What I learned while appliance shopping -- Refrigerators

I recently had to go shopping for a refrigerator and have learned quite a lot over the last couple of weeks.  I thought I'd put some of these learnings in a post.  In general I was disappointed with what I found because most fridges are loaded with features that I will never use but have questionable durability.  About 5 years seems to be the average life nowadays before one is faced with a cost-prohibitive repair.

Style

• Free standing or built in:  The average house can only accommodate a free standing unit.  Most of the premium brands (e.g. Miele, Sub Zero) only offer built-in units.
• Door style: Can be 2 door top freezer (the old style), 2 door bottom freezer, side-by-side (fridge on one side, freezer on the other), french door with one or more freezer drawers, and 4-door french door (both fridge and freezer have french doors).
• Finish: Can be white, black, stainless, or other color.  Some of them offer finger-print resistant finishes.  Only high end refrigerators have the sides finished in stainless steel.  Most run-of-the-mill fridges have plastic sides even though the front may be stainless steel.  High end refrigerator will often offer the option of wood paneling on the doors.
• Depth: Can be counter depth or standard.  Counter depth models won't jut out but are pricier even though they are smaller.  Go figure.

Features

• Air filter: Keeps the air fresh getting rid of any odors (including that of the plastic that the fridge is made of).  No need for baking soda or "airing out" the fridge.
• Water filter: Needed especially with those that are equipped with a water dispenser, however some models use a water filter when creating ice.
• Lighting: Most used energy efficient LED lighting.  Lighting may or may not be offered in the freezer.
• Easy open handles on freezer drawers: Like the name suggests, these make it easier to open the freezer drawer.  I have only seen these on Samsung and LG units.
• Automatic pulling out of top freezer drawer: This partially pulls out the second-to-bottom freezer tray.
• Folding shelves: This allows the creation of space to store tall objects.

Quality of construction

• Hinges: Really only different on very high-end built-ins.
• Drawer operation: Smoothness of opening and closing drawers.
• Bins: Quality of the plastic used for the bins
• Shelves: Glass or plastic and ease of adjusting.
• Odor: The odor of the plastics used in the interior.
• Noise: The ambient noise of the unit.

Reliability

• Consumer Reports magazine.
• JD Power & Associates.
• User reviews on the manufacturer website and/or dealer sites.

Brands

Most of the mainstream stores sell several brands.  Most of the brands are made by a small handful of manufacturers.  Think of the cereal box model--there is an illusion of many choices, in reality there are only a few.

Here are the various manufacturers, the brands they make, and my thoughts on them as I shopped for a french door with single drawer bottom freezer.

• Whirlpool.
• Makes Amana, Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Kenmore, Bosch.
• Overall decent quality.  Assembled in America.  This means final assembly was done in the US using imported parts.  
• The quality is good but most models lack an air filter.
• Electrolux.
• Makes Electrolux, Frigidaire.
• A European brand that makes most of its units in Mexico.  
• Makes some of the best looking fridges.
• Lots of options with air and water filters.
• The quality of the interior was lacking--cheap plastic and the drawer mechanisms.
• For some reason, most sales folks tried to steer me away from this brand.  It also seemed to have higher than average negative reviews.
• Luxury end is Electrolux Icon.
• LG.
• Makes LG, Kenmore Elite.
• The units are made in either Korea or China.
• Overall a great product, but very limited options with an air filter.
• Samsung.
• The units are mostly made in Korea.
• Similar to LG in terms of quality and features, but I felt the LG was slightly better designed.
• GE.
• Recently acquired by Haier.
• Felt like quality inside and out, but could not find a model that had an air filter.
• Luxury end is GE Monogram.

At the high end, there are brands like Miele (German), Liebherr (German), Sub-Zero (US), Thermador (German), Viking (US).  I didn't spend much time researching these because they were not suitable for installation in my house.

