Mohammad Waheed

You are invited at Curvaceous K™ event...

2012-11-14T07:43:00.000-05:00

Be one of the FIRST curvalicious ladies to shop

Are you in the NYC AREA?? Are you a size 14 and up?? Well come join Curvaceous K at their new boutique located in Manhattan. They're having a special preview shopping event this Saturday Nov 17th! Just register using this link...

http://www.curvaceousk.com/storeevent.aspx

About Time for a Big Change

2012-10-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

Saturday October 13, 2012 is my 17^th day as being vegan. You might think my big change started from me standing in front of a mirror and telling myself it’s time for a change. Sadly, that is not the case. My big change started from the documentary “Forks over Knives”, that I watched on Netflix on September 25^th, 2012 as I was eating wonderful chicken biryani. This is one of the documentaries that sets itself apart of the rest. In this documentary, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn focus on what happens to our body when we consume dairy or meat products, and other oil rich processed foods.

I have heard many say crap like “moderation is the key”. However, that nonsense is similar to, what dumb USDA, and many doctors keep telling people. If you want to be healthy, go to gym often. Yes, going to gym is the best solution, but that is second step, not the first step. The first step is to watch what you are eating and drinking. That means, stop consuming all dairy and meat products NOW!!

For me, waking up on September 26, 2012 and just becoming vegan was the best thing so far. I actually love eating what grows in ground and consuming organic foods.

I will be posting more on what I learn / love / hate as usual.

Taking over mainstream media to prevent US economy meltdown. Can Facebook help?

2012-06-04T21:08:00.002-04:00

Mainstream media has done its part by reporting what is obvious to all of us. Economy is not stable, unemployment is on rise again, and to push it further, scare those who hate 'high tax' by telling them there is a tax increase in near future. These are enough to welcome millions of US Facebook users, to be exact, 156,830,580 to post their opinions on tax increase, unstable economy and unemployment issues.

It might inconvenience mainstream media from reporting something positive that can actually help. However, what can we, over 156 million US Facebook users do to help US economy. Are we too busy with posting birthday cake pictures or five-legged kitten on our wall that we don’t have something valuable to contribute?

I suggest that we, if working together, or even individually, can slash unemployment by some percentage by using Facebook. Can you remember the last time you posted a job opening at your company on your wall? Or posted a question inquiring a job opening? How much effort does it take us to post something on our wall that can inform someone about a job opening? It might take same amount of time as someone is using a foursquare app on their smart phone to check-in Taco Bell or a car wash location. Seriously, who cares if you are at Taco Bell at 2am or sitting in your car while at the car wash.

Or maybe we use Facebook to escape our daily routine and we are not willing to help another. If that is the case, wouldn’t you benefit if someone does have some job opening that you find out about?

What I’m suggesting is that, we are over 156 million users in US alone. We do have control over this massive media. Can you think of few ways to help others so we as a country can prosper once again regardless who is in the White House. Ask not, what your country can do for you, but what you can do on Facebook for your country.

Facebook Statistics: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/united-states

Mohammad Waheed

Windows Application Development Can Survive the Cloud Era

2012-05-26T12:01:00.003-04:00

The Cloud Has Not Taken Over Completely

A long time ago, most of all software development was focused towards on-site installation. Then came the time for running complex web applications, thanks to many others and Microsoft for ASP.NET. Now the “Cloud” is over us and it will remain for a while (longer than what came before it) until we find something new and flashy and realize we are capable of something even more advance.

However, time for on-site installation has not passed us completely. A complex web development or hosting an application on the Cloud cannot solve all of the problems out there. Two main reasons come to my mind why on-site installation of mostly windows development will continue. They are related to size of a company / business and security and privacy concerns that many online applications, such as custom ASP.NET hosted on a server or applications running on the Cloud still face.

As a developer, we must understand the problem first, along with any privacy and security concern before offering a solution. I’m currently working on two projects, windows service that connects to an API and download orders and print them on a printer within few seconds of someone placing an order. Other project is .NET MS Excel integration for a health insurance (see screen shot below) who wants to use all of the capabilities of MS Excel along with what windows application (C#) can do for them. Feel free to contact me for more information on Excel Addin. We cannot solve any of the above problems with an online tool or hosting an application on the Cloud.

I believe running applications on the Cloud offer more benefits than running application on a dedicated server. However, this does not replace windows development and on-site installations, at least not for another 10 years.

Mohammad Waheed

The Moon is too Far, Let's Move to the Cloud!

2011-08-25T15:30:00.003-04:00

I have been told many times that my head is in clouds. My answer to that is, Yes! Because that is where I want to keep my customer-related data so I can keep my organization clear and focussed on innovation.

I usually have two word answer to the life-long pursuit of cutting cost and focusing on innovation, the Cloud. Software as a Service (SaaS), running applications on the Cloud, can offer more benefits than simply allowing one organization to save hardware and software costs. You cannot miss the obvious benefits, including reduced cost, increased storage, working in a highly automated environment with more flexibility and more mobility. However, I believe the biggest benefit for any organization is focusing on innovation, rather than focusing on cutting the costs associated with buying and maintaining software and hardware.

Salesforce.com, leader in CRM solutions has been helping thousands of organizations manage every aspect of their business online. In times like these, when cutting cost alone is not going to help enough, innovation has become the norm for many successful organizations.

