USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941 is the "day of infamy" in the US history to describe in the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor is the defining moment for the US to join the second world war. USS Arizona memorial was built on the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it. You can still see the oil seepage from the ship after 60 years.

If you have a little knowledge of the second world war and the sacrifices (remember Sullivan brothers?) made by the US, you get a feeling that is totally beyond the reach of words when you visit USS Arizona memorial. Here are some of the pictures of USS Arizona Memorial!

Another one!

This is a different view of the same Napali coast in Kauai.

Lighthouse in Kauai

Waves from as far away as Japan and Alaska hitting Kauai(Hawaii) shore at Kilauea Point Lighthouse.....

My music conversion project

Friends,

This time around last year I was getting ready to move from this place. My assignment got over in the company where I am working and I was searching for new projects. Then came the news that my assignment was extended for another year.

Suddenly I faced with considerable spare time after work. I always have few things to do in mind. One of the things I had in mind was to digitize my tape collection. I have about 120 cassette tapes that I collected over a period of a decade. I always wanted to put them in digital format as the whole world was going digital. Eventually I wanted to put them in a mobile music player.

After googling around I found a real good software that can be used on trial basis. I downloaded the software goldwave (believe me this is the best software I was able to find for audio editing needs), borrowed stereo tape player from my friend (BTW I don't have a stereo tape player, I just have walkman and cassette player in my car:-)), bought a cable (which is connected to PC's line-in from the tape player) from local Radioshock and started downloading the songs into my PC as MP3s. The only bad thing in the whole process is we need to play the cassettes real time. I used to setup the settings in Goldwave, start playing the cassette and go away to attend some other business. One thing to keep in mind in this whole process is your MP3s are only as good as your tape player output. So it is imperative that you should have a very good stereo tape player.

On a part time basis it took about three months to convert all of my cassettes into MP3s with my wife's help. I created folders on my hard drive based on the album name and organized my MP3s. At the end, I felt it was worth my time. Then I wanted to backup my three months effort. I purchased an external hard drive and backed up all my MP3s.

Well, the hard part was over. However, I was getting uneasy each day those MP3s sitting idle on my PC. I burned some CDs and tried to listen at work. But I thought handling those CDs was a hassle. Well, Friends, as my wife complained, I was just trying to come up with some excuses to go for a MP3 player:-)

After considerable research I purchased Iriver H340 with 40GB capacity (BTW I like it very much). Now my whole music collection travels with me. My MP3 player also plays a format called OGG. The specialty of this format is it stores music with high sampling and bitrate in relatively small size. Goldwave software converts MP3s to OGG. I converted some of my favorite songs into OGG and I really enjoy the quality (I am not sure if you can convert to OGG directly from tape though).

-DreamsUnlimited.

Grand Canyon of the Pacific......

as described by the great writer Mark Twain, Waimea Canyon in Hawaii with a rainbow....

Hard to believe...

It's been a while since I actually wrote something here. Lately I have had to deal with the tuff fact of untimely departure of a friend of mine from this world. Actually it's been that way for few months. It was really hard to believe these news. Some very untimely and unfortunate departures......

To reflect my relationships with these souls is tuff. First comes to mind are the times I spend with them. Then a vacuum develops in the heart after thinking about them some time. We think about them less often as time passes by. But it's a vacuum nonetheless.

It's a fact that we all have to leave this world at some point. But I think there are some expectations that we got to meet before we leave. They may be mundane or extraordinary or societal or outright materialistic. The problem is it would be shocking to see someone leave without meeting those expectations. Especially when they leave loved ones helpless behind them and the sudden changes wrought upon those left behind. But again I think that is the nature of life. There are things that are just not in our control.

But can we ever reach a point where we accept these hard facts of life and move on without suffering much? But again as technology is getting better and humans are aspiring to counter-create humans as apposed to natural creation, it only becomes harder to accept some things as uncontrollable....

....then come to mind those philosophical words that there is nothing permanent in this universe. Everything is bound to change and change is the law of universe....you didn't bring anything into this world and cannot take anything back out of this world.....you and I, for that matter existence of any living or non-living thing is so trivial in the very grand scheme of things in this universe that it just keeps moving and moving and moving..........doesn't matter whether or not you and I are here......

Breathtaking Napali cliffs touching clouds and sea in the island of Kauai. I just couldn't get enough of it!!!

My Lovely Flowers

It is no wonder that life is full of passions. I too have few passions like Ilaiyaraaja music, photography, investing and drinking Starbucks:-) Within photography I am crazy about shooting beautiful flowers. As you would probably have seen, I have posted some photographs of flowers in my blog. I love flowers and to take their photos.

My love to flowers and plants traces back to my childhood days. I used to spend a lot of time gardening in our backyard along with my dad. Gardening is a very relaxing activity mentally. It makes me forget everything. We used to plant a lot of flower plants and vegetable plants.

