As we roll on towards Thanksgiving holiday, we are looking to update the holiday graphic for goomzee.com and found this funny turkey photo.  We won’t be using it but I thought it was still worth sharing.

There used to be a deer crossing sign down the road but they took it down because people kept hitting the deer. 

After installing the new thermocouple, the hot water heater worked and heated the water in the tank. Thereafter, the pilot went out yet again. I contacted the retailer and they warrantied the gas valve but would have to charge me for labor to install. I decided to remove and replace the part myself and learned a few tricks along the way.

(more…)

While I was traveling last week, my wife ran into issues with our 15-month-old hot water heater; the pilot light would not stay lit. She managed to re-light it and got hot water for a single use but it went out again. Upon my return, we once again faced cold water. We turned to the Internet to try and diagnose the issue and found that if a pilot would light, but not stay lit, it could be 3 potential issues:

(more…)

We were invited to attend the Austin Board of Realty annual tradeshow, the Realty Round Up. Goomzee Connect was VERY well received and we have some partners interested in working with us to promote our services throughout Texas. Here is a photo of our booth the day before the show (without all the table props).

My fortune from lunch yesterday.  I’ve never seen one like this and ironically, I’m a computer guy. I had to share - enjoy!

Jamie and I had to pose for photos at her parents’ house the other day and we really liked one.  Given we don’t take too many photos, I decided to publish.

I’m not the most photogenic person so have to take advantage when they turn out okay. 

I visited iStock Photo today and it was inaccessible but their error message was pleasantly humorous.  I reckon if every system had error messages like this, people would be a much better mood when calling tech support.  Enjoy!

Ahhh… the application made a boo boo. 

Mine was fantastic, obviously!    Have a great day and remember, things could be worse.

My friends Sumit and Ana had their second child, a son named Shyan. See one of the photos they shared and the note about their new bundle of joy. CONGRATULATIONS!

Ashyana poking her little brother on the nose. “Is he real?”

Message from Sumit to Friends/Family:

Friends,
I am very happy to announce the birth of our baby boy, Shyan Callan Guha. He came into the world on Thursday August 16th at 3:21 am at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, weighing in at 6 lbs 9 oz and measuring 19 inches long. He is already very adept at mind-control and seems to be the only one able to calm down his big sister when everything else has failed. For those who are interested, the name Shyan (pronounced ‘s h a r n’) is an Indian name meaning ‘exhilaration’.

Mother and son are doing great. Father and daughter are ecstatic and running on adrenalin.

Here are a few pictures of the little one. More pics will be published on http://www.anaraja.com shortly, so stay tuned.
We would love to hear from you and, if in SF, please drop by.

Take care,
Ana, Sumit, and Ashyana

I wanted to vent about the silly high-definition DVD format wars as it’s a pain for consumers. I liken the HDDVD and BluRay battle to having 3-4 phone books in a city. Of course competition is supposed to be great for the consumer, but imagine how many titles will have to be replaced once the studios and manufacturers decide on a single format. In the end, the consumer loses so not all competition is good.

The BluRay disc holds 50 GB of data compared with the HDDVD’s 30 GB and it seems they are winning over more studios and titles. I had considered buying a BluRay player but then see press noting that the movie Bourne Ultimatum will only be available on HDDVD. My only recourse is to wait it all out, or buy a multi-player by LG. At $1200 retail (although reducing to $999 given Samsung will introduce their dual format player soon), this is a steep price to pay.

The reason I liken the war to having multiple phone books is because of how they hurt businesses and ultimately, consumers. For many years in my hometown, the USWest (now DEX) was the only phonebook. Businesses would advertise in the Yellow Pages and consumers knew how to find them. Then another publisher decides to come into town and dropping books on doorsteps. Now salesmen are hitting up businesses twice, spending twice the budget to reach the same amount of consumers. There are now 4 phone books in Missoula and if businesses choose to advertise in all 4, their prices will rise to cover the costs and this ultimately hurts the consumer. I personally advise consumers to throw out all other books and all businesses to advertise in only one.

Consumers should also take control in the high-definition DVD battle and only purchase one format of disc. This will end the war, bring the equipment prices down and ultimately benefit the consumers. It looks like Toshiba might lose this time (they beat Sony during their last format war).

One of our baby girls, Nikki, decided to take a cat nap and dream about Met Life’s new 9 lives insurance program - or she just likes Snoopy. 

Please visit: www.montanaworker.com and spread the word.  I’m getting feedback that more businesses are using the service and benefitting.  Many applicants have been called in for interviews and now word is spreading throughout the state.  The service is free.

We wanted a simple yet effective way to centralize our online recruiting as we begin to grow our team at Goomzee and decided to share the technology with all businesses.  The way I see it, the more businesses using it, the more qualified applicants we can also attract so it’s a win-win.  We have no plans to solicit donations nor sell advertising, just free jobs posting service for Montana businesses and online resume storage for all.  Enjoy and tell others!

