tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72728713739839415342024-02-06T21:30:04.251-08:00-------flashes-------------The blog aims to achieve whats going on in my mind. I try to put down everything I think, my questions, my answers, my frustrations whatever. When you are thinking about something and suddenly something strikes and the whole scenario changes, the blog is an attempt to catch that flash.Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-60236903330130109682022-12-28T23:28:00.012-08:002023-06-13T20:18:19.450-07:00 All the times my daughter has surprised me<p> All the times my daughter has surprised me</p><p>1-2yr old</p><p>The first day of you going to daycare. Although I was relaxed and I knew you'll be fine but your mother was very worried how you'd react. You were mere 15months old. Your mother was convinced you'll cry when you'd see us leaving the daycare and that you'd start to miss us immediately. But we were not only surprised, but slightly annoyed by your reaction. As soon as we signed the attendance sheet, you started walking towards room#5, where Miss Yolande was standing at the door and ready to welcome you in. You didn't even look back at us. Your mother was annoyed! But you just kept walking in, started playing with the toys in the room. We left daycare feeling slightly embarrassed. We came back late afternoon to pick you up and you were perfectly fine the whole day, adjusting seamlessly to the new daycare, new room, new routine all by yourself.</p><p>2-3 yrs old</p><p>I cooked chicken curry for dinner but it turned out to be little spicy. I was not sure if you'll be able to eat. I even thought to cook something else for your dinner but then thought to try it out first. I did not mention anything about the spiciness and served you on the plate. Not only did you eat the whole serving, you didn't even flinch for one moment. I learned to never underestimate you.</p><p>I cooked potato-beans fry one time. Again, I was hesitant because usually kids don't readily eat vegetables like they eat ice-cream. But I thought to serve anyway. Again, you finished the whole plate, and even asked for more. From that moment onwards, I never had issue serving you vegetable dishes. You were even able to handle slightly spicy curries. Totally unlike other kids I came across.</p><p>One time when we were eating breakfast together, you took a big spoonful of cereal and put in your mouth. I showed excitement and happiness, even clapped to express my amazement that you can eat such big servings at one go. Then you mumbled "oh, like fippo?". I couldn't figure out what did you mean. I asked multiple times, "what? what?" and you kept repeating "like fippo papa, like a fippo". After few times, I gave up and tried to move away from it, "ok ok, keep eating now, don't stop..". You looked out the window, thought for a sec, then said "papa, like monkey, tiger, mouse.." and suddenly I snapped "oh! you mean you ate like a Hippo there, oh I get it now". You were so happy. I was dumbstruck by your intelligence. You are mere 2-1/2 yr old. You know I keep encouraging you while eating by saying "you eat like a hippo baby girl", and you tried to remind me of the same but because of your lisp (or mouthful of cereal), I couldn't understand what you meant, so you made a correlation that hippo is animal like monkey, tiger etc so you dropped me a hint and voila! that was enough for me to get what you were saying. I'm smart but you proved yourself to be smarter.</p><p>3-4yrs old</p><p>You have grown surprisingly strong these days. One day we were just play wrestling. You were sitting on my back and for fun I pretended to rise up. You got the hint that we are not playing a new game where you'd try to push me down while I try to power through and rise. I was amazed at the strength through which you tried to keep me down. I was genuinely surprised you can be this string, this early. While I'm down, I count 1...2...3...go and I summon my strength to rise. You are smart enough to get the hint. You start exerting your force from 2 onwards. </p><p>You have started to converse with me in Oriya. Although I would like the frequency to be more but I'm surprised you have picked up the language very early. I have ensured I only speak in Oriya with you and I've to keep prompting you to reply to me in Oriya. Over the past few weeks (you are 3yr 4 months old), you have improved your Oriya skills. It'll not be long before you'd be able to speark with me in Oriya all the time, something that I'll cherish personally, something like a secret thing between you and me, one more special thing binding us.</p><p>When you were 3.5 yrs old, my India trip was coming up. I was going to be away for a month to spend time with my mom. I was bit worried that you'll cry and not let me go. Few hours before I was about to depart, I held you in my arms and explained to you that I'll be going away to India for a while. You were so understanding, so calm. We played together for a while and when the time came, you hugged me tightly, kissed me and we bid goodbyes. You didn't cry at all. I was so amazed that you were such an understanding girl, so mature than your age.</p><p>Usually eating by hand is messy for you and time consuming process. That is understandable as you are yet to develop that kind of dexterity in your fingers, coordination between fingers and tongue. But one time at dinner, you saw me eating rice chicken curry with hand and you said I want to eat using hand as well. Your mom was at first not happy but I convinced her to come around. She was more concerned about the mess that'd be. You started eating by hand. There was the usual clumsiness. Then both mom and I coached you how to pick up rice curry mix into your fingers and 'push slide' the content into your mouth while the tongue helps to take it in. We showed 1 demo and voila! That was enough for you to understand the mechanics. After that you were flawless in your technique. I distinctly remember I looked at mom and silently we acknowledged that you have managed to excel in this also, so quickly. You were eating like a pro desi, eating using hand. No mess, clean plate.I was feeling very content in my heart at that moment. You made me happy, again!!</p><p>At this age(3.5yrs), you have started showing your slyness with a pinch of cuteness that is irresistible. You love food. There is no denying it. You are the one to finish breakfast early in the day, and I make a note to have my breakfast with you at the same time. Mom, however, wakes up late so she ends up having breakfast by herself after an hour or so and she usually like bread peanut butter which you happen to like as well. You are aware that doesn't like you gorging on her breakfast also. So when mom starts to eat hers, you slowly drop whatever you are doing, and cheekily sit on mom's lap, buttering her up with constant "I love you" and a cheeky smile. You are actually saying lot of things, without saying anything. Your gazing eyes, constantly switching from her plate to her eyes, would be trying to make a point. Then you'd cheekily just touch the side of the plate, like a harmless gesture of checking the waters. The next move would be slightly more pervasive, like touching the apple slice, adjusting the sandwich piece, or plucking the banana between the bread slice. At this point Mom (or I) would just cave in, and offer you a bite or handover apple slice. Mission accomplished. Very cheeky indeed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Within a week (3yr 7m) you have managed to surprise me more than I could imagine. You are now able to count to 100 without any mistake. Not only saying the numbers out loud, you even attempted and wrote numbers from 1 to 100. Thats just amazing. It was brave, very courageous of you to take that challenge. Yes, it was you who blurted out "I want to write to 100 today" and then proceeded to do just that. Not only on the scholarly side of things, but outside of it too you managed to surprise me. I took you for biking. This time I took out my bike too, intending to bike alongside of you. It was a gamble but I wanted to see what you can do. You had been able to stop biking and balance without falling over, also able to turn the bike around but you needed help starting the bike, with the pedal push and balancing at the same time. This time, you were able to do that by yourself too. With the minimal of guidance, hints about how to position the pedal, how to keep one feet on the higher pedal and push while maintaining balance with the other foot and slowly rising it to the other pedal, and voila, next thing I see you are already riding ahead and I had to scramble to get on my bike to get ahead of you to clear the road ahead for any oncoming traffic, for you. I enjoy these types of small victories. These small small things build characters, it builds strength and the right mindset so that you are ready for the big things. </p><p>Today(3yr 7m) you counted to 100 and without any mistake and today was the 10th time you've done so. You are also able to ride the bicycle all by yourself. Your feet is barely touching the ground but you are able to stop and start the bike by yourself, and also turn around. You've never needed training wheels. You started riding the balance bike since 2 years old and then pedal bike since 2.5yrs old. At this age, you are able to write upper and lower case letters with <5 mistakes which is amazing. More practice and you'll be perfect. You are also speaking with me in flawless Oriya. You fumble once in a while but it's much much better. You are talking in English with everyone else but as soon as you turn to me, you speak in Oriya automatically. Even my friends are surprised to see you speak with me in Oriya and it's so cute, I simply melt inside. All I'd say is keep it up. </p>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-74280356925593455252022-12-17T18:50:00.007-08:002023-01-29T19:03:14.818-08:00Notes from "Cancer: Emperor of All Maladies" Part - II<p>Hormones typically work by binding to receptor in a target cell. ER was the estrogen receptor in cells for binding estrogen. Some breast cancer cells had high levels of ER while some didn't (ER+ve and ER-ve tumors). Thats why only some breast cancer cases responded with ovary removal (i.e hormonal treatment) while others didn't. There was little enthusiasm to treat cancer with hormonal treatment, in favor of chemotherapy.</p><p>Adjuvant Chemo: Treating with chemo even after all traces of cancer cells are gone. 50% of women without therapy relapsed but only 33% relapsed with adjuvant chemo.</p><p>Both hormonal and adjuvant treatment were not cures. Eventually patients relapsed, even after long remission period.</p><p>The death rates for other diseases like cholera, TB, malaria, typhus, scurvy, pellagra etc had dwindled because humans have learned about how to prevent these. The same couldn't be said for Cancer.</p><p>Between 1962-85, cancer deaths had increased by 8.7%, primarily attributed to increase in smoking rates in 1950s resulting in increase in lung cancer.</p><p>For vast majority of cancer, more intensive regimens of standard chemo treatment did not necessarily mean more survival.</p><p>NCI (national cancer inst.) had neglected prevention of cancer over treatment of cancer.</p><p>If nearly all men smoked and only some of them developed cancer, then how can one connect the link? Such cause effect relationship was only reserved for diseases where there is a known pathogen and a known carrier, like malaria. To establish linkage, studies were conducted by grouping people into smokers and non-smokers and watching them. After 10-15 years, we count the number of people having cancer in both groups. Doll and Hill created master list of doctor's cohort, dividing it into smokers and nonsmokers. Each time a death was reported, the cause of death was noted and this tabulation was maintained for extended period of time.</p><p>Watching evolution in action: Collecting moths across marshy areas of oxford. Mark them and release, then recapture them next year the marked moths and their descendent unmarked moths. There were changes in moth color, wing size, shape etc. Dark colored moths - better camouflaged on pollution-darkened trees - tended to be spared by predatory birds, thus demonstrating "natural selection" in action.</p><p>By 1960s, gross annual sale of cigarettes in America peaked at $5billion. Tobacco company began to tout the benefits of filters added to the tips of their cigarettes, after they were concerned of the tightening link between tar, tobacco and cancer. Tobacco company released "A frank statement", a full page ad saying "Experiments with mice showed link between smoking and lung cancer and not humans" which was incorrect because Doll and Hill had performed the studies on humans, not mice. The double standard was evident a decade later when more and more 'human' studies showed the link, the tobacco company countered that smoking had never been effectively shown to cause lung cancer in , of all things, mice.</p><p>Strategy of tobacco companies: Obfuscation of facts and reflection of self-doubt.</p><p>Tobacco companies were pouring money into research of faction of scientists who believed all diseases, including cancer, were hereditary. Smoking was just exposing the inherent aberration. </p><p>In lung cancer patients, the lung contained layer upon layer of precancerous lesions in various states of evolution. As smoke travelled through the lung, the outermost layers, exposed to highest concentrations of tar, began to swell and thicken. Within this thickened layers, next stage of malignancy was found - abnormal cells with ruffled or dark nuclei in irregular patches. </p><p>Nearly 1mil men and women were involved in the trials to establish connection of smoking with lunch cancer. Relationship was found to be the strongest. Ever since the failure to regulate alcohol during prohibition era, congress had conspicuously disabled the capacity of any federal agency to regulate an industry. Few agency wielded direct control over industry, with the FDA being an exception, but cigarettes have escaped being categorized as a drug. </p><p>Tobacco industry were claiming freely that new filter tips were safe from cancer. Federal agency could not directly control tobacco but FTC, federal trade commission, could regulate tobacco advertisements. And this debate forced advertisements to also accompany the health advisory warning. Tobacco industry wanted to instead be regulated by congress rather than FTC, believing they could pay their money to congressmen for buying their loyalty easily. Tobacco was the economic lifeblood of southern states and the industry had financed multiple political campaigns before. Congress blunted FTC strong message in label to a mere "It 'may' cause health hazard". And so it was proved. The politicians were far more protective of narrow interests of tobacco than of broad public health interest. </p><p>1949, congress had passed Fairness Doctrine, i.e since airwaves are public resources, any public broadcast media had to allow fair airtime to opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. FCC started regulating airtime given to tobacco ads and forcing broadcasting networks to give equal airtime to anti-tobacco ads. Internal report leaked from tobacco industry showed the threat from FCC and it proposed "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact".</p><p>Frustrated, in 1970, tobacco industry voluntarily pulled tobacco ads from networks. Last cigarette commercial was broadcast on TV on Jan 1 1971 at 1159pm.</p><p>Between 1954-84, 300 cases were filed against tobacco company by smokers asking for compensation for cancer but not a single case went against them. Then Rose Cipollone filed charges saying tobacco company knew about the risks but they kept this info hidden from public. This case allowed attorneys to scourge internal documents of the tobacco companies. They found that many cigarette makers not only knew about the cancer risks, but they actively tried to quash internal research that proved it. Fred Panzer, the PR manager at Tobacco Research Instt had laid out their strategy to combat the growing health concern. (1) Create doubt about the health charge without actually denying it (2) advocate the public's right to smoke (3) encouraging objective scientific research to resolve the question of health hazard.</p><p>In 1994, in a first, the state of Mississippi filed suit against several tobacco companies seeking to recover over a billion dollars of health care costs incurred by the state from smoking related illness. Tobacco industry is now targeting developing countries due to loose legislations and overall poverty. </p><p>When mesothelioma cases were compared to controls, this cancer appeared to be clustered in certain professions: insulation installers, firefighters, shipyard workers, heating equipment handlers and chrysolite miners. The causal agent: exposure to asbestos.</p><p>In 1971, another carcinogen was found. Diethylstilbestrol (DES). DES was prescribed to pregnant women in 1950s to prevent premature deliveries (although it wasn't proved conclusively to be of any effect). A generation later, women diagnosed with vaginal and uterine cancer were questioned, it was found that their mothers had been given DES. DES had skipped a generation. It caused cancer in DES-treated women, but in their daughters, who were exposed to the drug in utero.</p><p>Is there an intrinsic property of all carcinogens, which could help us detect them apriori?</p><p>Sometimes a bacteria could acquire a gene mutation. Exposure to some substance might cause a higher rate of mutation. Ames found that chemicals that scored as mutagens were also carcinogenic: Dye derivatives, X-rays, benzene, nitrosoguanidine derivatives etc. The test wasn't perfect however because known carcinogens like asbestos or DES didn't cause mutation in bacteria cells. Common property of carcinogens: They altered genes.</p><p>Not only chemicals, but in 1960s it was found that chronic, smoldering inflammation caused by a human hepatitis virus could also cause cancer.</p><p>One blood antigen was present in several australian aboriginals and also found frequently in asians and africans but markedly absent in europeans and americans. It was called Australian antigen or au. Individuals carrying au often suffered from chronic hepatitis (inflammation of liver). These livers showed signs of injury and repair. Au was found to be neither a human protein or blood antigen. Au was a piece of viral protein floating in the blood, the sign of infection, therefore a person infected with this virus could turn from au-ve to au+ve. This virus turned out to be HBV. It was spreading through blood transfusion. HBV infection increased likelihood of liver cancer. It was therefore a live carcinogen. However, later it was found that the virus doesn't actually cause cancer, but the inflammation induced by the virus in the liver cells, and a cycle of death and repair was responsible for cancer.</p><p>Stomach inflammation, called gastritis was precursor to peptic ulcers and stomach cancer. In 1970s, it was common knowledge that bacteria do not grow in stomach. Upon examining biopsies of gastritis patients, the cause was found to be a new bacteria species called helicobacter pylori. But inoculated pigs didn't show signs of ulcers. So Marshall drank a solution of this bacteria himself and within few days fell violently sick. Biopsies proved he got gastritis. And thus the bacteria was associated with the disease and soon after it was linked with stomach cancer as well. An antibiotic was developed which reduced occurrence of gastric cancer in young men and women but not much useful for older patients in whom the inflammation had progressed to the point that eradication of bacteria made little effect.</p><p>Question is how could DES, asbestos, radiation, HBV, H.pylori all converge on cancer in different populations and in different organs?</p><p>As hormones rise and fall cyclically, the cells shed by cervix changed their shapes and sizes cyclically as well. Observing this you can foretell precise stage of menstrual cycle. In nearly every case of cervical cancer, when Papanicolaou brushed cells of the cervix, he found aberrant and bizarre forms with abnormal, bloated nuclei, ruffled membranes and shrunken cytoplasm that looked nothing like normal cells. Thus a new test for malignant cells was born: Pap smear. Cervical cancer typically arises in outer layer of cervix, then grows in a flaky, superficial whirl before burrowing inward into surrounding tissues. Pap smears were used to detect early and therefore cure cancer by simple surgical procedure. </p><p>Primary prevention: disease prevented by attacking its cause i.e stop smoking or vaccine against HBV. Secondary prevention: disease prevented by screening early, like pap smear, mammography. However with screening tests like these, there was always a debate of overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. </p><p>Women above 55 had benefited from mammogram screening with a reduction in breast cancer deaths by 20%. Not much benefit in younger women. </p><p>"If a man dies, it is because death has first possessed his imagination".</p><p>The toxicity of chemotherapy drugs was limited by the sensitivity of bone marrow. Sometimes patients would be left with no normal blood forming cells because the chemotherapy drugs were too toxic to kill cancer as well as all remnants of normal bone marrow cells. This ceiling was breached when doctors could transplant bone marrow from donors. Sometimes even the new bone marrow cells would attack any residual leukemia left in the patient, thinking it as foreign pathogen. This trifecta of assaults, obliterative chemo, marrow transplant and attack on tumor by foreign cells was fashioned into a treatment procedure of its own, called STAMP (Solid Tumor Autologous Marrow Program) . Soon this treatment was applied for host of cancers, not just leukemia, and remissions were more durable. However tests over the next 2 decades proves that this treatment was also not the cure, as patients often relapsed. </p><p>March 1981, 8 cases of highly unusual form of cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma was reported. However all these cases were violent variants that had exploded into bleeding, metastatic blue-black macules spread all over the bodies. All 8 were homosexuals. The 8th person even had a very rare pneumonia called PCP. PCP only occurs when immune system becomes severely compromised. And then more such cases arose from other parts of the country. This was AIDS. In the early days, the first doctors responsible for treating AIDS patients were oncologists. AIDS patient were treated with chemo, just like any cancer patient.</p><p><br /></p><p>Jan 1983, in the biopsy of a lymph node of an AIDS patient, signs of a virus were found. It was a retrovirus. An RNA virus that could convert its genes into DNA and lodge into human genome. HIV. </p><p>Genes can move from one generation to next, being carried on chromosomes. In certain bacteria species, genes could also be transmitted laterally between two organisms, even from dead inert bacteria, which means some inert chemical was responsible for carrying genes. This chemical was DNA. </p><p>Central dogma of molecular biology: The unidirectional flow of genetic information. DNA->RNA->Protein. This is universal rule, found in bacteria to humans. </p><p>Some forms of cancer, like breast and ovarian, tended to run in families. </p><p>X-rays was found to vastly increase rate of mutation in genes. X-rays also caused cancer. So a link came to surface. Could cancer be a disease of mutations?</p><p>Most of time, when a virus leaves the body, it doesn't leave any footprint behind, our DNA is left untouched. However, RSV (Rous Sarcoma Virus) was different. After infecting cells, it physically attaches itself to cell's DNA thereby altering the genome. The virus was nothing but a single strand of RNA. Thus it was found that RNA could generate DNA. The genes of retroviruses exist as RNA outside cells. When they infect a cell, they make DNA copy of their genes and attach this copy to cell's genes. This DNA copy, called a provirus, makes RNA copies and virus is regenerated to form new virus. Finally the single gene in RSV that was causing the cancer was identified. This gene was called src. The first oncogene. Src worked by encoding a protein which works by modifying other proteins by attaching a phosphate group, to these proteins. This phosphate group attachment acts like a ON switch for the protein. Often one turned on protein would then turn on another protein and so on. A confluence of many such activated switches produced powerful signal inside a cell to change its state from non-dividing to a dividing state. </p><p>Later a nearly identical version of viral Src was found to be lodged firmly in normal cell's genome. RSV had likely picked up an activated Src gene from a cancer cell and carried it in the viral genome, creating more cancers. Virus then acted as a courier. </p><p>Proto-oncogene: precursor of a cancer causing gene. They are normal cellular genes until a mutation induced by chemical or x-rays caused cancer not by inserting foreign genes into cells, but by activating such endogenous proto-oncogenes.</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Humans have 46 chromosomes - 23 matched pairs, one inherited from each parent. In CML, the 22nd chromosome has its head lopped off. The missing head had attached itself to tip of chromosome 9, and a piece of 9 had conversely attached itself to 22. This flip-flop transposition of two pieces is called Translocation. Abl gene was on 9th and bcr gene was on 22nd chromosome. Bcr-abl was the oncogene causing CML.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>To find out correlation of genes and cancer a particular type of hereditary related cancer was chosen I.e retinoblastoma. Its a variant of eye cancer with the tendency to erupt in same family across generations.RB has 2 variants: an inherited familial form and a sporadic form. The familial one is the inherited form, with family history I.e fathers, mothers, cousins, siblings etc also showing the cancer. This form of RB affects both eyes. But then RB was also seen in some patients who had no family history (sporadic form) and this one typically affects only one eye. Familial form typically happens at 2-6months after birth and develops rapidly. Sporadic one developed at 2-4yrs old children and grows slowly. Why? Only 1 genetic change required to develop ‘inherited’ RB but 2 genetic changes required to trigger sporadic RB. Every human has 2 pairs of chromosomes therefore 2 copy of every gene, including ‘rb’ gene. In sporadic RB, both copies of rb gene needs to be inactivated through mutation in each copy of the gene. Therefore it develops later in life. Children with inherited RB, they are already born with one defective rb gene therefore require only one mutation to trigger, therefore develops much earlier. (2-hit theory of cancer)</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Why single mutation in src causes cancer but 2 mutations for rb? Src activates a function in cell division and rb performs suppression of cell division. So 2 classes of genes. (1) Oncogenes which acts by virtue of abnormal cell division (2) anti-oncogenes (or tumor suppressor) which acts by suppression of division. Accelerator and brakes in car. 1 mutation needed for oncogene and 2 needed for antioncogene to activate(or inhibit) their functionalities.Jammed accelerator and failed brakes.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>ras gene was derived out of a human cancer cell (an oncogene), from a patient who died of bladder cancer. rb gene (for retinoblastoma) was also isolated from human cancer cells which is anti-oncogene</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>rb gene was also found to be mutated in other cancers like lung, bone, breast, bladder and esophageal etc. between 1983-93, many other cancer genes were isolated-myc, neu,fos,ret,akt (all oncogenes) and p53, vhl, apc (all anti-oncogene).</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Experiment to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>induce cancer in mouse by mutating gene: Myc gene was activated in mouse but mice developed only small unilateral breast cancers and that too, late in life. Mice typically developed cancer only after pregnancy, suggesting that environmental influences such as hormones are also strictly required to achieve full transformation. Only active myc gene isn’t sufficient.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>How cancer grows: Transitions in the stages of cancer was paralleled by same transitions in genetic changes. Transition from Premalignant to invasive state was correlated with same sequence of activation and deactivation of genes.cancer is slow march of one gene mutation to next. Cancer cells not only divide uncontrollably but also migrate and invade other organs. Genes encode proteins. Proteins work like small molecular switches. Protein A may turn off protein B which will then turn on C which will turn off D and so on. Such pathways exists in normal cells for normal growth. Similarly in cancer cells, a permanent activated gene will turn on one protein which will then permanently activate another protein which will then permanently deactivate another protein and so on. Certain activated signaling pathways in cancer cells could also induce neighboring blood vessels to grow and then the tumor grows in grape like clusters around those vessels. This is called angiogenesis.The “motility genes” activated by cancer cells are the very genes normal cells use when they require movement through the body such as when immuno-logical cells move to sites of infection. Tumor angiogenesis exploits the same pathways when blood vessels are created to heal wounds.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>6 rules of malignant growth</li><ul class="ul1" style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Self sufficiency in growth signals.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Insensitivity to growth inhibitory signals</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Evasion of programmed cell death(apoptosis)</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Limitless replicative potential</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Sustained angiogenesis</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Tissue invasion and metastasis.</li></ul><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Treating cancer: achilles’s heels of cancer</li><ul class="ul1" style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Accumulation of mutations are driving factor of cancer.We’ve to target the hyperactive genes.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer cells depend on activated pathways for propagation. We’ve to find a way to inhibit the pathway.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer cells have developed resistance to drugs over the course of cell division. We’ve to mix and match the drugs</li></ul><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>APL cancer cells are left immature. Then a maturation agent, trans-retinoic acid was found. APL patients were given this drug. The cancer cells matured in 4 days, and then having fully matured, the cells began to die out. Remission lasted weeks and months.A combination of chemotherapy and trans-retinoid acid produced no relapse at all in 75% of patients. APL oncogene encodes a protein that is tightly bound by trans-retinoid acid. This binding immediately extinguishes the oncogene’s signal in APL cells.