THE JURONG BIRD

November, December and January

2012-01-09T17:52:00.001-08:00

Gone are the days when clouds in the sky

Brought the twinkle out in my eye

And the skip in my step

And the song in my heart

Now I scowl at the puddles

Duck under shelters

Roll up my jeans and

Complain, Bitterly.

Work is no fun either, okay!

Grad School Barbie

2011-12-07T17:34:00.001-08:00

Haha, found this here and I realized I simply must share it!

Graduate School Barbie comes in two forms: Delusional Master's Barbie (TM) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (TM).Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours: Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first). She also has adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes.
Comes with two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans and 5 year old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "I hate my life" T-shirt. Grad School Barbie talks! Just press the button on her left hand and hear her say such upbeat grad school phrases like, "Yes, Professor, It'll be done by tomorrow", "I'd love to rewrite" and "Why didn't I just get a job, I could have been making $40,000 a year by now if I had just started working with a Bachelor's. But noooooo, I chose to further my education, I wish somebody would drop a bomb on the school so that I'd have an excuse to stop working on my degree that's sucking every last drop of life force out of my withered and degraded excuse for a soul..." (9V lithium batteries sold separately).
Grad School Barbie is anatomically correct to teach kids about the exciting changes that come with pursuing a higher education. Removable panels on Barbie's head and torso allow you to watch as her cerebellum fries to a crispy brown, her heart race 150 beats per minute, and her stomach lining gradually dissolve into nothing. Deluxe Barbie comes with specially designed eye ducts. Just add a little water, and watch Grad School Barbie burst into tears at random intervals. Fun for the whole family
Other accessories include:
Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (TM) Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!),and a small bottle of Mattel Brand Rum (tm).
Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet comes in Fabulous (pepto-bismal) pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. Johns Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription).
Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation. Comes with miniature obsolete PC (in pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation with (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price. Tech support sold separately.)
And Grad School Barbie is not alone! Order now and you'll get two of Barbie's great friends! GRADUATE ADVISOR KEN, Barbie's mentor and advisor in her quest for knowledge, higher education and decreased self esteem.
Grad Advisor Ken (tm) comes with a supply of red pens and a permanent frown. Press the button to hear Grad Advisor Ken deliver such wisdom to Barbie as "I need an update on your progress," "I don't think you're ready to defend yet", and "This is no where near ready for publication."
Buy 3 or more dolls, and you can have Barbie's Thesis Committee! (Palm Pilot and tenure sold separately.
REAL JOB SKIPPER, When Barbie needs to talk, she knows that she can always count on her good friend Real Job Skipper (tm), who got a job after getting her bachelor degree. Press the button to hear Real Job Skipper say, "Sometimes I wish I went for my masters degree" and "Work is so hard! I had to work a half an hour of overtime!" Real Job Skipper's Work Wardrobe and Savings account sold separately.
WARNING: Do not place Grad Student Barbie and Real Job Skipper too close to each other, as there have been several cases of children leaving the room and coming back to find Barbie's hands mysteriously fused to Skipper's throat.

Happy Birthday, Good Shepherd!

2011-10-17T22:16:00.001-07:00

New beginning

2011-10-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today, helping out the supervisor as he moves into his mustier, smaller office after voluntarily stepping down as head of division. He stands in the empty room directing the movers, looking utterly depressed at the grubby furniture. At one point, he bangs the seat of his desk-chair and is engulfed in a cloud of dust.

I thought it would be a challenge for me to make it through my final year with him just a few doors down. It's not a pleasant prospect that now I'll be bumping into him when I so much as have to drink water. But watching his face as he surveyed his new surroundings, I knew I wasn't the only one miserable :(

Friends in Disserted places ;)

2011-09-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

Waiting for Vindication

2011-08-09T08:53:00.001-07:00

I stood in line, heart thumping wildly, staring alternately at the face of my watch and at the snaking queue ahead. My right arm was slung through the handle of my trolley; I absent-mindedly reached for and patted the little bump of cash that was to pay for my train ticket. Stealthily, I counted the wad of notes once, then twice, then a third time. Still not satisfied, I pulled out my phone to confirm that I was not falling short of money to purchase my dream.

Although that day happened over a month ago, I feel like I'm reliving it over and over: standing in line waiting to claim what's rightfully mine, breathless, tremulous and a little overwhelmed. The slightest jolt sends my heart racing, and my mouth is perpetually dry with anticipation.

It's still a long while to the finish line, and the cheering squad needs to be extra loud now to make it over the din of the naysayers. Overprotective parents have no idea of the hell they are putting me through. I try to keep my words impassive and my voice steady.

Don't test me today, and don't ask questions; I'm running a marathon and I can't afford to lose :)

How to root your Android phone -- special guide for Motorola Milestone & XT701 users

2011-07-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I apologize for the long hiatus; I have been busy actually living the life I have to blog about!

One of the many achievements I've made over the past few months is brazenly rooting my Motorola Android phone in order to free up space in my phone memory. I find it quite ridiculous that Google didn't build a smarter operating system -- of what use is an 8 GB SD card if all applications are installed into the 512 MB phone memory?! When I finally took the plunge, my phone was down to 15 MB of free space and it was impossible to use most of my favourite apps any longer because the phone kept hanging. Yes, I decided that the time had come to open up my toy and make it better.

Here is the procedure I followed and the problems I've faced. The Motorola Milestone XT 701, or the Sholes tablet as it is sometimes known as, is not one of the more popular phone models as it is not available outside Southeast Asia. So I think I faced more than the regular share of problems which had no shortcuts around them. This guide is for all the other hapless users who are at a loss for answers and are not brave like me to attempt trial-and-error on their precious phone :D This guide can also be followed by users of other Android phones because it cites a lot of generic sources. Keep reading. :P

The following paragraphs will detail the sources I referred to as well as the problems, if any, which I faced.

Before I give you compelling reasons to root your phone, here's something for the cautious ones: If your phone has slowed down tremendously but you're not too keen on tinkering under the hood, you can try the strategies listed here.

For the young and reckless, here goes!

1. Signs that you need to root your Android phone:

In your childhood, you often took your toys apart to see how they work
Your phone is slow! Your friends are making fun of you because your phone hangs whenever you try to take a picture
For XT701 users: Did you know that your phone's camera is actually 8MP?! Wouldn't you want to unlock that feature?!
There's a "low phone memory" notification perpetually blinking in the top left corner of your home screen
You have a Computer Science Engineering degree and you want to prove that you earned it
You are worried that your mostly-empty 8 GB SDcard was a waste of money
You are sick of some system apps which you don't use, such as "Corporate Calendar", and are looking for a way to get rid of them (Beware: getting rid of system apps is a double-edged sword, as I will explain later)
You are a Linux user; enough said
You are sorely tempted by the pitch made here
The grass looks greener on the other side

If you've decided to proceed, I recommend this article, a start-to-finish guide for rooting your Android phone. This particular article is written for the Motorola Droid but lays down the roadmap ahead and is a good way to familiarize yourself with "rootspeak", the nuts and bolts which any aspiring phone-hacker should know :)

Unfortunately, because I am a Windows 7 user, there may be some steps here which may not work for you, though I'm confident that each of the sources I've linked do list alternatives for Windows and Linux users both. So keep reading, alright :) I'll take you through each of the steps, with a bold heading and indentation specifying the steps intended only for certain users.

STEP 1 Root your phone

Have you backed up your SDcard in a safe corner of your hard disk already? :P

FOR (almost) ALL ANDROID PHONE USERS: In another tab, open this article, a self-proclaimed always up-to-date guide for rooting your phone. I found it to be an impressive compendium but was sad when it didn't work for the Motorola XT 701. Undeterred, I turned to Google!
FOR XT701 USERS: In another tab, open this guide, it's an easy-to-follow step-by-step procedure and it's not as confusing as this one though both credit the same sources.

This step was a piece of cake except for two problems which I encountered, and which you might encounter as well:

While you are setting up and using adb: When you are setting up the path variable in your computer, as a Windows 7 user I had to set the “Path” in environment variables to the “platform-tools” folder and not the “tools” folder of android-sdk. There were no problems on Windows Vista.
While you are flashing your phone using RSDLite: The status of the program is stuck at "In process..." and "Please manually power up this phone". Don't panic! Follow the instructions here and you will get the PASS status you were waiting for. Remember that you may have to press a different combination of keys to reboot the phone, depending on your model. But I'm sure you already know that.

STEP 2 (optional) Consider your options. Install a Custom ROM

Now, what are you going to do with your rooted phone? I suggest scrolling down to the bottom of this article to consider your options. Meanwhile, you have some sound arguments over at this place for some great apps: I took their recommendations with a pinch of salt, but by the end of two weeks I've found that I just can't do without most of these apps. Here's even more. By the way, if you see a great app that's paid, sniff around a little and you're sure to find an unpaid version of the same. For example, I've heard great things about Root Explorer, but I'm getting along happily with ES File Explorer and I would recommend it to you as well. A good place to do your browsing through your phone as well as desktop browser, is the Android Market. I think a great feature is how it tells you whether or not the app you're looking at will work on your device. Saves the bother. Oh, for XT701 users, you can consider getting the lovely themes here.

You must consider installing a custom ROM into your phone. From what I understand, some of your system apps are taken away while new features are added for different ROMs. Be careful what you wish for! :P I still haven't figured out how to get my dearly-missed FmRadio app back to working condition on my rooted moded Black Sea XT701. I'm sure I'll figure it out though.

For XT701 and all other users: Here's more about what a ROM is, and how you should go about choosing one for yourself. It's a wordy guide that tells you all you need to know about ROMs.

FOR (almost) ALL ANDROID USERS: The above-mentioned source also gives you the step-by-step procedure on how to install one on your phone using the ROM Manager app. Go ahead, I'm sure you'll do fine. Remember to follow the same procedure as above if your RSDLite program gets stuck.
If you want any old apps back which you may have lost, you can download individual system apps for Froyo.

FOR XT701 USERS: I found a really sweet guide with accompanying video here. Please keep in mind that it is important to back up your phone image before you go any further. I took a faster way out by deleting the contents of my SD card after copying them to my hardisk, so that the "Backup All" option does not take FOREVER. You can do as you please. Remember to follow the same procedure as above if your RSDLite program gets stuck.
You'll be in for an unpleasant surprise when you follow the link to download the ROM from your device and you get "Page not found"! No worries! Here is the corrected link you need, from where you should download the Black Sea ROM and continue as if nothing happened. I know it's tempting to download the other ROM on this page, but it failed the checksum so it's clearly not intended for XT701 devices.
I'm afraid that Black Sea ROM seems to be the singular credible ROM out there! However, do try your luck with Google; there are thousands of android forums out there and I'm sure someone else out there has hit paydirt.
Serious disadvantages of Black Sea ROM: there is no clock at the top right corner of the home screen anymore, and the default colour of the text of the notifications is now black on a black background. I mean, what the?! I still haven't had the time to figure out how I can customize this. Also, if you were relying on the Android default browser, now you must install Opera Mobile or some other internet browser as the default Android browser app will no longer work. Nor will Gtalk, FmRadio and Sound Recorder. I'm sure there's a way to get these back but again, I haven't had the time to figure it out. Maybe Titanium Backup has a way!