Getting questions answered

Misinformation abounds with most floor sales folks.  They either don't have the information or haven't bothered to look it up, but emphatically provide their best guess.  For models they do not have on the floor, you typically get incorrect answers for country of manufacture and various other features.  Sometimes the information can be gleaned from the manufacturer website.  But if not, it's unlikely that contacting the manufacturer will yield anything useful.  Emails to their customer service often go unanswered.  Calls to them usually receive a response of the type "the only information we have is what is on our website" or "please contact an authorized sales center for that information."  And authorized sales center doesn't have that information.  So trying to get information can be an exercise in frustration.  The best way I found of getting accurate information is through discussions in various online forums.

This, by the way, is not something limited to refrigerators.  The same is true of most appliances and even other products.  Why is this so?  My conjecture is that the people fielding these questions have no interest in the product.  They are in jobs that are likely short term roles and they are trained to look up whatever information may already be on the company website and no more.  Unfortunately many of the company websites have flaws--links to download documents are stale, information about authorized sellers is outdated, etc.

This is perhaps the most frustrating part of appliance purchases.

How I ended up being an engineer

Every now and then, as I go through my mid life crises (getting older and taking stock of what my life has been about), I wonder how I ended up an engineer.

As a kid, I never thought of being an engineer.  Originally, I wished to be pilot.  I'm not sure what inspired me to want that.  But I developed myopia early in life and was told that becoming a pilot would not be possible as one needed perfect vision.  After that, I never really thought of what I wanted to be.  Since my father was a businessman, that's what I thought I end up as.

At school, I was a fairly average student during my early years.  Something changed when I was in the 7th grade and I started doing well.  This continued as I started doing even better in the 8th grade and continued to maintain that.  After the 10th grade in India, we usually have to choose between science, commerce, and arts.  I had always thought I'd take commerce, but because I did well at school, and because most smart kids took science, I decided to take science.  I reasoned that I could always fall back to commerce or arts, but going in the other direction (from commerce to science) was darn near impossible.

In high school (11th grade in India) I didn't particularly care for biology because of the way the teachers taught it (felt kind of disorganized and dry).  Fortunately, an option showed up to drop biology and German (the latter being another subject that I didn't particularly enjoy at that time) and instead opt for electronics.  That option was quite a relief.  I continued to do quite well through high school.  After high school, the best options (i.e. the ones that the smartest students pick) are either medicine or engineering.  Since I dropped biology, medicine was not an option and so I "chose" engineering.  Among the engineering specialities, the students at the top usually opted for electronics, followed by the various other disciplines, with civil engineering at the bottom.  Since I did well enough, I was able to opt for any branch, but "chose" electronics.

In college, I didn't really enjoy electronics but I was able to do reasonably well anyway.  As we got to the 3rd and 4th year, more and more subjects around digital systems started appearing and I had a natural interest in those.  I found them very easy to absorb and internalize compared to earlier subject matter that I tended to just ingest and memorize.

I really enjoyed my first job as a programmer and then subsequently applied to graduate school to focus on computer engineering.

In graduate school, I once again had to focus on basic electronics to get through the qualifying exam.  But once that was done, I was able to spend all my time studying and researching computer engineering subjects.  What I didn't like about graduate school was the pressure and uncertainty around research and getting the research published.

Since graduating I have worked in the field of computer networking.  I sometimes wonder if I picked the right career.  How might my life be different if I had picked a different path in high school, something like economics or business?  I guess these are the questions that come up during a mid life crisis.  Yet pondering such questions is a waste of time, because I am where I am.

Post purchase surveys are badly flawed

Every time one buys something expensive like a car or a house, one is usually told by the salesperson that they will be receiving a post purchase survey and that anything below the perfect score is a failure for them.  They usually convey this thought at the very end of the transaction and tell you "do let us know if there is anything I can do for you."  This after treating you with distrust and playing with your mind all through the process.  And this is the same no matter where you go...it's just an ugly part of the sales cycle for big ticket items.  They play with your feelings of guilt -- "I'm just the little guy, please don't do anything to hurt my job" -- yet at the same time, all through the process, the only feeling that I get is that they are out to get your money.  They are full of distrust and fear that the deal will fall through.  Once it is done, other than the courtesy call which is again something that is asked about on the survey, you will never hear from the salesperson.

