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Visitng Germany

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-06-30T16:33:29-05:00

During my trip to Germany last month I was able to spend a weekend in Bielefeld with my uncle and aunt (photos above are in Bielefeld). It was great to catch up with them over a relaxing couple of days. During my trip we drove to Osnabrück to visit the Felix Nussbaum museum. Felix Nussbaum was a jewish artist born in Osnabrück in 1904. The museum exhibits more than 160 of Nussbaum’s work of jewish life in Germany that he painted before his extermination in Auschwitz.

Wesley Turns 5

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-05-29T16:23:21-05:00

For Wesley’s 5th birthday we celebrated just ourselves in the evening since it was a school night (photo left). The following weekend we had a pool party at home with his cousins (photo right).

Visiting NYC

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-07-20T16:09:24-05:00

We spent a few days in New York City this month. We had an apartment right near times square which made the trip very convenient with the kids. We spent time with Janice’s twin sister and her family as well as Janice’s mother. The visit to the metropolitan museum of art was quite an adventure for the children.

Universal Studios, Orlando, FL

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-01-29T15:51:27-06:00

Unity’s 9th birthday present was a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando to see the Harry Potter World (photo left). We spent two days there during a school holiday. The Harry Potter rides were quite amazing. Wesley wasn’t tall enough for some of the rides, so Janice and I had to take turns with Unity on the rides—she got to ride her favorite ones twice as a result. We also saw/met some of the traditional characters including Scooby Doo (photo right), Back to the Future and the Simpsons.

Independence Day in the Capital City

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-07-06T12:58:23-05:00

For Independence Day, we decided to spend the long weekend in our capital city, Washington DC. Janice and the kids were already in Maryland for Unity's summer camp. I flew in Friday evening. It was a really hot few days, so we tried to spend as much time indoors as we could. The indoor activities primarily included visiting various museums that the kids would be interested in. We went to the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the International Spy Museum. Sunday afternoon we camped out under the shade of a tree at the National Mall (halfway between the Capitol and the Washington Memorial) and waited for the fireworks. The fireworks started about a half hour after dusk, about 9:20pm. The two photos above capture the view of the fireworks from our location. The photo below shows us trekking around DC between museums on Saturday. Wesley was getting a piggy back ride from Janice for part of the way.

Underwater Photography

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-05-30T00:57:58-05:00

I have been experimenting with underwater photography recently. It is rather expensive to get an underwater housing for an SLR camera, but for about a tenth of the price of a housing you can get a point-and-shoot camera that is good for 10 meters (33 feet) under water. I got one of these cameras and experimented in our swimming pool over the last couple of weekends. Here are some of the photos.

PBS Writing Contest

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-05-02T20:44:54-05:00

Unity is a prolific writer. Her 3rd grade teacher from John Cooper recommended that she enter into the PBS writing contest where children from various schools submit their writings based on rules published by PBS for the contest. This year there were 600 entries from which they pick 1 winner and 10 honorable mentions from each grade, kindergarten through third. Unity received one of the honorable mentions. We were invited by PBS to an award ceremony at the Children's Museum in Houston yesterday. Her teacher was also invited. Pictured here is Unity with her teacher right after the ceremony at the Children's museum.

Apple Aperture 3

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-04-28T17:26:52-05:00

I upgraded to Apple Aperture 3 shortly after it was released. I was fortunate enough that that I did not experience some of the initial upgrade woes (much discussed in various photography fora), but apparently those issues have since been fixed via the patch releases (version 3.03 is the current one). You can see the new features and specifications on the Apple website, so here I wanted to share my personal experience with Aperture 3.

Overall the experience has been very positive. Read on to see what I liked and disliked about it.

Micro Four Thirds

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-04-22T18:06:11-05:00

I have been eyeing large sensor small cameras, particularly the micro four thirds format, for some time now. The obvious reason to get a small camera is that it is with me more often, especially when I am traveling—which I do frequently. Carrying the hulking Nikon D700 with its huge lenses is not always practical, for example when I am out at dinner with the family or at a school event with the kids. Two things had been holding me back until recently. The first was the that the right product (for me) wasn't out yet—each of the initial first generation products on the market had some shortcoming. The second was that these cameras were not supported by Apple Aperture which is my primary raw converter, photo editor and cataloguer.

