Wednesday 29 April, 2009

I’m a stay-at-home non-mom

it’s tough to stay at home in india. all the time that i was in oslo, i knew there was no other option, so i bided my time and had fun too. but now i’m in the waiting mode, waiting for the phone to ring with an interview call, waiting to get back in the game, and that’s tough. recession sucks! and long break sucks! and daytime tv sucks! and i can’t even justify staying at home by saying it’s for the children, because i have none! :)

Tuesday 28 April, 2009

Mac Vs PC

as is evident, i waited a long time to buy this laptop, and one of the biggest uncertainties was whether to go the Mac or the Windows way. there were so many arguments pro and against each. and frankly, until u’ve tried a mac, how do u even know what u might be missing? i was sorely tempted for a long time to spend the extra bucks. but as time passed, and i got the chance to try my hand at a few mac notebooks, i realized how much easier it is to stick with what u’ve spent ten years getting to know and perfect. windows might be irritating sometimes but it is familiar and i know how to fix stuff and where to find stuff and generally to be able to accomplish all the major tasks i need my laptop to perform. buying a mac would have taken me back to the bottom of the learning curve. i’m not sure if i’m ready for that and whether the gains will indeed be worth it. be that as it may, i decided to shelve the issue till some benevolent employer decides to gift me a mac, and went for a windows laptop myself. and with the latest windows software, i must say there are many pleasant surprises and complete user satisfaction.

Sunday 26 April, 2009

home, sweet home

i guess i never really knew how to feel about returning home. a part of me was expecting to find it v different after the experience of living abroad, but frankly, i didn’t. i settled right back in like a fish in water. and i love being back. in fact, even tho i went half-way across the world to one of the coldest countries in the world, it didn’t feel like it was any different from my own country! apart from the weather, of course. superficially of course there were differences, but fundamentally it was almost as easy to settle in there as it was here. but our level of engagement in oslo life was almost nil, and we kept feeling like outsiders just biding our time before we went home. so i guess it’s not surprising that i’m feeling so glad to be back home. now we can continue with our life where we left off instead of living in limbo just waiting to go home.

loving the windows live writer for my blog! i’ve literally never posted this much! so convenient.

more on my laptop

first of all, thanks inkspill for, in a way, facilitating the purchase of this laptop. if it weren’t for u, i’d probably have held out a lot longer before buying this super-cool machine.
it’s a dell studio 14, and i must say, the post-purchase satisfaction is tremendous! not only is it sleek and stylish, it’s fast, intelligent and in many tiny ways just a delight to work with. we didn’t go far out of the box in terms of configuration, which was pretty great to begin with. it does become pricey if you throw in MS office and antivirus subscriptions, but still nowhere as expensive as apple, which was the only other serious contender. i was v keen on apple for a long time, but two factors held me back from taking the plunge: 1. price, and 2. compatibility issues with various services. it might be a super-intelligent machine to work with, but until it can satisfy me on both these issues, i ain’t jumpin’ into the deep end. and that’s all i’m gonna say about that.

Thursday 23 April, 2009

My very own laptop!!!

it may seem ridiculous to be so excited about getting a laptop, but i’ve waited so long and saved so hard for it that it really, really means a lot! :) having so much fun customizing it! :)