My travel to Illinois

Last week I made arrangements for a quick trip over the Aug 23rd weekend to Bloomington, Illinois to visit an aunt who is visiting her son from India. Every time she has visited US in the last 7-8 yrs, I thought about making plans to meet, but somehow that never materialized. Other than seeing her briefly during my wedding in India about 1.5 yrs ago, the last time I spent some time with her was when she had come down with her family to Kharagpur more than 25yrs ago. I am glad I made the trip as it is always good to connect with family even if you have not been in touch.

Bloomington is small town(population 75,000) about 150 miles South West of Chicago in the heartland of Illinois and is home to StateFarm, the largest and oldest insurance company in the US – noone insures more cars and automobile in the US than them. The only direct flight to the city is from Chicago, for which you have to pay a premium unless you decide to fly into Chicago and drive down.

Everything looked familiar from the moment I landed in Bloomington on Saturday August 23rd afternoon. Bloomington is very much like Fargo, North Dakota – small town, easy commute, low population, cold winters and not a whole lot to do. Incidentally, 13 yrs ago exactly on the same day i.e. Aug 23rd in 1995, I had landed in the US (Fargo, North Dakota) for the very first time around the same time in the afternoon. Of course, 13 yrs later I was no longer that wide eyed early twenty something girl just fresh off the boat in a fresh pair of jeans and T-shirt . Back then even a small town like Fargo was a novelty for me – I mean I had never seen streets with such neatly lined trees, houses that seemed like perfect boxes, neatly mowed lawns and lush green trees.

As my plane was flying low to make a touch down at the Bloomington Airport, I noticed huge corn fields and a land that was as flat as it can be. The airport was small with 3-4 gates, although sparkling new. Airport parking is free and parking lot is right across the exit from Airport, and the drive to my cousin’s home from Airport took under 5 minutes and that too because there was one traffic light. That’s a luxury in Bay Area unless you live in one of the cities close to Airport.

For the next two days, my Aunt, cousin and his wife made sure I was pampered to the fullest – and I obliged by hogging everything served in front of me – kachoris, bhaturas, pani puri…. Even after all that food my Aunt was still upset that she couldn’t make more stuff due to my short visit. True to the tradition of my Aunt’s generation, they feed the guests till they are stuffed to their neck. I don’t know why they don’t allow us to self serve because most of us are certainly not the shy types, but I guess for some people that’s part of the hospitality and way of showering their affection. My cousin gave me a quick whirlwind tour of Bloomington. There isn’t much to see or do in Bloomington really. Statefarm is the largest employer in the city and employees close to 65,000 people- about 85% of Bloomington population!!! The company has done a lot of work towards development of the city and has contributed towards most parks and city attractions. Most Statefarm employees never leave the town and the economy is fairly stable. The Bloomington Indian community is pretty big (around 8000) and quite active, and we managed to get a glimpse of some Indian community function in downtown one late evening.

After two quick but relaxing days with my Aunt and her family, it was time to head back. I have often thought about what it would be like to go back to a small town and settle there and enjoy all the benefits of a small town – cost of living, work life balance and very laid back lifestyle – all of which I got a glimpse of this weekend. In Bloomington you can buy a palatial home with a backyard the size of half a football field for under $250K in one of the best school districts. Many Statefarm employees work from 8-4 . Quite a few work longer hrs during week to be able to take Fridays off on a regular basis. The city has plenty of parks & libraries and even a couple of theaters. Crime is almost non-existent. All of that sounds great to me except that after having lived in Bay Area for 3 years now, I don’t think I could settle in Bloomington or a similar town. I certainly appreciate all the benefits and think that it might be great for people with families/kids, but it is much too quiet for me. More importantly, you are in deep trouble if the only company in town that hires you shuts down one day and you find out that you have stayed in one company for so long that your skills are no longer current. Also, having been through cold winters in Fargo, I think that small quiet towns with nothing to do that get too cold in winters are definitely not on the list of experiences that I want to repeat in life.