Basically, you have a robot salesperson that tries to do everything they can to make sure the survey questions are all covered without actually caring about the buyer.  In other words, they will say all the right things to make you feel they care about you, but they really don't.  All they care about it making the transaction go through successfully.  The flip side is that customers often have to create dramatic lies in order to back out of a deal (health crisis, moving job, etc.).

Now giving a perfect score on the survey for what was clearly service that could be improved on would be lie (at least for me).  So there are two options--don't respond to the survey at all, or fill out the survey in a genuine fashion and risk seeing an unhappy salesperson should you ever run into them again.  I'm not sure which option is better.

The whole experience is reminiscent of growing up in a dysfunctional family, where you're told about how everyone loves you, but you feel none of it, rather feeling oppression and abuse, because the actions don't match the words.

There was a time when sales people stayed at a job a long enough time and creating trusted, working relationships mattered.  Those days are gone.  The credit score determines whether or not one can be trusted for a loan.  Other than that, it's pretty much pleasantries and bonds (sign copious amounts of paper work to keep you from backing out of the deal).

There was a time in my life when I cared more about other people's feelings than I did about my own.   At such times, I would have filled out such a survey offering a perfect score to the salesperson.  But I'm slowly changing that and realizing that I too am a person and that I too deserve to be treated right.  And that it's important to point out any shortcomings or they will never be addressed.

Panchakarma with Dr. Sunil Joshi

This post details my experience with panchakarma under the supervision of Dr. Sunil Joshi assisted by his staff at his clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico from April 18-25, 2015.  Panchakarma can be though of as cleansing/purifying of the body and mind according using methods detailed in Ayurveda.

Booking

Normally, they won't let someone sign up panchakarma unless Dr. Joshi has had some success treating them with herbs and lifestyle.  The lifestyle part (see the bottom of this post for details) is particularly hard to follow because it involves a very restricted diet (almost no processed foods), specific meal times, daily oil self-massages, taking herbs, and breathing and physical exercises.  I had been consulting him for the last 9 months and had made 3 visits to Albuquerque just for consulting him.  I had already seen some minor improvements to my health over that time through just taking herbs and managing my lifestyle, although the improvements have been far from anything significant.  I had followed the prescribed protocol perhaps 50-60%.  

There were 6 or 7 others signed up during the same week as me.  Many of the people I have met at the clinic during my earlier consultations and during the panchakarma have been seeing Dr. Joshi for years (even 10+ years).  Folks had come for treatment not just from all parts of the US, but also from overseas.

Consultations and monitoring

One of the best things about all of the consultations at this clinic is that they involve no forms other than a consent form.  Dr. Joshi assesses out what is happening with the patient's body and mind by reading the pulse and performing a physical examination, and confirms his findings with the patient.

Before treatments are prescribed the he performs a thorough initial consultation in which he checks the pulse and does a physical examination.  Additionally, he performs the oil or herbal bastis daily on all patients, and also monitors the progress based on a brief daily report written by the patient before treatment each day.

Treatments

Treatments varied by day and by person.  The goal of the treatments is to loosen the toxins and eliminate them via peeing, pooping, and sweating.  The treatments last about 1.5 to 2 hours.

In my case, the following were the treatments for each day.

