AskDong

Having had my iPhone for a full week now, I’m prepared to give a full evaluation of the phone itself. I’m still reserving judgement on how I feel about AT&T and the pricing plan. The initial butterflies have fluttered away, but I still very much love the phone, and in some ways love it more than the day I brought it.

I’ve always been weary of the size and shape of PDA phones in opposition to standard cell phone. PDAs are much wider than standard phones, and I always thought it looked odd talking to wide flat brick. Having used the phone to make a few calls, I’ve gotten used to the shape and realize it’s more important that a phone picks up sounds properly regardless of the shape of the phone. Psychologically, I’m still getting used to talking into a flat brick.

The iPhone as a Phone
So far so good. The iPhone has been a more than adequate replacement for my old LG 5200. The call quality has been good on the 3G network, and not bad on the old EDGE network. One of the more common complaints about the iPhone don’t apply to me. I don’t use voice dialing and as result don’t miss that feature. I also live in a major city and really haven’t noticed much of difference from leaving Verizon. I image depending on where you live, the lack of choice of carrier become a deal breaker.

The iPhone For Email
I haven’t had a PDA since my Handspring, and I’ve never had any kind of mobile device on which I’ve been able to read email in the past. Given this limited background, I’ve found the iPhone’s email functionality more than adequate. The mail client is easy to use, and has a simple interface that makes reading emails quick and easy.

That said, I know the iPhone is not the best mobile email platform out there. Apple’s mobile me service has had a rocky debut. Apple’s strong suit is not service offerings, and they would be better served sticking to their bread and butter (hardware and software). Push email works on the iPhone, and have had success with Yahoo, but comparing it with the Blackberry, the push is not quite as good. It’s not as quick. For most casual users of mobile email like myself, the mail services are more than fine. However, it’s in the email client that I most miss copy and paste functionality. If I were using the iphone for serious business correspondence, the lack of copy and paste really does become a deal breaker. Luckily, I’m more interested in reading email than replying to them.

The iPhone For Organization
I’m trying to become better at scheduling and organizing. I haven’t really ever kept a calendar. I don’t wear a watch and haven’t owned one except for a tourist trinket in over 14 year. I’m starting to keep a calendar, and so far so good. There’s not much in the calendar so far, but that’s probably because I really don’t like having plans…

Yesterday, I started an account on Yelp. Why? It seems whenever I’m doing a search on a resturaunt, Yelp results are on the top of list. The user reviews are thorough, and generally pretty good. Though whenever reading user reviews, I feel they must be read with a grain of salt. There are too many reviewers who want to rant. The problem with rants is that they often focus on specific problems that are usually particular to that day or that situation. I usually don’t gather that much information from these types of rants.

I eat out a lot, too much really. Given my eating habits, I feel like should be adding something else other than inches to my waistline. Yelp seems like a good community and has effectively leveraged itself as social network and not just a user review site. I also have accounts on Facebook and Linkedin, but I don’t really use them. Yelp seems like a good place for me to make a more active foray into social networking given it’s centered on something I love, food. Of course the beauty of Yelp! is that it’s not just about food like Chowhound. Yelp wants to fry bigger fish.

So what was my first review of? The new Orinoco in Brookline Village. Orinoco is a Venezuelan restaurant and fantastic value. Everything is under $20, and most entrees hover between $13 and $17. It’s hip place, though I hear the South End location is much hipper.

Nickel and Dimed is a journalist expose by Barbara Eherenreich into to the world of the working poor. I’ve been meaning to read the book for over 4 years now. It’s sat at my desk at work for nearly three of those years, even making the move to the new office. It was first recommended by the bookstore clerk who rung up my purchase of Fast Food Nation, a similarly but somewhat more broadly veined book which I liked quite a bit. I only got around to reading Nickel and Dimed this past vacation as I sat 11 hours in the back of economy, traveling alone.
I’ll acknowledge, I read Nickel and Dimed with the intention of picking it apart. I have tendencies to read most journalistic treaties on topic of money with the eyes and teeth of an attack dog. My reaction to Nickel and Dimed ended up being a magnified version of my reaction to the Millionaire Next Door. They are written with the same intent on proving only what they want to prove despite allegations of being objective. Politically they are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but in practice they speak with a similar voice.

Foremost Nickel and Dimed reminded me how lucky I am, and how easy my own life is. A grueling 12 hours (which I rarely do) at my desk job is far easier than pulling two server shifts at any restaurant. My legs are not tired when I crawl into my warm bed in a spacious apartment in a nice part of town, an apartment that I would never be able to afford if I earned anything near minimum wage or even twice as much.
My biggest problem with Nickel and Dimed is not that I think it’s inaccurate. It’s not, but rather Barbara Eherenreich approaches the whole exercise without any intention examining what the working poor can do to lift themselves out of poverty, but merely to pay a visit to what is without argument or contention a wretched existence. Barbara succeeds best when she tells the story of her coworkers and their struggles and forced when she betrays her determination to fail.

