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Last night at about 10PM, a city water main busted causing a flood thru our neighborhood.  The City of Irvine, Police and Fire were all on had to witness the destruction.  The 54″ Main was a feed straight from Irvine Lake to a pumping station about 100 yards up the hill.  The water flowed for about 4 hours while the City of Irvine shut the main value offf about 15 miles away.

Here are some pics.

This is the main flow in our front yard.

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This is a picture of our back yard.  It was submerged in as much as 8-12 inches of water in some places.

 

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Unfortunately, after about two hours of flowing water, the water started to seem into the house.  First the kitchen and then the family room, study and living room.

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Now we are left with the long task of cleanup and rebuild.

 

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This department store in Pune India decided to ilegally copy a photo from our blog.  Anjali’s cousin Parag just happened to be shopping there and came across this picture.  Such shameless copyright infringement.  It kind of freaked us out but there is nothing we can do about it!

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Be careful out there!

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Vegetarian Thai Cooking

I was in Bangkok for business last week and was looking for something to do over the weekend (rather than the usual temples and sightseeing) and came across a Vegetarian Thai Cooking class a short cab ride from the Sheraton Grande.

The class was about 5 hours long and we covered all the basics including spices, soy sauce, tom yum paste, and sauces.

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There were six students, all from different parts of the world (Switzerland, Germany and the US).  We started out with a short trip to the local farmers market.  The lady in front is the teacher May Kaidee.ImageImageImageMost of the prep was already done by May’s assistants.  All we had to do was the wok cooking.

Thai cooking is pretty easy.  Fresh, wholesome ingredients and just 5-10 minutes of cooking time.

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We each made Tom Yum, Tom Kha, Pad Thai, Green Curry, Massaman Curry, Green and Red Chili Paste, Peanut Sauce and Green Papaya Salad.

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ImageImageImageThe best part was eating everything and knowing there was no fish sauce or shrimp paste in the food!  It was all vegetarian and tasted yummy.

I would recommend May Kaidee’s Cooking class if you are ever in the Bangkok area.

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I went to the Apple store in Guangzhou and they had an early release of the new iPhone 5!

I picked one up along with a couple of new Rolex’s!Image

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Today we went to my alma mater – Harvey Mudd College to check out the Transit of Venus.   HMC was holding a special event for alumni.  The Transit of Venus is a once every 100+ year event where Venus crosses between the Earth and the Sun.  The next one will be 2117.

Check out my cool photo!  I shot this on my Canon 7D at f/16, ISO100, 1/80 at 135mm (with a tripod and a solar filter).

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Everyone also got some cool solar viewing glasses.

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Here we are outside of Galileo hall.

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We then went on a mini-tour of the campus.  The girls decided to pretend lecture at Galileo Hall.

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Who’s the Dog?

Here’s Nikhil playing with Joey!

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This weekend we went to Encinitas to see a rare ocean phenomena known as bioluminescence caused by a red tide.

By day, a red tide is unsightly and uninviting, with water the color of coffee. But at night, during this unusual phenomenon caused by a plankton bloom, the waves are a brilliant, almost neon blue. This wonderfully surreal scene has played out almost nightly along San Diego beaches for the last few weeks.

Here are a couple of cool pictures of what we saw.  The waves were coming about every 30 seconds and we spent almost two hours watching.


Here is a picture of Anjali and the kids (and Lizzy).

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Get Out of Auto Mode

Last weekend I took a photography class from Hector Gonzalez in Long Beach. The class was about 14 hours in a single day and covered all the basic concepts to control your camera in full manual mode.  We got to practice hundreds of shots at different apertures, shutter speeds ISO’s and compositions.

Check out some of my pictures

This first one is the same camera angle at different apertures (F/3.5 on the left and F/36 on the right).

  

Here are three more of the Queen Mary in Long Beach at different times.  The last one is in the evening at a 5000 ISO setting without a tripod.

Here are a couple of nice sunset/dusk pictures.

Finally, here are some night time shots using a tripod and a 20-30 second exposure time.

