Goodbye old friend.. you will be missed

The President of Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein, was executed at 6.00 AM local time. While I do not approve of his actions even if they are not as horrendous as the media has portrayed, he is one of the rare breed of men who stand up to what they think is right.

I did not believe for a minute that he was a noble soul who did nothing wrong, but I do believe that the American Imperialism had no business invading his country. When will we ever learn that democracy has to be born from within, and cannot be enforced.

When your whole pretext of invading a sovereign nation is to spread democracy, what lesson are you teaching when you kill their president after holding a sham of a trial. Both the human rights organizations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International have unequivocally announced the trials as unfair and biased. The chief judge of the trial resigned in protest of the political influences. What more do we need before we call it a sham? Aren’t due process and “innocent until proven guilty” the very foundations of democracy? How is it what we are doing any different from the lynching?

All media speaks of are the billions of dollars and 3000 men in uniform that were lost in the invasion. While the loss of life is tragic, we need to understand that these men signed up voluntarily for this, unlike the many hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, not to mention the millions more rendered homeless. I am yet to see a real account of what has this done to the lives of millions of Iraqis who did not sign up to wager their lives. There is not a square in the whole country where those who are left can grieve in peace. Why is it that we hold the 3000 lives at a higher pedestal than the millions on the other side?

I will leave you with a quote from Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.“

Happy Hols!

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or any other religious thing during this season, my best wishes.

For those of you who suffer through this season of nauseating melodies and tasteless decorations, just take solace in the thought that this too shall pass in a week or so. For the pessimists in you, remember soon it will be valentine’s day, then your birthday, and before you know it they will be lighting up the damn tree again

Nuggets of Wisdom from Undergrads

The quarter ended today, YAH!!! I was TA for QoH this quarter for a course on creativity and it was actually quite fun. I liked the students and their insane sense of humor. I think I gave them all pretty good grades, and I convinced QoH to mean the class at 3.6, which is pretty high for an undergrad course. Here are a couple of nuggets of wisdom that I had collected over the last 3 months:

Q: How do you use a barometer to measure height of the building without actually using it like it was intended to be.
A: Use the barometer to knock a few occupants of the building unconscious, and hold them hostage till the city planner hands over the building plans. Read the height of the building from the plan.

Q: Name a technique to increase creativity
A: Smoke pot, and start writing on a scroll. If you do not believe me, ask any poet from the the 19th century and they will attest my views.

Q: Suggest a method to improve social interaction among students
A: Hold a drunken orgy

Q: Suggest a method to improve social interaction among students
A: Sorry, I am an engineer and do not recognize the terms “social”, or “interaction”. Rephrase the question.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly

I have been dating this wonderful girl for the last couple of weeks. She is kind a sweet and everything, but I am not that attracted to her. I am not sure why, and I do not want to spend time analyzing why. Here is the conundrum. Typically, I would have broken it off as soon as I figure out there is no chemistry. However this time, there is this inner voice that is telling me to wait until after things get physical. I have been the typical good guy so far, and that hasn’t done much for me. I am tempted to test the dark side. I know what I am doing is wrong on multiple levels, but when I am trying to transform myself in other arenas, why not this?

Grad Student Forums

I was thinking about the general support network for a grad student, and came to a conclusion that most people who need help are not in a position to go discuss the issues one-on-one with anyone they know in person. Here is where the internet comes to the rescue. For me personally, this blog has been a source of information, opinion, and well plain ranting. I am fairly certain it is the same case with other student blogs too. However, there is only one small problem with this approach. The feedback is limited to the number of regular readers of your blog, and typically there are very few of them.

Next step web forums.

The closest I have come to finding forums for grad students are groups like phinished. While they are perform a critical service, their focus is restricted to a small portion of the entire student experience. Instead of my typical whine-and-run routine, I have chosen to be proactive for once and do something about it.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you www.gradanon.com

It is still a work in progress, so it is pretty rough around the edges. Please do let me know if you have any suggestions or criticisms. Oh.. and tell your friends

Life, Universe, and Everything

Its been a while since I have made a meaningful post, so here is a synopsis:

1) My sister went from being single, to nearly engaged, and back to single over the period of last 2 weeks. The guy was nice, but too nice to be true. The more digging we did into his background, more uncomfortable things became. She is handling it amazingly well. Guess she is just a whole lot stronger than I gave her credit for.

2) The whole drama made my mom, well anxious and depressed. Understandable. However, what worries me is the magnitude of her reaction. She confided in me last night that she actually purposefully cut her toe against the rough edge of a chair just to relieve frustration. I have been trying to talk her down, but its going to be a long process.

3) Things with QoH are on a roller coaster as usual. Yesterday he blew a fuse because he could not catch hold of me on my mobile phone for a period of 5 hours in the evening. I refused to apologize for it and told him we could discuss it if he wants. I have made up my mind to put an end to his passive aggressive bullshit. If he wants to be an asshole, he has to come out and outright say it.

4) I might have mentioned that I am actively involved in a student organization on campus that is targeted towards fostering leadership among graduate students. We have been holding regular meetings over the last few months, and things have been progressing really well. I am so happy that I am able to contribute something towards the betterment of the world, however small that contribution might be. Also, I now have a huge ass crush on one other staff member, but she is in a committed relationship. I need to figure out why is it that anyone I am interested in is either already married or well on their way towards it.