Motu's Blog
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11/1/2008 Greedy Bastards - all of them 9/8/2008 Why I will not relocate to Costa Rica 8/16/2008 Energy Saving Light bulbs - Fraudulent 6/8/2008 Deer & Humming birds 5/18/2008 Birds 5/1/2008 Snow Storm 4/10/2008 Snow storm 3/22/2008 American Robin 3/2/2008 Storm/Blizzard lite 2/29/2008 Leap day Squirrel 2/8/2008 Mitt Romney is an idiot 1/14/2008 Palak Parantha (Spinach bread) 1/12/2008 Butter Chicken |
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| Basement
Finishing |
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| Ok,
since we are not going to be moving to Colombia or elsewhere for the
time being, we decided to finish the basement. We are going to have a
Ping-pong room; a bar/entertainment area, a full bath, a studio and
enclose the laundry and the utility rooms as well as keep the two small
storage areas under the steps. The estimate process was enlightening,
the estimates ranged from $10,500 to $32,500. I had initially thought
that I need to move the furnace and water-heater; so, the initial
estimates should have been higher; later, we figured out (after buying
and assembling and using the Ping-pong table) that we didn't need to
move the furnace and heater. But the second estimates were even higher.
In any case, we have decided to go with Tony, who is the husband of a friend of Monika. He excluded the bar area cabinets (both over and under the counter) - so the total cost should be around 16K for this part of the project. All the videos are very large - so don't click on them unless you have broadband. I took a video before any work started - the shelves that I built are still attached in this video. I shot another video a week later when the initial work - rough electrical, plumbing and heating had been done and a third video after the two-by- fours were done. Here are some other pictures and more details from various days. |
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The
bailout
of
700
billion
is
being
misused
- just yesterday, Chase
Bank was in the news for taking bailout money and then giving bonuses
to its executives! The bailout is misdirected - but maybe somehow
it might resolve the problem. I thought they should put money
in unemployment (currently it's only given for 39 weeks) and raise it
to
a year-and-a-half or more and freeze foreclosures for about a year
(Obama and McCain are proposing a 3 month freeze) - 3 months is
too short for anyone to turn their financing around especially since
the economy is headed down the toilet. Even Greenspan said he was wrong
when he thought firms would look after their own self interest -
apparently every one has been gorging and adopting 'extremely greedy'
lifestyles like giving money
to their top peoples while making decisions like high school dropouts -
seems like everyone is at a Animal House style Toga party in these
investment companies. Like pigs walking on two legs, these idiots have been ramming "Greed is good" down everyone's throats. The financial geniuses from Harvard, Stanford, Columbia etc. are nothing but ignorant thieves. They have been making bad decisions on the investor's moneys and have been selling bricks instead of memory storage units* and now they don't even know any better than two year old blathering idiots. The geniuses at wall street are nothing more than pimps - I call them pimps because they are selling fake investments just to pocket our cash; like a two bit hood who takes the John's fifty bucks for a curvaceous blond and the hooker turns out to be a tran! *MiniScribe Corp. in 1988 was shipping bricks instead of storage devices to prop up their sales figures by millions and their CPA company (one of the big 8) certified them! |
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| Why I will not
relocate from Denver to Costa Rica *published Sept 8 - A.M. Costa Rica |
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| I have been
reading with interest the back and forth between readers about Real
Estate and Crime in Costa Rica; Here is how
it affects one middle class tourist/potential relocater. There are several things I have considered and am currently considering before I move to Costa Rica/Panama/Colombia/India/Somewhere else. I made four trips to Costa Rica in the last five years and liked the low key, relaxed pace of living and the natural beauty of the country. One big plus was the lower cost of living. Over the years, as I retired and was closer to making the move a lot of negative things were already happening in Costa Rica. On my last visit, I saw hotel prices were going almost out of my reach as at many places the best I could do was $100 a night (plus the 16% tourist tax). I searched for a hotel I had stayed in on my first visit. It was right on the beach and the rate was $35 a night. Now, the same hotel is more than $100 a night and the pictures on the web leads me to believe that no change has been done to