California Dreamin'

In my fifteen years as a Jesuit, I've spent four or five vacations in California and done an 8 day retreat here, too, so maybe it's not a surprise that as soon I arrived here for a few days before heading West, I immediately felt rested. Honestly, as soon as I saw the palm trees, Boom! I was in the groove. 

I've spent most of my time here hanging out with John Privett, my former rector and a real comedian. He loves to kid... Like at the end of our diaconate ordinations, when he got up and said he wanted to welcome our families.  Some have come a long way, he said, from as far as Lithuania, Tokyo, California and even... "the fuzzy middle." (That would be, the Midwest.)

Much beloved at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, John finished his term there a year ago and has just started as the rector of the retirement community of the California province, where the guys lovingly call him "Loud Mouth". I've posted a picture of the outside of the community below -- it's a huge house, the former California novitiate and juniorate (juniorate: third and fourth years of life in the Society in earlier times, a time for studying humanities and wearing a sweet beretta).  As you can see, the staff does an amazing job of decorating. 

Yesterday we went to Santa Cruz, about a half an hour from the retirement community. Spectacular.

It's just hit midnight.  I can hear the crack of New Year's fireworks in the distance.  Time for bed. Tomorrow, a plane to China...

Gone Walkabout

"Gone walkabout": a  slang term for something that seems to have disappeared, either temporarily or permanently.  Derived from an aboriginal custom of the same name in which, as a rite of passage, young aborigines leave everything behind and spend six months wandering in the wilderness. 

For the next 8 months, I have the great luck of being able to travel to Australia to do my tertianship, the last stage of a Jesuit's formation. It's traditionally called the "schola affectus", the "school of the heart", and it's a time in which Jesuits "redo" some of the things we did when we first entered the Society of Jesus, like the 30-day silent retreat or study of the history and documents of the Society.  For me, living abroad for the first time, it's a great adventure as well as a great opportunity to look back and appreciate the ways in which God has graced my life. 

While I'm away, I thought I might post some pictures and stories for family and friends and those who happen upon this website.  Enjoy them.  

Dish antenna for free.

I will not be surprised if the roads in major cities in India is littered with dish antenna. People (including I) are terribly dissatisfied with the service (non service) of Dish TV, who was the first to have come on this scene a year ago.

Their customer care number: 9789166556 is inaccessible. For roughly 45 minutes, I tried this mobile number but no response. They have an inefficient web site that only adds to the chaos.

I heard from a dealer here that already two subscribers of Dish TV surrendered their dish antenna and demanded payment because of poor service by the Dish TV.

It is very clear that they are least bothered about their customers once they dump the materials on them. Every now and then a channel will vanish and no information will be provided to their customers.

I too am waiting for the reliable Reliance to come on the scene and I am sure they will vanquish inefficient operators.

The call center service is becoming very unreliable of late.

Please comeback, India needs you.

This call is for all those web developers that have migrated to America. Though I don't blame them, I feel their absence here whenever I encounter poor and pathetic web sites that I have to deal with.

For example, the web site of dishtv, which is ( dishtvindia.in) one the leading providers of satellite TV services. Four months ago, I encountered a problem of paying on line the monthly fees. I immediately informed them about this. They have acknowledged it and I heard that they still let it be like that. And this is one the top corporate houses in India.

The next is the broadband and telephone service provider AirTel from the house of Bharti AirTel. Here, in airtel.in, their server goes out of service frequently. Then, if we wrongly enters our password, it will repeatedly ask us to open a new browser. I feel this is a stupid security measures that not even Paypal and e-bay has incorporated.

So, please come back web developers. Treat this as a S.O.S. call.

Honda hooked me.

Even though, I am not a car owner, I always go by car anywhere within the city. I simply hire a car for my purpose and I take whatever car that is offered to me. I have no preferences until one day, I happen to ride in Honda Accord. It was purely luxurious and comfortable.

To my liking, the driver was also talkative and during the day, he regaled me with hilarious stories about various customers he took in his car. Also, he was very knowledgeable about various types of cars and their maintenance cost, running cost, mileage and other performance.

He said that Honda is currently the largest engine manufacturer in the world. This particular car I was riding in is near maintenance free because he said that he buys the spare parts from radiator.com that maintains an inventory of over 80,000 parts.

Radiator.com keeps a full stock of Honda and Civic Radiator. Each of these original equipment quality parts come equipped with a no hassle lifetime warranty on parts and labor.

I rang up my travel agent and requested that he send only the Honda Accord in future for my requirements. I hope he sends the same driver too.

Liverpool library and hospital

Liverpool City Library (left) and Liverpool Hospital (right).

Liverpool statue

This contemporary statue of Governor Lachlan Macquarie sits outside the old Westpac Bank in Macquarie Street.

Paid to search marketing strategy.

Why would anyone looking to promote their website or service through paid to search method in search engines other than Google? Those 'other' search engines-do they still thrive? I thought Google has swallowed those micro size PPC search engines.

Ok, I am not going to influence your mind if you are bent upon your marketing campaign through paid to search but can you please tell me your parameters on which you select a PPC search engine?

