Quest for a (healthy) chocolate almond butter cookie

Nothing like a perfect unplanned weekend, well not the whole weekend (so far!) anyway, at least Saturday...

I once ate Kashi Chocolate Almond Butter cookie and when I woke up this fine (but gloomy) morning, for some reason I realized that there's a a big hole in my life... it wasn't until a few moments of deep self contemplation did I realize what it was... a hole inflicted by that very cookie I had devoured, something only a perfect homemade healthy chocolate cookie could fill.  And that's how began the quest to bake my own.

After some Googling I found a recipe that was closest to what I was looking for.  Best part was it was egg-less and didn't have anything that I wouldn't normally eat or couldn't pronounce, so very unlike the one I ate.  With tweaks of my own already playing in my mind I was swaying between: organize-n-clean the house(it's in total disarray!), clean the kitchen (barely any space on kitchen platform to work), cook lunch, go to office, oorrr.... bake a cookie!

I don't have to tell you who won... it was that chocolate crazed hound living inside of me, that's who!  (And to tell you the truth, it was totally worth skipping lunch for it!).  I had to go office though, couldn't skip that.

With mind set on the goal, I called upon my good'ol companion, Vividh Bharti.  Vividah Bharat was playing non-stop old melodies, a perfect setting for job at hand.  I needed no more encouragement, I knew I had made the right choice.

In the process, I discovered a few new (old!) songs that I hadn't heard before... that is the best part of listening to music on "real" radio, you always find a gem or two you haven't heard before.  And since this was non-stop gapless program, there were no radio jockeys, no adverts nothing, just pure unadulterated music.  Just me, my radio and cookie, perfectly Zen-like (though there was nothing Zen about it!).  My appreciation for behind-the-curtain engineers at the radio station who make this happen grew a bit today, but deepest heart felt thanks to people at AIR who finally made Vividh Bharti officially available over-the-web!

Just about to go into the oven

Let's not digress too much.

There was but one hurdle in otherwise perfect quest for a perfect cookie...  I was short of 2 very important ingredients: oats flour and buckwheat flour.  I wasn't in a mood to go out and shop, lest then I would have to finish other (boring) outdoorsy chores too.  I obviously had some buckwheat and oats at hand, so I put them in my good trust NutriBullet, for I knew she could handle it in a jiffy and indeed a few zaps later I had perfect oat and buckwheat flours!  Problem solved.
I followed the discovered recipe pretty much to the word, only change I made was to add molasses and almost double/triple the amount of nuts and cocoa powder.  'Nough histroy, let's get to baking...

First, My Personal Tips:

• Always roast the nuts.  Make sure you give enough time to cool them down, an hour maybe (you can always roast and keep some in airtight container for later use).  If you use them warm they become too soft and take away all the fun of having crunchy nuts in the cookies.  You can use almonds, peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts or any other nut you love
• If the honey and/or coconut oil is solid (like it always is in the Pacific Northwest) don't microwave, rather just put the required amount in a small bowl, place the bowl in a larger one and add hot water to the larger bowl (on general principle, I avoid microwave if I can).  In a few minutes you'll have them nice and flowing.
• DO NOT, PLEASE DO NOT use store-bought run-of-the-mill cocoa/cocao powder.  For the perfect umph, use really high quality minimally processed raw cocoa powder.  Ever since I have discovered this ingredient, my kitchen-life hasn't been same again.

I know the list of ingredients looks a bit long for purportedly simple recipe, but trust me, this is a very very forgiving cookie (again very zen-like) and very simple to make.  Doesn't turn out bad if you don't proportion a few ingredients right.  You'll have to take my word on it for now.
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup each of: buckwheat, oat and whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons chocolate chips (I used way more than that!)
• 2 tablespoons almonds & walnuts, chopped and toasted (or any of the nuts you love)
• 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (optional)

Cooking Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F/175C
• Whisk together the honey, coconut oil, almond butter and vanilla in a bowl
• Add the next five ingredients, rolled oats, cocoa and 3 flours; mix until just combined
• You are not looking for the regular perfect smooth blob of dough, so don't try to mash it into one!
• Fold in the chocolate chips and (cooled down) nuts
• Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie
• Flatten into a circle—they will not spread once they start baking but they will break, so you'll have to muster some skill
• Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until the tops look dry
• Remove and let it cool completely before serving, lest you'll burn your tongue from the still lava-hot choco-chips hidden inside (don't ask me how I know this!)

That's how mixed ingredients should look like

What would I do differently:

0. Add more blackstrap molasses
1. Experiment adding some more variety of grains
2. For a small batch I made, I would rather use a small counter-top oven versus the huge cooking range one

Out came scrumptious Chocolate Almond Butter cookie!

Movie Review: 300-Rise of an Empire

300-Rise of an Empire, or in simple terms, 300 Part-2...

One of those other weekends, I had nothing better to do (in retrospect, I was so wrong!) so I went to catch up on a movie with a buddy, it had been a really long time since I last watched a movie in theater.  To say that the movie was boring, would be a gross understatement, cinematography was good, but only at times and only to a certain extent.

