Last weekend I fixed leakage in Garden hose line. We have one line front and one like back. Both these lines have leakage. I was waiting for warm temperature to replace these and postponing since one month. I want to be alone to Home Depot / Lowe’s to research and plan comfortably. Only possible time is morning before my wife / kids get up. Once they get up it is quite impossible to spend couple of hours for this kind of shopping. Finally last Sunday morning woke up at 6:15am and started to Home Depot on Washington Avenue Extension at 7am. On they way grabbed free coffee from Brueggers at Stuyvesant Palza. I was at Home Depot by 7:20am but it was not opened. On Sunday they open at 8am, then went to Walmart next to Home Depot and spent 45 minutes and back to Home Depot. I spent more than 1 hour 30 minutes and got what I required for fixing water leakage (new lead hoses). Also got new sprayers and quick connects. Quick connect is very easy to use, just push and pull type. I know this kind which used in Industries, but these plastic one are new to me. I felt very happy after finding those for $1.99/piece. There are 4 types of quick connects depends on where to connect in that brand and got total 4 pieces (2 varieties) and fixed. Now I can switch the sprayer in 10 sec without any tool. It is very useful when I want switch between regular sprayer and Lawn watering sprayer. After fixing all these I felt very very happy.

I think it was 5 years since I had a chat with Gabe about getting in to using a digital assistant. He was kind enough at that time to loan me his Palm M505 pda to try for a week. I was really amazed with the capabilities that this little thing had. From then on I am not alone any more. Though Gabe is no more kind, I have to thank him a million for his help.

Since then, I been using a pda and finally in this smart phone era, Pal Pre. I love this devil which is capable of doing so many things. I use Pre basically for, email (personal & work), games, chat, sms, blogging, notes, calender, facebooking, chat, music, internet radio, tasks, photos and many more. Can you believe that I am posting this from my pre?

My friend’s house in PA is in a very remote place and there is no Sprint signal. I was really really holding my self from coming out of the house in search of signal and finish mails and SMS.

Just because of my Pre, I was able to use facebook app and getting in touch with my very old friends that I lost touch. This friend in PA got in touch after 15 years and it happened just because of my Palm Pre.

White-Rodgers Thermostat with Wireless Sensor

In one of my previous posts, I talked about my adventure with changing humidifier filters. That went relatively well. This time I embarked on something more ambitious: changing a thermostat.

But first, a background. We live in a two-story house, and the temperature, especially in winter, is never exactly the same upstairs and downstairs. It’s usually colder upstairs than it is downstairs. In the daytime it’s not a problem, because then we’d be downstairs where the thermostat is. But during the nighttime, you’d have to bundle up a bit when sleeping. We don’t really mind in our bedroom, but in our son’s bedroom it’s a little different. Because his room is much smaller (about 9 ft by 9 ft) and because his door is closed while he sleeps, the room gets warmer much faster than the rest of the house. So for example, if it reads 70 downstairs, it might actually be 72 or 73 in his room.

This would be uncomfortable for him, because aside from the fact that he wears head-to-toe fleece pajamas, he also sleeps better when it’s colder. If the air becomes warmer, he’ll wake up and his sleep will be interrupted.

We considered different options to remedy this, and what we decided to do was to replace our house’s thermostat with one that has a wireless sensor. We would place the sensor in his room, so whatever temperature we set, we know that will be the temperature in his room.

I did my research online, and I actually had to learn some basic concepts before I can figure out what to look for. For example, I learned that there are “single-stage” and “multi-stage” thermostats. What the stage means is how many sources of heat/cold it can support or control (for example, if you have forced air and you also have oil, then you require a two-stage thermostat). We only have a single stage heating and cooling, so that’s what I searched for. I found two products: the Robert Shaw 9701i2 and the White-Rodgers Thermostat and Wireless Remote Sensor Kit.

Since the thermostat that we currently have is a Robert Shaw, and because the Robert Shaw option only had a single-stage (which is all I need and was also cheaper), I chose to get the Robert Shaw thermostat along with the remote indoor sensor. But when I got the merchandise, I discovered that it wasn’t what I needed. Yes, the sensor was indeed remote (separate from the main thermostat), but it was wired, not wireless. To use it, I would have to drill holes in the wall, which was too much work for me. A valuable lesson learned–”remote” does not always mean wireless!

