Summer pics

A compressed album......................there were many more buildings :P

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/niks269

Diary #??

I labeled my previous post “Champaign Diary #1” with steep expectations of updating it regularly with #2,3,4 etc etc. Urghhh….I am a lazy bum…QED !
Sight seeing in Champaign was limited to the nearby Indian Grocery store called Annapoorna, which had a decent collection of Hindi DVDs, calling cards, frozen paranthas, frozen samosas, frozen everything for people who just cannot go beyond the microwave. Another exciting place was the CVS store(it is like a younger sibling of the Walmart, located at every street corner throughout the country), where I used to get into the homely-domestic mode, pushing the trolley through aisles and looking for cereal, 2% fat milk(hehe), bread, chips. I could instantly visualize myself as the helpful, caring life partner every woman dreams of.
I went to Chicago again over the third weekend. It was even better than the first time, even though I broke many records when it came to going around. I took a one and half hour boat tour through the Chicago river, saw three museums, went to a planetarium right next to Lake Michigan, attended a baseball match(Chicago White Sox vs Houston Astros………….as if I care :) , and also watched a movie, all in one day. Even though I was dead tired, it was nice to walk around the downtown, using the subway, talking to random people at the roadside café. It felt funny to just sit sipping great coffee, watching other people rush here and there, having all the time in the world.
The next week in Champaign was in a way eventful. My roomie’s friend just got her dissertation accepted and there was party at home. It was my first house party, and of course I was curious ;) The best thing was the unlimited supply of beer, and the house was full of people who just needed 2 bottles to open up. It was interesting to be the only twenty year old among thirty somethings. We talked, danced and got wasted :D
Work meanwhile was becoming more and more hectic. After trying to get an idea of TRACE 700, I was given a lot of data to streamline and convert it into graphs for analysis. It was all familiar MS Excel which wasn't such a problem. I also worked on a lighting modeling software called Lithonia which calculates things like max, min, average lumens on various surfaces with a particular lighting arrangement. After two days of searching google for various luminaires and doing a lot of guesswork(intuition :)) I showed the results to Ben. He said “hmmm…ahmmmm…….good job”. Americans they say are dumb.