To The South

Last weekend, after coming back from the west, next day we decided to head little bit south of Dublin, town called Bray Head, for a day hike. One doesn't get nice sunny weather out here everyday, so gotta make use of it as much as possible. So we hop-on onto the train (half an hour from city center). And as we started to get close, cudn't see the sea anymore or the sun and was getting more n more foggy n misty. We started walking towards the beach n broadway walk and it was almost freezing :) n misty. It looked like this:


So we decided to have some warmth by drinking coffee and by then we started see a bit of sun over the hill but it was still heavily misty n foggy like 50-100 mts over us.


Still unsure, we decided to have a walk up the hill and see how it looks. And that was best of best decisions :) .. it started to get clear, sunny, warm, less windy.. almost like we went to different place


Now we were over the misty n foggy weather alongwith the sun :D (gotta say this again.. we don't get so much sun out here). And it was one of most scenic n surreal moments, was just amazing - the view, weather.


And we spent almost 3/4 hours hiking all over the hill (almost to next town - Greystones). Amazing how weather plays.


People enjoyin the sun over the Bray Head.

My fav. shot of the day:


And oh thats Bray Head Hill, n as you can see, its not that high and difference of weather was almost unbelievable.. one of best days in Ireland :)

To The West

Over the bank holiday weekend, we decided to head to the west coast of Ireland. After a few plan changes, we decided to head to Galway first (major city on the west coast) and then decide which route to take. Thou' we never actually we made it to Galway City in itself. Here is the route we end we took during the trip.

While half an hour into the drive, we got stuck in traffic and decided to take small country roads than the big motorways and one of the best decisions also :), first no traffic, tiny country gravel roads, cows, sheeps, bins, horses .. great ride as we headed to the west coast with even more beautiful sunny weather (only if it cud be sunny always) and our first stop some tiny castle along the way. And we decided to head to the Cliffs of Moher (more here) or as everyone says "Cliffs of Mohan", I had to mention it :). It got very windy by the time we reached there and as we walked along the cliffs and a bit rainy also but it was very awesome. One of the best, n breathtaking. Some shots:

And we decided to spent the night at a small village "Doolin" near the footsteps of the clips and had a leisurely walk during evening to the cliffs. Doolin - aas very relaxing and the slow pace of life, friendly locals, live music. We took an early morning drive to the cliffs again. It was nice n warm at 7 AM, we were lucky to have such good sunny weather.



We headed to the very west of Ireland, town called Clifden, bypassing Galway city, driving all the scenic coast, limestone hills, small villages, narrow roads with 100 km/h speed limit (not really, we could only do 50 max on those roads, very surprising). It was just great. The weather was once again on our side, bright, warm, sunny. A local in Clifden told us to go up north side, its called the "Sky Road" and it was probably one of the best spots I have visited.



We started driving towards "Westport", city on the upper west side. And while driving there, we came across this spot "small beach n hills on both sides, nice blue water" (i guess the name was Moorneen or am not sure) but it was so nice, we spent like 4 hours there, just relaxing, sleeping, lunch, walking along the beach, frisbee, and finally some of us dared to go for a swim also. Just thinking of it, wants me to go back there :D .. was gorgeous





Some more (i can keep on going):




We headed to "Westport" through the Connemara National Park. I let the pictures talk -





At westport, pics talk again -




It was my first time to west, and i really enjoyed it and need to go there more often. If you visit me, we def. need to do a drive down west or south or north. Its Ireland at its best.

Marc Ecko Google Homepage

Thats my new google homepage, its nice new feature of iGoogle homepage and every-time I open iGoogle, I like the new welcome page and its design and the best part is that it changes every-time I login. Its the new feature released by google last week and it lets you add new designs by some of the world most famous artists n designers n etc. I have the Marc Ecko template.

Forced May Day Post

Its still April 30th, 11:26 PM but blogger is already assigning it May 1. So happy "May Day". Do you even say happy with it, not sure, I just wanted say it :). Thou' in Ireland, May Day is on
May 5 or atleast the holiday is on May 5th. I think, its mostly the International Worker's Day or Labour Day, the article on wikipedia is too confusing with all sorts of stuff, religion etc etc. Another reason to post was, starting of this year, I thought I should post more often, atleast in double digits every month. But last 2 months, only had single digit posts. It should improve this month :). More later..

