I recently watched the movie Babel which was nominated for a slew of Oscars including the best supporting actress for two people in the movie as well as the best picture. I think it won for music. I cannot say that I noticed the music much, but the technique and the story was really good as was the acting all round. The story involved people in four countries and three continents. In the way it was interwoven, it seemed a lot like Crash, the winner of 2006 Oscar for the best picture.
A two and a half hour long film, that I did not realize was this long! The story is original and all deal with a breakdown of communication between people -- for some reason or the other. The tag line of the movie says it all: "If You Want to be Understood...Listen". The movie is not so much about any one person per se and so no one is a star of this movie. The only thing that we wish when the movie ends, is that the some of the loose ends had been tied up better. The Japanese angle in the story was not very well developed, I thought. It was only loosely connected with everything else. Still, a very well directed, acted, thought out movie.
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Cliff-Hanging Academician
Who says academics lead a boring life?
For years I used to wonder why I did not choose a more interesting profession, say acting or reporting etc. Then I used to imagine how it would be if every time I wrote a paper I would have to face a camera. Every mistake would be documented. Every time I wrote something that did not sound right, I would have to yell at myself "CUT!!" before I went ahead and changed the wording. Then I realized that it was just as well that I did not have to be in the public eye every time I worked!
However, every time you have a grant, your granting agency comes to visit you and you get to present all that wonderful stuff that you and your students/post-docs have accomplished. Today was one such event. This was the mid-term review of the project. It turned out that two people from the sponsoring agency (here-to-fore referred to as Sponsors) were supposed to make it to this meeting one month ago. Only one of them did. So we now get to do the show and tell all over again because both of them are able to show up today.
They could not have picked a worse day or even a worse week. This meeting comes sandwiched between a meeting with a venture capitalist (we are starting a company..) and a proposal deadline in a couple of days. So, I did not even look at the slides I had prepared for the last month's presentation. Once in the car, my husband (M, who is also my colleague, and as it happens in this particular case, also a Co-PI on this project) and I just go over some points to review our progress in the project. The meeting was supposed to start with lunch and general discussion, and then each project PI does a one on one with the sponsors and the Co-PI. The meeting starts off late, so I decide that rather than waste the time, I will work on the proposal that is due in a couple of days. M calls from his office to tell me that he will need the slides that I made last time to help him describe effectively, his part of the project. We agree that I will give him my laptop so he can do his presentation from that.
So, when the meeting did get started I walked in to the room about 5 minutes before I was scheduled to begin my presentation. I pick up some lunch (this time they actually had some good stuff and remembered that I am vegetarian). So, I was beaming with happiness as I turned on the laptop and waited patiently as it lumbered through its boot up procedure.
The speaker before me is on his 5th slide out of 7. I open the explorer and go to the folder in question and open the presentation. At least, I thought that was my presentation. Going through the presentation, I sense something odd. Midway through the presentation, I click "next" for the next slide and lo and behold "end of slide show". I realize that this was not the slide show I used last time. This was a truncated version. Perhaps a first cut? I look up -- speaker-before-me is on slide number 6/7. I frantically open each of the presentation in the folder. Down to the last one ... and.. the speaker before me says "In conclusion....". No slides! Alarm bells jangle in my mind as I carefully arrange every line, every muscle in my face to remain exactly where it was before I realized the crisis I was in. Then, I get out of the rear door. I dashed across to my office to call M to tell him " the slides are in your laptop, not mine!". He agreed to bring it down immediately.
I get back in the room, Speaker-before-me is in the question answer session. Good. So, I run up and get a show and tell piece on which I hope to demo some of my results later on. The question answer session is winding down and no M.
Q&A done. All eyes on me. I take the show and tell piece and start talking about it. Someone asks if M will be coming. Perfect chance. Yes, he will be here any minute. One of the Sponsors says he needs a small break. Couldn't be better! So, I graciously accept to go call M. I make the call, "What happened?!!!!".
M: How many times do I have to knock on your office door. Where were you?
I: Well, I was in the conference room ??!
M: The slides are not in my laptop. They must be in yours.
Deafening silence from both sides of the telephone line. I don't know what M is thinking, but I am thinking "where on Earth is that stupid slide?!"
M: Last time we sent a copy to X. See if you can get it from him.
So, I get back to the conference room and ask X. He puts it in my USB stick. I get to the projector, connect my laptop and look for the slides and the rest, as they say, is history.
Shew!
Now I have to get back to pounding on my laptop for my next proposal, so that a year later I can be in a similar crisis with some other sponsors. Hopefully. The sponsors part, I mean!
For years I used to wonder why I did not choose a more interesting profession, say acting or reporting etc. Then I used to imagine how it would be if every time I wrote a paper I would have to face a camera. Every mistake would be documented. Every time I wrote something that did not sound right, I would have to yell at myself "CUT!!" before I went ahead and changed the wording. Then I realized that it was just as well that I did not have to be in the public eye every time I worked!
