The reason I always come back to these “Where the Hell is Matt?” videos is because of the simple joy that you see on people’s faces as they join him and do a crazy dance.

It looks like a blast. Complete fun. And that makes me smile.

I’m currently making my way through the series (it’s only the second time I’m reading it) and I’m falling in love with it all over again.

I was looking up something about the series and I somehow stumbled upon this fantastic piece of fan art. I absolutely love it and I just had to share:

Artwork by HitoFanart

P.S. Yes, I know that I am quite the nerd and that I have such a weird variety of interests and tastes.

So I was excited to find out about Elephant Family this month – a small but ambitious charity that’s working to save the Asian elephant from extinction and abuse.  While it’s based in London and I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to reach out to them to give my support, I immediately fell in love with their Elephant Parade and wish I could have been there to witness it.

The Elephant Parade, which took place in May, had Britain’s leading artists and designers create brightly coloured elephant statues and strategically place them across London. The goal was to raise awareness and funds, and have people sign their petition to save the Asian elephant. Millions of people would have the seen the elephants, and they ended up raising over £4 million – which is fantastic!

They promoted it using this video as a call to action:

Aren’t these elephants lovely? I would have spent a few hours roaming around trying to find all of them. Here are some photos I found on Flickr (click each to go to the photographer’s page):

Learn more about the cause and see more photos of the parade on the Elephant Family website.

Regardless of what this does to my credibility, I just had to be share: I recently spent a Saturday with my friend from high school at a Backstreet Boys concert.

It was fun being a teenager again, just for one day. Forgetting the responsibilities of being an adult and just having fun dancing and singing along to mindless pop. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

]]> http://www.umachandran.com/blog/2010/08/22/if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now/feed/ 0 http://www.umachandran.com/blog/2010/07/25/an-amazing-race-around-toronto/ http://www.umachandran.com/blog/2010/07/25/an-amazing-race-around-toronto/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:46:42 +0000 Uma http://www.umachandran.com/blog/?p=695 Read the Rest...

There’s a period of time each year when I tune in every Sunday night to watch as teams of two race around the world, solving challenges and aiming to win the Amazing Race. After every episode, I debate with my friends over which tasks we would choose to do, what route we’d take to get to the next destination, who would do which task, and so on.

During every episode, I’d think about how much I would love to be a contestant. I would love to be racing around the world, visiting places I’ve never imagined I’d be, completing tasks that I could never imagine I’d do and, on top of all that fun, having the chance at winning a million dollars.

Well that dream was squashed when I realized you had to be a US citizen to participate and, even more so, I realized that I’m not weird (or should I say interesting?) enough to be chosen for a reality show.

So, when the chance arose to participate in a somewhat miniature version of the Amazing Race in my own city, there was no way I could pass. Well, I hesitated at the cost but a sweet Groupon sealed the deal.

Last Saturday, my friend and I raced around the city in the Great Urban Race. In just over three hours, we successfully traveled around the city and completed eleven tasks.

The rules were simple:

• No private transit. Cars, taxis, bikes, rollerblades, etc are not allowed
• We must complete 11 out of the 12 tasks provided
• We have a maximum of 5 hours to complete them all
• We may use a phone-a-friend and high-tech devices (laptops, smart phones, GPS, etc)
• We may do the clues in any order
• For each clue that is missing or incorrect, we would receive a 30 minute penalty

It was a fun day. We traveled to the St. Lawrence Market, Distillery District, Kensington Market, Queen St. West and more.

Here’s a sample of some of the clues:

“Flashback to a time when girls crimped their hair in hopes of winning the love of one of the “Coreys,” Haim and Feldman, that is. This toy was all the craze, but has now been transformed into unique pieces of art, which are featured at this Distillery District gallery.  Locate the gallery’s sign pictured to the right and count the number of individual white 1.9 x 1.9 cm tiles that appear on the face of the sign. Your answer must be within 10 of the correct number. In order to receive credit for this clue, you must return to the finish line with your answer written below AND the flyer provided at the gallery.”

