Monday, October 10, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tears still roll down my eyes as I keep reading about the death of a great man Steve Jobs...
I was in denial mode till yesterday, woke up an hour early today without the alarm, and the mind just couldn't get over the thoughts of him. I didn't know him personally but I know what he meant to the technology industry and to the world. I am sad, very sad. I end up thinking how he must have felt as he got near to the moment, the thought of leaving behind your legacy and family at this young age. He was such a motivator, even 3 months back he gave a presentation to the Cupertino City Council about the new Apple Head Quarters. He wanted to do so much more...
:(
I was in denial mode till yesterday, woke up an hour early today without the alarm, and the mind just couldn't get over the thoughts of him. I didn't know him personally but I know what he meant to the technology industry and to the world. I am sad, very sad. I end up thinking how he must have felt as he got near to the moment, the thought of leaving behind your legacy and family at this young age. He was such a motivator, even 3 months back he gave a presentation to the Cupertino City Council about the new Apple Head Quarters. He wanted to do so much more...
:(
Saturday, October 1, 2011
A new hobby - Cooking!
Looking back 6 years, I hardly knew cooking... I still remember my first few days in US, I stayed with my room mates Dolly and Mansi. I was so new to cooking that I was trying to heat oil in a wet pan. aah... that oil splatter hurt. I learnt cooking from my room mates, trying to manage our every day meals. I liked good tasty food, but not so much that I would learn cooking for that. But slowly, I got some basics cleared, could manage making a "sabji" or "sag" and daal.
And then, when I started working and was not a student anymore, I cooked more often. Still basic food most of the time, and something special once in a blue moon. It all started with Indonesian Peanut Saute from Noodles and Company. They have the best Indonesian Peanut Saute. I got a recipe online and made the sauce which turned out really well. It was a motivation factor!
Then I got married to a guy who LOVES food. Well all men love food, so nothing special. :-). The fact that he likes cooking and trying out new recipes motivated me more. And the quest to try new recipes started. We have been trying to cook all the things that we like eating out like pizza, jalapeno pretzels, thai curry, chinese and of course Indian. It is so rewarding to eat the delicious food you cooked and learned one new thing in life... We have been trying to cook one new recipe every week, though it is as simple as making Daal Dhokli (a north indian dish), its new to me. It has been fun overall...
For this new hobby, I went to a Asian grocery store yesterday to get some rice paper for Spring rolls. This store was huge, with so many varieties! I went to buy one thing and instead got ten and it cost me $10. That store was cheap. Safeway or any American grocery store is way so expensive compared to that store. The only thing I didn't like was the store had a stinky meat smell all over. Another thing my five basic sense have learnt to ignore after coming to US.
So, today I am going to make spring rolls with peanut sauce. The same peanut sauce with which this new hobby started! And hence a blog post. :-)
Hope you have a great weekend!
-P
And then, when I started working and was not a student anymore, I cooked more often. Still basic food most of the time, and something special once in a blue moon. It all started with Indonesian Peanut Saute from Noodles and Company. They have the best Indonesian Peanut Saute. I got a recipe online and made the sauce which turned out really well. It was a motivation factor!
Then I got married to a guy who LOVES food. Well all men love food, so nothing special. :-). The fact that he likes cooking and trying out new recipes motivated me more. And the quest to try new recipes started. We have been trying to cook all the things that we like eating out like pizza, jalapeno pretzels, thai curry, chinese and of course Indian. It is so rewarding to eat the delicious food you cooked and learned one new thing in life... We have been trying to cook one new recipe every week, though it is as simple as making Daal Dhokli (a north indian dish), its new to me. It has been fun overall...
For this new hobby, I went to a Asian grocery store yesterday to get some rice paper for Spring rolls. This store was huge, with so many varieties! I went to buy one thing and instead got ten and it cost me $10. That store was cheap. Safeway or any American grocery store is way so expensive compared to that store. The only thing I didn't like was the store had a stinky meat smell all over. Another thing my five basic sense have learnt to ignore after coming to US.
