The Mundane life of a Grad Student

Adventures in Houston

2006-09-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Last week, four of us (Archana, Satish, Suman and Self) decided to drive down to Houston (in my Eagle Talon) and see the Munnabhai Movie. We had read lots of happy reviews about the same online, and decided to see what the fuss was all about.

So, we found ourselves speeding towards Houston - when a slightly disconcerting feeling made itself prominent. The engine was "vibrating" (at frequencies lower than the expected piston frequency). We started to smell something burning too. So, we stopped on the shoulder and tried to investigate. Realizing it was too risky, we pulled into a by-road in Navasota and checked the smell. By this time the car has ceased jerking. Dismissing all this as a figment of our imaginations, we set out on our way to Houston all again.

And in that steep fly-over near Hempstead, we realized that our car was not going to make it to the top. The engine was overhearting - the temperature reading showed "H" almost consistently. The A/C was breathing out hot air even if the setting was the coldest. We realized that the car was out of coolant. And emergency stop was effected on the shoulder near the maxima on the flyover. After a call to an uncle, we managed to get some coolant into the radiator (after wrestling with one of those radiator caps with "Do not open" explicity written on top).

After a few agonizing moments on top of the fly-over, (including one in which a surprised Satish woke up and found the car "stranded" on top of the bridge), the car cooled down enough to make it to a yonder gas station. Coolant and water was procured - and was poured into the car. We reckoned we'd solved the mystery of the car. We felt happy about ourselves - just like Sherlock Holmes would have after sovling the Baskerville mystery, say. Back on the way to Houston we were.

And guess what! We were taking an exit onto Houston - and the car stops bang in the middle of the road. After a few agonizing minutes (with the blinkers on), we somehow manage to push the car onto the shoulder. We fed it more coolant - and somehow pushed the car to the theater. An offer to help from a considerate Sardarji is graciously refused (more due to it being unpragmatic than anything else - I mean .. where would he park his car?) in doing so.

The car was parked in the theater. The journey to the theater was quite trying. Seeing the needle to to 'H' is quite agonizing. I got the feeling that the car was going to explode on me any moment.

A stroke of good luck was that Harsha (whom I had called to meet us at the theater) decided to pop up for the movie anyway. I met him in the theater. A reunion was effected; the movie was enjoyed, one's prejudices against Sanjay Dutt notwithstanding. After all, absurdity conquers all. I felt that references of Gandhi were particularly pertinent - and the movie packed an elegant punch.

After the movie, it was time to get the automobile reparied. Archana and Harsha (in his spanking new Honda civic) were despached to scout around for auto-repair shops. Looking at Harsha's brand new car, one could but not help thinking that he and I were in the same batch at IIT - look at his car - and then look at mine. After some such cynical humor, we finally got word that an Autozone armed with mechanics existed in yonder Bellaire. The car chugged its way to Bellaire only to find a stuffed-to-the brim autozone which did not even have distilled water, leave alone mechanics. We bought a "sealant", which was used in the car. It did not work.

We made our way to 'Masala Wok', a chinese flavoured Indian restauraunt. This is where I had another stroke of good luck - Suman and Satish called over Vijay, one of our friends back at A&M. He too popped over, and Harsha and Vijay hat another sentimental reunion. We then realized that the best place to park the car was Vijay's. So, we made our way there (stopping once or twice to cool the engine).

Harsha and I and Archana went to her place. Rather than go to Harsha's place, we decided to sleep at Archana's. We slept there, and I was woken up by Harsha who said "How can you sleep in this light?" at 7:30. After some finger-brushing we had a breakfast (and more importantly, coffee) at IHOP. And then we bid good-bye to Harsha. Archana and I went to Vijay's on her Corolla (which had a fit radiator). We spied a firestone beside Vijay's apartment. I took the car to firestone. I must confess that I was quite disappointed to learn that the shop was a Firestone, since their tendencies to charge the earth are quite well known. But as a beggar, I had no choice. I just had to part with all the money that they would ask me to part with.

