Category: Random

Avishek Sengupta’s Memorial Service Information

The definition of tragedy

For information on what happened to Avi, please read this article describing his death at Tough Mudder.

Memorial Service Information

408602_10101730970093908_1778423235_nPlease join Avi’s family in celebrating his life and honoring his memory. He was an incredible man and an amazing brother to us all.

Memorial services will be will be held at Donaldson Funeral Home & Crematory, 1411 Annapolis Rd, Odenton, MD on Thursday, April 25th, 2013, at 1:00.

Immediately afterward we will hold a Reception in Avi’s honor at the Malik family residence, 3886 Whitebrook Lane, Ellicott City, 21042. All are encouraged to come and share memories of Avi.

Further Details:

– Avi’s close friend, Jon Hess, is collecting money on behalf of Avi’s family for flowers, food, etc. If you would like to contribute, Jon is collecting via PayPal under his email account: Jonathanrhess@gmail.com. Feel free to contact him at 443-904-6420.

– If you would like to speak at the Memorial, please contact me separately via email or phone (410-207-5810).

– We encourage Avi’s many groups of friends to coordinate and make posters of your pictures with Avi. We would enjoy having your posters displayed at his Memorial Services.

– If you would like to send flowers, you can send them directly to the Donaldson Funeral Home & Crematory or Avi’s Parents (Mita & Bijon) House (10084 Waterford Drive, Ellicott City, MD 21042). If you send it to the Funeral Home, we can easily transport them after the services to Avi’s parents house

36321_10151073771791958_1183505884_n– Estimated time of events:
– 1:00 – 4:00 – Memorial Services
Donaldson Funeral Home & Crematory
1411 Annapolis Rd, Odenton, MD
http://www.donaldsonfuneralhome.com/
– 5:00 – Onward – Reception
Malik Family Residence
3886 Whitebrook Lane, Ellicott City, 21042

Note to Self: Don’t Have Kids [Yet]

It was a typical morning commute: I’m driving like an asshole (trying to wake up) which prompts someone to want to race.. bring it on.

This morning was extra interesting as the racing situation I faced made an awesome analogy to life, specifically the decisions of having children.

My opponent and I started out racing in a straight line, from light to light.  He was winning.. he had the right lane choices and was ahead.. until it came to the final stretch before the highway on ramp.

You see, my opponent had a small child in a car seat strapped to the back seat.. so when it came to the open road before the 25mph curved on-ramp, he was too scared to push to higher speeds and didn’t want the hard brake before clinching for a tight turn.

How does this have anything to do with life choices?

My theory is that once you’ve made certain commitments (ie. getting married, having kids) – your risk tolerance and nimbleness to life’s curve balls (the on-ramp) lowers dramatically.

The opponent was winning when everything was easy going (the straight line), but as soon as the life conditions changed, he was not ready and had to slow down.

I definitely want a wife and kids, but don’t think I’m ready for it, yet.

Needless to say, once I entered the on-ramp, he was no longer in my rear view mirror 😀

Don’t Be Cheap
When Shopping For These 3 Things

This is a long overdue post which I would love to get some opinions and comments on…

I’ll make it nice, short, and to the point:

The main idea is this:

Getting great deals, shopping during sales, or buying the generic version of something is all well and good…

BUT, there are certain things that you should spend your money (or splurge) on.

What are these things you ask? – Well, they could vary from person to person, but let’s get a little general and talk about criteria:

  1. Something you spend a lot of time in, on, or doing
  2. Something that directly effects your health (either body or mind)

Don’t have the money to buy the high-quality product … learn how to use credit wisely.

That being said, here are 3 examples of things you should spend your money on.

1. Shoes.

Think about it, you spend over 12 hours a day in shoes.

Maybe you switch shoes during the day, or wear different shoes on different days with different outfits… whatever, all your shoes should be top-notch.

Why? – Oh, just a couple reasons:

  • Your feet are important – they support the rest of your body — bad shoes = feet problems which is 🙁
  • Style, baby! – Shoes can make or break an outfit, and if you’ve heard the saying “first impression is the most important one”, you’re gonna want some nice shoes, k?