And here's my take, the movie, surprisingly can be very accurately summarized in mere 3 short words/phrases:

0. Water! Lots of it! In fact it wouldn't hurt to blame California's water shortage entirely on this movie!
1. Blood! Even more plentiful than water!  Take that Mel Gibson for Apocalypto or even Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill(s)
2. One lousy half-a$$ s3x scene (s3x scenes are quintessential part of _every_ American movie)
3. Slow Motion (ok, I lied, there are 4 items, not 3).

The movie is nothing more than a hodge-podge of dismemberment of body parts (hands, legs, head, anything) that fly everywhere with blood splattering all around in extreme slow motion under a gloomy-n-internally overcast semi-black-and-white environment.  When nobody's hacking bodies, the dialogues in the movie are banal, at best.
Compared to the original 300 (my review here), this movie is almost entirely shot in slow motion. I was afraid even the dialogues would now start appearing in ssslllooowwww mmmoootttiiiooonnn and to tell you the truth, I wouldn't have been surprised if that had actually happened! So much so, that if we played the movie at normal rate then the entire movie would be over in 15 minutes flat!  The time part is a bit of an over statement, but you get the idea.

Good Thing: The only silver lining, watching it in 3D didn't induce a head-ache (and that's only because of the movie being in slo-mo), unlike Superman-Man of Steel, which gave me a splitting headache after I watched it in 3D, TW-freaking-ICE!

Verdict:
Life could only be better if you skip this one.

See Also:

• Movie Review: 300

Best Day and Tulip Festival

Wet Pink Tulip Petal

That Saturday was one of the BEST'est days I have seen in Seattle in about a year. No kidding, I'm not exaggerating.  It was only one of the 2-3 days that the Sun was out for a whole day with no rains, no clouds and temperature comfortably hovering a little over 60F (15C).  Ok, I give it to you that I'm only talking about weekends, because a sunny weekday is only as useful as a 3-1/2 inch floppy inside a Lightscribe CD Drive (lame analogy, I know, I'm on a roll!).

Yellow Tulips Field with Cascasdes in the backdrop

It was a perfect day _NOT_ to spend waste at the office (like all the other weekends ~~sigh~~), so we had already decided to visit Skagit Tulip Festival. Looking back, a hike would have been orders of magnitude more exhilarating, but I was more than glad just to step out into the open air.  With some last-minute changes in plan more people wanted to join and while one group was running late in spite of my insistence of being out-of-the door by 0800hrs. After waiting for long (restlessly) I said let one group go ahead while the second joins.  So we started off at early around 0930 hours and luckily didn't hit any traffic (neither on I-5 nor on the internal roads). The second group (who started 20 minutes after us came more than an hour and a half later). A colleague of mine at office, I later learned, left at noon for the festival and was stuck in a 20+ long miles traffic jam! Indeed, while returning I counted the line on other side of the freeway, it had come to a crawl for 10 miles, after which I stopped paying attention on the other side (because I was driving :-P).

Long story short, I was as ecstatic for being out in the sun with clear skies as a kid is when you let him loose in a candy store with his favorite Disney Characters. I felt alive again!  I am not a bot no more.  I pray to thee, for you give life, Sun!  I was breathing sun :D
The weather forecast looks abysmal for rest of the Spring, so I hope I make best of the days that are good (read: sunny).
Here are some shots form my Tulips Album for the year 2011.

Beautiful Pink Tulips

Tulips by a Pond

At the Heart of Every Tulip!

And now time for one nice Group Photo

Full Album here: Tulip Festival 2011!

Additional Info:

2011 seems the worst year on record with the fewest number of days above 55F, per one blogger on his/her post: Are Northwest Springs Getting Worse?

Double Chocolate Cheesecake

If you are overly restless, here's the recipe in a breeze...

• 24 Oreo Cookies, crushed
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 4 pkg. (225g) Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Melted & cooled Semi-Sweet Chocolate
• 2 mashed potatoes/4 tbsp ground flax-seed/4 eggs
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Make It!

• Heat oven to 325ºF. Mix crumbs and butter, press onto bottom of foil-lined pan. Bake 10 min.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, sour cream and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add chocolate mix well. Add mashed-potatoes/ground flax-seed/eggs, 1 at a time until blended. Pour over crust.
• Bake 45 min. Cool completely. Refrigerate 5 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan. Top with berries.

Thanks to Sheetal for pointing out the recipe & giving baking tips and Amy for clearing some last-minute doubts :)
Now, before I proceed...

Though I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I experiment in other aspects of life far more than in my kitchen-life. So let me assure you that I am not planning on converting my blog into a cooking blog, this is one of the few pleasant aberrations to my regular experimentation in life.
Cheesecake is one of the few (or maybe THE ONLY one) American dessert I like. And given I have a sweet tooth, I thought of baking one. I have never baked anything before and so after lot of contemplation and seeking advice from advanced cooks, I jumped off to bake one myself. It turned out pretty delicious and many people asked the recipe, so thought of sharing with the larger audience. Plus, it is not very difficult to make.

