Finagle's First Law
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.

The Sentinel that time forgot
Trees.
Garangutan trees.
Old trees.
The sentinels of earth.
The trees that time forgot.
The Sequoias.

These trees, which have been existing since the Indus Valley Civilizations, since the Egyptians building their pyramids, all the way to the present where man zips across the seven continents in less than a day; gaurding the earth, gaurding the sky, and silently waiting for their final call.

A triplet of sequoias. Dont underestimate their size.

A partially complete photostream of these trees here and here

Finagle's Creed
Science is Truth. Don't be misled by fact.

Flickr

I had a flickr account for a while now, mainly to see what others were putting up. I have never uploaded any images, until now - for the lack of a computer.

I have uploaded a dozen or so images into the flickr - and thats the zeitgiest you see on the right - or you can access it here.

I certainly will not be able to upload all my images - there are about 1800 of them, occupying 3 gigs of my hard-disk. A selected few, which really strike a good note, will find its way into my flickr photostream.

I shall be uploading whenever time permits, and whenver I am in the mood to, but I do not bet on it too much.

Somehow firefox seems to screw the flickr zeitgiest, only IE seems to render it properly. Too bad for that.

The greatest thing going on now, is that I bought a computer - rather assembled it from parts; they being:

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+.
  
• NForce 4 Ultra Motherboard
  
• 1 GB OCZ memory
  
• Seagate Barracuda 200GB hard disk
  
• eVGA Geforce 6600 GT
  
• Sony DVD writer - a black version of that.
  
• Samsung Syncmaster 730b 17 inch lcd monitor.

Slightly expensive - but it has an amazing performance. The computer as such is not complete - I am working on a borrowed keyboard, mouse and speakers, which I will be getting soon. And is quite loud - thanx to 6 fans inside blowing out a lot of "hot air"

More gaming to follow. And unlike below - I am gonna go the legal way.

Ferguson's Precept
A crisis is when you can't say "let's forget the whole thing."

A little while ago, I thought, "If rolling down a rocky mountain isnt thrill enough, how will rafting in calm water be better". I kept thinking that, until I was proved wrong. By a large magnitude.

In the middle of our biking spells, where we all gathered for a pose with the expensive bikes.

I awoke to find myself in a calm leisurely morning nestled among the beautiful woods surrounding the lake, with a view to kill for. I, nevertheless, forced myself out of heavily cushioned Queen Bed inspite of a heavily aching body, and got ready for the early dealdine of 9 am at the rafting place, an hours drive away.

A view similar to this. This was taken from the skilift during mountain biking.

The registration formalities completed at Truckee Whitewater Tours, we were rushed in battered schoolbuses to the rafting place, where preliminary instructions and the rafting gear was given to us. And then we were pushed into the Truckee river on the raft, along with three other persons and the instructor; into the calm river, which had not yet unearthed its wild side.

Lake Tahoe, in all its natural beauty. Taken while driving to the rafting place.

We all rowed with a certain lack of panache; that was ok, given that we were are newbies at that. And only the instructor had any real training. And later, to test the waters, he encouraged us to jump into the river, its ice cold waters fed by none other than Lake Tahoe itself. And jump I did. Though not fully. I couldnt even submerge myself, thanks to the lifejacket I was wearing. The water was not that cold - I could have even survived a few minutes, time enough to swim to a shore.

It was later that the rapids hit us, Classes 1 and 2. They were manageable, and quite thrilling, giving quite a rush each time we went through holes, small drops, ledges and crags; so close to falling into the water, yet so far. Thankfully. The final stretch was a couple of 100 metres of Class 3 rapids, which were the best part of the ride. And by that time, we're rowing in unison; and that helped us get past it safely.

Us at the Class 3 rapids. I am rowing in the front right, wearing the red Tee.

I apologize for the watermark ,as the photos were not taken by us.

A drenched me, finally admitted that this is the sport to kill for. Its thrilling, exhausting, energizing, fun, wet, and takes you to the edge without pushing you over. Surprisingly, most of the rafting ride is quite calm. Out of the 7 mile long ride, about 6 miles was just paddling in a calm creek, soaking in a beautiful valley and a warm sun, and watching people flyfishing along the edge.

An hour later, dried, energized and 70$ poorer, I went back to what I was thinking, and realized that whitewater rafting is a sport to kill for. I do want to do it again, somewhere in northeast USA!!!.

Feline Law
A cat walking into a room containing twelve seated people will jump into the lap of the person who hates cats the most.

Certainly the idea of tumbling down a mountain on two wheels at 40 mph down a steep [large] rocky path patched with slippery sand did not sound appealing at first glance. On retrospect, it probably does not reflect me. But I certainly undertook it. Not for the glamor or fame, but for the pure thrill and for the exhilerating and uncontrollable power that Mother Nature, whom I dared to challenge, had on me.

A scenic drive through the Sierras at heights of 11000 ft, landed us at NorthStar - a ski resort, which has mountain biking and golfing during the summer.

A mild set of hills, with a windmill sentinel gaurding the range jealously.

The Sierra mountain range.
The line you see in the middle is the railway line - part of the transcontinental railroad, cutting through the sierras.

One hour and 50 dollars later put me at the top of a hill, with a really expensive mountain bike (> $1500), with helmets and gloves and staring down, rather akwardly at a relatively wide and safe path and waiting for others to come up to. And 15 minutes later, I was lying down on the muddy earth, in a rather twisted position: a shoe stuck in the handle bar, multiple lacerations in my left arm and lower right leg and full body painting in dirt-brown color.
Why, because a dumb human when facing the wrath of nature can do really stupid things - like applying only the front hydraulic brakes while moving really fast, resulting in a nice somersault over the bike.

Nevertheless, I paid a lot for this. So pain notwithstanding - I continued biking, over more steeper, narrower and more dangerous paths. Until they closed down the lift that takes us lazy bikers up the hill.

A warm clean shower at a beautifully decorated condo (house) put me in my right mind, and all set for a sumptuous Italian dinner, amazing fireworks (the Independence Day fireworks) and sound sleep after an hour long TV session. And ready to face ice-cold white water rafting the next day!

To be continued...