Patterns and Shapes

I designed one more image/ pattern based font. I tried to make diverse and different patterns to fit in seamlessly. Feel free to download and use it, and of course I do require your feedback about the utility or not thereof so next font I design will be better aligned for your use.

Hottest day in DFW area!

Today was one the hottest day in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since the past several years. Texas summers have been sizzling since time immemorial, but as the world develops into a more comfortable place for human beings, the planet is getting hotter. This is the direct result of what is known as the 'urban heat island effect' that I read about on Yahoo News.

Due to this urban heat island effect densely populated cities that have turned into concrete jungles are hotter than open rural landscapes with sparse population and few buildings. Anyway the heat reminds me of my travels through the eastern seaboard state of Orissa, India during 2007 summer. The only consolation out there was the humidity that made it possible for the body's regulatory mechanism to kick in and cool down by sweating. Here in Texas the body burns and gets charred, but it wont sweat or steam....

A few more months and then it will be fall, when the good days will be back again.

American Independence Day Celebrations!

Having stayed in this country for three years this is the first time I went to view the American independence day... ooops.. the 4th of July parade and fireworks display. The parade was held at the historic downtown McKinney, it was short, colorful and intense. Everyone from tiny tots to senior citizens participated in the parade enthusiastically waving flags, clapping, cheering and generally being happy to be a part of this country.

The show of support by the people in this quasi-official celebration is pretty impressive. The population of McKinney and surrounding towns might be just over 150,000 but I am pretty sure at least 10,000 people were there to watch the parade. Thoughts took me back to Bangalore, India which hosts over 6 million people and not even 1,000 people turn up for the independence day parade. I wonder why?

Anyway here are some pictures of the parade:

NPR/ KERA repeats identity blunder!

Ever since I came to the United States, I have been disturbed by the fact that even after 500 odd years, the Euro-American majority have not begun to attempt to correct the historical error. i.e. the wrong identity label stamped upon the original peoples of this country/ continent from whom the Europeans usurped the land and built this glorious nation. These original people continue to be referred to as "Indians" even though everyone in the world knows that only those people from India can be referred to by this identity label. The original peoples should be referred to by their ethnic identity, such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Comanche, etc. There was not one or two such distinctly different ethnic groups but more than 700 before the first Europeans even stepped on this land.

Recently I was listening to National Public Radio while commuting to work and I hear about this important Native American ceremony. The news report was about the first peoples of this nation commemorating the birth of a White Buffalo Calf. The news report started off politically correct by referring to these people as "Native Americans" but as the story progressed it changed once again to refer to them as "Indians".

I wonder how many more centuries these Euro-Americans will take to realize that they need to correct their erroneous identity labels. More than that I am amazed at the billion plus Indians in India and the few million Indians in the United States of America who are silently watching this historical blunder repeat itself again and again. I don't know whether people from India are even aware of the misuse their ethnic identity is undergoing.

I know being one individual I can't fight the system that has been established for over 500 years but I can make my protest to this gross misuse of my ethnic identity label to refer to someone who is not even remotely associated to my culture, nationality, or ethnicity.

Summer heat continues to burn....

Texas Summers are my most disliked seasons in a year. It gets so hot that stepping out of the air conditioned comfort is nearly impossible. I have been spending time reading, browsing the internet, watching movies on youtube and generally passing time at home when I am not at work. On those days that I work the day generally passes fast with a wide variety of experiences. I am hoping that summer will pass quickly and there will be fall, the time before winter when the weather is just right to enjoy outdoors.

Free Healthcare & Housing in the US for Bank Robbers

When I was in middle school I had read the story about a homeless man in New York who tries to go to jail so he can spend the winter away from the biting cold. His rationale that he would be indoors, provided with a warm bed and hot food during the period of winter and then he could come back and live off the streets of New York. I had laughed off the story then, but now I realize that this is precisely what happens to people who end up in prison in the US. They get free housing, food and healthcare. After coming to America few years ago I am reading more and more news reports of actual people employing this method to get their basic needs fulfilled.

The latest example example is a 59-yr-old man from North Carolina, who made headlines on MSNBC recently. According to the news report this guy robbed a bank of $1 and waited patiently in the lobby for the police to arrive and arrest him.

