Facing west, from California’s shores,	 
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,	 
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,	 
Look off the shores of my Western Sea—the circle almost circled;	 
For, starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia—from the north—from the God, the sage, and the hero,	 
From the south—from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands;	 
Long having wander’d since—round the earth having wander’d,	 
Now I face home again—very pleas’d and joyous;	 
(But where is what I started for, so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)

• Many of my friends are here. Not all my friends are on Friendfeed yet. And many of them probably never will be.
  
• Facebook is the only social networking site where I have connections to family.
  
• People I know from the past who can connect to me.
  

• I hardly ever go to Facebook. Pretty much the only time I go to the site is when I receive an invitation to connect from someone.
  
• The music is too loud here. There are a gazillion things happening that I am unable to keep up. X gave Y a raspberry! G and E are having a baby! C signed a petition to release D! Enough!!
  
• Facebook is the only social networking site where I have connections to family.
  
• People I know from the past who can connect to me.
  

I ordered take away vegetarian sushi for lunch yesterday from a nearby
pan-Asian restaurant. I found it funny that it came with these two
fish-shaped containers of soy sauce.

The containers are probably very appropriate for most of the seafood
sushi orders they receive. They were funny when packed with tofu,
pickled radish and aubergine sushi.

One of my biggest worries in visiting Poland was that I would find it
difficult to find vegetarian food. Eastern Europe is not exactly
famous for its herbivorous fare. I am happy to report that so far I
have found not one, not two, but Three completely (purely as they
would say in India) vegetarian restaurants. And all three are within
walking distances from where I work or am staying.
When visiting such establishments I am always curious to read the
advertisements to a whole slew of goods and material and spiritual
services. Advertisement bulletins for meditation with bearded masters,
yoga with swelte yogis, colon cleansing treatments, Tibetan singing
bowls at unbeatable (chortle!) prices, tirades against Western
imperialism and such are staple fare directed at the captive hippie
audience. While there were a few of those in these places as well, the
adverts are very polished. On a wall hangs dozens of business cards
for juggling classes, trattorias, contemporary art museums and hearty
Polish fare.

I am in the Munich airport in transit on my way to Krakow, Poland. In
the men's room are these stickers of a fly in the urinals. This
supposedly improves the, umm, aim of the users. I decided to unit test
this and am glad to report that it works. The fly is actually pretty
life-like.

There is pretty good free coffee and tea courtsey of Lufthansa. Small
comforts in an airport with no free wi-fi and where a bottle of water
costs $3. I am checking my email and uploading this over roaming EDGE.

Yesterday I watched Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80's concert at the Stern
grove concert.

Ever since I heard Fela in 2003, I have been a huge fan of the
Afrobeat genre and the man himself. While I do not agree with Fela's
misogyny or his lifestyle, I find his politics of tilting at windmills
compelling. Except for the video of Fela in concert at Glastonberry, I
have only been exposed to his studio work. A colleague at work who
visited The Shrine in Nigeria and met the man himself says that Fela
live was spectacular.

Since Fela died in the late 1990's, this concert yesterday is the
closest I can come to watching Fela live.

Seun played only one song from his father's catalog - Suffering and
Smiling. Unlike a Fela concert where they would have played two songs,
each lasting 40-45 minutes, Seun played much more easily digestable 10
minute numbers. Seun looked a whole lot like Fela in his flamboyant
costume. However the effect was not as powerful.

Found on the walls of the Oceanic Center for the Arts and Culture,
University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

I suspect the original, unmolester sign is about ethanol. Yaqona is a
tranquilizing drink that numbs the tongue and lips and widely drunk in
Fiji. Better known as Kava it is made from the dried root of the
pepper plant.

Kava drinking is an important part of the hospitaliy here. Even in
government offices a bowl of the grog is kept for the staff to take as
refreshment at breaks.

I baked some yummy sourdough bread today. This is my second serious
attempt at baking. The last attempt was last weekend and a disaster. I
tried combining two recipies and the loaves ended up balooning into a
giant blancmange shape mid way through the baking. Panicked, I took
the loaves out and in 15 minutes they deflated like the Presidential
campaign of Rudy Guiliani after Super Tuesday.

This time around I used only the recipe from the classic Beard on Bread.

Sourdough bread requires something called a starter. A starter is a
culture of flour, water, yeast and microorganisms from the air. The
sour in the name refers to the practice of souring the entire mixture
over days and days. San Francisco is world renowned for its sourdough
bread. Something about the microorganisms in this part of the world
makes for superb tasting bread. This starter is religiously fed
nutrients (floir and water) often and kept alive. There are bakeries
in the area whose starter is over a hundred years old.

I got my starter from the Off The Grid cafe. It is my favorite cafe at
work and I am friends with the staff there. The pastry chef bakes the
best bread and pastries.

I baked a couple of baguettes, a boule and a normal shaped loaf. I am
visiting some good friends tomorrow. I plan to bring my friends a
couple of loaves and sage, rosemary and mint from my garden.

verybrightred

• Ant Farm macro photography: A colleague at work has tried this before and the his macro photos of ants are inspiring. I bought a 105mm Sigma macro lens earlier this year that should be handy for this.



• A laser tracking Inchworm: At this year's maker faire I was purchased the Mechamo Inchworm Kit. It is a radio controlled contraption that you build yourself with parts from the kit. There are a few videos on You Tube of the Inchworm in action. The kit is superbly made. This is no 'play once and then throw into the attic to come out years later for the garage sale' kind of toy. I intend to get rid of the RC control and make my inchworm move around autonomously following a laser pointer. I will be using an Arduino - an open source microctroller to be the brains of the inchworm.



• Aerial photography/video: As I blogged before, I love flying kites. I also came across (thanks to my friend Mikal) cheap disposable digital still / video cameras that can be hacked into reusable ones. I want to marry a cheap camera to my kite and take aerial photos / videos. I am thinking of the Google campus, Vasona park and Alcatraz as potential locations for the shoot.

The emergency procedures at UC Santa Cruz.

Political Science 106A - Spring 2008 - An inside look at how political campaigns operate from the viewpoint of the media, taught by the people who run them. Class material will be directed towards students who are interested in direct involvement in campaign politics or who are looking for a greater understanding of the political process. Students will be required to develop a complete written campaign strategy document in order to fulfill class requirements. Students will be expected to follow political and campaign news via the media and be prepared to discuss those developments in class.