reading books

For almost a month now, I am obcessed with reading books, every moment of free time I get, I just read, and almost all of it is nonsense, useless fiction which has no association with reality what so ever. Of coruse Sci-fi is useful as it tells you what is possible in future, and gives you more ideas. But all those James Patterson's, Michael Chrichton's are simple waste of time. Why do we spend our precious time reading them? Now I have started this big book about WWII, hopefully I would be able to finish it and get some insight into history.

H2G2 - Douglas Adams

What can I say about these books, just read them (with open mind), and then re-read them, and then once more to make any sense out of them, just read them as many times as you can!!

Douglas Adams

So much as Douglas Adams has impressed me with his writing, he definately deserves a mention in my blog. I recently heard the BBC radio series of H2G2, and I am really speachless, blown over after listening to it, its just, lets say out of the world wonderfully entertaining, I think I liked it almost at par with Harry Potter. And everytime I read or hear the books, there is something new and different that you understand, which is like you are reading a totally new book. The first time I read the books, it was like a series of random sentences put together. The second time I read it, I could see the amazing way these random sentences / events are put together that they almost make sense. This time when I heard the series, I noticed that he actaully mentions microsoft and windows, of course making fun of them, absolutely witty. I really wish this is one person I could meet or at least hear speak.

Carless in NYC

and thank God for that. Its been raining / hailing / snowing (make up your mind clouds!) all day today, literally non stop. There is almost 2 inches of snow outside. And while I was waking my 2 blocks on fluffy, velvetty, snowy side walk, I was looking out on the street at all that mud, snow, messy road condition, and if I had to depend on that road to move from one point to another, no, I don't want to think about it. Its such a relief to know that you don't have to drive around anymore, don't have to worry about petrol prices or the blood sucking insurance compaies. So something good did come out of it :). But ya, i do miss getting into that car, which is like a second home, complete will full and empty waterbottles, shoes, a set of clothes, umbrella, sometimes a pillow, bunch of books and what not, putting the car in gear and then driving away at 60 on that almost empty freeway (its clear that I am not talking about 405, or for that matter I5 or 520 either), switching lanes, feeling happy about overtaking that guy in his fancy BMW, switching CDs and then switching it back to Indian Ocean, thinking if its insane or what ! But today I am happy that I don't have a car, and I am inside the 4 walls and nothing of value is outside that I am worried about ( well, of course maybe Rahul, but then he can worry about himself or he is probably also inside some 4 walls, and then India is a safe place anyway, indoors or outdoors ).

Summer is upon us

There was a time when temp in single digit was suppose to be cold, and warm or comfortable would be in 20s. Time have changed, now anything above 0 is classified as warm! After almost a week of sub-zero temperatures in NY, its finally getting above freezing here, inface its getting into double digits not. The wind chill is gone, and sun still feels good. And that reminds me, yesterday when I was sitting, doing nothing (I do that a lot these days), staring out of my window (we are very very lucky that we have a window which looks south and from which we can actaully see a couple of trees and a piece of sky). So when I was staring out of my window, it felt like something was wrong, something is missing (apart from the sun, the moon, the wind, the horizon etc. etc.). And then it hit me, clouds and rain, there is absolutely no sign of rain here, and cloud just come and go, and the sky is mostly blue, and I don't like it much (among the 1000 other things about this place). After spending 2 years in Seattle, if I do not hear the sound of drizzle, cloudy skies, it does feel that something is amiss, the constant sunshine and clear blue skies just look out of place and boring.

Chronicles of .....

Narina or Narnia ?
Do you know that its actually Narnia and not Narina. I
I read the first 2 books of series always assuming and reading that its Narina, maybe because its easier to say, seems like a more natural word. But when started the 3rd one, the name suddenly became Narnia! Well, I of course need to go back and check what the first 2 said, did they make a huge type in the first 2 books, or did Lewis suddenly decided to change the name in 3rd book. Googling for both the names result in proper references to the books with both names! So its not just me, but the whole world is confused.

Rama II by Arthur C Clarke

After a long time I have read a book which made me get back to my blog and write a review for it. Its a really good science fiction book about visitors from outer space. The first book of the series Rendezvous with Rama did not impress me so much, but this book is full of surprises. For me it was a good change after reading lot of Asimov. The two authors are really different in their approach, while Asimov believes in spreading human race everywhere, Clark (at least in this series) confines human race to solar system and created very highly intelligent extra terrestrials. If you are into scifi, its a must read, reading the first book might help understand this, but if you haven't you are not missing much.

