I have neglected my blog for months ....., here i have listed my reasons for the abandonment in bullet points , and the motive behind bullet points
- who likes to read paragraphs
- the point of discussion can be lost in a paragraph
- i forget what i was writing about when i write in a long winding paragraph
- it looks neat
Did i just write bullet points citing reason why i like bullet points...so you see my 3rd point about digression...aaanyways coming back to my reasons for my neglect
- i was lazy
- trifle stuff happening in my life like getting a Masters degree, looking for a job to survive in this country, and blah blah...
- worried about what impression i am portraying in my blog and that my blog should be entertaining and informative
The last was the most important,... i had begun thinking about what I should write.......the very purpose of my blog was to put down my nonsensical thoughts which flow out from my brain nonstop....By the 3rd post, it stopped being that, i began to frame my sentences, tried to make sense in what i was writing, tried to impart knowledge about my trips... i cant do that....i realized that i had to stick to a specific schedule had to write about my new york trip before my chicago trip but after my napa valley trip....that is too much of organization for me....i dont work that way..so here are my trips and what i took away from them in one short blog
New york - Was amazing as you could see from previous my previous posts and pics...7 days was not enough,.. if i would have it my way i would move to new york.
Napa valley - memorable thanks to my best friend pallavi being there,...wines were good too
Road trip down the coast of California - Everyone should do it once in their lifetime
Chicago - Architecture tour on Lake Michigan is a must see, another trip made special by an amazing friend,....thanks BENNY!!
Lake Tahoe - Loved it, felt snow for the 1st time in my life...so pristine that makes you feel like penning down your thoughts..hence the COMEBACK
well now that i have finished discussin my trips i can go on about other stuff......in my future posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
NYC Day 2
Jan 5th 2007
Again up at 11am, damn it .
Today's itinerary was the Guggenheim Museum and Central Park, Guggenheim was also part of the city pass attractions.
The weather was nice and sunny(so much for winter in NY and my snowy dreams),hence we decided to visit the park. The best part abut visiting NY was that we got free maps of the subway and the bus lines, which helps us to not take the trouble of printing out directions of how to get to a place. Of course we couldn't afford to rent a car then but then again ,we dint need to. The public transportation is excellent, the city is so well connected that I would recommend public transportation as the best way of getting around Manhattan.
Central park is serene, I forgot for a moment that Im in the middle of a bustling city. Its calm and peaceful. Its the one thing that I love about this country in general, the abundance of parks in cities, whether is San Francisco or New York, or even my house in San Jose( there is Japanese tea garden 15 minutes away from where I live, which is San Jose downtown) Its good to know that you don't have to go far to escape from all the craziness of a city. Coming back to central park, claiming that its huge would be an understatement.. its 2.6 X 0.5 mile rectangular area in Manhattan, so we decided to traverse the 0.5 mile distance. Guggenheim museum is on the border of Central Park East, hence we walked from the west side to east through the park. There are many attractions worth visiting in park and I would suggest at best taking half a day out to visiting central park (unlike us who spend half the day under the blankets).
Guggenheim, well interesting structure,...worth visiting for architecture buffs and people who like strange buildings ( i come in the latter category, i just like anything strange). There was an exhibition on Spanish painters, now me and Abhi have art appreciation sensibilities of an orangutan (at least when it comes to 19th century Spanish painters), but actually we enjoyed it and also learnt quite a bit. By the end of 2 hours we had formed our intelligent opinions and found our favorites (it helped that we took the audio guide along, which prevented us from staring at the paintings with a dumb look). My favorite was Zurbaran and call me an unworldly simpleton, but i just dint get Picasso's paintings. The museum has 4 levels,so roughly takes about 3 hours to view the place.
On our way home we came across St Patrick's Cathedral, magnificent place in midtown manhattan and easy to spot. It was ironic that I had remarked on our way out of the museum that I wanted to see the cathedral and we unknowingly walk right in front of it. One the places i will fondly remember, especially lighting a candle as an offering. Definitely worth a visit even for an atheist, trust me im one too.
will post pics in the next post,as this one turned out to be too long
Again up at 11am, damn it .
Today's itinerary was the Guggenheim Museum and Central Park, Guggenheim was also part of the city pass attractions.
