Ok, I’m going to burning man. I don’t know what to expect but I’m hoping to have a great art experience. Last two weeks, I was building a geodesic dome, with help from a Chris White and the fire flies! The dome is subject of another blog post but the good news is yesterday we assembled it and it looked stable and functional!!
The point of this post is our art project – Resurrection Altar!
What is Resurrection Altar? Resurrection altar is a communal art project with a tad bit of environmental and geek consciousness. Over the span of seven days we will decorate the Altar with different Rangoli design, which folks are welcome to participate in making! At the Altar you can make your resurrection wish and tie a piece of plastic to the AltarCross! At the end of the burningman we will burn the AltarCross and make a plastic monster out of the Resurrection plastic bands. This monster will live until you resurrect, right?
Time for pictures. These are all the making of, pictures!
Fig 1. A 20×30inch Poster – our camp sign during the day!
Fig 2. Altar camp sign – This sign will illuminate at Night
Fig 3. Rangoli Design – The Jain Map of Universe. We will make a stencil out of this.
Fig 4. Rangoli Design – we will make a stencil out of this.
Fig 5. The AltarCross.
More pictures coming! Come help out with the preparations!!
On Aug 21-22, I’ll attempt to climb Mt. Rainier with Team Asha. Through the season the Team has really prepared hard to make this a successful and enjoyable climb! All the familiar faces and a very familiar cause! Please support the climbers and the cause!
The Cause?
I have climbed Rainier in 2006, 2009 with a different causes – ranging from personal to helping Mayaboli school. I’m continuing the same causes this time but also helping a tiny bit in making other climbers succeed in their personal and benevolent goals!
I’m looking forward to amazing weather, a great team and fun times! I get to use my climber’s pass again this season!
This December 2010 (Dec 14, 2010 – Jan 5, 2011) I’m planning to bike along the Indian peninsula, perhaps from Chennai to Goa. I’m starting this articles to keep track of all the planning required for this trip. The goal is to cover about 60 miles a day and also take a couple of days off for sight-seeing.
This weekend myself, Rob and Sumeet tried an attempt up Mt. Rainier (14410 ft!). Now Rob is an experienced climber, I’m relatively newb and Sumeet just learnt to do ice axe arrest last week . Anyways, we thought that Kautz route would be do-able since the conditions were awesome!
Pic 1. Geared up to 40+ pounds .
We got there bright and early on Saturday and got a permit for Kautz route!
Pic 2. Permit = good to climb Rainier for a year!
We started from the parking lot at about 9am.
Pic 3. Rob geared up!
Our plan for Kautz was to drop in to Nisqually glacier then go up the Wilson and camp near camp Hazard (11,500 ft). To give an idea there were about 200 people on the standard DC route and 10 on Kautz. Two parties of 5 and 2, just ahead of us. .
Turns out that we over simplified the terrain and got carried away with good weather . As soon as we dropped in to Nisqually glacier from a steep slope we realized that we weren’t prepared for the steepness ahead of us. As I plunged stepped down cautiously, Sumeet behind me took a tumble and got to practice his newly learnt ice axe arrest technique. I’m still amazed how fearless he is and always ready to go new and exciting stuff, while I’m a bit on the timid side .
We regrouped on the glacier and decided that we will do Kautz some other day and may try and scoot over to Camp Muir and see if we can make our way through the standard DC route. It was already about 11am so kind of late to go try Emmons.
We hauled our selves up to Camp Muir and got there around 3pm. Our goal was to try and get to Ingraham flats and camp there so that we can get start ahead of the crowds. Turns out a ranger was meticulously taking a toll, we explained him our story and requested if we can scoot on this route instead of Kautz. He was really helpful and told us that higher camp is difficult but he will try and find a place for us at Camp Muir. Well 15 minutes later he told us that there are simply just too many people on the route and they had to turn some people back from the ranger stations. With over 200 people on the route it was best of us to come and try some other day . We didn’t push too hard, and decided to cook our meals at Camp Muir and head down.
