September 26, 2007

And the beginning of a new one...

So, as promised, I'm here sooner rather than later... to talk about the what's next question.

Well, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do... and contemplated being a hobo, a live-with-parents hobo, an experimental therapy tester, a stand-up comedian, a fixed-income trader, and lots of other things like that. As you can see, there's a clear pattern of similarity... I wanted to do something that was a clean break from economics. So I spent this summer as an economist for a bank's sovereign Emerging Markets desk, writing research on all kinds of things in life. I've had an amazing time learning about emerging markets, and actually managed to use some of the things I've done as an economics student.

Oh wait, wasn't the point to get a clean break from this?

Well, sort of. Come November, I'm going to be taking a clean break, but only physically. I'm moving to a small, non-descript little country in South America called Guyana. Don't know where it is? Go look it up on an atlas! It's right next to Venezuela. Don't know where that is? Then there's no point in you really reading much more of this post.

I will be working as an ODI Fellow for the (Central) Bank of Guyana as a Senior Economist in their research division. I'm not sure exactly which part of their division I'll be working with, but it looks exciting! I can't complain about the posting... given that Guyana is an English speaking, roti eating, cricket loving kind of place. Woohoo!

And now for some quick spiel on the ODI fellowship, in case you're lost in life and need a job:

For those of you thinking about a career in development or in economics, the ODI fellowship is a must on your application list. It's one of the best programmes around... and allows you to work for governments around the world in a technical assistance programme geared towards junior / unexperienced economics students. Most TA programmes require some level of experience, so the ODI Fellowship offers you an excellent way to kick start your career. A lot of ODIs end up going on to the Young Professionals programme at the World Bank / IMF / IADB / ADB etc. Many go on to very successful careers in either the development world, or in private industry.

Anyhoo... this is what's coming up for me next. I will be leaving London for good towards the end of October, after which I stop home in New York for a quick family bonding session, and then it's off to Georgetown on my Guyanese adventure!

More soon!

Vinayak

Posted on Sep 26, '07 at 4:51 PM | Comments (49) | Permalink

September 25, 2007

The end of a chapter...

Hello everyone,

I know my writing has been sparse over the last year. A lot of things have happened during this time, some of which I'll write about today, some of which you'll have to email me to find out more about!

Hmm... where do I start?

This summer/fall, I've begun to wrap up things at the LSE as I move on to other opportunities in life. Over the last year I've begun to realise that perhaps a PhD in Economics may not exactly be what I'm looking for right now. There are a lot of reasons that have contributed to this feeling, not least the fact that it involves an understated amount of penury, and that it's quite a lonely journey professionally. There are other reasons as well, some of which I may talk about later as I keep writing on this blog (which I now plan to maintain more regularly... more on this in a second), but for now, I'm sure most of you who've been through this (read Chris, Kerry, Ngan, and others) know where I'm comign from. In fact, I'm sure most of you who haven't know as well.

It's been an unexpectedly long stay in London, given that I was supposed to be long gone after my master's. Gopika says, "you've been here two years longer than you were meant to... it's time to move on". She's absolutely right!

I'm sad about what I leave behind -- a world-class institution that has put up with my retarded craziness for the last three years, a (mostly) stellar faculty from whom I learned all the math (and the little bit of economics) that I know, and the extended family that saw me through some tough times. Oh yes... and I almost forgot one more thing... the best mentor in the world by a large margin.

I have a lot of thank yous to say... but I'm going to save you guys from all that sentimental crap. Instead, I'm going to tell you about what's next in my life. For that... you'll have to wait for the next post. Don't worry... you won't have to wait long :-)

In the meanwhile... just to let you know that two of my best friends Kevin and Nikki got married last Sunday in New York! Wooohooo!

-- Vinayak

Posted on Sep 25, '07 at 9:38 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

June 18, 2007

Photos from the Maghreb

Just got back from an amazing trip to Morocco! Here's the photo mosaic!

Posted on Jun 18, '07 at 4:56 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

June 6, 2007

I love technology.

I spent the day entertaining my one and a half year old nephew while his mom was busy packing for a big move on Friday... and I have to say... Youtube is AMAZING. We spent the day watching videos of the famous TMX Laughing Elmo, and my old Sesame Street favourites that I remembered and searched for.

How can anyone have something bad to say about a service that gives you this:

and...

Posted on Jun 6, '07 at 7:10 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

June 4, 2007

Morocco!

I've never really written about photography... or at least introduced my kit to you guys... so here's one just for kicks.

Some friends and I are doing a trip this Saturday to Morocco... and I'm really looking forward to taking of my camera gear out on the road! Over the last two years I've begun to really enjoy my photography, and I've even managed to sell a few photos, some as stock photos to travel books, and some to people at the LSE.

