Its been almost a year !!

by praveenraje14

Hello all !!!

I am writing this post after about an year exactly when I lost my job (i.e 7th of July 2015) and would like to share the swirls and turns of emotions and feeling’s which I went through over this period.

So a short recap of all the events which had happened in this one year.

  1. Whiskey had come out of his eye surgery successfully and became healthy by the end of October 2015. He was treated at the Oklahoma state university vet clinic by Dr Simon Smith (not sure about the name). The staff overall had treated him with such grace and patience, thanks to them.So whiskey had finally come out of the surgery with a draft placed in his right eye. When I heard the news I was in Chicago and left the next day for his surgery to Oklahoma. Took a rental car and drove to Stillwater and stayed with Sam to be with whiskey.
  2. Later I went back to Chicago and moved to Rochester,Newyork to continue working on my capstone project with Prof Elissa weeden and Prof Bryan French. I had stayed there at my friends place (Srikanth Iyengar) without paying any money and using almost all his resources.Heartfelt thanks to him. My stay in Rochester was from the end of August to the 21st of December 2015.

Travel and brief events during the last one year ( August to July)

  • One thing I decided to do during my stay in Rochester was to reduce some weight and become lean before my marriage.
  • Hence most of my time was dedicated in finding out how to lose wieght.
  • Waking up at 10AM,eating P28 bread and some salad.
  • Figured a new dish called Kollu salad (horsegram salad).
  • Lunch was some home cooked food or some rice with curry at Pakistani kitchen.
  • Evening snack was at Tim hortons, grilled chicken wrap without cheese and sauce , sometimes butter murruku from the Indian store.
  • Dinner used to be at my friends place and sometimes at subway or buffalo wild wings or at an Indonesian restaurant to eat Basil fried rice once in a while.
  • My workout was around 4- 5 times a week with a lot of cardio in the beginning and later muscle training. I lost about 25 lbs (11 kgs) before I left to India, thanks to Kris gethin’s 12-week workout program.
  • I took one of Srikanth’s friend to Niagara falls during my stay.
  • Traveled to Albany every alternate weeks to meet satya and saravana.
  • Went to NYC for Satya’s birthday.
  • Traveled to Denver,CO to meet Preethy and Ashlin during the month of October with Sam.
  • Traveled to Chicago,IL to meet mama and akka during Thanksgiving in the month of November with Sam.
  • Traveled to Raleigh,NC to leave my car before going to India and also stopped at Ashburn,VA on the way to meet Ramesh mama.Left to Oklahoma packing all my stuff on the day of Christmas to leave to India with Sam.
  • Planned a quick trip to Austin,Texas for the New years and returned back on the 1st of January to Oklahoma.
  • Left to Dallas on 9th of January and boarded the flight en route to India for my marriage.Of course with Sam.
  • Reached India and immediately left to Bali,Indonesia with my friends for my bachelor’s party on 14th of January 2016 till the 18th.
  • Completed all the temple visits with parents as part of my marriage prayers.
  • Returned to USA on the 14th of Feb.Traveled back from Dallas to Oklahoma.
  • Left to Raleigh on 19th of Feb from Oklahoma stopping at Memphis and Atlanta to reach to Raleigh by car in 2 days. Met PonSanthosh on the way at Atlanta.
  • Went to Rochester,NY to demo the app for my capstone project.
  • Spent Memorial day weekend at Virginia beach with whiskey and Sam.
  • Vacationed at Asheville,NC for the July4th Independence long weekend with whiskey,Sam and PonSanthosh.

Books and people during this tenure

  • Leo Garu
  • Kris Gethin
  • Scooby
  • The Alchemist
  • Accidental Universe
  • The Four Agreements

Courses taken

  • Intro to Personal Finance (Purdue University)
  • Data storage and fundamentals (edx ,NetApp)
  • Microsoft Windows Administration (90-365,Udemy)
  • SQL Server (Querying SQL server 2012, Microsoft exam 70-461)
  • Volunteer at Kramden Institue
  • Attended Meetups on SQL Server,AWS and RTP Analysts.

Desired things to be done

  • Weight loss (15lbs)
  • Certification completion
  • AWS Certified Solution Architect
  • SQL Server certified
  • Cassandra certified
  • Capstone-Project completion
  • Economics
  • Stock Market Investing
  • The Road less traveled
  • 5 love languages
  • Get a health insurance
  • Get a life insurance
  • Operating system fundamentals
  • Data structures
  • Java,J2EE,Spring MVC,JSP,JSF,Android
  • Oracle

Lessons learnt

  • File your own taxes properly
  • Have less no of credit cards
  • Observe and be patient on your spending’s
  • Get good sleep
  • Never smoke
  • Health is wealth
  • Having a proper routine is very important
  • Always be insured
  • Missed on CORBA 365 health insurance plan
  • Research before buying new things
  • Save before spending
  • Invest in yourself

AT THE END…PATIENCE IS THE KEY..IT IS A VIRTUE EVERY HUMAN NEEDS TO MASTER

 

 

 

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