I've been in san francisco for the past 3 weeks. I'll be here another 6 weeks. The stay here is part of my internship at oDesk that I'm doing this summer. Work is nice, fun even. I get to be a boss :).

D is in NC working for RJR. I went down there with her before the start of my internship and spent a few days with her. Those were fun times and I wish they had lasted longer. It's our month anniversary today. Who would have thunk that we'd make it this long, but make it we did. I'm excited - she's coming over next friday for the long weekend. I'm sure we'll have a great time.

Ayush left back for KL today after an exhaustive and an eventually failed internship hunt. This sung me bad. He interviewed with odesk and I truly thought he would get the job. He deserved it - much more than many of the other people who got internships this summer. I made grand plans in my head about him and I living in SF together over the summer, seeing the city, learning new things about it, working hard etc. Alas that wasn't to be. I wanted to apologize to him when I spoke with him this morning, but that apology never really came out. I just said my distant goodbyes and went on with my day.

I get a bit bored at work - it's not fun when you don't have anyone to interact with out there. However, I'll be working out of the client site all of next week - so that should be interesting.

This is a randomly put together post - I'll write stuff in more detail if/when I feel like it.

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while. Not to sound insincere, but life's been busy. I have had my share of fun over the past few months, but have also had my share of crazy nights spent studying stuff that felt like a complete waste of my time (some of it was, some not so much). Anyways, here I am, in my finals week, with a final to go (Accounting) and 2 10 page papers left to write (Marketing and Data Analysis) and I find myself unusually calm and not stressed. This could have something to do with the fact that I slept 17 hours last night (yes, I am that awesome) or the fact that I've stopped caring too much about my grades. Either way, life ain't too bad.

We spent thanksgiving in Vermont, which was pretty neat - great times were had. I spent a weekend in NYC with V, F, BM & MU which was fun too, in it's own insignificant way. I met up with Ayush and we along with M and D drove down to Pittsburgh to meet up with friends and have an overall good time (meeting D after so long, was, to say the least, like a breath of fresh air, albeit we didn't spend too much time together).

As far as school goes, my grades for the first half of the semester were allright, not stellar as I was hoping them to be, but not disappointing either (I have an overall GPA of 3.58 at the moment). Classes have been hard, with more than a fair share of stupid courses. That said, classes have been fun overall. I've learnt a few things, some that were interesting while others which were a complete waste of my time; oh and BTW, I hate PowerPoint (or any other MS Office product).

Plans for christmas, new years and my birthday include being in Houston, travelling to New Orleans, Austin and then back. Hopefully good times will be had!! Anyways, D is standing over my shoulders reading this post, so I'm gonna wrap things up.

Preparations haven't finished yet - still need to pack my bag. Got a
long day planned tomorrow though so not sure when I'll get the packing
done. Probably in the night - following my tradition of long haul
flights - of no. Sleeping the night before.

I'm a little sad to leave my mom behind. I know it'll get lonely for
her - especially since my dad is becoming increasingly difficult to
talk to. Besides he's flying out he day after we do to The
Phillipines.

Haven't been able to get much work done these past few weeks. Not for
lack of time though - I've just been lazy. But perhaps that's a good
thing comnsidering what's in store for me once classes start.

Anyways - that's the latest. The next time I blog - I'll probably be
in the US so wish me luck :).

P.S. - Typing on my iTouch, so pardon typos.

Just got done with a 3 day trip to Singapore. I'd been there around the same time last year, and I've gotta say, I enjoyed visiting that city/county just as much this time around, no less due to the fact that I had my brother go with me this time around in addition to the fact this trip was twice as long as the last one.

Having lived in KL for over a year now, I found Singapore to be much more diverse compared to KL (I had noticed this last time around too). While there are many people of Malay, Chinese of Indian descent there, you see significantly more people from other parts of the world than you do in KL (albeit, to my dismay, most of these people are white).

Another thing going for Singapore, in my book, is the fact that there is significantly less religious imagery on display there than in KL (or any part of Malaysia, for that matter). That stuff always irks me.

