Dave Dash

Bhutto

2007-12-27T00:00:00-08:00

Just an ordinary day... and then all of a sudden you read the news and realize that Benazair Bhutto was assassinated.

She had been in the news so much as of late... dodging death threats in fact... and then boom. How strange.

The Namesake

2007-03-24T00:00:00-07:00

Like a good second generation Desi I saw The Namesake after recently completing the novel. Both are very good and I recommend reading the book and watching the movie, although not necessarily in that order.

The following should not spoil the movie much, but are some criticisms that Katie and I had. * The numbers don't add up. The ages mentioned in the movie do not make sense (i.e. the mother (Ashima) being nearly 45 and talking to her son (Gogol) who is at least 10 years older than her when she got married just doesn't make much sense. * In the movie he graduates in 1996, but his graduation gift is dated as June 1995. * When Gogol is flying to India the first time, they have some placements of the Northwest Airline logo, you know... back when it was Northwest Orient Airlines and the logo looked more like this:
* Of course, it also seemed that a lot of parts of this movie would be hard to understand without reading the book (or for that matter having a vague understanding of Bengali).

The movie however, was very good overall. The book is much better, as books tend to be, because they convey things that movies cannot. It really struck a chord with me, making me want to be with my family more, and reflect on my life (albeit my life is not nearly as bittersweet as Gogol's).

Goal-setting for weight loss

2006-06-25T00:00:00-07:00

Well losing about 20-25 pounds (of mostly fat) in the year before my wedding definitely had the intended effect of receiving positive comments from friends and family. I secretly had the intent of not just being able to lose weight, but wanting to help others lose weight too. There's no reason to suffer through anything if you can't use it to better yourself or others later.

Since I've met my current goal (160 by wedding), I think I'm going to have a new goal, and I'll use this opportunity to walk people through the way I lost weight --- sort of. I took a lot of liberties with my daily diet, and I don't recommend that others do the same. I do recommend that people write down any drastic changes that they might be contemplating and their desired goals and discuss them with their doctor or other qualified professional. Everything that I mention in this blog is purely anecdotal and should not be construed as best dietary practices.

Determining your motivation

Before you determine what a new goal is, you need to find a reason to even lose weight. If you don't have a good enough reason, losing weight is tough. Reasons only need to be good enough for you. Here was my reasons for losing weight by my wedding:

Look thinner by the time of my wedding
Be able to say I'm in the medically recommended weight zone
No longer be subject to my brother teasing me
Feel better
Make it easier to do other physical activities that I enjoy
Not have to look at that big bulging gut.

Any of those reasons is sufficient. For example, who wouldn't want to look their best for at their wedding. I had the benefit of receiving a lot of attention from friends and families. We had an Indian wedding, and Indian aunties really notice the weight changes --- which in a way can be pretty nice when you are intending to lose weight.

In the week following my wedding, I've seen my weight rise out of that "recommended weight" zone. I want to be firmly entrenched in that "recommended weight" zone, and then I'd like to start gaining muscle mass. Once I'm at my new target weight, I'll be firmly entrenched in that weight and if I can continue decent eating habits and do strength-training, I could reach somewhere in the 150s and have strength to show for. It goes back to the "making it easier to do physical activities" goal. I like being able to lift boxes, people, etc, without exerting too much effort.

Determining a weight

Having a reason to lose weight should be easy enough. Determining how much weight to lose is another proposition all together. This is an excellent time to get the opinion of a professional. However, if you are fairly certain that you are overweight, you can usually play it safe by saying a 10% weight loss. If you or anybody close to you has the slightest worry that this might be an unhealthy weight, check with a doctor.

I had been floating between 175-185 pounds for a number of years, I decided on 160 for a goal. At the time it seemed ambitious. I had tried losing weight before, but not to that extent. The idea of being in the BMI range for a healthy weight seemed like a fantasy.