Why did he do that? So that he could get his health problems taken care of and then have a roof over his head for the next couple of years. The man with no job, no insurance and dwindling savings and increasing age decided to commit a crime and get arrested. This way the state/ nation/ government will take care of him for the next couple of years by which time he will be eligible for social security/ old age pension of the federal government.

This is bound to happen in the exploitative capitalistic society that the US has evolved into. Where hardworking employees get 3-6% annual raises while CEOs get at least 24% raises and millions in bonuses. The employees, driven by poverty and desperation when they get old and infirm will resort to this kind of practices in order to barely stay alive.

I wonder if American society will ever change....

Summer burns through Texas

This year we kinda lucked out with the arrival the severe summer heat that Texas is associated with. Summer arrived late but with a vengeance... after a few weeks of bearable heat, yesterday heat wave topped 100 deg F. In fact it was 103 yesterday and as I drove back home strong gusts of searing hot winds blew through the car. I felt as if I was driving through a forest fire of the magnitude of the one that is currently raging in Arizona.

Weather.com, the leading website that provides information about local weather in most of the first world nations always mentions temperature as actual temperature and what it feels like. I am pretty sure yesterday it would have said 102 degree and feels like 109 degree.

Texas sprawling landscapes offer numerous outdoor recreation activities but during the peak summer months and winter months these facilities are bereft of people. Simply because the weather is too hostile for anyone to get out of the comforts of their air-conditioned homes.

I have been planning to go swimming since the past one month but the heat has confined me indoors. Hopefully I will break loose and go one of these days...

Arrows Font

I had been creating text fonts thus far and now I decided to try out a font that had no text but icons, images or clip art. Here is the result, a font full of arrows of different sizes, shapes and genres. It is free to download and use.

Free Wallpapers

I don't claim to be an artist of any kind... I just scribble with a pencil or pen like a child who has nothing to do. Similarly when I get access to a computer design software that is what I try to do and often the results turn out like the one below... I use the final output file as a wallpaper for a few days and then discard it in the trash bin of the computer.

Salary Raises in 2011 - Is History Starting to Repeat?

The other day as I drove home listening to public radio one particular story made my ears perk up. The radio newsreporter was talking about the average salary raises that an American employee and CEO received and the disparity thereof. I somehow couldn't find that article again to cite here but I managed to find a whole lot of other news sources that present more or less the same statistics for this year.

According to CBS News: "The CEOs of most S&P 500 companies raked in an average compensation of $11.4 million in 2010, amounting to a 23 percent pay raise over 2009, according to a new study from labor union coalition the AFL-CIO." That means despite the flagging economy that has resulted in a record unemployment rate of 10 percent CEOs continue to enjoy their benefits and have not compromised on their pay raises and bonuses.

The other end of spectrum, struggling employees of these corporations. Those who have unprotestingly taken the brunt of the economy and have been working hard at their jobs, taken on additional responsibilities, and put in extra hours just to keep their jobs, received pathetic raises, if at all. Another news article on the same subject published in the USA Today mentions that an average American employee received a salary raise of just 2.1%. The article goes on to mention that corporations did not really make large profits to award high raises and bonuses to CEOs, rather they just laid off large number of employees so that they can pay their CEOs.

I believe this is nothing but exploitation of the American worker. Awarding pathetically low salary raises to few employees and laying off many more, while the executives make tons of money is simply exploitation. I wonder how long this kind of corporate exploitation can continue in the US. Of course unions, workers movements, and mass mobilization is not allowed or shunned by the Americans because they represent communist ideology. If that is true then this kind of exploitation of the workers represents what America stood for before the Civil War - "Slavery, Exploitation and Murder of the poor by the rich and powerful"

Computer Games

I have been a gamer from the day of 286 computers. I am pretty sure many of those online haven't even heard about those obsolete machines that had only monochrome monitors and the only sound one heard was that of the fan whirring inside the CPU. Computers and technology has come a long way since then. Now everything is online on the internet and so is this cool game creation platform. I used the platform to create a game with three levels. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Goa bans on foreigner's entry into temples!!!

