in anticipation for Boston

Hey all, I'm back.

I guess there isn't much to say. or will there. i might end up coming up with a super long entry, or if the chain of thoughts in my mind suddenly stops, i will stop blogging.

i'll be going over to boston over the independence day weekend, and i have taken the tuesday off so that i can spend more time with relatives i havent seen in ages. sheesh, i miss boston, i don't think ive been there since... 2001? its gonna be great seeing my cousins again. plus, Pamela will be there too!

ive been downloading a whole bunch of stuff off bit torrent lately, and boy am i glad. with the demise of i2hub, my download source was cut off, but with bit torrent, im back to hunting. though searching for torrent files can be a pain. there might not be enough people sharing the file that i want. nevertheless, its a way to get files i want. ive downloaded way too many things that i need to start clearing out stuff from my ipod. i thought i cleared out enough stuff that i dont listen, but apparantly that wasnt enough. i have roughly less than 2GB left, and i gotta be careful. i downloaded and completed all of oasis, sarah mclachlan, radiohead, travis and many more that i can't recall. since i listen to my ipod for 2 solid hours each day while commuting to and from work, i can check out the stuff that i like and delete the ones that i dont think i will be listening to. even then, that's a lot of songs. i want to have enough space left so that when i decide to transfer huge files like a number of divx movies, i wont have any problems.

this weekend was a complete waste. i hate not knowing whats going to happen, and the weekend was more or less wasted on waiting for other people to get ready or decide where to go. half of summer is gone and i really think that the weekend can be utilized much better. i have finished watching the first 3 seasons of seinfeld, so i think i better move on to watching the movies that have been in my powerbook since last semester. i have some great independents there, and ive been yearning to catch them. thats what im lacking this summer, some great movies.

ive been putting a lot of effort into work lately that by the end of the day, im mentally drained. most of the mini projects that i was in charge of is more or less done, or now in the hands of someone else before coming back to me. soon enough, i will be back in school, this time, putting what i learned into application, which should prove to be beneficial.

ive bought some books via ebay, which will hopefully give me more insight into the supply chain/logistics industry. there are couple of approaches to business, of which two have caught my attention. one is known very well in the industry as 'six sigma' which is basically a rigorous product quality test, from various stages of production, leading all the way from the beginning til the end, which should lead the number of defective products (or processes) to about 3.4 per million opportunities. a very fascinating concept, but one that is extremely hard to on-board and implement. another one is 'lean' which is to banish waste and maximize productivity. it is fairly more easier to understand, i assume, but one that is also hard. the book that i bought concentrates solely on toyota and how they managed to be so successful in mass manufacturing affordable, yet reliable cars rapidly world wide. im very much into the concepts that are discussed and hopefully i will be able to self teach some of these principles.

alright, i guess my chain of thoughts has run out now, which means its the end of this post.

Cast No Shadow

"Here's a thought for every man
Who tries to understand what is in his hands
He walks along the open road of Love & Life
surviving if he can

Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say
Chained to all the places that he never wished to say
Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say
and as faced the sun he cast no shadow

As they took his soul they stole his pride

As they took his soul they stole his pride

As they took his soul they stole his pride"

 

- 'Cast No Shadow' by Oasis

X&Y

i bought the new coldplay album, 'X&Y' last weekend and have been listening to it over and over on my way to work and back to campus. i wasn't impressed initially, it didnt have that effect like 'parachutes' or 'a rush of blood to the head' did, but after few hours of listening, it slowly grew into me. its not a bad album at all, i guess after few more hours of listening will do good. the album shot to number 1 in 21 or so countries, and in UK, its the second biggest debut since Oasis' 'Be Here Now' which only indicates good things.

i just find it hard to fathom that that ringtone song occupies the number 1 spot in the UK charts as of now.

in any case, by september, i should be familiar with all of coldplay's songs, except for their B-tracks or limited release ones. i gotta do the same with oasis, which is going to be much harder since they have so many more songs. ooh, i can just imagine how much i'm gonna enjoy the double header.

