Praveen’s Journal

I got a new Lenovo Thinkpad T60 from my office. I am amazed to see the difference between this one and my previous laptop, Toshiba Satellite A80. Thinkpad is built so professionaly that I love the look and feel of the laptop. I got an ATI graphics card, fingerprint reader, faster RPM hard drive and a wonderful display that supports 1400×1050 resolution. I will soon write a post on getting Debian GNU/Linux on Thinkpad T60.

Finally, one of the most anticipated move in my career is here. I have been to Bay Area a couple of times before. They were real short trips ranging from one to two months. But this time, I was moving to Bay Area for an indefinite/unknown duration. As days approached for my departure from Bangalore, there were a lot of mixed feelings and thoughts going on in my mind. I had to go through a lot of stress due to my habit of last minute packing of my luggage. Finally, I departed Bangalore on Jul 23.

I flew on Singapore Airlines to San Franscisco via Singapore and Seoul. The flight was much comfortable this time compared to the last two flights that I took on British Airways. As I had quit smoking, I had no pain in hunting for smoking lounges at airports and I had no urge/craving for nicotine in the flight. I got a sound sleep in the flight that I normally lack when I fly. I wonder if lack of nicotine supply helped me in getting sound sleep now-a-days. The connection durations at Singapore and Seoul were so perfect that you would neither feel it too short to catch the next flight nor feel so long that you will be bored waiting in the airport.

I touched down San Francisco airport on Jul 24 1:20 pm for the third time. This time, the airport looked very familiar to me. Unfortunately there was a huge line in front of the immigration check. Thanks to some unexpected power failure in San Franscisco that took the immigration servers down. I had to wait for more than 45 minutes for the servers to be fixed. Finally, they let me in without fingerprinting and photograph as there were no signs of the server recovering and the line started getting out of control. Overall the flight this time was a pleasant experience without any major hassles. I am staying in Mariott Residence Inn, Newark for a month. I gotta find an apartment quickly and call it my new home in Bay Area.

My darling,

I still remember the first night that I embraced you. It just started as an infactuation. Over time, I slowly developed a strong love towards you. In the past seven years, you have been throughout my life. You shared my success, sarrow, joy, tear, fear, celeberation, and what not with me. Slowly, you became an integral part of my life. At times, I felt that I can’t live without you. A lot of my friends didn’t like our relationship. My family wanted me to completly forget about you. I tried a couple of times to get away from you. But you have attracted me again towards you and I failed. This time, I am realizing that you are creating too much of pain to me. You damaged my health and breath. You spoiled my room and groom. You wasted my time and dime. You broke my heart and what not! Slowly you are dominating me. I feel that I lost my self-respect to you. I can’t take it anymore. So, I decided to ditch you once for all. Enough of association between us. I am not your man anymore. Now I am happy that I need not catch quick breaks to meet up with you. I am happy that I need not bother about annoying people on the elevator after I kiss you. I need not worry about the way I will carry the match or a lighter beyond the airport security check to light you. I need not be scared of long meetings without breaks. I need not care to figure out if a hotel or an airport allows smoking inside. I need not worry about taking the stairs. Now I am free from most of the pains that you imparted on me.

Adieu.

Praveen
Jul 14, 2007.

Update:
I was successfully able to withstand through the Hell week (first week after the quit). I got severe cravings sometimes during this week. However with the help of some alternative intake of nicotine, I was able to maintain my quit status. This time, I will do whatever it takes to maintain life time quit status. My advice for others who are trying to quit is to take the quit one day at a time.

Some of you might have wondered about the update that I announced in a couple of posts earlier. All sort of speculations like marriage, new job, stealthy startup, etc., were around. Let me put an end to those through this post.

I am moving to the United States permanently. I have been offered a permanent transfer to Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park. I will continue working for my wonderful Sun Streaming System project, but in a different team. I came to Chennai last week for my L-1B visa stamping. The visa is issued and I am ready to fly now. I am leaving on Jul 23. I will be staying in a company leased accommodation for a month after which I would be finding a home for me in the most expensive Bay Area. I would also buy a car (probably new). Suggestions on housing and car are most welcome!