Around these Parts of the World...

Classical music faves

2010-08-27T14:14:00.003-05:00

Some of my favourite classical music saved at YouTube:

Table for two

2007-12-04T14:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the land of cold and snow. This is the scene on the deck at the back of our home. It has been snowing for the past three days now.

Snow

2007-12-04T14:20:00.000-05:00

The snow season has started. Precisely, it started on the last day of November. There were a couple of not so significant snowfalls earlier in November as well.

On Saturday morning our running group met at 7:00AM while the snowfall was still going strong, and with more than three inches of fresh snow on the ground. I had bought a running jacket the previous night anticipating the crappy Saturday morning - so, I ran with the group as well, instead of wussing out. I ran 6 miles. The thick snow under the feet made it feel like running on soft beach sand. The many layers of clothing provided excellent warmth, but the wind was harsh on the face and the heavy snow drastically reduced visibility.

It was a very interesting run. And here it is being recorded for posterity.

This is our backyard now.

Opportunity knocks!

2007-11-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

There are two new tremendous opportunities to give.

First one: the category five cyclone in Bangladesh has killed more than 400 people, and hundreds of thousands of people have been rendered homeless. (See BBC news story here) Bangladesh, the neighbours in the East to us Indians, has always had it rough - they lost nearly a quarter million people to a cyclone in the early 90's and it is not uncommon at all for the yearly monsoon to wipe away all but a little of their infrastructure repeatedly.

You may give towards this cause via the trusted World Vision organisation.

The second opportunity is the flood ravaged Southern part of Mexico: more than a million people have lost their homes and there is a dire need for essentials as result of the floods earlier this month and the ensuing mudslides. As the wealthy neighbour in the North, Mexico is certainly our neighbour in Jesus-speak. (See the Good Samaritan story)

You may donate for the Mexican cause too via World Vision. World Vision is very well experienced in disaster relief work and they are highly regarded and trusted world-wide.

Nobel for Gore

2007-10-12T08:04:00.000-05:00

This is a big thing: Al Gore along with a UN Panel (IPCC) has won the Nobel Peace Prize for their initiatives against climate change and global warming. (See news story from BBC here)

While people bicker and moan about a politician being given the Nobel Prize, I am very pleased because this award will likely have some big impacts and implications.

First off, this is a big blow to the naysayers of global warming. That is an enormous thing. There have been reports of the government fudging the climate change reports to soften the effects of global warming, but now we have heard from unbiased third parties. Of course, many are very likely to still ignore this and call it a big conspiracy, but many others will sit up and take notice.

Shall we say that this compels us even more to invest in exploring and researching alternate sources of energy - and push towards less reliance on conventional sources? Perhaps we could start dreaming of less gas-guzzlers on the road and more 40 MPG or greater vehicles?

Now we could also expect more of a collective push from local communities towards going green. Many grass root movements are likely to start in this vein - the power of grass root movements is never to be underestimated.

This is a good day for the earth.

Pictures of India - from a kite

2007-09-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

The BBC has these series of pictures (click here) of India taken by Nicholas Chorier who specialises in kite photography. Yes, kites. Chorier makes and flies 40-sq-foot kites from which a camera that is remotely controlled (from ground by Chorier) takes pictures. Neat rig, eh?

This is a picture of Jama Masjid, Delhi:

"I have shot thousands of pictures above India. I love India, its sounds, smells, colours, people. Shooting India is so rewarding to my senses," Chorier says.

Mera Bharat Mahan Hai!

2007-09-24T13:48:00.000-05:00

India wins its first major trophy in cricket since 1983 today by beating arch rival Pakistan by 5 runs! Woohoo!

Jai India!

No Impact Man

2007-09-19T11:47:00.000-05:00

This story from BBC lead me to this fellow's blog: click here for the story and here for the blog.

The news story is about a man who describes himself as "a guilty liberal finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nut, turns off his power, composts his poop, and while living in New York City, generally turns into a tree-hugging lunatic who tries to save the polar bears and the rest of the planet from environmental catastrophe while dragging his baby daughter and Prada-wearing, four seasons-loving wife along for the ride".

So this guy talks about using his bicycle for all transportation, not using refrigerator (which he says has forced the family to eat fresh fruit and vegetables everyday), washing machine, or lights - because of no electricity, not using toilet paper, walking nine flight of stairs to avoid using the elevator, etc.. He says he is on this experimental project for a year. His higher goal is to get the message of conservation to the community, the city, the country, and eventually all over the world.

Now, this may seem a bit excessive, but I like a lot of his points. He says that there is more to it than what meets the eye: apparently, this seems to have brought his family together - no TV, their days are spent around the dinner table, so more lively and useful conversation, healthy living, etc..

I have always been a conservationist - saving water and electricity at every possible opportunity, recycling religiously, opting for smaller and more efficient cars, etc. - but this guy Colin Beavan gives me more ideas.

