A proud moment for Indians everywhere as Chandrayaan-3 touched down successfully on the lunar south pole (also known as the dark side of the moon). Congratulations to all the people who made this launch a success. With this India becomes the 4th country to land on the moon and the first to reach the South Pole of the moon.

The lunar South Pole region holds particular interest for scientific exploration due to studies that show large amounts of ice there. Mountainous terrain and unpredictable lighting conditions not only protect the ice from melting but also make landing scientific probes there a challenging undertaking. This ice could contain solid-state compounds that would normally melt under warmer conditions elsewhere on the Moon, compounds which could provide insight into lunar, Earth, and Solar System history. Ice could also be used as a source of drinking water and hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for future manned missions and outposts

What is more remarkable is the cost at which India has achieved this. The Chandrayaan-3 cost was sent to the Moon at a cost of $75 million, according to Reuters. That is less than the cost of most blockbuster space films. Gravity cost $100 million, The Martian cost $108 million – and it was less than half the cost of Interstellar, which was filmed on a budget of $165 million.

It even costs less than some houses. The UK’s most expensive house, for instance, went on sale at £200 million, or nearly three-and-a-half missions to the Moon.

Here is a great animation of the trajectory the space vehicle followed to get to the moon.

Today is the 4th Anniversary of Ollie’s gotcha day. I vividly remember what a champ he was on the ride home (from Southern California to the Bay Area). He did not have a single accident in the car.

The 1st image was taken at 8 weeks old.

The second was taken today morning. He barely fits on the lounge chair, but that is one of his comfort spots at night.

Ollie used to be quite a shark when he was a puppy. Luckily I was not his first target. I think Apoorva got the brunt of this phase. I did manage to capture a video of the 2 of them playing and tried to apply my amateur video editing skills.

The Beauty of Japanese Gardens. This picture was taken at the Kubota Garden near Seattle.

Japanese Gardens make excellent subjects during the rainy season. The rains really complete the landscape.

Talking of the Kubota Garden here is some pertinent history about the garden and its creator …

Fujitaro Kubota emigrated from Shikoku, Japan in 1907 and established the Kubota Gardening Company in 1923. Projects of his included the garden at Seattle University and the Japanese garden at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. In 1927, he bought 5 acres (20,000 m2) of swampland in Rainier Beach with the help of a friend, as he was not able to make the purchase because of his Japanese descent.

In 1930, he went on to increase the size of the garden to 30 acres (120,000 m2). Kubota Garden served as the cultural center for the Japanese community in Seattle, as well as a home, office, and nursery for his business.

During World War II, Kubota Garden was abandoned for four years as Kubota and his family were interned at Camp Minidoka in Idaho. During his internment, Kubota supervised the building of a community park, which included a Japanese rock garden. After the war, he and his sons Tak and Tom Kubota rebuilt the business.

The Kubota Gardens are free to visit, the couple of hours I was there was time well spent.

Over the last several months I feel like there has been a Cambrian explosion in the number of PKM Apps out there. I have been curiously watching (and trying) some of them. I don’t know how note-taking suddenly became a problem that companies are trying to solve.

I also think what has been crazy is the fact that a number of vloggers pushing these apps as productivity enhancers. One week there will be a video about “How Obsidian is the killer PKM App”, the next week there will be a video “How Tana will make your brain melt?”. Are these vloggers really using all these apps to take notes, I highly doubt it.

I have more thoughts on this topic … (To be continued)

I love hikes in the PNW. The air is always so fresh and the forests have so much water. Everywhere you hike in winter you have all these little streams and when you can actually catch the sun during the wet winter season, you get to see beautiful scenery like this where the sun shines through the mossy trees. The picture below just reminds me of how enchanting the forest really is.

Moss can be found all over the world, from tropical rainforests to arctic tundras. It is especially well adapted to moist, shady environments, and is commonly found growing on the forest floor, on rocks and stones, and along streams and rivers. Moss does not have roots in the traditional sense, but it absorbs water and nutrients through tiny hair-like structures on its leaves.

In the PNW, moss is found everywhere. I am always drawn to photographing them because to me they represent a miniature world of their own. I think of a moss forest pretty much like the one you see below as having its own ecosystem with several insects and other organisms going about their day-to-day life with no care for the world around them.

