I'll be putting up my attempts at 'good' photography out here.. I'll try and figure out a commenting system to get feedback from y'all.. Need to find or build an un-spam-able solution for that.
As a mere point-and-shoot photographer, I'd say you have achieved good photography! All your shots are beautiful, crisp: they prove your eye and draw out the character of your subjects.
Of course some strike me more than others; I'll enjoy commenting when you get that feature worked out.
:-)
Made me miss you all and Amherst (and I've only been away two weeks!)
A lab as lifesaver? UMass simulator helps drivers see what to look for
BY KRISTIN PALPINI STAFF WRITER
AMHERST - New drivers run a high risk of being involved in fatal automobile crashes, but the usual suspects - alcohol and speeding - aren't typically the cause, according to research at the University of Massachusetts.
New drivers are 11 times more likely than veteran drivers to die in a car crash during their first six months solo behind the wheel because they don't know how to spot potential hazards, said Donald L. Fisher, director of the UMass Human Performance Laboratory.
Checking to see if a car will pull out from behind a large hedge at an intersection, keeping an eye on people who may step into a crosswalk or slowing down before making a turn around a parked 18-wheeler aren't things the typical teenage driver will do, said Fisher.
"They're not trained for this," he explained, "and it's not the driving schools' fault. You can tell someone a hundred times to check before making a turn, but until they realize or see that they have to do it, they won't."
To rectify this skill deficiency, Fisher, along with doctoral student Anuj K. Pradhan and psychology professor Alexander Pollatsek, created a free downloadable computer program, RAPT, for Risk Awareness and Perception Training. It teaches drivers how to anticipate road hazards.
"I strongly believe, and we have the evidence, that young drivers will most definitely benefit from taking this program," said Pradhan, who has been working on RAPT for four years. "Of course, the disclaimer is that this is not a replacement for a driver's ed course or something like that. It is another piece."
Key: anticipating hazards
This inability to consistently anticipate possible road risks does not belong solely to new drivers. Many drivers under 30 and over 60 have less than stellar rates of hazard anticipation, according to UMass research.
For example, Fisher said, a driver looking to take a right turn around a large truck parked at an intersection is likely to slow down and proceed cautiously only 10 percent of the time. People ages 19-29 are likely to proceed with caution 29 percent of the time; for people 60 and older the rate increases to 56 percent.
People reach their optimal safe driving ability at age 50-55, Fisher said.
"This means that parents need to be trained as well as kids," he said.
RAPT, which can be downloaded from the UMass Web site www.ecs.umass.edu/hpl/RAPT.htm, works in three stages to teach a driver how to spot places where unexpected risks could emerge. The program has been picked up by insurance provider State Farm, which is working on a "snazzier" version of the program, said Fisher.
"I focused on making a free teaching tool," said Fisher, who agrees the program's graphics could be more fetching. "State Farm is interested in making it more appealing to newly licensed drivers."
To develop RAPT, Fisher and Pradhan harvested data from hundreds of driver tests conducted in the UMass lab. The Human Perception Lab features a $750,000 driving simulator - a 1995 Saturn sedan that has been refurbished to measure the reactions of drivers on the road. The Saturn is stable (it has no engine) and is set before three theater screens that display prerecorded driving scenarios.
In addition to chronicling the driver's actions behind the wheel, the driver's eye movements are tracked through specially made glasses. The glasses, which look like shop glasses, monitor the motion of a person's pupils with infrared beams and mirrors.
Using scenes from the Valley, the program shows a participant various scenarios where road risks could occur, such as driving through a four-way intersection. The program then asks the participant to click a mouse pointer where she or he would be looking if they were driving.
In the second stage, participants work through an interactive tutorial on how to spot danger zones. In the third stage the participant goes over real-life scenarios and again plots where she or he should be looking for danger.
Fisher said a person's ability to spot potentially dangerous areas increases from accurately identifying 44 percent of trouble spots to identifying 70 percent of them after completing the program.
"This works in the lab, but does it work in the field?" asked Fisher, describing his next stage of RAPT research.
"We'd like to test whether this reduces crashes."
Fisher and Pradhan are now also working on training programs that aim to show the importance of paying consistent attention to the road and how to temper speed in various driving conditions - two other common factors in teen accidents, Fisher said.
"Younger drivers are not necessarily driving fast, but they are not at the correct speed for the condition," said Pradhan. "If it's icy ... they don't really know how to handle that.
