I received a package yesterday from Hong Kong.

I opened it up to find two copies of the most recent issue of the Asia Literary Review.

Late last year, I got an email from one of the staff at the magazine. They had found the photo below on Flickr and wanted to use it. I said it would be fine as long as the attribute the picture properly.

I was only expecting the picture to be used in an article.

To my surprise, it is also featured on the back cover!

This year I received some awesome holiday gifts!

First up is Monty Python Fluxx. My roommate John gave it to me. I can’t wait to play it.

Next is the gift I received in the annual secret santa that my group of friends from Columbia do together. Sean was my secret santa this year and he gave me this awesome DIY twin lens reflex camera kit. I already built it and hope to try it out soon.

Last year was the first year I participated in Reddit Secret Santa. My secret santa was really awesome. He did some stalking on the internet and found my flickr page. He then framed and matted the photo that he liked the best. It was a great gift. This year’s secret santa again didn’t disappoint. He bought me a load of stuff from thinkgeek.com. My favorite item is the remote controlled LED bulb. I think it is going to make great mood lighting for my room.

Last week, Sean, Vinny, Meixin, and Phil came to the bay to hang out and sight see. Since a bunch of us from the same group in Columbia were already living in the bay, we had a holiday potluck and white elephant exchange. I first picked an angry bird plushie, but that was stolen from me. In the ensuing chain of stealing, I ended up with a Lego set!

Caroline sent me a great travel journal. I wish I could travel soon so that I can use it. ^^ She also sent me a load of candy. She explained that the flat rate box wasn’t full and that she sent the chocolate to fill it. I’m pretty sure she actually sent it to try to make me fat. ;P

My parents sent me a huge K’NEX roller coaster set. It is actually the first K’NEX set I have ever owned. As a kid I was a huge Lego fan and never bought into any of the other construction toy systems. When completed, the set features two mirror image tracks, plenty of inversions and curves and a motor to drive the chain. It also came with a speaker to connect a music player to.

The biggest surprise was the gift Chithra gave me. She bought me a KitchenAid stand mixer! I always dreamed of having one, but I never expected to have one before I settle down and have my own place. Time to do some baking!

The first thing I noticed when I moved from Plano to Palo Alto is the beauty of the area. The streets are lined with colorful trees and the houses are all painted in cute pastel colors. I started documenting the beauty in photos and this is the first of probably many posts featuring them.

The first three photos are of my street after many of the trees all started losing their leaves.

At the end of November this year, there was a day when most of the bay was blanketed in fog. It was too cold and I was too hungry to venture out for a long time to capture some shots, but I did manage a few.

Finally, a self portrait.

Back in October, Caroline made a visit to California for a week. I didn’t take too many photos when she was here, but I did carry my 30D and 28-135 along when we visited the Natural Bridges State Beach. The state beach is famous not only for its rock formations on the coast, but also its population of Monarch Butterflies. The eucalyptus grove on the grounds acts as a sanctuary for migrating butterflies.

The first butterfly we saw wasn’t a monarch, but it was beautiful nevertheless.

We spotted a few chrysalises in the caterpillar nursery.

Caterpillars were munching away and becoming fat in preparation for their transformation to butterflies.

The sanctuary was packed with butterflies. I have never seen so many in my life. Next time I go, I’m going to go with a lens with longer reach so that I can capture much bigger photos of the monarchs.

The views off the coast.

Looked like mother was teaching her baby how to fish.

After some time at Natural Bridges, we made our way over to Año Nuevo State Park to take a short hike and to get a look at the Elephant Seals.

This guy was fearlessly resting on the hiking path. He looked battle worn.

The hiking terrain varied from gravel paths to sand dunes.

At the end of the hike, we finally reached the seals. Unfortunately, most of them were sleeping. -_-

Before heading home, we rested and made zen gardens in the sand . ^^

Last month, we at Brohaus finally had our house warming. To prepare, we blew up balloons and put LEDs inside.

We made food.

We set up tables and a grill outside.

After we all ate, we released the balloons and the real party started.

Sometime later in the night, an impromptu dance party started inside.

At the end, everyone said they had a great time. I think we can declare declare Brohauswarming Mission Accomplished.

Fortunately, Andy was in town for a conference that weekend and was able to stop by.

See all the pictures here or below in the slideshow.

Back in August, I read on a design blog about the then upcoming Dieter Rams exhibit at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. If you don’t know about Dieter Rams, check him out in the documentary, Objectified. Katherine, Jeffrey and I decided to check it out. We drove over the the BART station and took the BART to San Francisco. We then made the short walk over to the museum.

The museum is quite small compared to other modern art museums in the US, but is nevertheless a great museum.

The special exhibit showcases the beautiful objects industrial design genius Dieter Rams designed. Many of the things he designed more than thirty years ago are still produced. They also influence modern designers, most notably Jony Ive of Apple.

I was amazed to finally be able to see one of his most iconic products he designed at Braun, the SK55 SK4 record player nicknamed “Snow White’s Coffin”.

A beautiful white Alexander Calder mobile in the lobby.

Some guys studying or working at a nearby park.

One of the many exotic cars I spotted on the trip.

Two months ago, my uncle (one of my father’s older brothers) was in town from India. During the weekend, I went on a short trip to Lake Tahoe along with one of my other uncles (who is also one of my dad’s older brothers).

