Gaurav's Blog

This can usually be found on Twitter.

Saw the Trivia section of the Tintin in Tibet page on Wikipedia just now. Apparently Hergé's estate blocked publication of a Chinese version under the title "Tintin in China's Tibet", thanks to the post-mortality copyright extensions that I'm so against. If we ever succeed, and copyright extensions are cut, and classics like Tintin fall into the public domain, does that mean anybody can reinterpret history as they want? And how do we know that hasn't happened already? Some "wise" scholar rewriting Shakespeare to put more drama into it, or meticulously correcting the sexism in Don Quixote to make it "relevant"?

I suppose, oddly enough, that what's going to save them is - of all things - the Copyright System itself. If I draw "Hergé's Tintin in China's Tibet, adapted by Gaurav Vaidya", then as a derivative work I own the copyright over this version of the book. And between an album by Gaurav Vaidya and Hergé, who do you suppose Mr. Publisher is going to print? Particularly when they'll need to pay me royalities, but not Mr. Hergé.

So it's all good. Except that I really oughtn't to be at work this friggin' late, particularly when I'm really just wasting time to accumulate time up, as I owe the lab so much last week and have no real need to be up on - or anywhere near - time tomorrow. Unfortunately, this means all the good food places are closed. Sigh.

This post was posted by Unknown at 9:52 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Interest color: Blue
People with blue Interests like job responsibilities and occupations that involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of activities. Blue Interests include abstracting, theorizing, designing, writing, reflecting, and originating, which often lead to work in editing, teaching, composing, inventing, mediating, clergy, and writing.

Usual style: Yellow
People with yellow styles perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is orderly and planned to meet a known schedule. They prefer to work where things get done with a minimum of interpretation and unexpected change. People with a yellow style tend to be orderly, cautious, structured, loyal, systematic, solitary, methodical, and organized, and usually thrive in a research-oriented, predictable, established, controlled, measurable, orderly environment. You will want to choose a work environment or career path in which your style is welcomed and produces results.

While there are a LOT of people who would disagree with 'Yellow', the 'Blue' sounds convincing enough. There is also an enormous list of 'possible jobs' I don't care to copy-paste right now.

In other news, cleoie seems to be getting married while angry. Is it just me, or is that somewhat depressing? I'd hate to be married for no good reason, and have to live with it for the rest of my life.

This post was posted by Unknown at 11:17 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Joel Spolsky has a fantastic article on dream programming jobs - I love particularly the bit about Identifying with the Company.

It's a star in the night sky - only one, but hey; one's better than nothing.

This post was posted by Unknown at 3:38 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

New insight: I have a really good job. I've got an airconditioned room, interesting people to work for and with, a work which is rather definitely within my skill level (well ... mostly), The only things I'm missing out on is fulfilment, which, while it is important for me, is nothing to get all excited about (also plenty angst for my programming languages, but hey). So: no sudden switch in career. Once this job ends, I look for something better. If there's nothing better I can find, I suppose I look around for another lab job, and see how it goes.

Doesn't mean I won't be career surfing around.

This post was posted by Unknown at 12:13 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Things might be on a very slight upslide today. Very slight, mind - upslides are hard to measure at all, and anything which looks like an upslide might just as easily be a downslide, and all that - but I feel less absolutely sick, less ... incapable of just about anything, for want of a better way to put it. My stomach is still borderline wonky, and I can see going to sleep at (atleast) 3am isn't going to help matters much, and - much the worse of the list - while my eye hasn't twitched in a while, it still doesn't feel on top of its game.

Sigh. One assumes that there must be a way to take a few days off work 'just because', but haven't really looked into it. As it is, things ought to be a whole lot more relaxed next week, and I am going to take full advantage of the weekend to do absolutely nothing stressful etc. Next week should also be easier because everybody's going to be in Japan, so. Except that I have to work on the blasted website. Sighs, multiple, repetitive.

