I slept like a log after the 2nd day of my Cross Country Travel culminated in severe emotional trauma. I do not remember the particulars of the following morning. I do remember taking I-80 again, not that there was any other choice in the middle of Wyoming!
I remember the day being overcast for most of the stretch. Quickly I moved into the neighboring state of Nebraska. I am sure it is a beautiful state, but I regret I remember very little of the drive other than the undulating freeway, my loneliness, the large number of trucks on the road, farms, and constant odor of manure. My only excuse is, I was young and was not a great observer.
Somewhere on the way, I picked up another hitchhiker. His story was interesting, he had no car, he worked on a farm; not sure what exactly he did; his daughter lived with her family lived several miles north of Des Moines, Iowa and he was going to see her by bumming rides along the way! Coming from California, the entire mid-west was an eye opener for me. I thought all of America was prosperous and everyone had one or more car at their disposal. And here was me, from a third world country, give a ride to a hitchhiker from the first world!
I moved over to Iowa by crossing a massive river which I later found was the Great Missouri. As a kid it used to hurt me that this river was overshadowed by the Mississippi. I took it personally since, I felt that if the cartographers had been smart and called the whole river, Missouri, then it could have been the longest river in the world with Mississippi being merely a tributary not the other way around! I hated The Nile and The Amazon and would look at the map sadly with thoughts of what might have been! Just check out this link and you will understand. The Missouri is actually longer than the Mississippi!
After dropping, my hitchhiker, I went to a Motel 6 and I found myself at a standstill. They had no rooms. The guy at the reception, another Indian, told me to try my luck at a motel nearby. When the receptionist at the other motel told me that single-room rates were more than $50 I was shocked. Here I was in the $20-$25 range and could not wrap my head around the larger number. I went back to my Indian receptionist as if he could do some magic for me! He took pity on me and told me to tell the other guy, that I was a referral from Motel 6. Well long story short, I got Motel 6 rates and went to sleep.
And so ended my Day 3.
Very few aspects of the Day 4 stand out clearly in my mind. It was mostly about weariness and a desire to see the end of the journey. I guess it is hard to drive a stick shift without cruise control for 12 hours each day for 3 consecutive days and not be tot müde (dead tired). I was so weary that at one point I fell asleep at the wheel for what seemed only a few seconds. I remember the shock I felt when I jolted back awake. I stopped at a rest area and washed my face, rested for a short while and drove on.
I saw a sign welcoming me to Illinois followed by another massive river, The Mississipi. It turns out that Mississippi forms the eastern border of Iowa with Illinois just as Missouri forms the western border of Iowa with Nebraska. I stopped somewhere south of Chicago at a Pizza Hut. Except for a short period when I suffered from Jaundice, I have never been known to say no to food. I used to have an appetite of a rickshaw-wallah. I did not know one could be so pooped out that the sight of food could bring on gag reflex. I did the best I could and drove into Michigan.
At this point I had left behind my friend of nearly four days, I-80 and took I-94. I passed by Kalamazoo and Battle Creek and went North on I-69 towards Lansing. I was nearing the end of my journey. From Lansing, I headed east going towards East Lansing. After getting directions from students, I found out where Spartan Village was. It was late in the evening when I finally landed at PG's place. I had dinner with his friends and went to sleep, a tame ending to four amazing days in my life.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Cross Country Travel 1990 - Part II
In my previous post I had written about my preparation to travel cross country. The total driving distance was approximately 2500 miles, almost all of it on I-80 one of the longest east-west arterial roads in the continental United States. Since I was driving alone, I intended to drive for four days and sleep in motels en route for three of those nights. The actual cities where I intended to sleep were not known to me. My plan was to drive roughly 650 miles each day and before it turned dark, find Motel 6 to crash for the night and start all over again the next day!
Those were definitely simpler times!
My intention here is not bore you with mile by mile details of this expedition. Moreover, after more than 20 years, I barely remember little more than the highlights.
