PURSUITS

26 Days to 26 Miles

2010-09-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Back to blogging. I have finally decided on a marathon to run. Finally! Its going to be Kansas City Marathon on October 16, 2010. Its 26 days to the race day. So I thought I would blog about my training and diet schedule for these last 26 days. I have been running for quite while now and have accumulated good enough mileage to finish a marathon, I think. But as any runner would know the last 30 days or so are very critical and crucial for an injury free marathon finish. Hopefully, I will.

Canoe Trip

2009-06-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Its been ages since I last updated this blog. I have a canoe trip coming up this weekend so I thought this is the right time and place to update about it and provide the details to my fellow 'canoeists'.

On Friday, June 19, 2009 Sushanth, Raja, Shiva, Prasanna and myself are starting for a two day canoeing trip on Kansas river. We will be starting around 7:00 pm from the Manhattan US24 docking point and ending the following day at Wamego US99 docking point. We will have to find a place to camp before the sunset. So it is advisable to hit the river as early as possible.

I have reserved two tandem canoes (each tandem canoe accommodates two people) and one single kayak for two days from the K-state outdoor rental center. We will have to pick them up on Friday between 4:00-6:00 pm, which is when they are open. I have not reserved any camping paraphernalia yet but I am assuming we can get them when we go to pick up canoes. We will need three cars to carry two canoes and one kayak. The outdoor rental center will provide us with the car top carriers.

Here is the map of the Kansas River, a part of which we will be coursing:

We will put in our canoes at the Hwy 24 Blue River boat ramp and access point and take out at the Wamego Hwy 99 bridge as shown in the following two maps.

Here is a link to the forecast for weather on Friday and Saturday from Accuweather:

http://www.accuweather.com/us/ks/manhattan/66442/forecast-details.asp?partner=apple&traveler=0&fday=6&metric=0

Note that the UV and mosquito indices are quite high! A note on the attire. Plan on wearing quick-drying pants/shorts. Shirt is optional! A hat/bandana is a must. No flip-flops please! If you are planning on getting into the water, I strongly recommend sandals or shoes.

I have prepared the following checklist for this canoeing/camping trip. If you think of something that I have missed, leave me a comment. I am taking the responsibility of getting all the stuff unless otherwise stated in parentheses.

Two canoes and one kayak, reserved at K-state outdoor rental center
One paddle per person, reserved at K-state outdoor rental center
Life jackets, one per person, reserved at K-state outdoor rental center
Flashlight
Water proof container for keys, cell phones, etc.
Fire-starter/matches
Sunglasses (bring your own, unless you want to use my prescription sunglasses!)
Sunscreen
Mosquito repellent
Drinking water
Pocket knife (Does any of you have one?)
Binoculars and a Kansas birds guide
Camera
Toilet paper
Lip balm (bring your own)
Drinking cups
Paper plates
Plastic garbage bags
Lantern
Tent
Sleeping bags
Ice chest
Ice bags
Food (I will bring the veggie food, one of you please take care of the non-veg stuff)
Beer (Let me know what kind)

I hope I got it all covered. Please do leave comments if you come up with anything else.

Art for sale

2008-11-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

I usually gift my art work to friends and relatives as a good will gesture or so I would like to think. Nonetheless, here are a few of my pencil drawings that I would like to sell (get rid of, perhaps!) for a price. I have had no formal training and I dont claim any particular style or for that matter, unusual style of drawing. I draw whatever I feel like drawing at that moment. So if you are fascinated by my work and feel like owning a piece of history for your selves, leave me a comment. You don't have to be fascinated to buy though.

"Aish" $50

"Crystal" $75

"NYC Mourning" $75

"Grade I" $50

Crash Course in American Politics

2008-11-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

Donkeys did populism of the 1890s, the antibusiness reformism of the 1930s and the civil rights crusade of the 1960s, while the elephants did abolitionism in the 1850s, anti-Communism in the 1950s, antitax revolts in the 1970s and 1980s and the evangelical conservatism of the 1990s and 2000s.

Source: Sam Tanenhaus, NYT

Day 1 - Endured it!

2007-12-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

What was I thinking? Just three hours of sleep a day? Definitely, I was out of my mind! In the last 36 hours, I had two hours of cumulative sleep. I decided to sleep for 30 minutes every 31/2 hours and so my sleep times were 11:00 p.m., 3:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. for a 24 hour period. I chose these times because they kind of fit my daily schedule. especially the 8:30 a.m. lab meetings, and 4:30 p.m. squash games. However, it was difficult to find a sleeping place during day time. I tried sleeping on chair in my lab. It was pretty uncomfortable. I must find some other place. I am pinning on Vetmed library once it opens in the new year. They have very good leather recliners.

