june 30, random musings

Yesterday i took the staten island ferry to staten island. it is free!, and provides a good view of the skyline (Manhattan + New Jersey), the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, as well as parts of Brooklyn. definitely highly recommended. there's a minor league baseball team in staten island, and i'll have to go check out a game there sometime this summer. not sure what else is on the island.

today i wandered around the downtown financial district. Nothing special, just lots of impressive buildings and winding streets. most streets do not run in the normal Manhattan grid geometry and intersections didnt have good street signs, so it was pretty easy to get lost down there.

also today i tried the northeast version of a hefe-weizen beer, the Erdinger Hefe-Weizen. not very good when compared to the Pacific NW versions of hefeweizens.

some pictures...

Statue of Liberty as seen from the Staten Island Ferry


"Nexus of the Universe" according the Kramer. in the east village.


Part of Strawberry Fields in Central Park. A reference to John Lennon


Empire State Building decked out for the 4th of July

late night in the times square subway station

last night, while heading back from some bars i had to transfer between subways at the Times Square station. this was around midnight (although by NY times this may not be very late). i was amazed to see the number of people there for that time of night -- it was almost as packed as i've seen it there around rush hour. plus there was a group of breakdancers performing in the station and there was a ring of people about 3-4 deep watching and enjoying the performance. i wish i had my digital camera to take some pictures and videos.

i'm not sure if this is unique to NYC, but i've been in many other cities and havent noticed this type of atmosphere. it definitely is one of those unexpected things about the city that i've come to enjoy.

June 22, a travel experience

After my week back in Portland I flew back to NYC on Wednesday June 22. However, unlike my uneventful trip from NYC->PDX, this one was a unique experience -- some good, some bad.

The first leg of my journey was from PDX->ORD on United 620 scheduled to leave PDX at 8:55am. I get to the airport on time, and it takes like 10 minutes to checkin and go through security and proceed to the gate. Of course there is no plane there -- it was stuck in SFO due to mechanical problems. The expected departure time was 9:45am. The plane finally arrived around 9:20am, and i expected it would be around 10am by the time we left. Much to my pleasant surprise, there was a very ordered and quick boarding (shocking) and we were able to leave right around 9:45am. Our
arrival time at ORD was right around 3:30pm.

There were a group of people on the flight who were supposed to transfer to Stockholm in ORD. They had a tight connection due to the late flight. Plus they were leaving from the Intl Terminal (terminal 5 for you ORDites), meaning they had to go out of security and go back through security again at the Int'l terminal. The stewardesses and pilots kept announcing this info, and tried to gently prod everyone into waiting the extra minute to let those people with the tight connection get out first. Of course once the plane landed it was the same routine, everyone jammed the aisle, and the people near the back had to wait much longer to get out. I was pleasantly surprised when everyone did a quick and ordered boarding in PDX, but human nature took over once we got to Chicago. I wonder if everyone was able to make their connection to the SAS flight to Stockholm.

Initially my connection from ORD->LGA was at 3:30pm, which means I would have missed that flight because the flight leaving PDX was late. But I wanted to have a few hours in Chicago to meet my dad so I had changed my return flight to the one leaving at 5pm. And as you will see, this was quite fortunate for me. My flight to LGA, initially scheduled for 5pm was showing as delayed to 5:30pm, so i had enough time to go sit with my dad for 45 minutes or so.

Finally I get back to the gate for the flight from ORD->LGA on United 694. The computer monitor showed the departure time as 5:30pm and that the delay was due to Air Traffic Control. The whisper going around the seating area was that the weather near LGA was bad and that the wheels-up time for the flight was 7pm -- and that would have been a good thing! Eventually around 5:30ish we board the plane and taxi out to some waiting area on the tarmac. It was a parking lot of airplanes out there -- there were like 10-15 planes, full of passengers just waiting. Apparently all planes to Philadelphia and the New York Area were on some sort of ATC hold. United planes have the Channel 9 feature where the passengers can listen to the Air Traffic Control radio feed. I was intently listening to the conversation between the pilots of those stranded planes and the ATC guys to get any sort of info on what was happening. The majority of the conversation went like this:

pilot: "Any update on release times for planes to LaGuardia?"
ATC: "nope, still waiting to hear back"

anyways, this went on forever. Our initial wheels-up time of 7pm came and went and still there were a bunch of planes including us just sitting out there. Finally around 8pm they started letting a few of the planes start to go, and by around 8:45 they let us go. So we were sitting on the tarmac for over 3 hours. Luckily i had an aisle seat. If i had a middle seat i probably would have gone temporarily insane.

