Californication meets Tranpacificism

Subject: HSU degree granted!

Okay, maybe it’s not so exciting to you, but since the most important parts are short:

Dear Ajay,

On behalf of Humboldt State University, congratulations on earning your degree! Your official date of graduation is 16-May-07.
[.. extra stuff you don't care about...]
Congratulations again, and best wishes for future success and personal satisfaction.

(Sent by one Travis Brunner, but signed by Hillary A. Dashiell of the Registrar’s office, which I think is a funny inconsistency, plus it’s from the former’s personal HSU address. Silly ppl. heh)  (PS: As aforementioned, my Grad pics are online.)
I do like that last line though.. isn’t that what it’s all about?

So I started thinking, “Nah, they wouldn’t want to read about me graduating, my degree and all that (esp since so many of the FB’ers reading this are still in “school”)” and thought instead of quoting another old email I found, fwd’d from my school’s President, Rollin Richmond, but originally from the Graduation Alliance Pledge Coordinators. (more…)

  Updated: Jan 5, 2008

(originally titled “Action coming soon,” but Saqib thought that _I’m_ doing some new initiatives, so changed.. it’s really more of a Mass Update #1, This post mostly written weeks ago..)

So, I’ve done a couple of things now. I’ve got the contact info for the 2 YHA Hostels (one official, the other not so sure!), got in contact with a few trekking organizations (Get off Ur Ass, Ozone India, Kalypso Adventures, Kali Rafting, & Empowercamp.com), emailled a few friends, Anand Bemra and Venkatesh Murthy, who were really involved with HSS in the US, to get some ideas on what I could do in terms of service (and will no doubt be connected into Sangh ^[1] ). Possibly not surprisingly, Venkatesh has only been in Bangalore for 6 months, and has ALREADY started a new project! It’s called Youth for Seva, and its intent is to see volunteerism among India’s youth similar to what is seen in the US. I also emailled another friend (Niket Sirsi) to get some ideas of what to do in terms of adventuring.. (more…)

  Updated: Aug 11, 2007

First and foremost this post is to [belatedly] thank all those that gave me birthday greets (including the early and the late ones, those are in ways more memorable actually! heh..) I wanted to get my pix up before posting this, so that’s one reason it’s late, but I changed my “status” on facebook (since that’s where the most props came from), to inform all that I’m excited+happy for all the beautiful people in my life.. (a sorta stopgap that most probably missed.

As people who know me probably know.. I’m not the biggest, or even the first, to recognize/commemorate myself in any way. (Begin storytime) (more…)

  Updated: Aug 4, 2007

So, my internet phone company, Sunrocket, is down for the count, so, for now, I can’t make/receive calls.. (strangely I can make calls in the 408 and 707 area codes, but that will assumingly cease soon..) so if you’re reading this, that’s probably all you wanted to know. The rest of this post is going to be me thinking out loud about what to do about this situation.

Well, what to do? I don’t necessarly _have_ to do anything, really. I’m in India, and I wasn’t really planning on using my phone too much while here. It’s been useful for sure while I’ve been here, but.. how much am I really going to use it? Or rather, cost-benefit analysis right, like, is it worth it to me to pay (postpaid as they say in India) for monthly (”rental”) phone service, when I could say, just use skypeOut and pay ~2c/min to call the US when I need? Okay, there has to be a catch/benefit to paying the rental, and that is: my phone #. Ugh! I just cancelled the 707 phone # I’ve had for the last two years earlier this year, and given (most) everyone my new (Sunrocket, ack!) 707 number, plus I’m using this other 408 number that a few people have. My best bet would be to go back to that old 707 number, since I could update everyone that has my new # back to my old easily enough, and those that I didn’t update, would accidentally have a working phone # for me. But that company, BroadVoice, is slightly more expensive (for what I get).  [UPDATE: My account with BroadVoice is permanently closed due to non-payment, I'm a few days late, oops!  Ideal would be if Google's new purchase (GrandCentral) gave some props to the Sunrocket users of the world. (If you haven't heard about GrandCentral, you've GOT to check it out, it'll rock your socks! Makes total sense why da Goog bought 'em..)  [UPDATE: Just found out GC is FREE!  Oh, to receive an invite..]

So, the rest of this post is going to be my research results, like, what to do next, what companies have promotions going on, etc, aka stuff that would probably bore most of ya’ll, you’ve been warned!

Though here’s an interesting thread about disputing a charge with a credit card! (from DSLReports) (more…)

  

This was originally titled “What to do after Graduation?”, but I changed that to that last post (re end of college career), (Then “Passage..”) and now this is here more to tell you what happens for me immediately after graduation & my trip. I hung out in Arcata for a little over a week after Commencement and the related multiple days of packing up. (Links to Goodbye pics album)
The extra week involved visiting friends+hanging out in Arcata, Eureka, and then on the way down as well (Santa Rosa, SF Bay Area, Sacramento), and then I got home, brought all my sh*t in the house, and started unpacking, so I could repack, and have more space. I didn’t finish, oops. I was supposed to be planning my trip as well, and I neither did that, nor bought a Lonely Planet guidebook (there are two, India, and South India, one of which I bought last time (where is it?)), nor checked out the LP’s Thorn Tree Forum (recommended to me by John), or did any other sort of internet research. But what do I really want to do there? (more…)

  Updated: Jul 10, 2007