Okay, just invented a new category of posts called webmarks (like bookmarks for the web) If I make a webmark it means I’m posting this for posterity so I can find this again later and also to share, with you, something cool I found.
Today there is a featured photographer on Flickr’s blog. Surrealist photographer, Kyle Thompson, who is about 20 years my youth and has amazing ideas and execution, especially for someone with no formal training. I guess photography is one of those talents that sometimes people can just have a knack with.
I will be 30 next month. I am trying not to think about it.
Well, I’m trying not to think of it in the “Shit, I am going to be 30… why, god?! WHY?!” kind of way and instead the “How can I turn this into a reason to do ridiculous things that, under other circumstances, I would probably not do this year?” kind of way. After all, 30 is the new 20 (by the way, this statement does not sell me on 30).
At some point in my 20s I realized my 30th birthday would be on 01-30-13. Exciting, right?! So I wanted to do something special because this is never going to happen again. “I will have 30 days from the beginning of the year until the 30th birthday to do 30 things to celebrate the occasion!” I started making a list, I started mentally budgeting and decided that I should probably put away about $10k for all the things I want to do (one of the celebrations included renting a venue for a masquerade party).
On my current budget, I can afford a masquerade party at a public library. Seriously, I thought this would work.
Anyway, it’s the month before my birthday. I didn’t save up money. I didn’t book my trip to swim with beluga whales at either the Georgia Aquarim or Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I don’t even know what I am doing on my actual birthday.
I kind of came to the conclusion that I failed at this “project” until Patrick suggested that I accomplish my task list throughout the year. Oh, right… brilliant! So I’m going to go ahead and share my list of things to accomplish next year. Hopefully, sharing this list will make me feel committed to this project and will carry it out throughout the year. This strategy worked well last year.
Problem is, I don’t think I even have 30 good “celebrations” yet.
1. Swim with a Beluga (or some kind of up close and personal experience)
2. Steampunk Party!
3. Get a scooter
4. Host a masquerade party
5. Learn how to sail
6. Disneyland!
7. Do laughing yoga
8. Learn how to drive manual
9. Indoor skydiving
10. Visit http://www.skyzonesports.com/ (caution: this site has auto play sound)
11. Have a Thanksgiving feast (not on Thanksgiving)
12. Kayak in Hawaii
13. Dim Sum Party!
14. Travel overseas (Hong Kong? Europe? Bali?)
15. Make and eat a pizza (being really ambitious here)
16. Get a goldfish!
17. Host a private screening of a movie in a theater (http://www.dickclarkproductionstheater.com/)
18. Screen an old movie (with a projector preferrably) and wear clothes from that era
19. Ride a train to a destination outside of L.A.
20. Visit a museum
21. Go on The Price is Right (kind of dreading this, actually)
22. Make a movie
23. Have a big Chinese family dinner gathering at parents’ house
24. Do a factory tour (of anything: donuts, tortillas, furniture, cars)
25. go to a farm or petting zoo (with goats and llamas or alpacas)
26. Celebrate at a barcade (Dave and Buster’s or other arcade/drinking/dining environment)
27. Learn CSS
28. Visit New Orleans
29. New tattoo in a new city
30. Go to Graceland
Since coming back from India haven’t actually had time to sit and collect my thoughts about my trip. In fact most of my reflection so far has been from me telling friends and co-workers about the trip so sometimes the thoughts coming from me are the first time I’ve heard these thoughts myself. I definitely wasn’t expecting the experience I got, but then most of my pre-conceived notions about India and the local culture have been from movies and television, and those are rarely ever real.
Dress :
Almost all the women I’ve seen in India are draped in bright, beautifully ornate saris, scarves and kurtis. This is true despite their wealth. Even at poverty levels or rural areas the women are brightly dressed.
I suppose if they have the money then they get the joy of adorning themselves with bangles, anklets and earrings. Some younger Indian women dress in Western wear (read: skinny jeans and a modest top).
One of the things I noted when doing my very brief pre-India trip was that India has a mix of different religions and thus so many different lifestyles. I have also seen many Muslim women in their traditional black burkas, but not as many as I thought considering how religiously diverse India is, and especially since the area where we’ve been doing sightseeing is closer to predominately Muslim counties. I’ve also seen a few Sikhs as well. It is especially fun when Sikh men ride around on on scooters because their facial hair blows gracefully in the wind.
(photo by Anthony Robson)
The men are dressed much less, still they’re not walking around wearing t-shirts and shorts. Most men wear button down shirts and slacks, though some younger men will wear jeans. It also seems common for babies in impoverished areas to not wear pants. They do wear shirts though, after all they’re not barbarians.
Transportation
Standard modes of motorized transport are motorcycle or scooter, auto rickshaw and car. It’s not unusual to see an auto rickshaw (designed to seat three in the back with another space in the front, next to driver) filled to the brim with people, especially in the mornings and afternoon when kids are going to and from school.
The driving situation in India is very complicated but also as basic as walking. You go where you can go, if something is in your way you stop or go around it. Of course there are two directions of traffic, and like in England, one drives on the left side of the road, however sometimes exceptions can be made. If there is no center median at an intersection, you can, of course, take up some of the lanes of opposing traffic to wait for the light. No problem! If there’s an obstruction on your side of the street, like say a pothole or traffic jam, just drive on the other side of the road to get around it. Use this method sparingly.
