My First I/N Trip - San Jose -> Tucson -> Los Angeles

How did I end up on a Trip to U.S. ? ( Quick Recap )
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Finally, I ended up entering the Flight :)

I got indications of what to expect when they told me that Standard Meal ( Food Preference specified in the Ticket ) translates to Chicken or Beef in their language. I replied that I was a Vegetarian. As the Flight was not completely full, they were able to arrange for a Vegetarian Meal fortunately.

My Flight Itinerary was Bangalore to Dubai – 4 Hours, Dubai to Los Angeles – 16 Hours. Bangalore to Dubai Flight was a breeze. By the time you finish the food served, sleep ( Had to as the Flight started around 4 A.M. ), explore the In-Flight Entertainment System, you can hear an announcement saying that the Flight is about to land in Dubai !

I spent short intervals in between peeking through the window ( I still remember How much I strained my Neck during my First Flight ). If its Night, you could see the Roads & Street Lights combining to appear as Lava from a Volcano. If its Morning, you are in the clouds.

I have a doubt.

Why does every Light look Yellow when seen from top ? Or Is it only Me ?

I watched Mountains covered with Snow for the first time. Excitement wore off very soon. May be too much of anything is also bad. What do you say ?

I came back to the In-Flight entertainment system. I was able to clear 5 Movies out of my backlog of 50. I watched Good Movies like Shrek forever after, Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia. In-Flight Entertainment includes Multi-Player Gaming. Sadly, no Age of Empires.

You might be knowing that Beverages are complimentary in Flights. I watched in amazement as a fellow passenger emptied 8 Pegs of Vodka in a 3.5hr Flight and stocked 2 more for future !

Do you believe in Beginner's Luck ( Principle of Favourability ) introduced in The Alchemist ?

Seat beside me is vacant in all the Onward Flights ( Mind you, all the 4 onward Flights ).

All the Return Flights are packed completely ( Mind you, all the 3 return Flights ).

How about now ?

After reaching San Jose ( My Brother's place ) Airport, I had some tense moments as my baggage didn't arrive at the Carousel and I don't even have a phone to call my Brother.

However, Beginner's Luck prevailed.

I found my baggage inside Airline Office ( I went there to lodge a complaint of missing baggage ).

A fellow passenger gave me Phone to make a Call !

First day, We ( Myself, Brother and Vodina ) went for a Trek. Treks here look completely different from India. Paths are well marked and well connected.

No chance of singing Songs like

Right O' Left O'

Left O' Right O'

ముందుకో వెనకకో పై పైకో కిందకో

అసలు ఎందుకో ఎక్కడికో

Lets Go Go Go Go Go

Its called Matt Davis Trail. ( Basically Trek with Sea in the backdrop )

Beautiful View from the Trek Path.

I felt like saying,

Sea or Sky – How does it matter ? - Both are endless, look empty and beautiful. Isn't it?

My Brother and Vodina trekking along.

Hurrah, I did it !

I reached the End of the Trail. ( End of the Trail is unfortunately not the Peak of the Mountain. )

I couldn't stop comparing U.S. with India.

Though People say,”Be a Roman when you are in Rome”.

Some of the observations, I made.

• Clear Skies - You can see the Stars unlike in Bengalooru.
• Empty Roads - You can call them deserted, unless you have a super natural ability to communicate with a species commonly called Cars.
• Closed Houses - All Houses look similar but Beautiful.
• Cold Climate, Cold Food, Cold Water with Ice Cubes added - This left me wondering. How can they manage with Cold Food in a Cold Climate ? I recollect an incident. During the Conference, they were serving Cold Water with Ice Cubes. I asked for Plain Water. Can you guess What happened ? They served Cold Water without Ice Cubes.
• De-caffeinated Coffee - Its possible only in U.S. Why drink Coffee without Caffeine ?
• Obsession with Right Side - Driving on Right Side of the road. Steering on Right Side of the car. I can accept. However, I was amused when I found that in American Flights, you need to strap the seat belt from Right Side unlike from Left Side in other Flights.
• Capitalism at its Best and Worst - I didn't take a Laptop along. When I reached Los Angeles, I thought of sending an e-mail to my Brother and Father that I reached Los Angeles safely. I went to a Computer Kiosk and started Browsing. However, on checking the rate at which I am being charged - $5 for 10 Minutes, My Heart started racing along.
• Water is sold, while Ice Cubes are complimentary :)
• Nothing is fixed. All rates are floating - The Conference, I attended is at Tucson. TI wanted us to book Hotels in advance so that we get best deals. ( Don't know whether its best deal for Hotel or for us ). When I checked the rates 20 days in advance, it was around $150 per day. With TI's discount coupon, it was $99. Once I reached Tucson, I was curious to know the rate if I book then. Believe it or not, it was $89 per day without any discount coupon. Even TI got fooled :)

 

My Presentation was on the last day of the Conference. Though it went well, I was little unhappy that there were only few people. According to my calculations, 50% of participants bunked the Conference that day !