Now to the actual trip - we lived in a Hostel (the same one I lived in last time - highly recommended BTW) with 10 other people in the same room. Trust me, even though this might sound bad, it's actually quiet fun. The Hostel is located in Little India with a convenient Metro (MRT) stop within a 5 min walk. This was (obviously) our base of operations - and we really needed one. The heat (Singapore is only 150 kms north of the equator) combined with the humidity (it is an island - after all) meant that both I and A were sweating like pigs soon as we stepped out of the A/C. You can see the result of said sweating here, here and here :).

First day was spent mostly walking around Little India. We visited the infamous Mustafa Center, Ferrer Park Field, Bugis market, Fu Lu Shou Complex and everything in-between. Of-course, a couple of stops were made at the Hostel to cool ourselves down. We ended the day with some Tasmanian Beers, dinner at a Turkish place (where, gasp, we ate the chef's recommended chicken dish) and a Hookah to cap the night off. Back at the hostel, we watched Oceans 13 with others in the Lounge and headed to bed by 2:30am.

The next day was spent walking around Orchard St., Chinatown, Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and a dinner in the suburbs with some family friends. We started the day aprés lunch - so were able to get in only so many sights before we had to head on the long MTR ride to the suburbs. We went to Orchard St. where we walked around a high-end mall. We followed it up with a visit to the Singapore Tourism Center where we picked up a whole bunch of brochures and some ideas about places to visit. We then headed out to Chinatown. The Chinatown here is different than Chinatown's in other major cities around the world - this one is clean, full of offices and huge skyscrapers. Seemed to me like the banking district of Singapore. Boat & Clarke Quay were awesome places too - they're basically riverside café's, pubs and restaurants - and according to the tourist brochures, the "youth" hang out spot. As noted earlier, we had dinner with at a family friends' place. In addition to her own son, she had invited a neighbor's son over too. I have to say, this was the most fun I've had with 8-10 year olds. These guys were fun, quirky (in a good way), full of humor - and all of this in a non-irritating way (which is usually the case with most other kids - in my opinion). After leaving her place by 10:30pm, we headed back to our hostel, picked up a couple of beers on the way and enjoyed them sitting by the street of our hostel. We went to bed relatively early that night - 1:15am.

We headed out to Sentosa Island the next day (though again, post lunch). The train ride from the mainland to the island was nice and the resorts etc. they've built around there was impressive. Being the juvenile kids that we are, we hit the Luge circuit there before heading out to a walk on the beaches (and checking out some fine looking women - and seeing some jealousy inducing men - seriously, once in my life, I want to walk out onto a beach without my shirt on) followed by a visit to the so-called "Southernmost point of continental Asia". By this point, I was sweating profusely (the pics linked to earlier were all taken around this time) so the sea breeze and shade on this mini-island was a very welcome break. After walking around some more, we headed back to our hostel, took a shower, picked up the laptop and headed to the Merlion (arguably the most well-known symbol of Singapore). We sat at a Coffee Bean for about an hour and half before venturing out to take pics around the Merlion. After the photo session, we decided to walk towards Clarke Quay so see how it was during the night. On the way, we saw a good looking italian restaurant with a 1-for-1 pizza promotion (yea, we were pretty broke by that point) and so we headed in. Both of us had half a pizza and saved the other half for next day's lunch. We then walked around Clarke Quay, sat by the river (no beer - no money) and then headed back to the Hostel. 

Next day was the day of the return trip, but we had until late afternoon, and so decided to head out Chinatown once more. We ended up discovering a whole other part of Chinatown I hadn't seen yet - and it reminded me a lot of Europe (in a good way). After some more walking, we headed back to the Hostel, picked up our luggage and left for the but stop for our ride back to KL.

So, that was it - a whirlwind tour of our 3 days in Singapore. I'll reiterate - I had a really good time - and mostly 'cause I had my brother along. We talked, laughed, drank, ate and did everything in-between together - and without fighting (has to be a first for us). For anybody reading this blog considering going to Singapore, stop thinking - just go. Besides the heat, it's an awesome place to go visit.

