Coconut Cruncher

01:58 17-10-2011 Well it's really been a long time since I made a journal entry. Today was a sunday. In a few days we'll be leaving for Chitrakatha and hopefully its gonna be an unforgettable journey. Maya has been going on forever and I have been in distress with the animation. So much, that I actually had to talk about it to Chandan sir, who told me that if I really truly wanted to practice pre-prod I'd have to work on it side by side, and that the indian industry doesn't NEED amateurs in the field. What they need now is animators, 2D or 3D, and the edge I have over the rest is my 2D base. Today started out with the mess breakfast. Ate aloo paratha and chocos. Managed to finish my entire tray. I love Sunday breakfast. Went to coll, was watching Grey's Anatomy, playing the addictive fb game called Adventure World. It's pretty, love the graphics. Today was the "Shuffle" pre-quasar event. I really missed it. If I'd been better I'd go - or so I...

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night aski...

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates. The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion. Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influ...