Spring Break

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-03-20T09:17:39-05:00

For Spring break this year we went to Joshua Tree National Park in California. There we met up with Janice's mom, Richard and Tamara, and Tamara's parents Carol and Henry. Richard had arranged for an historic adobe house at Twentynine Palms just north of the Park. Click here to view the photographs from the trip and click through for a map.

Unity turns 9

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-02-14T16:55:35-06:00

Unity turned 9 last weekend. To celebrate, we took her and her friends to Landry's seafood restaurant for lunch followed by the Alley Theatre to see Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure. Click through to see a couple of more photos.

Unity learns to canter

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-02-14T16:33:05-06:00

Unity has been walking and trotting on a horse since she started her training. A couple of weeks ago, I took her to the riding lesson and she was very excited when the instructor let her canter on the horse. She came home all giddy and jumping up and down talking about the exhilarating feeling the cantering was.

"I can" is contageous

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-01-18T23:25:02-06:00

Each one of the TEDIndia 2009 talks has been fantastic but this one is my favorite so far. This woman, Kiran Sethi, is inspiring hundreds of thousands of children to take charge. The impact she is going to have by empowering children over the next decade (and beyond) is incredible. I watched it with my eight year old daughter, Unity, and she loved it as well. Then she and I discussed what she learned. You have to watch this ten minute talk to see how Kiran Sethi is changing the world.

Out with Unity

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-01-16T19:40:16-06:00

Unity and I went out this afternoon to spend some quality time together. It was a chilly day, so we got some hot chocolate and peach gelato and sat outside. We then explored the Woodlands Waterfront area for a while—the walking was good exercise for me. Later we drove to Lake Woodlands and fed the ducks. We sat and watched the all the different colors changing every minute as the sun was setting by the lake. And then it was time to head home for dinner. The best part of the few hours was the great conversations I had with her about life's little (but important) lessons.

Pictured here Unity is walking briskly near the Woodlands Waterfront area earlier today.

The second hip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-01-12T23:44:48-06:00

I had the right hip resurfacing done on December 2, 2009. This time the recovery was much quicker that the last time. I had a checkup with the doctor at 5 weeks. He gave me a clean bill of health and removed all the range of motion restrictions. The x-ray on the right is from the checkup last week. You can see the cobalt prosthesis on both hips now.

I am already walking without a support this week and the right leg is almost as strong as the left leg. I don't quite have the full range of motion yet, but today I started my physical therapy, so it is a matter of time until I get there. I am hoping to go hiking and get on my bike in the Spring.

New Years Eve | Bollywood Style

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-01-03T19:45:05-06:00

This year's New Years Eve party was hosted by Kanika and Arun. We are asked to arrive in our Bollywood best. The week before the party each couple was given a Bollywood movie song (and video) to which we had to perform a dance.

Janice practiced her dance at home earlier in the day and we decided that at the party we would go first to set the bar for the rest of the crowd. It was quite a blast. Everyone had their Bollywood get up and everyone got into the dancing and singing. Kanika and Arun were the most gracious hosts. They served incredible wine, hors d'oeuvres, and dinner—Bollywood style, of course. We had a second round of food and aperitifs after midnight. You can see the photos here. Below is the list of the Bollywood movie songs given to each couple.

Christmas 2009

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2010-01-03T19:22:27-06:00

Here is a video clip of opening presents on Christmas morning at home. For some reason the timestamp on the video camera was left on, so you can see that we got a late start on Christmas morning.