They told us they'd take a little while to get the car up and runnning. They told me it'd be $400. My wallet won't need to diet anymore, I suppose. We still had a couple of hours to kill, so we deicided to go to IKEA. While at Archana's place, I had slept on a divinely comfortable futon. So, I contemplated getting myself one if possible. Suman concurred. We walked all around Ikea, got the futon (and lots of other useless stuff). We managed to stuff it into Archana's car (by stuffing self and Satish in the back seat).

Of course, one must make a passing mention of the divine commestibles served up by the Scandinavian chefs down at IKEA. The vegetarian Lasagna was a slice of heaven, as was the cheese cake. The rationale behind having such an excellent food court bang in the middle of IKEA eluded us. Perhaps, we reckoned, Scandinavians cook well in general.

Finally we went home, to Vijay's house and got the car. After a tearful adieu to the $400, a rather comparitively eventless trip home was effected. A thoroughly filling dinner was had at the Aunt's place, and home was gone to after a real long time.

Demoted

2006-08-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Converting from TA to the more "prestigious" position of an RA is, in reality, no reason to celebrate. As a matter of fact, it is a reason for dismay. It shall be elaborated in the following text.

The people who decide the payscale of graduate students are not professors on a noble mission to spread education to the world. They are engineers with a simple mission: to screw graduate students off as much cash as they possibly can without it fitting the definition of slavery. For slavery is illegal in this nation.

I was a Teaching Assistant till now. The department took care of all my tuition and fee. The tuition is a significant amount: and the univeristy mandates its payment by professors/departments for graduate students. So, the tuition has to be paid inevitably. The fee is less significant: rougly equal to one month's salary. It is "optional" for both the professor or the department to pay this. It was paid last year for me: they were trying to "attract" new students.

So, essentially, the university pays the same amount every month to me (preserving my pay scale). But I have to pay the fee too! And so, the upshot is that I am being screwed off $254 every month. That's a good 20% of my pay. (And my guide notionally thinks that he is preserving my pay-scale).

But I think I should shut up and not complain about this. The conditions of graduate students (assistants) were uttlerly wretched a few years ago. I have heard horror stories of students living 9 in an apartment! I have heard PhD students living with $600 a month. Conditions reminding one of those Chawls in Mumbai.

I'm living more respectably, for sure. I have a bedroom and a bathroom (more or less) of my own. I have a nice car. I have a steady job and an exciting guide. A nice sum in the bank too. No moral authority to complain, actually. And I'm here to work, not to complain about these things.

Reversing the Heat Equation

2006-07-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today's class on Partial differential equations gave me a whole new perspective on the ubiquitous heat equation (whose forms in various coordinate systems, I "solved" numerically for my Masters thesis). I'm going to share that perspective here.

Let's start with something simple and 1d. A rod (with temperature independent conductivity), perhaps. You're given a rod with a non-steady state temperature profile. One end of the rod has been maintained at a constant high temperature for 20 minutes - and you are handed over the rod after the 20 minutes. The entire rod is convecting (and has always been) with the ambient (with a constant heat transfer coefficient). Eventually, it would have reached a steady state - but that would have taken more than 20 mintues. So, essentially, you're given a rod whose temperatur distribution still being governed by the heat equation rather than the Laplace equation. In other words, the profile is still evolving.

Is it possible to predict the initial temperature profile, given an instantaneous temperature profile as detailed above?

The answer, well, is yes and no.

Yes, because, if a solution does exist, it is unique - fact that can be proven by some math [1]. So, essentially, for a given final temperature profile T_f(x), the ambient temperature (T_inf), the boundary conditions (T_o and T_(x=L)) . Starting with the T_f(x) and going back in time (by solving the reverse heat equation), one can, in principle, recover the initial temperature profile.

No, because, well, it diverges. A primitive variable seperable closed-form expression for the solution makes things quite clear.

where, the a's are the Fourier coefficients of T_f(x). In the case of the forward heat equation, the exponent would have been negative, rendering the higher harmonics more or less neglegible But, in the reverse case, this term would tend to blow up at higher values of n. If T_f(x) were purely sinusoidal (only one a_n), then the equation would be quite friendly. The equation poses no problem for a small number of harmonics.

