BACKKKKKKKKKK

Finally I am back to my blog ... confession: i was back almost 2 weeks ago but as usual I am procastinating to get my blog updated. But this time I have an excuse - I had to upload my trip pictures and it was not an easy job! There are around 1000 pictures! I had to put them in different folders and add comments to some of them. I had also to upload some pictures into Picasa and add comments there, too. I started this habit of uploading pictures with comments to share mine and Russian's stories and jokes for people who are interested (or not interested...) but also I always have a great moment when in the future I go back to re-read my old comments from a previous time (same with blog entries like this one).

Coming back to the US and starting to work again was not too bad at first, because our department was in the middle of moving AGAIN. Yes, my office was moved yet again, but still within the same building - just moving to a different area. I was helping to pack and unpack, and the best part was we had a picnic on Thrusday and had Friday off! (The movers were working during those days and would not be finished yet.)

So the week I got back, I could totally take my time to adjust to the US timezone, since I did not need my head to think too much. It was a really relaxing week - not much to do - like having another week of vacation, except I had to be in the office. Poor V, he had the exact opposite experience -- lots of work to do because his project didn't make enough progress while we were on vacation -- yeah he was totally jealous of my week. :^P (Wait a second, did I say "was"? Hah! STILL IS. Even now, he keeps asking me if anyone in my company ever actually *works*.)

We had a blast during the Indonesia trip -- visited many cities and met a bunch of people. The best part was Russian got to meet ALL of my family -- well, almost all, except for two cousins who study abroad and my younger brother who was too stingy to go back for vacation for a week. But hopefully we will be able to meet him soon. It would fun to see two geeks talking to each other - I saw geeks talking before, but this will be much more fun - trust me!!! I vow to have a video camera handy for that scene... mmhahahahaaa.

The memento I got from Indonesia was a blistering evil sunburn which is peeling now - yeah we totally forgot to put sunscreen lotion the first day we went to the beach on Bali island. So, for everyone who is reading this blog, please don't ever forget to put sunscreen lotion when you go to the beach, even if your plan is just to lay under a giant umbrella (not getting tanned) - well those umbrellas don't really work. Just look at what happened to us - not really a fun experience when you can't even sleep because of the 3rd degree burning pain.

Today I finished reading "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch in B&N. Actually I was not originally planning to read his book at all, but I had to wait for Russian to catch up on a few hours of work that he missed the day we got back, so there was nothing else to do around there. I saw two books that interested me - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "The Last Lecture" - both of them written by dying people (which is creepy), but both seemed to be good books, stories about a person's final messages/memoirs. But I decided to read "The Last Lecture" because it was a novel written by a computer science professor -- which is rare to see! But to make it fair, next time I will read "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly".

I was touched by his story, and even cried a few tears (yeah yeah, Russian would say a lot, but don't trust him, he is lying... he may even say I cried for six hours almost non-stop, but again, that is an exaggeration! It was only 5 hours and 48 minutes. Come on people, it was sad to know that the man really really died, and had touched so many lives.), so by the time I finished the book - I had to run out from B&N ASAP before anyone realized I had cried all over my shirt sleeves. I was reading the book in the corner of B&N so that no one would notice it. I didn't bring my wallet, so I could not buy and read it somewhere else. But I will definitely buy this book - want to give some credit to the author, and also giving a copy to someone else would make a nice gift.

When I picked up Russian from his work I shared with him all the stories and many of the points and pieces of advice that were interesting - I could not let him not know about this man's lecture. I was hooked on this man's last words. So then at home we watched his last lecture on YouTube. He was actually a really funny lecturer, and I wished I had a chance to meet him and ask him bunch of questions. Later on we found out that he died the day we came back from Bali trip.

Sooooooo people who read this blog, please check out "The Last Lecture" or "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" by Randy Pausch - hope you will like it as much as we did. Then buy the book, since the profits go to charity and cancer research.