I read this news report in the online edition of the Times of India and my first reaction was to check out what the readers have to say. Most of the readers are either Indian citizens or people of Indian origin living elsewhere in the world, interested to know what is going on in their home country.

Anyway having lived in the US for the past nearly four years I have seen several different kinds of religiosity. Time and again I have made cross-cultural comparisons and wondered how it would be. Say at any Christian event, men dress up in suits, women in fine dresses. This applies even to the weekly routine Sunday church service. The scene anywhere else is totally different, people dress up in all kinds of clothes, keeping in mind the latest trends.

Now when these people travel to India how is it that they think it is ok to go to a temple wearing bikini's. Agreed that Indian temples are not air conditioned like American churches. Indian churches are not air conditioned either, would they go to one of their own religious spaces in such clothes?

So if Hindu temples decide to impose a dress code or ban entry of foreigners into their religious spaces there is nothing wrong. If the intent of visiting a temple is tourism, then they don't need to go there. If it is spiritual learning then devotees need to be dressed appropriately.

Lake Texoma

Earlier this week we visited Lake Texoma, I have already blogged about the Eisenhower State Park through which we got access to this 100,000 acre water body. We hiked about 2 miles in the park along the beautiful hiking trail that follows the banks of the lake. The waters are flanked by high sandstone cliffs and unfortunately in some places the rock surfaces are inundated by names of people who want to leave their mark on unprotesting nature. The state park brochures, maps and signs implore visitors to leave nothing but their footprints. Some visitors think it important to carve out their names on the rock faces thus defacing the natural beauty of the place. I can understand uneducated folk in third world nations indulging in such nefarious activities but here in America... it is a shame that people are still not aware of how to protect their environment. I was too disgusted to capture any pictures of the rock defacement.

Here are pictures of the wonderful Lake Texoma.

Eisenhower State Park & Lake Texoma

I was off work for couple days after the long weekend during which America remembered its war heroes with respect and adoration. Now that I have the Texas State Park Pass I wanted to explore all the state parks within easy access. So we decided to drive an hour north to Denison, TX which is home to two major attractions: Eisenhower State Park located on the banks of Lake Texoma and the Eisenhower birthplace museum. The former is located outside the city and is a quiet, wooded and hilly locale.

View of Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma is actually a dam built across the Red River bang on the border of Texas and Oklahoma. The lake spans across a vast area of nearly 100,000 acres and has an additional few thousand acres of wooded parkland around. The wilderness around the lake teems with wildlife, deer, possum, armadillo, and other creatures live in harmony with visitors to the park. The park has a 3.5 mile hiking trail which weaves and winds through the wilderness. The path is not flat like in other state parks I have been to, it is actually undulating and hilly and has adequate tree cover to protect us from the harsh summer heat.

Hiking Trail in the Eisenhower State Park

The only disappointment here was the really small swimming beach in such a large lake and park. Then the amount of trash that was left over after the long weekend visitors had left. I wish there were a more efficient trash management system in place.

Swimming Beach in Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma

Hindu Pushup

Since I came to America my awareness has increased about how the name Hindu and India have been interchanged. Everything good has been attributed to India while everything negative has been associated with Hindu. Ironically practices such as Ayurvedic medicine, Yoga, Mantra chanting have been referred as "Ancient Indian practices" while caste system, curry, etc have been associated with Hinduism.

Recently I came across couple of videos on youtube in which correct references have been used. It seems like lot of foreigners, particularly the westerners have begun to learn at a very slow pace what is right and what is wrong. This video showcases the Hindu Pushup, a very common exercise which involves three yoga asanas or yogic poses of the Surya Namaskar and very effective in strengthening muscles, weight loss and giving the right shape to the body.

I have embedded the video for your reference.

Affordable eyeglasses from Zenni!

Since the time I immigrated to the United States I have come to understand that there are few things in the American way of life that make it financially hard. Home ownership, healthcare and finding adequate employment when you hit middle age.

In this post I am going to talk about healthcare with particular relevance to eye care. Health care services of any kind is expensive in this country. If one doesn't have good insurance coverage, it is nearly impossible to have any access to healthcare. The prohibitive costs make it better to be ill than in debt.