Some of the things that I think would go a long way:

Cutting down of gasoline consumption - use smaller cars; using bicycles, public transportation, or shared transportation. Also promote green / hybrid cars.
Recycling. I wish every state and city would take this seriously. New York for example recycles much more than Florida. In Florida, recycling even telephone books was difficult. There are so many things that are difficult to recycle (even in Super New York) - electronic goods, metallic things, hardware, bicycle tyres, etc.. I wish it were easier. Perhaps the government could give tax credits for recycling? And perhaps the government could penalise companies that make products that are packaged in non-recyclable material? I think recycling is key, next to gasoline consumption.
Use less plastic and paper. I always remind my wife to not be in a haste to print things from the internet so as to not waste paper.
Smoking. What's stopping us from banning smoking altogether? Another reason I love NY: smoking is prohibited pretty much everywhere - the state has made it difficult for smokers.
Cutting down on water and electricity consumption. Or perhaps reducing the wastage of water and electricity.

Unfortunately, conservation is so politicised. The right wing thinks that it is for tree-huggers and liberals. Why?

Test - Video Player from YouTube

2007-08-27T12:47:00.001-05:00

The story of running

2007-08-23T10:26:00.000-05:00

I ran my first half-marathon in Nov 2001 in Melbourne, FL. Since then I have succumbed to leg injuries multiple times and mentally decided that long distance running was not for me. Then I took up cycling and swimming, and eventually entered into triathlon. The cross-training offered by the three sports is enormous for me! But in the back of my mind I have always wanted to attempt another half marathon. And then a full marathon as well!

I trained hard for Gasparilla 2005 (Tampa, Florida), but I fell ill two weeks before the race and I had no choice but to call it off.

Last year when I moved to Rochester, I learned about the Rochester Marathon and I was thoroughly inspired to run it in 2007! That's the background.

So, I have been training hard for the half-marathon, which is on Sept. 16, and the outlook for the race looks good at this point! Thank God!

I ran 10 miles this morning; I intend to run 11 miles next Thursday and then 12 miles on the following Thursday (Sept. 6) - and finally taper off the following week ahead of the race on Sunday.

Training runs have been eventful - otherwise they would be so bleeding monotonous, won't they?

Ahead of this morning's long run, last night Christine and I drove around the course looking for a spot to hide a water bottle and some energy gel - so that I could use them during my run the next morning. We found a convenient tree near mile 6, and we carefully hid a bottle of water and some gel. This morning as I was taking a break next to the tree, and downing my invaluable energy supplies, I could not help but notice the number of curious onlookers staring at me strangely. I just smiled at them. Last Thursday, I asked Christine to drive by the course with the supplies and meet me near mile 5. Poor thing, she just could not locate me on the road. Apparently, she drove around for 20 minutes looking for me, and then she started panicking fearing the worst - until she found me near mile 6. She is very sweet!

And I have lost two toe nails and my feet are not very good looking at this moment with blisters everywhere. But, as they say, no pain, no gain.

One Year Anniversary

2007-08-15T17:42:00.000-05:00

I had forgotten that I had a blog!

Believe it or not, it's been a year since we got married! Time has flown by without asking for my permission.

We went to Montreal, Canada to celebrate our first anniversary.

On Sunday we went to church there. We both were thrilled about the church (People's Church of Montreal) - it was very multi-cultural and very mission-minded. We still talk about that church.

For pictures from Montreal, click this

1 Year Wedding Anniv

Get your motor running...

2007-04-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday morning's group run was very good! I ran 5 miles in 42.13 mins. It was the first time for me since last April's race in Melbourne (Eye of the Dragon) that I had run 5 miles at sub 8.30 min pace.

(I had run the above 10K race in 48.28 mins. So I have a long way to go to catch up to my last year's form.)

The weather here is starting to be very nice these days; so everyone and their aunts are outside running or cycling. The city has morphed itself quite a bit for Spring / Summer with a lot of activities and festivities. Who from the tropical regions like me would have guessed that weather dictated much around these parts of the world?

Change of colours

2007-04-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago the tree outside my window was red like this:

Today it is all green like this:

Then there is another tree in our front yard that is dark maroon / purple. This is most interesting.

Cycling in Florida

2007-04-27T17:08:00.000-05:00

Last week in Florida, I rode with my friends Brian (below) and Gary twice totalling 60 miles or so. On the Saturday's ride we got thoroughly wet in a torrential down pour.

I also ran four miles on Sunday, going over Melbourne causeway for old time's sake. I must admit, at 7:00AM it was quite hot.

We both enjoyed our visit to FL. It was packed with work and plenty of visits to friends' homes and dinners.

Snow fall on April 16, 2007

2007-04-27T16:53:00.000-05:00

We woke up to this on April 16. Of course, the next day we had six or more inches of wet soggy snow.