So I returned the Robert Shaw and asked customer service to replace it with the White-Rodgers one. This was a bit more expensive because it supports multi-stage, but it’s the only one available; I guess not a lot of companies make thermostats with wireless sensors. Once I got it, I removed the old thermostat, making sure to mark all wires and double-checking with the manual where they match with the new one. The wires are color-coded, but the colors between brands don’t always match, so you have to make sure which wire goes to which terminal. Once this is done, it was smooth sailing; setting up the schedules was easy and the only set up for the wireless sensor was making sure it was getting a good signal. That same night we got to use it in our son’s room and we didn’t have to worry about the temperature

Today marks my official entry into the world of the 21st Century. Sure, I’ve done a decent job of keeping abreast with technology–a lot of it heavily influenced by my day-to-day interactions with information technology. Web 2.0, texting, voice transcription: some technologies that were just a few decades ago considered science fiction but I now utilize on a daily basis.

But as life(style)-changing as these technologies may be, I have never really treated them as “ground-breaking” advancements; to me they have been more like ingenious inventions that have proven to be very useful. Nothing major.

Well, until now. For me, nothing speaks science fiction or 21st Century as Artificial Intelligence. And when you speak of AI, Robotics can’t be very far behind. Once you embrace these technologies, then to me you have severed the last of ties that still bound you with the 20th Century. That is what I have done today. I have welcomed into our home a 14″x18″ box that represented the future:

Roomba Package

Yes, I am now one of the proud owners of a Roomba. I have done some research and if what I’ve read is accurate, it will prove to be a time saver for what we intend to use it: day-to-day cleaning. Nothing thorough, but just decent cleaning akin to the nightly sweeping we used to do in the Philippines. Having also seen the nice deal they had on this model in Buy.com, I decided to take the plunge.

Opening the package, I can’t help but feel a whiff of excitement, like a child opening a Christmas present that he knows is impressive but is a bit unsure of what it actually does…

Roomba Package Contents

Inspecting the main unit, I saw this sticker, which made me realize even more of the wide-reaching potential of this technology:

Roomba Sticker Note

I can’t wait to test it.

I have been looking at the mobile devices here in my village and they are all outstanding. Each one have a bright awesome screen, mp3 player, video player, blue-tooth with A2DP, dual SIM Cards, dual video, TV, WI-FI, above 3 inches screen and so many other exciting capabilities, all of these for just 3000 Indian rupees or $65. What can I say, I just could not resist myself to get one. My plan is to get a mobile and use it as media player. With in my small village I could see at least 10 mobile shops who are selling these china mobile. I was able to find a device I like but with out TV. When I asked them about the TV capability, the answer is ‘Its a old model and no stock’

My search for the mobile device with big screen and TV capacity could not succeed but I found a similar device for $35 in one of the 10 stores. That is called, I-PAD not I-POD. This little cute point and shoot camera style device has the following

1. Clear 2.8 inch screen with 2GB internal memory and expandable SD card memory up to 8GB
2. Audio player
3. Video Player for MP4, AVI and more
4. Digital Camera
5. Digital camcorder
6. Video recorder
7. Voice recorder
8. E-Book Reader
9. Other utilities.

I could not control and bought it. When I took home, I have realized that it has a separate charger not a USB charger and the charger has pins compatible to India. I had to request a electrician to change the round pins to flat pins so that it can be charged in USA. The cost for this big change was $0.50. I actually wanted to bring a handful of these devices but unfortunately there is only one piece left.

I really don’t want to post at the same time get a sticky star. So here I am with my week one post, from my Mother Land, India.

Starter at 6:30 pm Saturday from Newark Intl Airport. After an awesome dinner from Air India, slept for 3 hrs and then waited for the first destination, Frankfurt, Germany. Flight landed safely at Frankfurt at 8AM local time. Usually there is a 2 hrs stop there to clean the flight and passengers will not get down. This time we will have to get down to the gate and wait for an hour and half which is awesome. When I got down first thing came on mind is ‘where and how to smoke?’ While everyone in the queue waiting to re-enter, I have walked back looking for smoking area. I saw a guy standing a corner and guessed that he smokes.