Haven't really thought about the possible-issues thing at all. Typical. I honestly don't have the guts to right now. What's the use in falling if I know there's no safety net? Better to keep walking the tightrope, eh?

Ironically, the most consistantly nice thing in my life right now is reading Don Quixote before going to sleep. Rarely get through more than a page or two, considering how tired and sleepy I am, but it's fun, interesting, meditative. And then there's nothingness waiting at the end of the Sandman's tunnel.

Still, I'd like to feel better.

This post was posted by Unknown at 12:28 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Atleast one of my friends is making his dreams come together. Good stuff, eh?

This post was posted by Unknown at 1:01 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

So: I went to see the doctor today. Apparently, all my issues are caused by lack of sleep. Of course, I am getting adequate sleep lately - so the Doc thinks the sleep is being disturbed by my strange and fearsome dreams. Which he links back to my still being subconsciously grieving over everybody who died this year.

Which brings things 'round to the Kübler-Ross model of grief. I like it when things go round, even if that means being on the verge of tears atleast twice today.

Have slept well (with dreams, I think) for a while already, and will be back in bed after Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. So let's see how it goes. Am going to just take things a little easy for a while, I guess. Sigh. Hates being sick, psychosomatic or nonpsychosomatic. And woke up - and still - feel kinda pukey, and not quite right in the stomach. Maybe I should get me some 7UP.

Speeches at the UN GA are kind of interesting. It's nice going mano-a-mano - sort of - on International Politics. Makes it all seem less mixed up some how. Am thinking of restarting Radio Genocide, maybe on Blogger Beta (yes, with categories!). Let's see how that goes.

Interestingly, there's a whole different 'Stages of Mourning' thing in Judaism. Ah, the joys of random wikisurfing =). Although I suppose that's really another circle closing, isn't it?

This post was posted by Unknown at 11:47 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

BBC World just reported that tanks are approaching government house in Bangkok, even as Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa beat the gavel for the 61st United National General Assembly to come to order for Kofi Annan's opening speech.

Such is life, global style -- life in the 21st century. So easy to get left behind.

This post was posted by Unknown at 11:25 pm | 2 comments | Post a Comment

So says the Belief-O-Matic, anyway. The description is available as well. I might also be a Secular Humanist (98%) or a Liberal Quaker (91%).

Hinduism is way down at #25, and 'Nonthiest' at #4. Although it has been proved to me (over dinner) that I am really athiest, so I'll religiously adhere to that until proven otherwise.

Bought myself the highest iron containing cereals in the nearest supermarket (I also went down to Eunos - got my fan fixed - and then back to Jurong - but didn't make it in time to sign up for the first aid thing, although I did figure out the most direct bus there. Was cranky and so on all day long, atleast for the bit I was awake (which wasn't until 1pm! 1pm, for crying out loud - and I slept somewhere around 1am. Something's not right. Played hookey from work, which will have to be Made Up. Sigh.)

Hopefully the iron thing will help the feeling sick thing. Let's see how it goes, etc.

This post was posted by Unknown at 9:52 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Link from India Uncut: NZ finds Black Cocks hard to swallow (Chinese not too keen either).

Is nice to be able to laugh at the blindingly ridiculous every once in a while.

This post was posted by Unknown at 6:38 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Knowns:

• Why I'm signing up for the St. John Ambulance First Aid course tomorrow.
• What I'm going to be working on this week/next week (roughly).
• When my first co-authored paper is going to be coming out (soon!).
• When TaxonDNA is going to hit the spotlights (soon!).
• What the next change on my blog is going to be (changing the font size on the dates).
• Exactly where things are going, short-term.
• Why I'm still up typing this, instead of being asleep like a good little boy.

Unknowns:

• How much caffeine will I have to consume tomorrow? And in which form will I consume it?
• When will I hear from the ICA? What will their decision be?
• What new features are going to go into TaxonDNA before 1.0?
• What will this week be like?
• What happens after February?
• What's next?

