Jay On The Go

The other day a friend forwarded a Craig's List ad to me because she knows that we love outdoors and when the weather is nice we often drive to New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.  The ad was seeking couples to provide feedback on a resort in the White Mountains and for the effort you got to stay for free for two nights.  It seemed like something I could grab even though I am always very skeptical of freebies because there is always a catch.  So I called the number, talked to a wonderful man, who told me that we needed to listen to a 90-minute presentation and tour of the resort for timeshares and the rest of the time we could simply enjoy ourselves.  Once we got back, we were expected to answer an online survey to help them develop a marketing plan for the resort. At that point, he wanted my credit card to confirm my reservation and I told him that I don't do that to someone who could be a criminal.  I told him that he should arrange for the resort to send me a...

So I wrote previously what a pain it was to use my FastLane transponder on a rental car .  However, since I had nothing wrong and trusted the system, I thought everything will work out.  In fact, the customer service agent told me that since out-of-state transactions take some time to go through when the machine cannot read the transponder well, I should simply let the rental car on my Fast Lane account for a few days. I did not think too much about it; after all the advice was coming from the EZPass agent.  Then, I got a little busy and forgot about it, but two weeks later when I went to check, along with my relief that all transactions had gone through, I was shocked to notice that another renter of that car was abusing the fact the rental car was listed on my account.  So this is how it works.  If you go through the FastLane exit and the reader finds no transponder, it looks for the license plate in the system and then simply bills the account in which it i...

A few months back during a trip to New York City, while my EZ Pass worked just fine on MassPike but while crossing the tolls on Henry Hudson Parkway heading into Manhattan, the camera flashed.  Strangely enough, everything worked smoothly on the return trip two days later.  I did not think much about it until I got a letter in the mail from Enterprise Rental Car that I was not only being charged the toll but also a $25 administrative fee.  Calling EZpass MA was a waste of my time because they said that they couldn't do a thing and the problem likely happened because I failed to register my rental car license plates prior to using EZPass.  That is not always an option because you need to remember the account number and password then either do that online or call a number.  If you are on your way directly from the rental car location, it can be a hassle. Last week, however, for a trip to Canada, I rented the car from Hertz for a week even though the trip was...

Last weekend we were invited to a walk by some friends at the Cochituate State Park in Natick, MA, and to our horror when we arrived there around noon, the park was so overcrowded that the police would not even admit walk-ins.  We had to return home.  Yesterday, we went for a hike in the Hopkinton State Park that it would not be so crowded.  Oh how wrong we were.  It was packed with people and it seemed that everyone there was busy eating rather than hiking or engaging in any physical activity at all.  We have basically decided to not visit the parks during the weekends. So what is driving the overcrowding?   Well, since we have been in this area for more than a decade, we have seen more construction and development every where.  The other thing we noticed that almost no one in the parks speaks English and everyone seemed like an immigrant.  It seems that not only do we need to stop legalization of illegal immigrants we might need to limit lega...

The spring and summer this year were warmer than usual (and we had to turn on the central air-conditioning a lot more frequently than ever before in Massachusetts since 2001) but then August (typically a hot, if not the hottest, month) has been fairly cool (I have had days when I have worn long sleeves and we are back to sleeping with a comforter) and in many ways autumn weather seems to have arrived early.  There is some good news, though, about the months ahead.  According to forecasters , fall weather will be warmer than usual.  We might see some wet, heavy snow in November but nothing to worry about.  It is also expected that we may not get much snow in December either.  Hopefully, we will have some to look at for Christmas, though.

Apparently, families like ours are so huge in number (one in five American women are child-free and intend to remain so with full support of men like me in their lives) that Time has done a story on them.  The fact of the matter is that idea of being parents is overrated.  To be honest, I cannot imagine life any other way.  Less worries, less hassles, and no fear that kids might turn out to be losers.  And for those of you who say that we are selfish, well, we are saving enough for retirement that so we don't need no one to take care of us (in fact most people that we know keep whining that their children do not even bother to call them -- they occasionally text).  The best part kid free couples are happier and prosperous .

It is kind of sad that there are no good, affordable coffeemakers out there.  Some of the good ones can cost hundreds of dollars and the cheaper ones don't make decent coffee for people like me who love their coffee more than their wine (I am told that middle aged men should not drink much alcohol any way if they want to keep their libido).  Plus, the appliance has to go with the decor.  Thankfully, Lorena found one at the Calphalon store at this outlet store (since we live so close to this mall, shopping at an outlet mall is not something special for us) and we bought it right away because it was also on sale. We loved it but just 5 weeks later, I saw an electrical spark and then foul, burning smell of a cable.  When I called the store, a pleasant lady immediately offered to replace it without arguing with me about anything (apparently it is covered under warranty for a year).  She promised to call me back with an update on how to get one for me because they ...

