random post

Lynn was bothering me to update, so here goes- a jewel of wisdom:

"The bicycle couldn't stand on its own because it was two-tired."

...enjoy.

Cheers folks, Shriram out.

Happy Halloween!

Aloha! It is October and Halloween is coming soon, me and Lynn decided to try pumpkin carving for the first time. We were actually really happy with the finished product considering we have never done it before. Hahaha.. Well I hope everyone is having a great time and Happy Halloween!


Yes yes... the pumpkin owed me money...


Lynn was looking for candy inside but didnt find any..


These were the designs we came up with.


I am so cool when I concentrate... HAHAHAHA JK JK!


Hummm.. what should I eat next... Hummm..


We were both happy with the finished product!


Pumkin caught trying to eat the candle... but ate it anyway!


The pumpkin pissed me off so I am shouting at it...



Happy Halloween Everybody!!

Joke for the day!

My favorite time has come!! Muahahaha...
Here it is,

What do chickens invest in?

Cmon.. you can get it!!!









ok ok... CHICKEN STOCK!!!

HAAHAHAHAHAHA...
That was goooood....

SAMPE attempt!

Woah! its been a long time posting here (Again...)... Recently I have been working hard and trying to keep my tasks done and at the same time survive my last semester as an undergraduate. Yesterday I was at the Armstrong Aeronautical Engineering building testing the test pieces that I have been working on for the past few weeks. The results were promising so I am happy. I am doing a research across departments together with Aeronautical Engineering. The abstract has been submitted for a conference next year called SAMPE. Hopefully we will get accepted because it will be a great experience! oh... and I still havent gotten any word about my grad school application.... Now I am worried... ><

hmm, placeholder?

This will serve as a placeholder in terms of the memories of Fall '08, so we won't forget when certain things took place. Hopefully one day, we'll look back on this and laugh. I'm laughing already :D. Cheers folks, Shriram out.

GRE!!! T0T

Whats up!? damn... I am going to take the GRE tomorrow.... I hate these kinds of tests... I hope I can at least just get a decent score.. Well! I guess no matter how much I hate it I still got to do it! Once this is done all I have to do is wait for semester to start and ask for recommendation letters! Then I can be done with the application for grad school and forget about it until admision time comes... >< Wish me luck! :D Gotta go study!

Back to Purdue T.T

yo eric i m going back on the 23rd of august and wil arrive in indi at 2:42pm on 08/23/08 this saturday. can u come to the airport to pick me up ^^ 3q

Meet Miharu

Today I went to pick up my puppy! :D First I want to say thank you to Lynn for driving me to pick up the puppy! Her name is Miharu, and she is super cute! She was so excited when we arrived! When we got back, Lynn brought Toto over and we tried to introduce Miharu to Toto... but it didnt work out very well ==... Maybe they need more time together to get friendly? It would be great if they become good friends :P




Here are some pictures Lynn took for me:


Miharu likes the shades for some reason ==..


Miharu playing with Lynn


Toto and Miharu

Williamsburg, you bitch.

Right, so as a few of you know, and one of you almost knows but refuses to call me back, and one of you is in taiwan (you know who you are), I'm not living at 718 next semester- I'm living in 709, next door. This isn't a problem in and of itself, but the fact that I only found out when *I* called, is just plain stupid. "someone" apparently was meant to get in touch with me about the change, with no semblance of a follow up. Ah well- there is no recourse, since I didn't get the apartment number in writing (or did I? I suppose I'll find out when I unpack my shit).

return-

Hey Eric, this is primarily to you- to avoid the ridiculous scramble that was last time (you know what I'm talking about), I'm thinking of going back to West Lafayette early-about 5 days early, in fact- which should give me loads of time to settle in, negotiate with nova (grumble) and set up shit- just wanted your input on the matter.

Cheers, Shriram out.
ps- by "roughly 5 days", I mean I might going in the 16th or 17th... not quite sure yet.