In my 12 years of professional experience in IT, I have learned that the majority of organizations innovate within their software and hardware limits. When organizations can bypass their software and hardware limitations, can they focus on innovation and enter new markets and grab more market share. I understand the Cloud adoption might not be right for every organization, but until organizations take the first step and contact a cloud-solution provider, they will never know what opportunities are available to them.

Mohammad Waheed

Are you living up to your true potential or finding excuses?

2011-07-18T20:44:00.001-04:00

Are you living your true potential or trying to cover it up with the logic that your mind offers you? It is normal for many people to say “I have a good job; it offers me flexibility and paid vacation”. I ask, is that enough? Is having paid vacation and freedom to come to work within 15 or 20 minutes around 9am worth sacrificing your potential to be better than your current state?

What is that keeps us grounded at our current job that we hardly leap for something better? Of course I’m not saying don’t be thankful to what we have and start to be greedy. However, unless we fully understand what keeps us grounded at our current job, we will not understand how to leap forward for something that might be waiting for us our entire life.

By now, you might be telling yourself this is a boring article and you got a good job that pays the bills. Well, I believe that is not fair to you and your family if all you do is work to pay the bills and nothing else. I don’t care how much time you have for happy hours or weekend fun, but you spend at least 40 hours a week, 160 hours a month, and about 2080 hours a year doing just OK work because it pays the bills. Is that worth your 2080 hours a year?

Ask yourself few questions and then decide what you should do next.

1. What is the motivation that keeps you working?
2. Can you perform better if your work is more challenging?
3. Can you personally and professionally grow even more if you start working for someone else, or start working for yourself?
4. If you think about all of the new knowledge you gained within last six months, does it justify your reason to stay at current job?
5. Are you currently working towards a real life goal other than just worrying about paying your mortgage?

Of course, recent economy keeps us r to be thankful for our current job because we know many who have lost their jobs. However, is that preventing us from taking a risk and going for something that is close to our full potential and could lead us to achieve much more than we have ever dreamed?

This is just a thought but see where it leads you.

Mohammad Waheed

China is waking up now, and we have a decision to make

2010-07-09T17:00:00.001-04:00

Title: People, it is time to help the US economy now!

This post is in response to the news / article AP (Associated Press) posted and is available on Yahoo’s Finance page. The title is “Companies brace for end of cheap made-in-China era”. URL: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Companies-brace-for-end-of-apf-2437567795.html?x=0

For years the American people have blamed big businesses such as Wal-Mart to hire Chinese cheap labor, which forces the Chinese people to work in unhealthy conditions, and had little or no knowledge about labor laws. Chinese are now standing up for their rights, and according to the AP, are demanding better working conditions and better wages. So, is that good? The answer to this question depends on who is asking.

Many big businesses are trying to leave China, and CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt is also searching for a better location other than China. Based on today’s news, it seems Google might stay in China for little while now.

Many are now starting to believe that “If costs go up by half, it's about the same price as in the U.S. And you don't have 30 days on the water in shipping” (see link above). I agree to this, and is that so bad? Well, I say no. It is a great opportunity for American companies to keep the work in this country at this time and hire people locally. This might increase the overall cost just little bit, but will decrease the delivery of the products by weeks. And after all, who does not like companies that hire local work force. People are looking for jobs, and this is a great time for American companies to head back home and hire local labor force and help the economy.

Causing harm to those who can’t speak up

2010-06-13T14:42:00.008-04:00

Topic: Sea of Oil

According to the wikipedia, the word “Humans” commonly refers to the species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man"). Based on this definition, I believe there are only handful of “humans” around us, and rest are not worth calling by this title. However, for this post, let us assume we all are knowing man. We so called humans have tendency to speak up when we believe something is against our rights, and we stand up for our freedom. We humans practice our first amendment, freedom of speech, and most of us even practice second amendment, right to keep and bear arms. We use this to protect our rights / freedom. We humans can walk hundreds of miles to White House and protest when we don’t like what our president is doing, but what about those who can’t speak, write, or use weapons to protect their freedom? Who is to blame of when those who can’t speak up lose their freedom? I believe humans are very close to paying a huge price.

The April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig off Louisiana triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history. I am going to share few pictures of those birds that cannot enjoy their freedom anymore, and no, the nature is not to blame for this problem, I believe humans are to blame once again.

Let us think about these questions,

If these birds can talk, what would they say?
If these birds can pray to God, what would they pray for?
If these birds are capable of causing harm to humans, would we be able to survive?

Who is speaking up for them? My this post is not doing any justice to them, it is only making us aware of what we already know. This world started out with birds, animals, and then humans and our actions are causing many rare animals and birds to die, what do you think is next?

Copycats have been gaining strategic edge

2010-06-09T09:24:00.013-04:00

Topic: Being a copycat is not an easy task

Who would think that being a copycat is a good thing, but that is exactly what Oded Shenkar of Ohio State University believes about being a copycat. Apple, many companies in China, Walmart, and Ryanair Airline are among those who successfully copied other innovations and gained the strategic edge. I have to give credit to Harvard Business Review and Oded Shenkar for making this research available to public. If you are interested in buying the book, please visit the Amazon store: http://astore.amazon.com/sharwhatcomet-20/detail/1422126730 or click on the book image / link above.

