Forgetting the Roots

In my opinion, the things that made America great were the principles on which the country was founded, the so called Jeffersonian democracy, and the value attached to life, liberty and individual freedom. In recent times, we see a marked departure from these core values in the American society and thinking.

The Problem is...
...this sense of entitlement that is creeping in, the sense that you should be led to the path of success by someone else,
...this socialist notion that all men are born equal with the same kind of needs and not acknowledging/celebrating the uniqueness of each individual,
...this thought that your misfortune was because of another person's deeds,
...this nauseating jealousy of other people's successes and riches and not accepting that they deserve it,
...this robinhood-esque mentality of stealing other peoples hard-earned money through a middle-man ("the government") in the form of a progressive tax system and a multitude of other taxes.

"Everyone feels a little let down because, on some level, people expected all their problems to go away. But real change comes from everyday people. You can't wait for a leader." - Matt Damon on Obama rule.

"The American values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that's pursuit, nothing is guaranteed in this country." - Hansen Hashim Clarke, the newly-minted member of the United States House of Representatives.

Ski Days

I have been maintaining a spreadsheet counting the number of days I ski each season across the various resorts. It has been an amazing 2010/11 ski season with Tahoe area receiving around 170% of their average snowfall by April, and over 700 inches of snow at most of the tahoe resorts. Our home resort of Kirkwood reported a seasonal Total Range of 720-720 inches.

Update (Apr 26th): 2010/2011 winter is now among the top 5 on record in terms of snow accumulation at Tahoe. So much for a bleak La Nina outlook last year. This season will surely be remembered and reminisced as "that" season for many years to come.

While in 2009/10 season, my heroic claim was having skied every weekend (either sat/sun or both) from Jan 1st to end of April (a 'Weekend Warrior' as such people are called), my 2010/11 claim is to have skied 6 months (November - April). Squaw is open till May 31st, so there is a remote possibility of putting on the ski boots for that "one last run" (tm) and a 7th month.

As they say: ski as much as possible...but it is good to keep a count of it. Onto the stats.

PontingClarkeHaydenSymondsism

Define PontingClarkeHaydenSymondsism: the belief of an Australian cricketer that being aggressive means hurling personal abuses at the opponent, opponent's spouse, mom, dad and everyone in between...but call one of them a monkey...and it is racial vilification.

White Gold

State Route 49 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that passes through many historic mining communities of the 1849 California gold rush. Highway 49 is numbered after the "49ers", the waves of immigrants who swept into the area looking for gold. It's a beautiful highway that also gives access to some of the less crowded scenic spots in the central sierras.



We have I-80 connecting the bay area to most of the ski resorts on the north side of Lake tahoe, US-50 and SR-88 connecting to resorts on the south side. Now, route 49 cuts through these highway systems at Auburn (I-80), Placerville (US-50) and Jackson (SR-88).

On days when we have the Epic Tahoe Storms (tm), it is difficult to predict which of these highways close due to low visibility, avalanche danger, hazardous driving conditions, multi-vehicle pileups etc. So people pick their favorite resort and take one of these highways, but as they reach the 49er towns of Auburn, Placerville or Jackson, it is time to check on road conditions and decide whether to continue east or switch north/south on route-49 to the other unclosed highways and hope to reach a ski resort of some kind.

I ended up using this scenic route-49 twice this way.
- Epic storm on President's day long weekend 2010: Driving to Kirkwood, SR88 closed at Carson spur, decision @Jackson, switch to route 49N, drive to Placerville, onto US 50, SR89 and SR88 to go around and reach Kirkwood.

- Epic storm on Mar 19th 2011: On a bus to Sugarbowl, I-80 closed due to zero visibility, decision @Auburn, switch to route 49S, drive to Placerville, onto US 50 to reach Sierra-at-tahoe.

It is interesting that now, in the 21st century, fellow crazy "neo-9ers" (skiers and boarders) are using route 49 in pursuit of another kind of gold called 'snow -- of the powder kind'.

Microblogs

I tweet/buzz my blogs, but I wanted to blog my tweets/buzz.

https://profiles.google.com/u/0/hemant.t3/buzz
http://twitter.com/#!/hemant_t3

People's Army

"The army and the people are one – hand in hand." - Egyptian protestors

Where does the loyalty of the army lie? Is it to the supreme commander of the armed forces, the government, the people or the generally accepted principles around which the nation was built. In combat situations soldier receives an order from his platoon leader, receives his remuneration from the government, decorations from the higher ranks in the military pecking order. But what is he fighting for? Whom is he fighting for?

The military is not designed to quell peoples rebellion in city streets nor destined to fight the very people it has vowed to protect. The military is of the people and for the people. Viva la Revolucion!

99

The crowd at the Chinnaswamy stadium was it's usual boisterous self, all 100,000 of them. They know a good test match when they see one, and Aussies always put on a great show. Mitchell Johnson bowls to Murali Vijay. It was a crucial match for Vijay, trying to cement his place in this strong Indian batting lineup. Vijay lets the ball alone, crowd responds with a mild mannered disapproval. You can sense their excited impatience.

Next ball, Johnson to Vijay, 87.7 mph, closer to the off, still outside and no need to play a shot; Vijay doesn't. Fourth ball of the over, Johnson to Vijay, 88.2 mph, It lands outside off and goes further away, left alone by Vijay. The crowd is now restless, one might think that Vijay is batting very well, playing ball on it's merit, but that leave didn't seem to impress the crowd. Infact, you can hear a few boos going around, murmurings of disapproval. Poor Vijay! his own countrymen seem to be imploring him, no, taunting him to take a run.

Vijay seems anxious to get to the other end too as if he were facing the deadly Holding, but he wasn't and Johnson is medium-pace at best. You can sense that he doesn't want to be facing the bowler right now. Johnson to Vijay, 86.3 mph, on the middle stump line, that round-armish action brings the ball into the middle and leg line. This was gold, Vijay's eyes light up and he clips it away for a single. Stadium erupts and a huge roar goes up as if Vijay scored the winning run for the match. Surely he did, since the crowd has assumed a life of it's own and have started to cheer wildly. The crowd raise in unison as a relieved Vijay completes the run. Running from the non-striker's end was Sachin Tendulkar, on 99.