Headphones

[This is for my own notes]

My headphones (the ones that come with my HTC one) keep dying while exercising. I buy new ones but last not more than a year. I actually don't think it has to do with the sweat but with the connection to the jack or the mic. So, decided to look for something better and after some research:

1. My friend recommended these: JayBird - X2 Wireless Earbud Headphones. Good reviews, sound great, and he said he has had them for years. Some review talks about them breaking, but at the same time, as these are wireless, I think if they break for some other reason (like sweat) I should be fine... Found offer in BestBuy for 1/2 price ($70)  and they also seem to have a very strong warranty, should anything fail, so I am getting them today. 
2. A cheaper wireless option ($26!) which a lot of folks rave about is the TaoTronics. I feel I should get a pair too! Maybe present for my sister... I would go for these if it wasn't because #1 is half price.
3. There are more expensive options like Bose or Beats, but they don't seem more durable based on the reviews, so, will try the above.
4. For wired type, which I need for airplane (not only because wireless rules for take-off/landing, but because how otherwise am I going to plug to the entertainment system?), the sturdier one recommended by a website was the RHA MA750 ($120). Not buying yet.
5. The other wired alternative which seems pretty nice (but hard to get) is the JVC HA-FXT90. The have about the same price.

Let's see if I am lucky with my choice!

Know your plastics

#1 BAD       polyethylene terephthalate, PET or PETE. Water bottles
#2 GOOD    HDPE - detergent/oil containers
#3 BAD       polyvinyl chloride/PVC - Pipes
#4 GOOD    low-density polyethylene, LDPE - Grocery bags
#5 GOOD    polypropylene, PP - Plastic cups/food containers
#6 BAD       polystyrene/PS (styrofoam)
#7 BAD       Lexan and others unclassified
 
Source 

For more properties on plastics see this...

Lowest Cost Wire Transfers

Directly to the answer... (some savings comparisons below, FYI).

The website name is TransferWise. If you click on this link  (https://transferwise.com/u/b9886f) they should give you commission free up to $4k in your first transfer. For full disclosure, every 3 of those I get $150 in my account, but seriously, keep reading :) And if you don't want to use the link, don't :)

Heads up, the signing process is a bit annoying because they need to ID you properly (to avoid money laundering, tax evasion…). Nothing too bad, all online, but they ask you for some pic of your driver license or something like that… Can't remember. Done in 10 minutes, though.

Other than that, the service is truly excellent. They give you immediate email feedback on every step of your transfer and usually exceed expectations on schedules. So far, 2 day transfers although they usually cover themselves and give you a worst forecast. The whole process is ultra transparent and they also reply very timely emails.

The best thing (who would care otherwise about anything else) are the rates. Way better than anything else I found (but hey, please comment if you got something better :) ). For instance, to transfer $10k to Euro today, they would take $85 commission (which is basically 0.85%):

I am kind of surprised to see this today, as I had read somewhere 0.75%, but will investigate later... Still way better than others I saw before... Also, I am pretty sure it is lower (0.5%) for other currencies but no worries, they’ll show it to you before anything... As I said, everything is very transparent. After taking the $85, they would convert the rest at today's rate of 1.0593 $/Euro (1/0.9440) which is exactly what Yahoo displays at this time:

So, basically they are giving you a rate 0.5-0.85% worse than the number displayed in Yahoo, which as I said, it’s very competitive.

Note: there is one more transfer fee which is the one your bank will charge you to send your money to a local US bank account on the name of TransferWise (Wells Fargo). My bank charges me $20. So, you should add that, but yeah... And the number is fix, so, the higher the dollar transfer, the lower percent that it represents...

So, that's it... but if you want to keep reading about a quick comparison when I tried to send money through my bank to Europe, here it goes...

Basically there would be two costs. The transfer itself and the conversion to Euros from dollars, which can be done at origin or destination. Rate (yahoo) at the time was 1Euro=$1.135 more or less. I tried several banks (Texans Credit Union, BBVA, Chase) and the best was 1.18!! That is 4% and I believe included both commissions. Can't really remember the details... Anyhow, you can always ask them yourself ahead of anything. They may tell you that they can't tell what the exchange rate will be because it will depend on when it actually happens in the next days. If so, ask for the exchange rate "today" just for comparison...

Cheers!

