Vistas of Downtown Dallas

Yesterday after visiting the Meyersons Center I walked around downtown area, even as the cold winds pierced through my skin threatening to break it. One feature of these down town concept strikes me. The downtown area of most big cities is full of tall buildings which rise up 80-90 storeys. Suns rays hardly penetrate to road levels being effectively shielded by buildings and reflected off by their glassy facades. But travel 1o km away and it is difficult to find a building rising above ground and first and maximum second floor. While tall buidings are built of concrete, the smaller buildings are essentially built of wood with a brick exterior. Including our apartment most buildings around are of wood. Sometime while walking I feel strange and wonder if I jump around our apartment whether the floor will give away and I will find myself in the living room of our downstairs neighbour.

Here are some pictures of downtown Dallas and of some houses in suburban Dallas... I mean the city of Carrollton.

Acessories and stuff to play Paintball

Do you want to know about paintball and start playing the sport? For starters paintball is a sport in which participants eliminate opponents by hitting them with coloured balls shot from an air gun. According to Sporting Goods Manufacturer's Association over 5 million people play this sport annually in US alone. Though the use of guns, vests, pellets and other lethal sounding weapons are used, Wikipedia says that insurance statistics show that paintball is one of the safest sports safer than tennis, golf and bowling.

Paintball games are played both indoors or outdoors and in different formats such as woodsball, scenario and speedball. The sport requires a significant amount of equipment. Typically a paintball game involves two opposing teams seeking to eliminate all of the other team's players or to complete an objective. Since its inception, paintball has drawn a crowd of both casual and serious players.

Now comes the hard part. If you are just new into the sport or wanting to get into the sport the first and foremost question in your mind is where to buy paintball equipment and how to ensure that they are good ones. It is hard to good suppliers of guns and other paintball stuff but one of the pioneers in this sport is Ultimate Paintball LLC. Promoted in 2002, the company also has a retail store near St. Louis, MO. Since inception the company has provided a wide array of products at competitive prices. With a new warehouse and stocking facility Ultimate Paintball LLC has become even larger and started offering much lower pricing to the end users.

Ultimate Paintball has a wide array and full stock of spyder paintball guns, markers, paintball gear, barrels, hoppers, harnesses, tubes, and masks. All the world-renowned brands of paintball equipment manufacturers such as Spyder, JT USA, Tippmann, Draxxus, GXG paintball equipment, Empire, Ariakon, and Halo and others are readily available online as well as at the store. You can order any paintball gear off the website and be assured that it will be shipped free of cost (inside US) the same day. This above list is just an indicator of the wide variety of equipment on stock. The product line is being expanded every day. The most recent addition to the line include paintball grenades, vests, and pistols.

The newest addition to the guns line is the spyder paintball guns, which are accurate, user friendly and light to handle and look almost real. These paintball guns are widely used by experts and amateurs as well. Both for entertainment as well as in serious competitions. If you are looking for paintball stuff you must first checkout Ultimate Paintball and I am quite sure you will not go anywhere else.

The best part of the Ultimate Paintball experience is that you can order online and your stuff will be shipped free of cost. Online sales with free shipping within USA is becoming increasingly popular among Ultimate Paintball customer. The website is Control Scan Verified Site and offers ultimate protect browsers privacy and information. The best part of Ultimate Paintball shopping experience is the quick delivery of orders. Nearly 99 percent orders are shipped the same day ordered or by the next business day. You can also call toll free at 877-WWW-PNTBALL to clarify any doubts. The employees at Ultimate Paintball also play paintball and are knowledgable about the Sport and can help you make decisions if necessary.

Listening to the world's largest Pipe Organ

Yesterday, we went to downtown Dallas to attend a Pipe Organ demonstration at the globally famous Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. This is the second Pipe Organ I am listening to... the first being at the Holy Trinity church in Bangalore. The one in Bangalore is definitely decades or perhaps centuries older than this monster of a musical instrument in Dallas. Well the demo was supposed to be held at 12.30 pm and we were there on time only to be ushered into the comfortable 2,036 seater auditorium. The comfortable seats feature covers of Mohair wool, some kind of special and expensive stuff but very comfortable. The rendition of the pipeorgan started with the player sitting in a small space in the middle of the numerous pipes through air passes when the right foot pedal or key is struck. The performance transported the sparse audience to another world... a world of melody and music. The highly entertaining performance was followed by a tour of the Meyerson Center.

