Saturday, June 30, 2007

Flow Yoga

Dear Sumant,

Today was the second session of my once in a week Yoga class. Yeah, This semester I got myself registered for the Flow Yoga class and its pretty neat. It's 1 and half hr of stretching, bending and relaxing. Unlike other work outs Yoga gives you amble time to relax in between and the session ends with the soothing voice of the Yoga instructor who chants some I believe Sanskrit shlokas. The best thing is when you come out of these sessions. You are really relaxed and calm and I thoroughly enjoy that feeling. Not having Internet access all the time is indeed a blessing. So now I check my mails once a day or on weekends its even lesser. I am taking a full load of 6 credits this summer which includes taking two classes and I am enjoying both of them. The first is a graph theory course and the second is linear programming. Dr. Porter is one of the gifted teacher and he always makes his course so much fun. I look forward to take 449 and 547 with him too. The Linear programming is taught by Dr. Ed Neuman and he is also a wonderful teacher. I was very impressed by his concise introduction to Matlab. He is a great teacher and knows how to make learning fun.

I am looking forward to finish the Shakespeare's poem of 7 stages of life this week. Learn about few more cities. I have few movies to watch including 300. So I think I will do that over this week.

That's for now
Sumant Sumant

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Poems by William Butler Yeats, Eagle

Here is one more link to Yeat's poem http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/yeats01.html. There are some 25 plus poems here and I think I will memorize many of them. One poem which has always fascinated me is "Eagle" by Alfred lord Tennyson. It's pretty short and beautiful.

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Poem for next week, Life by Charlotte Bronte

Life
by Charlotte Bronte

Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily
Enjoy them as they fly!
What though Death at times steps in,
And calls our Best away?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway?
Yet Hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair!

Here is one link for some wonderful collection of poems
http://www.netpoets.com/classic/



Monday, June 18, 2007

Judgment

Society depends upon good judgement. We need to judge whether something is true, whether it would work, whether it fits our values and objectives, and so on. Critical thinking is the key method we have for exercising this judgement. The word “critical” comes from the Greek word for judge which is kritikos. It would be very difficult for society to work if we did not use critical thinking. But judgment is not enough. There is the need for generative, productive, constructive and creative side of thinking. How do things happen ? How do things get done ? Selection and judgment is fine – but there has to be something to judge. The traditions of thinking have been dominated by critical thinking because the doers are out there producing and the only people directly interested in thinking have been the critics. That is why thinking has been dangerously dominated by the notion that critical thinking is enough. That is a big danger in schools today.

The gist of the passage is “Thinking is more than just critical thinking, which is judgement” . The other aspects of thinking including generative, productive, constructive parts are not considered which can create imbalance. For example mouse is important part of computer but just mouse alone is not enough, one also needs keyboard, cpu, monitor etc to fully make use of computer. Therefore associating thinking with just critical thinking which means judging is a dangerous thing because in today's society thinking has become synonymous with critical thinking.

Poem Mania

Dear Sumant,

I am very happy today I got up like 5:30 in the morning and since then I have updated my PMS. Right now Kitaro's pure mood is playing and I am enjoying this beautiful piece of Music. I am looking forward to memorize 32 poems for my 32 birthday :). That would mean that almost every week I have to memorize at least one poem and in the end I may have to accelerate it to catch up. I am planning on some all time favorite poems. In this week I am going to memorize this poem.

The Wild Swans at Coole by W.B Yeats

The trees are in their autumn
beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among
the stones
are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come
upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great
broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those
brilliant creatures
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing
at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above
my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb
the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where
they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they rest on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eye when I awake
some day
To find they have flown away ?

I also found a good explanation at some website by Richard Bizot and I am reproducing it here verbatim for my own note

The Poem
'"'The Wild Swans at Coole'"' consists of five six-line stanzas rhymed abcbdd. The meter is iambic, but loosened to accommodate the irregular cadences of speech. Odd-numbered lines have four stressed syllables, even-numbered lines three. The stanza, then, is a modified ballad stanza plus a rhymed couplet. Although William Butler Yeats uses six-line stanzas in many other poems, nowhere else does he employ exactly this stanza, which is stately but not stiff, well-suited to the poem"'"s reflective tone and melancholy mood.
It is a lyric poem both because of its musicality (in the oldest sense of '"'lyric'"') and because it is a direct expression of personal feelings, which may be identified as the author"'"s. It is a dramatic lyric in that the poem"'"s physical setting, particularly in the opening stanza, serves as an objective correlative to these feelings—representing, reflecting, '"'dramatizing'"' them.