It was perfect T-Shirt weather, I could even take off my shirt! We cooked some pineapple curry, chana Masala and had a party! We even offered some of our awesome food to few colleagues we ran in to at Camp Muir!!
Overall it was awesome weather great time, may be we get to use our climbing passes soon !
Even before I do my HIMSS post I felt compelled to talk about the shiny things from Mix 2010.
Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Studio – I love the free tools provided to develop for Windows Phone. Love the fact that Silverlight and XNA studio are very thoughtfully working in Visual Studio Express. The developer studio is lean and performant, its great to see the tool tips for Pixel widths right in the design surface. I was able to write a simple Health app in about 10 mins, the Phones are not out yet but the
Open Data Protocol : Very interesting competition to GData . OData – http://www.odata.org/ is a combination of AtomPub with data-typing and querying conventions. OData is supported out of the box by Windows Azure services, and Netflix launch an API powered by OData – http://odata.netflix.com/Catalog/. It will be great to learn more about batching and syncing aspects of this protocol (Interestingly Microsoft Sync Platform also launched an asymmetric syncing capability).
Data Relay : MySpace which is the largest .NET site open sourced their middle-tier GU – http://datarelay.codeplex.com/. DataRelay has a framework for message passing, transaction management on top of a performant caching system. Apparently it uses The CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime) from Microsoft Robotic Studio .
A very interesting presentation of building your own MVVM framework – I love the use of Continuations and a programming model where the framework takes care of concurrency and events! The presenter is author of Caliburn – http://www.codeplex.com/caliburn.
A few weeks ago we started a social get fit and have fun event! Every Thursday evening a group of friends get together to do a 3-9 mile run, then cook an awesome meal and follow it with a social dance!! What a triathlon . Here are some pictures and videos of the event.
I’ll add more details about the nature of this Triathlon soon! Meanwhile if you are interested to join us, drop me a line!
By mere fluke I stumbled in to tickets for Feb. 20 Ice Hockey 4:30 PM at Canada Hockey Place. We don’t have accommodation yet was considering a day trip, but that will be crazy! Let me know if any of you guys are up for sharing accommodation in Vancouver around Feb 19, 20.
This post is long over due! Back in June myself and Chris Tremont decided to bike to San Francisco, fortunately I was able to make it.
Here is a brief video summarizing our trip and the feeling we had just on reaching San Francisco:
From July 23 – Aug 1 we made it to San Francisco along the Pacific coast visiting amazing parks and meeting fun people! Chris has a detailed report on each day, however I’ll try to summarize my days in short here.
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (Seattle, WA to Florence, Oregon): On Chris’ Day 1 I was still debating if I should go on this bike ride as I had a relatively swollen ankle and my doctor was very happy me doing a long bike trip. I don’t know what it was may be it Chris’ look when he first saw me injured. He showed up the previous Tuesday at work with his newly craft bike and panniers to show me all the goodies and how he is ready to ride, but instead I showed him my foot, which at the time was in a cast! Anyways! I decided to go for the ride and meet Chris in Florence, Oregon ride for a bit and see how I feel. It took all day on Day 3 to get drive to Florence and myself and Maris were wondering how Chris got there in three days on his bike!
Day 4 (Florence,Oregon to Sunset Bay – Charleston, Oregon):
I was testing my abilities to Ride or not to ride! After a 11am start I had three flats. I had the third flat around 2pm when Maris came to see me, I almost was about to go back with her – damn flats (surprisingly not the ankle) had worn me out . Anyways this time Chris fixed the flat (I guess expertly) and him & Maris’ convince me to stay on the ride! Anyways after 63 miles of feeling rather good we reach out day 4 camp in Sunset Bay – Chris was to continue more but i convince him to call it a short day (one of the many times when I slowed him down ). Just in time we enjoyed the fire & company at our camp!
Day 5 (Sunset Bay to Harris Beach – Brookings, OR): This was my first long day. My knee started bothering me a little but mostly I felt really good. As I was riding this day I felt almost meditating and enjoyed the beautiful Oregon coast. One of the reasons I took this trip was just to relax and as the days to come and numerous hill climbs would tell – I did get my fair share of relaxation .
