Opening Honda Pilot's Rear Hatch with a dead Battery

The other day my wife called me at work asking me to return home immediately as our 2009 Honda Pilot wasn't making even clicking sounds when she tried starting it. I knew right away that little Nyle must have checked out all the switches in it and left a couple of lights on overnight. Well, the Mr. Know it all wasn't worried at all, he had stowed away a pair of jump cables away in the storage space at the back of Honda Pilot. All That was required was to go home, take the cables out, and jump start. What Mr. Know it all wasn't prepared for was that the rear hatch wouldn't open with a dead battery. Hmmmmmmmmmm............ not to worry, Mr. KIA knew there's always Google to go to for getting advice on solving any problem in the world, he had stopped following the well established rule of RTFM (Read The Manual). Well. any help forum MKIA Googled were filled with people complaining about Honda not having an option to open the rear hatch with a dead battery, and the jump cables could not be taken out unless the rear hatch was opened. Luckily, deep buried inside one of the forums was a comment about the solution being on page 93 of the vehicle's user manual, however the very next comment mentioned that the user manual showed how to replace batteries in the key fob. That dampened any hopes I had, but then I realized the link provided by the original poster was pointed to page 90 and not 93, and there it was on page 93 showing a two step process of opening the hatch without using electric power. It involves just opening a small plastic panel on the inside of the hatch and manually unlocking using a convenient lever provided by the wonderful Honda engineers. Unfortunately I couldn't find the posting again (will update whenever I find it again), however, Google comes to the rescue again and here's the link to 2009 Honda Pilot User Manual, you will find the solution on Page 145 instead.

How to attract success!

Success is something you attract, and to attract one needs to become attractive themselves. Here,  "becoming attractive" really means "to be prepared". When the opportunity arrives at your door or you arrive at the opportunity's door, you should be prepared or be attractive enough to let the opportunity to enter your life. More often than not, people attribute success to luck, being at the right place at the right time. One such example could be a chance meeting with someone who provided you an opportunity to work on a specific project that gave huge dividends. What people won't realize is that you had prepared for exactly such a chance meeting by polishing certain skills, working very very hard for long periods of time. And then, you had been to so many places searching for just the right person or opportunity to be available that suits the skills or resources you had acquired.

When Zig Ziggler said "Work harder on yourself than on your job", he was pointing towards  acquiring the right skills that would help you become attractive. For, when you have the right skills you can go out there and  knock at the opportunities' doors and one might open up for you and opportunity may find you attractive enough to let you in.

To get started with becoming more attractive, first decide what you want, or in other words set your goals.

• Decide what you want?
• Who do you want to meet? 
• What books you want to read? 
• Which places you want to visit? 
• What experiences you want to go through? 

WHEEL OF LIFE

It is important thing to write your goals down on paper. There simply isn't any other way to convert a dream into a vision, and convert a vision into a goal, and convert a goal into a reality, than to writing it down. Each of your goals have to me very very specific. if you want to loose weight, specify how much weight you want to loose, or what is your target weight. Next, specify when you want to achieve your goal, also referred to as the timeline. Again be very specific and set up an exact date by which you want to achieve that goal. Wheel of Life is a very effective system for planning out your life. For a well balance life, make sure you cover all eight spokes of the wheel of life. A balanced wheel of life will run smoothly, and so will your life, unless some areas are neglected or over emphasized. Without balance the wheel would wobble and may fall apart altogether. Specify what is required to score a perfect 10 on each of these areas of your life, and when do you plan to be there, and then plot where you are currently along the spokes. This will give you an idea about which areas need more effort and time, but it is important not to neglect any of the areas, even if you are ahead compared to the others.

Once you have your goals list prepared with specific measurable parameters (metrics) to be achieved by specific dates (timelines), you are 80% percent through with your journey. Rest 20% is sheer persistence and focused hard work. You will have bumps, hurdles and distractions along the way, but just like a sail boat, no matter which way the wind blows, keep adjusting your sails so that you are always moving in the direction of your goals.

Upgrade to a Millionaire

8  Principles for success, based on "I Believe" from the book "Millionaire upgrade" by  Richard Parkes Cordock:

I – I believe in myself.
B- Be passionate and want it.
E – Extend your comfort zone.
L – Lies and Luck don’t work.
I – Install goals.
E – Enjoy hard work.
V – Very very persistent.
E – Expect failure.


Set a Definite goal, describe the parameters to achieve, why you want it, set a time frame,  how.. and then be persistent, stay focused. Its like playing a match of squash or tennis. You have definite goals (scores to win), and all your focus is set to achieve the win, even in the face of defeat belief that you can win until the last point is scored by the winner.