IF YOU SCREWED UP or you just want your unrooted phone back, download the sbf from here and run it using RSDLite (flash it the same way you did before, for OpenRecovery) which will restore your phone to its pristine, unrooted self (found here, this is a great source for troubleshooting). Other data or apps will not be lost.

STEP 3 Link your apps to SD

This is the reason why I rooted my phone, and I was happy when I was finally able to break the shackles of the measly 512 RAM and at the same time utilize my near-empty 8GB SD card for the ultimate performance boost. From 15 MB, my free phone memory shot up to 97 MB. Currently it's showing 65 MB free space, because I've linked out some always-running services like Whatsapp which I think I shouldn't have. I plan to read up more about what kind of programs to leave in the phone memory and which ones to shift out.

What you need before you begin is, a partitioned SD card and an app which works on your phone.

First, to partition your SD card, follow the easy steps over here. You can connect your phone to the desktop/laptop for USB access or use an SD card adapter to do the partitioning.

I had a whale of a hard time because the program would stop running every time the phone auto-locked, and it took me a number of tries to figure out what was happening :P So now I hope I will spare a lot of people from an angry, sulky afternoon! It should be a piece of cake, really. In case you're not a Windows user or for some reason you can't use the software mentioned above, try partitioning by following these instructions and I wish you better luck.

For XT701 and all other users: What kind of a partition should you create? Taken from the Link2SD page: Some phones lack the ext2, ext3 or ext4 file system support and you may get mount errors like "no such device", "invalid argument". These phones need ext2.ko or ext3.ko modules and even some additional modules to be able to mount. Using FAT32 on the second partition will eleminate such problems, because FAT32 is supported on all phones. Ext3 certainly didn't work for XT701 so I formatted the partition to FAT 32; that's working just as well.

Next, to link your apps, use the Android Market to download an app such as Apps2SD or, my favourite for XT701, Link2SD. If you do get Link2SD, please familiarize yourself with its About section which should answer all your queries. The same information is also listed on its Market page. You'll be fine.

The key things I love about Link2SD are, how it's so easy to create links within seconds, and how it's also easy to download and install market fixes for any of your apps. Not only this, if an app starts misbehaving, it only takes a couple of seconds to reinstall it (no user data lost) from Links2SD and it's good as gold again.

I've done my best to put together a comprehensive guide to rooting your XT701 or other Android phone. Remember that the last link in Step 2 will restore your phone and before you have time to panic. There's nothing to lose, really, because I expect that you've already backed up your SD card and your system image before you started on these experiments.

STEP 4: Bonus step! For XT701 users: Update your phone's camera to harness its 8MP capabilities! Follow the steps here.

Remember, Google and Android forums are your best friends. Here's the obligatory disclaimer: The steps mentioned above may or may not work; they are a guide that you can choose to follow or not. Don't hold me responsible if you brick your phone. In case you do brick your XT701, follow JBoogie3's instructions on Page 4 and pray for everything to be okay! :)

BORDERS Fire Sale!

2011-04-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

Epic BORDERS sale last week:

...And the books I bought!:

Greatness is Within

2011-04-09T14:39:00.001-07:00

Had a cool Saturday with some progress at work and an impulsive shopping spree to waste time in the cosy mall because it was raining outside.

I jumped for joy when I saw the stuff in the Everlast store! Shops here only seem to stock the skinny polo tees with stripes that the neoKorean metrosexuals love to flaunt. They even wear pink yaar, and it's a nightmare to look for clothes for boys when one has to choose out of the four halfway nongay designs.

And even in Everlast, the staple variety of strange I-will-never -let-my-boy wear-this were prominently displayed while in a corner, some masculine looking styles lay forlorn and derelict. And it was there that I found my prize! Amazing designs with M. Ali insignia.

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Days of paper-pencil

2011-04-04T05:38:00.001-07:00

Nowadays, I find that the only way to get things done is to open my notebook and scribble, in ye old schoolgirl style. This is not the unimaginative note-taking I do in meetings with Dr. Yes. These are the big ideas that will shape my thesis and guide my implementation and be written up and talked about in journal articles then cited by learned scientists from all over the world..
This, in summary, is it.

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New Headphones!

2011-03-26T12:05:00.001-07:00

The world sounds different :)

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One of Those Days

2011-03-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the design of a Threadless tee.

Slow and Steady

2011-03-13T21:59:00.001-07:00

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New Year, New List

2011-01-31T05:59:00.000-08:00

Because I really need to know what lies ahead.

Things to achieve in 1-2 months:

~~Concept-level analysis + write-up as a paper~~
~~Confirmatory data-set -- send writeup to Natalie by Wednesday~~
~~Perfect templates~~

Things to achieve in 3-4 months:

~~Collaborate with Helena for Rhetorical functions paper -- do reading up before that~~
Basic programming for text generation

Things to achieve in 4-5 months:
"Pilot experiment, where computational resources such as parsers, generator, input and knowledge bases are specified, as earyl as possible when the focus area is fixed so to fine-tune the scope of work"

Nine A.M.

2011-01-11T19:10:00.001-08:00

There is too much "writing" welling inside me and it needs an outlet..

But once again, I have neither pen nor paper, nor keyboard in sight. The tempo of music on my ipod surges and so do my spirits. It is morning and I am on my way to work. For the next half hour, nothing will faze me as I concentrate solely on my morning playlist... At an easy pace, I walk towards the bus stop and stare with unseeing eyes as the bus I am supposed to catch pulls away from the curb, just hundred metres from where I am. Like I said, nothing fazes me in the mornings and I like to stretch this half an hour to as long as possible.

Sometimes, I bump into acquaintances at the bus stop, not unnatural if you consider that I've been living here for over two years now. Rather, the strange part is how I don't have more friends in hostel. So I'm making casual conversation as my right hand fumbles for and then hits Pause on my ipod. And as I nod and smile, I'm mentally calculating the number of minutes more of conversation that I have to make before I make my escape by getting off at the first shuttle bus stop!

I'm a horrible, anti-social child. I'm in office now, sipping hot water and checking my email, my Twitter and Facebook feed. Sometimes there are "projects", people I'm curiously stalking because I like to know everyone's story. Ironic, then, that I'm so cagey about my own.

Rain + Rain-girl in NTU

2010-12-01T18:04:00.001-08:00

Yeh kis kavi ki kalpana ka chamatkaar hai?

Ans: Waltzing Mariner.

Heart-to-Heart

2010-11-25T00:54:00.000-08:00

Today Dr. Yes and I sat facing each other in his office. He unwrapped a chocolate bar he'd bought in France and we nibbled at it as we talked about our experiences in Taipei. It was so cosy and friendly! I am afraid that I am getting to be friends with him :O And if that happens, how am I going to stay dedicated and motivated? lol.

It was a significant meeting because he talked about his research, without being taciturn or changing the topic. It was in the middle of a discussion in which he expressed his wish to have to "develop a theory" about summarization. He said it has to go "beyond resources", that it has to provide an answer rather than apply a solution. That was all a bit much to take, and he proceeded to get a little carried away and talk about life, the universe and everything. I think it came out of the sugar rush which the chocolate probably gave him :P

I seized the opportunity to ask, "If you don't mind my asking", and he nodded and smiled, "what was your grand theory of everything?" His eyelids dropped and he began playing with the paper in front of him; clearing his throat, he proceeded to talk about his PhD research question."I hypothesized that relations can help in better information retrieval rather than term-based retrieval. I spent most of my time analyzing the linguistics of the different relations that occur between concepts, and concluded that, in life, the most important relationships are the cause-and-effect relationships...But," he gave a short laugh, "..I failed! In the sense that, the results showed a slight but not entirely significant improvement in the retrieval. In fact, in retrospect I think I should've heeded the advice of one of my examiners; she said I should look for an application for the cause-effect relations. But, I took a shortcut and used an existing collection of queries to run my tests." Another short laugh and a shrug. "You know, since then no one has been able to demonstrate this, and most of the researchers who tried have since drifted into question answering...I think now that perhaps I should have tested my hypotheses in the medical domain..." he drifted off. A moment later, "..And this is why I'm going to give up my position as Head of Division. I'd like to spend more time doing the fun stuff, like research. Maybe give you more time, though I don't know if you'd be happy with that! And I think use my medical ontologies to investigate those relationships again."

"Yes, prof, I know you are very interested in researching relationships, including the ones I have with other international students!" (a jibe at the numerous times he has tried to hook me up with one of his Indian students -- "...well, he's a nice guy..!")

Dr. Yes blushed and fidgeted, "Haha, yes, relationships of all kinds!"

"Thanks ji, this has been quite inspiring..." after a little small-talk, I left.

I know for sure that someday soon, I'll make that one decision which I will hold responsible for shaping my academic/industrial career. I hope I'll forgive myself for it, and I'll turn to this conversation for solace.

Top Things in Taiwan (Mostly Food)

2010-11-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

The bread, the mango beer, the crepes, the plum juice (NOT!), the "gourmet jelly beans" (hehe, seriously), the caterpillars (not for eating), the awesome-smelling flowers and barrels, the starbucks in drizzly weather, the butterflies and the boar who met the eiffel tower (not kidding)

Not to forget, the super-nice people. They're not gregarious like the Australians, but they are extremely hospitable. I felt quite looked-after because they keep tapping me on the shoulder and reminding me about something which I've almost left behind. I will not go into the details because they are, frankly, embarrassing.

The language barrier did unnerve me last night when I was detained at the train station. But crocodile tears can get a girl anywhere. No, really, I was seriously homesick. The only person who spoke English was some railway authority over the phone.

But, then they redeem themselves with their wholesome cuteness -- how can I not mention the CARTOON who was buying a train ticket adjacent to me, yesterday? So there was this guy who would abruptly start making faces at the vending machine he was using to buy a ticket. He'd make his selection on the screen, then pull a face, thumb his ears, stick his tongue out. Then he'd continue with his purchase and pull a few more faces while the next screen loaded. This went on for a good five minutes; I was so distracted that I forgot about my own ticket and just stood there gaping :D I finally figured out that he was putting up a show for the little camera lens mounted above the touchscreen :D When he saw me giggling, he abruptly straightened up and nodded hello. It was like watching Mr. Bean in action yaar :D

Ok then, time for food.