30 minutes is really short. I mean it literally flew away in no time. Efficient wise, I must have slept for ~10 minutes. And I did get a dream in that short time. I usually get a lot of dreams. However, I do not remember most of them. I wake up from sleep once the dream is finished or broken. May be with this new sleep schedule, I will remember them. And may be, I will compile them to publish a novel or something like that.

In contrast, 3 and 1/2 hours between sleep times is really long. I mean if you are pretty laid back person and do not have lot of stuff on the table, its difficult to kill time. For me, I am working on my preliminary examination so its actually coming pretty handy. And between study times, I get to log for this blog!

On the whole, it was a good day. Or should I say an 'Uberday'!

Uberman's Sleep Schedule

2007-12-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Who am I? I am Uberman! Nevermind! Today, I have decided to give a try to the so called Uberman's Sleep Schedule which is a kind of polyphasic sleep. Most humans on planet Earth are monophasic that is, they get all stages of their sleep (REM, non-REM, etc.) in one long shot usually at night. It is a known fact that a good night's sleep (~8 hours) is required to recuperate both brain and body. However, it is the REM for Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep that is very critical. It is the stage where one get dreams while the brain reboots. It usually lasts for about 20-30 minutes and recurrs 5-6 times. So in polyphasic sleep one bypasses all other stages and directly enters the REM stage for 20-30 minutes every 31/2 -4 hours.
I decided to start this new 'pursuit' begining at 11:00 p.m. tonight. The research (non-scientific) states that it takes about 2 weeks to adapt to this new schedule and is very difficult to do so. Lets see how it goes. The apparent advantage from this 'maniacal' sleep schedule is 21 hours a day to knock my socks off! Keep reading my blog as I log how my day went!

Loans That Change Lives

2007-07-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

My new business partner is a 25 year old mother of two girls from Uganda and is into Construction Supplies business. And guess what? There are 24 more business partners with her each of whom have loaned (no invested!) to alleviate poverty from her life!

The concept of micro finance or micro credit was pioneered by the 2006 Peace Nobel Laureate, Dr. Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh and is taken a step further by the founders of kiva.org. Since its inception last year this website has financed or in the midst of financing ~14,000 poor entrepreneurs around the world and giving them an opportunity to start a new and better life and in the process making the world a better place.

Nonetheless, it has given me an opportunity as well, to serve the poor. Here is a scenario in perspective. I have decided on lending $25 each t0 two businesses every month for the next five years. The loan repayment term is mostly 6 months and so assuming that I get back my first months' investment at the end of 6 months (which I don't doubt a bit given the startling default rate of about 0.21%), and I recycle it into a new business every month thereafter, I would have helped 660 businesses to kick start at the end of 5 years. What else could be more gratifying than this? I mean, whats $50 per month to me or anyone for that matter? Its' skipping 4 Little Apple Brewery sittings or, 3 outings for lunch or, 2 nights of restaurant dinners or, even 1 "impulsive" shopping for groceries at Walmart! Well, I did my math.

Kiva

2007-07-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

This ante meridiem, I turned a businessman. Yes, an entrepreneur! After quite a perusal for sometime of the ins and outs of different markets, I have invested my monies in a small company in Food Market sector. I am assured great returns by the company that is acting as my agent and financial advisor and will henceforth handle all my future dealings. And they don't charge a dime for all the great things they do. This is the best thing happened to me in some time. I am at loss for words in praise of my agent. Who are these people? and why are they doing it? I have someone to quote here: "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do".
The business I am talking about is the business of lending, lending a helping hand to the needy. The agent is http://www.kiva.org/. So go check out the website. I need say no more!

Ginevra

2007-05-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

Ginevra de' Benci, Leonardo da Vinci c. 1474/1478,
The National Art Gallery, Washington D.C

I could squeeze in half a day from the conference that I attended recently in DC to visit the National Art Gallery. So I decided upon viewing only select works of early renaissance painters that included the well known Ginevra de' Benci by da Vinci. This particular piece was infamous for being the most floppiest work ever by da Vinci according to art historians. So there is a thought of it not being produced by the great da Vinci. However, the National Art of Gallery claims that "it is now accepted by virtually all Leonardo scholars" as genuine. Anyway, Ginevra de' Benci is one of the high point of the gallery and for me this is the closest that I could get to Leonardo da Vinci.