When a plant is transplanted, generally for first few hours it can be found with it's leaves and branches a little dried and hanging. Once it's roots take hold in the ground and water is accessed, the whole plant stands straight with leaves and branches looking bright and upward. To see a plant that you sowed take roots, standing straight and swaying is a beautiful feeling.

Generally I would plant in the evening and water the plant thoroughly. When I wake up in the morning first thing that would come to my mind would be that flower plant I transplanted last evening. Getting up from the bed, I would go straight to the backyard to watch my little flower plant swaying innocently feeling relieved that it took hold now. And to watch it when it sprouts new branches and buds would be like winning the world. Enough ramblings, here are some of the flower photographs that I have taken.

My Experience with TBI - Thiruvasagam By Ilaiyaraaja

Friends,

To borrow words from Aakarsh, it is raining Ilaiyaraaja this month. Yes, listening to the six tracks of TBI album in the western symphonic oratorio style is like drenching in a spiritual and emotional rain. Understanding the lyrics will definitely enhance the experience. We, casual listeners without much knowledge of music, are not really qulaified to review this masterpiece. It is just beyond our comprehension.

When I started listening the CD for the first time I did not feel anything. I just lost myself in the sheer magnitude of the music. After repeated listenings I was able to grasp track # 5 & 6. I am still trying to grasp other tracks. They are simply too much for my senses. Track # 5 sounds not too new. Ohhh...it's a bliss to listen to this CD. But let me just talk about # 5. I will be talking mostly about the music as I do not totally undestand the lyrics yet.

Have you ever felt like flying in the air, flying like a butterfly over a beautiful flower garden after a drizzle with colorful flowers swinging their heads with shining rain drops? If you never felt like that listening to music, listen to track # 5 of TBI and you will know what I am talking about. Mind you, this is no film music. This is from the sacred text Thiruvasagam written by Tamil poet Manickavasagar in the seventh century. This is a song written praising God Shiva.

The song is a folk song with lead singer asking other girls to get ready for God's Abhiskekam (ritual bathing). The song starts with a grand note with hundreds of instrument complementing the chorus. Then starts the song in a beautiful tone with a lot of instruments playing in the background. Wohhh....pure bliss. With grand symphonic notes playing in the background, friends, it is a divine experience listening to this song. Believe me, you will be spellbound listening to the song and it's interludes. Let me talk about the third interlude. The interlude starts with a slow pitch of symphonic instruments. The symphonic notes starts with an ascending and descending notes and continue in a loop. Friends, I am sure you will loose yourself listening this. When you think this stunning ascending and descending rollercoaster stops, it continues and continues and continues. I thought this music defines the word "Grand". No words in the language to explain the joy!!!

Of course this is just the tip of the ice berg. There are tons of stories about listeners who melted away into tears listening to TBI at Ilaiyaraaja Yahoo group. There are five more astonishing tracks in this album and I am yet to come out of the world of magical music praising the God of Destruction. If you feel like listening to the album, go grab it from TIS or Chennaionline. Buying the CD also will help the noble cause of bringing out our anicient cultural treasures to masses.
Thanks for your time. Best wishes.

-Sudheer.

Mackinac Bridge, Michigan

Fool.com: Want Some Free Money?

Friends,

The Motley Fool (Fool.com) is one of my favourite sites. I have been reading articles on Fool for more than four years. Eventhough I learned a little bit of financial accounting in my master's I actually learned it's practicality only through Fool. Their articles are extremely educative, eventhough some of them might look like advertising their services.

I recently came accross this Fool article about some free money. We all want some free money, don't we? Please go through this link.

http://tinyurl.com/cxd9q

Best wishes,

-DreamsUnlimited.

My Photos!

Friends,

I have been into a lot of things lately. Some serious music listening, some serious reading and then some serious photography.

I bought Sony F717 digital couple of years ago and taking some experimental photos since then. Sad part is I have still not completed reading the manul:-) My photos seemed to be fine on the screen and I was content with what I got. However, when I tried to upload them to the web and started looking around for sites with nice photographs I was really astonished to see the quality of the photos taken by photography enthusiasts. Then I realized my photos are nothing more than a POS:-) I really wanted to improve my skills.

I am going to try to post a photo every week. I need your brutal comments to improve my artistic skills. Here is one to start with in the right "Links" section "My Photos" link. Thanks for your time. Best wishes.

-DreamsUnlimited.

Welcome Friends

Friends,

Welcome to DreamsUnlimitedInc blog. I thought I would create a venue to share my thoughts and feelings about a zillion trivial things and learn in the process. And the result is this blog. I hope this will be educating to you too. Please feel free to respond to my posts. Best wishes.

-DreamsUnlimited