the hotel and it’s rooms. I do understand the ugly side of Capitalism when the same property is turned over (sometimes multiple times) and each new owner is now trying to recuperate his investment plus profits and now can charge several times for the same service or product as the previous owner/provider. But in this one little example lies the face of the Costa Rican dilemma - How many Tourists can afford this rate? (I would agree - quite a few). How many tourists will be willing to pay this? (Again I would agree - quite a few.) How many tourists would stay away? A few like myself especially if their currency is losing ground internationally, like the US dollar has been doing AND most importantly How many locals will be willing to pay this? When I visited this hotel and others the first few times - the hotels were generally full of foreigners but there was a mixture of locals in each of the hotels, my guess about a fourth were locals. The last time I visited Costa Rica, I found the locals were almost non-existent (this despite the fact that the locals are offered a lower ‘local’ rate). What is happening? The locals can no longer afford these hotels that the foreigners frequent and the big gap between the haves and have nots has become extremely apparent to us all. For me, the joy of staying in a beautiful locality without wondering about the cost per day is no longer possible (at the back of my mind I know, each day is costing me $100 a day plus the car rental $50 or so per day plus the food, gas etc. etc.). The costs are now similar to staying in Atlantic City or a small city in Europe. So, I ask myself why visiting Costa Rica is better than visiting another place? The answer - it’s not. If you have seen the country already, a repeat visit is not worth my limited travel money - instead, I will explore another country with the same money; whether its Brazil, Argentina, Ireland or some other place that I have never visited. If the costs were lower, it would make Costa Rica worth visiting again (at least in part). The next question - what about moving/living in Costa Rica - I had made a limited number of enquiries and saw a local ‘Tico’ home that the ‘Tico’ had bought for $17,000 and was renovating it to make it more comfortable. (Yes, it was not acceptable for my standard of living.) I also saw some advertised condos and home units being built and sold and was thrown by the prices being demanded - a 2 bedroom condo was being sold for $200,000 or more; the houses were even higher. Most of these were in fenced/guarded areas and offered a ‘hint’ of security. I realized what was going on - Many developers had decided to sell these properties as a ‘cheaper’ alternative to living in Florida, Arizona or California. And what they had done was to reduce their clientele from most of the citizens of USA (and Canada etc..) to only those that are in the upper level of society. (I live in Denver and most middle class families own homes that are less than $300, 000 - mine is only about $225,000.) What does it mean? I can’t afford to buy most of the condos and homes in Costa Rica even if I sell my home at some profit (even less likely in the next 3 to 5 years). And yes, making a swap doesn’t seem so bad - I give up my home in Denver and move to a home in Costa Rica without gaining/losing money. But without any gain in my personal assets; the uncertainty of moving to another country becomes far more riskier. If I was able to pocket $50,000 or $100, 000 or was certain that I would not have a problem in living in Costa Rica then it wouldn’t matter and I wouldn’t look for a safety net. And so what does the crime in Costa Rica have to do with it? This is the deal killer - I am no longer certain of my personal safety, my family’s safety, my property’s safety in Costa Rica; because of the rising incidents of ‘home invasions’, gun crimes and the increased street and petty crimes. And I have to think about changing my life style of being almost 100% secure in Denver to being only somewhat secure in Costa Rica - starting to lock and double lock my car, my home, hiding my property, building concrete safes or safe zones in the home, bars on the windows, glass pieces or wires on top of walls/fences around my home; looking at everyone in a bus or train or in the street with suspicion etc. Is it worth it? The answer is ‘Absolutely Not’. Many Costa Ricans counter with how high the crime is in North America but they forget the sense of security we have despite the crime here - this sense of security is rather non-existent in Costa Rica (yes, I have talked to the locals also; so if you have found your secure piece of heaven - good for you!). Final note on Costa Rica - There are even more problems brewing in the society that I can only sense a little bit. The attitude of ‘he deserved to be robbed, he has more money’ has always been there but now the cases of protests against developers trying to ‘drain’ aquifers used by locals and ‘foreigners’ creating more garbage than the locals, polluting the landscape; and adding living cost to the locals (rising prices of food and other commodities that the ‘rich’ can afford to buy at a higher price than the locals) etc. etc. My conclusion has been that its better for someone like me to stay in a secure, free Denver than to move to Costa Rica. I will have nice memories of my visits there and can go back if I want to visit again as long as the prices and safety are similar to other places I am considering visiting. So I have crossed off Costa Rica from my list of possible places to relocate to and am exploring other places currently, hoping to make a move in the next 2 or 3 years. |
