Krishna Janmashtami Celebrations!

When I was back home in India living with parents, surrounded by hundreds of second and third cousins we would celebrate loads of festivals. Sometimes I would even joke with my mom that it seems like for a devout Hindu everyday is a unique festival. Mom would immediately reply "Yes, the gift of life and that too in the Karma Bhoomi, i.e., Bharat aka India is indeed cause enough to celebrate every day we live there." Perhaps that is why most Hindus in America including me are hardly aware of the exact dates of the many festivals that we would have celebrated if we were in our homeland. The festivals I have missed even remembering the dates in the past month include, Varamaha Lakshmi pooja, Upakarma, Raksha Bandhan, etc. It is the same story every year, when I realize I have missed a festival, I make a mental note and tell myself that I should not forget it the following year. But as it is said History Repeats.

This year luckily I have blindly signed up to be on the mailing list of several Hindu religious and Secular social organizations formed by people from India. Recently I got a mail from the Jagadguru Kripalu Yog about the Krishna Janmashtami celebrations they are organizing in Plano, TX for the benefit of all Hindus in the area. The celebrations are being held on August 29, 2010 (couple days before the actual festival because of weekend) at the Precious Beginning Montessori School, on Alma road in Plano, TX.

This is the day when Lord Krishna the most recent incarnation of the supreme Hindu god Vishnu. Lord Krishna is a highly revered by over a billion Hindus across the world. There are numerous western devotees of Lord Krishna who are members of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCon).

I will be working during the weekend else I would definitely go and participate in the event. Last year we had been to Houston to participate in the grand celebrations and brought back several great memories and enthusiasm. This year I guess I have to contend with working... For a few dollars more

Weekend Getaways are vital to well being!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the vital necessities for everyone in order to lead a good life is recreation and leisure. This can be achieved either through hobbies, travel, recreational sports and other activities. Personally speaking I feel recreational travel is the most important necessity. Though the economic downturn of the past two years has made it a little tougher to take as many breaks, I have still been able to manage few weekend getaways and one long holiday.

Talking about weekend getaways, I recently came across this huge promotion by Hampton Hotel, they are giving away a free weekend stay everyday. Yes, you have the opportunity to win a totally free weekend stay at any Hampton hotel. They are offering a fantastic offer titled: Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes under which entrants have a unique chance to win a free weekend stay at any Hampton hotel in the country.

Enter the contest and get your own chance to win and take a break with your friends this fall and have a good time bonding and building your team of well wishers. Weekend getaways are short, intense and highly relaxing and this is a great time to bond with people who are going to be part of yoru life for a long long time. This king of opportunity doesn't last long go for it now.

Milky white inflorescence - a visual delight

Here are two snapshots of a shrub in full bloom. I captured the images around White Rock Lake area in Dallas. Even in the early morning that I was there the weather was quite muggy and hot. During the day it becomes searing hot but even in this hostile conditions these wild flowers thrive. Once again nature proves that there can be beauty and lively glory amidst hostility.

Get affordable eye glasses at Zenni

In America everything related to health care is either atrociously expensive or available to a select few. This was the case with eyeglasses till Zenni Optical came along with their largest online showroom. One of the first things that Zenni revolutionized in the eyeglasses market is the pricing. By eliminating the middlemen Zenni began to offer affordable and good quality eyeglasses.

Their specialty area includes prescription eyeglasses. Many opticians check your eyes and tell you that you need corrective glasses but they advise you against ordering online. That is because they have their interests in mind and not yours, if you order at their preferred retailer than they will get the benefit of referrals. Now by ordering online you not only save money but also get the impeccable ZenniOptical quality.

It is not surprising that ZenniOptical has become the No. 1 online eyeglasses store. This has been possible because of their attention to detail and providing amazing quality in all the eyeglasses they make for their millions of clients.

Opticians are now trying to forcible prevent you from ordering online at Zenni by not providing you with your PD or Pupillary Distance. This is the distance between the pupils of your eyes, center to center, in mm. This is a vital bit of information needed by eyeglasses manufacturers to make the right glasses. By withholding this information opticians are trying to divert business away from online to their preferred stores.

I don't think this trend will last long because in the long run they will lose customers and earn bad reputation. While Zenni will become more popular as provider of high-quality eyeglasses at affordable prices.

Glorious Independence Day

Today my compatriots back home are celebrating my homeland's Independence day. A day when we emerged out of 1200 years of oppression, treachery, cruel exploitation of foreigners. I have been out of the country on this day since the past three years... here is hoping that next year I will be home to celebrate independence day. Of course Indians abroad celebrate this event more as a festival rather than remembering the sacrifices our founding fathers and mothers have made for our nation's independence.

Bharath Mata Ki Jai.

