Sick 2.0

Hmmm after ONE full day of feeling ok apparently my body felt like it needed to upgrade its sickness state to something a tad more interactive.... something along the lines of expelling grossness from MORE PLACES!!!! Yuck!!!

Sick

I've been mildly sick for 4 days now. It all culminated with sharp pains and sweats as I was taking a morning walk before work and making my way back home felt like running a marathon....a 10 minute marathon... :(

I think my toilet is still crying....

ORAÇAO DO SKATISTA

Ollie nosso que se da no ar
Santificado seja nossa session
Venha a nós várias medalhas
Seja feita nossa vontade, assim
No street como no vertical
As manobras nossas de cada dia
Nos dai hoje, livrai os
nossos
Tombos, assim como acertamos
As manobras difíceis. Não nos
Deixai
cair no DownHil, mas
Livrais nos dos shapes
Quebrados, amém

Living abroad

"Morar no exterior é bom mas é uma merda. Viver no Brasil é uma merda mas é bom."
Tom Jobim

GENIUS!!!

Science of the heart?

"I read this article in national geographic about the minds eye and the emotions that are around who and what we see. The article said that if you are having problems an exercise that helps is to just look into the persons eyes for at least ten minutes and think about what you like about them and think about how they smell how they are looking at you and remember the moment that you first looked at them and how you felt. "

Courtesy of a very insightful and very good friend.

Tree mysteries

One of my favorite scenes ever is this one...and what comes immediately after it... :)

Persepolis

If you haven't seen a good movie in a while and are down with being slapped in the face with realness that may not be super familiar to you but that undoubtedly shakes you to your human core, go see Persepolis.

Serious, fun, sentimental, real and cute. And it's a cartoon.

It's been a looooong time since I've watched an animation that was so excellent at delivering a message through it's lines. And we're not talking overly realistic, team of 200 just to make one face muscle move kinda Pixar 3D animation....we're talking by hand...yes I said that. And I don't mean hand on keyboard, I mean hand on pencil then on paper. If you don't believe me, check out the DVD and watch the extras.

Persepolis quietly grew on me and blew a puff of smoke with it's eyes half open right on my face and before I could blink it had taken one of the very coveted top 5 movie spots on my personal list. :)

Go see it, putain!

"Pwoject Oneway"

I used to really not like fashion shows and the like and used to be forced by my sister and mom to watch them on TV.

Until the day that I screamed "This is shit, garbage, crap, craziness...who would wear this?!"

And my mom looked at me with that typical mom look and calmly said.... "Would you wear a Picasso?"

...And before I could inhale a bit of air and spit out a mid-adolescence-nonsense come back she said: "Didn't think so".

I've been hooked ever since...


Auf Wiedersehen

Alma Mater

back to mon routes... this past weekend I was in Oregon with Eriquinha and Matze-Katze visiting Rita and Wayne. Such good times.

I have so many incredible memories of that place and the way the weekend unfolded was like a magically orchestrated symphony through the best of my memories.

On Friday we did a walking trip around campus that included a quick stop at the new business school, a brick hunt outside the EMU (see the pic below), an intro to the Mills International Center and a peek at 2 of my old homes: The ISA and the ASUO offices. It almost brought me to tears. To top it off, I even bumped into Kellen (who I had only met via phone) and got to give him a well deserved hand shake for all his incredible work in helping mobilize international students and alumni to demand transparency on the whole Magid and Kathy deal. And we really closed the day in the best possible way. An hour visit with Magid in his office. Everything felt so perfect, so familiar, so serene.





On saturday we fired up some old bikes and did "the loop". Basically from their house through Amazon park, through campus, by the river, through the park, to VRC ending at Saturday Market downtown. The weather was incredible and doing that route 12 years after I had done it the first time was just priceless. The smell of the fresh grass, the sound of the river, that familiar burn on my bike-loving legs and even the smell of the beer as we rode by McMenamins were like an ode to my past.






And speaking of, a wild salmon sandwich with a pint of Hammerhead, was exactly what I was thinking of to wrap up another awesome day. And guess what? That's what we did! :)



Sunday started with a trip to the Glennwood for breakfast and then a quick trip back to the house for packing. Before I even felt like I was awake it was time to head over to the airport.

Rita and Wayne continue to be as sweet, energetic and welcoming as on that first day they picked me up from terminal A at the Eugene airport...at around 3pm on September 12, 1996 to be more precise :)

This trip at this time of my life really meant a lot to me. Last time I visited was 5 years ago and at that time I was consumed with feelings of defeat and even managed to fire up the rental car after everyone had gone to sleep and drove around town to all my favorite spots and said good bye to all of them. Looking back I can't believe I had really convinced myself that that was the last time I would be there. It still makes my stomach turn just remembering what that felt like. I fought back the tears all weekend long. Bitter-sweet doesn't even begin to explain it.

As I said to Wayne this weekend, this last trip felt like I had come full circle and that all the pieces of my puzzle were finally back in place. From the day I left, a month after graduation, I had told myself I would go back and make it all right once I knew I could stay. I wanted to go back and nod my head at Magid, at the EMU, at Johnson Hall, at the college of business (heck, even at the school of Biology! :D), at the ISA office, at the ASUO office and at the Library and say thank you for what those 4 years did for me.