Detailed Recipe:

Prep Time: about 60 mins, Total Time: 2hrs (add 5-8hrs to freeze)
Expertise Required: Intermediate
Taste Achieved: Pro-level!
(Special Tip: All you guys out there, this recipe is your perfect chance to impress your girlfriends. Seize it!)

Ingredients:

1. 24 Oreo Cookies, crushed (about 2 cups)
Tip: You can use some other biscuit/cracker if you like, say digestive ones. The thickness of crust doesn't change after baking, so use judgment on how many to crush depending on the thickness of crust you want.
2. 1/4 cup butter, melted
3. 4 pkg. (8oz, approx 225gm) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened, i.e. room temp.
4. 1 cup sugar
5. 1/2 cup sour cream
Tip: This is my addition to this recipe. If you concentrate well on the taste while eating a cheesecake, you will notice slight sourness in it. Sour cream is what will give you this nuance of sourness. You can use a few drops of lemon juice instead of sour cream.
6. 2 tbsp. flour
7. 1 tsp. vanilla
8. Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted, slightly cooled
Tip: Skip this step to get plain traditional Cheesecake. If you want chocolatey taste without brown color, you can use white chocolate (friend's tip). But personally I am NOT a big fan of white chocolate. Hard-core brown chocolate is the way to go.
9. 4 eggs equivalent of potatoes (or ground flax seeds) or if you eat eggs, then take 4 eggs
If you know some good substitutes to egg, please email me or leave a comment here. Please make a suggestion only if you have tried it personally.  I have had success with flax-seed, but limited success with potatoes, guess I didn't smash'em well.
10. 1/2 cup blueberries (sliced strawberries look sexy, or use your favorite fruit)

Action, Making the Crust: You can get one of those ready-made ones from the market: a pie-base, or even Oreos base. But given that it only takes a few minutes to make one yourself, I find making crust at home to be a more exciting option (and leaves some room for your creative juices to flow!) Plus you are not restricted by the sizes of ready-made ones.

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F
2. Crush 24 Oreos in a ziplock bag (guess you can even crush them in a mixer)
Add 1/4 cup melted butter, and mix well.
3. Line your baking pan with Foil and grease it well
4. Press the well-mixed crumbs on the base of the pan
5. Bake it for 10 miuntes
6. Remove from oven and let it cool
Your base is now ready! Set it aside while we make the batter.

Action, Making The Batter:

1. Beat Cream cheese (4pkt), sugar (1 cup), flour (2 tbsp) and vanilla (1 tbsp) until they are blended well
2. Melt your chocolate cubes/pieces, cool it and then slowly mix it with batter
3. Add eggs(ground flax seed + warm water): 1 at a time. Mix the egg well before adding another
4. Add sour cream, this gives a subtle sourness essential for yummy taste
5. Blend everything well, ensuring that there are no air bubbles in the batter.
Tip: If you leave any air bubbles, they will rise and either make your outer crust floppy or form craters on the surface after baking.
6. Pour it over the crust you baked and cooled a while ago
7. Bake for 45-50 mins at 350F
8. When done, cool it completely and then freeze it for 5-8 hours.
9. Remember the foil you put in the pan, now use it to remove the cake easily from the pan!
Tip: Without the foil you would have had to use fancy expensive springform baking pans.

I can't tell you precisely how to know when it is done, but I'm pretty sure if you followed everything, then at the end of 50min baking period, your cheesecake is baked well. Some say, if the center of your cheesecake jiggles when shaken, it is done. But personally, I find it to be a very difficult (and imprecise) test to conduct! Of course, I guess, unless you are already good at baking.

Serving Tip:
Since the cake is creamy, it has a tendency to stick to the knife while cutting. I warm my knife a bit (by dipping it in hot water, or holding over a gas/stove for few seconds) before I cut the cake. That's my personal tip :-) Then, top the slice off with your favorite berry or fruit and enjoy finger-licking tasty Chocolatey Cheesecake. For once, don't bother much about the calories and indulge yourself :) If you think that this isn't enough calories for you, consider adding some cream! Nice hot steaming cup of Jasmine Green Tea makes for a perfect companion to the slice of this choclatey cheesecake.


I followed recipe to the word and I can say that it would be very difficult to get it wrong if you follow it properly. Here's the detailed video demonstrating the recipe I took as a reference: Philly Double Chocolate Cheesecake. My only deviation to this recipe was adding sour cream. (Nit-Pick: I don't know why it is called Double Chocolate Cheesecake, probably because both the crust as well as batter are made of chocolate?)
If you are looking for a lot of hard-core cooking recipes-tips-tricks, then check out my friends' blogs:
0. My Cooking Experiments, by SK
1. Recipes For All Occasions, by Priya
2. I Googled I Saw I Cooked, by Sangeetha

Refreshingly Tired!