Possible Panic

2010-11-15T23:16:00.000-08:00

Data I might have lost, on the pen drive I might have lost:

Confirmation study new corpus + list of samples
Extended literature review of rhetorical structure -- still to be done
Literature review done for TA work -- still to be sent
Meta-analysis spreadsheet (luckily the meta-analysis itself was all handwritten)
Grants/apps/papers/posters final version. Collect whatever you can from sent email.
Continue list whenever something strikes
Note of pending deadlines - 17 Dec for ACL HLT, March 2011 for ALIEP

My First Time

2010-11-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Today is the first time I have actually "bought" music, this is not counting the audio cassettes purchased from MusicWorld or Planet M. I think I can safely say that it's been atleast ten years since my last legal purchase, and I'm happy to do this today as a symbolic gesture of my solidarity for the music industry.

That being said, please note the emphasis on the word "symbolic". I don't intend to change my thieving ways just yet :P

The First Bud

2010-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

Ma said I have green fingers. But I was crushed when the chrysanthemum plant which I had been lovingly nurturing for the first six months of the year, succumbed to a mysterious alien invasion. They sent their missives in hard black shells which I couldn't tear down without hurting my plant, and my poor plant couldn't fight off alone. It never even bore flowers but it struggled until the very end.

It's been a fulsome, lessoned year for me; frankly I don't know where it went, and now we're already halfway through November! And the first bud on a plant I was "babysitting" for Jui-Pushkar came out, and I felt like a proud parent whose efforts had borne fruit. I'm sure the plant would be pissed at me for taking the credit for its hard work, but that feeling is shared by every successful examination aspirant when their parents get a little too cocky about things.

Let me not digress -- it's an important day because an orchid plant flowered under my tender loving care. It is also an important day because I figured out some important things about forgiveness and closure (while helping someone else figure them out) and because the security guard and I made a pact of friendship. Now I will sleep, because tomorrow will not be a significant day unless I finish an important piece of work by 11am. Then I'll have two things to check off my list :)

My Taipei List :P

2010-11-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

Yes yes, it's that awesome time again when I make a list for impending travel/conference! Whoopeedooo!!
Ok, serious now..

Things to do:

~~Buy shoes, cream/brown-coloured. TODAY.~~
Buy formal tops to go with brown and black trousers. TODAY. (Naah)
~~Make/print poster.~~ ~~Find out related formalities.~~
Withdraw money. TOMORROW
~~Submit leave application, high time now.~~
~~Submit grant application, high time now.~~
~~Buy travel insurance.~~
Print handouts for Consortium/Poster presentation. TOMORROW
Print addresses/contact numbers. TOMORROW
Web checkin. TOMORROW.
Recharge phone. TODAY.
Travel adapter - since I don't have one anymore, I will just worry about it.
Recharge camera. NOW.
Buy 1 or 2 sweaters. TODAY!

Cool stuff

2010-11-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

Cool Stuff which is gonna happen on Sunday :D

Cool Stuff which is gonna happen in two weeks' time :D

Diwali shopping!

2010-11-04T08:29:00.001-07:00

Pics in 5...4...3...2...1... :P

From Drop Box

Dragonboat Race in the Singapore River

2010-10-31T02:05:00.000-07:00

It's not my fault ji that my ghar ka internet is fuckall.
Will post picture later. There was a drummer on every dragonboat... setting the cadence for the rowers. There was a man standing behind them, yelling, pushing them onward. There were skyscrapers towering over them and the murky green river, so still and unyielding. And all they had were their two arms and all they heard was the drumbeat and all they saw was the finish line.

It was pretty awesome! And because it wasn't a commercial event (surprising, considering even light fixtures make up "free exhibits" here), the atmosphere was not as gaudy as it usually is. People sat on the steps leading to the river or in the sheltered area; some tourists and journalists set up their tripods at the finish line. The rowers waiting to compete were sprawled out in the large open area under the raffles building, or sitting motionless with their eyes tightly shut under the aegis of their coach, listening to a stirring speech about the competition ahead. They all stuck together, their sports gear and upbeat spirit so incongruous against the sedate backdrop of the Central Business District. But when a race began, all conversations were left midway and all eyes were on the river.

Moment of Truth

2010-10-27T20:03:00.001-07:00

And when you're very, very broke...

Dear Ms. Chew
With regard to the attached email, could you please tell me when my stipend will be released to me? I need to know this urgently in order to make some financial decisions.
Thanks
Kokil

Then you fwd this to your prof with a note...

Also, my stipend has not yet been released to me, though I hope they plan to do so within the next week...
If there’s any way you can help to speed up the process, please do!

Dr. Yes is the Best

2010-10-25T23:29:00.000-07:00

Angry email I shot off to IT Helpdesk today -

Could someone please help me to install GATE software for text-mining and Visio software for designing a poster, on my office computer at #05-12?

It has been more than ten days since I first emailed you guys and I’m yet to get even a reply!

Hoping things will be different this time around.

Thanks

Kokil

CC: Dr. Yes

******************

Indignant vote of support from Dr. Yes -

Hi guys,

Research students should just be granted admin privileges on their PC – so that they can explore various kinds of software. If their PCs get messed up, than it’s their watch out.
The cautious policy is not appropriate for a world class school. Research students should be encouraged to experiment.

Best wishes,
Dr. Yes

******************
And this is why I am the luckiest girl in the world.
Having an awesome boyfriend, helps a little too :P
(Shut up you pervs, Dr. Yes is not my boyfriend!)

Update - here is what the f@$kers replied -

Hi,

We’ll come to your office in the afternoon. Kindly book an appointment next time.
Thanks.

Regards,
Shi Kuan

..And here is what I said -

Thanks, I’d emailed to ask for an appointment on 15th October. Like I said, I didn’t get a reply.

Hmpf, as I wait for them to turn up...

Backlog

2010-10-25T21:59:00.001-07:00

This post will have enough dope to make up for the three overdue ones, I promise.

I will talk about
- The bachelorette party
- The manaoing meetup last night
- I also have to put up my "green" collage here

Things to Do

2010-10-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

I'm running low on inspiration (as always)and trying to get back into the groove of work. Even after I've run out of things to do on any given day, there are still some waking hours left over which I'm reluctant to waste in getting a life because I'm not sure if I've achieved enough..

Here are the things I'm trying to get done this week, although I find that with a two-years' experience in managing deadlines in the nick of time, I have managed to finish a large chunk of most of these things without breaking into a sweat. Clearly, I need more things on my plate.
Oh, and here's a totally inappropriate picture as a trailer to the Ladies' Night bachelorette party we might have tonight for the ex-roommate-- yay, hoots, whistles!!
*tries very hard to seem enthusiastic* *fails miserably and crawls to bed to sleep some more*

Write an application for a 3k research grant. I am obviously not as worried about this as I should be. However, this is the only way I can afford the kind of evaluation and reliability test which my content analysis demands.
Make a poster for that symposium in November. But again, there's still time for that, and I don't want to spend the next few weeks working on something so un-recyclable.
Begin to read the ocean of pdfs of linguistics research, in my folder called "TODO URGENT T-T LR". That promises to be such a bumpy, never-ending dodo-hunt that I'm unwilling to get into it while I can still feel productive doing other things.
Write the two full conference papers which are due in November and March. Again, that is so far away that it doesn't even scare me yet.
Worry about the Dec 17 deadline. There is this awesome conference which has a deadline for Dec 17. I'm going to try to come up with results worth submitting by then. However, the prospects look bleak. I'm toying with the idea of cheating, and submitting one of the other conference papers there..if I make it, I can withdraw them from the other (smaller) conference later, right?
Worry about the homework in H6677. Dr. Yes told me in no uncertain words that I would be auditing his H6677 Information Mining & Data Analysis class this semester. I'm happy to be learning so much, but boy, does that man give a lot of homework or what?! A very interesting assignment due in two weeks requires us to come up with a prediction model to find probable buyers for caravan insurance in the US. I am sure Dr. Yes would love to have Rodi in his class, but Rodi should mind that Dr. Yes is not very good with inquisitive counter-questioners.
Content analysis of meta- elements, this time it's a more specific, goal-oriented one as compared to the floundering, stumbling affair of Dec. 2008.
Build a larger data-set, a mind-numbing task that involves downloading and saving pdfs according to a random number generator, and assigning each of them with an encoded name denoting its journal, volume and issue number. Oh, joy...

Sorry for being a bore. If only I were a part of a bigger team...! I probably wouldn't have to forage for inspiration, or deliberately build a pile of responsibilities to scare myself with!

Let's Celebrate Inappropriately

2010-10-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dr. Yes!

My prof, he is so awesome
My prof, he is so sweet
He nags me everyday
But dinner's always his treat

He knows when I've been shirking
He shakes his head and says
See, Kikkil, this is what I mean
Get rid of your wishy-washy ways!

He plays the violin
and loves a mooncake or two
Has a sarcastic sense of humour
and a fear of the flu.

Today is his birthday
Happy Birthday to you, Prof
I hope you let me finish my degree
And leave you soon enough!

One Fine Sunday

2010-10-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

I rarely play host, and when I do, I make sure it's a perfect occasion. So I do things very correctly, pour out coke for my friends and ask them if they're comfortable and pick the cracked glass and plate to eat from, so that they can use the nice cutlery :P Needless to say, this rigmarole gets on their nerves. But what to do? Ma brought me up so, and this is the only correct way I know.

Haha, flashback to Vishal's only luncheon with my folks (one week before Sis got married), when I was serving him food and getting him a glass of water on a tray :D

Anyway, so here's what the spread was like -

So there was chicken curry, pata-gobi ki sabzi, aalu-matar ki sabzi (with some sad-looking dhaniya sprinkled over it), and two desserts. That lovely brown heap is malpuye. And that beautiful rangoli of strawberries and kiwis adorns.. the custard :)

Yes, everything was quite as delicious as it looks. The custard was a tad too sweet though; in fact, it was made up of a whole can of condensed milk and was nearly solid in its consistency :P Since I didn't prepare it (or the malpuye, obviously) I don't mind, but I am proud of my first time ever making chicken curry.