But suppose there were a "little" noise. Noise usually has many frequencies, some quite high. The corresponding terms would blow up. Evaluating the above series is not going to be easy.

This gives us another elegant insight: the "sharper" a profile (a profile with a discontinuity, for instance would yield infinite terms in the fourier space), the more difficult it is to reconstruct the original temperature profile. This figures: the larger the local temperature gradient, the faster it tends to smooth itself out! Minor spatial fluctuations in temperature are removed faster by the diffusion equation.

Let us now consider a 5 cm x 5cm x 5cm copper block. (Copper because it's always at more or less the same temperature at ambient heat transfer coefficients). Suppose we heat it up to a temperature and cool it in air, and measure its temperature by a thermocouple with an accuracy of 0.1C. Suppose we measure time with a digital watch with an accuracy of 1 sec. Suppose, also, that we know the heat transfer coefficients accurately. Given the time since the start of convective cooling (measured by the stop-watch, actually) and the final temperature , can the initial temperature be determined?

Yes, you would say. Exponenital cooling curve. Easy to fit it.

Suppose we look at a situation where the instruments would say that a steady state has been reached. There's no way to get back the original temperature --- there's many possible solutions!!!!!!! The only way out is it use more accurate devices.

And now, add to this the complexity of temperature profiles. Suppose we were using steel piece (lower conductivity) , and somehow "magically" obtained its temperautre profile at a certain time throughout its volume. Suppose the profile was somewhat jagged (but steadying out gradually) ......... Well, with a lot of computers one can arrivie at an estimate ... with an error bar.

And this wisdom can be applied to the Navier stokes too. The only process in the entire N/S equations that "loses" information is, actually, viscous dissipation. Turbulence generates entropy faster by wrinkling the instantaneous temperature and velocity profiles to bring about high amounts of heat transfer and viscous dissipation respectively.

Maybe I'm getting way too carried away here.....

An Encounter with V.D

2006-07-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

They're dealing with foully high Reynolds Numbers in my lab: to the tune of 400,000. You read right. 400,000. And they're not using water; they're using air. Needless to say, a plethora of compressors are being used to produce such high flow rates. Mach Numbers, incidentally are still incompressible.

Just to put things in perspective, I'll tell you that I'm working on Gas Turbine cooling. And also that gas turbine blades are cooled by air bled from the compressor. The blades are essentially porous. "Cool" air passes through them and stops them from melting. This gives designers latitude to allow higher temperatures in the turbine; letting the same do its bit in dealing with the imminent energy crisis. The flow within the blade can be likened to that through a channel ( thanks to similitude, a subject beaten to death in undergraduate fluid mechanics courses). The higher the heat transfer, the better. It is found that a ribbed channel would sustain higher turbulence, thereby increasing the heat transfer.

So, we're studying a ribbed channel for enhancement in heat transfer. The experiment essentially uses copper plates (infinite thermal conductivity for all practical purposes) to provide "regionally averaged" heat transfer data. Lots of copper plates (seperated by insulating gaskets) make the channel. These plates have thermocouples stuck on them everywhere.

It really perplexed me to learn that they were conducting an "adiabatic" test for this experiment. And adiabatic test is the following: air from the ambient is sucked in through the compressor; made to flow through the channel. No heat of any sort is supplied to the channel in this test. Temperatures are read by the thermocouple. The readings from this test are then subtracted from the actual heat transfer case.

I looked online for precedents. I looked at old work. I asked friends. I finally realized that this test was to account for the viscous dissipation. So, I set out to quantify the same using the data that I had. I looked at temperature differences in the channel; I found that the last plate was heated up by roughly 0.9 C in a smooth channel due to viscous dissipation and by 1.5C for a ribbed channel. This figures, as ribs would certainly create more entropy.

And I presented this to my guide. He nodded, and said that aerodynamic heating was not expected to be significant in my case. When you know everything in the subject, nothing probably excites you anymore.

Incidentally, one aspires to reach such a situation. And reaching such a situation entails a lot of excitement on the way.

New Apartment

2006-06-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

It's June right now. And I'm apartment hunting. Or I was apartment hunting until today. I saw one today. An "efficiency". And I think I will take it.