So, today I am going to make spring rolls with peanut sauce. The same peanut sauce with which this new hobby started! And hence a blog post. :-)
Hope you have a great weekend!
-P
Friday, September 9, 2011
Columbia River Gorge
For the Labor Day long weekend we went to Columbia River Gorge... I initially thought of writing a travelogue because it was an awesome trip. But half way through it, I thought it was getting boring. So I scrapped it.
Columbia River Gorge is place for waterfall lovers... such beautiful waterfalls and so many of them! We just covered 4-5 waterfalls of the lot. Two of them were superb - Punch Bowl Falls and Oneonta Falls. The hike to Punch Bowl falls was very unique. It was an easy 2 mile hike but the trail path was on the edge of the cliff. We missed the fork that takes you down to the falls and reached overlooking point. A guy and a girl were preparing to dive into the falls! And three of their friends were watching from where we were. People are crazy! It was almost 150 feet drop from where those two crazy kids where standing. We were desperate to go down to the falls from where you get a better view and in that desperation we were taking a very risky path down. It was then when a couple warned us not to take that path down. I am a little superstitious when someone says a "No" to something I am doing. I have had not very good experiences in such cases. So we turned back hoping that there might be an actual path down to the falls. On our way back, we saw a fork which took us down to the falls. See, that's why I am superstitious. :). The view from that place was amazing. We went late in the day so not may people at the falls. In fact just two other. We had some good time taking pictures and looking around that place.
That evening we went to the only brewery in White Salmon. White Salmon is the city where we stayed. They were celebrating their three year anniversary. We had a good burrito and enjoyed the live band... Next day was Rafting day! I was a little scared since it had been 5 years since I went rafting. But once on the raft it was fun. I wish I had gone on the Houston falls, which was 15 feet fall. The raft guide brain washed us so much saying how risky it was... but looking at it afterwards and seeing other people do it, I was sad that I did not go. Next time, may be.
Sunday evening we wanted to do Oneonta Falls, but we ended up on a wrong trail! Went on a strenuous hike and ended up on a different falls. My knees started hurting... :(. We came back from the hike and went to see Crown Point, did some night photography trying to take pictures of stars. But the moon and continuous traffic did not help. :(
We went back to hotel and I did more research on the Oneonta Falls hike. There is no special trail for this falls. You have to scramble through big wooden logs and walk through the stream a website said. Next day morning we went back to the same place and this time we took the right trail. We walked through the stream and then made our way through the tree logs only to reach a 6 feet deep stream! We had our camera bag and tripod bag on top of it. Ashutosh, my husband, managed to carry the camera bag until he could touch his legs to the bottom of the stream. I swam across and then took the camera bag from him. While swimming my tripod fell from the bag into the stream. Super adventure! Ashutosh then had to do some under water diving to get the tripod. We successfully made it to the falls while keeping the camera dry. So much fun. We took some pictures, took bath in the waterfall and then got back to the car.
Oh I forgot to mention our trip to fruit farm... Apples, Green Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Strawberry so many of them. Again took pictures and ate some fruits. The only sad part about the trip was, there was a fire near Mount Hood. So we could not get good view of the mountain. There is something about these mountains in northwest, they stand alone and hence so clearly visible! Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Helen, Mount Shuksan... I can already recognize these from the pictures.
Overall a super fun and adventurous trip. And if you have not heard Indian Ocean's Kandisa album, do check it out. It is so much fun singing the songs along. I wish they had more lyrics!