Here is a bit of factual information about the Meyerson center first and then about my experience of listening to the pipe organ playing. The 485,000 sft Meyerson center was opened in September of 1989 and it took another 4-5 years to put together this massive pipe organ which has 4,535 pipes of all sizes. The smallest being just 3/4 inch to the largest being 32 ft tall. It is a wonderful example of how a municipal government, with the help of committed volunteers and patrons, can build and maintain such a masterpiece. The Meyerson center is owned and managed by the City of Dallas, Office of Cultural Affairs, and several reputed bands such as Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Turtle Creek Chorale, Dallas Wind Symphony, and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra operate out of this space. Though this elegant building is primarily meant for musical programmes, numerous other events take place from time to time. The most common include corporate meetings and religious services. Air conditioned, spacious and luxurious lobbies are often rented out to private functions such as, meetings, seminars, awards ceremonies, trade shows & exhibits; weddings, graduations, photo and film shoots etc.

No doubt the Meyerson center is one hell of a beautiful building which exudes elegance, luxury and extravagance. But one thing I found rather disconcerting is the acrylic enamel on composite material; 4 separated color panels by artist Ellsworth Kelly. These are nothing but four straight strips of coloured acrylic and there is nothing to indicate any extra effort or artistic perception or whatsoever. But these guys had to get an artist to do that. In my opinion it is rather funny. Anyway some people have weird ideas about art and art works... I am definitely not for this kind of art.

Easy way to get extended warranty for your car

Buying a car is perhaps the easiest thing to do in the US. If you have a decent credit rating there will be more than one financier willing to provide extended credit and sell you a car. But then maintaining one in ship-shape and running is the expensive part of owning a car. Yes when you buy a fancy car you will get appreciative looks, people will suddenly show interesi in you, your family will look upon you with greater respect etc... but at the end of the day you are paying all the bills. Do you wish you had got some Extended Auto Warranty which would take care of all the repairs, maintenance, cleaning, oil change, tire change, lubes, etc? Well you almost have found one.

FinanceGenius a pioneering financial consulting company assists people like you and me who work hard to drive a good car, live in a comfortable home and have a happy family. It is a one stop shop where exhaustive information, articles, tips and other resources about Auto, Mortgage, Credit, Insurance, Student Loan, and Budgeting solutions can be found. The information available on FinanceGenius is packaged in a user-friendly and easy-to-understand lingo which will enable you to make smart and knowledgeable decisions and get the best out of every dollar you earn and invest. FinanceGenius is based in Austin, Texas, and acts as a paltform to bring together customers and corporates in a bid to offer the best possible financial opportunities for consumers. The aim of FinanceGenius is to help customers save money and access resources about Auto, Mortgage, Credit, Insurance, Student Loan, and Budgeting solutions.

One area of major expenses on the home budgeting is the automobiles. Every family has at least two cars and without Extended Auto Warranty, this takes a lot of money. On FinanceGenius the various types of warranties are demystified and explained in the most simple terms. The website explains the critical difference between warraty and insuarance. The former helps pay for repair/ replace covered parts, the latter, is a agreement whereby the insurance company agrees to pay for customers repairs in case of an accident. Depending on the type of policy insurance takes care of both vehicle damage and personal injury.

Extended Auto Warranty is nothing but something that you can buy at the showroom and according to FinanceGenius there are other people offering cheaper rates for extended warranties. But the best part of this entire exercise of visiting FinanceGenius is that you as a consumer can get information about the services, links to company websites and also to a host of other related features. The exhaustive information is bound to set you off on a thought process which will result in leveraging massive savings for you and your family.

Adventures in Wet & Willd Winter at Horne Lake Caves

Of late I seem to have become an arm chair traveller, reading and writing about places which I read about. One such interesting place I read about is the Horne Lake Caves which is supposed to be a great winter getaway. But then one has to wear snowshoes and wear protective apparel before entering the caves. There are other options at the location too, such as climbing a subterranean waterfall, walking in the snow etc.

