Random Thoughts

So, the Friday before I left, I met up with a few of my friends. Ivan and Tamara were there, so was Tomo and Nikola as well as Diana. We met up at Pub Med around 6:30pm (I got there around 7pm). I had invited a few more people, but many of them were either too late or didn't make it. One person missing was Voja. Now, its not normal for Voja to miss out on going to a bar. And I doubt he would miss it especially because I was leaving early the next morning. He called me at some point that day saying that he had already made plans to go hiking with Len and couldn't change it. He said we could meet up later and go for a coffee or something. I was a bit surprised, but I guess plans were made, and he had to go through with them. I was just a bit surprised that Len was that much more important than saying goodbye to a good friend... Voja calls me after 10pm and tells me that he's sorry he couldn't make it out earlier. He had just come back from hiking the grind and having win...

So, this is my first day back in the US. I left DC two weeks ago and headed home to Vancouver. I spent a wonderful couple of weeks in Vancouver working out of the office there. Lots happened while I was there. I have blogged about some of them in my previous posts. I also tend to complain a lot, so bear with me. This is my blog after all and what good would it be if I didn't let out my frustrations a little! So, lets start with my journey in: My flight was at 8:18am PDT today from Vancouver. Reasonable time right? Well, I don't like it. I woke up at 4:30am. I then stumbled about getting ready: took a shower, found my clothes etc. I woke my mum up. She has to give me a ride to the airport. We leave the house around 5:30am and I left half my coffee in the sink, unfinished. I hate wasting coffee... Somehow, I end up listening to 730 AM on the radio in the car. That has got to be the most boring station I have listened to in a while. They went in a 5 minute loop on traffic, border ...

So, what have I done since I got back? Lets see. I went for DS on Sunday last week. I ate all sorts of things that I haven't had in a while. I also met friends from work who I haven't seen. We've moved onto other things for about 10 months now, but it is always, always, always a pleasure to run into them. Perhaps it is strange to some to want to see people you work with outside of work, but perhaps this is a testament to how much we care for each other and how much we appreciate each other's company. Not all of the folks I usually socialise with while in Vancouver did make it to DS though... so I need to find another venue to meet up. Liz mentioned sushi and I think I'll go for that. After DS on Sunday, I went to Samurai to each Sushi. We got late to DS and so we didn't have our fill (well, really, we did, but the gluttons that we are..., we had to eat more things). Then we wandered around Robson (I bought a shirt for the wedding...), then went to the Cactus Clu...

Its about 1 am here. I am heading home tomorrow. I am excited. I haven't been home in about 5 months. I can't believe I have been away from Vancouver for so long. Since I came back from my last trip, I've been melting, burning, sweating in the weather that DC seems to have for half the year. I've fought bugs, been bitten by god knows what, seen things I never expected of a first world country and began to learn why this palce is the way it is. I am looking forward to going home and working from the Vancouver office. I feel like it is a privilage to work out of the office there... yet a piece of me lashes out at that thought. Why did I move? Why did I have to move? Why couldn't I just work from Vancouver? In the grand scheme of things as far as my company goes, I am small fry in a decent sized pond. Either transplant yourself or find another pond. Life is scary, I chose to stay with the same pond that I am somewhat familiar with and transplanted. I want to go home a...

Its almost 60 years since India won her independence from Great Britain. I have been a big fan of history of all sorts and my people's history is something that I am very interested in. When I was born, India was a country run by the Congress party and a Gandhi was in charge. Its quite funny that 26 years or so later, another Gandhi (an Italian one) is running the show in the background. In the meantime, the country has changed and improved by leaps and bounds. But what about from 60 years ago? I have read a lot that many of the founding fathers of our country have written over time... I can only imagine the anticipation, the hope and the dreams of many Indians who are on the brink of that day. Remember what Nehru said? He said, "L ong years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedo...

Society is an interesting concept. I guess at a very broad level, it is a bunch of creatures that spend time together, do things together, help each other and so on. In the world of the Internet, there have been many different social networks. There was friendster. There was hi5. There is linkedin. There's orkut. And now there is the mother of it all, facebook. Why do we flock to these social networking sites? Well, I am no psychologist or anything, so don't look to me for a serious answer. I think people go to these sites because they allow you to keep in touch with real people. You know, those people you went to school with, those people you played softball with... those people. We go there to renew acquaintances, catch up on gossip, as a creativity outlet to read, write and heck, even draw. I think this will be one of the big changes to the web. It has gone on for a while now, this web 2.0 business... people are having an easier time creating content and publishing it eas...