As I said good bye to them at the airport this past Sunday I stood there and thought of that afternoon that I sat at my parent's dinner table with a U of O envelope closed and heard my mom say "well, even if the lady said the UO didn't give you a scholarship, let's open the envelope and read it anyway". And of course I also though of the moment I opened the envelope and read that I had received a full tuition scholarship for 4 years. At 1:30pm this past Sunday I smiled to myself thinking that the resilience and curiosity in me had taken me to that place 13 1/2 years later. All of a sudden the last 8 years (till 06/06/08) didn't seem that bad at all.

As long as I can continue to open envelopes, hold back my tears, keep on plugging and come back for a micro-brew and bike ride, I think I'll be ok.

I'm a friend of Laphroaig

The other day I ran out of Scotch...ok ok, of GOOD Scotch! :)

So an emergency trip to the booze store was in need.

I got in my car with not much in mid other than to go browse, read the little labels and buy something. The only commitment I had at that time was to get something new.

After about 20 minutes of browsing, I had my eyes on a very humble-looking white and green box and thought "heck, a Scotch from a small island within an island seems like fun".

Little did I know I was embarking on a true journey.

To cut to the chase, I ended up getting a bottle of Laphroaig, which happens to be the MOST smoky scotch made AND also Prince Charle's favourite. (Yes the "u" here was intentional ;) )

But also each bottle comes with a certificate for a square foot of land on the island where the distillery is located. You just go online, type in your code, claim your plot and you even get to see a satelite picture of where your plot is. Brilliant!

Just yesterday my certificate arrived in the mail and it is super cool. I can also check out online who my "neighbours" are and chat with them.

For those of you wondering if I am going to visit my plot soon, my answer is a quiet nod and a giggle.

Slainte Mhath!

http://www.laphroaig.com/

Marcelo Katsuki

Not too long ago I bumped into a blog from one of the columnists at Folha de Sao Paulo.

His name is Marcelo Katsuki and he's an architect turned DJ, turned silk-screen t-shirt maker, turned foodie, turned food and drink columnist for one of the larges newspapers in Latin America.

Anyway, his blog is just awesome. Filled with reviews of the latest and greatests Sao Paulo restaurants and food and drink related events. He's also genuine and elegant enough to give the small holes in the wall the same play as he does to the big places and that's just too cool.

To top it all off, he's a "nisei" (maybe "sansei", don't know for sure), so it's neat to get a peek into the culture of Japanese Brazilians.

Enjoy!

http://marcelokatsuki.folha.blog.uol.com.br/

The little alien in me

When I was a kid I used to stretch my neck out on my bed towards my bedroom window till where I could see the sky.

I used to look at the stars and be CONVINCED that I was either from another planet or going to another planet.

Little did I know that was just an undying want to travel abroad.

These days, some 20 years later and 6616 miles away, when I look out my bedroom window all I can think of is that and it makes me smile.

This makes me happy...

http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=41558

This makes me sad...

Topic: Really feeling sick to my stomach about 140
Posted by she81 (51) 13 May 2008
I absolutely believe it is an "entrapment". A fun-loving and chirpy soul I used to be but lately these immigration woes have started consuming me. I feel I am becoming a compulsive negative thinker and I can see its effect on other areas of my life too - as you said - it's hard to think straight.


Posted by syzygy (80) 23 hours 50 minutes ago
i fully agree, all this talk of backlog etc is bullshit. they just want to make our lives hell so uscis hand in glove with companies and lawyers can screw us for betterment of america. i stongly have feeling this place i not worth it and we all are doing biggest mistake of life by pursuing this moving target. there are much better places on earth than america and god knows how long we have to live ? and we waste most of it doing slavery for uscis and america -- what a waste of life.

You all should watch Zeitgeist, The Movie. I am sure not all will agree with the notions, but in a way it is true we are living in a matrix (like the movie). But this one is sort of an entrapment in this case, it's all make-believe, because it's controlled. Things happening are real, albeit manipulated or manufactured.

It's like that Bush guy, keeps on repeating "Terrorist, terrorist, threats, blah blah blah blah", for so long, that eventually you give in & believe him subconsciously. Yes, this wait has made me loopy, I cannot think straight anymore, & that's the cold hard truth. Comments?


Posted by patientgirl (8) 23 hours 42 minutes ago
I was thinking something similar the other day. I feel that I became a very negative person with all this immigration processes and the backlog. It's our lives that are in the middle of all this... YEARS of our lives!!!! I had no idea this was going to be and FEEL like this... if I had known I would've stayed in my country, but after all this time that I have invested I don't know if it's best to wait or to go back. I miss feeling free. Is this really a FREE country?


Posted by misterHumble (66) 23 hours 17 minutes ago
hello she81,

i have been working in the US for 10+ years and i wished i was half a paranoid about my GC as many of you and applied sooner rather than chasing startups for 5 years. i would have green a loooong time ago and might even be a citizen by now ... just never really bother applying until '04...

hang in there ... you'll be fine ...is my coworker told me the GC process is like a hindi movie -- chaoes in the beginning but in the end everyone will work out just fine.