It's a fairly good idea to pick a goal that is significant. I could have set my sights low and said, I'd like to be 170 pounds, but that's not much of a change. Physically it's very little change, as I remember. The idea of hitting 160 pounds, however... I couldn't even remember when I was last 160.

I decided that each time I hit a goal, I'd re-assess where I am, and see if it made sense to lose or gain more weight. At this time I feel like I could lose more, so I'm going to shoot for 15 more pounds. Putting me at 145 pounds. Beyond my occasional 14 miles I bike to and from work when I'm called in, I am planning on adding in at least some abdominal exercises.

Determining a date

Your goal date is probably more important than your determined weight (as long as the weight you pick is healthy). When I started, going from 185 to 160, seemed crazy and way faster than I expected, but over a year's time, that's only half a pound a week --- which is quite reasonable.

An arbitrary date to reach a goal might not mean much to you. For me, I picked my wedding day --- and it had the intended effect of getting a lot of attention. Luckily for me, I can determine if I kept the same weight-loss pace as I have, I'd be around 145 pounds by Christmas. The nice thing about this being my second goal, is I can determine whether or not I liked that pace. If the pace seemed too relaxed I could just adjust the date or weight to suit me.

I'm picking New Years Day, 2007 as my new goal date. I'll be 145 pounds by then. It'll be a good time, because this is when many people decide they should start losing weight. At that point I can serve as an example.

Determine what you are willing to do to achieve the goal

Setting a date and a measurement for a goal is a huge step. In fact, you could probably achieve your goals with just that information alone. The other necessary steps will just come into play. However, it is helpful to know what you'll do and won't do to get to where you want to be.

Let's be clear, dieting is simply burning more calories than you consume. What will you do to achieve that? You can either burn more or consume less or both. The bulk of my weight loss was from consuming less. Burning more, for me, did help, but not as much as people would like to believe¹.

Do both if you can, but don't get hung up that you can't bike to work (even though you can) or that you have no time to use that treadmill. With some dietary adjustments it should be easy to lower your calorie intake to the point where your body starts wearing down on its reserves.

Personally I also picked a few specific things I was willing to give up. I was willing to give up sugar (not everyday, but regularly), fried foods if I had to, and even dairy products. Omitting foods didn't make me lose weight, but it did prevent me from snacking. Snacking for me made having a calorie deficit nearly impossible.

I also had to accept that I couldn't stuff myself at mealtime. Late night pizzas, all-you-can-eat buffets --- none of that. My fianceé-at-the-time (now my lovely wife) was very good at convincing me that I only needed to eat until I was no longer hungry. That alone, helped quite a bit.

There will be bouts of hunger. You are starving your body. You are telling it, hey, I'm not eating enough to maintain this weight, so please chew on my reserves. The danger of course, is that your reserves are fat and muscle. Some dietary, and exercise changes can make that loss appear to be mostly fat. This time around, I'm willing to stick to the same course. It worked before, it should work again.

Determine what you won't do to achieve this goal

Equally as important to what you'll try to do is what you won't try to do. It might be important to establish that you will not exceed a certain calorie deficiency/day. It might also be important to you to not jump on fad diets. Whatever it is, you should find out what you don't want to do, make sure you are justified in feeling that way, and then stick to your guns, unless you've been scientifically proven wrong. It's far too easy to get caught up in a numbers game and start sacrificing your health just to meet the right number on the scale.

Conclusion

If you know what you want, when you want it and are willing to take steps to achieve it, you'll be fine. Goal setting is important in just about every facet of life, not just weight loss. Realistic goals can get you where you need to be. Make sure you're setting up some realistic goals.

So to recap my own goals: New Years Day 2007 I will be 145 pounds. I'd like to hear if other people have some weight related goals in the comments and their strategies.