I have seen 3 movies in the last month or so. And a lot more previews. I like the previews a lot. They give you just enough information to make you want to go and get your hopes dashed. I watched Spiderman 3. That was terrible. There was singing and dancing. If I had wanted that, I would have watched a musical or an Indian film... I saw the latest pirates of the caribbean without watching the prior ones. I got to say, I liked the way that Depp fellow acted. He was refreshingly funny. I watched Knocked Up on Saturday. By far, the funniest one I have watched in a while. It didn't have too much drama, it was funny along the way and there was something refreshing about the cast. And all that Canadiana. I miss home. But then again, what is home? There was a fellow at the theatre (some places in the US spell it theatre... I find that strange because they forgot to mis-spell it or perhaps they are reforming their ways and spelling correctly) who kept farting and burping throughout the mov...

I am now a member of facebook. Except, I didn't really want to join. So my name says Full Name... and I can't figure out how to change it. Oh well. Why is everyone and their dog on facebook? Is it any better than things like orkut? I've been on orkut for a while... and I got to say, its fine. Facebook looks pretty neat, it is quite picture centric, I guess that's what it was meant to be. I don't entirely get the point of it though, I mean, there are plenty of these sorts of sites, but lately, it looks like everyone is up with facebook. I got old co-workers asking about me, I got friends messaging me about it, heck, I even have one of my not so technical friends on facebook and enjoying it. I guess he has finally found something he can use effectively, kudos to them. I say this often enough at work... we need to write instructions so my mother can do the task at hand... I think facebook has created an interface easy enough for my friend to use, and that should be wh...

Its memorial day today. The day the United States remembers its war dead... and there are plenty of wars they've been in and plenty of dead to remember. Now, its not like I have seen a memorial type mindset here, like Remembrance Day back home and frankly, it surprises and saddens me. Back home, we used to wear poppies at least for our war dead. I mean, even if you didn't really think about what sort of sacrifices they made in the name of King and Country, you wore a red poppy as a sign of respect. Here, I see lots of sales of things, mattresses at Matrress Warehouse, Nissan cars in some place in Gaithersburg or some (sounds like alligator country)... It is also allegedly the beginning of summer here and the weather sure is a testament to that. Anyway, I could rant about war dead for eternity, so I will leave that one alone for now. So, what did I do for the long-weekend? Let's see. I left work early (it was after 5 but not that much after) and went with a bunch of Canadian...

Its almost 6 months since I left home! That scares me. I still have boxes that I shipped from home staring at me in my living room. Lazy. I have been through fall, winter, spring and what is hopefully summer in DC already. I'd hate to have it get any warmer here. I've been working pretty much the whole time. I did take a week off in March to go home and visit the family and the new dog. Other than that, I have not done much else. Like going to go see all the monuments, museums etc that dot the landscape in the District. I have learned a few things in the last 6 months: IT is expensive to live in the district - despite all the things the folks from here said before I moved here. Eating out is scandalously expensive. You get twice as much... but it costs a LOT. Rent is scary expensive. I spend almost twice what I do in Vancouver. Except, I had a three bedroom house there. I don't have that here. Getting pants hemmed costs an arm and then some... 2 pants = a cool 36 dollars....

I have been in the US& A almost 4 months now. I live by myself in the District of Columbia and work in the district as well. I have a content life. But then I went home to Vancouver. Ever since then, I have been stuck. In a dilemma. Why? Well, because I want to go back to Vancouver. Why? The week I spent in Vancouver gave me perspective on what mattered in life to me. I got to say maybe it was fear, maybe it was the lack of rain in DC but I want to return to Vancouver. Things that matter to me are in Vancouver. My family lives there, my dog lives there, my friends live there. Its more than that though; I love the city, I love the people, I love the food there. I had sushi in DC and was blown away by how crappy it was. DC does have better weather; far more hours of sunshine than Vancouver. I do miss the rain though. I miss my garden, I miss my plants, I miss the trees and lakes, the bars and drunks, the girls in the short clothes. I flipped through pictures from the past and saw so ...

I must admit that I have never ever been a fan of cleaning up. Growing up, I had people to clean up after me: my family, the maids. But having grown up and left home for a while, I have become painfully aware of how important cleaning up a place is. While I am no clean-freak, I detest a mess terribly. I came home to Vancouver and nearly got the start of my life... my room was filthy! Guess what? I had made that mess during my several years there and it was exacerbated by my preparations for a hasty departure to DC. My loving family never bothered to clean up the place and I am glad they did not. I have been devoting my free time here, NOT skiing, but cleaning up the mess I had left behind. There are tonnes of things that I no longer use that take up space here and I think that by the end of the week, I will be able to say I did a decent job (albeit 4 months too late) of cleaning it all up. I think half this room is junk. There are papers and layer up layer of dust here. I don't thi...

