a journal entry

I can't believe it's March already. I know I keep saying it every year, but this past year has been a complete blur. I can't remember another year that passed by more quickly. It seems only a few months ago that I opened up my computer at the HH dining hall to discover that I had been admitted to GT. Winter - or what passes for winter in the South - is now over, and summer is on its way in, without the decency of letting us have a respectable spring. So busy...

Advanced operating systems is a great course. Immensely time consuming, but a great course nonetheless. I had the misfortune recently of partnering up with a soon-to-be post-grad on one of the recent projects, because I'd mistakenly been taken in by his credentials. As I soon discovered, and as Nicky was quick to point out, an Indian who is also a soon-to-be post-grad combines so much indolence in a single being that I might as well have worked on the project by myself. Every time I saw my phone light up with a call or a text message from this dude, I let out a string of the choicest curses, since I had no doubt in my mind that he was going to pester me about something trivial. Every time I saw his smarmy face waft up to me after class, I got the urge to aim a left hook at it. There are no words to describe how annoying he was. Working with him was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, and I only hope the universe has sense enough to exact revenge against him on my behalf at some point in the future.

The lab on the other hand, where I may have mentioned I spent much of my time trying to pass for a research student, is awesome. Recently the PhD student I've been working with came up to me and said, "Blah blah blah blah blah coauthor." I stopped him right there. "Did you say, 'coauthor'? Hell yeah." Things took off from there, and in a few short days I had my name on a paper of sorts that was to be submitted to a workshop for evaluation. We stayed at the lab till 3 AM that night, and the PhD student kindly offered to drive me back to my place. He told me with some effusiveness that he would not have been able to finish this project in time, had I not joined the lab in such an opportune fashion. He's an exceedingly nice soul, so I suspect he may have been exaggerating a little, but I do wonder whether my being at the lab is not in fact more than just a pretense of being useful.

I have no time for books. None at all. I have, however, been making considerable progress on my transcription for the organ of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1, which has tended to assuage in some small degree my frustrations at being away from the piano for so long. I think it's an embarrassment that GT, in spite of its name, has only two pianos on campus available for the average student to play, which are, moreover, in such a state of disrepair that you would better off having no pianos at all.

Socially, I've been hanging out with Nicky's Klaus group a decent amount. They're a fun group of people, bringing with them the traditional disdain for power and authority that is one of the hallmarks of the Indian community and that I miss so much from my days of haunting Kalpa with Nanochip, and even from FIITJEE.