Horne Lake Caverns
The best location to do adventurous activities such as climb up an underground waterfall, see rare crystal rock formations is the Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park, Vancouver island, British Columbia, Canada. The caves offers an incredibly exciting three hour Wet and Wild Spelunking (Caving) Adventure tour, during winter and spring only. The tour concentrates on Ice Age water forces that created one of the largest and most spectacular karst systems in North America.

There are no prerequisites or caving experience required to participate in this adventure activity. You should be interested to take up the physical and mental challenges caving offers and be excited about the sense of exploration and discovery; and of course have a moderate fitness level and be above 8 years.

Natural formations inside the caves have been named after comic characters which they resemble, such as Jabba the Hut, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, Howling Wolf and Smiling Buddha. In India I remember the Belum caves where all the formations have Indian cultural names such as Sapta svaralu, Koti Lingalu, Simha dwaram etc. Here they have names related to their culture. Human beings are the same everywhere.

Interestingly out of 123 of the longest and deepest caves in North America, 76 are on Vancouver Island alone. Riverbend is 387 metres (1270 feet) long and features a seven-story waterfall. Imagine climbing a water fall in the deep womb of mother earth. It is interesting and makes you enact the roles played by hollywood star Nicolas Cage in National Treasure or even Sylvester Stallone in Rambo III.

If you are someone who doesn't like getting into closed areas then there are surface adventure activities such as fishing for cutthroat and rainbow trout, canoeing, kayaking. Take a look at the pictures and you will head straight there the next long weekend.

Get ready to celebrate Valentines day

Valentines day is less than a month away. For those who don't know about Valentines day here is a small brief with large doses from Wikipedia

Valentine's Day is a day to remember Saint Valentine on his birthday February 14. Until a decade this was mainly a western world (Europe and America) festival, but looking at the consumer and market potential it has been successfully instilled in the psyche of many non-christian nations such as India, China, Thailand etc. This is the day on which lovers express their love for each other. Now the trend is to send Valentine's cards, gifts, valentines day flowers etc to the loved one.

The most common present is perhaps the valentines day flowers. The holiday became popular and associated with romantic love during the time of Geoffrey Chaucer in High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Valentine day traditions concern with mutual exchange of love notes in the form of greeting cards, valentines day flowers, heart-shaped outlines, figure of the winged cupid etc. It was during the mid-19th century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States. According to the U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates, approximately one billion valentines cards are sent annually worldwide.

Now that you know about the origin and traditions around Valentines day what would you do to make this day special for your loved one. Would you send a bunch of valentines day flowers or cards or take her out for a romantic dinner what else. Think it over and you could emerge a winner and grab the attention of your significant other and end up happier.

Ever heard of Gullah Culture of America

It all started with a press release from travel writers.com about Gullah culture of America. I had never heard about it and the release got me curious to know more. Apparently the Gullah culture is an antiquated African culture which existed in America some time ago. With its colourful past, rich history, a language of its own and intriguing heritage of arts, music, cooking, weaving, and entertainment, language, design, health, agriculture, fishing, hunting , and family traditions.

No doubt there are reams of newspaper articles and hundreds of books on native-American cultures and Indian lore. But the Gullah and Geechee cultures have been almost totally overlooked by everyone except a few hardcore research-oriented historians whose findings have been published only in niche journals and scholarly books. This is what makes the Gullah people and spaces where its culture have thrieved all the more intriguing for me. Considering their colourful festivals, enchanting music, enticing dances, captivating arts, palatable food culture, etc should have been popular among travellers and adventurers. But this is still relatively unknown.

I googled and found a few sites giving information about the Gullah culture.

Gullah Pride is a website which contains quite a lot of information about the history of this unique and colourful culture. I copied this picture and am quoting this passage about their history from the website: "The Gullah culture started with the transportation of African slaves to the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Sea Islands served as an excellent location for the Gullah culture because of its separation from the mainland. The African slaves, who came from different regions in African, brought with them their language, culture and traditions. Collectively these traditions and languages have merged into one to form Gullah. The Gullah culture has survived over the years by Gullah elders passing down the language and traditions to their children."

American Gullah researcher, author and editorial consultant has recently released a book titled Gullah Culture in America and says that February is GULLAH CULTURE MONTH and he hopes to open a door to this remarkable world of the Gullah and its potential for travelers through his book, which according to the publishers is the first major book on this subject.