Improved Post Processing Tools

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-12-28T23:06:53-06:00

For Christmas I got some new post processing tools. The main addition is a Mac Pro that has really been a pleasure to use. The applications are really, really fast and the internal SATA drives as well as the external eSATA drives are about ten times faster than the Drobo FW800 I was using previously (the Drobo seems to have about half the throughput of other FW800 drives). Other additions to the post processing tools include adding Nik Software Complete Collection and upgrading to Final Cut Studio 3. Go to my Post Processing page to see the complete current list. I have the Mac Pro configured as follows:

Quad-core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor, 2.66 GHz—I spent the money on the RAM rather than the clock speed
16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM—this really makes the apps snappy
160GB Intel X25-M Solid State boot drive (internal)—boot up is fast but, more importantly, apps start fast and the boot drive stays separate from the RAID-configured Data drives. I keep a clone of the boot drive as back-up
Four 2TB 3Gb/s internal drives in RAID 0+1 configuration—I get 4TB of usable space, striped for speed, mirrored for reliability
Two NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 each with 512MB memory—each of the 30-inch monitors is connected to one of these
4-port eSATA card for connecting external backup drives—right now this is to connect the eSATA back-up drive, but could also be used for storage when I exceed the 4TB space I have now. Not all cards provide drivers that run in Snow Leopard 64-bit kernel
Mac OSX Snow Leopard running in 64-bit mode
Two 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays—I had one, and I got a second one
Two UPS power supplies—one for the Mac Pro and one for the monitors and peripherals

San Francisco Photographs

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-12-19T20:11:15-06:00

I have added some photographs of San Francisco here. These photographs were taken during three separate trips to San Francisco in 2007.

Unity loves riding

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-12-18T11:59:39-06:00

Unity has finally found an extracurricular activity that she loves. Twice a week she eagerly looks forward to going to her horseback riding lessons. Last week she participated in the “egg and spoon race” where you have to balance a tennis ball on the spoon while riding. If the ball falls of the spoon, you need to get off the horse, pick up the ball, get back on your horse and continue riding. The first person to reach the end and drop the ball and the spoon into the barrel wins the race. Unity won third place which was quite impressive since most of the other kids participating were older than her.

Ethan turns two

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-11-30T11:53:08-06:00

Thanksgiving day was also my nephew Ethan's birthday. He turned two, here pictured with his grandmother, Donna.

Thanksgiving

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-11-29T11:28:53-06:00

For this year’s thanksgiving I decided to make a nine course dinner including a turkey main course. There were eighteen people—twelve adults and six children. One guest was vegetarian, so I also made some vegetarian alternatives for some of the courses. You can view the photographs from the dinner here. There were some new items in the menu that I was making for the first time, including the carrot sorbet with pea soup as the starter and the pan fried haddock topped with roasted foie gras. Here is the complete menu:

Visiting London

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-11-01T20:27:21-06:00

In my recent visit to London, I was busy with work related activities for most of the week. On the last day of the trip I made time to have dinner with some old friends. On the left in the picture is Ellen. She recently moved to London from New York and Atlanta. In the center is Katia. She and I went to college together, so I have known her for about 22 years. She lives with Marko and their daughter Nora in Croatia. They were visiting London the same time I was there. Ellen and Katia know each other from high school. This picture was taken at a restaurant by Marko.

Hudson Valley

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-10-12T14:56:27-05:00

After Richard's wedding we all drove up to Hudson Valley to spend a few days at a lake house. It was Janice's mother's 70th birthday the following week, so we all wanted to get together for a family vacation and celebrate the occasion. We went apple picking one day at the apple orchard in a nearby farm; took the children to the children's museum; visited an old 17th century farm and grain mill by the Hudson River; visited the Rockefellar house which is now converted to a museum; visited the Culinary Institute; and the rest of the time we had some good food and relaxed at the lake house. You can see the photos here.

Richard and Tamara get married

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-10-11T22:24:00-05:00

Richard and Tamara got married on Saturday, September 26, 2009. We arrived in NYC on Friday. There was a dinner hosted by Tamara's uncle Friday evening where each side of the family got to meet the other side. It was great to finally meet Tamara's parents and sister — I had heard great things about her family — and her uncles, aunts and cousins. We mingled on the roofdeck with drinks and snacks before going down to the apartment for dinner. For the wedding ceremony on Saturday, they had picked a really beautiful location at Cherry Hill in Central Park, Manhattan. The weather was just right for the stunning outdoor ceremony. The wedding reception afterwards was at HanGawi, the Buddhist Korean restaurant. The six course vegetarian gastrnomic experience was absolutely delectable. Click here to see the photos.