Earn a Masters Degree in Teaching Online

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of USC. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the most important aspects of modern life is a need for acquiring new skills and certifications. It is not possible for everyone to go back to school and acquire new degrees. Thankfully new technologies have enabled prospective students to learn online without having to step out of their home/ office. The biggest benefit of studying online in my opinion is flexibility. One doesn't have to go to school at a specific time to attend classes, it is possible to go through the lectures at your leisure.

I recently came across the program information of the prestigious USC Rossier School of Education. They are currently a Masters of Arts degree in teaching for those who are teachers and aspiring educators. The USC is a well renowned research university and certification from this school is recognized across the country.

Though online the program is highly interactive and combines a wide array of field-based experiences of students. The program is designed in such a way that you complete a Masters degree in just 12 months while most regular programs take nearly 2 years to complete. By studying at the USC you will become an integral part of the elite USC TRojan family.

The best motivator perhaps is their amazing tuition reimbursement and scholarship program. You can more information at MAT@USC Student blog where the insights of current and past students are detailed.

Computer Surprises....

I received these astounding tidbits of information as an e-mail forward. I tried some of them and was surprised. These have not been explained or debugged thus far, despite several super-brains trying their best to do so...


An Indian found that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the Computer which can be named as "CON". This is something funny and inexplicable? At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE A "CON" FOLDER


For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.
Noticed the weird bug?
No one can explain!


Again this is something funny and can't be explained?
At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates,
couldn't answer why this happened!
It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself?
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
And then press ENTER
And see the
magic?..!


Did you know that a flight number from one of the planes that hit one
of the two WTC towers on 9/11 was Q33N. In Notepad / WordPad or MS
Word, type that flight number i.e. Q33N. Increase the font size to 72.
Change the font to Wingdings.
u will be amazed by the
findings!!!

A tool to monitor who plagiarizes from your blog!!

One of the biggest drawbacks with the world wide web is the lack of copyright enforcement ability for individual users. Large corporations can spend the time and money to monitor their copyrighted material and prevent plagiarism. Individual bloggers find it very difficult to prevent unruly pranksters from making aBlog Copy. Now there is a website which will help you monitor your blog/ website, to see who comes from where and what they copy off of your blog.

Love for McDonalds or schizophrenia???

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More Pictures of the Frontier Flight Museum

Each Exhibit has its own customized mount and surroundings to make it look attractive.

Frontiers of Flight Museum - Dallas, Texas

Last weekend I had an opportunity to visit the Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas. The museum is a treasure trove of information, exhibits, models and simulations. There are several different metal birds, right from 1920s and 30s, an era known as "Golden age of Flight". On display are award winning aircraft including the Culver Dart, Regulus II, Tiger Moth, Learjet 24D, and several others. The museum set inside a giant hanger in the precincts of the Dallas Love Field Airport is a visual delight of colorful planes. Recent models of fighter jets are also on display.

I was on duty so I couldn't really enjoy all the exhibits on display but I tried to capture as many of them as possible in my mobile phone. I was particularly impressed by the way the flights were kept on display within the hanger, some were parked on the ground while others were suspended from the roof as if they were in mid-flight performing aerobatics for the benefit for museum visitors.

Of course like all things American there is a marketing twist to the entire place. Apart from educating visitors the museum generates revenue through ticket sales ($3-8 depending on age), selling collectibles (made in china), books, toys, and souvenirs in the store. There is a children play area where kids can get into bounce houses resembling flight cockpits, air traffic control towers, etc. Of course there are private corporations that have sponsored the museum. This in my opinion is an expression of the corporation's promoter's love for their country and the pride they have about their people. I wish Indian corporations would get into sponsoring and creating such institutions in the country.

Internet Humor....

Here are few cartoons that came to me as a forwarded e-mail. They show how internet is dominating our lives and that everything seems to center around the computer and the world wide web... enjoy..

Skateboarding Dog

This dog was featured in today's morning news and I found the video on youtube... Most adults humans would find skateboarding daunting and scary, but not this canine. The four-legged creature has mastered the art of skateboarding with elan....

Sailing Across the Lewisville

Yesterday I got the opportunity to sail a boat with two new friends. These two gentlemen are retired and trying to pursue their hobbies more frequently now. I just tagged along with them on the big boat and it was a pretty good learning experience both in terms of sailing and otherwise. For one thing sailing with modern sailboats is not so tough, everything is fixed right and so long as you know what you are doing one can sail pretty efficiently. There is no need for brute force to tie down the mast or sails, there is no need for special technique because things have been made easy by smart inventors of these boats and accessories.

Well we set sail from one of the few FREE docks/ boat ramps on Lewisville Lake's shoreline and bounced across the waters for sometime before we were able to catch some strong winds and hit the high waters. The boat moves pretty fast if the wind is right and it often gets scary too. Since it was my first experience sailing a modern water craft, I was all eyes and ears to learn the intricacies of what is to be done.