Fennighan's Restaurant inside the Conference Venue.

After much discussion and deliberation ( I would like to say ), we decided to go to Universal Studios at Los Angeles for the week-end. Flight from Tucson reaches Los Angeles at 7 A.M. We have a shuttle to Universal Studios at 7:45 A.M. from the Hotel. If we miss it, the only option left is travel by bus & train for 2 hours.

We reached LAX ( Los Angeles Airport ) by 7 A.M.

We waited for the Baggage at the Carousel for almost 15 Minutes – 7:15 A.M.

15 more Minutes for the Shuttle to Radisson Hotel – 7:30 A.M.

Reached the Hotel at 7:40 A.M.

When we went to the Reception for Keys, we overheard a Tour Guy saying,”Star Line Tours. Star Line Tours. Anyone here?”

Bingo !

Forget going to Room, we dropped the Baggage at the Luggage Storage Counter. Ran to the Shuttle. What a Luck I would say.

  Finally we reached Universal Studios. Round of Applause, Please :)

  Start Camera Action...

We took All you can Eat Pass for $20 under the assumption that we shall eat big time. However, the Rides are so good that we kept running from one ride to the other till the closing time eating just only once !

The Ride that I liked most was called King Kong 3D.

They took us in a Bus inside a Cave. Closed the Entrance and Exit. We realized now that the Cave was actually a Screen. Gave us 3D glasses and started screening a 3D Movie. The Plot was King Kong trying to save us from Godzilla.

What with Special Effects like Spraying Water while going through Water Fall and 3-Axis Bus Movements according to the script, it was made close to real.

  Do you remember me in Shrek Movie?

  Picture Perfect. Isn't it?

Next day, we went to Manhattan Beach.

The day was Cold. I was shivering from top to bottom. It was my own folly. I didn't wear a sweater. My reasoning was that you should experience the actual weather :)

I couldn't place my feet in water. I tried once and covered my feet immediately with sand to reduce the cooling effect !

 

Thats all Folks.

One interesting Info, I gathered - I worked for only 8 days in November excluding last week. Keep it secret. Don't leak to anyone :)

My First Experiment - Freedom from Piracy

Are we not Well-Trained Pirates?

We use Pirated Softwares, watch Movies from Pirated DVDs, listen to Pirated Songs, read Pirated E-books and even explore Pirate Bay! As an Add-On, Run Everything on Pirated Windows :)

So,

Have we lost our Independence to Piracy?

Agreed, I am addicted to Piracy. So what?

What's wrong?

Isn't Everyone that way?

Why should I worry about that?

One Person can't make any difference. Right?

Read on.

One Day, A Old Man was walking along a shore. He saw a Child pick up a Star Fish and gently throw it into the Sea.

He asked the Child,”What are you doing?”.

The Child replied,”Throwing Star Fish into the Sea.”

Surprised, He said,”But WHY?”

The Child smiled brightly and replied,”The Sun is up and the Tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they will die.”

“I know that. Don't you see? There are Hundreds of Star Fish scattered along the Beach. You can't make a difference.”, replied the Old Man.
The Child listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another Starfish, threw it gently into the sea, and joyfully declared,“It made a difference for that one.”

Inspired?

Are you ready to fight for your Freedom?

If Yes, Continue reading. You are on Right Path!

Firstly, Question Yourself.

You are dependent on Piracy, for What?

Softwares? Operating System? Movies? Songs? Books? Games?

What are the Reasons?

Cost? Convenience? Mind-Set?

Secondly, Commit Yourself.

The Alternatives, I propose, may look ridiculous. Spend Time finding Alternatives that match your requirements!

Thirdly, Eliminate it Step by Step.

Like Smoking, we cannot avoid it immediately. We might be tempted to stop Piracy at one go. But it may not be sustainable.

