THE MIXER

In the afternoon, I've been to the student-faculty mixer program organised by the ECS dept. There was a get-together lunch buffet (American food style), and a small game to mingle the gathering. The food was as usual bad as one could expect from an American lunch buffet. Overall, it was nice fun with gifts being given away to all students at the end . . .

GREAT WEEKEND !

It was after a long time that I met Subramanium uncle and aunty today. We had lunch together at Madras Pavillion, a very famous veg. Indian restaurant in Dallas. Later in the evening, anna had to leave to Deteroit... Soon after he left, we all went to 'Cottonwood Park' located around a lake, in which a few ducks swim across. The cool breeze accompanied with patches of sunlight between the trees created a pleasant ambience for me to relax out from my academic stress. I had a very nice time with all of them this weekend. . . It was a very nice feeling~

JOB-SEARCH SEMINAR

Today, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar by Bradley Richardson, author of the national best-seller JobSmarts® for TwentySomethings (Random House) and JobSmarts® 50 Top Careers (HarperCollins). The seminar was very informative as he was describing the most dynamic unconventional methods of resume writing and interviewing for job search. It was a new approach, which he explained with clarity and enthu... The seminar lasted for one and half hour with some time alloted for the questions at the end of his speech. A lot of hints were thrown at us, and it was upto us to put them into action ~

ART OF LIVING

A concert was organised by Art of Living group at the student union in my university. The concert was played by a guitar professional who also made us sing along with him in chorus as he played a few Indian tunes. It was nice fun. . . Later at the end of the concert, we had some silence observed (something similar to meditation), after which I found much of peace within and experienced a nice feeling... A lot of fruits were also offered meanwhile. Ofcourse, need not mention that America is a land of mouth-watering fruits...

THE INTERNET REBORN

Hey... i read an interesting technological update about replacing the Internet with something faster, more secure, and vastly smarter. Welcome to PlanetLab. The project is called PlanetLab, and within the next three years, researchers say, it will help revitalize the Internet, eventually enabling you to

• forget about hauling your laptop around. No matter where you go, you'll be able to instantly recreate your entire private computer workspace, program for program and document for document, on any Internet terminal
• escape the disruption caused by Internet worms and viruses-which inflicted an average of $81,000 in repair costs per company per incident in 2002-because the network itself will detect and crush rogue data packets before they get a chance to spread to your office or home;
• instantly retrieve video and other bandwidth-hogging data, no matter how many other users are competing for the same resources;
• archive your tax returns, digital photographs, family videos, and all your other data across the Internet itself, securely and indestructibly, for decades..

Its interesting .. isnt it? Awaiting to use it....

THE INSCRUTABLE AMERICANS...!

When I was reading the book titled "The Inscrutable Americans" written by Anurag Mathur, I just had a thought of including this in my blogsite. I feel that the book is a hilarious satire on both Indians and Americans. The author greatly describes the true feelings and crazy doubts lingering in the minds of Indian students who have come to US. I recalled the memories of my personal experiences here in America, as I kept turning the pages of this book. I do suggest every indian student aspiring of comming to US to read this book. Hope your trip is not as screwed up as the one of Gopal ( the main character in the book)

STRESS RELIEVED

At last... i submitted my AOS (Advanced Operating System) project today ! But soon... my prof gave us the 2nd project to be submitted next month. I need to hurry up in getting a strong hold on Threads in C and Java... and ofcourse theory too~

THE CAREER FAIR

It was the first time for me to enter a CAREER FAIR. I had with me few copies of my resume in my backpack. The fair was held at the Activity centre of UTD. The entry process was pretty simple. I just had to register my name and show up my univ ID to enter the hall. The officials then handed to me a few papers which contained information about the companies which had its participation in the fair. This set of papers was the key for me to know more about each company and its contact info.

At the fair, there were nearly 50 companies.... and out of them, I could spot out 2 famous well known ones. Each company had its desk and separators inbetween one another. It was more like an exhibition in Madras. I handed over my resume to many of the company officials and enquired abt the internship programs and CO-OPS. I spent nearly 2 hrs in the hall and felt it worthy.... Finally, i went home carrying a lot of brochures and free stuff ...

THE STORY BEHIND THE MOON BELIEF

If you look up tonight, you will see a pretty full moon. Among the 12 occurrences of full moons in a year, the full moon in August(in lunar calendar) is one of the most important days for the Chinese around the world, next to the Spring festival only. It is called "Mid-Autumn Moon Festival" which has a similar meaning as Thanksgivings in US.

It is the date that the families get together, chat together, laugh together and have dinner together with specially-made moon cakes in this beautiful moon night. I know that I am away from my family, and cannot get together today in US. All that I can do is to see the moon at night knowing that the beloved others are seeing the same moon today, and quietly missing each others. Happy moon festival for all of you . . .!

DO U WANT UR WISH COME TRUE ? ? ?

heY... I got an interesting news from my sis today. Its about a simple trick to make a wish come true. TRY THIS OUT. . . But, this works only for tonight (Aug 10, 2003). Those who are late reading this message, u have missed trying it. ~All that we need to do is to look straigt at the full moon and make a wish. It appeared silly to me but who knows... angels may be everywhere in a hyper-active state tonight. But now . . . what to wish for ? ? ? My mind is going blank :-)

THE SPLENDID MOON

Tonight, i just happened to look at the moon and found it to be very wholesome and splendid. It had a unique glow around it and a red border at the circumference of the glow. I called on my friend and asked him to have a look at it, but he only commented it to be a usual scenario. I dont know why... the moon appeared so unique to ME tonight.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I met my friend Ajit who is doing his M.S in Texas A&M University. We had a gala time last 2 days, roaming about in Dallas, and also chatting a lot about our new experiences in US. The week-end went on ... great ! We imagined how spledid it would have been, if rest of our friends were here toooo. Hope they join us next sem.

FITNESS FIRST

Today, I had my morning jog and some running on the thread-mill (gym) soon in the morn. Hope this works out . . . so that I can go early to bed and early to work from tommorow.

BUSY TIMES AHEAD

Today, I had a big project assigned by my professor. The project report need to be in the international standards... It needs a lot of research, coding, designing, analysing and proposing a new solution to the given problem. As the project details for my other courses being assigned, I seem to have busy times ahead.

FREE COOKIES . . . AND LOTS OF FUN

"An Emerging Leadership Program" was the name which drew my attention in the UTD schedule. So, I attended the program to see what it is all about. I found its about fun, group games and playful time, which emphasise team-work and breaking the ice with each other during the initial classes. They offered me very-tasty cookies and the lemonade for free. I had a fun time and eventually never had the feeling that i was doing a Proffesional Masters degree. The program will extend for 2 months and held once every week. . . Hmmmm ! got to check out whats-up for the next week.

CHATTING 'N WRITING

I had a nice time chatting with my parents and my sis using the yahoo messenger today. I could not use the voice chat due to the unavailability of a good headphone/mic. But, i did enjoy typing to put my thoughts into words. I felt more comfortable than talking by phone. Once I was done with it, I infact started waiting for tommorow's chatting time ... May be, I will get a new good headphone set right today. . .