I have become the latest addict in the World of Warcraft (a.k.a. WoW). For those of you who are not aware of what WoW is, its is an MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It is a community of gamers that interact in a virtual world. Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of WoW have created a unbelievable world in which millions of people from around the world can come together and function in this fantacy world full of different races such as dwarfs, night elves, humans, gnomes, orcs, trolls, tauren and the undead. There are multiple servers that Blizzard has setup, and each server is a “realm.”

Now all this sounds pretty geeky, I know, but once you’ve seen the worlds and experienced the depth of detail and unique role-playing interactions you go through as you enter the world, you realize that its much more than a game! Here are some cool facts about the game. The concept of time - the game functions in real time, so depending on where the server is located, its going to be either day or night in the realm that you’re playing in. So since I’ve been playing in Chicago on the weekends when I’m home, I’ve been playing on a server that’s on Central Time. Communicating with others - you can communicate with others who are in the same faction as you. I’ve been playing with my friend Luigi, and he has been my guide in this new world.

Its a good thing that I don’t have the game installed on my laptop, I’m sure I’d get fired for falling asleep at work!!! So for now, my playing time is limited to the weekends. I have been playing in the realm called Emerald Dream as a Dwarf (Saiobh). Come and join me!

Ok… let me clarify, it does use google maps, but its not created by google. Frapper is a new cool site/tool that I came across today. It lets you map yourself to a google map and you can see where other people are in relation to you. Frapper map. This is a very cool tool for online communities, such as forums, where people build relationships with others without ever meeting each other.

Why would I want to know where the other people that I talk to are? Because I feel that geographical location has a great deal of influence on the views and attitudes of the people living there. Also, I love statistics and things like this

This weekend, Rohit Mehra (a buddy of mine from Deloitte) dropped by to visit. Needless to say, it was quite a fun-packed busy weekend. As a little bit of background, over the few months that I’ve spent on this island, I’ve created a list of all the things that are worth doing, along with how long each of them takes (I’m sad to say that this has actually made its way into an excel spreadsheet). So whenever people visit I create a plan for the trip depending on the length of the stay.

We kicked off this weekend on Friday right after I got back from work. Since Rohit had flown out here from DC (a 13 hour flight), he had been chilling at the hotel while I finished up at work. We started with a hike to Diamond head, and finshed off with a trip to Kahala for dinner. Let me tell you, enjoying the activities that O’ahu has to offer can be quite challenging during Ramadan.

On Saturday, we woke up early and went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. After two hours of soaking up the sun and swimming with the fishies, it was time to explore the rest of the island. Next stop, the scenic Halona Point (which I have previously featured in my photoblog). Wrapping up on the southern side of the island, we headed up the the North Shore for a hike in Waimea Falls and Turtle Beach. Waimea Falls is a park that is maintained by the Audubon society. As you walk through the valley, you see plants from all over the world. The trail ends at the actual Waimea waterfall. Next up, we stopped by Turtle beach to scope out the giant sea turtles that come ahore to bask in the sun.

The timing worked out perfectly so that we caught sunset at the beach before heading to dinner. As most people will tell you, there is a total lack of good Mexican food on this island. When we heard about Dos Cholos being the best on the island, we got some hope! The food turned out to be quite good, although the service left a lot to be desired. After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to Waikiki to get some rest.

The next day, Rohit and I headed to the beach early in the morning to catch some surf. It was a great day for surfing with the waves between 2 and 4 feet (measured Hawaiian style). As with most days, we ended up on our stomachs paddling out to the waves. We were completely exhausted by the time two hours were up.

Rohit’s flight was at 6pm, so we headed out to the check out the last side of the island - the windward side. It is absolutely the more gorgeous side of the island! Lush green vegitation coveres all surfaces since the rain clouds hit the mountain range on that side and deposit all their moisture before moving on.


We quickly covered Pali lookout, with an awesome hike up in one of the vallies on the old Pali highway. Next we checked out the Valley of the temples before heading back to the hotel for Rohit to pack and freshen-up for his long flight back!

Yeah.. it was a long weekend, but thats how things go in paradise.

As it turns out, the Los Angeles Lakers spend most of their pre-season training out here in Hawaii. Last night, they kicked off their pre-season with a game against the Golden State Warriors at Stan Sheriff Center. The SSC (no Vivek, not the Stan Sheriff Stadium, which would be triple-S) is the University of Hawaii sports center.

(Click on images for a larger version)

Overall, it was an interesting experience for a couple of reasons. One, since the size of the stadium is relatively small, even the worst seats in the house were pretty close to the action. As you can see from some of the pictures, I was able to get pretty close shots of the players.

Secondly, since Hawaii doesn’t have a professional basketball team, and since niether team was the truly the “home” team, the crowd was cheering no matter who made the basket! It was a bit confusing at first, but once I caught on to his subtle point of pre-season California team matchup in Hawaii, I was all set.

The highlight of the game would be seeing Scottie Pippin and Kareem Abdul Jabar there. I think they were assistant coaching the Lakers in the pre-season. Ah… reminds me of the good old days, when the Bulls ruled the world!

As most of the consultants you’ll interact with will tell you, we get spoilt by our travels. Whether its the hotel valet guys, our own cabbie who takes us to and from the airport, the airline flight crew, or the rental car places, we start to expect special treatment from everyone! Well, today is the day that I finally made it to the top status level at American Airlines.

What does this mean? Well, I get free upgrades on all domestic flights, double miles for the flights I fly, and most importantly, the nifty black Executive Platinum luggage tags! In all seriousness though, travel does take a lot out of you, especially if its a weekly ordeal. I feel that my body has aged a lot more over the past year than any other time in my life. I’m surprised by all the people who have been doing this for many years and have the stamina to keep going! Let see how long I can keep going before I need an in-town project.

Its coming up slowly, but surely none the less. I’ve got the wordpress blog and the photoblog setup today. If you’re reading this, you’ve already found the blog. The photo blog can be found at http://photos.shayanmerchant.com. I’m also going to be going back and posting stuff from the past and update the site as often as I can, please leave comments!