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August 16 - Energy Saving light bulbs - Fraudulent claims
Those
new
light
bulbs
claim
two
things
1)
They
save energy by 30 to 40% and
2) They last a long time
Both of these claims are false. I changed almost all the light bulbs in the home about 4 years ago (when these first came out). I have seen no drop in my electrical bill at all - if it is saving me a few cents, I can't tell. The worst thing is, they have a very short life. I first bought the cheapest ones, then replaced them with Sylvania and then replaced those with GE - they are all useless. I have replaced some of these 'new longer lasting' bulbs three or four times already (and GE packaging claims they last 5 years!). After spending a couple hundred bucks on these light bulbs, I am going back to the old ones - now, if any of these burn out, (one of them burnt out today and I used the last 'new' one I had to replace it with) they will be replaced with the old reliable bulbs (luckily I saved them - I was planning to freecycle them but didn't). It has cost me at least 40 times more than I normally would have spent in 4 years' time. All these claims are completely false. |
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| June 8 - Fairplay Deer & Humming birds |
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 The male and female deer with two others came in the morning.   The male came back in the afternoon and kept looking for the female who showed up after a few minutes.        |
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| May 18 - Birds | ||||||||||
     And a squirrel who has discovered the bird feeder and eats the seeds that fall in the grass.   This
American
Robin
came
to
say
Hi
on
May
17th at the back fence.
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The Robin was making a lot of noise
sitting on top of the neighbors' tree - about 50+ feet up. Another
Robin
joined it after a few minutes and then another - they then flew away
together.   |
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 Sitting on the back fence in the 70 degree weather with some nuts (and maybe a beer)! |
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| Mitt Romney is an idiot | ||||||||||
| I saw part of his speech when he got
out of the presidential race and one of the things he said was to the
effect that he was against high paid bureaucrats. Mitt is a governor of Massachusetts and as that title describes it - He is the highest bureaucrat at the state level. His salary from a search of the internet reveals to be $135,000 a year, which he chose not to collect since he is independently wealthy. This amount, though much higher than what I ever made is not a high salary by any means. When I worked for the state of Colorado, I had to constantly try to upgrade salaries of my employees - it was always a big fight. It always seemed that the higher-ups, especially in the governor’s office played by their own rules - which seemed to be no rules at all. In Colorado some high level bureaucrats can opt out of the state system in order to receive higher salaries. The governor’s office would routinely freeze everyone’s pay raises (cost of living raises); make it extremely hard to give merit raises; while everyone on the governor’s staff would get the highest level of raises possible. Getting merit raises for the employees was almost an impossible task. It was very hard to pass the committee that bestowed the ‘peak performer’ label. And even if the peak performer reward was approved for an employee, the peak performance raise would be routinely downsized from a 10% ‘advertised’ amount to 1 or 2%. Often the state would freeze cost-of-living raises. These raises are not based on ‘highest amount a bureaucrat can get’ as Mitt would have us believe, but are based on average salaries paid by the private sector. So even if the private sector for an equivalent job pays more - that wasn’t the goal to be achieved - just an average paid by the private sector. I believe Colorado tries to get to within 75% of average but I am not sure about the percentage. The last 4 or 5 years that I worked, we only received one of those cost-of-living raises; the rest disappeared never to be re-instated. How