Pacific Coastal Road trip - WA to CA

We drove all the way from Seattle to the bay area in my car this past weekend.... a 2.5 day long journey. Except for actually deciding we would do the trip that weekend, we didn't plan anything else about the trip. We didn't pre-decide any of our stops, we didn't pre-book any hotels we would be staying at during the night. And that made it really really fun. We drove for as long as we could each day; we stopped where ever we felt like stopping; at night when we were exhausted from the driving we just randomly found a hotel nearby to stay in. Being unplanned led us to accidental fun discoveries... nothing stupendous or breathtaking, but still fun all the same, just because it is unexpected.

Check out my flickr for a picture story of our road trip (click on the trip set so that you can browse the pictures in sequence of the story) :). And do have yourself logged-in into flickr... some pictures are only visible to friends and family.

Packing is tiring...

.. even if it is only stuff contained in a single bedroom apartment. Especially tiring when you planned to allocate only 3.5 days for it. Not just is it tiring physically, it is also a very analytical process. You need to run through all the inventory in your head to figure out what to pack along with what to maximize efficiency, firmness of packing, storage space and cost. Also, packing is not just packing - it is also numerous trips to (1) dispose off the trash, (2) sell unwanted stuff, (3) give away unwanted stuff to charity, (4) maybe buy more packing material and (5) get food to eat since you need to pack away the kitchen stuff and clean up the fridge.

I am making up for all the bending-and-stretching I did not do over the past year or more, in 4 days.

The pluses - Having a chance to dispose away all the unwanted stuff is a good feeling. Having an opportunity to donate your old clothes, handbags, shoes, household items to a shelter for battered women is a great-great feeling.

The hub of exciting epicurean experiences

SFO, it is! Some interesting eateries I found:-

1. A restaurant where you eat seated in pitch dark, served by blind men!: http://sf.darkdining.com/
2. Restaurant with cross-dressed waiters/waitresses: http://www.asiasf.com/index.php
3. Restaurant with foreign films shown during dinner: http://www.foreigncinema.com/home.html
4. Underground restaurant with a ghetto like feel: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/22/MNGOOGRA241.DTL
5. A cafe where the menu item names are like "I am beautiful", "I am committed" etc: http://www.cafegratitude.com/cafemenufeb08
6. Organic Indian bakery: http://spicevice.com/products/product-list.html

Eat-Pray-Love, the movie

When I read the book Eat-Pray-Love, I couldn't stop raving about it. This in-spite of the fact that I could never articulate why I fell head over heels for the book - it wasn't like it had a dramatic storyline... it didn't. For that matter, it actually doesn't have a storyline - its only a bunch of the author's travel experiences (to Rome, Mumbai and Bali) compiled together. I think the reason it fascinated me was because it drew me into the author's world and made me sense how wonderful such travel experiences could be.

Anyway, now its being made into a movie. Pretty sure it won't be half as good because the best thing about the book was its narrative and the very interesting tidbits of information, which is of course the hardest to translate on-screen :(. Saddens me much when a book I love gets made into a movie that doesn't capture its essence. Its not that these people don't know how to make good movies - they do! Its that there are certain books that *cannot* be effectively made into movies and such books should be left alone to live solely in their textual world, however popular they might be.

Talking about book-to-movie translations, you know what book I think should really really be made into a movie? Kalki, by Gore Vidal. Gripping storyline and super unexpected ending - that's all I can give you without letting you in on the suspense :). But I recommend you give it a read if you get hold of it.

Enabling career directions

A cousin of mine did his Bachelors in music, his MBA in Finance and is now a Systems Engineer. I was once interviewed for a position in a tech company by the company's President - he had done his Bachelors in liberal arts and then studied law before moving on to working in a tech company! Look up Allen Blue, VP of Product Strategy and Co-founder at LinkedIn. He did his BA in drama, and then started his career as a theatrical scenery and lightning designer. In all the examples above, what I want you to notice is the drastic change in career paths.

