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| The Canyon |
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| Leaves Turning Red |
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| Caterpillar Hiding Under a Leaf |
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| Carmen Contemplating Life |
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| Misty Falls (Lower Falls at Letchworth) |
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| Double Rainbow! You must watch the Youtube Meme! |
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| Add caption |
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Letchworth State Park in the Fall of 2010
Carmen and I have been getting into the whole hiking thing lately, and western New York has offered us many opportunities. One of my favorite parks in the area is Letchworth State Park because it has some of the most beautiful scenery and gorgeous waterfalls. Many Western New Yorkers will agree with my statement. So here are a few of my favorite pictures form our most recent visit.
The Falls
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Cons of American Education (Part 1)
The education system in the US has the potential to be the best in the world. However we still have a long way to go from good to great! There are many things our educators and leaders can learn from countries like India, China, and Japan.
As a high school student I had the privilege of attending one of the best public schools in New York City. To do so I had to take an entrance exam not unlike the SATs. The irony here is American students are notoriously bad test takers compared to Asian students. In fact about 50% of the students who attended Brooklyn Technical High School are Asian.This percentage has only gotten larger in the years since I graduated. Asian students are over represented in the best high schools and colleges in the US even though they are only 4.5% of the population here, because Asian students are simply better at math and science.
(This was taken from a article by Jeff Yang) "UC Berkeley, considered by many to be the best public university in the nation, and perhaps the world, is currently 41 percent Asian, a proportion that’s over three times higher than the percentage of Asian Americans in the California population, and almost 10 times higher than the percentage of Asians in the U.S. And Berkeley is just one example among many; along the bottom of the article runs a ticker-style strip recounting the Asian American percentage on top college campuses across the nation, from 13 percent at Princeton to 27 percent at Wellesley, 17 percent at University of Texas – Austin, and 27 percent at M.I.T."
There is also a large disparity in the American schooling system. Some schools, like mine, get a lot of funding, and the best teachers. These schools also get the best colleges recruiting their students. At the other end of the spectrum, there are some schools where students don't have proper textbooks, corruption in the school board is rampant, and the teachers are jaded or just plain lazy. More commonly schools are mediocre.This has created students who are lacking in many ways.
I only got into Brooklyn Tech because my math are reading skills were better than the average. I credit my Indian education for giving me this advantage. One of the things American students lack is a well rounded Math and Science background. This is a systemic problem in the US from kindergarten to College, causing fewer Americans choose carriers in fields like Science and Engineering, the very things that this country used to boast as its greatest strength.
Take my discipline for example, Mechanical Engineering. There is a growing vacuum that is being created as baby boomers decide to retire. To fill the vacuum employers are forced to hire people from India and China whose population is highly technical. All of my cousins in India have some form of engineering degree. Engineering positions are one of the highest paid positions in this country and Americans can't even qualify to apply for these positions because they simply lack the skills.
Please refer to the following article in the New York Times. Little Asia on the Hill.
As a high school student I had the privilege of attending one of the best public schools in New York City. To do so I had to take an entrance exam not unlike the SATs. The irony here is American students are notoriously bad test takers compared to Asian students. In fact about 50% of the students who attended Brooklyn Technical High School are Asian.This percentage has only gotten larger in the years since I graduated. Asian students are over represented in the best high schools and colleges in the US even though they are only 4.5% of the population here, because Asian students are simply better at math and science.
(This was taken from a article by Jeff Yang) "UC Berkeley, considered by many to be the best public university in the nation, and perhaps the world, is currently 41 percent Asian, a proportion that’s over three times higher than the percentage of Asian Americans in the California population, and almost 10 times higher than the percentage of Asians in the U.S. And Berkeley is just one example among many; along the bottom of the article runs a ticker-style strip recounting the Asian American percentage on top college campuses across the nation, from 13 percent at Princeton to 27 percent at Wellesley, 17 percent at University of Texas – Austin, and 27 percent at M.I.T."
There is also a large disparity in the American schooling system. Some schools, like mine, get a lot of funding, and the best teachers. These schools also get the best colleges recruiting their students. At the other end of the spectrum, there are some schools where students don't have proper textbooks, corruption in the school board is rampant, and the teachers are jaded or just plain lazy. More commonly schools are mediocre.This has created students who are lacking in many ways.
I only got into Brooklyn Tech because my math are reading skills were better than the average. I credit my Indian education for giving me this advantage. One of the things American students lack is a well rounded Math and Science background. This is a systemic problem in the US from kindergarten to College, causing fewer Americans choose carriers in fields like Science and Engineering, the very things that this country used to boast as its greatest strength.
Take my discipline for example, Mechanical Engineering. There is a growing vacuum that is being created as baby boomers decide to retire. To fill the vacuum employers are forced to hire people from India and China whose population is highly technical. All of my cousins in India have some form of engineering degree. Engineering positions are one of the highest paid positions in this country and Americans can't even qualify to apply for these positions because they simply lack the skills.
Please refer to the following article in the New York Times. Little Asia on the Hill.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Lets Elope!
If you ever watched bollywood movies, a common plot line goes something like this: Boy sees hot girl, falls in love with hot girl, the girl at first hates the guy, but after singing and dancing and many costume changes the hot girl falls in love with the boy. Unfortunately, the girl's family is rich and the boy's family is poor ( sometimes its the other way around) and the girl's family refuses to let them marry. The two lovers then elope and get married, and eventually the family comes around. Everybody lives happily ever after.