Summer Update

Hello~! Its been awhile since my last post! I have been really busy with work... the up coming few weeks would be even worst because it is the last weeks of work and deadlines are coming up! ><>< Well, to the fun part! Last week I had the chance to fire a real rifle for the first time in my life! This was actually a part of our experiment where we went to the shooting range and shot some bullets into our test pieces so we can determine what to do to repair these damages. The rifle we were using was an M1 rifle used in the Vietnam War. Up until last week, I have only seen the M1 in WWII games... Having the chance to not only see it but also firing it was amazing! We were each given a clip of ammo which is 8 bullets. I have to say the recoil of the rifle was not as bad as I thought, but the rifle was really powerful! We were shooting at targets about 100 meters away, the bullets were actually hitting the targets before the rifle started to recoil! That was how fast the bullets were! The experience was simply amazing!! Unfortunately I was not able to get pictures of me firing the rifle because I was so excited that I forgot to ask someone to take it for me... ToT but I did get some pictures! Here it is:


This is Loy, the owner of the M1
(I hope that is how I looked like when I was shooting :P)


The M1 rifle we were using


The bullets...
(I wouldnt want to be in the recieving end of this one ><)

Yesterday, I also had the chance to finally run my RC after months of waiting for parts to arrive from Japan... The car is a Toyota Chaser (JZX100) which is one of my favorite cars. It was really fun building up the RC including everything from the chassis to the exterior. The initial run had some minor setting problems where the car was vibrating like crazy... but after some adjustments the car ran great and I was able to have some fun and break in all the components. Now it is up to me to brush up my skills! Once I surpass the car's capabilities I will be looking into upgrading the chassis and engine :P As usual, here are some pictures:

21!

Sup guys, thanks for the greetings. Yay~ I am 21 , I can buy ALCOHOL! My family along with Ya Ying mei mei went to a steak house to celebrate my birthday last Sat. Steak wa UMAI @.@ Yesterday after work, Ya Ying and I went to a Japanese restaurant for more good food and guess what my gifts are: NDS and a hand made music box both from Ya Ying(3q3q).... I have to say that NDS is a really cute machine and the touch screen is ingenious. It makes you more involved with the game esp drum taro and a jp guys cheer squad game (well, I only played those two games so far) but damn drum taro is hard.... What makes it a GOOD machine IS... NO NEED TO BUY GAMES!! you don't have to mod NDS yet you can down load the games into the SD card and just run it! it works as good as having a real copy of the game. Therefore, I have 20+ games for my DS already and only 3 games for my psp, which I had for 5 months #.#
Jimdam, you can hang off the cliff with one arm Q.Q how come you didn't use your kuma kuma slap when you were fighting?
BTW Eric doesnt love you guys any more~ you guys broke his heart.... T.T that's why he is not getting back to you. show some love, walk him out of the corner! jk la but yeah he is surprisingly quite these days.... could it be black shinobis ............
Moreover, I am meeting up with Henry for dinner in 1 hour, haven't seen that guy for a year alrdy!
alryt tc guys, enjoy the last month of summer T.T

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIBAI!

Yo Alex,

Happy 21st Birthday man! Hope it was a great day dude.. enjoy

Cheers, Shriram

cue the dream sequence (2)

Hey folks- just decided to add another really strange dream I had last night.

It started with a school trip (not ISM, but a school which has now consolidated people I've met at Purdue with my ISM friends as well), to which I elected not to go, but decided to help people get there.

It starts in a helicopter, where I haven't brought any luggage for this trip, and others have; we reach out rather remote destination, and someone's scratched up their leg, and I'm helping them bandage it. However, when I turn around to get back on the chopper, the moment I toss my first aid kit in, the chopper leaves- leaving me stranded without clothes, for this week long trip. As I turn around, thinking about how dirty I'll be at the end of the trip (with only 1 set of clothes), the other party on the ground, leaves; I'm stuck alone, to find my own way. I go into the underground building where the tour must have led, and see a lot of people, calming my nerves. I walk up to the top of the building, where I can see the atrium, in an effort to find my class.

Here's where it gets interesting: in this continuity, Google's technology has apparently progressed to the point where GPS includes teleportation- so when my uncle calls (my cellphone is on roaming), I get transported to where my uncle and sister are sitting on a cliff, chilling and having a conversation. Unfortunately for me, I am brought to this location, hanging off the cliff with one arm, scared out of my mind. My uncle and sister try to pull me up, but the best they can do is to stabilize me, because I'm too heavy.