HDR - The Extravagance

The Extravagance, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

I am starting to enjoy HDR photographs more n more, normally I don't like processing of shots to make effects or clean-ups or .. (mebbe thats another reason I never tried harder to learn photoshop :)). But HDR gives an extra angle to the image, feels more real, there's something in those shots which I can't explain but always catches my attention. But sadly, my D40 doesn't have auto-bracketing feature to shoot continuous shots with different exposures. Thou' I can still try with single RAW image. Hopefully I'll post some of my shots in HDR soon, first have to shoot something in RAW.

If you wanna see some more, here are the best HDR shots from Stuck in Customs on flickr.

Barca - Barcelona Tips

Actually I have tried to write this post twice now, once in Barcelona hotel and once in Dublin after returning, but both times, publishing crash. I try once more, hopefully it will work.

To begin with, its an impressive city :), no surprises there. Offcourse, if I could speak spanish, it would be much more fun. It was my first trip to Spain, and now I'm debating which language course to join during summer ie. French or Spanish. I think I'll give Spanish first try :).

We did pretty much most of the touristy stuff in the city (next time, some local stuff). One thing which stands out in Barcelona is the architecture of the city. First thing which I noticed was, the buildings, all around, were much taller taller than rest of european cities I have seen, min. 5-7 stories. And secondly lot of architecture is heavily influenced by genius of architect and designer Antoni Gaudi and his work can be seen all around the city.

And no trip to Barcelona would be complete without visiting atleast one of Gaudi's work esp. Sagrada Familia (or El Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família). Its quite a magnificient building and the design inspiration of using nature's shapes into his work. As its still unfinished and inside its still a construction site, which was bit disappointing but nonetheless, its brilliant.


We also visited Casa Batlló, which in my opinion would be the work of Gaudi's style and modernism. Its so detailed in design that would amaze you, don't forget to take the listening guide along to know about each an every section of the building and how much thought and detail Gaudi has put in restoring it, the shapes, the design, natural ligthing, natural ventilation etc.

I like the design of the ceiling on the pic cool, isn't it the coolest design you have seen :) .. great work


Our next stop for Gaudi's work was Park Guell, high above the city and gives stunning views of the city and park itself is a network of naturally twisted pathways and buildings. Def. worth the visit. Ah La Casa Mila is another fav. tourist destination thou the lines were never-ending.


Also, beware and avoid eating n drinking on this street (i think its called Passieg de Gracia), they will totally rip you off for food which you should anyway avoid. Better try stores around or nearby smaller streets, much better value for money and good quality.

I'm not a big fan of museums, not becoz I don't like art, but I feel trapped :) and sorta forced upon to see it by myself. Anyway, Barcelona has so much to offer in terms of museums, arts, culture. We went to see the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was quite good. Our friends also visited the Picasso Museum, I didn't so can't say much, but they said its was ok.

Palau-de-Musica-de-Catalyunia is another site to visit. We went to see Spanish Folk music concert there. The normal tourist gudied tours were booked for 3/4 days in advance. And i think its better to see a concert in there than just a site visit. It has an amazing glass roof, which they don't let you take pictures off :). But there are places of eaveryone's taste.



No trip is complete without visiting the main city cathedral, which for Barcelona is Cathedral of Barcelona. Its a quite big from inside and has Gothic architecture. More here.

Def. not to miss. And even more so the surrounding areas of the cathedral are called the Gothic Quarter with small alleys and paths. Very good to spend some time walking, window shopping, or just having a good tapas. Highly recommended.

Another nice part of town to visit is the sea front, I miss something of that sort in Dublin. Its quite nice during day or night, depending what you want to do. During day its has nice resturants, markets, shopping or at night, leisurely walk or some night life with pubs and clubs nearby.

Not to miss, the La Ramblas Street, the main street to the city, and its amazing how it changes its character from day to evening to night. It has lots of pubs, clubs, food joints, etc. and extra stuff you may wish to try ;).

I can keep on going, I would try finish off about the visit to Montjuïc, one of the two mountians, the other one being Tibidabo, you can go to them with a cable car if you don't wish to walk. We went to Montjuïc and the castle on top and it has amazing views of the city & the harbour. While returning, you can also go to the Olympic village and stadium and the Museum of Joan Miro, both not to miss.