Self Portrait

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-08-30T00:25:51-05:00

Here is a self portrait taken earlier this week. My digital SLR camera is not capable of taking this picture—it required a very special camera that has no lens (works like a scanner) but has its own very special light source! The sensor size was 18-inches by 24-inches compared to the 1.4-inch full frame sensor in my DSLR. You can see the left hip prosthesis in white since the metal is completely opaque to the special light.

My latest gadget—a new hip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-08-04T13:18:45-05:00

The balls of my hip joint (femoral heads) were damaged when I was treated with prednisone (a steroid drug) to reduce the inflammation in my lungs during a severe episode of pneumonia over three years ago. This is a known side effect of steroids in less than 1% of the population. Interestingly, however, I have found that this side effect is well known among only orthopedic doctors—every non-orthopedic doctor I have talked to have no idea of this phenomenon. The steroid combines with fat globules in the blood and deposits itself in the tiny capillaries of the bone and deprives the bone of oxygen. During the last few months the symptoms on the left hip became so severe that I not only had trouble biking and swimming, but I also could not walk without pain. I started using a cane but knew that surgical intervention is necessary. After much research and seeing 7 doctors in 4 cities (Houston, Atlanta, New York and Baltimore), Janice and I decided that a hip resurfacing is the way to go rather than a total hip replacement. Above is an artist's rendition video of hip resurfacing.

Wesley's birthday

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-08-03T13:13:14-05:00

Here is a short video clip from Wesley's birthday on May 28, 2009. He turned 4.

The Industrial New York

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-06-20T13:07:14-05:00

On a recent trip to New York, I came across this interesting view of a Con Edison power plant next to Queensboro Bridge. You can see a sliver of Roosevelt Island in the Hudson River and the skyline of NYC in the background. The cloudy day provided for good lighting. This panorama is made of 36 individual photos stitched together. The photos were taken with a 24 mm lens on a Nikon D700. Unfortunately the tiny version here does not have the same visual impact as the original panorama which is 11160 × 2525 pixels.

Spring Break

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-22T14:26:53-05:00

Today is the last day of Spring Break. I was able to take a few days off and spend some recreation time with the family. Monday evening I went to the Rodeo in Houston—you can view the photos here. Then we spent a few days at a lake house in the Hill Country near Austin, TX. When we arrived in Austin, we had lunch at Eastside Café. The food was excellent. They grow some of their own vegetables and herbs in the large garden on the properties behind the restaurant. After lunch we lounged in the garden before heading to the lake house.

The weather was the most ideal, mid-70's to 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day with a nice breeze and the sun not too strong, dropping to around 60 degrees at night. The view of the lake from the lake house was quite serene and relaxing. The kids ran around and played on the deck and the back yard in the afternoon before dinner.

We enjoyed breakfast on the deck above the boat house the next morning and spent the afternoon at the Llana River. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the shallow waters. Then in the evening we dined at the famous Lambert's Barbecue and took a leisurely stroll through Austin before heading back to the lake house. You can see the photos of the trip here.

Shopping in Texas

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-21T12:09:38-05:00

How do you know you are shopping in Texas? Texas is a 'right to carry firearms' state.

Why RAW?

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-15T23:00:01-05:00

How do you end up with the photograph on the right starting with the photograph on the left?

Teamwork

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-15T10:02:12-05:00

Last night when Janice was preparing Wesley's bed Wesley wanted to help. Janice gave him some tasks to do like straightening the sheets. While Wesley helped, Janice explained to him the concept of teamwork. The minds of 3-year-olds are like sponges—they soak everything up. But in this case the concepts of preparing a bed and teamwork may have been a bit confused. I suggested to Wesley that the pillows needed to be put in their place and Wesley proudly asked, "Dad, can I do the teamwork all by myself?"