Day 6 (Harris Beach to Elk Prairie – Orick, CA): This day I decided to focus each day for the rest of the ride on one of my loved ones and think about how I can improve my relationship with them and also add value to their life. Of course all the details wont be on a public blog but I rather felt very good about doing this. However I still have a lot of followups with my loved ones from these dedicated day. Hopefully I wont need another vacation to get to them . Anyways – we befriend an Australian at Sunset Bay he rode with us for the next few days and we had quite few interesting incidents and experiences..
On Day 6 I was almost convinced that we would finish the ride and this was almost in stark contrast to the previous days where we did a 106 mile day and I was thinking man I might need to quit tomorrow and take the bus home. With another solid day I was convinced that I can thrive, even though I kept telling Chris and Andrew that I might have to walk the hills .
Day 7 (Elk Prairie to Burlington Campground): This was one of the most eventful days of our ride! We rode more than 100 miles and got to the Burlington Campground at 7pm and then rode to the near-est village (ofcourse of 150 people & 6miles down the road) and celebrated Chris’ birthday. A fellow biker, Sofie, who was at this Campground also joined us for the celebrations!
Day 8 (Burlington Campground to Mackerricher Sate Park – Cleone, CA): I was starting to enjoy this lifestyle of biking from place to another and meeting new people, and just coming in to the whole new fraternity. I loved the long downhill after of course a six mile uphill through the Redwoods -
Day 9 (MacKerricher to Stillware Cove Campground – Ocean Cove, CA): Our ride-mate took a break here but before he left we enjoyed a long and thorough breakfast. In general breakfast were a big think i looked forward to every day. Most days we tried to ride a good 20 miles before stopping for breakfast and when we did, man the food felt out of the world!!
Day 10 (Stillware Cove to San Francisco, CA): This was out another 100 mile day we got to San Francisco a whole day in advance than our schedule! One of the goals of our trip was also to help spread the message of HealthDataRights and HealthVault, our discussion with folks in Jenner got along these lines and they were impressed by two young folks trying to better the state of US HealthCare!
Day 11 (San Francisco, San Jose): We idled the day in San Francisco enjoying company of friends and family. In fact I was in time for Rakshabhandan!
My sister had organized a surprise party welcoming us to California and successfully paddling across the coast (well she complained to my mom that why do i keep doing such things ).
I have done a lot of overnight mountaineering trips, overnight organized cycling trips but this 10 day bike tour was totally different. This bike tour changed my perspective of few things in life, made me think harder and introduced to a whole new way of enjoying a trip!! Hopefully in near future I will get a chance to tour more places – may be italy, may be Chile or hey may be you can suggest… Infact I have created a forum for the same…
This post is long over due! Back in June myself and Chris Tremonte decided to bike to San Francisco, fortunately I was able to make it.
Here is a brief video summarizing our trip and the feeling we had just on reaching San Francisco:
From July 23 – Aug 1 we made it to San Francisco along the Pacific coast visiting amazing parks and meeting fun people! Chris has a detailed report on each day, however I’ll try to summarize my days in short here.
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (Seattle, WA to Florence, Oregon): On Chris’ Day 1 I was still debating if I should go on this bike ride, I had a relatively swollen ankle and my doctor was not very happy about me doing a long bike trip. I don’t know what it was, may be it was Chris’ look when he first saw me injured. He showed up the previous Tuesday at work with his newly crafted bike and panniers to show me all the goodies and telling me how he is ready to ride, but instead I showed him my foot, which at the time was in a cast! Anyways! I decided to go for the ride and meet Chris in Florence, Oregon , the plan was I’ll ride for a bit and see how I feel. We started to head down south on Chris’ DAy 3, it took us day to get drive to Florence. Myself and Maris were wondering how Chris got there in three days on his bike! The dude is fast and tenacious, well speaks for his pro-triathlete status.
