blog.sreeram.org

Another week, another first. Went for a hike yesterday, with two of my colleagues. Until now, I've done only mild stretches, such as 4 miles at Rancho San Antonio and 6 miles on flat streets. So, this 20 mile, 4000+ feet elevation gain was a drastic move. We went from Del Valle to Rose Peak, and back, in 10 hours.

It was a nice and warm day; the trail was well kept; the scenery was very pleasant (photos). At the top at Rose Peak, we could see the clouds below us. We walked the last hour in the dark, but thanks to Gurmeet's flashlight, it was not so bad.

Towards the end of the hike, I found it hard to say which I found more painful - uphill or downhill. Uphill was slow-going, heavy-breathing and groin-aching. Downhill was knees-killing. It didn't help that I had to lug around my backpack loaded with a lot of useless things, including an umbrella, extra pair of shoes and a couple of t-shirts.

Watched an NBA game with my coworkers on Monday. My first time watching one. It was amazing.

I'm not a basketball fan, so I didn't know anything about the teams (Golden State Warriors vs Dallas Mavericks). I kinda assumed that they were some random teams, so I thought it'd be like a random little league game, with a few die-hard fans thrown in.

Whoa, was I wrong.

The thing that struck me the most was the professionalism of the whole thing. The stadium (Oracle Arena) was in full swing. Lights, ads, real-time TV display, awesome camera work in replays, slow mo and angles, popcorn vendors, etc. Every timeout, every gap between the quarters, the NBA had something going on - trampoline stunts, 3rd grade kids playing, pizza give-aways, t-shirt guns, lucky draws, guess-the-song contests, and uh, the cheerleaders. Having played a minor logistics role back in my school days, I appreciated the co-ordination and practice needed to pull off such a smooth operation.

The game itself was not as much fun. The Warriors led for the most part, though both teams were playing very fast and loose. Eventually, the Mavericks tightened up their game, and won handily. Apart from the 3rd grade kids playing full-on basketball, the most fun I had was listening to a couple of vociferous Warriors supporters nearby. "Are you blind, referee??!! Come on man! The guy was sliding on his ass! Dirk No-game-zki!" and so on.

I can only imagine what it would have been like if the Lakers and Kobe were playing...