If you recall, previously I discussed that during our very first time at the Chestnut Hill Shake Shack trying their frozen custard , Lorena was not impressed (I eat anything as long as it is sweet), but turns out that the company is listening to what customers have to say.  I got a note from their staff that they were sorry that we were not impressed and pleading with us to give them another shot.  Hey, when a company has such nice employees who seem to care, they deserve a second chance, particularly because the next time we go there, it will be another flavor.  While this place is a good 25 miles for us, we wouldn't mind the drive on a beautiful summer evening.  Stay tuned!

While returning from our day trip to Mount Washington by car , we couldn't imagine eating junk food, but we had not done the research for a healthy place to eat.  We did recall going to downtown Concord many years ago and noticing the restaurants, so despite knowing that a lot must have changed, we still exited.  It is right off the highway I-93, parking was a breeze on the street, and when we ventured into a side street (Warren into the Bicentennial Square), we noticed this restaurant, and assuming what could go wrong with tacos and beer, we ventured inside.  Well, it is interesting, because this used to be the local police station and we actually ate inside what used to be holding cells at one time.  What was even more surprising was that the food was delicious, and that is because my Latina wife was impressed.  She thought the flavors were right and everything was freshly prepared.  I had shrimp quesadillas, an appetizer as the main dish, and she chose s...

To be honest, when I like my fix of English beer, I head to England.  What can compare to fish and chips downed with beer in an English pub!  But Lorena convinced me that we should give this restaurant a try (we have seen two in our area: Franklin and Framingham) and during this weekend we did.  I must say that the selection of beers is definitely huge, and while the decor is obviously contrived, they have done a good job.  Food?  Hmmm.....acceptable.  Think of it as a place to check out beers and food just good enough to go along with it.

We had checked out The Street Chestnut Hill last month but last night we got to actually plan dessert at the Shake Shack (unfortunately the menu is simply not for vegetarians or for anyone who seeks variety).  Lorena picked the flavor of the day for frozen custard and since she is the one who has opinions on desserts, let us just say that if you are a PinkBerry fan (and there is one right next door), you should stick to it.  I agreed with my wife that this thing is no better than some cheap icecream from the supermarket.

  My best estimate is that I run north of 700 miles a year but despite the recommendations of companies trying to convince us to replace our shoes more often, I don't.  I have had an asics pair for over three years until last week I noticed that the cushion inside the wall had worn out and a piece of plastic insert was hurting me.  I went shopping at the DSW in Natick and bought a pair of running shoes from New Balance (model number M540SG1) for $55 and now I have used them for several days.  I like them.

Lorena has a girlfriend who works in the Dedham Legacy Place and has been telling her to check it out but it is quite a hike from Milford.  It was only today that we finally managed to motivate ourselves to do it since we had also recently checked out the Street At Chestnut Hill .  Well, we were surprised that the mall is open air and therefore, this is the perfect time to go.  At dinner time, it was in the 80s. Well, it is a usual low middle class mall but had a few good dining options like Aquitaine, Genki, and something called Wicked, which seemed like an attractive option for us, since they have artisan pizza.  If you go as a couple, try to sit in the bar area, which is more lively.  We ate the margarita pizza and I tried a beer from a Maine micro brewery. 

  For years we have bought basmati rice at Trader Joe's and while we have always picked the organic version, reports out of India (from where the rice is imported) say that the soil and water is highly contaminated with carcinogens like lead and arsenic (it is safe to assume that while the farmers may use organic fertilizers, it is doubtful if they will use filtered water).  So it maybe somewhat cleaner than the standard variety but I argued that it might be better to buy the Texmati rice (essentially American basmati grown in the US).  We picked the RiceSelect brand that cost about six bucks for 32 oz (more expensive than the imported one) but I must say that it is nothing like the basmati rice.  The grains stick and there is hardly any aroma.  Lorena now insists that we revert to the organic basmati grown in India.

Well, we heard so much about Shake Shack that we finally decided to check it out.  That also means that it was an opportunity to review the so-called The Street in the Chestnut Hill area, basically a renovated open air shopping plaza that is awesome during nice weather but I am a little skeptical during winter, particularly during the snowstorms.  Verdict on Shake Shack:   Oh sad for us (almost vegetarians), there is nothing but a mushroom burger.  We do eat fish and chicken occasionally, but then this is not the place.  So maybe one of these days when we are in a mood for some sugary treats, maybe we will stop by for frozen custard, but a meal appears unlikely.    So instead we ended up for coffee at Rosie's Bakery and Lorena was delighted to see that there is Pinkberry and Treat Cupcake Bar. New restaurants:   For those of us who like Aquitaine in South Boston but hated going there due to all the parking nightmares, well, now we know t...