Last summer I biked about 70 miles a week, but the bulk of my weight was in the winter when I started working more and more from home. ↩

"Just so fast" OR Random

1998-12-27T00:00:00-08:00

So yesterday I went to my cousin's engagement party and hung out with Egypt, Su', Tina, Leena, Aradhana, Shiela, and whomever else.
It was pretty fun, I guess. Err.. maybe. Tina, Leena, Su' and Aradhana had a real good dance (albeit there was a technical difficulty). Towards the latter part of the night there was dancing, and I hate dancing, but everyone, including my uncle pushed me to go on stage and I made a fool of myself since I have no talent in dancing at all. Odd that I listen to so much electronica and techno music.

Afterwards I was conned into going to Woodbury in a van that had way too many people in it. We (Tina, Leena, Aradhana, Titu, Sunita, &c) stayed at Tina and Leena's main floor. We stayed up till 5:30 AM or 6:00 AM just chatting watching half of Austin Powers, etc. It was fun It was nice to hang out with people that I hadn't hung with since oh, I dunno... hmm OSA which was in July. It was also neat meeting someone who's visited my school all the way from Milwaukee twice who is also a clone of Su'. I learned at 3:00 AM you get hungry and late at night everybody becomes like me... crazy. That, and people have wierd sleeping habbits, from kicking to enpillowing to talking. Quite amusing.

I left around noon. It was a nice break from being at home and not doing anything substantial. It's also nice to be with friends that I've known almost all my life.

Anyway... today Molly and I saw Patch Adams. I am definitely looking forward to the real Hunter "Patch" Adams visiting Allen Hall in February. My uncle and his family are coming over tonight. My little cousin, Joshna is very adorable. I saw her yesterday, although I never talk to my cousins. I feel bad, because soon they will be Germans.

I don't feel like writing much more tonight. So bye-bye.

Why am I never the corrupted one?

1998-12-26T00:00:00-08:00

Quantum transportation is neat. I think it will have a good impact on Quantum Computing. I'll give you some links on Quantum computing later, I have a few somewhere.

Don't look at the TV form more than a few seconds. It will pull you in. Turn it off.

What would happen if we killed the laugh track? Television would have to be funny on its own. Note that except in mockery, cartoons never use a laugh track. They stand funny on their own. Sitcoms rely on the laughtrack to goad you into laughing and then thinking that the show makes you laugh so it must be good and must be watched again. It's a catalyst for sitcoms. It's very deceptive and clever of the TV people.

I saw Prince of Egypt. It was fairly interesting. It connected the few Moses stories I knew together and took less time than actually reading Exodus. The animation is of a high level as well.

I saw Su' today. Su' is back, and I am happy. Unfortunately she leaves Sunday, but I will see her tomorrow at the wedding pre-reception (preception) that I am attending.

Trekkies should be placed on an island.

1998-12-11T00:00:00-08:00

Christians in India protest religious persecution. Hindus blame bad Christian karma.

The people who created Unix and C were awarded by the White House. I think that's neat. People should do things that result in their recieving of a reward. Unix and C are integral operating system and programing language respectively. Most of the Internet relies on Unix servers and everybody uses C to write programs. I can't wait till all the letters become as important as the letter C. Let us all give praise to the letter C.

Apparantly theatres in New Dehli and Mumbai (Bombay) were sacked by the ultra-nationalist Shiv Sena for showing a movie, Fire, about lesbians. India is a Hindu state. No matter how much religion is seperate from Government, it's very plagued with religion. For this reason what some people view as not expressing Hindu ideals will be supressed. So any of you who thought that Hinduism was this all accepting religion and that anybody can be a Hindu, I suggest you reevaluate your assumptions. There are many Hindus that hold onto very prudent ideals. They may be few, but they are willing to ruin

... the lesbian population of India can come out of the closet.

Hinduism for everyone else by making it appear to be this very strict religion. They are also appealing to many people in power. The movie is being reviewed by a censorship board. One day India, one day you will rise out of your depravity. You'll no longer be the backwards country with nuclear weapons and a strong religious right that thrusts its wills over the nation. On that day, the five or six lesbians that make up the lesbian population of India can come out of the closet. Maybe I can have a crack team of lesbian soldiers (Fish Speakers) militarize India.

