This is just an image check to see what I look like, this was in the bryce canyon national park in Utah, the cutest national park I have been to, if I can say that.

Adding to that for me there is no better feeling than being one with nature, trekking, climbing. Getting out of the stinking rat race really invigorates you however cliched it may sound.

The trip I was alluding to consisted of backpacking across the Grand Canyon down to the colorado river and back up, a day touristing in the Bryce Canyon and then spending time in the Zion National Park, climbing up Angel's Landing and then the Zion narrows. The walls of Zion are phenomenally grandesque and the trek up and down the Grand Canyon felt like a rite of passage.

My trekking trip has been lauded enough I think, I will sign off by saying that I hope mankind always appreciates fact that nature is more beautiful than anything else and it should be preserved more fervently and I will surely do my bit to help.

Future rites of passage include Alaska, Machu Pichu, Kilimanajaro, Amazon....hehe lofty plans indeed.

Here we go again, it has been ages or eons since I last penned my thoughts. Shit loads has happened since my last entry, I now have been riding a Honda VTX 1300R for a year now and it runs well, though I am torn between the cruiser and the superbike feel. Did I mention that it abosolutely looks like a dream machine, nickname Powerful Sweetness (walter payton shout out) to the layman NFL fan. Ohh but the sweet pleasure of biking is undescribeable just winding down the roads powering away from those 4 wheeled crapshoots the whole zipping through traffic phenomenal.

There is too much for me to write and I will not cover it all, between buying the most expensive home I would have ever thought I would have owned and the mortgage killing many dreams of unempoyed bliss that I envisioned to the fact that I did get married this year. All the signs that I am settling down even though my fairer/better half is perfect in the sense that I can be whacko around her, better people would have walked away.

My customary music blurb where I saw queensryche, megadeth and deep purple this year, btw geoff tate live sounds like GOD's voice, holy hell it was absolutely mind blowing, operation mindcrime better late than never, I am fortunate to have finally discovered this album, makes you wonder what I was doing all these years claiming be a rock/metalhead when I never heard this album in its entirety just the hits. This album rekindled my passion for album listening so lost an art in the mp3 download age, metropolis was a little disappointing though, maybe I need to grow into liking it; and the sojourn will continue...

In the throes of relative bankruptcy now, due to the fact that I have poured everything into the house but it seems worth it, finally have an investment but kinda seems that I am setting down after all those years of living in the notion that I was destined to do something different by not bucking to the trend but remaining a free spirit almost gypsy like, turns out that I am one of the masses(as a friend constantly used to remind me of the same). Auf Wiedersehen.

After my introductory spin I just started thinking that I had not blogged in a while due to enormous time constraints caused by switching jobs. Did I mention that there are pros and cons to working in a startup that everyone knows and must accept. Anyways here in the middle of the day in the post lunch hibernation syndrome I realized that printing a few thoughts would probably make my mind sharper. This I hence dedude is one among the many reasons to write blogs, you dont have to particularly good at anything to blog, a command of the language and correct grammar would definitely make it more readable, but just being able to rant and espouse about various topics is the primary skill. Being opinionated also helps which I have been accused of many a time, so here it goes that was my introduction to my second blog.

Lets start with the most hateful people around, people who think they are it and noone can break my bubble, %$#& them I swear their ability to monopolize any conversation is absolutely horrendous. Getting back to my favorite topics music, sports and bikes. Music has been stagnating lately due to the aforementioned hours that need to be dedicated to my new job, but will a conscious effort to listen to the new bands that I needed to download music of Opeth, Pain of Salvation and a lot of my favorite genre of music, melodic/operatic death metal.

Point 2 is sports with the NFL season now underway and it being the best sport to watch ever on Hi-Def, the need feeds the need, sundays are a blur, if only I was not in the Bay in California, and have to watch the dreadful Raiders and the 49'ers serve up garbage blowouts every week, thank god there is Sunday and Monday night football, which is not regionally based. Last year was a more pleasurable year football wise on the east coast because the Patriots, Giants or Redskins were on TV most of the time along with my team, The Pittsburgh Steelers, did I forget to mention that 2005 will be the greatest sports year for me, Steelers won , Heat won though Shaq was mere shadow of the most dominant force I have ever seen on the court and of course the Evil Empire lost in the first round. Go Tigers, as we speak they have just lost game 1, but its ok, my support is wholly with them, even though I want the A's to win it all. There is an allure about small money teams that win it all, Florida Marlins through every yard sale I always cheer them on in the playoffs. I could go on and on about sports, but I would like to conclude that Jamie Gold is the luckiest SOB alive, sometimes life just ain't fair.

Lastly I come to my bike saga, have been trying to buy one for the last month, even though the end seems near, soon the beacon will shine and there will be light. I have completed the licensing formalities and will soon atop one whenever I choose to pull the plug, even though pulling it is harder than I thought, the newer expensiver one always looks better. My license is in the mail and then I will sign on the dotted, sorry I am ranting again, I apologize but I cant help it, atleast I am consistent in my blogs.

Man strives to improve himself, I say strive to improve the life of people around you, that is the greatest gift you can give humanity.

Just pen a few random thoughts that come to my head. Roger Federer is the best tennis player to have ever graced the game, hands down no Sampras discussions please, you must be on hallucinogenics to think that there is a comparison.

Music has kept me going through this hard and trying last decade, may sound blasphemous but it is probably the only GOD I worship with in flames being the current flavor of the last 2 years, so in a sense I idol worship In Flames, which is quite an oxymoron since religion is so misunderstood and manipulated by a few hateful, wretched people. Anyways as usual I go off on a tangent, which had nothing to do with the last religious tantrums.

Live and let live, that should be the motto for everyone, especially the ones in power who have the ability to change the lifes of so many people, cases in point, usa war on iraq, israel war on lebanon and to a smaller extent the bombings in Bombay, stop trying to step over countries or screw up peoples lives over petty motives.