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Genentech could engineer a human gene into a bacterium, say, and use bacterial cell as a bioreactor to produce vast quantities of that protein. Thus in lab proteins could be made instead of extracting from animals.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer cells that become dependent on the activity of a gene for their growth can amplify that gene by making multiple copies of the gene in the chromosome. This phenomenon is called oncogene amplification. Her-2 was highly amplified in breast cancer samples. We could divide breast cancer into 2 categories. Her-2 amplified (her-2+ve) and her-2 unamplified(her-2-ve). Then came a anti-Her-2 drug.When her-2 antibody was injected into a her-2+ve cancer patient, the tumors disappeared.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Women treated with Herceptin along with standard chemotherapy drugs showed remarkable benefit.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Every kinase attaches a phosphate tag to unique set of proteins in the cell, thus they act like master switches in cells, turning “on” some pathways and turning off some other.Staurosporine inhibited dozens of kinases by binding to a pocket present in most kinases.could such a drug be developed to inhibit cancer specific kinases? A drug was found that could cure bcr-abl positive leukemias.This drug is Gleevec</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In some cases, patients had developed resistance to Gleevec and therefore were relapsing. How can cancer cell become resistant to a drug that directly inhibits its driving oncogene? These cells acquire mutations that specifically alter the structure of bcr-abl, creating a protein still able to drive the growth of the leukemia but no longer capable of binding to the drug. The a new kinase inhibitor was developed to target air-all, dasantib, and this one helped cure leukemia in Gleevec resistant patients.</li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In individual specimens of breast and colon cancer between 50-80 genes are mutated, pancreatic cancers had 50-60 and brain cancers had 40-50. Only few cancers like AML, 5-10 genetic mutations found.Set of mutated genes can vary from one breast cancer sample to another. But not all mutations actually cause cancer. Most of them are bystander/passenger mutations which has no impact on cancer. “Driver” mutations are the ones which actually contribute to cancer.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer’s immortality is borrowed from normal physiology. Human embryos possess a tiny population of stem cells that are capable of immortal regeneration. In few weeks, a single hematopoietic stem cell can replenish the entire human organism with new blood and then through yet unknown mechanism, lull itself back to sleep.</li></ul>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-90495739773367201062022-12-17T17:38:00.004-08:002022-12-17T17:59:48.386-08:00Notes from "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies" - Part I<p><br /></p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In US, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will develop cancer in their lifetime</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Sidney Farber, father of modern Chemotherapy</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Leukemia is cancer of WBC</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer is disease caused by uncontrolled growth of a single cell. This growth is unleashed by mutations in DNA. In cancer cell, the circuits to regulate cell division and cell death is broken.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Malignant growth and normal cell growth is so intertwined that its a modern day medicine challenge to distinguish between the two.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Mutations in cancer genes accumulate with age, therefore cancer is intrinsically related with age.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Virchow discovered Leukemia in 1847. Initially he called it Weisses Blut (white blood) but later changed it to Leukemia, from Leukos (greek word for white).</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Hypertrophy: Getting bigger by increasing in size. Hyperplasia: Getting bigger by increasing in number. In animals, fat and muscle grow by hypertrophy and liver, gut, skin etc grow by hyperplasia</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Normal WBC can be divided into 2 categories: Myeloid or Lymphoid cells. Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) are cancer of respective cells. ALL is cancer of immature lymphoid cells. Cancer of mature lymphoid cells is called Lymphomas</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Leukemia can be measured, by drawing sample of blood and just counting the WBCs. Therefore drugs can be given and potency can be assessed.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In 1949 winter, an antibiotic Streptomycin was purified out of a clod of mold from a chicken farmer’s barnyard.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>William Halsted was pioneer of radical mastectomy in the 1890s.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Neglect in the field of cancer research was also a factor of its slow prominence in society.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer was present in 19th century but it was overshadowed by more common illnesses like TB, influenza etc.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In 1926, cancer became 2nd most deadly in US, after heart disease.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Anemia is caused by lack of iron but there are variants of anemia that are caused by lack of other molecules. Pernicious Anemia is caused by lack of vitamin B12.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Folic acid is crucial building block for DNA and therefore for cell division. Blood cells are produced by most fearsome rate of cell division - more than 300 billion cells a day - genesis of blood is dependent on FA. In absence of FA, production of new blood will cease, like what was observed men and women in Bombay due to lack of vegetables in diet. If FA accelarates leukemia, an antifolate will block it therefore stopping leukemia. Basis of Sidney Farber’s chemotherapy.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Subbaroa’s team could create slight variants of FA, which possessed counter intuitive properties. Such decoy molecules bind to the enzymes and block its action like a false key jamming the lock.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Antifolate could stop leukemia but remission was inevitable.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Metastasis: migration of cancer cells from one site to another. Meta-stasis I.e ‘beyond stillness’ in latin.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Every generation of cancer cells creates a small number of genetically different cells. When a chemotherapeutic drug or immune system attacks cancer, mutant clones that can resist the attack, grow out. Fittest cancer cell survives and cycle continues.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In 1862, Edwin Smith found the 2500BC papyrus in Egypt which had mention of a tumor in breast.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Atossa, queen of Persia, was struck by breast cancer in 440BC.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Also 1000 yr old mummy was found to have spicules in bone, without question, sign of bone tumor, osteosarcoma. Likewise there were other ancient artifacts showing signs of cancer presence.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Still historically, less mention of cancer. Cancer is age related disease but human lifespan was very less in ancient societies.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Civilizations did not cause cancer, but by improving human lifespan, it has unveiled it. Longevity is not the only factor. Our capacity to detect cancer earlier and earlier and attributing deaths accurately to it has also dramatically increased its prevalence in modern society.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Due to modern life culture, some cancers have increased and some have decreased. Stomach cancer was very common in early 19th century because of carcinogens found in pickling reagents and preservatives but modern refrigerators and hygiene policies have reduced it. In contrast, lung cancer has increased because of smoking.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In the time of Hippocrates, around 400BC, a word for cancer first appeared in medical literature: karkinos (greek for crab). The tumor with its clutch of blood vessels reminded Hippocrates of a crab dug in sand with its leg spread in circle.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Another greek word, onkos: meaning mass or burden, reminding of tumor especially, which gave birth to field of oncology</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Disease of Depression or melancholia (medieval name for depression) was attributed to be cause of imbalance of black (melas) bile (khole). Only other disease resulting from black bile is cancer.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Autopsy: (greek) to see for oneself</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Early 19th century cancer surgeons were hesitant to perform surgery but between 1846-1867, two discoveries made surgery viable options for curing cancer. 1 anesthesia in 1846 and antiseptics in 1867.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Early 20th century, many locally restricted cancers (primary tumors without metastatic lesions) could be removed by surgery. Uterine, ovarian, breast, prostate, colon and lung. If they were removed before they invaded other organs, surgeries produced cures in significant fraction of patients.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Post surgery recurrences had accumulated precisely around the margins of original surgery, as if minute remnants of surgery had been left behind. This led to the rise of Radical surgery</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Women with metastatic cancer is not going to be cured by radical mastectomy. Women with small confined cancer does benefit from local mastectomy</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Of the 76 breast cancer treated the radical way, only 40 survived more than 3 years.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>X-rays can shatter strands of DNA or generate toxic chemicals that corrode DNA. Cells either die or cease to divide.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>X-rays were ineffective for cancer that had metastasized. X-rays could be used for local tumors. Leading to growth of radiation oncology.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Radium was infused with gold wires and stitched directly into local tumors to produce higher levels of X-rays. Surgeons implanted radium pellets into abdominal tumors. By 1930s and 40s, America had a surplus of radium.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Radiation oncology had 2 limitations: X-rays could only be targeted for local tumors and X-rays themselves were causing cancer. Evidenced by “radium girls”, watch factory workers who developed cancer of jawline, leukemias, bone, tongue, neck etc.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>The dye chemical, Aniline and Aniline derivatives was used to dye animal tissue and it was found out that the dye was selectively coloring some parts of cells, leaving others untouched, binding to some, sparing others. This raised the question. What if some chemical can be found that’d only kill bacterial cells, sparing normal human cells.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>The survivors of mustard gas attack in 1919 were found to have dried up bone marrow, almost zero WBCs. Men were anemic.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In early 1950s Joseph Burchenal and Mary Lois Murphy tried 6-MP on children with ALL. Cure was temporary, lasting only few weeks.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>National Fundraising effort was started to tackle Polio. Roosevelt, radio personalities, Hollywood starts all collaborated. Within few weeks, 2680000 dimes had poured into White House by citizens. By late 1940s, John Enders nearly succeeded in culturing polio virus in his lab and Sabin and Salk, building on Enders’s work, were ready with first polio vaccine.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Mary Lasker was called fairy godmother of medical research because of her work to elevate cancer and corr. Research into public limelight.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Goal directed strategies, like the Manhattan project, is useful during wartime but is of limited use during peacetime.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>A focused drug -discovery unit for anti cancer drugs was instituted in 1954 after much lobbying by Laskerites. Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center (CCNSC) between 1954-64 would test 82700 synthetic chemicals, 115000 fermentation products and 17200 plant based derivatives.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Like penicillin mold, which produces penicillin, bacteria also produce antibiotics to wage chemical warfare on other microbes. Once such antibiotic came from rod-shaped microbe called Actinomyces. Waksman called it Actinomyces-D</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Actinomyces D, combined with X-rays, was effective for Wilms’ tumor metastasis, a rare form of kidney cancer. WIlms’ tumor was first metastatic solid tumor to respond to chemotherapy.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Mycobacteria, germs that cause TB, would become resistant to antibiotics if the drugs were used singly. Same was found to be true for cancer. Therefore a combination of 2-3 cytotoxic drug combination was sought for chemotherapy.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Choriocarcinoma - cancer of placenta, in pregnant women.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Li used chemotherapy to treat choriocarcinoma and used the level of Hcg hormone as a tracker of cancer level. He administered chemo until hcg level went to zero. It was found out that patients who had stopped the drug early inevitably relapsed but patient on Li’s protocol remained free of disease. A fundamental principle of oncology emerged. Cancer needed to be treated long after every visible sign of it had vanished.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Leukemia children treated with VAMP showed great recovery and showed no sigh of cancer cells in blood. But after few months, children came back to hospital with complaints of headache, dizziness, numbness, seizures etc. Bone marrow biopsies were clean but turned out leukemia cells had invaded the nervous system causing quick and unexpected death. Brain and spinal cord are insulated by a tight cellular seal called blood-brain barrier. This is body’s mechanism to keep poisons away from brain. But this defense mechanism also kept VAMP out of nervous system, therefore cancer cells grew uninhibited in nervous system while it was getting cleaned up from rest of body. A very small percentage of patient survived with VAMP, possible because the cancer was treated well before it could invade nervous system.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Hodgkin’s disease is cancer of lymph glands- a lymphoma. It infiltrates lymph nodes locally, one by one. Other cancers are unpredictable for e.g Lung cancer may start as a spicular nodule in lung and then suddenly ambulate in brain, pancreatic cancer goes faraway to bones and liver. But Hodgkin’s moved more orderly, affecting one node to another, gland to gland, region to region.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Hidgkin’s could be treated with radiation, but it’d always relapse with affected lymph node immediately contiguous to original radiated area. This gave rise to assigning staging of cancer. Further the stage if faraway lymph node was affected, thereby also reducing chances of cure and recovery. And subsequently, treatment was adjusted as per staging of cancer.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>One side effect of chemotherapy emerged. Several patients cured of Hidgkin’s would relapse with a second cancer - typically an aggressive drug resistant leukemia.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>In 1961, Pinkel and his team developed 4 innovations to checmotherapy.</li><ul class="ul1" style="list-style-type: disc;"><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Combinations of drugs is better than single drug but sometimes we need combinations of combinations I.e 6, 7, or even 8 different chemical poisons combined.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>If needed, inject chemotherapy directly into nervous system to get over the blood brain barrier.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Add high dose radiation to skulls if needed, to clear last remnants of residual cancer cells.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Continue chemo even months or years after cancer is cured.</li></ul><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>With above regimens, results were impressive. Even some patients (30%) never relapsed at all.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer of scrotum was prevalent among chimney sweeps, Marie curie, radium girls etc, these observations led to Theory of somatic mutations of cancer I. Environmental carcinogens induce permanent cell structure change thereby causing cancer.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Experimenting with spindle cell sarcoma, Rous found that injecting tumor from one chicken into another causes cancer to transmit. He kept on filtering the cells through finer and finer sieves before transmitting but still was able to transmit cancer. He found that not only environmental carcinogen, but even viruses (which are very very minuscule and therefore can skip through the sieve of the filter) can cause cancer. His virus was later named Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV).</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>First cancer causing virus found<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in humans was Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which causes mono.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Religious movements or cult are founded on tetrad of elements: Prophet, prophecy, book and revelation.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>National Cancer act, signed Dec 23 1971 by Nixon. Flood of money authorized for cancer research, $400mil for 1972, $500m for 73, $600m for 74, was a monumental achievement.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Cancer’s spread is erratic and unpredictable.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>A major trial across US and Canada with 1765 patients confirmed that rates of breast cancer recurrence, relapse, death and distant metastasis were identical for 3 groups of treatments: radical mastectomy, simple mastectomy, surgery followed by radiation.</li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Variants of thyroid cancer continued to make thyroid hormone. Even though cancerous these cells remembered their former selves.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li><li class="li3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Menlo; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Normal prostate cells require testosterone therefore malignant prostate cells require testosterone too. When Huggins removed testicles of prostate cancer bearing dogs, the tumors involuted within days. Therefore Huggins proposed that cancer can be controlled by controlling hormones. Huggins developed hormone therapy: injecting synthetic estrogen into males to stop the production of testosterone to cure prostate cancer. This was called chemical castration. Hormone therapy patients also relapsed once they developed immunity to hormone. Only about 2/3rds of all women with breast cancer responded to when their ovaries were removed.</li></ul>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-21794280624806776002022-12-17T17:37:00.000-08:002022-12-17T17:37:10.245-08:00Don't do Micro-Parenting<p> Micro Parenting is a crime:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Raising a child is not trivial. Almost every parent I've come across seems to be under so much duress with their children. However, I disagree.</p><p>I've a 3yr old myself and I feel a breeze. The key to successful parenting is to do minimum parenting.</p><p>Please bear in mind I speak with experience raising my 3year old only, in my household. Granted some kids are extra difficult than others, and some folks extra patient with their kids than me. So things may vary.</p><p>My parenting style is simple: Minimal intervention, maximal exposure</p><p>Contrast this with my wife, who is a torch bearer of micro parenting. What is my kid doing every second of the day, she has to know. She is obsessed. It feels like she is always scared if something will happen to the kid. Even when the kid is in daycare, my wife is constantly monitoring through the webcam. That I feel is bit extreme.</p><p>Anyway, coming to the parenting point. </p><p>We've to understand some qualities that kids generally have. First and foremost, they are hungry for learning, they are inherently brave because they want to try out everything and also, they are intrinsically independent. That is a very key feature. Notice how they progress from skidding to crawling to walking to running. They are always looking to do things of their own. And its criminal if you don't let them. Kids are like a dry sponge ball, ready to absorb anything. All we've to do is roll the ball into a puddle.</p><p>When I take my daughter to park, I let her do most of the things by herself. Yes, when she first tried to climb the rock structure, I helped point out where she can keep he feet and which rock to grab onto etc, but after 1-2 times, she was able to do of her own. Now having conquered the basics, I've noticed that when we go to a new park and a different rock climbing structure, she is able to climb it independently. All I do is stand below, fully attentive, ready to catch her if in the rare case she slips.</p><p>Contrast that to my wife. Everytime, and I mean every single time, she'll be holding and lifting her up, constantly guiding her where to put feet and where to hold. What does this micro managing do? It makes the kid dependent. Suddenly they feel like they'll not be able to climb if mother were to disappear into thin air right now. Its like deer caught in a headlight. </p><p>My wife actually does have that fear, which induces panic and then leads to bad decisions. Consider the case where you are driving and suddenly google maps stops working. Which highway, which street, where to go, what to do now? For many years, my wife was scared to fill gas in the car. Even after I showed her the entire process and offered to accompany her first few times to calm the nerves but still, if it were possible to avoid doing this by some means, she would avoid. And avoiding is easy. There is always help available, for e.g pick up the phone and ask brother-in-law or friend if they can help fill the gas for her and done. Thats all well and good, but its not independence. If suddenly you are driving and find yourself in a situation where you've to do it, you'll have a panic attack. If kids don't learn to be independent, they'll grow up with this panic attack always lurking in their shadows.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-19167376282468644222022-10-20T10:22:00.002-07:002022-10-20T10:22:41.138-07:00<h1 style="text-align: left;">My Reading challenge for 2022 </h1><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Lot of Reading, Let writing take over</p><p><br /></p><p>Its been a while. I've been away from the prose in the writing sense. I've been with the keyboard everyday, I've had my pen and paper near me almost all the time, at an arms length. Although I've been writing, but never on a flowing sense, never more than some random scribblings, study notes yes, but never jotting down my musings, my ramblings, sound of my thoughts bouncing around inside my empty brain, like a steel ball inside a rolling cylinder.</p><p>I'll set the ball free now...</p><p>This year, 2022, I signed up for a challenge. Read 22 in 22. Basically if I can read 22 books in the calendar year. Although the challenger, my city library, had set aside categories for each of the book I should pick up, like asian author, Caribbean author etc but I chose to ignore that. I just focussed on the count, not category.</p><p>Well, I'm happy to report that I completed the challenge last week. I'm very happy, very proud of myself. Never imagined, I'd be able to achieve this but I did. </p><p>Here is my list</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0060838655" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">People’s history of United States</a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"> </span></p><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I figured I should read up on the history of the country in which I live. I read <i>India After Gandhi </i>when I was in Undergraduate and I loved it. Therefore it made sense to read up on USA now that I'm here and I have known few things. This book was slightly different because its not just history, its people's history. It talks about less known events, like the massive workers' strike throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, because the class division had been a massive problem back then as well. Anyway, I don't remember much about anything else from this book so thats that. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Russian-Revolution/dp/0679745440" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">A concise history of the Russian revolution</a></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secondhand-Time-Soviets-Svetlana-Alexievich/dp/0399588825" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Secondhand time</a></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Paradoxes-1878-1928-Stephen-Kotkin/dp/0143127861" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Stalin, Volume-I</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I just wanted to read up on the Russian revolution and picked up Concise because it'll be just enough to quench my thirst. Yes, I'm a sucker for history. I love the genre. Isn't there a saying about repeating history if you don't learn from it? Well, it applies to me in literal sense. I loved the book. And while reading Concise, I was motivated to just read about Stalin, who came up multiple times, in prominent roles before, during and after the revolution. "Stalin" was a 37hour long audiobook which I finished and I enjoyed it. Next up for me is Stalin Vol-II. Sandwiched in-between was Secondhand, which basically is collection of interviews of soviet sympathizers who could not bear to see the USSR become Russia and were reminiscing the good old days of Stalin and Pravda.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Born-Crime-Stories-African-Childhood/dp/0399588191" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Born a crime</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Its okay-ish. Nothing great, not boring either. Just enough spice to keep things going on. Although I do remember cracking up when the "Hitler" story came up. A decent window to the life of someone growing up in South Africa during and post apartheid era.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Science-Fiction/dp/1101910097" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">The big book of science fiction</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I just thought it'll be fun to read through some short stories and coming from a science background, I am comfortable with sci-fi. Actually I like it. Yes some stories are decent, some not so much. Some stories are short some not so much. After this big book, I only remember only a handful of stories that I can bring up during a fireside camping chat and amuse bunch of kids. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Design-Stephen-Hawking/dp/055338466X" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">The grand design</a></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/0553380168" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">A brief history of time</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Yes, science fiction is cool but real physics on an astronomical scale, cooler. I was fascinated by physics in high school and later when I was preparing for IIT-JEE, so that explains my soft corner for books like these. I can pick and read books like this anytime. If you've a physics bone, however small, give it a try. If it gets complicated for you, leave it and pick something else. Either you derive happiness out of it or don't. Thats okay. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything-ebook/dp/B004H4XI5O" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Moonwalking with Einstein</a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I only picked this book because of its title. But then I started reading, and I kept on reading. Its the journey of a US memory champion, who only a year ago before his crowning moment, was a journalist covering the US memory tournament competition and interviewing other champions. He was a complete outsider, million miles away from trying anything like this but an ex-memory champion convinced him how easy it is to remember almost everything, he decided to try for himself and voila, he was champion next year.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60033201-north-to-paradise" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">North to Paradise</a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">A memoir. Interesting read. Sheds light on the life of Ghana and how challenging it is. Just like baby turtles born on the shores have an instinct to head towards the ocean, people from interiors of African continent, enduring difficult living conditions in their hometown, have an instinct to move to Europe, in search for better life. And the path ahead is treacherous. Many don't make it but some do. This is the story of one such exceptional guy. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Cold_Blood" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">In cold blood</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">My first pick of the year. It was a common occurrence in any popular non-fiction list I picked up. Yes, I was hooked. Truman wanted to keep me guessing about the motivation of the crime, or the connection between the victim and the criminal, until the time he'd disclose it for me, and he succeeded. Book is basically narrating the circumstances behind the murder of a family and subsequent investigation. Very nice read. Thats all I'd say.