It was a sweet afternoon, Pushkar entertained with his flute and Sebanti, not to be left behind, showed off her pipes as well. By the way, here's a picture of the Sebanti you've heard so much about! :P

Chalo going off for lunch now. And, Suchi just sent me a picture that made me gape :D so must find out more...toodles

Teaching myself Java

2010-10-13T04:16:00.000-07:00

After a month of struggling, I have successfully removed and added back XML tags to parsed (technally, still to-be-parsed) sentences.
And yes I know it sounds horribly tuchhu compared to the stuff everyone is doing :-s
But aage aage jab complicated hoga tab I will look at this post, take heart and keep going..

This is a day to be remembered.

Hehe, is it ironic that the sentence I chose to work on is so very positive too?!

P.S. - Hug to the parallel-lifer who is yet to get there!

Flashback : October 2009

2010-10-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

When I often daydreamed in the doorway
And I wore my pink skirt everywhere
The sky was fluffy, and I spied lesbians
And tried very hard not to stare.

I wore high heels to a NLB fair
And met the dentist regularly
Clicked pictures of cute cars and modern art
And watched my first movie alone on Diwali

Theme - Sailing

2010-10-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Top things you can think of when I talk of sailing -

The Pirates of the Caribbean! All three movies
Enya's "Sail away, Sail away, Sail away". Nice song
Captain Hook in Peter Pan's Adventures in Neverland
Sindbad the Sailor - The wonderful web of stories in Arabian Nights, I still daydream about them sometimes
Chalie St. Cloud, a silly movie with one decent line - "There's no such thing as a lost cause". And other redeeming factors ;p
If you're really imaginative, you can stretch your list to U2's "Message in a Bottle" :P
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Heminway
Haha! The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by S.T. Coleridge
My pirate poem! Wonder where that is! :O
The half-finished, never-photographed, most-awesome Ship I once got as a birthday present!
Raffles Marina, where incidentally I ate lunch a couple of days ago
For some reason, also of the t-shirts my Mausa always got us from Mauritius..of deep blue and aquamarine colours with piscine patterns on the front
Okay, also of the whale-watching experience in Australia, and the memories of seasickness :P
Now I'm beginning to drift into personal memories, but that wasn't the idea of this list. So I'll stop!

But can you add to this list?

I got my Report Card today!

2010-10-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

Didn't understand much except the last line...but I'll puzzle it out later.

Stale News. But Good News!

2010-10-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

Achha, this is probably relevant to this blog...

P.S. There will be more next year.

Singapore Sauntering

2010-10-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hi hello!
Sorry for the hiatus. I've been busy making up new blogposts in my head, but the awful internet connection at home supplies me with the excuse I need to put it off to another day!

In this post I'd like to talk about where I like to take my friends when they visit Singapore. So far, I've had the pleasure of hosting two or three friends from PEC - this picture was taken with my speshaaal fraand :D
Of course, this post is also a teaser for certain people in my readership who will soon alight on Singapore's shores :)

What you see in the picture is a bay at the mouth of the Singapore river. On the left is the Merlion, a symbol of modern Singapore, which the government thought up because the tourism industry needed to represent "culture"! The building right behind it is the tallest building on the island, and its top floor slants at a small angle downward so that one can truly enjoy the city lights from up there. The spiky round building in the center right is the Esplanade, the equivalent of the Opera House in Sydney. I will take you guys there to buy chocolate marshmallows. The purple thing on its right is an open air theatre by the bay where we will eat our chocolate marshmallows and maybe our dinner too at the Thai Express behind it.

The Best Main Course & Desserts this Week!

2010-09-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

Today I'm hosting the award ceremony for the prestigious titles of the Best Main Course and Best Dessert of the week, and let me tell you that the competition was pretty intense. After a lot of squabbling amongst taste buds, the decision was finally made in the dead of the night, although there were some significant changes in ranking made even in the progress of this presentation! The winners can be glorified, but the runners-up are worthy of no lesser honour.

First, we introduce the runners-up and winner for the best main course this week. The surprise winner may have come from the emotional bias of our worthy judge; nevertheless it's a praiseworthy concoction.

Runner-up #2: The meal at Bollywood Veggies
My confirmation presentation (which I still haven't told Rodi about) ended on a pleasant note with a meal at a place called Bollywood Veggies. There was nothing Bollywood about the place or veggies; apparently its claim to fame is its colourful owner, a part-Punjabi, part-Chinese woman called Ivy Singh Lim. And like all good Punjabis, she's made sure that she's famous for her loudness, her braggadocio, her refusal to pay taxes and wilfulness to get into trouble. In stage whispers, Singaporeans tell each other of the knife she carries on her person! Still, it was cool to eat at a bistro called Poison Ivy in the middle of a big green farm in citified Singapore. Mild food low on salt and chilli, suitable for the Singaporean pallette. They served us pakoras too though, and I was delighted :).

Runner-up #1: Sakae Sushi
Salmon-don, Black pepper chicken-don, Lychee juice and two PhD students, one distraught and overworked, and the other listening sympahetically. I will be interesting in knowing which one you thought I was, and which one of the two dishes you thought I ate :P
Totally delicious meal. I wish I'd had more of an appetite for it though; it wasn't really my dinnertime, being 6pm and all!

Winner, winner, winner!!
Kokil's mixed vegetable gravy
The best thing about homecooked food is, the portions are never too small and it's always waiting for you in the fridge after a hard day at work. Kokil's preparation is easily the healthiest meal of the lot. It comprises sautéd carrots, potatoes and peas in a smooth fluffy tomato-coriander gravy. The ginger paste had a strong twang of chilli too which softened the aftertaste to a gentle tingling. Makes you come back for seconds even when you don't quite know what you like about it.
(hehe, wrong picture, because the leftovers didn't look aesthetically pleasing ;) anyway, that is what I looked like when I was gorging on it!)

And now, our favourite part of a meal...the runners-up and winner for the Best Dessert of the week! Although I'd like to persuade everyone that there is no one best dessert, and they should try all of these when they visit me in December, ahem. :-)

Runner-up #2: J-Co's Donuts!
On the other side of the Woodlands checkpoint is the Malaysian city called Johor Bahru. You can cross the road on the Malaysian side of the checkpoint and find yourself in a mall called City Square, which is ever-so-spacious and ever-so-sparsely populated compared to Singaporean malls which crawl with people on all days of the week. Although Singapore has its own outlets of J-Co's, these ones tasted better because they were foreign, because of the company of friends and because we were hungry. But you know what, had none of those reasons held true, they would've still been awesomely delectable. Reminded me of a silly plan that I must follow through with this month :D
Here's the picture. See for yourself! And before scrolling, imagine what could've happened to displace these beauties to runner-up position! :P (You may be interested in knowing that the little chocolate balls adorning the top right donut were crunchy.)

Runner-up#1: Warmed Chocolate-banana Cake
It may seem unthinkable that two pieces of cake displaced six scrumptious donuts to the second runner-up position. But I'll argue that the cake was warmed up so that steam wafted upward from it, and when I cut into it with my fork, the cake was so soft that it repeatedly slipped off the fork!
This was our dessert at the afore-mentioned Bollywood Veggies. It may not look as tantalizing as the donuts but I hope I've made it sound as mouth-watering as it is!

Winner, winner, winner!!
NASA's Space Cookie
Because I'm awesome and I have quirky friends, my birthday gift from a confused IIT-MIT grad called Manju this year was, believe it or not, space-food :D
I was hungry and it was my midnight snack last night :P Made me feel super-awesome!
It's described here, as

Only the best for astronauts. Originally developed by NASA for the Apollo Missions this "space treat" is frozen to -40°F then vacuum dried and placed in a special polyfoil pouch. Freeze-dried foods are used by astronauts eating under weightless conditions in space. Wow!

What a tiring and titillating post yaar

New Old Friend

2010-09-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Since Adrian left, my office space has not been the same. There are no lunches to look forward to, nor weekend escapades to plan. There's no one to laugh at on Thursdays and no one educates me about classical music anymore.

But in the course of all those lunches and fitness classes and Fundamentals of IS lectures, I made friends in his supervisor. Here's a picture of the funniest ever afternoon when my Canadian pal was so disgruntled at this upstart American. Did you people know how much Canadians and Americans hate each other? :D

Off for lunch to the canteen and maybe a philosophical discussion on subliminal messages in children's cartoons, more later.

Whew

2010-09-27T22:21:00.001-07:00

I feel so much better. Ever since I found out that my ex-roommate stalks me (!!) through my blogs, it's been difficult to pen down my feelings. Fortunately, she's a large-hearted girl, even luckier for me is that I'd never cribbed about her here. But now she enjoys quoting my blogposts to me in our evening meetups...I blush and try to change the topic. I lumped it for a while, I told myself that it would be okay :) But I think it's not working out so well. I've been uncomfortable, feeling quite like the drenched girl in a busload of business suits, with people coldly eyeing me up and down and pitying my lack of grace.

Today, when I was standing at a pizza counter impatiently waiting for my order, I felt my sweat glands activate with sheer irritation at the lady behind the counter, who in her High Shoddiness had somehow managed to forget that I'd ordered. I wanted to tell someone, but Twitter is superficial, and my blog now has stalkers who would only be too pleased to know of things I don't talk about when I meet them everyday.

Pressure, pressure. I've tried to remember the non-threatening regulars and invite them to read. But again, there's no pressure, pressure. Maybe I like you best because you let me be.

I feel quite inspired by Suchreet's 1post1day challenge. Now in my secret, walled garden, I may just do that myself :D

P.S. Most of you have asked me atleast once about whether my roommates are bloggers/facebookers. I guess karma had to catch up with me :D

Confirmed

2010-09-24T01:56:00.001-07:00

Well, I passed...it was all very unchallenging and anti-climactic.

What Supervisors Say and What Supervisors Mean

2010-09-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

"As I keep telling you, Kikkil..."

Oh you stupid, stupid child, are you keeping me away from my dinner for this?

"How is your mother?"

Have you complained to her recently?

"We worry about it later, la"

I've changed my mind and I don't want to send you to Romania for a conference.

"Let's go for TEA."

I'm hungry and that was a shitty draft you sent me. I'll now proceed to feed you, fatten you up and then eat you for dessert.

"Send me the first three chapters of your report tomorrow"

You'd better stay up tonight, Bi#@%

"I'm just waiting for you to get there"

You silly child, why must you act so dim?

"No, no, no, this is all wrong"

I've changed my mind. I think what you suggested was better. But it's your fault you listened to me.

Feel free to add to the list! :|

New Semester

2010-09-05T19:51:00.001-07:00

Uh..Hermione, can you lend me your Time-turner for this sem?

July-August : Swimming Against the Tide

2010-08-22T19:35:00.001-07:00

I didn't write about July-August because, frankly, I didn't have very nice things to say. July-August were to me like Delhi girls are: all decked-up on the good days but ugly as hell in the morning, without their make-up.

