Kid on the Swing
A playful kid on a swing at a nearby park.
1 comment | October 9th, 2008 at 03:41pm
Ike and us…
Its over a week and a half now since we faced Hurricane Ike. Well, for my readers from India….Hurricane is nothing but Cyclone, as its known in India.
So, how did it all go ?
It was a major storm, and the first and worst we ever faced. Hurricane Ike hit Galveston as a strong category 2 hurricane with wind speeds of up to 110 mph (~178 kmph!). Galveston is the coastal area which took the direct hit. Within Houston, which is around 55 miles away from Galveston, the wind speeds were around 90 to 100 mph. The Eye of the hurricane passed directly over Houston downtown (city center).
We live in the Houston Suburb called Katy which is on the west end of Houston. Luckily for us, we were on the clean side of the hurricane, but we did get winds of up to 80 to 85 mph! Its not just the wind, its wind and rain like you have never seen before. The sound of the wind is awful & scary!
I really appreciate the city of Houston for the way they handled this unfortunate event. They were very well prepared for this hurricane (after the lessons they learn’t from Rita and Katrina). They ordered evacuation of areas that were really needed (unlike whole of Houston during Rita — which lead to major problems on the evacuation routes). The city Mayor Bill White and Judge Ed Emmett did a commendable job. I can’t imagine our city corporators and politicians back in India doing such a amazing job.
Ike was a very big hurricane in terms of size (around 400 miles in diameter), with the eye being around 50 miles wide. Ike made landfall at Galveston Island at around 2.10 AM on 13th September (Saturday morning). And due to its size, we felt the winds pickup in Katy area around 6 hrs prior to landfall. (more…)
2 comments | September 24th, 2008 at 05:29pm
Wonderful Creativity…
Now that i think of it, being in the US, I miss the Indian Advertisements! Well, some of the Indian Ads are very very creative…
Check out this Happy Dent ad…amazing creativity…
Here is the first version of the Happy Dent Ad (old one):
There are tons of such creative & funny ads — and I spent a few hours seeing them on youtube yesterday! :)
2 comments | September 9th, 2008 at 04:22pm
My New Toy - HTC Touch Diamond
The latest toy thats keeping me busy: HTC Touch Diamond
It Rocks!
3 comments | August 17th, 2008 at 09:24am
I am alive!
Yup, its been a long long time since I posted. So this post is to tell everyone that I am alive :)
Life has been pretty hectic off late. Moved into a new project and so far I have been liking it, and its keeping me busy!
On personal front, Chitra and Amogh are back in Houston and are doing great. Amogh took about a week to recover from the jet-lag, but now his biological clock is set to Houston timezone! :)
Its fun to see him learn new tricks & grow! :)
Add comment | August 16th, 2008 at 02:20pm
Back in Houston
It has been pretty hectic. The much anticipated vacation came and went past soo soon. Landed back in Houston on 3rd June. Well, must say the 1 month vacation was really hectic. Sooo many things to do, places to visit, and soo little time! Well, that’s how it is I guess!
Things done/Places visited in one month:
- Around 4 trips to Karkala - Visited Karkala Sri Venkataramana Temple, Tellar Devaki Krishna Temple and other deities, visited relatives - √
- Attended Karkala Rathosava (Carfestival, Teru) - √
- Two trips to Puttur - visited relatives, temples - √
- Trip to Manipal - Visited Relatives, MIT, and Manipal — back to Mangalore via Udupi - √
- Visit to Gurpur Satyadevata temple - √
- Visit to Chennai - For visa stamping (via Bangalore). The trip was uneventful. Amogh was pretty quite on all the flights. - √
- Bharat Mall - √
- Around 4+ visits to Infosys Managlore (Mangala) - √
- Upgraded home computer (in mangalore) with more RAM and networking support - √
- Setup a wireless network at my home - √
- Attended Swami Ramdev’s Yoga classes in Mangalore - √
- Pabbas - Chocolate Dad, Tiramisu, Parafait - √
- Cherry Square - Some like it hot - √
- Chefs, Prax - √
- Family Photos by Professional Photographer - √
- Most of Mangalore City, Kadri Temple, Venkataramana Temple - √
- Visited/met lot of relatives - √
Now that its all over, I am back to work. …….. and I am missing Chitra and Amogh. Both of them are back in Mangalore and will join me in sometime. I don’t know how Amogh would react once he is back here in US!…since he likes to have lot of people around. I have posted some of Amogh’s pics on my Orkut Profile! Check out if you are on my orkut friend list.
Well, on work front, I would be joining a new Project here at BP. So, kind of excited about it.
That’s pretty much it for now!
Add comment | June 18th, 2008 at 04:52pm
In Mangalore - on vacation!
Well, I am in Mangalore these days on vacation. I will be here for a month. Its more than two years since I left Mangalore. We landed here on May 4th and I would be traveling back on June 2nd. Chitra and Amogh will stay back for sometime here at Mangalore and join me later.
The past couple of days have been kind of very hectic!.. So little time and soo much to do…….. wish I had more vacation. In between all this we need to travel to Chennai for my VISA Stamping coming weekend.
Mangalore - As a city has changed a lot. Lot of new building …, actually ‘big’ buildings! :)… I am yet to visit the “Bharat Mall” and the “Empire Mall” here in Mangalore… just got a chance to see it from outside…. The land/real estate prices in Mangalore have skyrocketed.. and doesn’t make sense at all. Its impossible for the middle and upper middle class to buy a decent piece of land in the city any more.
When I left Mangalore two years back, there was nothing called traffic jam, but now, .. I see traffic problems everywhere.
The weather now here is typical mangalore summer. Very warm and humid.
More later…
PS: I actually typed this around May 16th, but could only post it today (June 16th)!
1 comment | May 16th, 2008 at 12:20pm
Dell Inspiron 1420 upgraded from Intel 3945ABG to 4965AGN
Well, we have a Dell Inspiron 1420 [did i mention that before? :)]………. and when we purchased it back in Nov ‘07, it came with an Intel 3945ABG WiFi card. The Intel 3945ABG card supports speeds of upto 54 Mbps (802.11g). Its good for accessing the internet, but its slow when you do file transfers between nodes on the local network.
So.., over the past week, upgraded our home network…which involved:
1. Replacing my old D-Link DI-524 router with an 802.11n router
2. And replacing the WiFi Card on the laptop with an 802.11n capable card (Intel 4965AGN WiFi Link card).
Linksys WRT600N Router
For #1, I purchased a Linksys WRT600N router — which is a wireless-N gigabit dual-band router, with storage link — which means, you can connect a USB drive to it, and that drive would be available on your network! (kind of like network attached storage - NAS). So, now, my 750GB Seagate external drive is plugged into it, and all its partitions are now accessible wirelessly as a shared folders! (more…)
2 comments | April 12th, 2008 at 11:17pm
B-B-Q Anyone?
B-B-Q Anyone ? - Click to Zoom
This is my first true HDR image!.
What do you say?
1 comment | April 11th, 2008 at 08:43pm
…baby boy Amogh!
Me and Chitra became proud parents of a baby boy on 08-Feb-08! And life has not been the same since then :). Well, that also explains why there are no posts on this blog for a long time now! :)
We have named him Amogh (after Lord Ganesha). He weighed 6lb 8oz (2.97kgs) at birth.
Well, the little one is doing great, and is already 7 weeks old now. Gosh! How fast time flys by!.
He is pretty active now a days and learning to coordinate movements of his hands and legs :) Its fun to be with him and see him grow :)
More later!…
3 comments | March 31st, 2008 at 11:04am
