Premshree's (品速力) Personal Weblog

April's been relatively relaxing. I spent one of the weekends in Seattle, where I hung out mostly with ravi. I'm still undecided if I like Seattle, but will visit again anyway. I have some pictures on Flickr. Oh, Virgin America First Class is pretty sweet. :-)

I spent five days (beginning weekend before last) in New York City. Met a bunch of friends from college, did the usual East/West Village thing, arms got screwed-up after rowing in Central Park, hung out at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, went to The Hamptons, went to Long Island for the first time, met friend in Queens.

Hung out with BOBPOPO (one of Live's favorite broadcasters) and friends in Brooklyn. Bob later walked Eric and me to his barber shop, Ticky's, on Flatbush Ave. (We recorded some really fun videos that I'll post here someday.) Bob gave Eric the Flatbush touch and later insisted I should get something done. Check this crazy video.

I haven't finished uploading all pictures, but they'll end up here.

Oh, and in other news, I quit smoking some ten days ago. Cold turkey. So far so good. Hopefully this time around it works.

Was in New York couple of weeks ago to meet friends, etc. Sometimes I feel like I should just move there, but I don't want to work for Yahoo! in that case. (That'd be like working for PWC in San Francisco.) Oh well, we'll see.

This was shot from the top of the Rockefeller Center (or Top of the Rock). I highly recommend it if you want fantastic views of the New York City skyline. Views from the Empire State are nice, but not as good as the Rock; also, there is practically *no* line to get on top; and, of course, you actually get to see the Empire State. :-)

More pictures here.

Made my day.

The long weekend last week was Death Valley. We hadn't planned well, and since it was a long drive, we rented a car -- a hybrid -- sadly from SJC. And I wasn't allowed to drive, apparently, because I need to be _25_ to drive a _hybrid_. WTF.

Fujicolor Superia 100

While I wasn't particularly excited about the freezing weather, I'd imagine it's much better than being there during the summer. The most fun part was hiking the sand dunes. More pictures here.

I have a selection of my photos that I file under personal favs, but if I had to pick one that I absolutely love, it has to be this:

For the technically inclined, it's not as sharp as one would like it. But I think it turned out fine as it is. This was shot on Fujichrome Sensia 100 on my (now broken) Nikon FM10. As to why this seems square-cropped when it's shot on 35mm film: this was the last exposure on the roll, and it got only partially exposed; so it was not cropped, really. (Aside: when I gave this roll for development, this last frame wasn't scanned -- the guy probably assumed it was a "bad" exposure -- so I went again to get this one frame scanned. I'm glad I did.)

Krunal and I ended up doing a Vegas/SoCal road trip the week leading up to New Year's. Nothing was planned -- the only thing we knew we were doing once he got here from Boston was Vegas. After a couple of days in the city, we started looking for rental cars. Everyone was sold out, and when available, regulation cars were at like 90-100 a day. I called good 'ol Mountain View Avis; they had a car. We head there next day (fuck, it's nuts to commute down south without a car) and Mr. Anil says, "I'll give you a Mustang. Convertible. 29." Gotta love the guy.

So we started off for Vegas. Things were good. I drove more of the California part because in Nevada it had to be Krunal all the way. After having dinner (at some Denny's) we continued down I-15S. Krunal suddenly realizes we're running out of gas! The friggin' indicator was fux0red! Anyway, we couldn't do much so we kept driving for a bit (that bit ended up being more than 15 miles) in hopes of finding a gas station. No luck, so we moved to the right-most lane. The car stops. Wouldn't start. Fuck. Quickly put the parking lights on, and later pushed the car more to the right (the darn thing kept shaking when a truck would go by). Anyway, so we're fucked. Called NHP, but they said they needed a mile marker and it was waaay cold (less than -5° C) for any of us to go figure. Called Avis. Their Vegas location was closed and the woman who answered wouldn't help us any other way. Called again, and now they'd just hang up. (They'd say "hello" exactly twice and then just hang up.) Bastards. We called another Avis location (I think) and explained our situation. She was extremely helpful. She managed to connect us to a towing service, who was supposed to bring us gas. The guy later called us to find out where we exactly were. We managed to give him directions using the GPS (15 miles away from exit 31 or some shit on I-15S; at this point we were about 20 miles from the strip). Anyway, after maybe a couple of hours he came, without fuel -- the gas station that he thought he'd get fuel from was closed. Oh well, so he said he could tow us to the closest gas station which happens to be in the strip. 20 minutes later all we see are lights. We fill up the tank and look for a motel.

