2011 - In a nutshell

To keep up with the 2 year tradition, here's my 2011 in a nutshell.

Professionally

• Successfully defended my dissertation and got my PhD. A sentiment speech has to be given no? 'This was my family’s dream (and mine too, okay), and I am glad that blah blah blah...'. (And not too sure how I feel about it still, even after 5+ months.)
• The Teaching Excellence Award finally, after being nominated for the third time. I’d almost resigned my fate to that of Meryl Streep’s.
• A paper in this prestigious journal, something that I should have had 2-3 years ago. Better late than never.

Personally

• Had to say goodbye to my pseudo thai-mann (motherland -  word courtesy @palavertalk) Tempe after 6 years of stay there. Miss the food, some of the people, and the heat!
• Got ATL-ed (word courtesy @krtgrphr), and am not too sure if I like it here, yet!
• Not having stayed in the same city as relatives/family thus far, I learnt staying in such a city is not hard after all (and is surely helpful too!)
• Learnt it the hard way that people aren’t required to survive/keep myself occupied in a new city. It’s only ‘me’ that’s required.
• Surprised myself with a 2 month Twitter break. 
• Also, got back onto Facebook after a 14 month break, and I think I am done with that form of social networking. (I think I should write a post about it soon.)
• Realized the 42-inch TV is my 42, for now. (My dream for a long time, ala Asin’s ambassador car dream in Ghajini.)

PS: I am alive to see my blogs slip into coma and have a near-death experience. Blame it on my over-indulgence in TV shows. And the thought that I lacked thoughts to blog about. I still think so!

PPS: I was to write something in a nutshell. Apologies for making it a coconut shell.

2010 - In a Nutshell

-       A memorable year, a year that I’d want to relive

-       A year that almost showed me the light at the end of the tunnel in my research,

-       Also, finally showed me the way the tunnel called professional life, and I hope to traverse the path and reach the destination soon.

-       A year that I saw God; attended one of the concerts in Jai Ho concert tour and witnessed some A.R.Rahman musical magic, in person.

-       Showed me how addicting a gripping TV series can be, and also probably showed why leaving a few things open-ended, is good. And the TV series is Lost. Never before and never again will I be able to see 10 episodes of a TV series back-to-back.

-       Showed me that I can have ‘followers’; I’ve spent a good amount of my 2010 on Twitter, and had a good time conversing with like minded people (a blog post on that coming up)

-       And the year I gave up on my friends, oops Facebook. I am a #youremember on Facebook now.

Social Networking and employers - my posts or my resume??

In an age of social media and networking, it is quite likely that your prospective employers want to know more about the 'Real' you, while they are considering you for a position. While it is understandable that they need to get a responsible person for the position, it is quite unreasonable that they go over your profiles and posts in Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Myspace, Orkut and the like. Going over it in Linkedin, the professional site is understandable, but not the others.

These sites are more a platform to voice out your opinions on current topics and one definitely has freedom of expression and thought. Maybe using unparliamentary language, commenting abusively or posting pictures that ought to be private, is not a ethical thing, but having your own opinion on things is not wrong. Its your personal space and you have the authority to say things out.

If one is going to judge you based on your posts rather than your technical skills and people skills, it is indeed unfortunate. I would not call this kind of networking as a part of social skills (even though it actually is), since it is something that is private and a good line has to be drawn between professional and personal life.

(Thanks to Prathap for initiating this discussion and also to Harish for bearing with me in the discussion :).)