The weather was nice and sunny(so much for winter in NY and my snowy dreams),hence we decided to visit the park. The best part abut visiting NY was that we got free maps of the subway and the bus lines, which helps us to not take the trouble of printing out directions of how to get to a place. Of course we couldn't afford to rent a car then but then again ,we dint need to. The public transportation is excellent, the city is so well connected that I would recommend public transportation as the best way of getting around Manhattan.
Central park is serene, I forgot for a moment that Im in the middle of a bustling city. Its calm and peaceful. Its the one thing that I love about this country in general, the abundance of parks in cities, whether is San Francisco or New York, or even my house in San Jose( there is Japanese tea garden 15 minutes away from where I live, which is San Jose downtown) Its good to know that you don't have to go far to escape from all the craziness of a city. Coming back to central park, claiming that its huge would be an understatement.. its 2.6 X 0.5 mile rectangular area in Manhattan, so we decided to traverse the 0.5 mile distance. Guggenheim museum is on the border of Central Park East, hence we walked from the west side to east through the park. There are many attractions worth visiting in park and I would suggest at best taking half a day out to visiting central park (unlike us who spend half the day under the blankets).
Guggenheim, well interesting structure,...worth visiting for architecture buffs and people who like strange buildings ( i come in the latter category, i just like anything strange). There was an exhibition on Spanish painters, now me and Abhi have art appreciation sensibilities of an orangutan (at least when it comes to 19th century Spanish painters), but actually we enjoyed it and also learnt quite a bit. By the end of 2 hours we had formed our intelligent opinions and found our favorites (it helped that we took the audio guide along, which prevented us from staring at the paintings with a dumb look). My favorite was Zurbaran and call me an unworldly simpleton, but i just dint get Picasso's paintings. The museum has 4 levels,so roughly takes about 3 hours to view the place.
On our way home we came across St Patrick's Cathedral, magnificent place in midtown manhattan and easy to spot. It was ironic that I had remarked on our way out of the museum that I wanted to see the cathedral and we unknowingly walk right in front of it. One the places i will fondly remember, especially lighting a candle as an offering. Definitely worth a visit even for an atheist, trust me im one too.
will post pics in the next post,as this one turned out to be too long
Thursday, March 20, 2008
NYC day 1
Got up at 12pm(technically it would have been 9 am in San Jose so Im up early)..so I had already lost half of my day in bed,had to salvage the rest of the day.
We had planned our trip in accordance with the city pass with which we got see 6 major attractions for about $65.
It was very convenient as we never had to wait in a queue at any place we visited which saved a lot of time. So 1st on our list was the Wax Museum.
Its a pretty famous New York attraction and anyone who visits in New York will definitely have loads of pictures of them posing with each and every wax statue on display( irrespective of the fact that you dont even know whose statue it is). Something about wax molded and shaped like a human being, brings out the craziest wackiest and not to mention lamest poses out of people. The wax museum has grown ups behave like kids in Disney land. This reaction is mind boggling, I mean we are talking about wax here, immobile, inanimate, static WAX!! and people are squealing "OMG look jennifer lopez, ooo brad pitt...and beyonce" (believe me that statue of beyonce looked nothing like her). But even though im being all sarcastic, its a fun place. There is an American Idol stage,where you can sing karaoke with a wax statue of Simon Cowell dissing your performance after you are done( I thought that was a nice touch). And in the end even i manage to let a scream out when i saw the statue of Ayrton Senna ( C'mon it was Ayrton Senna, the legend who i will never be able to see in person,you bet i screamed when i saw his statue). It takes about 3 hours to view all the displays (taking into account the time it requires to click pictures with most of them) so plan accordingly
Next we went to Times Square...and then I went blind
I mean blinded by the lights,.. the whole place feels like one gigantic trance club, with red and blue neon lights flashing around. But then the effect wears off quickly, at least it did for me. We walked around a bit and came across the Church of Scientology.
Now this is my pick for a place to go. People who criticize scientology should definitely pay a visit here, then you can criticize even more firmly about the insanity that is Scientology. This place is a striking proof of religion being born out of man's whimsical fantasies.The place looks less like a church and more like a HQ of a corporation , with videos and posters all over the wall about how to become a thetan and continue to through the various levels. I admire the imagination of Ron Hubbard, if he had made it into a book instead of a religion, it would have been a classic.