Brain Magic

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-11T08:43:06-05:00

Here is an interesting clip from TED on Brain Magic. The most fascinating part for me was the "second sight" where Keith Barry drives blindfolded while "seeing" through the eyes of the woman in the passenger seat. If anyone knows how this is possible or how it is done please let me know. The voodoo stuff was also quite interesting—curious to know how this is done as well. This video is just under 20 minutes long. Enjoy!

Whole wheat pancakes

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-08T10:27:29-05:00

This morning I decided to make some whole wheat pancakes for the family. Here is the recipe which is very quick to make; you will need a flour mill to mill the wheat into flour. This recipe makes 10 very soft, fluffy and delicious, medium-sized pancakes.

Weak and shit

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-03-03T06:10:45-06:00

Here is a serious but funny study of crack dealer organizations and culture by famed economist Steven Levitt and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh of the University of Chicago. One of my favorite moments is when Sudhir was with the gang members in an abandoned housing project and discovers that the correct answer to the first question in his survey is "E" (not A, B, C or D)—you have to see the video for context. And my other favorite is the explanation by the gang leaders and the board of directors that they pay themselves more so that they don't appear "weak and shit." This video is about 21 minutes long; it is absolutely hilarious and very insightful.

Visiting India 5

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-25T06:49:57-06:00

On the final day of my stay in India I left Bangalore in the morning, spent the afternoon in our office in Delhi and then had an early dinner with some of the team members. After dinner I headed to the IGI airport in Delhi to begin the 28 hour journey back home. During my flight I had time to edit the photos from Bangalore which you can view here. All the photos on this trip were taken with a 12-24mm wide angle DX lens—I now really appreciate the amazing image quality and sharpness of this lens.

Visiting India 4

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-24T05:19:06-06:00

I was Bangalore for the first time this week. For dinner last night the team arranged for us to eat at a South Indian restaurant that specializes in food from Kerala. First, I have to say, what an incredible culinary experience, so exquisite, such a different level from any other South Indian food I have had (all previous South Indian culinary experience was physically not in South India since this was my first trip).

We started off with a round of appetizers and a Sauvignon Blanc (Sula) from India. Kerala, being a coastal state, is big on fish and sea food. We had giant, curried prawns and spicy, pan-fried pomfret among other things. The Kerala curry flavor is distinctly different from that of northern India.

Visiting India 3

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-23T13:34:20-06:00

On Saturday we made a day trip from Delhi to Agra. There were five of us in a van leaving the hotel at the crack of dawn around 5:30AM and we met up with our guide for the day in Agra. The hotel provided us with breakfast to go and we stopped for coffee on the way. We spent the day at the magnificent Taj Mahal, the Agra Fort which was the original seat of the Mogul Empire before they moved to Delhi, and Emperor Akbar's tomb.

Visiting India 2

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-19T07:14:25-06:00

We just returned from work at the end of the day. Here is a view of us walking into the outdoor 'lobby' of the hotel. We are getting together for dinner this evening in half hour at the Kebab Factory.

Visiting India 1

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-18T20:51:32-06:00

I am traveling to India for a few days. I arrived last night India time and checked into the hotel. Here is a view from the outdoor 'hallway' of my hotel when I was walking from my room to the restaurant for breakfast this morning. I will be at work the next two days, then going on a trip to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra on Saturday, and finally spending Monday and Tuesday in Bangalore before returning back to Houston.

Nailed!

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-12T23:29:13-06:00

Here is a hilarious story about someone trying to enter a photo contest.

The Lenovo Ideapad S10 netbook

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-09T19:42:05-06:00

I recently had shoulder surgery and am currently going through physical therapy to regain the range of motion. Carrying an 8-lb laptop between home, office and client sites became a serious issue even before the surgery. Short business trips were worse carrying this behemoth. I got a back pack for the laptop but the backpack did not solve the real problem, it just distributed the problem (weight) over two shoulders to ease the burden. I knew I needed a very lightweight laptop that had enough computing power without breaking the bank. Did such a laptop exist?