Being a copycat is seen as negative thing, but it has proven to be successful for many companies in China, many people’s favorite Walmart, and Europe’s Ryanair Airline. I agree with Shenkar that not everyone can be successful in copying others. It is not about copying a simple idea, when you try to copy others such as Southwest Airline, you need to be able to copy their innovation, and that is not an easy task, but that is what the Ryanair Airline has successfully done.

What is the benefit of copying others you may ask, well, first, you do not need an R&D department, no need to survey the market if your products will be successful. Therefore, you save money since R&D and surveys are not needed, then you can invest that money into making the product better. Therefore, you not only copy other’s product, but you make it better, thus stand out from the crowd.

HBR.org URL for this article is: http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2010/06/what-copycats-know-about-innov.html

Eulogy for Mohammad Waheed

2010-06-06T22:41:00.012-04:00

Topic: A eulogy for me

My wife Ann wrote this eulogy for me while working on one of her class project.

Today I am celebrating someone who celebrates me every day, my husband Mohammad. I met him three years ago at my parent’s house in Albany. Second time when I saw him, May 2007, we were getting engaged and soon after August 2007, we got married, a typical Muslim marriage. Between our engagement and wedding, I used to talk to Mohammad on the phone and my landlady would ask me that when will I introduce her to the comedian who makes me laugh for hours. And he still does make me laugh. Three years may seem like a very short time to know someone truly but Mohammad is pure and visible like a raindrop. He is a great listener. He has power to bring tears to my eyes either by making me laugh so hard on his humorous jokes or by just a thought of him not being next to me. He supports me by which I mean sit next to me when I work on my school assignments, research papers, quizzes etc.

Things are not always comical between us but the strength and positivism that he brings to our relationship supersedes everything else. I just did not say Mohammad celebrates me every day to start my speech. I see him doing so in small things like making morning tea for me or making sure I get my at least five kisses each day, text messages, a foot rub at the end of the day, or voice mailing the “you are my cuppy cake” song when I am upset which mostly I am. There are countless reasons to cheer Mohammad. Words are not enough to express how lucky I feel to have Mohammad in my life...

Spending weekend in Montreal, QC

2010-06-01T09:42:00.006-04:00

Topic: Memorial Day Weekend

It was my fourth time in Montreal, but felt like the first. I was happy to be back in Montreal this time with my wife. We stayed on Rue St. Hubert and walked to the old Montreal via Rue Saint Jacques. We spent almost the entire day in old Montreal before having dinner at Maharaja on Rue René Lévesque.

On Monday morning we decided to head to old Montreal again for breakfast on st. Paul st and then drive to Mont-Royal to see the Mount Royal cross.

Overall, it was fun and first time ever we only spent 1 minute at the US border on the way back. If you did not have chance to visit Montreal, plan now.

Understanding Muslim Behavior 101

2010-05-26T08:56:00.004-04:00

Topic: Understanding teaching methods that transform a civilized society into an uncivilized society

The purpose of this post is not to convince anyone to respect Islam or to look at Islam as a peaceful religion. I cannot do that right now, because most Muslims of today are not living examples of peace the religion teaches. The only purpose I have for this post is to explain what is happening to most of the Muslims in the third-world country and why they are working very hard to destroy a society. Most Muslims today are spreading negativity among themselves and to whoever comes in contact with them. Gandhi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Well, if we are spreading hate and negativity, we cannot see positive change in the world we live in. Buddha said, “All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?”

Every action has a consequence, good or bad. When a child does something that parents do not approve of, they can either explain the child why it is not a right action or they can yell and threaten the child with a harsh punishment. In my experience same is happening with Muslims in some parts of the world. Instead of explaining the positive side of practicing the religion of Islam, talks about negativity, harsh punishment is spreading faster, especially targeting those who do not obey the message of Quran. Thus, many Muslims living in Pakistan, Iran, and UK are oppose to western culture and beliefs. This is not what the Quran teaches.

It does not take a genius to understand how a civilized society can transform itself into uncivilized society by delivering a wrong message to those who for themselves cannot seek or choose not to seek knowledge, and thus believe in something that can transform them into enemies of peace while calling their religion, a religion of peace. I cannot be upset with why most of the non-Muslims living in USA, Canada, and UK, are angry at actions of Muslims and start to hate the religion of Islam. It is because not many Muslims are practicing the positive values the religion teaches, and thus they advertise the religion as religion of hate and killing.

Many Muslims have started to gather in large groups, either via online conference or meeting in person and talking about what is wrong with western culture and how they have to spread the news about punishment to those who do not follow the guidelines set by God in the Quran. They do this to try to convince others that you will be punished for such an act. The problem with this approach is that, we can never hope for others to appreciate what a belief in a religion can do for them; rather we deliver the news of harsh punishment and drive others further away from what the truth really is. When people are told that our enemies are those who make fun of our religion, who draws pictures of our Prophet, and those who live in western side of the world, many starts to take evil actions hoping those actions would help their religion. Instead of helping others understand, practicing forgiveness and kindness, they get angry and transform themselves into enemies of peace without knowing it.

My belief about the religion of Islam is that it is a peaceful practice, a bounding with the source and creator of this world. The peaceful religion teaches us to help others, not kill them, not to spread the rumors, instead seek the truth in everything. Explore and socialize rather than practice the religion in a jungle. The meaning of this is to socialize with others in positive way, and help them in any way possible, rather than separating yourself from others who could use your help.

