Ma look! No internet!!

Beginning October, i.e. two days from now, we're losing our current internet service. I procrastinated about researching which one to go with. I had whopping 3 choices and I did not decide on one. Nor did I call any of them to find how soon they can come over and setup the new service.

Yikes, looks like it's going to be a few days with NO INTERNET. OMGWTFBBQ. IDK MY BFF JILL? Will the world end? Will I vegetate?

*Reminder to self* Make the call tomorrow!!!

Feeling old....

Was in a meeting at work today with a room full of people, when suddenly the topic of age came up out of the blue. This guy asked the question to the folks in the room "Who do you think is younger of us, him (me) or me (him)?"

Pretty straightforward but it's full of irony...

-- The guy asking this question was a bald guy - not that there's anything wrong with that and he's a pretty nice guy.... (just saying that in case he ever reads this blog)

-- The only person who said I was younger said what she said because she already knew how old I was...

-- The guy asking this question was 42...

-- When asked how old I was, I couldn't remember my age...

-- After doing a quick math, I said I was 36 or 37...

-- I am not even 35 (yet)!!

Damn, I feel old!

2001 Infiniti i30 for Sale.....

Putting our car on the market hoping to sell it in the next couple of weeks. It's a nice car that has served us well for over 5 years. I washed the car and cleaned out the interior this weekend and took some pics.

Some of the pics are a bit over-exposed. The lighting conditions were not optimal and I only had 15 mins to take the pics (excuses, excuses). I'll be post the ad online sometime today or tomorrow...

Thought I'll post them here so that I can hotlink the pics from here instead of imageshack/tinypic.

^z ^z ^z ^z

Undo Undo Undo

Wouldn't it be great if undo'ing stuff in real life was as easy as as hitting ^z ^z ^z?

Overslept? Undo undo undo...
Missed an appointment? Undo undo undo...
Forgot about the PTA meeting? Undo undo undo...

Over-sped?  Undo undo undo...
Turned the other left? Undo undo undo...
Took the wrong exit? Undo undo undo...

Overspent? Undo undo undo...
Bad investment? Undo undo undo...
Bounced check? Undo undo undo...

Overstressed? Undo undo undo...
Laid off? Undo undo undo...
Fired the wrong guy? Undo undo undo...

Overcast sky on your day of golf? Undo undo undo...
Take a shot and miss the ball? Undo undo undo...
Caught sleeping with 15 of them? Undo undo undo...

Overweight? Undo undo undo...
Overate? Undo undo undo...
Let go a stinker with your boss behind? Undo undo undo...

Overpost and bore the most? Undo undo undo?
Boring posts and clunky prose? Undo undo undo?
Discard post or publish post? ^z ^z ^z ^y ^y ^y

Hey Fatso!

I've been gradually gaining weight over the last 9 months - around 10 lbs from my then stable weight of 183 - 185 lbs. Over the last couple of years, I have been as low as 180 (+/- 2) to a recently recorded high of 195 lbs. Although it's gone down a couple of lbs since then, it's still above 190 at all times.

I think I know the reasons...
- Remnants of binging on sweets and snacks from back home
- Decrease in exercising to almost zilch
- Late night snackings
- Reaching for the candy jar at work
- Bad sleep habits
- Other changes in lifestyle

I would like to lose the gained lbs and then some. The plan is to get to the 175 - 180 lbs stable weight range by end of this year. This way, it would be more of an mid-year resolution as opposed to a new year resolution and hopefully have a better chance of success!

The plan is to use a somewhat scientific and somewhat disciplined approach in order to achieve this goal.

Some of the things I don't plan on doing....
- Won't follow any "named" diet regime (Atkins, South Beach, low carb, cookie!!)
- Won't go overboard with either diet changes or exercise (e.g. exercise 2 hrs a day, 7 days a week and consume only bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
- Won't do anything that's not sustainable

What I plan on doing? Few small, simple things I start doing from today for starters...
- Drink more water - try to keep track of qty drunk - Target: 1 gallon/day
- STOP late night snacking
- Wean away from reaching for the candy jar (I have a sweet tooth and I know I cannot completely give up on it)
- Build an exercise routine - at least 3-4 days a week - cardio, weights
- Exercise portion control and attempt to consistently count calories - plan on using caloriecount.about.com
- Sleep at least 6 hrs/night
- Weigh in every Friday and monitor the weight gain/reduction on a weekly basis

I know I'll probably reach a plateau after losing around 5-10 lbs. I'll have to re-visit my plan then and possibly add/restrict additional stuff.