There were occasions when the wind dropped and we just drifted along without being able to move. And then while crossing under a bridge I thought our mast almost touched the underside of the concrete structure, but luckily we passed without an incident.

Overall the day was great for sailing and I have a brand new experience to talk about now.

Better Video Calls with faceVision!!!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of faceVsion Technology USA. All opinions are 100% mine.

My country of residence is different from that of my parents and sister. The fastest way to be in touch with them was via telephone until the internet explosion happened. Now I can talk to them, face to face through video chat over the internet. Applications such as Skype, Yahoo messenger, google talk, etc have broken the image barrier and brought families together. But sometimes video chat via Skype can be quite frustrating with grainy images and garbled voice. I have tried and tested several different video cams available in the market, several of them even promise HD quality images but they fail when it comes to delivery. These cameras are good no doubt but when it comes to working over the internet they somehow don't provide the desired quality.

I recently came across a new series of video cams that promise to improve the video chatting experience over the internet. I am pretty sure that faceVsion will make the image quality lot better which will enable us to get as real a picture of the person we are talkign to. The main drawback in video chat with other video cams I have experienced is the low picture quality. This is often frustrating because I long to see the faces of my loved ones and the gadgets don't support me. Now with FV touchcam N1 I am quite confident that this will be a thing of past. This new technology offers a chance to make true HD quality Skype video calls. Another scenario where I can think of using this technology is when I am talking to my long distance business associates. They will feel a lot better when they see my face, when voice alone can't convey the entire message.

This technological gadget FV touchcam N1 is the first internet streaming true HD webcam specially built for Skype video calls. The gadget has other applications such as an application known as
faceVision on line store where users can shop using the camera.

Now is the best time to get your dream gadget and talk to your family, friends, clients and associates using HD quality video technology. Subscribe to the FV ExpressCombo and derive the benefits.

Back in DFW

Well... it was a fantastic and rejuvenating vacation in India. There has been so many changes in my home town. For one thing the city has been renamed to Bengaluru from Bangalore, this gives it a strong local flavor which is obviously resented by immigrants who have made the city their home and continue to dominate over the locals. But hey! who cares... it is the locals who decide what to call their city... Anyway there has been quite a radical change in the state of roads in the city and generally in most places I visited... Mysore, Nanjangud, Kanakapura, etc. It was nice to catch up with old friends and family after a gap of over 2 years and thankfully nobody had forgotten me.

Now that I am back to where I officially belong I gotta get back to work and school doing what I am supposed to do. Will continue to blog about the numerous things happening in my life and what I feel about the happenings in the world...

Nanjangud Vistas

Continuing my post of visiting Nanjangud I couldn't upload all the pictures. So here are some more pictures of the location... both indoor and outdoor shots. Some of the pictures may be a little blurred.

My trip to Nanjangud

The first week of my holiday in Bengaluru I visited Mysore and Nanjangud with parents and extended family members. The trip was a pilgrimage for my father who had promised to visit the ancient Shiva temple here. The trip was quite eventful with several things happening including problems with the vehicle and a major stomach upset after I returned home.

Mysore city Road

We started off at 8 am in the morning from home and after some family visits in Mysore we reached Nanjangud finally at 4.30 pm just in time for the temple opening. I was visiting Nanjangud after 12 years and the place offered quite a few surprises to me. For one thing the roads around the temple have been cleaned up and some aesthetic hedge plants have been planted along the medians. The town used to be a dusty, grimy place, but today it is a clean and neat location which evokes devotion.

Street scene in downtown Mysore

The temple is currently undergoing renovation and hence there are some areas inside the shrine that are not so impressive. Here are some pictures of my visit to the temple town.

View of the Entrance to Nanjangud temple

A view of the pillars that support the entrance to the Nanjangud temple

Attractive temple frescoes

Sculptures inside the temple

Some road pictures of Bengaluru

I have finally found a place where I can download pictures from the camera and upload them onto my blog. Here are a few road images of a renovated Bengaluru...

In Bangalore... after a short trip.....

It has been a week since I am back in good old Bengaluru... the city has grown by leaps and bounds as usual. I took a short trip to Nanjangud, a small pilgrimage town less than 200 km from here and it was a different experience altogether.

The journey was pretty swift on smooth and newly widened roads and what totally caught me by surprise was the amount of infrastructure development that has taken place in Nanjangud. I remember visiting the city more than a decade ago and it was a crumbling little village struggling to handle the increasing tourist/ pilgrim traffic. Today it is a swank tourist town with smooth concrete roads, vast open spaces, neat riverside areas for worshippers, devotees who wish to take a holy dip, and even fishermen. The temple itself is undergoing renovation right now and the part of it that is complete is simply superb. Going by this testimony I am sure the temple will be transformed into a wonderful tourist/ devotional/ pilgrim center once the renovation is complete.