"We're a long ways to go on these," said Pradhan of the lab's next two projects. "But we're working on it."
RAPT research was funded by the Massachusetts Highway Department, the National Science Foundation and private companies.
You may know that my digital camera got stolen from my bags in Heathrow earlier this year.. So I've been camera-less for a while.. and that kinda started bugging me, so I shook the dust off of my old 35mm SLR and bought a roll of film and went exploring.
Here are some of the results...
Shooting with a 35 mm is a very disciplining experience coz you know you have limited shots.. and so that makes you careful about the setup for that time when you actually press that shutter.. A good exercise.... Until I can afford a dSLR!
Went down to Cape Cod last weekend. Was a windy weekend.
Went to 'Old Silver Beach' in North Falmouth. Great water and sand. Camped at Peters Pond Park at Sandwich. Campfire + Guitars + Beer + cooking wai wai = good times.
Today I saw a colleague's friend wearing this t-shirt...
????????????
So where is this connection between Timberland and Bhutan?? Or does Timberland randomly look for country's names to display on their clothing?
Actually, BWP 0198 is a vehicle license plate number. That is how the plates looked in the old days in Bhutan (Nowadays they are BP or BG or BT):
BWP is for a Private vehicle from the Western region...
BWG would be a Government vehicle BWH would be a Heavy vehicle and BWT would be a Transport (or Taxi) vehicle
And the permutations would continue for vehicles from the Eastern regions or the Central regions.
So .....
Who in Bhutan, in 1973, with the vehicle license BWP 0198 went on a Summit Discovery trip... which resulted in a sign.. or poster.. which was then reproduced 35 years later by Timberland on an American t-shirt??
I will pay serious money to the person who can solve this mystery for me!!
Well, at the very least I'll buy you a couple of beers! :P
I agree with Anuj. I saw a picture of an old Bhutanese man carrying a baby with a kabney and on the bottom it said FLY UNITED - meaning that United Airlines takes you to exotic destinations. however United does not fly to Bhutan.
If it was in their own coutnry they would have their Asses sued but just because Bhutanese don't do anythinng they get away with it.
Since Bhutan is such a hot country now EVERY tom Dick and harry company wants somethnig to do with or be associated with it so in my opinion our government should hire someone to sue their asses of and make some money.
And I realized that it was busy data logging until the batteries ran out.
Here's an overlay on google earth of the tracks though....
check it out.....
The slope on the right where i first went to.. notice the tracks lead into the forest? No I didn't crash into a tree! I was adjusting my snowboard when the clip came off and it went flying downhill.. a couple of hundred feet.. into the forests. Man, I had to trudge down in all that deep snow to retrieve it. Yucks.
The trails on the left are the blue ones... those were fun!!
But from a GPS point of view, these are awesome. I can't say what the resolution is like but it is pretty good. And 3-D for that matter.
The BGT-11's software Navilink creates .kml files so it's a breeze to use it on Google earth.
Sadly, for the past few years I have been able to hit the slopes only once a season. And I noticed, looking at all the lift tickets on my jacket, that it has always been around this week of the year.. Mid-to-end-march-ish. Weird huh?
Anyway, this year's snowboarding trip took place last Tuesday. We had a major nor'easter over the weekend and we got some snow Monday night too. So we were anticipating good snow conditions. And we were not disappointed!!!! Temperature in the 40's.. great sunshine.. perfect snow conditions. It was by far the best snowboarding I've done.. weatherwise, snow condition wise, and skill-wise!! :P ..
We = JingLan, Isabela, Luis, Jim, Lava, Dan and I.
(took us three tries for this photograph... damn timer!!)
Was a great trip. I tackled the blue slopes and it was great!! No guts for the black diamonds yet though!
Fortunately no "major" mishaps. Dan was nervous due to bad happenings on his previous skiing trips this year. Nothing to do with the skiing. Everything to do with the driving! Read about it here and here. Well, actually something bad almost happened. On the last lift ride before closing, Dan happened see something shiny 30 feet below him in the snow. Oops he thinks.. someone dropped their keys!! And then he realizes that those were HIS car keys!!! Poor guy then had to board down the ugly black diamond mogul slope to retrieve the keys!
But what are the chances that he'd see his own keys down there? he could have dropped it anywhere while boarding.. and then we'd never have been able to find it. And then we'd be stranded coz he was the ride home!! Phew..