• “Follow the rainbow to the cinema located in Market Square – across the courtyard a nautical challenge awaits you! Using the supplied available, recreate the “king of knots.” Once completed, you must receive a stamp on this clue sheet from the GUR staff to receive credit for this clue.”
• “Complete the word search puzzle by finding the following words. The remaining letters will spell out the name of a Toronto chef. Make your way to the location of the chef’s kitchen spelled out with the remaining letters in the puzzle and prepare for a sweet treat! Each team must decorate ONE treat with frosting and at least one additional topping. Once completed, you must take a picture of all teammates posing with the treat to receive credit for this clue.”
• “Locate “IT”, a 40-foot-tall structure constructed with 10,000 pounds of steel by artist, Michael Christian. Here you will find the animal handlers from Whimz on the outdoor patio. To receive credit for this clue, you must take a picture of ONE teammate holding ONE of the creatures waiting for you.”
• “Namaste! Make your way to the real life version of the mural partially pictured to the right. Take a picture of all teammates performing the pose titled in the mural. This photo will serve as your proof of completion.”
• “Preheat the oven to 175° C and make your way to the following coordinates: +43.656192°, -79.402669°.  Upon arrival to the nearby bakery, you will find a variety of ingredients. One of the ingredients displayed is NOT used in the master baker’s “Pick” recipe. Hint: The Baker’s website is a helpful tool in solving this clue. Which ingredient is not part of the recipe?  You must return to the finish line with the correct answer AND a photo of all teammates posting with the bakery’s name as shown on the building.”
• “Six men, named Rick Moranis, John Candy, Ed Mirvish, Norm MacDonald, and Eric McCormack were traveling together when all of a sudden the lights went out. When the lights came back on, Rick Moranis was found stabbed to death. The authorities need the world’s greatest detectives to help solve the crime… your Great Urban Race team. Make your way to Church St, between Adelaide St. E and King Street E, to locate the 14 clues needed to solve the murder mystery.  Each team will only be allowed TWO guesses! If correct, your team will receive a GUR stamp as proof of completion.”

None of the tasks were extremely difficult or complicated, but it was fun navigating ourselves around the city and trying to complete the tasks as quickly as possible. It’s important to note though that if we weren’t able to use our smartphones, the tasks would’ve been a lot harder to complete.

The results:

In the end, we finished in 3 hrs 9 mins – coming in as team 31 out of about 300 teams and only 2 minutes behind team 25! The top 25 teams received medals and get to register for the finals in Las Vegas. The top three won money and get to go to the finals for free. We were so close!

In the end, all I can think about was how much fun it would be to do the GUR in another city – perhaps NYC or San Francisco in August?

Did anyone else participate? If you did, what was your experience like?

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I’m leaning towards one or many of the following for this year: New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, Tuscany, London and Nice (really, anywhere in the South of France).

I guess being unsure about where and when to travel is a great problem to have. It could be worse.

Image of Nice, France by NirmalH – (CC: by-nc-nd)

I’ve never purposely read something simply because it was an Oprah’s Book Club suggestion, but somehow I landed on their list of 10 Terrific Reads of 2009 and found out about Katherine Russell Rich’s Dreaming in Hindi.

After losing her job and beating cancer twice, Rich accepts a freelance writing job in India in order to fulfil her dream to become fluent in a second language: Hindi. We read about her journey and as she learns more about India, its customs and the language, we learn more about how language in general defines who you are.

After returning from India, Rich met with professors and linguistic experts to discuss how the human mind deals with languages. So throughout the book, we learn more about her study into the way humans learn languages and what learning a second language does to your mind.

I picked the book up because the summary seemed interesting and I figured if Oprah’s people recommend it, then why not? I was expecting something light like Eat, Pray, Love but a bit more interesting and maybe a little less chick lit.

Well, it certainly wasn’t chick lit.

I enjoyed following Rich’s journey and getting to know the characters (and indeed, they are some unique characters) she met and reading all the random and wacky (and sometimes uncomfortable) things she went through. It was great to read about her adventures, her stories of betrayal, fun and sometimes fear. I even enjoyed learning a bit more about India’s history and customs.

The only downside for me was that I felt she went too deep into the theoretical and scientific side of learning a new language. At the start, I found it really interesting how she interwove her discussions with linguists with her stories of her experience, and it was interesting to learn more about how we learn languages and how it scrambles your brain for a period of time.

But then it just pushed the story on and on – the book just never seemed to end and it started to feel like work just reading it. By about three-quarters into it, I finally gave up and would skip past any of the linguistic parts. I read afterwards that many people gave up on the book because of it.

Most of all, I just wanted to hear more about her time teaching at the school for boys with hearing impairments and what she ended up learning about who she is in another language. She got there in the end, but too late. It was just too dense with too much going on.

Final note:

While I was writing this review, I found this book trailer online. In a way, I’m really glad I didn’t find it before I picked the book up, because I really wouldn’t have read it. I probably wouldn’t have watched the trailer all the way through to the end, where she finally tells us what the book is really about. Eek.

Has anyone else out there read it? What did you think?

