Thru the megalopolis of the east

Earlier today, I drove up to Boston from NYC. Can they have any more urban sprawl in these parts? What ever happened to the New England fall that is supposed to be ever so breath taking? All I saw was buildings and some smoke stacks, and the docks any where they could set up one apparently.

C'est la Vie. It was good to catch up with Nitin and Kate before the wedding. The boy still hasn't gotten a gift to give his parents tomorrow at the rehearsal. Jeff and I finally inspired him to make some thing they would appreciete... that was a fun lil project. Good times!

Obesity Check?

In an effort to curb obesity in young kids of today, the feds came up with a food pyramid specifically targeted toward kids ages 6-11. I guess we really need to start putting them on a healthier path from that age, but its disheartening that parents don't already do enough to keep their kids health.

The way the pyramid is designed, is a game where kids use a combination of foods that will get their ship to planet power! Its a nice effort, but will have to wait and see how much it really works with the kids.


Hopefully this will helps kids understand being health for them selves. Being an over-weight kid is definately no joke, and I can attest to that first hand.

More about FEMA

According to Senator Susan Collins (R) Maine as told to CNN, "...the role (FEMA) has played is more of that of an insurance company, and thats what they are doing." This is a jist of the rest of the conversation... They are not and were never an organization to provide security like most assume that it should have. Although FEMA's response to the Hurricanes was really shoddy, the Coast Guard are to be commended highly and should be regarded as the heros in this operation for their brave efforts thru the hurricane

Not one for sightseeing any more?

One would think that since its my first time in NYC, Id be all the more excited going around town but I think the traffic I encountered coming into the city, completely put me off.

Nevertheless, we were contemplating taking helicopter tours that they give around town but weren't able to make it to the last one but instead went out on one of the Circle lines ferry rides. Being a beautiful day out we have the best view of the Statue of Liberty and the NY skyline from the Hudson.

Too bad Im not in town thru the weekend to get to out and about town with people, haha I got an evite telling me Im missing out on an awesome party! =D

does this mean more good news in the near future?

Today, there have been several articles that have been stating that they have killed the No. 2 member of the Al Qaeda in Iraq, does this mean that they are closer with intelligence to being able to get the No. 1 man?? I suppose this should boost Bush's public ratings some, especially since the disasterous response to the Hurricanes this past month added to his dwindling ratings.

Observations driving thru Pennsylvania

So, I was on my long drive from Michigan to NY today and decided to take good ole I-80 down, and here are a few random observations
- Real scenic drive thru the Pocono mountains and the Penn forest.
- NOBODY follows the speed limits of 65 miles an hour even thru rain with not the greatest visibility
- They have BIG dots in the middle of parts of the highway, to apparently help people pace themselves and NOT "Tailgate" the guy in front of you. Apparently we are to keep a two dot distance between us and the car in front of us =S and this just randomly pops up in parts of the highway and disappears after about a 3-4 mile strech.
-so many truckers that they have signs posted telling cars to keep alert because of the heavy truck traffic!

Overall though, it was a pretty nice drive thru.

Nostalgia galore

This is a lil too familiar a time for my liking. Im sure the people in Southern Texas and Lousiana are not welcoming the situation. Less than 30 days later Rita is on its way to shore, I wonder if the government would have a much better resposne to this? Mayor White of Houston says that they have national guard and the military on the offensive so that they are "better prepared" this time around.... and the long lines of cars parked on the interstates... Im never going to complain about tornadoes again!

This situation is vaguely familiar to the one from last year when FL was hit by 3 hurricanes one after another in a couple months time!

3 year old marathoner for sale... Only Rs.800

I recieved an email with this article a lil while ago and thought it was another one of those random fwds, only to find out that its supposedly a true story after a lil digging around.
I can barely run-walk about 3 miles a day, this kid apparently does about 35 miles a DAY and that too at 7 hour streches :-\ gawd I feel so small

He runs seven hours at a stretch, sometimes as much as 48km (30 miles). On a daily basis. And Budhia Singh is just three and a half years old. When Budhia's father died a year ago, his mother, who washes dishes in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern Indian state of Orissa, was unable to provide for her four children. She sold Budhia to a man for 800 rupees ($20)...
...Mr Das said he noticed Budhia's talent when scolding him for being a bully. "Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back," Mr Das told the BBC... more

*sigh* if only I had HALF the stamina!

Time for a change?