So there were the great days like the girlie weekend I had, replete with facepack, waxing, movie-watching, astrology and gossip. And then there were the ugly mornings when I'd have fever for weeks, or other body systems would threaten to fail.

There were awesome days when the evenings were full of adventure and Singapore showed off its pretty nailpaint, with firework displays and air shows. But that doesn't rub away the horrifying memories of the directionless days when I thought my life was wasted in my little cell on level 5 :)

For now, though, I think I've finally learned how to breathe underwater. When I share the pictures, you'll see the decked up Delhi girl. I've chosen to deliberately turn my back on their bad days, virtually and literally too.

Because I must remember not to take Delhi girls too seriously. That's not what they're there for.

(Disclaimer: I'm sorry if I offended Delhi girls (or their boyfriends :P) with this post. The context was very personal and maybe I was just talking about one Delhi girl! :P

Jolly June :)

2010-07-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

See-saw

2010-07-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

'Tis a PushmePullyou life. My Pittsburgh paper was just rejected.

So now I don't get to visit D. :|

But, like my profs are about to tell me, I now get to write it up as a journal paper.

Bah to snooty American Society who has rejected my paper for the second year straight, because of insufficient literature review. Ironic, considering I am analyzing their literature reviews. Their asses are already pwned!

Nitpicking

2010-07-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm reading a paper which attempts to solve the same problem I'm grappling with, but takes shortcuts in everything from the content analysis to the final generation. Before I consider any kind of future collaboration with them (which they have invited) I need to weigh the pros and cons of such a liaison.

Similarity: The intended output
Difference: The style of generating the output. Do not incorporate human summarizing style.
Similarity: Identify different types of information in content
Difference: Definitions overlap. Do not follow with the whys and hows
Similarity: Purported study of content and rhetorical structure
Difference: Not backed by data or significance tests. No mention of rhetorical structure. Generic, sweeping statements providing a casual overview and making a whole lot of assumptions
Similarity: Data set
Difference: The method of collecting the data set. Again, unclear of their criteria.
Similarity: Assumes some initial input as guide
Difference: Initial input is a research article which is to be used to generate keywords and then a topic hierarchy.
Similarity: Specific types of information will be extracted
Difference: Context modeling will be used. Topic hierarchy will be followed.
Similarity: Will use templates
Difference: Generation follows tree-traversal. Since an extract is to be generated, not sure how/where templates will be incorporated.
Similarity: Human judges as evaluators
Difference: Attributes for evaluation are not properly supported or unclear
Similarity: Kuch hatt ke
Difference: Kuch bhi.

Just Say Yes!

2010-07-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

Online Information Review Journal - Decision on Manuscript ID OIR-2010-XXXX.R1

Recommendation: Accept!

'Twas a bright morning in the month of July,

When Ko J, twenty-four summers shy

Was accepted as a credible author

And made her folks so proud of their daughter!

Australia: Things to Pack!

2010-06-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

teehee, this is Surfer's Paradise, where my conference is!

Chocolates, for my hosts in Sydney
Formals, for three days of conference
Full-sleeve tops, the only four I have (it's gonna be winter there!)
Gifts, for conference organizers (Mom says so)
New shoes, close-toed sandals and trekking shoes both
AUD
Printouts, of all addresses and contact numbers, maps and wiki-travel tips
Visiting cards, since I am going to make contacts!
Handouts, of my consortium presentation
Towel, cos I'm staying at a backpacker's inn remember?

Okay, things to get done before I go:

Buy chocolates
Buy shoes
Make list of gift recipients
Practise presentations :|
3 salon activities, ahem.
2 Presentations, for the said conference
1 city tour, for visiting friend

The List from Bali

2010-06-13T20:24:00.001-07:00

It's National Blog-Posting Month. Besides that, I enjoy making lists!

First, the Things I Did in Bali list:

Walk, in disused limestone quarry and pose with big grinning bird-face
Breathe, 15m under the surface of water and feed fish
Pose, with Mum in identical outfits everyday for three days
Catch, flights to and from Bali
Gape, at amazing Kintamani volcano
Paddle, in beautiful underlit hotel swimming pool
Nag, my Mum all the time :P
Peek, by mistake at man bathing (naked) in the premises of a famous temple!
Eat, terribly healthy food. (which might be why I have adopted chocolate-a-day policy since I got back!)
Buy, a Charles & Keithe bag for Mum! And some ugly Bali souvenirs... also a lovely pair of earrings I refer to as "exorbitant leaves"!

Manic Month of May

2010-06-04T23:04:00.001-07:00

Raindrops, notebooks, Mark Twain and fountain-chocolate

Tiger-thoughts, Itchy spots, fireworks and pasta-alphabet

Flowers, visa powers, Mummy-Daddy and fish

Trees, exam papers, horizons and Singlish

Silver hammers, Airmail letters, fruit vendors and bandages

Tiger stripes, yellow smiles, walkies and notemaking.

No time to rhyme

No reason for treason

Too short to talk about

The missed and pissed persons.

Whatever, sorry, but this was my month of May.

Grumble

2010-05-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

I had a borderline horrible day. On the scale of awesome to nightmarish, its bum is on the line separating horrible from distasteful.

I hate being yelled at. I hate being yelled at over and over again. I hate being yelled at over and over again, for something that I already yell at myself about. I hate being yelled at over and over again, for something that I already yell at myself about and pinches me all the time. I hate being yelled at over and over again, for something that I already yell at myself about and pinches me all the time and ruins my mood. I hate being yelled at over and over again, for something that I already yell at myself about and pinches me all the time and makes me cry.

The upside was the letter-posting. I took a picture to show you. Will put it up when I feel brighter.

Please don't sympathize. I might punch you and that would be horrible. No sympathy. It pisses me off. This is not cribbing. This is a factual account. Save the sap for the sappy. kthxbai

+poof+

In the Thick of Things

2010-05-22T07:57:00.001-07:00

Working on Yet Another Research Paper. I will not tell you about this until everything is pakka-pakka. The partial secrecy is, of course, a byproduct of being thirty-nine times bitten and fortieth time shy.

And this guy belongs in more colourful circles than NLP, wouldn't you agree? :)

That is, while passion may flame disagreements between partisans of Universal Grammar and partisans of statistically grounded empiricism regarding the task of syntax acquisition, the task which we have studied here is a considerably more humble one, which must in some fashion or other be figured out by grunt work by the language learner.

(And I will wait to find, if this will last forever...)

Privacy - Some Thoughts

2010-05-22T02:57:00.000-07:00

I've lately realized that I have a gargantuan appetite for privacy.

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and decided to pen something after I read a similar post on co-sufferer D's blog. (Not linking it here cos that might violate her very reasons for writing that post! :P)

After being forced into a somewhat "solitary confinement" for work and other reasons, I resent any form of social infringement...to the point of cold-bloodedly ignoring the people I once co-habitated with. I don't answer pings. I don't answer calls. I turn down all Friday, Saturday and Sunday invitations.

Removed the whiny bits yaar. Seems utterly cowardly to post stuff about her here. But the toothpaste-foam talk still pisses me off, and I tell her that on her face :-s

So what do I do with all that "me time"? That's a difficult question to answer. I can't quite figure out how I manage to stay happily occupied. There's work to do. There's tweeting to be done. There are two books lying around which I'm halfway through. There's so much to watch on my laptop, but I never get around to it because I'm busy working my way through the other stuff. And I cook on weekends :) Today, I made some pulao which was garnished with grated carrots and tomatoes, a Marathi recipe I believe.

*Happy sigh*. I don't quite know what's keeping me going. Sometimes, I honestly think I'm on the wrong side of the crazy/normal line. I was never so unafraid of a singular life, before. But on a long lonely walk, I can always turn up the volume on my ipod or debate with the soft voice in my head. (This is the crazy part: I have been conversing a lot with myself lately).

There was a hymn called "The Cowboy's Song" which we used to sing during the morning prayers in school; it was so unconventional that I was never quite comfortable with it, but now I'm so glad that it's stayed with me. And it's set to a jolly, laidback melody which just makes you want to lie back and put your feet up. It even has "Yippee Ai Oh Yippee Ai Yay" in the chorus!

I'll forgive it for having a religious twist towards the end; the rest suits me just fine:

I like to ride alone in open spaces
Perhaps you think I haven't got a friend
But I'm telling you, that this is far from true
Cos never am I alone, God is my friend

CHORUS:
Yippee Ai Oh Yippee Ai Yay
I sing to Him while riding on my way
Yippee Ai Oh Yippee Ai Yay
This is my cowboy’s song to Him all day

Oh... and just in case this post makes you feel nervous about my mental health: don't tell me, okay? I'd rather be feeling happy and going crazy, than feeling sad and being normal!

Post Number 100

2010-05-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

And it's about work. Shit, I should start worrying about that paper.

And, I should Get Off Twitter!!

The No-Twitter-At-Work programme is pretty effective, most-days. Today, though, I was the goggle-eyed voyeur to a messy raunchy three-way conversation :|

Okay, here goes. Radio Silence.

+poof+

Playing Footsy

2010-05-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm battling feelings of sheer irritation with surges of righteousness as I struggle to maintain a good opinion of my new flatmate. Yesterday I saw a side of her which so far I'd wondered about with speculation and surmise. The reality quite blew me off my feet.

She's a short girl with big eyes, who's taken to coming up to the doorway of my room and lingering there, pouting deliberately, her eyes fixed on the floor. I sense rather than see her, sigh inwardly and turn to ask the all-important question, "What happened today?" Depending on how well you read between the lines, you can translate that into "क्या हुआ आज?" or "आज क्या हुआ?" and I'll leave it to you to judge which was semantically closer to how I felt.

The resigned feeling is quickly replaced with the feeling of my heart sinking into my stomach. There's a love triangle, a well-meaning friend, an out-of-the-picture ex, and various other by-standers who pitch into her tragic story. I listen and nod at all the right spots. Eventually, after forty minutes, an hour, or after my patience gives up and I casually look at my watch, her face transforms to wide-eyed understanding and she slinks away.

Sometimes I'm clever. I'll pre-empt her sob-story with a suggestion to eat at the mall nearby. I know all the caveats of my sex. The journey, the people, the scrumptious menu and the mango lassi are sure to distract her; but I save this ingenious solution for the days when I'm really tired, when I just couldn't put up with a cloudburst of tears.

Stay with me. I know this is a long post and the subject is grinding on your nerves. Listen na. Just read on.

