Got my first Newark traffic ticket

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Joel

Argh, how frustrating. I got my first (and last, I hope) Newark ticket. I wasn’t driving either. In Newark, there is a light rail service that takes you around various parts of Newark. Generally, I would walk in the mornings, but I’ve found it convenient if I’m running late to catch an evening express train. I used it during my first week when I had a weekly pass. If you have a NJ Transit weekly or monthly pass, it is cross-honored. I was slightly unclear about daily passes however, which was ultimately my undoing today.

I was running late to catch my train this evening, and I was confused by the ticket validation stamp machine. I had asked a Newark police officer patrolling the station yesterday if my daily pass was valid or not, and said yes. Tonight, I wasn’t quite sure, so I had my NJ Transit daily one-way ticket stamped. While I debated getting an additional light rail ticket to be safe, the next train arrived.

You guessed it — I jumped on. Waiting at Penn Station were two officers checking everyone for valid tickets. I stopped and asked one if I was okay with the stamped daily ticket, and he said no. Then we argues about the purpose of the ticket validation machine, the police officer who said it was acceptable fare, etc. In the end, e gave me a summons for failure to pay fare, which comes with a $74 fine.

Ouch.

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Immortals (2011)

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Joel

Friday night, I came home to change my clothes, and get back on the road. I was to meet up with my buddy Doug in Clifton, NJ to see Immortals. This is that stylized action film loosely based on elements of Greek mythology, in the vein of the 2007 film “300.” (which I’ve also seen), but they have no connection with each other. Tarsem Singh directed this film, and here’s an interesting portion of his Wikipedia entry:

Tarsem is a Sikh-American and was born in Jalandhar, India. His father was an aircraft engineer. He attended the Bishop Cotton School, Simla, Hans Raj College, Delhi, and is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Tarsem began his career directing music videos, including those of “Hold On” by En Vogue, “Sweet Lullaby” by Deep Forest and R.E.M.’s smash hit “Losing My Religion,” the latter of which won Best Video of the Year at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. He has directed dozens of commercials for brands such as Nike and Coca-Cola.[3] Tarsem’s feature film directorial debut was The Cell (2000), starring Jennifer Lopez. 

With all that background information, let me tell you that I did not enjoy this film. It was a slightly different style from the Zach Snyder 300 film, but I believe they immitated that style hoping to cash in. Unfortunately, I found the story and the characters to be dull and boring. I never found myself invested in any of the characters (including the protagonist Theseus), nor did I find the plot at all interesting. Furthermore, the action itself was either boring or entirely too gruesome to be enjoyable. Oftentimes, I felt that a particular death was made gory, in order to achieve some sort of shock value that would excite 13-year old boys.

It wasn’t interesting. It wasn’t fun.

Immortals (2011)

Immortals (2011)

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My first week at Prudential

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Joel

My first week went well. Some random thoughts:

  • The overall team is very friendly and welcoming. It’s not what I’m used to, so this is blowing my mind.
  • I like the commute. After 5+ years of driving in stop and go traffic, I enjoy sitting and relaxing on the train for 45 mins on the train. I know NJ Transit often has issues, but so, no issues this week.
  • The city of Newark is okay.
  • I’m not a morning person by any means, but I haven’t had any issues catching a train and getting to the office before 9am.
  • I have access to mostly everything I need right now.
  • I haven’t had a lot of free time in the evenings. I have the free time, but between bathing the kisses, laundry, etc, I’m still in bed by 11pm or so. I need my sleep, since I need to be up by 6am.

That’s it. It’s been a good week.

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My first day at Prudential

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Joel

My first day at Prudential was interesting. I got up early and was ready around 6:30am. I made the kids their lunches for the day, then I was off to the Hamilton train station. I was hoping to catch the 7:07 train. It was kinda liberating to not have to worry about waiting around like i used to. Since I didn’t have to wait until 8:30am, I can focus on getting to work early. I was amazed to see the large parking garage was seemingly almost full by 7am — I guess a lot of people are up early. The train left just as my tickets were printing out of the ticket machine, so I hung out in the waiting area for the next 7:19am express train. I like the number of express trains to Newark, so I don’t feel a lot of pressure to catch one particular train.