'"'Coole'"' in the title refers to Coole Park, the estate in Ireland"'"s County Galway of Lady Augusta Gregory, Yeats"'"s friend, collaborator, and benefacter. Yeats spent a considerable part of each year there for many years, beginning in 1897; he often walked paths through the woods on the estate and to Coole Lake, with its swans.

On its first appearance, the poem was dated October, 1916, a time when Yeats"'"s spirits were at a low ebb. Still unmarried and childless at age fifty-one, he felt that life was passing him by. Over the years, his friend Maud Gonne had rejected several proposals of marriage from him, and in 1916 she had done so again; even her daughter Iseult had declined a proposal from him that summer. (In 1917, Yeats would marry Georgia Hyde-Lees; their daughter would be born in 1919, their son in 1921. This poem, then, unknown to Yeats, was a farewell song to lonely bachelorhood.)
The speaker in the poem draws two contrasts: On the one hand, between himself now and himself when first he walked '"'on this shore'"'; on the other hand, between himself and the swans. '"'All"'"s changed,'"' he says, since first he came there; and the change is in him: He walks with a heavier tread and his heart has '"'grown old.'"' This sets up the second contrast, for the swans—energetic, '"'Unwearied,'"' passionate—exhibit the very traits that he finds diminished, or lacking, in himself. The apparent lack of change in the swans underscores the changes that the poet feels, at age fifty-one, recollecting himself at age thirty-two.

Forms and Devices
The poem"'"s opening lines describe a scene of '"'autumn beauty'"' and also objectify Yeats"'" depressed state of mind. '"'October twilight'"' establishes at the outset a sense of things—a day, a year—coming to an end. Yeats"'"s mood, as it emerges over the course of the poem, is correspondingly autumnal, reflecting his awareness of the mortality he shares with everything terrestrial and temporal. That the '"'woodland paths are dry'"' is significant because Yeats characteristically associated dryness with physical and imaginative sterility. No less than '"'water/ Mirrors a still sky,'"' land&dh;scape mirrors mood.

Yeats often thought in terms of the four traditional elements: earth, air, fire, and water. (See, for example, '"'The Song of Wandering Aengus,'"' 1897, and '"'Sailing to Byzantium,'"' 1927.) '"'The Wild Swans at Coole'"' omits fire but makes conspicuous use of the other three, particularly by associating air with water and by distinguishing the two of them from earth.

Water mirrors sky (air) not only literally but also figuratively. In the Yeatsian cosmology, air and water are spiritual, earth is physical. '"'What"'"s water but the generated soul?'"' Yeats would ask in '"'Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931'"'; and '"'spirit'"' means breath (or air). Earth is solid, shaped, fixed—hence (paradoxically) mortal; air and water are amorphous, unstable—hence (paradoxically) immortal. Earth is temporal; air and water are eternal. There is no '"'autumn'"' for air or water, as there is for earth and terrestrial organisms, such as trees and poets. Swans hold dual citizenship of the spirit: '"'They paddle in the cold/ Companionable streams or climb the air'"' with equal ease and grace. At a practical level, Yeats"'"s inability to complete his count of the swans enables him to sustain the illusion that the ones he sees now are the same swans, unchanged, that he saw nineteen years earlier.
The most profound paradox relating to the swans, which makes them '"'Mysterious'"' indeed, is how they can be so completely engaged in life yet not subject to mortality. The solitary man wistfully watches the paired swans, still passionate, '"'lover by lover,'"' and wonders why he is alone and feeling his age. The poem does not attempt to resolve this paradox. It remains an enigma, like the '"'still sky'"' and the '"'still water,'"' their surfaces smooth and untroubled, with no indication of what might be beneath or beyond them. '"'Still,'"' though unobtrusive, is one of the key words in the poem. Not only does the word describe the two spiritual elements—tranquil, apparently motionless—in the opening and closing stanzas (thus again mirroring each other), but it also appears twice in the penultimate stanza, in a different sense: '"'Unwearied still … Attend upon them still.'"' Here '"'still,'"' meaning '"'now, as before,'"' refers to duration in time. The swans are at once in and out of time. The paradox deepens.