So this is what I did last night. I took her to a place called Pratawala, which is open 24 hrs a day. On the way, she recounted the happenings of four months ago, when the dreamboy and she had had their last conversation and consequently their last argument. I knew the story so well, I was practically mouthing it alongwith her. But the lights, the people and the beep-beep of the ticketing machine in the bus worked their charm, and she often lost the thread of her monologue. ;)

We ordered, and were looking for a place to sit when she hissed and nudged me. "Look! That's someone from my school. Filthy animal. He's married, but look at him gesturing for me to sit with him! Hmpf!"

Apparently I was not paying much attention, because I said "Uh-huh?" and absent-mindedly made for the only empty table in the whole restaurant. Flatmate squealed, "Why are you going that way?" I blinked, asked "Huh?" and slid into my seat. It was then that I realized that Mister Creepy Married Guy From Her School was the boy eating alone, seated immediately on her right.

I felt a stab of awkwardness for putting her in such a position when she'd obviously wanted to snub his invitation. But that feeling dissolved into disbelief, as thence ensued a duel of witty retorts and arched eyebrows.

Madam is short, dresses demurely in salwar-kameezes, ties her long, shikakai-ad-like hair into a bun at the back of her head and loves to indulge in self-pity with reluctant flatmates. She sobs about female colleagues who're so much better dressed than her, who enjoy the interest of men and who regularly traipse the town with her love interest. You feel sympathy for the girl and wonder if her simplicity is so distasteful to men.

But then, you shouldn't believe everything you hear. Wait until you place her in the company of gentlemen, then behold the transformation. She carries herself straighter, throws her head back to gaze at her company from under half-closed, fluttering eyelids. She's now an eager listener. She'll laugh at every flat joke and twist every off-hand remark into a weapon for taunts. Men flush with gratification. They turn to face her and lean forward, their body language reflecting how absorbed they are with the tales of this delicate-boned, sweet-tongued nymph. She's leaning in as well, but she doesn't forget her food the way he does. Anyway, the keema was too delicious to resist.

The Married Creepy Guy From Her School was apparently a brow-beaten, much-tortured husband of a dominatrix. Over a solitary meal in a crowded 24-hr restaurant, he'd suddenly found a confidant. His mushroom pratha sat cold, forgotten, as did I. I wonder if it shared my feelings of amusement as well. My strategy for distracting Flatmate had worked better that I'd ever expected.

It was barely a second after he left her side that she began an onslaught of his character. I chose to keep mum about my opinion. We headed home in relative silence.

DOES THIS SCARE YOU? :D :D :D

2010-05-10T02:41:00.001-07:00

P.S. Dr. Yes is a farkhing genius! A Genius!

A Decision

2010-05-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

A decision so crucial to me, that I can do nothing to help.

There is a submission to be made within 8 days. The only thing holding me back, is the slovenliness of Dr. Yes and Dr. No.

If I do not make this submission within 8 days, then all the months of hard work through November, December, January, April and May go waste.

On their part, they can't be fucking bothered to do their bit in the evaluation. In a procedure that's no good without an hour of their time.

It's a task they've put off for six weeks now.

I cannot begin to explain how important this is for my career. I cannot begin to explain my fury.
While I sit up nights, they send me emails promising to get to it in the forthcoming week.

Dollops

2010-04-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well maybe the word "Dollops" occurs to me because I met somebody today who looked like a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Whatever, I decided that it's the word of the day. There was dollops of sleep, dollops of good weather, good luck and a mini-dollop of chats and phone-calls.

And of course, a dollop of House :)

But if you took all that away, it would still have made my day only to have the palm of my hand licked by a toy dog. Imagine the look on my face when on a long walk home, I followed a large white dog on a leash which was being chased by a toy dog running free. The silly little thing kept getting entangled in the bigger dog's legs. In a very elder-brotherly manner, the big dog nuzzled the pooch out of his way. The latter took up a valiant, defiant stance, pushing his chin up to the hilt and scrambling on his stumps of legs, trying harder to resist this bullying behavior. It slithered and partly rolled its way back to its spot behind the big dog's front paws. The big dog paused and wait for the inevitable *bump* when the pooch tripped over a big white paw.
Then the game would begin all over again. It was the cutest sight :)

Here, shorty. Stretch your hand out. Trust the pooch. Feeling lucky yet? :)

The Past Couple of Days

2010-04-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

Gee, I'm posting so often now. It's like I'm making up for the long spells of absence!
Diaries. Turkish coffee. Sick plants :(. Pretty sunsets. Staring-at-the-ceiling moments. Unconventional work environments. Culinary experiments. Afternoon naps. Diaries.

I guess I've done some idling in the last coupla' days! Usually happens around exam-time I guess. That's probably why I'm blogging so much too.

Cheers. I'll hit the books again.

Twitter

2010-04-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

Twitter is awesome because it helped me meet people I would never have known otherwise. It's helped me make friends in unlikely places. It's given me random, crazy, happy moments as well as warm, shiny, memorable moments. It's made me laugh on good days and helped me vent on bad ones.

Twitter could be renamed Serendipity and you wouldn't miss much on the meaning. The thought recurs to me nowadays that life would've been very unpleasantly different, had it not been for Twitter.

Today someone did something awesomely sweet to me, and I'd like to share it here. It's just another example of how awesome "tweeple" can be. Y'all already saw the awesome poster I received on my birthday..wellll that was another instance of Twitter's magical serendipity at work :) thanks j.,

So here it is. Someone I know only through Twitter and will probably never meet, is currently sightseeing in Japan. And we may have chit-chatted a couple of times and exchanged only about 140 characters in each cheery message, but it meant enough to him to do this terribly sweet thing for me. I'm quite moved. Thanks Twitter. Cheers @probablytrippy!

Snapshots

2010-04-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Beautiful blue skies.
Post-India smiles.
Monkeys at the zoo.
Regrets, we have a few.
Quiet moments in the afternoon.
My plant thriving on pre-season monsoon.

We're doing okay.

Communication Research

2010-03-09T02:00:00.000-08:00

A.k.a., What's eating Koko G?
More posts will follow in the coming days...
But for now, I need my erudite friends to help me out with this stuff! :O

"Thus, in his classic statement of the role of values in sociological research, Max Weber informed his audience that ‘if Tolstoi's question recurs to you: as science does not, who is to answer the question: “What shall we do, and, how shall we arrange our lives?” … then one can say that only a prophet or a saviour can give the answers’ (‘Science as Vocation’, 1919
)."

This is an illustration of Normative Theory, apparently. One of the many crazy theories of Communication Research that I have to contend with, in my strife to keep my Computer Science project rolling! :-| Why do they all insist in talking in convoluted clauses and dependent clauses, with extra commas thrown in for effect :-s? Try as I might, I do not understand the purpose of "as science does not" in the above context!

Allo, allo

2010-03-08T17:43:00.001-08:00

I mished my bloggie-voggie...come here you...Mwah! Will post cute chandigarh snapshots wala collage next, and talk about everything from haldi holi colours to babytalking. Soon!

As promised...
Along with pictures of all the awesome people I met on this trip -- (except Bua and Deepti..sorry..but see, I remember you both nevertheless!)

Also in the collage..albeit blurred (I'm not sure if she'd be okay with her picture on my blog)
The elusive friend. Makes me sad to think of how little I know about her life. I always shrugged the feeling off, cos I was sure it was the way she wanted things to be. Call it self-defense or plain selfishness...I didn't think I belonged. Now..I don't know whether I did the right thing.

All in all a very awesome trip. There's a picture of the bride-to-be too, alongwith other school classmates, most of whom I was meeting after eight-ten years! I wish I could've put in more pics of Chandigarh in full bloom and a slight coolness in the air :) Now I read that the temperatures are touching 43 degrees!

Thinking Aloud

2010-02-20T05:19:00.001-08:00

So I'm starting a new phase of my work this week. Unfortunate that it should happen just before I'm heading home. Unable to wrap my head around a few concepts. I'm hoping that writing about it here will help me straighten things out.
The interesting thing about my research is, that I'm making up my own rules as I go along. So though there are some theories to guide me along the way, it's mostly me coming up with the definitions, categories and deciding what I need out of the mountains and hills of previous research which have little or no bearing with my work.
So I have to think about how humans summarize sentences. And if you don't get what I'm talking about you are free to ignore this post :)
A really useful paper for me is "The decomposition of human-written summary sentences" by H Jing in 1999. It talks about figuring out how summary sentences are constructed by humans, with regards to where the source information came from and the transformation applied. They made a prediction model out of this and applied it in a summarization system.

My purpose is to see how this goes and maybe add new kinds of transformations to the list they have already detailed, because I am covering more kinds of integrative transformations because I am looking at multi-document summaries. Rest we will see as we come along.

What is bothering, however, is a vague list of categories we had come up with before I actually conducted a literature review. I'm unable to remember what I meant by each of these categories at the time. They seem like meaningless words to me now.

Okay first I will talk about what I found in Jing's work. The kind of transformations they encountered were:

sentence reduction. so we only choose certain parts of a sentence
sentence combination. so we combine information from two sentences. okay, makes sense so far
syntactic transformation. that's like rearranging the words and so on.
lexical paraphrasing. when you're using synonyms and stuff
generalization/specification. when you can't really pinpoint the source of the words because the author was clever enough to convolute information into a higher or lower level
reordering. changing the order of the source sentences. not so tricky.

Okay, all these make sense. but now thinking about the vague list we'd made. Is there anythign which may not be covered here? So basically the categories we'd written which I didn't understand were:

rhetorical
semantic
pragmatic

Prof said it would be interesting to see if the meaning itself was changed by the author. Or maybe an opinion was brought in. Hmmm..let's think about that for a while, shall we. If we take rhetorical to mean that information concepts are picked up from different pieces and sewn together. Then semantic could be the same as lexical paraphrasing. In fact, I'm sure it is. What we're left with, is pragmatic. Maybe that would cover the affective summary sentences we may encounter. Not sure about this one. Perhaps a dictionary would be a good place to begin to understand what we meant!

Thanks for listening.

Flabbergasted February and Easter Eggs

2010-02-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hehe, I don't have too many words for this week. Let's call it a Flabbergasted February :)

Thanks Ranajay for the ossumness of the poster!

Thenks saheliyan+pushkar for a midnight makeover!

Thenks to pippal who wished!

No thenks to pippal who abused!

Thenks to Sussu Singh and frands, for flabbergasting me!

Thenks to the airtickets for taking me home (next week)!

Thenks everybaadi! I luv everybaadi, come on, grooop huggg!

February

2010-02-16T05:01:00.000-08:00

February was an awesome month in the year
It gave me moments sweet and dear
It made me mushy and boo-hoo-hoo
I adventured, read awesome books, watched awesome movies too

It made me weak in the knees and soft in the head
I will love February till I am dead
Enough silly poems, but the rhyme lingers on
Hope March is a sweet rose and not a prickly thorn

lalalalalalaa....

