I was actually booked for this event through the DC Improv in Washington, D.C. Mona, one of the organizers in the Association of Indian Muslims of America (AIM), had seen me perform at the Improv sometime prior to the date of this show. She thought I would be a good fit for their Eid event in Rockville, MD.

The event went very well and the crowd had a good time. Afterwards, I received the following message from AIM:

Shahryar performed a 30 minute stand-up comedy act at the annual dinner of the Association of Indian Muslims of America in Rockville, MD.  The audience of about 150 people connected very well with Shahryar’s comedy act and his jokes.  In his rendition he interpretted daily activities of work and pleasure with very insightful humour that made us think of those occurrences in a light that we had not thought before.  With his jokes on the generation gap he enlivened the audience that was a mix of young people and middleaged people. His jokes on how immigrants are adopting to the US way of life was another rib tickling feature of his performance.

Here is a link to the image of the e-mail.

The organizers also shared these pictures:

(I left them small because they were blurry big)

Life used to be good with my contact lenses.i think the last time things were good was in 2008 to 2009. I had the CIBA Vision Night & Day and looking at my e-mail, I ordered them last on July 25th 2008:

Then a year-ish later I ordered replacement contact lenses, but they were Air Optix Night & Day Aqua this time (in between I got another box of 6 from the eye doctor):

Not a big deal I thought at the time. But I Was wrong. When I started using them sometime a little later (after finishing up my non-aqua supply), they were killing me. I started looking online and realized I wasn’t the only one. Here was one page I commented on ( http://www.straightfromthedoc.com/50226711/allergic_to_contact_lens.php) on 2/26/10. I was looking for advice and saw the BioMedics55 and ProClear mentioned.

I’m not sure what I did for that time. I know on 2/21/2010 I saw a new Eye Doctor at Visionworks and we tried out some contacts. The Contact Lens prescription wasn’t filled out until 5/16/2011 so I think that’s when we finally decided on the contacts. I am not sure of the exact ones.

In early 2011, as my supply of contacts was wrapping up, I tried out a new eye doctor and told her about my contact lens woes. I tried out a few different ones with her and we settled on the Biofinity Contact Lens. On 6/6/2011 I ordered a box of 6 contact lenses:

But over the past so many weeks, I’ve been noticing trouble. I thought it was an eye infection or something else, but I think it’s the contacts causing the problems. So now I have to figure out what I can do.

Now that I have some familiarity with doing my oil changes, I thought I would try to do it on my wife’s 2007 Accord i4 and my dad’s 2007 CR-V.  Yesterday I swung by the dealer and picked up two of the Honda Oil Filters and washers (I should have prepared better and bought these online – or at least taken a printout with me to get these prices down):

I looked online and found the Changing The Engine Oil On The 2007 CR-V, Photo Essay thread.  This mentioned the oil filter wrench so today, I swung by Advance Auto Parts to pick it up along with the oil I would use: two Mobil 1 5w-20 5qt jugs, which came with a mobil 1 oil filter for $33.99 total each set.

I got home, got my brother and got to work.  We started with the CR-V.

After doing the first steps of warming up the car and removing the oil cap and cleaning it, I tried doing the next step of removing the oil drain plug.  Unfortunately, it was on too tight for the tools I was working with – a Stanley Socket Set Driver and Gearwrench flex wrench (both 17mm):

I did have a longer 1/2″ Ratchet but only SAE sockets (which I bought for using w/ my IS 350′s Oil Filter Wrench during the last oil change).  I needed a 17mm one:

I thought I would try to put the car on ramps now – the OP of the CR-V thread said not being on the ramp  would be harder but would be better.  But, I thought having more room would help:

But it didn’t, we still couldn’t get the oil drain plug off with either tool:

I gave up at that point.  The only thing I can think of now is to get the 17mm socket with a 1/2″ connecter for my longer ratchet.  Hopefully the more torque will help.