I'd like to say that I do not approve of most of the things that go on in my country of ancestral origin. Many Hindus have been celebrating the sixth anniversary of the razing of a historic mosque. This razing has led to heated religious strife among Muslims and Hindus. I find this religious intolerance extremely backward and digsusting.

My speech went horribly. I am done with classes. Finals are next week. You can look at the Calendar. I have two papers I need getting done by this weekend.

I saw Star Trek: Insurrection and got just what I expected. A movie that had neat looking ships and fights. It was campy too. I think I enjoyed it because I made so much fun of Star Trek and the trekkies. I really hate Star Trekkies. I mean they think all these things in Star Trek are so cool, like Data and his neat little misunderstanding of being human. There were points where people laughed at the dumbest things, I mean come on. Riker was really trying to get it on with Troi. It is a good laugh though, and a lot of stuff blows up.

Diwali, Intel, Snow

1998-11-08T00:00:00-08:00

"Rabbi, isn't that your car?"

I'm very confused... Diwali was being celebrated at UI Friday and will be today (Saturday). It's being celebrated at St. Olaf according to Katie. It's also being celebrated at UW recently. Diwali was a few weeks ago... very odd that it's being celebrated now.

Intel's new demand on the computer industry is cool. I'd say it's more comparable with the SGI O₂s than the iMac (as far as looks). I think there is a more important issue at hand though. Getting rid of old ISA technology, getting rid of 1.44MB floppy drives and getting rid of stupid ports and replacing them with USB ports.

I think the media and as many non-Minnesotans as possible should make fun of Jesse Ventura (for their own reasons, not because I say so). The reason is this. If Jesse is ineffective, nobody's hopes will be down. People will just expect that. If Jesse does succeed then people can be surprised. I was going to continue on this train of thought, then I thought, that it may end up filling the journal systems quota. So I wrote a more organized 'entry' and will stick it in the words section eventually. I am only half way done.

It snowed tonight. I think we beat Minnesota.

Diwali Night 1998

1998-11-06T00:00:00-08:00

"This 52 lbs. package shall be our new God!"

Mmm.. Pokey sticks. If anybody knows of a good pokey-stick like recipe, I'm all ears. I had them last night.

Everybody loves my contact paper that's on my door, including the cool janitor. I should take a picture of the door sometime. I'll just wait until I get the NetCam.

The had a little kid (someone's son), Johnny, on KQ this morning. They were interviewing a coach of some team and the kid asked all these questions, like if the coach still smokes, if the team curses, fights, etc. It was pretty cute. Of course those Carl Sagan type kids do get annoying after a hundred or so "Why?"s.

Ah... my 52 lbs. package has arrived. It sounds really awesome. So now I have a total of seven speakers dedicated to the audio I want to hear (5 speaker stereo + 2 speakers for computer).

It's amazing what you find out in my halls. I found out about a Diwali function presented by the Indian Studen Association. My friend Anand had a few extra tickets so he let me tag along. It was very good. It was meant for a smaller amount of people than most functions I attend. They performed in the Illini Room of the Illini Union. We were sitting at a table with this one annoying lady who complained about the music they used for some dances. It's almost worse than people who talk during a movie. The food was mediocre, but compared to residence hall food, excellent. The performance was great. They had this cool backdrop with these eyes that would stare at you. I think they used a black light to make it glow. The dances were great too. What really made it an awesome function was the sound. The sound was crisp and clear. The only problems were those inheirent with some Indian singing, such as singers who attain high pitched notes. The event also had a lot of comedy sketches by the emcees. It was mostly second generations which was nice, because second generation people know how to put together an appealing event. I think Molly, Adam, Katie, Tom, Nick and anybody else who's been to an Indian event with me would have loved it.

Come and gone...

1998-09-13T00:00:00-07:00

This Thursday I had the pleasure of having Dan, Amy and Molly stop by for the rest of the week. We had a great time. We mostly hung out. Yesterday we went to Chicago to hang out with my friend Sunita, visit the Sears Tower and eat pizza at Lou Malnati's.

