Sunday, October 24, 2010

Why Nan is Awesome



We went shopping yesterday and I bought some handmade paper. Today I'm having a creative day with origami :D




I think I will probably start selling these in my etsy store for weddings and gifts and such. Shameless plug if you want to order some for your girlfriend/wife ;)

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Great Outdoor + Deet, Adobe Creative Suite CS5, Acute Viral Rhinopharyngitis, and Shooting Zombies

...these are only some of the reasons I haven't been posting any new updates to my blog. Sorry avid readers of Nan's blog! I know you all have been feverishly refreshing this page to see if there are any updates. Well your dedication has been rewarded!
Here is what I've been up to :)

The Great Outdoors + Deet

Last weekend, we went to a campground near Mascal. According to Damon's blog, it is actually called, the Savandurga Hills (which may or may not be named after SG Hill's). 

We hiked up some hills and looked at some rocks and Damon, Kao, Sahana and I got left behind by our group :( The guide had to come back and find us.


After we got to the campgrounds, we played some games and paintballed.

(Pictures courtesy of Varun)
I got to use my video gaming skillz to take down Ajith.

We got to do some kayaking and swimming. Some people got to do both.

We spent the night playing mafia, eating good food, having some drinks, and building a small bonfire.

The area was beautiful...


Adobe Creative Suite CS5

I'm sooooooo excited to finally get this godly piece of software for my mac!! it only took about 6+ hours to download and install. It's just too bad I didn't bring my Wacom Bamboo Tablet with me to India. This week I got to work on the UI/UX for our web application, Chronicles and it's been really awesome. I've always wanted to get better at web design, especially from a BA standpoint. This will also give me a chance to strengthen my CSS and Javascript skillz. I also got some great reading from Sumeet on UI/UX. I really like Don't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug.

Acute Viral Rhinopharyngitis

I finally got sick! Thankfully it was only a cold and not typhoid or malaria. The most interesting thing I got out of my sickness was going to buy some cold medication at the little convenient store by where I live. For 24 rupees (about 50 cents) I got a small tray of pills out of the box. They didn't bother to give me the box, just the tray. Needless to say I was a bit paranoid about taking the medication but it turned out ok. My cold lasted for a day. Magical.

Shooting Zombies

So I downloaded Steam for my Mac and have been really getting into gaming. I am seriously addicted to this game, Plants Vs. Zombies. I believe you can download a free trial version at their website. It's a great strategy game. You should try it out!


Also been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam. Check out the trailer, it's pretty sweet and pretty gory, so don't watch it if you're faint of heart! ;D







Thursday, October 14, 2010

Inceptions, Estimations, Procrastinations

Currently playing: Beborn Beton. Check them out =) 


"It's a Pedophile Dating Site!" - Quote of the day from Errol


Who would have thought training would be...well REAL project work? This week, the other business analysts and I have been gathering project requirements (inception) for ThoughtWorks Chronicles, an internal application that will be used to pass on and archive the oral history of ThoughWorks. Which I think is a fantastic idea. How better than to preserve a great community culture? I say community and not company, because it honestly feels more like a community of coworkers (I haven't grown tired of seeing them yet! Even though I see them almost 24/7).




Inception is a bit difficult to explain without going into a bunch of BA (Business Analyst) jargon which will most likely sound like blahbatyblahblahblah to a lot of people.  Long story short, the BA finds out what functionalities the client wants to build in the application and conveys this to a team of developers. It may sound easy conceptually, but in reality it feels a bit more like this...



Today we finished our estimations for our project scope and tomorrow we will be writing detailed user stories around each piece of functionality. Monday we will start the first iteration of development!

Also, recap - Tuesday night we had a pub quiz where we broke off into teams and got to answer a quiz about really random questions about things from different countries, questions related to ThoughtWorks, and things we've learned in class. Our team came in second! I'd like to think it's because the first place team had Patti Mandarino, one of the first few ThoughtWorkers ever, and she knew all the ThoughtWorks history :D. I was just proud that I could answer one of the sports questions - who won the Stanley Cup this year. Ha!