Themes and Meanings
A word often overlooked in discussion of this poem, perhaps because it appears only in the title, is '"'Wild.'"' Yeats called the swans wild, first of all, to indicate that they are in no way domesticated. They do not nest at Coole; thus, as the poem"'"s ending suggests, they may fly away at any time. Yeats also called them wild because of a set of admiring associations he had with that word. He habitually called all manner of flying things wild, and he had done so since he began publishing in the mid-1880"'"s.

He associated the quality of wildness with the power and freedom of flight, and he recognized it in certain people—rebels, for example—who led active, independent lives. In '"'September 1913,'"' he applied the traditional Irish term '"'wild geese'"' to exiled heroes from history. Although he did not always approve of Maud Gonne"'"s firebrand political activities, as early as 1910 he compared her with Helen of Troy, offspring of Leda and Zeus-as-swan, thus one of the '"'daughters of the swan.'"' Yeats also associated the quality of wildness with passion and mating, and in this respect too Maud Gonne came to his mind; passionate herself, the object of his passion, yet unwilling to mate with him.

The wild swans at Coole are independent, vigorously active, and passionate. The second stanza provides a powerful image of the whole flock of swans taking off in unison:

I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

The verb '"'mount'"' does double duty, clearly referring to the swans"'" ascension into the sky, but also bearing with it overtones of its other meaning: to copulate. The verb pulls together—admirably, for Yeats"'"s purposes—his main associations with wildness: power, freedom, and passion.
The power and passion that Yeats finds wanting in himself are imaginative as well as physical. He was in a dry spell as a poet in 1916–1917. Of the 374 lyrical poems in Yeats"'"s Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1956), only ten (totaling 273 lines of verse) were composed during these years. In contrast, twenty-three poems (963 lines) come from the following two years. While two or three of the 1916–1917 poems could be considered major poems, as many as eight or nine poems from 1918–1919 could be placed in that category. '"'The Wild Swans at Coole'"' reflects Yeats"'"s discouragement as a poet as well as a lover. He was shrewd enough, however, in uncreative periods of his life, to write poems about the difficulties of writing poems. It was a good strategy, for it helped Yeats get through dry spells with something to show for them.

