Maciej is moving to a new place (Part I)

Today we were helping Maciej move to his new apartment - the story is broken into two parts because it will take two days to move.  The current apartment needs him out by 12:00 noon - but they gave him a break and let him stay until 5:00 PM - the new apartment does not allow Maciej to move in until 12:00 noon the next day - so in between... well here is the story...


So the day started after my morning Vinyasa class - I went and caught the 12:49PM train to Penn Station - followed by the E train to 50th street.  The cargo van to rent is from Enterprise Rent a-car, but the store does not open until 15:00, and I arrived at 14:00 to 50th street, since it was lunch time, I decided to get something to eat, specifically a falafel from a place near by, which was highly recommended by Ewa: Azuri Cafe, located on 465 51st Street, between 10th and 9th Aves.

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And I ordered a platter... what a platter - delicious - see for yourself:

a bit pricey - but the taste is very worthy, and one doesn't leave hungry after the platter, but the next time I will order what others proposed, going for the Falafel on pita (not the platter) that should run for about $5.00 instead of $14.00.


After my meal, I still had about 1 hr before heading for the rental van... eventually the time arrived and I headed to the rental agency on 48St on 11th Ave.  When I approached the attendant, I found out that the Enterprise Rent-a-Car office for cargo-vans was not the current location, but rather 48St between 5th & 6th Ave.  It was not too bad of a walk, but that also meant that I would be 30 minutes late to meet with Maciej.


I finally attained the cargo-van, without any issues, and Maciej had disassembled all the furniture (good man!) - so by the time I arrived, all we had to do was to go down 3 flies of stairs and load the van - we were parked very close to the main building's entrance - near a fire-hydrant.  Within 2 hrs, we were totally packed - and ready to go.


Here is the last set of itmes that Maciej and I had to carry to the van - as you can see, he is ready and happy to start our moving adventure.

  Here is a picture of the cargo-van, fully packed.

The last picture of Maciej standing and closing the doors (while taking this picture I lost one of my gloves, which Maciej found on the road - good thing because I was about to give up on the glove, but the night was going to be very cold - so I am very happy Maciej did not give up on finding my lost glove)


Now that we were packed, we had to figure out a plan, we decided that driving the car to LI would put additional cost on gas, and also risk additional chances of avoidable events, so we opted to stay in the city - but it was only 19:30, and we had lots of hours ahead of us prior the arriving of the next day...  So we headed to Lincoln Square's Movie Theaters and purchased the latest show, 23:20, of the movie Avatar.  On our way to purchase the tickets, we took a memorable picture at the entrance of Lincoln Center's Plaza:

  And since the movie would not start until another 3 hours, we headed for the near by Barnes and Noble's Bookstore, where Maciej grabbed a couple books (one of them about Rockefeller).

  And then... we headed to watch the movie...the theater was practically empty - perhaps 15 people... it was nice and quiet...


(to be continued...)

Working late - freebies make us work longer hours

Tonight is an NHL free game viewing night, so we (the team) will stay in a room (the war room), sitting on the same desk...


It is rather boring, but as long as nothing goes wrong we will be ok...

Simon Boccanegra

So I missed Carmen on Thursday - worked didn't permit, but I wanted to listen to Simon Boccanegra (since Sirius didn't transmit it) and I made it to the Met 5 minutes before it started - I had to also find parking, which didn't take too long, and it was free - though I left the opera once to make sure that where I parked was a legal spot (yes, I was concerned that I parked somewhere wrong, it was too easy getting the spot).

I didn't know what to expect of the Opera, I only knew that Placido Domingo was playing the main role, and then to my surprise Director Levine was conducting the orchestra.  Needless to say, the opera ended being a pleasant surprise... I would say that the story has similar trades to Rigoletto's: destiny, piety, love... considering that both operas were written by Giuseppe Verdi, I am not surprise that both felt very similar.  The music was very pleasant to listen too (a bit predictable - but otherwise it may have turned unbearable or less accepted for the crowds, that would include me)


The opera was a full house, and once again, I purchased standing sits - I wanted to contact Ewa, but I knew it was Friday and a last minute decision, at 6:30PM I decided to run for it.

