Rhode Island

It's 2am, we're staying overnight at an extended stay place pretty cheap in West Warwick, RI. Just saw the new Batman movie (it rocked!), so just going to upload pics and crash.

Igor lent me his Apple Airport hub. This this is so handy! No wifi in the room, so just plug this thing in, and now my three laptops have internet. Sweet! Right now I'm in another hotel with wifi, but they charge 5 bucks per machine. I just plug this thing into my laptop and I can share the connection. =)


Picked up Bev at LGA at 2am on Friday



Amazing dim sum at Ocean Jewel in Flushing. This area of Queens is the "new" Chinatown in NY.

Almost 2000 year old boddisatva wood carving


What the heck is this???

I've been a total slacker, and never got around to uploading the rest of the pics for my "Part2" of my last trip! Well, since that trip, I've been back to NY twice... I'm in NY right now in fact.

I'm actually at the Marriot blogging from my new laptop, waiting for my raid to form up. I've got some time, so figured I'd at least get some pics from this trip so far uploaded!

Drove from LGA to into Manhattan to meet some friends for dinner near sunset

This Indian place in the East Village was really funny. Two places, *right next door* to each other... the two guys in front are fighting for the customer as they come up the stairs.

Lots of lights!

Huge Wii Fit ad!

This hole-in-the-wall in Huntington had the best pizza I've ever had!

The pizza was pre-cooked and served by the slice. They heat it up in a pizza oven when you order it. But the add the toppings fresh. The tomato was fresh tomato, added to the pizza after it's already hot. The peppers were skillet cooked separately and added to the pizza at the end. It was amazing!

A Week in NY, Part 1

New York is a great place to visit in the Spring! I checked the weather before I left, and the week was supposed to be from the low 40s to upper 60s. So good, I decided not to even take a jacket.

I'm still trying to pack as light as possible, so even though I really should have taken a jacket, I did manage to pack everything I was going to take in one small carry-on case. If it weren't for the work clothes (bulky and heavy), I could have fit everything in my gym bag.

I planned my trip so I would arrive in NY in time for dinner. Doing my homework ahead of time, I singled out what was supposed to be one of only a handful of great Chinese places on Long Island. Flushing, in Queens, is the new Chinatown where all the really great stuff is, but I just ran out of time on this trip.

The Orient was great. Tucked in a small strip-mall, it's very unassuming. On the inside, this place was packed. I went back for lunch two days in a row for their dim sum, it was always busy. I really wanted some good seafood my first night, so I had them prepare something that wasn't on the menu, fresh scallops on a bed of chow fun. The waiter picked a great sauce, it was fantastic.

Our headquarters in Melville:

Spring-time on Long Island, it was beautiful there.

Here is Huntington village, where House of India can be found. This was supposed to be one of the better Indian places near where I was staying. While one trip to Bangalore does not make me an expert on Indian food, I would have to say the saag paneer and nan that I ordered wasn't very authentic. The spiced tea was served with the milk on the side, rather than cooked in it. The nan was too fluffy, and the spices in the saag were quite tasty but I would say that it appealed more to an American palette. The homemade mango ice cream was great though. Although, I rarely come across bad ice cream. =)

haxx0red!

I'll be in NY the week of the 18th, so if anyone knows of anything exciting to do while I'm out there, let me know! I'll be coming back on Friday, so I'll only have nights, but I'll be getting out to the City at least a couple of times. =)

And to fuel the fire of Google paranoia, my Google account got hacked a few days ago! I had a sinking feeling when I couldn't log into my Gmail account, because my password didn't work. For future reference, make sure you're secondary security email account works, because that's how they reset your password... they send a link to your other account.

My other account was my work account, and not being overly concerned about not getting to my Gmail account, I decided to wait until I got to work to deal with it. I soon came to notice that I couldn't get into my Calendar... I had forgotten that was related to Google. Couldn't update my blog. Had no news reader. Oh well, annoyances... but I decided to be computer free for the rest of the weekend.

When I finally did get my password reset at work, everything seemed normal. Even the piece of "phishing" email that I got asking me to confirm something-or-other that I had supposedly purchased. But it wasn't a fake, and I didn't realize it until a couple of days later.

What I didn't realize was that I had bought something using the new Google Checkout feature that some smaller online stores are using a couple of months back. Someone actually bought a computer through my Google account!

Luckily, they never received confirmation because I got my account back in time, so they cancelled the order without me having to do a thing, but it's a little scary having all those services tied to a single account.

marknbev.com officially dead!