Today (Sunday) morning I got up scratching my a.. head and reflected on the previous day: Saturday. Only to realize that it went pretty well for an unplanned weekend. And the first thing, of course, that struck me after that was: Aahh... a nice post material! Especially when I haven't blogged in a while and the post I'm working on for the last two months haven't taken a final form yet. Indy's interrogative chat further solidified the highlights of this post.

Woke up early morning to a nice 2 hour football (soccer) game. It had two amazing bits in it:

0. the game itself, of course and
1. the sun was burning bright! It was strenuous to play in intense sun, but the sun makes me feel good, specially when I don't see of him often.

Just when I thought I will take a nice warm shower and sleep like a baby, if not through rest of the Saturday, then at least for a hour or so, I said let me catch up with Arun (aka Anna). We haven't had a talk to heart's content recently. So the next 2-3 hrs I was on call with Anna (talked for a while with Su as well). We talked from technology to philosophy to entrepreneurship to many different things under the sun. While talking, I took the opportunity to cook myself some nice Pasta for lunch(thanks to Vabs for teaching me the recipe). I was hoping to have it for dinner as well (lazy a$$), but roomies liked it too. I say so because after a while the pot was empty :) Feels good when people eat what you cook without muttering under their breaths :)

With stomachful of pasta, I sat down for a nice 1-1 private time with my laptop :) I later connected with yet another friend whom I haven't met in a long while, Amy. A talk that culminated into Bhel-for-dinner program at her place. Just then, called Ani to sync up on some movie plans.

When all the calls were done with, I watched something for a while on laptop, until my eyelids were heavy with sleep and I had irresistible desire to hit bed really HARD. After a nice refreshing nap (followed by steaming cuppa that had Mom-made super-special chai-masala in it!), had a LONG talk with my Mom, brother and Pa. As soon as I got off from that call, Motya (another of my old time buddies) called! God, for a moment I was feeling like I was in a call center!

Another nice long chat with him and soon after some household chores, it was time for dinner, Bhel! So me, Vish & Aveek reached Amy's place for a nice dinner. Though easy to make, it takes some culinary skills to make a tasty Bhel. Thanks to Amy, she nails it every single time. Eating Bhel while watching Welcome (one of my favorite'st movies), was more than I could have asked from the night. As soon as we were done with dinner, Ani called to confirm he's got the tickets for the show. It was time for the much talked about movie in the town: Inception.

We reached a little late, so we had to sit in the front rows with 6-storey gigantic screen almost looming over us. Inception was nice, while I liked the concept of planting a thought by tapping into someone's psyche, I found the movie to be too complex to enjoy. More than 4 levels of dreams-in-dreams is not only complex to comprehend, but laughably ludicrous. It, thus, doesn't lodge Matrix-1(1999) and Jurassic Park(1993) from their top positions as best Sci-Fi movie from my list. That said, I would watch it a few more times to at least understand it completely. But I'm sure that even when I understand it completely, Matrix won't drop down in the list (which BTW, is leaps-and-bounds above Avatar as well).

I have a feeling I'm forgetting something, but... with that, the amazing day that started at 6am in the morning came to an abrupt end at 3am in the night! None of this was planned before hand, except the morning game. What a day! This is a lot of action I have had in one day in many many months!

When I finally hit the bed, I said to myself with a smile: I'm refreshingly tired today!

Recent Escapades: Little Si, Columbia Gorge & St. Helens and Mt. Rainier Paradise Point

Of lately, life seems to have been degraded to a cat-n-mouse game, comically akin to Tom-n-Jerry, only, not comic. For a while it seems I am ahead of life (or at least have had a good grasp of it) and the very same instant it gets ahead of me! In a sense, it seems to be a meaningless and frivolous rat-race. To cloud out all the unnecessary clutter from mind, I have had a few escapades. Following are few worth sharing, just because it was so easy to digitally trap them with my camera.

0. Little Si
1. Gorge and St. Helens
2. Mt. Rainier Paradise Point

0. Little Si

Dandelion From Little Si

At an elevation of 1576 feet, Little Si (pronounced sigh) does not seem to be a lofty peak, but let not the raw number fool you. Little Si gains that elevation in just 2.2 miles (each way). The first mile or so is very gentle and mild. But the next mile offers quite imposing cliffs. It surely is not meant for beginners. Be prepared with some food, ample water and some stamina.

Also, unlike most other treks, the summit is NOT picturesque, another disappointment. And neither is the trail so beautiful. So if you plan to go to Little Si, make sure that your ONLY intention is exercise. Not to say that a good photographer can make beautiful pictures out of anything. I tried too, and will let you judge how I fared. And don't forget to take some warm clothing, it can be pretty windy at the top, which hits you hard when you are all sweaty.

Once at the summit, have some nice lunch, probably with a hot drink and then head down back to your car.

