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October 23, 2007
Having a little bit of fun for a change
So, I'm beyond deadline in my project, and there is NO WAY it'll happen. So, I'm done with overworking on this. I made a good enough progress, and it'll have to be what it is.
Thus, armed with a brother and a colleague, I went to explore downtown Mumbai on Saturday. We had a nice tour guide who brought us to Malabar Hill and we saw a lot of the sights there. The view on the city is gorgeous. I'll be linking to pictures soon.
There was another festival on Sunday. On monday, there were garlands of flowers on the tea machines. A colleague told me that its a Hindu tradition to give an offering to a book or a helpful machine on that day, to thank it for working for us. I didn't know what to say to that one...
Its great to be thankful for all of God's blessing, but offering flowers to the tea machine...
So, yeah, talk about cultural differences.
I had a great time at the leader's meeting and Mighty Men + Women meeting on Sunday. We are talking about vision and gifts. So, I'm rewriting my vision for my life and will make it into a neat little poster.
Heh, even put it here, so that you guys can pray about it.
I'm progressing in Hindi. Please keep on praying that I can have a strong command of this language and use this to further the Mission here.
Posted by ma at 9:16 AM in Life | TrackBack
October 18, 2007
I'm Officially Graduated!
I got the news from Concordia. That's it, I'm really really done.
I wish I could afford the flight to the convocation ceremony...
Anyway, that's what the transcript says:
+----------------------------- PROGRAM STATUS ------------------------------+
+ THESIS TITLE: 28/05/07 +
+ TOWARDS SYSTEMATIC SOFTWARE SECURITY +
+ HARDENING +
+ COMPLETED PROGRAM +
+ DEGREE CONFERRED 12/10/07 +
+ M.A.SC. INFORMATION SYST SECURITY +
Posted by ma at 10:19 AM in Life | TrackBack
October 12, 2007
Non-Workaholics need not apply
I'm sorry for not blogging a lot. My life has been quite busy.
Its great to be in charge of a critical piece of integration + customization software. Its good experience, and it makes a meaningful bullet on your resume.
But, there are downsides to it, such as the fact that you can't afford to not deliver.
There are some good, non-work, news too!
So, last week, I came in Saturday, and I worked 12 hours during a national holiday (Gandhi's birthday). Yay :'(
This week has been intense too. I have daily conference call with the on-site designer to get things clarified. I've also been mandated with writing the design addendum and cook up a test plan if I have the time for it. For the record, there is not a line in the test plan yet ;)
Also, I'll have two guys working with me on implementing some of the features. This is nice experience. I just have to fight very hard for keeping a personal life, otherwise this company would be sucking my soul right out of me!
On other work news, I've been pulling strings to get my allocation to Andheri in a canadian project. This will be great. I'll be able to bike to work in the morning.
Yes, because I bought a bicycle. 2550 rupees (<70$). I managed to destroy the front wheel on the way home back from the store. The roads are bad. I'll have to be more careful. I'm starting to think I should've paid 5k for the mountain bike (with shocks) instead. Its repaired now, I have to fetch it from the store. I'll upload a picture as soon as I can.
We had an invitation service at church 2 weeks back. I prayed for the room to be packed and it was! I was so fired up about that! There has been some Bible studies that arose from it. I'm praying for this. Please join me in prayer too.
There is a nice garden down the street too, so I prayed with a brother in the morning there this week. It is very peaceful.
There is a festival starting today, called Gherba (or something similar). Its a dancing festival. People in Gujarat can dance nearly all night for 9 days! I'll try to see some of that if I can find the time.
I keep on learning a little bit of Hindi. The course organized by the company will not go far enough. I should've signed up for a class at some college instead. Anyway, I picked a little 'teach yourself' book and I'm trying to learn the script. Lets just say that they made sure to make it hard for foreigners to learn...
Posted by ma at 9:21 AM in Life | TrackBack
October 1, 2007
Getting More Out of Your Laptop's Battery
This is a useful read. It shows how you can use Intel's built-in power management in Windows XP to have more out of your battery!