a birthday gift to myself

i'm a year older today, and hopefully a year wiser. and it's KV's birthday too! Cumpleaños Feliz, Amigo.

so, i went to the Apple store yesterday to get meself a birthday gift of a laptop for school. after looking at the models, checking out tiger, holding them up for weight, playing around with the applications ... decided on a 12" PowerBook. it is a great combo of price/perf/weight/style, except that the screen is a tad small. that's where the genius of steve jobs comes in. whoever said jobs was crazy to open stores backwhen was the crazy one. the guy at the store helping me goes: oh i use a 12" all the time but the screen can be a drag if this is going to be your only computer so why not get a monitor for your home?

he then proceeded to show me the site for tigerdirect.com where you can get nice monitors for decent prices. they actually looked pretty good. except, the monitor we were checking out this website on rocked :-) it was a super sweet 20" Apple Cinema Display. to really complicate matters, the one next to it was connected to (drumroll) a 12" PowerBook. oh jesus. have you checked out that setup. drag windows from one screen to the next. bluetooth keyboards and mice. just when i thought this couldn't get any better, the dude jumps up and down. no, he literally did. and goes: you've GOT to get this. and we head over to see a TV tuner with DVR that does HDTV.

of course, i've also GOT to get office:mac, applecare, a printer/scanner/copier, virtualPC. all, of course, with discounts. not to mention the free iPod. before i got totally hopeless sucked in, i asked for the damage this would cause my wallet. upwards of 2700. plus tax. ok, so i had the good sense to walk out. all that'll have to wait another day.

so, I wake up this AM and decide to give myself the next-best gift.

I quit my job.

well, gave notice is more like it. but i thought it's pretty apt. a new beginning to a new year of my life. i have been thinking about this for a week or so, and did it today. i still have to talk to the big Man and 'officially' give notice tomorrow morning.

people at work kinda know now and a couple have told me that quitting this way was the stupidest thing to do. basically because of the visa issue. see, i'm on an H1B visa and as i see it have maybe 3 options to change my visa:
1. apply for a change of visa from the US, which is probably the simplest way to go.
2. take a vacation or go work from our India offices, and appear for a visa interview there. quit, if i get it, else still have a job and come back.
3. quit, off to India, and appear in person for a visa.

i chose to go with (3) which now has the case that IF i don't get a visa for whatever reason, i'm going to be back in India without a job. risky, but i had to really ask myself the question: would i want to continue doing what i do if for some reason i can't attend b-school. answer is a big resounding NO. that's a good enough reason for me. and i wanted to hang out with my parents too, has been a while since i've seen them and dunno how much time i'll having during school. if things turn out bad - heck, tough luck.

so, that's my birthday. a year older - definitely. a year wiser? maybe not, methinks :-)