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From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Bye 2009

… with personal fond memories. I graduated with a MBA degree, healthy and happy! 2009 brought many adventures with traveling and meeting new people with different backgrounds and culture. It was a fun year and hoping for similar adventures in 2010. Times flies. Today would also mark our 2nd blog anniversary in the blogging world. Thank you to all of our readers, friends and families for making Chatterbox, what it is and where it is now 🙂

Apologies for making this post a brief one as traveling can be a challenging episode to blog. With poor Internet connectivity as such. Before I bid adieu to 2009, some of my personal 2009 highlights were my new year resolutions and the revisit, 2009 travelogues, the birth our self-hosting url; kirantarun.com, our photoblog, testing our entrepreneurial skills by establishing an eshop and of course, to be awarded with the Best Rockin Blog in Personal and Photography category by Orlando Sentinel.

I am not setting any new year resolutions for 2010, but would definitely revisit my 2009 goals once again. Over and out!

Have a blessed, happy and wonderful New Year every one 🙂

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Short Hiatus

It’s been one of those crazy and busy month for me. I am currently back to Malaysia for 2 months. Missing hubby and Orlando already. Many incidents took place leading up to my journey back to Motherland. As a summary coz Internet here is failing me:

a) Watched Avatar. One word to sum up – AWESOMENESS!

b) An incident in the theater.

c) Almost missed my flight!

And many more which I shall elaborate as soon as the darn Internet connection stabilizes!

Hope everyone is having a blast as we bid goodbye 2009 and welcome 2010 :). Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…

Regards,
Kiran & Tarun

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The Avant Garde Bloggies Awards 2009

… has begun and I am a late poster. Sorry Poonam 🙂 Too busy shopping and packing for my trip next week. Anyways…

This effort pioneered by Poonam and gang is aimed to recognize best posts from in the blogging world, yours and mine of course 😉 The process begins as such (and adapted from Poonam’s blog):

Phase 1 – Nominations can be made by me, you or your readers no later than December 20th 2009, 10pm IST (India time). Anyone who has a blog, can nominate their blog entries. After all, who knows better about the blog posts than the writer, right?

Phase 2 – The panel of judges will comprise of bloggers. There are two separate judges for each category. Judges’ score will decide which 6 best posts will go for poll.

Phase 3 – You, my readers, will poll for your favorite post in each category. Polls for each category will be created at Avant Garde Bloggies Awards Blog. (The blog is at the moment private, will be open at the time of polls.)

Phase 4 – The winners would be announced on January 15th, 2010.

Rules of Nomination (as adapted from Poonam’s blog):

1. Only the posts published from 1st January to December 15 this year can be nominated.
2. You can nominate your own blog posts as well as blogs of your friends. Anonymous nominations will be accepted as long as the post is worthy for the given category.
4. You cannot nominate star bloggers like Zen Habits, Web Worker Daily, Tech Crunch and so on.
5. The nominated posts need to be original. Anything copied, from forwarded emails, books, etc is not acceptable. Nominations will be canceled automatically, if the nominated post is plagiarised.
6. Same post can not be entered into more than one category.
7. Multiple entries by same author in a category is not allowed. In case of too many nominations by same author, the author has to tell us which one to consider. Or, decision will be taken at the hands of Avant Garde Committee – members to be announced.
8. We agree there are all rounders. However, same blogger can not participate in more than three categories. (Excluding all the blog award categories, they are free for all.)
9. Judges and volunteers can not participate in any category. Neither can any of my own posts can be nominated or awarded.
10. If there are less than 6 nominations in a category, that category will be dismissed.
11. I and the judges’ panel have the final authority to add and reject any nomination or delete a category in case of unworthy nominations.

You can see the list of award categories and nominate now. Please write in your nominations in the comments section at Poonam’s blog post. Kindly mention the award category along with the name of the writer and the link to the blog post.

Go on, nominate my posts and yours as well 😀 Not here. Visit Poonam’s blog for complete information 🙂 Good luck!

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Orbbies rockin' bloggers and tweeps

… were present last night at the Eden Bar of Enzian Theatre, Maitland for the 4th Orlando Tweetup graciously organized by @etanowitz from Orlando Sentinel. I have been unwell since the tweet-up, thus the delay in this post and announcements. This was our first tweet-up and visit to Enzian. A regal, cozy and whimsical atmosphere, Enzian serves not only an open bar, but a delicious mug of Chai Latte. Yes, you read it right. It was a bar, with a chilly-breezy evening and I ordered a Chai Latte. What more can I ask?