The ride up to Newark was comfortable and uneventful, and I asked a Newark police officer how to find Broad St. I did the walk in about 10 mins, checked in with Security, and waited for my manager to arrive.

So, funny story — because of a miscommunication between myself, HR, and my new group, they thought I was starting next week. I did want another week of downtime, but I was also pretty excited to start with Pru. I told them I was okay with starting right away, if it was okay with them. To their credit, even though they weren’t expecting me, they had most items or processes in progress at this point. My laptop was ready, my cube (with nameplate) was assigned (but just needed cleaning), my access form had been submitted. Even my ID card was ready by 4pm. My first few days at Citi, they didn’t have anything for me. I remember just eating Cheetos and reading hardcopies of process documentation.

I went to lunch with some of the Domestic Life team, and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. In contrast to my old department, there is a healthy mix of men and women, of all age groups, and did I mention they were very friendly?

I caught a 5:16pm train, and I was eventually home by 6:35pm. It was fantastic. I was home and I had my entire evening to myself.

Great first day. I like my new manager, and I like the new team. I’m looking forward to doing great things here.

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NYC Trip – Day 4

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Joel

Our last day finally arrived. We had wanted to visit the new WTC Memorial downtown his weekend, but ran out of time yesterday. I floated the idea of trying to fit that into our Sunday morning, but we ultimately decided to not rush around. Everyone seemed pretty happy to sit around, eat breakfast in the room, and enjoy each other’s company. Maybe next time.

So today would be a light day. We had a kids birthday party hosted by our friends Neil & Megha — their twins Rohan & Kareena were celebrating their 2nd birthday this month. They live in Manhattan, so the party was being held down in the West Village. I’m glad we were able to aim this whole vacation around Josh’s two days off from school, my interim unemployed period, and the kids birthday party in Manhattan. Not bad, eh?

What we did have to figure out was how to make it to the party without carrying all of our luggage, make it to the party, then catch a reasonable train out of NY Penn Station. We decided to:

  1. Check out of the hotel around 12 noon
  2. Leave our bags with bell stand
  3. take the subway down to the West Village
  4. Have fun at the party unencumbered
  5. Go back uptown to get our luggage
  6. Head back to NY Penn to catch a train around 3:53pm
  7. Get home!

We made to the party easily enough, albeit with more walking from the subway station than I anticipated. By the end of the walk, I’m glad we decided against bringing the luggage in tow. Lily would not walk, so we took turns carrying her. A number of guests were there already, and the children present were doing free play. “Free play” lasted a long while, but the people running the show eventually moved on to some singing. We spoke to a few people while the children ran amuck.

Soon, it was time for the kids to eat pizza, blowing out the cake candles, etc. We departed the party a little after 2pm, made our way to the Lex & 53rd St station. Num’s & the kids opted to wait for me to run up and out, get the luggage, and bring it all back to the station. We hustled, and caught the 3:53pm train out of NY Penn. I’m not sure how we caught it, but a little hustle will never serve you wrong.

Now for the monkey wrenches!

The train was packed. Why? Based on all the people carrying beer cans and wearing Jets jerseys, I guess there was a game today over at MetLife Stadium. Rats. Still, it should empty out after Secaucus. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only problem. Somewhere before Princeton Junction, the train crew informed us that there was a disabled train ahead. Oh no.

In order to get passed, the train would sit for a while, the eventually bypass and go straight to Trenton. We would have to get out, and wait at Trenton for another northbound station to take us back up north to Hamilton. Argh. We were tired, but we made the best of the situation and got home an hour later than expected. Oh well, that’s life.

So that was the big trip. It was a lot of fun, and I’m glad (in hindsight) to have listened to my wife about not filling up the itinerary. I wanted to visit the observation deck at 30 Rock, hit the Children’s Museum, and see downtown. However, trying to shoehorn all of these places in would have stressed and tired everyone out, and been ultimately counter productive. This was a good model — a vacation with only a few things to do, with a healthy amount of downtime. I don’t know where we’ll be going next year, but a few low-key weekend trips like this would be nice.

Now I get ready for my fresh start tomorrow.

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NYC Trip – Day 3

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Joel
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Central Park

Halfway through our trip, and Saturday was our last full day. After some discussion (there are so many places to go see in NYC), we chilled out in the hotel for a bit in the morning, I gave the kids showers, hit a cafe for lunch, then rode up to Columbus Circle. On the agenda for Saturday was walk through Central Park, Central Park Zoo, then dinner out somewhere. Maybe even Dos Caminos again. How sadly I was mistaken, but that was okay. You’ll soon find out why.