They left. I think I will miss them, because despite the heat level in my room, they added something here that was nice. However, right now I don't feel that loss. I believe I am still in the same mode of not feeling loss, becuase it is interfering. I think if I had nothing to do today I would feel very sad. I however have lots to do, I have to clean this mess-of-a-room for one thing. I have an assortment of documents to organize. I have several homework assignments to begin or at least preview. By keeping myself busy I don't feel lonely. Except now I have two bottles of Frapaccino's that Molly was supposed to take with her that will linger there for a while. Perhaps late at night when it gets hot I will try to finish them.

My brother and sister-in-law bought a Saab recently. Dan Lavenda and I can hardly wait to see it. My brother is going to make an effort to visit me either this month or next, which will be nice. Well I am off to cleaning my room.

Which reminds me I got a few gifts for my brithday. My mom and dad bought me a real nice Columbia Jacket and nice gloves (which are a tad too small) and I think my mom got me some Toblerone from her trip to India. Molly got a plant for me. Her parents got me some hot cocoa that they had sitting around and Molly gave me two of her brother's CDs (one of which I already have). Katie sent me a beanbag which is on loan, which I think is a great thing because I was complaining to my mom and Molly how I wanted a bean bag or something becuase I like to sit somewhere else other than my bed or my chair to read. Marc got me HUGBEES! Thanks again everybody.

Oh yeah, on Thursday I bought my ticket for They Might Be Giants. I am sitting in Section three (of four) in Row C in seat 7. So it's a good seat:) Unfortunately I'm going Solo to it, but that's okay... Also I may be going to see Moxy Fruvous next month.

Brimful of Asha...

1998-08-27T00:00:00-07:00

I talked to her again... luckily we are so techno-savvy that we will find a way not to spend nearly as much money as Dan and Amy do on long distance.

Brimful of Asha is a great song. I think I like it a lot just because the one guy from the band is from India, and thus there are a ton of Indian references.

Today Heather, Brian and I went on a Hot Air Balloon ride. It was mostly going up ten feet and coming down. It wasn't all that great.

2.5 years in the making...

1998-08-25T00:00:00-07:00

Molly should be returning to the camp today and reading my letter. She probably is having more fun than I, since she is not sick (and doesn't have classes tomorrow). Right now I have a sore throat, which seems to be going away. Unfortunately iced tea has been sold out. My neighbor, Brian (pre med), told me to not take orange juice as it will make my throat worse, and suggested iced tea as a friendly substitute.

I skipped out on Quad Day today, and will review some of the stuff that Heather picked up. I'll also talk to some of the Indian people I know and ask them what they are going to join if anything.

I went to First Year Impact. It seems like a good leadership program. My room is a god-awful mess. I just have too much everywhere. I have begun posting my Geometry Center posters everywhere. It looks neat.

The cooling problem in my room is being improved with a box fan that I purchased. My roommate, Jack, will be getting another fan this Friday when he goes to the mall. I am thinking about getting a new phone.

Day 12 No Molly

1998-08-08T00:00:00-07:00

No Molly, but new site.

I'm going to what'll be the last Indian party I attend for a while. Some kid's birthday party. Yay? Tomorrow will be fun though: Uptown Art Fair and Improv in the Park.

Waiting for Guffman

1998-07-12T00:00:00-07:00

Hey, I saw Waiting for Guffman this Friday with Marc &c. It was very strange. Not as strange as True Stories though. It featured the six-fingered man from the Princess Bride.

So far Kay and Laureen are my site-pickers. I need 3 more poeple (and I can only think of three other people who visit the site, so it works nicely).

For the next few days I'm going to be working on this wacky "thing" at my temple's site. Hmm... it should be good. It's basically a better email list which I will combine with the message board too.

Oh, and Michael Jorgenson. The camel is safe. Kameru wa daizyobu desu.