Let it snow?

2007-04-05T09:46:00.000-05:00

It's the 5th of April today, and it snowed here. Rats. It's quite cold as well at 25F. This snow pattern is likely to last for another week. Stark raving mad!

I heard this joke about the seasons in Rochester: "There are four seasons here - winter, June, July, and August". It sounds silly, but there is a lot of truth to it.

My sister living in Edmonton, Alberta, exclaimed similar sentiments as well about their weather patterns when they had a big snow fall two days ago, after apparently a week of nice and warm weather.

Enough about the weather.

In other news...

Hands up if you didn't know that we still have not sold both of our homes in Florida? That was only until yesterday, because Christine's house was sold yesterday! Oh what a joy and a blessing! There was much rejoicing at our home last night, and we even went out to celebrate the cause a tiny bit.

We are going to Florida for a week long for my work! Looking forward to seeing all my mates there. I have planned for a few cycling / running sessions as well with some training mates there.

Last week saw 19 miles of running and 45 miles of cycling and two swim sessions adding to a mile or more. Very nice, I thought.

Happy Easter to all! The Lord is risen!

Signs of Spring?

2007-03-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

This tree was the first one to show signs of Spring around our home. Would anyone know what tree this is?

Now almost all the snow / ice has melted and disappeared, and the green grass underneath all the snow is growing up. It's puzzling why the grass here does not turn brown, wither away and just freeze to death in the winter. The grass is always green here, even under a foot of snow and ice.

Apples

2007-03-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

We picked these apples from a nearby farm.

Dumb cardinal

2007-03-23T08:44:00.000-05:00

This dumb female cardinal kept pecking on the glass window for a while. What was it trying to get from inside the home?

The moon

2007-03-23T08:38:00.000-05:00

What I really need is a tripod, so I can have better vantage points.

This was taken last night. The black bits that you see on the moon are tree branches.

Poncho for my Windows

2007-03-22T17:28:00.000-05:00

Rain falling on my office window:

Spring?

2007-03-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Today, as the meteorolgists put it, was a mild day! It was a balmy 54 this afternoon. To celebrate the departure from the cold and freezing temperatures Christine wore a pretty skirt to work today.

And I rode bike this afternoon with the senior pastor of our church (Calvary Chapel). We rode ~17 miles. I was on Christine's mountain bike and he was on his road bike. It felt oh so wonderful to be riding on the roads again.

Now we have the birds chirping, ice and snow melting, roads getting cleaner, and the days getting longer. It is getting better around these parts! Thanks to God and his marvellous creation.

Serving the Under-served

2007-03-06T22:59:00.000-05:00

Christine and I had a speaking opportunity at a local high school (Fairport High School) in a forum that is meant to promote global perspective among the students.

We got to speak to nearly three hundred students in three groups / periods. We felt that we were well received. Even though the students did not ask many questions during our presentation, quite a few came and spoke to us very excitedly afterwards.

Our presentation titled Serving the Under-served, covered our backgrounds, the state of the poor of the world, the distribution of wealth and resources among the different people sections, why we should help the poor and the needy, our heart for the poor and the under-privileged, our involvements in humanitarian projects and mission trips.

The school's newspaper Lampion has a nice write up about our talk here: it is called Friday Forum Inspires FHS Students to Think Globally - the second topic on the front page.

The above article is fairly accurate, except for a few mistakes: only Christine was going to go to New Orleans for Katrina-relief work (actually, she is there now this week); and to India / Mexico as well in Summer for mission trip. Otherwise, we felt that this article was very well written.

After that talk, we have been getting knowing-nods and hello's from youth working in Target and Wegmans (local grocery shop chain) - it's neat! The other day the kid checking out my groceries at Wegmans, recognising me from the talk at the high school, went on tell me at lengths about how he felt compelled now to go and visit other countries and experience other cultures.

Christine loves these speaking opportunities. She has given two other well-publicised speeches since then. We enjoyed speaking together at the school.

That was the very first time for me to visit a high school in the US, while the school was in session. So I was very curious about the goings-on there. The principal of the school, a kind-hearted gentleman, gave us a nice tour of the school.

Book: Walking from East to West

2007-02-26T11:04:00.000-05:00

I am reading this book by Ravi Zacharias. So far, I have read nearly 100 pages. This is the first book for me by this author. I have come to like this book a lot because the author and I seem to share a lot of similar sentiments.

Christine gave this book to me as part of her wedding-day gift, because of a lot of similarities in Ravi Zacharias' and my backgrounds: we both were born in Tamil Nadu, India, speak Tamil, moved to the Americas in our early 20's, married white girls, etc.. I did not appreciate this insight from Christine much then, but now I appreciate her gift of this book a lot.