I can’t wait till the 4th of July to capture some great fireworks photos.  Check out his class…. its well worth your time.

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Juicy!

Doesn’t this just make your mouth water?

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This video speaks for itself!!

They’ve been playing too much guitar hero.  Acting credits go to Nikhil and Ryan.  Camera work by Annika and music by Sam.

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China Boom

I got back from my trip to Hong Kong and China.  The most striking thing is the booming economy there.  You wouldn’t know there is a recession here in the states.

Here is a picture from one of the hotels in mainland China.   The smog lingers constantly and the construction continues into the night.

Here is one of an 8 story shopping mall.   One of the malls we visited was all electronics fakes.  Their slogan there is “you make it, we fake it”.

Here is one of the beautiful harbor area looking from Kowloon to HK island.  I visited my friend Todd and also Alka mavshi and Naya kaka who both live in the midlevels area on Hong Kong island.

Here is a picture from their apartment.

Mavshi cooked me a wonderful home-cooked meal which was very nice after being on the road for so long.

On the Friday night I spent there, Todd and his wife Anne took me to the American Club.  It was a wonderful oasis for expats and served some of the best food I had there for two weeks!

A good trip… and I got really good at using chop sticks!

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Did you feel the Quake?

From the USGS site this morning:

A light earthquake occurred at 4:03:25 AM (PST) on Saturday, January 16, 2010.
The magnitude 4.3 event occurred 4 km (3 miles) WNW of Beaumont, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 15 km ( 9 miles).

We are about 70 miles southwest of the epicenter.  It woke me an Annika up.   Everyone else… still sleeping!

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Dear Clancy

Here are a couple of pictures of our beloved Clancy.  We are looking for a new Smooth Collie puppy – just like Clancy but with a lot less hair to maintain.

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Rubik’s Cube Solved

Vikram spent the last couple of days working the algorithms to solve his first Rubik’s Cube!

 

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Rubik's Cube Solved

Did you know that the cube was invented by a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture.  It has sold over 300 million cubes to date!

Congrats Vikram!

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As I was sitting at my desk, a small 5.1 magnitude rumbler just rippled thru here.  It was located about 100 miles north east of here near Barstow.  Here is a link to the USGS website.

Earthquake Details

Magnitude 5.1
Date-Time
Location 34.813°N, 116.419°W
Depth 7.3 km (4.5 miles)
Region SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Distances
  • 26 km (16 miles) WNW (293°) from Ludlow, CA
  • 56 km (35 miles) WNW (297°) from Bagdad, CA
  • 57 km (35 miles) E (97°) from Barstow, CA
  • 188 km (117 miles) ENE (63°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.2 km (0.1 miles); depth +/- 0.7 km (0.4 miles)
Parameters Nph=059, Dmin=8 km, Rmss=0.19 sec, Gp= 65°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=S
Source
Event ID ci14408052

Instrumental Intensity Image


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I was watching TV this morning and saw my old college roommate Nabeel Gareeb on CNBC. He is now the CEO of MEMC Electronics which is a $2B manufacturer of wafers.

Check out his interview below.

http://www.cnbc.com

When the rest of us were in college partying, he was up studying or working. His only vices were cars and speeding. He had a Haulin’ Ass poster taped to his door proudly displayed with a collection of speeding tickets! Other than that, this guy was always very studious, one of the smartest kids in class and destined to be successful. Good luck Nabby!

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Today it was announced that Vikram Pandit would assume the role of CEO of Citigroup. As I was reading the article, it struck me that there are several other high profile “Vikram’s” in the financial services industry.

These include:

  • Vikram Atal who is the CEO of Citi Credit Card Management
  • Vikram Gandhi is the head of investment backing at Credit Suisse

Here is what Wikipedia says about the origins of Vikram:

  • Vikramaditya (Sanskrit: विक्रमादित्य) is the name of a legendary king of Ujjain, India, famed for his wisdom, valour and magnanimity. The title “Vikramaditya” has also been assumed by many kings in Indian history.

We can only hope that our Vikram rises to the occasion!

Go Vikram! Go Vikram!

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