Unity's birthday

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-08T22:51:23-06:00

Here is a short video clip from Unity's birthday on February 7, 2009. She turned 8.

Cats in the house

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-02-08T11:49:26-06:00

I found two cats in the house this morning. The first one likes to sit on the window of the master bathroom and read books by the natural light. This is also a good way to hide from Wesley. The other cat loves candy cane. Click through to see him on the dining table with his favorite candy.

Audrey discovers the world

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2009-01-31T00:18:07-06:00

My niece Audrey discovered the globe in the play room after lunch. Photo taken during the Christmas holidays while Shahed and Kim were visiting us in Houston with the children. See more Christmas holiday photos here.

Christmas 2008

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-12-29T14:06:34-06:00

For Christmas this year we stayed at home in Houston. Richard and Tamara came to visit from LA. My mother arrived on Christmas eve. Shahed and Kim visited with their children right after Christmas until new years. Here is a short video clip from the holiday where you'll see the dinosaur that Wesley got for Christmas and the new play set in the back yard that the kids got.

Visiting San Antonio

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-12-01T21:53:56-06:00

The weekend after thanksgiving we decided to take a road trip to San Antonio. We packed and loaded up in the minivan and headed out after breakfast. The plan was to see the Alamo in the afternoon, have dinner at the River Walk, then drive west about 50 miles where we would check into a motel for the night; the next day we would spend outdoors in nature by a river. While it was a great trip, the plan didn't quite pan out.

Thanksgiving

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-11-27T22:30:24-06:00

We wanted to do something other than turkey for Thanksgiving this year. We ended up deciding on pheasants partly because some fresh pheasants were available and partly because it has been a while since I cooked pheasants. I prepared an 8 course meal this year. The highlight was the 1995 Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru that we paired with the Pheasant; Janice and I bought it in 1998 and have been holding on to it for the last ten years. For the initial courses we had an incredible Didier Dagenau Fumé Blanc.

Investment in renewable energy

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-11-14T23:30:22-06:00

One of the big questions of the current times is the influence of energy prices on the investment in renewable energy. We have seen crude oil prices fluctuate between $147 and $57 in the last few months. The high energy prices naturally encourage investments in renewables. But the fear among many when the oil prices dropped below $70 last month was whether such investments will stop altogether if the oil prices were to drop below $60. A couple of weeks later both Brent and WTI crude oil were trading below $60.

Breakfast this morning

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-11-02T16:55:00-06:00

About three years ago my cholesterol was borderline high. As I was researching cholesterol and its effects I learned that the nutrients and fiber in grains of whole wheat help reduce cholesterol and have a long list of other nutritional benefits. Whole kernels of wheat have 46 nutrients in them, almost everything the body needs. Bleached white flour has only one: carbohydrates; and that too with a relatively high glycemic index. In "enriched" flour four of the nutrients are added back into the flour at the end of the process. I thought to myself that no wonder a hundred years ago people could live on a diet of bread, cheese and water; you put someone on a diet of (Wonder) bread, cheese and water today and he/she will die very quickly of malnourishment! I also learned that even though you can find whole wheat flour and whole wheat products on the store shelf, milled wheat flour has a short shelf life, i.e. many of the nutrients begin to decompose and by the time you buy a packet of flour at the store it has very little nutrients left. (Read on for the waffle recipe)

The Texans vs. The Bengals

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-10-31T21:18:11-05:00

Last Sunday I was invited by MC to the Houston Texans vs. the Cincinnati Bengals football game at Reliant Stadium. MC had 4 VIP tickets and 4 pre-game field passes, so Rashed and I went with MC and EF. When we arrived a couple of hours before the game we were served a quick lunch and then led to the field. During the hour on the field we watched the players from both teams warm up; saw the Chairman and CEO of the team, the President of the Stadium and General Manager of the team and various other characters that one normally sees only in the local newspaper.

