I have not updated this for a while because I have been a busy with school. And added to work it makes juggling the two a bit difficult. The last couple of weeks have been quite crazy. I think I have am beginning to be really skilled at managing schedules and time zones. It is quite tiring though because of the logistics involved. I got the certification at the right time ;)

I did manage to catch Michael Clayton last week. I am beginning to like Clooney’s work now-a-days. This movie is quite good. No over the top body counts or ridiculous stunt but a tight enough story line with a almost anti-climactic ending.

In all of this, I am trying to figure out my thesis. Thesis in general is a pain and I have mixed reactions to it because of the scope and my other time commitments involved but I am talking to a few people regarding topics. I hope to finalize it by the end of this year.

I did manage to catch Ryoji Ikeda couple of weeks ago and he was quite phenomenal. I did not expect it to be so loud but there is a reason why they had ear plugs outside the hall. It was really good and well worth it. It is quite incredible how some of his work is so similar to some of the photos I took when I was younger. Either way the highlight was actually talking to him in person. He just seemed so innocuous and nonchalant about it.

Work has been quite interesting lately, I have been working with a number of teams internally on innovation and research oriented work. So it is quite exciting especially when the product is so widely used and there is a real chance to make an impact on how literally millions of people do their work. Either way it is a challenge for me because coming from an operations background with extremely tight schedules to organizing and creating something with a team requires a completely new set of tools and thinking.

I have been trying to cut down my drinking drastically for a while now and I am quite happy that it has reduced to a trickle. :) It is quite unbelievable how quickly it can get out of hand especially with the culture and my friends here. But it is great because when I do drink now, I seem to enjoy it a lot more.

I actually received a call from a UNICEF’s tele-marketing department (gasp!) the other day. I donate regularly to UN related organizations but the other day a telemarketer called me trying to tell me about the great deals that UNICEF stores have for Christmas shopping. It was the definitely the moral dilemma of the day: Whether you should be angry that they called or should be glad that they are being more aggressive in trying to solicit help. I am still making my mind. But I want to talk to them and ask about how they figured this will work. I think people who want to give time or energy will give regardless and don’t really need any push or a personal pep talk or convincing. The lady was really nice so I think she was a volunteer also :). It will be a very interesting conversation though trying to figure out what they are trying to achieve.

Speaking of charities, A friend of mine is raising money for his charity by climbing Everest. He emailed first requesting donations by pointing to the site. The next day, he emailed asking if any of us had arctic-standard sleeping bags.

I am also quite busy designing a website for a very close friend of mine. Last time I did it with Joomla, this time it is going to be Drupal. I have to say I like Drupal’s performance and look much better. Only if they had the Wordpress themes so I won’t have to stay up all night trying to tinker CSS. I did hit a roadblock regarding the theme in general just cannot get a different design in my head.

Lately I am averaging about four to five hours of sleep every day. The funny thing is that I over sleep on the Weekend but weekdays I find myself awake around six in the morning no matter how late I slept the night before. And funnily enough I am not that tired. Quite the contrary. I suppose it has to do with doing things that you truly enjoy.

Also it is very difficult to believe that Halloween is just round the corner. All of a sudden yesterday I noticed that it was 7 in the morning and still dark and at around 6.00 we have dusk. I cannot even believe that time has flown by so quickly. I am still planning my Christmas and the break but there are a bunch of things happening as usual it will be last minute. I am currently trying to sync up with my family and their travel plans but it may be that I will have to go about it independently.

More stuff here soon. It has been so crazy over the last month or two that I have not had a chance to look back and ponder which is what this journal was supposed to help me do but it is not working.