Cloud Nine

Sunday, December 19, 2004

It was Sunol Ohlone Park this Saturday. Following my roommate, Sankari's expert advice, we decided to go to Sunol instead of Monte Bello. It was a good decision. Sunol is very pretty. It is a short (less than 30 mins) drive along I-280 to the county park. The trail is the usual...some trees and rocks initially. It climbs steadily and it leads to a rock outcrop at the summit. Standing there, it's rolling hills. Everywhere. All around you. As far the eye can see. And with the smooth soothing rays of the setting sun, it was ethereal. A moment. You feel glad to be alive, to be able to witness such beauty. We shake ourselves out of it and begin the descent, we need to get down by nightfall. Lunch (or whatever) followed. At 6PM. Awesome chowmein and string beans!

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Sunday, December 12, 2004

It's been a nice weekend so far. A weekend at a pace that I like. We went to watch Ocean's Twelve on Friday night. I am not a big fan of watching a movie the night it comes out or anything. But I AM a big fan of George Clooney. Ok..and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon while I am at it. Movie was so-so...all stars no shine.

Saturday was really nice. I went on a hike to Stevens Creek County Park. It was not as crowded as I expected. There was a group of picnickers near the parking lot but other than that, hardly anyone on the trail. The trail is well shaded while it is within the Stevens Creek County Park. About halfway it enters the Fremont Open Space Preserve, which, as the name indicates, is a lot of open space. It starts off going alongside the creek (that would be the creek in Stevens Creek) and you get a nice view of the Stevens Creek reservoir. It leads up to Maisie's Peak which offers a nice view of most of the Bay Area. The trail then loops back to the parking lot via the Open Space preserve. Being something of an agoraphiliac (in case you didn't know, it's a word I coined for "lover of open spaces"), I realized that this is one of the best times to visit Open Space Preserves because of the moderate temperatures. Anyway, that brings us to the end of the 6.something mile hike. After some shopping in the evening, I finally got to the project that I had planned for Saturday. Pumpkin Pie! My roommate had brought this good-sized pumpkin during Halloween, and we never got down to making anything with it. So I got all the baking stuff and started out. Apple pies are easier to make, according to me. This was not too bad, although I am not exactly fond of the egg-breaking-beating bit. All's well that ends well and there's pumpkin pie to be had.

On a more serious note, M.S. Subbulakshmi passed away on Saturday night. A legend leaves us but her music lives on. What really left an impression on me was the utter devotion in her voice. And her simplicity and humility. We are fortunate to have lived in her time.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Smooth!

Cisco celebrated its 20th anniversary yesterday with a Carlos Santana concert for its employees. And I got to go with my roommate. It was held at the HP Pavilion is San Jose. After parking rather comfortably and rushing to get away from the rather chilly and windy weather, I actually noticed how huge the Pavilion was! Inside was this humongous sea of humanity that is Cisco. People were milling around trying to get food before they entered the seating area. We finally managed to get outselves an excuse of a dinner and entered. For a second, it reminded me a little of Nehru indoor stadium in Chennai, only, of course a lot bigger. It has a capacity of about 20,000! It was very fancy, lights and all.

John Chambers delivered a speech. He said something to this effect: "Being on top is not about age or anything else, it is a state of mind". Cisco went from $70M (when Chambers joined) to $22B today. Amazing. And then Santana came on and let the music happen. It was awesome. Very foot-tapping music. Most people on the floor were on their feet. You could feel the drums throb inside you. And yes, he did perform some numbers from his Grammy-guzzling "Supernatural". What it is to play an instrument like he does! (sigh)

So I say Thank You for the Music.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Word of the Year 2004

"Blog" was chosen as the Word of the Year by Merriam-Webster. Apparently a new blog is created every 5.8 seconds. Amazing!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4059291.stm