From Bay Area, I took I-680 till it joined I-80. I remember giving a hitchhiker a ride against all advice to the contrary. I picked up a middle aged person outside Sacramento. The drive through the Sierra Nevada was particularly fun especially on the downhill sections when I would put my stick shift in neutral and barrel down. I crossed into Nevada and after dropping of my passenger at Reno, continued ahead into desert country. Long straight roads with scrub like vegetation loomed ahead. Next I drove by a town called Winnemucca, NV. The reason this name stuck in my mind was the self-deprecating humorous sign "6 Billion have never been here". Finally after covering little less than 550 miles, I reached Elko, Nevada at about 6PM and stopped at a Motel 6. Guess whom I saw at the reception? If your answer is anything other than a Gujarati lady with the last name of Patel, you would be wrong!
The following day, after completing my morning ablutions, I headed out east and within an hour or so crossed into Mormon country, Utah. If you look in the interstate map of USA, you will notice that I-80 is quite straight in most sections. This particular section could only have been made with a straight edge. The sign at the outset warns you about the lack of fuel stops, rest areas, and in fact any humanity, for the next nearly 100 miles. Coming from India it is hard for us to understand abject barrenness. I still remember vividly the loneliness I felt at that moment. The highlight of the day was a traipse around the south side of the Great Salt Lake. Till then I had never seen an inland water body that large. Here was a lake whose opposite shore was too far to see! Of course that changed when I saw the Great Lakes in Michigan a few months later.
As I headed east of Salt Lake City, I started to get into mountain country. I wish I had the ability to describe the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I could use a lot superlatives without describing anything of value. Each turn of the winding road opened spectacular views of the range. I would be in a valley with two mountains looming on each side or on top of a mountain with a view of ever more mountains both behind and ahead of me. After driving nearly 650 miles, I decided to break for the night at a town called Laramie, Wyoming. I again found a Motel 6 just off the freeway and parked my bags.
And then I had an adventure.
After getting directions, I went to eat at a Pizza Hut on the main street. The food was delicious as it usually is after a long and tiring day behind the wheel. It was time to pay and head back to hit the sack.
Things turned bad.
I discovered that I did not have my wallet. With a lot of embarrassment, I explained my predicament and told the cashier that I had left my wallet along with my jacket and that in the motel and pay him with in the hour. I am not sure that the the cashier, a young kid, found my confession plausible. Would you? Nevertheless he let me go.
Things then got worse. I was stopped by a police officer for speeding.
It seems I was doing 35 in a 25 MPH zone. With even more difficulty I explained why I was driving without a valid license and how I was getting back to the motel to pay for my dinner. The cop probably subscribed to the motto trust but verify and tailed me all the way back to the motel and waited for me to get back to from my room.
The outlook then got further worse. I could not find my jacket or my wallet!
Now I was worried about things beyond paying for my dinner or even explaining to the police. How was I going to pay for the motel? How was I going to get to the East Lansing? What the hell was I going to do? In a short span of 2 minutes every possible horrible scenario played itself in my mind. I came out and showed the cop everything except my driver license such as my insurance information! As I was talking; a preposterous idea came into my mind; what if I had had my jacket all along and had really left it in the Pizza Hut. Before I could consider this any further the police office ducked into the car, made a quick call and came out. I waited with bated breath for the axe to fall. The police officer told me to listen quietly. Then he told me to go back to the Pizza Hut and told me to pick up my wallet and jacket. He then told me to drive slowly through town! With relief I thanked the officer, I went back. it turned out that when I took my seat at the booth, I had put my jacket, out of sight, on the other side of the booth. The explanation only made me feel more foolish. With as much dignity as I could muster, I collected my stuff, laughed at my stupidity, paid my bill and drove back.
Then the worst happened, the sky fell.
Or so it seemed to me. I had never seen clouds this dark. I had never seen rain this thick. It felt more like a sheet of water was pouring on my windshield rather than drops. I had never seen so much lightning flashing nor thunder so loud. I have never before driven during a cloudburst. It made me completely aware of my insignificance in the grand scheme of things as never before.
