Sucky weekends

TGIF...bah....humbug...For the last few months my weekends follow the same pattern. I sleep until 11 AM or 12 noon and while away the rest of the day doing mundane stuff like watching some chic flicks on the TV. Then on Sunday I spend time by the canal behind my house in the morning and have my breakfast there and I speak to my parents, clean my place, wash my clothes and sleep off early because I have work the next day. In a scale of 1-10 in the suck-o-meter, 1 being the lowest and 10 the maximum suckiness, I think my weekends get a 11. This weekend it got so monotonous, that I began to think that if I could work on the weekends, maybe I will not feel so bored. But, in my opinion this is really a bad idea.

The famous Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning once said, that one works hard in college to be a top round draft pick and the same one has to work even harder to be successful at the NFL. I think it is true for all careers. Work hard in college to get a entry level job and work even more harder, once you are in it to be successful. But, in this cycle of working harder and harder it would be a mistake to neglect the two wood-cutter story.

There was a lumber company which had a wood cutter who used to cut 9 trees a day. After sometime, there came along another employee who could do 10 trees a day. Frustrated, the first employee tried to cut more trees by cutting down on the break hours. But, the other employee took his usual breaks and still ended up cutting more trees.

The old wood cutter got even more frustrated and asked advise from his boss. The boss suggested he observe what the new guy did for a whole day. The older one agreed and observed the new guy for a day. He found that the new employee actually took the time to sharpen his tools during the breaks. This improved his effectiveness.

I think little fun during the weekend is what the sharpening was to the tools. I feel that I perform better, when I take small breaks and do some fun activity and then get back to work again. It helps me concentrate better and do well.

What the f@#$??? I still have not got anything interesting planned for the next weekend....God save me!!!!!!!!

McNabb effect

Donovan McNabb until this afternoon is the quarterback of the NFL team Philadelphia Eagles. He has led the Phillies to 8 playoff appearances in his 11 seasons there. He also holds every meaningful franchise passing record. But, not winning the ultimate prize the super bowl just means that McNabb may be shipped out of Philly. Sad ending to a good career stint at Philly.

NFL reporters and analysts say sources close to McNabb have not taken this issue too badly. But, I find it hard to agree with these people.

My Dad was vice president (finance) at FFE minerals. In 2008, they merged with their cement division in India and just when my dad thought he would be made the CFO, they bought in another young guy. The younger guy did not like the minerals group still reporting to my dad and a power struggle ensued. Finally, my dad had to resign.

The situation is very similar to what McNabb is facing. Just as McNabb ensured a playoff berth to Eagles, my dad ensured profitable operation of the minerals group for years and was adept in accounting and inventory laws. The wants of the young Michael Vicks and Kevin Kolbs to start could be compared to the power hungry young guy at FFE minerals. The high salaries my Dad and McNabb were due made matters worse.

During the whole episode I was mad at the leadership at FFE minerals. In my opinion, they just squeezed the best out of my dad and now wanted to be done with him. A@# $%^&s!!!!. I am sure there maybe many people in McNabb's camp now that may be fuming and fretting at the eagles organization.

However, my dad joined SANMAR group and is now serving as one of SANMAR's financial heads. Good for him. I just hope at this point that McNabb finds his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

My prayer to God is that if I am ever in such a situation later in my career...Pls give me the strength to face it....

Retirement investment

I have been studying ways to invest in the US so that, I have money for a rainy day. The rainy day could be retirement if America does not dig a financial hole and I get my green card. Otherwise, It could be 5-6 years from now. That would be when I have exhausted my h1-b visa and its extension. If the second case were true, I need to get the money out of US and take it to India.

In the U.S there are two ways people build retirement funds. They are 401(k) and IRA. The 401(k) is an employer sponsored plan. I can have a part of my pre-tax pay go directly to a 401(k) account. Then I go ahead and invest the money in the market buying stocks, mutual funds, bonds etc. But if the second scenario came true and I decide to withdraw and close the 401(k), the withdrawal causes a 10% or more penalty and 30%taxes. I can live with taxes, but not the penalty. As far as I am concerned it is like charging me for living frugally and saving money.

The second method is to have an IRA account. There are two types of IRA accounts. One is the traditional and the other is the ROTH IRA. The traditional IRA is very similar to the 401(k). It is funded with tax deductible money upto a maximum of 5K if you are less than 50 years of age and 6K if older. Individuals set up these plans. Money can be withdrawn anytime after 59.5 years of age. If I had to leave the country the withdrawal would invoke penalty and taxes.

