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OK so I didn't update the front page for over a year. What can I say? The time just kinda flew by. =P

Well for the record (and as you already know), most of my updates come on the the Random Aim Quotes page these days. I used to update pictures on here alot as well, but I switched over to using Photoalbum for everything a little while back. All the newest pictures of me, my friends, my car, and my friends' cars, are at http://soniclude.myphotoalbum.com, so feel free to check that out. You don't need to sign up, but if you want to save the pics, read my instructions here: http://hkn.berkeley.edu/~rgulati/saving.txt.

Now, to the good stuff. This main page is becoming more of a personal record of my adventures, but I figure there's gotta be at least one person out there who's dying to know what I've been up to (I hope). So here goes. =P

Last time I wrote something on here I was heading into my final semester at UC Berkeley, and wow what a blast that was. I only had a few classes, so I had alot of time to spend with my fellow seniors enjoying our last days of college. A quick breakdown of the academics: a CS class in User Interfaces, which was fun cause my group was full of HKN buddies and we took field trips to take pictures of fridges (don't ask); a Clinical Psychology class, which was a cool way to wrap up my wannabe Psych minor (seriously, I took four upper div Pysch classes and I got nothing, not even a crappy t-shirt!); and one of the coolest "classes" I've been in at Cal, Poly Sci 179, which was basically a once-a-week speaker series on current events topics, mostly the upcoming elections. That class was highly entertaining because not only were the speakers on the whole quite high-profile and interesting, but Professor Ross was an absolute ass to anyone who did anything dumb, and a few people who didn't. He was more like a standup comic that picks on the crowd than a professor, but it made class worth going to sometimes hahah.

OK boring stuff aside, what did I do for my LAST semester at Cal? Well first off I commenced with passing the torch on some of those extracurricular things, like training a new webmaster for the ASUC website and helping to whip the new HKN officers into shape. Plus I did what I could to help the Cal Eng staff of the future get ready for some major recruiting to keep the ship afloat. There were lots of ups and downs throughout the years in all my clubs and organizations, but I think it's safe to say that we've left them in great hands. Keep up the good work people!

But what about the REAL extracurriculars? Well, me and my friends had those in SPADES. We did so much stuff that it's hard to remember it all and write it down, but thankfully I got my handy digital camera over winter break that year and I just took pictures of EVERYTHING. Seriously, I didn't know I could take that many pictures in 5 months, but I think I probably wore out my camera before it was over. If you want to see everything, you should check out my photo albums (which I linked to above), but I'll have to talk about some of the highlights. For one thing, my last HKN retreat in Santa Cruz was a blast, and it was a great way to say goodbye to an awesome group of people. The countless birthday celebration dinners and nights out were awesome too, whether we went clubbing in the city, played low-stakes poker, hung out at a house party, watched the Lakers kick some ass, went bowling, kicked it at Blakes, or just chilled out on Sproul. I made alot of amazing new friends and bonded with my old ones too, and I know that every moment being with my friends was a moment well spent.

As Maneka would say, "good times... good times." =P

Speaking of good times, if you were sitting in Zellerbach hall during the 2004 Indus culture show, I guarantee you had a GREAT time, cause my last dance at Berkeley was hands down one of the best I've ever seen. Yes, I'm a little biased, but honestly it was REALLY good. All the props in the world to the coordinators and dancers in the 2004 FUSION, cause the mix of raas, bhangra, hip-hop, and HFD was perfect. I know it sounds like having all that in one dance would make it dumb, but you've really gotta see it to believe it. Feel free to come over and watch my DVD anytime you want. =P And the best part was not only that the dance turned out awesome, but the people were really cool. It might be the first dance I've been in where no one had any drama, and we could be really productive while also having a good time. All in all it was definitely an awesome experience, and I owe it to Sunil and the crew for making me a somewhat decent dancer too. =P

Before I ramble too much on that, I've gotta keep going, since the best is yet to come hahah. First off, my 21st birthday party was amazing, off the hook, spectacular, exciting, hilarious, and all in all damn good fun. Props to everyone for going the whole 9 yards. We had dinner at Pyramids in Berkeley and got to watch the Lakers smack down some wannabe ballers, and then we went out to the city and got our club on. And there was a ROTATING COUCH at the club! What more could you want? =P And the fun didn't stop there. Later that month we went to Indus banquet, which was as usual a great excuse to get all dressed up and party with your brown friends. This one was especially good cause it was our turn to be the seniors going nuts over the slideshow. And, since SOME people thought I was in too many pictures last year, I submitted all the pictures I had of my friends so they could steal the show this time around. =)

Then there was the random fun stuff that you just feel glad to have been a part of, like Hip Hop in the Park which featured Zion I about 2 blocks from my apartment, and the HKN dunk tank where we got to send the Dean of Engineering into the drink. Plus I found some time amidst all the craziness of the semester to snap alot of pictures of the great scenery in and around Berkeley and SF. California is definitely the place to be, and I'm going back as soon as I can.