Simple plan for Barcelona visit - Day B - Eixample / Gaudi

For this B day, we will be in the area of Barcelona called the Example and also a bit further towards the mountain. Please see here for other locations in Barcelona. Except for Parc Guell, the other locations are buildings, so, ok to visit during bad weather... Nevertheless, Sagrada Familia may close the visit to the tower (just to the tower) in that case... Also, they are nice at night (but open only during day time...):

1. Sagrada Familia: this is one of the most emblematic icons of the city. You can buy the tickets on-line. Not sure if that will save you the line outside but I heard that although long, it is not too bad... Unless you are in a tight budget, I do think it is worth to go in. Go up in the tower is nice too. I can talk hours about this place, but to save you that, I would strongly recommend you to read the Wikipedia article to get a good background. Nice article about the towers and which one to visit.
2. Pedrera and Casa Batllo: walking distance from Sagrada Familia (see the black line in the map below). Famous spots of the city too, feel free to go in if your budget/time allows.
3. To get to Park Guell, another must-see place, I usually take subway green line (L3) to Vallcarca station. The line kind of goes along the mountain/sea axis for a while, down Gracia and Ramblas, so, you can take it from any station there (Passeig de Gracia, Catalunya, Liceu, Drassanes...). Once you get to Vallcarca walk a bit along Vallcarca Avenue, sea direction, till you hit Baixada de la Gloria, on your left (red line in the map). It is a street full of mechanical scalators (feel free to walk too :) ) that will take you to the South side of the Park. I feel that is more interesting than getting a taxi up there, but hey... Unfortunately, the city started charging to enter on the park around 2016 (can't remember, but used to be free) but you can get there earlier or later than the running hours and see it for free. In the morning you can see the sun raise (assuming you can wake up in time :) ), so, it is much better than in the evening, when it may get dark depending on the time of the year and you can't see anything in the park (no lights).

Check the map here

Safe travels!!

Simple plans to visit Barcelona

Few friends asked me about what to do/go in Barcelona, so, here is a summary of some stuff... I broke it by days, so, it makes it easier to plan things...

Note: I hate to start by this, but watch with the pickpockets... Few friends of mine got stolen their wallet or purse, so... Other than that, I would consider Barcelona to be very safe.

For a 3 days trip I would think something like this (sorry not finished, I'll add later). Order of days does not matter. Probably plan according to weather forecast :)

• Day A - Montjuic area
• Day B - Eixample/Gaudi
• Day C - Casco Viejo/Ciutat Vella and sea side.

But if you have 2, it gets tougher. So, here is one potential thought:

1. Day 1: Sagrada Familia (day B above) / Park Guell (day B above)
2. Day 2: Day C above.
3. On whatever time after hours/night you have, you can see the outside of Pedrera and Casa Batllo (day B above) and the Magic Fountains (day A above).

Cheers!
PS.: Sorry that I can't include everything, as Barcelona is full of stuff to see and do. If you want more info, these are some quick sites I found:

• City of Barcelona official website 
• Wikitravel
• Barcelona Turisme

Simple plan for Barcelona visit - Day A - Montjuic Area

Please see here for overall index for other areas of town.

Note 1: The order you do this is a bit up to you. If you got your hotel close to this area, you can just do this anytime. But if not, you may want to plan to finish at night and stop by the Magic Fountains.
Note 2: times indicate my guess on how much somebody would spend there...
Note 3: click on the map below and a Google Maps route should open up.