Anyway, so that was that. We spent a couple of days in Vegas.

We weren't sure what we wanted to do next, so since Hoover Dam wasn't too far, we headed there.

Traffic was crazy and later I wondered why people even bother coming here. Anyway, next we thought we should head to check out Grand Canyon. Checked maps/GPS and we were on our way. Half way there, we filled up gas in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. It was way late at this time and we were told there's no point going at this time. So then we decided we should head to Santa Monica.

We got to Santa Monica late in the night. Couldn't find a cheap place, so ended up going to Inglewood, close to LAX. Breakfast next day was at the Taco Bell next door -- and I was shocked to see what I saw. The guy told us it's standard-issue LA. We then headed to Venice and later Long Beach. At this point we decided we needed music to be played from the iPhone, so we ended up at some Apple store in Manhattan village to buy the iTrip -- where we learned that the darned thing works only with iPods. Okay. We then headed to Griffith Park in the Hollywood hills to get a view of the LA skyline (not a clear night, sadly.) Later we headed for dinner at some restaurant in Huntington Beach where we were to meet Cathy and Peggy.

We had decided to head out of the area that night, but both of us were extremely tired. So we drove 6 miles to some motel in Beach Blvd. in Anaheim. Later that night Cathy called up saying they wanted to check out SeaWorld in San Diego the next day. That was a good thing, because plans to meet in Vegas had gotten fucked-up. So anyway, they called in the morning saying they were on their way. We left an hour later. So we were in San Diego.

Nice time was had. Later in the night we headed downtown for some coffee for our drive back to San Francisco.

More pictures here.

(I'm glad I ended up writing this. It's been a while since I've written about any of my trips. And that sucks.)

These days I use my company-issued MacBook Pro. It's amazing how small my 12" Powerbook seems in comparison. Sadly, it's no longer in an usable state. I'd still want to get a 12" (or smaller) MacBook Pro (if they ever make one): it's so easy to carry around.

FWIW, now I have more sticker space. :-)

Oh, here’s an useful post for you geek fashion n00bs (gosh, it almost feels retarded saying that) on how to (and how not to) accessorize the ultimate geek fashion accessory.

(Whee, fourth post already!)

I lived in corporate housing for almost a month on Geary St.. Those who are familiar with the neighborhood would know that it’s not the best place to live in. It’s nice in that Union Sq. is a couple of blocks away, and there’s loads of restaurants around. But I hated it. The apartment building wasn’t too great; I needed a key, a real key, to get in the building (I hate that — fob any day); the hallways were shabby; no laundry in unit. They lease for relatively cheap, but I wouldn’t have been able to live there.

I finally moved to my apartment in 199 New Montgomery couple of days ago. Office is three blocks away, Market St. is a block away, Metreon is a couple of blocks away. Downtown living, baby! I *love* it.

The building's fantastic. My apartment’s a studio, but it’s got everything I need: in-unit laundry (Bosch equipment), dishwasher (again Bosch), french windows, etc. I got myself an Airport Extreme, so now I’m wireless. All I need now is an HDTV, and a surround sound system. While my apartment itself doesn’t have much of a view (faces Academy of Art), the view from the roof deck is nice:

As for food, instead of burritos from the friendly taqueria, I’m eating from hygienic Chipotle; instead of Jack in the Box, it’s McDonald's. And I need to find good restaurants around.

