Sunday, November 28, 2004

Things have changed... or is it me?

Well, the changes may not be major really, but changes are changes.

Till a few days back, reading English novels was very unlike me, and in the two days that I hadn't posted, I completed another novel - an old (1981) novel "Invisible Fire" by Pat Graversen. Sort of thriller, the novel was not really a great one, and had an ending that wasn't all that dramatic (or, rather, too dramatic?)

I was a night person, and now, I'm trying to be otherwise, for the nth time! Let's see what happens with this trial.

My career seems to be an issue of concern too... I'm a doctoral student of Biomedical Engineering, but now, how long would I be a doctoral student? Would/Can I wait long enough to get a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering? I don't know yet, but I know I still am as passionate about a Ph.D. as I was before I started, as passionate and devout as I was as when I was a six-year old child, when I probably first committed myself to Ph.D. in some field.

And, how unlike me is this! I, till now, didn't justify my posts on both margins! I generally never forget to do that with formatted text... but well, I think I'm seeing too much of change reading volumes between fineprint!

So long...

Thursday, November 25, 2004

What's in a name?

...What's in one of my names, rather, is the question! So, here goes:

When I was a student of (Bapatla) Engineering College, I used to spend most of my time in the Computer Center (CC, as we used to call it). Students of my batch nicknamed me "CC Kiran" at that time. We had C programming language as a part of curriculum, by the way. Someone noticed that I wrote my name as "Kiran.C", (short for "Kiran Chakravarthula", actually, that's how I used to write it) and thought that I was so immersed in C programming that I, by mistake, wrote my name in the "filename.c" format! That's when "CC Kiran" transformed into ".C Kiran" (read as "dot-C Kiran"). Later, my friends saw that I was good at C programming, (by the time they saw me working with graphics and felt that I was good, I was actually not good at C... that was BASIC graphics that I was working on!) and then "dot-C" became a complimenting nickname for me. Eventually, I became a better programmer in C language and rose up to the level of deserving the name (in 1995, in Bapatla, which means I need not be a real geek!).

That's the story of my name ".C", which I use on my books and belongings, and also on my website, as a "trademark". (The "!" beside the "TM" indicates the exclamation in having a person's name as "trade"mark.)

As a sidenote, there's another guy in Chicago that I met on chat a few years ago, who was called "dotC" in engineering (reason unknown), and then there's another school-junior of mine who was also called "dotC" for the same reason as mine.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Still a newbie I am...

...but so what, I have three visitors now! (Teja, I dutifully engaged myself in more B2B publicity - by linking your blog from mine :-) !)

...but so what, I already inspired another friend to start bloggin'... he didn't yet post anything, and has the regular newbie answer "I can't think of anything worth posting..." (See, I already sound used to this kind of expression!)

...but so what, I'm posting a second blog today, which means I can now think "of something worth posting" or "what actually goes into this blog thing"!

...but so what, I already caught up with the habit of making my posts regular. (As I was telling Teja in an offline conversation, I can at least boast of my blog when I have to prove my time sense, which I generally exhibit poorly!)

...but so what, I also comment on another blog regularly. (And, I plan to visit your blogs too, Kiran & Alam - borrowing the nick from Teja.)

...but so what, I should learn when to stop!

At last...

...I got two more readers to this blog, thanx Teja! :-)

...I completed the novel "Omerta". I liked it... I always like tactical revenges by the protagonist - they are not unpredictable but at the same time each tactic the protagonist uses is always a thrill to the readers (and the antagonists, of course).

I don't think I'd want to spend time on it now, but what I felt after reading this novel was "Why don't I bring out a Telugu novel inspired by this, a novel that can be modified to be a grippin' movie script?" But, well, to be honest, I'm not good at producing prose in Telugu or in any language, and I have never actually ventured into movie scripting yet! Moreover, this is not the first English novel that made me feel so - I somehow like to convert any literary work into Telugu, I feel. Thanks to my laziness, readers are saved most of the time!

Monday, November 22, 2004

Still Undecided...

I, still, am not sure as to what goes in here. Well, I guess this is a usual newbie-blogger feeling, and I also think I'd not be sure even after a few days! So, I'd better get used it, I now feel.

First, to answer my comments, (Can I do this or not? I don't know!) Teja, it's not that I am "something", but the photo means that I am "some thing". You didn't get me, right? Forget it, even I didn't get it right! :-P

I may be an avid reader, but I rarely read English novels - I can count them on my single hand (not considering the numerous novels in Hardy Boys series some 15 years back, and a few other such series). I tell this because this time I started (reading) another English novel - "Omerta" by Mario Puzo. Mafia dons and stuf - is it his routine stuff? (I knew he wrote "The Godfather", but I neither read it nor saw the movies based on the novel.) Don't break any suspense if you read that, please! :-)

That's for now, folks! (Reminds me of Buggs Bunny!)

Sunday, November 21, 2004

What shalt I write?

I didn't catch up while the whole world started bloggin'! But, now, when a close friend said that he recently started blogging, I thought I'd join the band too!

Now that I started, I'd better write something... but I'm yet undecided about what goes into a blog and what does/need/should not. Let's see... rather, I'd see and then let you see!

...Today marks the birthday of a younger brother who's so far that I cannot wish him... it'd be a nice way to start my blogging with a wish for a sweet little brother! Many happy returns of the day, bro! You may not ever see this, but well, this stays archived for ever (am I too optimistic about Internet and blogs?) and you can see it anytime in future! Take care, and I love you all the same!

When I don't have much to write, I better stop! (Still trying to learn this habit...!)