My Ninth Week of Internship

Overall a great week and I am beginning to enjoy my time here now… pity it is happening so late. Went to San Antonio on Tuesday and visited Six Flags. Seeing those huge rides reminded me of the Acrophobic person I have become off late and boye did I not scream on those level 1 rides. Anyways rain then spoiled it all for us as all the rides were shut off in no time after lunch. So far so good… coming to claiming it, I would have gone to all those rides if it were not shutoff due to rains :) … Anyways the rains also spoiled any chances of our going to River Walk or for the San Marcos malls. Good thing was - as we spent the entire day in San Antonio, it was a 4 working day week once again :) (Okay okay for all my friends in I-Banking internships … I am working really hard some of these days - such as going at 9:30 AM and coming back at 7:30 PM!!!)

As for the work, I have started working more around the ideas of working in Analytics. Probably one of the best places for me as I love numbers, business problems and working on solutions… pretty generic you may say - but let me also add I like to work in isolation for most of the time and I am geeky by nature. I talk to numbers in dark and I hate to sleep over problems. Add all these and you would want me in Analytics for whatever life I have.

Anyways, I also met with some very interesting people this week. Starting with my meeting with Richard first. An academia turned corporate Richard is an expert on Taxonomy. Click here to see his profile on LinkedIn. Sensing that I would join at the same level from B-School as him, really made me feel bad for him and boy I was thoroughly unprofessional when I mentioned this to him. Anyways, It was great to hear his thoughts on PhD, academia, his past experiences and then about his new role.

I also got to meet with Michigan Alums this week at the University of Michigan meet. Its funny how we were discussing about Michigan snowfall and how weird this summer has been in Austin than talking about any serious job related thing. Also, how the talks then shifted to how we beat MSU in number of people attending the event… I guess that is Michigan for you. Another interesting meeting was with a family friend working here. After discussing work related stuff for around an hour in that accentized language, it was but hilarious how we shifted to Jaatu as soon as we started discussing about our villages and childhood :) Both these events tell me the roots are hard to change no matter where you are and whatever you do.

Came Friday, and I headed off to Dallas to meet Nikhil and Shashank. Nikhil was my class mate in high-school and I met him after 10 good years and yet it seemed as if we hadn't changes a bit. Celebrating his birthday over the weekend, I went to his funny place called Abacus. More on that here. Spent my weekend in and around Dallas and came back to Austin on Sunday evening. Once again happy to be in small Austin when compared to the high profile Dallas.

High Class Dining Experience - Some suggestions

So here are some of my thoughts on preparing for High Class Dining when next time any friend asks you to go out.

1. Find out if they require you to wear something weird - If it is a dinner jacket minimum - stick to minimum requirement until you want to look really loud. I suggest you call the restaurant and say that your jacket is with dry-cleaner and you didn't have time to pick it up. Wait for their response - most of the time they would say they are not strict - if that’s the case do not wear one. You will find out that the dry cleaners in the town are having some busy customers sitting in that restaurant that night!
2. Remember, there is no link in name and kind of restaurant - Stop believing in stereotypes you racist! And for once stop fooling around the idea of Abacus being a Chinese restaurant. This happens to be a European Restaurant where you find only sea food!!! So what looks,smells, and tastes like a Sushi is really spring rolls, and yes they may serve it with Wasabi but then why do you think they are high class.
3. Make sure you have eaten well before going in… eating a Big plate for $40 may not be your idea and specially when that big plate is really small. God forbids, if you forgot to eat before dinner, jump on to all the free bread that they serve… your friends may be hungry as well.

I think besides these points, it will be a good idea to make up some excuse and avoid going in the first place. You don’t want to be humiliated by some waitress for not calling "Prime Beef Carpaccio with Organic Baby Watercress and Shallot with Black Pepper Vinaigrette" right!

