Muranpaadu

My Valentine

2008-02-14T19:01:00.001-08:00

It was on my mind for quite a longtime. After serious thoughts for a week, finally made up my mind to submit a proposal a week before Valentine's day. I wasn't sure if it would turn out positive. No need to say the pressure you undergo waiting for something you longed for. Yep.....i got the positive response exactly on Valentine's day. I am really excited to introduce my sweet heart. Here you go - Click to find her...

A good one...

2007-12-19T20:12:00.000-08:00

This one is very good - அனுப்பப்படாத ஒரு கடிதம்!!

Something Special....

2007-12-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

Read this first - Sandhya turns singer. I saw that particular program. Really, i thought the song is played from the movie. She gave here best that day. I had a wish that she sings a song in a film. You wish for something, hadn't shared that with anyone, neither had put any effort to make it true. When such a wish comes true, for sure you'll be in cloud nine as I am.

Few other posts related to Sandhya - click here

A Jackass named Vengsarkar

2007-10-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Indian cricket squad selection has seldom used right policies to select players. So it's not a great surprise to see them drop Dravid. I am great fan of Dravid. I myself felt that he needs a break. Probably he should have opted out for the last two matches against Australia. Dropping him and giving some stupid reasons is awful. Vengsarkar's interview sucks as badly as him. He should have known how to get the message across to the media. Rested, rotated, dropped, need to prove himself by playing Ranji, all these are the words used by him in different interviews in the last few days. Screw him, i say. Meanwhile, see how Dravid's fan has reacted. No protest, no effigy burning, as gentle as Dravid(Think of what happened when Ganguly was dropped.) Because, everyone knows, Dravid is a class act, even if he doesn't bounce back.

Diffen.com

2007-10-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Diffen is a site developed and launched by couple of my friends. Here is a brief intro about what Diffen is about (from their site) - "What is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R? What is the difference between a pub and a bar? What is the difference between a Plasma TV and an LCD TV? Cal Tech and UCLA? Yankees and the Red Sox? Diffen can help you find (and write!) all these comparisons and more." Do visit the site for more interesting informations.

Weird, again....

2007-09-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

One among today's headlines in The Hindu - Ensure bandh does not affect normal life. I wonder, how that could happen? I repeat, we live in a weird World.

Weird

2007-09-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Read this first - Divorce through video-conferencing, at least the first paragraph. Did you notice this - "wife living in Australia and the husband in the U.S"? Why the f**k do they need a divorce?!??! What next? Marriage through video-conferencing?!?! Or has that happened already? We are living in a weird World, isn't it? I wish they soon find out a way to live in Mars, please.

Oops...

2007-05-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

No need to say, it's been a lengthy gap from blogging. I am thinking of slowly getting back to blogging soon. But, things I missed blogging will always be missed - books, revisiting friends, relatives, Chennai life, movies, ever growing love with my MacBook. Sandilyan's Yavan Rani is one hell of a novel which makes you go mad if you didn't complete it at one go. It's simply amazing. Scott Adam's books are ultimate fun to read when starting the day. Few good movies are: Mozhi, Paruthiveeran, Unnale Unnale. And more importantly, i am in Portland for the last one month on a short business trip. Went to Seattle for couple of days. Lived the same life that I had enjoyed for around 28 months.

Rants...

2007-01-18T07:56:00.000-08:00

As usual, accommodating to new environment takes time and sacrifices. Things I was completely aware are pollution, traffic, crowd, poor customer service. Only thing that took me by surprise was work environment. I am completely shocked to see such a bad atmosphere to work. First and foremost is the noise level. It is intolerable. I like the work place to be casual but with no noise. Next, lack of clarity on what to do. A developer is given all sorts of trouble, so that he doesn't complete his tasks. He is never said on what they are trying to accomplish as a whole. 200% true. People still see you with cunningness if you leave office by 6:30 P.M. Damn it, I come by 7:30 A.M. Most people start the day by noon. People misuse the term flexible work timings. Tasks are assigned on the fly. Might be there are some mistakes from my part also. But the crux is, the developer is not given enough freedom. Somehow i get the feeling that being process oriented means running a hurdles race than a regular one.

On personal front, you get surprises from all corners. You meet an old friend while waiting for a bus, in a restaurant, railway station etc., You feel elated when the maligai kadai annachi near by your home recognizes you. You feel happy in some corner of your heart, when you see the girl whom you remember for long still stays single ;-) If you don't have a mobile then people decide you are from Uganda. People make you feel uncomfortable by questioning about your age, marriage and all those nonsense. Not enough time and opportunity to spend on blogs and other tools. So far managed things as if swallowing a bitter pill. Don't know whether i am going to burst out or handle things with a smile.