41

ok, so what is so fascinating about the number 41 (other than that its sort of beginning of mid-life crisis). I was reading Rama II by Arthur C. Clark and came across this great fact about the number 41. Starting from 41, you can create a series of numbers, 41, 43, 47, 53... which are all consecutive primes. The series ends at square of 41, containing exactly 41 numbers!! Numbers just never fail to surprise you.

views, views, views

This weekend was about views. First we went to Raj's 17th floor apartment with its great view of New York skyline and statue of liberty. Ya, on a summer day or night when you can open all windows, it would be a amazing view, and then the river just below the apartment would make a great place for evening walks in summer.
Sunday I made another excursion to a newport 30th floor apartment. This place had amazing view of New York city streets, you can see the 'new york grid' roads going to infinity. Of course this place did not have a view of the river or manhattan skyline, but it reminded me so much of the view from the SF bus when it would be on top of the hill, looking down at the endless downtown streets.
Its amazing how just a couple of streets down from where we live the view and scenery changes so much. I am looking forward to running in that area in summer.

settling in

well, I can never really use the word "settled" "me" and "new york" in same sentece without a lot of nots and nevers. But anyway, as the fate has thrown me here, I am trying to make the best of it. Went for a walk in the neighbourhood yesterday, not bad, ok place, no Indian store nearby though. Anyway, settling in a bit, at least most of the things are unpacked and I do not have THAT much stuff, it mostly seems to fit in the apartment, given that we don't have any furniture and I don't want to aquire any to save myself trouble of disposing it off when we leave here (wow, what a day that would be). And I also realize that I am a really creative person, using packing boxes to make all sorts of shelves and cabinets etc. Works ok.

Seattle vs New York

and the score is 5000 : 1

uuh, so what did NY do to earn that point, its fabulous, great progress!! Well, it snowed here and life did not stop, roads were not a mess and side walks were walkable, train was running on time. I may be celebrating too early, as we still have a full day of snow to go thru and the story could be really different by EOD. Still, it was nice walking on the snow in the morning, despite the wind and falling wintry mix. Sidewalks were supposedly warmer as there were pipes and trains running under them. That probably made the snow not stick to the ground, but become like a powdery mix, and then there were people clearing the paths in front of their shops, great! The road was ok as it seemed to have been sanded, plus plowed or whatever. It seems that since there was not much snow this winter, all the winter road maintenance crew was charged up to keep the show going thru this storm, at least that's why they said in the news.

No change

in my feelings for NY, still hate it.
Settling down in the apartment has never been more difficult, there is of course just no space to keep everything, I guess everything just needs to sit in boxes till eternity or till I am ready to throw it all out and move back and then start the process of collecting it all again. Ya collecting it all again, so I dispose off everything back in Seattle and now I have to collect everything again or at least some basic things and without car and friends, its just impossible.

still hate it

ok, we found a palce and it looks good, tiny, but ok, there is scope for some light and air sometimes, what more do you want! There is also a closet wow! Now comes the big headache of moving, unpacking. I used to think that unpacking is so much fun, but here, with no space anywhere to keep anything, I am almost dreading taking out my clothes and stuff from the boxes. Maybe this is the time to give everything away that I have been so dearly holding on to.
anyway, so ya, I still hate it here, and even though I am so sick of moving, I sure will be happy to move out of here and back into the dreamland of west coast.
well, after all you do not always get what you want, and sometimes you get it all and just throw it away.
well, what's done is done, there is no point crying over spilled milk, its like another lesson in life for me, never move when you are happy! Now I can just try to make the best of whatever is there, spend the next year or so and look forward to the day when I can leave from here.

something to look fwd to

well, now that we have fixed on the apartment (well, almost, money has not exchanged hands yet), and the apartment has gas stove, I can look fwd to making good rotis on the gas, boil the milk and heat food on the gas which was impossible to do on the electric stoves. neat. Of course I do not have to mention that the apartment is very odly shaped, like a railroad, like you are living in a rail dabba. Kitchen is looong, with little slab space and we might have to keep our shoes in it, or clothes, still deciding on that. Living room is almost unlivable, it will just be a passage to get in and out, its going to need lot of deco skills to make this place nice and to stow away all our belongins in drawers and boxes.

