Can I kick it?
It has been a summer to remember in a number of ways. We have had such great weather here for the past weeks. Either that or I have so low standards with the weather now but in general it has been good. There are a number of things happening and this is going to be a bit random but I have been writing one or two paragraphs every week and I decided to publish this today.
I volunteer here with an organization that I am very passionate about. As a project on the side, I wanted to do a project that goes beyond the day-to-day work that I do there. So at the beginning of the year, I had decided to upgrade their entire IT software infrastructure by rebuilding all the PCs from scratch. It was long overdue since some of those PCs were not upgraded for about three or four years with multiple users using them. My plan was to do this before September and over the last three or four months, we made some progress and while the update is not complete but I am happy enough with work done. It is painful sometimes because of the different configurations and all the stuff that is in there and working with the people, scheduling the time and making sure that it does get screwed up but I have tremendous fun doing it and as I was talking to a friend the other day and it does really does not seem like work when you are having fun.
I am going to travel soon, right now for "work" but hopefully soon enough for pleasure. After I finish up my degree, i plan to take a month or so off and just chill. A very close friend is in Indonesia and next year for sure I plan to visit and travel in that part of the world. Right now though, I want to focus on my trip. The other "big" trip I am planning for next year is Brazil since it is one of those places that I just have to visit and lately I have been getting signs from friends and just occasions in general that kinda point me towards it.. Should be interesting either way.
The Summer semester is on now. I am taking one Accounting course and it is not that bad I am actually enjoying the topic but it is a bit of a shame that I cannot dedicate more time to it. I can actually read financial statements now, I think is one of the most "practical" courses I have taken for a long time. You come across annual reports from companies all the time in the news and otherwise but I could never figure out how to read those statements and how the markets work, not that I understand it completely now but I think I have general understanding and at least know which questions to ask and where to look up information.
The other day I was backing up my Music collection and I realized that it is almost 6 GB. I am still not convinced that CDs are the way to go so I was looking around for applications that will back up automatically to Amazon S3. One of my problems is that I have my data over Linux, OS X and Windows so it is a bit pain to organize and make it seamless. Anyway, I am quite happy with S3 but right now my HSDPA connection is not quick enough to push that kind of data.
Over time, I can see that I am progressing with my meditation but I have been reading a lot of books and I can see that I am reaching a small plateau but we will see. I think I just have to keep on doing it. I can see the benefits though and all the work and things that I have been doing.
I finally found a sublet for my apartment and it is a bit of a effort to pack up and finish up here. I like the place so did not want to give it up so in the coming weeks I am will be in the process of moving stuff and doing some cleaning in the house.
The new Facebook is quite cool. I actually like the new layout but think that they need to figure out how to do Apps on the layout. To me it is too confusing and still don’t understand how the "Info" and "Bookmarks" work. Either way, love the new comment on status thingie.
I saw "The Batman" and absolutely loved it. On top of it someone presented me with a batman action figure. I think that it took the relationship with them to a new level. :) . I also managed to catch "Mongol" and thought it was quite good the photography. It is in Mongolian and really not that dreary foreign language film that I expected in the beginning. At the end, you are left wanting a bit more and see more.
Loved the opening ceremony of the Olympics and remembered my time in China before about six years ago. I was very impressed with it then and can only imagine how it must be now. I still am ambivalent about Tibet and other things but a strong China is good for the world. If we look at a bigger picture, China not being strong is a very recent phenomenon since most of its history it has been the other way.
Still confused between iPhone 2 or the Blackjack. Love the HSDPA access though so I think it is going to be the iPhone although not that keen on taking in more Apple products in my life.
So many other things: Stuff that is probably more important in the long run. I am still processing and writing some of it. I will update this soon enough.
Fin.
