5 February 2023

38 degrees (so far) is the answer

The question is – what is the coldest temperature that I have ridden my bike in. Hit the highway at 70 mph today at 9:30am with temperatures at 38 degrees – the layering and heated gloves held up well. It was a short test ride (15 miles). The inside upper legs were getting cold since they were taking a direct hit from the wind. (I had three layers of pants on).

4 February 2023

What can we call this drink?

We know
vodka + orange juice = screwdriver
vodka + cranberry juice = cape cod
vodka + grapefruit juice = greyhound
vodka + tomato juice = bloody mary

But what is
vodka + tamarind juice ??

Made a cocktail of Spicy Tamarind Vodka (by Smirnoff) and Tamarind juice (by Iberia).

Came out very nice. Next time, I will put some Tajin salt on the rim. I think the salt will go well with the slight tartiness.

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4 February 2023

Heated gloves to the rescue!

The heated gloves have really opened up the aperture of temperatures I can ride the motorcycle in. It was high winds and low 40s. Yet, other than the slight discomfort of so many layers making quick movement of the arms and legs difficult and some cold wind still making it thru the helmet gaps, the rides are as enjoyable as spring or fall ones!

4 February 2023

Rewind-Pause: Kids we grew up with

This is from nearly 20 years back. I think this was Natasha’s birthday at the Sandy Lake Park. The small girl on the top right corner of the picture in pink dress is Natasha.

I have kept up with most of the kids except the one on stereo left. I think that is Salil and Geetika’s son. Need to figure out what he is up to.

4 February 2023

Spotlight on Art 2023

Most of the year I do a lot of math. And then once a year I go to Trinity School for their art show to get a bit of culture injected into me. Actually, it is more the free wine than any culture.

It was delightful to see our Midwick neighbors – Andrea, Diane, Heida and Gail show up there. And then my good friend of nearly 15 years – Hunt and his wife Mary-Elizabeth!!

Check out my name tag!!

3 February 2023

Puzzle for old times’ sake

12 years back, on my way back home from DC, I used to post a puzzle almost every week. Doing the same today.

A little background… This week, in Chicago, Deval gave me a little gift. Apparently, she was in a store that sells calendars and came across a calendar that a math problem for each day. Somehow I came to her mind!!

And this is the first problem I saw on the cover page.

You remember mod right? It is the remainder remaining after you do a division. So 27 mod 6 would be 3.

The puzzle is:

15113 mod 113 = ?

Category: Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
2 February 2023

Does one really have more time or is that merely an illusion?

Now that I have given a long winded excuse in my previous post – and a fair warning at that – I can now start by telling you the question I get asked often: “How do you get so much time?”

It came up recently again around my posting of the annual dashboard. Which got me to think – in as much an unbiased way I possibly could – why is it that it seems to others that I get more time to do things?

My first conclusion is it is not about what I do – rather what I do not do. With the safe assumption that I have 24 hours like everybody else and that I sleep 7-8 hours a day (average about 7:30 most days), part of the answer has to lie in what is it that I do not do that others do.

Problem is when I ask people – how did you spend your time last week (in large categories), most people shoo me away. So, I tried to deduce from secondary data – like conversations that I cannot follow or the regular berating from my wife when she has to explain why I have not showed up at a party yet again.

I think not watching any movies, sports and in general having TV time to near zero (unless I am with my wife at a bar) plus not going to any large social gathering (more than 4 is large for me) is probably one reason I get more amount of discretionary time than others.

The second conclusion – and I am fairly ashamed to admit it – I am extremely particular about how I plan and track my time. By any fair measurement system, “OCD” does not even come close to the planning, tracking, habit growing system I have developed over the years (based on Level 10 Life).

To give you an idea, every morning, I grab my cup of “karak” chai and note down how I spent the previous day on 70 different variables. In full red, green, yellow colors. My wife calls them “crop circles”. Then there is the weekend aggregation of the week, the weekly planning, the monthly aggregation, the monthly planning… quarterly… annually. In fact the annual dashboard is a good example of the extent of lunacy I will go to – to plan and track my time.

To give you an idea how off kilt I am on this – once my friend Avi had asked me “What do you do for spontaneity?”. Without realizing the irony, I had answered “Why, I schedule that in.”

If the first two reasons were that I simply do not do other things that people do and I am inanely particular about how I spend time, the third one is outright unflattering.

And that is I post too much. While I was thinking thru why people wonder how I get so much time, I inevitably came to the conclusion that at least part of the answer lies in that I advertise a lot. Since I write down my daily life story with pictures and description – which then gets syndicated to Facebook (and for some posts, Linkedin), it must create an impression on the audience that I am doing a lot more things than others.

I do think the variety of activities adds to that impression but I suspect many people do similarly or even more interesting things. But since they do not post their life journal, most of us do not realize that they are doing a lot of stuff too.

If you know me or even if you do not, how do you relate to my conclusions?

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Category: Musings | LEAVE A COMMENT