Evolution & Civilization

Some years back, well let me put it this way, some thousands of years back - remember when man wasn't fully erect, could eat anything he could spear, cut and chew, did not care whether it had enough sugar, calcium or protein in it, did not mind the cholesterol levels in his blood and only obeyed his hunger. Lots of good times.

Everything we eat now has to be calculated for calories, I hate to say it but I do mind munching on the fourth slice of that extra cheesy pizza. Not because I do not want to eat it, only because it wouldn't do much good to my health. I dont add extra sugar to my coffee, well actually cant afford normal coffee, only decaf. Reason, my folks wouldn't appreciate me staying up all night just cause I can't get sleep with all the caffiene in my blood. Its not like I could use that extra energy to go out and hunt down some extra food for the winters. I calculate the calories in the snack bars, I eat lotsa greens, ration'd proportions of dairy, well you get the idea.

I still envy the folks in pre civilization times when they used to eat everything. I did not want to evolve to stand erect and worry about my spine. I did not ask to be civilized to cook everything I eat and get used to digesting dairy. I am not for evolution and civilization if it makes me work extra hard to earn my meals and makes me watch my diet. But then again I am evolved and civilized so I will follow the rules and norms of the society. Time to go finish off my fifth slice of that extra cheese pizza only after I peel the cheese off of it. ;)

Camping checklist

This is the checklist for camping for amateurs. The list is very exhaustive and is not in the order of importance.

Sleeping:

1. Enough tents
2. Tarp, foam pads or air mattresses
3. Sleeping bags / comforters
4. Extra tarp to cover cooking area
5. Basic toiletries
6. Swimming trunks/suits, hiking shoes, Hats
7. Quarters - for using the showers at the campsite

Essentials:

1. Flashlights/ Lanterns
2. Extra layers of clothing
3. Insect repellents
4. Stoves
5. Propane cylinders -
6. Matches, lighters -
7. Grilling pans/Sauce pans/other cooking utensils
8. Paper plates -
9. Paper cups -
10. Paper Napkins -
11. Spoons -
12. Ladles –
13. Skewers
14. Can openers -
15. Knife/peeler -
16. Sun screen -
17. Coolers/campers (ice pack) -
18. Trash Bags -
19. First aid kit -
20. Ice for the icepack -
21. Firewood/Starter wood
22. Games - Catchphrase, Dodgeball, Frisbee -
23. Boom Box / Zune/ FM Transmiiter & CD’s
24. Foldable chairs

Food

1. Water (big jerry cans) -
2. Veggie/Meat burgers/Hot dogs -
3. Bread/ buns-
4. Cheese/Butter
5. Grease (Pam Spray) -
6. Soup cans /2 minute Noodles-
7. Tomatoes, Onions, Cucumber
8. Salt/Pepper/bbq and other seasoning
9. Chips/Soda/beer
10. Whole corn
11. Lime/Lemon
12. Scrub (for utensils)
13. Egg Beaters
14. Pancake mix/Other cereals
15. Milk
16. Coffee/Tea Powder
17. Sugar

Glacier National Park

The long weekend holidays for me are always boring. I usually end up working or sitting at home watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Not that watching TV is not good but hey its long weekend and I am expected to make some sort of long road trip. So this long weekend we set out to explore some wilderness of Glacier National Park.

To begin with, we have no experience watsoever with hiking, camping, biking, swimming, horse back riding, rafting or boating and this is what we wanted to do in GNP. The day started out with exploring and site seeing some of the local falls along the highway US-2 in western Washington and through Wenatchee. Talking about Wenatchee I will have to write another post to talk about Wenatchee alone. But for now back to GNP trip. Then we went as far as Spokane and still wanting more adventure we decided on the fly to head out to GNP. We immediately pull up information on our Win-Mo phones and make a few phone calls. Got ourselves a room on the bank of Lake McDonald in the Village Inn in Apgar Village.

The drive took about another 5 hours, total 9 hours to get to Apgar Village. The room we got to spend the nite opened into the lake, the view was the best and the feeling was just out of this world. We spent the night in the Village Inn and set out on the Road to the Sun which was a 50 mile drive filled with scenic beauty. The Chief Mountain, the Triple Arches, Mt. Clemens, wild fauna and flora just keep you engrossed all through the drive. We then camped at Rising Sun Motor Inn near the lake St.Mary for the night and then traced our way back to the city the next day.


By far this was the most adventurous trip I have had and makes me want to go there again very soon.

Here is what Wikipedia has on GNP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_National_Park_%28U.S.%29

Tintin - All titles so far

This is the complete list of Tintin titles so far.

1. Land of the Soviets
2. Tintin in the Congo
3. Tintin in America
4. Cigars of the Pharaoh
5. The Blue Lotus
6. The Broken Ear
7. The Black Island
8. King Ottokar's Sceptre
9. The Crab with the Golden Claws
10. The Shooting Star
11. Secret of the Unicorn
12. Red Rackham's Treasure
13. The Seven Crystal Balls
14. Prisoners of the Sun
15. Land of the Black Gold
16. Destination Moon
17. Explorers on the Moon
18. The Calculus Affair
19. Red Sea Sharks
20. Tintin in Tibet
21. Castafiore Emerald
22. Flight 714
23. Tintin and the Picaros
24. Tintin and Apha-art
25. Tintin and the Lake of Sharks

Most of these are available in English, French & Spanish. Yesterday I was browsing through the Half price book store and the assistant there told me Tintin was one of the most difficult books to get our hands on, esp the used ones. That made me feel good and bad. Good coz, its Tintin and there are others like me :), bad coz I would love to get my hands on some of these.

XBOX - back on my fav 5

First of all WOOHOO XBOX. Please let me repeat it again, WOOHOO XBOX.

Now to explain the WOOHOO. During one of my recent trips to Andhradesam, I visited one of these big video stores. Seeing the dirt cheap prices of the DVDs sold there I couldnt resist myself and got a handful of good old Gult movies. Its not everyday that I shop for such movies and so I did not check to see the video format of these movies. Its not until I came back to US that I realized I got PAL video which none of the DVD players in here would play. I was restricted to watching them on my tiny screen laptop.

Not anymore though.

The other day when XBOX scratched my GEARS OF WAR, I knew I needed something to put XBOX back on my fav list of musthave. So I started experimenting with all sorts of discs that I had and was trying to figure out what scratches the discs the most. During one of these experiments I accidentally popped in one of my movie discs and to my surprise, XBOX started playing the movie - the one in PAL format.

I am a happy man again.

XBOX - You totally rock but for the occasional disc scratching and oh ofcourse the loud noise of your fan. You are back on my fav 5.