My Eighth Week of Internship

This was a happening week in all respects. Went to bowling games, to lakes, to parties, to meetings, almost everywhere. So much so, that I took full rest on Sunday and didn’t go anywhere. Highlights for the week included -

Tuesday - Bowling Game - Seriously my score had taken a hit ever since I have been here. I had been scoring 150+ consistently off late and suddenly it went to sub 120s in my first two games in Austin and I lost my sleep. The spare-king (as I would have loved to call myself given my very high conversion on spare pins) was suddenly out of touch … even on the simple single pins in corners, in middle… everywhere. And so I went to Bowling again this Tuesdays and started slow with the right weight, right posture, right release… basics really… and then I did it - Scored 168 finally :)

Thursday - Cocktail Party and Salsa - Phew… I hate when this happens to me… I had been waiting for sometime for this Thursday so that I can go out with my team and they all dropped in the last minute. I was feeling pretty miserable until this new member in our team saved the day for me by agreeing to come over. Still far for the best thing - But I still went and sat in the corner - not bothering to talk with anyone while I enjoyed my Sam Adams. Things got worse from there as I headed to down town for Salsa classes. I was told that you don’t need a partner and I happily paid for the classes and then I saw all these pairs dancing to glory as I stood in the corner… duhhh… I so much wanted to drink more… Alas I decided to come back and sleep

Friday - Austin Bats and Sixth Street - Read More here.

On the work front I met a lot of people this week to discuss the opportunities here. However the most notable of them was Lunch with COC team. For once I felt as if I know why things are happening the way they are and this information itself seems so enlightening.

Weekend - Saturday and Sunday were full chill out days - Didn’t Do anything :)

Bats of Austin - Night Wings

One thing that makes me wonder if how Americans are so good at marketing. I have heard so many times statements like -

"Oh you must see that tree… it is great... More than 100 years old… it is said that when such an such person came here he sat under that tree" - Gosh give me a break, I am sure there are many trees in my farm that are older than this one… and probably larger too and then once in a while…

"This is a great historical site - to a house which looks around a century old not much" Oh yeah well so is my house back in India!

But I saw the ultimate this Friday. July 13th the Friday was the day for "Run for Bats" 5 mile race in Austin and I thought it will be a good idea to see these 1.5 million bats. Gosh I waited for more than one hour along with this large crowd that had gathered much before I went… then it was pitch dark and then we saw a few bats hovering under the congressional bridge… Dude the bats in my house were far more exciting as I used to hit them with my towel! Think about it, not only people are making big voices out of these Bat stories they are also making big bucks by arranging events like these. Only if I can ask for people to walk up to Taj to save it from vehicle pollution… any thoughts?

HP Computer Service

Once in a while, you can't help but praise your competitor. Well today is one such day. By the way, I own an HP PC that I bought just after coming over for my MBA (so I had no clue about my summer and also I was carrying a lot of corporate brand image from India). My PC had been giving me some trouble on and off with the "stuck shift key" problem and whenever I thought to send it over the net day everything was working fine.

Finally, in the first week of June, it decided to start troubling me forever and went permanently stuck. I called up HP service center and they asked me to send my PC over. Having all your data on your hard drive can be a big problem and I soon realized that when I started making copies of that on DVDs. It took me 3 weeks to get DVDs, get DVD burner software and finally to make those DVDs. All this while I kept using onscreen keyboard.

Having sent me PC, I was expecting some phone calls saying "you dropped water over your keyboard… there is a scratch etc etc. (which happened to me when I sent me Mobile phone to T-Mobile) and that you will have to pay so much for this and that… " I was ready to shell some dollars frankly.

What happened was not only surprising it was delighting. With-in 3 days I get this email that my PC in on its way back - no questions. I saw this information in the box that my keyboard was so damaged they had to replace it - again no questions!!! I give them this time - thanks a lot HP people… You were awesome. Next time you will call me to review my service contract - You will be hearing a Yes from a very happy customer!

Cold Turkey - Continues :)

Yes it does, thanks to all those congratulatory messages I have been getting. The first day went well with Nicotine Gums helping me a bit. I was having this severe headache all this while. Then next day, thanks to insufficient funds in my bank I was deprived on buying the gums and since then I have survived well.

