8/28/02

I have a new home! After some cold-calling today, I set up an appt and saw this amazing 1-bedroom apartment in Glen Ridge, NJ. Here are the specs:

• The rent is well within my budget
• all utilities (except electric) are included
• one parking spot, plus all the visitors I want can park in the parking lot
• the new train station is 1/4 mile away [walking distance], and is part of the new NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton direct line to Midtown. (30 minutes to Manhattan!)
• huge rooms
• I get a dining room
• dishwasher in the kitchen (an actual appliance--not some poor sap.)
• I get a real walk-in closet in my bedroom.

So, yes, of course I took it! I move in October 1st. I have a home!

8/27/02

Num and I went to see four apartments in Montclair today. They were all small, and cost way too much. I hate apartment hunting. I must thank Gary for helping with apt hunting tips though. Big props, buddy!

8/26/02

What a weekend. Thursday nite was a mini-housewarming at the new house, Friday was packing and transporting my Mom's shoes and other items to the new house, and Saturday was the big move. I'm sure we'll be moving things over the course of a couple of years, but Saturday was the big official move. Took some pictures. Check out the mover with the mohawk. You know I couldn't resist a picture of that guy.

			This is the new house (green Mitsubishi Galant not included.)

I also added an easter egg on the site for you adventurous folks. See if you can find it.

8/19/02

I think I got website overload. Is there such a condition? Maybe just for webmasters. Updated my church site for August (they JUST sent me the info for August. Darn indians and IST.) Got all the pictures ready and uploaded from our trip to the Mets vs. Padres game. Check out the Friends gallery.

What's left? Phew. Well, I went to Houston this past weekend, and had an absolute blast. Thanks to Bijo, Shibu, Josh, Janet, Dennis, Jimboy, and Prateesh (and everyone else) for the awesome time. I can't wait to go back. In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures, but I'm still waiting for some more from Janet. Tomorrow, I'll have to get these pictures on the CSIYouth.Net photo album. My work is never done.

My life can't be all websites, right? Well, I went apartment hunting with Chirag in Hoboken. Took the ferry from Water Street to Hoboken (very cool ride), then we checked out the apt. It's a great apt, and is in a great location. We shall see what the rent comes out to, and if it fits our budget.

When I got home, I checked the mail, and found out that I passed my CISA certification exam. Once I complete the paperwork, I'll be a "Certified Information Systems Auditor." My very first certification. Ever. Pretty cool, eh?

8/12/02

Another day, another dollar. In other news, I've uploaded the pictures from the NYC Adventure trip to the Church section.

8/11/02

What an interesting weekend so far! Friday night started off with dinner with friends, then a trip to the city to see Cabaret. You know, "life is beautiful/the girls are beautiful/even the orchestra is beautiful." Turns out, I really liked the songs, the story is interesting....and all the girls are wearing lingerie the entire time. John Stamos spent a lot of time in drag. Oh Uncle Jesse, what happened? I must admit he was pretty funny.

John Stamos as "The Emcee"

Molly Ringwald as one of the leads

8/6/02

What's up? Finally! I have uploaded the rest of the California pictures and I've begun to upload the Hawaii pics. I actually have a lot more Hawaii pics, but I don't think any of you need to see 47 pictures of Diamond Head. So, I picked and chose. Also, as you may have noticed above, I've fixed up the movie at the top of this page. I've added a title and ending for it. I'm still working on fine-tuning, but it's basically running. Yes, my 2nd Flash movie.

I've received some nice emails from people who like the new site. Thank you to Leena, Simi George (whoever you are), and George Koshy. George was inspired enough to think of a new quote about me, so I've included it with my "Faces" movie above. George, have your moment in the sun, but don't get too dark, 'cause no one will marry you then. Thanks to Lina George and Jenny Cu for the "linky love."

On a final note, I want to take this moment to deride Jersey City one MORE time. So, last week, I was out running around 11PM, and I heard some really loud bass-thumpin' music. Expecting a tricked-out Toyota Cressida (they're here), lo and behold, it was an ice cream truck....with rims. Yes, somebody bought rims for his ice cream truck. Welcome to the ghetto, where even YOU can sell ice cream and drugs in a nice ride.

8/3/02

Joel's had a good day today! It started off nice with Num and I taking a long-planned visit to Prestige BMW in Ramsey, NJ. Why? Ooh, to do a little innocent research on my potential next car--BMW 330i [this color or the silver], or whatever the current model will be when I'm ready to purchase.

I did the test drive and it was pretty neat. Very quiet, nice ride, but no hoochies come standard [comes with Premium only.] I'll have to spend some time thinking this over.

Next up, I finally got that Flash movie of mine working. If you saw those quotes on the main page, that's now part of the intro. It took me a friggin' week to get that working. Lowercase letters would just drop out--"sexy" became "sey", "advisor" became "adisor", etc. Finally, with help from these two guys Marshall & Joe, we got it working. Apparently, it's just a weird bug in Macromedia Flash 5.

I hope you all have the Flash plugin for your browser, because I plan to start incorporating more Flash into this site. Why? Head over to the Macromedia site and see all that you can do with Flash. You would be amazed.

Finally, just as a warning, the photo galleries may not display properly in Netscape browsers, but I'm investigating. Anyways, if you encounter problems, fire up IE. Please, I loved Netscape, but damn! they screwed up somewhere.

8/1/02

The big news?  Well, this website for one.  It's been years, but I've had a hankerin' to post up my photos and such.  Hey, no time like the present, right?  What helps this whole process is that I've just acquired a digital camera. That's right: "acquired." That old lady never had a chance. Anyway, it's the SONY DSC-P71, to be exact. [free plug for SONY--where's my money?]  I now own TWO cameras; the first being my Olympus Centurion S. 

Sigh, I am a geek.  

In other news, I have officially begun my apartment search. My lease is up in early November. I'll be taking this opportunity to move very far away from the ghetto that we call Jersey City NJ.  I'll be searching for a 1 bedroom apartment somewhere in Western NJ, but somewhere close to an NJ Transit train station.  If you at least pretend to listen, you'll know that I have a roommate named Doug [see below.]

[Man, what the hell is wrong with that guy?]

So in my quest to get a life, I recently joined PRINA to meet other Indians. Went to a happy hour Thurs nite (7/25/02), but a bunch of us got bored/hungry and went out for Indian food over in Little India on Lex and 28th. You gotta appreciate NYC, since it has so many things open at all sorts of late hours.  The hungry pack of wolves consisted of: Neil, Megha, myself, Gautam, and later Vib came by to quench his samosa cravings.

Smile for that extra-bright flash!	Vib, Neil, Megha	Ah, Neil Pandya. As attractive as always.
Gautam, happy on a full stomach.	Walking to the 23rd St subway station, I took some shots of my office building.  If I was an FOB, I'd say I took some snaps, but these are just shots.	This building here was formerly MetLife, but now an office for Credit Suisse First Boston on 23rd St.  Very nice, no?