Season for MBA applications

Looks like it is the season for MBA applications. Last few weeks I have been taking to someone from east coast who really wants to make it to business school in Fall 2009 and is leaving no stone unturned. Today I met another person who wanted some advice on the applications process/criteria. Due to the highly competitive full time program admissions process, these kids are all stressed out about the whole process and their chances. All that information available on the B-School sites (which is more marketing than anything else) and the forums where people are stressing out if they have the right profile/GMAT etc. are enough to make this admissions process seem daunting. As an older candidate with the stereotypical Indian software/IT background who got into all the top three schools I applied to, the only piece of advice I really gave them was to really get those stories right. Many applicants have great profiles (recommendations, GPAs, GMAT, progress at work etc.) but they don’t spend enough time working/thinking through their stories.

And I met yet another person this week who is running an early stage somewhat successful enterprise software business. He is too experienced to even consider full time MBA. He was wondering about the benefits of an MBA,  whether part time or executive. I managed to discourage him from considering either of the options if he was pursuing his business seriously with no intent to change careers. Frankly running a an existing business and doing an executive or part time MBA just won’t work due to time commitments each deserves. If you are already running a business that is successful in its own way, and have no intentions of climbing the corporate ladder or switch to a different career, you are better off focusing all your energy into making your business even more successful. I advised him to look into week long workshops business schools conduct for executives from time to time.. to get more bang for his buck and polish up on skills he lacks. I wish Bschools would come up with more programs targeted at technical people/entrepreneurs.  Last but not the least, $120K is no pocket change, especially if you are not going back to a cushy corporate career.

No more crutches – walking in my own shoes again!

I finally let go of my crutches and boot. I am walking on my both legs once again after a period of nearly 7 weeks. For those who haven’t been tuned into my summer – I managed to fracture my foot in early June. It was not a big deal, but I had to undergo a minor foot surgery to insert a screw. I was resigned to sitting on my comfy couch for weeks before I could start walking again. Being injured on right leg means you can’t drive. I was initially stunned when doc said I couldn’t walk or drive for 6-7 weeks and an additional 6-8 weeks before I can even think of any activity ! I mean I am pretty restless by nature and usually go out of my house at least couple of times any given day. Also, starting spring this year, I had managed to get back into a good fitness routine, jogging up to 2 miles 3-4 times a week. For the first time since I moved from Minneapolis to Bay Area 3 years ago, I felt healthy and energetic.

Walking with the support of only crutches and my left leg was painful initially, and I used every ounce of my muscle on my left leg to lift myself up from my chair or bed. Bathing needed acrobatics of sorts – standing on the left leg while using a chair to support and dangle my right leg, which was wrapped in a couple of garbage bags to make sure it was water proof. My kitchen became my dining area, as transporting food/drinks to dining area was impossible with two hands busy with crutches. Anyhow, with time I was able to come up with workarounds for all of these tasks. Its amazing how we will adapt to our surrounding.

I guess everything happens for a reason. Prior to breaking my foot, I was in the habit of drinking a latte along with freshly made grilled breakfast sandwich from Panera everyday – I just had to have it any given day. I highly recommend their breakfast sandwich if you have never tried then

(you can ask for egg and cheese if you want to skip meat). So, now that I haven’t made a trip to the deli in more than 2 months, I think I can finally live without a cup of latte for some time (or until I pick up the habit again!).

And now, no more boots and walking aids… its feels great be mobile once again! There is a considerable difference strength wise between the two legs – the left calf is toned up with the extra weight it had to bear for a long time while the right leg seems half the size. It felt funny when I first started walking – it was like I was learning to walk all over again. I still can’t do any aerobics. But for now I will be contended with having the ability to walk and drive myself around.

I think we appreciate what we have only when we no longer have them.

Which blogging engine should I use?

After spending some time testing out a number of sites like Vox and Blogger and WordPress, I have decided to go with WordPress. There are things I liked or did not like about each one of them and I have mentioned them over here briefly. I have also given a brief mention to Yahoo!’s latest women focused blogging network called “Shine”.

• Hundreds of attractive themes and templates
• One click editing of your posts literally.
• Stores all kinds of media in your own library – photos, videos, songs.
• Great privacy controls. For e.g. you can share your blogs with only friends or family or both, and share share photos only with family.
• Social Networking features built in. You get a stream of activity updates from your friends/family on Vox (once added to your list). Others who come to my site can also discover my friend’s blogs on Vox.

Why VOx doesn’t work for me.

• Privacy is the main value proposition for bloggers on Vox. Privacy is important but not critical for me in a blogging engine. Besides, friends/family will have to get an account on Vox in order to view my ramblings. This would only make sense if they were active bloggers on VOX.
  