Recently, I have been giving eloping with Carmen some serious thought. Unlike Bollywood movies, my want to elope has nothing to do with our families hating each other. In fact, despite the differences in backgrounds both sides have been pretty open minded. My want to elope has more to do with the bill for the wedding. Estimated 20K! Trust me it adds up pretty quickly. Why is that? What happened to the idea that a wedding is a joyous event when two people declare their love for each other. I find myself almost hoping that our families hated each other, so me and Carmen would have a good excuse to elope, Bollywood style.
Recently, I have been giving eloping with Carmen some serious thought. Unlike Bollywood movies, my want to elope has nothing to do with our families hating each other. In fact, despite the differences in backgrounds both sides have been pretty open minded. My want to elope has more to do with the bill for the wedding. Estimated 20K! Trust me it adds up pretty quickly. Why is that? What happened to the idea that a wedding is a joyous event when two people declare their love for each other. I find myself almost hoping that our families hated each other, so me and Carmen would have a good excuse to elope, Bollywood style.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Retirement and the Beach
When I retire in 40 years or so, I want to move to Hawaii (one of the small islands). Get a small house not too far away from the beach. Eat tropical fruit everyday. Sit on the porch and read a book. Simple right?
So to do this I have joined my companies 401k plan, and after the wedding plan on getting an IRA. They say starting early is the key to a comfortable retirement.
Also investing in my health is going to be important. I do not want to spend retirement in and out of doctors offices. So some lifestyle changes are required. I am currently about 30lbs overweight. One year ago I was 50lbs overweight. So I have made some progress. I am simply going to continue what I am doing: eat less meat, more whole grains, watch my portion sizes, and exercise 3 days a week. Not as easy at it sounds. Confession: I had 4 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups yesterday. They are so good. Peanut Butter and Chocolate. YUM!
Someone once told me that putting your goals down on paper (blogs are virtual paper) will help me meet them. So, here I am putting my goals down on paper. I will let you know if I have met them in 40 years.
So to do this I have joined my companies 401k plan, and after the wedding plan on getting an IRA. They say starting early is the key to a comfortable retirement.
Also investing in my health is going to be important. I do not want to spend retirement in and out of doctors offices. So some lifestyle changes are required. I am currently about 30lbs overweight. One year ago I was 50lbs overweight. So I have made some progress. I am simply going to continue what I am doing: eat less meat, more whole grains, watch my portion sizes, and exercise 3 days a week. Not as easy at it sounds. Confession: I had 4 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups yesterday. They are so good. Peanut Butter and Chocolate. YUM!
Someone once told me that putting your goals down on paper (blogs are virtual paper) will help me meet them. So, here I am putting my goals down on paper. I will let you know if I have met them in 40 years.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Pros of Education in the USA (Part 1)
Lately the US education system has come under heavy fire due to various failures. However I would like to argue that the idea itself is a good one, it's the implementation that is lacking. I would like to describe my high school experience which is a great example of success.
After finishing eight grade in India, I moved to New York City with my family in April of 1999. I was just in time to be eligible to take a test to qualify to get into one of the three top high schools in NYC. I got into Brooklyn Technical High which is the third best school in NYC. Freshman(9th) and Sophomore(10th) years were fairly routine. I had to take Math, Science, English, History. I ended up getting easy As in the Math and Science classes because I had already learned a lot of it in India. However, I was struggling in my Social Studies and English classes. This was because I was no longer tested on how well I could regurgitate facts on a test.
We had to take two years of World History. My first world history project was the New York Times Project. I had to pick a region of the world, and collect twenty articles about my chosen region from the New York Times (FYI, I still read this newspaper everyday). Then write an essay by taking the twenty articles and tie current events to history. I got a 65% (barely passing) on this project because I had never written an essay that made me think about historical context. But I learned a lot about Europe (my chosen region).To this day I am compelled to think of history when I listen, watch, or read the news. If gives me an appreciation for the butterfly effect.
After finishing eight grade in India, I moved to New York City with my family in April of 1999. I was just in time to be eligible to take a test to qualify to get into one of the three top high schools in NYC. I got into Brooklyn Technical High which is the third best school in NYC. Freshman(9th) and Sophomore(10th) years were fairly routine. I had to take Math, Science, English, History. I ended up getting easy As in the Math and Science classes because I had already learned a lot of it in India. However, I was struggling in my Social Studies and English classes. This was because I was no longer tested on how well I could regurgitate facts on a test.
We had to take two years of World History. My first world history project was the New York Times Project. I had to pick a region of the world, and collect twenty articles about my chosen region from the New York Times (FYI, I still read this newspaper everyday). Then write an essay by taking the twenty articles and tie current events to history. I got a 65% (barely passing) on this project because I had never written an essay that made me think about historical context. But I learned a lot about Europe (my chosen region).To this day I am compelled to think of history when I listen, watch, or read the news. If gives me an appreciation for the butterfly effect.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Old School News
I have been working for about three months now. It takes me about an hour to drive to work. Two hours round trip. I can now make that drive in my sleep at 75 mph. In fact I think I have already accomplished this(wink wink)
Before starting work I always used to balk at the idea of listening to news on the radio. Like OMG, listening to news radio is sooooo 20th century. But after listening to my ipod playlist a gazillion times even Led Zeppelin failed to keep the boredom away. So I decided to check out our National Public Radio. I was hooked.
Why you might ask? Well, they dont just cover the news. They talk about science, music, art, personal stories, etc etc. The best story I heard today was about a mosquito that "hibernates" in the winter. How cool it that.
It is ironic that in the digital age where everything is at your finger tips one can still be riveted by news radio.
Why you might ask? Well, they dont just cover the news. They talk about science, music, art, personal stories, etc etc. The best story I heard today was about a mosquito that "hibernates" in the winter. How cool it that.
It is ironic that in the digital age where everything is at your finger tips one can still be riveted by news radio.
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