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Dunno what is wrong here.

Does cruise control use up more fuel?

With the fuel prices going north, Manu started conserving more fuel and energy, by adhering to some standards what car owners should follow. Like, using less of AC, putting fewer brakes and driving in speed limit when inside the city to avoid brakes and successive acceleration.

Few days back when going to Jersey for the weekend, I was driving in my new Camry with cruise control on and suddenly she said drive manually, and don't use CC. I was surprised why she is saying that. As far as I knew, car's with constant speed gives you more mileage. But, she was adamant on her finding, when she heard the same on radio. I was pissed of with her constant nagging, asked her to sleep so that I can put on the CC mode.

Well, after reaching home, the first thing I searched was "Does cruise control use up more fuel?" and I found the following from Yahoo! Answers.

It saves you fuel no matter where you drive, for the simple reason that no person on the planet can maintain an exact speed as accurately as a cruise control. If you want proof, set it on 65 and drive down the flattest stretch of road you can find. You will be able to spot the people without cruise control because they will constantly be varying their speed, catching up to you, passing you, and falling behind you no matter how hard they try. If you disengage your cruise control, you will not be able to maintain a constant speed to within a half a mile an hour. A cruise control monitors your speed thousands and thousands of times a minute, and makes almost imperceptible changes to the throttle, giving the engine only the fuel it needs to maintain a speed. It does not get tired; it does not get fatigued, distracted, or fooled by hills or headwinds. In contrast, every time you slow down even a couple of miles an hour, it takes more fuel to return to your desired speed than it takes for the cruise control to precisely maintain it.

Hit by US Recession

It was once again time when I was sitting at home, without work, for straight 3 weeks, 3 weeks ago. Thanks to US economy.

I went to the office hale and hearty and in 2 hours time I received a phone call from my recruiter saying today is my last day. Why, they hired a manager who has a different style of working, and is not an architect. I missed my ex manager. May be in bad sense or good, not sure, but sure I did miss him.

There I was, packed my stuff in 1 hr and off to home, with so many questions in mind, what happened. Was it cost cutting, was it my lack of experience, was it bad work, was it less work, was it the way I talk to my co-workers. So many questions, and I had answer to none.

Anyway, I can’t undo the thing which is not in my control. I reached home and had a blast (really) no. Overnight, I updated my profile on all the job sites, in fact activated it, which I posted few weeks ago, anticipating the move. But, had to wait for the weekend so that I can start talking to recruiters. It was that time of the year when I hated the weekends and welcomed the weekdays. Mondays were still unwanted, coz to others it still gives monday blues.

First week went in calls and then something was scheduled for the next week. I was happy, took out the study material, dusted it and starting reading them. Second week, interviews happened, some for fulltime and rest for contracting. People ask how did it go, and my templated reply, interview always goes well, its always the result which is bad.

Finally after my hard work and burning the midnight oil (yeah, yeah), I found 2 contracts in a single day, which one to pick and which one to drop. It was a easy choice. Picked up which was close to train station.

Bottom-line is, if you are a small time contractor then be prepared for going home any time of the day.

Alls well that ends well!!!

Entry for February 20, 2008 - day #5

It was the last day of our visit to Vegas, everybody said what will you do for 5 days in Vegas, and we were still feeling we needed few more days. And yes I am not talking about the vacation part, but the Vegas part. But, we had to leave before 11.00 am so we checked out, took the bus, reached airport and took the flight. In the beginning of the fight the flight captain said its -1 F in Boston, everybody screamed don’t start the plan, and we want to stay here. Yes even I screamed. But we reached Boston, and it was 9.15PM. The vacation was over, and we have to go to office tomorrow. Neither of us was in mood. But, good things have to come to an end. So did our vacation. We will again go back to Vegas some time.

Entry for February 19, 2008 Day #4

As it is said that, in Vegas you need nights and not the days, we truly adhered to the rules and slept at 3.30 am, as a result we got up at 7am and Manu woke up at 10am and as soon she woke up she said I am having a bad headache, I was wondering, Manu don’t drink and still headache. Today we went to the top of the world, yes its true and not virtual, we were at 108^th Floor of the building. And everything was so small, at first I was scared, but later it was ok. There were some rides known as Insanity on 109^th floor, and they were real insane. You should really see the pictures to believe them. We had Mexican food for the lunch and we were back on the slot machines. After losing few more moolah, we marched to our rooms for a little rest and to again hit the roads you need some energy.

In the evening we went to Paris, yes another hotel, with their Eifel tower. Yes, we went on this tower @ 88^th floor. Well now the big thing was the lift for this tower was open for most of the height, open as in it was glass lift, so you could actually see what is under your feet and also the whole strip is clearly visible. Eifel tower is right opposite to Bellagio. So we waited for next few minutes with others and the fountain at Bellagio started. It was the most romantic evening already, and to top up with the cherry, the fountain played Celine Dion’s Titanic’s title song. Manu was all mesmerized listening the song in my arms. Well, it was a small song, and Ruby Didi was already there in Vegas for her conference, we planned to see her. Man, people have their conference in Vegas, wonder Doctors study or gamble. So then went to Mandalay Bay to pick her up and then walked down back to Paris. We clicked few pics with her in Bellagio and fountain and Eifel tower. Then by the time we left her again, it was 12.30 and I was dead tired. Manu still wanted to see Wynn, but I was in no mood. So we reached hotel straight away, and I hit the sack, while Manu was up for some time, getting ready for tomorrow.