Ah, this post won't be complete without the mention of FC Barca / Barcelona, one of the best teams in football and with the history like that, if you are football fan, you can't miss the Camp Nou or FC Barca Stadium (esp. before its being completly renovated by Norman Foster). We went there and it was one of the highlights of the trip :) and we took a very worth guided tour of the stadium.


Finally don't miss all the good sea food and other spanish food like tapas, etc.

Enjoy your trip!!

Prof. Pausch "Last Lecture" - Inspirational, Awesome Life Lessons

Few weeks back, I posted about a TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor about the power to choose who we are and what we can achieve in this world. I just finished watching Prof. Randy Pausch "Last Lecture", he gave at CMU last year and probably many of you must have already seen it by now. Its truely one of the most inspirational talk I have seen and that there is so much more to learn and live life. I can't even begin to summarize the talk, every moment / slide of the talk has to offer something, and a lesson to be learn. And it had so many things which sometimes I think sub-conciously but somehow never show' and do. Things don't always turn out as you expect but we need to make the best of what we got.

Excerpt from Slides:

Show Gratitude

Don’t complain; just work harder

Find the best in everybody; no matter how you have to wait for them to show it

Be prepared: “luck” is where preparation meets opportunity

Listen to Others

Focus on Others and not just yourself

Help Others

You can't get there alone, "Karma"

Please do watch the talk, it will help us make this world a better place for us and everyone in the world. The stories / life lessons / life expriences / work / having fun / dreams / respect / friends / parents / family / mentors / loyalty etc. etc. told by Prof. Pausch are worth keeping and using in one life.



The slides and other talks can be downloaded/viewed HERE.

More Talk at CMU, HERE.

Live from Barcelona

ola again

ok, i just wrote a brilliant post about barcelona :) but usual internet crash at hotel n its lost now.. so you have wait now .. later amigo ..

Live from Barcelona (Delayed Post)

late post but i just saw that this post i wrote in barcelona but it didn't post due to connection problems but bloggger saved it .. so here it goes :)
--
Ola,

last two days have been awesome, so much sun, which sadly we don´t get much in Dublin. Anyway, Barcelona is a great city, its quite different from rest of cities I have visited. First of all, there is lot of influence of Gaudi architectural style. The night life seems quite crazy, its like an entirely different city at night. We went to one club last night, thou´ was dead tired from all day of sightseeing, was quite loud. There were signs all around not to smoke inside the club but everybody was smoking :). Reminded of German clubs with clothes stinking the next day but it was good fun. Def. not to miss if you are in the city. Walking around the city is quite good, everything is pretty much walkable distance. The sea-front is brilliant, with lot of stuff to see, things happening around (music, clubs, cable-car to top of hill), n ah we went to see Aquarium, was ok, the price was bit too much for 20 min. n no student discount but we did see some sharks.

More later.. ciao

Opera - first time for everything

Report Submitted. Afterwards I went out to see opera (i can't believe I sat thru' 3 hours of it, + 15 min. of clapping :); thou Bollywood movies are pretty much 3 hours too.. so I shudn't complain) with some friends. It was good fun. It was called "The Marriage of Figaro", its one of most succesful work of Mozart's. I must say, it was very pleasant exprience, didn't knew what to expect and as I was busy with work, didn't had a chance to read about it before going. So here I was, everyone in cocktail dresses n all. Anyway, it was different n nice, majorly due to the fact that it had a comic touch to it, some of scene were very funny, n the italian singing, reading sub-titles was nice, otherwise no clue whats going on (a friend mentioned they r not called subtitles, as they above the stage n not below.. forgot what she said thou'). For the first time, it was good, if you haven't been to any, start with The Marriage of Figaro, not so dramatic :)

Submitted

Last month was crazy busy, things really gets sorta out of hand when you need to write a report, 30-40 pages. Last week I submitted my transfer report for PhD n also completion of first year. It worked out nicely by the end of it and seems to have good outline for futre work also, or atleast work for next 6 months. Thou' am feeling bit disconnected or less busy, I think I need to get out of the country for sometime n take a break. More Later..

Man - Wheel - Sun

Viewpoints, originally uploaded by BombDog.

Flickr pics (like TED talks) are another great way to look and find interesting stuff and as the pic title syas .. Viewpoints. Great Shot!!

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 9

following up on Part-8, its been since I posted about hillary-obama .. and looks like its not gonna be resolved anytime soon. Here are some hilarious clips for MadTV.. enjoy .. the drama continues....

