Five years ago, I had Acute Coronary Syndrome (chest pain) and was rushed to the hospital Emergency Room. Two nights later, I returned home with 3 stents planted on my coronary arteries. But I survived. I was watching my diet very carefully since then. Only recently, I slackened off a bit.

Two days ago, I again experienced chest pain and was rushed to the same ER. Yesterday, I returned home after a night's stay in the hospital and 2 additional stents on my coronary arteries.

It certainly pays to live near world renowned hospitals. They gave me a third chance at life. But there is a limit to everything. I am well aware of that. Three strikes and you are out ... so next time I may not be around to write my blog about brushing with death. I only hope death comes quickly and I do not feel the pain.

Shoban Sen

Many people have digital camcorders these days. And everybody wants to upload their videos to YouTube. But most people do not dress up their videos before showing them to the world. Unedited, raw footage hardly ever look impressive. But with skilled editing the same videos can be made pretty presentable.

Video editing is both a science and an art. With some effort and a good software, anybody can produce good videos worth uploading to YouTube for the whole world to see them.

For those who have not quite mastered the skill yet, I have produced some video tutorials and then compiled them in a nice, little Web site called Home Movie Making Tutorials for Beginners. Anybody interested in learning is most welcome to visit my site and educate himself/herself. These tutorials, like any of my tutorials, are totally FREE.

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/

As I always suspected, retired life is the best part of one's life. It took me 68 years to confirm this. I toiled for 68 years to enter this phase of my life, and now that I have completed one full month of retired life, I can say with certainty that THIS IS THE BEST PART OF ONE'S LIFE.

Some people say, childhood is the best part of life. I don't agree. When you are a child there are too many restrictions ... don't do this, don't do that, etc. And if had parents like I did ... I was always "disciplined". Who wants that?

In the teen years and early adult life, I had to study - study hard. Oh yes, I grew up in India. You don't automatically graduate in India after a certain number of years after entering a school or college. You have to "pass" written examinations and really learn! You don't graduate from a school or college there and then take SAT, GRE, MCAT etc. to go to the next level. It is ridiculous. Why did you go to school or college then? You really have to learn in order to graduate. You don't go to a school or college there to have fun, have parties, have spring breaks (where nothing is off-limit, everything is permissible and is expected ... that is what spring breaks are for ... binge drinking, having sex, destroying hotel properties, and what not?), and generally to have a good time. You go to school or college to LEARN. Not just learn, but be COMPETITIVE. Because when you seek employment in India, you have to compete with literally hundreds of people for just one position! All the time. Recession or not.

Then during your working days you have so much stress from job, your family (yes, most "normal" people do have a family - spouse and kids - at this stage of life), and so forth that you have hardly any real time to enjoy life. And this part of one's life is usually the longest. By the time you finish this part of life, you are totally drained. Many people even develop blood pressure, heart problems, anxiety, depression etc. from daily stress and strain.

Then comes the best part of life - RETIRED LIFE (if you survived the previous stages of life). You have total freedom. You are in control of everything. No fear of parents, guardians, teachers, professors, or boss. You no longer have to worry about exams, term papers, theses, work projects, deadlines etc. Life is simply bliss at this stage. Do everything you always wanted to do but had no time, or just don't do anything. The choice is yours. I love it. And I am enjoying it to the fullest. My life expectancy is increasing ... I can tell, I can feel it. I wish I could retire earlier.

Visit my YouTube channel if you are curious to know what am I doing in my retired life. Search for "kimbhut65" in YouTube to find my channel. I cannot upload my videos here, as uploading almost always fails!!!

Shoban Sen

Tall ships come to Boston in July every year. This year has been no exception though the extravaganza has been scaled back this year due to security and cost reasons. Forty-five vessels from 17 countries have arrived in the Boston Harbor on July 8 for Sail Boston 2009. The ships will depart for Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 13. The ships are on a trans-Atlantic regatta which started in Spain and will end in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

I went to see some of these ships in Boston's Seaport World Trade Center today. I have taken some pictures. I am posting these pictures in my Photo Section to share them with my AARP friends. I hope you like the pictures.

