Drool Drool Drool!

Following are some pictures of a few HOT babes I came across at Sea World, taken without their permission of course. So what if they feel violated, it is not like I will see such beauties up close in the near future!

1)

Yes, I was referring to bikes. These ladies made my day!

2)

I think Robert Frost was riding this one when he wrote,
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

3)

4)

Very simple looking gauges on board

5)

Just look at the chrome work, silencer and rear tyre on this one!
Owner is a lady, how cool is that!
Sexy metallic black, heavenly…

6)

7)

That is a big engine alright! And the paint makes me go oh lala!

9)

Now that is a HUGE disc brake!

Long Weekend – Day Two

After a very tiring journey the day before, coupled with the awesome adventure at Moody Gardens and _cold_ breakfast (which also was _awesome_) in the morning, we started out to Houston. Nana and I in particular, were very keen on reaching this place as quickly as possible. It must be a guy thing, we are all gadget freaks right? Kirthi told me about his experience in NASA and we did some amount of research about the places we were to visit so as to “save” time.

The trip to NASA turned out to be neat. We were among the first ones to reach the place. We on the tram tour which took us around the Johnson Space Center. Mission Control Center, Building 9 – where the astronauts train, and Saturn V rocket display were the waypoints.

After that, we watched a couple of movies featuring “man landing on moon” and “America the Great” (“” for the obvious reasons ). The movies were good. There is a space gallery where some artifacts used by the “astronauts who landed on the moon” are displayed. Some “moon rocks” are on display too, with one in an open case for people to touch. I saw so many people going “Ooooh” and “Aaaah” when they touched it. I mean really! Come on! It reminded me of an episode from the TV Show Monk (an awesome detective series I got hooked on to here, thanks to amma) in which a thief steals the moon rock and replaces it with a replica. And guess what, nobody realizes it, lol! I agree that such a feat is quite not possible but it does make one think!

This place is a good place for kids, because they have lots of stuff to play with. A few space shuttle landing and docking at ISS simulators for everyone to try. Kirthi told me that he crashed his shuttle during landing. I played around with mine, tried to do a 360 degree turn and flip – stupid programmers did not let me. Instead some stupid voice kept telling me, “WARNING! You are approaching landing strip. Please align the circle on the square” or some crap like that. I finally landed it perfectly, poor Kirthi – it really is a piece of cake!

Having covered almost everything, we left NASA and started towards San Antonio, the home of Spurs! Pictures, good ones as always, coming in the next post…

Long Weekend – Day One – Photos

1)

See what I meant by “pyramids”? What would one expect?

2)

Inside the “Rain Forest Pyramid”

3)

OK. The reason I rarely, in fact never, appear in the photographs is because I cannot trust others to take reasonably good ones.

3)

A ray waiting for its prey

4)

Artificial Coral Reef

5)

I expected the whole pyramid to be constructed in this manner. This tunnel is just 5m long!

6)

Oooooh, Green Anaconda!

7)

I deserve a 10/10 for this!

From the hotel room

9)

These sea gulls made my day

10)

Plenty of life in the rain forest

11)

Spent a lot of time watching these birds in action because we were too tired to visit the beach. Do we not have RK beach for that matter? LOL

Long Weekend – Day One

We visited Moody Gardens on Day 1. And man! What a disappointment it was. People, DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT visit Moody Gardens on Galveston Island. Unless of course, if you are totally jobless with deep pockets and bored of the beach then this is only way. Or if you want to watch a good IMAX movie.

Why am I so disappointed by it? Well to start with, when I looked at the website for the list of attractions, I saw a picture of the location with couple of glassy pyramids in the background. Upon reading the details, I found out that those pyramids were actually an aquarium and a rain forest. So the picture I had in my mind was a spiral tunnel going all the way to the top of the pyramid, which unfortunately was _wrong_. And after visiting them I was so pissed that I actually brainstormed for a few hours to come up with a such a design.

It was the same old aquarium and the same old humid climate. Maybe I expected too much out of it. And then came the shows. A 4D theatre seems to be the norm here. What good is it anyway, if the movie is so full of crap? Some movie about the underwater life was shown with really stupid effects like poking from the inside of the back of my chair for a snakebite, vibrating chair for a jellyfish (I really do not know how they connect) and spraying water on the face for a splash effect. Then we went for a “180 degree FoV Ride Film” (FoV = Field of View, Quakers know better!). It was as pathetic as the 4D movie. No wait, it was more pathetic because I was expecting some fast paced motion sickness inducing action and got a PIXAR movie gone haywire.

Then it was time to visit “Discovery Pyramid” where artifacts retrieved from the Titanic were put on exhibit. Sad stories to read but good background music.

But the day ended well with “Grand Canyon Adventure”, a 3D IMAX movie. This is probably the best thing in Moody Gardens. Very good experience because you see, it is very unlikely that I will get to see the Grand Canyon first hand.

Some good pictures taken by _the_ photographer, yours truly, coming next.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan

The trailer looked ok. The usual Adam Sandler comedy, with an accent this time. Lots of catching up to do in the movies section. I wonder how many movies have been downloaded in the college in these 2 weeks.

