Carthik Sharma

A friend on a mailing list points me to a BBC article speculating on the discovery of a new species of giant ape.

Much of the article makes for interesting reading. Do things like …

Primatologist Shelly Williams is thought to be the only scientist to have seen the apes.

During her visit to DR Congo two years ago, she says she captured them on video and located their nests.

She describes her encounter with them: “Four suddenly came rushing out of the bush towards me,” she told New Scientist.

“If this had been a bluff charge, they would have been screaming to intimidate us. These guys were quiet. And they were huge. They were coming in for the kill. I was directly in front of them, and as soon as they saw my face, they stopped and disappeared.”

and

The animals, with characteristics of both gorillas and chimpanzees, have been sighted in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to local villagers, the apes are ferocious, and even capable of killing lions.

really happen?

It reads like a fictional article from a movie, say, like Jurassic Park, or Lara Croft, or something.

The first thing I thought when I read …

I was directly in front of them, and as soon as they saw my face, they stopped and disappeared.

was, “Wow!, that must be some face, then.”

I know, I’m stupid and evil and insensitive, and perhaps a jerk too, but I have to admit, I had to laugh as soon as I read about the face that made the evil monkeys turn and flee.

Filed by Carthik at 6:11 pm under Science 8 Comments

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I had a long meeting with my adviser yesterday. Long as in almost 4 hours. Most of the problems I have are those that I created. I prefer working for long stretches of time, rather than work at things for short periods of time, with many interruptions. I also tend to get started on things late, or get serious about things late, and my efficiency goes up as the deadline nears. But now, with the candidacy proposal, I am faced with a different problem, or different problems. Problems of a nature I haven’t dealt with before. I have to define problems, and then solve them if possible. I have to link quite a few ideas, concepts, or solutions, and compare and contrast them. I have to always remember that quantifying effects, or methods, and measuring improvements is important, even when it is hard to find a common baseline to compare things.

Now the problem is, when I sit to write something, I start with exploring a possibility, and trace it to its possible ‘end’. I see inconsistencies, and can see how I will have a problem if I go down that route, so I drop it and start thinking again, from scratch, with a scratchpad and pencil. So, after a few hours at worst, or two hours at least, I am still where I started with respect to writing the proposal. When I have a meeting with the adviser the next day, I sit down to frame my thoughts, and then I have little or nothing to actually write, that will make coherent sense! This will not do, and now I have the daunting task of using the next 2-3 days to write a coherent proposal, with some conclusions and a plan for future work. There are times when I admire my adviser for his patience and level-headedness. I would have shouted at Carthik quite a few times by now! I don’t want to think of the worst that could happen. Those thoughts are shut out, for now.

After the meeting, I went home, and did not have any energy, so I fell asleep in front of the TV, before actually going to sleep a little later, and for the first time in a year or more, I did not turn on my laptop after getting home.

I miss having a lot of fun, I miss my daily dose of browsing, chatting, and the WordPress work, but I will be able to get back to normal, and spare some time for my interests beyond the Ph.D. in a week at best, and after three weeks at worst. I miss life, but that’s only normal, or so I hear from others who have been here, where I am right now.

Filed by Carthik at 4:32 pm under Yours Truly, Research 4 Comments

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Another long night comes to an end. I am not farther, in my view, from where I started a few days ago. Anarchy rules the candidacy document, and I am yet to find a way to make three different themes, or elements to flow together. How can I explain the fact that I will be trying to do three different things, and call it all one? They are all related, but yet, not close enough for comfort.

I am green in Mathematics, a little too green, which means there is a steep learning curve. Understanding the literature is hard enough - now I have to write my own, and it is a pain to try and put down some initial results.

A lot of work needs to be done tomorrow, so I can turn in a decent draft the day after, and when I think of what needs to be done, I get worried. I hope I can pull this off.

I can hear my hard drive, and a buzz from the LCD monitor, which is strange. I thought these things were supposed to be silent.

Good night! I know it’s morning already, but night is when the sun sets on my working day.

Filed by Carthik at 5:23 am under Yours Truly 2 Comments

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