Organizing information is one of the hardest things to get correct. I have been researching different PKMs (Personal Knowledge Management Systems). One of the problems that I and I am sure many of you face is while reading books

I generally read non-fiction books that have lots of tidbits of information, and when I read them they make sense to me and I can also possibly remember it, but most times an hour after I put down the book I have already forgotten about things. This seems like a problem that can be solved by having an effective secondary management and retrieval system.

One of the methods of note-taking that is gaining some traction with me is the Zettlekasten System. The video here outlines a good way to use the system

www.youtube.com/watch

I hiked the Teneriffe Talus Loop today. I am constantly amazed by how many trails there are so close to residential areas in the state of Washington and how accessible they are.

Ollie obviously gave me company on this trail. He is a fantastic hiking buddy. The only wrinkle is that he takes his job a little too seriously and will growl at people on the trail. Just to put things in perspective he saved me from 1 chipmunk today.

I would rate this as a moderate trail. There are large parts of the trail that are flat, and even where there is an incline it is pretty gradual. There are sections of the trail that I would say are steep and got my heart rate up in the 160-180 range The trail is lovely, most of it is shaded, and some parts are definitely overgrown, but not in a way that it is impassable. We passed about 5 streams, some of them were dry and some still had running water. There are trees on both sides for most parts of the trail, so you don’t have a breathtaking view. The final viewpoint is nice, you can see the valley below and all the mountains. You pretty much are hiking through a forest the entire time.

Crowds: We got here at 8:30am on a Saturday and there were 10 cars in the parking lot but lots of places to park. When may have seen a total of 15 people in the entire duration we were there. I felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.

Dog Friendly: We did not see other dogs on the trail, it is a pretty good walk for the dog, enough to get him tired and sleepy for the rest of the day.

The trail took us roughly 3 hours to get done and was totally worth it. I am hoping we can come back soon.

PS: Here is the GPS Recording of the trail. Should give folks a good breakdown of how the hike went down.

Finally managed to make time for my photography hobby. This is a picture taken at discovery park in early spring. I love the raindrops sticking to the leaves.

Wake turbulence is a function of an aircraft producing lift, resulting in the formation of two counter-rotating vortices trailing behind the aircraft. Wake turbulence from the generating aircraft can affect encountering aircraft due to the strength, duration, and direction of the vortices.

Truly an amazing demonstration of the concept of wake turbulence. I wished such videos existed when I was growing up, would have helped me grasp physics concepts much faster :)

The ridiculousness of the furniture supply chain issue during COVID. I ordered a simple Bar Cart off Crate & Barrel in March of 2022. The updated estimate is the end of August 2022 and it has already been delayed thrice.

This is a perfect drink for warm summer evenings.

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Huckleberry Vodka
• 4 oz Lemonade
• Mint Leaves for garnish
• Blueberries

Preparation

1. Mix the Vodka and Lemonade with about 3 cubes of ice and shake for about 10 seconds
2. Whip the mint leaves on your hand to bring out the taste
3. Pour the drink in the glass, you can filter the ice out (optional)
4. Add the blueberries and mint leaf sprig

I had intently followed this plane and how it was manufactured in documentaries and I was amazed by how big it was and the fact that it could actually fly. To date, this is my favorite plane of all time. It feels very spacious on the inside, it is extremely quiet in the cabin and even turbulence that I have experienced felt like a small speed bump. I really hope that airlines can find a way to keep this engineering marvel for as long as possible.

1. It is Huge: The A380 has a maximum takeoff weight of almost 1.3 million pounds — as much as seven Boeing 737-800s or 30 percent more than the biggest 747 models. It’s the only airplane flying today with a full-length upper deck. It can carry up to 600 gallons of water, feeding the onboard showers as well as the standard bathrooms and galleys. Its maximum fuel capacity is over 85,000 gallons, or about the same as 5,300 Toyota Camrys.
2. It has 330 Miles of Wires. A380s are built in Toulouse, France, but their parts come from all over Europe (and beyond today’s commercial jets are truly globalized products). The wings and Rolls-Royce engines are made in the UK, the fuselage in Germany as well as France, and the horizontal tail plane in Spain — all of this comes together by ship and truck and is assembled within painstakingly designed and enforced tolerance parameters.
3. It can fly for a long time: You will have plenty of time to enjoy the bar on the fourth-longest nonstop flight in the world, Emirates’ Auckland-to-Dubai route, the longest A380 flight currently scheduled. It spends on average about 17 hours in the air.
4. Typical seating for three classes is 525, but in a one-class seating configuration, the A380 can hold as many as 853 passengers.
5. It’s called the A380 because the cross-section of the fuselage looks like the number “8”.
6. Only 20 runways in the world are now fully capable of handling A380 aircraft. Others are not long or wide enough or not technically equipped for A380.

