Archive for November, 2007


Break from Blogging

Finally my coveted vacation has arrived; I am leaving for Nepal tomorrow. I doubt I will have enough time to blog during my brief visit, but after I return back I am sure I will have a lot to share, including my “reverse cultural shock”. :D

Till then, I am posting an animation that I created using ArcGLOBE software. This video shows my flight plan to Nepal, not anything special. Due to lack of geo-referenced images, I had to capture screenshot of images from Google Earth and then geo-reference them again, resolution of those are very poor. You can generate something like this very easily if you have Google Earth Pro account.

Enjoy the background song “Louisiana Bayou” by ‘Dave Matthews Band’.

नमस्कार, मेरो नाम पेद्रो मार्टिनेज हो, तर मलाइ सबै जनाले साधरणतय Swallow-tailed Kite भनेर चिन्दछन । मिसिसीपी नदीको वर पर उडेर नै मेरो दिन चर्या बित्ने गर्द्छ । अमेरिकिहरुले पहिल्यै बुद्धि पुराएकाले मेरो बास स्थानको भने राम्रो संरक्षण भएको छ, होण्दुरस बाट आएको रमिरेज को परिवार पनि यहि बास स्थानको कारणले आजकाल यतै छन् । खोला छेउ घना Bottomland Hardwood जंगलको कारण आहारा र मनोरन्जनको केहि कमी छैन । खुला आकासमा स्वच्छन्द रुपले उड्न पाउनुको पनि मजै बेग्लै छ, तर बेला बखत PFV (Private Flying Vehicles) को भने खुब हेक्का राख्नु पर्द्छ है । अस्ति मात्र इभा मेन्देज PFV संग ठोकिएर दुइ महिना थाला परि, भाग्यमानी रहिछे मोरी कसो ज्यान भने गएन, पोहर लुइस इनरिके को जस्तो । हुन पनि कति बढेका PFV, फोकटमा घाम बाट चल्छ भन्दैमा परिवारको सबै ले बेग्लै उडाउने हैन नि, खुरुक्क MFT (Mass Flying Transit) चढे भइ हल्थ्यो नि ।

मेरो जीन्दगी यसै गरि रमाइलो संग बितिरहेको थियो, तर भाविको खेला मेरो जीवनमा पनि एउटा अभुतपुर्व तुफान नै आयो । झन MFT को बखान गर्दै हिंदेंको, त्यहि संग अकस्मात ठोकिन पो पुगेछु । बरु PFV संग ठोकिएको भए नि हुन्थ्यो जस्तो लाग्यो, मार त कम पर्थयो । इन्तु न चिन्तु भएर म त सिधै तल झरेछु, म झर्दै गर्दा MFT बाट एउटा केटो DSLR ले मेरो तस्बिर खिच्दै गरेको मात्र थाह छ, त्यस पछिको पुरै scene नै गायब भयो मेरो मस्तिस्क बाट । रमिरेजले भनेको पुरै २ हप्ता पछि मात्र आंखा खोलें रे मैले, धन्न बांचिएछ बाबा । शाररिक चोटपटकले गर्दा आजकाल पुरै Nest Rest मा छु । दुखाइ त स्वभाविक नै हो, तर सुत्दा भने मलाइ अनौठो Flashback जस्तो आइरहन्छ: कहिले म भ्यागुता भएको, कहिले गोहि, कहिले माकुरा त कहिले उडुस । हे प्रभु, NightQuil ले पनि छुन छोडेछ पटक्कै निंद्रा लाग्दैन । रात मा निंद्रा नपरेर पनि होला, निको हुन झन गर्हो भै रहेको छ । हिजो राति त अति नै भयो, मैले Flashback मा आफु मान्छे भएको पनि देखें । समस्या बाट भागेर केहि हुने वाला जस्तो लागेन मलाइ, बरु Flashback मा गएको समयमा अझ ध्यान बढाए केहि प्रगति हुन्छ कि जस्तो लाग्यो, १ महिना सम्मको निरन्तर प्रयास पछि बल्ल कुरा छर्लंग भयो ।

