Other new summery/fall things

1. I got a bike! It's a Gary Fisher hybrid (between road and mountain bike) that goes easy over curbs and is easy on the eyes in a slick black and silver combination. I need to find a better helmet (the one I've got, free, makes me look silly) and a better lock (a little coil ain't good enough for HP).
2. I got (now president-elect) Barack Obama gear that I proudly wore during the Grant Park rally and which I proudly drink out of everyday.
3. I spent many hours reading about political news surrounding the conventions and all the election hoopla. A memorable moment from the Republican convention: the moderator (or whatever you call the speaker) asks if there are any other nominations besides John McCain, one man screams "Ron Paul!" and is quickly ignored as the moderator declares "with no other nominations..." Kinda  sad that a party so hellbent on protecting our freedoms should blithely ignore one of the fundamental ones. The man was clearly audible and yet not heard. How sad.
4. My laptop died and has since been replaced by a Lenovo SL400 Thinkpad. My old T40 may still be saved since the motherboard is apparently fried. After over five years of nearly unfailing service (only had to replace the fan and DVD drive once each), I will miss the machine that has traveled far with me and taken me places too numerous to count. Why so sentimental about a machine? Why do people weep when their cars finally die out on them?
5. Saket got me a really sweet new Nano!! It's a beautiful blue color and best of all, it comes with an inscription that only my brother would think of: "for Sapana, my favorite bear of all." ::tear::
6. B&J went on a semi-cross-country 10-day (and well-earned) vacation during which I successfully managed to keep all their plants (and myself) alive and not completely trash the apartment. Yay me! Funny too how my TV viewing increased dramatically during those days. As enthralling as the "boob tube" may be, it can never replace genuine company.
   
7. I saw WALL-E with Kevin and enjoyed the movie (though the fact that we saw the flick shortly before he had to leave for Champaign to attend his grandfather's funeral, may he rest in peace, did dampen my spirits more than a bit). Pixar continues to amaze me with the creativity and heart they put into their movies. I have seen them all except Cars which was the first to not excite my interest and, perhaps non-coincidentally, is also their worst-reviewed movie to date.
8. The Dark Knight was awesome. I only wished they had filmed some true IMAX shots of Batman swooping down over Gotham City. Alas.
9. I still can't believe I went skydiving.
10. I still can't believe my DAD went skydiving.
11. Nate came to visit! Totally awesome (something I really needed after my prelim experience), especially since the poor guy was sick most of the time, yet he was such a trooper. Hats off to anyone who can put up with my jabbering nonstop for an entire weekend. With a fever too. Oh, and we went to the temple by Obama's "mansion" for a brief yet interesting visit. The woman who let us in to another woman: "Can you show them around before service? Or maybe throw them out?" All this while we were standing there. Awkward! The temple is quite beautiful though and has an interesting history, much of which I've unfortunately forgotten. Oh well, as good an excuse as any to get past the security blockade in front of Obama's house!
    
12. Anything else? Only if I think of it.
    

Summer in the City

All right, so it's been quiet some time since I last updated this. Needless to say, I've been pretty tied up, but that's no excuse for not blogging, since blogging is what all the cool people are doing these days.

First I'll catch up on what's been going on since my family left Chicago back in June...in order of most recent to most...non-recent:

1) I completed my laboratory rotation with Dr. Ken Onel who I've discussed in an earlier post. The man is just awesome. I'll discuss my new lab mates in detail later, but just know they're a fun bunch and I look forward to working with them as long as they're in the lab.

2) I wrote and presented my prelim not just once, but twice since I wasn't exactly brilliant the first time. The second time went only a bit better, but rest assured I'm still in the program and will be just fine. It's nice to know i have such a supportive network of friends and colleagues to make sure I succeed. And it's really nice to know that I have an amazing advisor and supportive classmates who've always got my back.

3) I've discovered some new music (shocking, I know...I do listen to artists other than Sarah McLachlan). They're from different genres but some pretty neat stuff. Ken and I were talking about international music (I may have been discussing a Bollywood film) and he mentioned an artist named M.I.A. She was born in Sri Lanka but raised in the UK and has produced her albums from several different countries. I find it a little difficult to describe her music succinctly since it's definitely cross-genre material. It's rap/hip-hop based, with a dance infusion and hints of Bollywood drama and sounds. Anyway, you should check out her latest album "Kala." Another group I discovered through Pandora Radio (the "music genome project"; really a neat site that streams songs based on artists or genres you like. For example, I've created a "Sarah McLachlan" channel and so songs by Sarah and artists like her are streamed through there) is called Bond. I haven't looked much into them, but they're apparently a group of women who do classical music but in a rather funky modern way. A standout is "Shine" which has some Hindi lyrics (awesome). I like some modern classical-sounding stuff like E.S. Posthumous and Mythos, and these ladies fit in pretty well. The last new cool artist comes from the west side of Chi-town and his name is Lupe Fiasco. Saket attended a neat outdoor concert in SF to see Radiohead and got to hear this guy as well. A song of his, "Go Go Gadget Flow" made an impression on Saket by the craziness (and geekiness) of the lyrics and the energy with which Lupe and his band performed the song. So Saket sent me a YouTube link of his song and, impressed with his lyricism and sound, I downloaded his latest album off Ruckus. For someone who's not a big fan of rap, I was very impressed. Not only are the beats wicked, but most importantly the lyrics are so thoughtful and relevant it's hard not to like what you're listening to. How many rappers do you know can sing about AIDS in a way that's both tragic and beautiful (Streets On Fire) and also about child soldiers (Little Weapon)? Now this guy is definitely worth listening to.

4) I got to meet up with my aunt and cousins from India!! How cool is that? I found out just after my folks and sister left that my cousin Shweta, who's currently in her senior year at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (go Blue!). Finally, a chance to meet more family! As you may know, about 99% of our family lives in India still. The other 1% can be found in Canada (cousins of my mom and their families) and Houston (a niece of my dad's). We've only had a handful of chances to meet that 99% (and I've been lucky enough to see more of the folks in Canada than Saket or Sachi) due to the length and timing of the school year, my dad's work schedule, and the sheer expense and time committment it takes to make a family trip to India. Thankfully, now that we're no longer in traditional school binds, we can take trips more frequently. Nonetheless, our last trip as a family was nearly four years ago. But I digress.

You shouldn't need a special occasion to meet family, but we found a good one in any case. Shweta was working as an intern for Walgreens in Chicago for the summer and Archana Masi (aunt) and Shruti (Shweta's younger sister) were visiting her from India. The last time I remember talking to them was back in 2004 when Shweta was seriously considering coming to the US for college. I have to say I'm happy she decided to come, regardless of whether she'll consider settling here or moving back to India when she's got her degree in engineering/environmental studies. Since they were in Chicago (living in Evanston), and I am in Chicago, we decided to meet downtown at the Taste of Chicago. The Taste is a popular summer food festival featuring hundreds of local restaurants and eateries who give out "tastes" or small portions along with full servings of their iconic items. As you can imagine, there were lots of places serving deep dish pizza, hot dogs, and cheesecake, but a lot of ethnic food as well from Indian to Ethiopian and beyond. Despite a sky threatening rain, we enjoyed ourselves at the Taste eating tasty things (see what I did there?) and catching up on life since December 2004. I got to see them a couple more times before Masi and Shruti headed back to India when we saw The Dark Knight together at the IMAX theater at Navy Pier and when I came up to Evanston for pizza night at Kevin's place. I can't wait to see them again in India the next time we go (though who knows when that will be...)

Those are the main points of summer. Additional details in the next post.