Disclaimer: I am an American citizen born and raised in Lahore & Karachi, Pakistan until I was 17 years of age. I moved to upstate NY in 1995 with my family. I am expert in what I believe. I am not against Muslims as I am Muslim too. However, I do not like the way message of Islam is being delivered today in most parts of Pakistan, UK, Canada, and USA.

Teaching children respect

2010-05-21T23:18:00.009-04:00

Topic: Circle of respect

Rather than mentioning which religion or which book emphasizes on respecting others and especially teaching kids to respect, we are just going to talk about a new way to teach respect to our kids. We know by now that kids learn from us, and they learn more by observing than be told to do so. Kids do adapt their parent’s behavior when they grow up, and that should be warning to all parents out there. If you behave in a way that you never want your kids to behave, then change your behavior rather than telling them you don’t behave the way I do. They will not listen to you; you are the example they are going to follow.

I know someone who shared this story with me. I will call him Nick in this post. Nick grew up in Dallas, TX, and lived with his parents and a younger brother by the time he moved away for college. Nick said his dad would come home by 5pm every day, both Nick and his younger brother would run to hug their dad, he would hug them, then go and find their mother. He would then hug and kiss her. Nick’s father would start helping the mother if she was in the kitchen, or just folding laundry. Then they would sit together at the dinner table and enjoy their dinner.

It does seem a normal family so far. However, what Nick and his brother learned was, to respect their mother as their father does. They never said anything mean to her because they did not learn that from their father, because their father was so nice to her. They would always come back from school, find their mother, and start to help her around the house as they saw their father help her every day. After Nick married someone and moved to another town, he did same things with his wife as his father did to their mother. His father made their mother his first priority and Nick and Nick’s brother made their mother and their wife their priority. Nick’s father did not have to teach his kids how to respect your mother and wife or your sisters, he became an example for them, for which they are thankful today.

On the other hand, if a father is abusive to the mother (verbally or physically), his daughter might end up with someone who is just like him. No father wants his daughter to end up with a jerk, but if parents fail to become a good example for their kids, kids will pick up on their negative side.

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise

2010-05-21T17:30:00.007-04:00

Topic: Norwegian Pearl Freestyle Cruising

Dates: Feb 20, 2010 to Feb 27, 2010

Prior to going to this cruise, I have read many positive and negative reviews on many websites including http://www.cruisecritic.com. However, after coming back from spending almost 8 days on NCL Pearl, I have to disagree to almost all of the negative reviews. We take vacation to get away from our daily busy life. Some people like to bitch more when they are on vacation. Maybe cruising is not for those people who simply like to bitch rather than enjoy their time off from their jobs.

I do not want to waste my time listing what people complain about NCL Pearl on other websites; I am simply going to say my wife and I loved the NCL Pearl cruise experience.

First of all, standing next to the huge ship just brought smile on my face which lasted for couple of hours. The weather in Miami, FL on February 19th was close to 88 degree and clear sky. We were little early, so we could not go to our balcony cabin on the 9th deck, but we hung out by the pool on the deck 12 (see the pool picture). After 2pm we were able to go to our cabin and stand on the balcony. We did not know what to do, I wanted to check out all of the floors, but my wife wanted to rest. I was like, what? We came all the way here from Albany, NY and you want to sleep? However, we slept for little bit and then started to search for food. I do not have enough time to talk about food; I can spend hours talking about that. Instead, let me tell you, I’m glad food was included in our ticket cost.

From Miami, FL, we went to Samana, Dominican Republic, then, St. Thomas, USVI, then Tortola, BVI and finally Great Stirrup Cay in Bahamas. I loved St. Thomas Island. I wish to spend more time there next time. So should you take a cruise with your family? You must do to see what cruise has to offer, we loved our trip. Will we do it again? Well, my wife and I just want to fly to St. Johns and St. Thomas and spend extra time there, so we might skip the cruise next time.

One Student's Educational Journey

2010-05-18T09:52:00.017-04:00

Topic: Quratul Ann, Siena College Graduate 2010

The journey to become a forensic accountant / auditor began back in 2000 when Ann received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Lahore, Pakistan. Ann is someone who loves to make people laugh, make them feel good by helping them, touch people’s heart by smiling and talking to them, and all that paused after her mother’s sudden death. If it was not enough for a teenage girl, she had to leave her home country and move to Canada with her brother’s family. Ann was barely surviving by working few hours at some grocery store, and walking three miles from work to home. Ann was far from enjoying her life, she walked miles to go to work while it was raining, snowing, or during dark nights. Ann is also a person who does not like dark and cold nights. Ann cannot forget one night when she fell down and got wet, and had to walk few miles to home in freezing cold weather in dark.

At times like those, people do not think about quitting their jobs, attend college and work on getting higher education. However, that is exactly what Ann’s brother made her do, quit job and go back to school. Ann did not have any way to prove she in fact received bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics, therefore, she had to start all over again. Ann could not afford not to go to work; therefore, she started taking some classes at Seneca College in Toronto, ON. Because she was not in a degree program, she had option to choose the classes she wanted to attend. At end of the 2007, she decided to marry me and move to Albany, NY. Ann’s first concern was to continue her education. She started to attend few classes at SUNY Albany and then started the accounting degree program at Siena College beginning of 2009.