Until then, good luck to me and let's see where this goes!

Chasing the rising sun - HDR edition

HDR'ed and heavily edited version of the previous pic. Generated by merging 3 exposures 0, -1, +1 EV in Photomatix. Do I like it? Kinda. Is HDR super overused? Betcha. Will I keep messing with it? Sure. Do I like it better than the original? Noppa.

What the font? Google Instant!

So, Google introduced Instant a few days back. Seemingly a progression of Suggest, Google now not only tries to auto fill your search phrases but it also attempts to automatically execute the search for the most likely phrase you are going to search on.

One interesting thing I noticed about Google Suggest and subsequently Google Instant is their censorship of search phrases while suggesting. What the....Font??? Even if I turn off "Safe searching", the results are still censored. If they are trying to save milliseconds off my time, then should they really perform a search on "What the Font"?? Do they really think that's what I'm searching for? Really? Really Really?

Pondering away further...what might be the natural progression to this feature?

Open up gmail, click compose mail...
Bing! Suggested To person: Mom  --- Last email sent 2 years back
Bing! Suggested Subject: I miss you Ma! --- Last 23 emails from Mom had keywords "miss you son"

Wake up in the morning, Google dress suggestion via SMS...
Bing! Wear the purple polka dot shirt today. You got 112 Facebook likes the last time you posted your pic in that shirt.

Google seems to be a really interesting place to be. Sometimes I wonder about the extent of information google has about me. If they dig through the info they have about me, they probably can write up my biography better than any person.

My emails (GMail)...My recently visited places (Maps)...My likes around entertainment (Youtube)....Stocks I'm researching (Finance).....News I'm interested in (News)....Pics I've been clicking (Picasa)....Stuff I've been searching/researching/exploring/sites I've been visiting (Search).....and above all.....CRAP I've been posting (Blogger).

Loading the dishwasher

The wifey loads the dishes as if they are traveling first class on Sunday. I make them commute second class in a Mumbai local train at 5:00 PM.

Talking of local trains, it's been over 5 years since I've traveled in a local train in Mumbai. I wonder how the crowd on the local trains are these days? Exponentially grown? Stayed around the same? Getting better?

Chasing the rising sun....

Went shooting today after many months. It's been quite a while since I woke up early morning to do something by myself.

Not many months back, it used to be like clockwork - wake up by 6:45 every Saturday and Sunday, leave home by 7:10, play an hour and a half of tennis and be back home by 9:00 AM. It was almost a ritual, only difference was that this was not a forced one; it was something I liked doing. Something I used to look forward to. It went on for almost a year and a half until it stopped cold. Man, I miss it.

I digress, but the point I was trying to get to was, along with the tennis, gone was my drive to wake up early morning on weekends. Photography could've take its place, so could've golfing or running. Only thing that took it's place was an hour or two of extra sleep. Well, I still continue to digress.

Today, I was woken up by one of the kiddos desire for a 5:00 AM snack. This granted me an opportunity to leave home before sunrise and go shooting.

Tampa might have quite a few places to capture beautiful sunsets, but not many places offer clean views of the sunrise. Only place close to my home that offers it is Safety Harbor and nearby areas.

The pics here are from the Safety Harbor Marina. This is a place I visit quite often when I am in the mood for a quick shoot. I think at least a third of the landscape pics on this blog are from a 2 mile radius surrounding the Safety Harbor downtown area.

As luck would have it, we had a completely overcast sky. I knew it when I left the house but I was hoping for a glimpse of the rays from the rising sun escaping between the clouds. Nope, no go The clouds were too dense; only a few streaks of orange sun managed to get past.

I still managed to get a few decent pics (or so I think). More than anything else, this inspired me to get out of bed in the dark more often and go chasing the rising sun...

Knowledge v/s Skill v/s Creativity

Read a ton of books and magazines and I'll gain a ton of knowledge...

Take a lot of pics and I may think I've gained a lot of skill....

I look at some of these pics and I realize...

A ton of knowledge and a lot of skill cannot make up for lack of creativity.

Photos from: http://www.fubiz.net/2010/07/27/milas-daydreams/
(A lot more very neat pics of this baby there)

I saw this posted on one of the forums. I have no idea on the background of the photographer, equipment used, years of experience, etc. etc. It might as well be a mommy shooting her peacefully sleeping kid with her $60 point and shoot.

As wifey said when she saw these pics, "It’ll make the child feel so special when she grows up and looks at them."