My Vacation - Sep 26 to Oct 4, 2009

Once you start working, vacations are like elixirs that recharge you. I never knew it until I took one myself, and it felt really really good that it took me almost 2 days to get back to full capacity working.

My vacation started at LA where I reached on Friday, Sep 25, and I dropped into my juniors' place. It will be unfair if I don't talk about my juniors at UCLA. They are one of the coolest fun loving people I have ever seen. Don't be mislead, every one of them is a genius in their own field. It all started with a trip to Grand Canyon in March 2009 when I camped with these guys for 3 days - a big story by itself. So back to my vacation now.. I drop there, and every one of them is in one house doing their usual chit-chat, and making fun of others. I had a really long night playing cards, and catching up with people.

Sep 26 was a very exciting day which started with Swami's panneer curry and jeera rice. The idea of karting came up, and since Swami, Tushar and I had done karting with K1Speed in Seattle, we decided to take these guys to K1Speed in Torrence, Los Angeles. We were 11 people, and everyone had so much fun in one round of 16 laps that we decided to go for another slot which the karting guys opened for us at 11:30pm even though they close by 11pm. The 2nd round was thrilling since people picked up the tricks of the track, and were very competitive. Quite a few of us were amazed at how the girls really showed some great racing spirit.

From Vacation: Sep 26 - Oct 4, 2009

Day 2 at LA (Sep 27) started with lots of confusion whether to go to Santa Barbara or somewhere closer to LA. We finally decided to make it to Lake Arrowhead which was north east of LA. Nothing unusual about the lake, but all of us had good times chatting, doing some chocolate tasting, and wine tasting. Guys were so into my DSLR that they clicked almost a gig of photos there.

From Vacation: Sep 26 - Oct 4, 2009

I met Priya who has recently joined UCLA for her PhD after finishing her MS from Alabama. She is from Tamil Nadu, and obviously the usual enthusiasm of seeing tamil speaking people got us into a lot of chatting right from Friday night. Priya is so full of cheer, enthusiasm, and positive energy flowing around her all the time. By the end of day 2 in LA, Priya and I felt really comfortable with each other, and became really close friends that she almost made me feel like I should have know her before. At lake arrowhead she let me click a picture of her which is one of my best people shots that I have taken:

From Vacation: Sep 26 - Oct 4, 2009

Sep 28 to Oct 1 was fully about paper work at UCLA which was why I was in LA in the first place :) On October 1, I flew to New Jersey where I met Karthik, my cousin, after a long gap of 2 years.

October 2 started early since we had to do the 6 hour drive to Niagara Falls. It gave us enough time to catch up with each others' lives. By the time we reached Niagara it started to rain, and it never stopped for the whole day. Our tour at Niagara stared with Maid of the Mist which was really cool, and by the time we finished it both of us were half wet. We then went to cave of the winds where we dared to not wear the head mask, and take a shower in the fierce American Falls. Though we really could not see a thing straight up because of the shear force of the waterfall, we went into the pounding water thrice. By the time we came out of it, both of us were soaking wet, and it started to really get cold. We ran to the hotel, took some rest, and came back to click some pictures in the night as the clouds cleared a bit.

From Vacation: Sep 26 - Oct 4, 2009

Clearly, Canada is where you should be to view the Niagara Falls. Views from the US were not at all good since we were right at the top of the falls, and not the front. Night lighting was good. We waited and waited for the fireworks to start by 10pm, and half way through the 10 min firework it started to rain. Could not get any better than this. I managed to click some shots, and was really happy with a few.

From Vacation: Sep 26 - Oct 4, 2009

October 3 started way too early with phone calls pouring in at 12am, yes at night, since it was my birthday. I could hardly get any sleep, and it was morning already. We had to start off early so that we could get some pictures clicked under sun light, and head back to NJ.

From We the people

On our way, we decided to drop by Corning Museum of Glass where we sat through a glass making demo where they made a decorative vase. It was good to see how things shape up, and work.