Even though I drove very slowly and the wiper was at maximum speed visibility was literally nil. I somehow managed to get back to the motel without hurting my car, or myself, or more importantly anyone else. Thus ended my second day, both physically and emotionally exhausted.
Those were definitely simpler times!
My intention here is not bore you with mile by mile details of this expedition. Moreover, after more than 20 years, I barely remember little more than the highlights.
From Bay Area, I took I-680 till it joined I-80. I remember giving a hitchhiker a ride against all advice to the contrary. I picked up a middle aged person outside Sacramento. The drive through the Sierra Nevada was particularly fun especially on the downhill sections when I would put my stick shift in neutral and barrel down. I crossed into Nevada and after dropping of my passenger at Reno, continued ahead into desert country. Long straight roads with scrub like vegetation loomed ahead. Next I drove by a town called Winnemucca, NV. The reason this name stuck in my mind was the self-deprecating humorous sign "6 Billion have never been here". Finally after covering little less than 550 miles, I reached Elko, Nevada at about 6PM and stopped at a Motel 6. Guess whom I saw at the reception? If your answer is anything other than a Gujarati lady with the last name of Patel, you would be wrong!
The following day, after completing my morning ablutions, I headed out east and within an hour or so crossed into Mormon country, Utah. If you look in the interstate map of USA, you will notice that I-80 is quite straight in most sections. This particular section could only have been made with a straight edge. The sign at the outset warns you about the lack of fuel stops, rest areas, and in fact any humanity, for the next nearly 100 miles. Coming from India it is hard for us to understand abject barrenness. I still remember vividly the loneliness I felt at that moment. The highlight of the day was a traipse around the south side of the Great Salt Lake. Till then I had never seen an inland water body that large. Here was a lake whose opposite shore was too far to see! Of course that changed when I saw the Great Lakes in Michigan a few months later.
As I headed east of Salt Lake City, I started to get into mountain country. I wish I had the ability to describe the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I could use a lot superlatives without describing anything of value. Each turn of the winding road opened spectacular views of the range. I would be in a valley with two mountains looming on each side or on top of a mountain with a view of ever more mountains both behind and ahead of me. After driving nearly 650 miles, I decided to break for the night at a town called Laramie, Wyoming. I again found a Motel 6 just off the freeway and parked my bags.
And then I had an adventure.
After getting directions, I went to eat at a Pizza Hut on the main street. The food was delicious as it usually is after a long and tiring day behind the wheel. It was time to pay and head back to hit the sack.
Things turned bad.
I discovered that I did not have my wallet. With a lot of embarrassment, I explained my predicament and told the cashier that I had left my wallet along with my jacket and that in the motel and pay him with in the hour. I am not sure that the the cashier, a young kid, found my confession plausible. Would you? Nevertheless he let me go.
Things then got worse. I was stopped by a police officer for speeding.
It seems I was doing 35 in a 25 MPH zone. With even more difficulty I explained why I was driving without a valid license and how I was getting back to the motel to pay for my dinner. The cop probably subscribed to the motto trust but verify and tailed me all the way back to the motel and waited for me to get back to from my room.
The outlook then got further worse. I could not find my jacket or my wallet!
Now I was worried about things beyond paying for my dinner or even explaining to the police. How was I going to pay for the motel? How was I going to get to the East Lansing? What the hell was I going to do? In a short span of 2 minutes every possible horrible scenario played itself in my mind. I came out and showed the cop everything except my driver license such as my insurance information! As I was talking; a preposterous idea came into my mind; what if I had had my jacket all along and had really left it in the Pizza Hut. Before I could consider this any further the police office ducked into the car, made a quick call and came out. I waited with bated breath for the axe to fall. The police officer told me to listen quietly. Then he told me to go back to the Pizza Hut and told me to pick up my wallet and jacket. He then told me to drive slowly through town! With relief I thanked the officer, I went back. it turned out that when I took my seat at the booth, I had put my jacket, out of sight, on the other side of the booth. The explanation only made me feel more foolish. With as much dignity as I could muster, I collected my stuff, laughed at my stupidity, paid my bill and drove back.