Cigarette count since quitting - ZERO

Side effects - Feel hungry almost all the time. Have started eating a little more than earlier - However have been controlling the calories in take well. Bit of nervous energies in the beginning - no more the case. Overall feeling much happy these days - Have been able to taste and smell much better :)

Thanks everyone for the support.

My Seventh Week of Internship

Key things this week at work -

• Getting busy with analysis spending hours staring at those huge files of data
• Working on various creative ideas to analyze the report
• Still another week with 4days :)

Outside Work -

• Out of cash for the first time in US - with more than $6,000 in cheques sitting at home, I was out of money in my TCF account and this meant getting over $400 as service charges @ $33 per transaction from the idiots for all the transactions I was making. So, when I bought a gum of 99 cents I ended up paying $33.99 for that because my account didn’t have sufficient funds. The worst hit day was Thursday when I forgot to take those last $20 from the trouser I was wearing on Wednesday… reached office and then came the best shot… why on earth does the team lunch had to be cancelled this Thursday only!!! Anyways survived the ordeal with one of my friend depositing the cheques in Michigan finally :(
• Watched/celebrated the 4th of July - Went to Zilker park to see the fireworks. Fun time.
  Roamed around Austin on Saturday - Saw Capitol finally and went around other parts of Austin.
• Cases and resumes - Worked on some cases on the banks of Lake Austin and redid my resume to include the MAP and Dell experience.
• BTW forgot to mention all this while - I have been back to regular swimming now :)

Cold Turkey - Finally!

I never thought it is going to be this difficult, but finally I did it. After thinking for years and years and breaking countless promises, I quit cigarettes finally. There was no particular reason why I started it, but for an act and there is no particular reason why I stopped… may be it curtains to this act. So how do I plan to go about it - I read a lot and lot before making this decision this time and went through the do's and don’ts well this time. Let me share some of those here -

• Telling my friends - This was the first thing I did soon after deciding to quit - Tell your friends, family, all around... that I am quitting, so that they know and are ready to help. i was looking for some motivation and fishing for it among friends… afterall the more congratulatory messages one will get the stronger will be one's resolve.


• I want it - I am proud of it - Even after the support from the world, it is so much a personal choice here. So, I keep reminding myself that I really want it and I am proud of my decision.


• Millions have done it - Another thing which is helping me getting over it. I am not different - Millions have done it, most of them worse than me and I can do it as well. The biggest example is that of my dad itself - he has been a smoker for almost 20+ years before quitting it one day - Never to go back again.


• Rewarding myself - Oh yes, some calculations did help… now I am not doing a year on year how much I would spend on smoking… just one at a time… so after every two days, I would add $5 to my no smoking piggy bank and at the end of the month that is my reward for not smoking. (Additional point - I have already decided to give 50% of that money to organizations helping other in quitting!)

Last Smoke - July 3, 2007, 0900 Hrs CST

My Sixth Week of Internship

Done with the sixth week and I celebrated the half-way mark this week end. So much done and so much more that can be done :)

The important activities around the week included a Round Rock Express Game on Monday. Supposedly Dell has paid some 2 million for 5 years of marketing deal with Express and it is no wonder the diamond is called Dell Diamond. However, when the team you are supporting shows you a no-hitter game you better be prepared to cheer for something else and this time we did cheer for something else, our schools. So in the shout-off among schools, Umich was adjudged joint-first along with … I don’t know which school :) On Tuesday, I went for the Associate for the day program and spent half day on shop floor. It was after a long time that I was with these machines, finding my way out of the assembly line mazes. So we spent some good time understanding the entire process and then started working on the putting the parts required in boxes. I guess it was a light day and the slowness of the entire system thanks to parts not available was making things even lighter. However one of the person did comment that I was good at the work :) Oh BTW you can read this to know more about the process at Dell.

With rest of the week being part of usual here, the weekend came out to be good (again!). Played beer pong on Friday and Saturday, went to gym on all days and practiced some cases with others. With my PC in bad shape I was not able to do much of the surfing at home but I did manage to finally burn all my data in to DVDs and I am prepared to send that on Monday. For those of you wondering why am I not replying to your emails - well don’t have access is the short answer.