OSA 1998 - Monterey, CA

1998-07-06T00:00:00-07:00

Okay, wow, I have a lot to say. OSA, for those of you who do not know, is the Orissa Society of Americas. These are a group of people from the state of Orissa, India who get together once a year on the fourth of July weekend. Normally it's a mediocre way to spend the weekend, not much goes on, you meet a few people you haven't seen in a year or two, etc. There are also seminars and other things that I'd attend as well and Youth activities.

This year there was virtually no youth anything. It was perhaps the worst convention which I have attended. I did however have a lot of fun with my friends (Minnesotans and ex-Minnesotans). Here is a detailed account of what happened the last few days:

Thursday I went to the airport for our 11:25 AM flight which was delayed to about 12:40. My dad had upgraded his ticket to First Class and he gave it to me. That was very cool. It was my first time in First Class and I think it is really cool, especially on long four hour flights. My food was very edible indeed.

We arrived in San Francisco around 3PM Pacific. We were picked up by my cousin and her husband and went to their Sunnyvale, CA apartment. I learned that I really like math. I had in my posession a book about a mathematical genius and a math text-book. Both which I enjoyed reading. I also decided that I want to do at least a minor in mathematics. Not because I am good at it (the only thing that says I am good is the fact that I've completed UMTYMP with little trouble), but because I find it very interesting. We left later and went to Monterey (over an hour away). We arrived at about 8:40PM. The convention was at a Hyatt Regency resort. It was a very nice hotel which was on the old Del Monte golf course. We checked in, registered for the convention and then put our stuff in our room.

I first met with friend whom we call Titu (many Oriyas have nicknames that they are always referred to by) in the conference center where most of the activities took place. We went to the lobby and met with Leena and Tina (they are sisters, there is a neat little convention to naming children that we've noticed this weekend). We seperated our selves from Leena and Tina temporarily and went back to the conference center.

Titu and I met up with Sunita and Monty, former Minnesotans that were really good friends with us. We were trying to passively avoid someone who was drunk. We re-met up with Leena and Tina and they did that thing with Sunita that girls do when they meet another girl they haven't seen in a while. I think Monty, Titu and I and another kid wound up at the sports bar at the Lobby. Titu and I ate a pizza and we were kicked out because it was past 11PM and they can't have minors then. Sunita, Leena and Tina joined us later and we went to Sunita's room (which was next to her parents, so we had to be a little quiet). We decided to hang out there for a while.

We watched a movie, the Wedding Singer. If you haven't seen it already, see it. It is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. It also had the right amount of romance. It's kind of like the Princess Bride in some respects. It's a movie that has a chick-flick title, but it's just a really funny movie that can appeal to all. I was earlier told to see it with Molly by Raj and Kelly.

I told people about my "friend" this weekend. They were all surprised that I was able to keep this in hiding for 28 months. They thought the whole thing was neat. I was happy about that.

We went to the conference center and then the lobby and hung out there for a while. It was about 2 in the morning. We went back to Sunita's later and then were kicked out, becuase Monty was tired. I guess he also wanted Sunita to not stay out with us all night. So we left and it soon became Titu and I just hanging around. We went to the conference center (which was conveniently near Sunita and Monty's). I fell asleep on the floor. I woke up at about 4:00-4:30 AM and went to the lobby. We waited till 5:00, thinking the restaurant would open then. We found out it opened at 6:30 and were really tired and went to our respective rooms after I got a new key.

I was supposed to eat breakfast with Titu at 7, but I woke up late and got out of my room at about 9:30/10:00. It was now Friday, and the convention began. We could now officially say the convention sucked. I went to eat breakfast at the restraunt, and discovered Titu and the others (save Leena who was at UC Berkeley) at the sports bar. After I ate pancakes I went there and played some games. We later played Air Hockey and other games. We went to lunch to find it was bad, and then later we came back to the convention center. Titu went somewhere else, while Tina, Sunita and I went to the spa only to put our feet in the water, just because it was really cold outside, and we didn't want to be wet outside at all. Sunita got her pants really wet. Tina for some reason made a point to mention that we all had on our pants.