Well certainly an end of an era for me. With a touch of remorse, I turned off my server today. It had been parked behind my desk for the last three years, and when I powered it off, my head started to throb as it had to adjust to the missing fan noise.

I've been on the path of simplifying things for a few months now, mostly driven by the fact that we were moving. But even though we've decided to stay, I still recognize that it's well worth continuing the effort.

I hadn't been doing anything with the server for quite some time now, I moved my email off of the domain a few months ago, and I stopped doing software updates increase my own risk to vulnerabilities. It was time for it to go, and Igor letting me "borrow" his unused Netgear wireless router was just the excuse I needed.

The mess behind my desk... marknbev.com!

Three years of uptime, it was seriously sad to turn it off.

I managed to replace all of this...

...with this.

Sometime in the future, I plan on replacing our desktops with laptops. I'll also buy a raid 1 disk enclosure with print server, so I can have central storage and move my printer into the garage. That'll let me get rid of two desks, which are only around to stick a computer next to!

Finances

So first all, just an update on the camp seat experiment: It worked great!

It got down to well below freezing, it was a bit windy (although very buffered due to the fence), and I managed to keep warm and sleep okay in the hammock. AND now I own a nifty little pad that I can use for all sorts of things.

Secondly, I decided to keep the blog around. I find it convenient to reference and share things.

So I've been doing a bit of thinking lately on personal finances, and I thought I'd share some of the ideas that I've had around saving for the future.

First off, inflation. Annual inflation rate is somewhere around 3% right now. When the $1.00 you put away today is only worth $0.97 tomorrow, it puts a new spin on the idea of saving. By just saving, you're really losing. In fact, you have to beat 3% just to break even. An annual raise of income could compensate for that, but you would actually have to save 3% more, rather than just spend 3% more. I know which side of the fence I'm on. =P

At 3% inflation, the .8% interest I'm earning with my savings account is worthless. Even my bank's money market account is only yielding 1.1%. My Dad pointed out to me the savings bank that he uses, and I was shocked to learn that they are paying 2.75%! EmigrantDirect is a "virtual bank", it's online only. They are FDIC insured up to $100k, and my Dad has used them for years without problems. A little more searching on the net, and I found this site. Apparently there are several online banks, that are paying upwards around 4%! I'll be moving my savings account soon.

Retirement accounts are also something I haven't given much thought to. 401k is a must, nothing beats employer matching. The contributions are tax deductible, and are pre-tax. Which means you have more to work with to gain returns on. Also each individual can contribute $5000 dollars (this year, as it differs by year) to an IRA. Also tax deductible. Deductions can really add up, it was the difference between me paying a few hundred dollars and breaking even this year. Retirement accounts are said to yield around 8% (with the caveat that it *is* still investing, you can still lose).

The last thing is whether to pay off your mortgage or not. The scenario for me was, if given a windfall of cash that would mean paying a good chunck of my principal at once, then doubling my mortgage payments for 5 years to pay off the remainder, should I?

For me, it would have meant that I would be putting every spare penny I had into making this happen, but the prospect of being 100% debt free in 5 years was extremely attractive. I ultimately decided against it. While it would have meant savings tens of thousands of dollars in interest over the long term, I would still be extremely cash poor for the next five years. If your house is your only investment, and you put all of your money into it, you may have tons of equity but you need to sell your house or take out another loan if you want to tap into it. What good is paying off your loan, if you just have to take out another loan if you need that money?

The best bet is to balance cash investments with home equity. Pay off the loan as fast as you can to reduce the interest paid to the mortgage company over the long term, but put as much or more into cash investments along the way. If they are yielding 9% or 10%, that's better than sinking the money into the home loan. That money is still relatively liquid, you can pull it out for emergencies or for home improvements that might actually raise the value of the property.

Mortgage interest is also tax deductible. 6% interest on a mortgage can effectively be looked at as around 4.5% when considering the money you get back on taxes. That's a really cheap loan. Debt is still bad, but when you have limited resources, you have to pick and choose your battles.

Camp Seat!

The real reason that I've spent all night finishing up going through my pictures of the trip, is that I'm actually procrastinating. But what better way to procrastinate, than to be getting something *else* done!

I managed to get buy a camp seat, to help with the problems that I encountered at the Great Sand Dunes. I ended up buying the Thermarest Lite Seat. The idea, is that it will provide me with the insulation needed for my feet/legs. And instead of buying the longer length sleeping pad, I'll have a nice multi-purpose inflatable pad.