I will conclude with a hope that I will be able to visit the temple again once the renovation is complete.

Blogging from Bengaluru.....

I am finally back in Namma Bengaluru... after a long break of over two and a half years. I had heard only of the new problems and issues that the city was facing during these two years. Boy were they totally biased... you bet.... I took a spin around the city today in an auto and was surprised at the numerous good things that have happened to the city. The first thing is the notorious Bangalore traffic... and my experience is that yes the bottlenecks and chaos continue to reign the city but overall there is about 30-40 percent improvement in the road quality and general traffic speed.
That is something better than nothing. People who complain will do so even if they are given roads like airport runways... but believe me guys don't complain about Bangalore traffic or roads. I am quite certain you will notice the change once you land up here.
The ride is not totally smooth... but not as chaotic as before either. There has been great improvements in some stretches of roads while other roads have gone worse due to development works.
My verdict is that Bangalore has changed for the better... better roads, faster traffic, less snarls...

Mineral Wells invites me to visit again!!!

It has been over 3 weeks since I visited Mineral Wells State Park, but the memories of its vast green acres continues to haunt me. The rugged rock formations, myriad flora and fauna, vast lake and interesting landscapes beckon me to return and explore further.
This is something I like about the US where every natural area is developed, maintained and aggressively marketed so that it generates enough revenue to pay for all the investment. This way natural habitat and a beautiful location is saved, and the people have a space to get away. I hope this kind of mindset descends into the heads of every single individual in the world so that the quickly shrinking green cover may be saved from further destruction.
Here are some of the pictures that I have not posted earlier.

Liberty Fest, Farmers Branch

Today was the second day of the annual three-day Liberty Fest held at Farmers Branch, Texas. I came to know about the fest through some posters and decided to participate. Today's highlights were an outdoor expo which featured a lot of recreational vehicle marketers, two artificial outdoor rock climbing walls, a micro-mini petting zoo with all the farm animals, such as chicken, rabbits, pigs, calf, and a llama. These animals are so common in small towns and some areas of Indian cities but very very rare in US cities. The only place American-born children get to see live animals other than dogs, cats and fish.
My favorite section of the event was of course the car and motorcycle show featuring a wide array of metal steeds and monsters. I have personally almost given up the hope of ever riding a motorcycle again, but when I see a beautiful set of wheels I can't help but take a closer look and oogle at it.
Anyway enough of my chatter... here are some pictures of the Liberty fest.

More Pictures of Mineral Wells

I haven't shared all the pictures of our recent trip to Mineral Wells State Park, TX. This park is one of the closest locations where one can see some kind of hilly terrain, and rocks that can be climbed. The park is beautiful right now and with weather not having heated up too much the colorful flowers, insects, and other flora and fauna make it a great place to visit.

Webhosting for just $10

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Nexx Online. All opinions are 100% mine.

When internet became prevalent the cost of website hosting was prohibitive. This prevented most of the small and some medium businesses from hosting their own websites. Then came the era of free website hosting, free domain registration, free designing, etc, etc. That wave saw everyone getting onto the internet bandwagon hoping to make it big, only to realize that making money off the internet is not so easy.

Well now there seems to be maturity among internet service providers, website hosts and businesses getting online. The new has ushered a new era of professional service providers whose costs are steadily increasing. Small businesses who were earlier not shy of going online are beginning to wonder about the economics of website hosting.

I believe the wave of internet era would be technologies and companies that offer Unlimited Web Hosting for a nominal cost that is not too expensive. The new plan known as Nexx hosting plan a one year unlimited web hosting plan and one free .COM domain registration for just $10.

That is simply amazing in an era where the cheapest hosting costs in the range of $50-100 year with a lot of restrictions. Unlimited space, bandwidth, email, 27/7 Customer Support and as icing on the cake is two $50 credits for Google Adwords and Facebook ads. This is something every small business owner, blogger, individual, who wants a web presence, should consider.

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Mineral Wells State Park Visit

Sunday was pretty eventful, visited one more state park in the vast state of Texas and this time it was closer home... about 100 miles south west. The park is named after the city of Mineral Wells which was a thriving spa, health resort, town famous for its fresh water resources. At its peak the town's water was known to cure all human diseases and people traveled to this little town to spend few weeks rejuvenating themselves. Well that was probably more than a century ago. Today the town is just another small town in Texas with a large ranching community and tourism that the State park draws. Well this is the closest location from DFW metro area for rock climbing, some hill hiking and of course swimming and wildlife watching.
Here are some pictures of the location and I will post further about what we did in the state park soon.

Mineral Wells Trading Post... the only store on the state park

Lake Mineral Wells - vast waterbody