Leaving Seattle

2006-11-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

After exactly 28 months, I am leaving from Seattle, returning to India. If I have to summarize the experience in a word – it is AWESOME. This post is to get my thoughts registered about my stay so far is Edmonds/Seattle/US. Looking back from the day I landed here there are numerous things I learnt, experienced, enjoyed. My ignorance had no bounds when I came here (still the same case though). Few things are – US is slightly bigger than India in terms of geographical area. Mercedes and BMW are same brands. There are only two time zones. I do not know what a blog is. The list goes on. Got the answers for these things now. Things I like about this place are: First is the weather. Man, Mother Nature blesses this place largely. If you think of rain, it starts raining. The breeze when I start to office is bliss. Food is the next thing I love. I tried different cuisines after coming here. Italian, Malay, Vietnamese, Thai, etc., all were good. As expected, work culture was good. All these factors made my stay here most peaceful part of my life. Most people feel that this place is most depressing because of gloomy skies. I also had those times but thank god, that did not last long. Though I struggled to get a driving license, the driving experience after that was pleasant. Visited few great places – Crater Lake, Leavenworth, HWY1 drive, tulip fests. The number of movies I watched here is greater than the total number of movies I saw in 25 years in India. Thanks to torrents, Online DVD rentals, Mayuri, Bharat bazar, live movies sites, free downloads. Most of them were craps, no doubt. Made some great friends, which I never thought would be possible after you come out of college life. I developed guts to do rafting, sand duning. I love the way they treat the customers. “Keep things simple” is the motto. Most people I met are clear communicators. I got opportunity to stay with different roomies during this period. Each one of them was interesting. I hope that they also find the same about me. Things I am going to miss – food places, ever smiling BOA tellers, the shuttle driver who learnt few Tamil words, the old Chinese lady who packs two veggie rolls whenever she sees me in her food stall, weekend trip to Redmond, hang out(?!) at Mayuri, lovely view of moon from my bedroom window, rain, rain and more rain.

I wrote this post couple of weeks back while in Frankfurt airport but somehow took this long to post.

Bulb-4

2006-11-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

Couple of days back, two kids knocked my apartment door around 8:00 PM. From the way they have dressed I guessed it is their Halloween celebration. The little one showed her bag, I looked into it and took a chocolate. I saw her parents giggling right next to my door. I said thanks and the kids left with an amused look. I closed the door, bragged to my friend that I got a treat. He said “Idiot, as per the culture you have to give them something if they visit your home during Halloween.” However hard I try not to be stupid it doesn’t work out.

Previous Bulbs - 1, 2 and 3

Labor Day Trip-2006

2006-10-23T04:33:00.000-07:00

Couple of months old travelogue. A day at Crater lake and a day at Florence was planned to perfection. We started our trip in two cars on Friday night. One of my friends came down from SFO, we picked him up from airport and accelerated the rented Camry. We had doubt in couple of places on which turns to take, followed our instincts and it worked to perfection. At around 3 O'clock we noticed that the fuel level has dropped considerably. We started looking for the next available gas station. To our shock we didn't find one single gas station on OR-58 E. Our worries started creeping as we have to travel quite a lot. The reserve indicator started blinking, we still didn't find any gas station. We had to travel past Crater lake to the lodge where we booked our rooms. My tank got full, i wanted to have a leak immediately. The whole route was isolated and it was darkness at it best. I tried hard to be a socially responsible person but i wasn't the winner against nature's call. ஒரு ஓராம வண்டிய போட்டுட்டு matter-அ ஏறக்குன அப்புறம் தான் நிம்மதி. இதுல இருந்து fuel கண்டுபிடுச்சா என்னனு அப்ப தான் ஒரு super idea தோணுச்சு. Patent-kku apply பண்ணனும். We drove,drove and drove. Finally found the lodge. We thought one other car might have arrived there before us, as they started early. We didn't find the car. We knew that room no.3 and no.5 has been alloted to us and the key will be available near the window. All rooms were individual cottages. We were so happy that for 50 dollars we got such a good place to stay. Went near room no.5 and knocked. Got a response from an American. We suspected that its not the place that we are supposed to stay. No signals, so were not able to get in touch with the other group. After couple of rounds in the same area found that the lodge is in the back of a gift shop. Went to room no.5, no response, no keys. Checked out room no.3, thank god it was open. It was 5:30 in the morning, we badly needed a sleep. Stopped worrying about other car and went for a nap. Around 6:30, the other car came. They started couple of hours early than. We thought they might have took some wrong exit. “If you get couple of tickets on the way, for sure you'll also be late,” is the angry answer we got. 260 USD for one and 90 for one. :-( It was a bad night for them,they don't hv the keys for the room. Few slept in our room and few others in the car. When they checked with the receptionist later in the morning she said the room was booked for Saturday/Sunday night and not for Friday/Saturday night. Few apologises settled that matter. The first task after we got up was to find a gas station. Found one near by. Started around 11 O'clock and reached the lake in one hour. Roamed around, took snaps, went for a trial to the bottom of the lake. Spent the whole day, enjoying the color and silence around the place. Saw smokes from the forest fire happening nearby. One group didn't like the place and left for rafting. This just baffles me, who the hell on earth will not like this place? Even this guy, who said we have a generation gap, loved it. There was small moment of tension as the other group didn't return till late night. They returned safe. Pictures here...