Day 4 (Florence,Oregon to Sunset Bay – Charleston, Oregon):
I was testing my abilities to ride or not to ride! After a 11am start I had three flats. I had the third flat around 2pm when Maris came to see me, I was almost about to go back with her – damn flats ( & surprisingly not the ankle) had worn me out . Anyways this time Chris fixed the flat (I guess expertly). Him & Maris’ convinced me to stay on the ride! After 63 miles of feeling rather good, we reached our day 4 camp in Sunset Bay – Chris wanted to continue riding but i convinced him to call it a short day (one of the many times when I slowed him down ). We were just in time at the camp to enjoy the campfire & company of fellow riders!
Day 5 (Sunset Bay to Harris Beach – Brookings, OR): This was my first long day. My knee started bothering me a little but mostly I felt good. As I was riding through this day I felt as if I was almost meditating and I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful Oregon coast. One of the reasons I took this trip was just to relax, and as the days to come and numerous hill climbs would tell, I did get my fair share of relaxation .
Day 6 (Harris Beach to Elk Prairie – Orick, CA): This day I decided to focus each day for the remainder of the ride to focus on one of my loved ones and think about how I can improve my relationship with them and also add value to their life. Of course all the details won’t be on a public blog but I rather felt very good about doing this. However I still have a lot of follow ups to finish from these dedicated days of thinking. Hopefully I won’t need another vacation to get to them . We befriended an Australian, Andrew, at Sunset Bay he rode with us for the next few days and we had quite few interesting incidents and experiences..
On Day 6 I was almost convinced that we would finish the ride and this was almost in stark contrast to the previous day, we did 106 miles that day and I was thinking man I might need to quit tomorrow and take the bus home. With another solid day backing day 5 I was convinced that I can thrive, although I kept telling Chris and Andrew that I might have to walk the hills .
Day 7 (Elk Prairie to Burlington Campground): This was one of the most eventful days of our ride! We rode more than 100 miles and got to the Burlington Campground at 7pm and then rode to the nearest village (of course of 150 people & 6miles down the road) and celebrated Chris’ birthday. A fellow biker, Sofie, who was at this Campground also joined us for the celebrations!
Day 8 (Burlington Campground to Mackerricher Sate Park – Cleone, CA): I was starting to enjoy this lifestyle of biking from place to another and meeting new people, and just coming in to the whole new fraternity. I loved the long downhill after of course a six mile uphill through the Redwoods -
Day 9 (MacKerricher to Stillware Cove Campground – Ocean Cove, CA): Our ride-mate took a break here but before he left we enjoyed a long and thorough breakfast. In general breakfast were a big think i looked forward to every day. Most days we tried to ride a good 20 miles before stopping for breakfast and when we did, man the food felt out of the world!!
Day 10 (Stillwater Cove to San Francisco, CA): This was out another 100 mile day we got to San Francisco a whole day in advance than our schedule! One of the goals of our trip was also to help spread the message of HealthDataRights and HealthVault, our discussion with folks in Jenner got along these lines and they were impressed by two young folks trying to better the state of US HealthCare!
Day 11 (San Francisco, San Jose): We idled the day in San Francisco enjoying company of friends and family. In fact. I was in time for Rakshabhandan!
My sister had organized a surprise party welcoming us to California and successfully paddling across the coast (well she complained to my mom about me doing such stupid and crazy things ).
I have done a many multiday mountaineering trips, overnight organized cycling trips but this 10 day bike tour was totally different. It was very relaxing at the same time challenging. This bike tour changed my perspective of few things in life, made me think harder and introduced me to a whole new way of enjoying a trip!! Hopefully in near future I will get a chance to tour more places – may be italy, may be Chile or hey may be you can suggest…I have created a forum for the same…or use the comments …
. Anyways, we thought that Kautz route would be do-able since the conditions were awesome!
. We didn’t push too hard, and decided to cook our meals at Camp Muir and head down.
. Anyways – we befriend an Australian at Sunset Bay he rode with us for the next few days and we had quite few interesting incidents and experiences.. 
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