I have been a dedicated frequent flier on American Airlines and even have two of their airline credit cards , but looks as if I may need to take my business elsewhere (not that there are many choices since all airlines have declared full scale war on passengers).  After annoying me with their unethical marketing practices , I have now been told that regardless of how early I book, when I want to use their reduced mileage awards, I will need to pay $25 per ticket (I cannot understand why the charge will be double if I also bring Lorena along because all they need to do is to plug in her AAdvantage # and all the information gets populated on screen).  I also fail to understand that with computerization of almost all types of bookings, why do I even have to call an agent to book only this type of rewards.  To me it is nothing but a technique to harass their customers.

Thankfully, I am not a dad, so I do not have to worry about receiving inappropriate gifts from my children for father's day, but the whole series of press releases from desperate plastic surgeons looking to drum up business seem to imply that all that the dad wants is a visit to the plastic surgeon for some age-reversal procedures .  Stephen Greenberg claims that he “has seen requests for procedures around Father’s Day go up close to 50 percent among men; the highest level than any other time of year.” Look, as I am getting older, I am aware of the visible signs of aging , and how that changes how people treat me, but the way I learned a long time ago that you do not want to give a gift a membership to the gym to your spouse (or for that matter anyone, unless this individual insists on receiving that gift), you do not want to gift anyone that reminds a man of his aging .  As it is most likely his falling level of Testosterone is already playing havoc on his self estee...

Yesterday, Lorena and I drove her family members to the Logan Airport, and after they had cleared security, and we were about to return home, but she wanted to use the ladies room.  So while she went on the lower floor, I just found a chair and watched people line up for security.  Nothing out of the ordinary until an Oriental family came: a middle aged man (well dressed in a suit with a good looking carryon), his wife who was smartly dressed, good looking, along with their two cute daughters, maybe around 5 or 6 (I am really terrible with estimating age, particularly that of kids, since I am kid-free). As the man was about to line up, he went to his wife, looked right into his eyes, gave her a sweet kiss on the lips, said something, waved his kids goodbye, and entered the line.  I think he waved a bit after entering the line, but what happened after that caught my attention.  Within a minute, tears started rolling down the eyes of the two girls.  Within a min...

If you are one of those people who simply cannot stop eating and never realize how much you have actually eaten , it ain't entirely your fault.  Naturally, you have gained a lot of weight due to this, but you are unable to stop.  What is going on?  Well, rather that try to go on yet another diet or feel miserable for lacking self control or just giving up altogether, have you tried to find out if you could actually be sad or depressed?  Scientists at the University of Wurzburg have found that when we are sad, we lose our ability to taste fat .  So while normal, happy people can sense that a dish is fatty and heavy , and they stop eating when they feel full, unhappy people do not have that capacity, and never realize how much they have eaten.  So stop feeling bad and work on your depression; the weight will take care of itself eventually.

We might debate endlessly whether walking or running is better for overall health , but scientists have found that as far as brain health is concerned, it is yoga that can do wonders.  We have all known that meditation can actually rewire the brain.  MRI scans of Tibetan monks have proven that their brains are fundamentally different from rotten people like Lindsay Lohan .  Still if your goal is losing weight , improving heart function , or building physical strength , then, yoga is not appropriate.

  Undergoing assisted reproductive therapy (ART) to have a child is controversial.  With overpopulation causing so many problems already and will largely be the main driver of collapse of human civilization, many of kid-free folks believe that while everyone should have fewer kids, those who are naturally unable to, should simply go on with their lives.  After all, there are so many things we cannot have, and we make peace with that. Argentina, a country that I fell in love with after spending a month there, is again setting a new standard for the world to look at: whether you are single, married, gay or straight, if you want one, you will be provided with fertility treatment .  Fertility rates there are on par with the US, where there is no national standard, but in states like Massachusetts, where I live, health insurance covers fertility treatments.

The headline screaming that half of Britons by 2020 will get cancer made me wonder if this applies to us here in America as well.  Well, like any prediction for the future, I am very skeptical and always like to look at the assumptions. The prediction is applicable only for Great Britain because it takes into consideration their demographics and epidemiological data. Like most of Europe and Japan, Britain has an aging society, and thanks to massive immigration we don't as much. Having said that, like Britain, we are seeing higher numbers for cancer, but every time someone tries to scare you that you are going to die from an illness, it is misleading: we will all die, most likely from an illness (the second of the only two causes of death is accident).  Since no one dies from old age, what is going to happen is that we might now die from cancer instead of, say, throat infection or gastroenteritis.  So go out there, eat healthy , be happy , and live well .  Don'...

I guess for Facebook addicts , it really does not matter because they don't seem to have a life outside of the social network, but for the rest of the sane planet, there is yet one more reason to divorce Facebook or never join it in the first place: the Facebook ads will look just like a post from your tween niece whining that she has to do her homework.  There will be a tiny 'sponsored' somewhere that you will not be able to see without magnifying the screen display.  I don't understand how it will improve the user experience when everyone I know has negative interest in interacting with someone pushing stuff that they don't want to buy.