After the slopes.. some of us headed into Northampton where we had reservations for an hour's worth of delightful soaking at the East Heaven Hot Tubs. Man, hot tub soaking after skiing.. words fail me. Rejuvenate those muscles and bones and warm yourself up... aaaaaah.. better than coffee!! :P
Heckavasurprise or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 30s
This is a post embarrassingly way way way overdue...
I guess I was just worried that a mere blog post cannot do justice.
I was undecided if I should blog it at all, coz I felt that it is way too special.. So special that it should be recorded by the poet laureate. I kept wrestling with the decision and next thing I know - boom - it's March. And this is s'posed to be about my birthday in December!! Dammit.
So anyway, I have decided that this should be written down for posterity. (Not that I'd forget!!)
And so here goes...
Top 5 memories for the first 30 years of your life: 1. 30th birthday party 2. ... 3. ... 4. ... 5. ...
This is about my birthday. Or more specifically... about my birthday party...
It all started like this:
Dec 13th, 2006 - My birthday:
I pick up the Collegian and am reading through the comics/crossword/sudoku page...
note the date!
when the horoscope catches my eye...
for Sagittarius particularly...
Hmmmm.. heh heh... chuckle chuckle.. Riiight! Well, I'm not a believer in horoscopes obviously, specially the funny ones that are printed in the college rag.
Anyway.. I had decided that for my birthday we'd all go out for dinner to Mi Tierra.. a great Mexican restaurant that is actually a part of a grocery store! It is (or was) the best kept secret in the valley.. the food is to die for!!
So we all went out and dinner it was real fun.. a large number of friends showed up and 'twas a very very good b'day dinner with great food and even greater friends to hang out and say bubbye to the 20's!!
And then, after dinner, the mystery began... I was handed a card - an invitation to an event on Sunday (Dec 17th) at Amherst Coffee.
Wow!! A birthday party, and a surprise one at that.. I was of course pleasantly mystified.. but also, pretty freaked out by the creepily accurate horoscope in the day's newspaper!!!!! freeeaky!
I was also informed that the hint was in the card itself; other than that no one would be giving me any clues.. except for wrong clues, of course! For instance, Raz's clues were: hot lingerie supermodels; fashion show; the bar in amherst coffee; blind date. You can imagine the heights of fecundity that my imagination attained for the next 4-5 days!!
Anyway.. I eagerly (and nervously) waited for Sunday to come around. . . . . . . . Finally it deigned to ... Phew
I got a call from Zeynep saying that I should dress nice and they'd come pick me to go to Amherst Coffee.
Ummm.. dress nice??? .. Well, OK. Jeans and vintage tee is nice right?? :D
And then... Amherst Coffee..
For those of you who do not know, Amherst Coffee is the place where I hang-out/buy-my-coffee/work/study/chill/go-for-free-wireless-internet etc etc.. It's a nice coffee shop.. good coffee, good ambience, good (but pricey) beer, wine and liquor, great jazz with live performances on Thursdays.. you get the idea.
Basically I spend a lot of time there.. which is why my first thought when I got the invite was that my friends had decided to have a big birthday party at Amherst Coffee, and when I entered the place that's exactly what it looked like. 'Coz the place was full of friends (and friends' friends), all dressed to kill... all rarin' to party.
And more and more people kept pouring in by the minute until the place was chock-full of people I knew. Now this was fantastic.. that all these guys had come together, all dressed up, in honor of my birthday! It was great... and intense and man was I freaking uncomfortable. I mean, I loved it, but dude, it's a lot of pressure knowing that all these guys are there for the express purpose of springing a surprise on you. I thought that the get-together at the cafe was the big surprise, but that wasn't the case.. they all knew something that I didn't!!
--Aside-- I mentioned Amherst Coffee plays Jazz right? Well, that night my sneaky friends asked them to play Dylan instead! Isn't that awesome. Talk about the small touches! --End Aside --
Anyway I was downing Single Malts, enjoying the very nice sparkly cocktail party atmosphere, and kicking myself for thinking Jeans + Tee = Dress Nice (Check the pictures out to see what I mean). And of course, the suspense was killing me!!!
So, as an act of mercy I'm sure, Chris called out for everybody's attention.. and went on to announce that it was the hour of gift-giving.. OOOOOH... A gift too!!
And then I was handed an envelope..
inside which was this:
A ticket to a private screening of High Fidelity at the brand new just opened Amherst Cinema. WOW. HOW WONDERFULLY EXCITING IS THAT!!!
