Somewhere on the St Lucia mountains, California

Pfeiffer Beach, California

Sunset at Hurricane Point, Big Sur

(Sunset pictures are way too common to hold anybody's interest, but this particular spot in St Lucia Mountains that rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean presented some unique views because of its elevation. I took a lot of pictures here which will be posted later into an album to be linked here.)

A small waterfall along the Salmon Creek Hiking Trail near Big Sur

A random picture from last week

Trying to catch up.... and giving up

It's hardly been 3 days since I got totally consumed by a professional event that I had been preparing for over the last 3 months, but the number of blog posts that I haven't read in that time has shot up to 1000+ already!



Will I ever catch up? Of course not! I am sitting here in the cocktail lounge of the hotel to catch breath and unwind from hours of non-stop technical talking/listening/working since Monday, and to prepare for another hectic day of round-tables tomorrow. I took a brief glance at my reading list, and lost breath right away. There is no way I can read all of them.

But I am definitely going to read my friends' blogs on the above list. I may not comment, though. I hope you won't mind this time. :-)

Yet another point in the eternal cycle of Time

Yes, this is the same tree you saw about 6 months ago.

Something about nothing...

Well, there's nothing to write about in this post. Hmm... make that "nothing significant". Actually, there is. A lot. So, make that "nothing concrete". Because of lack of time (and mood?) to give concrete shape to several abstract thoughts.

(Looking at the way this blog is frequented by my friends and other "regular" readers, I don't think anybody missed me here anyway ;). But there are exceptions.)

The other day, a good friend of mine prodded me to update my blog. And I said "sure". I really meant it. But then, well, read the opening paragraph.

I've been really busy with work with so much happening at the same time. Working on multiple projects/initiatives at the same time, and with my work spread across multiple time zones/continents, and now, starting last week, extending to multiple spoken/written languages involving 8 more countries, my time is seriously getting stretched thin. And with an upcoming product launch, and a weeklong conference coming up in November (padded with vacation on either side of it :-) ), I am just loving it. No, seriously!

Last night (Friday), my client, a serious workaholic herself, emails me with a request and says "It's not really urgent. By Monday morning is OK."

:-)

I have vowed to not bring my work into this blog. So I won't elaborate anymore than I already have.

I am suffering this weekend. Seriously. With M$ Windoze, that is. You see, I dropped my Mac off at the local Apple store to get some system library issues resolved. I was supposed to get it back this afternoon. Two calls later, I still don't have it. And, with my luck, I may not get it till Monday morning. That is scaring the living daylights out of me. Not because I have got loads of work to do, but because I have to use this Dell Laptop till then!! I have been using it since last night, and I still can't get used to anything on it! The bulky body, the kludgy keys, the horrible screen, and the "cooling" fan roaring like an industrial fan blowing hot air.... And it is supposed to be a pretty decent laptop! Dual-core 2.2GHz with 2GB RAM is not archaic, I am sure! But then, the very fact that it is running Windows makes it archaic.

GIVE ME MY MAC BACK!!!!

Anyways, Happy Deepavali, folks! Hope you really enjoyed it. And hope you stopped others from harming the environment.


UPDATE (Oct 18, 2009 7:30PM): My Mac is back and is working beautifully again. Normalcy has been restored. Life can resume now.

Saraswati Pooje

Years ago, when my sisters and I were school-going kids, we used to have this secret trick (ok, it was just me; my sisters were too honest). When Saraswati Pooje came around during Dasara, we, like everybody else, used to stack up our books in front of the idols (and a host of wooden, clay, and plastic dolls and such, decorated as part of gombe habba) for worshipping the goddess of Learning. My trick was to stack up the books I didn't want to read, the books that were most important to me for my main occupation at that time. For the remainder of the festival season, nobody could force me to read those books -- I was free to read whatever else I wanted to read. ;)

How things have changed! When I do Saraswati Pooje now, I take care not to stack up technical and other books related to my profession, books that are critical to me for my current occupation.

Come to think of it, have things really changed? Those days, I used to put away books I wasn't too keen on reading. And now? Well, you decide! :P

Cricket, at last!

All these days, I successfully resisted buying Champions Trophy package on Willow TV. You see, for millions of die hard cricket fans like me who have chosen to live in a non-cricketing country like USA, watching cricket is a luxury. Not just because the viewing opportunities are very limited, we have to actually pay extra money to watch cricket. And if you don't have satellite TV like Direct TV or Dish, your choices are even more limited to a few online video streams, some of which are free and of questionable quality.

Over the years, I have been using Willow TV. The quality is pretty decent, and though it used to be quite expensive, it is getting a little justifiable these days.

But, as I said, I resisted buying Champions Trophy (I didn't watch the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka either). Not because of the money but because of the lack of excitement about this particular tournament. And because I am too busy these days to afford 6 hours a day for cricket. Until this morning, that is. How can I resist it when India is playing Pakistan, especially when Pakistan bats first and puts up a score of 300 setting up a nice stage for India's challenge! And when I saw Gambhir and Tendulkar going at it, I couldn't keep quiet.

There is a downside to watching cricket on Willow, though. It doesn't work on Mac. So, wearily, I fired up my very rarely used Windoze laptop, and while it was booting, launched Willow site on Mac to pay $45. And a pleasant surprise was waiting for me! Just of curiosity, after making the payment, I clicked on "Watch", and voila! It starting playing! On Safari, no less! Look!





Thank you, Willow TV!

Sadly, in the middle of all this, Tendlya departed. Never mind. Just give me two victories: one against Pakistan and another against Australia. I won't ask for anything else.

And if India can go on to win the trophy, it is a bonus prize. And if that doesn't happen, if fate conspires to at least keep the trophy out of reach for Australia and Pakistan, it is a consolation prize. Come to think of it, I am not sure which prize I love more! ;)