So the people from scientology gave us a warm welcome(must have thought they found fresh guinea pigs) ,they gave us a questionnaire of about 100+ questions which supposedly gauge our mental state. ( I was pronounced as chronically depressed, they failed to take into account that solving 100 questions after a whole day of traveling numbs a person's mind,..I had stopped reading the questions after no. 20 and ticked off the remaining answers randomly), I was asked to attend their future seminars( which are not free, don't u think paying for seminars will make me more glum) to help me get out of my so called blues. I politely listened to the guy's prognosis about me, in fact he was quite articulate and had got me believing him. It was only when you come out of the place and think through the whole process,that you realize how close you were to getting trapped. If i wasn't strong enough & sure about my own state of mind, or had been going through a rough patch, who knows I might be a thetan by now.
Church of Scientology - Enter at your own Risk. But i will still recommend it , its a different experience.
We had planned our trip in accordance with the city pass with which we got see 6 major attractions for about $65.
It was very convenient as we never had to wait in a queue at any place we visited which saved a lot of time. So 1st on our list was the Wax Museum.
Its a pretty famous New York attraction and anyone who visits in New York will definitely have loads of pictures of them posing with each and every wax statue on display( irrespective of the fact that you dont even know whose statue it is). Something about wax molded and shaped like a human being, brings out the craziest wackiest and not to mention lamest poses out of people. The wax museum has grown ups behave like kids in Disney land. This reaction is mind boggling, I mean we are talking about wax here, immobile, inanimate, static WAX!! and people are squealing "OMG look jennifer lopez, ooo brad pitt...and beyonce" (believe me that statue of beyonce looked nothing like her). But even though im being all sarcastic, its a fun place. There is an American Idol stage,where you can sing karaoke with a wax statue of Simon Cowell dissing your performance after you are done( I thought that was a nice touch). And in the end even i manage to let a scream out when i saw the statue of Ayrton Senna ( C'mon it was Ayrton Senna, the legend who i will never be able to see in person,you bet i screamed when i saw his statue). It takes about 3 hours to view all the displays (taking into account the time it requires to click pictures with most of them) so plan accordingly
Next we went to Times Square...and then I went blind
I mean blinded by the lights,.. the whole place feels like one gigantic trance club, with red and blue neon lights flashing around. But then the effect wears off quickly, at least it did for me. We walked around a bit and came across the Church of Scientology.
Now this is my pick for a place to go. People who criticize scientology should definitely pay a visit here, then you can criticize even more firmly about the insanity that is Scientology. This place is a striking proof of religion being born out of man's whimsical fantasies.The place looks less like a church and more like a HQ of a corporation , with videos and posters all over the wall about how to become a thetan and continue to through the various levels. I admire the imagination of Ron Hubbard, if he had made it into a book instead of a religion, it would have been a classic.
So the people from scientology gave us a warm welcome(must have thought they found fresh guinea pigs) ,they gave us a questionnaire of about 100+ questions which supposedly gauge our mental state. ( I was pronounced as chronically depressed, they failed to take into account that solving 100 questions after a whole day of traveling numbs a person's mind,..I had stopped reading the questions after no. 20 and ticked off the remaining answers randomly), I was asked to attend their future seminars( which are not free, don't u think paying for seminars will make me more glum) to help me get out of my so called blues. I politely listened to the guy's prognosis about me, in fact he was quite articulate and had got me believing him. It was only when you come out of the place and think through the whole process,that you realize how close you were to getting trapped. If i wasn't strong enough & sure about my own state of mind, or had been going through a rough patch, who knows I might be a thetan by now.
Church of Scientology - Enter at your own Risk. But i will still recommend it , its a different experience.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Flight
3rd Jan 2007 5am: San Jose
I am cursing myself for booking a 6:30am flight,the things I do to save a buck. I am not a morning person...so I did not sleep all night thinking its better than waking up all woozy.Flight was long uneventful and tiring with a 2 hour stop in Minneapolis. Well everyone is aware of carrying food while flying, but we dint know it back then that the flight would starve us to death , so the stopover at Minn was a welcome lunch break.