Gullah Culture in America by Wilbur Cross features a foreword by one of the most noted Gullahs in the Sea Islands and Lowcountry, Dr. Emory Campbell. This new, thoroughly researched, book explores what very few yet know as a direct link to the African continent, an almost lost culture which exists in the Sea Islands of the United States, along what is known as The Gullah Corridor, stretching from the northeast coast of Florida along the Georgia and South Carolina coastal shores to the lower reaches of North Carolina -- and little more than 30 miles inland at any point.

Currently there are over 300,000 Gullah people, many of whom speak little or no English living in isolated remote areas of the sea islands including St. Helena, Edisto, Coosaw, Ossabaw, Sapelo, Daufuskie, and Cumberland.

The book deals with all the facets of the Gullah culture in great detail, including, the History of the Gullah culture; Geography of the Gullah Corridor; Gullah tongue; Religious beliefs and places of worship; Folk medicine; Festivals and celebrations; Music, song, and dance; food etc.

Find the best dating website for you

Have you been single since a long time? Now you are well past that stage and the excitement of being single is wearing off. Do you feel like looking for someone to mingle with, perhaps go out for dinner or movie... maybe a travel buddy or an activity partner initially and see which direction things head. Maybe this could even set off a meeting with that special someone to settle down for life. But your years of singlehood has left you at cross roads and you don't know where to go to look for a date or partner. The Personals in the magazine is not helping and are leading you to deadends.

There are hundreds or even thousands of dating, matrimonial, friendship, matchmaking and similar websites online in which you could place your own Personals advertisement or look through the listings of millions of other singles like you and try and find the right partner. And obviously you being in the same community want to be part of one of these websites or dating institutions. But which one is the right one for you? Finding out that could be a frustrating and expensive experience.

The more popular Personals websites such as Perfect Match, eHarmony.com, Yahoo personals etc are all full of people who are potential dates/ partners for you. Apart from these well known sites there are a host of others which are not so well known. But who knows which site will have the maximum members who would compatible with your interests and tastes? Wouldn't it be great if there were some resource where you could read unbiased and critical reviews about these sites? Well you don't have to wait any longer for such a service. Here is one site which has reviews about all the major Personals sites, making it easy for you to choose the right service for your dating needs.

Personally I am not looking for any potential dates, but then as I browsed the site I found very useful and unbiased reviews of Internet dating services based on their costs, style, features, etc. I liked the review on Perfect Match.com which is a website which will help single men and women find the potential love of their lifes. Say if someone is looking for casual dating, this site is a strict no for them.

Another site reviewed on Prime Dating sites is Chemistry.com, which is easy to sign up site. The best part of this service is the chemistry profile form in which they ask you to answer a series of questions and based on the honest information you provide the site will define your personality and match you with people who have compatible personalities.

I had never heard about Lavalife, a rather unique internet dating service, which is known as a focused dating preferences of individual users such as dating, relationship and intimate encounters. This feature has made Lavalife increasingly popular among the several dating sites online. On Lavalife one can have live video interactions, make a backstage pass etc, features which are not offered by other Personals websites.

Apart from reviews Prime Dating site features direct links to numerous premier Personals websites, to help you embark on the journey to find the right soul mate. So what are you waiting for, go ahead and visit this Personals site and start your search.

West Bengal Reels Under Problems

It looks as if the fortunes of the communist ruled state West Bengal is on a perennial decline. Though home to some of the most patriotic and smartest people in the country, the state's large majority have been suffering from poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. The capital city Kolkata has played host to the largest number of pavement dwellers in the country. The constant flow of illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh has further aggravated the problem.

Already poor and troubled the people's woes seem to be getting worse day by day. Last year the Nandigram incident hit the national headlines when farmers protesting against land acquision for establishing industries were fired upon by security forces. The fire of Nandigram had hardly died down when the metropolis of Kolkata was in floods due to excessive rains. Then recently there was the massive fire in the busy wholesale market (Burra Bazaar) area of Kolkata. And the latest is the high incidence of bird flu in poultry of the state.

The government has ordered culling of thousands of heads of poultry across the state. Investors are crying tears of blood as their fortunes go down the drain. The 2008 has begun on a sad note for Bengalis, here is a hope that as the year dawns it becomes better for them.