Cats make most meaningful use of laptops

An image is worth a thousand words

  Carrots and Pepper use to practice "laptop" everytime they had a chance.

You don't need thieves when you can rob yourself... :)

Yesterday at the Met, I left my iPhone on the shelf, and when I came back... it was still there - forgetful that I am... Today at the gym I left the iPhone again... This time when I came back - it was gone...


My head lock onto the dissapointment on myself - but I was composed - I think I am just very mad with myself - why I keep forgetting things, I held the thought and then let go (just like meditation said - don't hold onto things - don't get attached...)


I sent a text message to the iPhone, and hopefully, whomever decided to take it decided to return it to the "lost and found" section of the gym.


Latest update:  I called at 2:00PM to see if someone decided to return the iPhone... someone must had, or they found the iPhone when I was away and the staff placed it in the safe box... In short, I have my iPhone back.

Finishing work for the daya

So finally after leaving for mom early afternoon (12:30 PM), I finally made it to the datacenter with a few hours to wait for - I sat on the floor for about 2 hours, and waited for the copies to finish...


I have not gone to the data center for a long time, so to my surprise, I had no longer access to one of our floors (5th floor) - luckily the floor with the systems was different one (2nd floor), but the 5th floor has a nice cage where I could at least sit down on a chair with a desk... not so lucky on the 2nd floor.

I end up sitting on the card board box for a few minutes, but my back was not able to handle it, so I found the floor more comfortable...sitting in lotus pose.

The room is a bit warm because, though the entire data center is air conditioned and very loud, when you position yourself behind all the servers, you get all the heat from the system's fans.

What a mess of cables... but the systems are working - just hope nobody has to trace anything...

  By 2:00 AM I was all done - hurray!

Turandot at the Met

After dropping mom, I had to head back to the city, because I had to pickup a drive, but things weren't quite ready, I had to work on the drive contents by slowly copying content out from one drive and in to a portable USB drive - each copy of set of files could take from 20 mins to 1.5 hrs.  Traffic back to the city was pretty brutal, specially on the Queensborough Bridge.

Once I arrived the city, I settled myself at Lincoln's Barnes and Noble bookstore, where I could finish my work.  Working with the backups would take some time, one of my largest files 90GB, which would have needed to be broken into 1.5GB files, and then transfered to the USB drive, would take about 2.3 hours, so I decided to start the process, and considering that I had enough time, head to the Opera to watch Turandot.

I wished Ewa would have been able to stay in the city, so we could have enjoyed this Opera together, Ewa always praises Turandot - I guess when Pavarotti sings it, there is every reason to praise any opera.


I ran to the Opera house, I only had 5 minutes left, and at 7:55PM I was by the ticket counter, where I was given a few choices - $80.00 sits and $17.00-$22.00 standing sits, well  I picked the standing ticket... and I liked it a lot - though my body did feel the lengthy standing and the hard floor (very thin and barely cushioned carpeting).

The house was almost sold out, but only a few standing sits were purchased, this was nice, since I had more space for myself, as a matter of fact, there was nobody on either side of me, and I was next to the staircase, so I could see the stage without having to overlook anything...

I found the story very cruel, specially towards the end, a bit cold - I felt sorry for Liu (the platonic lover of Calaf).  The Met did a great job with the stage scenes and the performers did very good reflecting Chinese opera dancing moves and singing tone, specially the Turandot's three ministers (Ping, Pang, and Pong) - they acted like the actors in the Chinese opera (if you ever want to suffer for a few hours - you can watch, and listen, to a Chinese opera and you'll see what I am referring to).


The main characters did not sound as good to my ears as I would have hoped for - this is probably because I am not used to Turandot, being this my first time - it just didn't sound appealing nor it was pulling my soul begging for more or to never stop. Maria Guleghina (posing as Turandot) sounded like she was screaming rather than singing, and Salvatore Licitra (playing Calaf) was somewhat shy and not pouring his soul out - I am particularly referring to "Nessun Dorma", given that this is the song that Ewa has played most for me in Turandot.  When I heard "Nessun Dorma" from Pavarotti, he held his notes, and he lengthen the finale by Licitra was nowhere near.


