to compress that into fifteen minutes, there are bound to be lapses in communication, misunderstandings, so on and so forth.
So, I had to compress all my findings into that precarious 3:45 to 4:00 pm slot … and therefore had to skim rapidly through the slides. As a result, slides that I had originally wanted to spend 5 minutes on were given a raw deal.
The presentation concluded with him saying “I’ll think about it”. And I got an email from my guide in the evening saying that there was something wrong with what I did. He had misunderstood the whole thing … And now I will have to spend a lot of labour in trying to convince him that I am not all that wrong.
Oh well, that is life.
And now I am at IAH, having sipped my Starbucks … armed only with my laptop, having checked in everything else. No hassles. Had to wake up early to catch the shuttle to the airport. Have two hours to kill right now. Ouch.
Possibly, some music? Or will I miss out on the announcements? Well, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ll probably walk around the terminal too .. this place is more like a mall with departure gates.
Rain, Squall and a Generally Decent day
Today was rainy in the morning. Some of the "severe" weather that the weather channel was trying to panic about yesterday evening. There was a test of sorts for the students in my TA class today. The exam was quite easy this time .. and I think they did really well.
And as usual, there was an excellent class at 9:35, when the Prof talked about Rapid Distortion Theory in Turbulence - where drastic changes in the mean flow could mean a Quasi-Linearized Navier Stokes - at least in the transient sense. Apparently, we have to help him author a paper on the same in our class. Sounds like fun. Mutual benifit, eh?
Tomorrow is the day when I shall for the first time step on Non Texas American soil. Should things all go fine, the soil shall probably be floor of sorts in the Chicago O'Hare airport. Spring Break. Planning a Trip to West Lafayette shortly.
The meeting that I have been talking of all week happens today. In the evening at 4. Expect a blog describing the same in some brievety. Also planning to get some work done in Purdue .. some reading .. and some more lit surve. Long live ezpoxy.library.tamu.edu (or something else on those lines).
Two Days.
The alert reader would doubtless have noticed: no post yesterday. I had an early class today, so "no time" to post.
Today was a good day, as days go. TA class at 8:00 in the morning, and I did not go late. As a matter of fact, I went early. Thank thee, O cycle.
And then another absorbing turbulence class. I think I am getting a better intuitive insight into the workings of a turbulent flow: first Panch back at IIT, and now Prof. Girimaji here. Experts are great to learn from.
While talking of experts, it would be an utter sin to leave out my guide, Prof Han. Back at IIT Madras, there used to be a course called "I.C Engines" taught by one Professor A. Ramesh. In my opinion that was the best course that I ever underwent: the subject was exciting and the professor was really sincere and enthusiastic. The best part of the class was how he handled questions. How his expertise would answer any question that the student would ask. And the answers were extremely convincing. I believe my guide is another such person. I am excited.
I went-a-shopping yesterday. Target and HEB, for they are neigbours and can be gone to in the same bus. Since I do not have access to an automobile, I like to stuff all the purchase into a backpack. So, the pizzas, the onions, the peanuts, they all are stuffed into the bag. A rather heavy backpack hitches a ride on my back.
By the way, it was my "turn" to cook today. I made some rajma .... I think it came out okay. The taste was decent ... but really, nowhere near as brilliant as Mum's. (Do I really need to say that?)
It has become foully hot of late. I thought, when I came to the US, I was rid of heat and misery, but ... this place is as hot as Chennai right now!!! But I am not complaining, realy. Air conditioning makes anything comfortable.
Ditto
I am ashamed to say this: there is absolutely no variety in my life. Lots of people who know me (and sleep in my company while I attempt to converse with them) will agree. I am a very boring person.
For instance, what I did yesterday, I am doing today. With only subtle differences, like sitting on al different bench in the library and lunching at a different place and wearing different clothes. So, as you would have guessed by now, I am within the confines of the library yet again; about to "embark on a journey" into the fascinating literature of porous media and how they can be applied to my PhD problem.
Thanks to MacDonalds improving its coffee, America seems to be a happier nation now. The cheapest coffee in America just got better - and no one is complaining. It is an interesting statistic that, whenever, I look into a trash can I see at least one empty MacDonalds coffee mug within it. Whoever I come across is carrying that paper cup they give you at MacDonalds to contain your coffee.
The lit survey borught out some startling revelations yesterday. For instance, using a channel partially covered with a Porous medium is actually BAD for the heat trasnfer within that channel. I found some 7 or 8 papers saying the same thing - even for Turbulent flow within the channel. The only way to improve that is, of course, to cover the whole channel with the Porous medium. I speculate that this rather intriguing behaviour is due to the tendency of the fluid to take the path of least resistance.