Enzian Theater, Maitland Florida

It was so much fun, meeting local bloggers and tweeps!

Of course, the highlight of the evening was the announcement of 2009 Orbbies Rockin’ Blog winners and finally, a chance of meeting them in person. Not all were present, but click here for the full list of winners. Check out their awesome blogs.

From left: Dave, Me, Bess, Teresa, Mark and Ricky. Congrats all 🙂

Congratulations to the winners!

I enjoyed meeting Dave Knechel, author of Marinadedave.com. With a hard-hitting journalistic writing skills, Dave covers important news and updates through his blog. My first impression of him – a witty individual 😀

Bess is the editor of The Central Florida Top 5. If you need a guide to Central Florida’s upcoming events, thank Bess and say goodbye to Google/Yahoo/Bing for the time being! It was a pleasure getting to know her personally since we’ve been using her blog as our pad for event information.

Hello! Teresa from Disunplugged.com. The Dis Unplugged Disney Blog is an unofficial and unbiased blog about all things Disney. In the shortest time frame of introductory, I could sense her friendliness demeanor. Congrats on being awarded for the Orbbies 2009 Best Overall Blog category.

We also met Mark Baratelli, owner of Thedailycity.com, a blog that features culture guide for Orlando, Florida and a series of live events. He was amazed at my self-taught photography skills 🙂 Thanks Mark!

Say ‘Hi’ to Ricky, author of Tastychomps where he narrates his dining adventures in Orlando and around US.

We won the 2009 Orbbies Rockin’ Blogs in two categories – Chatterbox for Personal and Shutterbox for Photography! Yay! Thank you so much every one, for voting and following our blogs. Tarun and I are extremely humbled. Of course, this couldn’t be possible without Orlando Sentinel. Our sincere gratitude for the opportunity and honors. Thank you Etan and his lovely wife, Daphne for organizing a tremendously successful Tweetup! This is sounding more like a speech during the Grammys.

Last, but not least, you should know about us by now. Else, stroll down the Chatterbox memory lane and Subscribe to us.

Penning off now before I ruin your mascara 😉 Off to recuperate!

Edit: FYI, the free header customization is still up for grabs!

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Part 2 – A visit to the Astronaut Hall of Fame

There has been so much going on in our lives recently, thus the absence from blogosphere. A lot to write and share. But let’s first continue where I left.

Continuing from our trip to NASA recently, we proceeded to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. PSA warning yet again – this is a lengthy-photo-post. Don’t steal, ask for permission 🙂

At the Astronaut Hall of Fame entrance

Alan B. Shepard Jr - first American in space

Alan B. Shepard Jr [the first American in space] statue graced the main entrance of this enterprise. It’s mesmerizing. Almost life-like.

The Gemini exhibit

NASA honors the first brave flyers who journeyed into space

Tarun is awaiting his turn for the GForce training stimulation

Tarun is in one of those capsules. Everything seems to look good, until...

aaahhhhh... the speed is mind-boggling!

The Gforce stimulator moves at a great speed and height!

The GForce stimulator is exhilarating! But be warned, it was a nauseous experience. Tarun was all swaying, left and right, with dizziness and slight headache. I was just a spectator, thank you 🙂 Of course the exhibition had a lot to offer. Interesting artifacts, informations, photos, collectibles, and historical time-lines all preserved for enthusiasts, tourists and such. I took so many photos, my bandwidth is crying 😀

Mercury mission spacesuit!

Space exploration is something that I have always been fond of. There is so much of information and facts to learn. Test your knowledge with this small trivia and win 1 free customized header designed by me 😉

Q1: When does NASA start counting down to a shuttle launch?

Q2: How many holds (when the countdown is paused) are built-in to a nominal launch countdown?

Q3: Where is the countdown conducted from?

Q4: Which Earth-launched satellite was the first to leave our solar system?

Q5: Apollo astronauts trained for Moon landings using the LLTV. What does LLTV stand for?

Q6: When in orbit on the Space Shuttle, astronauts experience ______ gravity.

Q7: When some shuttle astronauts reach space, they feel ill. This is called______.

Q8: The three space shuttle main engines release energy equivalent to ______.

Q9: On average, how fast does the shuttle travel while in orbit?

Q10: The first man in space was?

The winner would receive 1 free customized header designed by me! Good luck and may the force be with the one who is the first to correctly answer all questions in the comment section below 😀

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