In the face of this cliff, is a model of a church, and so I ask my uncle (this is the one that actually works at Google) how to use that model to get transported to the church which is obviously on the ground. I keep trying to put my foot/finger into the church model, to evoke the Google Maps' functionality of taking me to the church, when my sister has an idea- "why not give the model a good wipe, so it's cleaner, and maybe will work better?" After cleaning the model church, I decide a different path for myself. Obviously, my uncle and sister got there somehow, so I figured I'd get them to leave, and then just use whatever method they used to get out of there, where I'd eventually find a city, and be able to fly back to my home.

Not unexpectedly, at that point, my foot hits the model, and I am transported to the church, which, much to my dismay, is abandoned. Of course, this wouldn't be my dream if weird didn't get weirder... in this church, I see everything as I would an RPG, and without my backpack, I have very few options for attack. But that comes in later- for now, I'm on a platform with creepy mouse like monsters on the ground, and I see a cutscene where someone is being mauled by a large monster, a couple of rooms away, and this "game" that I'm in has really irritating cutscenes, and shows me a lot of information that I don't need (random doors being opened/closed, etc).

When the camera relocates itself behind my head, I realise that the platform isn't high up, and jump down, running to the room where the man was being mauled. Once there, the monster charges, and my attack's aren't hurting it; all of my accessories and the like are in my backpack, and so I get stabbed through- game over, Shriram wakes up.

A strange dream, to say the least- but an interesting take of Google, RPG, and school trips that require helicopters.

Cheers folks, Shriram out.

ps- what's happened to Eric?! he's not answering emails or phone calls...
pps- how're you doing Loaw (Alex)? how's Ya Ying Jie doing?
ppps- Thanut... well, I still talk to you occassionally haha.

third report :: a little later-

Yo folks- not much to report this time, except that I met up with Kevin Grosvenor and John Cu over the weekend, which was really cool, since I haven't seen them in 4 and 6 years, respectively. We talked, we drank coffee, we ate, and we watched Wanted (stylistically cool, plotwise- a retarded movie)- nothing dramatic, but fun to do all the same. Of course, being the genius that I am, I didn't take my camera- but oh well, hopefully we'll do it again sometime.

I'm still trying to lose weight, and all that seems to be happening is that I get tired- I don't actually seem to be losing anything- and I run on the elliptical for about an hour, and running about 6 miles (which seemed adequate to me- I can't do any more >.<) At the same time though, it feels great to expend that kind of energy and sweat that much... Here's hoping that it'll soon take effect, and I'll be a fitter Shriram when I get back to W.Lafayette- one that Jiji won't be embarassed to tell people he's in love with (XD hehe).

Anyhow folks- sister's roommate just got out of the shower, which means it's my turn to get ready for work- Cheers, Shriram out.

Debut

Sup guys, it seems like everyone is doing fine. Jimdam is working hard and trying to lose weight. Jiji is learning new stuffs from work and falling deeper in love with little gin who just went through some plastic surgeries. Thanut..... hmm.. how is wasting time?lol
As of myself, I have been working for a month, reading about 100 news each day and studying the stock market every day. There are so many ways to invest in the stock market, long term or short term and buy the stock that will appreciate or sell the stock that will depreciate. The boss said to me once, "Stock market is a gamble", the more factors you take into consideration, the higher % that you will earn a profit. Moreover, it's a mental game between you and the world. This internship showed me how naive I was in investment. Sometimes I would make the right decision to enter the market but chicken out in the end when things are not according to plan. For instance, 2 weeks ago I was going to sell a company's stocks at high price because it was over priced and predicted that its face value would depreciate. Then, buy that company's stock later at lower price to earn the difference. However, on the day of making the deal, the value of that stock rose made me hesitant and didn't pursue. Later that week, this mistake resulted a lost of $7000 profit. This lesson didn't just tell me how mentally strong I need to be but also how badassly quick that you can make money in investment.
Aside from work, I have been working out every night doing 50~60 push ups and running in the park for 45mins... I gained 10kg from mid sem until now, at 74kg currently. I didn't see anyone here but Ya Ying mei mei~ cuz everyone is busy with their finals. OMG... the food in tw is so good, we went to lotza places for food esp night market"S" and took some photos, which I will post it when mei mei send it to me. Unfortunately, we could have taken more photos but we realized that when I finished the food or destroyed their looks already. BTW, teddy bear, from what I heard loco roco is a short game but whats hard about it is to get 100% finish. In addition, when I went shopping with mei mei, we found a heaven for games. This place sells shxx(censored by mei mei) load of games and have PSP otaku gang and NDS otaku gang. Guess what the NDS people are playing.... pika pika~~ the ferocious teddy bear's relative pikachu... =___=||| each players are equipped with at least one pikachu accessories...including HS and college guys....but it's okay, that the place where they can shine... i was thinking maybe we can join them sometime..^^
alright bros... I am off~ 4 more days till weekend T.T +oil tc will write more posts in the future...