Then the worst happened, the sky fell.
Or so it seemed to me. I had never seen clouds this dark. I had never seen rain this thick. It felt more like a sheet of water was pouring on my windshield rather than drops. I had never seen so much lightning flashing nor thunder so loud. I have never before driven during a cloudburst. It made me completely aware of my insignificance in the grand scheme of things as never before.
Even though I drove very slowly and the wiper was at maximum speed visibility was literally nil. I somehow managed to get back to the motel without hurting my car, or myself, or more importantly anyone else. Thus ended my second day, both physically and emotionally exhausted.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Cross Country Travel 1990 - Part I
Couple of years ago, I had written about my first year in this country. That was in the left coast, now I am in the right coast. How did I get here?
The stated goal when I first came to the US was; learn automated chip testing and setup a chip testing facility in India to test chips used to support Bubble Memories. Towards this noble goal, I spent several weeks in a training facility at Schlumberger in San Jose, learning to read chip manuals and to write software based on the specifications. With help from my boss Ajay, I also created a novel high-speed technique to measure current; traditional current measurements required milli-seconds whereas we only had a few micro-seconds.
Anyway, within 6 months of my stay here, it was clear that the contract I came for would not be renewed for various reasons. I was dumb. Instead of finding another job in the Bay Area, I decided to look into academics. With my boss's blessing, I picked what I was told was a good school, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and several middle of the pack schools such as Michigan State (MSU) in East Lansing, MI, San Jose State in Bay Area, Oklahoma State in Still Water, OK, and lower ones such as Wayne State (WSU) in Detroit, MI. Do not ask me about my criteria for selecting these schools. I am sure I could not have put more than a limited amount of thought in the process; how else does one explain this rather more than random list of schools!
All except University of Wisconsin gave me admission; UW had good standards and they wanted to keep it that way! No school other than Wayne State gave me a scholarship. Without expending anymore thought than one would in changing clothes, I chose to uproot myself and move across the continent to MSU. You may ask, If WSU gave me scholarship why did I go to East Lansing?
Well my friend, PG who was then at MSU, assured me that if I got good grades during summer term, the chances of getting a Teaching Assistant ship (TA-ship) in fall was a near certainty. For those of you that did not go to graduate school in the USA, getting a TA-ship is akin to a professor getting a tenure, This meant that you were a cool-cat and you now had a little more financial security and consequently you could now afford to eat out once every other week at Pizza Hut!
Back to the answer; my thought process was; Detroit is a bare 100 miles away from East Lansing; if it did not pan out in MSU, I could always transfer to Detroit where I had a scholarship. I had the proverbial bird in hand. Anyway that is another story.
So here I was at the end of May 1990, in San Jose, CA ready to embark on a long journey. I had made my plans; I had PG's phone number in East Lansing, I had gotten my car checked out, I had changed the engine oil, and I had loaded the car with my worldly possessions. It is amusing that there was a time when everything I possessed could fit into the back of my Honda Civic with space to spare! Now my 4 bedroom house is not large enough!
That's it; I was ready. No wait, I also had gone to AAA of California and had gotten maps of the route I was going to follow!
I did not know how many days I was going to travel, I did not know where I was going to sleep each night, I did no know who I could call in case of emergencies! It is not that planning was an anathema to me; I just did not think! I had a map, I had a car, I had a rough idea that I was going to a place called Spartan Village in East Lansing; what more did I have to know!
I expressed my gratitude to the host family with whom I had been a paying guest for the past year and after saying my adieus, I drove away. It is hard to express the feelings that were going through my mind at that time. Many years later I heard these lines spoken by Morgan Freeman in one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption. You may remember that near the end of the movie, Red breaks parole and heads to Zihuatanejo, Mexico to be with his friend Andy. As he is riding the bus, you hear a voice over
... I find I am so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is an excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain ...