Fortunately i had switched planes a few days ago -- initially i was supposed to leave at 3:30pm on United 690. Due to the LGA ATC delay all flights in the afternoon were delayed, and United 690 left just before we did, so had i been on that flight i would have sat on the tarmac from 3:30ish to 8:45.

It seems that ATC basically released ALL planes to LGA at about the same time. So there were a bunch of planes that arrived at LGA around the same time, including 3 from ORD (United 650, 690 and 694). And other flights arrived from around the country to LGA around that time, which happened to be midnight. And one flight that was arriving had a medical emergency as i heard through the channel 9 radio, not sure what happened there but i did see a bunch of ambulances outside of LGA.

Being that late, my intial plans to take public transportation home were put on hold -- i didnt know if the bus i needed to take ran that long and i didnt want to chance it while lugging around a suitcase. So i had to take a taxi back to Manhattan. But so did everyone else who was arriving at that time, and the taxi line was huge. It took about 45 minutes to get a taxi. Initially when i got into line there was a long line of taxis waiting to take in all the passengers. But by the time i got to the front of the line the taxis were dribbling in one at a time; however the taxi line was just as long as ever, as more planes were landing there due to the ATC hold. I think some of those people had to wait in line for over an hour to get a taxi. Anyways I finally got to my apt around 1am. Taxi ride was $27.50 (to cross from Queens to Manhattan on the Triborough bridge there is a $4.50 toll!).

Ah the joys of travelling. Fortunately I didnt have to go to work the next day, and I was able to get a nice sleep. I enjoy travelling, and even enjoy enduring some of these types of hiccups, but i dont think i would like it if i went through this frequently or as part of a job. Its one thing to have flight delays and taxi waits on a vacation, and another when you have deadlines, bosses, etc.

One month into my trip. A reflection.

My last day of work at Intel was on May 13, 2005. So on today, June 14, I reflect on my first month of my adventure.

Its definitely been a long and unexpected journey. Early on I was very fortunate to have Mihir, Dave and Lisa in Chicagoland for the brief time I was there. Once I reached NYC it was a different story. I was alone in a brand new place -- the only people I really knew there were my cousins and aunt who very recently moved to Queens from India. But that's the type of situation which I thrive in, and early on I was loving it. My first purchase in NYC was the 30-day unlimited ride subway pass (a steal at only $76, considering a one-way ride is $2), and I've been using that thing like crazy. Within a few days I had taken the subway all over town and walked around in the various parks and neighborhoods.

Manhattan is a unique place. Although its the big city, it has a very neighboor/local feel to it. And although its quite expensive and trendy, you wont see a Wal-Mart or Target or Safeway or Home Depot. In Manhattan there still is the local grocery store, the local hardware store, local restaurants, etc. But there are some major signs of standardization (McDonalds and Starbucks especially). Manhattan is also a world without strip malls and large asphalt parking lots. Its kinda nice to see people actually walk to a restaurant or a store -- i'm so used to seeing people drive between neighboring stores in strip malls. Walk people! The exercise will do you good.

The big challenge has been getting to meet people. I've been fortunate to have had some good luck on craigslist in meeting people to do stuff, and to find out more details on groups and volunteer activities. I have gotten involved in some volunteer opportunities to help me meet people, keep busy and to do something productive during this trip.