अब मेरो जिन्दगी कुनै हिन्दी सिनेमाको भन्दा कम रहेन, MFT संगको ठक्करले मलाइ मेरा पुर्व जन्मका स्मिर्ति हरु दिलाएको रहेछ । आज भन्दा झण्दै हजार बर्ष अघि म पनि मान्छे नै रहेछु, अब अर्को ८४ लाख जुनि पछि मात्र फेरि मेरो मानिस भएर जन्मने पालो आउने रहेछ, भ्यागुता, गोहि, माकुरा, उडुस इत्यादि मेरै फरक फरक जुनि रहेछन । मानिस संसारकै सर्वश्रेष्ठ जीव भएर पो हो कि मलाइ आफ्नो मानव जुनि कै Flashback मा रमाउन मन लाग्छ, क्या मोज पो गर्दा रहेछन् इ मानिसहरु,अहिले पो बल्ल थाह भयो । कुनै बेला म पनि संयुत्त राज्य अमेरिका को दक्षिण मा बसेको रहेछु, त्यति खेर त यो थाउं मा गोरा हरु धेरै थिए, आहिले त हिसप्यानिक को बहुल्यता रहेछ । त्यस पछि भारतिय, चिनिया र अफ्रिकन रहेछन्, नेपाली पनि कति बढेका, म हुंदा त यहां नगन्य नेपाली मात्रा थिय । पुरै अमेरिका घुमेर हिंडे, सबै तिर त्यस्तै पुरै socio-economic परिवर्तन । बल्ल बुझें मेरो नाम किन पेद्रो मार्टिनेज रह्यो भनेर । भएन बा, एक चोटि नेपाल जान मन लाग्यो, जे भए पनि म मानिस हुंदा जन्मेको देश ।

हुन त मेरो लामो दुरी सम्म सजिलै उड्ने सक्ने क्षमता छ, तर पुरै Atlantic महासागर नाग्ने आंट भने आएन । यसो खोजी गर्दा न्यु योर्क देखि फ्रान्स को Bordeux सम्म Atlantic महासागर भित्र बाट चल्ने URN (Under-water Rail Network)बारेमा थाह भयो । ध्वनिको गतिमा चल्ने यो रेल को कार्गो मा सबै को आंखा छल्दै लुकें, हुन त रेलले एकै छिनमा नै पुराएछ, तर Claustrophobic भएर पो हो कि मलाइ चाहिं सात जुनि झैं लाग्यो । रेल बाट निस्के पछि एसो युरोप भ्रमणमा निस्कें, युरोपमा पनि गोराहरु नगन्य मात्रा मा भेटिए, अफ्रिकनहरु को बहुल्यता रहेछ, अनि भारतिय र चिनिया । यता पनि अमेरिकामा जस्तै ब्यापक समाजिक परिवर्तन भएको रहेछ, नेपालीहरु पनि छ्याप्-छ्यप्ति रहेछन । पहिला फ्रांसको Marseille देखि जापान सम्म जाने URN थियो रे, Marseille बाट खाडी राष्ट्र हुंदै जापान जाने । खाडि राष्ट्रहरुले समुद्रमा पनि मानविय जमिन बनाएकाले त्यो क्षेत्रमा भने रेल जमिन माथि बाटै कुदने रहेछ, ४०० बर्ष अघि तेलको मुहान सुके पछि त्यताको शेखहरु पुष्त पैसा कमाइ अरु नै देश सरेछन्, अनि आरु गरिब जनता पनि पेट पाल्न अरु नै तिर पलायन भएछन । आहिले त्यो क्षेत्र पुरै खालि छ, रेलको लिगमा जमेको बालुवा सफा गर्न समस्या परेको ले URN अहिले त्यता बाट चल्दैन । अहिले युरोप बाट जापान जान लाइ सबै भन्दा सजिलो उपाय स्पेन बाट URN लिएर पहिला दक्षिण अफ्रिका जाने अनि त्यता बाट फेरि अर्को URN समातेर जपान पुग्ने रहेछ ।