So on to a description of the photo:

Anticlockwise from the top:

1) Crumpler Pyjama Pride backback with Camera enclosure.
2) Lowepro S&F Waistbelt, with sliplock cases for my lenses.
3) Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens with hood (My walkaround lens)
4) Canon EF 70-200 f/4 L IS USM Lens with hood (For longer, telephoto(ish) shots)
5) Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 IS USM Lens with hood (Wide angles)
6) Canon EOS 30D Body, with a 50mm f/1.8 II Prime Lens and hood (Portraits, low-light)
7) Velbon Maxi 347GB Tripod (Great for travel)
8) Big arabic sign that says "I am going to Morocco". (Sold separately and not included with kit.)
9) (Not shown) Canon Powershot S2IS point and shoot camera.
10) (Not shown) My laptop which has Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 loaded on it.

This to me is an almost perfect travel kit. Some of it of course is second hand..., but even if I did hit the lottery, I don't know if I'd really change my behaviour that much by buying different lenses. I might swap my 17-85mm lens for a two lenses that are faster and cover that range (like the 17-55 f/2.8 L and the 24-105 f/4 L).

Actually flying with this stuff can be a real pain in the ass. The key to getting through the airport in one piece without destroying your lenses is to carry them in a backpack. My Crumpler is excellent at that. The camera compartment is perfect for travel, and comes off easily. So when I reach my destination, I leave the camera shell at home and use the backpack for regular day to day stuff like water bottles, jackets, guidebooks, maps. etc. My camera kit switches over to the wasitbelt and pouches, which form a snug fit around my hips. In all, it's a pretty reasonably priced solution to an annoying travel problem.

The tripod goes into check-in luggage during travel, and then fits on the tripod attachment to my Crumpler bag when I'm walking around. It's an excellent option for travel photographers that cannot afford to carry the more heavy (though more sturdy) Manfrottos.

Lastly, I always carry my point-and-shoot for emergencies and the occasional video shot I might take, as well as my laptop to look over photos (my equivalent of morphine when the blisters on my feet are so painful I dream of amputations). Sometimes it's nice to work on photos when you still remember what you saw as you composed the photo. Cameras never reproduce the whole range of colours as you saw them, and Lightroom/Photoshop does a bloody good job of coming close to it. I always shoot in the RAW format, and then work on my photos as and when I get time.

I'm back from Morocco on the 14th... and have some good/bad news to share with everyone... so check in with me next week to see if there's anything new!

Until then... Masalama!

Posted on Jun 4, '07 at 9:48 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink

April 15, 2007

Sweet escapes...

Ok, I know this sounds totally random coming from a supposedly erudite economics student, but...

If you listen to Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape"... when she sings the chorus... "If I could escape... and recreate a place that's my own world"... there are these five chimes that go off when she sings "Recreate a place that's my own world"...

That sequence of chimes bring back memories of rollerskating parties we used to have in elementary school... where we'd go round and round this big gym listening to oldies and Cyndi Lauper songs. It reminds me of watching "The Goonies"... and the thousands of peanut butter sandwiches I ate at lunchtime.

It's amazing what five chimes can do to bring back old memories!

Does ANYONE get what I'm saying?

Posted on Apr 15, '07 at 11:11 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

March 21, 2007

Would you know, Ramiz Raja can be funny!

For those of following the World Cup Cricket -- my apologies on behalf of the ten bajillion dollar corporation that is Rupert Murdoch's Sky... and the fifth rate commentary you have to listen to half the time.

For the longest time, I've always thought Ramiz Raja was just terrible in his commentary, until a hilarious outburst today, when Gary Brent was knocked in the nutter trying to hit Shahid Afridi for a six.

Ramiz: "The pain is momentary. I can tell you... from personal experience. It's very painful at first, and then it evaporates."

Ramiz: "The physio is out on the field... I wonder what he's doing to Brent. Maybe taking a look to make sure everything is OK. Perhaps to check if the cup is well positioned."

Some other guy: "So Ramiz, you said that the pain is temporary, that it evaporates. The question is, does everything evaporate?"

Ramiz: "Just about, you're left with a swelling. That doesn't evaporate. Yes... all that's left is a big swelling. I wonder if he wants the swelling there."

Oh Ramiz... thanks for that talk. The millions of people watching an otherwise pathetic broadcast thank you for your one moment of stupidity. The marginal benefit of watching one more minute of your commentary just increased exponentially.

Posted on Mar 21, '07 at 10:25 PM | | Permalink

March 14, 2007

My final exam essay. Help?