Work Update

So, work has been going great! After a few weeks of frustration and headache for trying to figure out how to use the CNC machine, I finally got the CNC to start moving and made my first test piece! I have to admit it was one of the greatest feeling of accomplisment I have ever had :P hahaha... Next week I will be heading to Indianapolis to learn more about the CAD program and hopefully in a few weeks I will go back there for some training. I am really looking forward to learning more about the program so I can work with more complex shapes. The coming weeks of work are going to be exciting!

Oh! I got bored this weekend so here are more pictures of my car! :D

second report :: sometime after the first one

Alright folks, me again- only one thing to complain about this time, LocoRoco (which I got) is @#$%ing short. Really short. I've had it for four days, and less than six hours of game time, and I'm done. Yeah the game posed no challenge whatsoever, and is just easy to finish. Barely any replayability too. On that PSP game note though, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is amazing, and if you're thinking about getting it, Jibai- I strongly recommend that you do- the sense of getting immersed in Gaia (their world) is amazing, as Zack (main character) takes vacations in the beach paradise of Costa del Sol, hangs out in the metropolitan Midgar, as well as the slums that Midgar has (as any big place does), and although the game isn't very difficult, there's still a lot going on to make it fun.

Anyhow, on to better things- I met up with Allan Lin a couple of weeks ago, and though I have pics from my sister's camera, I'm too lazy to post them- they're not even on Minime yet. This weekend, I meet up with more ex-ISMers! Kevin Grosvenor, John Cu, and Allan are meeting me in SF this Saturday, which is going to be amazing.

I also started going to the gym, and I'm up to running ~6 miles a day on the elliptical. Not a great feat for some of you, but hell- I'm futoi, haha. Also doing some mild fat burning weight training, so hopefully I'll look different the next time I see all of you :).

On the work front, I'm still working on that digital lab, and unfortunately, I'm still stuck- gonna try a new tack, and hope that works.

How're you guys doing? How's work, Jibai and Eric? How's.... wasting time, Thanut? hahahaha.

Lemme know how your summers are going- and since Ya Ying jie is going to read this before Alex, how are you jie jie? hehe, Hope your summer and English practice is going well- remember my "Alex wake up techniques" that I mentioned to you ;)

Cheers folks- Shriram out.

My Car's Mid-Life Upgrade!

Finally after about 2 months of headache and troubles, my car's mid-life upgrade is finally complete! I have to say I am very happy with the result of the upgrades. This upgrade was mainly aimed at replacing things that are about to reach their service life. Focusing mainly in the chassis of the car. Chassis components fail faster here due to all the salt that they spray on the road during the winter... I hate it when they do that... but, there is not much I can do to stop them from using salt so I guess I'll just have to live with it.. T-T... So, the mid-life upgrade consists of 3 items. First the brake rotors and brake pads are replaced because the stock ones are already warped and it was affecting my car's stopping power a lot up to a point where it started to get dangerous... >< Second upgrade is the suspension, the stock shocks and TRD springs were replaced with a set of HKS Hipermax RS coilovers. I have to say these coilovers are absolutely amazing! They firm up the chassis but at the same time they are not harsh like most aftermarket coilovers. Lastly, the stock windshield wipers are replaced with PIAA silicon wipers. Now the car feels totally different! It almost felt better than when the car was brand new :P hahaha... Well, my posts are really not complete until there are pictures... so here they are! Pictures after I washed the car and with all the parts installed! Enjoy~!

New Brakes!

Today, the new brake parts was installed onto the car and I have to say they are absolutely amazing! I think I might have to get use to the new stopping power of the car and learn how to use my brakes again! haha.. Unfortunately it was raining today so I have yet to see what difference it will make during dry conditions. I am so excited! hahaha...

Before:

After:

Yes I know I need to wash my car, I will do that once everything is installed onto the car! :)

Coilovers!!

So I got home today from work and all I was thinking about is CNC and what I could do to make it work the way I need it to. But once I got to my door I noticed I had a UPS note stuck to my door! Humm.. what could it be?