However, every time you have a grant, your granting agency comes to visit you and you get to present all that wonderful stuff that you and your students/post-docs have accomplished. Today was one such event. This was the mid-term review of the project. It turned out that two people from the sponsoring agency (here-to-fore referred to as Sponsors) were supposed to make it to this meeting one month ago. Only one of them did. So we now get to do the show and tell all over again because both of them are able to show up today.
They could not have picked a worse day or even a worse week. This meeting comes sandwiched between a meeting with a venture capitalist (we are starting a company..) and a proposal deadline in a couple of days. So, I did not even look at the slides I had prepared for the last month's presentation. Once in the car, my husband (M, who is also my colleague, and as it happens in this particular case, also a Co-PI on this project) and I just go over some points to review our progress in the project. The meeting was supposed to start with lunch and general discussion, and then each project PI does a one on one with the sponsors and the Co-PI. The meeting starts off late, so I decide that rather than waste the time, I will work on the proposal that is due in a couple of days. M calls from his office to tell me that he will need the slides that I made last time to help him describe effectively, his part of the project. We agree that I will give him my laptop so he can do his presentation from that.
So, when the meeting did get started I walked in to the room about 5 minutes before I was scheduled to begin my presentation. I pick up some lunch (this time they actually had some good stuff and remembered that I am vegetarian). So, I was beaming with happiness as I turned on the laptop and waited patiently as it lumbered through its boot up procedure.
The speaker before me is on his 5th slide out of 7. I open the explorer and go to the folder in question and open the presentation. At least, I thought that was my presentation. Going through the presentation, I sense something odd. Midway through the presentation, I click "next" for the next slide and lo and behold "end of slide show". I realize that this was not the slide show I used last time. This was a truncated version. Perhaps a first cut? I look up -- speaker-before-me is on slide number 6/7. I frantically open each of the presentation in the folder. Down to the last one ... and.. the speaker before me says "In conclusion....". No slides! Alarm bells jangle in my mind as I carefully arrange every line, every muscle in my face to remain exactly where it was before I realized the crisis I was in. Then, I get out of the rear door. I dashed across to my office to call M to tell him " the slides are in your laptop, not mine!". He agreed to bring it down immediately.
I get back in the room, Speaker-before-me is in the question answer session. Good. So, I run up and get a show and tell piece on which I hope to demo some of my results later on. The question answer session is winding down and no M.
Q&A done. All eyes on me. I take the show and tell piece and start talking about it. Someone asks if M will be coming. Perfect chance. Yes, he will be here any minute. One of the Sponsors says he needs a small break. Couldn't be better! So, I graciously accept to go call M. I make the call, "What happened?!!!!".
M: How many times do I have to knock on your office door. Where were you?
I: Well, I was in the conference room ??!
M: The slides are not in my laptop. They must be in yours.
Deafening silence from both sides of the telephone line. I don't know what M is thinking, but I am thinking "where on Earth is that stupid slide?!"
M: Last time we sent a copy to X. See if you can get it from him.
So, I get back to the conference room and ask X. He puts it in my USB stick. I get to the projector, connect my laptop and look for the slides and the rest, as they say, is history.
Shew!
Now I have to get back to pounding on my laptop for my next proposal, so that a year later I can be in a similar crisis with some other sponsors. Hopefully. The sponsors part, I mean!
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Review: A long way down
Recently I read Nick Hornby's "A long way down" upon recommendations from my sisters. They refused to tell me what the subject of the book was and no amount of prodding and/or pleading would induce them to reveal the subject of the book. I thank them for that. I think the book packs more of a punch because of that. So, I have a tough job ahead of me: to write a non-trivial review of a book without divulging its central theme. Let's see if I can do that.
Perhaps this exercise would be a good tribute to the book itself, since the author himself has not chosen an easy subject to write about. Not by a long shot. The subject is at once too private and at the same time something that society needs to think about. A subject that is too weighty that any levity must be carefully weighed before committing to paper lest it antagonizes the reader by giving the impression that the author was trivializing something so important. And yet, levity is needed since the topic is too grim without it. Nick Hornby has masterfully interwoven levity with introspection and social comment in this novel about one of the most current and yet ancient topic in society. All this, without in the least sounding very planned. Kudos!
Perhaps this exercise would be a good tribute to the book itself, since the author himself has not chosen an easy subject to write about. Not by a long shot. The subject is at once too private and at the same time something that society needs to think about. A subject that is too weighty that any levity must be carefully weighed before committing to paper lest it antagonizes the reader by giving the impression that the author was trivializing something so important. And yet, levity is needed since the topic is too grim without it. Nick Hornby has masterfully interwoven levity with introspection and social comment in this novel about one of the most current and yet ancient topic in society. All this, without in the least sounding very planned. Kudos!