When I saw this picture of how a woman managed to crash the wall of a home with her car, what impressed me even more was that the vehicle looks undamaged.  I used to own a Honda CRV at one time and while I am much happier with my Toyota RAV4 , I also liked the CRV.  Good car.

  I like Russell Brand in movies; he can be quite funny.  I have also heard that he is overall a good man.  When he chooses to he can dress very well as well, but from time to time, you see him and scratch you head.  Look at this photo of him and I have a hard time figuring out how did he put this outfit together and what was he thinking.

If you have been spooked by the news that the National Security Agency (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) have been eavesdropping on your phone calls if you are a Verizon customer, remember that just because other phone companies have not been identified, it does not mean that they are not being tracked as well.  Actually, no evidence has come to light that the Muslims prefer Verizon Wireless for plotting their terrorist attacks.  You should work on the hypothesis that everything that you do online or on your phone or even snail mail is being tracked either by a corporation or the Feds.  In fact, direct marketing firms and your Internet service provider already knows a lot more about you than the Feds can ever find out.  So unless you are a terrorist -- in which I have nothing more to say to you -- there is no reason to worry, particularly if you are not breaking any laws .  I mean you might end up still getting caught for no reason but if y...

Lorena occasionally used to watch the Orange County and New York City versions and I have had some exposure to the content but looks like she got tired of them pretty quickly.  Bravo was using a formula for the series and everything started to look staged.  It was also clear that real housewives of wherever did not live like that and as much as these women were pretending to be wealthy (and some of them actually were) they were more than anything, desperate for attention.   So isn't it interesting that the versions for Canada, Greece, and Israel are actually based there but the one with French housewives is actually not based anywhere close to France.  Disappointing for us Francophiles , it is actually based, you guessed it, in Beverly Hills and that is why the name of the show is: “Les Vraies Housewives de Beverly Hills.”  For some strange reasons the only French word they used is "vraies" for "real" and I am sure that all of my French friends are offende...

When we go to New York City on a Sunday , if possible, we try to park on the street.  We have a few spots that we have been able to identify over the years and one of them is in the area next to Noodies Thai Kitchen.  Typically, when we are headed towards Boston , we try to leave just before dinner time and then grab a bite on the way.  Unfortunately, in the 195 mile trip, except for junk food, there are not many options.  Recognizing that we would have no choice but to eat deadly food from a fast food restaurant, we wondered if we should eat dinner before hopping into the car. As we were strolling in the area, we spotted Noodies and walked right in despite the fact that we had eaten Thai food for lunch as well (77 East 10th Street).  It is a small place but the staff is friendly and attentive.  I opted for noodles and Lorena ate a soup dish.  Reasonably priced and delicious flavor.  Strongly recommended.

I have been blogging about lack of decent cafes in America and within days of discovering LA Burdick in Boston , during a weekend trip to NYC, we discovered Nespresso by chance, because in the past we have been having our afternoon coffee at one of the many Le Pain Quotidien locations.  We had first had our coffee at the Nespresso location in Miami and were delighted to visit them in Soho. As always, excellent coffee and service.  The opera cake that my wife and I shared was delicious as well.  In fact there is something else that I liked about this location.  In Miami, everything is on one floor so that all those shoppers who want to check out their products create a mess.  On the other hand, in this location, the cafe is on one floor while the shop is on another, creating a true full service cafe environment.

One of the things that we enjoyed while we spent a month in Buenos Aires and during our numerous trips to Spain, England, France, and Japan is a cafe, where you can enjoy fine coffee with a few munchies.  It is even better if there is full service (yes I am happy to pay for it because in self service places like Starbucks, it is a mess -- students and self employed folks camping out on tables). We liked the Render in South End , but more often than not, we end up in the Newbury Street area.  What I like about Burdick is that it is open, clean, and there is plenty of place to sit.  There is also a good selection of desserts but someone who is addicted to dark roast coffee that should be nearly perfect, Burdick has pretty good coffee as well.  I really hope that they never offer free wifi so that it does not attract all those losers who have destroyed Starbucks.

For the time being I continue to be on the cheapest possible mobile phone plan in America , but I have been wondering how to use the Vonage mobile app for making international phone calls from my cell phone using wifi.  You see, I am a Vonage customer and on the plan that I have, I can pretty much make unlimited calls to almost any country in the world using my phone at home.  The company also lets me make phone calls with a cell phone by calling a domestic number, but if you have a smart phone, you can download their app and make/receive calls as if you were at home.  In addition, I have also wondered that on the rare occasion that I need, it will be nice to have access to the web (for directions or searching for a business) on my cell phone (which is currently an old, dumb phone).   So I started to research for a smart phone that will allow me to download apps, surf the web using wi-fi most of the time, but when I need to, I can also access the web without an...