What is the minimum click conversion ratio do you anticipate for your ad campaign. The reason I am asking his, I might be able to help you in some way. I have done some research on this topic that helped me to gain fairly good knowledge about PPC advertising.

How to make use of Social News.

It is no wonder that Dosh Dosh enjoys huge readership. I happen to read his fantastic article on 'Social Websites' and I envy that man's knowledge and of course patience to write in depth article.

After reading this article, I started looking at social websites that allow us to submit news stories with a different perspective.

I liked his explanation about social news sites:
"Social News websites generally operate via a wisdom of the crowds principle; groups of individuals with different points of views are able to collectively determine the value or importance of content disseminated through the community."

This is an excellent observation. I know everyone's favorite social news is Digg but my vote is for Sphinn and I really find pleasure reading Sphinn. The layout is good and the navigation is easy.

I concentrate on news stories about internet and web applications more than any other topics.
I understand that Shoutwire.com is slowly gaining rating.

Where is Riviera Maya located?

“Oh, who is interested in dull geographical information mom?’-the question was posted by my son who thinks nothing is more interesting in the world than music and food. It is the age dear, the age. He is twenty two now. (Smile)

But, he was excited when I told him about where we are planning to stay when we visit Mexico in December 2008. Mayan Riviera, or Riviera Maya in Spanish, is one of the most popular destinations in Mexico.

I just allowed him to read the web release of KARISMA hotels that was explicit about its luxurious resorts located in Riviera Maya.

I showed my son all their five signature resorts and he found it difficult to choose one. We explored about their famous cuisine and here is what they say about it:

“Well, call us food fanatics; call us bon vivants, because we just believe that you cannot have a great vacation without great food.”

I think that did the trick on my son. His next question was: “Mom, this Cancun Vacations, can’t we not plan during next month itself?”

Are you studying for MCSA/MCSE.?

Subsequent to my previous post, my son asked me to blog about this wonderful form for all WSUS questions along with some good how-to's. This seems a good resource for anyone administering WSUS or studying for MCSA/MCSE.

Yes, I remember one of present students mentioned about this course that he is doing part time. This forum can be a good resource for him.

I noticed that the forum has 14,400 members who have actively participated so far and created over 39,000 posts. More over, at any given time, hundreds of guests are reading this forum.

But, there are a few topics that is lacking in participation. The most active topic is on 'WSUS 2 Server issues'. Obviously, this topic should be more interesting or it generates more doubts.

Free tutorials for students.

It is project time for my son who is in the final year of his engineering course. For a change, he did not seek my help in this matter and my time is saved. Thank you son.

But he took my advise on how to search in the internet for his project requirements. He landed on a very useful web site not only for himself but for all the students.

Pro Profs is actually a social web site for free tutorials on a variety of subjects. This site is for the students and by the students. They submit websites that contain content in the following categories.
Cisco Certification
Comptia Certification
Computers
Education And Exams
Hardware
IT Certification Exams
K-12 Education
Microsoft Certification
Programming
SAT, TOEFL, ACT, GRE, GMAT
Software, OS & Applications

I am quoting here an example:
"http://www.quickdegree.info is a new site that explains how to earn college credit through exams, portfolio, certification, free courses and articulation agreements."

That should indicate what one can find in this website. Please share it students!

Minnesota Tekne Award for Capella University.

The following blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Earning a degree from an American University is every Indian student’s dream. Now, even working teachers and administrators of educational institutions aspire to posses a degree from an American university in their field of working.

This is a healthy trend really but how many seriously pursue their dream? Many slowly give up their quest because they have no time to go abroad and study for a few years. In between, they would have considered online education but must have felt the need to guide them to a very good online university. For them, Capella University can be an ideal solution.

Capella University is an accredited is an accredited online university that offers graduate degree programs in business, information technology, education, health, human services, public safety, and psychology and bachelor’s degree programs in business, information technology, health, and public safety.

The recent web release from Blogitive.com mentions about the prestigious Minnesota Tekne Award bagged by Capella University along with Ecolab and Honeywell. Also Capella was recently designated as a Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security.

Women's Pay Day Advance.

The day have been very busy as usual; started taking class for mathematics from 5.30 AM to 8.00 AM; cooked food till 9.30 AM, and got ready for share trading by 9.50 AM.

The market was sluggish and several of my favorites took a hasty beating. I noted down their price and marked them to be bought when the market looks up. But what a shame, my broker let me down badly by saying that I have no margin left.

Yes, I realized that my money is locked up in a few newly bought stocks. I needed money badly for this week’s trading. I must raise enough money before the Christmas.

I guess only payday loans can rescue my cash crunch. I can meet the repayment schedule easily. By first week of Jan, I will be stuffed with funds because of new admissions.

I decided to look up at cashadvance1500.com, a dependable resource for women who are in need of emergency cash. One of their listing is about a perfect site for women who are in need of quick cash assistance. Whether money is needed for paying bills, shopping or just going out with the girls, this site seems to understand women’s cash advance needs and how to meet them quickly.

You ask;we answer.

Who are 'we'? You and I of course.