This post was posted by Unknown at 12:35 am | 2 comments | Post a Comment

Just in case you didn't know that this was going on. And there's photos too!

This post was posted by Unknown at 3:41 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Yes, I'm reformatting my blog. Yes, it looks ugly. Yes, comments in particular are gross. Yes, the footer doesn't use 'clear: both' to make it do the Right Thing.

I'm working on it. Sorry for the delays, but playing around with Blogger is hard.

This post was posted by Unknown at 7:23 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

you need a photo like this to remind you of how much there is left to do.

This post was posted by Unknown at 6:42 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

The World Toilet Organisation

Seriously. Wtf?

This post was posted by Unknown at 6:09 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

To begin with, a link: http://www.ginini.com/perlsaq.html. Funny stuff.

Today, I went into lab; I thought about how to fix up NexusFiles to do complex-sequence-like things (well, Sets, actually). I then proceeded to take NexusFile apart, and it took me the rest of the day to put it back together again. Sort of. Sigh.

I started reading the more interesting articles off Ward's Wiki (look up "Get a Life" to see what I mean) which got me thinking about the whole what-should-I-do-with-my-life question. I mean, computer programming is interesting, it's fun, it's great people to work with, but is this *it*? My contribution to planet earth? To the people I love and care about?

God, I hope not.

This post was posted by Unknown at 10:41 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Bomb blasts in India, dead famous people in Australia (three at last count), work was getting depressing (although is hopefully getting better!), I'm tired, bored, and hey - the weekend is GONE. Like, vanished. Like, no weekend. None!

And I missed the Flickr meetup. And I'm getting cold shouldered left right and center. And things are getting frustratingly slow and irritating. And I have to go into work tomorrow. And I've been having strange dreams (involving a very pretty friend of mine I don't actually have a crush on), and bad dreams (I had a dream that my mother was having a progressive degenerative neurological condition. I shit you not. Awful stuff. My grandmother showed up in that dream as well - the one who died earlier this year - so yeah, um. Not fun. Atleast I got a fairly good night's sleep, and the strange dream was *after* the bad dream, so I didn't stay around feeling like shit for too long.)

I don't even get to watch "Shrek 2" (starting now) because it's like 3am and I ought to go to sleep so I don't feel totally shitty tomorrow.

Urgh.

This post was posted by Unknown at 3:19 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Things had better start getting better soon ... =(

This post was posted by Unknown at 1:19 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Although, obviously, that means very little.

I am apparently sharing a boat on this. I'm also waiting for my clothes to get done, which is much more frustrating.

I smell detergent. This is either a good thing or a bad thing. Only one way to find out.

This post was posted by Unknown at 11:37 pm | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Check this out:

So I wake up late, as usual. Considering that I was rolling around until 3-something last night, not particularly surprising, I guess. But my timing was pretty good too: I woke up Exactly at 10am. Since I'm supposed to get to work by 8:30, this was bad; but since I try to make sure I'm not there later than 10 (I generally get up around 9-9:30 or so), this was both pretty bad. Also, because it was after ten, I didn't feel like rushing - since I wasn't getting there before 11 anyway, I might as well take my time and end up there in a semi-comfortable state.

Lab was okay, I guess. My code compileth - I did get plenty tangled up with a lot of very frustrating bugs, but managed to sort most of them out. Hopefully (ha!), we're close to closing every last majorly irritating bug on the list, at which point I'll fork SpeciesIdentifier/GenBankExplorer, and hope for the best!

Then: found out the Afa didn't like my design for the website. I mean, that's fine: they were really nice about it, I might try something else, and hey, you _are_ going to get rejected a couple of times at least, right? That's where things started going downhill somewhat though.

For starters, I missed BOTH buses - the 'A' back to lab, and the 151 back home. I get back home kinda hungryish, so I get bread and cheese, get back home, walk through the hall, and - splat! - down on my ass.