Picture Collage of Ollie. This is him at his most handsome and him when he melts my heart. In one of the pictures here he seems to be tracking a squirrel up a tree. Taken when we were visiting California

Ollie met a Newfoundland at one of the parks on Vashon Island. I have been fascinated with Newfies since the first time I ever saw them. They look like gentle beasts. Thought It would be funny to create a video of Ollies thoughts as he interacted with the Newfie.

So the day finally came when I had to fly the 737-9 Max from SFO to Seattle. There was obviously the irrational fear associated with flying a plane model that was single-handedly responsible for back-to-back aviation disasters.

The flight turned out to be quite smooth. I was actually surprised by how quiet the flight actually was. There was engine noise, but it was much lesser than on the older Airbus planes that Alaska Airlines uses. As for the irrational part, it turns out that the MAX family of planes are probably the most tested planes in the history of flight. My suggestion for anyone scared of taking this flight. Give it a chance. I am sure it will surprise you - in a good way.

The map outlines a road trip that we just concluded through 4 Western States. We started our trip in Washingon, then visited Oregon, Idaho and finally Montana

Idaho was really the state where we spent the bulk of our time. The state is just gorgeous in terms of natural beauty with the tall mountains and deep valleys with beautiful rivers flowing through them. I will be posting some more details in the days to come. When traveling through Idaho, it would be definitely worth your time to travel through the scenic byways. We did just that, and though it added a lot of time and distance, it was totally worth it.

This was one of the first cocktails I ever made. The Pisco sour is a wonderful cocktail hailing from South America. As with everything illustrious and desired, this Pisco-based cocktail has fairly foggy origins as several claims to have been its creator. The most accepted tale is that it began its existence in Lima’s popular, wood-paneled Morris Bar back in the early 20th century.

Ingredients

• 3 oz (2oz if you are going for more smoothness) Pisco
• 0.5 oz Lime Juice
• 0.5 oz Lemon Juice
• ¾ oz Simple Syrup
• 1 Fresh Egg White
• Pinch of Chaat Masala.
• 3-4 drops Angostura Bitters

Preparation

• Combine pisco, lime, simple syrup, and egg white in a cocktail shaker without ice and seal. Shake vigorously until egg white is foamy, about 10 seconds.
• Add ice to shaker and shake again very hard until well-chilled, about 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass; dash bitters atop the egg-white foam. There should be no ice in the drink

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The northern Sawtooth Range formed from the Eocene Sawtooth batholith, while south of Alturas Lake the mountains formed from the Cretaceous granodiorite of the Idaho Batholith. The Sawtooth Range has a history of alpine glaciation, but while no surface glaciers exist today, perennial snow fields and rock glaciers remain, usually on north or east-facing slopes. There have been 202 perennial snow fields mapped in the Sawtooth Range. The Sawtooth Range was last extensively glaciated in the Pleistocene, but glaciers probably existed during the Little Ice Age, which ended around 1850 AD. Evidence of past glaciation given remnants of the glaciers such as glacial lakes, moraines, horns, hanging valleys, cirques, and arêtes.

The lake is named for the brilliant sockeye salmon that once returned from the Pacific Ocean in such massive quantities that the lake shimmered red during the spawning season. Currently, only a small percentage of the wild sockeye succeed in making it through the several hydroelectric dams along their route back to the lake to spawn. Sockeye must not be targeted while fishing and must immediately be released if they are caught.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm

Marcus Aurelius in Meditations

Meet my little buddy Ollie. Ollie is a 3-year-old sheepadoodle (Old English Sheepdog & Poodle Mix) He is a fantastic travel partner and hiking buddy. Here he is in a park in Sun Valley.