So get some nice shoes… and while you’re shopping, throw down on some…

2. Clothes

things you should spend your money on

Again, you spend 2/3 of your day in clothes (unless you do porn or live in a nudist colony).

Similar to shoes, style is important, if you want to make a good impression.

Believe me, I do my best to detach and “not care” about what other people think of me… but when it comes to business or trying to find a mate (yeah, I just said that) – you gotta look good… am I right or what?

Plus, I find that when you dress nice, you feel better about yourself and want to perform better.

For instance, when I work in my pajamas (it’s happened several times), I’m definitely not as productive or sharp as when I’m dressed, well, sharp!

Dress good, feel good… trust me.

I’ll even go shopping with my mom from time to time (great way to spend time with your mom btw)… she has great taste and knows how to make me look good.

Cool, so you’re clothed 2/3 of the day, and the 1/3 you’re sleeping, on a…

3. Bed

This one might lends itself to criteria #2 (health) more so than #1 –

Have you ever heard about people “waking up on the wrong side of the bed” or having “neck pains” from sleeping wrong?

Yeah, you don’t want that.

Get a nice bed.

You spend a third of your time sleeping, might as well do it comfortably, right?

Plus, it’s bad for your back otherwise.

And don’t act like putting sheets on the bed is hard, because it’s not, ok? 🙂

Other Things To Spurge On

Following the 2 criteria above, you could argue to spend your money on several different things…

If you’re a body builder: buy organic foods and high class protein… not the cheap stuff.  Of course, you should always look at the nutrition facts.

If you’re an outside sales person, you probably drive a lot — get a nice, quality, reliable car.

If you’re a model: buy top-notch make up — you don’t want the cheap stuff ruining that pretty face.

Alright, you get the point… What do you spend your money on?

How To: Play Snake On YouTube Video

That’s right – you can play snake on YouTube videos!

You know that Snake game, where you have to control the snake with the up, down, left, and right arrows to try to eat as many dots as possible without crashing into a wall or your own snake body.

Want to know how to play snake on YouTube videos?

play snake on youtube video
Play Snake On Any YouTube Video!

Follow these instructions:

  1. Open your video of choice and let it start playing
  2. Pause the video
  3. Play the video again
  4. Press the left arrow key (and let go quickly)
  5. Press and hold the left arrow key
    then quickly press the up arrow.
  6. Quickly let go of all keys
  7. PLAY SNAKE ON YOUTUBE!

Do those steps relatively quickly, except for hold the left arrow for a half second before pressing up the up arrow.

If it doesn’t work the first time, keep trying until it does.

I’ve been able to get it to play on every YouTube video I’ve tried so far.

So that’s it! That’s what you press to play snake on YouTube!

Two Random Thoughts

I haven’t played for that long since I’m at work and playing snake is like the ultimate productivity killer — so I’m not sure if there is an END to the game… I’m not sure if you can “win” … so if you win a prize or something, please let me know.

Also, this is a relatively hard game of snake!

Since the YouTube video is playing while you’re trying to play snake – it is a lot harder to concentrate.

Not only that, but it’s more difficult to see the next ball you’re trying to “eat”.

And even furthermore, the snake extends by like 5 dots every time you eat 1 dot… other games of snake extend on a 1:1 ratio — this one is accelerated!

Alright, now you know how to play snake on videos that are on YouTube… Have fun and comment with your experience 🙂

I Like Meetup.com

It’s kind of just like another social media site, complete with profiles, commenting, and event scheduling.

The main difference is that Meetup focuses on the niche — both topically and geographically.

Users can create “meet up groups” and invite those who are interested in certain topics to join.  The creator of the group is then responsible for organizing a “meet up”.

The meet up can be in person or over the internet, using GoToMeeting or something like that.

It Gets Your Clients Too!

One of WebMechanix’s most recent clients actually called us because they saw me on Meetup.  She said that she noticed I was an active member of the a Baltimore SEO group and since she was in the market for SEO, she decided to give us a call.  Awesome?

List of Meetup Groups

Here is a list of Meetup groups that I am currently part of:

Maryland SEO

Baltimore SEO

Baltimore PHP

Baltimore WordPress

Maryland Internet Marketing

Hospitality Online Marketing

Columbia Business Strategy and Networking

Baltimore Small Business Social Media Marketing

Can You Tell What I Like?