Happy Days

2010-02-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

Singapore has its good hair days :)

2010

2010-01-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

I had a funny yarn to knit
It lost me a dollar before I could begin it
I'm the slow mockturtle in a gritty rabbit race
And I struggle to do better than just keep my own pace

If there are pretty fountains
I also have to roll down mountains
There are edits to do too
Before I break in my new shoes

We have a long way to go
The milk is all over the floor
Here's hoping that 2010 grants me vindication
And a damned good India vacation...

Clean Slate

2010-01-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

Hope, like the Beatles, colourful stickers and shades of yellow,

FLOATS.

Emotions Dec - Jan

2010-01-13T00:52:00.000-08:00

Peacefulness, Sleepiness, homesickness, romance, drunkenness, shyness

Philosophy of My Research

2010-01-12T02:03:00.000-08:00

Screenshot captured principally for Pops, who really wanted to know. Uploaded on blog for Rodi, who loves esoteric things. Everybody else can smile and nod if they don't like it much. Next post will be a pretty collage, I promise :)

Submission #1 of 3

2010-01-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

Mommy, I'm scared...

Gtp, Nt Qubsiq

2010-01-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

Crack the code.

Where did 2009 go?

2009-12-30T18:02:00.001-08:00

I Passed :D

2009-12-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

Ek aur course hai jismein 3.5 aaye they. So overall, TGPA drops a little. But, not too bad eh ;)

To Buy

2009-12-18T05:37:00.000-08:00

Peace of Mind.
Shoes
Slippers
Frozen food
Ice-cream
~~Xmas decorations~~
New bag
Hairbrush
Shampoo
Plane tickets to Chd
Table fan
Mixer
Shorts

Things To Do Today

2009-12-10T20:25:00.001-08:00

~~Collect piano, SLR camera and stand from Studio~~
~~Make hullo-congratulations-how are you-can i borrow your car talk with Tun~~
~~Load Tun's car with cameras, donation box and other packets~~
~~Make small talk until ADM building~~
~~Unload car~~
~~Check projector~~
~~Run back to fetch piano stand~~
~~Check performers' CDs~~
Panic about welcome speech
Badger Dr. Yes for advice
Panic about what to wear tomorrow
~~Badger Manju for dupatta~~
Buy 25 boxes of chocolates :)
Finish results analysis for COLIS paper

Busy day.

Back After Another Adventure

2009-11-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

Tales of The Traveling Suitcase

Chapter 1. Bangalore at Midnight

Update

2009-11-26T22:29:00.001-08:00

Hello

I am in Pune. I run to the loo every few hours.

I am having a great holiday. I am meeting a lot of people close to my heart.

I am also meeting a lot of relatives I haven't ever met.

I got horribly bored when I was on house arrest in Delhi for 3 days (sorry Delhi friends who don't know). And horribly panicky when 2/3 of those days were spent wiping nose from my cousin bro's blood. Oh you get it, I am not backspacing to correct that.

I got horribly moody (besides being horribly ill) and decided to skip the wedding :-s will deal with the consequences later. Abhi am feeling moody and might dial for a cab and not wait for Purva to escort me into the city.

I am horrible but I am quite nice also so be happy and miss me like I miss you.

Blah

2009-11-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

I'm so horribly lonely without music.

I'm so horribly lonely

without music?

Just push play.

Esoteric? Then why are you nodding your head?

New Beginnings

2009-11-15T11:07:00.001-08:00

1. New Laptop :)

2. Jui and Pushkar's New Apartment :)

3. New Roommate? :-/

4. New haircut ;)

Erm, so far that's it.

But sometimes, old is gold. Here's hoping we're connected through the years :)

Term Paper Finees!

2009-11-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

"Thus, my investigation of automation and its social impact has helped to broaden my perspective with regards to my own research. Keeping the above two realizations in mind, I will endeavour to build a system that can perform better in its scope as an automated tool by adding flavor to the human summarization task without taking away its creative punch."

Buland

2009-11-11T04:42:00.000-08:00

आज अच्छा दिन है क्योंकि:

१) कल अच्छा रहा
२) मेरा दोस्त खुश है क्योंकि मैंने मानचेस्टर युनितेद नामक फुटबॉल क्लब को गालियाँ निकाली
३) मेरे दोस्त का दोस्त अब जेल नही जाएगा
४) डॉक्टर नो ने मेरे लिए होन्ग कोंग से तोहफा लाया
५) मैं दिन में घर आ के सोयी :)
६) आने वाले महीनों के लिए बहुत सारा काम है!
६) क्योंकि होंसला बुलंद है :)

आई लव यू एवेरीबॉडी

Scary emails

2009-11-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Diary

Today I found out that I was lecturer for a course, and my students hadn't given in any feedback.
I would like to point out that the previous statement is made up of two independent clauses, both of which were news to me.

I would like to attach the scary email to chronicle this moment in the history of my life. I am not sure what I'm supposed to do next :) I am so glad you're here to listen. muah muah.

Things I Want To Do

2009-11-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

1. Stop procrastinating
2. ~~Find a roommate~~
Found one :-/ let's see how that goes...
3. ~~Get my phone repaired~~
Kal mil jayega ji
4. ~~Stop being angry all the time~~
After deal-no deal with Suchreet, who put the Cheshire smile on my face :)
5. Get a paper published
6. ~~Do a post-mortem on my life and get some closure already~~
Getting there. Getting there :)
7. ~~Get girl-stuff done, learn eye-makeup~~
Ji done ji. And did you see Suchreet's latest post? Thankoo!:)
8. Get hugged
9. ~~Punch someone special in the face~~
Kissed them instead ;p
10. ~~Get a new laptop~~
Got a RED, BOOMZ Dell Studio 15
11. ~~Finish the damn report already~~
Phew, done.
12. ~~Blow my nose~~
Kar liya hankie mein
13. ~~Jump or scream or shout or puke until this horrible feeling goes away~~
SRT swept me off my feet last night :)
14. ~~Stop pretending everything is okay~~
I did, and was given a logical reason to be logical ;)
15. ~~Look pretty: I get extra points for trying~~
One self-photo session later. See Exhibit A: my new Gtalk profile pic

Saturdays

2009-10-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in a lecture hall which could fit 300 people. There was no one there because it was Saturday. I logged in to the lecturer’s computer at the head of the class. My pen drive had a collage I'd made, of the Ocean Park visit. Since the computer was connected to the projector, the collage showed up on a 30x20 ft screen. I zoomed in on this picture and simply sat and stared.

And that was fun :)

Then I went home and took part in a Halloween party, in which I was the scary little dead girl holding a stuffed kangaroo. Other guests at the party were Catwoman, Jack Sparrow, Ms. Angulimaal, The Joker and The Thriller.

Jobs Available: Roommate

2009-10-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

Position: Roommate

Employer: Ko J

Job Description: A decent Indian female is seeking a likeminded, gentle female, preferably Indian, to share a 1+1 apartment in Jalan Bahar Students' Hostel. Employer promises monthly/annual outings as perks on the job. Sick leave is readily granted and provisions include breakfast/lunch/dinner-in-bed facility. Other perks include monetary loans, subject to conditions laid down at the time of lending.

Requirements:

Should be an Indian female, preferably from a place north of Karnataka.
Should preferably not be new in Singapore.
Need not be a clean freak. Modified version: Is allowed to have high standards of cleanliness as long as she does not impose them on an unwilling other. Should not leave bras hanging from doorknobs or draped over the back of a chair.
But should have high standards of personal hygiene.
Should always leave the toilet clean.
Should not try making conversation when the other person is wearing headphones.
Should not have many visitors.
Should not have loud phone conversations in front of other people :-/
Generous character / proficient cooking skills are highly preferable.
Should not turn to unwilling roommates for entertainment.
Should be open to new things.
Should not be too sensitive.

Interested candidates may leave a comment on this post. Applications will be reviewed as they come in. Only shortlisted candidates will be intimated and interviewed. Until we meet.

What I'm Doing Here

2009-10-21T01:33:00.001-07:00

copied from an email cos I don't have the time to write something fresh..but i think it concisely sums up my life as a grad student! :P

well basically, i am the lab technician that my profs are using to test their wild theories about text processing :)

see they come up with an idea,we discuss it, and they say why dont u do this and this and we'll see what happens.and so on. so this has been going on for a yr now :)

besides that, i am enrolled in a very interesting course in which we read abstract theories written by people who died long ago, who tell us how the scientific field is all a farce and has as much politics as an indian election :P

Happy Diwali

2009-10-18T02:39:00.001-07:00

pics courtesy Push and Chush

S.U.C.K. Syndrome

2009-10-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hello

I know my last blogpost was too long, and that most of you didn't make it beyond para three, even though you probably love me a lot. Thank you for trying anyway ji.

This post discusses another problem commonly faced by grad students: it's called Stipend Drying Up phenomenon, commonly observed in the slum habitats of academia or the grad students' abode; its typical symptoms of depression and cantankerousness have recently also been observed in a certain species of white mice common in laboratory experiments of dermatological productions. Also known as Stipend Unavailable for Clueless Ko Syndrome, or S.U.C.K. Syndrome.

In NTU, its onset is signaled by the nearing of the impending date of confirmation, during which time the Office of Finance cuts off the supply of funds to the hungry and overworked student. Like a hamster trapped on a wheel, the subject almost bursts a lung with all the running around in circles, literally, which goes on late into every night.

Its symptoms include an excessive stinginess in the subject coupled with a sleepless look, an unwashed air and a general look of malnourishment. A simple test for this syndrome is to place the subject in the same room as a buffet with free food, and to observe its behavior as it attacks its plate piled high with stale, tasteless finger food. You know, then, that your subject is a victim gone too far.

There is no known cure for the disease, except for monetary gratuities, which one should graciously offer and the subject will happily accept them. The sadistic, bitchy OFS may continue this mean little experiment on the poor hamsters until it's bored. Three months down the line, the subject develops new symptoms: a haunted look about the eyes and a twitching of the mouth. Its arms may flail wildly as it imagines hitting out at its imaginary torturers. There is no cause for alarm. Remedy everything with free food and a sympathetic ear.

For further contributions, join the writer in hurling abuses at the OFS. The writer is a long-suffering victim whose grievances are yet to be alleviated by the aforementioned mofo. The writer is down to her last thousand and is now heading towards the terminal symptoms of this condition: HYSTERIA AND HOMICIDAL TENDENCIES.