Going back, you say? That's right, I'm on the east coast as I make this super long update. But I'll get to that later. Feel free to get up and stretch your legs at this point, cause I've got alot more stories to tell. =P

So unfortunately there comes a time in everyone's college career where they have to graduate. Some people put it off as long as humanly possible, but even if you're on the 10 year plan it's gotta end sometime. So, we had our commencements and we had our graduations. I always have mixed feelings about graduations. On one hand you're with all your friends celebrating your accomplishments and going through that rite of passage to the real world. That means no more homework, no more pulling all-nighters studying, no more trying to beat that deadline for the damn project. But on the other hand, that also means no more watching the day go by on Sproul, no more random parties that start too late and end even later, and no more being with massive groups of college kids hell bent on having a good time or breaking something in the process. With these and other weird feelings flying around, we strutted our way across the stage at the Greek and got our placeholder diplomas (I think the real one should be arriving by mail any day now), and we were free. Some of us were going to grad school, some of us graduated but really had another semester to go, and alot of us landed jobs. One of the biggest reasons I had mixed feelings about graduation was that I knew my job was taking me to Washington, DC. Not that anything is wrong with DC (it's actually really cool), but I knew that the majority of my friends were going to stay in good ol' CA and that my days with them were most definitely numbered, at least for the forseeable future. You kind of get that feeling that you really need to make your time count, and no matter how much fun I was having, I was always looking forward to the next time we did something or the next big event.

Needless to say (but after another awesome round of partying and chillin'), summer was upon us and we all moved out. I was back in LA till August so I definitely made the most of it, catching up with old friends, seeing shows, and enjoying that last summer between school and the real world. It helped alot that some of my buddies planned a vacation to Vancouver, cause I hadn't really traveled much and I didn't want to dive right into my job without having gone SOMEWHERE. I'm still saving up for that Europe trip though, it'll happen someday. =P

After that I packed up and moved out to my current apartment in Fairfax, VA. And one thing's for sure, it is definitely a change of pace from being on the west coast. When I first got here and was getting settled in, the weather was gorgeous, but as soon as December/January rolled around I discovered what a real season change was all about. I'm not sure if I'm getting used to it, but right now 40s and snow is a pretty good day hahaha. Don't even get me started about clubbing late at night when the temp is below freezing, that's some experience right there. Anyway, I found some Cal buddies in the area so I still get to hang out, but working takes up alot of your time so it's tougher to expand the social circle. That might be one of the things I miss the most about being in the college environment, although things are still looking up around here. The job itself? Well, I'm working for Lockheed Martin, and by "working" I mean "waiting for a security clearance so I can work." Reason being, most of Lockheed's contracts are with government agencies, so you need clearance to work on those contracts. I'd tell you more but they haven't told me anything else cause I'm not cleared yet. Although, when I do clear, I still can't tell you cause then it'll be classified. Oh well. =P

OK I'll wrap this up by telling you about DC life. With things like company sponsored tours of the Capitol and the White House, open-air clubs on Pennsylvania Avenue amidst federal buildings, seeing Russell Peters live at Georgetown, bar hopping on Adamas Morgan (which makes Telegraph look tame), and clubbing around Dupont circle, there's definitely alot to keep me entertained. It's also awesome that there's a huge DC California Alumni group here that does stuff like viewing parties for Cal football games. Add to that the ever-growing clique of Berkeley graduates in and around the city, and enough of Cal has followed me here to keep me happy for a while hahah. Hopefully by the time I get around to updating this page again (next year? haha), I'll be able to do it from California, but we'll see how everything works out. In the meantime, some parting words of wisdom: no matter what life throws at you, you've got to take everything in stride and make the most you can out of all the opportunities you get. I learned the hard way that just sitting around hoping things don't change or things will go back to the way they were won't do you a bit of good. Play the hand you get dealt, and play it to win, and most importantly, make sure you're having a blast the whole time. =)

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By Raman Gulati - soniclude@charter.net