Richard Bizot


Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Brizzare Dream

I just finished watching that was one of the most bizarre dream that I vividly remember. It was about working in a construction firm her in US and the building they were constructing I think was for ST. The building was already 100 plus floors when I joined in as a construction worker. The first day was hectic I don't know the wage but I was convinced that it was good. I joined with 15 other workers and by the end of the day 7 died. I saw two dying right in front of my eyes. One was sucked up to the giant pulley. There was too much violence in the dreams. I also remember the high speed lifts that carry ones to the top of the floor and funny thing was they had a built in lavoratory because one time I took that one and I still hadn't finish potty and was wiping in front of everybody. The other part was I met one girl from ST who I haven't thought of till I left ST. Her hazel eye it was just the second half o the other day when I came back that I met her. She told me about her story of living in Italy for 10 months and how she came here and I told her about my doing MS in mathematics. The reason I am saying it was an ST contruction because in my dream I saw a guy who much look like sri sri ravi and I saw him in the building. While coming back after the lunch there wre two separate sets of lift and I saw someone one big guy in fight with a worker. Roughly speaking the big guy looks like Shaka in “Tauji's and Saboo comics” and thin guy was closer to Abhik in ST. I think I saw him strangling and so I got into the lift which hasd a window through which I was seeing. But unlike the high speed elevator this one wouldn't go up it was going on through the building as I realized it after a while and also unlike the high speed elevator which would go to the top almost liike a fast moving car and you can feel it because the top was open. This one was stopping intermittently and I had to keep pushing the switch there was no numbering. Anyway after a while I realized that I came out into what looks like a strange subway station with hardly andy people around. I check agin there were lots of blue wooden address boards almost like for people who work there and the tram lines reaching to everybody's place. I remember I was still carrying my cell phone and could call the people to get the directions. I somehow realize that I could push the other switch and yes it started moving in opposite direction and I started observing the details. There were three young Indian looking girls dressed in white called death fairy smiling. It looks like the place was dedicated to death and before tuning back the switch something told me that place was only 5 minutes from the main building and that was the reason I felt comfortable. The next scene was about grapes where there were mannequins sitting and there were three exhibitions emphasizing about grapes. That people eat grapes with honey, people eat grapes with achhhar and with oil I think and that's the point where I got off from my dream. It's 5:28 am in the morning. This dream brought me face to face reality with working in construction especially loosing those 7 people and I don't know even in dream I had the realization that this is a risky business at one instance when I was talking to that girl from ST, I remember thinking about these worker from while looking through the glass window that how precarious their life is. I don't know thy this dream had so much violence in it. There was another part when I was going up the lift and I could feel how fast it was going. It was amazingly detailed feeling. The fil I am talking about in this dream is I think was working in Amit Roy's group, was a tall girl and long hair she joined not too long ago when I left perhaps a year and used to have a bindi and wear middle parted hair. I also noticed that construction workers had intense short sessions. I am not sure how many factors have influenced this dream because last semester I saw a lot of “Mega builders” and “Mega movers” like episodes on Discovery and History channel. The portion of death fairy might have been influenced by because I was reading the bible before sleeping and also to my recent exposure to its way of thinking and the conflict it generates in me. I am somehow convinced that the way its teaching are done by the local church is not going to get them the elusive peace they are looking for. I think the pastor is a good management guy and he got all the right ideas of 7 habits but the foundation of his vision are wrong and I also have the feeling that he knows it true and since this is the only job he is competent enough he is doing that and this makes me wonder if 7 habits can be misused ? Because here this guy has a mission statement for the church, he likes to call it core dreams. Then he has a VTV program. I think the reason I have hard time trusting him is because he made several comments through his discourse which had me realized that he understands all the mumbo zumbo he is talking about. For example once he said “Don' you wonder about all this faith if its really true ?” someone who routinely claims to have found demons and having exorcised them saying that. Also the holy spirit thing and having made statements like never to pray for non Christians etc make me doubt his real intentions. Around the church I find the more who are religiously inclined are having the more trouble. They can feign smile but deep down inside they are not happy. Self help books are considered a strict no-no as it goes against the teaching of bible. Really ? There are number of self help books and I have seen most of them carry some quotations from the book. His resistnce against the book “Secret”. Well I don't think “Secret” is any way even closer to “7 habits”. Secret is for people to take the first step in becoming more emotionally stable.

5:56
June 17, 07

Free Will

My take on a question on Free will ?

How would you express in as simple a way as possible the arguments put forward in the following passage ?

“Experiments have shown that when a person believes that he or she is deciding to do something the brain has already made the decision some time before. What does this say about free will ? Free will is the basis of society. Religion and law are based on the exercise of free will. It is this exercise of free will which merits reward (in heaven) or punishment (in prison or in hell). Without the concept of free will society could not function.

'Quite apart from the experiments mentioned above, there is a feeling that upbringing, genes, hormones, chemicals in the brain, past experiences, role models, etc., all add up to pressures that forces someone to act in a certain way. So how free are we really ?


The argument described here takes both sides of the coin. On one hand it talks about our free will to do anything and on the other side how this free will comes because most of our actions are based on our environment. It is like chicken and egg argument, “Which came first” if we assume chicken first because chicken gives egg then we wonder how did the first chicken came ? Similar is with free will if we assume free will came first then environment will have no bearing on our behavior but there are numerous studies which buttress the claim that if a person is exposed to a right kind of environment their actions are markedly different. If we consider environment is the only factor then also there are equal number of studies which tell about individuals who pulled themselves out from the misery but exercising their free will.

