I haven't updated my blog for a long long time. But I have been alive in the real world. I have even been out of touch with most of my friends and sorry about that. But here is one way to update you. (And also boast about my amazing life :)...I am clearly high!)
Bought a camera: I have a kick butt camera of my own now. Its a Canon A470. Nothing very exceptional, but still its awesome, just because now I own it.
Women In Theory: I attended a workshop in Princeton University from 13 June to 19 June. It was great fun. You can read about it from following blog. Something that is not written on that blog is the Mentor program about which I'll tell you in a moment.
NYC and Phili and fun: During my stay at Princeton I visited a friend in Phili and went bar hopping with him at midnight. Later met another friend who came from Florida and we hung out a hell lot in NY and places around. I saw few places, Times square, Brooklyn bridge and statue of Liberty in NY. And enjoyed traveling in subway during peak office hours. Walking near times square at my own pace when people were rushing to the office...... bliss.
Mentor Program: The speakers (who are leading women in theoretical computer science) at the WIT workshop volunteered to be mentors to a few students. There were 12 speakers :
Dorit Aharonov, Shuchi Chawla, Julia Chuzoy, Irit Dinur, Cynthia Dwork, Joan Feigenbaum, Shafi Goldwasser, Joan Feigenbaum, Tal Malkin, Tal Rabin, Eva Tardos, Lisa Zhang. And each took up 2-3 students as their mentees. Purpose of the program is to help students get guidance from a senior person in the area (area being theoretical computer science) apart from their guide regarding academic and/or non-academic issues. I personally like the idea. I was wondering whether they will include me in the mentor program as they said that it was mainly for students who are in early years of their Ph.D. (And I am in my final phase). But seems like they made an exception. I have a mentor now! My mentor is Shuchi Chawla. For next two years we will try to keep in touch and I will consult her when in doubt/confusion or even otherwise. We have already exchanged a couple of emails. Let us see how this mentor-mentee relationship shapes up.
Jogging: (this is probably the weirdest update and skip reading it if you feel you are already getting angry reading my blog). I started jogging all over again. It was after the leg injury before the last trek to Himalaya that I stopped jogging. But I have restarted. The first day jog was too too hard. I could barely run for 12 minutes. First the leg complained a bit, but then quickly tummy ache replaced the leg pain and that continued for a couple of seconds. Soon after that my lungs started burning. About 5 minutes after that I got this feeling that I was nothing but a pair of lungs and I had caught fire. Soon after that I got splitting headache and I stopped. All this in less than 12 minutes! But in any case, after running I always feel awesome. And that is why it is worth all the trouble.
BBQ nation: This restaurant is now in Chennai too, on north usman road. They have tables with personal grill embedded on each table. You need to book a table before you go else hard luck. The food is awesome. They also serve alcohol (which is pretty expensive). They give unlimited starters (even prawn, aaaah, yumm). You would hardly be able to eat the buffet after the starters but you won't regret it.(Rs 450/- per head) Go try.
Coding Theory: I have started reading coding theory. The resources I am using are the following-
Music: I have been listening to some really awesome music. Here are two links.i
Chinese Translation:
We are nowhere-Bright eyes
Let me know if you like the songs.
Do read the lyrics of this song.
Bought a camera: I have a kick butt camera of my own now. Its a Canon A470. Nothing very exceptional, but still its awesome, just because now I own it.
Women In Theory: I attended a workshop in Princeton University from 13 June to 19 June. It was great fun. You can read about it from following blog. Something that is not written on that blog is the Mentor program about which I'll tell you in a moment.
NYC and Phili and fun: During my stay at Princeton I visited a friend in Phili and went bar hopping with him at midnight. Later met another friend who came from Florida and we hung out a hell lot in NY and places around. I saw few places, Times square, Brooklyn bridge and statue of Liberty in NY. And enjoyed traveling in subway during peak office hours. Walking near times square at my own pace when people were rushing to the office...... bliss.
Mentor Program: The speakers (who are leading women in theoretical computer science) at the WIT workshop volunteered to be mentors to a few students. There were 12 speakers :
Dorit Aharonov, Shuchi Chawla, Julia Chuzoy, Irit Dinur, Cynthia Dwork, Joan Feigenbaum, Shafi Goldwasser, Joan Feigenbaum, Tal Malkin, Tal Rabin, Eva Tardos, Lisa Zhang. And each took up 2-3 students as their mentees. Purpose of the program is to help students get guidance from a senior person in the area (area being theoretical computer science) apart from their guide regarding academic and/or non-academic issues. I personally like the idea. I was wondering whether they will include me in the mentor program as they said that it was mainly for students who are in early years of their Ph.D. (And I am in my final phase). But seems like they made an exception. I have a mentor now! My mentor is Shuchi Chawla. For next two years we will try to keep in touch and I will consult her when in doubt/confusion or even otherwise. We have already exchanged a couple of emails. Let us see how this mentor-mentee relationship shapes up.
Jogging: (this is probably the weirdest update and skip reading it if you feel you are already getting angry reading my blog). I started jogging all over again. It was after the leg injury before the last trek to Himalaya that I stopped jogging. But I have restarted. The first day jog was too too hard. I could barely run for 12 minutes. First the leg complained a bit, but then quickly tummy ache replaced the leg pain and that continued for a couple of seconds. Soon after that my lungs started burning. About 5 minutes after that I got this feeling that I was nothing but a pair of lungs and I had caught fire. Soon after that I got splitting headache and I stopped. All this in less than 12 minutes! But in any case, after running I always feel awesome. And that is why it is worth all the trouble.
BBQ nation: This restaurant is now in Chennai too, on north usman road. They have tables with personal grill embedded on each table. You need to book a table before you go else hard luck. The food is awesome. They also serve alcohol (which is pretty expensive). They give unlimited starters (even prawn, aaaah, yumm). You would hardly be able to eat the buffet after the starters but you won't regret it.(Rs 450/- per head) Go try.
Coding Theory: I have started reading coding theory. The resources I am using are the following-
- Luca Trevisan's survey.
- Guruswami's lecture notes.
- Book on coding theory by Ron Roth.
Music: I have been listening to some really awesome music. Here are two links.i
Chinese Translation:
We are nowhere-Bright eyes
Let me know if you like the songs.
Do read the lyrics of this song.
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