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 Myself
Recent research had shown that there had been an unmistakable co-relation between my hairline recession and the recession of the world economy.

Even more recently, it has been observed that this co-relation has broken down -- the recession of the world economy has stopped.

My name is Usman Y. Mobin. The "Y" stands for "Yousaf" and not for "Yahoo" if that is what you were thinking. I am a very athletic person and have a great interest in athletic activities such as reading, writing, computer programming, and photography :) I was a full fledged computer programmer at the age of eight, which also happens to be the age at which I first started developing my photographs in a dark room. This means that I have been programming for eighteen years now.

I studied at MIT, where I worked hard to get a bachelors degree in computer science and engineering, a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and a pair of glasses. I also spent a very insignificant amount of time at Harvard, and acquired a significant attitude.

Although my education at MIT was extremely rigorous, aggressive, and competitive, it had a significant element of fun and enjoyment to it -- to the extent that I don't even have a count of the number of nights I worked without any sleep. Now, every night when I go to sleep, I think of all those [poor] MIT students who are deprived of sleep because they have to spend the night discussing politics with their neighbours.

Two skills are very important in life: engineering, and story telling. To make sure I learnt both, I studied all manner of things at MIT, from palynology to probabilistic cryptography. I also learnt to play golf and table tennis.

I am a thinking machine. I think. Whether I like to think or not is a different story altogether, but I think whenever I think I should. If I stop thinking, I do not cease to be. [The existence of George W. Bush is evidence to that.] If I cease to be, I do stop thinking. "I am, therefore I think". Descartes wasn't thinking hard enough when he said "I think, therefore I am", at least that is what I think. It is rare for me to think about the past... I mostly think about the future... for there is no time to look back, there is time only to look forward.

I am the Chief Technology Officer at the Government of Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), which happens to be the largest technology organization in the country with over twelve thousand employees. In other words, you could assume that we are somewhat over-staffed. You could also assume that we have many achievements.

What I Like...

In Sport

My favourite sport is, perhaps, Table Tennis. I was introduced to the sport by my friend Eric Peterson in around 2000. Very soon, I became an advanced beginner and started using Butterfly Bryce/Stiga Chop and Drive/Nittaku Wonder Blade as my racket combination. Recently, in 2005, I've made a transition to Stiga Neos Sound/Stiga Neos Tacky/Nittaku KCZ as my racket combination. My Carbon-Kevlar composite blade is perhaps the fastest blade in the world and it takes a lot of guts to play with it. However, I have tried to compensate for this speed by using Neos Sound which is a moderately fast rubber with a lower spin albeit better control compromise. My strategy in table tennis -- "kill!"

I wonder what my favourite sport would have been if Eric had not gone through the patience of teaching me Table Tennis.

I am also very fond of Squash. I was one of the players in the record-breaking one of the fastest Squash games ever. The only thing I won't tell you is that I lost that game 9-0.

In Music

I rarely listen to music. However, I still have a list of my favourite music:

  • Haydn, Symphony number 88 in G, first movement (allegro, sonata form). Although the introduction is a little too slow for my taste, I like the last few seconds of the introduction before the first thematic material comes in. The exposition, development, recapitulation and the coda all are great. The first thematic material is the most memorable one. I particularly like the first thematic material of the recapitualtion with the flute counterpart and the tone colour interactions of the entire movement.
     
  • Mozart, Symphony number 40 in G minor, first movement (sonata form). I like the way the bridge theme comes in subito-forte, first during the exposition (to set the modulation of the opening theme 'in place') and then later during the recapitulation. I also like the forte and piano dynamic interactions in the second thematic material and the way the cadence theme of the exposition works -- in forte, in downward scales, with repeated cadences, in major mode. The most memorable parts of the movement are the first thematic material in the exposition and the bridge theme between the first and second thematic materials in the recapitulation.
     
  • Beethoven, Symphony number 5 in C minor, all four movements. The first fermata I ever saw in scores was in the first movement of this symphony. The rhythmic motive is unforgettable. The main things which I like are: the way we arrive at a well deserved C-major in the 4th movement after many 'out-of-place' efforts of modulation to the major scale in earlier movements; the way the rhythmic motive is the backbone of the entire piece; the use of the oboe in the 1st sonata in allegro con brio movement and other 'perfect' selections of tone colour (also evident in the 2nd variations in andante movement); the unconventional fugal part in the third scherzo trio movement; the decisive 4th sonata in allegro movement; and the bridge themes. The bridge themes are the best (Beethoven keeps his best music for the bridges - how interesting!).
     
  • Bach, Brandenburg Concerto number 5, first movement. My favourite Baroque piece. The ritornello played bright and emphatic in the beginning is great. The first live instrumental performance I witnessed was of this piece.

In addition to these, my favourite 20th century piece would definitely be Stravinsky's rite of spring with its motoric rhythm and an "emancipation of the dissonance." Also, I have found John Cage's chance music to be an interesting concept. Interestingly, I have not found the expressions corresponding to "chance music" and "emancipation of the dissonance" in other genres of art to be of substantial interest, and that includes Pablo Picasso and James Joyce, if you don't mind, please.

In Painting

My favourite paintings are:

  • Cottages at Cordeville, Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890, Vincent van Gogh
  • The Midday Siesta, 1889-1890, Vincent van Gogh
  • La Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

In Television, Film, and Theatre

Actually, I do not watch the television. Somehow, the TV is too slow for me... but I like to watch films... but maybe I've seen so many of them that due to a saturation effect, my liking for films is also decaying (logarithmically) and there might be a time when I would just stop watching them. Anyway, my favourite films are

  • 1942, Casablanca
  • 1957, The Bridge on the River Kwai
  • 1959, Some Like It Hot
  • 1964, My Fair Lady
  • 1964, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  • 1975, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  • 1988, Die Hard
  • 1995, Braveheart
  • 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day
  • 1994, Forrest Gump
  • 1999, The Matrix
  • 1999, The Mummy
  • 1999, The Phantom Menace
  • 2003, Kill Bill: Vol. 1
  • 2004, Spiderman 2

Although I am not a very big Star Wars fan, I still made it a point to see the three new films (1999, 2002, 2005) on release days. I saw the Phantom Menace with Tarik Alatovic in the United States; the Attack of the Clones with Faisal Khaliq in Belgium; and the Revenge of the Sith with Ahmerin Hussain in the United Kingdom.

On second thought, it appears that the logarithmic decay has already started to approximate closely with the asymptotic case and so my interest in films stands in great jeopardy. [Whatever]

My favourite Broadway show is "Wicked."

In Psychology

My primary interest in psychology is in Managerial Psychology. I also have an interest in Enneagram Type Indication, specifically in the work of Riso and Hudson; in the work of Myers and Briggs on Jungian personality classification; and in Keirsey's temperament typology.

In Other Things

My favourite author is Dr. Philip Greenspun because he really knows how to write in a very informative and entertaining style.

My favourite magazines are Technology Review and Fortune.

My favourite colour is green. This is because green is the only colour that says to me, "I am your favourite".

My favourite fruit is the orange... because it is more closely spherical than the apple or the mango. Also, the orange has a sweeter look. Looks are sometimes more important than tastes. For we look at everything we see but we don't taste everything we see, or do we? If we did, then where is our discipline?

 

copyright (c) 2006, usman y. mobin