• Every photo needs to have a label and when it gets embedded into your blog, and its label shows up on your blog. There is no way to edit the photo label, which is really annoying. So every time I have to change the photo label, I have to go to library and delete the photo, and then reload the photo with the correct label from my desktop. How painful!!

Good

• Clean simple look and feel to the blog. User flow with setting up account, selecting look and start publishing is better than VOX.
• More admin tools than VOX to customize your blog site, including settings for publishing, commenting, archiving as well as layouts.
• You get to make money if you want via Google AdSense (i.e. permit Advertizing on your blog ) if you can build enough traffic. Not something that I plan to use, but I feel good using a vendor who shares a portion of money it makes from content created by users like me.
• Recently they have added a lot of interesting options for Gadgets/Widgets to your blog, including Slideshows, showcasing your bloglist, and polling your readers and much more.

Bad

• If you want to allow users to comment on your blogs, they have to have a Gmail/google account or an OPenID account (account on any one of sites like Yahoo!, MySpace etc. There is a consortium of websites joining this movement to allow users to have a single identity on web rather than different usernames/password for different sites). The only way to allow someone without a Google or OpenID account to comment on my blogs was to leave “Anonymous” comment. This was rather a BIG Show stopper for me.
• No Media library to store already uploaded photos. I don’t want to be uploading the same photo over and again if I decide to use it in multiple places.

Good

• Allows you to Import/Export existing blogs from popular blogging engines – this is great!
• No need to have a WordPress account to be able to comment. Anyone can comment. And you can moderate the comments for spam. This was really important for me. Of course, if you are paranoid about the whole world reading your entries – you can make blog posts private by assigning them a password and pass it on to users you want to make them accessible. Whereas in VOX and Blogger, in order to read a private blog, a user will need to get an account first before accessing the blogs. I thought this was really neat!
• Has almost all the features of Blogger as well as VOX and much more, including a media libray. The feature list on WordPress is as comprehensive as it can get. While blogger and VOX are good for casual blogging, I think if at some point you get more serious about Blogging, WordPress will give you more flexibility.
• Categorize your blogs – a big win, especially if you post often.
• Far superior customization options – lots of different layout, customizable header etc.

Bad

• Due to the number of features, navigating through it and getting accustomed to it may take time. An average non tech savvy blogger, who just wants to just post from time to time may find it really overwhelming.
• Use experience/flow not very smooth compared to VOX or blogger. I was stumped many times trying to figure out how to get around.

I can still live with all the no-so-good things about WordPress. I think the benefits far outweigh the bad.

I thought I might as well mention Yahoo! Shine while I am talking about picking a blogging engine.  Shine is a recently launched service by Yahoo in Late March 2008, following the recent gold rush by consumer internet companies towards women focused sites. It is a blogging site by women for women – a community of women bloggers. You have the ability to post blogs and the editing tools are on par with any of the popular blogging engines, however, unlike other blogging engines you don’t really have ability to customize your page.

There is an editorial team of 7-10 women bloggers (from who’s who of the publishing industry), who write blogs on topics ranging from fashion to beauty, health, parenting, work, finance, relationships, food etc, which get featured on shine. Additionally, there is a huge user base of women who blog on any one of these topics to share it with the community. Tapping into it’s huge Yahoo! network, Shine has reached monthly traffic of about 4 Million unique visitors within a period of just 4 months since its launch.

Given that some of the most popular topics on Shine range from steamy celebrity gossip to sex issues, I don’t think this is the place I would feel comfortable asking all my friends/family to come to read my blogs on a regular basis. Click here and you will know what I am talking about. It’s possible that in future if I decide to write blogs focused on work/career/education issues more relevant for women, I may consider Shine. I will cover Shine in more detail in another post.

Step into My World!

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while, but kept procrastinating it for lack of time or a compelling reason. But recently I was inspired by a friend who manages to find time to blog in spite of two kids and a full time job. Surely I can do better than keep thinking. I don’t know if I have a compelling reason to blog, but there is certainly something else in being able to write something effortlessly and open it for discussion/comments to friends/family or even strangers. But couple of reasons I think about why I’d like to start blogging may include

• Express my thoughts
• Kill time usefully/I am bored
• Keep friends/family posted about myself from time to time
• Write about things I like or am passionate about whether hobbies or work