Hard times were not over for Ann, she quickly found out that Siena was not going to accept all of the credits she received from Seneca College in Toronto; therefore, she had to take many more classes in order to meet the Siena College degree requirements. Ann did not see a difference in the seasons; she attended classes in spring, summer, fall, and winter. To her luck, she had to take many evening classes, and while still hating the cold weather of NY. One might think that the cold weather of Toronto would prepare someone to live in NY, but this was not the case.

Ann finished the bachelor’s degree requirement at Siena College in December 2009 and started the master’s degree in January 2010. She wants to become a CPA in 2010 and due to new requirements; she has to take 30 extra credits. Lucky for her, Siena College is now offering masters degree programs in accounting. On May 16, 2010, Ann graduated from Siena College with her bachelor degree in accounting. During her time in Siena College so far, Ann became member of accounting club and Muslim student association. Due to her hard work, she was on dean list and on president’s list. In May 2010, Ann joined the Beta Gamma Sigma association. As other students started to enjoy the summer in NY, Ann is back in college taking couple extra classes in summer to make sure she gets done on time and ready to take CPA exams.

Ann has enough motivation to sacrify her nights, her comfort in order to achieve the better future, the one that includes higher education. Here is what one of her teachers had to say about her. “Ann is an accountant's accountant. She has a great work ethic and an eye for detail. She is interested in learning for knowledge sake and just to earn a grade. If she gets something wrong she really wants to get it right and stays with it until she does. I'm proud of her accomplishments and know she will represent the college well in all she does.” -- Gene Farley, Director Masters in Accounting, Siena College

Did Apple just lose another iPhone?

2010-05-12T23:49:00.017-04:00

Topic: Apple lost another iPhone

Give me a break. Apple lost another prototype already? I guess it is time for Apple to hire me to manage risks in that place. I can only come up with two possible answers for this problem. First, Apple is testing the prototype to see what people like or don’t like, without saying this is what we are working on. Second, they have few dumb employees that are destroying the company image by going out getting drunk and leaving their phone behind. Who does that anyways?
I know Apple will not agree with my first assertion, but I believe that could be the cause behind this, so called, incident. If I were at Apple, this looks so interesting. First, putting out a report that the new iPhone 4 prototype is stolen, and then watch people’s reaction about the prototype.

Let those companies in China and Korea start working on a new model of their phone based on the stolen prototype of Apple, and meanwhile, Apple is working on a completely new look and feel of their next generation phone. Of course, Apple might say, we had to give it a new look and feel since our last prototype was stolen.
So my advice to all those who care about Apple’s stolen prototype is to not worry about it. Wait and see what Apple puts out in the end.
Sorry Apple, I am not going to mention whether I like or dislike your prototype in this post.
See what Yahoo is saying about this at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc2014

Stop being a victim of your own thoughts and ideas

2010-05-08T13:34:00.019-04:00

Topic: Self-Victimization

Do you know who is the expert in self-victimization? I think you do know, it is you, me, and all of us, we all are victim of our own thoughts and ideas. Our mind is incredible when it comes to making stories. It does not matter who we are, our mind can make a story that matches our current situation, work, home, relationships. Later in this post, I will share a simple technique that will allow all of us to stop the act of self-victimizing quickly. However, I must admit, I am also victim of self-victimization. See, our mind is great; I am now the victim of my self-victimizing problem.
Why this happen you ask? Well, the simple answer is that our mind needs an identity, and it uses or creates an identity. This does not mean everyone is thinking so low of himself or herself, for some people their mind takes another identity, and they seem to have high ego problem. However, this post is only about how to stop being victim of our own thoughts. Has this happened to you that you are sitting and waiting for your wife or husband to come home soon, so you can have dinner together, spend some time together before rushing to bed and head to work in the morning, but he or she never come home on time? Or your spouse is spending extra time with his or her family over the weekend while you sit home and think whether they are talking about me, or she does not like me that is why she is spending more time with her family, etc. Or maybe you want to stay up little longer and talk about your life, relationship, but your spouse is sleeping early. For many people, this starts the ugly journey of self-victimization.

It can be anything, if our relationship is going good, but we seem to have work or money related problems, our mind can still find ways to make us look victim and make us feel sorry for our current situation. Most of the time we waste the valuable resources, such as our brainpower and energy; however, sometime we take actions that can have worse consequences in our life. For example, if your spouse goes to bed early and you start getting angry and start to fight (verbally), it can turn into more of an issue, because the truth might be that your spouse had a bad day and need to shutdown the brain and wake up fresh.
Solution: Well, like all other problems in our life, the solution is not simply taking a magic pill that will make all go away. We need to be alert, that is the solution, but it is easily said than done. Here is how we can stop being the victim of our own thoughts. When a thought comes to our mind that is making us feel a victim, focus on what the mind is doing, actively think your mind is making you feel victim of a specific thought. And at that second, you will feel little relief from that self-victimizing feeling. The reason I said, “little relief” is that, our mind will not back off, it will try again to make us feel victim in another minute or so; therefore, we must tell our self again that our mind is making us victim of our own idea. While we focus on this act of our mind, our mind stops doing that act and we stop it from making us victim of our own idea. Have you seen this, when a child is about to grab something from the floor and a parent looks at that child, and then child backs off? Well, our mind is like that, we can put our focus on it, and it will stop doing the bad things.
I am a human too, I know there are situations that are out of our control; however, we do more damage while we victimize ourselves.
Post disclaimer: I do not own the image that you see in this post; it is downloaded from the Google Images.

