Six Years

A long walk down memory lane, and things just continue from where they left off. In fact, things improve from where they were. Four random people, ten years ago, made a decision that entwined their paths for four years. Six years ago, the paths diverged, one would think, never to meet again. This past weekend, and the four paths, having traveled various parts of the globe, met again, if only for a brief moment. One was just passing through, the other three, we can only hope will move relatively closely for sometime to come.

A lot can change in six years. A lot would be expected to have changed in that time. Somehow, no matter how much things change, they always remain the same. Here's to the times at KJSCE, and a wonderful evening catching up with old friends.

Pittsburgh!!

A city is defined, in part, by the people you knew in it, the people you know in it, and the memories you share. Who'd have thought that the steel city, the city of champions, the city of bridges, the city of first meetings, the city of sleepless nights, of intense rivalries, and amazing bonding, would one day, so soon, add one more fun filled memory to its cap?

Spring carnival is always a huge event on campus. Even as students, we would always find time to soak in the festivities, and just have an all out fun time. This year will be a hard one to follow up. Maybe not for the spring carnival itself, but for the added alumni celebration that drew us to the city after almost 2 years of being away.

Friday April 16
Landing in Pittsburgh always provides some amazing views of the three rivers, downtown and Heinz field. This time, however, the lack of sleep catching up to me, I was forced to miss the circle around Pittsburgh before we finally hit the tarmac. I woke up with a jolt, and the sound of the flight attendant welcoming me to Pittsburgh.

Walking past the familiar Steeler and the T-Rex at the gates brought back memories of the first time I touch Pittsburgh, tired, lost, and with the company of a very friendly Pittsburgher who guided me to baggage claim. This time, having lived there for two years, only two years ago, I marched down familiar territory and like always, stood in line for the arterial airport shuttle, the 28X. A change of route in the bus was a bit disheartening, as it skipped the Robinson Shopping center on its way to the university.

We had managed to get ourselves a hotel right in the heart of Oakland, next to the Cathedral of Learning. By the time I had reached, a couple of people had already checked in. This was the start of all the hellos throughout the weekend. As I freshened up from the flight, a fourth member of the early arrivals reached our room.

It was a beautiful day, the sun smiling down his warmth upon the visitors. While the girls got ready, we decided to go up the Cathedral, and capture all of CMU from an aerial vantage point. The garish new building marred the view for the most part, but it was nice to get a view of the buildings that housed our classes, and friends.

What followed was a series of "we have to go here." Lunch was from the kitchen at Salem's and quickly disappeared outside Pitt campus on Forbes. A stop at INI to absorb the changes, meet the staff, and of course to play some pool and we were off to the UC.

Pittsburgh weather showed us her fickle nature here. A clear bright sunny day, suddenly turned dark and grey, and before we knew it, a quick downpour followed. This was what was called rain, not the "drizzle" we get out here in California, that seems to freak everyone out. As the rain seemed to die out, we decided to head back to our hotel and get ready for the game. A quick duck into PHI to pre-game, and we were set.

As for the game, all I can say is "Lets go Pens." Crosby's awesome stick-play in the third period sealed the intense, yet low scoring game.

Joe Mama's and then a long night of catching up over drinks, and we were already well on our way into Saturday.

Saturday April 17
Its never easy to wake up early after a long night, but this was Pittsburgh, alarm clocks drove us for two years here. Getting ready we were joined by a few more friends who couldn't take the previous day off. It is amazing how rarely one meets people in spite of them being so close, yet it takes a trip to the other side of the country to reconnect.

Lunch was where we finally got to see almost everybody. Hugs and hellos greeted us all as we caught up with familiar and were introduced to the unfamiliar faces. We found a table and sat down to lunch, catching up on missed times. What followed was a panel discussion by alumni talking about their experiences in the world, and how their time at school shaped their lives. In the midst of this all, I acquired and then lost Scotty, and we got a formal introduction of new relationships.

About 15 of us just walked around the university, remembering times as we strolled past the various buildings we had come to know. CIC, Wean, Doherty, Hamerschlag, the Cut, the Fence, Warner Hall, UC, the tennis courts, and the INI. One can never talk about the INI and not talk about the pool table. A few of us congregated there, a few of us sat in our first year clusters. Memories drove the various sets of roommates to have pictures taken in front of their respective buildings in the area.