Well, see what UPS brought me today!



Its my HKS Hipermax RS coilovers! This should help tighten up my chassis and improve my car's handling a lot! :D I cant wait to install it! All I am missing now is jacks which is with.... Thanut ==' hopefully I can get to installing these next weekend! "IF" Thanut remembers...

Finally! It is complete!

After weeks and weeks of waiting my brake parts are finally all here! First of all, the reason for me upgrading my brakes are because my stock brake rotors are warped and the dealer is trying to charge the hell out of me just to replace the parts. So I decided to go at it myself and piece together my brake package. The goal is to spend about the same amount of money as the dealer had tried to charge me, but end up with a far better brake setup. So I went with 4 new slotted rotors from Stoptech (Now Powerslot). Axxis Ultimate brake pads for the rear and special ordered a set of Endless CC-X front brake pads from Japan. Endless had to manufacture the pads just for me due to my car not being available in Japan and that is the reason for the long wait. But I have always wanted to try Endless brake parts so I decided to wait for it, and now it is finally here! The plan is to get it installed this weekend and finally I will no longer have to worry about my car not being able to stop!

pata pata pata pon! pon pon pata pon!

Yo! My work is going reasonably well, and yesterday I broke and ordered LocoRoco from Amazon lol- but that's also because I beat Patapon! The game is quite good, and everyone has it on their top 10- I'm also looking for Boku no Watashi no Katamari (Me and My Katamari in English) but I can wait on that- PSP puzzle games are cool, cuz I can put them down whenever- I did play another 10 minutes of Crisis Core before sleeping though, haha.

I've started going to the gym before work (which means waking up at 6:30~6:45 *grumble grumble*) and then showering at the gym, and heading across the street to work from 9 to 5... not too much of an issue.

Patapon's ending is quite anticlimactic, and since Alex isn't done, let me just say that if there's no sequel, Alex will most likely kill someone, haha.

Cheers folks- time to get to work! Shriram out.

ps- yo Jibai, how goes YOUR internship? Hopefully not getting bullied too much by Ya Ying jie hahaha.
pps- Nut, you still suck.
ppps- Eric, you still rule.

Hello!

Wow... its been awhile again since I last posted something... I have been busy working and so far everything has been going well! I am learning a lot from my work and also I am getting a lot of experience working on composites. The airport has been relatively quiet for the past few weeks so I havent got any pictures from the airport. However, my dad sent me some of his paintings that he has recently completed and personally I think they are amazing. What do you guys think?

first report:: middle of first work week

Bonjour mes amis! Just felt like posting an entry about first few days in San Francisco- but what is a blog entry of mine without a little complaining, especially about travel? Well, the best place to start is at the beginning, but since I don't want to post 21 years worth of stuff, let's start near the end (there's also some crazy Eric praise in here, but he deserves it and so much more. Thanut on the other hand, should suffer a veeerryyy minor injury, that keeps him from nothing except badminton and da shou qiang wahahaha):

Saturday
6 AM: Eric and I get done moving my stuff into storage (BIG PROPS TO ERIC, HE DESERVES SOME CRAZY PRAISE HERE FOR HIS HELP)

6:15 AM: I call the Lafayette Limo office, and ask them about a ~8:00 limo, only to find out, surprise surprise, that there's a 6:55 and 8:55 limo, and that she recommends the 6:55 one.
Well, the 8:55 is too late, and the 6:55 was too early- so we did the only thing we could- ERIC STEPPED IN ONCE MORE TO SAVE THE DAY! We couldn't get in touch with anyone else regarding a ride to take me to the airport, and since Thanut ditched to chill with Jean (*cough* of course *cough*) and play badminton (which I still can't believe took priority), the only option was that ERIC DRIVE ME TO THE AIRPORT IN ALL HIS MAGNANIMOUSNESS.

6:25 AM: We finally get all ready and return the U Haul, deciding that without any cash (I had like $3, Eric didn't have cash) for a cab, that we had no option but to walk. About 20 minutes or so, Eric assures me.

7:35 AM: We reach Wabash, and get Eric's car to go back to his place (ps- neither of us has slept AT ALL at this point). He plays GRID, and I watch for a little bit- then go shower, and we head out at 9. Of course, in true Mother Nature fashion, the elements all pool together to keep me from leaving West Lafayette happily; a massive storm impedes our progress, scaring both Eric and myself, and I call NWA to check the status of my flight. As we near the airport at around 10:30 (coincidentally, the 8:55 limo also reaches mere seconds after we do), we find that my 11:43 AM flight's been delayed by an hour+. Fantastic.