I've had 2 major problems since I've been here. First is allergies. Maybe its cause my apt is so close to Central Park, maybe its due to the stagnation and pollution, but my allergies have been pretty bad in NYC. The severity here is similar to what I experienced in Chicago. In Portland I never got severe allergies, and so it took me some time to adjust to them. Now I still have allergies but I'm somewhat sensitized to them and they dont bother me that much. Second problem is the heat, well actually the heat + humidity. The past 7-8 days have been HOT and HUMID. Yuck! Highs in the 90s, lows in the 70s. At 11pm its still 80 outside. Very humid on top of that. I was able to make it through most of last week being my hyper-active self, but unfortunately the heat caught up to me over the weekend and I got a minor case of heat exhaustion. So I was forced to spend most of the weekend in bed with the A/C running. But now I've somewhat recovered from that. I'm sooo looking forward to being in the nice cool weather in Portland.

So now looking at what i actually did today. I decided to try another museum, this time the Museum of Television and Radio. However the museum isn't quite a "museum", its basically a set of 4 screens with various documentaries on TV programs. I didnt feel like paying the $10 for that so I skipped it. Instead I went to go see Star Wars Episode III again -- it was really hot and I needed out of the heat. In the evening I stopped by Central Park to check out some of the Met Opera in the Park. I was only there for like 10-15 minutes -- it was still extremely hot and humid and I'm not cultured enough to enjoy Opera. There were a lot of people out there, and I wonder how many of them really know anything bout the Opera or if there were there simply because its free and they want to experience some "high" culture. I am looking for to hearing the Orchestra in the park -- that is something i can and will enjoy.


Opera in the Park.

A trip to the American Museum of Natural History

On Monday June 13 I made the trip to the American Museum of Natural History. This huge museum is only one subway stop away from me, and it seemed like the ideal choice for a place to go to beat the extremely oppressive summer heat.

The first thing that I noticed before entering the museum was the various references to Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt is one of my most admired persons -- he lived an amazing life and always was looking out for the welfare of the public. That he was a Republican and fighting against big business and for wildlife conservation is quite ironic by today's political standards. I wish there were more like Teddy Roosevelt in our government now. I highly recommend the Teddy Roosevelt Biographies by Edmund Morris: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex. Bully!


Entrance to the AMNH. Statue of Teddy Roosevelt in front

About the museum itself. Its absolutely humongous. There is so much to see and learn there. I spent about 5 hours in the museum on Monday and I guess I covered in detail only about 10% of the exhibits. Heck, I'm not even sure I visited all the rooms in the building. For those of you who know my education background and interests, this is the type of place that I would love to spend many days in. And I probably will, i still have the rest of the summer to go. For those that dont know -- my degrees are in Electrical Engineering, at one point I was in a Neuroscience PhD program, and I have a fascination with history and understanding different cultures. The AMNH contains a wide variety of exhibits in a diverse set of fields. Being natural history there are the usual exhibits on various types of animals, plants, forests, landscapes, etc. But there also is a section on human biology, various cultures from across the globe (not sure how this fits into "Natural" history), meteorites, gems, among others. And then there's the adjoining Rose Center for Earth and Space. So you definitely get a lot of stuff for the $13 "donation".

Being in a museum with this much stuff really makes one think and prioritize their interests. You can try to get more involved with something already familiar, or you can try to discover a whole new set of interests. I tend to choose the former, I'm not sure how much I can get interested in the details of african mammals or rocks, etc. Luckily I have a pretty good background in a variety of fields that are represented at the museum so I had a lot of stuff to examine. My museum highlights were the video presentation on DNA, all the things about cultures of peoples, especially those of Asia, the big bang and the spiral walk of time. Its especially interesting to see the presentation on the various scales of measurement in the universe, from the size of the universe (around 10^26m) to the smallest particles known (10^-12m). There's way too much that I can say about these exhibits, and for brevity I will not cover them here. But feel free to email if you want more details.

One more thing on exhibits -- the featured exhibit during this time was on Dinosaurs. It was quite an impressive exhibit, with the highlights being a few fully assembled dinosaur skeletons that were made of the actual bone/fossil (not a cast). Plus I saw quite a lot of school kids out there, and I always take joy in watching children learn and play. That exhibit reminded me of some classic Calvin and Hobbes cartoons of when Calvin goes to see the dinosaurs.


