Rajat Arya

Tool concert for ’10,000 Days’ album. Excellent show. Went with Vin from work, got tickets at the last minute. The pictures are lousy since they are the quality of my cell phone, but at least I have something to remember the show with.

The setlist was as follows:

Stinkfist
The Pot
46&2
Jambi
Schism
Rosetta Stoned
Opiate
Sober
Lateralus
Vicarious
Ænema

Lots of reviews for the show available here.  As everyone else states in the reviews, it was an excellent show at an excellent venue.

Pictures from the show are available here.

Read in July and August 2006.

This is the story of Malika Oufkir. Her childhood was overly privileged as she was adopted by the king of Morocco. There was the troubles with being separated from her family and not being allowed to spend time with her mother.

After turning sixteen, she moved back home with her family. Her father’s relationship with the king soured, and after a failed coup that was organized by her father, Malika was imprisoned with her entire family, including her 3yr old brother.

This imprisonment lasted for twenty years, and considering this occurred during the 1970s, it is even more amazing.

The story moves freely and Malika doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on the horrific events her family endured. She keeps from showing too much contempt from her captors, and talks openly about the internal conflict she dealt with a father-figure as her capture. Overall a very interesting read, and cool.

Read more about it, and buy it from here.

Prashant, Kalyan, Shaina and Rajat hiked Mt. Pilchuck on August 19, 2006.  This hike had the most amazing views compared to all the hikes I did in summer 2006.

There is a great write up on the hike available here.

Of all the hikes for my camera to die on – but luckily Kalyan was there to rescue me and the pictures from the hike.  We all had a blast, and I can’t wait until next summer to do it again!

Pictures are available here.

(I know it is a stretch to consider running a 5K Hiking, but until I create a Running category this is the best fit.)

I participated in the FootZone 5K this past August 6, 2006. It was my first 5K, and the first time I can remember “running for fun”. Though contrary to all of my previous beliefs, it actually was fun.

My goal was simply to finish the 5K without walking. I was able to accomplish that and ended with a time that isn’t half-bad (as I’ve been told by friends that have done 5Ks before). I ended up with a total time of 25m 43s, average mile time of 8m 18s. Results have been posted here (so you can verify I actually did participate and did in fact get the times I’ve listed).

My friends Derek and Shanna were there and Derek took a couple pictures throughout the event. His entire photo album is for the event is here, but there were a couple pictures with me in them, so I thought I would put them on my site as well.

First, is a picture at the start of the race. Someday I might actually highlight who I am, but I think if you look in the middle of the picture, you should be able to see the side/back of my head. And second, is a picture from the end of the race. Both Shanna and I are a little sweaty, but it felt remarkably satisfying to finish.

Read from July 2006 to August 2006.

Thought provoking work on the power of the subconscious and the power of making snap-decisions.  Using “thin-slicing” as the primary technique, we can effectively make many decisions using our subconscious.  Unfortunately, many people are not tapped into their subconscious in this way and so cannot take advantage of this power to “mind read”.

Gladwell attempts to open the reader’s eyes and mind to the concept of subconscious power.  The book is interesting in the examples and the many studies referenced.  It reads like a long essay, instead of an academic paper (which makes it significantly more readable).

Many times when working on a hard (or at least, hard for me) problem at work going home and letting my subconscious churn on the problem overnight helps open my eyes.  It has worked for me several times, and though I have a hard time relying on it, it is always pleasantly surprising when it works.

You can read more about Blink and potentially purchase it here.

Moodle seems like an open source Blackboard. Patent issues aside, this seems pretty interesting to me. My university was just rolling out Blackboard while I was an undergrad (I’m getting older and older in technology terms), though now I am guessing even tech-savvy high schools have rolled out Blackboard as well.

Well Moodle seems to provide everything Blackboard provided in the past, along with some new stuff (for all I know, Blackboard has these as well). This leads me to envision dynamic classrooms run by students interested in learning something outside of any curriculum. This could enable my desire to learn Thai cooking from actual Thai folks in Thailand today. Or maybe something more obscure, like studying ancient history by collaborating with students that have access to the original works themselves (imagine a Wiki discussion on a reading piece of classic Shakespeare literature).

Even if Blackboard is successful in quashing Moodle and Sakai, this type of concept will surface in other forms. Even hodge-podge sites will start providing this outside of the collaborative educational groupware moniker.

Moodle seems like a complete package, and it looks easy to use and hopefully easy to set up. I have a hankering to get it going on a spare machine at home to see how easy it is to manage. I can also foresee a future environment of collaborative learning that is paid for by paid installations of Moodle. For example, something like the UW Experimental College or my alma mater’s College of General Studies.

Pictures from Hiking Cascade Pass. Partha, Prashant, Kalyan, Alex, Olga, and myself hiked the 3.7mi hike in Marblemount, WA. This particular trail was mentioned recently in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Though the hike was about 3 hours away, and we started a little late, the views were amazing and very enjoyable. It was a little cold at the top of the trail, at the end of the pass, but otherwise it was a highly enjoyable afternoon. Arguably the best hike so far this summer.

The pictures are available here.