Because I work from home , I have access to at least two phones all the time (I am also noticing that hardly anyone calls any more).  Obviously, I also have access to the Internet on a variety of devices, including my laptop, iPad , and iPod Touch at home.  So when I do go out of the house, the last thing I want to do is to surf the web or use the phone, but it is nice to have a mobile phone for emergencies.  The bottom line is that I rarely use a phone, maybe a few minutes a month.  So it makes no sense for me to have a smartphone and pay almost $100 a month when I have no use for it.   After doing extensive research I found that the Tmobile pay-as-you-go plan is one of the cheapest (there are others lesser known brands often run by large companies but they do not disclose that).  You can buy a fairly cheap phone (for less than $50 you have pretty good phones and I think I paid around $29) and then just add $10 to get 30 minutes that last three month...

As an atheist nothing fascinates me more than the people of faith and I try to watch them as much as possible.  Thankfully, Prof. T. M. Luhrmann at Stanford did exactly that for her book “ When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God ,” and I have been reading her columns in The Times.  These lines caught my attention:   "We often imagine prayer as a practice that affects the content of what we think about — our moral aspirations, or our contrition. It’s probably more accurate to understand prayer as a skill that changes how we use our minds........ The prayer warriors said that as they became immersed in prayer, their senses became more acute. Smells seemed richer, colors more vibrant. Their inner sensory worlds grew more vivid and more detailed, and their thoughts and images sometimes seemed as if they were external to the mind. Later, I was able to demonstrate experimentally that prayer practice did lead to more vivid inner i...

After the mess that Reese Witherspoon created in Atlanta, GA, when her husband Jim Toth was stopped by a cop for DUI, I wondered what would a passenger in a stopped vehicle need to do in such a situation.  Now if the vehicle is stopped for some other minor violation like speeding or illegally changing lanes or having a broken light, the process for passengers is straightforward: stay in your seat till the process is over, do not interact on your own with the cop , and chances are nothing more will happen.  If the cop suspects that the driver of the vehicle is drunk, then, obviously he or she will not be allowed to drive the vehicle any more (arrest is made instead), but you maybe able to drive the vehicle home with the permission of the cop (assuming you are not drunk as well).  It is also likely that the vehicle is towed and you will need to find some transportation on your own (ask a friend to pick you up, ride on the tow truck, get a ride in the police car, call a taxi...

I have been closely watching the news related to disappearance of honey bees.  I can also add that in my own massive yard that blooms from April to September here in New England, while I do see a lot of bugs, bees are long gone.  While there are many theories, but the most comprehensive study by the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that there is no single reason for the decline.  Many reasons are contributing to their massive deaths and these include toxic chemicals used as pesticides, global warming, mites/viruses/bacteria, and poor nutrition.  As you might already know that bees are key to pollination but many farmers destroy almost all the weeds these days with chemicals and some of the weeds are essential to survival of bees.

It looks like on cue from Miley Cyrus wearing male underwear , here is Khloe Kardashian wearing a crisp white shirt and necktie that would look perfect on any businessman , and rocking it.

The State Department already has a strong warning against driving in India (though, if you take my advice, even going to India is harmful to your health), but recently when a 9-year old kid's family posted a video of him driving an automobile ( Ferrari ), instead of apologizing for the crimes (in any civilized countries there are multiple crimes committed including endangering a child, risking public safety, etc.), his mother actually boasted to the media, "It's not easy for a child to achieve such a feat at this young age."  She added that the son has already driven their Lamborghini and Bentley vehicles.  How do we make sure that such idiots never set foot on American soil and create a public nuisance here?

The way Americans have completely tuned out ObamaCare , they are hardly paying any attention to the so-called Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (BSEOIM) , a law that will allow 11 million illegal immigrants to become legal , right away give green cards to more than 4 million aliens whose applications have been pending due to limits on number of aliens who can be admitted each year, and bring even more cheap foreign labor through the H1B program .  A Pew poll found that just 19 percent of respondents were closely following the debate over the comprehensive immigration bill .  Most of those polled did not know about some of the immigration legislation 's key aspects. 

Apparently Fox News survey finds that "Americans are unaware ObamaCare was signed into law. Some think it's been repealed by Congress."  We Americans take pride in our ignorance but with two elections already contested on the Affordable Care Act and a Supreme Court ruling that made Justice John Roberts a pariah in conservative circles, two out of five Americans still don't know that it is the law of the land.  Oh, wait, maybe because the Republicans and Fox News do nothing else than talk about repealing it.  I wouldn't be surprised if a poll will find that abortion is illegal in America.

