Boon's Basement

Two Face of the Day: Glenn Beck

// August 14th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Health, Politics, Thoughts

Two must watch videos by the super awesome John Stewart and Stephen Colbert:

Powered by Bookmarkify™

How much do you pay for parking?

// August 13th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Finance, Thoughts, cars

Today was an eventful day as I drove from Forest Hills to Stony Brook to meet up with my old supervisor and friend, Rose. The day was partly cloudy and there wasn’t much traffic on the Grand Central Parkway to Stony Brook which was a boon. Once I reached Stony Brook, I was reminded how unfriendly it was for visitors to find parking. Luckily, I remembered where the paid parking lots for visitors were. Instead of parking at the main lot near the Admin Building, I chose to park at the Chemistry parking lot, which has parking meters.  I inserted 6 quarters, which gave me an hour parking limit, and went ahead to visit Rose.

Two hours later, I came back and got a lovely note from Campus police, stating that I owe them $30 for an expired meter. Great, it was good catching up with Rose over lunch and now I owe the school $30. I guess, that is the price I pay when I don’t remind myself to feed the parking meter!

Instead of dwelling on my misfortune, have you ever calculated how much do you pay for parking annually, including parking garages, parking lots, parking meters, parking tickets and any cost related to parking?

Let’s start with the basic, the price of a monthly parking garage at an apartment (assuming you live in one). In Forest Hills, the garages range from $120 to $200 per month. So taking the average, it would be at $160 per month. Multiplying 12 months, the cost for a parking garage in Forest Hills is about $1920 per year.

Now for your daily commute, assuming you drive. You will need to pay for parking at work. My ex-company used to charge commuters $55 per month for parking, which is a great price compared to other companies my friends work at. So lets assume work parking is at $75 a month. Multiply that with 12 and you have to pay $900 a year.

The total so far for home and work parking is at $2820 per year. We are not done yet. We still have to consider parking cost when you go out for shopping, dinner, lunch, hair-do, doctor’s visit, etc.

Let us assume that you go out on Saturday and Sunday, averaging 3-4 hours per day. That gives you roughly 8 hours for two days we hang out on the weekends. If you are lucky, you will not have to pay for parking but if you’re unlucky or just live around a busy neighborhood such as Flushing, be prepared to pay a quarter for 15 minutes parking. We shall take Flushing’s parking rates, 25cents per 15 minutes to calculate the weekend parking cost. To spend 4 hours at Flushing, you will need to fork out $4.00. That isn’t too bad compared to what you will be spending shopping the whole day. So, for two days, it is a total of $8.00 for the weekend. A year, you pay $96.00.

Add that to the total so far, it comes to $2916 per year. We are almost done. I just need to add one or two parking tickets here and there because of an expired meter or a ticket for a no standing or no standing zone. Give and take you pay $150 worth of tickets per year, add that to the total, we have $3066 of parking related expenses per year.

Rough Estimation of the $3066 per year cost

Yearly garage parking  = $1920
Yearly work garage = $900
Yearly going out parking = $96 (not inclusive of valet, tips)
Yearly parking tickets = $150 (If you’re a careful driver)

Total = $3066

From our guesstimation, a driver, living in an apartment Forest Hills – Flushing area and who chooses to park in a garage, spends roughly $3000 a year on parking related expenses. That’s a lot of money you spend by having your car stationary. Every time you pay for parking or any expenses related to parking, note it down. By the end of the year, you will be surprised how much you are paying for having your car PARKED!

Maybe our government should create a free parking bill..

Love it, loathe it? Comments are appreciated.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Crazy Girlfriend Not Realizing Boyfriend on vacation went crazy! – from JD’s Man

// August 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Crazy girlfriend not realizing her boyfriend went on a 2 week backpacking trip in Europe went berserk and started doing crazy things! Check out the video:

Love it, loathe it? Comments are appreciated?