Day two was more exciting than day one. Started early morning from the lodge and left for Florence. Had breakfast at Elkton. Typical American town and a good restaurant. The activity planned at Florence was Sand duning – Riding an ATV, in the dunes. Few of friends had said that it will be excellent. Its the first time for everyone, all were nervous. The vehicle was odd for us - no gears, four big tyres, for accelerating you should use your thumb. From the vehicle rental place, we have to take a turn and reach the dunes. If we didn't make good in the turn, they'll disqualify. Couple of my friends were disqualified, as they went too far to take the turn. I barely made it to the dunes, the instructor was not satisfied. He showed us the path that we should use to drive and the return way. We were asked to stay in group, for every one minute, we delay the return of the vehicles we will charged a dollar. If we caught in trouble, they'll charge us to rescue. All these instructions got me pissed off. விதி வலியதுன்னு சொல்லிகிட்டே start பண்ணினேன். Within first few minutes three of our ATV's got stuck in the sand. Thank god, we had a muscle man in our group who lifted the vehicles. If you look at his stature you'll not believe that he would lift a vehicle which is about 150+ pounds. I got stuck thrice and the other guys started loosing their patience. I was too nervous and said that we'll go to the return path. No one agreed. பழி வாங்கறதுக்குன்னே இருக்காணுங்கய்யா. Somehow found the touch and started climbing small dunes and i felt contended with my accomplishments.(இதுக்கு ஒன்னும் குறைச்சல் இல்லை). One guy in the group, had some weird thoughts. There was a steep dune, from the look you could understand that it needs expertise to climb that. When all others were busy in their own small drives he went up in that dune. When we saw him, he was standing the the middle of the steep dune, holding the ATV. F**k, the vehicle's two wheels is in air and the other two in the dune. He some how jumped down and got hold of it to prevent further damage. I couldn't imagine what would be his status if he had fallen down. Nothing happened of such sort. Luckily one of the rescuer saw this and volunteered to get him out of this mess. The way he went near him suggested that you have to been an expert to climb that. Our idiot did this without even knowing how to ride the vehicle. One of the most stupidest things i have ever witnessed. Everything was fine and we did ride for few more minutes and returned the vehicle on time. Driving in the dunes is the exciting thing i have done in my life so far. It was one excellent hour in my life. Returned back to Seattle around 2 in the night, dropped my friend in airport and thus ended the trip on safe and lovely note. Pictures here...

My Love

2006-09-25T00:23:00.000-07:00

After analyzing and following closely about MacBooks for a long time,i bought one last week ! I was very much excited to post pics and my thoughts the day i got in my hand. But felt that waiting till the end of honeymoon period would let me give a neutral feedback. One week is over with my love and i started blogging in it and this is the first post. Pictures first...

In general i am poor decision maker,I'll take a hell lot of time before deciding on something. Buying a MacBook was not a easy one. I love Apple's design, that's the first reason i chose a Mac. Next is the things i read about Mac OS X. From whatever i read this is the most productive operating system around. Leopard's preview made me to stand firm on my decision to go with a Mac. Its a myth that apple is not cheap. From whatever i analyzed, MacBook (13”) is not costlier than Lenova Thinkpad R series (14”) or Dell (12”). Dell (14”) is cheaper than a MacBook,but for me Dell is more like an assembler than a laptop manufacturer. MacBook Pro's are the costliest ones. The next myth is – Its difficult to learn OS X and softwares are not available. Come on guys,being in IT you should not say this. Every six months we work on different technologies,so learning should not be a issue,its a mental block. What softwares we use in general ? Watch movies,listen to songs,mails,word,excel,powerpoint,surf,chat. That's it right. You can do all this in a Mac, more efficiently. This is what i want and i hope most of us need.