This also means you don’t have to worry about lanes, they’re more like a suggestion anyway. If there is space for your motorcycle, auto rickshaw, or car to fit between two cars, go for it! Wedge into that space and drive. Don’t forget to honk to let other drivers know your whereabouts. Also honk when you are passing other vehicles, when you are in a blind spot, when you are in a visible spot, when you’re coming to an intersection where other cars or pedestrians could cross, or if the light has just turned green and you want to make sure everyone around you knows it.
There are several types of horns equipped on vehicles in India. You have your standard horn (honk honk), your Xena Warrior Princess, your silly song horn, and your dying cow horn.
There are advantages and disadvantages of riding a motorcycle as opposed to a car but the motorcycles seem more handy. You give up the comfort (air conditioning) and safety but you get much more versatility! You can still take the fam to visit the countryside, I’ve seen two adults with two small children on one bike before.
In respect to traffic, Delhi is probably the worst city I’ve visited in India. “it is very traffic” as drivers here would say.
Work
From what I’ve learned from two different sources, the average pay for a day of work is 150-200 rupees, which is equivalent to $2.70 – $3.70. This boggles my mind. I know the cost of living is different but I still wonder what gets paid in terms of living expenses and how often.
Animals
Most dogs I’ve seen while here appear to be “wild”, that is, they don’t belong to anyone and they are free to walk around, breed and eat whatever trash they can find. There are plenty of monkeys in certain areas. There weren’t many in Mumbai the city but there were definitely monkeys on Elephanta Island, which is off the coast of Mumbai.
And there were wild monkeys running around the rooftops of Agra. We also saw camels – these were not wild and a few elephants. Also saw a lot of peacocks, and a herd of horned mammals over at Sikandra:
Oh and I did this in India:
The full Flickr photo set of pictures from India can be seen here.
Patrick and I have traveled from Mumbai to Delhi yesterday and got a few hours in Delhi to get driven to India Gate, the Presidential house, Parliament house and past some embassies. Also, we stopped by the travel agent who helped us book everything here in the Delhi, Jaipur, Agra area and she took me to her henna guy down the street:
We’re supposed to start getting ready soon for today’s leg from Delhi to Jaipur, so I don’t have a lot of time to think about what I want to say. I’m actually awake at 5 am just thought I’d get some time in to jot some stuff dwn before I have too much to write! Here are some observations I have made in the past few days in short Tweet-like thoughts:
In Mumbai we did some shopping at a mall, not to different from one back home. They even had a McDonalds with a Filet-O-Fish, and some McChicken burgers (instead of beef, obviously)
However, we did find some other places that seemed to sell beef burgers (we didn’t eat them)
Despite staying at hotels that are all LEED certified and seeing a lot of public service posters about reducing pollution and “going green” it seems that there are a lot of people here who teach their young to litter at an early age. It was quite irksome.
The air quality in Mumbai leaves something to be desired.
However, the air quality when we arrived in Delhi was much worse. It smelled like the city had been burning and it looked like it too. The afternoon sky was red through the dust and smoke.
Cows here are sacred, of course, so they get to do whatever they want, but I’ve also noticed some cows tied to things, I wonder what that is about. Are people keeping them as pets?
Speaking of pets, there are a lot of feral dogs and cats. They are all skinny. The dogs are usually a mid-sized to large breed, something like a lab or retriever, mostly short-haired. I did see one that was much fluffier the other day but that seems rare.
The birds seem to be the healthiest wild animals in the city. There are more crows or ravens than pigeons. The pigeons here have much shinier, iridescent neck feathers, not sure if that’s due to the humidity, their diet or the general health of the birds.
This is probably true in other countries as well but, as a tourist, you’re going to have to hone your haggling skills and be constantly ready to decline the offers for unrequested goods and services, as well as general begging.
If you’re in Delhi, stop by Kahn’s Market. In the alleyway there is a restaurant called The Kitchen. Get the Khao Suey or Hawker Noodles.
At some point in growing up, flying has become less fun and become more and more unnatural feeling. Not only are you packed in to a big machine but you’re kind of forced to stay inside your little imaginary cube of space. Eat this space food at this time like everyone else. (Eat your soylent green, dear.) Pretend to be comfortable with this for 8 hours please.
At some point they need to work on a shrink ray or some time suspension if they don’t figure out teleportation sooner.
I arrived in London yesterday as scheduled but in the middle of my flight across the US one of the English flight attendants (I thought to my self “How quaint, they all have accents.” but of course they all have accents, it’s British Airways!) informed me that my connecting flight to Mumbai that night had been canceled. I couldn’t really do anything but laugh. It was pretty amusing. Of course something would go wrong.
Anyway, BA was pretty grand about it and put us up in an airport hotel for the night, which meant I got to go into London for a bit last night.
More on this later, flight is boarding!
Running on 4 hours of interval naps (kept waking up each hour afraid of being woken up by the hotel alarm clock which was stationed on the other side of the room). Now dirty chai at LHR, making my Mumbai Wishlist:
1. Elephanta Island – monkeys live here!
2. Prince of Wales Museum – they have old stuff!
3. And maybe some places from this old Design Sponge city guide: http://www.designsponge.com/2010/09/mumbai-city-guide.html
But I think we only have one day in Mumbai now (thanks to the flight cancellation) so we’ll have to see what Patrick has already planned.