One of the greatest pleasures in the Opera was seeing the musicians leaving the stage, this time I was able to see them in person, usually Ewa and I would have stayed until the lights were on again, but since I wanted to check on the progress on my computer work and the time was approaching 11:10PM (Barnes and Nobles closes at midnight), I needed to leave as soon as the opera was over - leaving the place this soon avoided the mass crowd traffic.  On my way out I was surprised to see 4 musicians leaving from the highest floor - how did they get there?  Is there another set of musicians upstairs?

I wouldn't mind going again and perhaps see if I learn to appreciate them more, most likely is my inexperience that leaves me feeling that Turandot has been underperformed.  I would like to hear what Ewa's opinion is with regards this performance.  They also will play Turandot on Jan 23rd and 28th.


Tomorrow... today is Carmen - I hope I can watch it too, I wonder if Ewa would like to come and see it along.

Taking mom to the airport

Mom flew back home today - her flight was at 18:00,  I picked her up 4.5 hours ahead of schedule.  We tried to do a few last minute things:

Mom wanted to say goodbye to Ewa, and Ewa also called my cell to see if mom was with me, but unfortunately the timing didn't coincide, despite the fact that mom was being picked up on 60th St. and 11th Ave, and Ewa was doing her training on 54th St. and 11th Ave - so we were practically next to each other.  Fortunately there are cell phones and Ewa and mom were able to exchange some "see you next time" wishes.

Mom also wanted to visit her parents, so we went to Kew Gardens, where we spent 30 minutes, but though it was sunny, it was cold too, and neither one of us were wearing our coats, so we went back to the car and continued towards the airport.

The flight was a co-joined flight between Iberia and American Airlines, so neither mom, nor me, could determine which terminal we needed to head to: either terminal 7 (Iberia) or terminal 8 (American)... After doing to round drives on terminal 7, I decided to head for terminal 8, after all, this is the US, so I thought that American Airlines had the highest chance to be running the show... I was wrong... we parked the car in terminal 8, but we ended up taking the air bus to terminal 7

Mom was concerned that she had two pieces of luggage and that there were too heavy.  She said that American Airlines only permitted passengers to check one back, and only up to certain weight... but the gentleman that helped us check the bags did not mention anything, and, in fact, he was very pleasant to deal with... this is the first time, that I can recall, that mom and I have not gone through an ordeal when dealing with getting to the check in counter (previous years, I was always asked to step aside, because only the passenger was allowed on the check-in line...not this time...and I am glad, I always think mom does not have enough strength to carry her luggage...she is rather petite)

After checking the bags in, we purchased two cups of decaffeinated coffee, and we sat for 1 hour, before she started heading towards the security gate (only passenger are allowed after that point) - she passed with flying colors, and there were no lines, and no mess...perhaps is better to fly with Iberia every time - no mess no fuss. 

the queues to get through security were very light and dynamically fast - a surprise, but a very pleasant and welcome one.

The TSA agent checking mom's passport - he was actually very thorough, and was taking his time with each passenger - he had a blue ultraviolet lamp...

   Mom made it without any issues - on the way back to the car I took a few pictures of the sunset.

NYTimes, bits and pieces

So I found some time to read the NYTimes

• Children don't have strokes: this article has moved me in many ways - fear, curiosity, admiration, sympathy, pride, and ambition - I hope he never, ever, nor any child in this world, would need to go through this situation, nor their parents... how can we use our talent to help move progress faster in the medical field...
• Broccoli Risotto: need I say more?  Another great vegan dish (never had it, but sounds delicious) minus the cheese.
• Too much sitting shortens live: the article refers to couch potatoes, but I think this applies as much to office desk workers, who spend most of their time behind a desk and even eat their meals at their desk: 9 hours of continuous couch potato syndrome.
• Solving things in small steps:  This is a rather innovative and practical solution (at least from the story's view).  A transportable clinic with the latest technology - would the doctors come along with it too - I say this because organizations creating these units may not have medical resources...
• Exaggerated science: even science is blowing their numbers up - not just the corporations, but we can also not trust advocates of science.
• A hard to clean mess: I wonder if Exxon was ever fined for their actions.
• The battle of the greens: so it is no longer only vegans .vs. meat eaters, but it is now green earth .vs. "it's not my problem"... I think neither will win, but they will counter act each other's actions (some will pollute while the others will either clean or polute less)
• Vehicle Exhaust to health problems:  the best part is towards the end of the article, where they state that there is nothing conclusive about the harmful effects of pollution...
• Amazing creatures: this article speaks of insects that can withstand freezing and below temperatures... incredible.