That is one reason that today law is getting more and more cautious of the fact that upbringing, genes, hormones, chemical in the brain, past experiences, role models, etc., all make a personality. However in every person there is a deep yes and if the person is willing to listen to that he or she can make an unbiased decision but again this will be denying the fact that society doesn't conditions them. What I believe is that people who commit crime don't bother to ask their conscience they are driven too much by small things like jealousy, revenge and societal concerns. They don't try to put themselves into other's shoes and see the situation from their point of view. This is more like we humans are like Robots programmed from the environment and act according to those programs, This is also the basis of NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) which does successfully cures many of the ingrained habits

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Making use of break

I have this 3 hrs break between I finish the class and start working as Math Tutor. I need to find a way to make good use of this time but it so happens that you are hungry by this time. I can divert my attention from hunger by having fruits like apples and grapefruits. I think I should revise the classwork and grade homework assignments.

Br,
Sumant Sumant

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Jpeg to Pdf

I just converted some 17 jpg files to pdf from this wonderful website www.pdfonline.com I scanned some pages of the book and converted to jpg format only to discover that the place where I had to print had no image viewer software other than Microsoft paint and though it did read the jpg file correctly, printing it was a nightmare. Then someone asked me to show how to convert a doc file to pdf file and I showed him that it can be done online. Then suddenly this thought crossed my mind why don't I convert those jpg images to pdf. The site did a wonderful job by sending the file within a minute of uploading. As a side note if you are scanning a text book scan with high contrast and low brightness !

Quick Update

Dear Sumant,

I am updating this blog from the Math lab in Neckers. I am sitting on computer number 15 which is at the very extreme left corner. Today I have appointment with the Shawnee Dharma. Last week was a good time doing 1/2 hrs of meditation and I eagerly look forward to it today.

Br,
Sumant Sumant

Monday, June 11, 2007

done with classes today

Dear Sumant,

I am updating this blog from the Faner Lab. Today was the first day of classes for summer session and I had two. Graph Theory and Linear Programming both look promising.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

The Sunday of June 10, 07

Dear Sumant,

The day began with me reading a little of "First Things First". Then I went to Vine with Kressa. The new person I met there was Britney. It was god to see Kitty too. I was glad that Kressa took "The 100 things to do before I die challenge" and I could see the change in her. She became more excited even though initially she was reluctant to start with. It's an amazing exercise that helps us connect to our "True North". In the evening I went to play golf with Akina and Mark after that Mark cooked the Japanese soup for us and I met Laura and one more Chinese Girl from Beijing. It was good talking to them. Laura is accompanying her husband who is in Indiana and the other girl was a sophomore in economics here at SIUC. Later I went with Ulli, Francois, Chuck, June and Aravind to S.I Bowling and I scored my highest score of 153. I had to go back again to S. I Bowling as June realized that he left his wallet there. Then I went to see Roy and he gave me pateesa and sondesh ! and now I am in Math lab updating my blog after writing a mail to home requesting the book on Graph Theory. So today was spent more on socializing though I did practice piano a little bit. Akina also got me the piano book and some medicines including analgesics for me.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Lake Kinkaid plus hashing

Dear Sumant,

Not much to write about Saturday. I first went to Lake Kinkaid. I was with Akina and Mark and following someone who lost the way and we went all the way to a sweet little town called Ava. After that we did manage to find our way back to Kinkaid. It was a scenic route. Then I went to Giant City Park for our monthly run. Met 3 more new people including Sarah, Dave and Joe. It was funny that I bump into Aura at the meeting point and I am not sure how she took to the hashing name when I introduced her to other people from the hash. The trail this time was not so long though at one pt it was way too slippery and I was bruised but nothing serious. Later we went to Teressa's place in Murphysboro. It was again another scenic route on pleasant hill road. At her place we played several card games including "Asshole". There were more people from the hash and it was a fun evening.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Thursday, June 07, 2007

1421 : The year China discovered America

Dear Sumant,

Yesterday my trip to Barnes and Nobles was satisfactory. I found three great books. I read 57 pages of "Catcher in the Rye". Its a funny novel about a kid and his encounter with his teacher and roommates at his dorm. I read around 230 pages of "1421 The year China discovered America". Its fascinating story about China's history and its trade relation with India, The middle east and Africa. It reveals a startling fact about China's expansion through trade unlike European expansion. China is rediscovering its history and doing the same, bolstering its trade through out the world. I hope to finish the book by tomorrow.