Oh, gees, Holly Madison is wearing these rather hilarious looking heels that look like small figurines of puppies.  She might be badly in need of a pedicure but these shoes that might be as attractive to a four year old as to a middle aged woman trying to get a laugh.

I have a pair of Bolero sunglasses that I just love.  They are perfect for driving as well just when you are in bright sun, and yesterday, while walking along Dartmouth Street in front of Douzo Japanese restaurant, I dropped them on the floor.  One of the lenses just popped out.  While I did not pay for them because they were a gift, I felt awful and started to wonder if I had lost them forever or if there was a way to fix them.  So when I got back home I took a magnifying glass and noticed that instead of being glued to the frame, they were actually snapped in (which kind of makes sense because the lens just popped out, something that was unlikely if they were glued).  Don't try this if your glasses are really expensive and also don't really push it too hard and definitely do not attempt this if you are not an engineer by training like me, but if you position them from the inside at the lower end of the frame and then stretch the frame just a bit to accommodate...

If I recall it right, except for a brief period when I used a Norelco Electric Shaver that I received as a gift from y girlfriend (now my wife), I have pretty much used Gillette razors, and have upgraded as they have introduced more expensive products.  I have not had anything to complain and if my wife did not buy the overpriced cartridges during her grocery shopping, it was me who also blindly picked the cartridges during a run to Target.  Last month it hit me that the prices of these cartridges simply keep going up , even though, as an engineer I know that none of the materials have become expensive over time (I am not privy to their ad budgets but I hardly see any television commercials from the company).  That is when I noticed that right along the super expensive cartridges (which lately I have seen actually come enclosed in tamper proof containers that need to be opened at the checkout -- essentially meaning that they are now so expensive that people are stealing t...

I do not consider myself to be a foodie and that is why it is hard for me to really distinguish ordinary food from gourmet food .  I am positive that in a blind taste I would not be able to distinguish dishes from a neighborhood eatery or a Michelin star restaurant.  Looks like Brad Pitt is not like me.  Apparently, when Brangelina lived in Surrey, Britain, Brad got addicted to curries from a takeout Indian place, and when Angelina Jolie was in the area all by herself, she arranged a bunch of (flash frozen) dishes along with Indian beers and sent them by private jet to Los Angeles.  If I understand it right, in the whole of America, Brad Pitt does not think that there is a single decent Indian restaurant, despite a massive influx of ethnic South Asians in the country .  A few years back, Kanye West also brought Indian food from England .  I guess, instead of importing those software engineers from the subcontinent , maybe we should be importing a few c...

It has been common for criminals to escape (when I crossed the border from San Diego to Tijuana for a day trip , I was surprised to notice that you basically walk in to the country without inspection, though, there were a few totally bored cops harassing Mexicans with huge bags, probably looking for bribes) to Mexico after committing a crime in the United States and so many Hollywood movies actually glamorize it.  Until today I never heard of anyone escaping from Mexico to the United States after committing a crime. Apparently, Kyle Kester, a Minnesota man, moved to Guadalajara and built a home there (it is understandable why Kyle would want to flee the horrible winters of Minnesota and I am sure like me he liked the food in Guadalajara area).  Sadly, the people he hired to work on his property eventually killed him.  Out of three killers, two were arrested, but the third murderer has fled to the US.  I know we have many crimes unsolved but generally speaking it is...

It sounds counter-intuitive but scientists at University College London found that to be the case.  It scared me a lot because I not only want to be healthy , I also want to live a long life .   So why would this be that overweight heart disease patients are actually 30% less likely to die early than their counterparts of a healthy weight .  No one knows, but one explanation from Dr Mark Hamer is that sick people are more likely to see a doctor, get checked up , and receive treatments, while healthy people are more likely to avoid meeting with a doctor and being treated for hidden diseases like diabetes.  I can agree with that because despite having health insurance , I have not seen a doctor in years.  I eat healthy, workout, take supplements , occasionally get a vaccine , and avoid ever going to a medical facility.

Apparently, at one point Elizabeth Moss, who had a very brief marriage to him, said of him, “He’s so great at doing impersonations, but the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person.”  Now I have had a crush on Moss since I saw her on Mad Men and then on El Camino and she is such a sweety, but I have the greatest admiration for Armisen, whom I see each week on SNL.  I guess we should accept people for who they are .

I have been discussing the working from home policies of corporations and clearly Yahoo did not know how to get work out of its employees .  I am actually pretty confident that if Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) employees did not work from home effectively, it will be impossible for them to work in an office too.  The problem is not telecommuting; the main problem is that Yahoo has awful employees and they need to be fired. So with that in mind, look at what Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), its competitor, does.  Company spokesman Jordan Newman tells NYT , "I don’t think we’ve ever had a policy on that (meaning working from anywhere)......we do expect employees to figure out a work schedule with their team and manager. It’s not a free-for-all.”   According to the article, Google doesn’t require employees to work from the office. It doesn’t even keep track of who’s there. The notion seems to have never occurred to anyone.