The stated goal when I first came to the US was; learn automated chip testing and setup a chip testing facility in India to test chips used to support Bubble Memories. Towards this noble goal, I spent several weeks in a training facility at Schlumberger in San Jose, learning to read chip manuals and to write software based on the specifications. With help from my boss Ajay, I also created a novel high-speed technique to measure current; traditional current measurements required milli-seconds whereas we only had a few micro-seconds.
Anyway, within 6 months of my stay here, it was clear that the contract I came for would not be renewed for various reasons. I was dumb. Instead of finding another job in the Bay Area, I decided to look into academics. With my boss's blessing, I picked what I was told was a good school, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and several middle of the pack schools such as Michigan State (MSU) in East Lansing, MI, San Jose State in Bay Area, Oklahoma State in Still Water, OK, and lower ones such as Wayne State (WSU) in Detroit, MI. Do not ask me about my criteria for selecting these schools. I am sure I could not have put more than a limited amount of thought in the process; how else does one explain this rather more than random list of schools!
All except University of Wisconsin gave me admission; UW had good standards and they wanted to keep it that way! No school other than Wayne State gave me a scholarship. Without expending anymore thought than one would in changing clothes, I chose to uproot myself and move across the continent to MSU. You may ask, If WSU gave me scholarship why did I go to East Lansing?
Well my friend, PG who was then at MSU, assured me that if I got good grades during summer term, the chances of getting a Teaching Assistant ship (TA-ship) in fall was a near certainty. For those of you that did not go to graduate school in the USA, getting a TA-ship is akin to a professor getting a tenure, This meant that you were a cool-cat and you now had a little more financial security and consequently you could now afford to eat out once every other week at Pizza Hut!
Back to the answer; my thought process was; Detroit is a bare 100 miles away from East Lansing; if it did not pan out in MSU, I could always transfer to Detroit where I had a scholarship. I had the proverbial bird in hand. Anyway that is another story.
So here I was at the end of May 1990, in San Jose, CA ready to embark on a long journey. I had made my plans; I had PG's phone number in East Lansing, I had gotten my car checked out, I had changed the engine oil, and I had loaded the car with my worldly possessions. It is amusing that there was a time when everything I possessed could fit into the back of my Honda Civic with space to spare! Now my 4 bedroom house is not large enough!
That's it; I was ready. No wait, I also had gone to AAA of California and had gotten maps of the route I was going to follow!
I did not know how many days I was going to travel, I did not know where I was going to sleep each night, I did no know who I could call in case of emergencies! It is not that planning was an anathema to me; I just did not think! I had a map, I had a car, I had a rough idea that I was going to a place called Spartan Village in East Lansing; what more did I have to know!
I expressed my gratitude to the host family with whom I had been a paying guest for the past year and after saying my adieus, I drove away. It is hard to express the feelings that were going through my mind at that time. Many years later I heard these lines spoken by Morgan Freeman in one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption. You may remember that near the end of the movie, Red breaks parole and heads to Zihuatanejo, Mexico to be with his friend Andy. As he is riding the bus, you hear a voice over
... I find I am so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is an excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain ...
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Report Card for Raag
As it is well known, I am extremely insecure. I have always suspected that my parents loved my sister more; my teachers liked Pankaj more, and our friends liked my wife more. Devi has always loved her mom more. Let us see what Maa thinks of me.
In January of this year, my parents received a report card from Maalini about Jan's and my performance. While her comments about her mom were good, she told my parents that I interups a lot and watches too much TV! My wife got the ultimate kudo when Maa made a Mother's day card for her even if your just a plane MoM you macke a big difrince. She forgot both Father's day and my birthday - boo hoo.
I couldn't let it go. So I would needle Maa and ask her "Who do you love more amma, akka, or appa". Depending on her mood it would be amma or akka for the first position, but the constant was always, yours truly at the bottom. I expanded the list and added a whole slew of people to the list, grandparents, her aunts and uncles, cousins, and even friends. I found to my chagrin that my position did not improve, they all were inserted into the list somewhere below her mom and her sister but always above me. Wait one person did fare worse than I did, my sister; well she is as strict parent as I am!
