My latest passion is photography.I love potrait photography though  I am just a newbie …but recently I am learning to shoot in Manual mode and trust me….once you start shooting in manual mode you don’t want to go back to Auto Mode. Here are my first try outs that I selected from a bunch of photographs I took this morning.I think they came out fairly well. I am just glad that I am making a start finally.

You can desire for anything and you will get it here in New York City” I remember reading this somewhere in a travel guide and the same words were ringing in my head as we flew into New york City.I had been to this city that never sleeps ten years ago but this time is was different, this time I was flying into the city.I was  getting a bird’s eye view of all those iconinc building of the city. As I peered through the aircraft window and saw those sky scrapers below I felt that that those buildings were calling us, welcoming us with open wide arms.This city is indeed an unique city, not only the city  and the state  share the same name “New York” but it alo boasts one of the largest diversity amongst the human race . It is indeed the melting pot of the world. It is an amazing city and later as I toured the city more, it started to dawn on me why once people get settled in this city they hardly want to move out. This is the place where things are happening every minute and you want to be a part of it.

We took a tour of the city in the roofless double decker tour bus and I think this is one of the best ways you can tour the city. The bus stopped in every traffic lights and the knowledgable guide explained the history of the prominet buildings and the city life. I found it very intriguing how most of the buildings that stood tall had a story to share. The breathtaking and distinctive Flatiron building was one of my favorite buildings and as we passed by the building I could not stop admiring the architecture of the building. This steel-framed, terra-cotta building had very impressive carvings on it which seemd to have greek influence. The 24 hour running tour bus cost almost $40.00 per person and as long as one had the receipt of the payment one could hop in and hop out of the bus along the route, which I thought was very neat. A great way to see and explore the city if you are not travelling on a time constraint.

The trip to ground zero was quite a solemn one for me. Though I don’t  know personally anyone who lost their lives on this fateful event, I kept wondering that if it could sadden a stranger like me, how tearful and heart wrenching it can be for those families who have lost their near and dear ones in this tragic place. The whole area of the ground zero was covered and constrution was going on to erect another tower, The Freedom Tower by 2011. However, I realized that those twin towers will be missed forever from this beautiful sky line of the city.

The evening walk on the Brooklyn bridge was a memorabl one. The bridge looked fairly well maintained
despite being one of the oldest suspension bridge of United States. The most memorable part of the trip was reaching the middle of the bridge and turning around and looking at the city’s skyline. It was amazing to see the how streaks of lights beautifully accented the skyline, it reminded me of Christmas lights. The magnificient sky line looked so rich that it seemed like all the richness of the world was poured into this city, the big apple.

 One evening we stopped by ESPN zone to watch Cowbys vs Packers game which I thought was a bold move to do in a city of Yankees and Giants fans and later walked around Times Square. I think no any trip to New York City can be complete without a stroll in the Times Square. The animated, digital advertisments that ran 24-hours created such an exciting vibes that I could easily see why this major intersection has become a must-see place for million of toursits. This place is a home from up-scale eateries to Broadway theatres and the it’s incredibly amazing to see how the place was alive until to the wee hours of the morning and I realized that this city definitely does not sleep.New York indeed has a charm of it’s own and it is a city with personality. We rode the yellow cab that I often hear New Yorkers talking about and I was amazed to find that all of them had GPS system now, a proof of how New York is changing with the time. It is ahead in the game to embrace the changing world, be it in technology or the culture. 

The few days that I stayed flew by very fast and just seeing the city in these days would not do any justice to all the good life that this city has to offer. This is a city where I would come back again and again, explore the muesems, spend  quite time in Central Park admiring the city, tour the city around in Bi-cycle, explore the arts and theatres and many more things. I don’t know when I will be back to see the city next but all the memories that I have about the city will stay afresh in my mind and hopefully will be back to one day to experience more what the city has to offer.

I came across this picture in Nepalitimes today  and just this picture was enough for  me to get disturbed, let alone read the article about deforestation and poaching.

The caption of the picture reads

OUTRAGE: A male rhino with its horn hacked off found in Bardiya National Park in April

The above picture is from a cookout party that I attented couple of months ago . They shot the hog for the cook-out. If I had known that it was a “hog” cook-out party I would have never attended. It looked so gross, the hog ( though it was dead) was hung helplessly. I did not even dare to eat it but was stunned when it was ready to be devoured, it was gone fast. In 30 minutes the remains of it was nothing but just bones, this totally grossed me out. Seriously, where are we mankind heading too?

I am against fishing too and was so glad when my husband decided to give up fishing and take on some other hobby. One fine day as he was fishing it made no sense to him to catch fish. That was the last I saw him fishing. We are so thankful for that day, that we often talk about it.

All of this just makes me think about us, the mankind. What rights do we have to kill these innocent creatures – just becauese we are smarter and superior than them? Does the earth not belong to them equally as it belongs to us?

The first picture is taken from nepalitiems.com from the article Going, going gone
The second picture is taken by me .