I couldn't react. I was actually lost for words. But I finally registered that all of us were gathered to watch High Fidelity at Amherst Cinema next door for my birthday!!
How did this happen?
Well, I guess Zeynep remembered that I had once mentioned that High Fidelity was one of my favouritest movies... and also that I'd remarked on how much fun it'd be to rent a theatre to watch a movie with a group of friends. So she put two and two together... and came up with 22 million and decided to have this surprise birthday thing for me.
Phew.. what an organizational effort. They had to rent the entire theatre.. organize to ship in the film print special from California for this single-screening, pay the necessary royalties and the taxes and everything. Quite amazing. And also to round up this huge number of people to show up and buy tickets and cover the cost of the whole renting, shipping, licensing and god knows what else. WOW. .. to think Nick ornby and John Cusack and Stephen Frears profited directly from my birthday party. oooh.. important!!!!
So everyone trooped to the theatre.. lined up like good patrons of the arts to purchase the tickets to cover the full expenses. :P....
While I was posing with my friends at the door like a visiting dignitary! Or a hollywood person! :P
Alex baked a hundred absolutely wonderful cupcakes, into which they stuck the required candles and all... and had the whole singing happy birthday scene going on. Really, it was quite a party.. And everybody was waiting for me to be overwhelmed by emotion and break down in tears.
HAH..
(I did that in the stall in the restrooms!!)
:D
Check out Amherst Coffee and Amherst Cinema here in this album..
So anyway.. after the cakes and all we all trooped into the theatre.. but before the screening there was just one more surprise!!!
My most favourite basoonist and clarinetist.. with a personalized performance.
Watch it: :) (sorry I had to paste it together from diff clips and diff cameras hence the unsmooth video)
That was just so great. A wonderful musical performance for me. Such wonderful people!!
And then.. good old High Fidelity.. It is a movie quite filled with anguish and agony and pathos isn't it? So much so that I felt obligated to remark that the movie being a favourite of mine in no way meant that it was autobiographical. Now we don't want people thinking I slept with a recording artist do we??
So what can I say??
That I have the greatest group of friends in the world. And the most creative, and for them nothing is impossible. They made this happen. Such a lovely surprise. Such a lovely party. But most of all they succeeded in creating this wonderful memory, not just for me, but for everybody who was there that evening. Including the baristas at Amherst coffee and the popcorn folks at Amherst Cinema. And that is a wonderful feat. Like leaving a legacy. Leaving a legacy of memories in many minds. I'm proud of you all, and I'm proud and honoured to be your friend. :D
Thanks
It's all about the memories..
like Zeynep said -
Unlike many other habitants of the earth we chose not to be born, live and die in the same town and hang out with the same people from birth to death, so sooner or later we will move on and who knows where we will be next. We will be spread around in several continents, hanging out with totally new people. But hopefully tonight, and all other days and nights like these will forever stay with us.
So all my beautiful, amazing, creative, fantastic, full-o-surprises, wonderful.. not to forget oh so chic and beautiful and stylish.. friends.
THANK YOU
Here's the card by the way! :).. Alex's creativity shining through.
This year, again, Jake and Alenka hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving with their lovely family. They took in all of us far away from home and made us a part of the family. As usual, there was excellent food.. Turkey, Duck and the likes.. excellent company.. and this year we were also treated to a Wheeler Family Thanksgiving Tradition, a little skit based on the story of the guy who cried wolf. :D
This year Dan and Alex brought in this huge jigsaw puzzle, but unlike last year there was no finished picture to refer to.. so unfortunately the jigsaw puzzle was left incomlete this year. :(.. We also watched the documentary about the Mayflower produced by the History Channel, in which Dan had a big role. Follow this link for Dan's interview. :) Here are some pictures from that night. I didn't take all that many photographs. Here are some from Alex's site.
The first Dylan concert I attended was on November 11, 2000. And now six years later, almost to the day, I had the pleasure of seeing him live again, here in Amherst. WOW. The concert was everything that I had hoped and prayed for and more. It's all too common for people to be disappointed at Bob Dylan's live performance, and so I was very nervous about this one. But it was excellent. We could've gotten more.. He could have played the guitar instead of the keyboards. He could've sung so many other songs.. but well, we can't expect him to sing EVERYTHING now, do we??