It will cost a little more than what I am paying now. And that will be exacerbated by the fact that my pay, in all probablility will actually decrease! My guide will have to support me as a Research Assistant: which means that he will pay me. The money that he shall provide me will probably be lesser than what I am earning now. Some sort of existence will have to be eked out; wireless connections will have to be be stolen; meals will have to be sacrificed. Even more so, if I want to live in my own place!

I've been looking at places all around the city. I still found the one I saw today the best. I guess I will proceed to take that up. The location is very nice - almost where I am right now. Walking distance to the university. Safe too, I suppose. And I think the parking is under a tree or something. Will keep cool in winter.

I really want to get out of the place that I am "living" in right now. The room mate crashes downstairs (and never cleans the kitchen), the bed is crawling with bed-bugs, the air conditioner does not work in my room.

Life is quite good here, despite all that. I am playing tennis regularly. I am gradually getting used to driving the car everywhere. Good for me, I guess.

Oh well. There's no more points to be made right now. Had some rajma for dinner. Lumpy, unlike mom's. Maybe next time I could grind the onions and tomatoes.

Post Trip, Post Car Update: All the scraping

2006-06-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yup. I've got a car now. An Eagle Talon (what's that?) thingy made in 1995.

And it's june here. Summer is over in India, and has just started here! Bloody maximum temperatures are refusing to see the happier side of 30C, and today is around, well, 38C.

A trip to Purdoo was effected recently, a jolly good time was had by all entities in question, viz. Self and Radha. The car was taken posession of after the aforementioned trip.

Working in a distant lab right now. A place called turbo-lab. Though, technically, I am a PhD student, my current job is to, well, scrape dried up glue from a copper piece. Is this what they meant by the romance of research? Or is there something else that I shall discover in time? Is it okay if I send by brain on vacation?

I'm hunting around for an apartment to stay alone in next semester. Staying alone is bound to be an improvement in standard of living.

Now that I am mobile, I have the opportunity to go anywhere I want. And now that I am mobile, I have lost the will to go anywhere! I have been to the movies only once with my car until now. There's this movie called "Cars" coming tomorrow. Perhaps that should be seen soon.

Oh well. The coffee has brewed. Let me drink that and get back to the scraping in the lab. After the scraping, life promises to get more interesting. I've heard talk of some "sticking". I am SO excited.

Driving

2006-05-19T17:02:00.001-07:00

Driving in the US of A is a pleasure, especially if you have driven in India. You don't feel scared your car is going to "die" at traffic signals (thanks to the automatic transmissions), your left leg is free (should you want to dance about). There's two meters of space between two consecutive cars. And you can coast at speeds known only to truckers and airplanes in India.

It is a piece of cake a drive here. Everyone obeys rules here: Indicators are followed like the holy bible is followed here; speed limits are respected. Miles are covered faster than kilometers are covered in India. Roads are wide, to say the least.

So, it is extremely ironic that I managed to fail my driving test here. Apparently, I merged into traffic too hastily, and should have allowed a car some 200 meters away to pass before me. The examiner (for that is what she is) said "That car was coming way too fast for you to turn. Come back next time". She must be paid by the volume of people whom she "examines", not by the hour.

I will have to disturb a friend early morning next week again. Woe is him, not just me.

The Semester Concludes

2006-05-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

The Spring semester having just concluded, a terse update might just liven things up on this 'blog. This precipitate conclusion of the semester has rendered me transport-less, and worse, jobless. So, Blockbuster online (its law-suits with Netflix notwithstanding) has been subscribed to; gazillions of weather documentaries have been ordered. A good time is anticipated next week, when I shall find them in my inbox.

Essentially, the porous medium project having just bombed, some experiments are being sat with and learnt. I'm hanging around with my lab-colleagues, learning (again) about carpentry, learning to make thermo-couples, and other things. Experiments are the precursors to theory. I am sure this will help me visualize things better. What better way to understand turbulence more philosophically than acutally visualize flows with high Reynolds Numbers, foully high Turbulence intensities, flows with distinct inertial ranges, flows that can be modeled by only second order reynolds stress closure models (and better)? Richardson (the Richardson Number might ring a bell?) would not have come up with is famous doggerel had it not been for experiments. What is good enough for Newton, Reynolds, Nusselt, Richardson and others is surely more that just good enough for me.

