I totally agree

The other day, my boss's boss (who sits right across me) was talking to someone about Matt Groening, saying "If you meet Matt, please tell him that he has made life so much better." I said in my mind "How true." May be we are exaggerating a bit, but truly The Simpsons, the tv-series created by Matt Groening, is the best show that's there on the tv. The Simpsons are outrageously funny, and Homer equally stupid. The entertainment factor is an order of magnitude higher than other serials like Friends (I don't have a cable connection, so don't know about any latest serials on the tv). I have even purchased the DVD for the fourth season, and time and money permitting, I'll like to get the DVDs for other seasons also. D'oh!

Mission Peaks

Today, I went to hike at Mission Peaks in Fremont. The weather was awesome with lots of sunshine. The good thing about that place was that after just 10-15 minutes of walking, we had a good view of the entire bay area, with I-680/880 on the east of the bay, and San Jose/Santa Clara etc. across the bay, and southern tips of San Francisco. We started at 12:30, and were done by 4:30. The highest point is 2517 ft from the sea level, so it was uphill all along during the first half of the hike. We took the trail that everyone else was using to go up. But downhill we took a longer, muddy trail. It was quite cold at the top, and the hills surrounding the place were absolutely beautiful. There were cows all over the place (and other thing that come with them). Seems that ranchers can least public lands like these for cow grazing.

Interesting things seen were people paragliding (a parachute with may be a small propeller), hang-gliding (a glider under which you sleep), and people flying small remote-controlled airplanes. On the way back, we stopped by a chaat place in Fremont (Krishna's) for some snacks. I was back at 7:00 pm. That's about it. No plans for any hike tomorrow yet...

Finally...

After much procrastination, today I finally came to office on my bike. As of yet, it feels good, though I do feel a bit sweaty. And it takes 1/2 an hour, not 15 minutes as I had previously thought. Depending upon how the commute back to home goes, I'll decide whether or not to do this regularly.

(8:10 PM)
The commute back was okay. And I didn't feel much uncomfortable throughout the day. So I plan to increase the frequency..

Music to go

Apple's iPod seems to the ubiquitous personal music player, and the new iPod shuffle has a 4 month waiting period. I always wanted a small music player, something that can fit in my pockets and is not too heavy. iPod seems to be a good choice with lots of storage. But its quite expensive (~$350). There are other options too, and I finally settled for Creative MuVo. And I am completely satisfied. The sound is flawless and it requires just 1 AAA battery. Plus its very light and with 512 MB memory, it can comfortably hold you current "working set" of songs.

While with Vinay on the Vegas trip, I saw a very useful piece of equipment that can play songs from your music player in your car. My Camry does not have a CD player, and this "CD to cassette" converter connects to the headphone output of your player, and the other side is an audio cassette shaped thing that you put into the cassette player of the car, and voila, your music is now playing in the car. I definitely want that thing (its like 10 bucks), but I found out that my cassette player in the car is not working. I can get that fixed (no idea how much it will cost), but I spend only 30 minutes per day in commute. So I have been putting it off. May be after some more days, or maybe I will just get a new car after 4-5 years.

Some new songs I picked up in the last few days:

• Enya - Only time (from Sweet November)


• Enya - May it be (from Lord of the Rings)


• (I liked Enya's songs particularly because of the calm, soothing music)
  


• John Denver - Country Roads


• Keith Urban - Days go by

And did you notice the time? I am awake (and no, I did not pull an all-nighter).

A nice and challenging hike

I tried to fall asleep, but there is some "domestic argument" going on in the apartment above me (I don't understand Chinese or Japanese, but I can tell from the tone of the women...) which is making it difficult. So spending some time here.