12pm: Minneapolis
We had 2 hours, so we thought we should check out if there are any attractions nearby the Minneapolis. It was snowing in Minn and I had never seen snow in my life, but to my disappointment the snow was melting,not exactly the kind of dreamy vision that i had about snow, hopefully it snows in NYC. I had read about Mall of America, which is quite close to the airport, but by the time we made up our mind to go there, there was just enough time to take a quick glance and come back, so we saved it for our return trip.
7pm:
NYC skyline is breathtaking!!! I took couple of pics but none do justice to the genuine view, also it was a full moon so it made it more spectacular...Its like thousands of tiny stars on the ground when you look from above and as you get closer those lights just glow so bright that its surreal. I suggest if possible always plan your trip such that either u reach in the NYC or leave in the evening, coz the night sky from a plane is worth a watch and is much better than being on top of the empire state building. Wish i had some good snaps to post on this blog, maybe on my next trip I will take a better camera. Reached our friend's house at 9.30pm(took us that long to find our way). For some reason traveling in New York subway evoked a memory of mumbai locals (maybe it was the crowd or the noise the subway is LOUD).This city made me nostalgic even though it was my 1st time visiting it,I could feel a mumbai vibe in New York. Strange that 2 cities ,thousands of miles apart can seem so similar that being in one gives u the reminds you of the other. Was lucky to have some great authentic Indian food in New Jersey, awesome biryani (good Indian food is a rarity) ,this humble little place is called Baba's and its on Indian street in New Jersey.
1pm: Gettin used to the 3 hrs time shift,so tryin to sleep as we have a long day ahead tomorrow, hoping that it snows...
I am cursing myself for booking a 6:30am flight,the things I do to save a buck. I am not a morning person...so I did not sleep all night thinking its better than waking up all woozy.Flight was long uneventful and tiring with a 2 hour stop in Minneapolis. Well everyone is aware of carrying food while flying, but we dint know it back then that the flight would starve us to death , so the stopover at Minn was a welcome lunch break.
12pm: Minneapolis
We had 2 hours, so we thought we should check out if there are any attractions nearby the Minneapolis. It was snowing in Minn and I had never seen snow in my life, but to my disappointment the snow was melting,not exactly the kind of dreamy vision that i had about snow, hopefully it snows in NYC. I had read about Mall of America, which is quite close to the airport, but by the time we made up our mind to go there, there was just enough time to take a quick glance and come back, so we saved it for our return trip.
7pm:
NYC skyline is breathtaking!!! I took couple of pics but none do justice to the genuine view, also it was a full moon so it made it more spectacular...Its like thousands of tiny stars on the ground when you look from above and as you get closer those lights just glow so bright that its surreal. I suggest if possible always plan your trip such that either u reach in the NYC or leave in the evening, coz the night sky from a plane is worth a watch and is much better than being on top of the empire state building. Wish i had some good snaps to post on this blog, maybe on my next trip I will take a better camera. Reached our friend's house at 9.30pm(took us that long to find our way). For some reason traveling in New York subway evoked a memory of mumbai locals (maybe it was the crowd or the noise the subway is LOUD).This city made me nostalgic even though it was my 1st time visiting it,I could feel a mumbai vibe in New York. Strange that 2 cities ,thousands of miles apart can seem so similar that being in one gives u the reminds you of the other. Was lucky to have some great authentic Indian food in New Jersey, awesome biryani (good Indian food is a rarity) ,this humble little place is called Baba's and its on Indian street in New Jersey.
1pm: Gettin used to the 3 hrs time shift,so tryin to sleep as we have a long day ahead tomorrow, hoping that it snows...
Travel
My trips!..thats what Im gonna write about,till i find something else to blabber on...
The inspiration for this comes from the fact that Im always advising people regarding places to go and things to do ( not that I have been around a lot), but I have done my share of traveling, and also I wanna write them down like a journal coz i fear i am beginning to forget some of the wonderful but obscure places i went to.
Well to start off with, my trip to New York...which was taken last year, 3nd Jan 2007 to 11th Jan....of course you will ask why not spend the New Year's there, nothing like New Year's in Times Square right?...there was a very good reason for it,..i had spend only 6 months in US and had only enough savings to get a cheap ticket which I got after the New Years...I got a great deal on the ticket too San Jose - NYC - San Jose round trip for $250, doesnt get better that this, thanks to travelocity,.also accomodation was taken care of as I had my friends in New jersey....a big Thank you to Neha and Bhargav for taking us in and treating us well, especially Neha your cooking saved the day.. :), thank you for being such a sweetheart.