More details on this when I actually make a presentation to my guide. I will also upload his response -- just for the record.
I had some fun working out yesterday .. the usual 300 calories plus the run in the jogging track. I got really tired during the run too .... I was trying for speed. The goal is to build up a respectable stamina .. something that I totally lack now.
And the roomie slept in the hall yet again. I think one will have to put one's foot down soon.
On being kicked out
If yesterday had a theme to it, then it must have been 'being kicked out' for me. Let me elaborate.
I like to play tennis on the A&M tennis courts once in a while. Purists may not call what I play tennis, but they cannot deny that I hit balls around the court with Tennis racquets. So, me and a few others (my "tennis" friends, who call me to play tennis with them because I beg them to call me to play tennis with them) went there .... and guess what? The courts were teeming with the proleteriat. Lots of people were smacking the ball around, occupying all the courts. Apparently there was some 'rec-sports' tourney or soemething on those lines. So, no tennis for us.
We decided to try our luck anyway, we found an "empty" court. We hardly started playing when we were kicked out by the people who had a game scheduled on that court. So, we went to the Rec-center to play some racquet ball. Of course, we did not have any eye-guards. We were unceremoneously kicked out of there too by a dutiful official. People wanted to "sneak into" those courts again without the eye-wear. But, wiser counsels prevailed. I went back home.
Had a decent morning today. Woke up, went down, and guess what? There was no roomie sleeping on the sofa. Watched the weather channel (non-muted, for a change) until I got bored. Watched Fox and CNN too. And then, I went to my office, corrected some papers ... had lunch in Subway (the only place thay I can eat with self respect as a vegetarian), and here I am, after a rather tasteless Sundae at McDonalds. I am in the library now, trying to further my knowledge on convection in Porous Media at high Reynolds Numbers. I do not expect local thermal equiliburium to be valid for the cases I am worried about. We plan to incorporate them in Gas Turbine internal cooling, you see. Need to make a presentation to my guide next week, before I go off to Purdue for spring break.
Incidentally, the average temperature for spring in Purdue is 10c during the day. That is 5c colder than the coldest average in Texas. Sounds like fun.
Some Latex, some bad food
Woke up early, wanted to see TV. Roomie sleeping on couch yet again, and weather channel was watched in mute yet again. Went to the gym early morning : did not go yesterday, so I had to make up early.
I worked out a problem that my TA boss wanted me to post online. I put it in LATEX so that I could get some practise. Did you ever use Webct? It is the single most convoluted piece of software ever. It took me 20 complete mintues to figure out how to upload files! And this stupid mouse on my Dell computer is so bad, so bad, that it makes those little furry things that run on the floor seem endearing.
I made the mistake of lunching at Taco Bell today. Taco Bell gets my custom primarilty because of its proximity and smaller portions. I can't eat that Shlotzky Pizza or the Chipotle Burrito in the afternoon. For someone as obese and spherical as I am, I eat pretty small portions. I must also add that they (Taco Bell, not the other two. I love them) make the worst food in College Station .... or world!!
Had a medium Latte after a little confusion over the debit card bill - the clerk made a mistake .. billed me for something else too .. the had to do some "manipulations" before I could have my Latte. No big deal .. I got my caffiene. I am happy.
Within the library now. Plan was to work, but as you can see, I was busy with the News / Blogging. Will start working as soon as possible now.
Oh well, better not waste too much time ... back to the book it is for me.
That terrible feeling ....
Did you ever get the feeling that you're getting fatter? That it's just too boring to work? That you should not have had eaten those two stupid apple pies? (Those McDonalds thugs sell 2 for $1, and 1 for $0.89!)
If you do feel that way, you are not alone. I am feeling that way. I can just feel my girth increase. And to top it all, I decided to not work out today (making time for research). And guess what, I stayed at home doing nothing!
Now, I've got some serious issues. I'd better do something tonight. Need to "arrange" my thoughts properly about the porous medium thing. Working without a deadline is a bitch. Getting the motivation to work without any solid incentive is tough.
Wonder what my roomie will cook tonight. We seem to be out of egg, and he made the okra yesterday. We, my friend, are on uncharted territories now. He will have to broaden his culinary horizons; venture into the unknown. I can hear some sounds from the kitchen ... I am sure that the smoke detector is not far behind.
An interesting class
I'm in my TA office (a leaky basement office infested with old desktop computers and 30 odd ugly tables) where TAs hang out. TAs are very boring people, and this rather boring office reinforces that notion. For aptness' sake, let's call this office the Hole, henceforth.