Many of you no doubt will wonder about the title of this post. Maybe it should have had the word shopping too. Oh well. So, why do I love shopping in America? Well, firstly, they have online shopping. That is amazing in itself... Next, they have outlet malls. That and all the shopping I can think of. Giant malls, insane deals. So, online shopping: I have bought SO many things online. I bought my laptop, monitors, keyboard, dishes, measuring tape, memory card etc etc online. I mean, you can buy almost anything online here. I bought a kettle online. I got it shipped for 97 ¢ from Wal-Mart. Friends have bought tonnes of stuff so far, including a TV. A 50" plasma TV! Outlet mall: there's lots of stuff to buy there. Leesburg is a hike and a bit but it is worth the trip. There are clothes and kitchen things and shoes and electronics! There is so much to buy and so little time.

So, the Persians have a habit of jumping fires. Just before their new year. I wanted to go see. So I did. I went to Ambleside beach in West Vancouver to see the spectacle. It was quite the remarkable one. Hundreds of people of various ages were there in the muddy field. They were dancing. They were eating. They were lining up. To jump over fire. To dispel bad luck from last year allegedly. I was brave. But not too brave. I watched from the side-lines. I had mentioned the fire jumping to my friend. He mentioned that his people do the same thing back home. To an amateur perhaps, it is surprising that such behaviour is similar across thousands of kilometres. But then again, I have seen these sorts of things too many times to be taken in by the the awe of it all. I have been here before. The music is similar. The people are the same happy people I have seen elsewhere. The last time I was in a crowd this big, I was thinking fights would break out. None did. It was the same this time around...

I arrived on Friday night and I had dimsum reservations with my current and former co-workers at Sun Sui Wah for Saturday. We sat around for probably a few hours and ate and talked for such a long time. I found out about a funeral, a divorce, an engagement, a baby on the way, new jobs and that I love Vancouver. This seems to be the perfect way to sit down and catch up with the people that matter. We probably ate a tonne of food (some of us shouldn't be allowed to order :) ) and with breaks, chicken feet and tripe, we finished up our lavish lunch with ease. By the end of it, we were all caught up and realised how precious life was; or at least I felt that way. I moved to DC for a work, but I must say that a good chunk of me wants to come back to Vancouver. You don't realise how important the place you live is until you leave it. There are lots of places on earth to make a home and if you're lucky enough to call this rain-forest of a place home, for god sakes, tell yourself ...

Someone once said there is no place like home. I could not agree more. However, I have been wondering what home really is. I have made my home on 3 different continents through my life so far and I must say that there is something about going home, especially when you've been away from it for extended periods of time. This is probably the longest I have stayed away from 'home'. I live on my own now with 2 rather inquisitive dogs and my computers. I have no televison, I have no family for miles, I have few people I know etc. Home is indeed an interesting concept. I grew up in India and never ever felt that I could live without it. I moved over 10 years ago and while I do miss that first home of mine, I am content to carry on. I do make journeys back every so often and every day I realise I am more Indian that I was. That's what home does to you. While you are there, you tend to take it for granted; once you leave, you realise how much you miss it. I miss India. It gav...

My berry did me in. I have a black pearl from T-mobile and the earpiece of the phone seems to have broken. I can no longer hear through it when someone calls, though they assure me they can.

I am not usually one to write gripes about a specific company. I gripe plenty, but I at least keep the names off the record. Forget that with Verizon. I have been SO annoyed by them that they deserve special mention. I moved to DC. I need Internet. I can't get Comcast. So you know what I have as an option? Verizon. That's right. DSL, not FIOS. I order DSL. It takes a fucking week and a half for the "Service Ready Date". That's when they turn on my Internet access. Wow. Okay, so I wait. In the mean-time, I get the damn modem shipped to me. I get that delivered. They already charge me a bunch of shit as they said they would. Fine. You have to pay for these things. To be expected. I finally get to my service ready day. February 15. Today is February 27. I start the installation. I do as the silly animation from the CD shows. Along the way, it gets stuck. So, I call DSL Support. They do a line test. They ask a bunch of basic troubleshooting questions. No luck. He tra...

I've been in Washington DC for over a month now and am slowly getting used to life here. I have found an apartment and have started looking for furniture etc to furnish my apartment. So far, I have bought towels, sheets for the bed, an air bed (for people visiting), pots and pans for cooking (stainless steel ones with glass domes for lids), German knives and little things like a water filter, a rice cooker etc. I move into my apartment on the 15 th and thanks to the grace period I have at my temporary housing, I can slowly setup the place. I even found a couple of Target stores around here. As I was wandering back from the Target store last night, I happened to see a sign that still makes no sense to me. So, I took out my trusty Blackberry Pearl and took a picture of it in the fading light. If you know what the sign means, leave a comment. More on this wonderful saga later. For now, I have to get back to work.

I just changed the timezone my blog is on... and it changed all my posts. Now, that makes sense in some world, but not mine. I used to live in a GMT - 8 (or 7 depending on the time of year) time zone... and have now moved to a GMT - 5 time zone. I wish it would at least give me the option of keeping my time zone as is and continue on with the rest of the blogs. Or give me the option to display the time zone as well. Now that I think about it, google would have thought of that. Let me go check.