More new wheels

Well, I ended up adding two more new wheels to my garage this week. And I should say that I am more excited about this purchase than that of four new wheels last week. After a lot of analyzing my options, I ended up buying the Cannondale F7 XL bike this week. Unfortunately, I have not been able to take it out for a ride, yet, due to the business travel this week. I am hoping to go out today and over the weekend. Should be fun!

I did find it funny that I was a lot more excited by this purchase, rather than that of a $31k automobile. Life is weird indeed. I guess what adds to it is the fact that buying a car in the US is not much different from walking into a grocery shop to do your weekly shopping!

Gimme a Brake!

Momentum; was everything to me while driving a car. And I drive A LOT! I would hate anything that would make me come to a stop, losing all the momentum. I used to think of all the energy I wasted by applying brakes and bringing thousands of pounds to a halt. I had thought on and off about getting a hybrid, but never really made the move. My Honda was less than two years old, and was in great shape. I saw my brother give up his Lexus SUV and go green with a Toyota Prius. That was inspiring, but was not enough to trade in my relatively new car, yet.

Very surprisingly, my car started having issues a couple of weeks back. Our roadtrip to VA was filled with maintenance issues. I had to shell out over $500 to get it serviced and get all the six spark plugs replaced. The problems somehow did not subside in spite of that. Instead of taking it to a dealer for repairs, I figured it would be easier to get a new car. Going by my brother's feedback (and first hand experience), I figured I needed something a little bigger and a bit brawnier than a Toyota Prius. I did my research and found out that Ford Fusion was rated very high, and best in the Midsize Sedan category. I have never owned an American car, but was willing to try it out, especially given Ford's recent track record. And none of the Japanese makers seemed to have a model that could compete effectively in this category. I took it for a test drive with the family and we liked it. After a couple of days and a bit of shopping around, I traded my Honda in for a fully loaded, White Ford Fusion Hybrid. The first couple of decent-length drives gave me about 47mpg, bringing my guilt level down (for burning so much gas).

So, the red lights and stop signs do not frustrate me as much as they used to! Also, I realized that the car has changed my driving habits a bit over the last week. I am a tad slower, and not aggressive at all. It also seems like I am no longer on the left most lane!

A Walk Down the Memory Lane...

It seems like as people get older, their ability to make new, close friends diminishes. This has been the case at least with me. I make new contacts pretty much everyday. But not a lot of them become close friends. And none of them can really replace the old friends I had made during my teenage years and early twenties.

I was looking forward to meeting with some of these old buddies during my visit to India. Fortunately, I was able to get time with many of these friends over the course of last week and the weekend. Needless to say, it was extremely nice to spend time with them. Of course, we have aged a bit (hmmm... ok, maybe a little more than a bit), but most of us have not changed much in other ways. It was just great to catch up and just talk, and turn the clock back by 15-20 years! Some friends and I even went around the good old joints that we used to frequent. I also drove by the Engineering College that we studied at. All that meant I had a very nostalgic week/weekend. I return to the US tonight, but this trip has been a real feel good trip, thanks to my buddies!!!

Big Win

I had been pursuing this opportunity for well over a year. This was to purpose our company's product as a solution for this mega-sized financial services company's clients. There was absolutely no way for our company to directly target the number of clients that this company has, given that we lack the marketing muscles required to get in front of so many prospects. But if we got it right, this would be a HUGE opportunity and could change the market in some ways.

Late in 2008, we were able to get traction and even started a proof of concept phase. Though we executed the PoC successfully from a technology perspective, we could not move forward as the client had other business priorities to take care of. We kept discussing about it whenever we met. The interest never really died down, but it seemed like we would not get the deal done. However, things started changing a bit late in 2009. Their existing application, which did a part of what our product does, started having issues repeatedly. And it was not extensible like our product is. I also re-did the numbers and offered a more attractive proposal with a lower up-front price. Things moved a bit, and the interest was re-kindled. I was hopeful since December that we could finally pull it off.

Today morning, I got the phone call. I was told that we had good news! The mega-company had formally decided to move forward with us :-) I was thrilled, excited, ecstatic, proud, satisfied, nervous and scared - all at the same time. After all, this is a huge responsibility. We start off in a small way, with trickling revenue. But if everything goes well, we have an opportunity of a huge magnitude. The contractual discussions begin next week! There couldn't have been a happier beginning to the weekend (from a work perspective)!

Light and Mobile

I realized that my laptop was heavy, during one of those runs from a gate to a different gate at the airport (with the laptop in my backpack, and a garment bag in my hand). Given that I run between gates quite a bit, I decided to get a Netbook. I configured a good one on Dell and got it a couple of weeks back. I also decided that I did not want to install any software on it. I signed up for Google Docs to avoid the heavy footprint of MS Office on the Netbook. Since I use an air card all the time I am traveling, I figured I did not need Outlook on the Netbook. It has worked out extremely well so far. The Netbook is surprisingly fast and the keyboard is not at all bad for a 10.1" screen. I am getting very comfortable with it.

Shazam

Desert Rose, by Sting - a number that I have heard several times in the past, but did not know who sang it (I really don't know much beyond Bollywood music). I could not get the lyrics to search on the web either. It was a song that I wanted. So, here I was, checking in at the Sheraton right next to LAX two nights back. And this number started playing in the lobby. I immediately started the Shazam app on my iPhone. I wasn't too hopeful, as there was a lot of background noise and the song wasn't being played loud either. But to my surprise, Shazam got it! And I bought the song off iTunes right there. It was the first time I used the latest version of Shazam. The previous version had failed in cases with background noise. But I think they have a cool tool now. Two thumbs up!

Disney World

My brother was planning a trip to Orlando with his family. My son loved the idea of visiting Magic Kingdom again (he was here last Christmas). So, we decided that he and I would come down to Orlando for three days. My wife decided to join us for two days.

Unlike my last couple of visits to Disney World (which were single-day trips), this one has been more relaxed. I have been able to stop, look and appreciate a lot of the shows, rides and attractions. I spent a day each at the Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios. This place is truly magical and I really cannot think of anything even remotely similar to these theme parks. I loved the parades and the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom. These were truly amazing! My son loved this whole experience so much, that I decided to extend my stay here till the end of this week. I have been trying to balance my conference calls with the time I spend in the theme parks! I plan on taking him to the Magic Kingdom one more time tomorrow, before we head back home on Saturday.