Directions:
Drive Interstate 90 and take the main North Bend exit, heading left into town. Turn right on North Bend Way and drive a couple miles to the Mount Si Road. Turn left, cross the bridge over the Snoqualmie River and park near the bridge in the marked lot. It is difficult to miss the parking lot.

More information: http://www.mountsi.com/info.shtml

1. Columbia Gorge and St. Helens

Brothers Talesara! From Columbia Gorge

This was a very hectic 550+ miles trip in just 36 hours! Driving 550 odd miles was kind of fun, but it was also very tiring especially when it is done with other activities and that too in a short span of 36 hours. We went to almost all the points we set to visit, but I wish I had a little more time. Columbia Gorge is certainly a very very beautiful place. Worth going down to a few times, for, probably on each visit you might see something new. I say keep 2-3 days at your hands if you want to make most of your trip. But even as short the trip was, it was fun, because I got ample shooting opportunities.

Vivd Landscape from Vista House From Columbia Gorge

Just for your reference, if you have limited time and want to make most of your trip, there are few places worth visiting:

• Vista House Scenic Byway
• Multnomah Falls
• Fish Hatchery at Bonneville Dam
• Curly Creek Falls
• Windy Ridge Viewpoint. I think adding this place to itinerary makes sense only when you are heading to Washington, because that is when it kind of comes on the way (with little to no detour).
  

2. Impromptu Mt. Rainier Paradise Point trip

Golden Mt. Rainier at Sunset From Mount Rainier Paradise Point

I was a little reluctant on this one for I was little tired and wanted to spend some time home (slumbering with a nice novel) and nothing was planned. If you are going as far as about 100+ miles, each way, you better have a pretty good idea of what places you can and cannot visit,. But good sunny weather and insistence did the trick and I tagged along. Since it wasn't well planned, we just hit Paradise point, trekked along some random trail and headed back home, after doing Reflection Lake on the way. Once again, I wish I had little more time on this trip, could have seen Reflection Lake before sun started going down, which I know, looks just gorgeous.

Reflection Lake From Mount Rainier Paradise Point

Myrtle Falls From Mount Rainier Paradise Point

Links to albums:

1. Little Si
   
2. Long trip to Columbia Gorge and St. Helens
3. Mt. Rainier Paradise Point

Insanely Long Post

At the onset of the year 2009, I knew that the 5-6 months that lie immediately in front of me are going to be extremely grueling. Guess, I was wrong! I wasn't prepared for what lie ahead of me, it seems, in retrospect.

For the lack of better word, life (on personal front) had been more than an excruciating roller-coaster ride for past 6 months. It is worth going through all the pains, only if you know there is a sweet end to it, and you can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel (which you are sure is not from an oncoming train that will run you over). I saw that light on and off, like someone was holding a blinking light and playing tricks with me. That explains sporadic/no emails, no replies, no phone calls, reduced online activity, no login on GTalk/YM IMs and increased isolation! But nothing to worry, for, if I were to assume that my unassuming assumption of 'things are under control' is a right assumption, all seems to be well :-)

Apart from work and coping up with tons of other things, I have been largely spending inordinate amounts of time (mostly with self) philosophy'ing, professing, contemplating, understanding, questioning, discovering and rediscovering the meaning, purpose and essence of life. And going beyond: the purpose of all of the beings, their actions, reactions, sins, good/bad-deeds, death, birth, karma, consciousness, subconsciousness, etc. And I have to admit that I am no closer to any answers than I was at the beginning of this journey (not to mention the additional array of questions that took birth!). Yet, I believe it is worth treading along.

So here is an insanely long post of things (in no particular perceivable order) on my mind today, that I thought I could share... This is not the final version and will probably evolve over a period of fews days after initial posting. For your convenience, here are some shortcuts that will jump to specific sections, this much for being considerate reader of this boring post :-)

• Documentaries/Movies
• Ice Age-3
• Dispatches Mumbai 26/11
• Dispatches Pakistan's Taliban Generation
• Transformer-2
• Terminator-4
• UP
• G.I. Joe
• Battle of X-Planes
• Outings
• Weekend with Arun-Su
• Green Lake Park
• Snoqualmie Falls
• Rattlesnake Ledge Trails
• Photos
• Long Weekend with Arun-Su, SeaWorld
• Woodland Park Zoo
• Green Lake Park
• Snoqualmie Falls
• Gasworks Park
• Panorama Seattle Downtown
• Fishtank
• Heatwave
• Random Thought
• Serenity
• Latest Fads
• Recently Read Books
• Upcoming Activities & Fads
• Diving deeper into photography
• Sports
• Movies I Want to see
• Books I want to read
• Geekdom
• Outings
• Posts to expect

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Movies/Documentaries

Nothing beats the joy of a relaxing (and thought provoking) movie. I utterly detest the act of watching a movie that will shove garbage up a$$ and eventually into head. As long as movie is provoking positive thoughts and attitude, I can watch it.