• Day 1 -- Initial consultation, abhyanga, hand-steam, nasya, steam box, shirodhara, oil basti. 
• Day 2 -- Abhyanga, hand-steam, nasya, pinda svedh, neck and lower back basti, shirodhara, herbal basti, left knee lepa. 
• Day 3 -- Abhyanga, hand-steam, nasya, heart basti, shirodhara, herbal basti. 
• Day 4 -- Abhyanga, hand-steam, nasya, pinda svedh, shirodhara, herbal basti. 
• Day 5 -- Abhyanga, hand-steam, nasya, neck and lower back basti, herbal basti. 
• Day 6 -- Abhyanga, hand-steam, nasya, pinda svedh, heart basti, shirodhara, oil basti. 
• Day 7 -- Virechana (purgation) consultation, pizichil, nasya, steam box, shirodhara.  Virechana is performed during the night of Day 7 by taking some herbs.
• Day 8 -- Exit consultation, rest.

Abhyanga - Full body oil massage by 2 practitioners.

Hand-steam - Steam applied to the body using an insulated hose attached to the top of a pressure cooker.

Heart basti - A trough made over the heart area with dough and herbal oil is poured in it.

Herbal basti - Enema done with herbal tea.

Lepa - An herbal paste is applied and the body part is bandaged up for a few hours. 

Lower-back basti - A trough made over the lower-back area with dough and herbal oil is poured in it.

Nasya - Face massage and herbal drops put in the nose.

Neck basti - A trough made over the neck area with dough and herbal oil is poured in it.

Oil basti - Enema done with herbal oil.

Pinda svedh - Warm milk massages over the body with a ball made out of a cheese cloth filled with cooked rice and herbs.

Pizichil - Oil massage with a cheese cloth filled with cooked rice and herbs.

Shirodhara - A steady stream of oil is dripped on the center of the forehead just above the eyes.

Steam box - Sit in a steam box with herbal steam for 3-5 minutes.

Virechana - Purgation to cleanse the small intestine.

During the initial consult, we are given herbs and medicated ghee.  The medicated ghee needs to be taken each morning and evening in increasing doses over the days.  The purpose of the ghee is to prepare for virechana.

Meals

For breakfast, only fruit is recommended.  Lunch and dinner were provided and typically consisted of rice, split yellow mung daal (sometimes cooked as a soup separately with or without spinach, and sometimes included in the rice), and a couple of vegetables from the following -- carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red/orange/yellow bell pepper, broccoli, garnet yams, cabbage.  On Day 7, to prepare for virechana the dinner was potatoes and red bell peppers (with rice and daal).  On the night of Day 7, special herbs are given to induce virechana.  On Day 8, both meals were provided -- meal #1 was rice porridge and meal #2 was rice with some herbs.  The food on Day 8 is supposed to calm the system after virechana.

Accommodation

They do not provide accommodation so patients have to stay at a nearby hotel.  There are a couple of reasonable options within a 5 min walk from the office/treatment center.

Summary

The benefits of the treatment are harder to see immediately but I was assured that I had responded well to the treatment and that it would show its effects over the next few months.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Diet & lifestyle recommendations

• Getting started
• Diet (page 1, page 2)
• Lifestyle management
• Nutrition guidelines

Update 11/26/15

I saw a reasonable improvement in my health and so I attended another session from 11/19 - 11/26.  The treatments were similar to the first session as was the food.

The mystery of life

I'm often preoccupied with thoughts around the question "what is the meaning of life?"  When I pay close attention to most people, I find they are all unhappy about one thing or another, but just keep flowing with life doing what "normal" people do -- go to work, have one or more hobbies, take vacations, have families, etc.  But in the end, everyone grows old, gets sick, and dies.   And along the way it's a constant struggle to keep one's vocation, relationships, and health working.  It appears we are doomed from the day we are born.  What could the purpose of such a game be?  Who would design such a game?

There is no diet, no spiritual practice, no religion, no vocation that will free one of the curse of sickness, aging, and eventually death.  No matter what one achieves in life, it will all be left behind.