11:20 AM: FINALLY get through check in, and Eric (WHO WAS NICE ENOUGH TO STAY WITH ME IN CASE MY FLIGHT GOT CANCELED) and I got Starbucks.

11:40 AM: Eric takes off, since my flight hasn't been further delayed, and he needs to get back, should the weather get worse. At this point, I'm afraid to go outdoors, since after that kind of storm, there was at least a 67% chance of my getting struck by lightning, which would suck hardcore.

12:20 PM: I get to the gate (the security checkpoint was surprisingly uneventful, though the woman behind me was trying to carry 3 full water bottles marked 'shrine water' through, and got stopped) only to find out that the delay was extended by 30 minutes, because the incoming plane hadn't shown yet.

12:50 PM: With no sense of urgency WHATSOEVER, the gate person calmly announces (in bad English) that there is now a maintenance problem, and that we should not expect anything before 2 pm for a departure. I was okay with the delays up to this point, but now that it was guaranteed that I would miss my connection, I went to talk to her, and she transferred me- Schedded for a 5:30 PM departure from Indy.

Flights went pretty uneventfully, though there was some dude who was friendly, but totally wasted behind me, screaming that the first thing he'd do when he got to San Francisco was to smoke a 'huge doobie' (sp?). And oh yeah- my flight from DTW to SFO left from gate A78 at DTW- and my arrival gate was A6. I had a 30 minute layover, and I spent all of it walking to the gate. Un.pleasant.


Anyhow, that's my first post for this trip- expect a couple more soon, about work and the rest of San Francisco (which is quite nice, actually). Cheers folks, Shriram out.

cue the dream sequence (1)

Today's post is about a really strange dream I had last night. As most of you know (whether you wanted to or not), my dreams primarily consist of me playing observer to a scenario that defies reality, where I am not any of the characters directly involved. Another equally common dream is what's called a "lucid" dream, where I, although within my own dream world, am conscious to the fact, and am therefore able to exert influence on my dreams as they happen.

Last night's dream was neither of the two. It featured dream me, with sleeping me having no control in the matter. It started with a nested dream, where I was dreaming about something, and woke up into this present dream- followed by a scene fade to some sort of medical symposium on (I'm really not kidding) rabid chickens (yes, chickens with rabies). There were slides shown, and for someone who's never seen chickens with rabies (hell, I don't even know if chickens can get rabies), I had really graphic and somewhat grotesque images in my mind, as the narrator droned on about the various stages of degeneration that these chickens experience. I took 2 infected chickens in a coop home with me (the Gods only know why), and as I set down the coop in my apartment (which, strangely enough- wasn't my current apartment- and was gigantic in comparison), both chickens escaped.

In front of my relatively unwilling eyes, I saw one of the chickens peck the other one to death, and devour it as I sat and watched- scared out of my mind, yet strangely entranced. After its meal, the winning chicken eyed me expectantly- as if to indicate that the moment I put my feet down (I was sitting crosslegged in a slightly elevated couch) I was in for a world of pain.

It was at this point that sleeping me's mind registered that this was a stalemate- I wasn't about to put my feet on the ground, and that chicken wasn't going to be able to get up onto the couch to attack; resulting in the only logical conclusion to my dream, which was to end it and kick me awake.

This was by far the strangest and most disturbing dreams I've ever had, and I can only wonder why I would have such a graphically violent dream. If it were a result of TV, books or games, then I would wonder what on earth rabid chickens had to do with anything I've watched.

Iiiinteresting. Cheers, folks- Shriram out.

"Great Google Interview" no monogatari

So today I had round 1 of my Google interview- and although round 2 was supposed to be at 11:00 pm, as of this writing, (11:35pm), the interviewer hasn't called.

Round 1 started as most interviews do; where are you, what are you studying, why exactly do you want to work in Google China? (Oh, St. Mary's College? I lived in Virginia, etc etc).

Then the dreaded interview question of "what is your current GPA?" (oh. shit.)
After explaining to him that my grades do not correctly represent my level of knowledge (which is true), we moved on to phase 2.

