Most of my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances found 2009 a harder year than years past. The global economic downturn and its residual effects of course weighed heavily on all of us—some more directly than others. For me, 2009 really wasn’t bad, and I’m going into 2010 with some good momentum.
This year I’ve traveled only a quarter of what I traveled last year. Though I have friends in most places I visit, it has been nice not having to go overseas so much. The real difference, though, is not measured in miles traveled or time abroad. The difference is that this year Ray really notices when I’m away. …
Five years ago today on a farm in northwest Illinois, my wife and I drove to our wedding on a tractor. She was wearing a dress she made herself and I was wearing a traditional ceremonial Indian outfit (complete with curly, pointy shoes!) brought to the U.S. by relatives. The tractor, a six-wheeled John Deere Gator, was a fitting chariot for an excursion through an apple orchard, a mud puddle, across a land bridge, and up a small hill to a throng of people wondering exactly which cultish ritual they had signed up to attend. …
Today I had to say goodbye to my dog, Lakshmi. I’m not one for sentimental monologues—in fact I’m patently bad at them. I’m obligated, however, to at least a few words, as so many people absolutely adored Lakshmi. I was reminded of this just recently when I was in Portland, Maine, for the Food Bender. …
My family has been attending the SF Bay Maker Faire every year since its inception. It’s relatively easy to describe what The Maker Faire is—unsurprisingly, it’s a gathering for people who make things—but it’s very difficult to articulate its scope in a way that can be understood for those who don’t or can’t attend.
There’s a very simple explanation for my year-plus absence from etherfarm. This simple explanation has fifty-seven parts, the first three of which are described briefly below:
At 18:32 today, the Wife and I had our first child, Ray Bueno Nayar. He weighs in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces (3.1 kilos), and 19.5 inches (49.53 cm). Ray is fittingly named after my maternal grandfather, who was and is one of my favorite people on this planet.
So let me break this long hiatus with an exciting announcement: sometime next March the wife and I will be having a son.
I have a confession to make. I have gone corporate. At the end of January I took a contract job with a large software company. I love the job, really enjoy the people I work with, and was made a good offer, so I’m staying on as a full-time employee. …
It’s my birthday, and I’m not the kind of person who likes getting presents. In fact, I kind of hate it. One, for quite some time I’ve had very little space at my residence, to the point that receiving even a new kitchen knife would require some serious rearranging of furniture. Two, there’s nothing I really need. …
Popping in from Bangalore to issue a sub-continent communique to concerned comrades, a lame one-off response to an email inbox I fear checking.
Every time I go to the eye doctor I leave thinking that they have the coolest equipment on the planet. …
Let’s pretend for a moment that I didn’t have a hole in my eyeball. I’d like to focus (pun intended) instead on the process which is only beginning to unfold before me. In order to get this hole welded shut by some overtrained monkey with a laser pointer, I have to see my new HMO’s “primary care physician”.
I’m currently typing at you from an internet cafe in Granada, Spain. Forgive chickenscratches and heavy accents. I’m using a keyboard designed for people who purposefully speak with a lithp.
An eerie realization came upon me a few days ago. …
This drainage tube—one of three arranged side-by-side—was pretty much the only outdoor place I hung out in summer. …
In perhaps the most tangible example of “fate” I can think of (or, if you rather, the surest sign of the apocalypse), in less than four days I’ll constitute the lesser half of the Nara and Narayan Nayar duo. When Nara is asked if she’ll be taking my last name, she responds, “How could I not?”
A week ago, I became a fully-qualified doctoral candidate of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. With the help and support of friends, colleagues, professors, and family, not to mention the months I spent preparing, I passed my qualifying exams with flying colors.
Things have been quiet here, I know, but there’s really not much I can do about it. I’ve been devoting most of my waking hours towards preparing for my doctoral qualifying exams, a grotesquely medieval academic hazing ritual if ever there was one. I will spend a total of seven hours on May 18 and 19 sacrificing brain cells writing essays to appease the Great God Literature, then on the 24th of May I’ll sit at the end of a long table, opposite 4.5 of the Great God Literature’s henchmen, doing my very best to keep a straight face as they scrape metal claws along a chalkboard ask me what the hell I was thinking when I wrote said essays.
Do I feel prepared? …
Apart from a three-week stay in rural Illinois, my extended hiatus from this site can be attributed to a number of relatively large projects bearing down on me right now: my Ph.D. qualifying exams (late May), upcoming wedding (late June), and my dissertation prospectus (August). Much of the last month has been spent in Illinois at the farm, planning the wedding and studying (in my own way) for the exams. Poog will be finishing up a Master’s degree thesis in the coming months, so it’s extremely fortunate that neither Poog nor I lack the desire for a big-to-do kind of wedding. …
While I put together the most loathed and most loved type of gallery: “photos of my dog”, I’d like to let the world know just how cool my dog is:
These photos were taken last weekend at Davenport beach, 11 miles north of Santa Cruz.
I adopted Lakshmi exactly 9 years ago today. When I took her to the vet, the vet guessed she was about six months old, but I usually recognize February 6 as her birthday. …
A quick happy-birthday-to-me. I turn 31 today, and I don’t feel a day over 45. Yay for that.
Etherfarm turns 2 years old on January 23. …
This page lists all 21 entries filed under the Personal category in Synapse. Entries are listed in reverse-chronological order.