Yoga at it's best... Not a tire story.

Ok, so Ewa just puchased a new pair of tires... And this was a very good thing to do... Her tires were very worn out, almost without thread... I was concerned that her tire would not last through the weekend, and fortunately all worked out great and now she has new tires.


The funny thing is... I ended being the one with a flat tire the next day... After yoga and meditation, on my way to work, I hit a curve, which ended up making my tire flat.


First I tried to put some air on the tire - unfortunately the gas station near my workplace had sealed the air pump section - only that section - well, never fear, because I am well equipped with meditation and Yoga power, so I didn't let this bother me...


I then went to a near by car mechanic shop and see if they could pump some air.  A nice mechanic named Igor helped me put air on the tire, and to my surprise the air was leaking from the side of the tire (Tire side punctures are not fixable)... He asked me where I attained the tires, and suggested to go there and get a new tire... He helped mount the spare tire so I could get there.


 So I went to Huntington's NY "All Weather Tires" - this is a great store, but you need to be ready to wait for service, luckily this time of day it was empty.




That amount of meditation and yoga helped me to overcome the problem... Specially considering that these tires are only 1 month old... Not even a month.


















Well, I got my tire, and you would think that was it... Well, not quite... Not even 1 mile away from the tire shop... I start hearing a thumping sound... Yes... A big screw had just married one of my tires... The new tire!






Now my meditation and yoga practice were being put to it's true test... And it seemed to have worked...


Namaste... Inhale...exhale...focus on breathing

Physically tired

Today I am really beat - after the morning's Yoga, and not having been able to sleep more than a 3-4 hours... my eyes keep falling out of focus... I am sorry to say that today there will not be NY Times.


Good night

Really Hot Bikram

Today Ewa and I took the Monday 9:30 AM Bikram class... it was filled - and it was really hot.  At some point about 3 or more students decided to step out - either to attain some fresh air, catch their breath, or simply needed to leave because the heat was too punishing.


The instructor in the class was great - she leads us well into the pose and disturbs very little the student's concentration - though, Ewa and I, felt that some of the postures were not held long enough: Ukatasana (Awkward Pose) being kept so short that we barely were able to get into the pose, and others were held a bit longer than we desired: Trikanasana (Triangle pose).


I ended up drinking two full bottles of water, and towards the end of the class I was exhausted - with little water left, and the heat was still going strong...  Have mercy.


Namaste

Bikram did me a bubu

Who would have imagine, that I could self injure myself by doing Bikram Yoga... Well, I did... Below is an image of my injured finger... Ok, yes is very minor... But it still counts...









The pose that caused this was: Dandayamana-Janushirasana

The art of hiding

These are fantastic pictures showing one of the most noble faculties of cats - the art of hiding...  This reminds me of the time when Elsie, our vet's cat, was given to us to care for.  She was left alone at her new home (our home) for the first day, along with our other cat Pepper, but when we came home she was nowhere to be found... she was actually hiding between two bookshelves, and she made no noise - unfortunately I have no images to post of such occasion, but I am posting some other cat images that will do justice (corroborate) to Elsie's story.

News junky site

If you are craving to always find the latest information, then take a look to popurls.com, this site aggregates many different sources of news... it should keep you, daily, busy, and if you still feel not enough news, then you are truly a news monster (cookie monster) 

Online New York Times - no longer free

So it seems that the New York Times is going to try, once again, to make their online content not free.  This will be a true lost for the NY Times, unless we all decide to start paying for news content - in other words, news from all sources will no longer be free - all websites will charge for their information...


Even though there are many blogs out there, and plenty of blog aggregators, the fact remains that the NYTimes is a superb newspaper with great journalists, this will be hard to beat.