There is one of my favorite lines from French philosopher Albert Camus : "Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is."  That is why it is so interesting to watch Hannah (played so well by Lena Dunham) on Girls .  My wife and I are too old to appreciate the challenges that the characters are going through but it is important for us to understand what is happening in the society today .  That is why I enjoyed some other comments from Lena in a recent interview:  "There would be all kinds of weird challenges to deal with ( if I would look like a Victoria's Secret model ). I don't think I'd like it very much... I don't want to go through life wondering if people are talking to me because I have a big rack . Not being the babest person in the world creates a nice barrier."  I am so intrigued by Lena as an individual that she has accepted who she is (though, it might be good for her to lose a few pounds for health reasons ).

I am sure if your income is only fifty grand and you have very little assets (or like a quarter of Americans, no assets, but credit card debt and student loans), you will see these millionaires are out of their minds to not be happy.  You probably even fantasize that you would be so happy if just your credit card debt was paid off and you had some money in the bank for emergencies , but trust me, the richer you are, the bigger your expenses, and what might be an year's worth of savings, for some people that is just one trip to Paris. Well, according to the Spectrem Group found that individuals worth $5 million or more are far more satisfied with their jobs, relationships and work than those worth $100,000 or less. Notice the important distinction here.  Instead of just talking about the millionaires (remember there are a lot of millionaires next door these days), they are talking about the so-called penta-millionaires . Before you get any wrong ideas about me, I am no...

At a time when seniors are going back to college , free online education is making American style education available to everyone in the world , college degree is the new high school diploma , and job prospects for Americans look dismal , comes the report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that of the 1.9 million students enrolled for the first time in all degree-granting institutions, just over half of them had graduated within six years . Another 16.1 percent were still enrolled in some sort of post-secondary program after six years, and 29.8 percent had dropped out altogether.  These people are not only getting their degrees, for whatever time they are in college, they are taking out student loans, that need to repaid no matter what .  I guess if you do not have the stomach for working hard, it is better not to even consider college , but dropping out is just the worst decision you can make.  I must also add that so many college students I come acr...

When Pandora first came online, I started listening to music there, and then they told me that I was listening to too much music (my music is on when I am working from home ) and they cut me off.  So I abandoned them and switched to DI.fm .  Then they kept begging me to come back because they were sorry to see people like me go away and that they would increase the amount of time I could listen to music.  Obviously, I did not return to them.  I now hear that they are having more trouble paying their bills and cap their listening period.  Damn; when are they going out of business?  I love my Digitally Imported, though, I must announce that I only listen to Trance music, but I am sure that there are similar music services for other genres. 

Nothing terrifies me more than the thought of China becoming the world's economic superpower (it is also clear that the Chinese government will even steal corporate and government secrets to get a competitive edge).  Eventually, China will either steal or buy military technology as well, it might also become a military superpower.  That will not be a good day for humanity because the Chinese Communist Party is a group of power-hungry, thoroughly corrupt thugs who have absolutely no morals .  Expect them to support dictators all over the world and anyone who opposes them will be destroyed. There is more bad news.  Latest data shows that Chinese people now hold an incredible 25% of the world's savings (yeah, the Chinese are the new Japanese ), approximately $4.5 trillion.  It is also a fact that we keep borrowing from China so that we can keep consuming the junk from China.  So what will the Chinese do with all this money?  As the Japanese did in th...

If you are like me and like to trade commodities like gold, silver, and oil (I have traded IAU, UCO, and SLV), you will simply need to do a lot more paperwork while filing your income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Even if you do your taxes using TurboTax, which pulled all my documents from the TD Ameritrade account, I was still stumped when it came time to complete the form related to these trades.  So this is how it works.  Unlike other equities that are simple buy/sell, the commodities are tricky.  Basically, the owner, iShares, of this exchange traded fund (ETF) sells a tiny portion of your holding to cover their costs, and that is why you will see that each month there are trades that you have not made.  In my case, the actual quantity was zero shares and the total proceeds were just $22. So how to calculate the cost basis?   I suggest that you plug the data in a spreadsheet.  In first column, list the 12 months.  In t...

My argument has been that good employees can be effective working from home .  If you have employees who are goofing off at home, it is not that you are letting them work from home; it is just that you have bad employees .  These folks are not professionals and should be fired.  The reality is that they will goof off even when they are in an office (you all know the types who waste time on the Internet or are constantly on the phone or spend plenty of time in the hallways and cafeteria, etc.) and it is naive to think that you can somehow make them more productive by forcing them to come to work in a building. Having said that, Yahoo is completely within the rights of a firm to tell its employees that they cannot work from home .  So while Marissa Mayer maybe a little out of touch (she is a CEO, is worth more than $300 millions, makes tens of millions of bucks a year, has a nursery in her corporate office, etc.), she can still treat low level employees any way s...