URN बाट दक्षिण अफ्रिका पुगे पछि अफ्रिकन महादेश घुम्न उडें, उत्तर तिर त पुरै विरान रहेछ, सायद हिरा र तेल पाउन छोडे पछि सबै कामको लागि युरोप तिर लागे । दक्षिण अफ्रिकामा भने भारतियहरुको बोल बाला रहेछ, कपडा र गहनाको विश्व भरि ब्यापार गर्दा रहेछन । अफ्रिका घुमे पछि म फेरि URN को कार्गोमा लुकेर जापान तिर लागें । जापानमा पनि जन्मदर युरोपको जस्तै कम थियो, अझ त्यस माथी जापानले बिदेशीलाइ नागरिकता पनि दिंदैनथ्यो, त्यसैले जापानको समाजिक अवस्था कस्तो होला भनेर हेर्न म उत्सुक थिए । जापान पुगेर घुम्दा त जापान मा तन्न जापानीहरु नै रहेछन, पछि बुझ्दा त तिनिहरु जापानी हैन चिनिया पो रहेछन्, ५०० बर्ष अघि देशमा जनता नै नभए पछि बाध्य भएर चिनियाहरुलाइ नागरिकता दिइ झिकाउन परेको रहेछ । जापानमा पनि मनग्यै नेपालीहरु देखिए । मलाइ अब नेपाल कस्तो होला भनेर सार्है खुल्दुली बढ्यो, जापान बाट दायां वायां केहि नहेरि चिन हुंदै नेपाल तिर उडें, पुरै २ हप्ता लाग्यो मलाइ बिशाल चिन नागेर नेपाल पुग्न लाइ ।

नेपाल सरर उडेर हेर्दा त आधा बिहार आधा चाइना टाउन जस्तो रहेछ । पहिला पशुपतिनाथ को दर्शन गर्छु भनेर बागमतिको तिरै तिर उडेर पशुपति गए, मुख्य मन्दिरलाइ छोडेर अरु भागमा मन्दिर घेर्ने गरी दक्षिण यसियाकै सबै भन्दा ठुलो Pashupati Mall बनाएका रहेछन । चिनियाले नगरे पनि कम से कम बिहारीहरुले त यो काम को बिरोध गर्नु पर्थयो । सबै जना नेपालीहरु मैले जस्तै समस्याको सामना नगरी बिस्तारै बिस्तारै बिदेश पलायन भएका रहेछन । पहिलाको नेपाल बारे संम्झेर बसि रहंदा ३-४ वटा चराहरु आए अनि मलाइ टुरिष्ट भन्ठानेर भने ” अरे भाइ, रहने के लिए Nest होटेल चाहिए?” मैले बिशुद्ध नेपालीमा “मलाइ चांहिदैन, म यै देशको हो” भने । मेरो नेपाली सुने पछि सबै ले एकै स्वरमा भने ” अरे, ए त्यो museum breeding center से भागके आया लग्ता हे…………………

Picture Source: www.fws.gov

Trip to Tiger Stadium

When people think of Louisiana few things come to mind: Hurricane Katrina, Mardi gras, LSU Tigers, etc. I was fortunate enough to miss the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, have seen what Mardi gras is all about, but still wasn’t able to witness football in Tiger Stadium.

I jumped with joy when one of my colleagues said he might find me a ticket to the Saturday game (November 10). LSU football is so popular that the tickets get sold out early in the season. Yesterday’s game was between LSU Tigers and LA Tech Bulldogs. It was expected that Tigers will rout the Bulldogs, as Tigers are the top College football team in the country. That’s why someone didn’t want to go to the game as there would be no competition, and that’s how I got lucky, although I sill had to pay $40.00 (reimbursing the original ticket owner).