Anyway, 6 years ago, before the proliferation of personal blogs, I had written a long description of the concert for the benefit of my friends and family back home. In keeping with the tradition, here's one for this concert. I should've written it sooner when it was fresh in my mind.
Anyway, a quick quick review and then pictures and videos huh?
The opening band first - Twas The Raconteurs, a side project by Jack White of the White Stripes. They were good.. a little heavy for a Dylan opener I'd say.. but noisy powerful and good nonetheless. The highlight of their show was a long long loud powerful cover of "Bang Bang".
And now for Dylan...
....
...
Ahhhh.. Screw it.. I read this great review of the show from an "R. Godlis" at expectingrain.com. And there's no way I can top that review. He/She has said everything that I wanted to say and more and more and more... These veteran Dylan followers.. who tag along to every possible Dylan concert.. they know a lot. They're grizzled and grey listenin to Dylan and they've tailed him and loved him and hated him but know him better than anyone else.. I'm not going to presume to know Dylan. I'm just gonna doff my hat off to these fans.. and post their review! :)
Review by R. Godlis
Just waking up from last night's 3 hour drive back to NYC from Amherst, looking bleary-eyed over breakfast at my scribbled notes from a show full of surprises.
I'll try to keep the intro material brief. Took my 13 year old daughter along to her first BD show. Tix in the NYC area were ridiculously expensive for last row balcony seats, so we went off to Amherst with reasonably priced 4th row floor seats via ebay. Well Approximately 4th row, not Positively Fourth Row. Security was so slim in this college arena, that there were rows of fans standing in front of the first row of seats. Making our 4th row like the eighth. So it was more like a general admission standing show with folding chairs in place to reserve your spot. I saw a few campus police officers trying to move people along - but believe me,the riot squad was not restless tonight. No complaints though. I actually like to see Dylan at these places. No suits, no skeptics, just enthusiastic college kids and middle-aged fans, with the occassional stoners thrown in for comic relief. An arena that's somewhat intimate where even the last rows can see pretty well.
Dylan seems very relaxed in these places. And tonight he was full of energy and surprises - right from the start.
Looking at last week's setlists I expected him to open with Maggie's Farm, Absolutely Sweet Marie, or Cats in the Well. But Boom - just like that he opens with a fantastic, clear sounding Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat- with cool organ & a welcome harmonica break.
I looked at my daughter and said - we're in for a good night. But little did I know. Next up - The Man in Me - was easilly recognizable from the musical intro. In fact all the songs, even in their new versions were clearly recognizable. This song is where we got the theme of the night - sung in a very strong voice - "the man in me will hide sometimes to keep from being seen, that's because he doesn't want- to- turn-into-some-machine..." He did this verse twice! Finished it with another harp break. Catch your breath. Now Tweedledee, with some very Augie Meyers like organ trills, followed by the first quiet MT song of the night - "When the Deal Goes Down" augmented with a carnival-like organ. And then boom again - we got that great new version of Cold Irons Bound - how's that? - the one that's been circulating from the Boston show - which just builds upon itself. Feeling like I can't help it if I'm lucky...
Sidenote - Dylan seemed to spend a lot of time after each song walking over to his little table of stuff stage right - Harmonica - Beads - His Academy Award - Setlists?Songs he wanted to play? - and then wandering over to the band with something to say. Changes is what it looked like to me. Did I say the organ sound was turned up nice and loud?
Next came the 62-62-64 stuff done electric - a very nice Hattie Carroll (more organ frills), I Don't Believe You (Mendicino like organ playing - another harp solo - and more organ noodling). Then into John Brown, not unexpected but still a bit of a surprise coming on the heels of Hattie Carroll. I spent a lot time telling my daughter - he hardly ever does this one.
But then, big surprise again - Watching the River Flow - a late start on the vocals as the band waited for him to finish a few more bars of his organ intro. Some dylanesque drawn out RiiiiiVER FLOWwww vocals and then the man turned into an Organ Maniac in the break - finishng up by matching notes with the pedal steel behind him. Did I say there was absolutely no upsinging tonight - except for the MT stuff where it is actually part of the original versions? Thank you.
Next - some organ playing in the dark and, another surprise, Sugar Baby. Very inspired is what I scribbled down. Lots of pedal steel in this one. Not exactly the "dark" version of a few years ago, but nice to hear - everyone picked up on the "these bootleggers" verse and the "amount of trouble women bring" verse. Next - a good loud Highway 61. Followed by Spirit on the Water - everyone was waiting for the "whompin good time verse, of course. In fact this crowd was having a whompin good time all night. They were very vocal. No party poopers in Amherst.