Posted by cygent (9) 2 hours ago
She81 - I have exactly same feelings as you. I have also become -ve & it has affected my personal life and time & again disturbs my professional life too (and this is after the hurdles we have to cross by already being on a damn visa with unscrupulous employers)

patientgirl - Ditto here. I had no clue about this mess when I first came 10 years ago. Now I don't want to go down without a fight, and boy what a fight it is, more than a battle, a bloody war without any end in sight. Live & learn I guess. It's tough.


Posted by nirvana13 (11) 1 hour 50 minutes ago
Yeah same here, I today received the whole package for renewing my H1-B it is almost an embarrasing situation to do this for the 9th year. The opportunity costs have been too high my peers in India they are running a riot with thier carrers and here as well. My sister says there are thousands who coming back home. I don't feel like signing my carrer off to a bunch of backlog centers. Negative !!!!!!!!!!!!! you don't want to even imagine how negative I have become.


Posted by srimatha (6) 1 hour 24 minutes ago
i cant agree more with you all. Just like Mr Humble , i am here in this country since 98. Had i applied for GC then , i would be applying for citizenship by now than chasing after backlogs and USCIS IOs.

In India , there is a saying " Jaise Kerni , waise bharni" ( As You Sow, So You Reap). I am just becoming philosophical and often times negative thinker too.

all the time @ work i could only think of Karma , Nirvana, going back to India, family back home. I think GC, to me , has become more of an achivement than a necessity at this point. I am not sure whether i would really enjoy USA and a GC if i get it in next 3 years.

I am just venting it out but dont have any concrete ideas of what i am saying , so dont give me suggestions like "Go back to india".


Posted by blackbeard (1) 1 hour 2 minutes ago
I am getting fat sitting at my computer addicted to trackitt.


Posted by TroySJ (4) 56 minutes ago
Hay Guys,

I am really frustrrated, I have passed my 6n month on 485 and I am waiting for the I140 now, My ND is on NOV, How long do you think I should wait... Whats your estimate

Thanks a lot,

Troy


Posted by cygent (9) 47 minutes ago
Sorry to give you the news, but you are looking at a 1 yr. wait. Thats my estimate. NSC is processing 03/10/07 now, so Nov. = +7 months, hence you can expect something by year-end. Avg. time now is ~ 365-425 days for I-140


Posted by TroySJ (4) 36 minutes ago
Sorry to give you the news, but you are looking at a 1 yr. wait. Thats my estimate. NSC is processing 03/10/07 now, so Nov. = +7 months, hence you can expect something by year-end. Avg. time now is ~ 365-425 days for I-140




Hi, How do you say that NSC is processing March 2007, while USCIS processing date for I140 is June and also on Teackitt 95% of people on March 2007 are already processed. I can even see a lot of people's I140 from Oct and Nov already processed >40%,

Another question is that how do you say the average ti,e os ~365-425 while on tracjit the average is around 200 days, are they other resources that you are using

Many thanks

Troy
(reply) (report this)
Posted by cygent (9) 29 minutes ago
Here you go -


sort by Response Time - The top 100 are the most recent (approvals from Jan, or so), average them out.




Posted by reyon33 (82) 28 minutes ago
I will go back to China, after getting the GC. Why? For insurance. I believe I can make a lot more and more happy in my country. However, there is always what if. What if I cannot find a job, what if I hate to live there. When I have my GC, if I don't do well in China, I can always come back and find a job. Yes, the air is cleaner, the traffic is better and life is more relax in the US, but all my family are back home. I have lots of friends here, but how can friends compare with family. I have been here for 6.5 years. Compare with many Gurus, I am just a baby on this boat. Another few years won't kill me. I am exchanging a few years for the insurance of the rest of my life. I am very frustrating like many of you, but let's hold on together, it will end one day. Just like Paul said, I fought the good fight, I finish the race, and I keep my faith. I know it is not really accept in here, but we will have the satisfaction at the end.




Posted by TroySJ (4) 21 minutes ago
Hi,

I have checked the USCIS Processing time thousands of times like everyday, As far as I understand there the EB2 processing date is: June16-2007 and the EB3 Processing date is March 10-2207... Please correct me if I am wrong?

Thanks




Posted by nylubn (11) 19 minutes ago
Hi ,I could not agree with you more.Its as if you have expressed my feelings.I have been here since 1999 and applied for GC in 2004.
Right now I cant stay here and cant go back to India.
Have invested too much time here and just very frustrated.



Posted by om140 (10) 18 minutes ago
From last 5 months....Every 1 hour I browse this website. It feels like I am living in a golden cage and waiting for the freedom.



Posted by TroySJ (4) 4 minutes ago
From last 5 months....Every 1 hour I browse this website. It feels like I am living in a golden cage and waiting for the freedom.

I think there are lots of people like you, these web sites are addictive, I look up the damn thing at least 100 times a day and only get more and more frustrated lol