Second Ammendment

2007-04-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

This week began on a sad note. I woke up to the news of student killings by a madman. It was calamitous. The news sent shivers through my spine. A fellow student went on a killing rampage on a university campus ending 32 lives including his. Why on not-so-green earth would anyone do something like this? This guy was apparently premeditated. Intriguingly he does it in two installments. He kills two students with .22 caliber/9mm handgun then goes to his dorm room picks up a packet containing his 'message to the world', goes to a nearby postoffice, mails the packet to a media station, may be even makes a 911 call himself about the shooting incident on the campus. He then goes back to the school two hours later and creates havoc killing another 29 students and professors. Why did this have to happen? I may sound pessimistic here but I think its' the Second Ammendment act that is responsible for such an horrendous act by a human being. Guns are freely available in this society. Every resident has a 'RIGHT' to bear arms as a result of the Second Ammendment act. One can go to a local pawn shop and walk away with even semi-automatic guns. The staunch supporters/lobbyists of this act argue that if guns are made freely available then the urge to possess and use such guns will be minimized and that the world be a more safer place. Ironically, Virginia ranks second in the free availability of such lethal weapons in the US. Many universities in the US allow their students and faculty to carry guns with them to school to counter such kind of a situation, I believe. But wouldnt it be better to scrap the Second Ammendment in the first place and see that no one has guns except for the appropriate authorities? Why turn schools into a battlefield? Why doesnt common sense prevail in those law makers?

Why Bike?

2007-03-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

I bike to school daily because:
I bought Schwinn varsity, a road bike ($150 savings from not buying the parking tag)
I will buy a fancy squash racket at the end of the year($300; savings from gas)
I will contribute 6000lbs less carbon dioxide to the environment
I will save roughly 50% of my time at gym
I will sketch/paint/read/or whatever more
You may very well ask, why not just walk to the school you moron? I will! Next year. That's me, semi-cynical.

Eat Local

2007-03-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

If you are concerned about the environment then read on: Last week's issue of Time had an interesting article about a man's struggle to decide whether to eat food thats produced locally or to eat organic food that had 'fossil fuel mileage' on it. For most of you it may be 'why on the god's green earth should I be worrying about where I get my food from'? In the first place, the conventional food that we get in our local grocery stores is typically sprayed with loads of pesticides that of course, USDA says are within the permissible limits. Heck! who knows for sure? 10 years down the road they will come with new set of regulations that will make the present limits look ridiculous! Anyway the point is you dont want any god-damn chemicals in your food. And this is where the 'Organic Revolution' comes in. But how organic is 'Organic'? These days, the organic food producers have huge corporate style of working: big money, big farms, big distributors, and so on. I have switched to buying organic food for a while now. But I never paid attention to where that food was coming from. To my surprise, everything is produced outsided KS and they travel thousands of miles before reaching my freezer. On the other hand, you have the option of buying food at your local farmer's market that has everything fresh from the fields. But wouldn't they as well use chemicals to get a better yield and make more bucks? I dont know. But I prefer buying from local farmers than buying at the 'local-but-not-local-grocery-chain-stores'. And I decided to buy at 'Rythu Bazaar'!

Retrospection

2006-12-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

Its been two full months since I kept track of my pursuits with life. In retrospection, its been quite a rat race. I played and won the finals of intramurals individual squash singles championship game. The recipient of blue-ribbon in this game is worthy of mention because of two reasons. First, he gave me the toughest fight ever in squash that I have played. Second, very strangely enough, I kept bumping into this guy in the restrooms of atleast three local night bars in Aggieville. Isn't that eerie? You bet it is!
One of the other things that happened on the career front are a lot of applications for monies towards research, travel, and conferences. The best deal that I like about these is that they not only provide additional lines in my so called curriculum vitae, but also help me organize and give a precise direction as to where my graduate research should be headed to.
And then there was this annual thing of the India Student Association called Kshitiz-The Horizon, to which I invited 'J' who was able to attend the cultural exhibition and the dinner. Am glad 'J' did not have to sit through the cultural show, because I myself did not like some of the shows that were performed, or should I say 'discharged'? Anyway, I appreciate the work that students like me take pains in organizing such a social event.
The other significant happening was doing a Rock 'n' Roll all-nighter with the girls. The friends of 'J' were visiting over for the Thanksgiving weekend.

'Marathon' Rush!

