JoshMachine

(From ravee/blrclimbers)
Celebrating Turahalli.

It is that time of the year once again, when all the rock climbers in
and around got together for some bouldering at Turahalli. It's also
the time for us to spread the awareness about sport and grow the
climbers tribe.

A lil about Turahalli,
Turahalli hillock is a place with lot of boulders and wildlife just
off Kanakapura road and around 8 kilo-meters from Banashankari Temple
in Bangalore South. It has been the practising ground for the rock
climbers in and around Bangalore for many decades.

Celebration of Turahalli by Rock Climbers.
Rock climbers in and around Bangalore are gathering on Sunday 15th Feb
morning in Turahalli to celebrate the place which has been fueling
their dreams as climbers. As part of the celebration demonstration
climbs, introduction to rock climbing sessions, interaction with
climbers will be happening among other things.

This will be a good place and time to take your climbing shoes out if
have not been to Turahalli in recent times. And it will be good time
if you are totally new to this sport or a rock climbing enthusiast who
wants to learn about Rock Climbing, get information about climbing and
places in and around bangalore as there will be activities for the new
comers to the sport.

General Information:
* The activities will be on from morning 7:30AM till 11:00AM on 15th
Feb 2009
* Though we are constantly in touch with Sun god, he might be at his
usual best being a sunny weekend of Feb, be sure to wear appropriate
clothing for outdoors, hats etc.
* Canvas shoes are ideal if you are a beginner climber.
* There is no water available at Turahalli, please make sure you bring
enough water/snacks along with you.
* Consume enough water and keep yourself hydrated when in the field.
* Help us make this a litter free area, ask for garbage bags if you
need to throw anything away.
* Do drop us an email at climbfest@dreamrout es.org if you are planning
to be there at Turahalli on sunday.
* More information about Turahalli is available at
http://www.dreamroutes.org/saveturahalli/

How to get there?

Please use the Map below which will guide you in the direction. Also
for the benefit of first comers, there is a meeting point suggested.
The point is opposite to Metro on Kanakapura road near the Khoday
breweries. If you are there before 7:20AM you can join the others and
come to Turahalli.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=12.888077,77.536354&spn=0.\02029,0.040169&t=hz=15&msid=105749079046411568718.000446ff4f90eaf3de555

On top of continental US :). Hiking mount whitney with karthik, bk, chetan, nithin and manja, pics here



Pic : Chetan in search of sunrise :)

First hiking experience on snow. Few pics of Mount Dana hike with Karthik, Chetan, Manja and Yamini here



Pic : Karthik climbing towards the peak along the ridge.

A long time ago, I had read about Google's personalization. The example given was if you constantly searched terms related to software, then a query such as 'wine' would get you back the 'wine' software related link instead of wine. I tried this with powerset and was quite impressed the way they classified and listed related facts.

Wanted to upload them for long time :)



( Some more here )

Finally I got to post few selected pics of Banff National Park. This was winter, if possible will try and make another trip in Summer. Canadian rockies! Beautiful!




( Some pics here )

I read that summer is also quite busy with lot of water sports and mountain biking.

I guess me, karthiks and bk will remember this sunrise for sometime. Had to wait for quite some time to see the first rays of sun touch mount rainier. In the end, it was totally worth the wait.

Ravee had pointed me to this video of Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. BK, Karthik, Manja and me got to see Banff National park past week and I also got a chance to catchup with film festival tour this year.
I met few ppl out there who have been following this film festival for few years. Few elderly people told me that these movies used to be very good earlier, now there have been only movies about mountain biking :) It was good to know people here hold interest in these kind of stuff even at this age. She also mentioned that most of the people here are involved in some kind of activity, skiing, climbing, hiking, camping enjoying the Beautiful British Columbia.

Update this years view here

Few of us got to visit Golden Gate Bridge by night. Night was clear with not many people around. One can get a good view of the bay, the bridge and far off the Bay bridge. I loved the empty roads :)

manjunaths's visit did not go as planned, the whole trip was kind of flop with most of the time wasted in travelling. Place was ok, was scenic. Should have spend more time there. All thanks to inthing's planning :). I recommend belurk for WRC beginners course, he is just awesome behind wheels.



( some random pics )

With some fruits in refrigerator, a mixer lying around the corner and a lot of enthu from belurk, thought we will try out some mixed fruite juice. Turned out to be quite good.



( one more pic + recipe here )

Otherwise..
- Things are normal
- University Ave is quite good
- BK has explored a lot around here
- Getting used to things
- Hope everyone is doing good!

Sunil got a car! So, we thought we (sunil,kiron,paavan and ravi) should visit some place nearby instead of wasting away the weekend. Muir Woods, is just an hour drive from here. We took a short hike along a trail to see the redwood forest. It was fun, few miles of walking was good excercise. This place seemed to be popular among families with lot of kids and elderly people enjoying their weekend close to SFO.



( Some pictures here )

Few more updates.
- Good news, chandru will join us sometime in august.
- Public transportation (esp VTA) eats up lot of your time
- I see lot of people buying Canon XTi

Yesterday night me, inthing and belurk after having coffee at 12:00 decided to head towards Santa Cruz beach (Thanks to inthing's never ending enthusiasm). Santa Cruz is quite close from here, around 40 miles. As we walked around the Beach Board Walk, I recollected my earlier visit to this place with gmaiya. Downtown is a good place to walk in the evenings. Beach Board Walk is nice family place which has one of the oldest wooden roller coaster. We drove to one end of the beach and sat there for a while. At a distance we could see many sea lions up in the night enjoying the full moon.



( 3 more night shots )

Hungry it was, So am I now.
Image has been trimmed.

Roth pond, the place where Roth Pond Regatta takes place every year is also peaceful and serene. With everything done, me and girish hung out beside the pond for few pictures. The pond is frozen in winter, with people trying to walk and skate on them. While in spring, they jump into it on an event. I thought it was great to sit beside the pool during summer as the student crowd is less. I will miss this college campus.



( 3 more random shots )

Brooklyn Bridge, an old suspension bridge connects Manhattan and Brooklyn. This beautiful bridge is also a 'must visit' place in NYC, especially during summer evenings. While the traffic uses the bridge, pedestrians/bicyclists get to walk/ride on the roof of bridge road. The pavement is divided into two for people who ride and others who walk. One gets to see a good view of Financial district, statue of liberty at a distance on one side and Mahattan bridge on the other. This is a definetly a good hang out place. Again, Sandhu was around to talk and stroll around.



The bridge is so beautiful, that I convinced myself that I wont be able to caputure it in camera.
( Few more under the cut )

Thanks to deepsan for border style, I like it much better with them.

Weekend me and Sandesh spent almost a day at the Statue of Libery. Sandesh as always was cool with good fundas about work and life :). Saw lot of Indians arriving from NJ than NY to this place.


( One more )

Question to all the good photographers on my friends list.
What software do you guys use to process your pics/RAW images.
Any suggestions? I have been using GIMP and Canon's own software.

- Trying out few macros :)
- Chilling out to max (grad student life continues)
- lavish spending
- missing home
- Guys are moving out of college and starting job. (All the best boys)

( Few more macros )

Start of another boring weekend. Here I am today, sitting alone watching random movies/clips on the net.
While browsing I came across this documentary Jump Britain. The documentary is about Parkour and Free running. It is interesting as they talk about people involved and how the sport got popular in recent years. All the nice looking free running clips are not without training and not without trying out new things. They see new places for no reason :). One can see similar mentality about climbers, photographers...to name a few. Good watch, different from movies.