Me: Do you speak English?
Guy: &%&&^#$?
Me: Showed my hand as smoking.
Guy: Took out the smoke box
Me: Nodded my head and said where to go?
Guy: Smiled and want me to walk with him

At 100 ft distance there is smoking oasis and I had my first smoke after 9 hrs. Happy soul back to flight.

9 more hrs to Mumbai and safely landed and I was excited because I am in India, my mother land and I will find a way to smoke. In Mumbai, there is a transit from international arrivals to domestic departures and the mode of transit is bus. The moment I got down from the bus at domestic airport everyone started moving in but I looked for a place to smoke. I saw a security guard walking away. I called him to know if it is ok to smoke here. That dude could not hear me and I wanted to take a chance.  Lit my smoke and took 2 puffs and I saw the same guard with a gun (think Ak-47) running towards me with a real harsh face. I got really pissed off. Conversation is in Hindi, English.

Guard: Put down the cigarette!!!
Me: I was really tired and in that pissed off situation, I lost my voice.
Guard: Putttt Down !!!
Me: I finally put it down
Guard: How dare you to smoke in airport. It’s a smoke free zone.
Me: I am sorry, I am returning after 3 yrs and I thought its allowed outside.
G: Come with me and you will be fined and  I need to talk to his manager.
M: Relaxed by then and walked with him inside the airport.

Inside, there is one stronger dude with a gun and looking at me with a wicked smile. I had thought that I will be starting my first day with bribe. Then the manager came and asked me why you did this and I explained that I am not aware of the rule here since I am back after few years and I am sorry for what I did and ready to pay the fine. Manager wanted the guard to get satisfied and I looked at the guard and said.

” I am really sorry for what happened and I am ready to pay the fine” rather than offering him some money. He is still thinking and then manager wanted me to rush to the gate since I need to get a transit. Thank god I am out of there.

After finishing the security checks at Mumbai and I am finally back to 4 hrs wait and final flight to Hyderabad. I wanted to smoke again and went to a bathroom. I saw a supervisor there and asked him if there is a place to smoke. He smiled at me and coolly answered, 100 rupees and If you go to a different gate its 150 rupees. I was happy, super happy.

My contact number in india is 9642137847

Last time I talked about the different factors to consider when picking your location. In this post I’ll talk about our house-building experience after we’ve picked the location.

While choosing between locations we knew we preferred Clifton Park. Maybe it’s because we’ve lived here for a number of years, so you could say we were already familiar with the neighborhoods and landmarks. And even though it would take us 20-30 minutes to get to the office, we were already used to the commute and we really didn’t mind (we used to commute hours in the Philippines, so this was nothing).

So we started looking at houses. We looked at new developments and we also looked at pre-owned houses. It was very easy to be captivated by the new developments, because their model houses were so extravagant and were decorated very lavishly. Needless to say, they were expensive and over our target price. The advantage with the pre-owned houses were that they were less expensive, but you really had to look and look if you wanted to find one that you really liked–it’s surprisingly hard to find a house whose owner has the same tastes as you. And in those days of the housing boom, once you find the house that you liked, you had to put in a bid real quick (and a really good bid too, usually higher than the asking price) or else the house is off the market in a matter of days.

We had initially found a new development that we really liked. The roads were winding, the whole neighborhood was full of trees and it even though it was off the main road, you can still get to the highway in a few minutes. It was also an addition to an existing subdivision, so there is an existing neighborhood already, even though you and your immediate neighbors will sort of “grow into” the neighborhood together.

The catch: it was over our budget. Not by much, but still. So we decided to look around for pre-owned houses and see if we find anything that we like. At this point I should mention that we had already signed up a real estate agent. In retrospect I would prefer to get an agent that somebody had recommended, but during that time we were charting new waters so we had signed up an agent that we met at a house-buying seminar. Not bad, but we could’ve probably done better. We told our agent what we were looking for in a house–number of bedrooms, what style, location, etc.–and she did most of the searching. We looked at maybe half a dozen houses, and we did find a couple that we liked, but by the time we found them they were already sold.

So we sat down and thought about things, and realized we really liked the new development we saw earlier. We worked the numbers, and it turned out we could still afford it, maybe not by a big margin, but doable. For us, being in a house that will make us feel glad to go home everyday was well worth it.

