Feynman was my favourite lantern through school/college. Lantern because frankly, Im not a super-intelligent person. I know what I know, thats about it. I come from a family of academics so, the book and the pen were always my favourite companions. Going through college, I didnt get a lot of it. For example, I didnt understand the incessant obsession with excessive homework. I probably attended five classes, end-to-end, in three years at Purdue. These were discrete math, signals and systems, probability theory, basic and advanced microprocessors and poetry classes :) The rest of the time was spent stalking the best minds in research. The instruction set architecture was poetry to my geeky soul. There was so much to be read and implemented! Summer school were spent in the mac-daddy of all architecture research, working on the latest technology.. the kind one saw in product releases or the next chip from Intel (or if the idea was REALLY good, Digital Corp. :)) 156+ credits in 36 months, with two jobs to afford my first red steel bike (and food) later, I got my degree and I still remember the graduation ceremony. I was mighty pleased to have blown the competition out of the water (they took four, in some case 4.5 years to complete what I did in 3 years) and bored to death.. my mom was shedding a few tears of joy (i hope! it mightve well been horror at what kind of idiots were getting degrees these days :)

I had already planned where I wanted to go for my Masters and had spent the last summer (therefore, effectively graduating in 2.75 years, minus summer semester) on site in North Carolina. We had a billion transistors to play with at the time, what more could a girl ask for?? God Bless Moore.

I was never BORED during my Masters degree because all classes had a very big project component (I like doing rather than talking) and I was busy! The thesis I wrote, in retrospect, was simply re-arranging transistors to be more specific to program constructs that violated security in the kernel but, it got me out in 12 months. We didnt sleep much then... and I probably had most of my personality development in Raleigh. I met the cool kids there.. the ones that introduced me to real culture in America.. adventure in the high Alaskan wilderness, hard work, idealism and independence. Purdue had too many trust-fund-babies for my liking.

Then came the PhD route............ didnt last too long on that one... took a job instead and did better there. But, once your own boss, its hard to be a salaried employee so, I didnt last too long there either and finally, Im home... doing what I love, writing!!! Patents are all about writing! I consider myself a fiction writer sometimes and look forward to writing a decent Indian novel someday soon.

In the meanwhile, my own ambition has caught up with me.. balancing sport and work and one other pursuit (called competitive advantage) has been less than successful in some ways and more so on some days...... but, today, Im thinking about Feynman again.. he said that there was plenty of room at the bottom. He also said "What I cannot create, I cannot understand"... I think besides Kerouac, Billy Collins and Jack London, I am also madly in love with Feynman. Always have been, always will be.

Ive met one inspiring person at work that makes me think that something will come out of a decent effort. My favourite advisor always preached the importance of taking pride in a job well done.... Being a small company, we always face the constraint of time and resources but, shoot for the sky as they say and one might get to the top of the stairs :)

Buzz Lightyear was always my favourite boy........... here is to infinity and beyond!