Mizblog

Sangeeta’s dad has been visiting for almost two weeks now. Half of that time I’ve been sick, and Sangeeta’s been working. So her dad’s been bored and watching TV. :(

Yesterday we went to Hollywood and walked around the Walk of Fame. He was not too impressed. Neither was I.

We went to Chinatown today. Did some shopping, had lunch. Walked. Avoided a crazy situation in an overfull underground parking lot. He liked Chinatown. I was not too impressed.

I’m still coughing but no fever. I mostly feel alright but I still feel I need rest and time to fully recover.

I haven’t played guitar all week. :(

It’s Friday!

Sangeeta’s dad has been here for most of the week. He’s really nice and likes to give me advice. He lives in our living room.

Last night was a bad night for SoCal hockey. Ducks lost in OT 3-2 and the Kings lost in regulation 3-2. I got to tell Sangeeta’s dad all about hockey, and he seemed to find it interesting but difficult to follow.

Today I’m in the lab. It’s quiet here. End of quarter and all, you know. I aim to wrap up a big part of the project I’ve been stuck on for the last month or two. It’s really wearing on me, but I need to be disciplined and just knock it out. What a relief it will be to put it behind me!

There’s a weight on my shoulders that won’t lift. There’s a rumbly in my tummy. There’s anger in my heart. I’m going to lunch.

Sangeeta’s father arrived last night at LAX. He had travelled since the previous afternoon, flying from Kathmandu, Nepal. He’ll stay until the new year, returning in the first week of January.

We’ve got a futon set up in the living room for him. It’s not too uncomfortable, I suppose. I hope it doesn’t do him any harm. He seems to be doing alright this morning, at any rate.

Sangeeta and I both have to go to work, so Sarala is going to come and entertain him until she has to go to school. I think. It’s hard to know what she’s going to do, but I think that’s the plan.

She came back yesterday, just 2 hours before my dental appointment. She was all tired and sick, and not happy to be back in LA. Not very fun. :(

Yesterday I sent Sangeeta off to visit her childhood friend (Mandira) in Concord, New Hampshire. I hope her two week visit returns her safe, happy and relaxed.

Meanwhile I’m in charge of the household. Dishes are already piling up, though I did vacuum my computer room this morning…

There’s a big push at work this week. We’re behind and it’s all my fault. Not only did I set the deadline we’re about to miss, but I was slow in finishing the previous project which delayed the current project to the point where we are currently.

sigh

So it looks like there goes my weekend. Most of it anyway. I’m supposed to go to see Serenity on Sunday, and I think I’ll have time for that. Ah fudge it, I’ll make time!

I should also mention that I’m hooked on an Internet chess site. http://www.gameknot.com I just got a (provisional) rating (1348) last night when I finished my fifth game, and though there are almost 10000 players with a higher rating than me, I’ve only been participating there for a couple weeks now. I’m certain my rating will improve from where it is now. They start you at 1200 for your first 5 games, and then it’s the average of your opponents’ ratings until 20 games (x+/-400 for wins/losses (x+/-200 for wins/losses against provisional opponents)) After 20 games it’ll lose its “provisional” modifier and just be an ELO chess rating.

I spent the last couple days creating music. The first two songs I wrote were techno songs, because those are really easy to make. Greg spent Saturday with me, showing me how to use the software tools effectively, and how to build a conventional techno song. I learned so much it’s leaking out of my ears right now!

All the music is sampled or synthesized, and then programmed/sequenced. None of it was performed by me in any live sense. I’ll get some of that recorded and posted soon, I hope. It’s what I’ve been dying to do for years but didn’t have the facilities or know how. I believe I soon will, however.

In the meantime, you can download my music FREE!

Sangeeta’s car has started acting up lately. There’s some sort of a short circuit in the electrical system that’s draining her battery intermittently and causing it to fail to start. It’s now in the shop.

I’m really looking forward to the new NHL season which starts tonight.

My work has changed gears and I’m working on a different project. This one is a major systems integration that I’ve sort of done before but it’s been a couple years and I don’t remember how I did it last time! I’m hoping I can pick it up as I go…

It was an interesting weekend.

Saturday we met at Teetee’s place and then went out for lunch. We had had dim sum at Empress Pavillion in Chinatown. Sangeeta went on all day and all night about how good it was. :)

After lunch, we went to California ScienCenter for a talk entitled “The Promise and Pitfalls of Stem Cells” presented by medical researchers, Senator Ortiz (proponent of Prop. 71 which allocates CA bond money for stem cell research in the state), and an ethicist from the Lutheran Theological Seminary. On the whole it was mainly a pro-stem-cell presentation. I got the impression that everyone in attendance (audience and panelists alike) thought that the people who found their research immoral were either misinformed about what they actually do, or were a radical religious fringe (led by the Pope?) who believed that God created an immortal soul whenever a sperm and an egg were joined, even if it happened in a test tube in the lab.

On Sunday we went to San Diego to see Leslie and Jason. They made a pack lunch of makizushi (actually it was made with unflavored rice, and I don’t remember the proper name for that), as well has fixins for chicken wraps, spinach, broccoli, and grilled onions. We took it to Balboa Park to eat it, and it was delicious. After lunch we walked around the park, visiting art galleries, a bonsai exhibition (or as Leslie calls it, “tree torture”), botanical gardens, an outdoor pipe organ concert, and a brief visit to a German beer drinking extravaganza. On the way back to Leslie’s place we got gelatto and tea.

Once we were back at Leslie’s place we watched Monty Python. We all had a little nap in the middle of that, and woke up refreshed enough to play a game of Yahtzee (Leslie won) and then we went out for Thai food at Sangeeta’s request. We went to a place called Thai Flavor, which smelled vaguely of wet dog. The food was not bad, but the company was very nice indeed. After dinner we dropped by Jason’s house to pick up some chocolate samples he’d picked up from his trip to Europe last month. Some of it was barely sweetened (99% pure chocolate) and was very bitter. Others were quite sweet and delicious. I caffeinated myself for the drive home using this chocolate, and it went very well. We made it back in an hour and a half, despite the traffic and the fact that it’s usually a two hour drive. I’m a fast driver, I guess.

All in all it was a very good weekend, and Sangeeta and I are very grateful to our friends for sharing the good times with us. :)

I’m fighting a powerful sleep addiction that I’ve had for longer than I can remember.

My brother’s new wife’s brother died this week. Two weeks after the wedding, in which he was a groomsman. Poor Georgie.

There’s so much else going on that it’s hard to remember it all. Today was the first day in more than a week that I didn’t go out for some morning exercise. Tomorrow it’ll be back to the grind. I’ve now been running in the mornings for about 2 months. I do find that I’m stronger now, though my work has been suffering for it since I started. It’s been harder to concentrate and get into the programming zone on exercise days, and even on most in-between days. I hope that wears off before my job does.