let me share my initial disappointment trying to attend a concert. it was back in... 99 or 2000 (i cant really remember) when coldplay was scheduled to have their concert in singapore. back then, they were only known for 'yellow' and 'trouble' so none of my friends wanted to dish out the SG$50 (which is a lot when you're a middle/high school student) to go see them. even when they were performing together with scottish band Travis. i think, at that time, those two were the biggest bands on radio, i really didnt wanna miss it. as i contemplated whether to go or not (more for the price of attendence than whether to go alone or not) time passed and by the time i decided to get the tickets, they were sold out. imagine my disappointment. and that was around my birthday too. missing out on two great bands at that time, because i was indecisive (and that hasnt changed too much, though now, when i make my decision, i go all out on it) so this time, i really wanted to catch coldplay, and i am going to. its gonna be great.

got my second paycheck earlier this week. ive come to realize how it sucks to have worked for 4 weeks and my one week's earning is taken out as taxes. im not really complaining as im not a big spender, so it doesnt really make much difference, but it really sucks. hopefully i'll get most of it back after the end of the current tax year. even though i say i dont spend, when i do want something though, it can get out of hand. most of my first paycheck was spent paying off my credit card debt (now i dont have any balance) and paying for the flight that i am taking to go to boston over the 4th of july weekend. and then... well, the coldplay tickets, and a portable, but pretty strong speaker for my laptop/ipod and the apple isight webcam to communicate with my family. ok, webcam was needed, i was just balking at the price, as other affordable ones werent compatible with a mac or their resolution was bad, etc. but i did feel like i wasted all that money getting stuff which, at that time, seemed necessarily. but now that ive gotten all those things, the pay that im going to earn over the rest of the summer should solely be spent on food and transportation only. i guess its good in that regard. and i gotta start hunting down people who owe me money...

next week would be half way through summer. it flies past way too fast. next thing i know, i'm studying again. im gonna miss working, though it wont be long before im back at it again. ive been having really interesting and enriching conversations with some of my colleagues, who are much older than me, but we never run out of things to talk about, funny enough. yesterday was one of those days where it was evident that your training in school/college may not necessarily have to do anything with what you might be working for in the future. you just gotta be open, flexible and ambitious. so long as you put your mind and heart into whatever that you do, you can basically do anything. though, of course, a college degree is somewhat necessarily to back that up. it was kind of surprising how many of my colleagues have tried so many different things before now and just hearing these things makes me excited at what potentially holds for me after im done here at tech.

im pretty happy with what im in charge of at work, as i think im one of the few fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on what kind of person you are) who is responsible for a project where i get to do quite a lot of things in such a short work period. i guess it pays to be working in a small environment to get maximum exposure in that sense. imagine if you're working in a massive corporation, its more likely you'll be standing infront of the xerox machine most of the day. (ok, thats a little demeaning, but you get the point) its only gonna get better, hopefully, starting next week, i'll get to do some real stuff, like training suppliers on using the portal. i gotta make sure i do that right, coz if i do, i'll do more of them and get a better hang of things that goes on.

all that ive been doing after i get back from work is watching 'seinfeld.' its just a hilarious show. i borrowed the entire seasons 1-3 dvd from scott and its great coz i can watch it at any time and not depend on what time the reruns are screened on tv (and we are missing a tv from my room anyway). its a great way to unwind to at the end of a working day, and by the time i feel like im tired, its the right time to take a shower and turn in for the day. ive been missing a good sitcom show since 'friends' ended, so this is great.

i guess the only other thing i need to start doing is to read more and start running. im playing soccer every now n then, but i guess i need to pull my fitness level back before i get match alertness and controls back to where i used to be. i feel horrible playing soccer coz my accuracy is gone and my touches arent as good as i like it to be. i was never a good player, so i dont have too much of an expectation, but if i cant even carry out decent plays, thats going to be a problem.

Kingdom come

so i guess i am going for the coldplay gig afterall. a little pricey, but i bet it will be well worth it. two straight nights of fantastic uk rock acts. i cant wait.

