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Friday, November 30, 2007
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Skiing Breaks Your Bones
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"One of the most important things you will learn in the first lesson is how to get up when you fall down"
"I fell down two hundred and fifty one times on the bunny slope"
"Bob broke his bones while skiing and now he has two steel rods, some nuts and bolts taking refuge in his arms and legs"
These are the comments I have always heard about skiing. What kept me from skiing for so long? This very conception (or misconception as it turned out to be) that one inevitably ends up losing a limb or two and half the skull. I finally decided to use my brain in the decision making process and gave in last year.
Thirteen of us from work went skiing in the Poconos last winter. Most of us were first timers. We took one 20 minute lesson and headed for the bunny. By the end of the day we were the kings and queens of the bunny slope. We skied till the lifts stopped. The next day, we were the first ones on the slopes and once again skied till Sunset. We went onto the beginner slopes as well. Though we were bumping our asses against icy slopes, it was a blast. All of us returned home after having kick-ass fun out of two full days of skiing, all limbs in place.
So what about the stories of broken bones? I know these people weren't lying as it is true that injuries are common and pretty damn bad. Finally I came to know the cause, but how? To be continued...Labels: beginner slopes, broken bones, bunny slope, camelback, pennsylvania, poconos, ski injuries, ski lessons, ski slopes, skiing |
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posted by bachi
16:56
 
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Cameras and Recorders Not Allowed
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A few weeks ago I have been to a live concert of The Police in MSG (Madison Square Garden, NYC). Obviously, it was a totally kick ass show. The intention of this conversation now is not really the concert though. Instead, it is pertinent to something at the concert that grabbed my attention and threw me into a vortex of time travel. It took me into the age where people compete for smaller and smaller devices. An age where electronic gadgets converge and everything ranging from satellite phone to personal computer will be squeezed into a matchbox. Suddenly I realized I'm actually a part of that world now. All that is remaining is to be able to use your phone/music player/gps/... as toilet paper. Who knows, maybe our buddy Steve is already working on it given his ambitions and creativity.
Coming back to the point of interest, while entering the hall I saw a sign that said "cameras and recorders not allowed". I wanted to walk up to the nearest show organizer and sincerely surrender my cellphone (PDA might be a more appropriate term). I also wanted to say "I'm sorry dumb ass but how many people are carrying their cameras and recorders now a days?" It is not his fault. I really wonder how these things will turn out to be in the future. Just imagine the "disliked by everyone" record companies trying to stop people from recording live shows and security personnel aiming to curb potential criminals from taking pictures. What are they going to do, start confiscating everybody's cellphones? I'm sure these "converged devices" pretty soon will come with radar detectors and jammers to zoom by cops at 150 miles an hour and leave them wondering what just hit. So, we won't be allowed even to carry a cellphone while driving. Forget about talking on the phone while driving.
In any case, it is fun to imagine and also to witness how devices get smaller and smaller and will be able to handle everything from making a call to wiping one's bottom.Labels: camera, cellphone, gps, internet, madison square garden, music player, pda, radar detector, recorder, rock concert, the police |
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posted by bachi
16:36
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Monday, November 12, 2007
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Just Do It
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This can also be found on SpongeFish
Mr. 'Million Things' is quite busy and has been working 25 hours a day, 8 days a week on a product soon to be released. But he also has a very active social life and other activities that include traveling, photography and writing blogs. Since, unfortunately, a day is limited to only 24 hours and that Mr. 'Million Things' is already squeezing out an extra one hour of it, sharing his knowledge (though very limited) and experiences with others took a big blow. Then came to his rescue, a spark from the cosmos. I'm this Mr. 'Million Things' and the spark is SpongeFish.
I have been quite busy at my work for more than a year now as our company is planning to launch a product sometime soon. If one leaves a computer running for weeks and months without reboot, chances are very high that it needs a reset before it completely crashes. Similar was the case with me and I managed to steal a week off from work for my cross-country road trip. It was a total reset and I was back into action after returning from the trip. Now I wanted to share my experience on this virtual rendezvous of Internet but could not manage until one day I saw a comment to one of my blog's asking if I would be interested in putting my travelogue on SpongeFish and that there was a contest ending on the 12th of Oct. This comment was made on the 4th and that grabbed my attention only on the 7th. Just 5 days to share the entire trip? Not an easy task. I took a look at the website and decided to give it a shot. But as the saying goes "procrastination is like a credit card. You enjoy it till you get the bill", I kept delaying it and on the 10th realized I didn't have enough time, especially with my given work schedule and also that I was heading for Chicago on the 12th by 8:00 PM flight.
This was the time when I took a couple of moments to myself and thought about the situation. I have been putting things on the back burner forever. I wanted to change this, at least for once. This made me even more determined to participate in the contest, not with an anticipation of winning a prize but with a hope of winning over my "let me do it later" attitude. Here is the chain of events that followed.
1. I canceled my tickets to Chicago
2. Started to write
- while having breakfast
- during lunch
- midnight to the moment I crashed into bed
3. Just about an hour before midnight PST (2 AM for me), I stopped, after putting as much as I could on the paper
4. Hit the "publish" button on SpongeFish
5. I saw instantly people started to like it. I was very glad
6. The SpongeFish community picked it up as one of the best
7. I won the cool little iPod Touch. Thanks to SpongeFish :-)
8. I started to find more time to contribute the little I know and learn a lot from others
It is wonderful how this all happened. I feel as if I started to create time out of thin air. The fact is that I started just to manage it better. Trying to get the priorities right.
Now imagine I went ahead and traveled to Chicago giving up on my narrative and chickening out. I wouldn't have shared my experience here, it would have got washed away in the waves of my memory. The motivation I got when I realized so many people liked it wouldn't have existed. I wouldn't have won anything and hence there wouldn't have existed the element of success that acted as fuel to the next event. This chain reaction would have continued and left me in disapproval with myself. But now, I ended up as a winner of both the prize and aslo the procrastination factor.Labels: canonball run, chain reaction, contest, inspiration, ipod touch, just do it, know the unknown, motivation, share the knowledge, spongefish |
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posted by bachi
19:56
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