Another person I would thank is Abhi,..with whom I took the trip, and who forced to take it...I was the usual desi during that time cribbing about money, finding every opportunity to save money, so to take a trip that might cost me around $600 atleast for 7 days was absolutely absurd,..I have study and get an intern and fulltime job, and right now I had lost my on campus job as a Teaching Assistant so had no source of income fir the next few months, not to mention fared poorly in my 1st semester (fall 2007)of my Master's and got horrible grades, taking a trip at this time seemed like a financial suicide.I really cant afford to philander my hard earned and meager savings, not to mention my have to pay off loan and there is the monthly rent, utilities and blah blah blah...these were my arguments. Abhi also is accustomed to getting brainstorms like me, he can say 'Lets go to New York" as easily as lets have Italian for dinner. I have managed to torpedo many of his plans with my fears.Plans like sky diving(fear of dying) , paintball (fear of violence), learning to swim (fear of doing any activity which might cause my muscles to ache due to exertion, they also include running, gymming or walking long distances u get the idea), las vegas (fear of becoming broke,he went without me anyways) and a roadtrip along the california coast( which we finally took during summer 2007, a post will be coming up on that as well).......how he managed to sell this idea to me... God only knows...or maybe it was the tequila...
Now that I have got that out of the way,...where were we,oh i was supposed to talk about my trip to new york, let me begin .As the trip spanned for 7 days,I will be posting it in parts according to the days....since i digressed a lot in this post my next post will be about the 1st day.
The inspiration for this comes from the fact that Im always advising people regarding places to go and things to do ( not that I have been around a lot), but I have done my share of traveling, and also I wanna write them down like a journal coz i fear i am beginning to forget some of the wonderful but obscure places i went to.
Well to start off with, my trip to New York...which was taken last year, 3nd Jan 2007 to 11th Jan....of course you will ask why not spend the New Year's there, nothing like New Year's in Times Square right?...there was a very good reason for it,..i had spend only 6 months in US and had only enough savings to get a cheap ticket which I got after the New Years...I got a great deal on the ticket too San Jose - NYC - San Jose round trip for $250, doesnt get better that this, thanks to travelocity,.also accomodation was taken care of as I had my friends in New jersey....a big Thank you to Neha and Bhargav for taking us in and treating us well, especially Neha your cooking saved the day.. :), thank you for being such a sweetheart.
Another person I would thank is Abhi,..with whom I took the trip, and who forced to take it...I was the usual desi during that time cribbing about money, finding every opportunity to save money, so to take a trip that might cost me around $600 atleast for 7 days was absolutely absurd,..I have study and get an intern and fulltime job, and right now I had lost my on campus job as a Teaching Assistant so had no source of income fir the next few months, not to mention fared poorly in my 1st semester (fall 2007)of my Master's and got horrible grades, taking a trip at this time seemed like a financial suicide.I really cant afford to philander my hard earned and meager savings, not to mention my have to pay off loan and there is the monthly rent, utilities and blah blah blah...these were my arguments. Abhi also is accustomed to getting brainstorms like me, he can say 'Lets go to New York" as easily as lets have Italian for dinner. I have managed to torpedo many of his plans with my fears.Plans like sky diving(fear of dying) , paintball (fear of violence), learning to swim (fear of doing any activity which might cause my muscles to ache due to exertion, they also include running, gymming or walking long distances u get the idea), las vegas (fear of becoming broke,he went without me anyways) and a roadtrip along the california coast( which we finally took during summer 2007, a post will be coming up on that as well).......how he managed to sell this idea to me... God only knows...or maybe it was the tequila...
Now that I have got that out of the way,...where were we,oh i was supposed to talk about my trip to new york, let me begin .As the trip spanned for 7 days,I will be posting it in parts according to the days....since i digressed a lot in this post my next post will be about the 1st day.
Begining
It struck me as how most ideas usually do hit.........as soon as i woke up.....today morning...9:30am..
