Off to Princeton

Oh well..in an hour, I'll be boarding the British Airways flight to Heathrow and 4 hours hence, I would be on my way to Princeton. I'll be gone for another 3 months. I have mixed feelings right now. It would be nice to work with my colleagues at NEC Labs again and also to meet Rama - the "beer" guy, but I would be missing soo many of my friend's marriages and other important occasions (read as: "Beer celebrations"). Plus I would also be missing the Metallica concert :( .. something which I was looking forward too..well ever since I was a kid. I am still coming to terms with it. In the words of Chandler Bing - Can the timing "BE" more wrong??!. The weather this time around would be much better though. Last time around, I landed in the midst of a fierce winter snowstorm. This time of the year, its generally sunny. Although Hurricane Irene showed up its ugly head last weekend, but its pretty much back to normal now (or atleast that's what they are saying). Anyways, I hope to meet my friends Rohit and Varun this time around, if my schedule allows me. I would also like to go to Six Flags, something which I missed last time around. I am looking forward to Family Guy marathons, my cooking experiments (and this time, its only gonna be meat!) and insane varieties of beer that I would try. And I also hope to make new friends while I'm at it! 

Rockin' out

Ok..it was time I did a cover and uploaded it on youtube...esp after I got myself an electric guitar. So, here it is. Its not perfect. I can play it much much better but I'm ok with it. This is played over a backing track which I found here. The audio quality sucks a bit too (or is it my playing) :(

Foo Fighters win

Foo Fighters won the Best Rock Video award in the recently concluded MTV VMA awards. They won it for their song Walk from the album Wasting Light. Its pretty cool!

Bad day for Sports

Aww man..bad day for sports!..Usain Bolt disqualified...Arsenal getting thrashed :( To make matters worst..tomorrow's monday!

Randomizing

Woah..its been a long time since I wrote anything here. Well, work is keeping me really busy these days. I have a release at the end of the month and the things are getting a bit too hectic. I really hope (and pray) it goes well. 

Other than work, my parents had been pestering me to buy a car for myself ever since I came back. Although I was fighting it out the last few weeks, I finally relented when my folks excitedly showed me a Chevrolet ad 2 weeks back in the newspaper. They were offering some discount on Chevy Spark. We went to the dealer that same evening and booked it. I bought the top model and it cost me 3.6 Lakhs (including everything). The dealer threw in a gear lock and central locking system free (for which I have my bhabhi's exceptional negotiation skills to thank!)Needless to say, my bank balance saw a H-U-G-E drop! But, come to think of it, I am enjoying the ride every morning to the office. It comes with all 4 power windows, ABS, Airbags and an integrated stereo (the best part). Its red in color and pretty cool to drive. The best part of course are the celebrations which come along the way.

I have been running fairly consistently these days despite of my schedule and the sucky weather. I am running faster, but I dont run the usual 4 miles that I used to, mainly because of the lack of time in the mornings. On weekends, I end up fighting a hangover from the previous night. Anyways, but I would try harder to get my rhythm back. I think this might be the year when I finally run that half marathon! 

In other news, I finally got my 4th sem result of my M.S. programme at BITS Pilani. I passed with a "Good" for my dissertation grade (which is outstanding given the manner in which I had made the final report). So, finally I hold a masters degree now. My mom now wants me to pursue a PhD! I swear my bro is making my life hell! He is already planning to do it, and my mom has started pestering me to do the same! I tell you ... sibling rivalry is the worst! 

Apart from all that, all my friends are either getting married or busy getting engaged or getting into new relationships! It sucks! I can see how badly it would affect my social life. I had seen the same thing happen to my bro and it was sad indeed. Things were soo much cooler back in 2009 when life was all bout work and beer with nothing in between :(

Howler

Inside TGIF at Times Square, after a couple of beers.

Akanksha: Why is there a "non-veg" sign on that TV.

Me: That's not a non-veg sign. Thats the Japanese flag!!!!
Akansha: * embarrassed*

P.S. I was just browsing through my drafts to find this one never got published. But it certainly deserved to be!

Its Electric!!

After toying with the idea of buying an electric guitar for years now, I finally had the guts confidence to really pursue it since the last few weeks. I coaxed mom and dad to no ends as to why I need a third guitar! They finally agreed. So, all of us (bro and bhabhi also tagged along) went yesterday evening to Bhatia Musicals - a shop introduced to us by my bro's violin teacher - Hari. I had already bought my Yamaha acoustic guitar from them and they are our one stop shop for music. They know their music and their suggestions are right on the mark. I had a budget in mind which was 15K for the entire package.The guy suggested a Fender Telecaster California series guitar which was decent for an intermediate level player and a good value for money. It costs Rs. 9500 or so. It has a nice deep crunchy tone. I coupled that with a Marshall MG 10 amp and had a nice time jamming in the shop. I was a bit apprehensive as I had never played an electric before but as soon as the distortion was on, I was able to belt out some AC/DC tunes with ease. We wrapped it up and the entire package cost me 14K or so.

Coming back home, I couldn't resist plugging it in right away and I was up all night yesterday playing. Its awesome! Its really good for hard rock, but for heavier stuff, I would have to get a processor to really unleash the metal. But for now, I'm pretty happy with this. Rock On!