Religions have their own way of addressing this depending on whether or not they subscribe to the belief of reincarnation.  If the path preached by a religion were indeed that good, then walking it, even for a short while, would yield very tangible results.  Yet, when we look at the followers of any path, we find many that are deeply unhappy despite following that path for years or even decades.  Recently, I have even started to question the veracity of the ancient texts because one never knows if they were edited through the years.  Transmission of these texts through the generations seems much like the game of Chinese Whispers.

Even if we just accept the reality of old age and death, what about destiny?  Is everything predestined or do we have free will?  If there is such a thing as destiny, I have not encountered someone that could predict outcomes with much accuracy.  If there is such a thing as free will, why is it that mythology has many examples of destiny that could not be overridden by free will?  And why is it that we cannot create the life we desire?

Living with less than normal health

I have battled health issues since around 2002.  I wasn't particularly healthy as a child either but I learned to just ignore my body and keep going.  Around 2002, I started having anxiety attacks and low energy levels that started to impact the way I lived my life.  In other words, it was no longer possible for me to ignore my body.  Since then in addition to anxiety attacks and issues with low energy I have experienced bouts of mental fogginess; aches and pains in joints, bones and muscles, some of them debilitating; disturbed sleep; rashes on the legs and the stomach; issues with digestion; intermittent low-grade fevers probably due to inflammation in the body; cramping in the hands and feet; and cataract.  I can't figure out what the cause of the bad health is.  My guess is it's partly genetic, partly due to a poor diet because of a lack of cooking skills and ignorance about the ill effects of processed food, and partly due to stress.  The stress is likely the result of an abusive childhood because of which I did not learn how to create healthy boundaries for myself, while at the same time carrying the burden of playing my part in keeping the family "looking good."

The biggest down side of health issues is lower energy.  Once that happens, the length of the day compresses.  I find that I am able to accomplish 50% of what a "normal" person might be able to, maybe even less.  As a result, the entire life is organized around completing tasks for the career and activities to maintain health.  Days of extreme low energy are often accompanied by escapist activities.

The hardest part about living a life of low energy is explaining what that is like to friends and family.  Most simply do not get it.  They think you are hiding something from them.  After all, since they are able to live a full and productive life, you must doing something with all your time.  Sadly, it is not possible to communicate this with words.  The only way for someone to know what it's like to live with bad health day-in and day-out is to actually have bad health.  This is not something one would wish for someone else, let alone friends and family.

Then there's unsolicited advice from friends and family.  Everyone suddenly becomes an expert on your conditions and has a need to offer suggestions from holistic and energetic remedies to allopathic medication to the latest fad diet.  Some will suggest the health issues are psychosomatic and will recommend things like meditation or a spiritual practice or other "life improvement" courses such as Scientology, Landmark Forum, The Mankind Project, or Huffman Process.  It's interesting how many such life improvement courses are out there, not to mention the burgeoning professions of life coach and health coach.  The advice from such well-meaning folk is not all bad, just that as you try each of one of these and realize that none of them have the magical effect of addressing one's health issues, the disappointment and a sense of despair begin to set in and make one wary of people suggesting any solution.

Finally there's health practitioners.  It is very hard to find honest practitioners that actually care about the health of the patient.  Most are in it for a quick buck.

Holistic and naturopathic doctors often try to get you sign up for a payment plan so you see them regularly.  Because these work slowly, it can be months before one knows whether or not a particular treatment is working.  And then you move on to the next one.  Every one of them will paint a picture of hope, yet, in the US, the first thing that they will make you sign is a waiver.  Many of them require you to fill out pages and pages describing your health history.  Those forms get old, real quick.  Unless you are lucky to find someone genuine, you eventually start to see it a scam.  In my experience, the best practitioners are seldom the most expensive.  In fact the opposite is true--the more expensive the practitioner, the less likely their treatment will be effective.  Many will provide a regimen that is nearly impossible to follow while living a "normal" life.