This was an article that my friend Adi sent me a few minutes ago. Im not quite sure what to think of it, should I consider it a failure of the Indian government that need to revise the Marriage laws that they have, which state that for people to marry, the groom must be 21 and the bride atleast 19; or should it be one for womens lib for her taking matters into her own hands to get things done the way she reckons is the right thing to do because of parental disapproval.

Minor knot: Girl marries lover’s brother for 2 yrs

AHMEDABAD, SEPT 12: For Sneha Patel, a 19-year-old college-going girl, everything is fair in love. Even if it means signing a contract marriage with her minor boyfriend’s elder brother for the time being, an arrangement that will ultimately allow her to marry the man she loves two years later...more

Granted such laws were in place to protect people from the age old tradition of child marriage in India. I think they need to be revised once again!

Thank you Vince Young!

Texas vs. OSU game was one of the best games I've seen so far! GO HORNS! heh apparently my hatred for OSU far surpasses the hatred for Texas =D

oh l'horreur... je déteste!!!

All excited that Michigan was going to play their second game of the season today, only to be disappointed to a bitter loss to Notredame! Im rather pissed at the way the defense couldn't hold up and that we got completely shut down the last drive of the game and they had to punt it back to them. *sigh* G'bye BCS championship! Unless ofcourse every other team in the nation were to loose one game too, but thats just too much to ask for.

Iowa got beat pretty bad against ISU, that was rather sad. Granted Im all for the Big 12 usually, they Big12 North jsut hasn't been up there lately.

I do hope that OSU looses to Texas tonight!

A change for the better?? .. a little to late?

After intense pressure the FEMA director has been stripped of his role as the head of the relief operation in the wake of Katrina. A lil too late I would say.. but I spsoe its a step in the right direction?

Director of FEMA Stripped of Role as Relief Leader
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 - Under intense pressure to improve its response to Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration on Friday abruptly removed the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael D. Brown, from oversight of the post-storm relief effort, and replaced him with Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard... more

Its rather sad to see the role that the organization has been playing is not one that has yet made much of a difference to the lives of the victims.

Ophelia on the other hand has been raised to a hurricane again now that its wind speeds have picked up over 75mph.

Ophelia lingers in Atlantic, could threaten U.S. coast
FLAGLER BEACH, -- Ophelia regained hurricane strength Friday on a course that could take it into the U.S. coast, and forecasters urged residents of northern Florida and the Carolinas keep close watch on its path over the next few days.... more

As if Florida hasn't been plagues with enough in the last year. Makes me rather happy that I'm not in direct line for many natural disasters

Sentry duty

Heh... here is another pic from yesterday. I look like Im on sentry duty ... the royal palace guard with the Skeet thrower in hand.

Super soaker + me... ahh fun times!

Earlier this evening, we went shooting out on my friend Jeremy's farm. I was rather content with playing with my super soaker till I was handed a behemouth rifle by Jeremy and told to shoot skeet. I must say it was a rather enjoyable experience, albeit I only shot 2 of the 14 targets that I aimed for. Nevertheless, I must say none of them flinched at the idea of being around clutzy me with a LOADED weapon.

Here are a couple shots that Tara took. Heh, they all thought it was rather funny I was out shooting whilst wearing a "security T" on. =D

The sad thing is Jish was able to shoot more accurately at the targets even though she wasn't able to lift the gun half the time! C'est la vie!

Football madness!

Yaay!... football season is finally here!well, it started on thursday but its the first NCAA saturday today! Its gonna be on real exciting day!

Go CATS! Go BLUE!

Leap, Martha. and Nate

As if Kartina wasn't bad enough there are more tropical storms brewring out that are causing a lot of anxiety to the people down south. The next few storms, of which the first is already been named is being watch very closely to follow its path.

Not to mention Gas prices have been soaring like none other, and predicted to end up as high as $4/gallon in some places! I miss not being home where gas prices don't fluctuate on a daily basis. *sigh*

Americans open their homes and wallets to help Katrina victims
...The Chatmans popped the trunk on their aging Oldsmobile and pulled out garbage bags bursting with baby formula, clothes, shoes, sheets, and food. The Baton Rouge family didn't know anyone affected by hurricane Katrina. But when they heard a local television station was a designated donation drop-off location, they gathered up all they could and headed into town... more

Its sad that its only in the wake of disaster do we become more human. The rat-race that we go thru every day de-humanizes so much so that no one ever really cares for another.