Happy New Year 2013 - Resolutions !!

Hey All,

I am back after 2 long excruciating months. Finally found a job, although its a trial job as of yet. If not anything else, I will at-least gain some experience out of it.

This post is mainly to review my resolutions from year 2011. Yes, I was so frustrated during end of year 2011 and early 2012, that I did not even bother to make a list for 2012. BTW, here's the list.

1. Graduate soon. (Thank God I crossed that off in mid-2011 itself)
2. Get a job.
3. Dont go on a diet, but reduce weight..... this one NEVER EVER works !!
4. Communicate more with my family and friends. (Have been successful with this for the most part)
5. Have fun in life.
6. Learn something new.
7. Get back to my artistic hobbies (knitting, drawing, crochet)... would LOVE to check this off my list. (I have completed several knitting and crochet projects. I am almost done with the gifts I promised my friends. I am down to the last 3)
8. Eat healthy. (Trying to)
9. Get un-tangled :) thats a new thought.
10. Travel to someplace soooooo gorgeous.... that everyone gets envious of me.

So milestones in 2012 ?? Let's see. I got back to India. My sister got married. My husband moved his workplace. My cousin's baby turned 1. The party was awesome. I started some freelancing work. By the end of the year I got a job. I am going to start work from next week.

As for my creative side, I completed most of my friends' gifts. I am down to the last 3. I am also working on one for my MIL. I joined an art group that meets every month. We will be learning to create crochet lace soon. So that would get me to cross off No.6 from my list.

I still have a few more resolutions to clear off. Hoping to do it this year. Since I no longer have the "unemployment" sword dangling over my head, I can think of something else to do, in the time that it took me to worry about it.

Oh, I wanna add one more to this list - blog more. Lets see how that one works out this time.

- So

BAD DAYS !!

I hate micromanagers and I hate whiners, but imagine both qualities in the same person... its the worst kind of person you can talk to. Its just so irritating to talk to them. I just want to block them out of my life !!!

I worked on an online project this week... and the employer was just too much to take. He kept pinging me every 5 mins to ask status. It was so irritating that it got to the point of me telling him to butt out, because every time he pinged, I would lose my train of thought. It was so annoying. A little into the project, he told me that he has no payment method on the site and would pay me through Western Union. I curse myself for not becoming alert just then....

So I am working on the project with great difficulty, being stuck with bugs n unable to resolve them, trying different approaches etc.,... the usual and then half-way through he says he got the project from someone else and that person is demanding the job be done immediately. Then after arguing with me several times and asking how much more time I need, he says he convinced his client that I could take one more day for the work.

I work my ass off (pardon the language - have been cursing too much lately) day and night (yes, all through the night) for 3 days and finish the project and submit it to him, thinking to myself, that I will never take up a project from this guy again. He comes back with a "message from his client" saying that the client is not happy and the project was not done according to requirements when the requirement was met perfectly fine (as in instructions). He goes on to say that the client is very mad and does not want to pay him and that he himself is disheartened about the fact that he dint ask for upfront payment blah blah blah.... just too much whining... And he is not ready to tell me what exactly is the problem - just that the requirements have not been met !!

He goes on to ask if I still want to be paid for my efforts. Some guts he has. I just wanted to get rid of this guy, even if it meant no payment. Beware of such people. Says he is a student and that he works a lot on projects from other people. Well, if he was such a micromanager, he should have done the project himself. I am sure it is one of his school projects and he wanted to get it done free, and not invest time into it. So, he used my services and then had to come up with a story NOT to pay me.

All in all, lesson learnt. I will never deal with such people again. READ THE SIGNS !!! Thats all I can say.

- So

Rockmelt browser language change

Hahaha, the funniest thing happened to me just now... I guess I can call it funny now and laugh about it, but I struggled with this problem for a good half an hour.

I use the rockmelt browser and it has so many cool features. Today my laptop hanged and I had to restart it. When I opened my browser after the restart, rockmelt had changed completely into a Hindi language browser... I was surprised... decided I had clicked too many stuff when my system hanged, so figured some settings must have changed around that time.