T-Rex Skeleton Exhibit


Kids at the Dinosaru Exhibit. The tour guide (on the right) is whistling to get the kids attention -- either that or she's about to hurl :)

Road Trip Part II (going to New York)

The second part of my cross country road trip started around lunchtime on June 1. I loaded up all my stuff in the rented white Corolla and set off on the trip to New York. The trip was relatively boring and uneventful, as should be expected. I drove for about 10 hours and stopped for the night in the middle of Pennsylvania.

The next morning (June 2), I made the 2 hour trip to New York city. I entered the city via the Lincoln Tunnel and got a chance to drive in Manhattan traffic. It was hectic and crazy, but having been raised on Chicago traffic I was at home. If only I didn't have the rental car I could've been a bit more of my usual aggressive driving self, but I really wanted to return the car as soon as possible without any hassle. The most challenging part of the trip to New York was after I had unloaded all my stuff at my summer apartment. I had to return the rental car to a Hertz location in the Upper West Side. Only one problem -- i needed to fill up on gas before I could return the car. So i started driving all over the UWS, up Amsterdam, down Columbus, and couldnt find one frickin gas station. Finally I had to drive all the way down to midtown near the Lincoln Tunnel to find a gas station. There may be a million bars/restaurants in Manhattan, but i dont think there are more than like 5 gas stations on the whole island. Anyways, for those of you who plan to return a rental car in Manhattan -- make sure to fill up your tank in New Jersey first. The gas prices are much cheaper and its less of a hassle.

So in the afternoon of June 2 I finally concluded my cross country road trip. My complete journey consisted of the western portion of I-84 (there's an I-84 in the east also) and a large chunk of I-80 across the country. From Lake Zurich to New York I took the Kennedy expressway to the skyway to I-80, and then stayed on I-80 until eastern New Jersey when I exited to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. I ended driving about 3000 miles during the whole trip.

Here's a picture of me with both cars I used on the road trip. The Mazda3 is safely stowed away at the parent's place in chicago for the summer. It'll be back in use in August when I drive back to the west coast.

Layover in Chicago

I was only in the chicagoland area from May 20 to June1, and fortunately I had a lot of things to do to keep me busy. When I arrived into town Mihir (my bro) was already in town for the wedding that was to take place the next day. And Dave, on his sabbatical was due to head into town that weekend also. Btw - you should check out Dave's sabbatical weblog to see what happened on his trip.

On May 21 the whole family went to the first of the two May weddings, this one between Neal and Susan. The reception was held at the Rosemont Convention Center, and there were over 1600 guests! I probably knew about 100 or so of the over 1600 people there. It was quite the experience.


Family all dressed up at Neal's reception

Dave was in town that day also, and Mihir, Dave and I went to see Armin Van Buuren at Vision later that night. Dave has comments on that night in his blog, so I wont rehash them. Between the reception and Vision it was a fun night.

Mihir left back for Portland on Monday, Dave stayed in chi-town for a few more days. I went to see Star Wars Episode III with Dave, Jon and their parents on Tuesday. Unlike Episodes I and II, I really liked Episode III -- it had a plot, character development, actual reasons to empathize with the characters and of course some quality action scenes.

---

Lisa came into town the following thursday. In many ways this time in chicago was a perfect transition from leaving Portland, having Mihir and Dave there the first weekend and Lisa there the next. Although the whole weekend with Lisa was very memorable a few things stick out the most. First: "come on food!", and "come on get done!". Second: drinking beers and singing at bars in Wrigleyville. Third: Lisa smelling pretzels in the mall and going on the mad search to find them. Fourth: dancing in the parking lot by Midway to Color Me Badd's "I want to sex you up", and finally the glimmer of hope that we might be able to have one extra night together when her return flight was overbooked. (Un)fortunately she got the last seat, but her return trip was quite a journey in itself. Due to bad weather at Denver they landed in Colorado Springs and waited there for quite some time. Luckily in the end everything worked out and Lisa got back to Portland.