From Vacation: Sep 26 - Oct 4, 2009

October 4, was my last day of vacation. We decide to keep to relaxed. I met with Arun, one of Karthik's friends, and Vatsa, my friend from under grad. We went to Anjappar restaurant where I had the best Indian food in US. We were so excited that we ordered more than we could eat.

From We the people

My flight back to Hillsboro felt really long with thoughts about the wonderful vacation running in my head.

P.S.: Photos in my blog link to my picasaweb album where I have the entire photo collection.

Skydiving - Mollala Oregon Aug 31 2009

The video speaks for itself. Watch it! :)



The experience was truly out of the world.

We jumped out of the plane at about 13000 feet. The initial 2 to 5 secs out of the plane was the most thrilling - not knowing where we were heading with all the twist and turn. Moreover, its the time we were gaining acceleration. The skydive webpage says we will be coming down at about 120 to 150 mph. You should have seen my flesh - whatever little that was sticking - under pressure and caving into my bones. After the initial acceleration, the free-fall itself was no-thriller - except for the air blowing at some crazy speed on your body. But once the guy started doing the spin it was super cool. The free-fall lasted about 45 secs.

The parachute deployed at around 5000 feet; the view was fantastic with Mt Hood in the distance, the green earth below, and sunset at the horizon. The guy took me on whirls. He saw that I liked it, and took me on a wonderful ride whirling left, right, and stopping mid air once in a while. I will do it again if I get to take someone :)

Labor day weekend

The weekend started early for me on Thursday when I drove to Seattle to get my Candian tourist Visa stamped on Friday. There were 2 big highlights on Friday, one was the Canadian visa, and second is my first experience at K1 race track. The experience was exhilarating. I set a best time of 21 sec, and Swami set his personal best of 20 sec.

On Saturday, Kunal and Aravind, my classmates from UCLA, drove to Seattle, and we went around downtown Seattle.

From Labor Day Sep 7, 09

Sunday was the most exciting of the three days. We drove back to Hillsboro, had an excellent lunch at Chang's Mangolian Grill where Kunal filled himself to his neck :), drove to the Columbia Gorge. It was a rainy day which made things much more exciting for me to drive, and the gorge much more greener when the rain stopped. We had excellent views from the Vista House.

From Labor Day Sep 7, 09

Labor day started with a fulfilling breakfast at Shari's. We hiked the entire loop in Silverfalls State Park.

From Labor Day Sep 7, 09

Overall, a very good weekend, with food being the highlight most of the time :)

Florence, Oregon

Kunal, a friend from UCLA, and I went to the Sand Dunes along the Oregon coast in Florence, Oregon. The weather was excellent, and we start the day with a thrilling high speed ride on the Dunebuggy. We drove to Cleawax Lake in Honeyman State Park where we swam for a while and enjoyed the wonderful sea side weather.

From Florence, OR Aug 8, 09

We drove along 101 to the Sea Lion Caves to see the Sea Lions in their wilderness. It wasn't fun after a while because of the stink, and the grunting noise from Sea Lions.

From Florence, OR Aug 8, 09

The best part of the Sea Lion caves was the excellent view of the Heceta Lighthouse which is claimed to be the most Photographed Lighthouse.

From Florence, OR Aug 8, 09

A quarter that went by - Fall 2007

UCLA - a place I dreamt to be in, the dream university to most graduate aspirants from India. Ranked in the top 10 univeristies of US, one of the best in computer science field. It was really wonderful to see an admit from the university you dream to be in.

The whole of UCLA campus is on a mountain, may be I should say a hill; you can see buildings all around but still find wonderfully maintained gardens and walkways. Despite the infrastructure, people complain of occupied rooms and running out of space. Thats because the university has everything from a to z, from 0 to 9, medical, engineering, sciences, law, management school, health sciences, and what not. I am sure I missed a couple there :).