I read this article today and as I read my eyes welled and I wanted to share the story here in my blog. Brother and sister meet for the first time since 1942, when Nazis separated them. It is indeed a heart warming story. The story reminded me of my brother who I lost last year but just reading this story  made me smile. A beautiful story!

DONETSK, Ukraine (CNN) — A frail Irene Famulak clutched her brother on the airport tarmac, her arm wrapped around him in a tight embrace, tears streaming down their faces. It was the first time since 1942 they had seen each other, when she was 17 and he was just 7. That was the night the invading Nazis came to take her away from her Ukrainian home.

“I remember it well because I kissed him good-bye, and he pushed me away,” she said of her brother. “I asked, ‘Why did you do that?’ And he said that he doesn’t like kisses.”

“The Nazis told my mother that I was being taken to work in a German labor camp for six months. But it was, of course, much longer. I was there for years.”

Both siblings survived the Holocaust and grew up on different sides of the Iron Curtain, not knowing the fate of the other.

 But after 66 years apart, Famulak, 83, was reunited with her long lost 73-year-old brother, Wssewolod Galezkij. They held each other close this time, cherishing the moment.

Read more here…

It’s been almost three weeks since I have not updated my blog, the number one reason being there was nothing exciting to write about..and I think one should blog out of choice not by compulsion.

Just some things that are worth reflecting in last few weeks….

Eeverday is ordinary, same routine over and over again However could not stop admiring my daughter….how simple little things puts smile on her face….realized I can learn a lot from her  at the same time raising her…

Had to present a write up on professional goals to the boss…and while putting it together realized that I am “goal-less” ( I am talking about professional goals here…)I felt better when one of the co-worker was also in the same boat. I really had to think hard to come up with at least a page of professional goals. Finally , I had some measurable goals written down and will be quite interesting to review it after a year. However, realized the importance of goals to advance in my career….

Bought a new lens for my Canon Rebel XTi and waiting for it to hit my mailbox…..my newly acquired hobby is photography…..I have lots to learn to master this art but…hey we have to make a start somewhere….

So, every day was same …to which I refer as SSDD ( wonder what it stands for?) …so I guess something different is bound to happen soon…… they say alway watch out for the calm before the storm.

Have you ever wondered about the habits of the outstanding people in the world? How are they doing things differently than you that will inspire you too? If you have this curiosity about the habits of the highly effective people then you have to read the self-help book – The seven Habits of highly Effective People by Stephen R.W. Covey. I own a copy of this and it is one of the books that I do not plan to give away or recycle.
However I am not reviewing the book here, but I am taking a slight twist to the title of this book and listing the 7 habits that have influenced me thus changing my lifestyle. I hope you will enjoy reading it and I also hope that you will share some of the habits or thoughts that have changed your life.

Do it now: There is nothing as bad and negative as procrastination. Procrastination will make things just harder. Tomorrow never comes as it always transforms to now. If we have this approach in our minds and act accordingly, we will be surprised how we will be getting things done around us.

Simple Thinking: The key to getting things done around us is also keeping it simple. Once we start thinking simple we will not waste time thinking too hard. If we follow the rules of simplicity we will be surprised how the task that seemed so daunting once could be easily done. I always try to remember the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) approach before I take on any task and it has helped me a lot to reach the goal.

Perseverance: Try, try until you succeed. If we have faith in what we are doing, our endurance power will build up. Perseverance and failures can never co-exist, so as long as we try to accomplish our job with perseverance the negative thought of failures will automatically get shut out from our mind.

Build your listening habit: The power of communication is beyond listening and writing. The most important aspect of communication is power of listening. The more we listen to people we understand and learn more from them.

Be optimistic: Two thieves looked out of the prison window one saw stars and one saw mud, now it is our choice which thief we want to be. Hope is a powerful thing and I think hope and optimism co-exist, hope guides us to optimism and again optimism is a great achievement that can guide us to being successful.

Learn to say no: It is important to know our limits and boundaries. We cannot make everyone happy because there will be times when you have to say No to people, to habits and stick to our guns. We should not be afraid to say No, learning to say NO is an important quality for self improvement.

De-clutter: We need to de-Clutter our space, mind. This will increase our well being and makes us more organized.
 
 

It’s an unseasonably cold day in Seattle, and Rebecca is standing in her kitchen, preparing for her regular Sunday afternoon outing. As she gathers her backpack and grocery bags, her dog sniffs around excitedly, anticipating the long walk and treats that await.

In the course of their errands, Rebecca and her dog will visit several stores and coffee shops, a bakery and a chocolate factory. But instead of walking in the front door, she plans to head out back and go Dumpster diving.

Rebecca, 51, owns a small duplex and has a job running an art program for a health care organization. She’s also an artist in her own right whose accomplishments include a piece that hangs in the Seattle Art Museum.
And she gets 99 percent of her food from the Dumpster.

“It’s so easy to eat for free,” she says. “The only things I buy are butter and milk.”