Metropolitan Opera - Carmen via the web

Today they are performing Carmen at the New York City Metropolitan Opera House - it is great!  We are using Sirius radio to listen to the live performance, the sound quality is fantastic.  The performance was sold out at the Lincoln Center, and I would not be surprise if it was sold out in the HD movie theaters across the nation.


The NYC Metropolitan Opera has several arrangements to transmit their performances via video and audio - Sirius radio is one among other arrangements.


Today's performance artists:

• Elīna Garanča as Carmen
• Roberto Alagna as Don Jose
• Barbara Frittoli as Micaela
• Mariusz Kwiecien as Escamillo

Ciao.

Elsie - pill taking challenge

So far we have not been able to feed Elsie her medication (1.5 blue tablet pills), this is becoming more critical as the days go by, and Elsie is not being treated with her medication.


Today I've started searching on the web for videos regarding ways of feeding a pill to a cat, and besides the usual "covering the pill with food", I found some very helpful ways.

  Although the video makes it look very easy, our Elsie decided not to conform to the video's vet's round set of knowledge.

   We also try to find a pill popper, but they don't seem to be sold at stores, and I ended up finding one at a 24 hour emergency animal hospital, where I was denied to purchase one because our cat was not one of their patients - hmmmm what's wrong with their business model?

   In any case, our vet is going to provide Elsie with an alternative medication - the poor girl is urinating blood, I really hope she is not in pain...

NYTimes, bits and pieces

Today's news ought to go to the affected people in Haiti.

• News coverage via blog: the internet is good for many things, and it has also found many non-promising fits, but up-to-date news via a blog is one of the better uses of this technology, that these days we take for granted.  If you can help the people of Haiti by going there, donating, or simply supporting them, please do so, after all we are all one and the same - they call us "humans" - let's act as one.
• Google and China, not very warm and fuzzy: it seems that Google has been hacked and now it threatening China with moving out of the country - I think doing so, will reduce the hope that some people had on Google to help open up the restrictions on the Internet ...

Today I was really tired with work - and had little time to none, to read more matters - perhaps tomorrow if the day permits.

Elsie is starting to eat

Elsie has refused to eat for the past day or so, and we suspect is because of the medication - perhaps the 'meds' take her appetite away by restraining her gastric acids from being released, which causes her mind to think that she is hungry.


Elsie, at least, keeps hydrated by drinking water, which is near by her on the radiator, and she gets a lot of warmth from Ewa - on her laps.  Ewa and Elsie are just so sweet together - they have a great bond.


But the best news just came this morning, Elsie has decided to eat some, but not from her communal bowl of food, but from Ewa's hand (as I said, they have a great bond), for one reason or another, I think Elsie may have associated the bowl's food with not feeling right, and rather eat from Ewa's hand.  Whichever the reason might be, I am very happy that Elsie is finally putting something in her stomach...


Elsie, get well soon - we love you very much, and we would like to see you back on all four again... and perhaps commending over your bowl of tuna with that sweet "slurping" sound that you make.

Yoga teacher going west

Last night Kika, one of my yoga teachers, revealed that she will moving to the west coast - this is too bad, because she is an excellent teacher, and she is funny too.  


She is moving to San Diego, and I wish her the best.  Kika was my first Vinyasa teacher at the Equinox, and after taking the first class with her, I was hooked to Vinyasa.


Well, I am sure that if she decides to continue teaching in San Diego she will certainly gain as much popularity as she did in NY.


But this posting may be a bit premature... she is not leaving until July 2010.


Namaste. 

NYTimes bits and pieces

Here goes today's NYTimes

• NY City attempts to reduce salt consumption: the only thing that I was surprised by was finding out that A&P is the Food Emporium.
• Mom! Dad! I am doing my homework by watching TV: if I would have said that to my parents when I was watching Sesame Street, I think they would have thought two things: "this boy will say anything just to watch TV", and "Lies, lies, lies..."  One thing I can say is:  I never learned Math, nor reading, or counting by watching Sesame Street - as a matter of fact, I always thought big bird, and the other characters were a bit off - though I love Cookie Monster, and Ernie & Bert.