I tried my luck with the Accord 2007 i4 next (7th generation):

For that, I found this thread: DIY: 7th gen I4 oil change, filter from top

I repeated the same initial steps of warming up the engine and cleaning around the oil cap area and leaving it loosely on.  With the oil drain plug being so accessible from the front, this was much easier and I had the oil drained in minutes after beginning:

Unfortunately I didn’t lay enough newspaper down though because there was some splatter:

To deal with this, I threw some liquid detergent over the oily areas RIGHT before a heavy thunderstorm came through.  I’m not sure how good that dealt with it but it’s the only thing I knew that could work.

With the oil pretty much drained, I reached from above and pulled the oil filter out.  It came out pretty easily, I didn’t even need the oil filter wrench.  I threw it in a zip lock bag (tip from the DIY: 7th gen I4 oil change, filter from top thread).  I then took the new oil filter and put a little new clean oil in it (Wasn’t sure how much I was supposed to put in) and also applied oil around the circular opening parts.  My brother and I both struggled to put the oil filter back on, it was a little more difficult but finally did.  Then threw a new washer on the oil drain plug and put that back in.

Next I started putting the oil in which was most of the 5qt Mobil 1 5w-20 jug in but not entirely.  I knew it wouldn’t take all 5 quarts and I was on ramps and needed to be on flat ground to see how much I needed.  I took the car off the ramps and got onto a flat surface but by then it started raining.  Tomorrow I have to put the remaining necessary oil into the car.

I came back after the rain and also resetted the maintenance minder:

This oil change was done at 49,623 miles and the car was -5111 miles past when the maintenance minder wanted me to do the oil change. I have to do some more research now to figure out how far I can take this oil, if I can change the filter and push the oil longer (like I plan to do in my IS 350).  Also, if it’s ok to use the Mobil 1 M1-110 Oil Filters that I got free with the mobil 1 oil.

My Nokia N95 8gb pretty died recently and for the first time since 2005, I have been using a non-Nokia phone as my primary phone.  The phone right now is the BlackBerry Bold which I hate more and more every day because of something new that I discover it can’t do.  But moreso, it’s RIM that I’m most amazed with because I can’t believe that a phone this recent has these kinds of flaws.  If the company make features like these, I fear it’s ability to last in a mobile world where anything is supposed to be possible.

This post has started on 7/12/2011, but I will keep revisiting it to fill in the things I’ve already found but haven’t documented yet and also the things I discover in the future.

Reason 7/12/2011- I had a bunch of images on my phone and connected to my Mac’s BlackBerry Desktop Software to pull off but it wouldn’t pull them since they weren’t on a media card (since I don’t have one):

So I thought, I would just pull off via BlueTooth, but turns out the BlackBerry bold doesn’t have the necessary services to pull off the images:

So I went to initiate the bluetooth transfer of the images from the phone within the Files program (file manager/explorer equivalent) but it turns out you can’t select multiple files.  So I had to manually send each one of my 40+ imagesand accept the transfer on my mac each time (maybe I could have turned this auto-accept in retrospect).  Then go back and manually delete each one off my phone.

More later..

These are all the car cleaning supplies I have as of right now:

Last weekend I finally got around to changing the brake fluid in my 2008 IS 350. From what I had read on the IS-specific forums, the brake fluid should have been changed every 30k miles and 2-3 years. I ended up changing it when the car was at 42k-something miles.

There were a few threads with instructions on how to do it and I referred to those to help me:
http://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-second-generation/533616-is350-brake-fluid-flush.html
http://www.clublexus.com/forums/suspension-and-brakes/292048-whats-the-correct-size-earls-solo-bleeder.html
http://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-third-generation/557413-30k-fyi.html#post6298599

As far as parts went:

I had ordered four 12oz IS 350 brake fluid bottles from Sewell.

I also ordered these brake bleeders from ebay: Motion Pro Hydraulic Brake Bleeder One Man 1 08-0143. They had been recommended to me in this post.

Right before the install I picked up the vinyl tubing from Home Depot – I think it was 3/8″ size.  Also from Home Depot I picked up some funnels but never ended up using them.  And I picked up the turkey baster from shoppers.

I bought jack stands from Harbor Freight for $20 for a pair.

Procedure:

I started off with both sides of the back of the car on jackstands:

Next was going to the brake fluid master container (I forget the proper term of it) and taking out fluid to the “min” line:

After removing some of the fluid with the turkey baster:

Then I added in the first round of new brake fluid;

The mistake I made (and kept making) was that I was filling in fluid all the way to the very top (above the max line). I’ll discuss this more at the end.

