Gold and Beautiful

When I successfully defended my dissertation in March, everyone told me to enjoy my summer vacations, because it seems when you start working you miss your student life and you won't have any fun, etc, etc. So, of course I had a blast, did not do anything for 3 months other than traveling. Fortunately, it's been a month since I started working and I am still loving it. You might think one month is hardly anything, but I know I am going to feel the same for a long time to come. I have wonderful students (can't remember the last time when I had problems with students....), great colleagues, I still live like a student (sleep in front of the TV, work during weekends), enjoy my new 1400 sq.ft gym and take time to even go hiking. On the downside, I now live alone, so I have to clean the entire house by myself (miss you Arun :-(), I am the only person who cooks (miss you Shilpa :-() and I don't watch movies (that I don't really miss). I am still trying to figure out how t

I spent 2 days without Internet and I was already going crazy!!!! I can manage without TV, even without people sometimes but I cannot do anything without Internet........And 6 years back I did not even have access to Internet. Now 6 years might look like a long time but considering the fact that for 20 years I lived very well without this technology it's just mind boggling to see how this technology has so quickly become almost all my existence (and livelihood.....). I am pro technology and believe that mankind has advanced leaps and bounds in the last few decades with the advancement in computers, Internet and other communications media. But as I was sitting in the auditorium today along with other (older) faculty members I heard somebody make a really good point. As today's generation is getting these advantages of mobile and remote communications are they actually going away from the social support system that they can and should be making use of? As this faculty member righ

Miami Ink is my favourite TV show. I would personally never get a permanent tattoo and I don't encourage abusing / defacing your body, but looking at tattooing from an art perspective is completely different. I haven't seen too much of other tattoo work and before watching this show had never appreciated it, but I must admit these guyz are great........ They are really super kool!!! One of the good thing about the show is that they all have their own style, they are all different from each other......and I think Kat was an important team member......The kind of black and gray portraits she did were amazing........So it was a li'l disappointing to see her go......Garver does good portraits but no one does them the way Kat does. The mermaid tattoo was done by Ami while the other one by Kat.....but you really have to check out her gallery to see some really great portraits. Follow this link if interested http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/miami-ink/kat_corner/index.html Maybe

After spending three wonderful years in New Orleans I am now moving to Atlanta and the feelings are mixed....... Fortunately I had amazing roomies (trust me...there are no words to express this, u gotta live with them to find out). Of course I am excited about the great new opportunities that are coming my way but its hard not to think about all the wonderful times that we spent together watching movies all the time, enjoying Mardi Gras parades, eating Tira Misu n drinking wine for no apparent reason and at any time of the night, the Tom and Jerry fights with Arun (this one's my all time favourite!!!!), the workouts / running and all those amazing trips to California..... Some people leave a long lasting mark on you and in some way become an inseparable part of you. I learned a lot from both my roomies. I used to think I had lots of patience before I met Shilpa.....Now I have redefined patience.....And although it's hard to accept Arun's constant censure of almost everyt