Why? Because some idiot had left a puddle of water in the hall. It wasn't just a spill - it was literally a PUDDLE. A thin layer of water, sitting there in the dark. I didn't really have a chance.

Luckily, no permanent damage - except that my White Album (my Expensive, bought-yesterday-after-months-of-considering-buying-it White album) got a crack. Haven't check to see how the CD is, but the case got cracked. This is a CD I have been intimately protecting for the last twenty four hours straight, because my tape at home has a crack, and I wanted this one to last pristine and shiny for a while to come.

Sigh. Oh, and I'm depressed because there's yet another pointless death this year. Well, all deaths are pointless, but ... I don't know. It's all very depressing. Can't wait for this damned year to end.

This post was posted by Unknown at 9:57 pm | 1 comments | Post a Comment

I hate waking up feeling drowsy and sick, particularly after a dream which - while not exactly graphic horror - Just Wasn't Right, either. And now I have to decide whether or not to go over for the Flickr photoshop thingie ...

I guess I don't have much of an excuse: there are guys going to be turning up at one, and it's still only 11:30. And ... hey, look, Mythbusters is on!

So: it's now 1:00pm, and I'm in a majorly vegetative state right about now. Then again, there's nothing particularly interesting at home, except the Internet, and you know how interesting *that* can be.

So: it's now 10:39pm. I did end up going ...

So: it's now 01:56am, tomorrow. It's been a nice, just-by-myself kind of day, which are nice and ... I don't know. Refreshing? Plus, I got a teensy weensy little bit of exercise done, which is really pretty nice too. So, all in all, it was good. I'm going to get my hopes up for tomorrow, though: I'd like to get out earlier and take more photos =).

This post was posted by Unknown at 2:03 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

Giving an interesting meme a push: why are you in science? Apparently, the more common reason is mentors.

I'm in Science at all because when I was a horny little adolescent, I discovered The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. Apart from an excrutiatingly scientific description of sex, it was my first introduction to animal behaviour, and I just completely went crazy about it.

Why crazy? To be honest, I still don't know - and only being able to do one course in animal behavior thus far doesn't help. I think I'm fascinated by complicated systems - which also explains why I'm into computers. Complicated, and yet entirely deterministic systems. And yet, in these rhythms and processes and movements is the dance that is life, in all the splendid, astounding, satisfying, disappointing, morbid, fantastic glory.

So: that's why I'm here.

This post was posted by Unknown at 12:01 am | 4 comments | Post a Comment

1/ Happy start of September! Another month, another fantasy.

2/ I had the strongest shot of deja vu today. I think I'm more susceptible to deja vu than most, but today's surge was completely unexpected: I was standing outside the pantry with Pr. and G., and Pr. was telling me we ought to split TaxonDNA up into small units, so that it's more efficient, and that's when I got it.

Sigh. Life is so exciting! Why amn't I more a part of things around me?

This post was posted by Unknown at 2:00 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment

So: it was an awful day. Really, it was. I woke up late, and all tired, and sleepy, and pointless, and just completely wasted. A waste of muscle, brain and body, really. And I get into lab and Prof's not particularly happy about this neither. And then I have to go off, and get wet in the rain all the time, and basically get nothing done in the large scale at all at all, and not really having a good non-tech chat with anyone or anything like that either. Pretty depressing.

Okay, so it wasn't that bad - which by itself is almost a little bit disappointing, really - does this mean I've gotten so good at taking care of things that I can't even have a really rotten, pointless, depressing day anymore? High hubris, I know, but it's a scary way of looking at it.

Just spoke to I. about this. He hasn't been depressed in a while either - in fact, he hasn't been depressed since we left school. Coincidence?

TaxonDNA is getting more and more stressful, but still coming along great. But life is really, incredibly, unspeakably boring right about now. Some excitement would be nice ... however much I regret this in the future!

This post was posted by Unknown at 12:15 am | 0 comments | Post a Comment