After a short morning drive from the bay area, we arrived at where we would be staying, the Forrest Suites Resort. The great thing about the resort is that it is a short walk from the Heavenly Ski Resort‘s cable car.

Marveling at the cable car:

After checking in at the resort, we went to the beach to soak up the sun and eat lunch.

After lunch, we went on a rather long cable car ride to the top of a mountain.

The views from the top were awesome.

Raghu found a barrel of his favorite drink.

A little chipmunk.

A map of all the slopes you can enjoy during the winter.

Using the decent magnification of the 28-135, I was able to get some psuedo-macro shots of the flowers near the cable car station.

The next day, we woke up and took duck boat tour of the lake and surrounding areas.

This boat is made to launch hot air balloons from the water.

I spotted this SLS AMG in one of the marina parking lots.

A couple weeks ago, we had our first weekly Wednesday game night with Amelia and Katherine.

Of course, since their house is so close to Tea Era, we had to make a bubble tea stop.

Spotted on the way back:

7 Wonders!

It was also a day after Katherine’s birthday. So, we got her a cake.

Later that week, some of John, Paul, and Katherine’s friends from Berkeley came to play Catan with the 5-6 player expansion.

Then, on the following Wednesday, we played more 7 Wonders and started making our characters for a pulp fiction themed RPG called Spirit of the Century.

Every weekend at BroHaus (the house I live at with other TAMSters and friends) is packed with activities. Last weekend, we spend Saturday and Sunday at Berkeley.

On Saturday morning, we all packed into Jason’s car and made the one hour trip up to Berkeley. We met up with other 2007 TAMSters and Katherine (one of John and Paul’s classmates from Berkeley) at La Note for brunch.

I had ratatouille with a poached egg and cheese on top.

It was delicious. ^^

We then headed over to a board game store called Games of Berkeley, where Katherine purchased Bananagrams.

Afterwards, we drove to another section of Berkeley and browsed various shops.

We then walked to the East Bay Vivarium. A few weeks ago, my father’s student mentioned that he used to come to Berkeley to visit the reptiles at a pet store. I assumed that he just had an unusual interest in reptiles. I only realized what he was talking about when we arrived at the vivarium. It is a a pet store dedicated to selling reptiles. The place was almost a small zoo.

I guess this is the new “As Seen on TV”.

Some random shots from around Berkeley:

Paul wore Katherine’s leather jacket for a while. lol

We then headed to Paul’s apartment to hang out. It was on top of a hill, but the steep walk back and forth must be worth it because the view is amazing.

Paul, Jeffrey, Amelia and I had some fun with Paul’s huge beanbag chair.

Did I mention that the view from Paul’s apartment is amazing?

For dinner, we went to Anh Hong for do-it-yourself vietnamese spring rolls. The food was fun to make and delicious. From left to right: Me, Jason, Chuan, Amelia, Katherine, Paul, John, Dustin, Jeffrey.

Then we were off to Triple Rock Brewery and Ale House for some craft beers.

We then went back to Paul’s place to play Bananagrams. A little after midnight, we enjoying freshly made donuts at King Pin Donuts. I never appreciated how heavenly warm, soft donuts can be. After finishing off our donuts, most of BroHaus (except Jeffrey and me) returned to Palo Alto. The rest of us spent the night at Paul’s place.

In the morning, we woke up and drove to Wat Mongkolratanaram (aka Thai Temple)for Sunday lunch. Apparantly, the temple volunteers aren’t allowed to handle money. So, we had to trade dollars in for tokens, which we exchanged for food. The food was so delicious that I forgot to take pictures >.

The whole weekend Katherine talked about how she liked my storm trooper hoodie. It’s a pity there aren’t any girl sizes available.

At the end of lunch, I did manage to take a picture of the sticky rice with mango dessert.

The next stop was Indian Rock Park. The star feature of this park is a set of huge boulders that can be climbed. The top offers breathtaking views of the bay and San Francisco.

Can you see anyone hiding in the picture?

Paul did what he does best and climbed to the top of an almost vertical boulder.

I tested out the closeup “macro” of the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6.

The last food stop of the adventure was Ici, an ice cream parlor known for its unique flavors.

I forgot to photograph the ice cream we ate, but it was amazing!! ^^. We bought one scoop each of tangerine creamsicle sorbet, raspberry plum sorbet, coconut curry candied peanut ice cream, tiramisu ice cream, and butter pistachio ice cream. My absolute favorite was the tangerine creamsicle. Before we all parted ways, we made a visit to the Goorin Brothers hat store. I think that this blue hat looks great on Amelia.

See the complete slide show:

I finally in California! Actually, I’ve been in CA for a while now. I just got around to setting up my room and getting comfortable. Here are a few pictures that I took before we set off and on the road (during the road trip to CA from TX).

A cute cardinal outside my window in Plano.

One of the amazing views we saw on along the drive.

Along the way, we stopped at a peculiar landmark, The London Bridge. As funny as it may seem, it is actually the real London Bridge. In the late 1960s, when London was going to demolish the bridge, an American bought it and had it rebuilt on Lake Havasu in Arizon. Read about it here.

The only way to cool off from the sweltering Arizona heat is to enjoy a delicious snow cone. Mine had guava and pineapple syrup with vanilla ice cream inside.