I am like one of those "transition pieces" that engineers think so highly of. I'm transitioning from being a student to being a constituent of the mutitudinous human work-force that the planet is infested with. And this is distinctly evident from the fact that today is saturday, and I have NOTHING to do - a state of affairs that employees are accustomed to be in - and is absolutely alien to students who are perpetually loaded with demanding assignments.

A resolution has been made to, by hook or crook, procure one of those driver's license thingamjigs. And as things are going right now, hook almost seems exhausted - and crook looks like my only hope. For, Enterprise won't rent a car out to me on my instruction permit; no one I know well enough has a car (save a very busy aunt, whom I would just feel to guilty disturbing). My last hope is a lab-mate with a Mecury who said he'd call me sometime today to take me on a drive. Keeping fingers and toes and whatever else I can crossed.

Procuring an automobile is the next priority. Looking for a cheap, high mileage, good condition sedan. But I fear that would be tantamount to having one's cake and eating too - the pursuit of 297 million people in this country.

Our apartment now has neighbors. A couple and a rather vocal dog. A dog that does not look at "not-barking" as a feasible course of action. It's bassy barks reverberate through the wafer thin walls of 4302 College Main - ensuring baths are not taken in pin-drop silence. But all is not unwell; I guess the incessant barking gives my Bose immunity from complaints from neighbors.

The aunt will probably take me with her to do some groceries in the evening today (or tomorrow). Need to buy cereals, oil, milk, coffee, diet Pepsi and junk food. There's no buses in summer, much to my dismay. The procurement of a license and a car (already mentioned in this post) shall have to be precipitated further.

Back after forever

2006-04-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have got really erratic at updating this blog. Something I wish to correct.

But all is not lost. Nothing of note has transpired since I had last updated the blog. Answer sheets were graded, laptop was carried around, Orkut was Orkutted, gym was gone to, cycle was cycled, HEB was visited once or twice, a pointless $20 bike computer was procured, T.V was watched, and the Porous media project was doomed.

You heard me right. All the older posts - ranging from the excited to the confused, dealing with the use of porous inserts in Gas Turbines are - well, useless. Using properties from manufacturers, it was determined that the economics of Porous media left a lot to be desired. This realization was not without its drama, though. I thought I was right (as usual). I made a mistake in calcuation (as usual). This time, I took only 2 weeks to catch it. Way better than the blunder I made at IIT with Dr. Arunn - which set me back a couple of months or so. He was very supportive - and I guess I can take heart from what happened then and not lose hope.

Another trip to Purdoo is on the cards - somewhere in the middle of next month. For a couple of days only. Can't afford more time than that in Summer. I plan to make amends in summer. I believe I am already making amends: I am helping one of my colleagues construct a test section. Some rudimentary nut and bolt tightening and carpentry - it is not bad at all. But I must make sure I don't dumben down to pure experimentation. I need to make sure that I do a lot of what I think I am good at: mathematical analysis.

I believe I am getting closer to procuring a car every moment I am here. Another colleague will have to be requested to partner me somtime.....

I would like to conclude now and focus more on other things - especially a presentation due sometime this week.

What should I do with my life?

2006-04-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Don't let the title fool you. This is not about depression. I am not depressed. I am, as a matter of fact, phenomenally excited. Phenomenal excitement and depression share some similar characteristics in that both raise existential concerns.

My excitement (as always) is due to work. Things are not going amazingly well, but certain thoughts have begun to formulate in my grey cells. I shall now proceed to do a strength - weakness - opportunity analysis of myself, a system that is handed down generations in my family. Dad uses it extensively.