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Altered Carbon </a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">My second pick of the year. Although I don't read fiction these days, but I picked it because it was high up in the popularity index in my available book search in the library catalog. I picked this also mostly because of the science fiction aspect of the story. I liked the story, the general idea of "sleeving", however I'd not go out of my way to recommend this to others. Yes, in any story a murder mystery feels like author's compulsion to sell the book, and this one also had one but I was getting tired of the narration and story by the time I was few chapters from the end. I basically hurried through the final 2-3 chapters because at that point I just wanted to switch to a different book. I started watching the netflix series after finishing the book, but wasn't interested after 2 episode. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(novel)" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">2001 a space odyssey</a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">This book was highly recommended by the search engine when I was browsing. I had seen the movie long time ago and I remember not liking it because I didn't understand it. But nonetheless I was aware that this movie is deemed a classic and very popular. I thought let me read the book now that my vocabulary has improved and hoping I'll understand it better this time. And yes, thats what happened. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.calnewport.com/books/digital-minimalism/" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Digital Minimalism</a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I normally don't read self help books but I wanted to try something different than non-fiction and history. I loved this one. Although I'm a digital minimalist already, I've since long deleted my FB account, I'm not on twitter or Instagram either, so lot of the things in the book applied to me already. But it has cool tricks to keep you away from mobile. It requires hard work but like the Author states, the reward at the end is tremendous. We've short life, so how you spend your valuable time, counts. Spending time on yourself like learning or improving a personal skill, picking up a hobby or even spending time with family/kid is far far better than browsing nonsensically through other people's feeds in FB or Insta.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">The sixth extinction</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">There have been 5 major extinction events in the history of Earth. The 6th one is coming, and it has been accelerated by none other than Humans.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_If%3F_(book)" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">What if</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">A fun read. What do you get when you ask bunch of ridiculous questions to a physicist? You get this book.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://ta-nehisicoates.com/books/between-the-world-and-me/" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Between the world and me</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Collection of essays, written by a Black father for his son about growing up in US, amid the racial discrimination. Very powerful read.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Freakonomics</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">This basically talks about how the Roe vs Wade decision in the 1990s is at the heart of increased crime rate in US in the 2000s. The decision took abortion away as an option for poor family, who therefore were forced to give birth and raise an unwanted child, whom they neglected because they couldn't afford to raise kids properly, and such kids later on, starting from their early teens, started contributing towards the higher crime rates. This and bunch of other things.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8520610-quiet" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Quiet</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">This book opened my eyes towards introversion. Earlier I used to think of being an introvert as a disadvantage, something that should be remedied but boy was I wrong. Introverts have their own special personality traits which in some sense I feel are more desirable than extroverts. The book actually taught me how to be a good parent most importantly. I keep asking my wife to read this same book because it has such good pointers about parenting. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358103-money" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Money: True story about a made up thing</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Brilliant read. I just loved it. I don't understand lot of the things about economy in general and I presume lot of people don't either but this book explains everything in general terms. Starting all the way when money as we know it now started out until the modern times, it charts the evolution explaining why so and so decisions were taken up. Paper currency, gold standard, inflation, recession, great depression and even 2008 housing crisis. Time permitting, I'll read this book again sometime for sure.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/215462/dark-money-by-jane-mayer/" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Dark Money</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I always had disdain for capitalistic society. People become selfish. The objective is to simply hoard and exploit resources. And the more money you have, the more power you can influence. The power to make laws that suits your needs, like lower taxes, so you keep increasing your money and the circle goes on and on. Natural resources, poor people get crushed in between. This book showed how deep the roots of few billionaires go into influencing politics and even instigating mass hysteria, giving common unsuspecting people a narrative that is absurd, one sided, and dangerous to social harmony. But the rich people don't care if everybody else fight among themselves. It creates the distraction they want. </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/672468/aftermath-by-harald-jahner/" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Aftermath</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">A very pleasantly surprising book for me. Usually history about world wars talk about the war itself, important events leading upto the outbreak and all the way to the culmination, but no body talks about how the society picks itself up, after you've signed the armistise. Ever thought how Germany as a country, coped with the war after Apr 15, 1945? Hitler and Germany was at the center of WW2, but after Hitler shot himself, Germany had to still exist. Noone talks about the millions of tons of rubble that the netizens had to clean up as the first thing on the road to redemption, how did they do that. What about the sudden influx of freed German POWs from both east and west, about the allied POWs freed, how did German people react to discovery of concentration camps, how to integrate Jews amidst them after this. This book talks about all.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23513349-milk-and-honey" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Milk and Honey</a></div><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Poetry. It was an average read for me. I'm more into poems, that have word intricacies that just make you stop reading for a sec, because you need a breath to comprehend the depth of the emotion you've just been taken to. This wasn't that for me.</span></span></div><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-23716125412680238332014-06-30T12:39:00.003-07:002014-06-30T12:39:54.252-07:00Email played tricks on me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, for past couple of days I had been receiving notifications that my corporate email password will expire soon. The kind of person I am, I like to postpone such trivial stuff until the last day or when the password has actually expired and during one of my refresh action on emails, I get a popup window to change it. Needless to say, I see such emails, and just ignore and move on.<br />
For past couple of months, I had been receiving notifications that our email server will soon be migrated from Zimbra to Exchange. There was no fixed date as such but that we will be notified once the migration is complete. So, here again, I just ignored.<br />
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Its Wednesday. It seemed like one of those days when the activity is very poor, like hardly 1-2 emails for the day. I've been minding my own business, trying to get through some of the works assigned to me for the sprint, which ends next week Tuesday. Lately, I had been struggling to make some progress on decrypting smime messages which has an inline attachment. I've been looking in the internet and doing my share of research but all in vain. I just couldn't figure out how some messages are working fine, while others don't.<br />
Finally I decided to send the Openssl user community an email describing my issue. This I did on Wednesday evening. I was hopeful of receiving mountains of replies as the user community is huge and global.<br />
I woke up Thursday and see no new emails in my Zimbra account. Confused and surprised, I thought may be my issue is indeed special. It seemed to me like a trivial one, may be I'm missing some minor changes to fix it but seeing no replies, I thought may be not. Then I shot an email to team members in Atlanta (I'm in California) asking if they have any ideas. No replies. I waited 2 hours. No replies.<br />
Hmm, this is strange.<br />
Now, I work in Android but our app has an iOS version as well which is few months ahead of us in terms of features accomplished. So I thought I'll ask the iOS folks how did they resolve my issue, if they have come across it.<br />
Its Friday now. The football world cup have been keeping me busy and I didn't think too much about no replies to my emails. I thought I should leave the experts alone in their quest for solution to my problem. They must now be scratching their head. I try to search in the corporate directory for email id of iOS folks I knew the name of. I couldn't find. Then I pinged Karishma.<br />
<br />
Me: Hi.<br />
Karishma: Hi<br />
Me: I'm having an openssl related issue. Who do you think is the best person to ask?<br />
Karishma: David should be able to help.<br />
Me: Hmm. Well, I think David's reply rate is poor especially if I've sent an email. He doesn't seem to like me :P :P :P<br />
(The smileys were added to reduce the tone to sarcasm)<br />
Karishma: Ha ha. In that case, ask the iOS folks.<br />
Me: I think so too. Can you send me email id of Jonathan and Ismail?<br />
Karishma: Sure. I'll send out an email to them including you, as an introduction.<br />
Me: Sounds good. Thanks.<br />
<br />
I resumed my football match thinking any minute I'll be getting the email. 45 mins later, refresh, nothing. 2 hours later, refresh, no new mails. End of day, still no emails. I'm now questioning the attitude of Karishma. This is very unprofessional. Here I'm stuck in an issue and she knows that, yet, she is so arrogant that she doesn't do her part, which is to just shoot an email. I'm cursing myself as well. I shouldn't have left it on her. I should've insisted on asking the email id right there, when I was on IM. She seemed like a nice and responsible person when I paid a visit to the Atlanta office back in May. May be people are more than they show themselves to be.<br />
<br />
On Saturday, when checking emails on my phone after my tennis game, I see the email app saying it couldn't connect to the mail server. The password doesn't agree.<br />
I'm like, what!!! I did not change the password, how did this happen? I try to enter my current password, but it kept failing. I'm like, fuck this email app. Must be something wrong with the app. The kind of crappy apps the developers make these days, total disregard to the software quality (I'm a sw developer myself).<br />
Blaming it all on the app, I ignored the error. My world isn't going upside down if I don't receive emails on my phone for 2 days. I'll try to resolve this on Monday. Thinking that, I resumed my tennis game. Then later I played cricket, watched football, played tennis again. All in all, an awesome weekend, as always.<br />
Come Monday. We have daily standup meetings at 11am. I dialed-in but I was the only one on the call. I waited till 11:10, still no one. I hung up then pinged my Boston team members (who schedule the standup) on IM and inquired about the standup. Mark said that the meeting was cancelled and that he had sent out cancel notification earlier this morning.<br />
I refreshed my email page, I see no new mails, let alone a cancel notification.<br />
After this, I'm little suspicious. Surely, this is no coincidence that for some reason I'm not getting emails. I logged into the exchange account but it said my password has expired. So I entered my current password, then new password, then retyped new password but the page is stuck there. It doesn't go further. Then I logged out of Zimbra and tried to log in again. I couldn't login as it said the password expired. It didn't even give me a change password page. Just a failure on the login message.<br />
Keeping myself calm, I thought, I'll create a helpzilla ticket for the support guys to tackle this. I couldn't login to helpzilla because password is incorrect. Fuck! All the bad luck had to converge at the same time same place. Drat!!<br />
Helpzilla page had the phone number for support and I called them up. After explaining the problem, he asked me some security questions and reset my password. I asked if my mail server has been migrated, and sure enough, the reply was affirmative.<br />
I then logged into my exchange account and afterwards setup my outlook. Within minutes the emails get sync'd and started pouring in.<br />
<br />
The email I had sent to openssl user group wasn't delivered in the first place. My email message had some attachments which raised its size to what was acceptable to their mail server. So there was the delivery failure message. That explained whey I didn't get the replies.<br />
<br />
Then there was David's reply on Thursday. Contrary to my belief, he had actually replied. The issue in my machine wasn't reproducible in his, so he couldn't help much except showing me his results and asking if he was doing things right.<br />
<br />
Then on Friday was Karishma's mail introducing me to Jonathan and Ismail. I was wrong about her :P<br />
I felt little guilty of accusing her of negligence. Its good thing that I kept my thoughts to myself.<br />
<br />
Then there was the cancel notification.<br />
<br />
My email server changed hands sometime early on Thursday and then my password also expired around that time. Double jeopardy. This is my best guess based on the evidence :)<br />
<br />
Signing out.<br />
<br />
PS: I did manage to resolve the openssl issue. It turned out to be because of message corruption by my TextEdit when saving the email source into a text file.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-43661575814811349592014-03-20T23:17:00.000-07:002014-03-20T23:17:46.513-07:00My 4ft of Adrenalin Rush<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After having been in the Cali bay area I was constantly looking out for some adventure. Puneet, my friend here, whom I'd known from my BlackBerry days in Chicago, was with me on this one. One fine day he came across a groupon for a Hang-gliding lesson+glide session and duly forwarded me for my opinion. It was $80. The money wasn't important for me if I know I'll enjoy this. I have done Skydiving, rappelling, river rafting, jet skiing etc before and they were all worth the money I paid for and in return I enjoyed them too. Its not bad to have your adrenalin rush once in a while. Needless to say I have those when I see pretty girls on a daily basis :)<br />
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I agreed and purchased mine. I patiently waited for Puneet to buy his and I poked him everyday until he bought his. I wasn't going to do this alone. I'm not afraid but its just awkward when you show up alone for such events.</div>
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https://www.groupon.com/deals/dive-high-hang-gliding-2</div>
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There were some hiccups in arranging a weekend to do this. Some weekends, I was busy, and some, Puneet was out of town for work. Since the expiry date was approaching we made an effort to finally settle March 2nd.</div>
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http://www.skyfrolix.com/divehigh/dreamy/<br />
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The owner website doesn't do much good in giving details about the event. I'm as clueless as anyone else about whats going to happen at the place, how's it conducted etc. Per day there are three slots and 4 persons per slot. One at 8:30am, one at 11:30am and final one at 3:30pm. I booked the 3:30pm but on the morning of 2nd, I received a text from an unknown number stating that today's class is cancelled because of bad weather and to reschedule. Its fine. I rescheduled for the week after, i.e March 9th, same time.</div>
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On the morning of 9th, I'm excited. I'm imagining after some basic lessons, I'll be jumping off a cliff or small hill, attached to the glider, and come down to the ground floating. It'll be an amazing experience. I thought of all the pictures and videos I'll have and how I'll show it off to my friends. What a way to grab attention. I felt little sad to think my life has come to this, but then to hell with it. At the end, the number of likes and comments on my facebook profile and cover pic is what matters.</div>
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Puneet arrives at my place at 12:45pm and we are on our way by 1pm. The hang gliding is in Tracy, CA which is some 60 miles from my place. Such places are always located way further than civilization. I guess they need to be. I remember my skydiving center in IL was way out in some small town 70miles from my place. Its fine. I'm not too worried. Its a fun outing in a way. We reach there at 3pm. There is just one small cabin behind which there is a hangar. There is nothing in 5 miles radius around the place. We went inside in what looked like a small office. There was no one there. </div>
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"Hello!" I said, as a verbal doorbell. No response. While we were looking around, we hear a toilet flush and then the door on our right opened and we meet Richard. </div>
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"Hey Hi. We are here for the hang gliding." We clarified.</div>
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"Ok. But you guys are very early. "</div>
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"Yeah. We didn't encounter much traffic on our way here", I said, trying to be funny. He didn't laugh.</div>
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"How long does the session usually take?" I asked.</div>
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"Umm, usually 2 hours so expect to be done here by 5:30pm".</div>
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I was happy to hear that. 2 hours is good enough time for lots of exciting things to do.</div>
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"Ok. May I suggest you guys hang out here or may be if you need water or anything else, please feel free to drive around. There is a gas station few miles west. Lets wait for the other 2 people to join us so that we can begin. That way I wouldn't have to repeat myself twice. " He said without any emotions.</div>
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We agreed and came out. I was little bit surprised that he was the only person holding the fort here. He was the only guy who is managing everything here. I was expecting a system in place here. Like a small office, a reception area, a small cafeteria, few people roaming around taking pictures, few instructors running helter skelter, some class going on in an adjacent room, some gliding sessions going on outside etc. Nothing. Instead what I got was absolute silence. Few birds may be. Wind and dusts. On our way, I told Puneet how I'd really like to be able to glide alone. No instructor on my back because that just spoils the pic. My skydiving pic is testament to that. I spent most of the time explaining a fat guy on my back than to describe how wonderful the whole experience was. And the fat instructor was in all of my pictures. Damn! But atleast here, I don't see that happening. I don't see any instructors and any gliding session going on here. I just crossed my fingers and hoped Richard will not be behind me when I'm gliding.</div>
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We sneaked into the hangar. There were two hang gliders there. Also a military jeep similar to allies in WW2 (I don't think it was the original), two small aircrafts. We took the opportunity to take lots of pictures. We didn't have water so we took the car out to find the nearest gas station. I got a call from Richard at the gas station. He informed us about the other two people arriving so we are all set to start as soon as we show up. Few minutes later we were there. We meet Manpreet and Jho (both females :)). Richard then starts to give us an introduction. He is blabbering about how he is the only hang gliding instructor in US doing this, how this is the only place to hang glide, how he has been asked by instructors from Canada and elsewhere on tips to setup such schools elsewhere, how he has been encouraged to patent his methods and loads of other bull crap. I just had to sit through it. When he said 2 hours, he didn't say he'd waste 15minutes in this. </div>
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Then we go into the hangar. In there, he shows us the basics on how to hold a glider and how to lift it up on your shoulders. The frustrating thing was that each one of us will do the same after he has shown us how to. I'd go in first, lift the glider up on my shoulders. He'd correct myself here and there if needed. Then I put it down and Puneet gets to do it while rest of us watch. And so on. This killed off another 30 mins. Oh God. I'm already losing my patience. The actual gliding better be good.</div>
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For the next set of lessons we come out of the hangar, into the open space outside. There was an open space similar to a chopper landing site, in front of the hangar, and there was a short runway on the right. I'd say less than half mile long.</div>
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In the open space he shows us how to balance the glider against the wind, how to run with it, and how to hold it while running with it. You have to hold the glider and run hard for the wind pressure under the wings to be enough to lift it up little bit and it will feel lighter, it will feel like its flying, floating to be precise. Just like a big paper plane. We get to do it as he demonstrates. And guess what, one person at a time, while the rest watch. Fucking waste of time. He has two gliders, why not use the fucking second one??</div>
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While he is instructing, I look around the place still looking for a cliff or hill to jump off. Fucking nothing. Its flat. There are some huge dumpsters but I don't expect we will be jumping off of them. With my curiosity I ask him if we ever will be able to glide the glider or this is it, we run with it, like a small kid? </div>
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"No No of course we will get to fly. We will be airborne for few minutes. Don't worry This is not it."</div>
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Ah, what a relief. Because I've hardly been impressed so far. I wondered how else can I be cheered.</div>
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After wasting another 45 minutes with this crappy lessons, when there was nothing else for him to teach, he excused himself and went into the hangar. We all thought he has gone to smoke some fags as he was constantly smoking while giving us instructions. He comes out few minutes later, driving a pick up truck. There was a big flat platform mounted on some wheels attached to the pick-up truck. The platform had some pulleys, ropes, harness, levers etc. I don't know about others but I was still scratching my head trying to solve the puzzle of how we are going to be airborne. Then he carries the glider up to the platform and attaches the various ropes and buckles to it. Then it hit me. He'll be driving the truck in the runway and since we will be harnessed to the glider, when it lifts up, we will go up as well. Fuck me! And thats exactly what happened. While one person will drive the truck up and down the runway, others will take turns on the glider and all the while Richard will be holding the ropes tied to the glider so that our safety is secured. </div>
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My biggest disappointment was, you are floating for less than two minutes. Because thats the time to finish the runway at 20mph. And did I mention the 5-10 seconds on either side of proper floating when you wait for the glider to go up and then see it come down. Absolute waste. By the time you are floating and just beginning to enjoy whatever you can find to cherish, the runway is over and you are back down. And what makes this experience worse is the fact that you are only hardly 4ft above the platform (or ground) when you are at the top of your floating experience. That is it. Thats your adrenalin rush. To be 4ft above ground, attached to a glider which is in turn attached to so many ropes with the moving platform that it cannot go higher than this. It was embarrassing actually. I was trying to show at least little bit of excitement for the pictures and videos. It was easy to shoot because while you are floating, two others are sitting in front of you watching you, and waiting for their turn. Manpreet and Jho were more than willing to take pictures and shoot videos of mine, because Puneet was driving the truck and Richard had to man the glider and prevent it going out of control. Seriously! What a joke!</div>
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My next disappointment was Richard. Once you've realized whats going to happen with the gliding experience, you have to find ways to extract some positives out of it. Its like football managers. Even when they play badly and loose the game, in the press conference they speak of taking positives out of this performance and focus on next match. When I saw the gliding scene in front of me, the moving truck, 4ft, 90secs etc, I was dejected, heart broken and utterly demoralized but there were some positives that I had to find out from this experience. I don't want to leave empty handed. I looked around. These are the only 4 people who know of the misery. And this experience is embarrassing for them as well. Can I use the pictures and videos to my advantage? None of my friends know what 'actually' happened here. 4ft can easily be shown as 40ft. 2 minutes of floating can be stretched to 20 minutes. The truth can be adjusted. The likes and shares and comments can be conned. When it was my turn to ride the glider, I handed my phone to Jho. I instructed her to take the video in landscape mode (because I like it that way), and to never never show the (red) platform. The platform shouldn't be in any scene, else my trick is exposed. Secondly, the floating scene should be exclusively me in blue sky background. If the background is only clear blue sky, how high you actually are becomes irrelevant. People will see the glider attached to my back and would know what I've been upto. Excellent plan. There was only one problem. When I saw the video afterwards, my short excitement went bust, like a flicker of fire against a fire extinguisher. In all of my pictures and the whole of my video, Richard is standing by my side, holding the glider while I'm floating. How ridiculous does that look? Here I'm trying to fool my friends but I cannot explain while I'm 40ft above ground level, how come there is a dude beside me, who seems to be 'not' floating. Whats going on there?</div>
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-33344694920812218502014-03-19T11:33:00.000-07:002014-03-19T11:33:27.276-07:00New Years Eve - 2014 in Colorado<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><u>How the trip came to existence: </u></b><br />
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I moved to California from Chicago in late September. Needless to say my social circle in Cali wasn't much when Christmas/New years holidays came around. So I was reliant on my friends from Chicago and moreover, I missed them and wanted to spend time with them during the holidays. It was during Thanksgiving holidays that I thought to plan ahead and set up something for new years. I had Vegas in mind and since then, I'd been reminding Ritesh, Rastogi and Sreejit for making arrangements. While they kept procrastinating, I witnessed the rise in flight ticket and hotel prices. I wasn't too worried because in the worst case I can take a bus from San Jose/ SFO or I can just drive, plus the hotel room charges when split between 4-5 people, doesn't hurt much. It was only for them that the flight tickets were a concern. They had their own reasons to delay but the bottom line was that it wasn't until Christmas eve that we all came together to plan something out.<br />
Vegas was out of question becuase flights from Chicago were no less than 600-700 bucks. Ritesh and Sreejith were hesitant. Rastogi had just been employed after months of trying so it was unreasonable for him to shell out buttload of money on this. It was finally of no use to plan something 2-3 months ahead of time when you've got friends like them. Sigh!<br />
I proposed to spend new years in Chicago and that I don't mind travelling which would also save money but Ritesh was against it. He had a record that he has not spent new years in Chicago since he has been there which is 3 years now. He wanted to maintain that record. Driving to nearby places is also not viable because quite simply, there are no decent places around Chicago to spend new years.<br />
Ritesh and Sreejith looked up in internet and found out that Puerto Rico is the second best place to spend new years. The first being New Orleans which we had already covered in 2012. Although Chicago-PR is still 600-700 bucks but other expenses, like hotel , club cover fee etc is cheaper than Vegas.<br />
When I looked up SFO-PR, I lost all hope. The tickets were atleast 1000 bucks and its one whole day of only travelling. More than the price, its the 12hr travel time one way that bumped me off. When I'm spending a grand, I don't want to spend only 2 days in PR and another 2 days in air.<br />