20 Habits to loose weight and stay fit

I cam across a list of 20 habits that should help loose weight and stay fit. I will list them below and update the explanations for each item later on:

1. Eat an early dinner
2. Weigh yourself daily
3. Eat a boring diet (eat same food frequently which results in reduced intake)
4. Reward yourself with a healthy dessert (about 200 calories) if you stuck to task during the day
5. Read diet / exercise tips
6. Eat breakfast
7. Take snack breaks
8. Drink water (2 glasses before a meal)
9. Order a la carte (not value meals)
10. Choose whole grains (whole wheat products)
11. Eat spicy food (capsaicin in chilies = appetite suppressant)
12. Sleep between 6 to 8 hours continuously (not less not more)
13. Manage stress (cortisol releases = promotes abdominal fat storage)
14. Take the stairs, park away from entrance
15. Chew thoroughly (stop to eat, not on the go)
16. Walk after meals
17. Keep healthy food on hand (fruit / vegetables)
18. Learn to take a joke (laughing 15 minutes burns up to 40 calories)
19. Eat Proteins (fish / eggs / lean meat)
20. Avoid dinner distractions (TV, phone, etc.)

WINNING vs. Avoiding DEFEAT

Having read many self development books, articles, blogs and viewed a few videos, every once in a while I come across the concept of Attitude making the difference. Attitudes are basically reactions to situations, and our reactions depend on how we perceive a situation.

Attitudes are reactions to perceptions, and perceptions could be deceiving

 Zig Zigglar in one of his talks mentions about a lady who came to him and asked for help. Her problem was that she didn't like the company she worked for, she didn't like the workplace, the staff, the management. Zig asked her to open a note book and start writing reasons why she loved her job, she was dumb founded as she though if she liked anything about the company then she had no reason to come to Zig for advice. Zig, however, nudged her on with a couple of suggestions like the company pays her for the work she did, they provided her with a decent office space, they covered her health insurance, and soon she had a list of 22 items (if I remember correctly) that she liked [loved] about her company. Next Zig asked her to go through the list every night and also after getting up in the morning. Next time they met after a few months she seemed very happy and when asked, she said people in my company have changed so much and she loves working there.

Similarly, race car drivers are taught to drive their cars along an ideal path on the racetrack, and not to drive to avoid hitting the side walls, meaning, worry about where to go and not about where not to go.

Imran Khan, Pakistan's finest cricket captain who helped them win the world cup, says that when he joined the national team as a teenager, he was taught to play so that they don't loose, and the result was they hardly ever won. When he became the captain of the national team, he demanded from his player to stop worrying about what if they loose, and instead focus upon what needs to be done to achieve victory. He gave the famous "cornered tiger" speech to the team when they were almost out of the world cup competition and only had a mathematical possibility of making it to the next round. The team responded and did what they had to do and leave the rest on mathematicians to figure out if they can qualify. Pakistan eventually ended up winner of that competition.

So, it's all in the mindset or attitude of a person, about what he or she wants. Determine the desire, set up a goal or destination. Once that is determined, next comes self discipline and determination which can be defined in many different ways but ultimately it comes down to a commitment to oneself to achieve what is desired and not to give up. And finally, the most important step towards success is to take the first step, and then keep moving towards your goal, jump over hurdles, go under the obstacles, keep getting up when tripped but remain determined to achieve what you desire. Good luck!

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

We had been talking about Steve Jobs having pancreatic cancer and Apple pushing for iPhone5 and his authorized autobiography ahead of schedule so he may be able to present these before he moves on. And when iPhone 4s was launched it seemed like a non-event. The tech pundits started ridiculing the new team for being lackluster and not at par with launch events hosted by Steve jobs. Little did we know that they did an incredible job given the circumstances. Most of the Apple employees probably knew that the time has come for them to say good bye to an icon who can easily be considered at par with Ford, Carnegie, Wright brothers, and other great visionaries in history. Had it not been for Steve, we probably would still be dabbling on standard desktop computer with Monitor on top of a box and type writer style keyboards. The laptops would still be at least an inch thick, the MP3 players with non-standard, non-intuitive UIs, graphical OS GUIs wouldn't have been as developed as they are, we would still be struggling with trying to fit desktop GUI onto touch screen based devices, cell phones would not have become as smart and easy to use as they are, Android wouldn't have emerged and probably MS Windows wouldn't be what it is. Steve had a vision and followed it undeterred and the rest just kept trying catching up. Who else would have been able to get a cell phone vendor to not put their logo on a phone that they market? Who else at age 13 could've gotten free microprocessor chips from HP? here have been failures and mis-steps on his life, but he learned and kept moving forward. Even the way he left this World shows how prepared he was for future......

Screen Clipping Directly from Outlook 2010

This tip shows  an easy way to take a screen clipping and inserting directly into an email inside outlook. This is applicable to Outlook version 2010. While composing an email, click on the Insert tab and then click on Screenshot on the ribbon, you will be presented with several thumbnails of different windows open on your computer and you can select the one you want to insert:

You also have the option to select an area of the screen by clicking on Screen Clipping option at the bottom of the menu.