Soon it was dinner time, and we were off to the Carnegie Museum Cafe. A lot of mingling with the crowd, catching up on old times, discussing new ideas. While talking to a bunch of the alums, and a few of the students here from Greece, I even got a chance to talk to the photographer for the night. Cameras were discussed and possible ideas of pictures too.

As the night wore on, there was a need for an after party, and the alums all headed out to Doc's Place on Walnut Street. The night only began there, and moved onto Zen, before we headed out to Duquesne Incline and then Mt Washington for a burst of late night photography.

Four am, and hungry we headed out to Eat'n'Park to be greeted by some amazing "breakfast". Back in bed at 530 in the morning, and we were done with Day 2 of Pittsburgh.

Sunday April 18
Sunday was our final day in the city. There was still so much we hadn't done. Yet, we still had the important matter of checking out of the hotel to do as well. Getting that wrapped up allowed people some leeway as they went to their haunts, and others went to walk in awe along Devonshire St once again.

We headed out to Pamela's for brunch that became lunch and gorged on the hotcakes. A short walk around the Strip District, an area we never saw as students, had us feeling like we were in a quaint old town. I tried looking for Steelers and Penguins merchandise, but apparently Sunday afternoon is not the best time to shop in the area.

Soon it was time for farewells. The New Yorkers, the Texan and a Californian took a cab to the airport, the locals headed back home. That left the four of us on one flight out later in the evening. Two were reminiscing their days together, while two of us, decided to head out to Point State Park. It is incredible, having lived so close to the park, and having actually been in the area several times, we never actually ventured to the park. This was soon corrected.

While still under construction, the park provided some nice vistas of the city. A stroll through the park, and then across a bridge, and we were soon right outside Heinz Field. To be at the home ground of the most successful team in the country, the capital of Steeler Nation, was a memory I shall treasure. Until, of course, I watch a game there!

Finally, we had to bid adieu to the city. We drove out to the airport, but there was more to be done. Meeting old friends is always something that manages to rekindle lost memories. Meeting someone you've known since kindergarten takes that one level further. We caught up at the airport, for an hour, just before my flight out. The Campion bond holds strong.

Through security, and off to the gate, we discover, that Pittsburgh had a surprise in store for us. Due to delayed planes, we could not leave the city. We were given one extra night in the area, to just soak it all in, and in the Hyatt no less. Dinner at the Hyatt, watching my 2nd Pens game in 3 days, was a beautiful cap to the entire weekend. Of course, the Pens won!

Thanks to all the staff at the INI for all the hard work involved in putting this thing together. Its been only two years since I left, but if two years can cause such happiness, and a perfect reunion amongst friends scattered across the country, one can only imagine what time will do. The event was simply superb, and was a lovely way to get us all together. Great job, and look forward to the next one!

Powerless...

What do you do when things you take for granted suddenly disappear on you? I'm not talking people, but things that everyone in a "developed" world takes for granted. Today, for half my day, I got to see such a world, and, well, I'm not sure how I feel.

This afternoon, there was a power outage at work. With no power, and no idea when it would return, a few of us collected in the cafeteria and played some table tennis. It was fun seeing and interacting with colleagues in a new manner. You get to see a new side of people, that you don't really expect of them. After a couple of hours, I decided to head home and catch some much needed R&R.

Reached home, and, thankfully, the blackout had not affected my apartment. What it had done, however, was knock out my cable and internet connection. Now thats something you don't see everyday, and more importantly its not something one expects.

Now if there's a blackout, you obviously cant really do anything sitting at home. This, however, is like a tease. You have electricity, but you cant watch TV, or get online. Everything we do, seems to revolve around this. (I should add, I couldn't go out because of the heavy downpour that was at play. ) I probably should have caught up on my reading, or played with my camera, instead, I pulled out the dvd player, dusty and unused, and cleaned out my netflix queue.

Four hours with no connection to the outside world (yes, I restricted use of the iPhone), and yet, somehow I manage to revolve around some form of technology. Is it an addiction, or just a force of habit, that drives this? I wonder… but I know, today I relived a time when this was natural, and it felt so very unnatural.

And the earth rumbles...

Just a day,
Just an ordinary day.
Just trying to get by.
And the earth came alive.