• Cold in NY, but not enough:  so every year we tend to think that we had a pretty cold winter or a pretty warm one, but seems that our memory fails to recall the different winter seasons that we, each year, go through.
• Scanning at the airports:  alright, so the now we are going to be scanned with X-Ray systems, but at a possible cost of contracting, in the long run - what will they think of next... why does the public have to pay the incompetence of a few?
• Solar - but not cells:  heating up water to cause vapor that will help the turbines move and generate electricity - but in order to generate anything, one must build, and to build one must desolate natural landscapes and resources - well, China has no problem doing that... and that's where the problem resides - the lack of environmental responsibility.  Yes, they will achieve what they set their mind to, but at what cost?  And not just theirs, but it may/will affect us all - their damages (just like ours) will cost us our beautiful planet... Why can't we focus on how to rebuild/restore the planet rather than on how to least damage it?
• Not so long ago: looking back in history, how much different are we from our Neanderthal ancestry?  Very, right?  Yes?  We eat, sleep, and care for surviving just like they did, we look for shelter and we consume goods (from necessary goods to unnecessary accessories) - but who was more rational - they or us - it is highly debatable - we destroy knowing that things will become worse - they may have destroyed too, but perhaps without knowing the consequences...
• This tribe of diet eaters consider vegans inadequate: so these meat eaters and paleo/cavemen in a jungle of steel sit at the other end of what vegans are.  No Yoga, No veggies, and meat by the abundance when needed - I only have a few concerns, but I think they are highly educated about what they consume: watch out for stained meat, and following the caveman diet is one thing - living and behaving as a caveman... is a totally different thing. (Reference to an their Alpha caveman)
• Bacteria cleansing prior to operations: if we just found this to be a discovery, then I think we are in trouble...  I hope this is an article that the paper thought of using just to meet their # published articles for the week quota.
• Hypnosis, the power of persuasion: I have always wondered, and I supposed you too, if there was a way to change oneself to be a bit more committed, a bit less impulsive, a bit happier...  Can hypnosis help in any of these aspects?  I have a friend who smokes a lot, and I wonder if hypnosis could help quitting smoking - according to the article Dr. Spiegel did assist people on this matter.
• Couscous Tabbouleh: simply deliciously vegan, anyone can do it, everyone can try it.
  

Elsie - wish you a quick recovery

Our cat Elsie gave a visit to the Vet today - she seemed to have a urinary track infection, so the doctor gave her some antibiotics.  The problem is that Elsie now seem not to able to eat - one of her favorite and most important activities, but she has no problem drinking water (she is keeping hydrated).

My love and best wishes go to Elsie for her quick recovery - she is very sweet and never, ever, complains about anything - she eats all her meals, and she respects all the other cats in the house, with the exception  when she first came to the house, she kept on hissing to Pepper, but that's water under the bridge.

Here are some pictures of Elsie - again, my heart goes to her.

Elsie I love You.

Zzzzzzz... I hope Maggie doesn't come and disturb me with her  discoveries of the day... Zzzzzz

 

OK - I think I found something softer, warmer, and better than my usual towel bed, if I could now figure out how to keep it steady...

 

Elsie meditating and focusing on what is important (Ewa's arm is important, sleeping is important, food is important, Computer Laptop fan heat is important...did I say sleeping is important?)

 

 Elsie looking at me with suspicious eyes.

 

Elsie sharing the sun and toys with Pepper

The most manipulative speech in the world...

He is too sharp for us - watch it for the cookie monster... his speech have been studied and scrutinized by the most notorious psychologists and linguistic experts around the world, and until today they all agree, unanimously, of it being the best, most well thought speech every delivered...


Frog, you know, life... life not all guessing games, frog.  Sometimes, we have to care about the friends... specially friends who love cookies... friends who love cookies so much, they play silly guessing games because maybe, maybe just maybe a frog, a very handsome frog who has cookie will give best best friend, who know can live without cookies... give that best friend... a cookie... BUT! if friendship mean nothing...
...
One measely cookie, speech like that deserves at least 5 cookies...
...
OK then me settle

NYTimes of the day

Here are the articles that caught my eye.