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Time for some reflection

// August 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

8 months of 2009 have passed and have you ever reflected on your past actions?
What have you achieved so far? Have you gotten wiser? Did you manage to keep to your new year resolutions? Time passes by so fast that sometimes we need some alone time to reflect on our lives. Now, take a moment, close your eyes and journey back to the beginning of 2009. Reflect on things that you have done or have had happened to you for the past 8 months and while you’re at it, play your favourite tune, it helps!

Here are some Chinese proverbs for your reading pleasure.

A little impatience will spoil great plans.
Chinese Proverb

Even a hare will bite when it is cornered.
Chinese Proverb

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Chinese Proverb

If you bow at all, bow low.
Chinese Proverb

A smile will gain you ten more years of life.
Chinese Proverb

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
Chinese Proverb

Behave toward everyone as if receiving a guest.
Chinese Proverb

A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.
Chinese Proverb

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one.
Chinese Proverb

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
Chinese Proverb

An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can’t buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.
Chinese Proverb

Love it, loathe it? Comments are appreciated.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

BMW Shorties

// August 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts, cars

At4 am in the morning , I should be sleeping instead of surfing the web. I found an interesting site, www.bmwshorties.com.my, that features alot of short clips featured by aspiring Malaysian film makers. BMW Shorties is a platform for the independent film movie in Malaysia.

This video is quite interesting:

Le Mannequin from Vjan Wong on Vimeo.

Check out more short videos here: http://www.bmwshorties.com.my/2009/

Love it, loathe it? Comments appreciated.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Tanger Outlet, Hoshi Sushi.

// August 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

The weather was spectacular today as I spent half of my day at the Tanger Outlet in Riverside, NY. It was supposed to be an hour drive from Forest Hills but because of congestion on the Long Island Expressway (495), the journey took us almost 2 hours. Once we got to the outlet, we had to look at the signs for the stores we wanted to visit. It wasn’t the most intuitive, as the stores were scattered between Tanger 1 and Tanger 2, each accessible by car but by foot, it may take an extra 15 minutes walk.

Looking for the Coach store, I had to ask the car next to me, as we both waited for the red light. Realizing that the Coach store was on the other side of the road, I quickly made a U-turn, almost hitting an incoming car.

Apparently, weekdays aren’t as busy as the weekends for Tanger outlet. Unlike Woodbury Commons, Tanger outlet seems to be missing the tour buses that carry tourists from New York City. One of the reason could be the bad layout of the stores make it inconvenient for tourists shopping.

Entering the Coach store, we quickly spotted the differences between Tanger’s Coach store and Woodbury’s Coach store.

1. Tanger has less selections than Woodbury
2. Tanger isn’t as busy as Woodbury during weekdays, while Woodbury is constantly busy
3. When you buy bags from Coach at Tanger, the sales person will tear the prices off – the reason is to prevent people from reselling the bags. I find it ridiculous especially when Coach has unlimited return policy, it would create inconvenience for the store when customers return the bags. Silly store policy…
4. The sales associate at Tanger’s Coach aren’t as enthusiastic as those at Woodbury’s Coach

After spending $700 at the Coach store, my girlfriend and I went to the Children’s place because she had to get a gift for her friend. Taking the opportunity, I too bought some clothes for my niece in LA. I haven’t seen her in almost 9 months, since last Christmas.

After all that shopping, we headed to Stony Brook’s Hoshi Sushi for dinner. It sure brings back memories. For those UMN peeps who may be reading this post, just so you know..Boon misses everyone!
Speaking of which, my friend is waiting for his son to be born at any moment now. Phoenix, we are all waiting!

Love it, loathe it? Comments appreciated.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

On my way to Philly~

// August 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

I am at a cybercafe in Chinatown, NY, waiting for my bus to Philadelphia. The internet cafe charges $2 an hour. If you’re a VIP member, you only pay $1.50. Gosh!

Will be visiting Rub and Wharton. Will post an update on that!

10.19am update: I have boarded the bus, run by Eastern, and I am connected to the onboard wifi. This is what travelling should be, being able to go online whether you’re on a bus or a plane. Awesomeness!