Rating: 2.5/5

“We are where we are. If we keep moving, we’ll be someplace else. We’ll know when we get there.” – Michael J. Fox.

When I think of Michael J. Fox, I immediately think of Marty McFly, the suave, cute and fun hero from the Back to the Future trilogy.

Then I pause and reality sets in and I think of the man. I think of the passionate advocate who’s devoted to his acting, his family and finding a cure for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and other degenerative diseases. The man who, because of this disease, is either seen stoically still or the opposite, unable to stop moving all over the place. A man that you start to feel sorry for, but then you find out how PD changed him and how he’s stronger than ever now that he’s fighting for this cause with all these people behind him.

About a year ago, I read his first memoir Lucky Man and was swept into his world as he spoke about his successful and lucky life leading up to his diagnosis. I enjoyed his writing style as he narrated his life story up to that point, including how he got into acting, the start of his family, his battle with alcohol and finally having to come to terms with having PD in his 30s.

It was a book I couldn’t put down and so I knew I had to get my hands on his second book – Always Looking Up – The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist.

I managed to get a copy recently at the library and, like his first book, devoured it within just four days.

The second book is organized into Fox’s four life pillars (work, politics, faith and family), which was a change but still easy to read and interesting. I liked how he would focus on one aspect and share what he did and felt in that arena over time. As the book went on, the four pillars eventually blurred together, drawing a whole picture of the man in my mind.

It was a well-written and moving book. He doesn’t deny his luck and the never-ending support he’s received over time, and he clearly and articulately explains his view on stem cell research without an abundance of bias. We know why he cares, obviously, but he addresses the other side of the debate as well.

It’s been a year since I read his first book, so I can’t tell you which one I think is better. But I can tell you that this was an inspiring read and it’s worth picking up – if only to get a glimpse inside of the life of this inspiring Canadian.

Rating: 4/5

This weekend, I’m going to see Lady Gaga live in concert as part of her Monster Ball tour.

What I’ve always liked about Gaga is that she never turns the Gaga image and personality off – as crazy, out-there and strange as that may be. At times, it’s even scary…

I always enjoyed the singles I heard on the radio, but I never expected that I would love her album. When I finally took the time to listen to it, it became one of my favourite discoveries from the past year – full of excellent and catchy pop and dance songs. I still can’t stop listening to it.

I’m sure it’s going to be a Gaga-good time – a delight to both the ears and eyes and an unbelievable night of entertainment. I expect no less than a full-on spectacle.

Image source: whittlz (Creative Commons License – BY-NC-ND)

Here’s the thing: I have a habit of getting into shows, books and musicians late in the game.

At face value, this may seem like a bad thing – it means I rarely get to be the “one who discovered the awesomeness of…”

But the truth is that I don’t actually care.

Waiting and being late in the game has its benefits:

• My friends and the general public let me know if something is worth my time
• If the person/book/show/etc lasts over time, it’s a sure sign that there’s something there – I know I’m not wasting my time or energy
• If it’s a show, I have tons to catch up on. It means no waiting until next week or season to find out what happens next. Anticipation is great but fulfilling a desire immediately is even better! The same applies for books too
• There’s lots of fresh material for me to soak up and enjoy while everyone has ants in their pants, waiting for the next season or the next book
• There are many opportunities for me to borrow the book, DVD or CD from friends who are already fans (cost savings!)

Here are some examples of things I love now but didn’t pay attention to for a long time:

• Dexter – this is the show I’m currently exploring. I just finished season 3 and I love it.
• Harry Potter – read the books 10 years after the first one was published.
• Friends – I started watching the first season while the latter half of the 10th (and final) season was airing.
• Doctor Who (w/ the 9th & 10th Doctors) -  I started watching while season 3 was airing.
• Lost – I started watching while season 3 or 4 was airing.
• Grey’s Anatomy – I started watching while season 3 was airing
• John Mayer – I had a friend who loved his music and wanted to go see him live. We all said no. A year later, we were all big fans.
• James Morrison – I recently discovered his music, three years late

The list could go on forever.

So what does this mean? People get to be excited and watch in anticipation as I fall in love and become addicted. They participate enthusiastically as I go on and on about these shows or books that they’ve loved for years already.

This also means that people think I’m slow and really out of touch – but I don’t mind.

From this point forward, I plan to write about and share my thoughts on all of my “new discoveries” here. So please bare with me – sometimes I’ll be on the ball and other times I won’t. Either way, your feedback and comments will greatly be appreciated.

Image source: Suchitra Prints (Creative Commons License – BY)