The new democratic woman of the year - Barack Obama :D and the singing .. brilliant.. don't worry about baby!


Fired Up.. folks we have hope.. hurray :) .. Oooooooprah


Barack Rapping up :D

Living in a different time zone

Its almost 3:30 AM and as per my time zone, it feels like late evening only. My day n night timings are totally messed up. Party due to the fact that I have my first year transfer report deadline end of this month and it needs loads of amount of writing. After that, I really need get back to normal schedule (did I say normal??) or rather synchronize with other people's normal schedule.

Power to choose Who we Are: Talk of a Lifetime

One of the best talk I have even seen, I even took down notes while watching it. Excerpt from TED:
"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story of recovery and awareness -- of how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."

We are energy beings connected through the consciousness of our right hemisphere in the brain as one human family. And our left hemisphere thinks in language and connects our internal world to the external world.

WE HAVE the power to choose - WHO WE ARE



Another interesting talk about religion and its true meaning and how we have changed it for our greedy means.
Excerpt: "Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine."

% Indians Around

A recent article via Times of India, gives various interesting figures, here is the list:

• 12 % of scientists in the US are Indians
• 38 % of doctors in the US are Indians
• In NASA, 6% or almost 4 out 10 scientists are Indians
• 34 % employees at Microsoft
• 28 % at IBM
• 17 % at Intel
• and 13 % at Xerox are Indians
• 20 % of gold in the world is used by Indians

On the other hand, another article states:

1 out of 5 Indians can't spend 12 Indian Rupee (0.29 Dollar cents or 0.19 Euro cent) a Day. It implies that 16.3 crore (163 Million) people in the country spend less than Rs 12 per day representing 14.7 of the total population.

Information Craving

TED talks always amazes me, things I don't know of and people telling their stories. Its information which makes me think of things I'm not aware off. And TED talk always give me that information. Somehow its also related to my work and I can look to my work in a different perspective (liking for ones own work is always good), which is "Looking for information in data" and sharing that information. Thanks TED for letting me seek beauty.


Architect Moshe Safdie digs deep into four extraordinary projects to talk about the unique choices he made on each building.


the not-just-for-sci-fi electronic instrument that is played without being touched.




Illustrious jugglers the Raspyni Brothers show off their uncanny balance, agility, coordination and willingness to sacrifice (others)

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 8

Following up on previous post - Part 7.

Stephen giving his perspective on Barack Obama "You are no Kennedy". Brilliant Colbert!

Colbert - Threat Downs

Leap Day

Magic Fountain, originally uploaded by chughtai.

We're gonna break the monster's back
Yes we are...
Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother

As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart

And I wonder where is the love?
Where is the love?
Love and Peace

We need
Love and peace
Love and peace
-- U2

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 7

decision-making for dummies, originally uploaded by petit hiboux.

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 6.

Great work by "Petit Hiboux" on flickr; saw this one on flickr blog recently and reminded me of US elections for dummies again.

Enjoy!!

And yeah, things are heating up between hillary n obama. Actually to me, it has sorta reached a level of annoying-ness, hence I am not following the drama that much these days. Also I have been busy with work. No more Sky news.

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 6

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 5.

A good documentary about Barack Obama, his life, his past, his journey and fight, discovery to find himself, merging inside n outside etc.



Excerpt: When he called himself "a skinny kid with a funny name" at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, his political star was already on the ... all » rise. By the time he decimated the competition in 2004 race for the Illinois Senate, he was the bona fide golden child of a Democratic party desperately in need of a winner. In many ways, the story of Barack Obama is a uniquely American tale of the 21st century, where racial lines are blurry and the most interesting chapter is just beginning.

Another Killing Spree

Whats wrong with all these shooting and killings at the US universities and schools. In news an hour ago, 18 shot, gunman dead at Northern Illinois University.

Last weekend we were talking about something similar (over a game of Spades), about guns and whether one should have them or not (not that I want one, they are a menace to society and should be banned in my opinion). While discussing, a canadian friend of ours said, they always had gun in family but mostly pass on thru' family sort, even in mine, some uncles of mine had guns in their farms, but thats doesn't mean, we go killing like this. What makes these students, people, even teenagers .. to go on killing spree's. Is it just becoz that guns are so much widely accessible in US and somehow your don't think your life is the best you have (think of people living in worse conditions than we are and still fighting hard to live their lives, its a shame) or how does one makes that jump from having an access to gun to killing spree. Are we lacking in teaching the kids about it, is it so stressful for them, not sure and hard to pin point the reasoning behind it.