Tried initially to go through all the menu options (which unfortunately were in Hindi), and tried to understand them clearly (fortunately for me, I can relate to the language). Found an option to change language for spell check - thats it. Then tried to go search in google about how to change back my browser language and the sort, but was unsuccessful... meanwhile I had opened my "System Settings" for changing some other settings on my Mac. (Yes, I own a Mac !!!)

Suddenly discovered a language tab there, which showed a list of languages in the order that I prefer them to appear (What ??? Apparently I have chosen konkani as the first one, n then hindi, then kannada and 4th was English... srsly ??) Couldn't really remember when I had done that.... but it hadn't posed a problem until now... or maybe when I clicked on several stuff, it had just gotten replaced... then moved English to 2nd place... Lo and Behold !! My browser was back to English...

I guess it wouldn't be a problem if rockmelt or maybe any other browser didn't have language versions. I figured this because most of my other applications were still in English language mode, so I assumed it was a browser problem !!

Anyways, all is well that ends well... back to work now !!

- So

Job #2 complete

YAY !! Just finished my 2nd job on odesk although this one was a bit complicated as compared to the previous one.

I had a tough time figuring out the solution due to lack of clear instructions, but finally was able to crack it and corrected it. I should know in a few hours what the outcome was, but I am happy about my work.

Luckily or fortunately for me, both jobs were writing small algorithms for implementation of AI concepts. So hopefully should help me in the long run.

- So

Looking for work

I know, I know, I stopped putting up health tips after just a few good ones. That's because, I am always like that :) start all big stuff and then abandon them mid-way.

Moreover I am trying to find a job and believe me it is ONE HECTIC JOB to find a job !! I just don't find time in between house work and studying for interviews and job applications. And to top it off, I wanted to at-least start some work from home things, so I went to this website www.odesk.com and applied to a few jobs, which again I had to abandon because of too much work.

But then yesterday after a whole lot of determination to not give up, I took up a small piece of programming work and finished it in record time (2 hrs), which I think is amazing because of my current mind set and also the fact that I haven't done even a small bit of programming since last year.

After I finished the job and submitted it, the client was very happy with my work and I was so proud of myself. At-least I managed to finish it without any hurdles. So all the confidence I lost in the past few months of not finding a job, I managed to retrieve it back.

Just wanted to note it down !!

- So

Yoga tip of the day - Surya Namaskara

Do you know that in some cultures including Hindu culture, the Sun is considered a deity or a God ? So wouldn't it be good if we had a sort of praying procedure for the Sun God too ? And yes, we do have one. Its called Surya Namaskara.

Ayurveda Tip of the day

I am here with today's Ayurvedic tip... would you like to know what it is ? So yesterday we saw that waking up early is good for health. Lets see what we need to do right after waking up. How much are you willing to do to get rid of those nasty dark circles ? How much would you love ridding your face of wrinkles and having healthier younger looking - not to mention - glowing skin ?

Yoga Tip of the day

Just for emphasis, I am going to add a yoga tip of the day for today :) One of my friends is super stressed nowadays due to various reasons. Just to help her and the rest of the stressed out individuals out there in this age of super strenuousness.

Ayurveda Tip of the Day

Ayurveda, they say is the art of protecting or preventing your body from diseases so that you can live a longer healthier life. Ayurveda means आयुष्य वेद - the art of living longer.

There is a new thing that I want to start from today onwards: Either I will post an Ayurveda tip of the day or a Yoga tip of the day. This would be my small contribution to promoting these arts. Lets not waste any more time. Lets start the first tip from the start of the day :)

Yoga Classes - 1

I just recently started attending these yoga classes conducted by Patanjali yogapeeth, for which I have to wake up at 5 am. Classes start at 5.30 am. Its hard as it is to wake up at 8 am and now I have to lose 3 more hours of sleep :( I just love my morning sleep. Its so hard to come out of :)

I used to go to yoga classes when I was a kid. After the classes got over, I practiced it for a while and then gradually descending into lesser and lesser practice and then stopped altogether. Result of which, my sleeping patterns changed, my eating became more erratic and hence gained weight - atleast thats what I assume happened to me. Believe me, I was never this fat !!