This is probably the most common question people ask me when they just meet me. For this reason I am planning to write a series of post that explain some of the differences between living in Mexico and living in the USA. I classify the differences in 3 main categories:

• Day to day living.
• People.
• Culture.

Of course this is my humble opinion and other people will have a different view and if you do, please use the comments but remember this is a family friendly website!

Day to day living.

I am surprised by the amount of people that either believes that Mexico have the same level of services that we have in the USA or that we are worst than India (I know, cheap shot, I am sure Aravinda will express his disagreement). But Mexico is a very interesting mix of good services, really bad services and not so bad services, here are the examples:

Public transportation: Every Mexican city will have a very complete transportation system, you can move in public transportation  to any point in the city but it is not very clean, there is no schedule and  it is really crowded.

Postal service: we do have a postal service (I know, shocking!) and as long as what you sent is of no value, it will get to its destination in decent amount of time. Mexican salaries are very low, so people tend to make ends meet by stealing (although there is a lot of honest people in the postal service but there is a lot too not so honest) or asking for bribes. Mexicans will never trust the postal service to pay bill!

Banking: this is one area I am really surprised, in Mexico we have a very modern banking industry, way ahead of the USA, I’ll give you 2 examples: If I need to transfer money from one account in bank A to another in bank B, I can do it on the SAME day. Any bill that you need to pay, and I really mean any bill, you can pay it at the bank either using the e-bill service or just by dropping to a bank branch. It is great, you can take  care of everything with one simple  visit to the bank.

To be continued…

I was talking to one of My friends the other day and he is of my age. Telling me that he is getting bored of the so called routine. I have recalled my post and wanted him to read it. He agrees with me and thinks that he is at mid life crisis.

What is a typical routine for an average working person ? Here is what I think are typical,

1. Getting ready for office
2. Drive/ride to work place
3. Work for 8 hrs.
4. Work is not challenging for 90% of the average working person so, I would say, spent 8hrs at his/her desk.
5. At lunch talk about politics, gossip and sports.
6. Back to home.
7. If you have kids, pass time with them or else watch TV/Movie or surf.
8. Spent time with wife.
9. Sleep and snore.

If you do the same over and over no wonder why a person get bored with this routine. And I am sure its very common among many of the average persons. I think the technical/scientific names for the routine may be ‘Dipression’.

Can you change this? Yes you can and you will become one more proud person to say ‘Change has come!’.

When ever I had an opportunity to discuss about hierarchy of priorities, I say..

1. Self
2. Wife
3. Kids
4. Community

I think the moment you move or remove self from the list, the struggle starts. If you are not energized, what is the possibility that you will do to the rest ?

Each person has some interest/hobby/passion with in him/her self. Little brainstorm shall bring that up if you are not sure what it is?  With the freedom of communication you have right now,  it is very possible to find some thing that you will like or capable of doing.

This blog is some thing which can be used in many ways. At least once in a week you have some other things to think and put it in black and white.

December 9th is my birthday and I am 35. I would say based on the statistics and my smoking habits, worst case scenario I live for 35 more years. Congratulations to me for passing successfully half of my life. Here is the pictorial representation of my life.:)

I was seriously thinking about

what does my 35 years of life means?

what I have accomplished during these years ?

What best I can do for the remaining half ?

Being an Indian and its usual practice that parents support you fully till you get settle down. That takes about 25 years from you life just for education and settlement. For the remaining 10 years of my life I am here in USA for 6 years and 4 years in India, working.

During this long journey which felt really short, what have I accomplished ? How do you define an accomplishment? Its a tough debate in my view. The dictionary definition is “To succeed in reaching”

How many people in this world have a goal to reach? I think not many thought about it, well in other words they don’t have enough courage to do so. I did not say I have a goal so far. Well,Ｉused to have one when I was a kid which I don’t think is appropriate now to share.
Nothing is too late in my view as long as you are determined. I am half way though and that makes me matured, well balanced and confident. May be this is the time to think of a goal that I need to accomplish. This needs a lot of guts in a person to set a goal. In my opinion a goal is some thing that gives you at most satisfaction. This could be any little thing or tough thing and that makes you unique from others.

All this starts when you start think about your real you.