Eurotrip 2011 : Episode 1: The disaster otherwise called "flying economy"

This post will be a really long one. I just wanted to put into words our wonderful experiences during the trip, so that I could re-live them years from now.

Packing Light

Our trip began on the 19th of May 2011, with a flurry of unpacking and repacking, I had been of the mind that backpacks would be most well suited for such a short journey. I had spent quite some time trying to drill into Tina's head that packing light would be in our best interest. A few weeks earlier, much to my delight, I had successfully put in all our clothes into my newly bought REI Mars 80 backpack. This left us with my standard size backpack to fit in all the extras - the few things Tina might need for toiletries etc. As the last few hours wore down, this backpack started to fill up fast, and despite my negotiations with my wife, it was difficult to leave out any particular thing. Long story short, 5 minutes before Anish was to arrive to drop us to the airport, the bag was looking like a distended tragedy waiting to unfold. We left for the airport with another full sized suitcase into which my backpack regurgitated most of its contents.

American Airlines, or was it Iberia

In my super-meticulous planning, with the determination to keep this trip as cheap as possible, I had booked my flight almost 6 months in advance on the ticket site, vayama.com. I had watched trends in prices for a month or so, researched historical peaks and highs, set up numerous online triggers to send me message, but in all my infinite wisdom, had not checked up on the actual airline I was flying.

I had booked a codeshare flight , and was under the impression that I was flying Iberia. I discovered a few weeks before flying out that I was actually flying American Airlines. This, at the time, did not raise any warning bells, but given my experience, there is now a very very large sub-conscious bell now programmed to go off at any mention of this esteemed airline. 24 hour before the flight I went to the Iberia website to check in, as instructed by my e-ticket. However, there appeared to be no way one could choose a flight on Iberia leaving from San Francisco. So I went to the AA website, which would no longer accept my Iberia reservation code. A few phone calls later, and armed with the AA code, I tried the online check in , just to be told that AA cannot let me do online checkins. Then I called up the Airline and they assure me that I can go to the Airport to get the seat. Fast forward to the next day- drop off my bags at check-in, but I am informed now that the seats will get allocated at the boarding gate.... Fast forward another 30 mins - we are told at the gate that there is no way to allocate seats till the flight is ready to board, and THEN it turns out we have already been allocated seats, but WAIT , not just any seat , the last seats, right next to the toilets and with no option of reclining the seats. To make matters worse, they had no blankets on board, no personal entertainment system, and the screening of the Bieber Movie to keep us entertained. Well, I am certain that the bludgeoning of this airline is a common theme in the travelogues of American flyers, but I end by saying that I do sincerely believe that this will be my last time ever on this airline.

At least we got a little liquored up before the horrible flight!

The Big 3-oh! & 2013

2012 draws to a close in a few hours. It will probably strike midnight with me looking into Andrew's crib at his peaceful face. I will sigh and say to myself that this was easily the best year of my life and more than anything it had to do with family.  Having Andrew has been the best feeling ever, it has filled my life with a lot of happiness, and despite being so much work, he has been such a wonderful experience. I just hope that I continue to feel this way for many years. He has a lot of energy and is extremely curious. He does not want to sit still at all, constantly exploring his surroundings and getting into trouble. For several months now, he has been standing up while holding things - cruising, they call it. We wait with excitement and some degree of fear for the moment he takes his first few steps unsupported.

Not so long ago, I turned 30, and I felt pretty good about where I was in life. I am happier than I have ever been. Life, for me, has gotten progressively better over the past 8 years or so, with the exception of the miserable time I spent in UMich, but even that period has led to a lot of professional happiness and progress.

I guess there have been several themes of priorities I have had over the years and I may have written about them in the past. As the years have gone by, I have become more interested in personal finance. I was a late start in this regard. Only recently has this taken center stage, and I hope my 30's will be a positive experience in the art of building a sense of "financial security" for me and my family. I was very fortunate in most of my career, starting all the way back at Infineon. Nvidia has also been a great experience, I have learnt a lot, and they have allowed me to be very close to Andrew in his first year. The speed of learning has not been the fastest, but fairly significant. I am more or less happy with the varying learning opportunities.

The other thing that has become important to me is political and moral philosophy. I find myself somewhat persuaded by libertarian ideals, swinging from an ambiguous left to a somewhat concrete right-wing mindset.

Still very early I think to tell about where I will settle, but my change of mind was influenced a lot by my colleagues at Nvidia, chief among them, David D.