I sensed that someplace between Cali and Chicago would be ideal. I had Texas in my mind mostly because of the warm weather. Sreejith lived in Tx for 2 years and he wasn't too excited about it but when Denver was thrown into the pot, Chicago sensed a possibility. I wasn't too keen on going to Denver and I had my reasons. First of all, weather. No body from California would go to Denver in the middle of winter. Its insane. Its actually the other way round. California is warm and sunny. It was only the other day I went out for groceries in a t-shirt and shorts. Denver reminded me of Chicago where I'd be wrapped in 4 layers of clothing whenever I go out. Even to sit on my patio, I needed a blanket and hot cup of tea. Second, whats Denver special for? New Years? I'd like to see that top-50 list of New Years celebration in US which has Denver in it.<br />
Chicago decided Denver is the best option for them. They can drive which would allow them to return to work on 2nd Jan, plus everything else is cheap, plus its beautiful and above all, they'll not be in Chicago. Weather-wise, it was an upgrade. I think with the cold in Chicago, everywhere else you go, you feel warmer. That leaves me. The only thing keeping me into this was the chance to hang out with my old buddies. I don't like cold, I don't fancy winter at all but the warmth of friends was comforting and it was either Denver or staying home. I chose former. I booked my tickets. I was to arrive in Denver on 28th Dec (Sat) at 9:30pm and depart on 1st Jan (Wed) at 3pm. Ritesh and co. will start driving at 6am and hopefully they'll be there when I land.<br />
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<b><u>Saturday, Dec 28th: Denver, CO</u></b><br />
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I woke up today with a sense of purpose. A good feeling that I'm going out for the holidays. Taking leave from work wasn't difficult. My manager, before she went on vacation, had assured me of time off if I needed one. I had assurances from Ritesh that they'll be in Denver by the time I arrive but I know them better. When he said they plan to start at 6am or may be even earlier I knew then that this is not happening. On normal weekends, they never get out of bed before 11am and 6am is a far cry. To be able to wake up at 5, they must be in bed by 10pm which is not going to happen. They are 4 of them and if a whisky/rum bottle is thrown in, they'll actually go to bed at 5am. I've lived those moments myself in my 3yrs in Chicago with them and boy, do I miss those nights. After I woke up, I thought to ask if they already left but I did not bother. Even if they start at 10am, there isn't much I can do from here, except board my flight and arrive at the usual time. I took the train to the airport. SFO is 50mi from my home and San Jose is only 5 but I didn't find a cheap and convenient flight from there so had to fly from SFO. On reaching the airport I found out my flight is 30minutes delayed. That was actually a relief because that meant I had to wait less in Denver airport.<br />
I am in Denver now and its 10pm. I pinged Ritesh for status. They are 2-3hrs away. Ritesh, Rastogi and Sreejit are accompanied by Varun (Rites/Rastogi's undergraduate friend) and Zain (Sreejit's friend). I got the hotel info from Ritesh and before I took a cab, I thought to ask the hotel if they have a shuttle service to/fro from airport. As a matter of fact, they did. After some inquiries and couple of minutes of waiting I found their shuttle van and got in. It barely had any space left and It was packed after I took up the passenger seat in front. A few yards ahead, another couple, who also were waiting for the shuttle, didn't take it lightly that they got a shuttle after waiting 45mins and then its full. The dude was seriously pissed off and before he finished expressing his feelings he slammed the rear view mirror on the passenger side (where I was sitting) and broke the glass. I wasn't hurt but before I could hurl some abuses, he was already gone. The driver, a young women working for the hotel front desk, was equally shocked. It was pouring down that night and snow everywhere. The cold is back. Damn! I'm shivering already. Denver, you better have something fun for me. I'm from Cali, after all.<br />
Soon, I'm in my hotel room. Nice and warm. I quickly changed into my PJs, tucked myself in a blanket and turned on the TV. I'm warming my bed but I can't sleep because I know Ritesh and Co. will be here in couple of hours. I didn't want to wake up soon after I'm asleep. That leaves a bad feeling in me. Alas, I get the call. They ask me to come down and come along for dinner anywhere nearby. I denied. I was just too comfortable and lazy to come down now when they could just instead carry some to-gos and we all can eat in the room. That they did and finally we all meet. I am introduced to Varun and Zain, and I was glad to see familiar faces in Ritesh, Sree and Rastogi. Good old times are back again. We had food, booze, TV, cards and some great company. The next 4hrs of fun was worth the whole trip. Tons of gossip, usual taunts, jokes both poor and awesome, under influence, win or loose, it was a fun filled quality time. By the time we all went down to sleep land, it was 5am.<br />
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<b><u>Sunday, Dec 29th: Driving from Denver to Glenwood Springs</u></b><br />
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I do not suffer hangovers and I'm very irregular in my sleep hours. I woke up at 6:30am, thanks to a phone call from my brother, back in India. After the call, it was Liverpool's day at the Etihad stadium for a 1-on-1 fight with Man City. I couldn't miss this game even if I could. I'm totally immersed in the game and soon enough Reds score. I'm jumping up and down in the room, albeit very quietly. Fist bumps into air, imaginary punches and kicks but remaining within the confines of silence, not to wake up my sleeping friends. My efforts are in vain as Varun is up. He is now enjoying the match with me and soon Sree joins in. Sree and Rastogi are football followers so I didn't have to explain the game. Although we lost 2-1, it was an entertaining match nonetheless. Kudos to Liverpool for putting up a fine show. Few days ago City pasted Arsenal 6-3 and it was part dull, not to mention the most boring match ever that followed few days later, Arsenal-Chelsea but Liverpool didn't disappoint me. They created doubts in Man City's heart that they can loose too. The loss did hurt but it was not much of any damage. The Merseyside has played some good football against other teams and they had the cushion to loose to Man City and not hurt their top-4 ambitions.<br />
The brunch happening in a nearby ihop, we made a pitstop at a walmart store because Rastogi needed a sun glass. He forgot his in Chicago and didn't want his pictures in the backdrop of beautiful Colorado mountains without a shade enhancing his handsomeness. Few extra awesomeness, 25 bucks only.<br />
I was on the driving seat for the trip to Glenwood Springs. Staying in Aspen was very expensive and GS is 50mi away from Aspen. The choice was easy. I didn't partake much in planning out stuff. Zain only seemed to enjoy it or maybe he was forced into it seeing that everybody else is so lazy.<br />
Oh Colorado didn't disappoint. Picturesque snow covered mountains on either side, valleys, rivers, tunnels. The drive had everything. Six best friends, with 4 of them somehow managing to fit themselves in the back seat, good and loud music and view outside to die for. Perfect opportunity to stop at a gas station and click some snaps. Everybody anticipates a breathtaking profile picture. Group pictures are formality, selfies is the new trend. We encountered Mt Evans scenic drive off the I-70 and it was criminal to let go of opportunities for more selfies. Even though the sign board said the road to the summit of Mt Evans is closed, we didn;t care. Lets follow the drive as long as we can. It was not a bad call. The drive is what matters. Driving uphill on the snow covered roads and hills left right and front, it all made it memorable. But we are not to trust on our memory and relied on DSLR instead. Finally we reached the frozen lake and the logs of wood with 'Closed' written in lock letters. The chilled wind gusts outside did not deter us to come out of the SUV, and click pictures. Everybody is looking for the perfect background and the signature pose to go with it. We are instructing whoever is holding the camera about the angles, and lighting, zoom and focus and everything in between. Group and selfies alike, each picture is taken with a passion. The cameraman thinks he is a professional and the dude in front of him thinks he is Mr Handsome. The sun is fast going down and temperature is dropping like we drop saliva when we see a bikini clad damsel. Time to head back. Inside the car, everybody is blowing into their fingers and each others' ears.<br />
It was 9pm when we reached Glenwood Springs. After it gets dark, when the scenic views are not visible anymore and the visibility is confined to the range of headlights, which was very very poor by the way, it doesn't matter whether you are driving in Colorado or some highway in Indiana or Iowa. From 6pm onwards, my views were only of the highway roads and vehicles in front of me.<br />
In Glenwood, we booked two rooms. After dinner in a nearby Thai restaurant, it was time to setup the booze, card games, TV and tons of garbage discussions. We broke off at 4am for bed, little earlier for our standards.<br />
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<b><u>Monday, Dec 30th: Skiing is busted but Aspen and Hot springs rocked.</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>I woke up early, but it doesn't really matter. When the rest of your entourage doesn't wake up until another 3-4hrs, you are on your own actually. I kept myself busy with TV and soccer news. At 11, we left for breakfast and from there, went to the ski rental place. Its 12:30pm. The store owner saw the crowd that we were and was concerned. The ski place is open till 4pm and by the time we are done with fittings etc, it will be 2pm. Do we really want to ski today? Do we really want to shell out 60 bucks for ski pass and another 50 for rental, just for 2 hours of skiing? I don't think so. Promising each other that we will start the day tomorrow at 8am so that we have full day of skiing, we left the store. Again, I wasn't too optimistic but the thought that everybody wants to atleast ski before leaving Denver, gave me a small hope that may be the folks will be able to leave the hotel at 8.<br />
Now, what to do next? We had the whole day ahead of us. Me made some inquiries for snowmobile rentals but all in vein. It was booked everyplace and the ones where it was available, it was too far for us to make it in time for their tour. So now, skiing and snowmobile, both are busted.<br />
We went to Aspen. Ritesh and Sreejit had heard alot about the place. No one else knew about Aspen before the trip. Aspen did not disappoint. It is a very small city, comparable to a suburb of Chicago but surrounded by snow covered hills. The place was buzzing with pretty girls. They don't know what cold is because their clothes did not cover their legs. There was a hill directly overlooking the city and it was filled with skiers. A few blocks away, there was an ice rink and cute little girls were showing off their skating skills. Then there was 100-odd years old heritage hotel. I thought it'd be a museum of some sort, turned out its a proper hotel with rooms and business like any other hotels. We went in and clicked some pictures. It was getting cold and we were hungry. Ritesh wanted to eat Indian. He is a big fan of samosas, momos etc and regularly ventures to Indian restaurants to satisfy his cravings. A Nepalese restaurant was near Glenwood Springs we we decided to head back.<br />
In the restaurant we saw Martina Navratilova. We were into our food when some blonde women went to the front desk and picked up a box, which I suppose was full with her order. Nobody else in the restaurant bat an eyelid. Rastogi drew out attention to the lady and said she is Martina. Martina who? Sreejit and Ritesh were not sure but Varun and Zain supported Rastogi. Is she, is she not? Not to mention we were all trying to sneak a glance of her. Her back was to us. Before we got the second glance of her, she was on her way out and yes, this time everybody agreed it was her. She was already out and in her car so there was no point chasing her. We are decent people after all and we are not paid for this. Just to make sure that we indeed came across a celebrity this close, we asked the waiter who helped her with her box and he said it was her, Martina N. I'm positive she came for Aspen. There is nothing out there anyway.<br />
Glenwood springs has a hot water natural spring. With nothing better to do, we decided to soak ourselves in some hot springs. I had been to a natural hot water spring before, near Manali in India and I was utterly disappointed. Manali springs was going to be my first experience and I had imagined I'd see a hole in the ground from where hot water would be pouring out and the place properly built for tourists to see the natural springs in action. Instead when I went there, I saw a small size pool, not even a proper swimming pool size but I'd say three bath tubs length and width filled with hot water. People said the actual hole is way up in the hill and that they have made arrangements to collect that hot water in here. This is the hot springs. What a waste. There were loads of half naked dudes and kids playing in the pool and it was very congested. There are billions people in India and every tourist attraction is overloaded with tourists. So was this one. I went into the pool but I had to be careful. If I stretch my arms and legs too far, I'd touch the dude in front of me. And the water, it was so dirty, even a bacteria wouldn't survive. It was very disgusting feeling and I got out as soon as I can.<br />
Compare that experience to this one. When I heard hot water spring, it didn't excite me much, thanks to Manali. But this one was far better. The pools were huge. Almost the size of 2-3 olympic swimming pools put together. The water was chlorinated and Sulphurized so it was bluish and most importantly clean. Above all, there were so many scantily clad women, it was a treat for the eyes. The water was warm. There were three sections with water temperature maintained at 30, 40 and 50 degrees. I liked it. I could stretch my arms and legs, swim, dive, float or even sit while partially submerged. And there were shower and locker services, just like any other swimming pool facility. I had forgotten to take off my contacts before I got into the pool and I paid the price. After few dips and underwater swimming, I realized I've lost my lenses somewhere in there. There goes my perfect HD quality picture of bikini clad women bathing live. Damn!<br />
We all loved the experience. We finally had to leave at 10pm because it was closing time.<br />
Back to the room, we setup our usual hangouts with booze, TV, playing cards and nonsense gossips.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Tuesday, Dec 31st: Skiing and Aspen.</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
A fine day to ski. Bright sunny and snowfall the day before. It was our plan to head out by 8am and be done with rental by 9 and then ski the rest of the day. We all got up at 9 and with 6 people getting ready one after another, it was already 10am. Then there was the breakfast. The rental guy had given up on us and for the last time, as a last resort, he gave Zain a call to check on us. We had our boot fittings yesterday to save time today and he had everything setup and I don't blame him to go after his potential customers. Only problem was, we were his potential customers.<br />
Boy, was he relieved to see us. Since we had already checked out of our hotel, the car was full of bags and we couldn't fit the skies. The rental guy offered to keep our luggage. A small sacrifice for his business. We loaded up our boots and skies. All of us rented trousers and jackets and except me, everybody else got helmets as well.<br />
None of them had skied before. I had done once, when I was in Chicago and that too, 3 years ago. So I had a feeling of superiority in the group. I'd not miss a chance to tell them that I could ski in this slope, whenever we'd come across a ski hill. I offered to instruct them on how to ski once we are out there and that they could save some money on lessons. I was very confident and for the right reasons. When I skied for the first time, I did take lessons but I learned very quickly and after an hour I was sliding down bigger and bigger slopes. I told them helmets are unnecessary but they were too cautious. They looked funny in helmets so I didn't object.<br />
So off we go to the ski place. Sunlight ski resort in Glenwood Springs. I helped Rastogi put on his boots. He was really struggling. I really needed to pee. I didn't get a chance when we were having breakfast because we were in a hurry. It skipped my mind when in the rental store and when my bowels called, I had three layers of clothing over my pee-pee. At the resort, I frantically raced towards the ticket place and found a restroom. I relieved myself. Out in the beginners slope, I showed them how to put in your feet into the skies. While they were relaxing at the top and busy taking pictures, I thought I'll have a go at the slope. I positioned myself properly and then let myself slide. I lost control midway and fell down. It was not a normal fall but I fell down on my back, then slid few yards on my ass and then rolled few times and finally ended up on my sides, in a very awkward position. I then struggled little bit to use to my poles to unlock my skies. What a sight it was for my friends. Laughs aside, when they saw this is their mentor, they immediately signed up for the lessons. $80 per person. I kept telling them its unnecessary and that I'll soon find my confidence and ski like I did the last time but it fell on deaf ears. I didn't demo my skills properly. They were concerned not to injure themselves and finally I let them take lessons. I was soon able to ski without falling ever again. And this time I tried using the poles occasionally to pick up some speed when I'm sliding. Some of my friends were able to join me on the slope.<br />
At the end of the day, I think it was a good idea for them to sign up for lessons. The instructor was real patient and was guiding them step by step and I could see Ritesh and Rastogi, the most scared of the lot, gain some confidence and slide the slopes of their own, without any fear. Zain was a quickest to learn and was quite smooth. Sreejit was very audacious, never afraid of falling down. That has always been his attitude. Overall, skiing was a good experience. I'd have preferred snowmobiling since I had skied before, but something is better than nothing.<br />
We came back to the hotel and after couple of minutes rest, we headed to Aspen for the new years celebration. The weather was bad. It was snowing and the drive from Glenwood Springs to Aspen was very painful. I was driving and I had to be very cautious. We were in Aspen by 11:30pm. A large bonfire was setup in a park in the middle of the city and there was a crowd of some 2,500 people. They had all gathered to witness the fireworks. We clicked some pictures of us and others and then at the stroke of midnight, the fireworks began on the skiing hill. It was nice, the crackers glowing up the snow hill in the back and it made for a beautiful spectacle. I wish I had been with a girl, either girlfriend, wife or just friend, instead I was with 5 other single dudes. It hurts a bit, to go to romantic places and occasions like this, and turn your head around to see dudes in your company while everybody else is with his girlfriend.<br />
One thing I did notice is the crowd mostly comprising of Caucasians. That too, mostly European Caucasians. It is indeed a different town. No Indians! Everywhere you go in US, you'll find few Indians knocking about. But not here. Also, very few blacks. Strange place this. It has not been touched by desies. We were the only one. I was happy. Aspen is definitely one of the possible destinations in my list for a second visit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>Wednesday, Jan 1st: Murphy's law.</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
What makes a trip memorable? The things that you did, the friends you were with, the food you ate or the places you stayed? I'd say, an experience...an incident on a large scale. So far, our trip had been without one. Sure, there were ups and downs, there were some poor plannings and some great ones, we did something and we missed some, but none on a large scale that would make me ecstatic or cringe when I look back on this trip. It was in store for me, until this last day.<br />
My return flight to SFO was at 3pm from Denver. Glenwood Springs is 2h:30m drive away from Denver. We wanted to spend the night of 31st in Aspen and that required us to stay in GS. I was a bit concerned. For me to be able to catch my flight, we had to start from GS at 11:30am, after breakfast. Which meant that we need to wake up by 9am latest. I was less optimistic we'd get up that early given that we will return late from Aspen and we'll be drunk. But Ritesh assured me we'll make it. I still had my concerns. For the past 3 nights we all are going to bed not before 5am, after we've indulged ourselves with booze and card games. This night will be no different. Hoping for the best, I let it flow.<br />
It was a surprise that we were able to checkout from the hotel by 11am. To save time, we had our breakfast in Subway and by noon, we were on our way to Denver. Estimated arrival time 2:10pm. Perfect.<br />
The drive was, as mentioned earlier, beautiful. This time we had the daylight. So we clicked pictures, shot videos etc. We were 100mi away when the weather suddenly changed from bright sunlight to horrendous snowfall. Visibility was reduced to less than 50 yards and we had to slow down to avoid skidding. I still had hope. We had pressed hard for the drive until now, and that had saved us another 10-15mins. That hope vanished when we soon encountered heavy traffic. Traffic that was stand still. I could see cars one after another, as far as my vision permitted me and the pace, even a snail would have beaten us. I thought there is still hope for me. May be its only few miles, after which the highway is clear. But that wasn't the case. It was a terrible jam. There had been an incident, with a truck skidding off the highway. Its 2:30pm and I'm still 100mi from Denver. The only hope I had left was of some divine intervention. The weather this bad, I thought the flight may be delayed, giving me some space. I checked the status but it was on-time. I thought to wait until 2:45pm.<br />
Its 2:45 and the flight is still on-time. Damn you! With no hope left, I tried to change the flight but couldn't do it through my phone so I called Southwest customer service. Believe me, I was on hold for 20minutes, while they played all sorts of adverts, claiming Southwest is the best airline, with best service, best deals, most efficient and bla bla bla. The irony of the situation made me laugh. Finally a women answers the call. I explain to her the situation. She put me on hold again, to check for next available flights. And then, we entered a long tunnel. Any other day and time, I'd have appreciated the beauty of it but right now, I was counting seconds. I knew I'll loose the connection anytime now. My heart, full of prayers and fingers tightly crossed, I waited to hear a voice on the other side. Instead I heard a beep. The call had disconnected because of no network. Fuck.<br />
I couldn't do anything else until I'm on the other side of this tunnel. A long tunnel and our moving speed less than 5mph, made it the most boring stretch of the drive. It was already 3pm when I was able to call Southwest again. Again, another 20minute session of their adverts later<br />
<br />
SW: Hi, this is Jennine from Southwest. How can I help you?<br />
Me: Hi. My name is XYZ and I was to catch the 3:10 flight from Denver to SFO but I'm stuck in traffic and I don't think I can make it. I'd like to change the flight but before I do that, can you please check if the flight is on-time or delayed?<br />
SW: Sure...give me a moment while I check.<br />
<br />
A moment later...<br />
<br />
SW: Sir, the flight has already left.<br />
Me: uh oh....alright. Can you please check if I can take some other flight today.<br />
SW: Umm.... I only have availability on the 9:10pm flight.<br />
Me: Yeah, Lets do that. I don't think I have any other option.<br />
<br />
Now we have 6hrs to make it to the airport. Plenty I suppose. More than me, my friends were relieved. They all had been holding their restroom emergencies because they didn't want to delay the drive any more. Some were hungry, some thirsty and all of us needed to empty our bowels. We took an exit and found out a small cafe. A glass of hot chocolate when its snowing outside, had its own charm.<br />
Soon, we were on the road again. The highway cleared up after 10 odd miles. We were on the outskirts of Denver by 5pm. Since we had time till 9, we decided to go for dinner. Because of Ritesh and Rastogi, we looked up the best Indian restaurant in Denver and found one in some Bombay food, or something similar. At 5:45pm, we were in the restaurant ordering food.<br />
Its 6:30pm and the appetizers have just arrived. Now I'm starting to panic. For a 9pm flight, I need to be in airport by 8pm latest. That means we need to leave the restaurant by 7:30pm as its 25miles from the airport.<br />
Its 6:45 and there is still no sign of our entrees. The thought that there is a possibility I might miss 9pm flight as well, crept in my mind, and I'm growing restless. This is not good. I don't want to look like an asshole demanding the food to be hurried up. Its a classy restaurant and we are classy people. Finally I inquired about it and the server said it will be on the table anytime now. The food arrives at 7pm and we are finished eating by 7:30. Ritesh then complains about his upset stomach and that he needs to use the toilet. Sreejit follows the suit. I'm cursing them while we all are having a laugh at my situation. I prepared myself for a touch-and-go possibility. Finally we are driving again. Ritesh is riding the car like he is flying and I'm in the back seat, fists tightly clasped and eyes intently fixed on the time.<br />
I'm in the airport at 8:15. Goodbyes and hugs later, I'm running towards the check in kiosk inside. While I'm printing my boarding pass, I look up to see the status and gate info of my flight<br />
<br />
Flight# Going to Scheduled Gate # Status <br />
1139 SFO 9:10pm C32 Now 11:50pm<br />
<br />
WTF!!!! 3hour delayed!!!! Where was the delay when I wanted one? This is fucked up. Suddenly my arms and legs are numb. No point with the haste now that I've plenty of time. The days event flashed in front of my eyes. All that frustration, anger, haste, everything was a waste is this was going to be the end result. What would Ritesh and co think about it. Same way as I feel. Absolutely gutted.<br />
I took my boarding pass and headed to security check. I went to my gate and thought to ask if there are flights for San Jose. I had forgotten to ask for San Jose alternative when I rescheduled in the evening. San Jose is more convenient. The airport is much closer to my place, more like 5 miles, so Raj, my friend in Sunnyvale will have less trouble picking me up. Its a huge ask to come pickup your friend at 1:30am from SFO airport which is 35miles away. Raj was still fine with picking me up from SFO in case San Jose does not work out. But I desperately wanted SJC to pan out. The Southwest agent behind the desk said there was a 8:55pm flight to San Jose which is now delayed to 9:55pm and she will put me on standby for that flight. Thank god for flight delays. "I'll take my chances", I said, and went to the SJC gate.<br />
Fortunately I got that San Jose flight. Raj picked me up from the airport at 12 and that was the end of my eventful trip to Colorado.<br />
Happy new year.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-39595507035838766112013-12-01T10:56:00.000-08:002013-12-01T10:56:12.307-08:00US Route66- Day 7, Sept 23, 2013 Monday. Bottle tree ranch, Santa Monica pier<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I woke up this morning feeling good. Today is going to be the last day of my epic road trip. Tonight, I'll be sleeping in my friend's place. Its going to be a good day.<br />
The only place to visit today was the bottle tree ranch. I came to know about this place when seeing An Idiot Abroad, a British TV show made by Ricky G and Stephen M with Karl P. They are absolutely funny guys. They are the sort of guys who exhibit typical British sense of humor which I admire a lot. The bottle tree ranch was definitely in my wish list when I sat down a week ago, planning 66.<br />
I had my breakfast in a nearby cafe. The ranch is couple of hours drive away, so I started driving again, on the road, on the highway. I entered California soon and the first thing on the road was Mojave county and Death valley. Funny thing about Death valley that I was watching an episode of Roadies, the Indian version of The Amazing Race and similar. There are bunch of people, doing tasks, vote outs, politics, bad mouth, friendships and betrayal. To keep the episodes interesting, there are some crazy people thrown in of course. And in this season, there was this one dumb girl. I don't remember the name, I think Divya or something but important thing is that she was dumb stupid girl. In this particular season, the roadies, as the people were liked to be called, were visiting USA and stopping at major cities, doing tasks and moving along. And in this episode they were doing a task and the setup was in Death Valley. This is what the girl said in the episode...<br />
<br />
"This morning we received a scroll in which we were asked to get dressed and head to Death Valley for our next task. We were all clueless about the task and then the location, Death Valley! I didn't know what to expect but I was a bit scared. Will we be dead in Death Valley?"<br />
<br />
And that is forever itched in my head. She butchered Death valley for me. This place is never going to intimidate me in my life because every time I'd hear the word Death valley, this would remind me of this stupid comment and I'd laugh. Yeah of course having a task setup in Death valley must be a ploy to kill the contestants, because the name of the place says it all. Idiots!<br />
<br />
I kept thinking of this scene every time I saw a sign board saying Death valley, take this exit, Welcome to Death valley national park, Mojave County, the place of Death valley, driest place in the world.....funniest comment in my head.<br />
<br />
One can clearly see the difference between California and other states. As soon as you enter, its valleys all around. One hill after another. One time you are pushing up a hill, another time you are sliding down a downhill. Remarkably different. Some stretches were so steep, there were sign boards saying to turn off car a/c to avoid engine over heating. I need not worry because I rarely used it in my trip. Slide open the windows a bit, and its natural a/c. I must say that I did use the a/c between 1-4pm, thats when its the hottest. But the morning drive was bit cooler. Good thing that my car came off the hill drive fine. I was already assured of my tires, wise thing that I replaced all, but everything else went ok.<br />
<br />