dare Mitt suggest that bureaucrats are over paid? How dare he use ‘bureaucrat’ as a derogatory term? From my experiences - it’s the elected officials who are most often corrupt and incompetent - the average Joe works as hard as he can, trying to stay even with rising prices and frozen wages; while trying hard to keep his job and be more productive in a sometimes hostile environment. The private sector and the public sector are no different for the worker bees - its only the higher-ups who have a bug up their asses, people like Mitt. For the 80 or 90% of all workers, Mitt Romney is a two-faced liar and gets carried away in name calling everyone and the idiot that he is, he even insulted himself; after all - he is one of the highest bureaucrats in these United States as a governor and was running for the highest bureaucratic office - the presidency. |
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This worked out real
good - I used an internet recipe but changed it to my specs: In the food processor - put 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour, half cup of all purpose flour; 1 teaspoon each of Coriander powder, cumin powder, salt and minced ginger; half teaspoon each of turmeric powder and cayenne pepper; quarter teaspoon of black pepper; 2 teaspoons of minced garlic and 1 cup of chopped 'Baby Spinach' thawed (I had bought frozen Spinach which I used) . Add a couple teaspoons of canola oil and about half a cup of water (a little less or more) as you make the dough. The dough should not be too soft or too hard. Divide into 7 balls (or more or less depending on the size of the parantha you want). Roll it using rolling pin and dry flour. In a heated frying pan - over a little more than medium heat; first heat the parantha on both sides so it's a little brown and then fry using canola oil - I used a few drops (about 25) on each side - put the oil on the parantha then turn it over and fry - at the same time put oil on the back side and flip after a couple minutes - I normally use a spatula to press the parantha a little and move the parantha around in the pan so it cooks evenly all over. Eat with yogurt, pickle and beer. |
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 Butter Chicken Ingredients * 2.5 lbs chicken, cut in pieces. Thigh and breast pieces combined * half stick Butter * 1 1/2 cup Yogurt * lemon juice - from half a lemon or 3 or 4 tea spoons * 6 tomatoes (small - roma) chopped small Or 1 can of diced/stewed tomatoes and one can of diced tomatoes with Jalapeños * 2 tea spoons Garam masala * 2 tea spoons ground coriander * 2 tea spoons ground cumin * 2 tea spoons chili powder * 1 tea spoon ginger minced * 2 tea spoons minced garlic * 1 tea spoon cayenne pepper - skip it if you don't want it hot * 1 tea spoon salt * 2 tea spoons Black pepper * 1 table spoon sugar * 2 table spoons coriander leaves to garnish Directions Marinate: Coat cut up chicken with yogurt, lemon juice, chili powder, cayenne pepper, garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, black pepper and sugar. Refrigerate overnight or at least 3 or 4 hours. Cooking: 1. Heat half the butter in a frying pan and add ginger and garlic and stir for one minute. 2. Add chicken pieces and fry until brown from all sides. Remove chicken and keep a side. Might have to cook a little chicken at a time - since the yogurt might make it difficult to cook - I drained the yogurt and then added it back in step 5 for the gravy. You can also just fry the chicken in a frying pan separately and then add it to the butter, ginger, garlic pan. 3. Add the remaining butter and reheat. 4. Add tomatoes, heat, stir well till thick. This is about a 15 to 20 minute step. I sprinkle it with cayenne pepper, garam masala and salt. 5. (If necessary) Add some yogurt (half cup) to make a thick gravy. Bring to boil on high and add the chicken pieces back to the pan and reduce the heat. 6. Stir gently to coat all the chicken pieces with tomato gravy. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Remove and place in a large bowl. Garnish with coriander leaves. Note: This tastes better the next day and beyond - maybe the spices get deep into the pieces of chicken and make it tastier. |
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| Sunday
December 30,
2007 |
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Back
from India and finally recovered. Monika is in Barranquilla learning
driving and getting her teeth fixed. It snowed heavily on Christmas and
on the 27th - I had to cancel all plans other than getting the car
fixed. The deck is full of snow, so no Super Bowl party this year! Yesterday I made some potato-stuffed
paranthas (Indian bread) and ate two of these for lunch with yogurt and
some lotus stem pickle.
 (alu parantha,
dahi
and achar)
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| Copyright © 2007 Raman Jalota. All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the author. | ||||||||||
