On October 2nd 2009, two brave photography (and coffee) addicts set out to hike to North Dome in Yosemite for a sunset/moonlit view of the Half Dome. On our way we stopped at Starbucks in Oakdale, CA for some bean juice and was challenged in a taste test between Pike’s Place and the VIA (what?). We won and left with a few packets of Starbucks Via in our pockets. This is what happened next…

Today (02Sep09) is the Onam day in Kerala, India. To those that go “Oh, now what?”, it is to Malayalis (people of Kerala) what ThanksGiving is to North America .. including the big TG Dinner (sadya, in Kerala). The harvest festival of this state that cuts across socio-religious boundaries in its celebrations and thanksgiving. Happy Onam or Onam Ashamsakal in Malayalam!

Lessons that are as applicable to practicing Web Presence Management (WPM) as they are to life! Learned from a hike to the White Mountain Peak .. the point of any journey is not to arrive!

This summer, bHive Software – Bala, David, and Shyam – summits White Mountain Peak @ ~14,252 feet. Some photos and video from this hike in INYO National Forest.

Powers of 10 is a short film dealing with the relative sizes of things in the universe .. and the effect of adding another zero. Made by the office of Charles and Ray Eames for IBM. Personally, this (video) makes me WONDER at the profundity of the seeming “nothingness” that is at the macroscopic and the microscopic ends of our existential spectrum and (yet) that which encompasses within, all the things that are seemingly “something”, “nothing”, and “everything”.

SAD and cruelly ironic that what is dubbed as Black Friday – the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season, is the biggest shopping …

A cool example of when in Rome, do as the Romans do.  Except here it is a few vellaikarans (read, white guys), presumed French, doing as the natives do in Pondicherry.  Pondicherry is a former …

This summer, Vijay and Bala join fellow co-founders – Shyam and David – of bHive Software in summitting Mt.Whitney @ ~14,500 feet.

I had heard before that both the Sun and the moon appear seemingly bigger (see: NASA article) during sunset and moonrise, around the summer solstice time of the year.
And, I got to see it first …

… higher & costlier! There used to be a time when the dollar (USD) went a long way when travelling in Europe. Not anymore, evidentally, as we found out during our recent vacation in Deutschland …