Lets start with Softwares.

List the Softwares required. Search for Open Source or Free Alternatives.

Open Source or Free? Aren't they Bad?

I mean, Why else would something be Free?

Read on.

Excerpt from Story of Stuff.

One of the problems with trying to use less stuff is that sometimes we feel like we really need it.

What if you live in a city like, say, Cleveland and you want a glass of water?

Are you going to take your chances and get it from the city tap? Or

Should you reach for a bottle of water that comes from the pristine rainforests of Fiji?

Well, Fiji brand water thought the answer to this question was obvious.

So they built a whole ad campaign around it. It turned out to be one of the dumbest moves in advertising history.

The city of Cleveland didn’t like being the butt of Fiji’s joke so they did some tests and guess what?

These tests showed a glass of Fiji water is lower quality, it loses taste tests against Cleveland tap and costs thousands of times more.

This story is typical of what happens when you test bottled water against tap water.

Hope, You got the Inner Meaning :)

Eager to Test-Drive Open Source or Free Alternatives?

Here, I listed the Alternatives for various Softwares in Windows.

PDF, Word, Excel and Power Point – Use Open Office instead of Microsoft Office. It has Features such as Save as PDF which I found to be very useful. For a change, It supports Microsoft Formats and Open Formats too! Use Adobe Reader for Reading & Open Office for Creating PDFs.

Anti–Virus Software – Use AVG Free.

Browser – You may be already using Firefox or Chrome!

Image Editor – Use Gimp instead of Adobe Photo Shop.

RSS Feed Reader – Use RSSOwl.

Music Player & Movie Player – Use VLC Player. Can be used as Converter & Cutter too!

Picture Manager – Use Picasa.

Modeling – Use Scilab instead of Matlab.

Personal Finance Manager – I use Money Manager Ex.

Torrent Client – I use uTorrent.

Surprised? Why do I need a Torrent Client?

We have associated Torrents to Piracy to such an extent that We forgot that Bit-Torrent is just a Technology and One of the best ways to share Popular Files. There are hundreds of Legal Torrents available. For example, Best way to download Open Office is through Torrents!

You will be surprised at the content available under Creative Commons Licenses. For example, I found Mathematical Imagery – Dimensions under Creative Commons License. Check out ClearBits Website for more Content!

You can check out Open Source as Alternative Website, OSALT. It lists Open Source Alternatives to Proprietary Softwares!

Hoping that You are successful in your First Step forward!

Are you ready for the Next Step, Operating System?

I chose Ubuntu! How about You?

I chose Ubuntu for 2 Reasons.

Ubuntu makes your Transition from Windows Easy

Ubuntu can be tried without disturbing Windows. Check out Installation Guide.

Its only 700MB. Can be installed from CD.

Forget CD, You can install using USB! Check out Guide by PsychoCats.

Installation using USB is incredibly Fast. I installed Ubuntu in 5 minutes!

Forums & Documentation

Lets say, I couldn't figure out How to Play Movies in Ubuntu. When I Google it, I find Multiple Users in a similar situation with solution well documented. The only constraint, According to me, is Internet Access!

Myth 1 – Linux is for Experts.

Am I not using it?

Myth 2 – Linux doesn't have Softwares and Games.

More about this later.

Myth 3 – User Interface is Poor.

Its more like Neophobia, Fear of anything New, rather than Poor GUI. Spend Time exploring. You will enjoy it.

Lets see whether Ubuntu has Softwares I require.

Pdf, Word, Excel and Power Point – Ubuntu comes with Open Office!

Document Viewer in Ubuntu can be used for Reading PDFs or Install Adobe Reader.

Anti–Virus Software – Not Required!

Browser – Ubuntu comes with Firefox!

Image Editor – Use Gimp and Dia.

RSS Feed Reader – Use RSSOwl.

Music Player & Movie Player – Ubuntu comes with Rhythm Box for Music and Movie Player for Movies. Install VLC Player if necessary.

CD/DVD Creator - Ubuntu comes with CD/DVD Creator.

Picture Manager – Ubuntu comes with F-Spot Photo Manager. Install Picasa if necessary.

Modeling – Install Scilab.

Personal Finance Manager – Install Money Manager Ex. (Install libwxbase2.8-0, libwxgtk2.8-0 before MoneyManagerEx.)