0. Ice Age-3,aka Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
I had never seen a movie in 3D in my life before. And this was the FIRST ever 3D movie I have seen. It was an exhilarating experience. This is one of the best movies I have seen lately. After a few minutes, the fact that movie is 3D is forgotten only because the story is so gripping, funny & engaging. My favorite character is Buck; an eccentric, brave and mysteriously knowledgeable little creature in the strange land of dinos. Of all the Ice Age movies, this is THE BEST so far. No nonsense, no emotional garbage, funny quips and lots of action and affection. A perfect package to rejuvenate a otherwise languid day. It would be fair to claim that it is one of the only few movies that is suitable to and enjoyable by every age group: kids, teens and adults alike.
1. Dispatches Mumbai 26/11
Link to video Disclaimer: The programm contains graphic images and descriptions of the atrocity which may upset some viewers. I myself couldn't watch it in one go! November last year, the world stood still and watched in shock as terrorists went on a rampage in the bustling city of Mumbai in India. Came across this excellent [and] disturbing documentary by Channel 4/BBC, an untold story of 2008's terrorist attack, in the eerie words of its victims and the gunmen. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai tells the story of what happened when 10 gunmen held one of the world's busiest cities at hostage; killing and wounding hundreds of people at will while holding India's top notch security at bay. The sad thing, today, is that even after all these months, it is business as usual as far as apprehending the culprits is concerned. Pakistan just released the prime suspect, and is blaming India for his release (which is kinda funny, because Pak is apparently imposing a ban on such nonsensical outfits anyways!). I cannot comprehend what is more sad, the fact that so many innocent lives were lost, our security sucks or the fact that business is back to normal as if nothing happened. Sometimes I wonder if affected people wonder whether it is worth continuing living such a life (where the a$holes eventually shall inherit the world) over total annihilation of human race with nuclear warfare and let the whole world reboot, eviscerated of all the vices. Additional Links: 0. 8 Ways India can hurt Pak 1. Mumbai massacre revisited
2. Dispatches Pakistan's Taliban Generation
Video 0, Video 1 Pakistan's Taliban Generation investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists - children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan. Journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy reveals how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly young fighters for their campaign. She interviews a 14-year-old boy in Karachi who's desperate to become a suicide bomber. At a nearby refugee camp, Sharmeen interviews two teenage boys whose local madrassa was hit by bombardments (alleged by US drones and Pakistani armies) while children were studying (read: studying? really?) inside. In the aftermath of the attack, a local militant arrives to preach to a large crowd of local youngsters. He successfully bags (read: brainwashes) a handful of fresh recruits! For various reasons, these videos are being forced out of shared sites. So if any of the links are dead, just Google these names out and you will get at least one current active source. It would be nice if you are kind enough to share it with me, so that I can keep it current.
3. Transformers 2, aka Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
I would rate it at just 5.0/10. While good, more than 2 hours of non-stop abuse of special effects is not fun to watch. This happened to be my first movie in IMAX (but non-dome) theater. Frankly, I couldn't appreciate the hyped IMAX factor. I don't know who is to be blamed: the fact that IMAX theater is indeed a hype, or the movie was sh!tty. The movie got on nerves, esp. because the movie is insanely long. Definitely worth letting it pass by unwatched (unless you want to ogle at Megan Fox, I didn't).
4. Terminator 4, aka Terminator Salvation
I don't know why am I even mentioning this. Probably just to let you know that if you haven't seen this, don't waste your precious time (and money). By any stretch, movie is just average, and falls far below expectations on every front: direction, action and story. Story, is a little too incomprehensible, if (like me) you are not an insane die-hard Terminator fan. Skip it, I would say.
5. UP
While very engaging and entertaining, it tends to get too depressing (in the memory of old man's sweet wife) very too often. This fact drains out all the fun from a otherwise very well made and directed animation movie.
6. G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra
A movie so devoid of any substance, that even the starring of bombshells like VS-angel Karolina Kurkova and Sienna Miller doesn't cut it through. Except for the concept of nano-mites (and its applications, good and bad), the movie had no thought provoking substance in it for me. Major part of movie towards the end looks nothing like a movie! It looks like a poorly made VGA-era game projected on giant screen in the year 2009. Fx (if you will call that) comes nowhere close to the epic special effects of a decade old Matrix! Not even two decade old Jurassic Park! Hasbro, simply sucks. The fact that they did such a trashy job on Transformer 2, I shouldn't have craved to watch this movie. I could have done sooooooo much more in those 2 hours and with now-wasted 15 dollars ~~~sigh~~~
7. Battle of X-Planes
America has a yearly military budget of 600+ billion dollars, which is higher than the military budget of rest of the world put together! This is a technically very thought-provoking documentary. They have made a very nice film out of the quest of two of the biggest aviation companies (Boeing and Lockheed Martin) to build two prototype jets each to replace the formidable (but seemingly unaffordable) F22 Raptors. Very engaging, it has boat loads of technology, zest, energy, thrill and politics in one single package. This documentary left no doubt in my mind as to why USA's military force is so formidable. Additional Links: 0. Military Expenditure by country