Well there's been a WHOLE lot more that's happened and I don't have time to write about. I will try to catch up next time! =)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sunday Funday!

Today I'm just taking it easy with my elephant and doing some work for class, like preparing for my pecha kucha. 

Also I finished inking my drawing. Unfortunately I did not bring any copic markers, so I will have to color this when I go back home.


Causing a Ruckus and Shopping

ThoughtWorkers definitely work hard and play hard! Friday night we had a ridiculous party where we finished off a lot of drinks, played card games from different countries, and sang karaoke (well I wasn't part of the singing but it was definitely loud). Sahana has some great pics on her flickr and you can see more of my pics on my facebook.




We also ordered lots of food. Some of it was delivered in bags...

All in all it was a great night. I retired early so I could play Team Fortress 2 with my boyfriend, and I stayed up till about 3am jumping around shooting at things. It was pretty awesome.

Saturday was spent shopping on MG road. 

We bought a good amount of stuff...
picture courtesy of Sahana

What made my night was this store. 

They sold a ton of metal/alternative band shirts. I bought 2 Rammstein shirts, and an Arch Enemy shirt. On a side note, I love that Arch Enemy has a female vocalist in a genre that is predominately male. I was really surprised to learn that metal is apparently popular in Bangalore, although I still haven't seen much of a scene here. There's still time to look though!





Thursday, October 7, 2010

ThoughtWorks University

More updates on TWU! I started writing this yesterday but I passed out...


Day 3 - Lego Game and Open Space




Today we played the lego game in class. For those of you unfamiliar with the lego game, it is a game that shows how an agile team functions by having team members work on a project for a client. In our case, we were making an animal. We had to create an animal based on client requirements and deploy functional parts for testing in each iteration...needless to say I think we did pretty well in teamwork and communication, and here is the result!

We then had some open spaces where we talked about topics interesting to us. One of our trainers, Johnathan helped me setup an open space to talk about relationships in consulting and we discussed some interesting things, such as using NLP techniques for persuasive power, professionalism, and how cultures define relationships. 

Sumeet had a great open space about Social Responsibility, which ThoughtWorks is a HUGE supporter of (and why I love this company! Check out their awesome values!) The three organizations we talked about were: ParikrmaSukrupa, and 350.org. You should check them out!

Day 4 (Today) - Getting down to business!

This morning we had some usual games and activities, and in the afternoon we really got down to business! We really got a sense of the Business Analyst role in the upcoming project we will be working on - ThoughtWorks Chronicles (I will explain this project more later). Tomorrow we will be meeting the client (Summet wearing a hat) in order to gather information and project requirements so that we can start writing stories for our developers. It's going to be hard work and a lot of fun!

I am currently in one of the TWU offices in Bangalore working on some homework. 



Recap - TWU Day 2

I meant to upload this video earlier, but had a lot of trouble with internet speed. Damon and I rode in a rickshaw on the second day of TWU....here is the fantastic video of traffic in India!



Tuesday, October 5, 2010

ThoughtWorks University

What a crazy two days! I've been trying not to put off updating my blog but have been seriously super busy and fattening up on delicious food. 

So here's what's been happening these past two days:

TWU Day 1
On day one we just went over some basic introductory things, like ThougthWorks Values, employee diversity, and the upcoming project we are going to be working on - which will be epic because we are the last team to be working this application and will be deploying it. I'm excited to jump in and start working! 

After class I went to have dinner with the TWU students from Xi'an China. It started magically pouring so we couldn't go out to eat. Instead, we decided to make dinner. After buying vegetables from a small convenient store, some Asian squatting ensued in the cleaning and peeling of vegetables. I haven't felt so Chinese in a long time! The Chinese folks made amazing food! We sure impressed Damon =)


TWU Day 2

Today we did some activities to define the roles for Business Analysts, Developers, and Quality Assurance, and to understand why they are important. We also participated in activities to show how teamwork and collaboration can go wrong, for instance when there is no communication in a project, as shown by the results here: 

It was suppose to be a cheetah...