Strengths:

I'm good at understanding things quickly.
I can explain experimental results, and often can intuitively guess what the results would be beforehand, if I understand the system well.
I like coding a lot. And years of experience have rendered myself moderately competent in debugging as well.
I am good at order-of-magnitude analyses.
I have a solid foundation - in physics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics. Elasticity will have to be looked into.
I have done a lot of courses in IIT, and they span a rather wide field of knowledge.
I also believe I am good at getting "original" ideas.
I can communicate well.

Weaknesses

I do a lot better when I develop a model from the scratch. If that does not happen, then I need to know the motivation behind the work. If I have to do something aimlessly, I do a pathetic job at it.
I other words, I need a reason do to something.
As of now, I am not too confident with experiments. I have not done much experimental work in my life. All my work until now, has either been analytical or based on "numerical experiments".
The fact that I can do "numerical experiments" quite well means I should be able to do experiments well.
I am really bad with the workshop. At IIT, I never could do the workshop classes well. My work here will require a lot of fabrication. So what do I do? I guess the only saving grace is that I have ample motivation : I know why I am doing it.
Before I do any experimental projects myself, I guess I will do a thorough numerical analysis / theoretical analysis to "optimize" the geometry as far as possible.
Often times, I prejudice myself with one of my ideas. My idea might have a glaring flaw, but my prejudice makes me oblivious to it often.
I don't know a lot of higher level math.
I am lazy.
I have this snobbish "idealistic" streak in me: I tended to look down upon experimenters and Fluent users.

Opportunities:

My guide works on experimental heat transfer - and is one of the best in the field in that subject. I could understand some experimental issues.
I could take the whole "experimental" thing as a challenge. I like challenges.
Building the experimental section might appear to be manual labor. But, there's 24 hours in a day. A few hours could be earmarked for theoretical work, if work demands it. Look at it this way - constructing an experimental section is a better use of time than watching Sienfeld!
Motivated work will overcome laziness. It has happened in the past.
As a PhD student, one has more opportunities to take up many courses in many subjects. Maybe a course on meteorology in the future, leave alone math!
Experiments are what got the world where it is today. If the mental block I have about experiments is removed, then I can contribute well. I understand that a theoretical basis is necessary to conduct any reasonable experiment, failing which, one will be consigned to be an eternal subordinate. I understand that I'm okay with the "theoretical" part, and only the experimental part needs urgent looking into.

Life is Beautiful. Let us all smile.

Hectic after a long time

2006-04-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

The last week witnessed a spurt in work-load - a subtle spurt, not a dirac delta, but a spurt nevertheless. There was a project to be submitted today: the RDT thing that I was talking about in earlier blogs. Being the IITian that I am, I obviously did not work until the last minutes.

It felt good to be busy after a long time. Good to have no time to do nothing. Good to sit beside my computer and work on some research ... or pseudo research, at least. It felt good to generate results, rationalize them physically, propose physical interpretations and work on order of magnitude estimates again. This is research as I know it.

Of course, come to think of research, my guide is an experimental person. So, it is natural to expect that lots of my PhD work will indeed be experimental. Until now, I have not really been exposed to experiments in general. Numerical experiments, yes, but real experiments, no. Until now, I have heard that wind tunnels exist, seen some (from a distance), but I have never genuinely used any. The experiments here will surely give me an idea of various experimental issues encountered by real researchers. They will also give me a first hand experience of turbulence - an experience with the various methods used to measure the same. It is one thing, being familiar with the physics of something, and quite another thing to witness the physics in action.

I intend to keep a hectic schedule from now on. I hope I get to work on some experiments from today onwards. I am okay with working as a lab assistant even!

I've really got nothing more to say.

Another Post from Evans

2006-04-07T13:36:00.001-07:00

It would seem that the only place that I update this blog is from within the gargantuan library in the Texas A&M campus, the Evans Library. Why do I update this blog only here? Why do I not do it in my room or in my TA office? The answer to that is mind-numbingly obvious. I am procrastinating working by blogging. I come here with the intent to work, but I give into the temptation of blogging. At home, blogging is too boring: I give into the temptation of the idiot box.