Pink Google

looks like "Google Docs" team is headed by a very romantic person (chances: male 49% or female 51%)I was not impressed by it, keep it bit more professional guys and not change the whole feck*** page. Anyways!!

Futuristic - London

6766, originally uploaded by magnus*.

Conversation on flickr:

me: cool framing m .. n finally in London :D .. have a nice time
m: yeah... finally! too bad my time was so limited!

b: Great futuristic shot.

m: it was quite daring to place such an futuristic looking building in close proximity to some of london's famous historic landmarks, but it works well!

me: well said M., rarely cities with such historical sites would dare to do that.. and london has done it number of times..

m: unlike berlin, they really did a good job!

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 5

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 4.

A lot has happened in the race to select the Presidential candidates since I last posted, where I mentioned that Obama and Hillary are pretty much neck to neck. We are not worried about the Republicans, Bush will find them a suitable candidate to lose or win or lose?

Obama has cleaned sweeped all the smaller states which held the primaries & caucus's during last week or so, Wisconsin, Washington, Maine, Nebraska n some other unknown states. I was reading about it on washington post and they had detailed review of which states matter and which don't. Lot of them which matter in terms of selection, like California, NY, NJ are won by Clinton. But there has a been a lot of new additions and first timer's, never-before voters which are playing big role for Obama campaign. Some other old runners like Michigan, Florida have been ruled out for voting, no need for going into details of that.

So, what does all this mean for Mrs Clinton, the scripts are saying that Texas and Ohio should be won by her, if she wants to remain in the race, and that we won't know until next month.

A candidate need 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Both are still pretty much equal in terms of numbers right now and some extra "Super" delegates which can make a difference are still unsure who they might support and might be sweeped by Obama if he continues on its roll.

An interesting bit I read was that as Obama is exposed more n more to people in the race, people are liking him even more and interest in his candidacy is growing, which is def. good for him.

And yeah, another interesting bit from Fox News offcourse: one of the best lines -

Republicans are worried that if Barack Obama gets the nomination, it is like running against hope. How do you attack hope?

Its sort of bit boring right now, small states, big states sleeping, counted or not, matter or doesn't, useless pre-conditions, etc.; lets leave it here and wait for something exciting to come up.

--
Update: almost forgot this, between all this drama, Obama also won a Grammy Award over the weekend for Best Spoken Word (for the audio version of his book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream)

Happy Chinese New Year ：2008 人喜盛世 鼠兆丰年 2008 戊子年 新年快乐

Happy Chinese New Year ：2008 人喜盛世 鼠兆丰年 2008 戊子年 新年快乐, originally uploaded by Wang HL.

Wishing everyone and esp my Chinese friends a very prosperous Chinese New Year. Best Wishes.

PS: I don't what's written in Chinese in the header of this post :-/ .. I'm guessing "Happy New Year"

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 4

Following up on my previous post, here, which seems to have become sort of a series of posts about US Elections. Whats new now!

Super Tuesday (its just like Super Size Burgers, Super Size fries, Super Coca Cola, everything is supposed to be "Super" in US :D) CAME & WENT and the climax still remains in our US Elections Soap Opera.

Clinton and Obama are pretty much neck to neck. She took all the big states like California, New York etc and he took more of the small states like Delaware, Colorado (valley citizens), etc., doesn't really matter now as we don't have a winner yet. Its looks to me like in the end, both candidates will go for closed door meetings or something of that sort to decide who will run and other might run for Vice President. Warning: don't take my word for it, I have no clue of how the democratic process of selecting the candidates works. It came to my mind just now, but somehow it feels right, no, both of them together will do quite good. But as we are just outside viewers, we need more drama in the series to keep our interests alive.

And offcourse, we don't care about the Republicans. Do We?

Better late than never

Following up on my previous post, First American Football Game.

If you still haven't heard about it, because you don't care about American Football, its totally cool :D, am myself a very recent fan (or just) only. But few days back, New York Giants won a thrilling final against Patriots.
via - NYTimes

The picture above is pretty much the winning catch of the game for Giants and it happened at like 2 mintues before the finish. And the last 30 seconds of the game were absolutely thrilling. It was a good sport game and very enjoyable. Hopefully I see more of it (Am Fo) next time.