So - I'm gonna end my blogging drought by answering a question an 8 year old kid asked me today- "what is your passion??". To be polite to myself, I was stumped by his question - and the best I came up with at the time was "when u grow old, the answer gets confusing".

That was a lame answer. I should know what my passion is. I've been thinking about it since - and I'm not sure I have any better answer now - but here goes.

My first answer is writing code. I like developing websites, reading about developing websites, about people who have built complex web apps, how they did so, the tools they used, etc. I mean I check Hacker News probably every 2 hours (I've been checking it regularly while on my trip here to Singapore). However, after thinking about this some more, I can't really say that *writing code* is my passion. It definitely is it as far as work goes, but not as far as life goes. 

This isn't a sudden thing - it's been growing in me got a while - I think today's the flight that finally broke the camel's back.

It used to be that I used to find the flight to be the most exciting part of flying. Now, it's just become a chore. I hate the amount of time wasted in getting to and waiting at the airport. I also hate the waiting around sitting in a cramped seat looking at the tracker map seeing how many Miles/minutes left to the destination. I just want to be at my destination already. Fortunately I'm kinda good about sleeping on flights - that helps quiet a bit.

Anyways - 3 more hours left of this 4 hour flight. I can't wait to land in Bangalore already.

P.S.: written ok my iTouch - pardon typos.

P.P.S.: I'll be in Bangalore at my cousin's place when this post is actually posted. Just saying.

Sent from my iPod

It's week 14 of my summer meltdown and things are going steady. I continue to lose an average of between 4.5 - 5kgs each 4 weeks. As of today, I weight 96.3 kgs - which means I've lost 15.8kgs since I started working out. Things had slowed down a bit a couple of weeks ago when I went on a 3 day trip to Langkawi and then my squash partner caught the H1N1 flu and was rendered useless for 2 weeks - more about this later.

If you're observant enough, my current weight means I am now officially overweight as defined by the BMI index (29.6 on it). Even if I take my 5 day moving average (as calculated by the spreadsheet at http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006851.html), my weight stands at 97.28 kgs which puts me at 29.9. I feel good about this - I probably crossed over this line in my sophomore year in college - which was 6 years ago. I feel good coming back under it :-) . A graph of my weight loss looks like this:

Anyways, so about that 2-3 week period where I didn't have anyone to play squash with. I thought I would do the same thing I used to do earlier when I didn't play squash on an off day (= a day when I didn't have a workout with my trainer) - just not go work out at all. However, to my surprise, save one day, I actually ended up going to the gym daily at the time I used to go to play squash. While there I did mostly cardio (I credit that time with the fact that I can now jog a mile on the treadmill without stopping - in about 11 minutes) adding some weights in the end before finishing with a bang by crunching my ass out. I think that really helped me - squash was starting to get boring, and a break from it was welcome.

None of this means I'm anywhere near the finish line - I still got at-least another 11kgs, and more likely another 16kgs to go. Once I get to between 80 - 85 kgs, I will then start bulking and toning up. For now though, I'm happy with the fact that I've come back to being an overweight individual instead of an obese one. I honestly hope I never cross this line again - EVER.

To be fair, the book was entertaining - it made for a good read, and kept me busy during my vacation and for a couple days after I got back. The writing was crisp, I learnt some new words, even though I didn't feel the need to be holding a dictionary in my hand while reading the book, and I got to learn a lot of things about a country and people I had not known much about before now. For all that, Mr. Hosseini get's a thumbs up.