Lisa and I did a lot of things that weekend. We got a hotel in downtown chicago and spent friday/saturday exploring the city. On Sunday we went to both the wedding and reception. The wedding/reception were a lot of fun. Good amount of people, great food. It was a lot of fun at the reception to eat, drink and then hit the dance floor.


Monish and Lisa all dressed up for the wedding.

---

Lisa left on memorial day (May 30). The following day I packed up all my stuff and got ready to make my trip to NYC. I got a car (a white Corolla) for a one-way rental to New York, and I left for New York on June 1.

Road Trip Part I (leaving Portland)

My journey from Portland to New York occured in 2 phases. First phase was to head to Chicagoland and stay at the Parent's place for a few weeks. There were 2 weddings I wanted to attend during the last 2 weeks of May, so this schedule worked well for me.

I left Portland on a typical Portland day, overcast and 60s on Tueday May 17. My car was well packed, but there still was enough room to see out of all mirrors. My last notable event in Portland before hitting the road was to have a very long and fabulous lunch with Lisa.


Me in the mazda3 before leaving Portland

Trip Info: I took the I-84 to I-80 route

Leave Portland: FTroutdale, OR - full tank of gas, officially left on the trip. 2:23pm May 17. Odometer reading 14601.

First Stop: Best Western NW Lodge, Boise ID. 10pm May 17. Odometer reading 15022

Second Stop: Comfort Inn, Sidney, NE. 10:30pm May 18. Odometer reading 15873

Third Stop: Travelodge, Iowa City, IA. 6:30pm, May 19. Odometer reading 16534. I stopped here at this time for 2 reasons: 1. to see the University of Iowa campus, which was very nice, but unfortunately finals were the previous week so it was deserted, and 2. to watch the season finale of the O.C. (i also liked watching Melrose Place, and I will admit it, unlike that episode of Seinfeld.) With CST TV schedules 3 hours ahead of PST, I got to see the show 3 hours before Lisa. As expected, I got her phone call around 11pm CST commenting on the finale. I wish I could have seen the finale with her (or at least at the same time).

Finally done: Lake Zurich, IL. lunchtime, May 20. Odometer reading 16764.

Total Miles on trip: 2163
Total Gallons of gas comsumed: 80.052
Avg MPG on trip: 27.02

Comments on the trip: it was pretty boring. The first part of the trip, through the Columbia river gorge is beatuiful, but then it soon becomes very redundant. The parts through southern Idaho, Utah and Wyoming were especially long and boring. The scenery is nice, but after the first hour it starts to become quite monotomous. When I head back to Portland I will go the I-90/I-94 route.

First Post/Introduction

People have requested a blog, so here goes

Intro: My name is Monish. I used to work at Intel in Hillsboro, OR (suburb of Portland). It was my first job out of college and by all accounts was an excellent job - great benefits, interesting work and fantastic people to work with. However i've always had this bug to travel and experience life and the world, and when the opportunity arose i had to do this. So I officially quit my job on Friday the 13th (May 13, 2005). Ominous, no??

After about 10 days in Chicago I moved to NYC for the summer. I reached here June 2 and am still getting settled in. To get more specific, i'm living in the upper west side (73rd and Central Park West). I'm across the street from the Dakota, the place where Lennon was shot, an Yoko Ono still lives. The Strawberry Fields in Central Park (named after Lennon) is a 5 minute walk from my temporary abode.

Many folks from an older generation think I'm nuts for doing this - they're used to being at the same company from out of college to retirement. But its a different world now - there is much less loyalty from both employer and employee. Also with the internet and cell phones the world is a much smaller place -- its so easy to do something like this. I'll use this blog to document what i am doing, what my plans are, and what i would have done differently for those who wish to try this in the future.

Please send me your comments, emails (pro or con), suggestions on things to do, etc. A lot more stuff will be posted once i get fully settled in.