Sunday, 24 June is Jamie and my one year anniversary ( wedding last year ).  I may post a cool pic taken in South Beach standing atop the balcony of our hotel.  More to come…

I heard a great story yesterday about how Montana businesspeople were smarter than most and just had to share it.  As I started to listen, I wondered okay, what’s the punchline but it actually makes a lot of sense.

ANSWER: Because you have to be a very smart businessperson to make a living in Montana!

Growing up in Montana, I can understand that although the humorous nature of the tale (there was more but I’d mess it up), it is all too true that most entrepreneurs face an uphill battle in the state.  There are a lot of people working hard to change that and I’ve been fortunate to meet some very exciting individuals lately who truly are trying to do good and help others - that’s always been my core practice and nice to see others doing the same.

This is how I roll!    Hanging with my entourage at Sharkbite; Turtle Cove Yacht Club.

In the bar/grill, Sharkbite, which is on the water in Turtle Cove, they have a cool paper-machee Shark. It’s no surprise that it’s made out of money; things aren’t exactly thrifty on the islands.

Here’s our crew: Front: Stefany, Jamie, Katrina / Back: Andrew, Myself, Adam, Jeff

Sunset on the Carribean. This was from dinner Thursday at The Orchid.

During the afternoon, Jeff, Stef, Jamie and I explored around and bought some things at local gift shops. One of the main areas for shops is called the Saltmill (above). Within and next to it are the main bars, all walking distance from our resort, the Sands at Grace Bay.

I got a kick out of this sign. Note their “best happy” [hour] on the island.

Well today Jamie and I had our bagel and cream cheese breakfast and lounged on the beach. I went snorkeling for a while and then just soaked up a little sun; my pale skin can only handle so much. No plans for the rest of the day and tomorrow Andrew’s going to take us around the islands on his boat. We head to Miami on Monday and return to Montana late Wednesday.

We have managed to unwind and enjoy ourselves here in Turks & Caicos.  We don’t plan much, aside from the scuba diving day trip, and just hang out and enjoy some great food (not common on the islands; great chefs here) and sun.  Some more people are arriving today and we have a group getting together this evening for some nightlife.

Here are some photos on the beach and of scuba diving.  Jamie took it easy w/ a spa day and Jeff, Stefany and I did the day scuba trip.  Enjoy the photos.  I also have video of the scuba as my digital camera has an underwater case so I snapped some good footage.  I’ll piece it together when I get home and upload a cool video.

King of the castle.  Grace Bay Beach - Provo - Turks & Caicos Islands

Me, Jeff and Stefany on the boat headed out to West Caicos and the reef where we’d be diving.

Jeff and I posing for the camera.

Ahhhh, look at the lovebirds. 

Reef scenery - pretty as a postcard and the camera doesn’t capture all the color.

Beautiful colors.  Ashamedly, I’m not sure if these are sea sponges or sea cucumbers.  We did swim with a variety of fish and I got pretty close to a huge barracuda and snapped a photo.  Some others in our party saw some dolphins but we missed them.  We made two dives during the day and they were both great, but not as much wildlife as I’ve seen on some of my other dives in other places.  Egypt was the best, the Great Barrier Reef (Australia) so far in that regards but I think it all matters day by day.

Enjoy my photos and I may post more later either here in Turks or later in Miami/South Beach.

Jamie and I met with Jeff and Stefany to visit our friend Andrew and enjoy Turks & Caicos Islands. He lives/works on Providenciales, the main inhabited island. Jamie and I stayed at a resort while Jeff and Stefany stayed with Andrew in his swank condo in Turtle Cove. I’m off for a day of scuba but here are a few photos so far. Enjoy!

Flying over you can see the transformation to the turquoise water. It has some of the most beautiful beaches and water we’ve seen. Our resort is on Grace Bay Beach and there are resorts and residences along its 12 mile stretch.

Sunset from our room overlooking the Caribbean and pool area.

Jamie walking out to pool area and Hemingway’s to meet with Jeff and Stefany.

Hanging out at Hemingways, a great restaurant w/ killer Grouper Fish Tacos. Myself, Stefany and Jamie (photo credit Jeff).

Jamie, Katrina, Andrew and Jeff at Andrew’s place on Turtle Cove.

Jamie and Stefany with sun setting behind looking over Turtle Cove - Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands.

Jamie strutting her stuff at “Club Andrew”. His place is pretty awesome and we hung out with a variety of new friends our first night; more than half them had English or Australian accents so I felt like I was back in London again.

Well that’s our trip so far. I have to get to the lobby for the scuba folks to pick me up and will be taking my underwater camera case/digital camera so hopefully snap some good shots I’ll share. Enjoy!

guy walks into a bar with jumper cables around his neck and asks for a beer. bartender says sure as long as you dont start nothin!

:)

Happy Easter and make sure you “don’t start nothin’, okay!”

Mike

My friends, Sumit and Ana’s baby girl, Ashyana, during her first trip to India.

:-)  Too cute.  Ana and Ash in India - Sumit is bachelor for a month!