Julio’s Musings Around Columbia County, New York

eating some fruit on busy Bangalore street

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

India is a marvelous country. You see citizens such as this one freely roaming around in the heart of a busy and large city such as Bangalore.
Apparently a “live and let live” attitude even to those lower on the food chain except of course for those we actually have to eat.
Taking the long (20 plus hours), two-part flight back West this coming morning. When I return at least at the outset till I get back to my beloved Columbia County, I will be in the home of the Hummer, drive-in McDonald’s and endless stream of strip malls.

Lets hope this is not the same destiny for India.
[tags] Julio Hernandez-Miyares, Bangalore, India[/tags]

mini shanty town in shadow of modern office building

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

Far away from Columbia County, New York this week in Bangalore India. 8,600 miles to be exact and 10.5 hours difference in terms of time zone. Watching the Indianapolis/New England Championship game live at 8am to give you an idea of the time difference

This picture attempts to juxtopose the old with the new in India. A recent built office building overshadowing what I characterize as a shanty-town. Not quite a shanty-town , I only see one family living in the vacant lot . A lot of anarchronisms such as this exist in India which is modernizing at a furious pace.

Cuban Folk Art Gallery??

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

On a gloomy (lugubrious) winter afternoon with thick fog enveloping the day, I decided to take the plunge and finally after many years, redact and practice my grandmother’s Cuban croqueta recipe.

She is 93 years old and she has much more energy,feistiness and originality then many folks half her age. I suspect those are some of the qualities necessary to reaching that age.

Anyway, no one can go on forever and I decided it was time to transfer the secret Cuban croqueta recipe to the next generation.

Why the photo of the long abandoned Capuccino stand near my Columbia County, New York farm? Well its been for sale for many year with 33 acres to boot. It is conveniently located right next to the country exit of the Taconic Parkway which though not an Interstate, has plenty of day trippers making the trek from New York City to the various hamlets in Columbia County.

With the secret Cuban Croqueta recipe in hand, the Cuban Black Bean recipe to come the next time there is a wash-out of a Sunday, I believe I have the perfect set of enticements for the hurried , often times hungry folks as they make their way along the long trek from or to New York City.

Add a good expresso machine, some original Cuban Folk Art for sale from a bonafide Castro loving/Castro hating (depending or your politics) Cuban Artist and I think I have something!

[tags]Julio Hernandez-Miyares,Julio’s Cuban Delight , Columbia County[/tags]

Turn over your pass please.

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

Wearing a goofy Cleveland cap and a grin from ear to ear, Nate Folkman of ADP fame turns over his AOL employee Pass on his last day as an AOL employee at his office in the Radio City Music building high above Midtown-Manhattan.

Sadly, Nate is just the latest of a continuing but diminishing stream of AOL’ers that have recently left who brought the Internet and Web as we know it in the year 2007 to AOL. As a key member in the rarefied group of developers responsible for the ADP platform, he worked for years with like minded individuals at DCI, Local Tech and Web Services and Publishing to build the platform that currently drives the majority of Web experiences at AOL.

Luckily for those that know and respect Nate and have the good fortune to live or spend a lot of time in New York City, he will be moving barely 500 feet into his new offices at 75 Rock!
[tags]Nate Folkman,AOL,AOL Server[/tags]

Noticed another one of those budding Web Products , this one named Zillow.com which is currently in BETA.
It is a Real Estate product in my opinion attempting to wrest control of Real Estate purchase and sale activities from Real Estate agents to Web Based products and hence shift (hopefully) the balance of power to the sellers/buyers. I have already “claimed” my particular condo for sale which is located at 1588 Moorings Drive, Reston VA 20190 on Zillow.com, uploaded a number of photos , updated some salient facts about the condo and stated a “Price to Move”.
I am going to try the SEO game and attempt through some SEO techniques to get myself highly ranked for the types of queries someone looking to purchase a home here in Reston, VA would try using a search engine.
For the benefit of the Search Engines who are the major consumers of my blog, Here is the link to my home page on the Zillow. 1588 Moorings Drive Reston Virginia 20190
[tags]Julio Hernandez-Miyares, Reston VA, Zillow[/tags]

1 Mile out from Millerton, New York

Originally uploaded by julio.miyares.

Early on the Sunday morning of Christmas Eve 2006, I was cruising north on I-95 from my work home of Reston, Virigina to my real home in Columbia County Two weeks to the day after much festivities with the New York based family, I turned the car south and started the 6 hour trek back to Northern Virginia and the strip malls and tract housing.
The photo I took on Saturday January 6th was at the out-skirts of Millerton, New York which is on the border with the state of Connecticut and actually resides in the county of Duchess not Columbia. It was a ridiculously warm day for January in these parts reaching about 70 degrees fahrenheit.
Millerton,New York is a small town made up mostly of antique shops. Its off the beaten path in the sense the nearest 4 lane divided highway which is the Taconic Parkway is about 20 miles and the nearest Interstate which would be the New York Thruway is approximately 40 miles distant. Nothing but 2 lane country roads around there which is fine unless you get caught behind the conservative and typically quite slow Connecticut driver.
Before I get back to my beloved Columbia County, there will be a trip a little less then half way around the world to India (Bangalore to be exact) and probably one or two short hops to my equally beloved New York City.
[tags]Columbia County, Julio Hernandez-Miyares[/tags]