ajarora^1.0

Those of you that have been unfortunate enough to see me with my shirt off have probably seen the wicked scars on my left shoulder. Although I sometimes tell people I got them in Vietnam to assess our nation’s education system (it’s pretty bad), the real story involves boiling water in a freak accident at a hotel room in Mississippi when I was a baby.

There was a dust storm the night it happened, and our car ran out of gas on the way to the hospital. My dad ran out with an empty pot and flagged down a truck for fuel. We made it to the hospital just in time and I was in critical condition.

My parents were hysterical and angry, and probably blamed themselves a lot. I guess it was around Easter because a bunch of random people gave us baskets full of goodies and toys. I can’t imagine how much their support could have meant to my parents.

Ever since then my family has made a bunch of Easter baskets every March and taken them to the pediatrics ward of our local hospitals. These days we’re always spread out, so we usually hit multiple regions. But this was the first year I bought the supplies and made the baskets without a single family member.

It was kind of fun picking out what chocolates and toys to get. I mostly approached it from a kid’s perspective (I’d be pissed if I opened an egg with a pencil topper), but also found myself thinking like a parent (didn’t wanna overload the sick kids with HFCS). Obviously had to hook ‘em up with Reese’s Peanut Butter and Cadbury Cream eggs (proof of Christ’s resurrection) and some sweet unisex toys.

A few days before there was a good story on All Things Considered about some  (stupidly conducted) research about how spending money on others makes you happier than spending that money on things for yourself. In this case (as always) I spent it for both.

I guess it’s time for some updates, and being that I’m working for TechCrunch (the biggest and baddest blog on the internet) it would seem like a good time to start blogging. Bud sadly, the real reason is that a new version of wordpress is coming out and I wanna play around with it…cuz I’m just that big a loser.

Anyway, since that last post I saw Filo a ton of times throughout the internship. As if catching lunch and partying in London with him wasn’t cool enough…we played at the same poker table at the MGM in Vegas, and he even pointed me out during a keynote with CEO and fellow co-founder Jerry Yang. I saw the guy on numerous nights walking down the hall at Yahoo HQ (his cube was near mine) and sometimes it was after he had finished playing the Wii with some fellow interns. Coolest guy ever.

The internship was too incredible to put into words. It was an incredibly tumultuous time while our group was restructured, and in the middle of it some people close to me passed away. The fellahs at YDN are the most supportive bunch of guys out there and really helped me through. I learned so much and only wish I could have contributed more. The team even got me an iPhone as a going-away gift before realizing I already had one, and gave me a huge gift card to indulge my new Apple habit instead (and the best Sushi lunch in town!).

My sister also got married and moved to Chicago, which is great since it lets me see her a lot more. And now I just started working for TechCrunch, a blog that I’ve literally read every post on since the day Mike started back in 2005. I still have my Purdue job (and the best office on campus!), and am a Yahoo! Ambassador for Purdue University, for which me and Rich gave a cool presentation demoing the new OneSearch product from Yahoo! Mobile last night.

It’s been a blast and I’m seriously gonna miss this place when I graduate in July. Speaking of which…be sure to hook-a-brotha up if you’ve got any intriguing PM positions in the internet space

What a week. Having your birthday on finals week every year always causes problems…but this has been ridiculous. I turned 21 on Wednesday (Yes, May 2nd. Thanks for the presents you assholes) so all 3 people in my life that are willing to blow off finals took me out Tuesday night. Twenty-one shots later I was on my way to a cross-country road trip from Indy to Cali to start my internship at Yahoo. (Yes, I did all 21…it was ridiculously painful and I won’t be able to smell alcohol without puking for a week)

Technically I picked up the car a while ago in South Carolina at my parents’ place…so I guess I can officially call this a cross-country trip. The first day was easy, since I cut it short and crashed with my uncle who’s a professor at Iowa State (big ups on the promotion Pappu Chacha!).

The second day……not so much. Started hitting some nice scenery through Nebraska and Wyoming (not much else), but all of a sudden the thermometer in my car dropped 30 degrees, the sky turned white and snow started falling in sheets. In May. And just as I thought I had regained control of crayola (the corolla), big yellow signs saying something like “steep grade ahead (gorge to hell)” started showing up. At this point I’m practically hydro-planing down a mountain, down-shifting to second gear while still going 60 mph, and if I touch that brake I’m going to fly off into the river like the unfortunate Mormons that didn’t make it to Salt Lake.

But I did make it (after 20 hrs of straight driving), and after spending the night just past Salt Lake the morning views were spectacular. Throughout Utah, Nevada, and Northern California…snow capped mountains next to prairies next to lakes next to casinos. I stopped by Reno to shoot a few craps, spin a few wheels and play a few hands (came out on top $5, woo hoo). Tahoe was amazing, it was 71 degrees outside and there was snow right next to me (I’ll be back). And now I’m finally here at my hotel in Sunnyvale on my King-size sleep number (I’m a 45). I definitely plan on actually stopping at a few more places on the way back…I’ll be driving with my buddy Arpit straight to my sister’s wedding on August 4th. Hopefully my liver will be ready for some action on the way