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The Heat Is Off

Finally, the heat is off. The NERC 2006 is over. How’d it go? Well I’ve answered that question to so many people I feel sorry for myself. To say that my robot worked would be an awful exaggeration. We didn’t even remotely get to involve the smart algorithms that I had written. Our H-bridges (the motor driving circuits we had used) blew up. They actually caught fire – this was the first time in my three years of training as an engineer that I saw a circuit on flames. And that too on the final day of the contest. This was a very sorry accident. We had most of the algorithms working when we left Karachi, and the motors were working fine, but on the morning that we were leaving for CE&ME, Islamabad, things started going haywire. We had worked so hard for this – spent entire weeks in the mechanical workshop working on the design of the robot, hand-crafting every little part of it and then piecing it all together. Making sure everything fit to size and worked seamlessly. We had spent nights in the college project lab, working on the entire electronic circuit – making sure it went with the mechanical design we had done. But it all came down to nothing in the end. And it wasn’t our fault even – we had about 25 backup motor circuits with us, all of which caught fire – and they had been working for the past 4 months! But at least we weren’t alone – of the 86 teams that were participating, under 10 teams were able to make it to the working stage, and I think only two teams completed the task. One of those robots was the ‘Bird Flu’ of CE&ME itself, which completed the task in a staggering 14 seconds! A huge achievement by any standard! Anyways, it was a very rewarding experience just being there. Watching other peoples designs and ideas in concrete was a very learning process. Interacting with so many people from so many different universities and cities, and helping each other out was an experience that I’d never forget. It didn’t feel like we were competing against each other, but rather like we were working with each other, and that as if the competition didn’t matter. And thinking of it now, none of us were bothered with winning the contest, we just wanted the robot to work – we wanted to complete the task as a learning-oriented goal. And we did learn. A lot. And overall it was genuinely a very awesome experience. And it’s not like we wouldn’t have liked it if we had won, but not having won the contest isn’t so bad. And I have my terminals in a weeks time, so the heat isn’t totally off

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Gone With The Wind

Posted by Absar | Posted in Life And Love | Posted on 04-08-2009

Tags: ,

17

I sat down to watching Gone With The Wind this past week, and the first thing on my mind was… well, the second thing actually, because the first thing on my mind was how many people Vivien Leigh slapped throughout the movie :P So, the second thing on my mind was how much Vivien Leighs character through the first half of the movie reminded me of someone I knew a long time back. And that was a long first half, considering that the movie itself is close to four hours long.

So Vivien Leighs character – Scarlet – she was a playful lady, but not truly a lady in the deepest sense of the word. To her, like most, relationships were more about conquest than emotion. She was a woman who, till the very end, having defeated melancholy and hunger and depravation, still didn’t know what she wanted. The last scene, where Vivien is going over and over I need to make him stay, I need to think! But I can’t think! I’ll think about it tomorrow! that was one of the most touching parts of the movie!

Any of you guys who hasn’t seen this movie yet, you really, really have to see it! Man movies in those days used to have class!!

Rhett (to Scarlet when she confesses how sorry she was about some of the things she had done to her deceased husband): If you had it all to do over again, you do don’t differently. You’re like the thief who isn’t the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he’s going to jail.

Rhett (sarcastically, falling to one knee, proposing to Scarlet shortly after her husbands death): Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments, my dear Scarlett. I mean, my dear Mrs. Kennedy. But it cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have felt for you has ripened into a deeper feeling. A feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred. Dare I name it? Can it be love?
Scarlet: Get up off your knees! I don’t like your common jokes!
Rhett: This is an honorable proposal of marriage made at what I consider a most opportune moment. I can’t go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.

Rhett (after Scarlet says yes): I am not in love with you any more than you are with me. Heaven help the man who ever really loves you!

Rhett: Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn!

Comments (17)

Gone With The Wind | Tea Break said on 04-08-2009

[...] This cup of tea was served by: I AM The Universe: Random Thoughts [...]

Reply
siras said on 05-08-2009

Ah, I need to add this movie to my watch list, along with Anastasia. :P I will probably watch it in this life time :P

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Absar said on 05-08-2009

Lol!
How long has it been.. some eight months since I brought up Anastasia with you? :P

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siras said on 06-08-2009

Haha! I watched Titanic 11 years after it’s release so eight months in nothing :P

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Absar said on 06-08-2009

Anastasia was releases in 1956, and Gone With The Wind in 1939…. :P

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siras said on 06-08-2009

LOL! :P

Please, please change this gravatar! It’s soo not niceee!

Reply
Absar said on 07-08-2009

Okay, okay, I will! I actually feel a bit different from this right now anyway! :)

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Hafsa. said on 06-08-2009

So tell me, where and how can I find four hours?

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Absar said on 06-08-2009

You can’t find four hours? Like they say, It’s impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do ;)

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Hafsa. said on 06-08-2009

Hahaha do they? ;P

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Absar said on 06-08-2009

Heheh, yeah, anything that justifies procrastination is A-okay with me! ;)

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PD said on 06-08-2009

Update. I want to read something new.

:P

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Absar said on 06-08-2009

Riiiight! :P So what should I write about next – another movie? A song? ;)

:P

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PD said on 06-08-2009

I’m sure you can come up with something new. Be creative! :P

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Absar said on 06-08-2009

Oh the pressure!!!
:P

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PurpleDrifter said on 06-08-2009

Most people work better under pressure ;)

Absar said on 07-08-2009

*shaky hands*
:P

Okay okay.. I watched G.I.Joe tonight, so there’s gunfire all across my brain right now, maybe tomorrow I’ll turn up with something :)

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