Then came the questions. I'd read some of the Google interview questions, but these came more or less out of the blue- here's question 1:

"Let's say you go to Lake Michigan. You have a boat, and you wish to estimate the number of fish within the whole lake. How would you do that?"

My response (after reeling at that question- since it was neither technical, nor behavioural, imo) was that I would take a sample area of water and net it off (to avoid migration), and make an educated guess based on the weighted average of several of such samples. Crude, perhaps, but would give you a relatively good answer.

Second question was technical, and I'm not sure if I got this right, considering that I was trying to code in my head, quickly enough that he didn't think I was an idiot. What I ended up with, may have been worse. The question was this: "If you had n steps, and you could only go up 1 or 2 at a time, what programming structure would allow you to calculate how many ways there are to go up those steps." I mulled it over in my mind, and said "nested for loops" only to try it with pen and paper, and find out that they didn't work. He appreciated my trying though, because he said (a smile creeping into his voice, much as a teacher might, should the student stumble upon something simple yet crucial) "okay, right, so what would work?" My guess was a for loop, using it to store a running total, while calculating combinations based on the # of 1 step and 2 step possibilities (ex. n 1 steps + 0 2 steps, n-1 1 steps + 1 2 steps, etc etc), which he seemed somewhat satisfied with. Asking "does that make sense?" may not have been a strong move on my part.

After that, he opened the floor to any questions I may have had, and after asking him the basics (what do you do, specifically, how big a team do you work for, what do interns do there), we bid our goodbyes, and he said that the recruiter would get back to me soon with my decision. We thanked each other for our time, and bid each other adieu.

After any phone interview, where my breathing becomes irregular (because I cannot convince myself to sit still on the phone, I was pacing around my apartment, stopping only to take notes on my piece of paper, particularly when he asked me questions), I took a few deep breaths, normalized my body, and started thinking: "how could this have been improved?"

Much to my dismay, the only two choices were (a) go back in time and take a CS major instead of CmpE, and (b), fly to Shanghai and interview in person, since occasionally, we had trouble hearing each other, and at least on my end, it sounded like he was in a bathroom, with that level of his own voice echoing, and it sounded like he put me on speakerphone, with a very sensitive microphone- since I could very often hear myself talking to him. This made dialogue difficult, but not impossible. Then again- maybe I'm just looking for excuses.

All in all though- I don't know if I impressed him or not- though I would be leaning towards no. The way I would have thought to impress him was something I simply could not deliver, and the fact that there were many classes he recommended that I'm taking between now and graduation, makes me feel as if I should pack up and head to Japan, work my ass off, and apply to Google China next year.

Just thought I'd update everyone- cheers, Shriram out.

Another semester has ended!! :D

Finally its the end of a semester again! I hope everyone's semester went well too! For me, this semester was full of new experiences and new challenges. The biggest challenge was working with the Boeing 737 and Boeing 727. Its a strange feeling to move up to the transport categories after alway working with General Aviation aircrafts for most of my college career. The biggest challenge was understanding all the systems on the aircraft and the danger that there is working with them. However, once I got used to it, it was great fun! :) The greatest accomplisment for me this semester working with the aircrafts was probably being at the controls and starting the engines on the Boeing 727 and also taxiing the 727! I have always wanted to do that ever since I was in this major and now, I finally did it! :D
The second big challege that I had this semester was the Purdue Grand Prix. I got together with a couple of friends and we entered a team in the Grand Prix. Throughout the whole 2 weeks of practice and qualifying we were one of the fastest karts out there! We even qualified in 11th for the race. However, during the race we were involved in some bad luck and was taken out of the race early... at the time when we were taken out, we were running in 5th position with only 40 laps out of the 160 laps completed... so in theory, if we werent hit and finish the race safely we could have easily gotten into the top 3 at least... but well... that is racing and these things happen. We will be joining the race again next year and hopefully next year everything will go as planned! :)

This is a video of me at the controls taxiing

the 727! (A friend took the video for me) :D

btw, sorry about it being so low quality and

choppy... it was fine on my camera but once

uploaded it became choppy...

(Caution: watch your volume!!!)

Pictures of the Boeing 737 when we were

preparing to run the engines

Pictures of our kart when we were doing

some maintenance to it.

These are pictures taken during the

community day. It was raining and

the drivers got bored, so they decided

to run around the track with their

helmets and make kart noises... :P