Another far more remarkable change is the onset of some form of minor philanthropic impulse. I have been a deeply selfish person all my life and unapologetically so. I have shown myself capable of kindness on rare occassion, but no one I know would characterize me as kind . This stemmed, somewhat, from my very clinical and apathetic view of the world. Andrew inspired this change in me. I questioned my apathy and wondered about the plight of other children born into this world into less forgiving circumstance. What would a poor father who loved his child wish of the world? And I guess, I understood, that I have nothing to lose to be a little more kind. And I should give simply because I can and because someone needs it, and leave morality out of it.

Life is ever changing, and a place of infinite learning experiences. I am glad that I am still as much in awe of the universe around me despite all my cynicism. Looking forward to being a better man in 2014.

Pro-Choice?

I heard this argument once. "When man agrees to live in society, he agrees to compromise on his individual liberties." The assumption there is that these liberties, if unchecked, cause conflict and threatens the peace of society. My inference is that the exercise of one's personal freedom becomes problematic only when it encroaches on the liberty of others. 

Liberty of one's own life is fairly easy to understand. One should not deprive the life of another. The issue becomes complicated in the case of abortion. The subtleties of the argument rests on the definition of what is considered life? But essentially the pro-life argument holds life sacrosanct over and above the humiliation/ discomfort/ financial difficulty imposed by carrying the child to term. This pro-life argument feels fine to me. However, it is somewhat weakened by the "sentient being" argument. ie. we hold the rights of sentient entities at a higher pedestal than beings that are not yet sentient. Since a child has not fully developed his faculties, it may be somewhat permissible to deprive  it of its life. But this line of reasoning is fraught with danger.... as there are lots of other individuals who may not be considered sentient in the perfect sense. 

Then we consider the immense social trauma associated with unwanted pregnancies. It is deeply personal trauma and the burden of raising the child rests on the mother. This burden essentially deprives the mother of her enjoyment of her other liberties like the pursuit of happiness. However, we think of liberties to have certain order of precedence over one another, and its difficult to think of a right to a specific liberty which should outrank the liberty to life. 

I have for the most part of my life, been naturally pro-choice. This was perhaps attributable to the fact that pro-life is often touted by religious groups, whose opinions on liberty I hold at very low esteem. But it seems that I cannot find myself a rationale strong enough to embrace pro-choice emphatically.

Insanity

The Insanity Journey

On Aug 11, 2012. I began the insanity program. The program is a 60 day fitness program that focuses on very high intensity workouts. I am turning 30 in a month and at 5'5" and 165lbs I am probably 10 pounds or more overweight. Last year I was at 180 lbs, before I decided to change things up a little. 

Now I am hoping to hit 155 lbs before my birthday on 24th September. I am also doing Tae-Kwon-Do, and that was the reason behind my earlier weight loss. Before my son was born, I weight 155 lbs and swiftly started gaining weight in the five months since.

Day1: Fitness Test

Switch Kicks     138
Power Jacks      51
Power Knees    102
Power Jumps    30
Globe Jumps     9
Suicide Jumps  19
Push-Up Jacks 31
Low Plank Oblique 70

I thought I did pretty well for the first day. I struggled the most with the suicide jumps and globe jumps. Let me set a target for myself in 60 days:

Switch Kicks    160
Power Jacks     70
Power Knees    120
Power Jumps    45
Globe Jumps     14
Suicide Jumps  25
Push-Up Jacks 50
Low Plank Oblique 80

Week 1

I just got done with the first 2 workouts. I took it easy... not perhaps digging deep. I have a minor hip injury from TKD that is getting better and my shoulders a little sore..besides I dont see the point in pushing really hard for the first day and be sore for the next week. Slow and steady is best, IMO. The first workout was tough on my shoulders. The second was tough on my back. I am not jumping very strong for the latter half of the workout to conserve some energy. The power jumps are something I want to improve in. I think they are a very good indicator of overall fitness. Surprisingly, I am finding the moving push-ups to be quite challenging, since that is the one exercise I am somewhat regular with. And the last thing was that the overall "jiggle" factor on my body is a little embarrassing. I think that will change soon, in a couple of weeks I should tighten and tone.

Day 4 was cardio recovery. It was pretty relaxed compared to the usual pace. However, after TKD sparring last night,  I had a lot of trouble with holding the deep lunges. My quads are really fatigued. Lets see how challenging pure cardio is.

Day 5 was pure cardio. I had been warned about it. I started feeling really heavy and bloated, not at all in the mood for any workout.. I pushed through. I paced myself through the initial warmup. Things got looser and I felt a bit better. After the stretch I felt much better. For most of the workout, the sole of my left foot bothered me. I had to cheat several times. I paused the video on two occasions for about 10-15 secs. And several times reverted to a mild jog instead of what was asked of me. It was the toughest workout so far.

Final workout was nice. I pushed harder than usual and was drenched in sweat. Left feet and left hip still bothering me. Hope the rest day does me some good.