Friday, 9 February 2007
Pump it LOUDER!
Three days every week, I work out. I don't run on the treadmill, cycle or walk, I train with weights. That is, if I don't get called to attend meetings that I can't get out of or have to travel for work. One and a half years ago, I started with a 12lb bar and two 6lb and 3lb weights for some of the other exercises . Back then, when the instructor (and presumably the rest of the class) where doing 15 or so squats per set, I managed to groan out .. oh.. say.. 7, may be? Now, I have slipped a 3lb weight on to my 12lb bar and use two 8lb and 5lb weights for most other things and can aaaaaaalmost do as many rounds of each exercise that the instructor does, while still maintaining my form. Managed to drop about 4 dress sizes and about 9lbs (if that is important -- can't say that I don't get a kick out of looking more like my earlier self). And I am happy as can be. Just the thought that I have manged to stick to something that is good for me (health wise) for so long is thrilling enough, not to mention all those endorphins that are supposedly being released during/after a workout.
I went through the first 9 months or so without breathing a word about my new obsession to anyone, with the exception of my sisters of course. They are always in on anything that I am upto. What if I jinx it and don't get to see the inside of a "class room" for the rest of my life? During this period I read a lot about eating right and different techniques and forms for exercises (www.exrx.net is a real good source). Then I "outed" myself to a few casual acquaintances to see if that had any effect on the tenacity of my purpose. Then, sometime last semester, I even got brave enough to mention it to my secretary at work (only because she commented on how I looked, though). And lo and behold! now I am blogging about it! (can you see the crossed fingers and toes?). Success indeed. I will be keeping an alert eye out for any signs from the cosmos that my weight training days are over.
So today, I even managed to juggle yet another meeting with The Class (like The City -- there is only one!) by cutting out (VERY grudgingly) 15 minutes of my workout time (bye bye abs!) . I think the instructor had some personal vendetta to settle with her arms today -- or may be she was just really beefing up for some special purpose. Either way, she killed the arms today. I was too preoccupied watching the time to count the sets or keep tabs on the exercises but I think we did about 20 straight rows, 5 minutes worth of flyes (that does not sound like a lot -- but you try it!!) A bunch of chest presses and what someone in class calls "skull-crushes" . Basically, you lie on your back and lift the bar up (gripping it shoulder width apart) and then, bend your elbows and bring the bar down somewhere over your forehead (depends on how long your arms are). Then some clean-up presses. The woman does not know to count in less than 10s. Some bicep curls and oh I cannot remember what else. Anyhow, my arms were mush and I had a hard time holding the shower in my hand.
For this "term", my goal is to work on my abs and hopefully lower body strength as well. I don't mean to only work my abs or lower body, but to put most of the effort there, so I can shake it out of a zone of complacency.
So, I say to myself
"Shake it, shake it, shake it girl
Make sure you don't break it, girl" and "Pump it LOUDER!!! Pump it LOUDER!!"
I went through the first 9 months or so without breathing a word about my new obsession to anyone, with the exception of my sisters of course. They are always in on anything that I am upto. What if I jinx it and don't get to see the inside of a "class room" for the rest of my life? During this period I read a lot about eating right and different techniques and forms for exercises (www.exrx.net is a real good source). Then I "outed" myself to a few casual acquaintances to see if that had any effect on the tenacity of my purpose. Then, sometime last semester, I even got brave enough to mention it to my secretary at work (only because she commented on how I looked, though). And lo and behold! now I am blogging about it! (can you see the crossed fingers and toes?). Success indeed. I will be keeping an alert eye out for any signs from the cosmos that my weight training days are over.
So today, I even managed to juggle yet another meeting with The Class (like The City -- there is only one!) by cutting out (VERY grudgingly) 15 minutes of my workout time (bye bye abs!) . I think the instructor had some personal vendetta to settle with her arms today -- or may be she was just really beefing up for some special purpose. Either way, she killed the arms today. I was too preoccupied watching the time to count the sets or keep tabs on the exercises but I think we did about 20 straight rows, 5 minutes worth of flyes (that does not sound like a lot -- but you try it!!) A bunch of chest presses and what someone in class calls "skull-crushes" . Basically, you lie on your back and lift the bar up (gripping it shoulder width apart) and then, bend your elbows and bring the bar down somewhere over your forehead (depends on how long your arms are). Then some clean-up presses. The woman does not know to count in less than 10s. Some bicep curls and oh I cannot remember what else. Anyhow, my arms were mush and I had a hard time holding the shower in my hand.
For this "term", my goal is to work on my abs and hopefully lower body strength as well. I don't mean to only work my abs or lower body, but to put most of the effort there, so I can shake it out of a zone of complacency.
So, I say to myself
"Shake it, shake it, shake it girl
Make sure you don't break it, girl" and "Pump it LOUDER!!! Pump it LOUDER!!"
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