However, I could not help but feel that this book was a personification of Murphy's law. Everything from Hassan being raped, to Amir being quiet about it, Ali and Hassan leaving the house, Amir and his father escaping Afghanistan in the worst conditions imaginable, them not having the best of times once they moved to the US, his father getting cancer, Hassan and his wife dying, Aseef ending up being the guy holding Hassan's kid, Sohrab trying to kill himself and all the other things in between - all this just seemed too much of a coincidence to be happening to the same person (or the people he knew). Now, I'm not saying that shit like this did not happen in Afghanistan, in-fact I'm ingratiated of Mr. Hosseini for bringing it all to light, but to have it all happen to this guy's immediate family - just seemed a bit much. Now maybe it wouldn't have been as interesting a book if all this stuff didn't go down in it, but as far as books go, I look for realism more than anything else (unless the book prefaces itself by saying it's gonna deal with fantasy - as was the case with Midnight's Children). And on that front, I could not help but feel that this book betrayed it's readers.

Digressing a bit now, as in other books, this book describes Amir's infatuation with Soraya following their initial meeting at the flea market. How he stayed up at nights, looked forward to Saturdays to see her again, walk by her stand, strike up small conversations with her etc. Reading all this, I couldn't help but realize that I've never had those feelings for anyone. I've never met a girl I couldn't stop thinking about (well, maybe there have been girls who I've thought about for a day or two tops), with whom I couldn't wait to spend time with, who kept me up at nights etc. A part of me feels this kind of Love is pure fantasy. How can you love someone without talking to them, getting to know them, spending time with them, learning their likes and dislikes. Infatuations are all-right, but thinking that you want to spend the rest of your life with said person seems like a far fetched notion to me. But, another part of me (arguably, much smaller than the former part) thinks that this is what true love is all about. You lay your eyes on someone, and you immediately have that feeling that this is the person you're supposed to be with, that this is the person who you can spend your good and your bad times with. I don't know which is true - perhaps a combination of both. Either way, I still haven't met that person yet. I hope I do though, someday.

Anyhow, there you have it. My thoughts on The Kite Runner. Read it if you can't find a better book, chuck it if you do.

I was chatting with my squash partner this morning about how he goes to drop his son off to his school every morning (or tries to anyways). The conversation reminded me of my year going to school in Geneva. Our (me and my brother's) school was half way across the town, which meant we had to change a bus and a tram to get there. The early morning to and the evening ride back from school used to be quiet fun. Here's why.
 
First, it used to provide us with an opportunity, like no other, to listen to music or read a book. I'm not kidding, I probably got more reading done taking public transport is Europe than I did in my entire 4 years in college in Austin. Reading books while having the hustle and bustle of an operating bus or tram was fun - you would see people get on and off, hear them talk in their own language, notice the clothes they were wearing, and yet be able to concentrate and enjoy the book you were reading. Once I got my iPod, it also gave me the chance to enjoy some music without being glued to my desk.
 
Second, we would inevitably run into somebody from school while on our way there - which used to be fun too. Get a head start on the day's gossip (don't judge - we were in High School), or discuss how, when and where we'd play cricket, or what periods we had off, or some interesting restaurant we visited the past night or something funny that transpired in class or learn some new bad words in that person's language etc. I probably made good friends 'cause of these rides than in class or outside of it (at school).
 
Third, it gives you an awesome peak into other people's lives (without you having to snoop). I found it immensely enjoyable to notice how Europeans behaved. It was fun listening to people talk in the seat ahead or behind and trying to figure out which language they were speaking, or their country of origin from the accent they were speaking in. It was also fun noticing their general demeanor in the mornings. And it never hurt when every so often a hot chick would walk in, find the empty seat next to you (me and my brother usually did not share the same seat) and sit down :).
 
Fourth, and this has nothing to do with me, it was very environmentally conscious. In the US, outside of a select few cities, having your own car is a way of life - it cannot be done without, but Europe allows you the luxury of not having to buy your own car and yet being able to enjoy everything the city has to offer (and the countryside too, for the most part, thanks to trains).
 
If I had to pick one, the first reason was my favorite - reading books or listening to music while on the bus was awesome fun and something I really hope I could do today. Unfortunately, the countries I have lived in since Geneva have had really poor public transportation options. Let's hope this will change soon.