Week 2

The first 2 workout this weeks were really tough for me. On both days, I wasnt feeling too great... I was feeling lethargic and slow. Had way too much to eat on both days , and probably too high on salt/sugar. I am begining to feel that doing this without watching what I eat is not working. I am going to cut down on my high sugar cereal and swap in some protein. The other thing I have decided is to find a way to not do high intensity WO on the same day I have TKD. This unfortunately will require me to move the program around, exchange plyometrics with abs, perhaps. Today, I will get myself some arch supports on my shoes and see if it helps the arches of my feet. They have been a constant pain and stop me from pushing myself.

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Week 2 came to an abrupt end.... I am taking a couple of days of break from insanity... I am feeling injured and dont want to push myself into making things worse.
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Insanity 1.0 came to a sad and disappointing end.... too many injuries, not enough recovery.... I am not ready for this yet...

Sep 9th

Even though Insanity was a failure, I feel those 2 weeks did do me some good after all. I feel cardio-vascularly fitter than before... Over the past week or so, I have been trying to do some running. The last 4 times I ran:

4.34 Km - 30 mins - My feet hurt so I stopped
5 Km - 36:30 mins - Took it slow.
5 Km - 33:30 mins - Felt a little stronger...
2 day break
5 Km - 28:10 mins - Pushed myself.

40 before 40

As my 30th birthday approaches, I am compelled to make myself one of them "40 before 40" lists. I thought of the list for my 30th a bit late, so here it is:

1. Istanbul
2. Hawaii
3. Grand Canyon
4. Drive up to Canada on the pacific coast
5. Bhutan
6. Alaska
7. Japan
8. Niagara Falls
9. Experience the countryside of Europe. (England/Cote De Azur/ North Italy)
10. Boat house trip in Kerala.
11. Cambodia or some location in South-east asia.
12. Do a cruise.
13. Get a Tae-Kwon-Do black belt..
14. Run a half marathon.
15. Do Insanity and do a before and after shot.
16. Get a six pack  hopefully as a consequence of 15 :)
17. Pull weight below 70 and keep it there.
18. Pick up a new sport
19. Learn to snowboard.  
20. Learn to surf.
21. Buy another house. - Done
22. Diversify investments.
23. Setup a retirement plan. - Done.
24. Buy a nice car.
25. Learn to sweep (Guitar)
26. Play tornado of souls
27. Join a band.
28. Take voice lessons
29. Take Guitar lessons.
30. Learn a language - french?
31. Climb a mountain
32. TBD
33. TBD
34. TBD
35. TBD
36. TBD
37. TBD
38. TBD
39. TBD
40. TBD

On Power

I start with the disclaimer, that I form my thoughts as a rank of a student on these subjects. Minds of ponderous weight have contributed to these issues and I hold their intellectual ability in the highest regard. I just want to exercise the process of rationalization to the multitude of information on this topic that plagues our modern world.

Of late I have pondered over the idea of "caution against the undue concentration of power". To me it appears that a lot of social issues arise from disparity in power. Power works in many ways, and although , it has beneficial outcomes, when used in a paternalistic manner, I will focus on the issue of excessive power, which despite its outcome, appears ominous to me.

As a child, you may encounter the use of excessive power in the form of an over-bearing teacher. I vouch that the Indian schooling system is sprinkled with them. You also encounter power in your own parents. Excessive power almost always has the effect of undermining the ability of the less-powerful party to negotiate. This ends up making them feel helpless & disgruntled. Hopefully, some of the cases, listed above, that kind of power is mediated with benevolence and love, which makes it bearable, perhaps, to the degree, that one does not think about it.

But, I did not start thinking about the subject due to repressed memories of childhood.  I thought about it because of the tumultuous political storm that has gripped the world over the past 5-6 years. I am interested in political power. I have heard, and have been enticed by many ideological philosophies regarding the matter. Essentially, there are two flavors - One which states that political power should be dismantled and another which is convinced of the benevolence of "Big Government".

I wonder if the believers in "Big Government" think of it as a countermeasure to what they perceive to be the concentration of  "private economic power". I think that is a valid assumption, in that, most government policies pander to the masses in a democracy at the cost of those who can pay - which happens to be a minority in many cases. However, it has been pointed out to me that once assembled , the power center of government is coerced by economic power centers to be a proxy for capitalists and special interest groups. This seems reasonable to me, since I think politicians like any individual are profit-motivated, and once elected, there is little "monetary profit" in uplifting the masses.

In essence, I see the world as a collection of entities, each desiring to maximize its profit. Some of these endeavors are considered "good" and others are loathed- largely determined in some sort of consensus driven by the populous. And what comes of this is the desire to prop up power centers to protect what one sees as their interests.