I can understand why New Yorkers come to Central Park. Even in Autumn, it is very pleasant and relaxing to walk around, and the temperature was comfortable. I didn’t have a real plan besides hanging out, but it worked out. We found this area with lots of large rock formations where the kids could play, and a fantastically unique playground. It was built in such a way that three of us pretended it was Tolkien’s Helm’s Deep fortress. We eventually walked around the southern end of the park, then made our way to Central Park Zoo around 3:30pm.

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Climbing rocks

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Unfortunately, there was a long line at admissions, so that was an unpleasant surprise, especially with only 90 mins before the zoo closed. The line itself looked like it would take about 30 mins to get to the ticket window. Another unpleasant surprise — I was told there was only a “nominal” admission fee, but it would be about $40 for us to get in to see the animals for an hour. The kids were tired and hungry, more than we wanted to spend, and a short window of time to see it. Ultimately, it made more sense to us to do the zoo another day.

We walked out along the southeast corner of the park towards the nearest Au Bon Pain, where we could leverage a gift card that my mother gave us earlier this year. We walked back to the hotel, stopping at a Barnes & Noble on 3rd Ave to read some books, and a popular women’s clothing store so my wife could browse the wares.

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Lesh & the kids

We chilled out and got freshened up for a family dinner, until I was surprised to hear a knock and find our friend Lesh knocking on our hotel room door. Surprise! My wife had made plans a couple of week ago for Lesh to meet us and watch the kids, while Nums & I could then go out for a celebratory dinner (vacation, new job, etc.) without worrying about the kids. Where were we going to dinner? Smith & Wollensky – NYC‘s for the first time, then meeting up for drinks with friends Kanishk and Sofi, and now possibly meeting up with Reeba, Sandhya, and others at some club down near 34th St. Neat, and I was very surprised. The kids and Lesh would be staying in to hang out and I would pick up some dinner for the three of them from Dos Caminos.

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Dinner @ Smith & Wollensky

Dinner was pretty decent, though Nums didn’t like her steak very much. I was going to behave and stick to a small cut, but this Cajun-flavored rib steak caught my eye. The waiter played coy on the size of the steak, and it was huge when it arrived. Turned out that it was a ginormous 32 oz. steak. I ate only two spoons of each of our sides, as I worked hard to not waste the steak. I think I still prefer Ruth’s Chris overall.

After dinner, we walked over to 2nd Ave to meet K & S at Traffic Bar & Restaurant for drinks. Very fun time, and I’m very happy that all four of us got together finally, as Nums is always so busy with work for all of us to make it ever.

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Drinks with Kanishk & Sofi

We eventually said our farewells, and took a lengthy, slow ride down to 33rd St to see the other folks at this club, which turned out to be an Indian party. Now, when I was single, I liked Indian parties, because I wanted to meet attractive Indian women. Unfortunately, they’re always crowded, the women are unfriendly, and the drinks are always expensive. Oh, and there are always way too many guys there in relation to women. Well, things apparently haven’t changed, because it was hot, crowded, and way too many Indian guys dancing around with each other when they weren’t shoving you out of their way when they wanted to get by. I think we stayed about 30 mins, said goodbye to Sandhya, then bid a hasty retreat. I’m glad I haven’t missed anything to be found at the club scene.

Of course, the subways were even slower on the way back, but we eventually made it back. Lesh hung out for a while more, then caught a cab back to her place in Queens. What a long, adventurous, surprising day.

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NYC Trip – Day 2

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Joel

Today’s agenda was the American Museum of Natural History & the Rose Center for Earth and Space. We had a late breakfast at the nearby Pax cafe, then we took the subways across, then uptown, all the way to 81st St.

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Our visit to the AMNH

After a quick picture, we were surprised to find such a long line to purchase admission tickets. Yowza! What gives? Then I was reminded today is Veteran’s Day and kids have off. Doh! Talking to one of the fellows selling annual memberships and hearing about the perks, including a speedy trip through another ticket desk, we purchased a Family membership, good for 12 months. Josh and I both love the AMNH, so we don’t mind coming back repeatedly.

