going to India

[ this update is for aaron ]

a lot has happened, but i haven’t blogged about much of it because it hasn’t been very interesting to write about. and if it’s not very interesting to write about, it’s always not interesting to read about. and my friend, i’m all about readability. [snicker]

my recent preoccupation has been what i’ll call “the india factor.” i’m leaving for the asian subcontinent in just a little over a week (wow! is it that fast?!) for something like a month. on one hand i’m kind of disgruntled that because i’m going on this trip, there’s no point in looking for work (which i know will take a while) since i’m not going to be around for very long before i’m gone. This bothers me because i’m quite eager to get my career back on track (or at least finding some sort of track =P). so i’ve been kind of sitting on my hands for the past few weeks, wanting to look for work and call up people and so on and so forth but then being overwhelmed by a sense of futility that anything that i find now will be amply filled by the time i get back from india anyway. it’s not a good/productive mindset at all.

but petty disgruntledness aside, i’m really excited to be going to India. it’ll be a wonderful opportunity to visit this country whose society i’ve been analyzing and intellectualizing for the past year or so through a variety of different angles, because all the book knowledge in the world is nothing compared to actually immersing oneself and experiencing it in person. i’m looking forward to having my preconceptions blown away…

so i’m still in the midst of preparing for the trip, although time is slowly dwindling. rebecca gave me a list of the items she packed for robby on their last trip to india, and i’ll be following that a bit when i hit longs and walgreens for the requisite medicines and so forth. i’ve gotten three of my shots (which hurt terribly), but i still have a couple more to go. oh, and i need to pick up our malaria medication too (darned mosquitos!!).

also, i decided to purchase a laptop for the trip after all, since it would do no good to be swiping jer’s notebook computer for when i want to blog/post pictures. I had a really terrible time deciding what computer i should get, and with what specs after i became disillusioned with the one i originally wanted, the fujitsu lifebook s2020. the video card in it is absolutely terrible. nevermind questions about its 3D graphics capability when my eyes were hurting just looking at it trying to do 2D — a standard WinXP desktop. [cringe] anyway, i could get into the details of my notebook quest, but trust me, it’s really not pretty.

i ended up ordering an ASUS M3N from OCSystem.com last week because they had a really sweet deal. I didn’t find out till after I placed the order that they had a really bad reputation (according to resellerratings.com), but after jer called them, it seemed like our order had hope of working out okay. it’s still being built right now — they had to special order the motherboard with two SODIMM slots cuz they were out, but everything else is good to go. hopefully it’ll be ready for us pickup this week. cuz we’re leaving the week after!! aaah!

oh, so the basic specs on this pretty piece of machinery: 14.1 in lcd screen, 1 inch thick, 5lbs, 1.6 Ghz Centrino processor, a gig of ram, internal dvd/cdrw drive. the video card is halfway decent — a notebook can’t call itself a Centrino unless it has the pentium M chip, integrated graphics, and wifi capability built in — and the integrated graphics chip performs better than most of the ATi Radeon Mobility cards, although not the higher end 9500. but i’m not looking to play neverwinter nights with the graphics and framerates turned up all the way, so really, i can deal. the most important thing is that it’ll be light, portable, small, and i’ll be able to take it with me and journal on the go. i’m so excited!

so yeah… with this handy dandy laptop, i’ll be keeping a ethnography of my time overseas, and i’ll post the more interesting bits on this blog here. i’ll bring my camera too and post some pictures. :) frankly, i won’t have much else to do while i’m there. suggestions for what i should do/see/eat/explore are welcome. =) oh, and if anyone wants a postcard, please email me.