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Outings

0. Long Weekend with Aurn-Suchi
This deserves a post in itself, but I figured if I delay it any more, it won't happen. So, in the essence of something is better than nothing, I clubbed it along here. It had been a long time I met my old time buddy Arun (aka Anna). My plans to spend a week with him and his wife (Suchi, aka Su) before I started my new journey got cancelled, and ever since we have been itching to meet. Finally, that happened on the Independence day long weekend. Wow! It was such a rejuvenating and relaxing 4-day trip, I don't have right words to put it in perspective. We had made great plans, but Su's health didn't cooperate, so we spent lot of time unplanned at home. I bet it was far more fun than anything we had on paper to do if Su's health were better. Eating yummy food, watching movie, talking on and on, seeing photographs, etc... it was real fun. The night I landed in LA, me and Anna talked about everything there is to talk about under the sun: technology, life, computers, cars, economics, movies, philosophy, psychology, spiritualism, religion, love, hatred, books, laptops, operating systems, algorithms, stores, and what not! For a 5-6 hours talk, that was pretty dense variety of topics :) We went for La Jolla Beach, but the @#$ing traffic on I-5 consumed all the time we had (more than 2+ hrs of ride, for a usually about 50min ride) and so hit the beach only at hours past sunset. We had food at a nice Persian restaurant, though. To help recuperate Su's health, we let her stay home while we went to San Diego SeaWorld the next day. It was a great outing, but the time spent unplanned at home were the most fun filled moments! Click here for photos from my LA trip.

Long Weekend of July with Arun and Suchi

Essence: Nothing beats the joy of connecting to a close old timer.
1. Green Lake Park
On some odd sunny Sunday we ventured out to yet another park. We couldn't spend much time there, for some of us had to reach back home early, but I managed to click some photos. My favorite one is this:

From Green Lake Park

click here for whole Green Lake Park album.
2. Snoqualmie Falls
On a lazy Saturday, we longed for hitting a waterfall. Snoqualmie Falls it was this time. Picturesque place, amazing water fall.

Magnificient Falls From Snoqualmie Falls

Click here for more pictures Snoqualmie Falls
3. Rattlesnake Ledge
Another outing, a wonderful trek for beginner to advanced trekkers. And once you are done with the trek, you can come down and have a nice refreshing dip in the cool waters of the Rattlesnake Lake!

From Rattlesnake Ledge Trek

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Photos

0. Long Weekend with Arun-Su, Hollywood, SeaWorld, La Jhola Beach

Long Weekend of July with Arun and Suchi

1. Woodland Park Zoo
This is my most prized photo from this trip:

Emerald Tree Boa From Woodland Park Zoo

And here's the link to whole album:

Woodland Park Zoo

2. Green Lake Park

Green Lake Park

3. Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls

4. Gasworks Park

Gasworks Park

5. Seattle Downtown
This is a beautiful panorama of Seattle Downtown across Lake Union. You must zoom in 100% to enjoy it.

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Fishtank

My original first tank had some major issues a month back, and all the plants suddenly died :( I suspect it was the attack of hair-algae. But I'm not sure. I had setup new tank some time back. Two days back I saw 2-3 baby ghost shrimps emerge out from dense plantation, today, I can't see them. They usually make good snack for fishes, I fear they must have gotten devoured. Quite a few of the baby fries that sunburst platy gave birth to, have grown in size, I moved about 7 of them into larger tank. Waiting for the rest to grow up. I haven't gotten around shooting it, but here is one photo of my second 30gallon planted tank.

From New Fishtank

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Heatwave

End of July, we experienced the hottest sun that has never been experienced in over a century here in Seattle, it soared around 105F (~41C). Intense sun extreme along with humidity made the weather unbearable for about a week. So much so, that even the cooling systems at my office failed to function, and many worked from home for 2-3 days. Fans were only as useful as a AA-sized battery operated hand-held fan is useful in scorching Sahara dessert!

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Random Thought

Don't compare yourself to other people. It won't help. You will only find what you expect to find. If you think you are weak, everyone else will seem stronger. If you think you are strong, everyone else will seem weaker. It is futile to compare like that. Simply look at where you are now, and aim to get better as you go forward, that is the way to go. That is the only way to not be a part of the crazy rat-race. (inspired by Self-Discipline and seems to be inline with my theory of Types of Successes)

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Serenity

Only a few people know about my craving for serene soothing music. I am always on a lookout for one. Recently I stumbled upon this soothing performance. I don't know the language it is spoken in, or if the lyrics have any meaning in some spoken language, but it indeed is very soothing Dona Ceri'Tun by Gary Stadler & Stephanne.

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Latest Fads

0. KenKen (it is like advanced Sudoku, you must try it, it is addictive!)
1. GIMP and Layers
2. Green Tea (link2)
3. LOST
4. last.fm (revived)

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Books

I haven't been reading much lately...
The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman
I didn't find the book as engaging, except for few pages. This book was on my to-read list of a very long time now, glad I can now strike it out from the list.
You guessed it right, the name of my blog is kind of derived from the title of this book :)

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Upcoming Activities and Fads

Things I intend to take on going ahead, preferably through the end of this year (not necessarily in that order).

