The Great Safari - Day 1 (From Nairobi to Maasai Mara)

Last year, I went by myself on an African safari for 2 weeks with Good Earth Tours, Inc.  I'm finally going through the video.

Here is day 1 (please watch in 1080p):

travellin

i haven't updated in a while, but for record-keeping purposes, here are some highlights from the past 40 days:

1. kazi -- a good friend from the undergrad days -- visited me in boston.

back in 2006, we both visited boston together for what would be the first time for each of us. it won us over back then, and this visit was like the reunion.

• i housed kazi and showed him around boston.
• did a lot and had a good time.
• kazi landed a summer internship w/ my employer, and he'll be conducted research similar to mine.

2. i flew to dc for work purposes, again. i also extended the trip into a personal trip:

• visited my good friend, dan for a day:

• stayed w/ my good friend, g francis for a few days

g francis and i randomly decided to experiment w/ light painting photography one friday night. it ended up being a blast. we learned how to take long exposures and shine light onto subjects in the dark, thereby taking a complete additive approach to the lighting aspect.

this experience has motivated me to try night photography more:

3. visited brown's 3-day open-house event in rhode island.

amazing school and campus. founded in 1764, it's officially "old school."

4. visited santa barbara, california for 5 days for a conference.

on the way to and from airport, i took some pics.

solo road trip to new hampshire and vermont

first, if you're viewing this from facebook, please go to my blog to see the original posting; facebook fails to import videos, so go to http://omggetthis.blogspot.com

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two weekends ago, i took a solo 3-day road trip to new hampshire and vermont. yea, that was a while ago, but before it got any longer, i just wanted to document it here. to most of my friends, this trip is old news.

as for new content, i finally uploaded a video of my trip:


i didn't take video clips too often; i mainly just took tons of pics. below are 3 albums, 1 for each successive day:
(1)

new hampshire foliage - day 1 - 10/10/09

(2)

vermont foliage - day 2 - 10/11/09

(3)

vermont foliage drive home - day 3

basically, i woke up super early on saturday. i drove to new hampshire and explored the white mountains. that day, i saw 4 waterfalls, went on some mini-hikes into the woods, and went to 2-3 state parks. very late at night i arrived at my remote, sketchy hostel that was located about 2 hours away from civilization. (i stayed there because it was perfectly en route to my path to vermont for the next day).

the hostel was the most interesting and unique hostel at which i've ever stayed. i arrived there after 9pm, and after driving on gravel and dirt roads for a while, i finally found it at the end of a 1-mile-long dead-end road. upon entering the hostel, i was greeted by a hippie. the house was really decked-out and well-groomed. but, everything was organic. yep, i quickly learned why my 18-person shared room was called the "yoga room" -- there were no mattresses, but only 18 yoga mats on the floor. after having been awake and driving for the entire day, lying down on that yoga mat was far from comfortable. oh, the bathroom looked amazing. seriously. it was probably the nicest shower i've ever been in, including nice hotels. however, the toilet, which although nice looking, was actually rigged-up like an outhouse. there was a long chute down somewhere, and there was a nearby bucket of woodchunks and instructions to use 1 cup of woodchucks per bathroom visit. as i read the sign that stated urination was encouraged outdoors, i quickly wondered what type of place have i got myself into.

anyway, it was definitely an interesting place, and the hippie owner offered chai tea and cookies. i had none.

sunday, i drove down to the border b/w new hampshire and vermont, to see the longest covered bridge in the nation. i explored some nearby areas then drove all the way up through vermont's green mountains. like new hampshire, everything was really pretty. i had never seen leaves that looked like this. even when the skies were overcast, the roads appeared to be lit due to the radiating, saturated tree leaves. i saw 2 waterfalls on sunday and went on a hike. at one time, i slipped and fell a few feet down a bank. if i slid further, well, it was pretty much a 180-degree cliff that dropped a long ways until a river. it was fun though. sunday night, i was exhausted, and i checked in early at 6pm into the next hostel.

this hostel was also interesting, but for brevity, i'll just say it was really well set-up and was owned by (2) 25-year olds. very impressive. they even fully owned and operated a restaurant and bar within the hostel, with the help of their sister and friend. very professional and good.

by the time i went to sleep on sunday -- day 2 -- i could see orange leaves everytime i closed my eyes. for this reason, i decided to not explore much on monday. instead of heading further north up until being a few miles shy of canada, i decided to just head home. yet, even though my eyes had been over-saturated by the leaves, i still couldn't resist pulling off the road several times to take pics, of barns, rivers, and trees. the drive home ended up taking many hours.

it was a very fun, unforgettable trip.

the new boston apartment!

i decided to go with choice #1 from the previous post.

it's located here:

View Larger Map

it's considered "walker's paradise," with a score of 95/100:
http://walkscore.com/get-score.php?street=78+phillips+street+boston%2C+ma&go=Go

although it's within walking distance of tons of things, the ones that matter most to me are:

• 600 feet to the subway (redline)
• 1,100 feet to whole foods grocery store!
• 1,100 feet to a parking garage that allows monthly parking
• 1,400 feet to the park (boston commons -- oldest in the nation)
• 850 feet to post office
• 1,000 feet to gym
  
• in the heart of tons of restaurants and shops

the main attributes of the place:

• 1 bedroom
• my own private parking spot behind apartment, 24/7
• washer and dryer within apartment
• no dish washer
• free heat and hot water
• $1,600/month
  
• 4 month lease, can extend in increments of 1 yr at a time
• 1st and last month rent upfront, $800 finders fee, $500 security deposit
• pointless notes: ive become friends w/ the realtor, and landlord is an mit prof

it's small, so i made a sketch of my tentative layout. the dimensions of every object are as accurate as i could get... should generally be within a ~8" error:

it was the best of times, it was the...

i haven't blogged in a month.

basically, the past 4 weeks has been possibly the hardest time of my life since february 10 years ago -- the time with 3 funerals. i won't go into details because nobody wants a sob story and there's no sense in whining. i'll just mention 1 of the elements that has occurred: i'm not graduating this quarter. let's just say i did a lot of work -- more than the average student -- but my adviser didn't like my writing style, so i have to rewrite my 40 page report. this hopefully won't affect my starting date at MIT.

on the upside, i've started my 1.5 months of "vacation!":

1. resign from being a UCLA student
2. visit seattle (BP and brian)
3. visit berkeley/san francisco (kazi)
4. leave LA
5. househunt in boston for a week
6. fly to indonesia for 16 days!!

i took tons of pics, some follow for each respective section:
1. ucla:



2. seattle




3. berkeley / san francisco




also, i'm getting into panoramic pictures. i took some of the golden gate bridge, and i'm going to do some of LA before i leave here.

please do the poll on the right.