Have you ever worn clothes smeared with the essence of cockaroach? I have a gut feeling that I am doing so right now. And here's the rationale behind the "gut feeling". I went to the far away laundry room (they have not fixed the nearer one yet), and washed my clothes. I went back, put them in the drier. After putting them back in the hamper, I just felt around the drier - so see if any sock had lodged itself into some crevice within the drier. I did find a sock (the only one that I washed) and another lumpy thing. I picked it up and examined it closely. It was a legless cockaroach. I reckon the legs would have beem amputated druring rotation. It felt quite dry (it was in the drier, after all).

A rather unpleasant thought formed in my head. Did the cockaroach die due to the dizziness of rotation, or did it die in the heat, or was it sheared to death by clothes moving around? Disgust had seen to it that I replaced the cockaroach into the drier. I went back home.

I think I am finally enjoying the food at home. Both my room mates seem to cook quite well - essentially they cook south Indian food - and do a pretty good job of it. Munched some chips as I ate Sambar with rice and that staple: egg curry. (Made "American Style" using pepper instead of chilli power and garam masala).

I am in the library. I intend to work on Turbulence right now. And then I shall go home and change and go to the gym. Work out, and perhaps eat out too. Shlotzky sounds good. Their pizza is unbeatable, but perhaps a tad heavy for lunch.

I had Ramen for lunch today ... I could feel myself get fatter .. there should be a law against those horrible things. I picked out a vegetarian flavour: some Cheddar and Jalapeno. Too cheesy. I refuse to eat Ramen again... ever. I wonder what I shall do with the other two packets at home. Charity? No ... wait .. that would be cruelty rather than charity.

Another weekend bites the dust

2006-04-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well, not entirely, but it sure did bite more dust than it should have in an Ideal world. But let's get to that later.

I remember a recent conversation with my cousin (who is currently enjoying the good life in NYC). I told him about my social life here, or lack therof. I tried to tell him that I was well on the way to achieving a social life of sorts here - a white lie. For, after all, I am a graduate student. A PhD. Everybody knows that a PhD does not have a social life - especially when he/she is undergoing the PhD!

I'm in the library with the laptop now. I'm downloading midis of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies and listening to them in winamp, with the hope that I shall bump into that memorable peice that Fred Quimby and Co. used in that Tom and Jerry episode. I can tell you at this point in time, that Rhapsody #12 is certainly not the one. But it is a beautiful piece. I'm having fun listening to it.

The Idea was to do some good work in the weekend. But, research work is one obstinate little thing. You can't just decide to do work. Everything has to click, or else it is back to the drawing board. Case in point: I downloaded and amazing paper (or so I thought). Using the results in the paper, I could make my order-of-magnitude estimates quite well, I thought. But, when I hit the calculator, the results just do not compare with intuiton. The weekend was spent in a bad temper, trying to analyze these conflicting results. And finally, a conclusion was reached: more papers needed!

I had some pending TA work in the morning. It, I am relieved to say, pends no more. In stark contrast with research work, TA work is very predictable. A rather perverse analogy with fluid mechanics comes to mind. Research work is like turbulent flow: you really have no idea what is going to happen. TA work is as deterministic as laminar flow. The questions will be corrected, subtly sarcastic comments will be written (by self) on the answer scripts, grades will be input into the computer, webct (ideally) will be updated. This will roughly take 6 hours in all. And students will request an incremental point in class ... 40% of these requests will be denied. Students will curse (under their breath) and await that TA evaluation day.

I drove around a residential colony yesterday with another of my cousins. Driving here in the USA is a pleasure. I was intrigued by how sensitive the car was to my command. I had to get used to driving on the right side of the road - no big deal now .. after all, it's been eight months since I came here. I also do understand that more opportunities to tour open up once a car and a license are procured. Hope that happens soon.

And now I digress again. The classic Tom and Jerry peice is indeed Rhapsody #2.

I'll sign off and get back to 'research' work. Turbulence this time. The professor has converted some of the predictable class work into research work. Fun, I must add, lest I be misunderstood.

Office Hours

2006-03-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-17T07:36:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-03-14T06:06:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-13T04:47:00.000-08:00

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 ...

2006-03-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

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 ...

2006-03-11T06:09:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-03-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

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 ....

2006-03-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-01T09:04:00.000-08:00

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.