As I said in my previous post, I was planning to go to the hike at Fremont Older Space on Sunday. Again, I was able to reach in time at the meeting spot from where we (me, Gautam, Mandar, and Amita) carpooled to the place (it has very few parking spots). There we were joined by Vaishali, Laxmi, and Pankaj. For Desi Hikers, 7 is a very decent turnout. We thought its a 5 mile hike with some (but not too much) elevation, but it turned out to be quite a challenge. It was much more uphill than downhill, and was probably longer than 5 miles. Took us 4.5 hours to complete it, and that was at a decent pace. The nice thing (apart from the challenge) was that after 11:00 am, the sun had come up and we had a great view with lush green mountains on all sides, and a lake in between (and Mandar says he saw deer). And the weather was ideal for any outdoor activity. Towards the end, there was a long uphill trail, and everyone was wondering whether we were lost and were we ever going to reach back to the starting point. But finally we did, with sweat trickling from the hair and shoes and pants covered in mud. Overall, its a very good place to hike. One thing that I realized is that I should always keep a spare pair of shoes in my car, so that I don't have to wear the dirty ones after the hike. So I am now always keeping my hiking shoes in the car. That way, even if I forget to wear them for a hike, I can change before I start.

Vaishali mentioned that her NYR is to hike every weekend. Now that's an interesting resolution. But since resolutions are meant to be broken, I cannot say or write...lets be tacit.

Whats up?

Haven't written anything for some time now...the usual things continue: you decide to get up early but can't make it, you get assigned to a new project about which you know nothing and you spend a lot of time figuring out small things, work is dull and interesting...

Anyway, despite the cold winter that Californians are not used to, outdoor activities continue here. I am really amazed about how active these people are. Rain or shine, they go hiking, biking, backpacking and many more things. As for me, I am trying to ingrain that culture in my lifestyle. Last week, there was a hike at Mount Diablo State Park in Walnut Creek (about 40 minutes drive from my home). I had planned to go there. Got up at 7:30 and had enough time to make to the hike which was scheduled to start at 11:30. Thinking so, I took it much too easily. I surfed the web for an hour, and then spent some time figuring out the route. I started in time at 10:00, but on my way I got lost. First I missed the exit to Walnut creek on I-680, then I took a wrong turn. Finally I was on the final street and in the right direction. But again I had trouble finding the place. Finally I reached there at 12:00. From the trailhead, I could see the group at some distance. I thought I could catch up with them if I walk fast. But then, I was not familiar with the trail, so I again took some wrong turns. After some time, I gave up trying to find the group and decided the do the hike on my own (fortunately I had the trail map). The place is really nice, with small streams flowing by the side of the trail. But since I was alone, my main concern was to finish the hike safely (and I didn't have my cell phone either), so I hurried up. Finished it in about 2.5 hours if I remember.

Today, I went to the Rancho San Antonio in Cupertino with three others. This hike was scheduled to start at 9:00, so I had my doubts. But this time, I was there at 8:45. It was quite foggy and cold during the first half of the trail. After that, we were at the top of a hill and the sun was shining, so it was nice weather from then on. I guess it was a 6 mile hike, which we covered in 3 hours (one of the girls was a newbie, so we had to take it slow). Here are the pictures. After the hike, we went to a nice Gujarati restaurant Kikola's where we had a taste of authentic kadhi and shrikhand. Tomorrow again, I am going to hike at Fremont Older Space in Saratoga.

Loss loss situation

Something not to do: try to finish a novel in a single day by staying up late when you start reading it at 7:00 PM. You almost always are so exhausted by the end that you tend to skip pages and miss the plot completely. The next day you are half asleep. And since you have half-read the novel, its no fun to read it again to get the plot. And you neck pains as hell...

Instant messaging

Seems everyone regularly uses one and prefers IMs over email. For some reason, I don't use IMs at all (either at work or at home). So when today I signed in my Yahoo messenger, I got many messages from friends from SP college, my school, COEP, and UIUC. Just short ones, like 'Happy new year', 'how are you' etc. I guess I have to keep signing in regularly or else I will continue to missing such contacts, and I don't want to the kind of person who doesn't ever respond to any emails or contacts from old friends.

New Year

Started the new year with something good: donated $100 to the American Red Cross for the tsunami disaster relief fund. May all those who passed away rest in peace and all those who survived have enough courage to stand up on their feet once more.