Questions are also asked by you and I. Ask anything and if someone knows the answer, they will be pleased to quench your thirst for knowledge.

The website for this is Fluther.
Yes, a very odd name and not easy to remember; so you better bookmark it and share it too folks.

Here is a question:
" What are some of the ways God has shown his love for you?"
It received 13 responses so far.

Here is another:
"what do you think pubs will look and be like in five years time?"
I liked this response or this. "I know one thing: They mustn’t have Microsoft Surface…"

Good; amusing and fun.

Smorty hires bloggers.

A girl studied with my husband in school sent his daughter to me. I have never seen her before and even my husband has not heard from his schoolmate after 1971.

The girl’s name is Bharati. She is a well paid software engineer. She was looking to change her career because she could not endure the pressures of her employer. She sought my assistance and asked me if I can help her in anyway.

She showed me her past achievements and I noticed the she maintains a blog that attracts more then 250 readers daily. I was impressed by the statistics and inquired her if she would like to blog for money for which she readily gave her consent.

Then I showed her the website of Smorty, a service connecting advertisers with bloggers. I explained how smorty.com works and how it acts as an intermediary between a blogger and an advertiser.

This is a wonderful opportunity to get paid for blogging and the more blogs you maintain, the more you can earn. I told her how it is important for her to build up the readership for her blogs and gave her a lot of useful tips in that direction.

I showed her how Smorty.com has been giving me blogging assignments and also showed the payment proof.

I hope she takes up the proposal seriously and work as a professional blogger. She has the required talent.

Happy Holidays / Christmas / New Year Wallpapers

Awesome Holiday Wallpapers for download

Click each wallpapers to Enlarge

Several parks for one low price.

How much is a low price? It is only 14 dollars per day and that is valid for 14 days. This fantastic offer is from OrlandoFunTickets.com, the number one source for Disney World Tickets in Orlando.

Visitors to Disney World will generally come armed with a big list of places to see. But the moment they enter the theme park, they will be astounded by the size of every theme park and the time taken to see every one of them.

More over, they would not have imagined he cost of admission ticket to all those dinner shows and rides. Orlando Flex Tickets offer several parks for one low price- as low as 14 US Dollars per day! These passes are valid for fourteen consecutive days with unlimited admissions to the parks they cover.

OrlandoFunTickets.com offers the lowest discount prices on all Orlando Flex Tickets.
Tickets never expire until they are used for the first time- then you have 14 days of unlimited use.

Don’t you think this is an ideal option when you are planning on vacationing in Orlando for more than a week?

Please include WetNWild theme park in your ‘must see’ list. It is truly stupendous.

India Infoline share trading software.

After much shopping online and doing a bit of research, I have decided to call the marketing person of India Infoline Ltd to have a discussion about share trading online through them. They are one of the leading share broking firm in India-at least that is how they are reported in web sites and news papers.

The person who came to meet me in a very short time was Mr.Rakesh who was quite knowledgeable and very friendly. He downloaded the online share trading software provided by his firm and gave a demo.

But today, that software refused to get connected to its server. (weekend may be?) Also, it slowed down my system considerably.

Not an auspicious beginning?

Snow fall or snow content?

This is a nice question raised by R.P. on the measurement of snow fall.
It is a common knowledge that snow fall is measured with a ruler. How it can be correct when the snow continues to melt and fresh snow continues to fall?

A very intelligent question-right? We too have been reading about the amount of snow fall that fell overnight but we never thought like R.P.

It was answered like this:
Yes, the snow fall is measured by a ruler that indicated how much snow is on the ground and not how much snow has fallen.

National Weather Service use surfaces that they clean off after each snowfall or each hour of
snowfall.

Thank you Wendell Bechtold, meteorologist, Forecaster, National Weather Service.
Weather Forecast Office, St. Louis, MO

Owens Hunter Series Dog Boxes.

I never had the necessity to own even a car because I am a work at home now. I have quit my job as a lecturer to devote my full time to my own maths academy.

But this involved frequent shifting my office or home as per the demands of unavoidable circumstances. Even now, I am contemplating to relocate to a different city though it involves a lot of expenses.

I have accumulated a truck load things plus two puppies that are threatening to outgrow their shelters. I cannot imagine shifting them in their present shelters.

There must be some way to put them in a dog box with ample ventilation. And I know that the dog box should be lined with a durable plastic corrugated material that is easy to clean and helps to keep the dogs warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. BuyAutoTruckAccessories has a dog box for all needs. I can upload this dog box on the back cabin of a truck.

Does it really clean the carpet?

The telephone call (it is certainly unsolicited) that I received today was about a new vacuum cleaner that is supposed to clean the carpet and make it look like a new one.

I had my apprehension since I have been using a vacuum cleaner for more than 25 years and it serve the basic cleaning necessities but it is only a dry cleaner.

But how a wet cleaner will work? I was given to understand that this new vacuum cleaner literally
shampoo clean the carpet. I was told that it injects a cleaning solution into a carpet and then sucks the dirty solution back out.

Hmm.. seems workable-isn't it?

Christmas Wallpapers Part III

Click each wallpapers to Enlarge