Besides the strong faith inspirational part, this book has also educated me quite a bit about Indian tradition. You learn about the early German-Swiss churches in Kerala, Mughlai cuisine (India supplied the spices, and the Mughals brought in the almonds, cashews, and creme), and close details of life in Delhi, to name a few, from this book.

This is a recommended read.

On a related note, I am also reading in parallel these books: Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie, The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, and a biography of Che Guevara which I started quite a few months ago.

Sledding

2007-02-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Christine and I went sledding today with another couple. We went to nearby Mendon Ponds Park, a massive park with terrain that is absolutely perfect for sledding.

When we had gone there a few weeks ago with another set of friends there was snow at least a foot deep, but this time it was a bit thin. However, it did not stop us from having lot of fun!

We had 4 sleds - three circular ones that we labeled flying saucers and the fourth one resembling a traditional sled. We tried several combinations with the sleds, including 'chaining' them with all four going down the slope front-to-back, each holding on to the person in the front. This was called a Caterpillar.

We did this until 5:00PM or so when a light consistent snow fall set in. The light snow fall did turn into heavy snow within an hour, though.

The coldest run

2007-02-24T10:45:00.000-05:00

I think this morning's run was the coldest one ever for me. It was 13F, and with wind chill the temp was 2F. Very rough!

The run was with the local running group. Being the slowest in the group of three (today) I was asked to set the pace. I was hoping to set a pace of 8' 30", but it was very difficult - perhaps I was setting a 8' 45" pace. To make it harder, a tall hill was chosen for the route.

Nevertheless, I managed.

It was so cold that the tear drops (my eyes watered constantly!) on my eye lashes froze into big balls of ice! It was such an awkward thing.

The other two, who are excellent runners, were very kind to me, though.

It was a great run overall, and I am very happy that I did it. Ran a total of nearly 4 miles in ~35 mins.

A cardinal outside my home office

2007-02-22T11:27:00.000-05:00

From Winter

Spring is here!

2007-02-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

At least it feels like Spring is here. This morning the temp was a balmy 39F, with the forecast predicting it to rise up to 43F! Until today, we had not seen 30+ in more than a month. It is a welcome change, mate.

As soon as I heard the weather report I called out to Christine that I was going out for a run, and quickly jumped in to running clothes and shoes. I ran nearly four miles and it was such a bliss!

The side walks still had a couple of inches of snow at places, so I had to run on the road to avoid such spots; nevertheless, it was a sweet run. No treadmill run can compare to a run outside.

Finished the run at 8:40AM and joined Christine for breakfast.

Ride report - Feb 11

2007-02-12T10:58:00.000-05:00

I rode with a friend here last evening for 15 miles or so. The ride was interesting to say the least.

The temp was 22F, with a wind of 10 - 12MPH. There was at least a foot of snow on the sidewalks and road-sides, but the roads were cleared. So I bundled up in the best of winter wear and got out.

Naturally, riding the road bike was out of question, so I rode Christine's mountain bike, after having switched the Look pedals from my bike. Her bike is a neat and light-weight bike with dual disk brakes and other bits of fanciness.

My friend Remo is a very seasoned rider, putting around 6000 miles every year on his bike. He is an excellent climber.

We decided to do four loops of a five-mile circuit. All that I felt in the first run was the cold, and my incompetency in switching gears on the bike. (It was the first time for me on a mountain bike). I also started noticing ice in my drink. No problem. I shook the bottle hard; and I had my drink.

The next loop was fairly ok. By now I had warmed up, and my fingers and toes were warm, too. Nevertheless it was difficult, since it was the first time for me on the bike since a mid-December ride. By now the water bottle was much more frozen and I had to beat it really hard to get a drink out of it.

The third loop was strange. The sun was almost set and so it was a little more chillier, and the water bottle was completely frozen - I could not get a single drop out of the bottle. But I felt quite warm, thanks to the several layers of clothing.

We decided that we would stop after three loops (15 miles), because of the lack of light. And we were two miles away from finishing at home. I was drafting Remo now, but all of a sudden I started feeling a bit light-headed. Nevertheless, I focused hard and stayed on his wheel and we finished.

We quickly peeled off the outer layers and went inside Remo's home to warm up. Inside I noticed Remo's face was quite flushed and blue. By now we both felt horribly light-headed and feeble. It was a very strange feeling that we could not explain why. Then Remo's wife Patti made us an excellent meal after eating which our lives came back and we started feeling normal again. Once we were okay we realised that if we had gotten in any trouble in the last mile of our ride - anything as little as a flat tire - we would not have had the presence of mind to get through the problem, and so we would have gotten ourselves in a deep soup!

On a related note, Remo commented that I spin a lot, and he encouraged me to use a bit higher gears and make my muscles work a bit harder.

New blog

2007-02-12T10:55:00.000-05:00

We begin this blog with a picture of Tine taken this morning before she left for work.