My friend from office and me got there around 2 PM (the game was at 7 PM). We then hung around with his friends who were tailgating. These people were there from Friday evening, they have motor home and they party till the game. There were hundreds of motor home, and other people who didn’t have the motor home were simply camping around. One has to be there to witness the game day environment; mind you this was just a college game.

It seemed that I was the only ‘brown skin’ guy in the tailgating area. It’s highly unlikely that they remember my Nepali name, but they were quick to give me a nick name: Bobby Jindal (The next Governor of Louisiana, a man from an Indian origin). Normally I hate it when people generalize me as an Indian, but in this case I didn’t mind, they were referring to me as their Governor. :D

My friend had a cooler with wheels which we could easily drag around; we emptied all the beers inside. By the time I entered the stadium, I was little drunk. As for the game goes, as expected Tiger defeated Bulldogs by 58 to 10 points.

Check out some of the pictures I took.

By the way, Happy Deepawali to all of you

Farewell to AdSense

This is my follow up post to Testing Google. If you have read that post, I have mentioned about how I love different Google applications. I use many of them everyday, and I wanted to check how effective Google’s AdSense can be.

I introduced AdSense to my blog exactly six months ago, I was trying to go by rule and see how much revenue I can generate. However I have to confess, I did click the Ad once to get me onboard. And, some of my well wishers were generous enough to click it (without me knowing about it). There might have been some genuine clicks too. So how much did I earn in six months? I earned $11.62.

I was planning to have this test run for the whole year, but I guess I have enough of it already. I think the revenue is way too less for the compromise I am making with the aesthetic value of my site. Unless you guys are doing something different that I don’t know of, Google’s AdSense is definitely not for small fish blogger like me. So from today Google’s Ads are out of my site (I’ll keep the search engine though).

By the way, one of my picture made it to BBC website :D

Fooling with Daylight Saving

Being from a small country Nepal, I was surprised with time zones within a Country. I remember when I first landed in Washington DC then had to take a flight to St. Louis. DC is in Eastern time zone while St. Louis in Central (Others: Colorado in Mountain time zone and California in Pacific time zone). I set my clock to DC time and looked at my itinerary to calculate the time it takes to reach St. Louis. When I reached St. Louis, I checked my watch to see that we were 1 hour late than schedule; how can a plane be delayed by 1 hour while in flight? It took me some time to understand that in my itinerary all the arrival times were the local time and there exists something called the time zone.

After absorbing the concept of time zone within a country, I had to face something new again: Daylight Saving. Yes Daylight Saving, where you either turn your clock ahead by one hour or behind by one hour. For instance; in the year 2007 the second Sunday of March at 2:00 a.m., local standard time was set ahead one hour so that the local time
would be 3:00 a.m. Now, at first Sunday of November (2007) the clock will be set back one hour at 2:00 a.m. local time so that it will become 1:00 a.m. These Daylight Savings were established primarily for saving of energy by the maximum use of daylight (Energy Policy Act).

So this coming week I can wake up one hour late than usual for work. I bet if you have work/school in the morning and after you wake up you always wish if you could go on sleeping for one more hour, especially if it’s a chilly winter time. Last year I did something that people thought were weird but it works fine on me. My body is used to current sleeping and waking up time, so like last year I am not going to change my clock for at least a week. I’ll go to sleep at usual time and wake up at the usual time, however after waking up I will set my alarm clock one hour later again and then go back to sleep. That will give an extra hour of sleep after waking up. :D

One might say what’s the point; you could always have gone to bed one hour earlier and then have done the same thing. However I find this is different because my body is used to current sleeping/waking up time since March, so suddenly doing this “weird” stuff is fun for me. On the hindsight, I would have to stay at the office one hour longer than what my watch says, but I feel I am more into morning sleep than the extra hour at work.

I know most people will raise their eyebrows when they hear this, but frankly I love doing it. And, this pleasure starts diminishing quickly after a week as you get used to your surrounding, people who go by the corrected time.