Now was to start the actual fluid flush/change process. I opened the packaging of my brake bleeder:

I installed it to the right rear caliper (on the IS 350 you start furthest-to-closest to the master reservoir) and started pushing the brakes pumping the fluid out:

The problem I was having though was that I couldn’t tell the difference between the old fluid and what the new clean fluid should look like. So I just kept pumping what I felt was a lot.

I then went over to the left rear brake caliper and flushed fluid out from there too. All in all this is the amount of old brake fluid I had from both what I pulled out from the master reservoir and pumping the rear brakes:

I then put the rear wheels back on and pulled the car off the jackstands. Then I went to the front of the car (btw, lesson I learned, loosen the lug nuts on the front wheels before starting to jack up the car), put both sides on jackstands and pulled the wheels off.

Here’s a shot of the front left brakes once the wheel was removed:

Here’s how much brake fluid I pumped out from the front two brakes:

Combined with the earlier image of the old brake fluid from the brake fluid master reservoir and the rear brakes, here is how much brake fluid was taken out total:

Al in all, I went through three of brake fluid containers (12oz each, 36oz total). It seems like I put in new around what I took out eyeballing the amount of old brake fluid in that 59oz container.

As mentioned earlier, I did fill to the very top and when I realized this, I tried to use the turkey baster again to take some out but it wasn’t working right and just falling right out (and not staying in the device). So I ended up taking some out just by spilling it everywhere (and then wiping up after). But I believe I’m still above the max line.

I’m pretty sure I have to deal with brakes in my car and it would have been nice to take care of everything in one shot but I had not done any research on brakes/rotors for my car.

The iPad

I’ve been an active mac laptop user for a little over 9 years now (ignoring the Apple IIe I had as a kid).  Unfortunately though, during the day at work, I’ve always had a different computer that I had to use (and was always a PC – yeck).  This has always meant that I have less time during the day to use my expensive mac laptop – expensive because it was always the more powerful one (then the PowerBook, now the MacBook Pro).  So in order to get my money’s worth out of my Mac, I can’t really have anything else fighting for its attention.  The exceptions are the cheaper Mac Mini computers I’ve always bought to keep at home for my days off/evenings in when I’m working around my home office.

This is why the iPad was something that I never considered owning.  I thought it seemed kind of cool but nothing for me.  Plus, when I’m on the web at home, I’m not just browsing – I’m editing videos, doing stuff with photos, have a ton of windows open.

But then in January my brother in law bought me and my wife one as a gift.  Since then we’ve both been using it here and there but not a terrible amount.  Again, most of what I do is easier on a laptop or just plain can’t be done.

But the iPad is something good for on the go – if and only if I can get internet on it all the time.  And since I don’t want to pay yet another amount a month for a data connection, this limits my options.  The best one I have come up with is to get a phone that can take its data connection and make a wifi hotspot out of it for no additional charge.   This would allow me to have something quick to work with for my stand-up.  Also, when I was traveling, it was something handy to keep on me while going around but not having a case/holder for it made me nervous.  Plus, I was traveling internationally so didn’t have data connection everywhere so I kept looking for wifi hotspots.

The iPad 2 announcement came when I was traveling and the updates that stood out to me were the lightness, thinness, and the cameras.  These updates would have been appreciated to have on my trip.  It’s definitely nothing that would make me want to upgrade from the iPad and still not enough for me to justify buying an iPad 2.

I’ve had my F-sport sway bars for my 2008 IS 350 for over a month now.  I had read how easy it was to install on http://my.is and http://clublexus.com.  However, I have not been able to do it on my how.

After my F-sport sway bars arrived, my first attempt in putting them into my 2008 IS 350 was on February 18th.  It was 70 degrees that day so I attempted it at work:

(more…)

I’ve been a mobile phone user for over 10 years now and the majority of my phones have been Nokias.  As a matter of fact, my first phone was a Nokia (I got into my extensive Nokia history here in this post I wrote last year: http://ifweran.com/nokia-we-would-change-around-quite-a-few-things/2010/08/ )

My current phone is a N95 8gb which I have had now for almost 2 years.  The phone is starting to die, but even then, I’m also needing my phone to do some other main things (example 3g+ on t-mobile).  I’m looking for a replacement, but unfortunately, nothing in Nokia’s arsenal is catching my eye.