I read this article today in MSNBC and have been wondering about it,since then. Yes, who would not welcome the frugal lifestyle.Living better for less. I myself am a bargain hunter and I feel that I deserve a pat on my back for every penny I save through my bargain hunting. But, I was amused to read about Rebecca in this article (link to the article is given at the end of this post ).She is not a homeless person but owns a duplex in Seattle and yet she embraces a dumster diving lifestly? How far should one go to live a frugal life? Are you so obsessed with frugal living that it has taken you to dumster diving.

Rebecca, who asked that her real name not be used because she worries she could lose her job if her employer knew about her Dumpster diving, doesn’t need to get food for free.

She says she likes the thrill of the chase, and the surprising bounty of good food she finds. And despite holding a steady job and having grown up in an affluent family, she says she sometimes worries she won’t have enough money. She also likes to “save a little here, save a little there,” so she can afford splurges like a laptop computer and keep funding her art.

It is amazing how people go to extreme ways in order to live fruggally. Don’t you think such people are obsessed by the idea of getting stuff for free?
you can read the whole article here…

We were driving down in West Texas when I took these pictures, I wish I was closer to the objects than this. The drive ( at least my route) in West Texas failed to impress me, as it had very few sceninc views, but fields and fields of dry land that was quite tiresome to see after a while. As we drove further west we came across this huge windmills that I HAD to take pictures of. The windmills started from about 500 yards from the road and spread out as far as one could see. In amidst of the dry west Texas the tall and gracefully standing windmills looked quite enchanting. The following picture is of Roscoe wind farm, the largest new wind energy facility producing 290 MW of energy. I took these picture from my car window.

Some facts about the Wind Energy

One MW is enough electricity to serve 250 to 300 homes on average each day

Power generated by the wind is called a clean source of electricity because its production does not produce pollution or greenhouse gases.

The use of wind power for our energy needs displaces approximately 23 million tons of carbon dioxide (the leading greenhouse gas) each year, which would otherwise be emitted by other energy sources.

Source from SECO

Now that the seventh season of American Idol has ended, I am wondering what is next for David Cook . I have been David cook’s fan from the begining , well right after Michael Johns was eliminated, the next Idol I picked was David Cook and I think it will be interesting to follow what will happen to him next. Will he be a mega-star like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtery ( he was one of my favorites then)  or will his name just fade away like other American Idol alums whose name I cannot recall right now….well time will tell what is in store for him.

Today, I received an email from one of my friends that her 9 year old daughter is devasted seeing David Archuletta lose the AI tittle. While I feel very sorry for this young girl, I cannot cease to think if David Cook knows that he has fans not only in United States but from all across the world. This email was sent to me from Nepal and it’s quite suprising for me to find that people are following American Idol out there and picking their favorites. It is amazing to see how a reality show like America Idol can impact so many people across the globe.

So why do people watch American Idol? Is it for the love of music? I have been an AI watcher for last seven years though it has been only few years since I have started to watch the show from the audition round. I  enjoy watcing this show because of the fact that how it discovers the obscure but talented singer from different walks of life from all over the country, nurtures the talent and then launches to the pop star super stardom. David Cook’s story is another Cinderella story and I am sure in future shows we will here more such rags to riches story. The other thing that I have never failed to notice is the appearance of the contestants.Besides nurturing the talent of these contestants I think the show  also grooms them to look better and better…don’t you agree looking at the following pictures of David Cook? It appears that now he looks thinner, his hairstyle has changed and his appearance looks much better. It seems like he has just matured now.

 picture courtesy: AmeircanIdol.com

At the end of the day, this show is about finding a star.  Tonight I think we witnessed one of the great finals

This is what Simon said last night and I totally agree with him. I was really excited for this final round of competition and  in my view both the guys have delivered their best. Last night the two contestants had to pick three songs–one picked by Clive Davis, one from the American Idol song writer contest and the final one the contestant’s own choice of songs.
I don’t remember any season final being this close battle. It was quite predictable to see who would be the top two contestants but the story was not the same in the final round as we saw last night. Though the judges made it look like it was a decisive night I think it’s very hard to pick the winner.
I am picking David Cook as the next American Idol based on his talent and give him all credits for taking the risk for trying out a new song,a song which he had not sung before. I think this guy will sell records big time and he is already a rock star in making…and I am already visioning him to have sell out rock concerts in the near future. David Archuleta sealed the night with one of his strongest performance “Imagine” by John Lennon. It was phenomenal like before, the only problem was that it was a repeating performance  and I personally think that he even over did it this time. I would not give him credit for singing the song which he had already sung before. Well, at this point of the competition the contestants should try something out of their norm and try something new to prove to the world that they can take risk and sing any song. Last night David Archuleta showed that he is not up for the risk factor and he is not a true competitor, as he  dodged the challenge and risk. 
However, I think at this point of the game both the contestants have already become stars and I wish them all the luck for their future and I hope they make it big in the music world and make their Cinderella story come true. However, I would still want and hope that David Cook will be the next American Idol.