For a year, $125 gets us:

  • Unlimited complimentary general admission and special exhibition tickets for one or two adults and up to four children under the age of 18
  • Four adult and 8 child complimentary seasonal live-animal exhibits or IMAX films
  • Unlimited member discounts on Space Shows, additional IMAX films or live animal for two adults and four children
  • A one-year subscription to Rotunda, our Member’s magazine
  • 10% discount on Museum Shop purchases
  • 15% discount on Museum restaurant purchases
  • Discounts on selected Museum educational programs
  • Invitations to special exhibition previews for your family
  • $125 of this membership is tax deductible

We also got a nice (and free) children’s book on dinosaurs for Joshua. Pretty good deal overall, I think.

Once we got in, we moved on up to the 3rd floor to see our first included movie, the IMAX documentary “Tornado Alley.” Pretty interesting. Afterwards we hit the 4th floor prehistoric animals exhibits — seriously, could I deny Joshua his favorite period of history?

We had lunch in the cafeteria, then bought additional tickets to see Journey to the Stars, a 30-min film narrated by Whoopi Goldberg about stars. Josh and I saw this film last year, but it’s pretty enjoyable, and Nums apparently likes these kind of films. Color surprised, because I had no idea after all these years. I should record more space-themed documentaries on television.

The kids were getting tired, and we decided to call it a day after only a few hours. It was already 4pm, and there was no point in exhausting the munchkins. Besides, we can come back any time we want in the next 12 months. We took the subway back to the hotel to relax for a bit, freshened up, then met up with our friends Doug & Kathy downstairs in the hotel lobby.

On the menu tonight? Japanese! After some consultation, I made reservations at Tenzan nearby on 2nd Ave. I ate here with some friends earlier this year, and the food was excellent. Since then, I’ve been wanting to take my wife here as she also appreciates good Japanese cuisine. Dinner was very nice, no issues, and we stopped at a nearby cafe for a late night dessert before parting ways. Great day, I think.

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Dinner @ Tenzan. See if you can pick out the sourpuss.

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NYC Trip – Day 1

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Joel
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Waiting for the train

A few weeks ago, with the break between jobs in mind, we began planning out an extended weekend vacation trip. I had hoped to have a entire week off, but the background check took longer than I expected. In the end, I only have a four day break (Thurs-Sun) before I start my new life at Prudential. I would have liked more days, but it seems they want me to start right away. No matter. I suppose four days is good enough. Between NY Life and Citi, I only a weekend to enjoy any time off.

We looked at a few cities, e.g. Baltimore, Philadelphia, but ultimately on New York. Nums and I spent a romantic weekend in New York back in 2006, and that was a lot of fun. I took Josh to the Museum of Natural History last year via the train, and he had a blast. Sounded like a plan.

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Lunch at Dos Caminos

So here we are after our first day. We packed most of clothes and things last night, with a few more items this morning, and caught a late morning train to NYC. Why did we opt for the train when we have two cars and a bus that hits our complex? Eh, the kids like the train.

We got to NY around noon, and we were able to check into the Marriott Courtyard New York Manhattan Midtown East on 3rd Ave early. We were supposed to meet up with our friend Kathy for lunch, but it was getting late for her at this point. Oh well, maybe next time.

Instead, we walked down 3rd Ave and ate lunch at our favorite NYC Mexican restaurant — Dos Caminos. Lunch was pretty good, even though Lily was fooling around on her side of the table, bumped her face against the table somehow, and is now sporting a well-developing black eye. I swear she didn’t walk into a doorknob.

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Toys "R" Us Times Square

Everyone was a little tired, so we walked back to the hotel to chill out. In the evening, we strolled down to Grand Central Terminal to show the kids, then had lunch down in the lower level dining concourse. Afterwards, we took the Times Square Shuttle to 42nd St. We showed them Times Square at night, visited the big Toys “R” Us in Times Square, and even rode the ferris wheel. Best of all? We resisted their requests, and didn’t have to buy them any unnecessary toys!

We hung out in the store until it closed at 10pm, walked further north to check out the rest of Times Square, then walked the long walk back to 53rd and 3rd Ave. It wasn’t an action-packed first day, but it was relaxing.