0. Diving deeper into photography
• contemplating buying a CPL filter
• creating panoramic images (you already saw the sample above)
• learn layers in GIMP (see an example below of what could be done with it)

Playing with layers in GIMP From Photography

1. Sports
• Volleyball: just re-started playing volleyball after almost 5yrs, best stress buster I have found (this Thursday I played non-stop for 3 hours, and I felt I was in heaven and wished that the night would never end!)
• Nutrition
2. Movies I Want to see
• Public Enemies
• G-Force (yes, I'm a big animation movie fan! plus I love watching cartoon films!)
• Harry Potter-6 (only for Fx)
• Ninja Assassin (to be released: Nov 25, 2009. I like a good movie based on martial arts, even if it has outlandish stunts, as long as they are well executed)
• Drag Me to Hell (has been a while I have seen horror flick)
• District 9
3. Books I want to read
Haven't done much reading lately, books on my mind:
• Windows Internals
• Brave New World
• Acupressure, mainly interested in points on palm and foot
• The Digital Photography, Scott Kelby, vols. 1-3
4. Geekdom
• Mastering vi, complete the tutorial (typeset in TeX/LaTeX) that I abruptly stopped working on
• My resume using TeX/LaTeX (yes, I'm still hung on it!)
• Move to [K]Ubuntu
• Upgrade my homepage to be managed via new infrastructure (suggestions welcome)
5. Outings
• Mount Si, 4mile trek, each way
• Mt. Rainier, I want to catch the glimpse of how gentle rays of rising sun alchemies the majestic snow-clad peaks of the Mt. Rainier
6. Posts to expect
• Why I joined Microsoft, in spite of other lucrative offers?
• Showdown: Firefox vs Internet Explorer, most detailed head-on comparison(AtulT 23-Dec-09 link here!)
7. And, if, after all these, I still have some time, I would like it to save for myself :)

Half Moon and local park

Beautiful Half Moon. Now I want to click full moon.

Half Moon From Idylwood Park

Rest of the photos from few minutes trip to nearby Idylwood Park.



Album: Idylwood Park near Lake Sammamish

Photo Credits: Atul Talesara
Model: Canon EOS 30D
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: 6.3
Focal Length: 200mm

Cougar Mountain Trails

A nice sunny weekend of 18th April '09 (a weekend before the last) started with a long list of frenzied activities to do, with plans to trek ON and OFF. After some deliberation, we said lets make it a best effort thing, if we finish off other stuff sooner, we can hit the trails. And indeed we finished our work and headed for the trails. By 1431 hrs we were at the parking lot.

The trail itself was very very boring, because even though it had surprisingly wild feel to it, the whole forest was dry, leafless and brown. As if everything around has been rendered lifeless. I wonder how beautiful the trails would look when trees are lush and more lively.

Beautiful Flower from Cougar Mountain Trail

Halfway through the trails, and we met an elderly chirpy couple. We hit a conversation with them and inquired what's worth seeing here, because so far it has been too boring. They gladly pointed us in waterfall's direction. Once we hit the waterfalls, everything looked lively, serene and green.

Standing on a rustic bridge from Cougar Mountain Trail

I love waterfalls. I had taken my tripod and was itching badly to take some slow-shutter (long exposure) shots of the beautiful falls. You can see some of the in my album.

Forceful yet Peaceful from Cougar Mountain Trail

The two things worth seeing here are the Coal Creek Falls and the Meadow Restoration Project, which we didn't see properly due to lack of time. In all, at the end of the day, the 4 hour trek was totally worth it just because of the beautiful falls.

Beautiful waterfall from Cougar Mountain Trail

Link to complete album: Cougar Mountain Trail.

Credits:
Photo : Self
Directions and Marked trail maps: Ami

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Now, for the enthusiastic ones, and as a reference to future trekkers, here's all the technical details that might be helpful.

Level of Trek: Beginner to Medium. But I can only speak of path we took.
This is the map marked with various trails, and the second one is marked in purple the trail we trod along.
Our path:

0. Started walking on Red Town
1. Left and onto Cave Hole Trail
2. Right on Coal Creek Falls Trail (this is where we met that elderly couple)
3. Right on Quarry Trail
4. Right on Red Town Trail and back to parking lot

Directions to Town Trailhead:

0. Drive on I-405 South (towards Renton), take exit 10 for Coal Creek Pkwy
1. Continue toward 118th Ave SE/SE Coal Creek Pkwy, and continue on SE Coal Creek Pkwy
2. Turn left at Forest Dr SE
3. Turn right at Lakemont Blvd SE/Newcastle Coal Creek Rd
4. Turn left at Lakemont Blvd SE, look for signs of Red Town Trailhead

Here's the Google Maps link to final destination, Red Town Trailhead.
And a very detailed map of the trails.