One of my ex-roomie – BM,ordered for me and shipped. Tax saving dudes,saved around 100 bucks. He took lot of pain for this,ofcourse i sent him few pics of Bhavana as a compliment. So nice of him,thanks da. Now,over to things i love so far. Ofcourse the design comes first,no one can beat Apple in this area. The USB port's,firewire,headphone,mic connections are all on the left side,you don't need to hunt them in the back or search for it on either side whenever you want to connect. They have utilized the function keys to the max. F8 is the only key which has no general use. Control the brightness,sound,extrenal monitor all available in the function keys. Remote and magnetic power cord are the next cool feature. Control media apps using remote. Some third party software is available to even control other applications. I need to check that soon. Quicksilver is also a third party free app which helps you in increasing your efficiency to launch applications. Its awesome,you can do everything you want to do at the max of four steps/keystrokes. Wakes up from sleep mode pretty quick.

As soon as i logged in for the first time,i checked whether i could read tamil blogs or not. Thank god,Safari supports Unicode. Then Vikatan is the site i launched. Oops, pochuda kavuthitaanga da. Vikatan site has its own font to be installed. And they don't have instructions to install the font on a Mac(too bad Vikatan). I figured that out by myself and it did work. But still the first character of each paragraph is screwed up,need to write to Vikatan or i should try Firefox. இன்னொரு முக்கியமான விஷயம்,நிறைய–matter site-ல movies open ஆகாது,Sun-TV தெரியாது,most games will not work. I don't mind about the two of the three things i said,go figure out which one i bother.

Now,disappointments-Speakers. At first i felt the max. volume is not enough. Then i relaised that i am expecting a laptop to deliver sound for the living room than for a single user. So after having a bad impression at first glance i am ok now. It generates a lot of heat. A bit heavy than i expected.

My friends have challenged me that i would revert back to Windows within six months,let's see.

Movies in last month: வேட்டையாடு விளையாடு – Boring.சில்லுனு ஒரு காதல் – bad,it was too bad to an extent that a couple behind me started worrying what if this kind of things happen in their life.Sh!t they even started discussing about their dinner plans. எம் மகன் – ok,good compared to the others. நீ வேணும்டா செல்லம் - A crap. Lage Raho Munna Bhai is very good – a mix of Munna bhai MBBS and ரோஜாவனம். Please don't make a third part in this series,eg: Sooraj R. Barjatya series.

Movies,Songs and Pulchritudinous

2006-08-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing to post,so as usual list of movies i saw:

தமிழ் - யுகா,திமிரு,அரண்,உனக்கும் எனக்கும்.All are bad

Telugu - Lakshmi,Pokiri.Good entertainers.After watching Pokiri, completed a dream song with Ileana on the top of Space needle.Now i understand the meaning of - Pulchritudinous.

"சில்லுனு ஒரு காதல்" songs are addictive.

2006-07-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

This post best explains how lazy I am. The post is about the long weekend trip we went on July 1st. Staying over night was not a preferred choice for us. So decided to visit places which are three/four hours drive.

Day 1 - Ocean Shores:

Nice place if you like to fly kite, play beach volleyball, ride a bike or riding a horse. We didn't have any such plans, so we just made our feet wet and spent less than an hour. Drove to Pacific beach near by. This is the only deserted beach I had seen in my life. No single soul was there, except us. Except me everyone disliked this place.

Day 2 - Multnomah Falls
Googled a lot to get the scenic route to reach this falls.Few links have praised the scenic route but the directions was not available in google maps.Didn't get the exact details but still managed to find some hints. The scenic route starts from the place called Troutdale. Just as you enter the scenic route you find a nice link river bank with water flowing along in a slow speed. Bright sun sign,long weekend,not much of people around...you could imagine how people will be there right ?! We just stopped for coffee and nothing else.You get the drift right ?!?! As the temperature rose I got into my regular problem - headache. After that the trip enthusiasm was lost. There was couple of great views of the Columbian river on the way. We saw couple of waterfalls.இதெல்லாம் falls-nu சொன்னா அப்ப falls-அ என்னன்ணுடா சொல்லுவீங்க?