That's all for now! Will update more later...



Monday, October 4, 2010

Goooood Morning India!

and Heeeeeello blown out electrical wiring!


So showered and tried to blow dry my hair this morning and mananged to blow out the power in my room. Awesome. 


This is my room. It's pretty sweet. I will upload some pics of the apartment later.

Flight was fine, got in around midnight Monday morning, India time. Finally got out of customs and got my bags around 1:30 am. I met up with my taxi driver and when I got in the cab, I couldn't find the buckle to my seat belt. Taxi driver tells me "That's unnecessary" and proceeds to drive 85mph down the highway for an hour...without signaling when changing lanes...behind a giant bus. Needless to say, I think he is more badass than I am.

Also word of advice, when you are spraying bug spray on yourself, do not point the nozzle at your face. It is unpleasant. 

That's all for now. 




Friday, October 1, 2010

ThoughtWorks is like....

DisneyWorld for nerds!
Ok maybe more of a Dave & Busters for grown up nerds. 


One of the main reasons I've decided to take up blogging again is in anticipation for my upcoming trip to ThoughtWorks University in Bangalore India. I was suppose to have left on Tuesday but my business visa got delayed. Thankfully I got it yesterday so I am leaving tomorrow for India. My excitement level for this trip is pretty high up there, comparable to first day of college, graduation day of college, first paying freelance gig, first metal show where I got to jump in the mosh pit...yep life changing events =)


This has been my first week at ThoughWorks, most of which I've spent at the "beach" learning Java and Testing as part of Agile Software Development. The people here are super friendly and talented. I got to sit next to expert developer and recent TWU grad SgHill who helped me learn some basic coding. I was so proud of myself for finally finishing a calendar program after a full day of coding...which probably would have taken some of the awesome developers here 10 minutes to code T___T. 


The rest of today I plan on learning some SQL and go through some great tutorials at Industrial Logic. Then, off to packing and you'll get to hear from me when I land in India!


SG Hill and I have strikingly similar appearance all the way down to our D&G glasses and beards.


Picture curtesy of SG Hill.





Post Hardcore - not just for highschoolers!

I feel like this topic deserves a post since I've really gotten into this genre for the past year. For any traditional metal fans out there, post hardcore seems to be a huge blasphemic kick to the b*lls. Literally. The singers all sound like the love child of Vitas Bumac + Kill Hannah joined a screamo band and wanted to try techno pop. For anyone intrigued by this technometal concept, I suggest the below videos.


They also seem to love long complicated names that sound like movie titles...
A Skylit Drive, Of Mice and Men, This Romantic Tragedy, Woe is Me, Asking Alexandria, Motionless In White, His Statue Falls, Scarlett O'Hara, Someday Came Suddenly, House Vs. Hurricane, A Hero A Fake...well you get the idea. 


So why do I personally love Post Hardcore? Simple, they are the boybands of metal! For all the girls who went through N'sync and Backstreet Boys phases, this is just the cooler version of it. Who doesn't love pretty boys on stage headbanging and playing guitar? The bands also promote a very consumeristic culture specific to that highschool age era when you spend the little money you have on stuff you can get googly-eyed over. Yep I love covering my walls in my room with band posters and wearing band shirts...Maybe I will just never grow out of that phase. 


But on a serious note, in terms of talent, the music is actually really good and original. 


//Fangirl Cut// a friend and I drove 2 hours out to the to see A Skylit Drive a few months back. Managed to grab a snazzy pic with Mike the vocalist. He signed my shoe.







Reviving Old Flames

Dear Blog,

I know I've made promises in the past as we all have to keep our relationship committed and long term. It starts out great with date nights and exciting (or mundane) stories to share everyday, but we always seem to grow apart and eventually I forget about you completely. Don't worry, it's not you, its me.

But now I promise promise promise you I will start blogging again! This time with a real reason to blog - probably because my life has gotten more interesting now...so please take me back and let's make this work! Please?

Love,
Nan