It was at this point that my daughter asked me how many songs he had done so far - and with my scribbled notes in the dark arena I couldn't really do a count - but up next came "Summer Days", and we both knew from looking at the past setlists that we were on song # 13 of 16 - last song of the regular set.
I figured Bob was on automatic pilot now. He was going to come back and do Thunder on the Mountain/LARS/AATW and be out of there...
When after the break, he starts playing a slow number! What????
And just like that we're into an amazing "Lenny Bruce". Just dead on. The high point of an evening full of high points. Why is this night different than all other nights? Only Bob knows. This is why we go to these shows. Even my kid knew she was seeing something different. And on top of that she got a very good "Like A Rolling Stone" - which was just fine as the closer - just like 1966 in 2006.
We set our direction home for the late night 3 hour drive back to New York City - thinking I do believe we've had enough.
Review posted from http://my.execpc.com/~billp61/111506r.html#1, via expectingrain.com
From "Spirit On The Water":
You think I'm over the hill You think I'm past my prime Let me see what you got We can have a whoppin' good time
And this was the line that said it all.. and the audience said.. nay, you're not over the hill. let's go ahead and have that good time.
Here are some pictures:
The Raconteurs...
AND...
Here is a really poor put together video of a clip of Thunder On The Mountain. Sorry for the crappy quality. Just wanted to show Dylan dancing at the keyboards. :D
Madeliene Peyroux in Concert November 2nd, 2006 Calvin Theatre Northampton, MA
She has a magical voice, that's for sure. And she did not let us down in a live concert. I thoroughly enjoyed the singing.. her voice... the musicians.
However, I kinda had a different expectation of her as a person, or rather, as a performer. In a venue like the Calvin (which may not be Carnegie Hall but it is respected nonetheless).. wouldn't one expect a Jazz Vocalist, a Chanteuse, to be more... elegant? dressy? reserved? befitting the tradition of classic jazz chanteuses? Well, that may just be my preconception and expectation and hence the disappointment. But I really expected her to be dressed in evening wear.. an elegant gown say.. hair well made up.. Solitary, almost tragic in her aloofness.. breathing out her songs. But she was dressd most casually I'd say.. even more casual than a folk singer (whose casualness is achieved after much deliberation). And her on stage manner was definitely not polished like one would expect. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was this huge disconnect between the artiste and her art! Something didn't click.
BUT.. don't get me wrong. I totally enjoyed it... although for some numbers I had to literally close my eyes to get into the atmosphere.
I do not remember the set list exactly... but she started off with a smoky blue blue blue rendition of "Blue Alert"... and didn't look back after that. Some of my favourites she sang (not in order): I'm Alright, Careless Love, Dance Me To The End Of Love, La Javanaise, Half The Perfect World, Summer Wind, You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Don't Wait Too Long, Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night...
And she performed an excellent version of I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Judy Collins (???))...
Lonely, lonely. Tin can at my feet, I think I'll kick it down the street. That's the way to treat a friend.
She came back for an encore of J'ai Deux Amours and Dance Me to the End of Love.
here are some pics.. And until I get an Image Stabilization camera or a DSLR, this is the quality you'll have to bear with! :)
Her opening act was the solo musician Jill Sobule.. who was talented.. witty and goofy and immediately struck up a rapport with the audience. Alex, whom I attended the concert with, knew much of her songs.. I don't think I'd heard any.. But check her out.. www.jillsobule.com.
Thank God the city lived up to my expectations!! :D.. I'd been hankering to visit SanFran for so long, and I finally got the opportunity last week. I was there for the 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. So yes, work. But I did play too..
Did the usual tourist things.. Hangin out at Fisherman's Wharf, walking in Chinatown, cable cars, SFMOMA. Also watchin Tia Carroll at Biscuits and Blues, hanging out doing nothing at Haight-Ashbury. Lunch at Belden Place.. at Plouf. Lunch at Mt. Everest Restarant in Berkeley, which I strongly strongly recommend to anyone truly homesick for home kinda food. :D. The Golden Gate Park.. too bad I was too late to enter the Japanese Tea Garden. Well, there's always a next time. The best part was undoubtedly riding the Powell-Hyde Cable Car line (at night, multiple times).. AND biking across the Golden Gate bridge in the dusk. A hell of a ride (I totally underestimated the initial climb) but well worth the effort. Luckily it wasn't freezing or foggy ... Well, I wouldn't really have minded foggy I think. The weather was gloriously perfect the whole week.