I taxed her on her lack of affection for me and her comment was - At least you are above your sister!
I told this to my sister and her reaction was that she was glad that she was at least I am in Maa's list.
I needed perspective. Now I too am glad I am on the list.
In January of this year, my parents received a report card from Maalini about Jan's and my performance. While her comments about her mom were good, she told my parents that I interups a lot and watches too much TV! My wife got the ultimate kudo when Maa made a Mother's day card for her even if your just a plane MoM you macke a big difrince. She forgot both Father's day and my birthday - boo hoo.
I couldn't let it go. So I would needle Maa and ask her "Who do you love more amma, akka, or appa". Depending on her mood it would be amma or akka for the first position, but the constant was always, yours truly at the bottom. I expanded the list and added a whole slew of people to the list, grandparents, her aunts and uncles, cousins, and even friends. I found to my chagrin that my position did not improve, they all were inserted into the list somewhere below her mom and her sister but always above me. Wait one person did fare worse than I did, my sister; well she is as strict parent as I am!
I taxed her on her lack of affection for me and her comment was - At least you are above your sister!
I told this to my sister and her reaction was that she was glad that she was at least I am in Maa's list.
I needed perspective. Now I too am glad I am on the list.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Weighing Machine, Weighing Machine on the Floor ...
You know the story of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs. The Evil Queen asks the mirror on the wall the same question everyday, "Mirror, mirror on the wall / Who in the land is fairest of all?". The mirror repetitiously answers "You, my Queen" until one day when mirror tells the queen that Snow White, not the Queen is the fairest of all.
Unlike the queen, most of us men in our mid-life obsess not about our fairness or beauty. Most of us should have no illusion about our looks especially with kids in the teens or older. We instead talk endlessly about how gravity impacts us. How as we have gotten older, there seems to be more gravity around us. We feel heavier.
Each day we wake up in the morning and go to the bathroom where most of us have a weighing machine. We then ask the machine the same question, "Weighing Scale, Weighing Scale on the Floor / who in this land is the slimmest of all". Just like the queen, until the fateful day, we get the same answer.
Not you for sure, Ha Ha!
For the first thirty years of my life this was not a question, I had ever asked anyone or anything. In fact I did not possess a weighing machine. Sometime in my mid-thirties, I made the fatal mistake of getting one and since then my life has been one of misery. As I stood on top of it and wondered what I was going to see, hoping against hope, to see a small number, I got down each time after seeing the needle pointed towards larger and larger numbers.
Recently, the doctor had also started talking about the fried foods I liked to consume. He then talked about the health risks of increased cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. Even some of my friends had started talking about my expanding waistline.
It got so bad last summer, I swear, I heard the scale whisper "Fatty" as I left the bathroom. Now I know you would say, I have a vivid imagination if I told you that around last Thanksgiving, I heard a groan from my bathroom and a whispered comment, "Is it too much to ask? Why can't you eat less!".
The last one was too much for me to swallow. I had to take matters into my hand. I could take digs from my children and needling from friends. I will be damned if I take sarcasm from a weighing scale. So went and got a new one.
Lovingly I opened it and stood on it for the first time and asked the same question "Weighing Machine, Weighing machine ..." and the strange answer I got was
Fewer chips a day, keeps the doctor away!
Unlike the queen, most of us men in our mid-life obsess not about our fairness or beauty. Most of us should have no illusion about our looks especially with kids in the teens or older. We instead talk endlessly about how gravity impacts us. How as we have gotten older, there seems to be more gravity around us. We feel heavier.
Each day we wake up in the morning and go to the bathroom where most of us have a weighing machine. We then ask the machine the same question, "Weighing Scale, Weighing Scale on the Floor / who in this land is the slimmest of all". Just like the queen, until the fateful day, we get the same answer.
Not you for sure, Ha Ha!