Yes, the super-rich can lose a billion dollars to gambling , but I thought that was rare.  Elliott Orsillo, CFA, co-founder of Season Investments in Colorado Springs, tells CNBC, "One of my clients had $400,000 in credit card bills. He came to me because it was impeding his ability to fuel his jet. The credit card companies would not allow him to charge his fuel anymore."   If this were not true, I would have thought it was a joke.  I wonder if the wealthy are also "too rich to fail," that eventually someone bails them out.

During the late 90s, I found an awesome job that I loved, but it required a 75 mile commute one way, from Connecticut to New Jersey.  Yeah, it was mostly highway driving and I completed it in about 90 minutes or so each way, but with occasional delays, I was spending about 20 hours each week driving.  Around that time the Internet was just starting and my employer was terrified how their business of information collection and processing would be impacted by it, so they were very reluctant to embrace anything new, including telecommuting (which was emerging as new concept in the dot-com boom).  Since several employees were like me, eventually, they let us work one day from home, that we got to choose.  The company insisted on a separate phone line so that work calls could be redirected and an Internet connection, which was fine for me, but wow, it was awesome.  I got to sleep late, and a minute after my office closed at 530 PM, I was home.  It made such a di...

I guess you could gamble a billion bucks in gambling , but this is serious question facing the Japanese government.  You see, despite overwhelming evidence that government spending can work during downturns, Republicans have killed all chances of an economic recovery in America, not because they fundamentally disagree with the economics fundamentals; they just wanted to see President Obama fail in the first term.  In his second term, they are too embarrassed to admit they were wrong so they continue to oppose his policy and are desperately trying to cut spending so that American can continue to be in slump (with the assumption that yet another Mitt Romney like candidate can make the same argument and win the 2016 elections). So what is going on in Japan?   Well, like most of the developed countries, Japan too is in a slow growth mode, and it is hurting the Japanese worker.  There is high unemployment among educated youth and the government wants to address that b...

We are all aware that after the peak of the late 90s, the employment situation has not been very encouraging .  It was around this time that due to the maturing of Internet technologies and creation of broadband infrastructure everywhere, it is possible for workers in remote parts of the world like The Philippines or India to serve us.  The manufacturing jobs have been shipped first to Mexico and Latin America and then to China , through a process that took decades.  While politicians are reluctant to say this, the reality is that a very few jobs will come back and if they do, they will take very different form.  That is why President Obama has been emphasizing that Americans embrace education, particularly learning vocational skills.  In any case, bachelor degree is new high school .  It was in this context that remarks by David Willetts, Britain’s higher education minister, were remarkable.  He said, “There is nothing stopping older people applying...

As you know, after I started to take online classes , I have been singing the praises of massive open online courses .  Just to give you an idea, while we have merely scratched the surface at this time, edX, the nonprofit venture by Harvard and M.I.T hopes to serve a billion students worldwide over the next decade.  About 700,000 individuals are using their platform now with more than 900,000 course enrollments.  Indeed, the dropout rate is 90% , but over time the attrition should fall and reach should improve.  Imagine the power of knowledge to an additional billion people worldwide!

Ouch!  And that is when we are yet to see the full impact of impending massive immigration of cheap labor from Latin America , spread of free online education , and more visas for high tech workers .  The Times is reporting that a college degree is now a must for jobs that typically were done by high school graduates.  They cite the example Atlanta, GA law firm Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh which has hired newly minted college grads for jobs like filing clerks, receptionist, paralegals, administrative assistants. etc. arguing that they are much more motivated, talented, and smarter.  Job creator (I love this funny term) Adam Slipakoff, the firm’s managing partner proudly proclaims, “Going to college means they are making a real commitment to their futures. They’re not just looking for a paycheck.”  I guess the only winners in this are universities that keep charging ridiculous sums for college diplomas .  I don't see how the college graduates benefit and i...

Since I listen to music all day when I am working on my computer, I need quick access to the volume icon so that I can mute it if I need to answer the phone or lower the volume for some reason.  This morning the icon disappeared for some reason even though I made no changes at all.  Choosing the control panel --> notification area icons and selecting show icon and notifications did not help because the volume icon was gone.  So if you are in a situation like mine on a Windows computer, try this: Reboot the computer and see if it returns. If not, right click on the task bar at the bottom and select Start Task Manager.  Go to the processes tab, and find a file called explorer.exe.  Select it and click the end process button on the bottom right of the window. Now click on the applications tab and click on the new task button on the bottom right.  In the pop up window, type explorer.exe and click OK.  This should restore it, and most definitely, if ...