I arrived at the tree ranch. There were 2-3 people knocking around taking pictures, but otherwise it was a quiet place. I like places like this. It brings peace of mind. Serene. But here were interesting things to see. First of all, there are all sorts of garbage bottles in there, plastic or glass. And I think as a mark of leaving their impressions, some people bring in there own bottles, and stick them up on the hangars, instead of throwing them in a bin. I don't know if it can be called an art. I mean, it is some form of it. But its just a buildup of waste. Apart from the bottles, there were some old typewriter, wind speed indicators, campus, nails, maps, broken furniture. There was a shady cabin but nobody was in there. I don't expect the owner of the place living here, let alone someone else. You don't have a pleasant backyard to look into if you live here, right.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
Gotta move on now. Few more hours of driving and I'll be in Santa Monica. As I approached the nearby bigger cities, there was heavy traffic. I was used to two lane highways with scant vehicles ahead and behind, for past 5 days, but now suddenly there is 5-6 lane highway with hundreds of cars around. The flow was still good, I wasn't going below 50mph anytime, but there were lots of vehicles. Welcome to California.<br />
<br />
Bright sunny days, packed highways, hot and humid, polluted air, expensive gas and lots of beaches. California here I come. Soon I was in Santa Monica pier. It was monday after noon, yet there was a decent crowd. I couldn't find a parking spot nearby so had to park a little further. I walked to the pier and found the Route66 sign board. This is it. I've made it. There was a crowd and people were piling up to take their pictures. And most of them didn't even deserve to take the picture with the 66 sign because they didn't do the drive, did they? I, most of them all, deserved it. They should've made way for me. They should've taken my picture. I waited for couple of minutes and found a free window. I handed the phone a nearby spectator and he obliged to take my picture. Job well done! 66 is done and off my list.<br />
Check.<br />
Now that I'm on the other side, I reminisced my train of thoughts before I started on the road. I'm although very safe driver, but I do not trust others. There are many assholes out there. This being a 2400 miles trip spanning over a week, I was very worried that I'll be in a road accident. Thankfully, except for the burned out tire, everything else was fine. Also the tire incident happened outside the highways which was a blessing.<br />
I thought to keep an email ready to be sent to Ritesh, my Chicago friend, in case there is an emergency, and the email would contain my family member's contact number and addresses along with username/passwords of my various accounts. I trust him that he would do the right thing because if I were in his place, I'd have done the same. I was hugely relieved that I will not be needing this email now, at least till my next such big adventure. I was very pleased with the trip, personally and I look at it as an achievement. Something that I'll cherish for a long time. Very few people fortunate enough get to do 66 and now I belong to that club. The trip was over about time when I was getting frustrated. It had been a week already and that too, alone.<br />
<br /></div>
Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-66604342707951685892013-11-23T17:22:00.002-08:002013-11-23T17:22:38.342-08:002 days in the California DMV office<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've just moved from Chicago to California and I needed to change my car's title and registration, as well as get me a California licence. I read online that one has to do this within 20 days of taking residency in the state. My current Illinois plate is valid till Feb next year, and its only October, so I thought to delay my registration work as much as I can. Typical Indian mentality, you know. I try to extract maximum benefit out of everything :)<br />
Considering that the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is very busy for any American office establishment, with most of the employees taking vacations and all that, I thought it'd be safe to get these things done just before the holiday season kicks off. So I booked the appointment for 21st Nov 2013, Thursday, a week before Thanksgiving. I picked 3pm as I thought, I'd be in office that day and if I leave around 2pm, I'll beat the traffic. See, not only am I an astute planner, I'm cost effective too. I always look out for ways to save money and time. Important. Great. Booking is done, and I couldn't be more proud of myself. I thanked heavens for bestowing me with intelligence. What'd I've done, if I were a moron!<br />
<br />
<b>Its Wednesday, the 20th.</b> I prepared my paper works, looked up online for the list of required documents, arranged them in the order of preferences. My backpack contains my work laptop and a folder of documents. I knew I do not have to give a driving test but I'll need to pass in my written exam. Something that I've been through already, when I moved from Florida to Illinois. I found out the CA driving manual pdf. It was a huge file, as usual. I did started studying seriously first few pages but then soon started to quickly glanced through the pages, hitting 'page down' key after every 5 seconds. What information I read from the initial pages were very ordinary and usual stuff. Like pedestrians have right of way when crossing, bikers and motorcyclists have same rights etc etc. I'm smart enough to know such things already, plus I boast of being a very safe driver. One speeding ticket being an exception, my record is otherwise clean. Plus I'm a very nice guy. I care about pedestrians, bikers and motorcyclists and their interest is always on my mind when I'm driving :) Its a shame to my smartness that I need to study such trivial things. So thats it. I went to sleep.<br />
<br />
<b>Its Thursday, the 21st, 2pm.</b> I dropped an email to my team that I'll be out of office rest of the day, and then left. As planned, there was little traffic. At 2:30, I'm in the DMV office. As I went in, I saw a familiar scene. Typical office hustle bustle, loads of people, both old and young. Then there were two lines. One for appointments only, one for without appointments. I smiled at myself and took my place in the appointments only line. I condescendingly looked at the people in the other line, with a mischievous smile. Yeah bitch! I'll be out of here before you even see the service lady at the other side of the desk. My chest automatically taking in few extra ounces of oxygen, the only thing missing was my fist thumping on it. I noticed a placard, "The wait time for non-appointment holders is approx 1hr 50mins". Did somebody say I'm a genius?<br />
<br />
The lady at the counter greets me. She checks my papers and tells me to get my car checked by the DMV officer. I drove around the building and at the back, was a lane for vehicle inspection. I had 3 cars in front of me. The second car had two motorbikes in a trailer and it took the DMV officer forever to get that checked out. The officers couldn't have been more confused. There were people going in and out of the building and nobody seemed to know what they were doing. Anyways, the car in front of me was blocking the view. It took 40 minutes before my turn came. The officer was an Indian middle age guy, possibly south Indian as evidenced by his mustache. Or it could have been Movember thing, but I doubt at his age, he has got the appetite for this sort of thing. He followed routine process, check odometer, VIN, licence plate number and registration etc. I think the officers were thrown off their comfort zone when they saw trailer with motorbikes. Like a robot who is programmed for making coffee in a particular machine but gets confused when it sees a different machine. I went in the building with my papers. I went to a corner and filled out my DL forms and noticed that the car verification form that the officer gave me outside, at the bottom was a place for owner's signature. Me being meticulous, I signed and dated it. Took my bunch of papers and the lady at the counter gave me a ticket. F-169. I love a number which has 69!<br />
<br />
Currently F-165 was being served. Soon, I heard the magical words. "Now serving F-169 at window 13".<br />
I looked at the tv screen and it said window 18, at the end of the row. I thought may be its a mistake. I went to window 18 and the the lady there was surprised to see me.<br />
<br />
"Did I ask your number?" She wasn't expecting anyone as she hurriedly put down her coffee mug.<br />
"Yes. Its F-169 and Window 18 as the screen shows".<br />
"Are you sure? Because I didn't call ..."<br />
<br />
Before she could finish, the announcer went off, "Now serving F-169 at window 13". Hmm, what is going on? I looked up at the tv screen, the end of the row now said window 8. I do not believe this. Is this some joke the dmv is playing with me. Is there a hidden camera somewhere? I looked down, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and .....naah, nothing.<br />
I just looked up at the tv screen again and this time, I looked close and found out the problem.<br />
<br />
Ticket Window Ticket Window<br />
F-169 13 B-132 8<br />
F-169 13 A-65 18<br />
<br />
Fuck! Embarrassing. Some dude decided to use two columns. I tried to find a hole big enough for me to hide into. I apologized to window 18 lady and headed straight to window 13, before anyone else could notice what a moron I am. I'm sure the non-appointment queue people were happy. I cannot say 'Fuck' enough times to vent my frustration. As it turned out, the day wasn't done.<br />
<br />
So here I am, being serviced at Window 13. Sat behind the desk was a pretty women, I'd say in her mid 30s, probably Latin american, with a cute accent. And she was pretty. She had a very soft voice and sweet smile. Great! Better than some old ladies and older men sitting behind some other windows. We were having small talks, like "I need to see your passport", "Ok. Please sign here and here" etc. And I was pretty involved in trying to make more than small talks with her. I had my reasons. I had seen in the website that the written test can sometimes be waived off only if the dmv officer deems fit. I had in my mind, a plan. A plan to talk my way through it. Enter the smooth and charming me. May be with my charm, and deadly smile, and smooth talks, I'll talk my way around the written test. And it certainly helped my plan to see a beautiful women on the other side. Had it been a dude or granny, I'd have to think hard about it :)<br />
The flirting I tried, didn't help, probably because I wasn't good at flirting. I was occasionally drawing blank coming up with some killer one liners but Ramiaza, as she goes by the name, was in fact giving me opportunities. Fuck again! Smartness but not flirting enough, I'm such a waste. I ain't Joey with 'How you doin?'<br />
<br />
R: "Ok. So lets do the registration part first. All the paper work looks good...oh wait. Oh you were not supposed to sign at the bottom of this verification form without me telling you so"<br />
<br />
With her fingertips she showed me the section and my signature, and I was thunderstruck. Being too careful cannot be a bad thing, right.<br />
<br />
Me: "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't know that. I saw an empty field, and I filled it."<br />
R: "Oh, so you'll sign wherever you'll see the signature field?" She said with a smile that pierced my heart and thousand more. With her soft voice and a hint of flirt in it, I knew I've salvaged something of mine, even though I'm an idiot for her.<br />
Me: "I'm truly sorry. I didn't know."<br />
<br />
She smiled to acknowledge and the dim light of hope lingered on in my mind. Time to kill...<br />
Me: "I was wondering if you could waive the written test for me, please."<br />
R: "Well, I've already waived the driving test for you but I cannot waive off written."<br />
<br />
Oh, with the faintest of smile and softest of voice, she declined but it didn't feel like it. In other words, she just said "Look, dude, if I can call you that, but here's the thing. I gave you couple of opportunities to remain permanent in my memory, instead you turned out to be a moron, idiot, confused and boring. Not funny or creative but just like some other guy, may be worse. Please give the written test and don't press your luck too much else I'll put you for driving test too".<br />
<br />
I collected my new plates from her and my DL slip. She pointed me another section of the office with two lines, Line C and D, and asked me to be in C for my new DL work.<br />
I get my picture taken, and the granny there handed me the test paper and pointed me to the test area.<br />
The less I speak about the test, the better it is. There were basically three categories of questions in there, for me. Easy, 50-50 and utterly confusing. I ticked off the easy questions first. Speed limit in residential area, I know is 25, because a good 3 mile stretch from my home to office goes through it and my eyes were bored of seeing the signs "Speed Limit 25". Body Alcohol Limit is 0.08 because I've undergone a DUI test once, I was driving too slow at 3 in the morning. The 50-50 questions were something the answer to which were not obvious straightaway. But after carefully going through the options, I could make a reasonable decision. Then there were utterly confusing questions. What to do if a person with cane is starting to cross the road but then he pulls back? I mean, is it a test of how nice of a person you are? And the answer options left me totally clueless. Should I continue driving because he is not ready, should I wait for him to cross? I decided to use my best behavior. I thought what would a nice person like me, a person so caring, gentle and selfless and so intelligent, will do? Of course I'll wait for him to cross first. Just because I've a used car, doesn't mean I'll forget my roots. I used to be a pedestrian too :)<br />
And this was just one example. 36 questions, and 3 categories, with more or less, the same distribution. You do the math. I didn't expect the test to go like this. I thought this would be a piece of cake but it wasn't. While standing in another line, to get my answers checked, I was cursing myself for being lazy and over confident. This was just casual, wasn't it. I am an atheist, but at times like these, I just pray for some supernatural force to get me to the other side.<br />
The same granny checks my answers. Boom, boom, boom, tick, tick, boom, boom....and so on went the sequence. After 3 mistakes on the first page of the test itself, I had given up hope, while she turned over the page and sprinkled salt on my open wound. Total of 7 mistakes and I had already known the verdict long before. I have read online that you fail the test if you get more than 3 wrong so there was no point, isn't it?<br />
And by the way, I am supposed to cross the road because the fucking pedestrian with the fucking cane is not ready to cross. What the fuck! This is the reward for being a nice guy on the road? Failure, a looser. She torn off the right top corner of the test paper and gave it to me along with my other documents. She told me I can retake the test and I need to be in Line D now, however its already 4:30pm and written tests are not allowed now.<br />
Fuck me! As a consolation of my day's effort, I need not take an appointment or stand in the start line again. I can straightaway come and stand in Line D instead. Yeah, thank you for that. Geez...<br />
I left the dmv, head down, and a big 'L' written on my forehead. Miserable. Tomorrow is Friday, and I'll try to come again and get this thing right.<br />
<br />
<b>Its Friday, the 22st, 2:15pm. </b>I leave the office again, this time without dropping any emails. I'm already carrying a looser tag around my neck. I used to feel sarcastic for friends who fail dmv written and now I'm one of them too. What goes around, comes around, with some extra baggage of humiliation :)<br />
At the dmv, I went straight to Line D and the Asian lady does my paperwork. While standing in the line for my written test, I was feeling confident I'll crack it this time. I had gone over the test questions of yesterday and have memorized the ones that I got wrong. As soon as I get the paper, I'll tick the boxes and get done with it, since I already know the questions. My turn came.<br />
"Ok. so this is your second attempt, take this and go to the test area", said the granny while handing me the test paper.It was a different set of questions. What the hell is wrong with me? How can I be so stupid to think that the dmv is so stupid that they will use the same questions for every attempt? I felt like I never left the dmv yesterday. I'm back to where it all started. And my self-pride and (over) confidence had prohibited me to study the manual pdf.<br />
I took my time. Almost 45 minutes. I targeted the easy ones first, for the ones which I was confident I couldn't go wrong. Then the 50-50s with making some reasonable logic. The came the confused questions part. After much head scratching, knuckle cracking moments, I finished all questions. Then while standing in line, I thought I'll use my smartphone to look up one question that was really confusing. Confining myself between the person ahead and behind me, and keeping my hands closer to my chest, I did a google search, and as it turned out, I was incorrect. Oh my God! And I am an atheist. Fuck! Whatever little of confidence was left, deserted me. I came out of the line, and back to the testing area. I corrected my answer, but know I wanted to know more. Since I've already spent nearly an hour on this, I didn't have time to look over all the questions. So I marked the ones that were utterly confusing, and started looking them up in my phone browser. Smartphones are amazing, aren't they. And they definitely suggest the person using it is smart too. Boom, another revelation, another incorrect answer. Change it quickly. Scratch off the old tick and replace with a new tick mark in a new box. I moved my cube few times, kept an eye out, to not attract attention. Another query, another search, another incorrect answer. Fuck!<br />
After the painful exercise, I finally corrected my confused answers. Stood in line then handed over my paper to the granny. My chest automatically swelling....but wait....what!!!!<br />
Boom...boom...boom..tick..tick...Boom.. went the sequence again. What the fuck! And this time, not the confusing questions, but my confident questions were wrong answers. Fuck me! I cannot be this bad. This is horrendous. Just bury me here. Kill me now, kill me!<br />
First page, 4 incorrect answers. While she turned over the page, I readied my backpack, checked that I've got my wallet, car keys and house keys. I knew I've failed again so lets just grab my papers and get going. I'll come again on Monday, or may be never. May be I'll never drive again. Just take cab or stay home.<br />
Second page, 2 incorrect. Granny draws a circle over -6 and then below it, a circle over -P. Hmm, what happened here? She handed my papers back and told me to stand in line D. I asked her if I passed but she kept yelling LineD, LineD. Alright, alright. I'll move grandma. Keep calm.<br />
There was a dude in front of me and I wanted to know whats going on. I asked him how much did he miss. He had missed 3. There was a circle over -3 and -P in his paper. I knew there, that I've passed. Oh you beauty. What a smart guy am I? Brilliant. Genius. Cracked the dmv test on 2 attempts and by the skin of my teeth, had failed in one and passed in another. As I found out later, the pass limit was 6 incorrect answers.<br />
Phew....job well done, isn't it...<br />
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-53224226100992757552013-11-17T18:16:00.001-08:002013-11-17T18:16:51.227-08:00US Route66- Day 6, Sept 22, 2013 Sunday. Petrified forest national park, Meteor crater.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Another day on the road. Same usual story to the start of the day. Checked out of the hotel around 9am after grabbing some breakfast and headed straight to Petrified Forest national park. Pranay, my friend in Chicago suggested me to include one state or national park and drive through it because it would be really cool. I agree and I had already done so.<br />
I went into the visitor center, got myself a map and brochure of other details and headed straight to the scenic drive through the park. Paid $10 for the entrance and headed in. It was all very nice. There were some scenic points where I stopped occasionally and took pictures. I could see the flat out desert, and the petrified rocks on the hills. The rocks have been petrified for the past million years and its an art in a way. It was aesthetically pleasing to the eye. There were scattered clouds in the sky. The sun was playing hide and seek and the clouds were proudly leaving their shadows on the rocks. The rocks were bright red or orange. Very beautiful. It was a particularly windy today. It was slightly difficult to stand still and once in a while there will be heavy gusts which would just swing you sideways if you are not holding firm on your ground.<br />
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Things were looking perfectly setup for a pleasing day but it wasn't meant to be. I've hardly covered a third of the whole scenic drive when I heard a heavy rough sliding noise from the back of the car. I thought it must be because of the road being rough. After having driven 5 days on the highways I've noticed that such noise do occur because not the whole stretch of the highway is brand new and smooth. There are rough gravel rough roads, stretches with cracks and holes, big or small but it must be because the road is rough. So I kept on driving. After 5 mins, I smelled something burning. It was as if a rubber is burning. I immediately stopped on the road side, put my parking lights on and came out. There was a car behind me with an old couple, who also stopped. I saw the damage. The passenger side rear wheel, it was gone. The rubber had worn off completely with may be a thin strip left sticking with the drum. The old man came out of his car and stood beside me.<br />
"Yeah, we saw smoke coming out of the rear for quite some time but we just couldn't catch up with you", said he with very slow pace, all the time his body was little bit shaking.<br />
"Oh. Ok. I thought its the road so I kept driving. This is shit."<br />
"Yeah..ha ha.. it is. Do you have a spare tire?"<br />
"Yeah, I do. I've got my luggage in the trunk which I've to take out first then get on with the spare donut."<br />
"We would have loved to help you out but unfortunately we have an appointment at an art center further east."<br />
"No. no. Please do not worry. I can take care of this. Please go ahead. I'll call the visitor center and sort this thing out. Please carry on, and thank you for stopping."<br />
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They left while I made a call to the visitor center and explained them the situation. She got the park sheriff on his way to help me out who soon arrived at the scene. Before the sheriff arrived, I had taken out my luggage out of the trunk and chugged them, some on the back seat, some under the passenger seat. I thought I might need to take out the spare wheel so better to keep the trunk clean. The sheriff arrived and assessed the damage. He inquired about the car, owner, insurance and licence and I duly obliged. He took my DL and went back to his car. I do not understand what would he do with the licence. Its not like I was breaking traffic laws or similar. I guess my DL record states I had a burnt tire on so an so date. Utterly useless.<br />
"Do you have a spare tire?" asked the sheriff.<br />
"Yes I do but I'm not sure I want to go ahead with it. I'm carrying some heavy luggage in the car and I don't know the spare would be able to hold it. It might again blow up few miles further. Its a risk."<br />
"Ok. So do you want to tow it then?"<br />
"Yes. I'd like that."<br />
"Do you have AAA or similar?"<br />
"I've roadside assistance from my insurance, Geico. I think I can use that. Do you know any towing service?"<br />
"Sure. I can call them up and whoever next is available will be on its way. Do you want me to do that?"<br />
"Yes please. That would be great. Thankyou."<br />
<br />
He went to his car and made some calls. He told me the nearest town is Holbrook, AZ and a towing car is on its way from there. It will be here in 45 minutes.<br />
I thanked him for his service. I later realized that I should have called up Geico and asked them to send me a tow car but at that time, I thought, lets just do this any which way I can and later on I'll reimburse the expenses from Geico. Anyways, atleast I didn't have to explain my location to the tow company, the sheriff did it all. All I had to do was to wait. I saw people passing by me, some were very kind to stop by and ask if everything was okay with my car and if I need any help. I was happy to see such kindness. All kinds of people, whether old or young, stopped to inquire what happened and if I'm waiting for some help. This is one great thing about this country. People are kind and helpful.<br />
After an hour, the tow truck came. He pulled my car up, tied with chains, secured the locks and off we went to Holbrook. This is a very awkward moment for me. Driving with a stranger for a while and you know you have to keep the conversation going. There is a lot of pressure on both parties I guess, more so on me because English isn't my first language, not even second. Add to that, I am not that funny like some people are. I breathe a sigh of relief if the other person is a talker. Some girls I have been with are like this. For people who talk a lot, I just need to feed them questions regularly and just sit back and let them tell their stories, advises, thoughts whatever. Just inject small questions about their work, make them go into the details, ask them about their family and household problems etc. I pretend to listen intently and with my detail oriented questions, the other person feels the same too, but in most cases, I couldn't care less.<br />
The tow guy wasn't much of a talker, neither shy so it wasn't too bad. Plus I had topics to talk about. I started off with questions related to towing charges and how my insurance can come in, then ask him about his business and economy, then his family and weather and Holbrook weather. Then I shared my reasons for being in this place and by the time I was out of topics to talk about, we were in the service center. The mechanic took a look and told me to replace other tires as well because they were showing signs of wearing off. I knew it is a common ploy to extract money off me but I had two things to help make up my mind. First was that I'm in this huge road trip and still close to 1000 miles away from my destination. Add to that I'm carrying extra load. It may be safe to put all new tires and buy some peace of mind. It would be a shitty feeling to drive in the fear of some other tire popping out or worse, its coming true. Secondly, my new company, VMware, is paying a decent amount of money towards my relocation and I'd still be left with a big chunk of money if I spend 350 quids on new tires. I agreed and within minutes I was on my way again.<br />
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This was an unplanned delay in my trip. Going back to Petrified forest was foolish as then I'd miss the meteor tour because it closes at 5pm. It is 2pm now. So with a little bit of grudge and a tiny bit unsatisfactory feeling, I moved on to Meteor crater.<br />
The crater is around 7miles off the highway, to the south of it. And its a private property. I don't know how it came to be private. I believe initially all the desert land was federal property but then some private firm bought the land. I bought the ticket and went in. I had thought that the crater formed sometime recently, like past 50 years but I was surprised to know its 50,000 years old. And it was a huge crater. A whole city, like Chicago or San Francisco could fit inside the crater and it was so very deep that there were telescopes installed at the top to see some models that had been placed at the bottom of it. I liked it very much. In fact, if I can be so bold, I'd say this was the best attraction of my whole 66 trip. I was glad I decided to include this one. Inside the building was a rock put in a glass box and it said the crater was created by a similar size rock. It would have been nice to see the actual guilty rock but since its 50,000yrs old, people shouldn't even be looking for it. The rock wasn't big, definitely not the size that you'd think would create such a huge crater but the power of gravity is massive, isn't it. You get a sense of it when you see the size of rock and the crater behind it. You'd think no way this rock can make a hole like this but its true. Bigger size space ships burn out before they even cross the atmosphere because of the gravity pull and the friction. If indeed a rock which has managed to cross the atmosphere, it should be given respect.<br />
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I wonder what other damage the impact would have made. Did it cause a minor earth quake, did it disrupt a lake/sea which was at this place, did it destroy a forest and living life forms? I cannot imagine what would happen if it were to impact now. I wish it to fall in the ocean but then the kind of tsunami it would cause can only kill loads of people. Anyways, I think its better that it has not happened now or will not happen anytime soon.<br />
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I left the crater, thoroughly pleased. The only attraction left was Elmer's bottle tree ranch before my 66 trip comes to end at Santa Monica but that was too far away and it will get dark in couple of hours. I decided to stay the night in Kingman, AZ. There is a bit of excitement that I am feeling at this time, because I know tomorrow is my last day on the road, atleast for sometime. I checked into a motel, I don't remember the name. But it wasn't good. It was owned by an Indian couple, who were in their 50s. While the wife was watching Television, the husband got me the room key. I went into the room and smelled a strong alcoholic odor, whisky I'd say. It was so strong, the smell, that I got a headache. The carpet felt soggy a bit and I thought may be the previous occupant spilled all the booze in the carpet. I was not sure if I should try to change the room. I didn't want to be rude and besides the room was dirt cheap and I said to myself this is what you get for the money you pay. I didn't know the wi-fi password, nor was there any pamphlet for it. I went back to the front desk and asked for password and took the opportunity to ask if I can get a different room. I explained to the guy about the reason and invited him to check the condition himself. I came back to the room and repacked my stuff hoping that the owner will swing by soon and if possible, give me another room.<br />
He did arrive 10minutes later and came into the room. As a typical owner, he tried to defend the room but I kept insisting that how can he not smell the strong stench of alcohol in here. Half halfheartedly he gave me the keys to another room and it was definitely better. Atleast it smelled like a normal room. Nothing shitty. I took a shower and went to bed straightaway.<br />
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-41884188407289283292013-11-10T21:41:00.000-08:002013-11-10T21:41:00.688-08:00US Route66- Day 5, Sept 21, 2013 Saturday. Cadillac Ranch, Midpoint Cafe, Mesalands and Auto Museum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Woke up at the usual time, i.e when I wanted to get up. The sun was out. I think it was around 8. Packed up my clothes again, showered, then left the motel after grabbing some breakfast. I couldn't find my sun glasses in the room so I thought it must be in the car. Checked the car but didn't find it. Got a bit tensed because I liked the shades even though I got it for free.<br />
It was Maui Jim, pretty expensive one, around $180. And it was free! Well, between December'12 and Apr'13 I had been to San Diego at least 4-5 times, every time for 2-3 weeks and sometime even 4 weeks. This was because BlackBerry was developing QChat for NII and Qualcomm was providing the chip-set. One developer has to make trips to Qualcomm office in San Diego for integration purpose. Every 2 weeks Qualcomm will release their part of code and BlackBerry would release theirs and a BlackBerry developer and Qualcomm developer would sit together to integrate both sides' code. Since barring Apurv and myself, everyone else in the team had family so they couldn't be out of Chicago for a week or two. And since Apurv had just joined, it was down to me to do most of the travelling and integration and train Apurv too. I had no complaints. I thoroughly enjoyed my trips. It was a way to get out of the cold Chicago winter for one, enjoy San Diego for two, and then its all on the company's expenses, flight tickets down to daily lunch/dinner etc. And every time I visited San Diego, I stayed in Hilton. I had signed up for Hilton Honors program of theirs and was accumulating points for my every nights stay. Soon I had so much points that I ordered a Maui Jim sun glasses through their rewards store and I still have close to 150000 points left.<br />
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I went back to the room to check for the shades once again. Didn't find it. I resigned myself to the thought of spending the rest of the road trip without it. I thought of all the pictures of mine without my sun glasses, and now there was no strong reason to put on my contacts too because I want to protect my eyes from direct sunlight. Sunlight is a major contributor to my poor eye sight, according to my eye doctor back in India. That is why I wear photo chromatic lenses which go dark in sunlight then back to normal inside home or in shades. I left my contact number and sun glasses details at the hotel reception with a faint hope that if they happen to find it, they can send it to me.<br />
On my way to the car, all the time I was thinking of the places where the shades could have been. I'm ususaly very careful with things like this and I was pretty convinced that the glasses must be around somewhere with me, either in the car, or in my luggage but just hidden. I remembered that I usually leave my shades on top of the big kitchen box that was on my passenger seat so there is a possibility that it must have slipped under the seat when I applied brakes. I looked under the seat and there it was. Bingo! Everything is normal again. The world order is restored. I quickly went to the reception and let them know that I've found my glasses and I was on my way.<br />
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The first stop was Cadillac Ranch. A typical 66 attraction, much like the Blue Whale but I liked this one far more than the Whale. The Whale was devoid of any artistic touch or feeling. Here it was a huge ranch with bunch of Cadillacs half buried in the ground, slanted vertically a bit and all sorts of graffiti drawn on them. There were few spray cans lying around. People can help themselves to leave their mark on the cars, anyway they want. I took few pictures. It was a bright sunny day which is good for pictures. There was a couple with bunch of kids who were making graffiti on the cars. There were two ladies, one of whom I approached if she can take a picture of mine. Because I wanted the sun on my face while she would have her back to it when taking the picture I asked if she would walk with me to one end of the row and she happily obliged. She was nice. She was on her way to LA with her friend to meet with her parents. She was from Virginia, West I think.I told her this was going to be my Facebook cover picture and that she shouldn't mess it up. She laughed. I offered to take her picture if she wanted. I was happy to snap few of for her. Then we parted ways.<br />
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Next stop was the Midpoint cafe. Its the mid point between Chicago and LA. The place was barren except for the cafe. I went in and ordered a salad. The inside of the Cafe was an attempt to make something out of the location. There were pictures and buttons pinned to the walls and some travelers thought its cool to take snaps of those. While gazing through the walls from my seat, I noticed that I've carried a bit of mud underneath my sandals from the outside. I remembered a muddy patch that I walked over to the Cafe, just outside. Ah Damn! Embarrassing. I tried not to move my legs much and whatever mud had come off the sandal, I tried to swipe them under the table. The salad was okay. I have faint hopes of such a business running for a long time with profit. Look at the location. Sometime in the past, granted, it was a place to be but now I don't think many people would fancy a stop over at this place. The server was the owner and he had recently purchased this place. I didn't speak much to save him some awkward questions. Outside, I met two British middle aged ladies who were doing the 66 on their motor bikes. I asked them to take a picture of mine. All my drive, I've been listening to Ricky Gervais podcasts and I told them how huge a fan am I of him. They weren't. They think of him and his sense of humor a bit weird. I wished them luck and drove on.<br />
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Then came Tucumcari, NM. I wanted to see the Dinosaur museum there. I went in there but it wasn't like the usual huge museums generally are. It was a small place, more like a mid size Trader Joe's, or a fancy restaurant with some models thrown in here and there. Most of the samples weren't the originals but plaster or paris or metal casts of the original. I like to come to a museum to see authentic stuff, not duplicates. When I see a genuine dinosaur tooth I appreciate the time span the planet has lived through, I believe in the existence of them creatures and imagine their size. When I see a cast, it takes away that feeling from me. Sure, I can admire the minute details the technician put in to make it but thats it. It was a $5 entry fee which wasn't much so I didn't mind. It would have been ridiculous to charge $20 for this.<br />
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50 miles further was Auto museum, the Route66 Auto museum. The name of the place isn't original. 'Auto museum' describes the place and Route66 is, well, perhaps helps with the directions.Another auto museum for me. Its one thing gazing at cars and admiring the evolution the auto industry has gone through but another thing to drive one of these oldies.It had similar cars which I had already seen in the Country Classic cars museum back in IL. It was 4:30 in the afternoon when I was done with it. It was a small place but lots of cars cramped in it. It didn't take me long to have a tour of my own.<br />
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I had not anticipated I'd be done by my day's attractions this early. But it was good. Now I could decide where to crash for the night. My next attraction was Petrified forest national park and I had definitely not planned to do it towards the end of the day. This is the kind of attractions that are best seen first thing in the morning. I decided to stay the night in Gallup, NM. Small town, just the way I like it. I was once asked if I prefer to stay in a big town or a small town and I was happy with my answer. I said while I'm young, like in my 20-30s I wanna stay in a big town, like Chicago or NY. I like big town just because of the the people. The crowd, all the beautiful women window shopping, restaurants lined by the streets, parks and beaches and women sunbathing. Wonderful. However when I'm old, like 50-60s, I might like to stay in a small town. Its quiet, cheap and I'd be happy minding my own business. When I'm old, I won't have energy left to bungee jump or skydive so I'd be taking care of my backyard. Sigh.<br />
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I went into Super8 again, in Gallup. It was decent. After dinner in a nearby restaurant, I just came back and slept. I was very tired and dropped the idea of hitting any bars. I was one more day closer to my destination which made me little happy even though I've been enjoying myself so far. Petrified forest and Meteor crater were on the cards for the next day and the day wasn't restricted to sightseeing only. Unaware of what lies ahead of me, I slept peacefully.<br />
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-74789413371471675222013-11-02T15:21:00.001-07:002013-11-02T15:21:02.293-07:00US Route66- Day 4, Sept 20, 2013 Friday. Oklahoma City and Big Texan Steak Ranch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I woke up around 5 but didn't really wanted to get out yet. I raised the thermostat settings hoping to make the room warmer but it was only 10 minutes when I woke up to burning smell. I turned off the AC right away. Soon, the fire alarm went off. Fuck!<br />
My first task was to put on a trouser. I like to sleep in minimal clothing. Then I took bunch of papers that were lying on the table and tried to clear the air around the smoke alarm. Then opened the main door. The alarm went silent. Phew! But the room was filled with burning smell, plastic burn smell and it was burning my head as well. I went out for a while, leaving the door wide open. I thought to put the dumbbells back in the car as I'm up anyways. I can't go back to sleep in that room. Few rooms further, a dude was loitering outside. He would go in and out of his room, sometimes smoking, sometimes on a phone call. I didn't want to bring out dumbbells from the room and load in the car while he is overlooking. He would think I'm crazy, some fitness freak that I carry my dumbbells around. I waited for him to go in his room when I'd quickly transfer the weights. By this time the stench had subsided a bit. So I took a dump, brushed my teeths, showered and packed my bags. I left the motel around 8am with a fear that I might be charged for the AC problem, I cursed myself to have used my credit card when I could've used cash to pay. Although they'd have asked for my credit card for security purpose as is common with other hotels.<br />
Alright. First stop was Oklahoma City. The national cowboy and western heritage museum was the one on my list before I started for 66. Went in there after couple hours of driving. I had trouble finding parking spot which was strange to me, considering this was Friday morning and that too, its a museum! The museum was okay. There were some cowboys stories, models, paintings etc none of them interested me that much. It was a huge place. I don't know if we have too much of cowboy stuff to occupy this huge place. I didn't learn much from here. It was a decent stopover, for my restroom needs.<br />
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It was lunch time when I came out of the museum. I found out a decent mexican restaurant in the heart of Oklahoma city downtown and went there. After lunch I took a wee bit of stroll in the downtown area. One of the best things I liked in Chicago was taking a walk down Michigan Ave. The 2mi stretch from the loop to the Oak street beach is the pulse of Chicago. Such a vibrant street, full of life. Always bustling with people. After Times Sq in NY, this is definitely my favorite place when it comes to taking a stroll. The best thing of living in a city like Chicago is that you get to walk a stretch and feel the beauty of the place. There never goes a day when I've not regretted living in the heart of Chicago. It was only during the weekends that I'd visit the City, stay in Ritesh's place, and explore. Chicago can never get boring for me, even if I had to walk down that stretch of Michigan Ave everyday. Its a new feeling everytime. I can't really explain whats so amazing about that street. Is it the loads of stores lining up on both sides of it, is it the skyscrapers gracing over it or is it the thousands of people, young and old, beautiful and more beautiful, who walk on the sidewalks, tourists and citizens alike, all sorts of fashion, summer fall winter or spring or may be its everything together. Ah Chicago...you beauty.<br />
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I took a walk in the city downtown. Skyscrapers, parks, traffic, alleys, hotels, banks. Mom called me while I was enjoying the city. I got into a little bit of heated argument with her. She kept asking me about any marriage proposals and if the girl I'm currently talking to is a cheat and probably wants my money so I need to be careful. The argument didn't end well. Mom is very suspicious of everyone while I give people the benefit of doubt first until they do or say something that breaks trust. After the call, I thought to swing by a nearby Bank of America ATM to get some cash on my hand. Almost all of the places I use the card but just to be safe, I like to keep some cash around especially during travelling when there are chances of toll roads.<br />
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Next stop was The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, TX. It was another 3-4hrs of drive with nothing in between. I filled up the gas, stocked myself with some water bottles and gatorades, some nuts and snacks etc and started the drive. Again the weather was excellent. Cloudy. Just the way I want for a long drive.During driving, I'd manage to take some pictures. I had two cameras on me. A Samsung digicam which I bought when I worked in Samsung, back in 2007. Its 7.2MPixel which was enough for me for general purpose stuff. I'm not much of a photographer, I manage to take shots as and when I see a nice view without much care about the lighting, angle, zoom etc. The second camera was from my smartphone, again Samsung Galaxy, 13mpixel. Taking pictures from the phone while driving was not comfortable and not safe at all. I have to keep one hand on the steering wheel and take the picture with the other hand. The tap button in the phone camera is at the bottom and it was tricky to tap the screen while holding the phone. Only if I had few more fingers, additional thumbs, it would've helped. With that regard, the Samsung digicam was handy. I could take snaps with one hand as the way to hold the camera allowed me to press the click button which is at the top.<br />
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I reached Amarillo around 5pm. I could've driven few more miles but looking at my plans I decided to stay the night here. Many of my next attractions were nearby and it was getting dark. I don't think they would have looked pretty in dark so thought to stay the night and visit them the following day. For dinner, the Steak Ranch was obvious choice. Talk to two birds in one stone. I stayed in Super8 again after my first night experience. No more experiments staying new places. Took a shower, browsed the internet a bit and then headed to the Texan Steak Ranch.<br />
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It was a mixed crowd there. Young and old. I took a seat in the bar and the serving lady passed me the menu. She was very very pretty. Caucasian, clear skin, not a single mark. Blonde with blue eyes and blood red lips. She was a beauty and with that southern accent, she was killing me. This the thing about accents though. Florida has a bit of accent but I didn't like it much when I was there. But talk about the Southern accent, it gets me. My favorite accent is British by the way. I can't explain but I have an affinity for it. If there is a damsel who speaks British, I can just listen to her talk all day without getting bored for a moment. The British variant accent like Irish or Scottish accents are pleasing to my ears too. After these definitely comes the Southern accent. Of the accents I don't fancy would be Russian or Spanish people speaking English. The English is barely understandable and the words are heavy with accents. Indian or African accent is average category, at least they pronounce the English words stressing the 'R' and 'T' or 'D' etc so the words sound a bit clear hence its better understandable. The Australian/New Zealand/South African accent would come net after Southern, which gets me. Beautiful women, and with an accent, that's a perfect life, isn't it.<br />
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I just ogled at the serving lady while eating my dinner. I lend her all my ears whenever she talked with any customers. I appreciate beauty and women are the epitome of beauty. I finished my dinner and thought to strike a conversation with someone but all around me were old people. Also, no one took the Steak eating challenge while I was there. This was the specialty of this place. If you could eat the 72oz steak in an hour, you can have it for free. I didn't know how much it would cost otherwise. I should have checked the price in the menu but I guess I was just distracted by the beauty at the other side of the bar.<br />
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Came out of the Ranch and thought to visit a local bar. I don't remember the name. I went in there. The place was alright. Not much crowded but not barren as well. There were four ladies serving. Two were behind the bar while the other two were roaming around lounge and pool area taking orders. They'd come to the bar, ask for so and so drink, pay at the bar to the lady there, then take the drink to the person who ordered. That person would pay her then. I thought this was a nice system. The older lady in the bar did indeed looked like a Big Boss figure. She would hand out the drink and take the money from other ladies, and the other ladies, which looked much younger than her, indeed looked like serving the Big Boss. Paying her the money meekly.<br />
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I took a picture with the Big Boss, had a few small talk with other ladies, then left. Time to call it a day. So far the trip has been going good.<br />
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-9455660462921246162013-10-27T15:15:00.002-07:002013-10-27T15:15:29.157-07:00US Route66- Day 3, Sept 19, 2013 Thursday. Meramec caverns and Blue whale <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I woke up around 7am. I had a good night sleep. I've noticed that my sleep doesn't get bothered by the location or type of bed. I've seen people who do not sleep comfortably when sleeping in their friends place, or motel beds or on the floor. Thankfully, I get a decent continuous 6-8hr sleep no matter where I'm sleeping. The only thing I can think of is the temperature. If its too cold and I'm not properly covered in blankets, I can't sleep. When I stay in hotels, I usually turn up the temperature a bit and keep the room warm and then tuck myself under the blankets. Ah, the peaceful sleep that I get.<br />
Today's first attraction, Meramec caverns, was mere 10miles away from my motel. I left my motel around 9am. The cavern is inside Meramec state park so it was a very pleasant drive when I exited the highway. Flora and fauna on either side of the road and overcast weather. Perfect. The cavern was the hideout of robber Jesse James. I don't know much about him except I saw the movie "The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford" and I liked it. Brad Pitt was amazing in it.<br />
I went in there and got my tour ticket. I still had 10mins before the tour would begin. I saw only old people in there. I thought of taking a picture of mine in the cavern and asked an old lady who was also waiting for the tour to begin. Her body was shaking a bit all the time. I've seen this condition in old people. As soon as I saw it I knew I've done a mistake. But kind as she was, she obliged and took the phone from me, and tried to take a picture of mine. I checked the picture and it was hazy. I thanked her nonetheless. She didn't knew that she had butchered the pic.<br />
In we go with the tour guy. The place was beautiful. Typical cavern with water streams here and there. They had done a good job with the lighting and stuff. It was pretty cold too. They say it remains at 65F round the year.<br />
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The cavern was alright. Lighting was good. Good location. Enjoyed my visit. There was a musical light show at the end which was good. </div>
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My days attraction included the cavern and Blue whale and 4hr of driving between them. So I headed off to Catoosa, OK, for a visit to the blue whale.</div>
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The whale is a whale made out of tins and wood, in a pond. Its nothing special except that it has been there for a while alongside 66 hence became a famous stop for travellers. Something to cheer their kids while they take few minutes off from driving. The pond was dirty with some fish and few tortoises knocking about. The sign said its a catch and release pond. I don't think I'd like to fish in this dirty water. I don't think I'd like to take to dip in it either even though it had sliding boards into the water. The whale is painted blue which I don't know why. I've not seen a blue whale in real life or in tv and I don't know if they are this stark blue. I just had to swing by this place because it's like the Illinois Giants, something symbolic of 66. </div>
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I then drove to Tulsa, OK. I decided to stay in Trade Winds Central Inn which was a bad idea. The room that I got didn't have a working TV so I switched rooms. The next room had the same problem and so I moved to another one. Thankfully this one had the TV working. TV wasn't a big thing for me. Its just for one night and I can definitely manage but I thought if I'm paying money for it, I should have the option. In case if I get bored, I'd like to turn it on and browse. The money included that. It took me an hour before I finally got to undress, and relax. Took a shower, setup my clothes and laptop, put my phone on charge and turned the tv on. It was already 9pm. I thought I should leave if I intend to have some dinner as most of the places would close in this small town. By the time I was out it was 9:30pm and I was driving around looking for a decent place to eat but everything was closed already. Just then Ritesh called me. He was out in Omaha for work that week and on his way return, his flight got cancelled due to bad weather so he took a rental and decided to drive. That was a bad idea because he had already started to feel sleepy. He called me up to chat a bit and get over his sleep. I kept him engaged for 15-20mins. I pulled over for a 'subway' sandwich and kept talking to him while I put my order. I then wanted to get into some bar and have a beer. Pulled into one nearby. I don't remember the name but it wasn't what I had expected. The place was barren with 3-4 dudes chilling out. Pretty depressing. Since I'm here already, I ordered a Guinness. Finished my drink and left and behold. rain and thunderstorm. Drove to another bar but it was even worse. From the outside, I could see, there was nobody in there except bar tender and a couple. Frustrated, I decided to go to a nearby strip club.</div>
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In my time in US, I've been to couple of them. Going alone to such places definitely sucks and gives out a signal that your life really sucks. With friends, its a different deal altogether. Plus, in my opinion, small town strip clubs are different than bigger cities in the sense that they are cheap plus the girls don't show attitude. They seem to be humble and understanding. Cities like in Chicago, the girls are kinda rude. If you don't give out enough money, they won't even bother. Anyways, its a nice experience to see strip clubs across the country, big or small town. This was a small one with $10 entry fee. The girls were okay. Not breathtaking or raunchy type as in Chicago. When I'm in Tulsa, I didn't even expect much so I was quite happy. Had a drink and a lap dance. Not a bad climax to a day of mixed experiences.</div>
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Came back to the motel. I had a pair of 25lb and 30lb dumbbells loaded in my car and I thought I'll give a break to my car's suspension for the night. I took them out and kept them in the room as the room was on the ground floor and my car parked right in front of it. My car must definitely be happy. </div>
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-57471545355210253912013-10-25T07:55:00.001-07:002013-10-25T07:55:14.699-07:00US Route66- Day 2, Sept 18, 2013 Wednesday. Illinois giants and Springfield<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This was the most eventful day if I consider the number of attractions I ticked off. I had already beaten the Chicago traffic so I knew I have plenty of time to cover most of the sights. Getting stuck in traffic around major cities in US is in my opinion the worst way to waste your time. Its frustrating. I hate it. I'm moving like a snail, and smoking gas like crazy. A quarter of gas tank burned and I might have only moved 5-7miles. Not to mention the pollution. I cannot roll down my windows so I'm totally on the mercy of my car air conditioner. Did I mention the gas wastage? There have been occasions where I was stuck. After I've bought my car (pre owned '07 corolla) I offered to drive my friends to Chicago auto show and boy will I ever forget the worst traffic I saw that day. It was 2hrs before I picked up speed above 20mph. Horrible.<br />
At the end of my 66 trip I was stuck in LA's traffic, around 5pm. The matter was made even worse by an accident on the highway. Anyways, glad to have beaten Chicago traffic on this day.<br />
With goodbyes to Siddharth, I left Bloomington and the first stop was Atlanta's Bunyon Giant.<br />
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Second of the trilogy checked. Nothing special here too. Just the<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bunyon Giant</td></tr>
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usual giants one would expect after seeing the first one(Launching pad). This one is Red and Blue though. There was a park near the giant with murals painted on the wall and various signals depicting<br />
aspects of 66.<br />
Atlanta is a small town. I was there early in the morning so did not see much crowd. Took some pictures to remind me I was here and a wee bit stroll.<br />
It was cloudy today. I like a weather like this. I don't like bright and sunny. The sun is always on the eyes. But I find the scene much more beautiful when its cloudy. The darker the clouds the better it is. Its not too hot or cold. Just the optimum. Moments before a thunderstorm is the time I'm talking about. My eyes don't hurt, I don't need shades, neither am I sweating. Perfect day for me. Although the sun did come out after few hours but until then,<br />
I couldn't have asked for a better day for a drive.<br />
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I usually prefer to take a long drive in such weather conditions but<br />
unless you are with your girlfriend or wife, this drive is missing<br />
something. May be it brings out the romantic side of you. May be its the rain thats romantic. No wonder that poets usually write about dark clouds, rain and winds when describing love. I don't recall bright hot sunny day being compared to anything romantic.<br />
sweat and heatt is always associated with irritation and frustration in my mind.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lincoln Tomb, Springfield, IL</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old state capitol, Springfield, IL</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lincoln Home, Springfield, IL</td></tr>
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After the Atlanta Giant, I drove to Springfield, capitol of Illinois. I had few attractions lined up to see there. First stop was the Lincoln Tomb. Its a cemetery and of course Lincoln's grave is there too, inside the Tomb. Some sculptures, paintings, a huge US flag and tall Tomb. More than the Tomb, I enjoyed sitting in there and enjoying the weather and calmness. It was peaceful, away from traffic and noise. Cloudy weather was cherry on top. It made it even more enjoyable. Not too cold not too hot. Just perfect. As much as I wanted to stick around for few more minutes, I had to get going. I like to think as if there is some place which can be even better than this so I move on. It is this feeling that drives us all. May be that has led us out from the jungles into the present human civilization and I agree its better. The other day I heard on some podcast about a tribe in Papua New Guiana which has been untouched by modern civilization. They still live in jungles, dressed up in leaves, hunting for food and what not. One may ask why someone from this tribe didn't think that I should seek a better life than this and ventured out to the world. It would have taken one man from the tribe to be adventurous and then the whole group would have followed. I'm not saying to leave jungle and start living in the city right away but a touch of modern world is a good start. Instead of walking, they could use the wheels, a bicycle may be. Instead of stone, use a sharp metal to hunt etc. They are different than the Amish people though because the Amish live by a choice. They know there exists automobiles, electric bulbs, highways and runways but they choose to live a life like theirs. I'm sure the tribe in Papua isn't the only tribe. There may be thousands more. I think may be its a matter of time. When they encounter food shortage because their hunting methods are no longer effective, may be they'll come up with something which is one step closer to modern world.<br />
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Next stop was the Old State Capitol building. It used to be the administrative offices back in late 1800s. It wasn't too exciting. I mean what exciting stuff can one expect here anyways. At my age the bars, pubs, clubs, tennis courts, soccer fields hold the excitement. And I did notice a huge number of oldies visiting places like these. Post retirement folks, yeah this is decent place to hang out and spend the weekend. Plus they relate to old things better than me since they were lived closer to this era. I hurried myself to seeing my next sight, which was Lincoln's home.<br />
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I was kind of frustrated at this place. Its free of charge so thats good but they have a strict policy that if you want to see the house, you have to accompany a tour group. One cannot just visit the house of their own. This was ridiculous. The next tour wasn't going to start for another hour or so I didn't know what else I could have done but wait. I thought of having lunch but feared that I might miss the tour and then would have to wait another hour. I just don't have time to waste around. Time is more than money. I like to say that I'd rather spend my time sitting at home watching nonsense over internet than be stuck in traffic jam. That in my opinion is the worst way to waste your time. I hate it even more when I'm in the driving seat.Anyways, so I waited for my time. The tour guide comes along. She is in her late 50s. She opens the lock on the main door and lets us in. We were 8-10 people in the group. I was the only one bringing down the average age of the group. Everybody else were between 55-65 age group. It was awkward to say the least. The next frustrating thing was that you've to stay with the group. What the hell!! This old lady would visit one room and start giving a lengthy history lesson about the room, the drapes, the carpet, the chairs tables and mirrors. How long does one take to assess a room? Hardly 5 minutes? Right, but you cannot move on to the next room because this lady is still flapping her lips and my God, everybody else are deeply listening. I noticed the men in the group becoming restless after 10 minutes of lecture but the women were listening like there is an exam tomorrow. And boy, did they have questions after the lecture. Did the future first lady used this mirror to comb her hair? Are you kidding me! The tour took 1 hour 30 mins. When it would have hardly taken me 20-30 minutes to wrap up, I (wasted) spent and more than hour either side of it.<br />
Had I been the authority here, this is my 2 cents to make a visit worth everybody's time. This is free of charge, so no need to spend government money on tour guides' salary. Secondly, for people who really want to take a proper tour, sure, keep few tour guides handy but there must be option for people to explore the place of their own. We are all adults here and know we are not to touch or spoil the things in there, but to make the point clear some placards, notice or poster doesn't hurt.<br />
After the house tour, I went straight for lunch as I was dying of hunger. Found out a lunch place using google maps. I'm a foodie and like to try new things but I'm not too fussy about it. I don't like to remember a restaurant and menu if I had an excellent lunch or dinner there. Eat and move on.<br />
Next stop was Lauterbach tire Giant. The last of the three. As I mentioned earlier, I had to be here else the first two wouldn't have mattered. This completed my trilogy.<br />
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So far so good. Next stop was the Country Classic car museum. There were two dudes working on a car in a garage there. I think they own the place. I asked them where the entrance was and headed in their pointed direction. There were 4-5 huge sheds holding all sorts of car, from Chevy to Ford, from 1920s to 1990s. Almost all of them were for sale. I think the dudes outside repair a car, make it drivable for may be 5000-10000miles at least, and sell them. I liked this place. Not too much crowd and at your own leisure pace, you can see the cars and take pictures.<br />
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Some people do get a thrill out of driving these vintage cars. I haven't driven one although I would definitely like to try one day. I am just not enthusiastic enough so haven't really gone out of my way to get me a rental or something. Automobiles have become such an integral part of American life that it is common to see people's interest in Auto shows and museums. It was only appropriate that I stop by one such place and see how the automobile has evolved over the years, in terms of design and performance. In India, a car is a luxury. In US it is a necessity. I think slowly, young crowds are finding the motorcycles to be more convenient and affordable than a car. It has been in India, in fact, even a small nuclear family can do away with a 2-wheeler. I like 2-wheelers more than car personally but because of safety issues I stick with car here. For office commute only I think I'd prefer motorcycle. There is one paragraph in 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' where the author describes how he likes driving a motorcycle compared to car because you are totally connected with the outside world. There is no door or glass window to separate you. This I couldn't have agreed more and the thought has stuck with me ever since.<br />
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My quota of today's attraction was done so I found out a place to crash for the night. Super8 in Sullivan, MO seemed alright. I usually check in google maps about motels and their ratings and reviews etc and this one wasn't bad but some reviewers had described some horrible experiences there. Still, I went in there and I must say that this was the best motel experience of my whole trip. The room was big with clean bathroom, TV and other essentials. I threw my stuff in there, took a shower and headed for the nearby sports bar.<br />
The place was called Boomer's Sports bar. Decent place. Not many people were in there partly because it was Wednesday. There was one girl and one middle age dude serving drink. There were couple of folks sitting around a table and sipping beers while 2-3 were sitting in the bar and smoking. Back in Chicago, I had never seen people smoke inside the bar. Usually there was a designated place outside but here they were smoking inside. I guess the place wasn't too sophisticated. I took a seat in the bar but soon I realized my mistake. There were two dude sitting on either side of me and guess what, both were smoking. It was obnoxious. Smoke from both side and I was inhaling it all. I don't like the smell of smoke that much. Its funny because I do smoke but very very rarely. I can practically count on my fingers how many times I've smoked and how many cigs. I take good care of my body and try to stay fit and smoking is definitely something that I avoid. However, when you are in the company of friends and having a good time in a bar/club and if a friend is smoking and asks for company, you can't say no. So my smoking is restricted to social occasions only. I don't smoke when I've no reason to. I don't get cravings for it, which is good and hopefully it should stay like that.<br />
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After picking my Guinness, I excused myself to a nearby empty table. Much better. Ordered some fish and chips as I was starving. The girl there was beautiful. And she was the only female there! I wanted to take a picture with her but feared that the other server might be her father and may not see this gesture friendly. Plus everybody else in the bar seemed to know each other and I feared they might gang up on me, beat me up, rob me and what not. Its silly I know but when the mind wanders off, it can think of impossible extremes. I summed up my courage. When she dropped the check, I asked her if I can have a picture with her. She obliged instantly and guess what, the other server came out and ... offered to take the picture. I didn't ask her if he was her father or not. I got the picture that I wanted, paid my money and left. Went back to hotel and crashed. It was a good day. Looking forward to Day-3.<br />
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-52485788000888336902013-09-26T17:32:00.000-07:002013-09-26T17:32:23.420-07:00US Route66- Day 1, Sept 17, 2013 Tuesday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Its finally time. I had initially thought to start on Wednesday morning but two things led to change my mind. One of my friend who lives in Bloomington, IL, failed to visit me over the weekend because he got stuck with work. It'd still be okay for me to leave Illinois without seeing him because we met the previous weekend but I thought what the hell, lets meet him for one last time because I don't know when will we see each other again. Bloomington is 2 hr drive away from my place and its actually on 66 as well so doesn't hurt to pay him a visit. I could have started Wednesday morning, stop by his office, have lunch with him and then leave but I thought if I leave Tuesday evening, not only will be able to stay at his place for the night, I'd also beat the Chicago traffic in the morning, thereby saving me precious travel time. Great. So I decided to leave Tuesday evening.<br />
Most of the day time was spent on packing my stuff. My roommate, Sreejit, helped me pack. He then also helped fill up my car with my stuff. I had two big bags, a chair and table which can be dismantled and put in box, kitchen stuff in a big box, exercise equipment like dumbbells, door gym etc. I was little worried looking at those heavy dumbbells that these might break down my car's suspension. Driving few miles with these weights loaded up is one thing but driving 2200mi over 6 days is completely different. For a moment I had given up. I had plans to leave those weights behind and take only those stuff that are absolutely necessary but then these weights are crucial for my daily exercise routine too. Aahh!!! What to do?<br />
Anyways, I thought I'll carry them with me and will deal with things later on, if anything happens. I put some cushions on the car floor like pillows and comforters and wrapped my dumbbells in there, plus I spread them over both sides (driver and passenger) as well as front and back row. Cool!<br />
All set, I took a picture with my roommate and started the drive. The traffic was very light so the drive was without much frustration. Filled up my tank before I touch Chicago city and then moved on.<br />
The first stop was Launching Pad drive in where we have the Launching pad giant, one of the three giants in Illinois. Some iconic figure representative of 66. I knew that if I include Launching pad giant, I've to visit the other two giants too. I cannot afford to miss even one. Then it will always feel incomplete. Very much similar to the trilogy of movie or book. If you watch or read one, you gotta finish the other two too. One hour of driving and I'm there. It was around 8:30pm. Not many people were around. There was a gas station across the road. I went in there, got myself a bottle of water but couldn't summon the courage to ask the cashier lady to come out with me and take a picture of mine with the giant. Came out of the store and saw a dude filling up his tank. I asked him to take a pic and he obliged. First attraction done. It wasn't so bad. The giant is nothing special. Its glittering green and, well, a giant.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf5Eg-gxW_7K3TDkqu-7tg0wUUgxNKHkP2HsPYMgT1dmQ4QUBS5xTBLbXYugTfCziVDNZ_-Y5G0B-r7A1LOJxuiWnc5Et_V5WES-waZ1vcalzFLON-XUy9M4eFO_tSA8zpEoUto_ymHxx/s1600/20130917_213435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf5Eg-gxW_7K3TDkqu-7tg0wUUgxNKHkP2HsPYMgT1dmQ4QUBS5xTBLbXYugTfCziVDNZ_-Y5G0B-r7A1LOJxuiWnc5Et_V5WES-waZ1vcalzFLON-XUy9M4eFO_tSA8zpEoUto_ymHxx/s1600/20130917_213435.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
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In the meantime, my Bloomington friend, Siddharth has been calling me up and inquiring how far am I now. He was waiting for me to arrive so that we can have dinner together. As soon as I left the giant, I saw the route 66 sign. I had to stop and take a picture. I knew I'd see such signs throughout my trip but I thought I might not have time to stop and get out of traffic etc to take a pic so might as well do it now when its 9pm and there is no traffic whatsoever for miles. A pic using the front camera of phone and I'm done. I've got evidence for myself, that I've done it. This should be enough to remind me of my epic trip that's going to happen.<br />
<br />
Anyways, I reached Bloomington at 11pm, had dinner with my friend then gossip for an hour before retiring to bed. Long day ahead and it starts at 9am.</div>
Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-2320867755479848362013-09-25T20:09:00.000-07:002013-09-25T20:09:02.992-07:00US Route 66 - Chicago to Santa Monica.........Prologue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
66 is epic. Its the mother road. It used to be the sole most important highway connecting two of the most important cities of US, Chicago and LA. From gangsters to cobblers, everybody used this road until the 70s when I-40 came along. A interstate highway running parallel to 66 for the most part but better constructed. 66 started getting ignored, its roadside businesses going out. However, it still retains the essence of US and has drawn road trip enthusiasts from across the globe. I cannot say that it sums up US but I'd say that it has its own charm and one will definitely get the feeling of what US is about.<br />
The 2200mi stretch is in itself a bit of a challenge. Its not surprising that I've been fascinated by it. I've always had the eye for an exciting road trip and a cross country trip is the pinnacle. An ideal trip would have been NY-LA but CHI-LA isn't much less to me anyways.<br />
So here I was coaxing my friends in Chicago to come aboard for 66. I live in Chicago so I've got the start covered. A continuous driving would finish in 2 days but I don't want to do that. Its of paramount importance that I enjoy the trip, spread it over a week or more, drive from dusk to dawn with long breaks for food, gas and route attractions. The most ideal choice is 6-8 days one way. This means my friends would have to take 2 weeks off from work which is difficult. Even it would be difficult for me to take 2 weeks off but since my manager was uber cool guy, I thought I could pull this off. Because we usually want to save our vacations for India trip once a year. This thinking applies to me too. So I know I'm asking too much from my friends but still now and then I'll just throw 66 on the lunch or dinner time with friends when we were deciding on our next long weekend plans. With constantly mentioning 66, my friends had gotten the idea that I really want to do 66. Anyways, long story short, we all knew 66 isn't going to happen anytime soon and with ease.<br />
Time went by. Few months later, first week of Aug, my employment with BlackBerry ended. The company wasn't doing well for past 2 years, reporting losses after losses every quarter. It had been laying off people to reduce costs. Then came a time when managing remote offices in US became expensive (Blackberry HQ is in Canada) so in Aug the company decided to shut down its Chicago office. There, me and my team and other teams in Chciago, were told we are no longer required. They paid us severance and other special payments etc, which I must be honest, was decent.<br />
Anyways, what to do when you are jobless, you find a new job. So I started applying to Microsoft, Amazon, Google etc and finally after 4 weeks, I had accepted an offer from vmware. Vmware is in Palo Alto, California, some 350mi north of LA. Accepting position in vmware means I now have to relocate from Chicago to Bay area. Then, it struck me, why not do the 66. I must do the 66. This opportunity is not to be missed. I don't have to worry about taking time off from work because I'm not working, plus I get to relocate thereby saving myself some money and enjoying 66. Its a win win idea.<br />
Then I started planning for the trip. I decided to start 2 weeks earlier than my start date in vmware. That would give me enough time to finish 66 with plenty of time to stop and see attractions. Plus San Diego is only 2hr drive south of Santa Monica where Apurv lives. So I'd have plenty of time to visit him, stay at his place for couple of days, recharge my batteries, rest and relax, meet other San Diego friends and then finally drive 6hr north to Palo Alto.<br />
<br />
This has a very philosophical touch to it. For long I've dreamed of doing 66 and right when it seemed like this isn't going to happen anytime soon, the whole universe conspired to make it happen. I must have wanted to do 66 from my heart and the wish was so pure that everything else fell into places to make it happen for me. A window automatically opened for me. Its funny that I'm an atheist.<br />
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So I started my route66 adventure. First thing was to draw a list of attractions that I fancied. I took notes from <a href="http://www.drivingroute66.com/sights/">http://www.drivingroute66.com/sights/</a> and made a list of sights I want to visit. I decided driving an average of 350-400mi per day should be enough. A google map plan I made is here.<br />
<a href="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zqA-jOutiQj0.kTA9BfStiInc">https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zqA-jOutiQj0.kTA9BfStiInc</a><br />
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Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-72931476146910306462012-07-28T00:04:00.000-07:002013-09-25T21:15:45.399-07:00Getting my life back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What the F*** I am doing here? I am sitting in my room in front of my laptop. its 1am. My friend from a nearby city is in my house for the weekend. He is lying in the bed, his belly popping out, snoring. I am looking at him and I am having a completely different thought. What the F*** I am doing? I am in USA, I am 27, bloody healthy young blood, enthusiastic, average intelligence and I am right now staring at this fat guy. Is this the best way to spend my precious seconds of my precious life?<br />
The thing is, I am the kind of person who when comes across some great quotes, and if it sticks to my mind, it sticks forever, every now and then pinching me, reminding if this is what I should be doing right now. For example, long time back, I saw a movie Fight Club, no not the crappy bollywood shit but authentic Hollywood. I came across this quote "This is your life and its getting over, one minute at a time". Fuck.<br />
Now every now and then when I am doing something totally pointless, like watching a fat guy sleeping, I think to myself, just wasted another minute of my life. I wish I had not seen that movie but what to do about many other such quotes I come across everywhere, facebook, twitter, friends, colleagues, parents.<br />
I think to myself, I am at a place, few people get to be this lucky. Some random people in Africa do not know anything except starving. They are born, they starve, they die. And here I am. I gotta list the stuff I want to do and this is an endless list, but I gotta start organizing my shit together. I gotta get back my life. Its going to happen one wish at a time.<br />
<br />
learn flute (Basics learned)<br />
switch company -better position, more money (Done!!!!)<br />
bloody I have to study for company switch. shit<br />
travel route 66 -- (Done!)<br />
work out. run 4-6 mi. need to bring out my 6 packs (Almost done!)<br />
I have to travel to so many places. Colorado, vegas, padre islands, hawaii<br />
see europe<br />
buy a better camera. learn photography (Camera bought)<br />
bungee jumping<br />
<br />
<br />
There are so many places I want to travel to and if I start listing them here, it will take a long long time. Anyways. I have already noted down enough. I should set a time frame to accomplish these. I am thinking a year. Hmm sounds good. I am feeling a little better than what I was feeling an hour ago. Cool. This is good. So, let me start working out from tomorrow. Shouldn't take more than 3 months for the packs and other muscles to show up :P<br />
Company switch is next priority. Must study and work hard every day.<br />
May be I'll use this blog to keep track of my progress.<br />
<br />
chao!<br />
<br /></div>
Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-50321458115767045282011-07-14T20:39:00.000-07:002011-07-14T21:22:10.884-07:00Blackberry app for Pace Bus of Chicago - Entry 2I wasted the whole of yesterday in watching movies, eating and sleeping and so did not work on the app at all. Today I worked some quality time on the app and overhauled the map UI interface.<div>I had implemented a working prototype of map feature but there were couple of problems. First thing was the Map was drawn directly from the main PaceBus screen. That was a very bad design and I thought it would be simple for now, for development sake and hence went with it. But going through that design I was having trouble bringing the route information into the Map and passing it around the timer and HTTP connection thread to fetch the route's data. So this morning the first thing I worked was to make a Map Launch Screen containing drop down box and a button to launch Map. The drop down had the routes populated from the HTTP route fetch thread.The user is required to select the route from the drop down, click on Goto Map button to open map. This way I had the selected route in the Launch screen and was able to pass it to any module as need arises.</div><div>The next problem was to handle the timer. The idea is to have a timer set up which will go off every 15 secs (say) and everytime it triggers, the timer thread would run a fetch thread to obtain the new coordinates from the PaceBus web server and pass it to map to update the locations. The change in UI helped me in this also. Previously I had problem in deciding from where to start the timer and from where to terminate it. Now it was clear that I should start the timer when user clicks on the Goto Map button. So on button click, map is invoked and timer is run.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>/**</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> * @see FieldChangeListener#fieldChanged</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> * Note: Due to the reason this is only back door, when user changes _kbUseAreaBasedProbability field the threshold will be set to default.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> */</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>public void fieldChanged( Field field, int context ) {</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(field == _gotoMapButtonField)</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>{</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//Map button clicked. Get the route number selected</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>int routeSelectedIndex = _routeNumberChoiceField.getSelectedIndex();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>strRouteNo= (String) _routeNumberChoiceField.getChoice(routeSelectedIndex);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(strRouteNo == null || PaceConstants.SELECT_ROUTE_FROM_LIST.equals(strRouteNo)){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Dialog.inform("Select a route from the list.");</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>return;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//fetch the bus coordinates for that route</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Thread fetchThread = new Thread(){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>public void run() {</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>HTTPDemo.getInstance().fetchPage(PaceConstants.MAP_COORDINATES_PAGE+"?u="+strRouteNo, PaceConstants.EXTRACT_COORDINATES);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}};</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>fetchThread.start();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//In the meantime, run the spinner</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>UiApplication.getUiApplication().pushModalScreen(spinner);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//start a timer to timely fetch bus coordinates</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>timer = new Timer();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> task = new TimerTask()</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> {</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> public void run()</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> {</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//on timeout, fetch data only if Map application is running</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>boolean MapRunning = false;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>ApplicationDescriptor descriptors[] = ApplicationManager.getApplicationManager().getVisibleApplications();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>for(int i=0; i<descriptors.length; div=""><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(descriptors[i].getName().equals("BlackBerry Maps")|| descriptors[i].getName().equals("Maps")){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Thread fetchThread = new Thread(){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>public void run() {</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>HTTPDemo.getInstance().fetchPage(PaceConstants.MAP_COORDINATES_PAGE+"?u="+strRouteNo, PaceConstants.EXTRACT_COORDINATES);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}};</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>fetchThread.start();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>MapRunning = true;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>break;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(!MapRunning){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//cancel timer if Map application is no more running</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>timer.cancel();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> }</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> };</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> //after a delay of 5 secs, the timer will timeout every 20 secs</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(task, 5000, 20000);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>PaceBusApp.log("MapLaunchScreen(): Goto Map button event is handled. Timer started.");</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div></descriptors.length;></div><div><br /></div><div>The code above describes the action taken when Goto Map button is clicked. It also contains the timer initialization code. Everytime the button is clicked a fresh timer is created. One more modification done was that the timer would fetch coordinates only when there is a Map application currently running. If there is no Map application running, then the timer will cancel itself.</div><div>The MapLaunchScreen implements GlobalEventListener so it gets a notification when the coordinate fetch is complete. In the event handler, if the data received from fetch is null that means there are no buses running at this time and this is also the place where we should stop the timer (remember the timer was started the moment Map launch button was clicked) plus we should invoke a default map which doesn't have any location info. Just a generic map. Makes sense.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>public void eventOccurred(long guid, int data0, int data1, Object object0,</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Object object1) {</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if( guid == PaceConstants.GUID_PACE_FETCH_BUS_COORDINATES && data0 == PaceConstants.EXTRACT_COORDINATES)</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>{</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>PaceBusApp.log("PaceBusApp: MapLaunchScreen - eventOccured(): GUID_PACE_FETCH_BUS_COORDINATES");</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//if spinner is running, close it</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(this.spinner != null){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>this.spinner.close();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>this.spinner = null;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//save the object received </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(object0 == null){</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Dialog.inform("There are no buses running this time.");</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//remove timer</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(timer!=null)</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>timer.cancel();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//show default map</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Invoke.invokeApplication(Invoke.APP_TYPE_MAPS, new MapsArguments());</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>return;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>CoordinatesData = (BusCoordinatesDb)object0;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//display the coordinates on map</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>handleMap();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>PaceBusApp.log("PaceBusApp: MapLaunchScreen - exiting eventOccured()");</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The code above is the event handler which is invoked everytime the coordinates have been fetched.</div><div>handleMap is a simple function which forms the location string from the coordinates obtained and call the Map application with that argument.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div> public void handleMap(){</div><div> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//return if we did not receive valid coordinates</div><div> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>if(CoordinatesData == null)</div><div> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>return;</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Vector lt = CoordinatesData.getLatitude();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Vector lg = CoordinatesData.getLongitude();</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//prepare the location string</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>stringBuffer = null;</div><div> stringBuffer = new StringBuffer("<lbs clear="ALL">");</lbs></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>for (int i = 0; i<lt.size(); div=""><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>int g = (int) ((Double.parseDouble((String)lg.elementAt(i))) * 100000);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>int t = (int) ((Double.parseDouble((String)lt.elementAt(i))) * 100000);</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>stringBuffer.append("<location lon=""+g+"" lat=""+t+"" label="Bus-"+(i+1)+"" description="Pace Bus" zoom="5">");</location></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>}</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>stringBuffer.append("");</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>//launch the map application. If Map is already running, the locations will be updated</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Invoke.invokeApplication(Invoke.APP_TYPE_MAPS, new MapsArguments( MapsArguments.ARG_LOCATION_DOCUMENT, stringBuffer.toString()));</div><div> }</div></lt.size();></div><div><br /></div><div>The map code idea is borrowed from BlackBerryMapsDemo project under the sample applications. This much should suffice for now. Next time I'll try to fix some UI related bugs in the module developed so far.