As far as the ROTH IRA goes contributions are post tax. So, I do not pay taxes if I made a distribution when I am 59.5. In case of 401(k) and traditional IRA, the money that I withdraw when I am retiring is taxable income. For a country where taxes keep growing like the US, ROTH IRA seems a sensible way of doing things. Also, the principal that I put in can be withdrawn anytime after 5 years. However, earnings or profits made cannot be withdrawn without taxes and penalties.

So, it appears to me that retirement planning for a h1-b worker like me is screwed up. So, I think the best bet for a person like me would be to create a taxable portfolio and just get away with my money if need be.

Career Fairs

Hmmmm....the other day I was reading one of the status messages of my friend in facebook. It read "Career (Un)Fair". I exactly understood what he was going through when he posted it. I have attended five career fairs during the course of my graduate study at UF. Each one was extremely disappointing. I never managed to get a job out of these career fairs. I never understood why. I blamed it on different things starting from less than 4.0 GPA, international status, lack of experience etc.

I failed to realize that most of the time these companies that come to career fairs, were fishing for employees to fill average jobs. Big companies like intel, TI were looking for people to do testing or write documentation. I call these average jobs because, they donot require you to learn new things daily. They may just require you to execute a bunch of tests already agreed upon or write an application note based on someone else's work. After a certain point, I would have been unhappy over this very same thing.

Later on I did manage to find the current job I am in through craigslist. I am officially a computer hardware engineer with a lot of software duties. But, I have been learning something new almost everyday on this job. I think, I have done a good job launching my career this way.

So my dear facebook friend, maybe the jobs in the career fairs is'n't really something you want to get in. Hope you end up with a good job like I did.

My new bike

On the 11th of January 2010, I bought a new bike. This is my first big purchase, since I became a full time engineer at Blue Sparq, Inc., Cape Coral. It is a Jamis Durango 1 mountain bike. It has a 19" frame and has disc brakes. With the kick stand, bar ends this bike cost me 651$ including tax.

indians and their practice of eating with the hand

It was Christmas day and I was at a party at my boss's. The party was great, but I did not know most people. It did not help that some people did not know much English. But, the food was great. I was having a bean casserole and was at the same time listening to my boss telling his girl friends parents how poor a country India was. To further corroborate his point, he told them that we are so poor that we do not use spoons or cutlery while having food.

Since, I was bored I drifted into my own thoughts and experiences. I have been in the US for more than 3 years now and I was born an Indian. I have had the opportunity to use cutlery as well as hands. I must accept that there is indeed a difference. The food tastes different. In India eating food is perceived as an activity that should involve most of the sensory organs. So, apart from seeing food, tasting it and smelling it we Indians also touch it.

Moreover, I would also like to ask how many Americans eat a tortilla with a knife and a fork. Many Indian foods such as naan or roti are similar to the tortillas and are best eaten with the hand. In fact, Indians break the bread dip it in curry or chutney before eating it. Similarly we Indians blend the rice with curries so that each mouthful is unique.

Hmmm.....now did I tell my boss all of this? Naah...too much explaining

new year's eve

I went to a stand up comedy show at Marco Island by Pauly Shore on New year's eve. I went with my landlord's family. We were eight people in all. The show was at 8 pm, but we made sure we were there by 7pm. The other people in my group wanted to make sure they got the best seats. We were very close to the stage. Hmmm....definitely not my style. I prefer a little anonymity. But, anyway I sat down as nobody else seemed to care.

Slowly, the comedy show started. There were 3 guys doing the show. One of them was Pauly Shore. He was doing okay. The weirdness began with the third comedian. For some reason he thought I was an Irish guy and kept calling me the Irish man for more than half hour. I never knew that drinking blinded people. :P. He called me on stage and since I was not so prepared for it, I got all uncomfortable.But, people got bored of the comedy and booed the third guy away.

Then we had the countdown and the ball drop. I was given a champagne toast. So I turn around to wish Happy New year and find that my whole group was missing. Instead, there was this drunk middle aged woman standing next to me. She wished me happy new year and I wished her back. All of a sudden, she says that I have a beautiful face and kisses me. At that exact moment, my whole group came back and they were looking at me and started laughing. I got even more conscious of myself and uncomfortable. I thought I will set the glass on the table and explain what happened to them, but I ended up pushing the glass and the champagne was all over the table.

Finally, the landlord came to my rescue and asked if they should be heading home. I was thanking him for shifting the focus from me. Everybody agreed and we all left. Hmmm....no more attention drawing this year.