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My last days at Citi

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Joel
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Gonna miss the old Warren campus

After 6+ years, we come to the end at last. This was my last week at Citi. It is done. I am free.

The past 10 days have been quiet. It is the end of the year, so many people like myself are wrapping up work. I have spent my time tying up loose ends, cleaning out my cubicle and my laptop, and letting my peers in the business units that I have met over the years that I was moving on. I had some nice conversations with them, and their sentiments were very thoughtful.

I was in NYC on Monday for a last lap around to say goodbye to colleagues, and a few close ones took me to lunch. During lunch, I thought to myself about the business trips and late nights in the office, and how much I would miss them. On Tues, my manager took me out to lunch, and organized a last group lunch on Wed before I left. I tell you, he’s a standup guy. He only started earlier this Spring, so I didn’t get much time to work for him. This is one of my few regrets.

Beginning last week, I cleaned out my desk, and packed up my things. After Wed’s lunch, I looked around one last time after handing over my laptop and other items. I said my goodbyes, and I walked out of the floor. It felt very odd to think I wouldn’t be in this familiar place anymore. I’m so used to being in this space, but that time was now over.

6+ years of ups and downs, and it’s now only a memory. I’m looking forward to the next big chapter of my life

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I never knew about condensate pumps

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Joel

This is certainly ironic. During the weekend of the freakish late October nor’easter that a whole lotta snow on the Northeast, we were lucky to not be affected by the storm itself. We know many friends and family that lost power and heat for days.

Now for the ironic portion of our sordid tale — we lost heat for the weekend, but for entirely different reasons. On Saturday evening, I went downstairs to the basement to get the laundry. Imagine my surprise to find water surrounding the furnace. I screamed, “Leak! Leak! We got a leak!”  The two thoughts racing through my mind were:

  1. I’ve got to contain this water before it does serious damage.
  2. Where the hell is the water coming from?

I noticed that water was slowly coming out of this small device/portion of the furnace, which is apparently a pump that collects excess condensated water and pumps it out to the sewage line or down a big drain in your floor. I quickly shut off the furnace, and then unplugged the pump. I didn’t even know there was a pump there, even after six years. You know, as a homeowner, people don’t have clue how a house works. I certainly didn’t know.

For those of you who, like me, were/are totally ignorant of a condensate pump, let me educate you. According to Wikipedia.

A condensate pump is a specific type of pump used to pump the condensate (water) produced in an HVAC (heating or cooling), refrigeration, condensing boiler furnace or steam system. They may be used to pump the condensate produced from latent water vapor in any of the following gas mixtures:

  • Conditioned (cooled or heated) building air
  • Refrigerated air in cooling and freezing systems
  • Steam in heat exchangers and radiators
  • The exhaust stream of very-high-efficiency furnaces

Condensate recovery systems help you reduce three tangible costs of producing steam:

  • Fuel/energy costs
  • Boiler water make-up and sewage treatment
  • Boiler water chemical treatment

Who knew? I surely didn’t. After much research, I cleaning out the collection tank of a lot of brown sludge, and hooked it back up. I thought we were all fine and dandy until the next day Sunday afternoon when I found more water all over the basement floor. I shut off the furnace again, and I realized that maybe this pump has burned out. I checked out reviews of condensate pumps @ both Home Depot and Lowe’s online, but the reviews were terrible at best. The best brand was called “Little Giant”, and Amazon.com had various models at half the price of the ones available at the brick-and-mortar stores.

The one wrinkle? Even with one-day shipping, it wouldn’t be here until Tuesday, and we would most likely have to live with no heat until then. We agreed to deal with it. Once the pump got here earlier today, it didn’t take me long to read the instructions, test it out, drill a new hole in the HVAC unit to hang this slightly wider pump. It’s been a few hours, and the new pump is working well. I may need to call a HVAC guy to come in and double-check the furnace. I think it’s an awfully large amount of water pouring into the pump at times. For now, we have heat, and no water on the floor.

Check out the pics below. On the left is the old pump with the buckets to catch the water, which I pour out in the sink as the bucket fills up. On the right is the new pump working quietly and efficiently. BTW, let me say again, I’m very glad that I have a cordless drill. It’s during times like this that I’m proud to have the right tools in my closet.

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Broken pump, and our backup buckets

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New pump with a scootch more horsepower
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