Tuesday morning

Monday mornings, friday mornings and friday evenings invariably find mention in many posts. I even have some posts on them. The other days of the week get neglected though.

It is a beautiful bright morning with clear blue skies and a cool breeze to go with it. Exactly the way I want my mornings served.

I am feeling quite light hearted because for the first time in a year and half, I don't have an assignment or a pset due.

Finally the executive MBA and CS50x are both over. I can now get back to my camera and squash and everything else.

The MBA took up my weekends and CS50 took up whatever that left. Now all of a sudden, I have an obscene amount of free time.

Loving it.

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#cs50x #MOOC #awesome

Finally caught up with and finished the CS50x course over the weekend. Some habits die hard and as usual, there were a million things to finish before the deadline.

Came from work on Friday evening and set up my comp and probably slept 8 hours over the entire weekend. What an experience :) got my programming mojo back

I wanted to finish the course by the deadline and get the certificate. Partly because it was the first course on EDx and I wanted to be a part of it. And partly because I tend to never complete self paced courses that have no deadlines.

There is the debate on whether #MOOC will work or not. After this course, I for one an a believer.

Please visit www.edx.org to see what I am raving about. There are a lot more courses there as well.

And here is a link to a short 2 minute demo of my final project on youtube - simple but I love it:
http://youtu.be/yYhBBExTDnU

It introduces the idea of a service called obfuscate. Once I host it online, I shall post a link too.

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Mrs. Thatcher

As a kid, I remember there was mom at home, Indira Gandhi at Delhi and Margaret Thatcher at 10 downing. For most of my childhood (or as I remember it now) Mrs. Thatcher was the face of Britain. There wasn't that much TV back then and she was definitely on more than the queen or even princess Diana perhaps.

I did not understand politics then (nor much now) so I don't have an opinion about what she did or did not do. I must say that she has left an indelible memory in the minds of a generation halfway across the world and that counts for something.

On the net, I read about Thatcher parties and folks asking how much tax payer money is being spent on the funeral. That I feel is quite saddening.

While the concern about spending the tax payers money frivolously is valid, there is a limit to everything. As a friend of mine in college would often ask in humor: "How much is too much?". Today I'd answer - this much. Surely.

While we should ensure that the government is behaving, let it not prevent us from being civil and in paying our last respects to someone who achieved much in life.

RIP Mrs. Thatcher.
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How fun!

So I am finally getting old fashioned. Gen X has gone. Gen Y are all but gone too and the noobs (what are they called these days anyway) say "How fun!".

Like saying it isn't bad enough, I now end up reading it in documents too. I can quite literally feel my teeth grate as my mind tries to grapple with this weird usage (perhaps I can coin "abusage") and my jaws clamp shut in protest.

Finally, "they" are using language that is alien to me. The kind that causes my brain to cringe involuntarily as a reflex even before consciously processing it. (Involuntary reflexes actually originate at the spine perhaps but I am too aghast to verify.)

I don't even have kids yet; I can't even begin to imagine what "fun" language they will bring home some day.

"How fun" indeed.
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No monsters

No monsters under the bed anymore. No siree. Indeed, last night, I had the planets Mercury and Neptune instead.

It is one of the joys of google sky map. If you have it loaded on your smart phone, it shows you what stars are visible in the direction you are pointing at. It recognizes the horizon but refuses to be limited by it. So, every once in a while I like to check to see what is on under my feet or bed.

Heading back to office after the Holi and Good Friday break. Apparently the schools will be taking a break for a month starting this week. Anticipating less traffic as a result. However, the ground reality is different. Everyone tends to be in a hurry to get to office on a Monday morning. Even more so after a long weekend. Less dust though because of the rains last night... And there is a chill in the breeze if you wait for it.

The weatherman has predicted a hotter than usual summer. A good year to learn swimming perhaps.

Still sleepy. The longer the vacation, the more tired I am getting back to office.

Signing off for now.
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Yellow flowers, vertebrates and invertebrates

Rushing to catch the bus as usual this morning, I crossed the throng of parents waiting to get their kids on to the school buses. Snippets of conversation struck my ear but most of it never made it past my in-built noise filter. The only phrase that made it through was "vertebrates and invertebrates" and my ears tuned in to hear a mom complain about some project that she had to complete in a day on the said topic for her kid. Made me wonder how much of the syllabus would be new for the parents - a chance to renew their own learning.

That brings me back to the weather. I hate being the weatherman but with the comet coming into view from today, it is quite disappointing that it has been cloudy since yesterday. On the bright side, because of the rain yesterday, things look bright and clean this morning and there is again a nip in the air streaming in the bus window.

I decided to stop and take a photograph of the yellow flowers I see everywhere these days. Perhaps someone there will recognize what they are.

Blogging from a bus is quite different from doing it from the house. Though I realize that some of the posts might be rather inane, I enjoy it - which is at least half the point in writing here.

Life is on autopilot these days. When is it not? Well more than usual in that case. It is a bit like Zen. When life throws stuff at you, you try to process it and respond. Life throws more at you and you figure how to be more efficient in your processing. But then the deluge keeps on increasing and at some point you realize that you cannot optimize further and you cannot process all of it. And so, you let it all flow by letting the autopilot take over. Selectively picking a few things to delve into but for the most part, just being.

That description sounds quite peaceful. That is not strictly correct. It is a bit like ice age 3(?). The surface is calm but there could be large many toothed beasts lurking in the depths.

Only time will tell ... Whether they exist ... And if they do, whether they are vertebrates or invertebrates.

In the meanwhile, we have partly cloudy skies and unknown yellow flowers.

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Another slice of life

As another day comes to an end, I sit in the tempo traveler with the sun streaming in from the rear window and a breeze blowing in from the side windows. The sky is blue with wispy clouds.

Almost all the other transports have left. Ours is waiting because the driver was on the phone and it is not quite time yet. And finally we start off even as I thumb it into the BB.

It is good not to be driving at the end of the day while going home. The maddening traffic and the deafening horns just become more TV and you can chose to ignore it. Sit back and listen to music and perhaps even browse when the network allows it.

It is already starting to get quite warm here. I am not sure that I like that. Not that one can do much about it.

This week we should be able to see a comet. That is something I am quite looking forward to. Might even post some photographs if I can see it clearly.

The road's a mess with some work going on for a new flyover. The dust is everywhere. Makes the sunsets more colorful I suppose.

More honking than usual today. Traffic is lighter though. All the swaying makes the thumbing that much more difficult.

It must be spring ... I see a lot of yellow blooms by the roadside. We don't really have seasons here so maybe I just notice them now because I have nothing better to do.
I see a lot of kites flying about. Possibly beacons marking particularly dirty areas of the city with more rodents for them to feed on. They look quite majestic gliding in the sunset. The yellow light shining off the brown wings every now and then.

There is construction going on everywhere. Can't complain. A growing economy sure as hell beats the alternative. And growth cannot happen without infrastructure to support it. Some planning would have helped though. Respect for building bylaws as well. Things will work out eventually though.

Time to sit back and relax. Should be home in another 10 minutes or so.

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Monday morning

Eagles blaring on my ear buds, trying desperately to drown out the squeaky RJ of the local FM station that my bus driver favors in the mornings. As I open the window a crack, shut my eyes and lean back in the cramped seat as best I can, the fresh breeze hits my face and I feel alive.

It is not often that one can claim to be heading to office on a monday morning really fresh and I thought I'd make a note of it.

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