Day 3 - Snoqualmie Falls:
I have been here n number of times. This qualifies to be called as falls.

I didn't have "Water" as a theme for this longweekend. It just happened like that.

More pictures here...

Movies over the weekend:
இம்சை அரசன் 23-ம் புலிகேசி,ஐயா - Good.Superman Returns,Krrish - Not as bad as i expected.உயிர்- Bad as i expected.

Could you believe this?

2006-07-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

“We ran out of fans”. This was the response we got in all shops over the weekend. Yes, a machine using an electric motor to rotate thin, rigid vanes in order to move air, as for cooling [link].

I was speechless when I got the same answer again and again. 'Standing fans' are sold out in almost every shop here. The Sun was scorching like anything. This is the hottest weekend I have experienced here. And whatever Data Mining the stores used, it had failed to a great extent. Most of the stores didn’t do proper prediction. One guy even said that you’ll not find one in the entire state :-(

Only last week, I was boasting to friends in India about the lovely weather in Seattle. sigh..i have to hide my face….hopefully they didn’t read this ;-)

Mt.Baker (not so) scenic drive

2006-07-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

A month ago we went for Mt.Baker.While googling around, i found a site which suggested to take the scenic route. After the trip i felt that i should have not trusted the link(map-ல பாக்கும்போது எல்லாம் நல்லாத்தான் இருக்கு).It was one of most boring routes i went around in washington.To add to my frustration the Sun was blazing,my headache was the next obvious thing to come.Little did i know that the biggest disappointment is to come by the end of the day.Artist point is the one we intended to reach.It was the highest point you can reach via car.Just few miles before that point the road was closed with snow.They were in the process of clearing it and it'll take another two weeks.Should i say that my headeache doubled after that?

More pics here...

Mega movie list...

2006-07-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

பாரிஜாதம் - A very good one.Refreshing screenplay.Songs are not catchy but really good after few listening.
தலைநகரம் - Average one.
நாளை - Bad.Ananada Vikatan should seriously revise the way they allot marks.They had 41 for this.

Blood movies:

The following is a list of crap movies i saw over last couple of months.I feel guilty even to list them here.Then why the f**k i saw them ? தெரியாம one month Tamilgrounds-ல subscribe பண்ணிட்டேன்.So i had to somehow make use of the money i spent.
நாகரீக கோமாளி,கை வந்த கலை(The song சுட்டி பூவே is good),உணர்சிகள்,வீரன்,சுதேசி,வெற்றிவேல் சக்திவேல்,Mr.பாண்டி, 47 A பெசன்ட் நகர் வரை.

Lucky escape:

சுயெட்சை MLA, குஸ்தி - Room-ல பசங்க இந்த படம் பாக்கும் போது எப்படியோ நான் மட்டும் escape.

Movies

2006-06-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

புதுப்பேட்டை: It didn’t meet my expectations, still was a good one. Few areas were technically done well (Camera work, Art direction, background score). ஆபாசமே இல்லாம எடுக்கபட்ட குளியலறை காட்சி உள்ள ஒரே தமிழ் படம். For sure, Selvaragavan is setting new trend in Tamil films. Selva tries hard to show the true nature of people,environment,language etc.,Somehow Yuvan finds a place to sneak in English lyrics. "Going throurgh emotions" music bit is awesome.

கொக்கி,மது,ஜெர்ரி - தயவு செய்து இந்த படங்களெல்லாம் எல்லாம் பாத்துடாதீங்க.Indiaglitz gives positive review about all movies.sigh...

I was busy at work, that's why no frequent posts. The previous statement is damn lie. Too much of bad movies, less frequent trip to Redmond and literally no work constituted for not blogging recently. For long time I had a guilty feeling that I am the only one who write/see too much of movies over the weekend. But there is this guy – Filbytheboss’s posts proves that I am not alone.ஒரு வேலை Seattle-ல இருக்கவங்க எல்லாருக்கும் இதுதான் வேலையா ?

So after much frustration with recent Tamil movies, I spent lot of time in researching to start again with a real good old movie. Thus found முள்ளும்-மலரும் yesterday.தலைவர் கொஞ்சம் centi-அ போட்டு feel பண்ணவெச்சுட்டார் :-(

Memorial Day weekend

2006-06-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Sanjuan Island

The ferry ride was wonderful. My intuition said not to believe the visitor centre recommendations. Still we decided to follow the instructions. The places they recommended didn’t meet my expectations about the Island. Saw a camel like creature name Alpaca. Whale watching-ன்னு சொல்லி மண்ட காய விட்டுடானுங்க.
I should have explored the Island more.