'Leaving Las Vegas'

i finally got to see and complete watching the movie. midway through the week, i caught 30 something minutes of it, but due to the fatigue from an intensive day at work, i gave up, as it was something that was very slow, and one you had to pay great attention to every single detail. at any other time, it would have been a perfect movie for me, but not then.

after i got back from work, i went out with francesco, dawar and sandesh to have dinner in an area near buckhead. decent italian pasta. then we got back, played pool and foosball for a while and then we watched it. if they decided to watch something else, i would have come back to the room and watched it myself.

anyway, the movie's really depressing. its one of those movies where there isnt much to say about, but you feel the dense emotion of the film. can't say i didn't like it, but at the same time, it wasn't as great as what i had thought it would be.

i shall continue on my last post.

enough about my work, but now, focus on my other activities. aside from managing to catch a bit of films here and there, i now have a chance to examine a particular artist or an album while on the way to work. the time it takes between the moment i walk out of my room and reaching my workplace is roughly about 50 minutes. during that moment, i get to get ready for the day, or unwind from the day. i haven't been trying various types of music, but for a few days, listen to a particular album or artist intensely. it started with few of the orchestra-electronica fusion of juno reactor and lesiem. and then it was dido, and lately, coldplay. i have grown to like few of their songs that i never paid too much attention to. especially now that coldplay has released a much awaited new album (which i should probably go get it soon) and the fact that they will be coming down to atlanta (which i will talk about later on) made me want to listen more to them. dido, surprisingly, had a pretty complete album in 'one step too far.' i like 'life for rent' but 'one step too far' had more of the trip hop touch to it that im really drawn to.

one song that stood out out of the bunch of coldplay's songs was the title track for 'a rush of blood to the head.' the lyrics really stuck to me.

anyway, regarding the concert. the thing is, ive already bought my tickets for oasis on the 26th of september. i found out about 2 weeks ago that coldplay's coming down to atlanta. and guess when, the night right after oasis. that presented a problem in a sense that i wasnt sure if i could afford two nights of great music as i still have school to worry about. i know it right from now that there will inevitably be some major assignment or a test due sometime that week, and i'll only be giving myself a bad time if i do decide to go for both. but i don't want to give coldplay up. i missed them once when they were scheduled to perform the day after my birthday back in middle school days, and by the time i decided to buy the tickets, they were sold out (needless to say, i was gravely disappointed) so this time i really don't want to miss them. the tests and the assignments, well, its not like its a last minute notification, so im sure i can arrange it in such a way that i study or complete the work well before the concert date. so im in a dilemma, as the good tickets for coldplay has been sold off. two straight nights of brit-rock at its greatest. i cant picture it happening anytime soon, maybe one more time at the most, while im still at tech. even then, that seems unlikely.

i should make a decision on that sometime soon, before the tickets sell out. it would be a pity if i have to miss them once more.

as usual, there were many things on my mind, but just when i am blogging, they cease to come up to my mind.

i guess im turning in then. a little early from the usual friday night, but i really did a lot this week, time to get some rest.

let's see how often i can update from now on. now that the e-mail blog is set up, it should not pose too much of a problem.

Back from the absence

This probably has been the longest period where I have not blogged. It's been almost 2 weeks. Such was the lifestyle that I could not sit down and just blog. I usually get up by 7AM, come back to my room at Chi Psi around 6PM and then I'll go about settling dinner, be it eating out, which is most frequent, or eating whatever instant stuff that I keep in my room.

 

I can't say that I hate working life -  in fact, I like it better than school life. Though I miss the day to day interactions at campus, the best thing about working is that once I'm off work, I have absolutely no obligation whatsoever, whereas, on the other hand, if you're in school, you still have to deal with extracurricular meetings, homeworks, etc. However, all these extra time is being put to waste. I initially hoped that I will read up, watch a movie or hang around with my friends. I am mentally drained by the time I come back, so I try not to do so.

 

The first 2 weeks at work was really tough. I've never held an actual paying job prior to this and I never worked like 7 hours at one go, so adapting to it took some time. However, this week, I think I finally got the hang of things and am very pleased with myself for being very productive and efficient. I guess its all a matter of time before you get used to new things.

 

What I do hate though, is what happens after work. I tend to go over to Sandesh's place at West Campus, where we basically do nothing but sit around and waiting for things to happen. I hate that. I'm the kind of person who always plans things in advance so that it is never necessary to take an hour or two to decide what to do. It feels like I'm back in high school where it took at least an hour before everyone could all agree to do something, and I've wasted too many weekends being like that. The past few weekends, we wasted one hour deciding where to eat, another hour deciding where to go, and another deciding which movie to watch. I can't waste any more time like that. It's already the end of the 4th week, it's a third way through summer, and before I know it, I'll be back in school. I guess I'll insist on doing things my own way instead of letting them decide, and should they decide to watch a movie I've already seen, I'll retreat into my room and watch the movies I still have in my laptop that I've yet to see. I've also wasted too much time watching movies that others have not seen, but I have.

