Happy New Year 2010

Wish you a happy new year 2010.
To kill some idle time, as I was going through my own blog, I realized that its been slightly more than a year that I have written on this blog. It is definitely unplanned and unintended. Anyway I hope to keep this rolling more frequently than this.

To start off this new year of blogging, what better way than to review last year's resolutions and making a few this year. My first resolution for the year 2009 was to work hard to get a good raise. Unfortunately, due to the economy it was hard for a lot of people to even hang on to their jobs. I am one of those fortunate people to still have a job starting this new year. I sincerely hope and wish that 2010 turns out to be good and successful for everyone.

My second resolution for 2009 was to keep working out well and keep fit. I didn't accomplish this totally. Although I am still reasonably fit, I had stopped exercising during the latter half of 2009. Just today, I have restarted exercising and hope to keep this going for the rest of the year.

The third resolution was to master some topics of interest. I have failed miserably at this. However, I hope to accomplish this during this year.

So here are my resolutions for 2010
1. Exercise regularly and keep fit
2. Enjoy what I work on and learn a lot of new things
3. Have lots of fun and enjoy whatever life throws at me

Once again Wish you a very happy and prosperous New year 2010

Welcome 2009

This is that time of the year when we start thinking of goals and achievements. We set milestones to cross in the coming year. We treat this as a new beginning for many old habits to die. So here I am making my own resolutions for the new year:

1. Work harder so that I can see a better pay raise next year :-)
2. Exercise regularly to keep fit and come to my desired weight.
3. Master the DSP and Communication Engineering topics.

2008 hasn't been a very good year for the whole world even though it hasn't been particularly bad for me personally. India saw her worst terrorist attack in years, Global economy took a beating, and Many people lost their jobs with predictions being worse for the first part of 2009. I pray to God at this moment to take care of the world and show us a better new year. I hope for the best to happen to all of us.

Wish you a very happy and prosperous New year.
All the Best.

WELCOME 2009!

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon Trip

The adjective Fabulous is apt to Las Vegas. It was very nice to atlast visit this fabulous city. We planned to reach Vegas on the night of 17th December, my birthday. However, due to a snow storm in Vegas, which was one to overwhelm the desert after 40 years, the flights got canceled and all the meticulous planning we made for the previous one month went in vain. We had to call up all the hotels and car reservations to cancel or postpone in the last minute. So we had to fly the following day because of which we had one less day to finish everything we had planned. This seemed impossible at that moment and we decided to skip Grand Canyon visit and just stay in Las vegas for the 3 whole days. Little did we know then that we will again change this plan and actually make it to the west rim, instead of south rim as planned, of the Canyon.

We planned this visit with two other familes. One of them had their Wedding anniversary on 18th and other close friend's birthday was on the same day. This was a surprise for her till couple days before the trip. And the bigger surprise for her was to know that we were actually accompanying them during the trip. She got to know about it the moment she came to the check in counter in the airport. And the biggest surprise to all of us was given by the weather. Because we had a flight to catch the following morning instead of 17th evening, we decided to stay in SFO that night. We celebrated her birthday in SFO hotel, Howard Johnson.

So we reached Vegas, had lunch, checked in the hotel, Circus Circus, by 7 PM in the evening. From then it was all fun! We visited many Casinos, saw a few shows, gambled to win 50 USD, visited Hoover dam and West rim of Grand Canyon. I bought a tripod to carry along with my SLR camera so that I can take fabulous pictures of this gorgeous place.

Highlights of the trip was Venetian Casino hotel, Volcano show at Mirage hotel, Bellagio Musical fountain show, Jubilee show at Bally's casino, the road trip to the Canyon. We decided on the fly to give it a try to see if we can reach Grand canyon before the sun sets on 20th December, when we were at Hoover dam. We were just 25 miles away from the Canyon by 4 pm PST. However, that canyon fell under mountain time and so we lost an hour. Also the last 20 miles were on the dirt road and because there was a snow fall on the previous day, the telephone operator at the Canyon didn't give us a chance to reach there before 6 PM, the closing time. We just gave it a try. And we made it to that place just 15 minutes before the last tour bus. We barely had any time and sun light to see the canyon well. However, my camera could capture the scene quite well as I had the tripod to expose the sensor for a longer time. Over all it was a fun trip. Here are some of the pictues from the trip.