The biggest flaw with her exercise is that she only stays in any one town for a month. By being at one place for such a short period time, it’s impossible to do anything but to live in relative poverty as a wage slave. Nobody rises from minimum wage to a better life in a month’s time. If she wanted to make that conclusion, she could’ve made it without a single day spent cleaning toilets, or serving tourists. While $7 an hour is enormous amount of money in some countries, in the U.S. $7/hour translates to about $14,000 a year. That’s hardly enough to live on which Barbara clearly demonstrates.

The thing is - it’s not supposed to be easy. Being uneducated and unskilled is not a way to go about life. The fact is for many individuals who are struggling to make ends meet are paying the price for poor choices made earlier in life. The mistakes were made in the teens, 20s and 30s. I’m not unsympathetic to the plight. I find it unconscionable that in this great nation of ours that not every citizen is covered by some type of health plan. Nor do I believe that one needs to pay the price forever for poor choice or poor luck. I do believe its society’s responsibility to lend a helping hand to those who have fallen on hard times. But in the end I’m a fervent believer there needs to be a sense of personal responsibility and some consequence to a life led less well.

Another problem with Barbara is her attitude. She has very much an “Us vs. Them Attitude.” I don’t like that attitude amongst conservatives, and I don’t like it amongst liberals. The rich are all idle, and poorly read. Management is always out of touch and heartless. She mocks the employees who cross over to management. She effectively mocks success. Nor do I find her attitude to those who are struggling to get by much better. In her attempts to paint a bleaker picture of what life is like on less than $8 an hour, she comes off as both patronizing and condescending. I’m sympathetic to the desire to illustrate how being poor is nothing that any of us want given that sometimes we as society overly romanticize the “simple” life. However she does not need to mock whatever achievements individuals do make. Her implicit presumption is also that those toiling away will not, and are not capable of making a better life for themselves. While certainly not easy, I know it’s possible to climb the economic ladder. Immigrants to the U.S. do it every generation.

The funny thing is once she finishes chronicling her adventures as wage slave, and gets down to “objectively” detailing the problems in her epilogue, I can’t say I disagree with most of her points.

• Housing – I do believe there is currently a dearth of affordable housing, especially in many urban area. It galls me that many apartments in New York often serve as nothing more than a hotel room for the affluent while low wage workers trek hours from less desirable areas come to clean and cook for the rich.
• Childcare – Rising rates of single parenthood, and two income households has created a crisis in adequate childcare.
• Healthcare – I’ve always felt that adequate healthcare insurance should be distinct from employment. This is not to say it’s as easy as the government providing it. It’s not.  The topic is complicated, but I do believe the current system needs to be adjusted.
• Uneconomic Behavior/Education – Barbara understands many individuals who are making minimum wage or near it do not make economically rational decisions. Like Barbara, I’m not ready to fault these individuals for such behavior out of hand. It’s easy for people who’ve had more education and better circumstances to pooh pooh poor decisions. So many decisions in life are based on experience and circumstance. Psychology has a much greater role in decision making than just rational thinking.

Given that I don’t disagree in the end all that much with Barbara, you would think that I would’ve enjoyed and agreed with the book more. However, I had a hard time getting past her antagonistic attitude. Being a successful is not a bad thing, and should not something anyone should feel guilty about.

When I had decided that I wanted to go to Kauai, I had also decided that I wanted to stay on the north shore. The north shore is more scenic than the other coasts. It’s certainly the greenest, receiving more rain than any other coast of Kauai. Hanalei Bay is the Crown Jewel of the north shore, and the Princeville resort the diamond. The Hanalei Bay Resort is the Princeville’s bastard half brother. They are located less than a half mile from each other in Princeville on the same side of the bay.

Bastard half brother it may be, the Hanalei Bay did give me great rate for 4 nights via Expedia. I paid $134/night with the 4th night thrown in for “free,” netting a total cost of a little over $100/night including tax. For comparison, the same period mountainview rooms at the Princeville were $380/night not including taxes. While there are cheaper hotels, and hostels for that matter, the Hanalei Bay I thought represented by the far the best value. Most guidebooks listed the hotel in a grade below the Princeville. On Orbitz it’s listed as 3 star versus the 5 star Princeville.

However once I arrived and checked in, I was very curious about both the 3 star rating, and the “very expensive” classification the resort is given in most guidebooks.  This is not the say Hanalei Bay is not a pleasant place to stay. Our room was large, and the king size bed plenty comfortable.  The small patio overlooked the mountains as promised.  The staff was helpful and courteous.  However, the Hanalei Bay Resort is not exactly what I would call a high end hotel despite being listed as such in many guides.