• Divided by heritage, united by basketball: "frog not everything in life is silly games, sometimes..." this is from a quote that Ewa and I enjoy very much from an video excerpt on you tube (Sesame Street). Why can't the leaders of the world, cultures, and so forth just settle things in a tournament - why do we all have to put up with their egos...tell me mighty wise Cookie Monster?

• Why wait and see if we can do then, what we know we can do now: a beautiful and remarkable set of stories about people into their 80's, and also about the simple economics of becoming dare devils at a late age... but why wait and see then what we know we can do now?
• Unemployment raising: it just seems that everywhere you look the outlook of the economy is not getting better, despite all the positive talks of the economists - the so called "experts". The irony sits here - Asia, who were on the bottom of the economies are now among the few places where the job market keeps increasing, but unlike them, when their economies were not desirable and they could seek for new opportunities in foreigner countries (learning English was not too hard), for us to leave our countries and head to Asia seems to be a bit of a challenge: cultural shock, language barrier (did you take hindu or chinese when you went to school?), and career opportunities.
• Making calls overseas using your mobile phone: if you happen to be travelling and you have a mobile phone, or in Apple's case, you happen to have either an iPhone or an iTouch (the latter not being a phone). You can save yourself a bundle of money on carriers charges, as well as phone card charges - just using your wi-fi you can make calls to anyone having Skype or Fring installed on their computers or handhelds - I could go on, but it is very well explained in this article.
• Battle of ebook readers starts now: as I have read sometime ago in the NY Times, the ebook reader war has just started - it is interesting to see how each bookstore brand is hiring, manufacturing, and selling their own ebook reader version - well, that just makes it tougher for us, the consumer, to make a choice, does it? Personally I find that the iPhone/iTouch does an excellent job with iPhone Kindle or/and iPhone Stanza applications - both are great to read ebooks (Stanza has been recently purchased by Amazon and they have really great features). If you don't need another bulky device in your purse or pocket - and you want to have 1000s of books with you at all times, and you don't mind reading them on a smaller screen - then opt for the iTouch/iPhone, which ever suits you best. Happy readings.
• Watching Mobile TV on your iPhone and anywhere: after the analog signals were removed from the market, we no longer could watch TV from anywhere until... this year - so it seems that we are going to retransmit digitally the signal (for free?) and we need to purchase receivers to be able to use them - you can even watch on the iPhone - so TV is not dead yet (remember that song - Video killed the radio star - seems that video is here to stay for now...)
• Swine flu vaccination for all: this I don't know what to think about - shouldn't we not stay in the clear? If swine flu is as lethal as they claim, are we not prompting the virus to spring a new mutation that will be immune and vaccine resistant? If we are all vaccinated, doesn't that mean that a new strain will pop up sooner than desired?

Beautiful day

Today was a beautiful day - and to think that just yesterday we had snow (less than 1 inch, but it was snow)...


See for yourself.

And the day ended with this beautiful sunset - picture taken from the Equinox yoga room.

Cats know what really matters

A picture(s) is worth a million words...  Life is too short to sweat the small/big thing... We should all learn from the cats or animals we love - they are always giving us hits of what is important:

• Food
• Sleep
• Being petted
• Bathroom

So I learned what I had to do - and I had some help

Today some snow

After these past days of cold but sunny days - where when you stepped out you could enjoy, among the best sensations that this planet has to offer, the sun's warmth (which also benefits us by attaining vitamin D, as per an exchange of words with Ewa) and the cold air of winter, reminding us of being alive and awakening our senses, today we will get some snow again.


The snow accumulation was not as generous as our first fall (1 foot to 1.5 feet), but a measly 1 inch - though some people have decided not to come to work based on the threatening and frightening weather outlook, with never before seen snow falls accumulations... And also because it would be a nice excuse not to come on Friday, and start the weekend a bit earlier - well, good for all of those that choose to make this bold decision... Enjoy your Friday.

It feels like Spring

What a beautiful the sun was so bright this morning, the air was cool, and fresh crisp. It felt like spring, but this is not just me saying this, the geese were either as confused as I was and in agreement with me.

Sunny and beautiful














Those little black dots are geese
















































Just the day before I took these pictures to remind me of the winter we are having.

These a between 10 to 15 feet tall snow piles