One Year Later!

Today is the one year anniversary of employment at my current job. It doesn't seem like a year already, but I guess time flies when you don't hate your job. Since I left my previous job, I would honestly have to say that I'm happier and a lot less stressed than previously. The current job does present its own challenges and hardships, but I don't feel pressured to work 12 hour days constantly. The commute does suck, but I partially alleviated that problem by purchasing "the ultimate driving machine". The commute is bearable, but rising gas cost is starting to really eat into my pocket book.
Eventually, I'll relocate closer to work and all will be well.

If you don't like your job, I would seriously recommend at least looking around. The worst that can happen is that you don't find anything and stick with your current job. The most positive outcome is finding employment at a place where you don't mind working at

My house could've burned down last night

After thinking about the events that occurred last night, I'm VERY lucky that nothing serious happened. The worst possible outcome would've been my housing burning down with me sleeping inside of it! Fortunately, I was at the right place at the right time to prevent a fire from ever starting. The fire would've started through no fault of my own and could've even have occurred without me being at home...

The events all started right before I went to bed. I was in the master bathroom getting ready for bed. While washing my face, I smelled a strange smell. The closest description of the smell that I can come up with is a band-aid. It was a weak rubbery sort of smell. At first I thought it was the facial wash that I was using since I started smelling the strange smell right when I applied it on my face. It seemed illogical that the smell of the facial wash would change, but I didn't give it too much thought. After a few seconds, I had finished rinsing the soap off my face. At that point, the smell was a bit stronger and more closely resembled burning rubber.

At that instant, fear ran though my body. Had I left something on the stove which caught on fire? If so, the fire would've been quite severe by this time in order for the smell to have permeated from the kitchen, which is located downstairs, to my master bathroom upstairs. I immediately dropped what I was doing and sprinted downstairs. During my sprint, I was trying to think what was near the stove that was rubber that could've caught on fire, but I couldn't think of anything...
When I reached my downstairs, I flipped on the lights, but there was nothing. The stove was off and all was quiet. I was slightly relieved that there wasn't a raging fire in my kitchen, but I still needed to determine where the smell was originating from. I ran back upstairs and ran to the other bedrooms and bathroom, but saw nothing. After this, I headed back to my master bathroom. As I entered my bedroom, the smell was acrid (enough to irritate your throat/lungs). It smelled like there was a fire. I knew a fire had either started or was imminent!

As I turned and faced the master bathroom, I could see smoke above the sinks, near the light figure above the mirror. There was no visible signs of a fire, but that could change at any instant. At this moment in time, only 10 to 15 seconds had elapsed since I had originally left the bathroom to check the kitchen and other rooms for a fire. The situation was rapidly escalating...

I stepped into the bathroom and looked at the light fixture and glanced at the lightbulbs. All the bulbs that I expected to be functioning were functioning. I had eliminated all logical possibilities for the fire except for one: an electrical fire in either the wall or in the light fixture. If there was already a fire, I would've been screwed.
At that instant, I flipped off the lights as a precautionary measure. If a fire had already started, flipping the lights would've done nothing. If a fire was yet to be started, flipping off the lights would cut off the electrical current, thereby preventing it.

I then ran downstairs to my kitchen to bring something back up. Take a guess what it was...





If you guessed a fire extinguisher, you would've been correct. I have one located in easy reach in the cupboard right under the kitchen sink (Do you have one located in your kitchen???).

When I got back to the master bathroom, there was no fire. I waited several more moments just to be sure. At this point I was fairly confident that some wires in the light fixture or in the wall had shorted, burning the insulation on the wire, resulting in a burning rubber smell. I retrieved my flashlight and then proceeded to removed the lightbulbs and to disassemble the light fixture. I easily took the cover off the light fixture (without any tools) to expose the innards/wires. (I knew how to do since, since I was the person who originally installed it).

I then examined the innards of the fixture and its wires and could not find any problems. I was relieved knowing that my installation of the fixture was perfectly sound. Because no more smoke was being produced (after turning off the lights), I knew it had to be related to the lights, or its wiring, somehow. If the short circuit was in the wall, I'd have a difficult time resolving the situation since I can't easily access the interior of a wall.

At this point, I decided to try something risky. I flipped on the light switch (there were no light bulbs in the fixture). If smoke starting appearing, I could tell exactly where its origin was. Nothing, no smoke at all.

I then went ahead and plugged one bulb back into the fixture. The light came on and everything was perfectly fine. No smoke, nothing again... At this point I was stumped. I had run out of ideas on the cause of the smell and smoke.

I then picked up the next bulb. As I proceeded to screw it in, my search had come to an end. It was the light bulb! The base of the compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) had a little burned spot. I didn't see this earlier as I removed the bulb from the fixture because it was dark and I had removed the lightbulb by grasping only on the glass globe of the bulb. I instantly verified my finding by putting my nose near the bulb and taking a small whiff...

In conclusion, I opened a window and turned on the AC to get some fresh air (The smell/smoke was irritating my throat/lungs). I was relieved enough to go to bed, although it did take some time for the adrenaline to wear off and for the smell to dissipate...


I'm one of those people that leave lights on all the time without being in the particular room. Out of all the times that this incident could've occurred, it was serendipitous that I just happened to be there to stop it. I have no doubt in my mind that it would've taken only a few minutes for a fire to erupt if I hadn't intervened!

My next post will be a rant about cfl's (compact fluorescent lights)...

Societal Benchmarks

I was recently thinking about the state of our society and economy. After some thinking, I came up with a question that I couldn't find a good answer to: Why is the state of a country always measured in financial terms (such as economy, GDP, wealth, etc)? Instead, shouldn't the measurement be based on the well being of the inhabitants and not their output?
Some people would argue that there is a correlation between these indicators and the well being of people, but my argument would be why use a indirect measurement at all?

One direct measurement of the well being of people is happiness. The correlation between happiness and wealth seem quite obvious when using common sense, but I would argue that it isn't. For example, Bhutan is a very poor country, but its citizens are on the top of the list when measured in happiness.

The main problem with measuring a society in financial terms is that the true goal is lost. Instead, production is maximized at the expense of happiness and well being. This whole line of reasoning leads me to my last and most important question: Why are we still working 40+ hours a week??

With the advances in technology, machinery, automation, etc, the efficiency of a person is significantly higher than it was a few decades ago, but the number of work hours remain the same. If we wanted to increase the well being of people, the number of hours worked should be decreased, thus allowing people to spend more time with family, friends and to do leisure activities. I would argue that people shouldn't have to work more than 30 hours a week. If a company needs more resources, they could hire more people to make up the difference. People would make less money, but they wouldn't be any less happy!!