One of the reasons Hanalei Bay is the way it is simply a question of ownership.  Hanalei Bay is owned by developer Quintus Resorts.  Quintus is not a hotel management company like Marriot, Hyatt or Starwoods.  It only owns Hanalei Bay, and is currently developing a property in Nevada.  The company is primarily in the timeshare development business.  As a result most of the units at the Hanalei Bay are privately owned especially the larger units with kitchens.  I stayed in a hotel room owned by Quintus.

It’s possible to book a unit privately at Hanalei Bay with an owner directly. Some of these units have been extensively remodeled, others poorly maintained. The rooms owned by Quintus I imagine are like the one we had. Dated, but clean. In addition room service does not happen every day. According to a note in the room, room service could be requested for additional $30 for each visit or $10 just for towel service.  However I found my room cleaned the second day.  I believe room service happens every other day unless requested which is more than fine with me.

Some people look to receive a certain class of service from resorts. They want to be waited upon hand and foot from check in to check out as I felt when I stayed at Caneel Bay.  Hanalei Bay is not this type of resort.  The staff is friendly, casual and low key and nothing like the staff that might be found at a Four Seasons hotel.  For some this might be a good thing, for others unacceptable.  Given that my stay in Kauai was to enjoy the outdoors, I wasn’t particularly concerned with the lack of “plus” hotel service.  If you’re looking for that, stay at another hotel.  Stay at Hanalei Bay if you want in beautiful setting, at a resort that takes a hands off approach.  If you want a superior room at the resort, I would recommend researching different privately owned units at the Hanalei and booking such a unit directly with the owner.  The rooms owned by Quintus are unlikely to impress, but are certainly adequate enough for most people

I’ve had a Citibank checking account for over 7 years now, and am kicking myself of not truly taking advantage of the “ThankYou” network sooner. Even though Citibank itself has faced a slew of trouble recently resulting from the continuing subprime meltdown, I remain very bullish on its banking products.  I have my primary checking account with Citibank along with supplemental savings and money market accounts.

Recently I decided to switch my banking at Citibank from a EZ-Checking reltionship over to an Everything Counts relationship to take advantage of additional “ThankYou” reward points.  The “ThankYou” network is a large umbrella reward program that allows points to accumulate from many different sponsor accounts.  In my case I have Citibank banking relationship that nets me 600 points a month for doing nothing but having accounts with the bank.  Previously my EZ-Checking account netted me 225 points a month for having 6 different accounts (1 Checking, 4 Savings/Money market, 1 overdraft line of credit), but for the same number of accounts The Everything Counts (or standard Citibank Account) gives me 600 points.  The switch was painless, I called Citibank and they changed the relationship.  I kept the same account numbers, checks, and everything else.  The only catch is that there is a higher minimum balance requirements on a standard Citibank account, but since I was above those limits making the change did not impact me.  In addition I can earn points my making purchases via my debit card.  That said, I don’t use my debit card as I prefer earning Starwoods points via American Express.

The above chart from the Citibank website details the earnings schedule of different Citibank relationship accounts. The EZ-Checking account has minimum balance of $1,500, the Citibank Account has a minimum balance of $6,000 and the Everything Counts a requirement of $10,000 on deposit accounts, or $20,000 across all accounts (including mortgages). Not surprisingly, Citibank gives more points with the higher balance accounts.

The interest rate on Citibank’s best savings offering, the Ultimate Money Market, is a competitive 4.5% as of 11/12/2007 (Internet and Phone sign-up with a monthly Bill Pay transaction).  Even if you could find rate that was 1% higher, it would be only slightly better than what Citibank gives in terms of ThankYou rewards.  $6000 at 1% is a little over $60 per year while one year’s worth “ThankYou” points is worth a little less than $50 since 7500 “ThankYou” points translates into a $50 statement credit.  There are other rewards that offer more bang for the buck.  I believe I could better Citibank by .75% (75 basis points) by constantly shopping around and do 25 basis points better consistently via another bank.  However, given that I chose Citibank as my primary bank because of it’s size (I got tired of having my bank gobbled up larger banks and then having to change my account), and because of it’s wide range product offering, the “ThankYou” program is just gravy.

Because I’m enrolled in “ThankYou” reward program through my bank account, I’m also able to earn additional points via:

• Expedia
• Smith Barney Brokerage
• Shopping online at enormous selection online retailers such Overstock.com, Target, iTunes, the Gap, etc.

Each retailer has different reward structure for each dollar spent. Some pay one to one, others pay 2 points per dollar or more. Also, by using a Citibank credit or debit card at the retailer, it’s possible to earn “double” points (via the retailer and Citibank).