Allopathic doctors typically perform a series of superficial tests.  If the results of those tests are normal, the first thing that they like to recommend is some kind of anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication.  They would rather do this than prescribe additional tests to try and see what is really wrong.  If you pay extra for a concierge doctor, they are not usually as bound by insurance, so they may be willing to prescribe more tests.  Coming up with a diagnosis here often involves a process of elimination through a battery of tests prescribed by numerous specialists.  And yet the best that one can hope for is something that will require heavy medication with side effects and that result in a complete loss of one's quality of life.  In the USA, the health care industry is an absolute mess, but I will write more about that in a different post.

I have been using Ayurveda for a few years now.  There has been some improvement of the symptoms but it is a very difficult path to follow because it requires diet and lifestyle changes, and yet I still experience significant ups and downs in health.  The only hope is that it will at least maintain the health where it is at now without destroying something else in the body which allopathic medicine tends to do.  I have also dabbled with homeopathic remedies, acupuncture, acupressure, and getting various therapeutic massages such as lymphatic drainage.  All of them have been helpful, but none to the point where I feel they have help me overcome my health issues.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that no one lives forever, no matter what one may do.  Poor health is one of those obstacles that the universe has sent my way and I must muddle my way through life the best I can knowing that one day I too shall pass.

Update 04/01/2017

Came across an interesting article about why we could subconsciously choosing bad health.  A number of conditions are true for my life.

The father karma

(This is just a one sided story.  I'm sure there's the father's version, and then there's the version that corresponds to what is actually going on which neither of us can see clearly because we color them with our own stories.)

I have a particularly difficult father who ruled the family with fear brought about from the abuse resulting from his bouts of uncontrolled anger.  He used money as way to control and oppress people. Of course, he probably grew up in a difficult family situation (my grandparents), and their parents (great grandparents) in turn were probably a mess.  How far up the chain does this go?  And how does one free one's self from such a bondage?  I have not yet found the answer but hope to find it some day.

The most difficult energy that I have to overcome is that of being able to communicate.  He completely lacks empathy and needs to hear words, usually extracted harshly, to understand what is going on and usually responds with criticism or meaningless advice.

My biggest issue is with his sense of logic.  He has two sets of rules -- one that apply to him and another that apply to the rest of the world (which includes me).  That he has harsh rules that apply to the rest of the world explains why he is extremely lonely and has no one call on him, except those that do so out of obligation or co-dependence.

The logic operates as follows:

• If he makes a mistake (or even a huge blunder), then it was something that was pre-destined or karmic.
• If he does something right, then it's because he took the right decision.
• If anyone else makes a mistake (even a minor one) or behaves in way that does not fit his idea of what they should be doing, they must be subject to criticism.
• If anyone else gets something right, it was pre-destined or karmic and they deserve no credit for it.

Using the above logic, it becomes impossible to have a conversation about anything meaningful.  Discussions with him are usually on the lines of me receiving a spiritual discourse of his interpretation of the scriptures, the weather, the economy, the political situation, etc.   Sadly, none of these are meaningful to me especially since they will usually be accompanied by some critical judgement.

That said, his psyche was probably built to help him survive whatever it is that life threw at him.  But does that mean I must suffer due to that? Given that I cannot change any of those events, how can change myself to be more accepting and forgiving without at the same time feeling hurt, oppressed and trampled upon, and suppressing my own feelings of injustice which in turn lead to stress-related health issues?  That, in summary, is my life's challenge.  

The closest I can think of as a solution is to rise above myself and see this as a situation involving two people that needs to be resolved in a fashion that is beneficial to both.  Does such a solution exist?

It has been my experience that the father karma extends to several relationships especially how we perceive those in authority.  Difficult father karma tends to manifest itself in relationships with teachers, bosses, and others that we think of as having control over us.  It has been the single defining challenge of my life.

Eric Klein has an interesting cartoon depiction of the father karma.

This is a good article about how to heal from a toxic parent.