Read more on Deccan Herald

Suffering from back pain? Here is relief

Back pain is common among people who are working in the IT and IT Service industry and among those who are constantly travelling by motorcycle through bad roads and others. Back pain can really bog down the afflicted and take the spirit out of them and there is really no way to cure this ailment because it is more of a lifestyle problem. However there is help at hand in the form of modern technology enabled furniture, such as Massage Chairs.

Human Touch a pionneering company manufacturing Massage Chairs which combine contemporary massage technology and fashionable outlook, offers several choices. These Massage Chairs are manufactured in such a way that the massage from these chairs are as good and use the same proven techniques of professional massage therapists and chiropractors.

Human Touch has been set up with the firm belief that personal comfort and wellbeing of customers is the top priority and they should get the best. With this philosophy Human Touch® manufactures products which use only the most advanced robotic massage technology and systems in their nationally gamous and acclaimed Massage Chairs. Human Touch researchers have studied and analysed the various treatment methodologies of massage therapists, chiropractors and physicians before embarking on designing these Massage Chairs.

Every Human Touch massage chair replicates the proprietary and patented massage systems and techniques of expert massage professionals and makes your experience as close and gives you human-like massage including the rolling, kneading, compression and percussions. Some of the unique features of massage from Human Touch Massage Chairs include:
1. Full-body massage along the contours of your spine and body from neck to foot
2. 3-D movements to provide complete relief to worn and tired muscles
3. Advanced programming possible to select specific area, intensity and techniques
4. User-friendly gadgetary and controls to customise your massage experience

With a Human Touch Massage Chair at hand you don't have to worry about setting up an appointment with the Chiropractor or physician or anyone else. Just come home after a tired day, program your massage, sit back and relax your back and body.

And if you want to know more about Massage Chairs and how they work, you just have to log on to the website of Human Touch and you will get all the information you are looking for.

Google announces its endowment plans

Almost all big corporations have been doing something to give back to the society. Companies like Microsoft (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Wipro (Azim Premji Foundation), Infosys (Infosys Foundation) and host of others have been professing that they are actively involved in philanthropy and sharing their wealth with the lesser privilieged in society.

Now it is the turn of one of the most popular internet companies to step into this field. Google made an anouncement on Thursday that it had come up with a plan that begins to fulfill its four-year-old pledge to reserve 1 percent of its profit and equity to 'make the world a better place'.

Speaking on the occasion, Google officials said that, Google.org, the charity wing of the company, is expected to spend up to $175 million (Rs. 700 crore) in its first round of grants and investments over the next three years. While it is like other companies’ foundations in making grants, it will also be untraditional in making for-profit investments, encouraging Google employees to participate directly and lobbying public officials for changes in policies, company officials said.

Larry Brilliant, a medical doctor who took on the role of director of Google.org 18 months ago, said he could not even begin to count how many spending proposals he had seen. Dr. Brilliant, who moved to an ashram in northern India in the 1970s and went on to play a major role in eradicating smallpox in the country, likened his moral quandary in figuring out how to spend Google.org’s money to that faced by a saint wandering the streets of Benares.

It is interesting that Google has decided on several different initiatives and not gone on the beaten track such as funding education of girl children in India or any similar cause espoused by so many others in the world. Rather it has listed broad categories wihch it will take up and start funding.

One category predict and prevent, focuses on strengthening early warning systems in countries around the world to detect a disease before it becomes pandemic, or a drought before it becomes a famine. To attain that, DotOrg has made a grant of $5 million to a nonprofit group that Dr. Brilliant helped to set up. Known as Instedd, (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters), the group seeks to improve data and communication networks. An additional $2.5 million has been awarded to the Global Health and Security Initiative to respond to biological threats in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and China’s Yunnan Province.

The second initaitive being funded is titled the missing middle, refers to the missing middle class in Africa and South Asia and the missing middle level of financing between microcredits and hedge funds. The third initiative, information for all, is aimed at helping developing countries provide better government services by making information available on their efforts to improve health care, roads and electrification.

Google has been reputed as a company which is highly innovative in whatever it does. And in charity, it has set a new example, forged a new trail going away from the previous examples which are already existing in the world. Let us hope that their aim to 'make the world a better place' succeedes quickly. Personally speaking I would have preferred if they had set aside a few million for research on alternative fuels, eco-friendly technologies, afforestation and recycling etc, this would have helped make the earth a better place.