Dark Days

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-10-25T02:05:08-05:00

Janice and I just watched an amazing movie called Dark Days. Made and filmed by Marc Singer, the movie won three Sundance Film Festival awards in 2000. It is a documentary about homeless people living in abandoned Amtrak subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. What makes this documentary so great is that it makes you connect at a very personal level with individuals in a community with whom we would otherwise never connect. It is not sentimental and yet it leaves your jaw on the floor with a wow!

When Singer came to New York from the UK, he was fascinated by the idea of people living in tunnels. He spent almost a year in the dark tunnels with

Grandma's birthday

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-10-20T00:29:07-05:00

We invited Janice's mother to visit us for a week for her birthday. She arrived on her birthday on Saturday morning, October 4. For lunch we grilled some steaks and vegetables and sat outside by the pool. The weather was just right with the temperature in the low 70's F. The kids got an opportunity to swim right afterwards. Click here for a video of the lunch.

Photos of my wedding

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-10-14T00:38:43-05:00

I have finally scanned in the negatives from my wedding photos, edited and posted them up here. I had originally printed only one of these photos. I stored the rest of the negatives away in archival quality sleeves. When I pulled out the box of negatives recently I noticed that there was no fading or discoloration. A couple of the negatives had minor scratches but I think that must have been from the time when I originally developed them. Putting them through the scanner at a very high resolution you can start to see how grainy the Kodak TMAX 400 film is and also that the manual focussing of yesteryear was never as quick or precise as today's autofocus lenses.

Third degree encounter with Ike

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-09-23T23:53:56-05:00

Hurricane Ike passed through the Houston area early morning of Saturday, September 13. Exactly a week prior, hurricane Gustav had its landfall on the Louisiana coast. Then Ike developed from a tropical depression to a Category 2 hurricane by the time it had its landfall on the Texas coast near Galveston Island. Category 2 isn’t quite like the category 4 or 5 of Katrina that devastated New Orleans a couple of years ago, but there was something else about Ike that was very unsettling.

Getting Old Together

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-08-17T23:07:11-05:00

Janice and I have been planning a small bash with family and close friends for my 40th birthday. The theme was “Getting Old Together,” with the key word being together. Two key challenges were that most of our friends don’t live in Houston and that we had just moved into a new home so we had to get it furnished on a deadline. We also needed to choose a caterer for the party and pick the wines to pair.

My mother turns 70

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2008-03-26T19:21:27-05:00

For my mother's 70th birthday we decided that we should go some place that she had never been to but a place where we could take the kids and family. After much deliberation, consulting and researching we decided that the Grand Canyon was it. My mother was very excited. Janice found a 5 bedroom house that could sleep up to 18 people just outside the Canyon so we went ahead and booked it. We had a 5 day trip planned including travel time over spring break. Shahed and Kim could not make it and Tayyba stayed back with Athena, but Janice's mother joined us. We would fly into Phoenix from Houston and then drive over to the Grand Canyon; Janice's mom would fly into Phoenix from Baltimore and meet us at the airport.

Finally on the departure date we went to the airport and were checking in. We handed all of our ID's to the gentleman behind the counter. A minute later he handed us back what looked like my mother's ID and said this does not match the boarding pass. I looked at it and saw that it was in fact my father's ID!

Turkey Day

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-11-22T23:24:00-06:00

This years thanksgiving was our first one in Texas. The big change from the recent past was that my father was not around any more. Shahed was living in Atlanta, and my mother went to visit them there for Thanksgiving. So, it was Rashed with his family, Janice’s mother and us.
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To view the photos click here.

Pind Balluchi | India trip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-12T19:00:24-05:00

Vinni arrived in Delhi from Houston last night. We had planned to meet up for lunch today with Ruchir. Both Ruchir and Vinni are vegetarian, so they picked a place that had good vegetarian food, this time North Indian, called Pind Balluchi. The apetizers were particularly good. We spent a good two hours catching up in a relaxed setting.