The question: How come and why then, did I and all of my friends choose to stick to what fields we picked when we were 17?

At 17, I knew to speak English well, I knew some basics laws of Physics, I knew some math theorems, I knew about a few wars that were fought by the various kings in various parts of the world, I knew to write a program to generate Fibonacci series in Cobal and Fortran - and that qualifies me to decide what I would be doing for the rest of my life!!?!

What is my point? - Am I saying one should not be allowed to decide one's career path at 17? No. I am saying (1) one should be equipped better to choose one's career path at 17 and (2) should have the freedom and avenues to change it if he/she wants to and has the capability and passion for it.

How to achieve these is a separate debate, but the point is that this problem exists - the issue that there are numerous software engineers out there today, who never got the opportunity to explore if they would make better/happier psychologists or wildlife researchers than software engineers.

E-Volunteering

I am done-done with my life just being work and home. I want to be involved in multiple other things. Why? I am not really sure. Maybe because that will make my life feel more satisfying and meaningful. Maybe because it will give me that one or two extra things to feel proud about. And that one or two extra things to talk about. Maybe because it is a way to open myself to new opportunities.

Anyway, thinking I will start small with e-volunteering. What is that? Well, it is volunteering that you can do by just sitting at your desk, before your computer. Here are a couplr really cool way to do that: http://www.in2books.com/school/penpals.html ; http://www.infinitefamily.org/.

Search for more such opportunities here: http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/vol/index.html

I will keep you updated if I end up pursuing any of these :).

The Boy Paradox

http://www.hookingupsmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Boy-Paradox2.jpg

Not too far from the truth, I say :p

Honesty - going the full circle

As with most of us, my parents brought me up reiterating that honesty (or rather, smart-honesty) was an important quality to have.

Into my teenage and early twenties, I started having doubts about this - looking around me, lying seemed to help achieve many things that honesty couldn't - from bunking school to catch a movie to hiding/faking past life/work experiences to fit-in with the 'norm'.

Then came early adult life. Life got more complex, and because of that, lying became too complex to keep track of. Lying didn't die, but diplomacy took over as the way-to-go.

Now, I am seeing that most hugely successful people are downright direct and in-your-face. The books that sell most are the ones that have a truly candid portrayal. The management that is most respected is the one that is frank and transparent. Products that do great in the market are the ones whose initial ideas faced a barrage of direct criticism. So maybe the way-to-go is a full circle back to smart-honesty after all. I am on my way travelling from diplomacy, trying to take-root in smart-honesty...

Cooking

I've started cooking again - an artifact of having someone to cook for. Haven't been cooking for quite a long time now. I am kind of rediscovering the fact that you can make good food with not so much effort at all.

I am remembering the times in grad school when my roommates and I took turns to cook each day - and we cooked for anywhere from 3 to 8 people. Quite a feat, considering my cooking standards today! I no longer remember how to cook for that many people. Each of us roommates (most of us, not all, to be outrightly frank :) ) was good at coming up with something new to cook every time, and that too working only with ingredients that fell within the constraints of our poor student budget. And they tasted pretty good too (this is coming from someone who was a VERY picky eater pre-grad-school days) - I even remember the day when we had a potluck at our professor's home and P's vadais and my more-kozhambu turned out better than prof's much-self-touted dum aaloo :D.

Sometimes I hate to think all that talent of mine has vanished just like that. But anyway, I am starting to cook again. I am feeling the need - (1) because I am now officially a 'family-woman' and (2) because of my deteriorating stamina and health. I am hoping to be this person who can quickly make healthy, tasty food and at the same keeping it very varied meal-over-meal. Any suggestions for good recipe blogs that feature non-Indian vegetarian food?

The perfect job

Given my new opportunity to move jobs, I was hoping to find that "perfect" job, that would suit my interests and skills to the T. This hope somehow was stressing me out a little. Then I read this - http://www.manager-tools.com/2009/11/perfect-job - and it made me feel better.