But now I need to test it. And it's in the 20s outside right now, and snowing. So I've really got nothing better to do than blog... because otherwise, I need to go outside and go to sleep.

I only have one tree in my backyard that will support my hammock, but luckily I have fence post near by.
Hammock setup with snow tarp.

Long road home

Here's the completed route. The trip home took two days, we overnighted somewhere in Utah. By the time we had done all that we were going to do in California, home sounded like a good place to be, it was an awesome trip!

Vegas, it's still growing like crazy. Tons of cranes.

For some reason, I feel compelled to stay at the Mirage.

The rest of Nevada looks like this. There, I just saved you a trip.

Utah, your choice: White rocks, or red rocks.

Peaks of the Rockies, Brrr

This house has an observatory! /jealous

Home!

Experiences, Part 3

Cold camp. Fires are nice, hot food is nice. But do you need them? If you bring a stove, you need to bring fuel. If you bring a stove, well you need to bring food to cook. Canned food, dehydrated food, eggs, meat. By simply eliminating your stove, you eliminate lots of stuff. No stove, no pots and pans, and don’t need oil. Not keeping perishables that need to be on ice before they are cooked, like meat? Don’t need a cooler or ice. What to eat? Granola is a good source of carbs. It’s dense, thereby compact. Hard cheeses and nuts are good sources of fat and protein. Dried fruits are vitamin and mineral rich. Hard dark chocolate has a higher melting point and makes for a good snack. My kefir experiment has gone really well, so provides all the goodness of milk without needing to keep it cold, and it’s a good source of bacterial slime! Anyhow, there is food without fire if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit. Incidentally, I do still carry a nice portable stainless steel pot with a latching lid and collapsible handle. It makes a good container and wash pot. If I did make a fire, I could cook something if needed, or heat some water up.

Orbitz, etc. If you are going to stay in a motel, reserve the room online using one of those travel services. You often get automatic discounts, compared to whatever rate you get by walking in. It’s pretty easy to park in front of a motel with wifi, and do this. We would often find a motel with wifi in their parking lot, I would find the best food in town and the nearest Starbucks while Bev would book a room from her own laptop. Not to mention being able to compare prices and read user reviews about where you might be staying.

The camp seat. I came across this while in an outdoor outfitters place in Dallas. I was looking to buy a longer/larger sleeping pad than the shoulder-to-hips Thermarest pad that I currently have. This pad is great, but my legs and especially my feet were freezing when sleeping in sub-freezing temperatures in my hammock. The camp seat is just like a Thermarest pad, but for your butt. It’s thick, and much softer than a regular sleeping pad, but it’s still inflatable and rolls up. This reminded me of my friend Igor telling me about the insulating foam pads they would wear strapped to their backs while hiking in Russia. The foam pads would be strapped with elastic cords to their lower lower backs to add extra cushion against the weight of their packs. But when they sat down, they would simply slide the pad under their butt. Genius!!! The camp seat is not quite the genius foam pad, but it’s quite a bit more comfortable, and it rolls up out of the way. Ever since I passed up buying the camp seat, there were countless times that I wished I had it. Sitting on cold ground, hard rocks, or wet marsh. It would make a nice pillow. I could also slide it under my feet to get my legs off of the floor of my hammock and insulate my feet from the cold. This way I wouldn’t have to buy a bigger bulkier sleeping pad, and I would have a multi-purpose “chair”.

Los Angeles

We stayed in LA for three nights with Bev's grandmother. Had a great visit with her, visited my brother Steve and his wife Lisa as well. Also had time to spend relaxing at the beach, and exploring the town! It was great weather, a heat wave in the 80s and 90s.

Bev's Grandmother

Skyline of downtown LA

Venice Beach, I can't get enough of the ocean.

My theory that sand will work as sunscreen.

Sunset Strip

Hollywood Blvd

New Mexico to California

This wasn't according to plan, but that's the nice thing about not really having any plans. The first idea was to drive through Tuscon to visit a friend of mine, then up to Snowflake, AZ to visit Aaron and Christi. This all fell through to various circumstances, so ended up just making for California. It's a long drive, we broke it into two long days, overnighting in Tucson.

If you find your self in Las Crusas, NM... this is place for Mexican food!

When you have so much nothing, wind is a bad thing. This dust storm closed the highway for over an hour, making us stop in Tucson rather than Phoenix.

Sunset at Tucson

This was an awesome Italian place, a good local place if your in Tucson.

Phoenix, lots of palm trees there.

Haze... windmill farms... is it CA?

YES!!!