If you want to see some pictures they are here -
Punch Bowl Falls
Oneonta Falls
Columbia River Gorge is place for waterfall lovers... such beautiful waterfalls and so many of them! We just covered 4-5 waterfalls of the lot. Two of them were superb - Punch Bowl Falls and Oneonta Falls. The hike to Punch Bowl falls was very unique. It was an easy 2 mile hike but the trail path was on the edge of the cliff. We missed the fork that takes you down to the falls and reached overlooking point. A guy and a girl were preparing to dive into the falls! And three of their friends were watching from where we were. People are crazy! It was almost 150 feet drop from where those two crazy kids where standing. We were desperate to go down to the falls from where you get a better view and in that desperation we were taking a very risky path down. It was then when a couple warned us not to take that path down. I am a little superstitious when someone says a "No" to something I am doing. I have had not very good experiences in such cases. So we turned back hoping that there might be an actual path down to the falls. On our way back, we saw a fork which took us down to the falls. See, that's why I am superstitious. :). The view from that place was amazing. We went late in the day so not may people at the falls. In fact just two other. We had some good time taking pictures and looking around that place.
That evening we went to the only brewery in White Salmon. White Salmon is the city where we stayed. They were celebrating their three year anniversary. We had a good burrito and enjoyed the live band... Next day was Rafting day! I was a little scared since it had been 5 years since I went rafting. But once on the raft it was fun. I wish I had gone on the Houston falls, which was 15 feet fall. The raft guide brain washed us so much saying how risky it was... but looking at it afterwards and seeing other people do it, I was sad that I did not go. Next time, may be.
Sunday evening we wanted to do Oneonta Falls, but we ended up on a wrong trail! Went on a strenuous hike and ended up on a different falls. My knees started hurting... :(. We came back from the hike and went to see Crown Point, did some night photography trying to take pictures of stars. But the moon and continuous traffic did not help. :(
We went back to hotel and I did more research on the Oneonta Falls hike. There is no special trail for this falls. You have to scramble through big wooden logs and walk through the stream a website said. Next day morning we went back to the same place and this time we took the right trail. We walked through the stream and then made our way through the tree logs only to reach a 6 feet deep stream! We had our camera bag and tripod bag on top of it. Ashutosh, my husband, managed to carry the camera bag until he could touch his legs to the bottom of the stream. I swam across and then took the camera bag from him. While swimming my tripod fell from the bag into the stream. Super adventure! Ashutosh then had to do some under water diving to get the tripod. We successfully made it to the falls while keeping the camera dry. So much fun. We took some pictures, took bath in the waterfall and then got back to the car.
Oh I forgot to mention our trip to fruit farm... Apples, Green Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Strawberry so many of them. Again took pictures and ate some fruits. The only sad part about the trip was, there was a fire near Mount Hood. So we could not get good view of the mountain. There is something about these mountains in northwest, they stand alone and hence so clearly visible! Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Helen, Mount Shuksan... I can already recognize these from the pictures.
Overall a super fun and adventurous trip. And if you have not heard Indian Ocean's Kandisa album, do check it out. It is so much fun singing the songs along. I wish they had more lyrics!
If you want to see some pictures they are here -
Punch Bowl Falls
Oneonta Falls
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Another sketch with pencil colors. The reference picture was one of the pictures I took in Atlanta Botanical Garden. It has not turned out to be as good... Sunday night was our joint drawing time, Ashutosh was sketching Incredible Hulk and I was sketching a Tulip. Fun times.
I got my new camera Canon 60D 2 weeks back. The camera itself is very good and took some really brilliant shots. I liked the colors, the big ISO range and the max shutter speed was quite good compared to my current camera Canon XSI. But then I decided to return it, get my old camera repaired and get some more accessories instead of buying a new camera. I think my current camera is enough for the amount of photography I do, but in order to try something new I need some filters and a wide angle lens.
Last Friday, we went to Gas Works Park, from there you get to see the Seattle Skyline over South Lake Union. We packed dinner and went to the park around evening. The plan was to make a time lapse video of sunset over the downtown and lake. The video can be seen here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/98375204@N00/6070775700/ Again, not exactly as we wanted, but it was our first try. Hope to get some better ones next time.