We kept hanging out at the sports bar when we were bored. The cultural activities sucked. We decided that the five of us and would go to the dinner gathering (the girls dressed up), just incase it was different from lunch (i.e. didn't suck). It sucked. We came back, peeped at the cultural show. Hung out. Went to knuckles near closing time and got some curly fries for almost nothing. That was fun. We later went to Sunita's room again and hung out. Shilpi left and then the rest of us left to see the dance. The dance sucked. Eventually we went back to Sunitas again. Titu, Leena, Tina and me decided we'd spend the night (or early morning) at Sunita and Monty's. We stayed up until 5AM, woke up at 8AM. Titu was gay, but I was a pimp.

Actually only I woke up at 8AM. Everyone else was very asleep. Saroj Uncle (Monty and Sunita's dad) woke up when I was about to leave. He was confused when he looked at the odd sleeping configuration.

I went to my room at 8AM, my dad was unhappy that I didn't tell him I'd be gone. I went back after showering and everyone besides Monty had left. So I went to the conference center to read a book. Rita Auntie (Leena and Tina's mom) told me that the girls were hanging out in her room. So I went there. Watched a dumb cartoon with Tina and Sunita while Leena showered. Then we left and ate breakfast. The breakfast was good. I had a belgian waffle. We met Shilpi on the way to breakfast too.

We skipped lunch (Monty and Titu went) because we ate a late breakfast. We hung out some more around the arcades and just walked about. We went back to the pool in this somewhat larger group. Sunita got her pants wet again. I commented earlier that she had a nice "Asphault." Rather I asked her if others did, because that was the brand of jeans she wore. Well her Asphault (brand jeans) got wet again. We went back to the sports bar, or something and hung out. You'd have thought we were bored of that place, but it's amazing how much pool you can play. We were annoyed at the concept of always going there, but the area of Monterey we were in was desolate. We met Titu there and some other people and played some pool, shot some hoops with the basketball machine, and yeah... We took a group picture in those photo booth things. I will scan and send it to people with email addresses (everyone uses AOL and/or Hotmail).

Our group of friends grew a bit for a while and around dinner time we hung out at my room since Sunita's room was checked out. We ordered a Pizza and talked a lot. Sheila and Smita (sisters) met up with us. Sheila goes to UIUC. I pumped her for useful information.

The girls went to the spa (girls only) and Titu, Monty and I crashed it. Well we did more than that. What I'm about to say is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen done... We walk up to the spa. The girls put up a fit about how it's girls only. Some of them start splashing us. I step back. Then out of nowhere Titu pushes Tina into the pool. She's upset because she's wearing her dad's shirt and well she's wet too. She chases him around the big pool and after sopme time stops. She talks to her sister Leena and tells her that she is cold. So people give her some towels to keep warm. She's still shivering and looks very cold. Then she pushes Leena in the Pool. When I found out that all of this was planned earlier by Tina and Titu I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Leena was very upset and complaining how you can't push people in the pool if they are wearing white...

The dry among us went to the cultural show, while others went to change. We decided to skip out on the cultural show after it showed signs of being on the boring side. We hung out at the conference center's basement in a lot of the rooms. We just sat around talking. Everyone was really tired. A little after 2AM Sunita and Monty left. Shortly after, the rest of the group dispersed. I went to sleep and woke up at about 6:30 and rode to San Francisco and we went home.

I really like spending time with these people. There's nothing specific about them that I like. Perhaps it's just a long history of knowing them. Perhaps it's being raised similarly. I feel bad about not keeping in contact with them except once in a while. But hey, now I have their email addresses and can start an e-relationship. I don't think I am going to attend next years convention in Toronto. I'd much rather go to Convergence.

Today I am off to UIUC and will perhaps not have such a lengthy entry. Hopefully tomorrow I will do well on the placement exams.