The quality of professors, and more importantly knowledge levels of graduate students at UCLA is flabbergasting. The best part is that every professor is a master in his field and they have a real plan laid out for themselves on what they are going to research for the next couple of years. Everybody if focused perfectly and tuned to the direction they love to research on. A place full of wonderful opportunities, its all up to the person to pick and use what the university has to offer.

One of the nicest things that you will find with the people here is their quality to thank, appreciate your work, and when you work for them. No matter how small help it was from your side they give due recognition immediately.

The entire system of teaching is awesome. With just 10 to 11 weeks for a quarter, time literally flies. Classroom sessions are well organized, questions pour from both the faculty and the students, active discussions on the problems, on the fly solutions to problems, and the best of all is the well structured lecture notes that have been collected and refined over the years. If we are not with any assignments due on hand then there is some serious issue, or it should be vacation. Assignments make you think, apply, and work our brain with what you have learned. I guess its the best way to learn; its hard to forget something when it is learned that way or at least you would remember it when you start thinking on those lines.

It was a wonderful first quarter to me. I learned more on the general life front compared to that on the acad side; some tossing, and running helped me learn quite a lot :). Looking forward for a wonderful second stint on the acad side :)

Initial lessons at US

The foreign land has a lot to teach to each person in one way or the other. I had my lessons too, learned both the hard way and by time.

First of those lessons was patience. Everything on this world takes its time to happen. When its the right time, elements of this world line up for the things to happen. There is a greater test for patience when you are all by yourself and settling things around you. Waiting for things to line up does not mean you have to sit down and things will lineup to happen. There is no free lunch.

Being enthusiastic. It is easy to lose enthusiasm and the energy to keep things going. There should be a greater motivation behind why you are here to keep things going the way you want it to go. Motivation shall be tested by time to its full. Though keeping the energy going may seem a easy task from the outside it is actually not once you are in a foreign land. Push all the enthusiasm that you may have into each and every day of your life and you shall see the positive things coming up and surround you. If any of you had watched "The Secret" you will understand that what has happened and what will happen are all consequences of your thoughts. Spread the positive energy and nice things shall happen out of nowhere.

Planning. It is really really important to plan everything beforehand which helps you build a layout and work upon it. It did not come easy to me. It had to be brought by practice and feedback loops. Once you start to layout things and work, simple things like a task completion itself shall bring great amount of energy that shall drive your next task. There should be time allocated for yourself apart from the whole bunch of other things like work, assignments, etc, because we are living is a world of flesh and blood; you need some time to relax.

Have as much backup as needed. This was one wonderful lesson that i picked up here from my brother. I am a techie guy and I am best when I put things technical: Single threads are history, multithreading is the need of the hour - this is not just with computer but with life too. Though each of the process/task in itself should be taken one at a time, try to mutli task the given task. Backup any plan or decision with alternatives that shall work. Settling down with one single solution never works, at least here it does not work. You will be lagging behind the crowd.

Learning things the hard way. When i was at Motorola i went to a workshop conducted by iDiscoveri, an experience that shall long stand in my memory and all of those who made to the program, I was taught there that humans learn best when they are out of their comfort zone. Its proven and beyond doubt that it is true. You will have to see it personally to accept the fact. I learned to learn things the hard way when it came on me. I told is so easily, but when you are really in the middle of it it will drive you berserk. The outcome shall be good and by the end of it you would have learnt a lesson worth taken for the rest of your life.

Cooking. Cooking should be a passion, pass time, and a mode to relax your mind out of the busy study schedule. It should be your passion or you should make it your passion else you are losing health, and you have ever thought why you study, work, etc., it shall boil down to the basic need s of food, shelter and clothing. No food means no energy, no energy means no health; then what on earth are you working for? Lots of people tend to forget these simple facts of life.

Most of these things I learned it from/through my brother for whom I am grateful.