After couple of hundred years of unbridled capitalism in all sectors people are getting wary of these practices and there are entrepreneurs and enterprises which offer solutions.

One such company I know of is Zenni Optical. This is perhaps the only company that offers prescription eyeglasses for as little as $6.95. In this economy and era of rising prices how is it that this company has managed to continue to offer cost effective solutions to people? It has been possible because Zenni doesn't believe in the traditional business model. Their business is based on the internet and hence there is no middle men involved. They spend next to nothing for their advertising and thus there is no overhead.

All this translates to immense benefits to the consumer. That is why people who value time and money get their glasses done by Zenni.

Ray Roberts Lake - Quiet Aqua Forte

Yesterday I visited the oceanic Ray Roberts Lake. Located in North Texas, not too far from where I live is this expansive water body that offers great recreational facilities for those who want to get away from the city and its pollution. It's 30,000 acre water span has enough space, depth and water for everyone to enjoy boating, fishing, swimming, or just watching the vast expanse of water. For those who want to be grounded and wish to wander around trees and rolling hills the area surrounding the lake has been marked off as a state park and is full of tall trees criss-crossed by numerous hiking, biking and walking trails.

Our visit was not a well planned one so we just spent time watching and wading in the water and taking some pictures of the area. Next time around we may be able to take a dip, go kayaking or ride a bicycle around the forests.

Doomsday failure...

May 21st came and went and we are still alive, the world as we know it continues to exist and thrive. The man behind all the frenzy Harold Camping made a pretty sum in the form of donations and continues to state that rapture will happen.

Harold Camping: Doomsday Preacher Explains Failed Rapture Prediction - ABC News

A clear case of history repeating itself. This Christian Pastor had claimed rapture in the late 1990s and when it didn't happen he said the very same thing that it was a "mathematical error" on his part.

The world will come to an end when some lunatic gets hold of the nuclear weapon stockpile. Otherwise we are safe. There is no danger from God to this world, if there is any danger it is from human beings.

Extreme Reactions to Bible Predictions of Doomsday 2011

Some Christians think that the beginning of the end of the world is going to start on May 21, 2011. Yes! if these christian organizations were to be believed there will be a large earthquake two days from now and that will mark the beginning of the end of world.

When faith gets into someone they can go to bizarre levels to propagate it. I read about this man in New York who spent his life savings of $140,000 to advertise this prediction in various parts of the city. He has also written a book titled The Doomsday Code about this destruction of the world.

This is definitely hilarious, the extent to which people take their faiths seriously. Here is a 60 yr old man who spends all his savings advertising this prophesy that doesn't have any scientific basis. I wonder what he is going to do few years down the line when he has to retire. Granted that he will be eligible for health benefits under Medicare and Medicaid that has been paid for by taxpaying citizens like himself.

Life in this country is not easy when one is old and poor. This precisely what this guy will be a few years down the line, if the world doesn't end day after tomorrow :)

Predict your life span with a blood test!

Every life form on this planet will fight to the end with any greater force for existence... i.e. to preserve its life, to thrive, to live longer. Human beings are the smartest of all life forms and have devised ways and means to combat common diseases and live longer.

I remember one Hindi saying on this subject: "Jaan Hai to Jahan Hai" meaning if life is there then the whole world is there. I heard this quote in the film the Mummy: "Live today to fight tomorrow". Life is celebrated and death is feared in almost all cultures across the world.

In this quest there are hoary sciences such as astrology, palmistry, tarot, etc, whose practitioners claim to accurately predict the future. Unfortunately most of them fall short sometime or the other. To this list of paranormal/ occult/ predictive sciences we can add biology/ medicine. A new test devised by scientists in Europe is said to effectively predict how many years one is going to live.

I read about the test online on Washington Post. According to the article the Telomere test, a simple blood test like the can predict the lifespan quite effectively.

Now wouldn't that put a spanner in the works of astrologers who have hitherto held sway over people who have been trying to unravel the mysteries of their future. It would also create a great catastrophe like the author points out if Insurance companies were to come to know about your test results, or even if your employer were to know your test results.

I think this is a great test and should be made accessible to everyone, making the results public could be left to the discretion of the individual.