 

I refered my friend Sandesh as my rotation guy for my job. I don't think I've made it clear how this co-operative education system works. Basically, its the same as an internship, but internships are usually for one session, and maybe, at most, two. It can vary from 3 to 6 months per session. What is different about the co-op program is that we alternate work and academic semesters until I have worked at least 4 semesters. (with the same company) We are not allowed to work consecutive semesters, meaning we will be alternating work and study semesters every semester. That means I will have to go back to school next semester, but come back to work for my spring semester, so on and so forth. Usually this delays a student's time in college from 4 years to 5, since it is basically adding a year's worth of work experience. However, I am fortunate enough to have gained enough credits to skip one semester, meaning I can do co-op and still manage to graduate in 4 years' time, provided I don't fail any of my major classes.

 

It is an opportunity I could not let go, since relevant work experience is very important upon graduation. I could have graduated in 3 years, but why not delay that by a year so that I can boost my resume and my chances of getting a really good job? At this moment in time, I cannot say how my path will be like, as many co-op students end up working for the same company as a full-time (well, we are technically full-time during co-op semesters) employee upon graduation.

 

I like the things that we deal with in RubberNetwork, and its really engaging, giving me full exposure to the Supply Chain and Logistics industry. I guess I made the right choice, going with what I like.

 

Many people hate their work, because they do it for the money. If you forget about that and like what you're doing, it actually becomes enjoyable. Many of my friends ask me why I'm putting so much effort and time into my work when I'm just an intern, and I reply that I'm not doing it for the money, but to get an exposure. And to get the most amount of exposure and challenge, I must do as many things as I can get my hands on. That's the philosophy I've held in me since Middle School and I've been very pleased with the many things I've come to do, which has enabled me to be the person that I am today. And something tells me I should not stop.

 

Most of my peers do these part time work to get some income, and that's good, as that satisfies their need, but I can't stand it when they bitch about their work. If you don't like what you do, just quit and look for something else. Earning money often blinds people and I think that should not be the sole reason why youths should work for. But then again, I might be contradicting myself, as I do earn quite a bit from this co-op job. Obviously I will not do something for nothing in return, but I ask that I be paid what I'm worth, or be paid what I deserve to get paid for. I'm not a big spender, I'm not materialistic, and I detest over-priced products that serve no apparant purpose. Most of my earnings go to food. Isn't that why we work for? To be able to eat and to have shelter? Everything else is a luxury option. Right now, my priority to is to be able to stay somewhere, to be able to eat and not starve to bad food, and the rest is meant to go into the savings account so that I will not have too much problems when I decide paying back my student loans. It's all for the long term.

 

Since I have one leg into the working world, this experience has brought me so much insight, more than the work aspect. I don't regret this at all, and loving every minute of it.

 

However, I have been having second thoughts about my academic choices at Georgia Tech as of late. I had all these plans to do everything at Georgia Tech, and recently I've started to question why I should do it. My masterplan would have been to obtain a minor in Material Science and Engineering, obtain a certificate in the Finance Program, join a Fraternity, be part of the Student Government Association, be part of the Residence Hall Association (done), be a Housing Staff (done), be a Teaching Assistant, be a co-op (done), do an Undergrad Research and graduate with Honors.

 

That, is crazy. I do realize that. I could, on the other hand, chuck all that off, and still graduate with Honors, be a Housing Staff and a co-op student and that's plenty.

 

I'm having a hard time deciding what to do about it. If I decide to do nothing at all, likely chances are that I will probably do well academically, but on the other hand, I want a complete experience at college level, and let's face it, I'll never have this experience ever again, unless I decide to go to Graduate School of course (and that's another completely different story).

 

It's something that's so far ahead in the future, but something I have to decide pretty soon, as it influences how many classes I should take and how much things I can do that semester. Everything is about planning and being mentally prepared.

 

I guess I still have the course of the summer to decide what I really should do.

 

Most of the people in the office are gone, since its a friday, its common that most people leave early, to avoid the weekend traffic. I guess I'll continue the entry when I get back to my room, the remaining people are joking around and I wanna join in the conversation.

Test blog from work

Here's just a test e-mail to see if I've set this up right.

 

This might enable me to blog from work during lunch times or when I've completed whatever that I have to do.

 

Should be useful.