I see the great usurpation of liberty once we allow government to intervene in things that one may hold sacrosanct and beyond the realm of governance. But, I am not certain that "free markets" solve the issues of disparity either.  I am told that a free market is the perfect system, wherein the competing forces balance each other. I am also told that there is incredible efficiency in the market that always keep prices at the lowest level possible. This, I find, very very difficult to grasp. What are the initial conditions here?

Let us talk about the element of competition. The assumption is that in a free market, it is this element that serves as internal system of measures and checks, and hence does not need any scrutiny from a third party - a benevolent government, for e.g. But I find this assumption deeply flawed, I know of only one system that was ever truly a free market - the system of evolution. Over billions of years, organisms of all sorts competed openly for resources without any "regulation", without any "control". I think we all agree that "competition" is a process of selection and not that of co-existence. It appears man has come out on top of this process. The competition between the other participants and man is over -  Man has monopoly of every resource available, other participants have no ability to negotiate.

The other element is efficiency. What does this mean? I have heard, that the market always distributes resources to those who value it the most - and this is efficiency.... Hmmm? Now what does "value" mean?
Are we saying that a man dying of hunger values food less than a man who can afford it? Well, we need to revisit efficiency and if thats really the way to go.

I think what I fear, is that free markets although allowing competition, will eventually destroy it. That eventual victors always emerge and can prop up barriers that have nothing to do with legislation. Barriers can be propped by secrecy, by force, by association with others who prop barriers. There is nothing in the free markets, in my opinion, that will stop this kind of concentration of economic power. And in such a world, despite small government, and the celebration of liberty, nothing will prevent the lopsided nature of negotiations between those who wield power and those who dont, not much unlike today.

It might appear that I am making a classic Marxist argument, except that I started with the observation that usurpation of power by the public is eventually self-defeating as well. I believe the contribution of "liberty" to your well being is over-rated. In itself, liberty means nothing without the ability to participate in a market. Your freedom to participate and your ability are two very different things.

So far, in what I understand, as appealing as I find the idea of personal liberty , and as unfair I find the notion of progressive taxation and all other elements of heavy-handed governance, I am not quite bowled over by Milton Friedman. I am not proposing answers but highlighting my lack of conviction in what I understand of extant economic-political ideology.  I am still looking for many answers, especially regarding the never ending battle for personal liberty and the "common good".

"End the Fed"

I had an interesting read of this one. I learned several things. I was convinced of many of the points that Ron Paul made, others not so much.

In essence what I understood was that Ron Paul claims that the system of fiat monopoly and the unethical standards of direction and leadership of the Fed is the root cause of pretty much all of America's economic woes - these include the housing bubble, all bubbles before that, the following depression and all of the ones before that. The argument made is fairly easy to grasp, i.e. inflationary monetary policy provides false sense of security to participants in an economy and just perpetuates a cycle of boom and busts.

One of the points that hit home with me, was the lack of oversight with which the fed acts. I am not convinced that government oversight would somehow fix all the problems, but still, the fact that an institution that is supposed to behave in the best interest of the people, is shrouded in secrecy and lacks any transparancy.

Ron Paul goes to some length to explain some of his libertarian views as well. I found the idea of the sanctity of personal freedoms very appealing.  In that sense, I found myself seeing the problem of too much governmental power and the degree to which statism limits personal liberties. Not to mention that the people in government are corrupt and are influenced by special interest groups. What I lacked clarity on was the alternatives to big government. Big governments arise from the need of the majority to be given security blankets. I am not sure if I understand how we can circumvent this fundamental issue of democracy. i.e. How do we address poverty and hunger and the desperate circumstances of the severely dispossessed and uphold personal liberties at the same time? To me those two seem to be at irreconcilable odds.

He goes on to say that the powers vested in the fed are un-constitutional . Although I was convinced of this argument, I am not sure that in itself it is a morally strong one. That would imply that the constitution dictates a doctrine that is perfectly moral. Or a template of  "perfect economy" , for that matter.

In any case, I would like to summarize:
I see that low interest rates can spawn speculative behavior leading to unrealistic prices of assets and subsequent realizations of the speculative nature can lead to precipitous drops.
I feel that certain personal liberties are sacrosanct and should not be held hostage to the whims of the masses. However, I am certain that in the entire history of humanity, these boundaries of personal liberties have been drawn, encroached and re-drawn.
I am still not sure what exactly happened in 2008.
I felt that Ron Paul does not present a balanced view. i.e. he does not criticize the gold standard at all. He presents it as a solution for all. This I find far-fetched.

I will probably go on to read either the work of an economist from the "Austrian School" to further deepen my understanding of Ron Paul's position or perhaps read Paul Krugman to get a Keynesian POV. At least, I understand that, those schools of thought are in direct constrast to each other ( at least in parts)...