Freeware Utilities

Discovered a link to a bunch of freeware stuff. All good stuff (I use a bunch of it already). Of course for those of you that don't already know, besides spyware, there's also rootkits. Check out some utils to detect and remove them.

Freeware Lists

6.42 am Saturday morning and my head feels like lead...i think its the extra spice I had in my food last night. Well, I knew right then that it was gonna hurt twice...I'm right now in the middle of round 2.

Don't know how many of you have been following the stock market lately,but, MSFT took a huge (11%) hit over the past day when it announced that it was going to miss its earnings. Well, I have some money invested in there, hope I can make back that 11%

Merger Integration

The M&A engagement was a huge success. Had a couple of cocktails with the prez of the organization who was really happy with the way things went. I'm sure there's disgruntled employees who took the severance and are without a job rigth now, but...its the way things work. Companies have to stay profitable to stay afloat..and that sometimes means eliminating redundancies.

That being said, its time to kick back for a couple of weeks in mid-may. Wife thinks Miami beach perhaps.

Doctors test results

Got a call today from the doc while she went over my xrays etc...turns out i have a problem with my spine and need an MRI + physiotherapy. gonna go in on apr 24th and have that conversation in person. lets hope for the best

Retirement?

Its 6.47 pm on a wednesday and I'm sitting here at work waiting for my wife to show up and pick me up. Im also looking at retirement planning with Quicken. Threw in a few imaginative numbers and realized that 50 is not a bad age to retire...gives me some life and movement to go see the world at that point. Its also hit me that I will be 50 in 2023, in exactly 17 yrs from now.

Just the fact that I'm not that far from 50 (yes, 17 yrs can go by pretty darn quickly as I realized from High School to a professional career in Management Consulting) has really gotten me thinking on my wish list of things to do before I go into the next world to see my dad.

Off the top of my head, here's some (and I'm sure this list will evolve once my wife and I work on it together):

• Sponsor the education of one child in India. Not just high school, high school through college
• Sponsor my neice (and godchild) for her education in the US. I know her mom (my sis) isnt doing all that well, but given that it doesnt look like we'll have our own kids, why not make someone elses life better
• Continue to look after my mother so that she never has the need for outside help
• Make a list of places I want to see (right now that would be Seychelles, Mauritius, Eastern Bloc, Rome, and yes Jerusalem ... the Roman Catholic part of me wants to see the so-called holy land that has been the cause of so much bloodshed)
• Make a living will for my wife and dependents to ensure that they are taken care of (wow this makes me sound rich, but, whatever I have -- even if its furniture, im sure someone can benefit from it)
• Become an organ donor (not just eyes, everything)
• Pick a grave at the graveyard in Bombay that my dad is buried in...I want to be close to that old man...he still means the world to me
• Take care of my wife and continue to provide her with the love, security and affections that I always have (I know this seems way down on my list, but its truly No 1)

More posts later as I start to build out this laundry list. Im sure I will start checking off a few things already :)

Post-Merger days

Today was Day-One of a merger integration effort that I have been working on for the past year. It was fun to interact with my clients and realize the dream that we had once envisioned some 365 days ago. The celebrations, held at the Marriott Parsippany were a good indicator of how well the companies cultures integrated as well as how the people were going to come together. More importantly (for me), it was a super opportunity to tell my team that they had done a great job and some much needed rest was on the horizon.

Don't ever forget the little people, they are instrumental in making today work and are the leaders of tomorrow. :)