Today I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to get shower curtains and rings and a rug. Gosh, I went nuts there! That place is awesome. (Reminded me of how much fun Pankaj and I had when we were setting up our penthouse in Bangalore.) But I stuck to plan and bought only what I needed.

TODO: Tokyo and Sydney

Life’s been crazy. I never had an issue with my passport wherever and whenever I’ve traveled. I didn’t even have a problem with my social security. But... DMV refuses to accept my application because my name on my social security and passport don’t match. So that’s that.

What else? Umm, code_martial has been ordering like a mad-man. That's not what’s crazy — I’ve actually been receiving them too. That’s not what’s crazy either. The *one* package that *I* have been expecting hasn’t reached me in over a month. It’s officially lost now. *That’s* crazy.

I want to fly out to BOM/BLR early next week; and need to get back by 12^th. That’s bad too.

ack

Finally a picture of us together. Thanks, spo0nman!

“What’s all that green on your hair? OMG, it’s SHORT too!”

Few more here. Most were shot on Kodak Ektachrome 100; some on Kodak Ultra Max 400 (locally bought, of course).

Managed to get some professional (read: good) film few weeks back. Gotta start shooting.

Here's another one. These were shot on Fujicolor Superia Reala 100 ASA film.

I'm sorry, but there's nothing else interesting my life. But that's okay.

It’s about time I showed some appreciation
For what you skilfully achieve
If you’re not a figment of imagination
Then next time I visit I don’t think I’ll leave

-- I Heart NY by Lea Simpson

While in New York City this time around, I promised myself night shots. Here’s one:

Here’s one in film (Nikon FM10 // Ilford HP5 Plus 400):

More pictures from the city here.

More pictures »

I’ve finally uploaded all pictures from Aero India '07.

There were a bunch of them, but if you’re looking for specific ones, discounting the “sissy” ones, here you go: JAS-39 Gripen, MiG-29 OVT, MiG-35, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, C-17 Globemaster III, HAL Tejas, Sukhoi Su-30 MKI.

Entire set »

You know, it’s kinda embarrassing, but what the hell, the truth is I had never ridden a bike or driven a car. Well, the former—biking—I have done, but it was more because I had to prove a point. Now, the last few times I’ve been coming to Bombay I’ve been biking every day. I’ve been enjoying it! The first thing I want to do when I come here is bike. And I like riding fast. I’ve been riding on Ghodbunder road regularly. I did Worli to Dahisar once. I must thank my brother for being a good teacher. :-)

I’ve been driving too. (My trainer says now all I need to to is fly a plane. Haha!) But nothing like biking.

Oh, that picture is from one of the biking trips. (More pics from that night.)

You can call me a Rockstar, but don’t ask me to play Erotomania.

I’m happy about the way some of these turned out.

I got lost yesterday while trying to get to my hotel in Santa Clara from the Golden Gate area. I ended up using a cab, Muni bus, Caltrain, a bus again, light rail, then did some walking and ended up somewhere in San Jose. Manged to reach the hotel, eventually.

Next time — I’m driving. Definitely. Traveling in Portland was so easy, but then again distances aren’t huge.

Oh, and stop bothering me with those silly questions. Yes, I have a D70s now. :-) One of the best pictures I’ve taken so far is probably that of Bhavana’s. It was nice meeting you!

OSCON was a lot of fun. My talk went pretty well. I think. Here’s the presentation, if you’re interested.

A lot of the sessions and tutorials were nice—I mostly attended a bunch of Perl talks. Among the keynotes, the best, in my opinion, was Kathy Sierra’s.

Oh, this picture that I took won a runner-up prize at the Third Annual OSCON Photo Contest. So I got a HP Photosmart R717. Just like that.

Also, during the OSCON week, we released an update of our Search Web Services SDK. Here’s the announcement. It now includes the Lua and Ruby bindings that I had worked on earlier.

I’ll write more about the stuff that happened during that week if/when I get time.

» Pictures from OSCON 2006