Cooked again...

... after a long time !!! Yes, just got a chance to cook something new and special once again. I made Palak Paneer - not one of my favorite dishes... in fact I never order it in the restaurant for some reason. But everyone at home asked for this dish and I made it for the first time ever today. It turned out pretty well and I must say, better than I imagined. I was just happy that it wasn't a total disaster :)

Well, here's the recipe of Palak Paneer for you all.

Off to bed now !!
- So.

Dull Saddening Days

Its been a dull few months for me the past few months and I am just not able to start something new. I have just gotten stuck in a boring routine life, which mainly involves housework, resting for a while, tuitions for my nephew, housework again, surfing the net for a while in the night looking for jobs and applying - watching TV at the same time, and then going to sleep. The only exciting thing that I probably do during the entire day is 1 hr of watching Masterchef Australia on TV.

Few things I have been thinking about and which I need to start following soon -

1. Have been planning to start my craft work. I have all the wool, needles, designs etc., ready, but have been either too lazy to start it or just uninterested - dont really know.
2. Have been thinking of taking up some free courses online, but I feel that I just dont find enough time. Maybe I am not very good at time management, because I started some courses before and every time I started them, I left them halfway through and never completed a single course.
3. Been thinking about my future a lot and that is the part which depresses me a lot, mainly because I am tired and frustrated of looking for a suitable job w.r.t my profile and its not seeming to be an easy job.
4. Wanting to join some language classes - maybe French or German. I had taken basic level of French before and would wanna either continue that or take up German. Basically I love learning new languages - not sure when thats gonna happen.
5. Want to get a job asap, at-least to be able to get some free time (not sure if thats gonna happen once I start working), but definitely wanna get settled into some sort of job routine. I feel the main problem to me not getting any interview calls is because the cell phone signal in my house is totally NIL :(, so I have to rely mainly on emails, which is not the preferred primary method of communication in India as of yet.

Hoping for things to start going well soon. Oh !! wanna start blogging more often too, but I just dont have anything to blog about currently - duh - sort of understandable from my situation right ?

Anyways, hopefully everything changes soon and I stop feeling miserable soon.

- So

Back to Cooking !!

The weekend went by in a breeze, but I was still bored to hell, since I was alone at home... Hence thought of doing some cooking and pampering myself. Yes... I cook when I am bored !! STOP LAUGHING !!! Its what I do !!! It makes me happy and keeps me busy :)

Anyways, this was the menu for the weekend.

Jeera-Pepper Tambli (jeer-meerya tambuli), Horsegram Rasam (huraLikaaLu saaru), Bhindi Fry (bendekayi palya) and ginger-garlic buttermilk (shunti-beLLuLLi majjige).... Who has the final laugh now ?? HAHAHA !!!

It all turned out to be finger-licking yummy... and I ate too much !!! Follow the links to find the recipes :)

Meanwhile I am trying out some courses online and I find this one - "Applied Cryptography" - particularly interesting.... the math / computer science geeks out there might wanna try it out. I felt so alive after cooking and eating all this yummy food, that I was able to complete my course homeworks in a jiffy !! :)

Will soon be back with more adventures.

So long....
- So

Awesome Weekend !!

The weekend that just went by was a time for relaxing and cleaning... since the much awaited festival of Ugadi is just around the corner (23rd March). The relaxing after the cleaning was what was long due... because generally everyone is at home (since I live in a joint family), and there is no end to the cooking and cleaning up after and washing dishes and the like, not to mention - add to that the extra work of cleaning every nook and corner of the house !! However this weekend was totally different. My in-laws had gone to their village for some festival over the week. The guys in the house followed them over the weekend and the ladies in the house had the house to themselves. Then there were the kids. But there was more relaxing time comparatively, because kids generally dont care much for rice n sambar and all the elaborate cooking. So, I got to do some experimenting around the house.