Pictures here…

Day 2: Leavenworth

Yes,for the third time. This place is simply beautiful. Stevens pass had lot of snow left for playing even during this time of the year. The drive was awesome. First, all green trees then mountains with snow and finally artistic village. Had delicious lunch at Cafe Mozart,a German restaurant.

Pictures here…

Day 3: Had a good lunch at Udupi and roamed around Redmond Town centre.

Understanding the customer

2006-05-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I got a mail from Bank of America, informing me about a prize scheme if we deposit cheques via ATM. I think they are encouraging the use of ATM’s, so that they can avoid long queues in the bank. In no way the ATM’s can match the services of good looking female tellers. Even if it is a deposit of $10, I always prefer teller service. I don’t mind waiting in line for even an hour ;-) Can an ATM replace the ever smiling, how was your day at office enquiry, and other such things?! You know what; Bank of America should understand their customers better. Just get rid of those female tellers, people will automatically start using the ATM’s.

Movie of the week: Over the Hedge – It is a real good one if you need an hour and half of just entertainment.

ஜோர் : தமிழ் படம்னு எது கிடைச்சாலும் போதும், பாப்போம்ல :- (

Movies…

2006-05-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

தங்க மகன்: Couple of weeks back the DVD print ditched us, it got stuck after an hour. To compensate for that disappointment, we watched it twice this week. Listening to the songs after a long time and got addicted again. My search for தம்பிக்கு எந்த ஊரு is in vain. Both the rental shops here don’t have it, sigh…

Don’t know why suddenly got into தலைவர் movies.

அழகாய் இருக்கிறாய் பயமாய் இருக்கிறது & திருட்டு பயலே: Good in pieces.
திருப்பதி – One among the great comedy movies I have seen in recent months.

MI III – கொஞ்சம் hi-tech-ஆன Captain படம். அவ்வளவு தான்.

Saw Dishyum again, in DVD ;-)

And on Tamilnadu election results: I somehow feel that this government may not serve its full five year term :-(

Verizon service sucks…

2006-05-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is about Verizon DSL service. Last Friday I received a DSL kit from Verizon. A note on it said, we’ll not charge you until it is activated. When I was out of home, my friend got a call saying that Verizon will charge as soon as the kit is shipped. What the f**k, I haven’t even ordered for a DSL ?!?! I just checked whether the service is available or not through their customer service few weeks back. I need to call the customer service to cancel. After lot of redirection, the whole cancel process took almost an hour. Who invented this IVRS? May that guy’s ***** cease to work when needed. Then I did one more foolish thing. I said I would like to register a complaint. Oh my god, I got redirected again, this time to a manager. He said – “my sincere apologize”. Otha.. Who needs his apology; I already lost an hour of my working hour. I disconnected and got back to work. And I need to send the DSL kit back within a month else they’ll charge for that. What do these people think? My whole day got f**ked up.

Tulip Fest 2006

2006-05-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

In Seattle, Sun comes out once in a blue moon ;-) Apr 22nd was one such day.We decided to check out this year's Tulip fest.Though my jaws didn't drop as last year, it was wonderful again.

More pics here

Tulip fest 2004 post here...

Lake Crescent - Rialto Beach - Hoh rain forest

2006-05-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

It’s been almost a month after I visited few areas of Olympic national park. I was tied up with some work as well as laziness which prevented me from writing a blog post or to post some pictures. Now that I have beaten them to death, I am back. Took the car in ferry from Edmonds to Kingston and drove further. First pit stop was at Port Angeles. There is one disadvantage with the GPS enabled car. When searched for nearest restaurants it gave us results of the restaurants in Canada. It’s true that Canada was near but still Visa illama ulla poona sulukku eduthuda maattanga :-( After having breakfast in Port Angeles, headed to Rialto Beach. On the way we stopped at this beautiful lake called Lake Crescent. There was not much wind that day so the reflections of the mountains in the lake were awesome.

More pics here...

Next place was Rialto Beach. It was a kind of deserted place, with very few people visiting that day. The warning message in the entrance left everyone pissed off. It read – “Tsunami warning – This place is expected to have a Tsunami in the near future” .Needless to say that we left the place much earlier than we planned.

More pics here...

Then went to Hoh rain forest. There were lots of stats informing that it receives highest rainfall compared to most other places. The guide there compelled us to go a trail called hall of mosses. It wasn’t that good as it was drizzling. They rightly named the place ;-)

More pics here...