If I can afford it, then why do I have to justify it?

2010-05-04T11:22:00.015-04:00

Topic: Affordability vs. Justifiability

Once upon a time I said, ahh, I finally got my first credit card, now I can afford anything I want. And once again I said nice, extra couple of hundred dollars in my next paycheck is going to allow me to buy those things I have been checking out on eBay.com and on Overstock.com. I knew I could afford them, but what about justifying those purchases? But why do I need to justify them, I can afford them, isn’t that enough?

Well, it turns out, we are quick to point out all of those items that are missing from our, so called life, but do not have a minute to offer a rational for wanting them. Look at the first picture in this post, now think how many people move to the area or change cities because they think they can afford it, or simply because they want to be part of that area. Look at the second picture, house vs. dollar sign.
Many people might think they can afford living in a house they always wanted or just because it was on sale and they should move in it. Now pay attention to the third image, not enough money creates stress in our life. Is it limitation of money in our life that creates stress or is it failing to justify what we spend our money on?

How these images apply to me? Well, I live in Albany, NY, around 2.5 hours north of New York City. I wanted to move to New York City for past five years, but I was never able to move pass the affordability scale, so I never needed to justify it. Well, I guess I could justify by saying everyone can afford living in the city, I know so and so was able to move, so I should be able to afford it too. I have moved into a house (option to buy) few years ago, just because I thought I could afford the rent, well, it turns out I was able to afford the rent, but not able to pay for other utilities, such as electric, cable, lawn mowing, or put a dollar into my saving account. At that time, the third image applied to me, I was living in an area I liked, got the house I thought I like, and I was full of stress as I was paying my bills.

I am sure someone can argue that we first need to justify and then see if we can afford it, and other might say we first need to see if we can afford it and then justify it. I believe the order does not matter; I now personally start with seeing if I can afford it, and then see if I should buy it.

So what was the solution I applied to myself, well, with the help of my accounting major wife, we started to see if we could afford what we had and if we can justify every purchase. It turns out, we were able to save thousands of dollars every month by moving out of the house, paid all of the debt in one year and started to live stress free.

It wasn’t the house or the area that was going to give us sense of freedom, it was our effort that lowered stress in our life when we started to see what could we afford and justify before spending money, and that made us more happy in our current life.

Post disclaimer: I do not own the three images that you see in this post; they are downloaded from Google Images to help make my point.

Making and Breaking of Business

2010-04-25T08:30:00.009-04:00

Title: One can make a difference

We all have heard about those companies that start to spiral downwards right after just one or two employees leave their position behind in search for something different. I have spent some time thinking about how can one employee affect the entire company and what does this one employee takes away that pushes the company on the downwards spiral. The answer I was able to come up with is energy, leadership characteristics, vision, motivation, and thinking outside of the box, challenging him to offer something better to co-workers and to customers.

Of course, you may ask isn’t that the leader’s role to motivate others, then why would one employee have such a high impact? The answer to this question is that it is not who the leader is, but whom others look up to. My definition of leader is, one that can show value of what others do and find him leading a team of followers. Therefore, yes, the leader could be one employee who might not be the CEO. When such employee leaves a company, others find themselves without a leader and start to take different directions rather than working together.

Nevertheless, I ask, who can we blame? I think everyone; everyone is responsible of taking and not taking an action. If one employee from a group of 20 people stands up and starts to challenge the top management, and stars to deliver more value to the customers, then it is not he who is responsible of sending the company towards downward spiral after leaving such employment. It is others who failed to follow on his footsteps and only spend time in thinking they are without a leader. In my experience, many people do not like to stand up in front of other employees and take a lead role, they tend to be followers, but fail to demonstrate what they learned when leader is not present. Those people are responsible of bringing every business down; it is not the one who lead and leaves, but those who fail to take a stand hurt a business in a long run.

You can disagree with my point, but those who fail to express their ideas in a group are bad for business. Period.

Safe driving while texting or emailing

2010-01-29T15:30:00.008-05:00

Title: Dragon Dictation

I am aware of the safety risks associated with texting while driving. However, I text while I drive. Total texting I do in a month do not exceed 1300, even though I have unlimited plan. If you can avoid texting while driving, do it but if you cannot, keep reading this post.

Nuance’s product Dragon Naturally Speaking iPhone application helps me do just that, speak without typing and pay more attention to other stupid drivers in my path.

This is what Dragon Dictation has to say about the iPhone App.

Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon NaturallySpeaking that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.

With Dragon Dictation, you can text or email your friends, update Facebook status, send notes and reminders to yourself, or tweet to the world… all using your voice.

So when you are on-the-go, turn talk into type with Dragon Dictation – from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between.

Ok I am back. I have been using this application on my iPhone 3GS for more than a month now, and I have to say it is keeping my driving safe, and keeping me from hitting those people who come in front of me.

Social attachment to the world via facebook

2009-12-16T15:32:00.009-05:00

Topic: Socialization Medium: Facebook

Most people have this tendency to be part of society, and for them to show the commitment, they constantly update their status on their profile.

I have not conducted this research yet to analyze why people have a tendency to stay online whole day and a whole night on Facebook, just to keep updating their status.