Getting a haircut is an expensive affair in America. The cheapest one I have had so far is $12, here in Texas. I cannot see the point because there is minimal labour involved. which generally is the primary reason for such high prices. A simple algorithm for the the process as follows,

Assuming that you have already entered the salon,

1. Write down your name on the notepad at the desk to get in line.
2. Sit down, read some magazine, unless of course you have some other way to pass the time. For some reason, I keep finding golfing magazines in every salon I go to.
3. When you are called upon and finally seated, you will be asked for a number or a combination of numbers. This is the tricky part for they use trimmers. The trimmer trend is catching up in India as well, simple and neat. So basically, there are varied depths which the trimmer can reach depending on the type of accessory attached to it. A zero is just above getting shaved and usually a six is the highest, meaning the least amount of hair is cut. I forgot which number meant what. So I just showed him my photo from first year. LOL. He was a bit shocked, I was expecting that! And then in his Korean accent he said, “Ahh, medium!” In his mind however, it must have been something else like, “Ahh, phat boy want a airkhut!” And anything that cannot be done by the trimmer, usually the finishing touches, is done using the scissors.
4. Do not expect the hairdresser to take out a blade for shaving behind the ears and at the back of the neck. So no point in splashing some after-shave-lotion either.
5. Tipping is customary here. So unless you plan visiting some other salon the next time, please tip for we are at their mercy.

See my point? More than a dollar a minute plus tip! For ladies, hehe, a totally different story.

A very long weekend ahead.

1. 5 hour drive to Moody Gardens in Galveston, spend the night there.
2. 1 hour drive to NASA in Houston.
3. 5 hour drive to San Antonio, spend the night there.
4. Sea World in San Antonio, spend the night there.
5. 1 hour drive to Prime Outlets in San Marcos.
6. 5 hour drive to home!

Mothers’ Day

It has been a week since I have come here to spend a month in my summer vacation with my parents. And a week well spent with a lot of discussions with parents, cooking and eating excellent homemade food. Now that we have a router, I have access to the Internet 24/7. However, that was not the case before. Chelli and I kept fighting as always for time on the Internet. I need it to stay in touch with my friends and she needs it to do some stupid stuff, as always. So when she was hogging the laptop, the only form of entertainment available was TV with basic connection comprising of 40 odd channels. The Food Network and TBS happen to be the only channels with any interesting shows. Of course, Monday is CBS time. I get to watch the latest HIMYM, BBT and 2.5 Men episodes before my college does, HA!

Anyway, during these 7 days of my stay here, I could not help but notice the propaganda carried out for Mothers’ Day. It felt like the TV shows and movies were being showed in the breaks between the advertisements rather than the other way round, seriously!

1) “What are you getting for your dearest mother on this Mothers’ Day? A card, jewelley, dress?”
2) “Mothers’ Day sale, 50% discount!”
3) “Free lunch buffet for all women on the occassion of Mothers’ Day!”

LOL.

I have always wondered about the necessity of celebrating a Mothers’ Day. Why do people celebrate it? Do we really need a day to make it all women feel special? Then one might as well argue against the celebration of more established days like Birthday, Wedding and Death Anniversary. They have been looking after us since Day 1 and will continue to do so as long as it is physically possible for them. Giving your mother a day off and some gifts does not make up for the hardships faced by her during her daily routine in keeping her family happy, healthy, safe and united. Our mothers know how well they are appreciated by us. The little things that we do everyday to help her in whatever way possible deliver to her the message of love and appreciation that no other gift can.

The occassion sounds more like, “Happy Mothers’ Day amma! Thank you for all the things you have done for me till now. Here is a gift as a token of gratitude. Keep up the good work!”

However, after looking at the people here, I feel that they really need such a day after all. In a society where kids are left to fend for themselves since childhood, where they are encouraged to leave home after their 18th birthday, the need for such special days exists. The sons and daughters take it as a daunting task to even call up their parents, let alone meet them. An appointment needs to be taken by one family member to meet another. Everything has to be so formal here. So they celebrate Mothers’ Day, one of those 7 to 10 special occassions out of 365, and get back to their daily lives the very next day. I feel sorry for them, not to mention adoption of business tactics to capitalize on this issue. The sad thing is that this culture has been in existence since time immemorial, hence has very deep roots in society, and only some people realized the flaw and took the appropriate steps.

The thing which depresses me is the 180 degree change in the thinking process of Indians who come to America. After experiencing the freedom here, they start believing that American culture is superior to ours in every sense. They forget the K, P and T taught to them and instead learn Khe, Phee and Thi. It reminds me of a small joke by Russell Peters, an very good comedian, in which he points out the strange behaviour in immigrants who use American accent only when speaking English and use their native accents otherwise. I have observed that everywhere. I too did it for a couple of months in my childhood and then stopped as I found it extremely stupid. And it does not stop there, the mindset slowly turns towards the Live-Life-Independently ideology. The Indians here know what they are doing and yet, they continue doing them.

It must be understood that I am referring to the majority here, in Indians as well as Americans.

I was watching this movie, Mom, Dad and Her the other day. Almost all movies made here involve a seperated couple. And so did this one. The stupid thing about this movie though, which probably was the main reason for its poor rating of 2.8 in IMDb, was this part where the teenage daughter of the seperated parents releases her frustration over the divorce after her grandfather’s death, so typical right? In order to console their child and to make feel more independent, the parents conducted a Divorce Ceremony, similar to Birthdays and other anniversaries. Yes, you read that right, a Divorce Ceremony, to celebrate their passage into new lives. WTF . Apparently they read about such a ceremony in a book, most probably written by another American.

So a new day added to the calendar, Divorce Anniversary.
Correction: new days added to the calendar, Nth Divorce Anniversary. I do not even want to get started on this topic now.

1. Mothers’ Day
2. Fathers’ Day
-soon to come-
3. Sons’ Day
4. September 23rd Day (some random date)
5. Glad To Be Still Alive To Celebrate Today Day
6. Anything else that needs to be invented? The greeting card companies are probably blowing their brains out at this very moment for new ideas.