Winter break..

The long awaited winter break started from 14th and it hasn't been as exciting as I expected it to be. I seemed to have lost my expertise in killing time. One extremely busy action packed quarter can do dreadful things to such skills.

One major disappointment of break was Xmas. I expected all places to be "like" buzzing with "like" people on "like" xmas eve but it was "like" exact opposite of that. All places which are "like" lively on "like" a usual day were also "like" deserted. I was in "like" San Diego on "like" Xmas eve and I know its kinda "like" laid back place, but it was "like" there is "like" a curfew in the city. Gaslamp quarters, Mission beach, fashion valley everything was "like" semi-closed.

It wasn't as bad as it sounds though. It just wasn't upto my high expectations of fun. Infact the first few days went very well. We went for Ice skating at Santa Monica, got to see lots of celebrities at village theatre (Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Will Smith and many others) and went to hollywood. And as I mentioned, I went to San Diego to visit Vinay. Its always refreshing to see a new place, however boring the place is (Thats for Vinay - LA rocks anytime :D). Caught up with lot of friends on chat and there are still 6 more days to go before this bruin goes into hibernation.

Also watched lots of movies, good ones include - August rush (best watch this month), Miss Pettigew lives for a day, Rab ne bana di jodi, Sunset boulevard. Not so good ones - Ghajini, Seven pounds, The strangers, Feast.

Currently watching Season 1 of Big bang theory. Its funny :).

And the Fall quarter is over... well almost

I had to start a new blog as I am no longer Software Engineer. The blog is titled Westwood and Boelter Hall as these are the two places where I spend most (rather all) of my time. (Well technically Boelter Hall is in Westwood but I will skip that).

Its been almost 4 months since I reached here and its been busy ever since. Initially apartment hunting (I was given a new name - Khoji by few people for my aggressive apartment hunting which went on for 10 days :D). Then unsuccessful funding hunting (pun intended) and finally grade hunting. Ok I am not actually running after grades.. but it sounds funny to put it in that way :D.

The fact that I am writing my first post on this blog after 4 months can give you idea on how busy I was. (Ok.. I wasnt writing daily on my previous blog too.. but I was busy then too. Software Engineers don't get paid to write blogs :P.)

I made three mistakes in my first quarter.. errr.. I meant I took three courses in my first quarter. For people who are not familiar with quarter system, its not the best idea in world to take 3 Grad courses in one quarter. So that actually is just one mistake. (It still feels like three :P).

I enjoyed all the courses and hopefully did okay in all of them. I am not going to name the courses.. what do you think.. this is my resume or something??.
There was lot of stuff going throughout the quarter apart from courses... getting to know people, setting up apartment, career fairs, interviews, parties, trips (and Research.. just in case my advisor happens to reads this). There was always something or other that kept coming and I couldn't plan most of the stuff ahead of more than 1 week. (It was 2-3 days in most cases). I still sailed through without any major disaster.

Its funny when I think about it. For a lot of stuff that happened, I would have looked forward to for weeks when I was working. But here it just happened. Like presentations or interviews. 4 months back, I would have prepared for them well in advance but now I just went unprepared and delivered my first draft of presentation in the class or tried to remember what dynamic programming was while I was waiting for interviewer in lobby.

I think whatever I have been through in last 4 months was enough to keep me busy for more than 1 year when I was working. So I am living at a pace 3 times faster than my usual self. (Or to put it in way Boman Irani would say (Bluffmaster) - I am living 3 lifes at a time... Prof. Meyerson though would call my previous self to be 3-approximation of my optimal self). I now know why everyone says Grad school is exciting.

I better get back to my report now which I have to submit within next 7 hours.

PS: I will try to update this blog more than 3 times in a year. :D