My need is pretty simple - I want my same phone again but want it to do more.  I’m a very big (one of the last it seems) proponent of the keypad.  Out of everything a phone can do, I care most about how fast and easy it is to type on.  This has always been my driving force with my phones

It is why I kept using my 8890, 6170, and now my N76 for so long. I’m mainly using my phone while doing something (walking, driving – yes I know it’s wrong) and that is when the keypad is your friend.

I got my hopes up with the X3-02 but it’s just too limited for me to do anything with (as it was meant to be). But a capable Nokia touchscreen phone with a keypad is what I dream about late at night.

So, with me being unable to get a good phone in keypad form, this means I’m going to have to settle for a phone with a keyboard.  So far I have demo-ed 3 phones from my friends at Womworld Nokia: The N97 Mini, the N900, and a few months ago the C7.  The N97 Mini I wrote a very critical review about, The N900 just wasn’t for me (I know it’s a mini-computer that became a phone, but that’s not really my cup of tea), and the C7 I also was not impressed by (I still haven’t written my review yet).

So the big question – if I have to go with a phone with a keyboard, why am I not going with the E7 (or something? And the reason is that I love Nokia but don’t like Symbian.  A few years ago, all the extra stuff you couldn’t do with a phone really wasn’t a big deal, but now it is.  My wife had her 8801 from ’06-’08 and was so in love with the form, she didn’t care about apps, etc.  She then got her N82 and was happy with that too – until she started noticing around her what others were doing with their iPhone.  In Summer 2010, I got her an iPhone finally and she’s doing a lot more with a phone than she ever did with a Nokia (although now she’s not happy with it and wants something else).  I know there are apps out there, etc but it’s just not as easy as with the other guys.  And the apps.. well app on Nokia I do use hard (Gravity) still feels it lacks something.  There are always those other things that bothered me too – like how I couldn’t change the default browser to much smoother Opera Mini.  Also how it still doesn’t play nice with macs (The Nokia Multimedia Transfer app for example doesn’t even run on intel – thus requiring Rosetta to run and hogging more resources on my computer.  And it doesn’t even delete my pictures after importing them).

So, all things the same, I’d rather consider another OS (and as a result, unfortunately, another phone).  All things not the same (i.e. keypad),  I would stay with Nokia and be ok with doing the MAIN things I need well and not be able to do other things.

I’m going to keep an eye on Nokia because of this whole Windows Mobile 7 thing.  And as I mentioned, I love the Nokia phone and think it is a superior phone to others.  I’ll still keep rooting for Nokia and getting excited when I run into their events, like this one in Kuala Lumpur:

Shahryar at the Nokia E7 Roadshow

Last august I bought my wifeRida her iPhone 3GS to use with t-mobile. She had wanted one for a long time and with her n82 starting to act up ( it was past the 2 year mark at the time) and a jailbreak out for the latest firmware, it was time to finally do it.

Unfortunately though, within just a few months, she had decided that she did not want it anymore.

There were 3 main complaints.

1) too hard to type while driving, walking, etc

2) slow Internet speed (because the iphone isn’t compatible with anything other than edge on t-mobile)

3) low battery life

Regarding the first complaint, there’s nothing that can really be done. Typing while doing something is easiest on a phone with a keypad but it seems you can’t get a good keypad phone now.

So if there’s nothing that can be done for that, then at least I can see if I can find her a phone that addresses her other two problems.

Because of the time, effort, and money that was put in, I made her at least stick with it for some time. She did that So the hunt is on now. Just have to figure out what to get.

I will hen hand off this phone to my mom because 1) the iPhone’s incredibly easy to use, 2) my mom doesn’t. Really have much data need, and 3) as a result of limited use, the battery life should be fine for her.

The iPhone experience wasn’t totally negative though. She did a thousand % more win this phone than she did with her n82. Now she knows better what she can do with a phone and what she wants and needs in a phone.