Yesterday I was wondering, how it is to visit a place without a camera... I was not sure what I would do if I did not have a camera with me. I am being weird. :-s
Thursday, August 18, 2011
What I did today morning...
So I am done with my latest mobile application. I don't have much to do now other than thinking what to do next. So I decided to paint. I started with water colors but the paper I was using was not good for water colors. Finished what I was doing with water which did not look good at all. Then I took my pencil colors, and started sketching some flowers. It turned out nice. Painted after almost 3-4 years... Felt good. I hope to do some more in the time I have.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Beautiful Seattle
It has been more than two months since we have moved to Seattle. And I love this place so much already. Ok! I have only seen the summer till now, but hey, I think I can live the winters waiting for this beautiful summer.
Seattle is such a beautiful place. Its not only Seattle, places around Seattle are so full of greens and blues and various other colors. There are so many small locations around the city from where you can see such beautiful views of the lakes, mountains and bays. Every Thursday/Friday I do my research which place to visit on the weekend. And there are so many options to go! I am now thinking of doing trips even on the weekdays but that means I will have to go without my husband which is not so much fun.
I am waiting eagerly for my new camera. My 3 year old Canon XSi got a scratch on its sensor (I think I did it while I was cleaning the sensor :( ). I never wish for infinite amount of money, but whenever I am thinking of photography I always wish I had that infinite stash of money to buy all the camera gear I want. The list is actually not long, but still it costs a lot. When I got into photography, I knew it was an expensive hobby but then I also thought I would be working all the time. Now, that I am not working it is becoming more challenging, not that my loved ones don't support me, but me being me I will not take them for granted and spend the money on something which I enjoy. Hope to get back to work soon or hope to win a lottery! The chances of the former one are more than the latter one because I am not even betting on the lottery... he he.
Coming back to Seattle, this weekend is going to be Mt. Rainier, hopefully. It is such a beautiful mountain. I am so happy seeing it from Seattle itself. It has snowed a lot last winter, so the now has not melted yet and the wildflowers are just beginning to bloom it seems. I have to go to these places at the right time to get the best pictures. I wish to wake up at 3 am and be there before sunrise, but I will keep that for some other weekday since it will be hard to convince my husband to wake up at 3 am. :D.
I am super excited for the new camera and the weekend Mt. Rainier trip !I will post some pictures if we do go to Mt. Rainier.
Seattle is such a beautiful place. Its not only Seattle, places around Seattle are so full of greens and blues and various other colors. There are so many small locations around the city from where you can see such beautiful views of the lakes, mountains and bays. Every Thursday/Friday I do my research which place to visit on the weekend. And there are so many options to go! I am now thinking of doing trips even on the weekdays but that means I will have to go without my husband which is not so much fun.
I am waiting eagerly for my new camera. My 3 year old Canon XSi got a scratch on its sensor (I think I did it while I was cleaning the sensor :( ). I never wish for infinite amount of money, but whenever I am thinking of photography I always wish I had that infinite stash of money to buy all the camera gear I want. The list is actually not long, but still it costs a lot. When I got into photography, I knew it was an expensive hobby but then I also thought I would be working all the time. Now, that I am not working it is becoming more challenging, not that my loved ones don't support me, but me being me I will not take them for granted and spend the money on something which I enjoy. Hope to get back to work soon or hope to win a lottery! The chances of the former one are more than the latter one because I am not even betting on the lottery... he he.
Coming back to Seattle, this weekend is going to be Mt. Rainier, hopefully. It is such a beautiful mountain. I am so happy seeing it from Seattle itself. It has snowed a lot last winter, so the now has not melted yet and the wildflowers are just beginning to bloom it seems. I have to go to these places at the right time to get the best pictures. I wish to wake up at 3 am and be there before sunrise, but I will keep that for some other weekday since it will be hard to convince my husband to wake up at 3 am. :D.
I am super excited for the new camera and the weekend Mt. Rainier trip !I will post some pictures if we do go to Mt. Rainier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)