If something changes in one person’s life, he or she must update profile so everyone who knows them will get the notification. I ask will anything change in those people’s life because one person just changed his or her status. Probably not, but again, being social may not be anything do to with benefiting another person.

If I love my wife, and she is sitting in the same room or another room, do I need to update my Facebook status to show that I love my wife? Will my actions be different if she does not have a Facebook profile? What if she does not have a profile, will I still post that I love my wife? Do not jump to the answer quickly, think about it. The answer might be that since we are human, we need recognition in what we do, else what will be the point of doing anything at all.

Understanding and eliminating stress that is caused by other people’s action

2009-12-08T12:54:00.006-05:00

Topic: Eliminating stress from daily routine

The purpose of this post is to answer who is responsible for causing stress, actions of other people or our own perception of those actions.

It came to my attention we are quick to judge others and feel angry when others seem to be careless. Over the years, I have blamed many for messing up my day and doing something that I consider stupid things or bad in general. However, does any one intentionally harm another person? I seem to believe no one intentionally like to hurt another person.

For this assumption to be valid, we must have a sufficient reason to declare other person's actions are never bad. It is our perception of their actions that cause us to believe we are harmed. I want to leave out events of 9/11 or mass murders. I believe when we see something wrong in another person we are merely seeing what is missing in us. Let us use an example with three fictional characters, Jill, Tom and Jerry.

Jill is always arriving early to all of her classes. She is usually a group leader in all her projects. Tom seems to help Jill when they are in one project, but from time to time Tom likes to hang out after school with his friends rather than working on his class project. Jerry usually is sick and does not come to the group meetings. He never likes to present anything in the class and ask Jill to take care of presentation.

Jill usually has a high level of stress as she says Tom and Jerry are careless. They do not want to take responsibility and I always end up doing everyone’s work. I hate this; this is not fair, etc.

Notice what is happening with Jill, she feels more stress as she continues to work on her projects. What is happening is not that Tom and Jerry are careless, what happens is that Jill like to see they should perform at the same rate at she is performing. That might not be what Tom and Jerry want. Tom likes to spend some time on class projects and spend the rest with his girlfriend or other friends. Jerry might have personal problems that are limiting his stay after school to work on class projects. However, Jill is going crazy because Tom and Jerry seems to be careless and leaves all of the work for her to do.

Jill believes she should spend as much time as possible after school each day to make sure her team receives “A” grade. However, in this process, she does not believe she is harsh to herself; she likes to see Tom and Jerry adopt her characteristics when working on class projects.

Therefore, I am concluding that most of the time stress in daily routine happens due to limitations in our own understanding about other people’s situation and us. We must understand no two people are alike, and especially two classmates cannot be similar when working on a class project. Once Jill understood that she is judging Tom and Jerry against how she works on each project, she started to calm herself down and take it easy. This makes stress go away for a while.

The behavior of Tom and Jerry did not change in the end, but Jill learns more about her and understands why Tom and Jerry cannot work similar to how Jill works on all of the projects.

How to Use SQL Script In an ASP.NET Web Page

2009-11-30T08:18:00.046-05:00

How to Execute a SQL Script or Query From an ASP.NET Website

Many businesses can only survive because they can use SQL scripts within their websites. eBay and Amazon.com are two examples of websites which execute and run millions of lines of SQL scripts and querys behind the scene every minute to fulfill their online shopper’s needs.

Step 1: Create a Database SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standard interactive and programming language for querying and modifying data and managing databases. Many might pronounce “SQL” as SEQUEL. In this article I will cover how to create connection with your database and how to execute / run the SQL script from within your ASP.NET code.

Let’s create a simple Microsoft Access database.

Step 1. Open up Microsoft Access
Step 2. Select ‘New’ from ‘File’ menu
Step 3. Create a blank database and name it sampleDB.mdb (see ‘DB Screen Shot’)
Step 4. Double click on ‘Create table in design view’ to create your sample “Customer” table.
Step 5. Create fldID, fldName, fldAddress, fldPhone, fldActive fields. (See ‘Table Columns’ screen shot)
Step 6. Save the table name name it tblCustomer
Step 7. Now let’s add few customers to our tblCustomer table. (See ‘Table Data’ screen shot)

Now you have your first Access database “sampleDB.mdb”. Move this database file to your “App_Data” folder in your ASP.NET website project. Moving a database file in App_Data folder is much better than keeping it in any other folders. ASP.NET recognizes the App_Data folder without specifying any path. If you have your database file in any other folder, then you would have to specify the path which is not always the best option.

Step 2: Set a Connection String Variable

Let’s set a connection string variable for the Access database file you created and execute and run a SQL script against the table called 'tblCustomer'.

Open up your page, any page that needs to execute SQL script, and enter the below code (without line numbers) within a button click event or page_load event.

For this example, I’m using Default.aspx and Default.aspx.cs. Default.aspx is similar to an HTML page and Default.aspx.cs is its code behind page.

Open up Default.aspx (HTML) and add two labels, one to show status and another to show all of the customers.

<asp:Label ID="lblStatus" runat="server">asp:Label>
<br /><br />
<asp:Label ID="lblCustomer" runat="server">asp:Label>

Please note I have used ID=”lblStatus” and ID=”lblCustomer”. This is how the code behind page (Default.aspx.cs) will be calling these controls. IDs are same as an object’s name.