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/  

I am impressed that from across the big pond you are tracking my activities here. No, I am not complaining. I am actually flattered. You already know that I have retired. Let me tell you retired life is fabulous. I wish I had retired 50 years ago. I lost all this time working for others. How stupid? You should retire right now and enjoy life.

Hey, I am going to Delhi in January. Come join me. We'll have good time there. My gout is better now. My latest hobby is making videos. I am currently making a series on Harvard. If interested, sample some of them here .

I am going to re-write the story of Jairam some day, and publish it in one of my blog sites. Stay tuned.

See you later.

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/                                        

Today, July 1 2009, was my first full day of freedom. Freedom from slavery. Freedom from working for others in lieu of a paycheck. I have RETIRED effective today. (And that probably qualifies me more to be an AARP member, aside from the 50-year age requirement.)

How did I celebrate the day? I woke at 8:30 in the morning. Had a leisurely hot breakfast at 10. Watched TV. Surfed the Internet. Uploaded videos to different sites including this site. Had my lunch in pajamas at 2:30. Took shower at 3:30 (but did not shave). Watched some more TV. Surfed the Net again. Writing this blog now. Then I'll open my bottle of Scotch. Order pizza delivery.

I am planning to stay up till early morning hours tonight to chat with my friend in India. I have to wait for my friend to arrive in her office in the morning. (Indian time is ten and a half hour ahead of my time.) I have no worry to wake up early in the morning tomorrow to get ready to go to work. Life cannot be any better.

I am so happy to enter this last phase of my life before the final curtain. I have so many things to do. I shall be really busy. I will need an assistant to help me out with some of the work.

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/

Dear Oldie Friends,

Have you had gout? If so, you know how annoying and painful it is. Currently, I am suffering from gout. Yes, really SUFFERING!

I made a video on gout. As usual, I could not upload it here on this AARP site. I have posted it on my YouTube channel. If interested, please see it here:

                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f1EvBCZzj8&feature=channel_page

The video can also be viewed here:

                                  http://shobansen.xanga.com/videos/0b6ef1067814/

Thank you.

Shoban Sen

http://bestnetguru.com/

Dear AARP:

This Web site really SUCKS! Technologically you are sooo inferior to any other Blog site! This is the third day, I tried to post some pictures in this site. I uploaded 10 pictures today AND wrote interesting titles witty descriptions to make the pictures enjoyable. After spending several minutes to take care to the titles and descriptions, when I finally clicked on the save button, I got                         

Oops...

We're sorry, but we have encountered an error processing this page.

Please check back again soon.

This is simply disgraceful and unacceptable. In the previous instances, I deleted the pictures because I thought without the titles and descriptions the pictures are really not worth posting. But today, I lost patience. I have let the pictures stay there with my computer file names in place of interesting titles and with no descriptions!!! Your Bulletin Board (Forum) also does not work. Why don't you just shut down the site instead of running this crippled site? I have "Checked back" many times over a prolonged period of time. IT NEVER WORKS!! SHAME ON AARP!!!

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/

Most of us, oldies, have a phobia about computers. We generally hate computers because we cannot handle them as easily as we could handle the typewriter. But the time has changed. And it will further change ... more rapidly than we wish. Knowledge of computers are fast becoming a MUST. First it was the college students who had to learn the computers because their term papers were not accepted unless they were produced by a computer. Typewriters have become obsolete. Pretty soon they will end up in museums. Stores do not sell typewriters anymore. Typewriter repair places, mostly, have gone out of business. Now a days, even kindergarten students are learning to use computers in school. My 5 year old grandson knows how to find the picture of a rocket in Google or how to find his favorite Disney movie in YouTube (he only needs little help with the spelling of words), He knows how to play the movie, put it on pause, or stop it. He knows how to play the previous or next movie, enlarge the window in the computer, and so forth. It is really amazing! What did we know when we were 5? He even one day suggested to me to bring up Webster's dictionary online to check the spelling of a word!!!