"Maybe I should start my own blog"......hmm forgetting the fact that yesterday my orthopedic told me the after effects of staying on my laptop for more than 6 hrs a day is causing my shoulder muscles to cramp and ache, i pick up my laptop....to create a blog...oh but 1st i have to check my mails....or maybe I should have breakfast first...or check mails while eating breakfast.
1:00pm After checking my numerous mail accts, facebook,orkut, new lists on listverse.com ..and stumble (damn neat firefox add on if you ever wanna waste enormous amount of time), trying out different wallpapers, finally got down to writing my blog...then the phone rings...damn distractions
4:00pm After a long conversation, lunch, some Japanese anime ( im a sucker for anime i tell u)
I thought enough of procrastination, lets get down to it. But i couldn't...well circumstances led me to go and meet my friends in college and disrupt their homework session by a blissful gossip interlude that lasted for a few hours. This was followed by another more hours of phone conversations.
9:30pm Its been 12 hours since i got my brainstorm,this is it, the day is almost over and I have not worked on my blog yet......If i dont do it today I will never do it so i finally sign up on blogger, and to my surprise I already have an account and a blog name ( and to think i spent one of the phone conversations thinking of a good name for my blog). I couldnt recollect when i had created an account or why i named it "writers bloc",and isnt even worded properly ,seems like a organizations for budding writers,.. guess its not the 1st time i though about blogging......I reckon my blog was created around a year back
So it took me a year to write my first post,(height of laziness, or of procrastination). I remember the reasoning behind the name....i dint know what to write about so i had a writer's bloc......must have thought it was pretty funny back then,...dont think so anymore...o great now i am criticizing my own blog which i haven't even begun yet.... I am gonna stick to the name anyways.......need to start somewhere,and besides not much has changed I still dont know what to write about, but will spell it out correctly as writer's block.
Did i just write 20 something lines on how i dont know what to write on??, Man i drone on and on about mundane stuff
Ok next post is sure gonna be something useful,or informative, or entertaining, or funny...or whatever the hell i feel it should be, sure hope its not gonna take me another year to come up with my 2nd post...
12:30am Oooh my arm hurts,...maybe i shouldn't spend so much time on the laptop,...
"Maybe I should start my own blog"......hmm forgetting the fact that yesterday my orthopedic told me the after effects of staying on my laptop for more than 6 hrs a day is causing my shoulder muscles to cramp and ache, i pick up my laptop....to create a blog...oh but 1st i have to check my mails....or maybe I should have breakfast first...or check mails while eating breakfast.
1:00pm After checking my numerous mail accts, facebook,orkut, new lists on listverse.com ..and stumble (damn neat firefox add on if you ever wanna waste enormous amount of time), trying out different wallpapers, finally got down to writing my blog...then the phone rings...damn distractions
4:00pm After a long conversation, lunch, some Japanese anime ( im a sucker for anime i tell u)
I thought enough of procrastination, lets get down to it. But i couldn't...well circumstances led me to go and meet my friends in college and disrupt their homework session by a blissful gossip interlude that lasted for a few hours. This was followed by another more hours of phone conversations.
9:30pm Its been 12 hours since i got my brainstorm,this is it, the day is almost over and I have not worked on my blog yet......If i dont do it today I will never do it so i finally sign up on blogger, and to my surprise I already have an account and a blog name ( and to think i spent one of the phone conversations thinking of a good name for my blog). I couldnt recollect when i had created an account or why i named it "writers bloc",and isnt even worded properly ,seems like a organizations for budding writers,.. guess its not the 1st time i though about blogging......I reckon my blog was created around a year back
So it took me a year to write my first post,(height of laziness, or of procrastination). I remember the reasoning behind the name....i dint know what to write about so i had a writer's bloc......must have thought it was pretty funny back then,...dont think so anymore...o great now i am criticizing my own blog which i haven't even begun yet.... I am gonna stick to the name anyways.......need to start somewhere,and besides not much has changed I still dont know what to write about, but will spell it out correctly as writer's block.
Did i just write 20 something lines on how i dont know what to write on??, Man i drone on and on about mundane stuff
Ok next post is sure gonna be something useful,or informative, or entertaining, or funny...or whatever the hell i feel it should be, sure hope its not gonna take me another year to come up with my 2nd post...
12:30am Oooh my arm hurts,...maybe i shouldn't spend so much time on the laptop,...
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