Read More on New York Times

Improving traffic and making money through blogs

It is difficult to accept that we spend so much money on internet browsing without earning anything directly back. So I decided to look up the internet and find some opportunities to drive traffic to your blog and help you make money writing. I hit on this website Pay Per Post and found that this is one place where bloggers could earn loads of money blogging. Feeling interested I decided to sign up and believe me it was one of the most simplest procedures. Just fill in a form and submit your blog and you could on your way to being rich. I agree that it is difficult to make loads of money blogging. But so what if you can make enough money to pay off your utility bills and drive traffic to your blog, isn't that something great. And all you are doing is blogging about various companies products, services and offerings.

And there is immense flexibility to choose what you want to blog about. You can choose the companies/ products you wish to write about. There are at least 100 opportunities at any point in time and there are some you are eligible to take up and some you are not. So you can pick and choose your opportunities and take up those which you are comfortable blogging about.

I have signed up and myblog has been approved for commercial and paid blogging. So now I am on my way to making money online through blogging. I will keep you posted on how I am making money and how things are working out and let me see how much money I end up making in a years time. Then we will conclusively know. For now I am looking to drive traffic to my blog and make more money.

Interesting article about America's baby boom

I read this article about America's baby boom in the Dallas Morning News and found it rather interesting. Population explosion is a global reality. Everywhere there is an increase in the birth rate and decline of death rates of people. Life expectancy is becoming better and people are living longer everywhere across the world. Everybody in the world says that the nations of India and China are solely responsible for this population explosion.

But then statistics prove otherwise. In 2006 Americans had 4.3 million babies, the highest number in the past 45 years. And the reasons for this baby boom according to the article are declining use of contraceptives, lack of education, poverty and lack of access to abortions. The last reason is not that there are less hospitals but the existing ones are prohibitively expensive. And even after paying for insurance month after month you have to shell out some part of the bill.

Another article I read in the magazine Texas Wildlife that, this lady who was bit by a copper head snake had to fork out over $40,000 in medical bills and how many days was she hospitalised? Just one day. Isn't that atrocious? well... that is how America works. Luckily for her her insurance paid for most of the bill. So if you are not properly insured, you can escape death from a snake bite but the hospital bill will surely kill you.

Sunday at the Pongal Celebrations

Yesterday I was part of the Metroplex Tamil Sangam's (pronounced as 'Changam' - in a typically Tamil way). I would never attend such an event if I were in Bangalore... but then I am in US right now and like they say while in Rome be Roman I am acting out my part. The colourful function was organised in a typically Indian manner, cultural programmes, singing, dancing, yummy and lip smacking food (pongal, curd rice and vada).

Like most other such events this programme too started about 45 mins late. The Tamil Sangam (ooops.. Changam) function was a colourful and noisy affair. Anywhere we Indians go we are bound to make a racket and that is what was happening at the Plaza theater in downtown Garland. The Plaza was a movie hall promoted in the 1940s and was forced to closedown by the advent of theatre chains and multiplexes. Currently it has been converted into a auditorium for live concerts and in a display of generosity the heirs of original promoters donated the hall to the city council.

We were basically there to hold the fort for Sankara Eye Foundation an organisation which is working towards eliminating curable blindness (essentially cataract) in India by the year 2020. They have already promoted over 6 superspeciality FREE eye hospitals in Tamil Nadu (Madurai and Coimbatore), Andhra Pradesh (Guntur), Karnataka (Bangalore and Shimoga) and Gujarat (Anand) and are in the process of constructing many more.

The last programme on the agenda was a light music rendetion by Prabhu and party, for the first time in my life I actually sat through such a programme and enjoyed a little. It was the first time I had ever listened to any such live orchestra and I have no regrets. Prabhu and his associates did a good job on the music front, only pity was that all the songs were in Tamil and I couldn't understand one word of it, that was kinda boring but then it is ok... some outing better than staying at home.

If it were in India I would have been probably up some mountain or swimming in some lake enjoying nature. But in US where everything is organised and strictly enforced, one cant just jump into a river and swim or climb a mountain from whichever direction he pleases. You have to follow marked and often paved hiking trails and swim only in designated areas.... straight jacketed but then that is the way these people live.... and that is the way we live in our home country....