I just realized that you can easily tell what I’m into just be reading the group names… hahaha — Maybe I should join some skiing and tennis groups to round out the heavily weighted Internet Marketint Business groups!

That’s all for now – check out http://www.meetup.com – hope to see you out there!

Certain Excuses Just Don’t Work Anymore

Certain excuses don't work anymore
Don't even try that excuse, anymore!

As technology gets perpetually faster, smarter, and just better.. certain excuses, that were once fail proof, can no longer be used. Here is a look at some technologies that have nullified certain excuses… especially work excuses by text.

Picture Text Messages (MMS)

With cell phone and cell carrier standards of 2010, most people have camera phones and the ability to send picture sms text messages — so for instance:

An employee texts the boss to say “I’m stuck in traffic, going to be late”.

When the employee gets into work that day, the boss asks the employee about his phone.  He finds that the phone has a camera and is able to send pictures over text.

The boss tells the employee that next time he is stuck in traffic, send a picture of the brake lights.

So anytime there is an excuse that can be proved by sending a picture text message – you can’t really use it anymore.

That Stupid Beep When You’re On The Phone

You know when you’re calling someone and you hear that beep at the end of each ring?  That means the person you’re calling is currently on the phone.

If everyone knows about this, then when your friend calls and you’re on the other line – you can’t use any excuse that isn’t “I was on the other line”.

You can’t say, “Sorry I didn’t pick up, I was in the shower”, or “I was driving” – because the other person heard the beep and knows you were on the phone!

There are certainly many more examples … I’ll be back to update this as I think of them — if you know of any, comment below.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yALn0emLTmEJ:www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread%3Ftid%3D20d77a6c69725ce1%26hl%3Den+please+specify+a+different+profile+directory+chrome+xp&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I’m Quite The Nerd

And just to be clear – a nerd is not necessarily a dork or a geek.. There is a difference between those three…

What makes me such a nerd… A lot of things.

To name a few… I like the stock market, how computers work, solving riddles or puzzles or brain games, and backgammon (really like backgammon).

Still don’t think I’m a nerd? .. I’m laying in bed writing and posting this blog entry from my iPhone using the WordPress app… And that makes me happy… Yeah.

Oh, and did I mention I look like one too…

Below you will find a picture of me taken by John Sutter of The Sutter Group.. Who also provided me with the nifty glasses (thank you)..

They don’t look half bad, right?

No, I’m not a Harry Potter fan.

ONE MORE THING that makes me the ultimate nerd is that I look forward to the WordPress iPhone app update that allows you to put the picture in any desired place throughout the post, rather than just attaching it to the bottom.

Now if I went and hacked the source code and dev’d the update myself.. I’d be a geek.

AND if I wasn’t socially adept, I’d be a dork.

Did you catch the implied differences between nerd, geek, and dork slipped throughout?

Goodnight.

If You Don’t Like The Weather In Maryland

Maryland’s weather is notorious for being unpredictable and for changing dramatically in short periods of time.

So much so that there is a saying: “If you don’t like the weather in Maryland, just wait 5 minutes!”

It’s obviously not THAT dramatic — But I’ve lived here my whole life and can attest to us having some weird weather.

For instance – the winter of 2009-2010 gave us one of the biggest blizzards MD has ever seen – Some parts got over 2 feet of snow in less than 12 hours…

And now, here we are 6 months later in July – melting away in 102 degree weather – with a heat index of 115.

If you don’t have AC, I feel very bad for you.. but if you don’t like the weather.. well, I’m not sure waiting 5 minutes is going to help you in this situation 🙂

It’s funny because Maryland residence have to have really good AC units/Heat pumps… they have to own a snow blower… and a power generator for when the hurricane-ish storms come in off the east coast and blow the trees onto our power lines.

Oh Maryland, how I love thee so.

PS – my house’s AC broke today… I’m melting.

Update: Thank goodness for Atlantic Mechanical who came out and fixed our air conditioning with less than a days notice.

I called them on a Tuesday, they came out and fixed it the next day… only cost $120 and we had nice cool air flowing through the house again.

Hey Maryland, figure it out already!