Many newspapers are no longer, or will be no longer, available on print -- they will be available online only.  President Obama is making heavy use of the computer to keep in touch with the Public, since the time he won the elections. His appetite for Blackberry has become legendary. The Secret Service had to make special security arrangements to give him permission to use his Blackberry so that he can keep in direct touch with selected people. No other American President had done that in the past. I doubt if John McCain would have done the same had he won the elections. Because he is old school, whereas President Obama is younger and prefers to utilize the latest technology.

Okay, let me come to the point. I, myself, first learned to use the computer when I was already 55 years old. I learned it completely by myself. I am a self-taught person. I not only learned it, I mastered it. Then, as my unique way of giving back to the community (I have no money to donate), I started publishing FREE computer tutorial sites to HELP ESPECIALLY THE SENIORS. (This is because I was myself hesitant to ask my daughter computer questions for fear of being laughed at!) All my sites became very popular and I received many compliments and blessings from seniors from around the globe literally. At that time Windows XP was not introduced in the market. Windows 98 was the Operating System for PCs at the time. After that several versions of Windows came. Most people today use Windows XP around the world, though Windows Vista is the latest Operating System.

I could not find time earlier to write tutorials on the latest system. But recently, I decided to drop everything else to write at least about Windows XP, which the vast majority of people are using today. So I just published my latest computer tutorial (4th in the series) called:

Help with Windows XP

Anybody who thinks he/she could use some help is most cordially invited to check out the site. It is truly FREE, there are no strings attached. I don't need any money (may be just your blessings). If you have any suggestions/comments you can e-mail me. There is no Guestbook at the site yet. Oh, one more thing. Please spread the word. I am sure you know somebody who could use some help.

Links to my previous 3 computer tutorial sites are listed on the left side of this page under my Background.

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/

I am back to talk about retirement. In my previous post, I must confess, I was totally wrong. Nobody should worry about where to retire. Most people worry about how to finance a happy retired life, i.e., do I have enough money to see me through my retired days? They are on the right track when they think about that, but then again they follow the wrong path to make the calculations. They start with the dollar amounts ... WRONG!!!

I just advised a friend by e-mail about retirement. I thought I should put it up on the AARP site for the benefit of those people who are thinking of retiring. So I am quoting below, after a bit of editing to hide personal information, what I wrote to my friend. I think those who will take my advise, will make it easy to retire. Now read what I wrote to my friend:

"I live in Boston and I'll stay here after I retire. I lived here for about 30 years, have a house here, and have my own (same) doctor here for the same length of time. I do not want to move to an unknown place after retirement and look for new accommodation, new singles bars, new girl friends, new doctor etc. It is all wrong, so far as I am concerned. And don't count your money first for retirement calculations. Count how many years you have to live after retirement. Start from your family members' longevity (grand parents, parents, uncles etc.), then look at your health, your bad habits, eating and exercise habits, body weight, body mass index, medical history of self (have had heart attack?) and family (mother had breast cancer?), chronic illnesses (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis), etc.

Based on the above, I am likely to die at 72. My doctor also thinks that way unless I start walking 4 miles everyday (which I am NOT going to do -- I have better things to do). I have saved enough money to live another 4 years. I am 68 now. So I am retiring in April, '09. After that I shall devote my entire time finishing those incomplete web sites that are residing in my computer for the last 5 or so years, upload more photos to Worldisround.com and Flickr, and will make unbelievable videos to upload to YouTube!!!!

I can't wait to do these exciting things. I wish there were more hours in a day. Most Americans worry about passing time after retirement! I don't. I feel I still would not have enough time to do what I want to do. But at least I'll have more time then than what I have now."

Shoban Sen
http://bestnetguru.com/