Ahh, the culmination of a whole year's learning!

انا محمد سعيد. انا امريكي، لكن انا من الهند، من مدينة تسيناي، Ù?ÙŠ جنوب الهند. ابي مهندس Ùˆ يعمل Ù?ÙŠ سلطنة عمان، Ù?ÙŠ مدينة صحار. امي ربة البيت، Ùˆ تعمل Ù?ÙŠ امريكا، Ù?ÙŠ مدينة نيو يورك. اخي طالب Ù?ÙŠ مدرسة كبيرة Ù?ÙŠ Ù†Ù?س المدينة.

كل يوم اغسل وجهي الساعة سبعة صباحا (روز Ùˆ بيض، عادةً)ØŒ Ùˆ ادهب الى الجامعة مشياً. Ù?ÙŠ الجامعة اكتب الواجب، Ùˆ آكل الغداء Ù?ÙŠ المتعم قبيح. ثم اقرأ البجت Ùˆ ارجع إلى البيت Ù?ÙŠ المساء. بعد العشاء، دائماً اجلس امام الراديو، Ùˆ اقرأ الجريدة "الشمس". هدا الصيÙ? سندهب الاسرتي الى المانيا Ù?ÙŠ العتلة.

اليوم انا خائÙ? لان عندي امتحان للغة العربية. انا خائÙ?... خائÙ? جداً

(What it's supposed to say: "I am Muhammad Saeed. I'm American, but am from India, from the city of Madras, in the South of India. My father is an engineer, and works in Oman, in the city of Sohar. My mother is a housewife, and lives in America, in the city of New York. My brother is a student in a big school in the same city.
Every day I wash myself (literally) at 7 in the morning. I eat breakfast (rice and eggs usually) and go to university (literally) by walking. At university I write my homework and eat lunch at the ugly restaurant. Then, I read research and return home in the evening. After dinner, I always sit in front of the radio and read the newspaper called "The Sun". This summer, my family will go to Germany on vacation.

Today I am very scared... because I have an Arabic exam. I am scared... very scared!)

Posted on Mar 14, '07 at 1:12 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

March 10, 2007

An improved phonetic Arabic Keyboard Layout.

When I started learning Arabic, I remember being annoyed that there weren't enough resources in English for students looking to add an Arabic keyboard layout to Windows, so they could type fun things like مرحباً or آكل Ù?لاÙ?Ù„ كليوم، Ùˆ انت؟ The available keyboard on Windows, the standard 101/102 key layouts, were totally unintuitive to a pair of hands used to the traditional English keyboard, though arguably they are very efficient for a native Arabic user.

After some hunting, I found Gyula Zsgri's website that had a phonetic Arabic keyboard layout installable for Windows. However, on installing it the keyboard refused to load on my machine, and the little language bar on the bottom never opened up. I spent hours trying to get it to work, but just couldn't.

Over the last week, while preparing for my final exam next week, I found that Microsoft had a neat little keyboard making tool, and so I used Gyula's layout with some improvements I added on to make a Phonetic Arabic keyboard installer that runs on Windows XP/Vista/2000 (Not sure about Windows 98).

As with Gyula's layout, I've kept the Persian/Urdu extensions as well, as I find them useful when making notes to myself when transliterating from English to Arabic. According to Ziad at the LSE, in places like Iraq it is quite normal to use Persian characters like Che, Pe, Ge and Ve to express foreign loan words.

Just download the file, unzip it, and install it. It should automatically add the keyboard as an alternative, and should appear in the language bar in the bottom. I'll try and post more detailed instructions soon.

Click here to download the file.

Keyboard Layout Images:

Basic:

With the Shift Button Pressed:

With the Alt-Gr (Right hand side Alt-Key) Button Pressed:

Posted on Mar 10, '07 at 6:13 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink

February 2, 2007

Getting comfy with the ageing process.

Oddly, I feel happy being a grown up twenty-four year old.

I got up this morning, and was quite happy doing the usual routine... reading my daily fix of the news at BBC, Slashdot, and Arstechnica. Checked email... Facebook... Orkut (you can't live without these things anymore). Snooped around my supervisor's website to see if he did anything new with his latest paper... then rushed off to do more important things one does early in the morning. Brewed up my favourite cup of coffee (not to mention using my most amazing Aerolatte milk frother)

Isn't it an amazing feeling when you wake up on your birthday and get to indulge in your early-morning, "soothing for the mind, body and soul" rituals?

Make sure you have yourselves an amazing day, and definitely make sure you drink one more whatever in my name!

Posted on Feb 2, '07 at 8:20 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink