Studying Middle Earth

http://gozips.uakron.edu/~pb12/middleearth.html

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

The epic story of good and evil, a little like star wars, except no outer space and kind of magical. I fell in love with it when my uncle took me to watch the movies one cold night in 2001. It was very near new years and I really wanted to stay in, but he said he loved the books. We saw the first part (The Fellowship of the Ring), and throughout the movie i kept saying "Danny I love it" and he kept telling me "sshhh". I was enthralled. He then made me read "The Hobbit" so that I would have context, and it was by far the best, somehow! However they were all good. Slowly I became obsessed with all things Lord of the Rings. I wanted to experience it in every way possible. It grew deeper and deeper in me like a seed. I have highly active imagination, however I could never get my fill of the Lord of the Rings, then I found Lord of the Rings Online. It consumed me. However in Massive Multiplayer Online Games there tends to be drama, so we need to take breaks from them ever so often. Also recently they made it Free to Play, which means they make money through a shop, and it has been a big killjoy.

This time of year is full of Christmas music and this and that, but this time I wanted to fill it with something I loved, so I am rereading all the books, watching the movies, and may play the games (as I write, Boromir just got shot, in the movie, by the Urukhai, and geez what a scene. Merry and Pipin get carried away, and Boromir is there with 20 arrows in his chest).

Above is a link to a project I did on Middle Earth, sometime soon I will put up the power point also. It was a presentation for a Landscape class I took during my masters at Akron. This kind of proves, that you can almost study anything when you are doing your "higher education".

If you haven't read the books or seen the movies... go do so. It is not for everyone however, but they are still some of the best made movies ever.

Lexus like Texas

My father and my mom got their new Lexus (renewed the lease and upgraded, however the ridiculous deal works). So the guy at the Lexus dealership says "when you get the number plate try getting Lex 7345" (or something of the sort, however it did have LEX in it).
My father retorted "It's a Lexus, everyone can see it's a Lexus, why should the plate say Lex? I will get whatever I want for it".
Now notice many Lexus cars have Lex as a number plate? Do they want to iterate it so badly because the big L on the front and back of the car are not enough. Let's get our customers to advertise for us even more, yeah?
Tsh!

I will upload pictures I take of real silly plates etc soon.

Here's one!

Another one!

Winter Wistfulness

Everyone was saying it is an unusually warm November, but we Ohioans know the weather can be very erratic. So we cling enjoy the warm weather, and hide the fear of the long, bitter-cold, depressing grey winters. The first day of December brings us our first snow that sticks to the ground, just a few days after thanksgiving. The coldness begins. The trees are seemingly lifeless, the skies are grey as usual, and previously mentioned... the atmosphere is all round gloomy. Around the 5th the snow storm or whatever begins, and dumps snow all over us, not very kindly either. Hour after hour, minute after minute, relentless, no breaks, watching it is scary. We know the roads will be dangerous, commuting time will be longer, the traffic will be awful. It's holiday season so everyone will be out Christmas Shopping, inevitably there will be extra traffic. We can only hope for other people being mindful and kind during this time... we are all under stress, we are all in a hurry, we are all frustrated by the snow.
Outside the world is just white. Snow White. The tree branches are laden with white fluff, the roads are deadly, the cars are buried under, the Canadian Geese are huddled in the snow, they weren't expecting winter so soon either.
As beautiful as the snow is, it is destructive, deadly and dangerous, also very depressing. There is no color but white grey and black in the environment. Death's own creation, and thus the beginning is the end, is the beginning.
The bright spot is knowing there will always be a spring. Lush green will reside once again in the trees, the birds will come back and chirp their wooing songs to their mates, life will come back, and we humans shan't be the only ones bustling about the earth.
The little joys of this winter weather is that it is great for bundling up, spending time with loved ones and cuddling, and then some nice hot chocolate. On a side note, Cricket loves and hates winter, she loves prancing about in the snow and being utterly silly, however she dislikes the cold to the point she won't go out, and she won't sit on the ground outside (for her little butt gets cold).

Cricket enjoying a nice wintery walk with her little pink winter coat on. She was sticking her head and digging up the snow, like a silly dog! Also she seems more alert that its all completely white outside.

Watershed Delineation Using ArcInfo 9.2 and LIDAR Data

This watershed analysis was done for Cleveland Metroparks using their primary datasets. LIDAR was acquired from OSIP.

Watershed Delineation

1-     Add reservation boundaries layer. Select a reservation. Zoom in.

2-     Add Hydrology layer and detailed streams layer from H:\temp\Mosaics-10000\1-STREAM ORDER SHAPEFILES-10000

3-     Add watershed layer from

4-     Draw rough boundary of watershed around the reservation with draw tool.

5-     Load the DEMS first by copying into V: drive and then decompressing the files using the command lines.

6-     Mosaic the “filled” DEMS

7-     Create subset of the entire mosaic

8-     Use the special “other tools” watershed delineation tool. Set output destinations.

9-     This will refill the filled mosaic. It will take a long time to run.

10- Infer the rivers from the “streams” output

11-  Convert selected streams into new shapefile

12-  Convert watershed raster to polygon

13-  Use “select by location” or ‘select by attributes” to select the watershed polygons that contain the selected streams.

14-  Create hillshade from the mosaic-ed raster DEM

15- create 2 ft and 5 ft contours from the mosaic-ed DEM

16- dissolve the polygon layer

17- DO NOT delete any of the intermediate layers

18- To correct errors put shapefiles into Geodatabase and set topology rules. Run.

For Urban Areas, Sewers, Storm Water Data, Pipes, Culverts etc.

1-     First add the infrastructure network layer on to the map

2-     Then activate Arc Hydro Tools 9

3-     Under Terrain Preprocessing find the DEM manipulation

4-     Under DEM manipulation find DEM Reconditioning

5-     The Mosaic will be the Raw DEM

6-     The AGREE Stream will be the network

7-     AGREE DEM will be the output (name wisely)

8-     Stream Buffer -5

9-     Smooth Drop/Raise (DEM z unit) -10

10-  Sharp Drop/Raise (DEM z unit) – 1000

I will update this later with step by step images, fails, and final product picture later.

Shortcut Keys for Special Symbols in ArcMap

Character	Keystroke		Unicode		Notes
Degree symbol	Alt+0176	°	00B0	°
Minute or prime symbol			2032	′	Do not use quote key
Second or double prime symbol			2033	″	Do not use double quote key
Copyright	Alt+0169	©	00A9	©	Should not be used in a narrow or condensed font
Plus sign	+ key	+
Minus sign			2212	−	The dash key or the minus key on the numeric keypad should not be used
Plus/minus sign	Alt+0177	±	00B1	±
Tilde	~ key	~	007E	~
Small tilde	Alt+0152	˜	02DC	˜
Hyphen or dash	- key	-
En dash	Alt+0150	–	2013	–
Em dash	Alt+0151	—	2014	—

Crush

He looked at me and smiled, in a flirty way. I looked away, because I didn't know him, and I didn't do "flirting". He was just a guy in the crowd and I was there to watch my friend's show. I hung out with my sister and her friends waiting for the band we knew to go on. and this guy looked at me a few times. He was cute, even handsome, despite his bizarre outfit. My friend's band went on, and they played well, I rocked out. I did not know the main band playing but I stayed around to watch. Lo and behold, the flirty guy got on stage. He made eye contact several times, and I felt like an idiot. Apparently they were pretty big in Cleveland, for their day.

Local band, but a huge local fan following. I met him later thanks to my friend and his band. I was wary but he was cute, especially the smile. Connection, and then I was communicating with him every now and then. However I slowly found out more about him, and he seemed like the kind of guy who likes to have fun, but never get serious. Or why would he want to get serious with me?

He had a lip piercing, he was tall and handsome and played the bass guitar damn well. I once went to his concert and I can swear we almost kissed, but I think I had gone with someone else (who I did not want to be there with).

I realized after a while that I should keep my distance, it's like was like all the fatty sugary foods, tempting a heart patient. Luckily he left the country to go teach English, and whenever he visited I had this urge to go throw everything away, just to have that one kiss, or night. However I wouldn't be able to deal with just that. So tempting though. However I would want more than that. Why should I settle to be that random one girl, I was better than that. I deserved someone who could see how "Awesome" I was. He would never see that. I made sure we stayed friends, and that's just that. I think I've known him longer than any of those girls who just enjoyed sex with him for one night.

:-)

I'm happy with myself for my decisions.

Eclectic Music

According to my mother, my father played a recording of Ravi Shankar on his Sitar and some guitar music of Sunil Ganguly, when I came out of her womb. So I have always loved music, everything but country, can't stand that drawl. Sorry, just not my thing (to each her/his own).
All my life I have been, some way or the other, musically involved. Whether it was singing, listening or playing (whatever else you can do to or with music). Also, I , like everyone else, have gone through many many different phases of music: from pop, to classic rock, to metal, to classical, to Indian music, world music, and the list goes on.
I loved each and every phase, and type of music. Each had its own sub-culture that came with it. Slightly ridiculous, cause you can just be you and listen to whatever the *#$%@ you want, but honestly people think their music makes them unique, thus the little subcultures, and the sub-subcultures of those sub-cultures! (and yes i did find it absolutely necessary to use a censored curse word, goes with the whole, "I'm cool, I'm a bad@$$ rockstar" attitude).

Sometimes I revisit phases. Musics. Genres. Sub-culture ness. (yes I just added the 'ness'). It is a nice nostalgic feeling. However sometimes there will be some music, albums, artists, who you ONCE listened to, or discovered with an ex-bf/ex-gf and that music is so hard to listen to again. Let me think... for example I have negative associations with Dire Straits, although I love them. It's been hard to listen to 311's Amber (although it is one of my favorite songs). Almost could never go back to Coldplay because of a stupid guy (Nick. Yes I will say the name, because that is one bad person, especially because he made me look bad. Enough about that). However I realized I can't make one person ruin COLDPLAY for me!

Music I revisit a lot: Vanessa Paradis she is one of my all time favorites. Spice Girls was a great time, and good lift me up for me. i only listen to it a lone or with my sister. The Beatles! Let it be known, that this is a prerequisite, and has been, for anyone who ever wanted to "date" me. I love the Beatles. They are EPIC (and this is the correct usage of the word). All their songs, the movement, the world... everything. Thank you for the music, Beatles. Sometimes I revisit my death metal phase, but it has lessened. My classical music phase is something calming, peaceful and centering.

I play the piano, however I love singing. I love singing "Your Song". It's a very special song. There are many other such special songs. I will list them soon on this blog. For now I shall sleep.

(Pictures courtesy Google search. Thank you googs!)

The Droid in our Lives

I once wrote an essay of how "the time they are a changing", and now i really do feel the full effect of that statement. I began a new job, and with a new job comes $$$!  So i bought myself an early Holiday Season gift: the Droid X!So I have always been jipped on the technology front because the thought used to be that only the business man/ important person should receive/need/ use technologically advanced, and expensive items. However as technology becomes more affordable, everyone can get a cell phone, and not just any cell phone, but a smart phone, or an ipad. These aren't just normal electronics; these devices have changed our day to day lives.

Remember when there were only land lines through one and only one telephone company? Now we have more than one option, plus cell phones. So people can reach us anytime, anywhere. However, we have caller ID so we can easily screen our calls, so people really can't reach us anytime, anywhere. Irony! Now there is texting; Texting is preferred over phone calls because its quiet, less invasive to the person being contacted's life. We can do away without all the small talk, and get to the point, or we can have entire conversations with text messaging. It's quick and easy. Then there is picture and video messaging... the list goes on.

With smart phones we can now download apps, short for application. "There's an app for that too"; that advertisement really hits the spot, because there is an app for everything that you could download for you phone. It's almost ridiculous.

My droid has changed my life, because instead of spending hours checking email and replying at the end of the day, I can reply ASAP. Facebook, twitter, gmail, gchat, skype, all my networking is on there. My finances, my calender, my netflix list, the list goes on. My life is now dependent on this pretty big, but small computer. My parent's joke that I went from being addicted to my laptop to a smaller computer, before which it was a desktop. Plus side of it all, I can send email, and communicate from dance class, from the gym, and right before I go to bed, I can listen to music on my phone, and take HD video too. My cell phone camera is WOW! (check out my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/pree1403?feature=mhum hopefully that is it).

Hope I'm doing a good job selling Droid/Android, they are paying me to do so. Just kidding; but they should, because I would recommend it to people who network a lot, and rely on their email, phone, text etc. to keep up with their day to day lives. Here's an example sometime the email reminder for dance class doesn't go out till the afternoon of. Working the hours I work, sometimes I don't have access to email right after work, and commuting 30 miles only to drive back for dance class is not conducive to keeping the carbon footprint down.
With the droid I get a flash reminder "email from Aya for dance class". I can also send out emails to my friends while planning my calender out. It is automatic, so every one who is invited gets the event reminder. Google Calender?

Did I mention the swype? It is an awesome was to type. I will suggest go to your nearest droid person and try it. I love touch screens.

Time to get back to my droid now.

See you later, maybe from my droid!

 

I forgot to mention: the droid and the pandora ap, make work somuch more bearable! (unless they play weird songs on the wrong channels! Example 3 doors down and aerosmith on my pop music channel. When I mean pop, I mean Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls type.)

My next blog shall be a blog about music!

Feeling the world with our feet

The Memories and Instinct:

                There is some sort of inherent need to move our bodies. It is most natural in all of us especially when we are children. To run, to play, to dance, to climb, to jump, frolic and leap. As children we can’t sit still, and then slowly our spirits and bodies get tamed.

                We grow up and put on shoes. All sorts of shoes, flip flops, sandals, sneakers, boots, high heels… it is then that we stop exercising our feet the way. They are just there, as an appendage. We use them day to day but do we ever think of them? The toes, the in-between the toes, the ball of the foot, the arch, the heel, the ankle…

                As a child I remember running through the jungles in India, cautious yet very care free. Running fast, wind in my hair, sand flying up behind me… Remember the time you walked barefoot on the beach, and the sand scrubs against the bottom of your feet, gently so. The waves wash over your feet, and you can wiggle your toes into the sand, and it slightly tickles.

                Climbing a tree, we can feel all the different textures of the bark. Using our feet to grasp, hug and cling to the tree limbs, almost monkey like. To dangle our feet from the tree and feel the breeze caress our bare soles. Climbing rocks, feeling the marble of the Taj Mahal under your feet, the hot desert sand, the furry dog. Go ahead take your shoes off, wiggle your toes, and stretch the feet!

                Now by habit we put on shoes before going out, we even wear them indoors. We wear shoes so often that wearing fresh socks is such an exhilarating sensation for our feet! Our shoes do protect us from getting our toes stubbed, protects our feet from all sorts of damages, apart from surviving many other functions. What is missing, however, in this foot-shoe relationship, is the connection between us and the environment. The shoe creates a gap between that. We stop feeling the world with our feet.

The Science:

                I read an article in Cleveland Fitness magazine about barefoot running, and how more people are doing it. It actually helps the feet grow stronger, more muscles are used in the entire body. There is less impact, because instead of striking the ground with the heel each time, you land on the mid to upper parts of the sole (excuse me for I do not know the exact terminology for parts of the foot). Of course barefoot running maybe painful; after so many years of wearing shoes our feet are so tender, soft and sensitive, that most rough and hard surfaces hurt our feet. So I would say start little at a time. However after reading the article I began running, with the thought in my head - heck I did this as a child, I should be able to run miles barefoot. Alas, my thinking was wrong, and to just run 3 miles barefoot on a trail is a bad idea, and can lead to injuries especially when those muscles have not been used in a while. So start by walking short distance, and then increasing slowly. Then jog, and then run, over a longer period of time. There are many videos online, and websites which talk about this, and studies have been done.

                After much research I also found anti-barefoot websites. Seemed like Shoes were the major religion, and barefoot was the anti-religion, it was rather odd to see such hatred against people who just choose not to wear shoes. On a tangent... aren't there tonnes of guys who work outdoors in the summer with no t-shirts on? How is not wearing shoes SUCH A BAD THING? Seems a little extreme. However I think we have done it before, we can try it again.

(for more reading: "Born to Run" - Christopher McDougall;
http://www.chrismcdougall.com/
http://www.barefootrunningbook.com/ ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_running#Prominent_barefooters ;
http://therunningbarefoot.com/ ;
http://www.barefootrunner.com/ ;
http://www.barefoot-running.com/ ;
http://www.runbare.com/ ;
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127134241.htm ;
http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0103/mw.htm ;
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-240-319--6728-0,00.html ;
http://www.runtheplanet.com/trainingracing/training/alternative/barefoot.asp ;
http://zenhabits.net/barefoot-running/ ;
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/technology/4314401 ;
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/01/28/shoeless_running_may_spare_feet/ ; http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/ ;
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/barefoot-running-study-finds-your-sneakers-are-unnatural ; http://ezinearticles.com/?Research-on-Barefoot-Running&id=4343746 ;
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/04/running-technique-footstrike.html ;
http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-amp-gaming/article/2009-05/running-barefoot ;

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20100127/barefoot-running-laced-with-health-benefits ;
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/runningworkouts/a/Barefoot-Running.htm ;
http://www.therunningfront.com/natural-running/beware-of-barefoot-running-injuries/ ;
http://www.foot-health-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17587

        

The Non-Shoe Shoe:

               The Vibram FiveFingers, a little over priced, but an awesome shoe with technology that makes being barefoot fun yet reduces the stress and pain of running barefoot for the first time. There are different types, with different amounts of support, and thickness of the sole. I tried them on and loved it, I was looking for new hiking/running shoes and settled for this. Although I should have started slowly, I kinda jumped into it, and now I'm taking it slowly, after reading about it a lot.

Barefoot:

             Finally, let's say you have urge to go hiking after work and you just don't have your shoes for some reason, go barefoot run on the grassy portions. Just go barefoot!

Mallika

Dearest Mallika,

They say, 'all things happen for a reason'; And 'tis under these circumstances that I finally get to tell you

how special you are to me, and how much of an impact you have had on my life.

As we now understand that human relationships are fickle, I also understand how they can be, in fact, timeless.

For although we are not connected by blood, I have always considered you closer than that, and and dearer than those who are connected by blood.

I remember when we first heard you were going to marry our beloved uncle; We made room for you in our hearts, which was challenging to do for we only had room for our Uncle. The little room we had for you however, grew and grew. 

You were not only my aunt, you were my role model, some one I looked up to, you were inspiring. You were like a mother at times, others a good friend, a mentor, a guide, and a teacher.

I remember I always wanted to be as beautiful as you, as strong as you, independent, like you I wanted to have the same haircut as you. You are a very powerful woman.

I want to be like you, in my own way however, but I will be just like you!

You always talked about how to be a strong woman, and that we must break away from stereotyped roles of women. You made us think, analyze and open our eyes to the world.

I remember you taught me and my sister about sexual intercourse, something NO ONE had dared to tell us about. I was an adolescent, and Piyali was a little younger. Ma couldn't find the strength within her to tell us before, and they don't teach us about it until 10th grade in school. You said that hiding such information at this day and age was ridiculous, with all the violence against women, rape and what not going on. You took us to the park as ma cried. You taught us about love, marriage, boys, sex, rape, and dating. THANK YOU SO MUCH for that very important life lesson.

You taught us how to be strong women. I remember your stance when in argument, and always sought your clarity in though and strength of voice when in an argument.You taught me, through your toughness, how to be stronger and to get things done. TO DO IT. 

You have helped me WANT TO prove myself... to be a stronger woman. To NOT SETTLE for anything less that what I want. To seek the best, always.

Over the years I saw how I could be girlie and feminine while being a tomboy!

How to guard ourselves, our hearts. How to be passionate about what we do. You were always so passionate, and enthusiastic about your work. You work very hard, always.

You taught me so many things; thank you.

I am glad the last time I was there we shared such a close moment. I realized that underneath my aunt's tough outer shell, she has the most tender, caring and loving heart. Our connection ran deeper, close to spiritual bond. I learned about how you are deeply spiritual, and have faith in love.

I love you so much Mallika. and I hope a small hiccup in such silly relationships humans create, that ours wont be broken.

To me you will always be my most beloved aunt in my heart and mind. Always.

You will always be my friend.

My mentor, my role model.

Your loving niece

Priyanka