So, I'm in the hole right now, with my laptop - surfing the net, thanks to a nearby router. The morning, as mornings go, was okay. Woke up early, thanks to the Bose wave radio-alarm clock. And guess what I heard: a sentimental speech from George Bush about how grateful he was for the hospitality at the "Presidential Palace" in India!!!
Of course, had a TA class at 8:00 am, so I set out at 7:43, and reached class by 7:52, a lot earlier than I used to in the BC (Between Cycles) era.
A very interesting Turbulence class happened today. We got our hands dirty with some real interesting manipulations. We derived the Reynolds Stress transport equations and the Professor talked about the "Philosophy of Modeling". His contention was that a model out of thin air for the quantities in the Reynolds Stress Transport equation would reflect reality better than the Bossinesq models (which he hates).
I was intrigued. I could not help but wonder: do people ever solve the Fourier Navier Stokes directly when they do DNS? Do they really need a Grid explicitly in the spatial domain?
A subway sandwitch was consumed. I don't like lettuce or spinach in my sandwitch. It gives me a bovine feeling. And I don't want to feel too bovine in America, the land of the beef eaters. And now, I have some work. I need to solve a problem and post its solution online. Procrastination made sure that I did not do it yesterday. I will pay for this procrastination someday. Maybe not today. Tomorrow?
A fulfilling evening
I did everything that I wanted to this evening; I worked out, I did not fight with Radha and I had some dinner.
Everything except that research that I wanted to do in the evening. I guess I'll do it after this post. I managed to get a few good papers in the library on Porous Media and am also looking at that book by Kaviany. The treatment of porous media in the book seems to be quite rigorous, so I really need to keep my wits about me when I venture into that tonight.
I worked out today. I changed the tunes on my mp3 player, and I liked them for a change. I managed to work out quite well .. the time just flew by. I did not get so tired as I usually get after the run ( I make two rounds of the rec-center track towards the end of the work). Am I getting any less fat?
The roomie fried some Okra today, and needless to say, the smoke detector had a field day, the bitch. It beeped as if an episode of South Park was on TV. I've solved the riddle of the on-the-couch-sleeping-roomie, though. He's got bedbugs. I guess we'll just have to wait for couch bugs now.
The research ... maybe I'll do it tomorrow morning ... no ... I won't procrastinate further. Today it will have to be. I got more than an hour and a half left in the night .. it's only 10:17!!
And more of the nothing
I must have forgotten to mention in my previous post in the morning: I printed out a map of the world population density from Wikipedia. I hung it on my wall. India is red in the map, and so is Japan.
I had some "lunch" today: some mattar paneer (three and a half peices of the paneer) that I hammered out yesterday with the last roti at home and a few morsels of rice. Tolerably full, and I sure as hell won't fall asleep today in my office as I would have, had I eaten an omlette instead.
I got a visitor to my office today. He wanted some help understanding the convective derivative. I finally got a chance to explain something to someone. Poor guy.
This is quite rare: about two people came to my office for help last semester. I guess I get a little more time to myself. I must add that there are advantages to not being an attractive young girl that students have crushes on - and therefore flood the office hours of.
I procured a cycle recently (day before) after some bad samaritan (if there should exist such a term) relieved me of my previous one. This has cut down my travel time to class by roughly 15 minutes. I was only 2 minutes late to my office, as opposed to the 9 minutes in the era between the two cycles, when I walked.
I have some backlog in grading: that's what I shall be doing right now, as a matter of fact. Of course, there's some research work to do: I need to read up some more on porous media. I'll do it in the evening. After all, if procrastination were an animal and I were a nation, it would be my national animal.
A lot of time, a lot to do, nothing done
I had a lot of time today. Office hours at 12:00 pm, and nothing before that. I reckoned I could get some research done by then. But instead of research, I did the following:
1. Ate healthy breakfast (second helping of Honey Bunches of Oats with 2% milks)
2. Frowned at roomie who has decided to sleep in the living room (thus blocking TV access in the morning). Can't figure out why he's sleeping there: he's got a couple of beds in his own room.
3. Saw muted weather channel for 15 minutes or so. Looks like Texas is going to heat up.
4. Spoke on phone with Radha (daily morning talk)
5. Opened laptop. Played Alanis. And then some Nine Days. Bose sounds as good as usual. No problems there.
6. Opened book. Read 3 pages or so.
7. Created blog. Wasted time posting.
Looks like research takes a back seat to all these frivolities. Also possibly because advisor is in Hawaii. No meeting today. No pressure.
Looks like a trip to the library in the afternoon after the office hours will have to be on the agenda so that I don't end up doing no "research" today. And the gym. Corpulence to be avoided as far as possible.
Maybe I'll have some better news in the afternoon when I sit down in the library and decide to waste my time blogging.