Woot.

2.17pm update: I am at Rob’s Lab waiting for him to walk me to Wharton. The info session starts at 3 pm and the walk from Rob’s Lab to Wharton is about 10 minutes. The weather is beautiful here in Philadelphia, sunny with the humidity around 70-80%. Will keep you guys updated.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Confronted by the Malaysian Police? Know your rights!

// August 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Politics, Thoughts

Please follow the link to download the pamphlet regarding your rights when confronted by the Malaysian Police. LINK

Documents are available in English or Bahasa Malaysia.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Hah, told you so – Obama Is An American Citizen!

// July 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // News, Thoughts

For those out there who are questioning the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth place, the birth certificate proves it once and for all – Obama was indeed born in the 50th state of United States, Hawaii.

What’s next? Obama is a friend of the KGB because of his recent visit to Russia or that he is a closet terrorist plotting the destruction of America? I think the latter is more Dick Cheney – check it out here.

Love is, loathe if? Comments appreciated?

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™

US Army, Saddam Hussein Scam….

// July 31st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Thoughts

I received this in the email (Subject:”GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU”) today from John England about $23.3M dollars found in Iraq. he insists that I keep this email a secret but being a blogger, I feel I have the obligation to post something this ridiculous and funny online: (Black – original email, red – my comments)

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Dear Sir,

I am John England (Would you trust a guy with the last name England?) ,an Army contractor attached to the US Military force in Iraq . I got your contact through a discreet search from the Internet (It’s called Google), The reason why I’m explaining my findings to you is to seek for your assistance to enable you contribute immensely to the actualization of my dream. (he’s getting to his point – looking for a fool to scam)

On the 8th day of January 2007, my group of 2 men and I were alerted on the need of some reconstruction works in Haifa Street , a long thoroughfare of high-rise buildings (didn’t the Americans level Iraq with intense bombing?) built and occupied by Saddam Hussein when he was alive here in Baghdad. Immediately we proceeded to the site and as we commence work to our utmost surprise we discovered an underground bunker in one of the buildings.(bunkers were everyone, and they were surprised to find this particular bunker…ok)

Upon investigation of the bunker  we discovered two boxes safely hidden and sealed, coded (The story is slowly turning into a mystery ala Da Vinci Code -ish), I told my men to open the boxes in order to find out the contents and when they were opened and the money counted, to our amazement the boxes contained USD $23.2M (I wonder how long did it take them to count all the money…$23.3M – counted with no money counting machine, in a warzone??)

I however instructed them to keep this in high secret so that we can have the money to our selves, they all agreed to the plan and we were going to get the money out of the country but first we had to hide the money in a safe and untraceable location. (I have a feeling some men shoved it up their glory hole… =P )

I am now in desperate need of a “Reliable and Trustworthy” person like you (hoping that you will be that fool) who would receive, secure and protect these boxes containing the US Dollars for me until  my assignment elapses here. We cannot leave the boxes here in Iraq for any reason since Iraq is getting unsafe and dangerous everyday(But it was safe enough for the bunker to be undiscovered previously – assuming there was a bunker fulled with money) . I assure and promise to give you 10% of this fund, however feel free to negotiate what you wish to have as your percentage in this deal so that I can immediately arrange on how to send it to your care. (This is a plea so that you can really be a fool and fall for this trap…)

Please assure me of keeping this confidential and topmost secret so that my job would not be jeopardized but protected. (If he loses his job, he will have no income and he will be in deep trouble….hahah, ok John England….I SHALL NOT TELL ANYONE BUT PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET)
Please Reply

My Sincere regards,
John England (really…John England? Where’s his buddy, Jackson America?)

jengland_j@yahoo.com

—————————————————————————————————————————————

I have actually received one of those Nigerian Prince Scam emails but I have deleted it. This time,  I just can’t let a funny email from “John England” be directed to my trash can without first sharing it with the public.

Love it, loathe it? Comments appreciated.

-Boon

Powered by Bookmarkify™