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For The Year Ahead…

2007.01.01 @ 07:15:43 -0600 under  Life

What do I want to do during next 365 days? My list has been under preparation for a while - very much expected to grow further and here are some excerpts:

  1. Research, Graduate School, etc.: Have been at Michigan Tech for over four years now - in what has turned out to be the best years of my life in more ways than I can list here. It’s about time I wrap up the on going projects, give a decent shape to my dissertation/thesis, save (defend) it and graduate before Summer semester arrives. This also means that I have to find a job to work, which in turn means that I will finally be stepping into the real real world.
  2. Health: For reasons that I do not wish to mention here, I got into the habit of sleeping just few hours (on an average 4 during work week and about 7 during weekends) since 1997-98. Though it gives me lot of time to do very many things and has not affected my efficiency, I have come to realize that even simple sickness (such as cough) takes forever to disappear. Doctors (and lot of others) have convinced me that lack of sleep leads to reduced immunity and prolongs recovery process. I will try my best to stick to a healthy sleeping schedule - if not anything, I should have more time to dream.
  3. Sports: Watched lots of sports last year (some live and many on TV) and played quite a bit too. Would very much like to keep this thing going and see more of my sports heroes. May be watch few more NFL games live at the stadium and definitely want to see Brett Favre in action for one more season.

    In college sports, I would love to see this rather stupid, mindless bowl system (College Football) scrapped. BCS (not the BCS Theory but Bowl Championship Series) does not make any sense. I don’t know exactly how rankings are calculated in BCS, but for all I know (and many of my friends, some NFL players including Tom Brady), Michigan must have been playing Ohio State for the National Championship. It would just be great if there are like 8 zones and top two (or four) teams from each zones makes it to the usual knock out like play off scheme - which will eliminate the untrustworthy human elements and their stupid BCS algorithm.

  4. Travel: 2006 was the most travelled year in my life so far - Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, Delaware New Jersey, New York, Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, Florida and part of South India. Even NorthWest airlines thought I used them well and upgraded my staus :D These travels have helped me meet some amazing persons/personalities and hopefully, I will continue to travel more to many more interesting places.
  5. Photography: Thanks to some many like minded friends, I know for sure that I have made significant progress in photography and that my photographs can now be considered decent. Would love to learn more and shoot more - hopefully reducing the number of pics I discard.
  6. Computers: Learnt lot more than I ever imagined during last one year and would love to continue doing so. Hopefully, computers will continue to love me too.
  7. Be more organized and efficient in things I do.
  8. Politics & Other Such Worldly Affairs: Didn’t give a damn last year and don’t want to do it this year either.
  9. More things - as described by a friend in her Notes2Herself.
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4 Responses to “For The Year Ahead…”

Sreenivas
2007.01.05 @ 02:41:42

Quote from your blog:
“Michigan must have been playing Ohio State for the National Championship”

Didn’t Michigan already play Ohio State this season? Didn’t they get a chance to beat OSU? Why should they get a second chance? Let’s say you appear for an entrance examination for IIT in 2006. Let’s say you failed the screening test by 3 points. Do you think you deserve a second chance the same year? Heck NO. You either settle for the next best college or (and) wait an year to prove your skills. You cannot whine about the passing grade and ask them to reduce it by 3 points so you can get in!!! What if I failed by 4 points? Do I start whining now? You are supposed to know what it takes to succeed and if you fail, wait an year for your turn.

Why should Michigan get another chance and NOT Boise State or Florida, who didn’t play OSU this season? You probably realized how bad Michigan is after the Rose Bowl. By the way, when did Michigan win a bowl game the last time?

MORAL: You always encounter situations like these that sound inequitable to YOU because it did not workout very well for YOU; that doesn’t mean the world is unfair. Evaluate the task and prepare accordingly; if you lose, appreciate the winner(s) and give it a try the next time. Never beg for a second chance.

Gowtham
2007.01.05 @ 09:18:47

@Sreenivas:
I totally agree that both Michigan and OSU had one chance to beat each other and OSU came out on top. I have no complaints with that and remember, nobody is begging for a second chance here, at least not me - all I am begging for is for the crackheads who wrote BCS theory to stick to their theory. The way BCS was designed (at least as I understand it), the top two teams in the nation must be competing for the national championship - irrespective of the result from their previous encounter, if any. Problem with the BCS methodology is that people are allowed to use their judgement to decide the rankings - and some thought by having UoM and OSU to play for title, the game would loose charm (amongst other things - TV coverage/audience, $$, ..). Also, some thought if UoM were to beat OSU in the title game, it would de-mean their previous encounter (and OSU’s win). That’s exactly what I am talking about is problem with the current system. It would be nice (and would probably eliminate such never-ending discussions on TV / paper / radio, etc) if we have a system like:

1. Divide the college-football nation into 4 (or any other reasonable) number of regions;

2. Let every team play every other team in that region at least once (preferably twice - once at each other’s place, to avoid home field advantage thing - but it may be too much. So, alternating the venue is another option);

3. At the end of regular season, pick top two/four teams from each region;

4. Have 4-round play-off system with games held at neutral venues (like basketball).

People who decide rankings in the current system should realize, like those in other sports (Basketball, Hockey, etc), that result of a play-off game (between A and B) should be treated independently of the result from a regular season game (between A and B, if it happened). About loosing / winning in a game, irrespective of how well you prepare, there will be (are) situations when you fail - not because you didn’t prepare well, but because some unknown hands played an invisible role. In more cases than not, all that matters is how (well) you play during that given stretch (2 periods or 4 quarters or whatever) and statistics don’t tell a whole lot either when one looks at just the win-loose record.

Well, we could talk on this forever…

Sreenivas
2007.01.06 @ 11:35:22

Isn’t BCS theory easier to comprehend than the BCS theory?

Of course the first BCS refers to Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer and the latter to the Bowl Championship Series.

By the way, with your 4 point college football championship approach it might take a while for the season to be done. This isn’t like basketball where you play multiple game in a given week, we are restricted to one game per week. After all, they are college kids and they do have classes, examinations, etc.

Gowtham
2007.01.06 @ 21:55:06

@Sreenivas:
Yeah - in fact I met Dr. Cooper of BCS Theory late last November in Florida during a conference. Fun to talk to him and listen to his presentation :)

Guess every system/approach has some drawbacks - hopefully, they will come up with something more meaningful without jeopardizing the academic life of kids who play :)



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