• Spanish Square (Plaza de España / Plaça d'Espanya). Subway stop, red line (#1). Head towards the two towers you see there, which mark the Fira (trade fair) entrance and the path to the mountain (most of the stuff to see in the area...).
• Las Arenas: in the Spanish Square (actually, one exit of the subway is there), it is a bullfighting ring remodeled into a mall. You can go to the roof top (for free if you do it from inside the mall) and enjoy the views, food, etc... or the shopping, if you like :). Maybe something to do when you want to take a break.
• Olympic ring: 1-2hr Take a stroll around... There are mechanical stairs up to here, from Plaza España:
• Estadio Olimpico. Check the cauldron where this happened
• Estadio de Sant Jordi - Basketball
• Torre de Calatrava - I like this one
• Castillo de Montjuic (a castle to city and sea views): you can walk to here or take a lift - 1hr
• Poble Espanyol: a display of other regions in Spain.
• Diving Pools (Piscinas de salto) : Where during the Olympics you could see this beautiful background. I believe now most of the time they are close so you can only see from the fence...
• Greek Theater Gardens - 30 min
• Magic Fountains: A must see, at night. - 1hr... till you get tired. Show/music changes along the night... I copy schedule below in case the link gets broken but it may get out of date (so, better to Google it). Notice that during most of the year, they only run them from Th. through Saturday, so, plan a visit to this area in that time of the week...
• Operating hours from 30th April to 30th September:
• Thursday to Sunday, 9pm – 11:30pm
• Musical displays: 9pm, 9:30pm, 10pm, 10:30pm and 11pm
• Operating hours from 1st October to 30th April:
• Fridays and Saturdays, 7pm – 9pm
• Christmas and Easter:
• Thursday to Sunday, 7pm – 9pm
• Musical displays: 7pm, 7:30pm, 8pm and 8:30pm
• B-Hotel: I am not endorsing this hotel by no means and I make no money with this site... Do your research. But some friends of mine were there and liked it, specially the rooftop pool! Truth is that no one has so far complained about their hotel, wherever they stayed. 
• There are many other things to do and see in the area: Miro Museum and many others (see the links on the right side of this page)

View Montjuic route in a larger map

Hope you enjoy!!

IRS Penalty for underpayment

So, one day before paying my taxes, I realized I had to pay a bit more than expected and afraid of penalties, I checked the rules. Quite frigging cryptic the first time you read them, but here is an example for future reference. Say that your tax withholding (what you had paid so far in taxes) was $8000 but that what you should have paid was $10000. The IRS wants you to pay penalty if you make a mistake by "too much".

1. The first cut is an absolute number. Basically, something that says "don't worry if you just underpaid by this much...". And that limit is set at $1000. So, with an underpayment of $2000, we are way past that.
2. The 2nd is if you should have imagined that you had to pay more than you paid. I.e., with what you had made, should you have realized that your error was too big... For that there are 2 cuts:
1. The first is very similar to the "first cut" but instead of absolute quantity, it's a relative. Here they are saying: "if you paid in a range of 90% of what you were supposed to pay, you are fine". 8k is less than than 90% of 10k (9k), so, we can't say that we are fine... The error is considered "too big" by the IRS
2. The second is saying "you even paid less than what you paid in 2009 moron!". So, say that you paid in 2009 $9500 of taxes (check line 60 of the 1040). This year you paid only $8k. I think you got no excuse. But if last year you had paid only $7k of taxes, then you would be fine. In other words, if you pay in withholdings along the year more than the total tax you paid the previous year, you are fine. You got an "excuse" :)

More examples/explanation here: http://www.taxationlawfirms.com/resources/tax/tax-penalties/2010-tax-underpayment-penalty.htm

Disclaimer: I have no clue about tax reporting. Follow the above at your own risk. Just trying to help :)

Electricity costs

Just minor thing I did to check how costs move over time:
Reliant:
May 2008: 15.2c/KWh. Oil price: ~$121/barrel     Gas price: $91      
June 2009: 18c/KWh     Oil price:  ~$61/barrel      Gas price: $3.4
Switch to Stream:
Oct 2009: 12.5c/KWh   Oil price:  ~$67/barrel      Gas price: $3.8
Dec 2010: 11.5c/KWh   Oil price: ~$87/barrel      Gas price: $3.3
Jan 2020: [UPDATE] 14.1c/KWh Oil price: $59/barrel    Gas price: $2.2

Notice:

1. How Oil price and what I was paying on the same company had little to do with each other! In Reliant, price of oil went down by half while price of my electricity went up 20%. In Stream actually with oil prices rising, I pay less today than a year ago.
2. The savings by switching company. Even with higher oil prices I got way cheaper price.
3. The KWh prices were obtained directly from the bills value. The fix/government stuff was not included by even Reliants look a bit bigger than Stream's (both about $10)
4. Oil price may not be that significant on this study, though, as 62% of Reliant's source was natural gas. The funny part is that Stream's plan is green, which is supposed to be more expensive!

Bottom line, stay on top of your bill... And to be honest I haven't shopped around to see what would be today's Reliant prices, to say one... Lazy, ha!

Sources:
Oil and gas prices: https://www.bloomberg.com/energy