Hartsbrook School Hadley, MA Shakespeare under the stars...
I was fortunate enough to catch the last show.. and it was a brisk, beautiful evening, with a full moon.
My first attempt at catching this play was when Chaitali was visiting, but we were unlucky coz of rain, and so we had to watch it inside. It was still good, but no real sets and the actors looked very restricted inside the small auditorium. Outside was way way better...
Dan Kennedy, our friend from Down Under, is playing Macbeth.. and he did a FINE job of it!!
Rushdie speaks: Heraclitus, or, Character and Destiny
September 21st, 2006 Bowker Auditorium, UMass - Amherst
I meant to write about the talk a long time ago, but I was probably overwhelmed from the barrage of literary references which did succeed in making me feel like an ignoramus, totally worthless and unread! A journey through literature... from Samuel Richardson to Charles Schulz (yes, of 'Peanuts")... from Heraclitus, ("part wise man part fortune cookie") to Popeye - 'I yam what I yam', or 'Character is Destiny'.... Melville (Ishmael as Dylan (Bob) in Pat Garett and Billy the Kid) to Ragtime's Doctorow.. Cervantes, Shakespeare, Joyce, Austen, Nabokoff...
I'm not gonna try. Just recording the moment.
And yes, picked up "Shalimar the Clown". Wanted to get a copy of Midnight's Children too, signed, but they'd sold out! Should have had the foresight to bring along a copy!!
I bought myself a MacBook. Black. 2GHz Intel Core Duo. 1 GB RAM. 13.3" Glossy Widescreen. Inbuilt iSight Camera. ... the works!!!
Sweet!!!
Yea, it's odd that I haven't blogged about it huh? Maybe that is because every tech/non-tech blog I see nowadays is waxing poetic about the Intel Macs and about people switching and all that... from boingboing to the ever-gushing, ultra-verbose, sometimes-clueless, regularly-obnoxious Pogue. So maybe I didn't want to contribute to the cacophony... Or maybe because I've been working so hard trying to beat this learning curve for a mac... Or maybe because I'm having so much fun playing/working with my mac that I don't have the time to write about it... Or maybe I'm studying too hard!!
Whatever be the reasons, I do realise now that I should have written about my Mac and my experiences. After all, I remember my motive for this website was to help with information. If just one person stumbles upon my posts and finds a bit of useful information, I'll be very happy! :)
So.. I decided that I'm gonna put in some posts about my switching experiences... Switching to a Mac from a PC. Switching to the OS X from Windows. And about the MacBook itself... and its various issues. And about the Mac OS X - as compared to windows. And the available software for the OS.
But in the meanwhile - here it is: My MacBook.
CLICK ON THE PIC!! REALLY, CLICK ON THE ABOVE PIC!!! :D
Now I know you're dying to ask me. Why o why... pray tell me why did you switch to a mac?
There is a simple answer and a more complex one..
Reason #1- simple/straightforward/shallow:
I was SEDUCED!!! The black Macbook was on display in the Campus Store and as soon as I saw it I fell for it. Wow. I had to go check it out everyday! I had to play with it everyday! I have never felt like such a gullible predictable brainless consumer before. But I have to hand it to Apple's designers. WOW.
Reason #2 - reasoned/practical/acceptable:
I needed a laptop. I needed a good one. And it was just a matter of good timing. I was SOOO close to buying a Dell 710m. But the MacBook was realeased and a slew of reasons tipped the scale in favor of the Mac: -MacBook on Intel Core Duos. -BootCamp allowing you to dual boot into Windows. -Parallels allowing you to virtualize Windows. -Very very competitive pricing. -My need to learn more, experiment, break out of the Windows mindset. (Haha! Hypocrite!) -...and not to forget the deal where I'd get a free iPod with the purchase! :) (Yes, even though I've talked about not falling for the consumeristic iPod culture and being a sheep and all that, I now have a 30GB Black video iPod. I try to think of it as a portable HDD!! :D.. and yes, I do listen to music on it too. It really isn't that bad. It's easy to disguise it with skins from iFrogz. :)
Many more reasons, but I cannot think of them right now.. I'll have more in future posts.
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