Accessing the Database

Now switch to Default.aspx.cs

Before we go any further, let’s make sure our Default.aspx.cs has this line included on top:
using System.Data.OleDb;

//We explicitly include
System.Data.OleDb because, by default, ASP.NET assume we are going to be using SQL Server connection. In this case we are using Microsoft Access so we have to including the proper classes and libraries.

We are going to write the below code in Default.aspx.cs page within the page_load event.

//First let’s create a Connection to the Microsoft Access Database
string sqlConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;data source=|DataDirectory|\\sampleDB.mdb";

//Now let’s set a variable strSQL to what we want to select from the database table
string strSQL = "select * from tblCustomer";

//Following line sets “conn” variable equal to OleDBConnection object by passing the connection string sqlConnectionString we created above
OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(sqlConnectionString);

//Create a command object for the query
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(strSQL,conn);

//Now open the Database Connection before populating your DataReader
cmd.Connection.Open();

//Show connection status to the user. lblStatus is the label we created in Default.aspx page
lblStatus.Text = "Status: Connection Open";

//Create and Populate the DataReader
OleDbDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

//Read through the records in the database. We are using a “while” loop here.
while (reader.Read())
{
string strCust = reader["fldName"].ToString();
//Please note, we are showing all of the customers in label lblCustomer
lblCustomer.Text += reader["fldID"].ToString() +": "+strCust + "
";
}

//Close the DataReader
reader.Close();

//Close the Connection to the database
cmd.Dispose();
conn.Close();

That is all. As you can see, it is very easy to run SQL script within your ASP.NET application. Please see the “Sample Output” screen shot.

Please click here to download the sample project for this article.

Letter to President Obama

2009-11-28T14:25:00.004-05:00

Topic: 25,000 more troops up to no good

Dear President Obama, I am a democrat and a United State Citizen. I used to be proud of this status while ago.

President Obama, the only reason you received my vote and my friend's vote was because you, sir, promised to the nation to work towards ending this bloody war with the Muslims. Well, I believe the wordings were "War on Terrorism". Now you are sending 25,000 more troops to do what, perhaps finish a job? If so, what exactly is the job description, because I believe the last president, President Bush tried to do the same task repeatedly, but I am sure you have a different job description for those troops, right?

President Obama, I think the upcoming problem is not going to be $20-$40 billion cost associated with the troop increase; the real problem is you broke your promise. I am not sure if you will receive my vote again. I believe most of the Americans would agree with me. It seems like the only difference between you and the President Bush is you took longer to do the same thing what president Bush has done in half amount of time, which is increasing the troops for no good reason.

According to C-Span, on Tuesday Dec 1, 2009, Pres. Obama will deliver a national address from the United States Military Academy at West Point. The President will lay out his plan for U.S. troop levels and American involvement in the war in Afghanistan. He is likely to announce an order to deploy 30,000 more troops and detail the Kabul government's changing role in the war.

God bless everyone.

Understanding human relationships by observing behavior of magnets

2009-11-22T14:15:00.006-05:00

Topic: Opposite sides repel

My intention of writing this analysis is to illustrate how the human relationship resembles the behavior of two magnets placed together. Maybe I am first to introduce looking at human relationship similarly to observing the magnetic behavior of two magnets or maybe others have mentioned this resemblance before, it is not necessary.

What happens when we put two magnets together next to each other? We notice if we face the "S" side to each other, both of the magnets repel, and if we face the "N" side to each other, they still repel. However, if we face the "S" side to the "N" side, they attract each other. Therefore, we are now ready to answer these common questions.

1. Why don’t we love each other, why do we fight so much?

2. I don't feel attracted to you; do you feel the same?

3. Do you think we are meant to be together, because I don't think it is working out?

4. Why are we together, we clearly don't belong together?

5. Why don't you love me? You know what; don't answer because I don't love you either.

As you can see there seems to be a commonality among these questions, and it seems related to "attraction", everything else is just another name for it.

Alas, we are not like magnets; we cannot change our sides and suddenly attract the opposite; we do not come with the letter “N” or “S” written on our forehead, we either, belong with another or we do not. It is my understanding that the magnitude of forces between two people, attraction or repelling is a direct result of space around two people. If two people live in a $50 million mansion, they will fight less even when they repel each other. This is because they create space in between them, by one living on the other side of the mention. Similar to the behavior of two magnets, one will not repel if placed far apart; however, will repel strongly if both magnets face side “S” in a small box.

Couples with two rooms who begin to repel strongly, begin to sleep in a separate rooms, and still fight, which is the repelling between them. However, if both of them are living in a one-bedroom small apartment, the magnitude of repelling will be stronger. For a limited time, we change or pretend to change our side either “S” or “N” depends on the opposite person, however, just like magnets, once the side starts to shift, repelling starts to happen until it is strong again.

If we hold two repelling magnets together by force, and suddenly let them go, they jump far apart, and there is less chance for them to attract each other again. As humans, we are better off finding another attraction point, different side of magnet, than to create a strong repelling power between us to break us and throw us far apart. We do not come with two sides; we are meant to attract and repel, if we repel one, we cannot attract the same person again at another time.

We destroy a relationship by staying together while repelling, it is better for two people to find another attraction point rather than spend time repelling.