If you really want to help, contribute with at least, but not limited to, one abuse, besides the crisp plastic ten dollar bills which are more than welcome. Start with praising their mother's eye...

Snapshots

2009-10-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

Details, finally!

Hello and sorry for the long hiatus. You'll get the reason for that in the next snapshot, I promise :)
When my desk serves more as a distraction than a facilitator, I take my books and run away somewhere, like the NIE Library as pictured in Row 1. They have a cosy coffeeshop tucked away amidst the neverending shelves of books. If you chance upon it, there's little chance you won't stay for a coffee :)

So I sat there sipping my coffee and trying to work, but was slightly distracted by my own reflection from the mirror in front of me. So, err, I drew a caricature of myself. I think I made it sufficiently funny and accurate to justify putting it up here for your comments.

Diwali festivities have been on in full-swing in the Little India district of Singapore for the past month or more! There's a long one-way road called Serangoon that is flanked by higgledy-piggledy Indian stores and restaurants on both sides. Since it's Little India, you're forgiven for possessing little or no sense-- traffic, common or hygiene. So the roads and patches of gardens are crowded with disoriented foreign workers stretching out and milling around after a week of hard work. Anyhow, the picture gives you an idea of how elaborate the decoration is: there is a decorative arch every twenty metres on this this 5-km (i think) stretch of road.

Row 2 begins and ends with a glimpse of the Temple of Fine Arts, where I go every Wednesday evening. There's a glimpse of the jungle beside the NIE campus. There's an excellent photography exhibition from a different Asian country each month, in the gallery on the first floor of my school. This time, they feature the scenes and faces of Bangladesh. There's a fair bit of history behind each shot that orients you towards what you're looking at. I like. Then there is a box of mooncakes, the mid-autumn festival delicacy that you can get for free by sampling the tidbits at the stalls in any mall :P After a certain point of time, the assistants hovered protectively over the samples and didn't let me venture too near :P Loved the coffee flavoured mooncake samples, by the way.

Sorry, in Row 3 I was experimenting with different picture sizes. That's my new pendant which I got for my birthday 2 years ago. That's a nice place to sit enroute my school, on the North Spine of the NTU campus. And that's a lovely Odissi dance featuring dancers with very pretty eyes, at TFA during the Navratri festivities. Did you know that they paint tiny white V's on their nose? That makes their eyes look even bigger and more beautiful.

When people move out of the Students' Hostel, they throw their tables and couches and even their fridges. See if you can make out the dozen or so fridges in the dump in Row 4. Next is the Sultana Masjid close to Arab Street. Btw, Arab Street is nice. We ended up seated next to a crowd of wannabes, but it was worth anything to see 2 boys from my circle sport jingly scarves and then jiggle their hips like Shakira. And that's a pretty ring which Mom might like to get for herself for her birthday.

Row 5 is random: there's a picture dedicated to Bapu and a picture with a bunny costume. Oh ya, there are two little pictures which I've put in somewhere to show off my new shoes. Got em from Malacca, pretty cheap too. But the picture size was all wrong, so you can't make out what I was really shooting :P

Besides all that, I went pandal-hunting for the first time but found just one Pandal, said Hello Pandal, ate a good meal and came home. Also was amused at the picture of a farmer holding his "birds" at Serangoon MRT station. Don't mind, Mister Farmer, but this is a family portal.

And we had an elaborate lunch party for 8, all of us cooked and joked and sang Sanu songs together :) For dessert, there was pineapple halwa and jalebi. Jealous yet?

Where Am I? :)

2009-09-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

New Lessons

2009-09-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

1. Trance music helps you focus better.
2. When Gtalk doesn't work, you will hear pings and read offliners in your sleep.
3. It appears that it's nesting time for all single folks out there. And those who are still single are desperately looking to mingle.
4. Sometimes it's too late to chicken out of big decisions ;) PhD it might be, after all.
5. When you're a PhD student, you're expected to have an opinion about everything.
6. Indo-pak tension, chimney collapses, Patil's son's candidacy: all these things seem more important when you're thousands of miles away from home shores.
7. Fmylife.com makes everything seem better. :D
8. Maybe I should learn to be open-minded about several things, but consensual incest will always horrify me. If Mackenzie Philips were in India, she would be lynched, behind bars and burnt as an effigy within the span of 24 hours. Even though it probably took two to tango. Not saying I agree with such treatment. But we Indians are an emotional lot, you know. And a little bit fanatical too.
9. US mein sab pagal hote hain aur stoned hote hain. Aur anonymous hote hain aur ramble on karte hain aur fir unko block karna padhta hai kyonki out of hand hote hain. Now I am very sorry Mr. Wrong Guy For Me but genuinely things are better this way and thank you for not trying to contact me again.
10. It is difficult to condense a 30-page write-up to 10 pages. Gawdhelpme.
11. It's useful to have friends who think in black and white when you dwell in shades of grey. Never underestimate their importance.
12. If you get a tooth-coloured filling, chances are that it will be sensitive to cold for upto a couple of weeks afterwards. Too bad, tch tch. Ab bhugto.
13. It is fun to have someone pack a tiffin for you :) I miss Nani every morning now.
14. For the world you are someone, but for someone you are the world. Never confuse romance with love. Your parents love you. Roger that.
15. Sometimes you can look forward to having lunch at breakfast-time if it means sharing the table with a friend who was on a month-long Ramadan fast. :D

Snapshots of September

2009-09-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

Top Row: A buffet of colourful shoes and a buffet on "safety". Spotted on the school's noticeboard: "Do not undress my love, you may find a mannequin; Do not undress a mannequin, You may find my love". A delicious and simple vegetarian thali at Komala Vilas, Little India. The ambience was exactly like Chamanji's, Sector 7 Panchkula :) I have been visiting the Changi Airport a LOT; most recently, today! A picture of billy,willy and silly the day willy was not unwell ;) And a cute lil rabbit at one of the pet stores in Suntec City.

Row Two: Colourful, pointless exhibit at Chinatown. Graffiti in Farrer Park: "All animals are equal, But some are more equal than others"(George Orwell). Blu and me, under an arch of balloons :D A lovely Indonesian lunch at The House of Sundan, Suntec City. The walk home from Yoha. A cat snoozing in a baby stroller :) And finally, percussion instruments at Damaru :)

Row Three: A drop of water on my report manuscript, managed to save it from the avalanche of water :P Adrian said I'm (it's) an accident waiting to happen, and he's right. A pretty set of rings, and our balcony in the morning from where a sparrow hops in and pecks for food scraps in the kitchen. A sneakily taken picture aboard the MRT, of a man wearing a t-shirt with a Punjabi tagline! All dressed up for Damaru, pipe dreams and poor spelling skills of the Malays.

Row Four: Ankle and anklet. Superwoman descends on Singapore, albeit for four hours only :) Blu's dream vacation, began with a golden sunset and ended with dampened spirits :-/ Yati's candycane socks, my visit to the Nanyang lake. Let's use the stapler gently, shall we? And finally, the solitude doesn't bite anymore :)

Row Five: Bangles. Did you know that there is nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate? I may politely disagree ;) The acknowledgement section for my report which I chepoed off a gtalk conversation with Ma. My favourite stationery shop in Singapore! Hello to the Merlion as we zoom past on our Duck Tour. The chalk markings on the road which looked uncannily like a silly childhood symbol I used to make :) And finally. Keeping a fresh plate ready for dessert. Let's celebrate, because I cleared my confirmation exam.

New Lessons

2009-09-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hello

"The International Classification of Diseases' life cycle for humans is as follows: a spurt of intense activity at birth; timeless adulthood, when one is afflicted with a range of woes that carry their own temporalities; and an inglorious, ill-defined end."

-- Bowker's Book

I mean, wtf!

Reading and chewing on all this new stuff through an ultra-erudite course called Conceptual Foundations of Information Science. More about it later.

Next up: Snapshots of the past 3 weeks ji :)

Cadbury's Koko

2009-09-18T03:27:00.000-07:00

Time to celebrate, 'cos Koko pass ho gayi :)

Cheers Everybody!

P.S.: Update is that I suddenly don't feel like sticking around for a PhD.
And it's absolutely okay to change my mind ;p

Now I Know

2009-09-17T02:25:00.000-07:00

You lost your cognitive authority for me when you affronted my strongest values...

But before that, I found everything you said especially persuasive because I desperately desired your acceptance.

Now you might be an expert, but you're not my cognitive authority, and as such I have no interest whatsoever in your expertise.

Begone, darned pimple.

Judgment Day

2009-09-13T00:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Faculty Colleagues & Research Students,

Miss Ko J, Master's student from IS Division, will be having her formal presentation for her Masters confirmation (and conversion to PhD candidature). You are most welcomed to attend the presentation. Thank you.

Date: Friday, 18 September 09
Time: 3pm
Venue: Level 4 Conference Room
Research Topic: Multi-document Summarization of Research Papers
Supervisor: A/P Yes & Asst/P No

Snapshots

2009-08-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Snapshots of life in the past thirty days. There were days when I just sat down in the grass, on my way up the slope to school. Er. It might have had something to do with the fact that my kolhapuris broke ;)

It's a pleasure to be in Singapore in August. The sky looks pretty, the rains are cool and the outdoors are always inviting. The evenings are breezy and the sun is lazy..

There was the fiasco lunch at Mount Emily's, where they give you olive oil as a dip for warm bread :P And that's me just before I fell sick and just after a stressful week. And I know someone who loves the word "delectable" so there's a picture for him too.

Kenny was visiting for 2 nights this week! So some good shots of Singapore's skyline from his room window. Also some random sketching of a walking-talking-"sample" whom I spotted in Can B at teatime. I was sipping tea and thinking big thoughts for my Chapter 5. I think I drew her a nice set of knees. Nahi?

There was an unexpected visitor and he was in NTU for a bit to meet up with old profs and the waffles lady in Can 16. He hates being photographed though. And for one week (while I was deathly ill, sigh), I had to wear formals every single day. It was fun. There was the AJCNLP conference at Suntec City, where I met some of the biggest names in my field. People whose papers I have cited and agonized over understanding :) I even had lunch with a very famous aunty and uncle on two consecutive days (and at the same restaurant!). There's a picture of the eyes of the prawn between the prongs of my fork. See it?

It's a new year, a new batch of students and new gimmicks to get them all excited about the tens of clubs and committees. One innovative publicity campaign had flyers all around the place and they had signs requesting you to fold it into paper planes or boats. I wrote letters this month and planned birthday surprises. I also doodled during meetings with Dr. Yes while he told me how esoteric and stupid my writing was. And there's one picture I took when I was at the edge of sanity last week ;)

So there.. I filled you in.