I hate NY

ya, its official, I hate this palce, 1 week of stay and there is not one good thing that I can find here. Its like living in Bombay or Delhi on a low income, without the familiarity of home and convenience of social life and meeting parents, celebrating festivals.

in New York

ya, left Seattle and moved to NY, and its like a dream, a bad one. I agree that NY sort of grows on you, like a fungus, the fast life, running for train, then running to catch the slow elevator, just running running all the time. There is no realization of when one day ends and other starts, because of course you cannot see the sun set or rise, not because its cloudy like Seattle, but because sky is all covered with concrete, sun does not rise in the east, it may show up somewhere overhead if you can get out into a slightly open space and will disappear overhead too. Like fungus I want this to get off me as soon as possible. Given that I just started here, there is a long way to go. I really miss my 'american' life in Seattle, the boring american way of living with car, wall to wall carpet in apartment, dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer, closets :) Here everything is tiny, old, you need to use all your interior deco skills to stash away your belongings from plain view. The concept of kitchen slab space has not touched this place yet, with so many restaurants, I guess people do not cook here. Microwave, which I thought was as important here as stove, is absent and so is any place to keep it in kithchen. All in all, I still hate it here.

on second thought

Not about leaving Seattle, that would be 100th, but in favour of moving to NY. ya, who am I kidding, I still feel almost the same. But as the clouds of packing tension are clearing, it does not feel that bad, I am almost feeling good about starting out again at a new place, a totally new and different life, and of course living with Rahul again. I think I am sort of done with Seattle, hiked lot of the hikes around here, visited everything drivable from here, even ran the marathon. So now its time to discover the east coast. And I can see dropping of the ball next new year, all the great museums, and Niagara Falls and enjoy some extra sunshine, other bright side, get to wear really good clothes. The way people are dressed on NY streets and even in office, you automatically feel like dressing well. Here it starts seeming pointless after a while. So I can take out all my cute little dresses from box and wear then everyday without feeling over dressed :) And not that I am fond of it, but we can eat out at different place, and good food. After all I loved living and working in SF, so NY should be fun too.

Its time to say goodbye

...to Seattle. Its finally sinkingin that all the fun and masti I had in Seattle is going to be over soon. I always thought myself as a dynamic person who loves to go places and experience different lifestyle. So I should have been super excited to move to a big city, well THE big city. But even after thinking about it for a month and from every angle, I still cannot feel excited about leaving Seattle and living in New York. I had great time here, had almost everything I wanted, car, nice apartment (untill August at least), good friend circle, parties, dancing, hiking, camping blah blah. And to my surprise I am scared to leave it all behind and enter that unknown life like a commoner, no car, crammed living space, no friends, just commute into dirty crowded locals and walks through unsafe streets. At least that is my impression of my future life in New York, and I hope it turns out all wrong. Maybe I am just getting old and resisting the change!! Maybe I just got too comfortable here. Its definitely been one of the best times in my life , and I am going to miss everything about this place, 9 months of rain and cloudy skies, views of Rainier, cascades, olympics, trip to St Helens, 3 months of hiking, camping trips, game nights, pioneer square, saturday night dancing plans, wednesday night salsa plans :), AllGos, marathon, hiking after marathon practice ........ its a long list and probably I am going to miss some of the friends. I consider myself lucky to find good company here for everything I wanted to do, be it running marathon, playing 29, or sneaking off dancing, saturday dinner at temple..... and I don't believe that I am going to get anything even close to this in NY, it just does not happen in this country, people who live in big cities are busy, mean, selfish and what not! Well, the decision is made and I am leaving on Friday, maybe 6 months down the road I will be writing another blog saying how wrong I was, and how much I love NY and I cannot believe I wasted 2 years of my life in Seattle :). Ok that last part is not going to happen, Seattle is going to be my second best city and I am going to miss it for a long time, like I still miss Pune.

The tune of Don

Yesterday finally I watched the new Don. Not that I really wanted to watch it, I am not a fan of remakes and remixes, still the DVD was there and time was also there, so might as well just watch it. The movie was not too good, SRK did not really seem himself. And they tried to copy lot of scenes from the original which did not at all fit in today's context, it really seemed like a patch up work. So now what about the tune, well SRK urf Don stole my cell phone ring tone!!

blogger and google accounts

So one more google service integrated into my google accounts. Right now the integration seems like just able to sign into blogger with my Google account, which is great as i don't have to keep typing my password and remember my numerous user names. Of course there are some other Googly features like lables, which I am yet to use. And I love the new UI where I can create a new post right from the dashboard. I guess we will see more coolness here, like integration with Talk etc.