For all the beauty that is this place, one often forgets the frailty of the land we live and work on. Today, in one slight jolt, many of us were woken up to this. It didn't last very long, but it was enough to shake the ground we stood on. On the second floor, where I was, it felt like the floor decided to go dancing, and created its own bass in accompaniment.

I wrote about an earlier such incident last year. Standing as the ground beneath you tries to throw you down, while scary to some, felt different. It felt like an experience, one to be remembered, and shared, maybe not fondly, but nostalgically.

People reacted differently. A new mother ran upstairs to her 5 month old baby, to find her fast asleep unawares to the world. A newly engaged man, ran down the four floors of his office building to safety. A close friend insisted I procure an earthquake survival kit. And me? I went back to my desk, and said hello to the world.

Phone numbers

We all have them. Some of us have multiple. Services have come up to consolidate them. Yet, the question remains, do we still need them?

If you look at it historically, these numbers were assigned based on locality. It was like an address, where numbers which were close in proximity would invariably link up houses which near each other as well. In fact, they originally began not as the pure numeric codes we see today, but as alpha-numeric combinations where the lead alphabets would mention the city in which the number existed. This made sense when phones were tied down to the house.

Today's world, is very different. Cell phones outnumber land lines in most countries around the world. Cell phones have no geographic distinctions. A number just has to be unique across a country, with country codes obscuring the fact for internationally unique numbers. This still leaves us with often hard to remember convoluted combinations of digits. As humans, remembering seemingly unrelated numbers in one series, can be quite a challenge. This leads us to my original question.

Some of you may argue, that there is no need to remember phone numbers anymore. Every phone has sufficient memory to store and remember all the contacts you will ever need. To me, that is solving the wrong problem. In a world where everything is now moving away from the circuit switched networks that defined the archaic telephone system, to an IP based, packet switched networks, surely we can come up with a better way of addressing the myriad of devices out there. With the arrival of LTE, every phone will always have an IP address, that will globally distinguish its peers.

IP addresses bring us back to numbers. That is a problem that has been solved, however. Something along the lines of a URL or even like our email addresses would be a good choice. This is something, that most of us are used to, and will be relatively easy to remember should we every lose our phones.

An example could be something like phone://home.zoxcleb or phone://work.zoxcleb
phone: is just the protocol identifier, like FTP or HTTP. If you have multiple people at one house, you could update it to phone://personA.home.zoxcleb where zoxcleb is basically like the family domain for all phones. What do you do if you move out, and need your own "domain"? Obtain one and then update the address to forward your requests out for some time until you can update all your contacts. The address will also be service provider independent, just like today's websites are agnostic of the hosting service. This makes address portability a breeze.

Todays phone numbers may just be the status quo, but as the number of devices go up, we will eventually reach the threshold that 10 digits can support. Before we do, and have to add yet another digit, it might be worthwhile considering a change in the way we do things.

Its always the little things that count. Life is a journey so long, so convoluted, that as we unravel its mysteries, we are often left in awe of what it opens up to us. Moving along this path, sometimes at leisure, sometimes at a bustling pace, its not often we get to stop and have a look around. What we need is a pause button.

That's exactly what old friends are for. The people you knew when growing up are like bridges to worlds long lost in labyrinths of time. Sitting over dinner with people one has known for more than three-fourths of your life can be quite an experience. Especially if you haven't really spent much time with them in the last quarter. The stories that are told, the incidents remembered, the changes in people, the things people have gone through. In all this, the common thread is the people and the tiny quirks that we all manifested.

There's a reason its called the formative years. The bonds made then, are very different from ones thereafter. The experiences from then, really do (as much as Calvin would hate it) build character. No matter what you say, those days are the building blocks of what we all are today, and what we stand to be. We may change over time and not be recognizable to others who we grew up with, but its all a cumulative experience from day 1, and the effect, I feel, decreases over time.

Happy Birthday Rosette

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea:

Over rain by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

One year. They say one travels far in one year. Who would have guessed, it would have been ten thousand miles! Today marks the first birthday. The first of many more to come. Together, we've roamed the country side, and visited cities. We've spent hours together, alone, and in the company of friends. Life in itself became a lot easier to live once we got to be friends. A small bump along the road, but a few days and all was forgotten. Today, I say Happy Birthday.

A very Happy Birthday Rosette!

The long and winding road
That leads from your door
Will never disappear