Indian breakfast | India trip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-12T09:59:11-05:00

This morning I decided to have an Indian breakfast and watermelon juice. It was a traditional vegetarian breakfast with puri, idli, sambar, chick peas, and other items. It was so good that I went for several helpings and ended up eating too much.

Getting more done | India trip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-11T18:57:02-05:00

The second day of the workshop was even more productive than the yesteray. As a team we hit a stride, and although at different times it felt like we were jumping around the topics a lot, the conversations actually converged into a set of decisions. There was some serious out of the box thinking and we tested our ideas again real-life scenarios of the past as well as some future potential scenarios. We had filled all the whiteboards along the 3 walls of the room several times over. The work day ended with a checkpoint with Alan.

Some of us decided to unwind at the Punjabi restaurant right across the street from the office. The kebabs were incredible once again, including the vegetarian ones. We stayed there until they closed at 11:00.

Getting down to work | India trip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-10T18:53:14-05:00

Wednesday was the first day of the two day workshop that brought me to Delhi. Yesterday afternoon, the jetlag had hit me hard, so I was hoping that I would be better adjusted today. After breakfast at the hotel (this time they had fresh watermelon juice) I got in the car which was waiting for me out front. Every ride is an adventure in Delhi - the sights, the traffic (families on motor bikes, overloaded buses, ...), and all the little events along the way like a divine cow trying to cross the highway in rush hour.

Late afternoon, the jetlag hit me again, but not as hard as yesterday. We took a break to get some coffee and continued with work. Dinner was set up at a restaurant called Caraway in the Grand Hotel in Delhi. Caraway is known for its amazing kebabs. I had dined there before, three years ago, so I had some idea of what to expect. The kebabs are some of the best you can get anywhere in the world, but the overall quality and finesse is not quite like the Tamarind in The Mayfair, London.

Saravana Bhavan | India trip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-09T22:50:34-05:00

About eight years ago a colleague, ST, worked with me for six months in San Francisco. Apparently those six months was quite impactful. ST looked me up and set up a dinner meeting for Tuesday night. He is from South India and is also a vegetarian, so he recommended a great South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Delhi called Saravana Bhavan. The owner of this restaurant has also recently opened another restaurant in Decatur, Atlanta.

Breakfast | India trip

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-09T10:48:17-05:00

As I walked into the restaurant at 7:15 am, I saw that in addition to the tables with white tablecloth inside, there were a few tables out in the courtyard. A waiter approached me and started leading me to a table. I asked if I could sit outside and his response was, "it is not very nice out today." I was thinking it would be muggy and hot, but the waiter proceeded to that, "it is too cold outside." I stepped out to check it for myself. The temperature was just perfect - mid to high 60's - there were birds singing, and the tables were under the shade of trees. I could not pass this up for the fluorescent and cool inside.

The food was quite amazing. My favorites were the dragon fruit, the scrambled eggs with asparagus, and the tall glass of lychee juice (I had to go for seconds on the juice).

Visiting India

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2007-10-08T18:24:49-05:00

It has been over 3 years since I have been to India. A lot has changed during this period. Gurgaon, where the Sapient office is located, has become an even more bustling part of the city with several new glass and concrete towers in the skyline. Sapient now has a new office located in one of these buildings - new since summer 2004.

The last time I visited, I was...

Thanksgiving

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2006-11-23T23:45:00-06:00

It has been a while since I created a gastronomic dinner for Thanksgiving. In fact the last time I created a nine course dinner we were living in San Francisco. This year it was just the family with five kids running around at home in Atlanta. You can see the menu and the photos here.

It took three days to design the menu - I must have gone through about five drafts. And then based on the ingredients available in the market, I made final modifications to the menu.

Visiting Amsterdam

masudhaq@gmail.com — 2006-11-13T23:59:00-06:00

I have wanted to visit Amsterdam for decades. The art collection in the various museums, the liberal mindset, and the fact that the city is below sea level have always fascinated me.
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I quickly went up to the 3rd floor to look at the exhibit on modern photography. There was a real surprise here: I found photographs from...