Torrent Client – Ubuntu comes with Transmission Bit Torrent Client.

What are you waiting for?

My First ??? - Why is that?

Why is that

I pay Rs100 for a Pizza,

but
Complain about Rs50 for a Proper Meal?

Why is that

I pay Rs150 for watching a Movie in Multiplex,

I pay Rs500 for Broadband and download Movies encouraging Piracy,

but
Think twice about Rs375 for Big Flix Monthly Subscription?

Why is that

We crib about paying Income Tax?

Even though

We are among Top 10% of India's Population in terms of Income.

We are offered subsidized education during B.Tech.

Effective Income Tax Rate comes to only 20% of Income.

Why is that we value Money, not Happiness?

Why is that we value Hikes, not Recognitions?

Why is that

I think about Opportunities available elsewhere.

May be Other Companies, Other Fields.

but
Forget conveniently about Opportunities available in Current Company, Current Field?

Why is that I fight for my Rights, but sleep on my Duties?

Why is that we value Mental Work, not Physical Work?

Why is that we love Nature but like to live in Cities?

Why is that

We complain about Corruption.

We complain about degradation of Values in Politics.

but don't have

Time for Voting and Campaigning for Good Candidates?

Why is that

We complain about Attitude of Government Companies and Government Employees.

but
Dream of joining and becoming one?

Why is that

I always have Questions

but
Never Answers :)

My Second Trek – Kudremukh National Park – 13,14.02.10

After Grand Success of Skandagiri Trek, I expected People to agree for another Trek easily. It didn't seem so. Plans for another Trek hit multiple obstacles. Finally we decided to get in touch with other groups in Bangalore for Trekking. When Bangalore Moutaineering Club announced a Trek to KNP, we decided to join them.
Enough of Non-Sense, Can you share Trek details?

Caution - 
Initially, I was under the impression that KNP is just 70KM from Bangalore. It was actually around 300KM. I thought it was just 12KM Trek ( Up and Down ). It was actually 20KM.

So Believe at your own risk.

Kudremukh means Horse Face.

Peak has 90° Slope on one side and Gradual Inclination on other side similar to Horse!

Trek started with great deal of excitement around 10:30 A.M.

Initially, we spent more time on Photography than Trekking.

 Thats when Guide showed us Kudremukh Peak.

My heart didn't stop. But Can I scale it?

'We are not going to scale the peak. We only view it from distance”. Rumors spread fast.

However Guide assured us ( Fortunately for me and Unfortunately for my feet ) that we are going to scale the peak. Have a look at the Trek Paths.

Caution – Objects are distant than they appear in Picture :)

We crossed several Snakes ( I would like to say, but I could find only one ) and Spiders on the way. 

We also realized that Water is the elusive Elixir, Chemists are searching for.

Thanks to Innovative Idea of someone, we were able to have water even from small streams.

Nature offered us

Inspiration – Beautiful Mix of Greenery and Lighting,

Adrenaline Rush – When we Slipped,

Rest – When we are about to collapse.

Did you observe the Silver Lining on Hills?

Don't you think Imagination of Tolkein in Lord of the Rings came alive here?

I felt like Shouting

'One Peak to Rule Them All. One Peak to make your Adrenaline Rush. One Peak to bring you to your Knees and make you feel Human'.

Based on following Dialogue in Lord of the Rings

'One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them'

I wish I had the White Horse of Gandalf to ride on these Beautiful Hills.

1KM away from the peak, my legs ( May be Gollum ) betrayed me.

They refused to move forward. Thats when Glucon D came to my rescue :)

( Ok, It was an Ad for Glucon D. Actually Satya offered to carry Water Bottles till the Peak. )

And Finally,

After having the Packed Lunch, We started chasing the clouds and Satya his Photography Skills.

However, I never dared to go near the Edge.

Ofcourse, Satya had his adrenaline rush while sitting near the Edge.

Finally, We started back.

Thats when I had a doubt. Did we actually climb this?

Next Day, We had a refreshing dip in nearby Water Fall.

Have a Look at our Guide.

Hats Off to him for making this a Grand Success.

While walking down from the Base Camp, we had our own doubts.

Are we on the Right Path?

We could only sing,

Right O' Left O' Left O' Right O'

ముందుకో వెనకకో పై పైకో కిందకో అసలు ఎందుకో ఎక్కడికో

Lets Go Go Go Go Go.