A Song of Ice and Fire

After about 2.5 years of on and off reading, I finally finished the 5 book pentalogy of A Song of Ice and Fire (which is still missing a few books). Without a doubt, this was the second best adventure/fiction novel I read after Hobbit/LoTR series. The detailed account of histories that go back up to 8000 years (according to the White Book of the Kingsguard), the variety of inhabitants, places, family trees it does take you away into a world full of wonder. I like the brutal reality of the book as well; the most beloved character, Ned Stark, dies half way of the first book!! I read that chapter 5 times to make sure I understood it correctly. Families split, villains all powerful, weak characters suffering; I am not a sadist, but this made the read much more captivating than the usual sunshine-and-bubblegum storylines. Following the HBO Series along with the books was another joy that is a priviledge to only a few generations yet. Looking forward to The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring...Thank you Mr. Martin

Comments

Employment Based Green Card Marathon

There are 3 most popular ways to get a Green Card to live and work in US: Through Marriage with a US Citizen, Employment Sponsorship and the Diversity Lottery. I would like to articulate on the unfairness of the process for the Employment based applicants and its repercussions. After getting a scholarship to study at Brandeis University, I arrived in the United States on August 28, 1998 on an F-1 Student Visa. After graduating with my Master's degree, I had 1 year of OPT - Optional Practical Training which allowed me to work for companies that were in fields similar to my concentration. Next chapter in my immigration story is the H1-B Work Visa which is frowned upon. This visa provides an entry point for skilled immigrants and it is one of the very few points of entry to the US based on merit. Scorn on this quota of about 85k is well deserved on an emotional level, especially when considering high unemployment of today's workplace. Yet, working in IT and being involved with...

Today marks my 14th year in the USA. In 4 short years, I will have lived in the US more than Turkey (18 years), where I was born. Here is a brief summary: F1 Student Visa (Summer 1998 - Bachelors), OPT - Optional Practical Training (Summer 2002), F1 Student Visa (2003 - Masters), OPT (Summer 2003), H1-B non-Immigrant Visa (Late 2003), H1-B renewal (2004 August - Job Change), PERM application for Green Card (2005), I-140 (Oct 21, 2005), H1-B Renewal (2006), H1-B Renewal (new job), PERM application for Green Card (2008 - new job), I-140 (2009 new job), H1-B renewal (2011), I-485 (2011 Aug - Adjustment of Status), I-765 (2011, Application of Employment Authorization), I-131 (2011, Application of Travel Document), I-765 renewal (2012 June), I-131 renewal (2012 June), Service Request for I-485 (2012 June), Service Request for Service Request for I-485 (2012-August, not kidding), Service Request for I-765 and I-131 renewals (2012 August) ... still an alien...

Desktop PC

Yes, I admit it, I am a geek, nerd (whatever you call it) and I do have a Desktop PC (and I am proud). I've been keeping its shell ( antec 180 ) the same for the last 10 years or so, but the interior has been changing ever since from P2 days up to Socket 1366. One of the things that remain the same is my old HDDs. I recently (and finally) decided to build a RAID. Reading about it, RAID 5 seemed to be a good idea, where you get x-1 hard disk worth of space. You have a decent tolerance for faults, unless 2 HDDs crash at the same time (which is unlikely). So I had a collection of HDDs separately living in the case. I designated 4 x 1.5 TB disks to become the RAID (called it RAIDer - cheezy I know). I also had another 1.5 TB and 0.5 TB as spare. I did a hardcore cleaning operation and filled the spares with all the data. Research lead me to using physical RAID cards for better performance but I used Intel's Storage Matrix solution. RAID formation reduced the 6 TB diskspace to 4.09...

Tree of Life

Search This Blog