Best Regards
Sumant Sumant

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Meramec Caves








Last Monday I took a trip with Tom and Kyriakos to Meramec Caverns in Missouri. It was a great trip and here are some photographs to prove that.
Kyriakos did all the driving. While coming back we were lost for a while in the eastern St. Louis and this was the first time I saw "The Hood". It was strange, old dilapidated abandoned buildings. Young men playing basketball. Graffiti on the road. It seems that it was expanding as we were getting out it. Relatively new buildings were getting sucked into the hood. It's just different than anything I had seen before in America.

Sumant Sumant

Shawnee Dharma

Dear Sumant,

Yesterday I took time to visit the Shawnee Dharma a local Buddhist Meditation group. As you know I love meditation and the wonderful calmness it brings to my mind. I met some wonderful new people there including Gillian, Bob, Yo and Abby. I borrowed the book "One" by Richard Bach from the library and plan to finish reading it soon. I hope to take sometime off to "Barnes and Noble" today and check out new arrivals. I have started reading "How to solve it" and its pretty engaging. There was this topic of thinking backward introduced with the problem of bringing 6 quart of water from river when you have only two jars measuring 9 quart and 4 quart.

That's for now
Sumant Sumant

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Songs and Memory

Dear Sumant,

I wrote a blog yesterday and lost it. It was actually about the effect of music on our mood. I recently copied lots of songs from my laptop to my Linux machine. The reason was to free some space on my laptop which is bursting at its seems. There was this song from movie Andhi and it took me back to the memory lane when I wasn't even going to school. I vividly remember that at 6 O clock in the morning when my dad would turn on the radio and it will continue till 10:30 and during that time it keeps churning out songs and this song is now considered to be pretty old. I also remember the digital clock my Dad build and the day he got the printed circuit board and me and my sister would plug those LEDs into the board making sure the longer leg goes to the correct hole as the positioning was important. This clock is still at our home working flawlessly.

Its amazing that as you move from one song to another it brings some very specific memories to your mind for example I just changed to Kylie Minogue's "Can't get you out of my mind" and I got transported into the restaurant in Noida where Nabarun had given a party and I heard this song attentively for the first time though it was on the air for quite sometime. Later I went on to buy this cassette and would play on my way to work.

There are some songs which you cannot get bored of listening. Some of my favorite artists are Robert Miles, Meat Loaf, Madonna. I have owned only one album of Robert Miles and that is "Bat out of hell" and it still remains one of my all time favorite though I don't know if I have enjoyed any more heavy metal songs other than this. Robert Miles is one whose techno music I loved and again his music has energy and some divine melody. Though I think I have inclination more instrumental music than vocals but there are timeless songs where vocal have strong emotional value. Tomorrow I plan to go and see Meramec cave. I thought my last trip to Mammoth cave has whetted my appetite for Cave Exploring.

That's for now
Sumant Sumant

Friday, June 01, 2007

Hike at Giant City Park

Dear Sumant,

Today I went on a hike to Giant City Park and it was great. We did two trails, the nature one which was around 1 mile and another shorter one about 1/3rd of a mile. I would recommend the nature one if you are going there for the first time. It has some fantastic rock formation. It looks pretty much like a three walled brick room and there were engravings from people who been to that place some dating back to 1840s !! It was neat, really neat. After that we went to Italian Village restaurant. It is one unique place where you are allowed to write your name anywhere on the wall, even on ceiling !! We didn't have marker but if you visit there bring some white paint, because the surroundings are dark so names written with white paint stand out. I ordered an onion pizza plus soda and it was only $6.37 plus it was a great pizza. I loved it. Also I practiced more of my piano today. I am getting better with the first quarter of "Fur Elise" and its giving me much joy.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant
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