For the first thirty years of my life this was not a question, I had ever asked anyone or anything. In fact I did not possess a weighing machine. Sometime in my mid-thirties, I made the fatal mistake of getting one and since then my life has been one of misery. As I stood on top of it and wondered what I was going to see, hoping against hope, to see a small number, I got down each time after seeing the needle pointed towards larger and larger numbers.
Recently, the doctor had also started talking about the fried foods I liked to consume. He then talked about the health risks of increased cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. Even some of my friends had started talking about my expanding waistline.
It got so bad last summer, I swear, I heard the scale whisper "Fatty" as I left the bathroom. Now I know you would say, I have a vivid imagination if I told you that around last Thanksgiving, I heard a groan from my bathroom and a whispered comment, "Is it too much to ask? Why can't you eat less!".
The last one was too much for me to swallow. I had to take matters into my hand. I could take digs from my children and needling from friends. I will be damned if I take sarcasm from a weighing scale. So went and got a new one.
Lovingly I opened it and stood on it for the first time and asked the same question "Weighing Machine, Weighing machine ..." and the strange answer I got was
Fewer chips a day, keeps the doctor away!
Monday, May 02, 2011
Am I any longer a Geek?
One of my favorite Wodehouse title is Carry On, Jeeves, a collection of short stories. The first story, Jeeves Takes Charge, introduces us to Bertie and Jeeves and tells the story of how Jeeves came to be Bertie's boss, I mean valet. In this story, Bertie is engaged to the autocratic but beautiful Lady Florence, who wants to improve his mind by feeding him a book titled Types of Ethical Theory that contained this memorable prose.
Of the two antithetic terms in the Greek philosophy one only was real and self-subsisting; and that one was Ideal Thought as opposed to that which it has to penetrate and mould. The other, corresponding to our Nature, was in itself phenomenal, unreal, without any permanent footing, having no predicates that held true for two moments together; in short redeemed from negation only by including indwelling realities appearing through.
Right Ho. Naturally Bertie's engagement did not last much longer. I found this to be a funny story without paying anymore attention to it.
Recently I saw that my friend had posted on Facebook a comment on NP-Complete problems and remembered reading about this in graduate school decade and a half ago and actually doing well enough to get an A on that course. Since I no longer knew what it was, I looked my favorite source, The Wikipedia and, I kid you not, this was what I read.
In computational complexity theory, the complexity class NP-complete (abbreviated NP-C or NPC) is a class of decision problems. A decision problem L is NP-complete if it is in the set of NP problems so that any given solution to the decision problem can be verified in polynomial time, and also in the set of NP-hard problems so that any NP problem can be converted into L by a transformation of the inputs in polynomial time.
Quite lucid you say
I on the other hand am no longer feel smart enough to comprehend such material.
Of the two antithetic terms in the Greek philosophy one only was real and self-subsisting; and that one was Ideal Thought as opposed to that which it has to penetrate and mould. The other, corresponding to our Nature, was in itself phenomenal, unreal, without any permanent footing, having no predicates that held true for two moments together; in short redeemed from negation only by including indwelling realities appearing through.
Right Ho. Naturally Bertie's engagement did not last much longer. I found this to be a funny story without paying anymore attention to it.
Recently I saw that my friend had posted on Facebook a comment on NP-Complete problems and remembered reading about this in graduate school decade and a half ago and actually doing well enough to get an A on that course. Since I no longer knew what it was, I looked my favorite source, The Wikipedia and, I kid you not, this was what I read.
In computational complexity theory, the complexity class NP-complete (abbreviated NP-C or NPC) is a class of decision problems. A decision problem L is NP-complete if it is in the set of NP problems so that any given solution to the decision problem can be verified in polynomial time, and also in the set of NP-hard problems so that any NP problem can be converted into L by a transformation of the inputs in polynomial time.
Quite lucid you say
I on the other hand am no longer feel smart enough to comprehend such material.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Music I Like
Single place for all the lists that I have published. This article will evolve as I create newer lists.
Asha and Rafi Top 10
Asha and Rafi Next 10
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