</div><div><br /></div><div>KD</div></div></div>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-72433645428943208962011-07-13T10:13:00.000-07:002011-07-13T11:06:23.546-07:00Blackberry app for Pace Bus of Chicago - Entry 1If I had the power to go back in time 4 months from now, this would be that blog entry. Today I realized I should blog about my 4 month old project i.e the Blackberry app I am developing for the Pace Bus transit system of Chicago suburban. The project is still going strong and I am very pleased with the results so far. Since I am late in blogging about it, I'll start it right away. In this blog I'll summarize the work done so far and from now on I will make sure to have one entry at-least every time I am working on the app. <div>I was in Chicago 4 months ago, doing my internship at Research In Motion when my colleague Anu suggested that we should develop an app as an internal project in RIM. I thought its exciting and will be a good use of my spare time so I agreed instantaneously. Then we decided to sit down every Wednesday for 2 hrs to discuss about it. The first meeting was to decide on the app we would be developing. Necessity is the mother of invention. I suggested to let us make a list of things we do from the moment we get off the bed till we go to bed and see if we can improve on something to make the job easier. To make my point clear, I gave Anu an example. Lets say you wake up in the morning on a typical day and do what, may be brush your teeths, shower, dress up, then reach the bus stop and wait for bus....wait a sec....may be we can develop an app that would let you know whens the bus coming and ...Bingo! We got our-self an app.</div><div>The agenda for next Wednesday meeting was 'Research'. We would look around for an existing app that does the same thing more or less. We could not find any, no Android or iPhone or BlackBerry app. There were apps for the Chicago subways but not for Pace Bus, the suburban bus service system. Next is feasibility study. Doing an exercise on sample BB apps and the tools, IDE etc went fine and a successful HelloWorld app was a boost for the confidence. Pace Bus has its own website of course and a little help from their web server combined with our effort could indeed produce an app.</div><div>And so we began coding. Design was simple. Ask the user about routes, directions and stop info through drop down menus and fetch the information from their web server using a background thread. The UI design is driven by how the Pace Website UI is. Anu's contribution is invaluable to the project. She is a genius in coding and makes the job so much easier for me to code thereafter. The app was now able to display the next three times at which a bus is expected at the selected stop just like website. On top of that we added 'MyFaves' wherein the user's selected stop info can be saved to be used later without going through selecting the stuff all over again. Then we added 'Rider News' to the app which will display news about any route affected because of construction, re-routing, temporary suspension of service etc. </div><div>We wanted to implement the map feature but it was close to my end of term and so we submitted the app to BB App guys for launching. Maps and other knickknacks were postponed for ver2. Then I moved to Florida to finish my last term in the University. Anu remained at RIM.</div><div>For reasons beyond significance here, the launch date of AppWorld got postponed to 3 months which is like 5 weeks from now. While in Florida and with launch delay, I got around to fix couple of things in the app. The Logo, for instance, had to be changed. We had used Pace's official logo but afraid of copyright issues, I designed a new logo for the app. Then I started working on the map feature. Anu was busy with company work and I didn't want to distract her so much but she was again very helpful in this. She sent me a list of links she visited when she was researching about the Map thing.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><div><a href="http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/UpdateWebMap.aspx?u=208" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://gis.pacebus.com/<wbr>webwatch/UpdateWebMap.aspx?u=<wbr>208</a></div><div>view-source:<a href="http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/map.aspx?mode=g" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://gis.<wbr>pacebus.com/webwatch/map.aspx?<wbr>mode=g</a></div><div>view-source:<a href="http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/map.aspx?mode=g" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://gis.<wbr>pacebus.com/webwatch/map.aspx?<wbr>mode=g</a></div><div><a href="http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/Scripts/LoadMap.js" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://gis.pacebus.com/<wbr>webwatch/Scripts/LoadMap.js</a></div><div><a href="http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/Scripts/GoogleMapFuncs.js" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://gis.pacebus.com/<wbr>webwatch/Scripts/<wbr>GoogleMapFuncs.js</a></div><div><a href="http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/Scripts/Route208_trace.js" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://gis.pacebus.com/<wbr>webwatch/Scripts/Route208_<wbr>trace.js</a></div><div><a href="http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/reference.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); ">http://code.google.com/apis/<wbr>maps/documentation/javascript/<wbr>reference.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div>These were really important esp the first one which actually holds the dynamic coordinates of the bus, exactly the thing I was looking for. I have no idea how on Earth was she able to find that link. I tried real hard myself to locate one such link but failed. With these parameters available and borrowing codes from sample BBMaps codes, I made a working map feature, which is now able to display the location of buses in the map and updates them periodically.</div><div>This much information is enough for this post. In short, the app is working, with features like dynamically displaying time, MyFaves, Rider News and now Maps (partially done). </div><div>Next post onwards I'll discuss the development on a daily basis.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>KD</div></span></div><div><br /></div>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-68967232466516263112011-03-14T17:56:00.000-07:002011-03-14T18:38:15.086-07:00confessions of a lost mindIts been 3 days now. I have been sitting in the same place I was put 3 days ago. I should not be bothered about that because my life was like this 4 months ago. My owner lived not 100 steps away from the office so "work from home" became "work from office" and moreover he had a Dell dude to take care of his needs. I used to be left in the corner, forgotten and I never complained. But something happened 4 months ago. My ownership changed hands. I was taken in by a cute little girl since her laptop had broken down. I had doubts at first, I was little scared and fearful. But then I started to like her. She took good care of me, atleast I was in use everyday. Her little fingers running over my keyboard gave me tickles. And she would go to sleep under my watchful eyes. I would be on, the whole night and I would wake her up on gtalk pings. I would be sad when she would leave for work in the morning and like an obedient housewife I would be all ears for her footsteps in the evening. I have never felt more happy than when I would see her enter through that door and she would smile at me. In few seconds I am up and running and boy, is she leading a very complicated life or what! There would be 3-4 word documents open, 2 video files running, tons of websites (mostly shopping sites), gtalk, facebook bla bla. I never complained. This is nothing for me and I was just happy to be able to serve. We were best friends in no time. For sometime I forgot what I am and where I am. The occasional car rides, the smell of delicious dinner, were but for few days untill this "hp" dude showed up at the door one day. My whole world was upside down. I remembered her checking out that dude over internet but I never paid attention. But I accepted my fate. After all I am old now. Hp has got this fancy webcam, stylish keyboard, drop-dead looks. She decided to move on, like everyone else and here I am, back to where it all started. In few days, I'll be returned to the company from where I came and may be I'll be dismembered, disintegrated, thrown away...I don't know, but I'll always cherish my days with the girl.Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-69896831997614699452011-03-06T02:40:00.001-08:002011-03-06T03:00:16.077-08:00Why do I always end up with morons as roommatesSome people could be so insensitive to others I can never imagine. I wonder if some people are left out of the evolution race.<div>Its 3 in the morning and I am up. Any normal person would be sleeping now and I would be sleeping now if for any other normal day. But this day isn't like any normal day. This day my bloody dumbass roommate decides to talk to his some bloody friend or family I do not care back in India. And when he is talking over phone he decides not to budge from his bed. Thats good things except that his bed is right next to mine. So he doesn't know when he is speaking, he is not only speaking to the microphone, he is yelling at my ears also. Bloody hell. My sleep is ruined. My day is starting up with I am super irritated and mighty pissed of at my roommate. He is truly a stupid guy. He is from some crappy university, which has 5 words in it and one word happens to be Purdue so he goes on telling everyone "I am from Purdue". Recently he met another proper Purdue university guy and when that guy asked which side of the university you stay, or your department etc and to which yours truly replies "Oh I am from actually so and so university" and the other guy tells him on his face "Dude, thats not Purdue". </div><div>One time he goes to the university to sort out his training thing and finish all the paper formalities and guess what he forgets to bring along to the university, his documents folder. The next morning he calls me from the university and tells me to scan his passport, I-20 and other documents. I am like what the hell man!!!! Who goes to a bar and forgets to bring along his Id (Yes, he has done that also). </div><div>Sometimes I really believe people cannot be this stupid but every time I look at my roommate and I get my proof. He is such a shame on human evolution. Moreover I am not talking about some guy from the shanties, some uneducated asshole who has not be told about manners etc because those can be stupid but if you are properly educated, had a family when growing up, were told about manners and common sense, and you applied to some US university (no matter how crappy the university is), one can atleast expect some sane thoughts and actions from you. Even after all these you still act dumb, well, you are an asshole and you rightly deserve to be someone's asshole.</div><div>At this time I remember one quote from Calvin&Hobbes because it so much suits the situation. </div><div><br /></div><div>--The most difficult part of being a genius is that you have to put up with millions of morons around you.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-53462944739493490392011-02-21T10:43:00.000-08:002011-02-21T11:47:29.686-08:00Music....simply musicI have been a big music buff but still lot less than others who are like crazy after it. I am not like many of those music fanatics who put up huge posters of their idol and revere their each voice, neither a fanatic to spend couple thousand bucks to see their idol play it live somewhere.<br />I am basically a traveler personality when it comes to music. Yes, I am a finder, I am an explorer. I keep looking for good music, the one that speaks to me and listening to which I feel my souls' just been touched by that voice, that music, that lyrics.<br />I am not aver to listening to rock, metal, or rap etc but I find that country songs are the one that I best relate to.<br />I am a very very big fan of bollywood music. As much as I hate Hindi movies, I love more their music. Thats the music I have grown up with. During my undergraduate days at Rourkela I came across people listening to western bands like Backstreet Boys, Jennifer Lopez etc and I liked their music also. With time I came across lot of other artists and bands. Linkin Park, Bryan Adams etc. Listening and loving the music is lot different than being lost in music. And the hindi songs are the one that have those effects on me. May be because I am better able to understand Hindi lyrics than English. It usually happens to me that while listening to English songs I couldn't make out some of their lyrics and its when I explicitly look at their lyrics I get to understand what he/she meant to say. This would take away some charm of the music experience for me.<br />Also when I would love some song, I would like to sing it myself more often, try to get the feel again and again inside me and I would completely fail in that respect with English songs. Its hard to remember their lyrics and add the accent to that. Its totally not the same to listen the same song in Indian accent. Ruined.<br /><br />Coming to Hindi songs then. As I said I enjoy the experience of listening to hindi songs as if I am a traveler, an explorer. Moving from one song to another and trying to see how that songs speaks to me. Discard the songs that evoke a feeling of irritation, anger, disgust. And there are many of these, with crappy lyrics, mixing English, Arabic and all sorts of language with Hindi, and some songs here the lyrics is so out of rhythm, poetry, flow, some songs where music doesn't do justice to the underlying voice and lyrics and thats why remixes are totally not of my taste. They completely ruin the feeling. Although any music instrument is fine with me, violin and flute are in particular, evoke a strong urge from my inside. They are the instruments that straightaway touch the soul without even trying. So simple, so fine, so strong, speaking thousand vibes.<br />I am always in the hunto for good music. Thats why when I am listening on grooveshark or Youtube I jump from one to another. Sometimes I would simply discard the song and sometimes I would simply stop on something, stuck ion it forever for it seems, as if I have been to one of the wonders and I am spellbound. Thats when I feel like listening to this song for thousand times and still not feel bored. The beauty is everytime I would hear the song, it would bring out a stronger emotion. After listening to atleast 10-15 times I am like totally immersed in its effect. I feel like I am lost. I feel like I am standing in front of a vista, to which I can simply stare for my lifetime, silence, no words, so peaceful. Yes peaceful. Oly the winds blowing, water rushing through the stream, clouds covering the mountains, foliage everywhere, green, white, blue. Anybody can get lost in front of a view like this. The passion for music blends well with my traveling enthusiasm. I love to travel and I have been to many beautiful places. And I just get lost in those places, totally oblivious of the fact how much time has passed since I have been watching this view. And whenever I listen to some of my favorite songs, I could close my eyes and all those memories would come crashing in front my vision. I relive those moments all over again, and again and again and everytime I feel more and more connected, more and more close to reality, as if I can touch the snow, feel the cold wind, hear the water drops, see those mountain peaks, breathe that air.<br />My songs speak to me. They know what I am going through and like a faithful lover, a caressing mother, a responsible elder brother, an understanding friend they embrace me in their arms. I feel lost, lost of all thoughts, lost of worries, lost of happiness and sadness, lost of family and friends, lost of the world, lost of luxury, lost of religion, money, work, lost of myself. Sometimes I would virtually feel my soul coming out of my body, as if the music punched a hole in my chest and took out my soul. Thats the power of music I am talkig about. If a find a music that speaks to me, when listening to it, it feels like I am connected like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, yes, exactly like that, as if there are rows of pieces and I would just go and my body would connect with every single incomplete piece. I feel complete. The music feels complete. My body would shake automatically with every beat of that song, my lips would speak out the words with the artist, my skin hair will rise in appreciation, goosebumps all over the body, feets and head in sync with the beats.<br />I cannot imagine without music. They bring out so much emotions out of me that I cannot express. The lyrics make me go crazy, literally speechless. I cannot admire enough, the lyricist, the musician to be able to do justice to that, the voice blowing life into it and whoa, you got a mysterious mistress. Music is like beauty. The speechless power it contains, you would never be able to appreciate until you feel something inside thats just inexplicable. <br />Its incredible how much energy each song contains yet how much calmness they infuse in you. There is no better alternative when you want to remember someone, relive some moments of the past, or just to forget everything around you, than to listen to your favorite music, earphones, loud volume, laid back in the couch or bed, eyes closed. Darkness. Total darkness. Stop. Feel.<br /><br />--GoldyGoldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-17199416384826161952010-10-06T09:01:00.000-07:002010-10-06T11:56:01.153-07:00Adding new contact fields in FunambolAnother 2 weeks into Funambol and this time the work is little different, more interesting and more challenging. The task at hand is to add a new field under new contacts in Funambol. Previously I had mentioned how to enable the already supported fields of Funambol in the web demo and I was able to enable the Nickname under new contacts. This time we doing something similar. When we create a new contact in BlackBerry, henceforth to be called as client or BB, we see an extra field called PIN which is specific to BB only. Funambol doesn't know about this. In this post we will see how we can create a PIN support in our locally installed funambol server, henceforth to be called server. In other words, I should be able to send and receive contacts including the PIN field from client to sever and vice-versa.<br /><br />We will assume that we have a working funambol server installed in the PC and Funambol source code in local hard drive. There are three things through which we can accomplish the addition of new field. First, we need to create a new attribute in the contact class structure called Pin. Second, we need to add an additional column in the database for storing PIN against all contacts. Third, we need to change the webdemo front end to expose the PIN field to user and send/receive PIN from user to backend and vice versa.<br /><br />Module -1: Adding PIN attribute. The java files are in <source>\funambol\common\pim-framework\src\main\java\com\funambol\common\pim<br /><br />Step-1: In file PersonalDetail.java, add a new attribute "private String rim_pin;" going by the same format as other fields there, like gender. You'd add getPin(), setPin() etc.<br />Step-2: we'll edit SIFC.java, SIFCParser.java and ContactToSIFC.java to enable PIN field in incoming/outgoing SIFC, going by the same format as other fields in there like NICKNAME, ANNIVERSARY etc.<br />Step-3: We'll edit ContactToVcard.java going by the same format as other PersonalDetail attributes. So, we'll add a method "composeFieldPin" which should be like this,<br /><br /> /**<br /> *<br /> * @return a representation of the vCard field X-RIM-PIN<br /> */<br /> private String composeFieldPin(String pin) {<br /> if (pin != null) {<br /> return "X-RIM-PIN:" + escapeSeparator(pin) + newLine;<br /> }<br /> return "";<br /> }<br /><br />This is because the tag name standard for PIN in Vcard is X-RIM-PIN so when we are converting contacts in server to vcard for sending it to client, the pin data must be against X-RIM-PIN tag. This will enable the client which will know that it has received a PIN value and so when you see the corressponding contact in client, the PIN field will contain the value that you had set in the server.<br />Next we will edit VCardSyntaxParserListenerImpl.java and add code for pin going by the same format as there are codes for other fields in there. Now all the X-* fields in the vcard that the server receives from the client, they are added to a XTag list through "addExtension" method in this file. For interpreting the PIN, we will intercept this method. Add the following at the end of this method,<br /><br /> if(tagName.equalsIgnoreCase("X-RIM-PIN")|| tagName.equalsIgnoreCase("RIM-PIN")){<br /> contact.getPersonalDetail().setPin(text);<br /> }<br />Next we edit the VCardSyntaxParserListener.java in the same format as other fields.<br />Step-4: Build the changes. Go to pim-framework directory and run mvn package. One may need to modify test files as well if build fails. When its done, run mvn install so that the changes are reflected to other packages later.<br /><br />Module -2: Adding PIN in database. Corresponding java files are in <source>\funambol\modules\foundation\foundation-core-8.X.Y\src\main\java\com\funambol\foundation\items\dao<br /><br />Step-5: Modify the PIMContactDAO.java changing the select and insert SQL query, adding the extra rim_pin field at the end. Just go by the same format as Gender field is handled in the file and add similar codes for rim_pin. One may also want to add rim_pin in the create table query in PIMContactDAOTest.java for checking including sql files in test folder.<br />Step-6: Edit the funambol.script file in <tools>hypersonic\data and in the query CREATE MEMORY TABLE FNBL_PIM_CONTACT( ... ) add RIM_PIN column at the end.<br />Step-7: Build this module, mvn package and then mvn install.<br /><br />Module -3: Adding PIN in webdemo. Source files are in <source>\funambol\modules\webdemo-module\webdemo-webapp<br /><br />Step-8: Edit the PDIServlet.java adding rim_pin just like the way other fields are mentioned. Build this module.Edit the add.jsp and view.jsp in <tools>\tomcat\webapps to show an extra text box field named rim_pin. Follow the other fields mentioned in the files and rim_pin can be added in the same way.<br />Step-9: Replace all the libraries that were created from build into corresponding places in local server directory. Replace the class files in webdemo module with that generated after the build like PDIServlet.class.<br />Step-10: Restart the server and try creating a new contact in webdemo, give some value in pin field. Sync with client. open the same contact in client the see the pin field populated. Similarly create a new contact in BB and sync, then see the contact in webdemo(server side) and find the pin field as given in BB.<br /><br />Helpful references:<br />https://core.forge.funambol.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=405&dsMessageId=126575<br />https://core.forge.funambol.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=405&dsMessageId=125104<br />https://core.forge.funambol.org/wiki/HowToHackWebdemo?highlight=%28CategoryHowTo%29Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272871373983941534.post-28008928065885495172010-09-27T07:08:00.000-07:002010-09-27T09:21:34.517-07:00Playing around with Funambol web demo appI was involved working with asset management database for the first 2 weeks and it was very educational. I was given a lookup feature to be included in the database front end which I completed in 1 week. I also tested the same by adding up more than 40 devices into the database through the lookup feature. I hope my lead was impressed by this feat. He seemed satisfied. When delivering him the final package I asked if he wants me to look into something else. There was not much to do in the database part so he included me into the blackberry apps group which is also handled by him.<br />It was then that I came to know about Funambol, my first assignment.<br />Funambol is an open source mobile sync feature for various mobile devices. The concept is simple. Users can download and install it in their mobile. Then specify the email address from which you want to sync your device with. If I give my yahoo mail address, it copies the contacts, calender etc from that account and the Funambol-Email will also display(sync) the inbox into your device. This helps people access their account on the go. Just open the application, choose the server sync option, when its done, you can see the new changes (if any) like new mails, new tasks etc that has been added into your email account. Through Funambol you can also set new task, contact, send email to others, upload pictures into facebook on the go etc.<br />How does it work? I haven't researched it well but I believe the funambol data server communicates with regularly with your yahoo account and stores the email, contacts etc from their and when u select the device sync option, it actually loads data from the funambol server. The same happens when you want something to go out from your device, like uploading a picture.<br />More detail information can be found at Funambol site, http://www.funambol.com/<br />I installed the funambol data server application (free!). Through this you can make your own PC act as the Funambol data server, and the device will contact your PC for updates. Once it is installed, start the funambol data server (start->all programs->funambol->funambol data server->start server). It will take some time to be up. The open the browser and type http://localhost:8080/funambol/ds and you can see the web demo client. By default the admin username is included (username: admin password: sa). You can also open the funambol administration tool. Play around with funambol for a while. Get yourself comfortable about its working. The settings for web demo is in the C:\Program Files\Funambol\tools\tomcat\conf\server.xml file. You can change the default port 8080 to something else like 8181, which I did. The documentatio for funambol can be downloaded from this site, https://www.forge.funambol.org/download/documentation.html#runserver<br /><br />My Task: When we login into the web demo client (say using admin account), and create a new account, the common fields are First Name, Last Name etc. What if I want to add more fields like (Nickname) on top of the exisiting ones. This is necessary because in a blackberry when we create a new account, we have all sorts of extra fields and we need to map Funambol's server contact fields with BlackBerry's so that when sync-ing, all fields in BB gets populated. Investigate.<br /><br /><br />Initial Approach: I could see that the web demo client front end is bunch of jsp pages. When I populate the contact fields and click Add, some jsp page is called passing the values. The jsp pages are in C:\Program Files\Funambol\tools\tomcat\webapps\webdemo and main.jsp, add.jsp, view.jsp and list.jsp handles the contact part. Looking into the source code isn't much of a help. But I know that parameters are being sent/received from somewhere, parameters like operation=ADD, type=contact etc.<br />Next approach is to find the source code. Browsing in the Funambol folder, there is no .java files, only .class files (in C:\Program Files\Funambol\tools\tomcat\webapps\webdemo\WEB-INF\classes). If its open source application, where is it?<br />As it turns out, the source code doesn't come with the installation package. One can download the source code separately, modify, rebuild the package the replace the .class files with the one thats in the installation package and you get your new modified funambol.<br />Okay. Next thing to do is download the source code, from https://core.forge.funambol.org/source/browse/core/ using the command "svn checkout https://core.forge.funambol.org/svn/core/trunk encore --username kundan " in the command prompt(win)/terminal(linux). I recommend one should register at the funambol site. One can also use the anonymous username (no password) to download the source. This will copy the source code into the encore folder. Next step, how to build it?<br />I followed the instruction mentioned in https://core.forge.funambol.org/wiki/BuildingFunambolV8?highlight=%28CategoryDeveloper%29 to build the whole funambol bundle. I did all the package settings as it asked me to. Building the whole package is a feat in itself. When I tried "ant forge-bundle-win", I faced lots of errors. These may arise because of fault in settings etc. Bottom line is, debugging the build error is out of my reach.<br /><br />On further reading the how to build wiki page(above), I could see that we can build individual sections separately. I am concerned with webdemo part only, why not build webdemo only? So, I went into "encore\funambol\modules\webdemo-module\webdemo-webapp" and ran "mvn package". result: BUILD SUCCESSFUL. A target folder is created containing the new class files. Now its time to edit the souce code.<br />Open the encore\funambol\modules\webdemo-module\webdemo-webapp\src\main\java location and edit the PDIServlet.java file. Study the source code. You have to add parameters for nickname going by the same format as name, surname etc in the java file. The main contact class is in https://core.forge.funambol.org/source/browse/core/trunk/funambol/common/pim-framework/src/main/java/com/funambol/common/pim/contact/ and the servlet file calls functions of this file to read/write contact properties. One can see that Name.Java file indeed has fields for nickname, suffix, initials etc. These are the fields that are already supported by Funambol but for some reason they do not show up in the web demo. We are closer on our way to displaying them. Build the package again after modifying. target folder is created. Copy the .class files into the funambol install dir i.e at C:\Program Files\Funambol\tools\tomcat\webapps\webdemo\WEB-INF\classes.<br />Finally we need to modify the corresponding jsp files to display text boxes for those fields. Modify the view.jsp and add.jsp to display field for Nickname in the same manner as Name and Surname etc are being displayed there.<br />We are done!<br /><br />Open the web demo portal(you might need to restart server for changes to take effect), login using any (admin/guest/user) account. Click on new contact and see the Nickname field. Test the modification by adding a new contact and then displaying the same. The nickname field is saved.<br />Through this we are now able to write nickname field into database whose value previously being written was null.<br />Another interesting thing to check. One can confirm that the nickname field is being written into the database by looking into the funambol.log file.Since I have used the default db i.e hypersonic, so if I open <tools>\hypersonic\data\funambol.log file, at the bottom I can see the sql script being invoked to insert data into db and there is one less NULL data being written because we have now enabled the nickname field. :)<br /><br />That summarizes my first funambol experience. A further look into Name.java, Address.java etc will tell us what are the funambol supported contact fields.<br />Next task I think is to know how to add a new field, the one that is not even supported by funambol. May be next time I'll reflect on this.<br /><br />Useful reads:<br />https://core.forge.funambol.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=405&dsMessageId=125526<br />https://core.forge.funambol.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=405&dsMessageId=125104<br /><br />--Goldy Blankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14704600586898887540noreply@blogger.com0