2006-12-04T09:33:00.002-08:00

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I have been adding on an average of about 15 km a week to my running mileage for the past decade. That may not qualify me to be called an 'avid' runner. Nonetheless, I recently decided to turn to marathon running. There seems to be thousands of other newbies like me in pursuit of this not-so-formidable task. According to Runner's World, there were about 25,000 marathon runners in 1975 in the US. That number swelled to about 450,000 in 2005. But the marathon demands respect. 26.2 miles with decent pace is an extremely physiological and psychological challenge.

@ Radinas'

2006-12-04T09:33:00.001-08:00

Monday, September 18, 2006

This is the second free drink at Radina's that I had in as many weeks. That speaks of the spending magnitude of my time and money at this local coffee house. Sunday morning, I had the company of 'J' though. We hang out ocassionally for coffee or alike to update each other of our lives, I believe. This day however, I had few sketches that I drew to show. And here comes a challenge! "You should draw a self-portrait". Its' a challenge because, never ever did I think of doing a self-portrait and I dont like looking at myself for long hours sitting infront of a mirror. And for gods' sake, in a rest-room? Those were the first thoughts that flew through my mind. But then, when a highbrow like 'J' gives an unscathed rationalization! You better listen. Doing a self-portrait gives an opportunity to do an in-depth exploration of ones' own psyche. That however, I will know at the end of this week.

Aishwarya Rai

2006-12-04T09:32:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

One of my friends suggested working on a 'real face', akin Ash. I nurture an interest, amongst others called sketching that I do in my free time. Not that I set aside some time of the day to be free but I make myself free of all things to feed my interests, to run away from the daily chores, I guess. Anyways, my friends' suggestion was challenging. I haven't tried sketching a human face before. I usually do architectural designs, landscapes, and similar. So this was taking one up on, indeed. And what else could be more challenging than drawing the Miss World herself. It is much easier to draw a presentational and accurate portrait if you have the knowledge and understanding of the face and head of the person you are drawing. Well, understanding the most recognized and beautiful face was no challenge. In fact, it was the best deal of my pastime. So I set out on an intense adventure, uncertain of the outcome. I begin with an outline of her front-view face. That was easy. Now comes the tough part, eyes. Eyes are the most important and significative feature of the face. You screw up the eyes, you blew up the whole thing! I realized that eyes have to be shown with certain depth that is very characteristic of each individual you are dealing with. Nonetheless, I win again. I could see the 'depth' of her eyes! Smirk. Now, the next in line was the nose. I could get the nose quite right in the first go. But the most backbreaking of all were mouth and lips. They are the most fascinating part of the face, and very true of Ashs'. Oh! I loved this both the noun and verb part and am glad with the end product. Nevertheless, I feel triumphed and thats what all that matters. By the way, it took me about ~6hrs.

Being Vegetarian

2006-12-04T09:31:00.001-08:00

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Grilled lamb ribs, chicken biryani, shrimp fry, and mutton kheema. How better could you treat your taste buds with? It can not get any better than this, especially when prepared by a seasoned cook and when your taste buds are trained to handle that. Today was the test of my tether to avoid temptation of eating all these. I decided to turn vegetarian almost four months back. Why did I switch? Because I had a choice and I chose vegetarianism. But then I dont judge people who chose to eat meat.

Hillbilly Hoedown

2006-12-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Saturday, September 02, 2006

A town with a population of 311 takes pride in a tradition started about 6 years ago in the backyard of a hillbilly. Aptly named, the festival is a celebration of country music with homemade food and booze indulged by the hoi polloi of town.

Vergas

2006-12-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Jessica, Chiquita, Mark and I are visiting the Eichmillers for the weekend. This is an unforgettable visit in my life. Thanks to the deluge of arresting events during this trip.At about 3:00 in the morning we get pulled over by a cop for burnt-out headlight and are let go with a notice to get the light fixed in a week's time or so. But the disturbing thing was that cop tailing us for more than half an hour. What is the likelihood of a cop following us for so long? Very likely, if a young white woman is traveling with a rat terrier, a towering Irish man, and a shadowy and bald Indian in a car with an Alaskan registration plate.We meet Jackie and Steve Eichmiller, Jessica's parents in the wee hours of Saturday. Steve saved his au-naturel torso for the morning by showing up in his BVD's. It wasn’t at variance with what is to be expected at those hour(s), though. It was just me feeling that singularity. Nonetheless, it was a pleasure meeting the older and having been away from home and parents for almost four years, I felt nostalgic.