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February 13, 2007

Whirlwind Tour

3 days, 6 airports, 8 or 9 vodka tonics, countless hands of poker, very little sleep... one hell of a bachelor party.

This past weekend was spent in Vegas and LA celebrating Afsheen's becoming a man remaining months of freedom. After excessive amounts of poker and a good bit of drinking, I'm pleased to say that the event was a success. Of course, after three days of heavy travel and little sleep, getting up at 7 this morning for work was a little difficult, but I managed to caffeinate myself enough to get through the day.

One thing I learned was that I'm not quite as bad at poker as I had previously thought. I still need to learn some patience, but when I remind myself that no, 8-5 off suit is not worth seeing to the flop, I play decently. Still not great, mind you, but decently.

Now, of course, I'm addicted to the game. I know that I have friends here who do a semi-regular poker night, but I haven't been able to attend in the past because of work.

Anyway, back to the weekend...

I also got to spend a night in LA and see some friends (and cats) while I was there. It was definitely good to get to see people, especially since I don't know when I'll be able to get back there to visit again. Now that I have a regular job, I don't get quite as many opportunities to take a week to fly across the country. (And I'm already devoting some of my opportunities for time-off to this year's batch of weddings.)

So in conclusion, it was a great weekend. Still kind of tired, time to get some sleep.

Posted by Daniel at 10:44 PM | Comments (1)

February 07, 2007

Richardson

There has been a lot of internet buzz in reaction to NM Governor Bill Richardson's speech at the DNC winter meeting. After finally getting around to watching it, I have a few thoughts.

1 - The guy is a really good natural speaker.
2 - He needs better speech writers.
3 - His foreign policy positions are incredibly simplistic. Apparently everything in the middle east will be hunky dory if the US pulls its troops out of Iraq and if all of the middle east countries, including Syria and Iran, have a conference and talk.
4 - He's at his best talking about social and economic development in New Mexico.

As the campaigns develop, Richardson could end up offering an appealing alternative to some of the more "polished" candidates like Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. But I'm eagerly awaiting some more nuance in both his speeches and his foreign policy positions.

Posted by Daniel at 08:14 PM | Comments (1)

February 05, 2007

Award Season

With the Oscars around the corner, I've been thinking.

How come politics doesn't have an awards show? Think about it... the Oscars, Obies, Tonys, Grammys, Emmys, Annies, Cable Ace, Kids' Choice, Peoples' Choice, SAG, etc. Yet nothing for best campaign commercial, nothing for best slogan, best stump speech, best GOTV effort, best bill, best filibuster, best budget amendment...

I think politicians need to get together and put together an awards ceremony. They could nominate themselves for the awards and then everyone would get a ballot with the "candidates" and "vote" on who wins. Then everyone could go home and wait for CNN to predict the results.

Just an idea.

Posted by Daniel at 10:59 PM | Comments (2)

February 03, 2007

Freefile!

I just found through the IRS that most people who made less than $52,000 last year (such as myself) can get their taxes processed and filed for free through a number of different third-party accounting firms. For example, when I went to this page and filled out the info, one of the companies I could choose from to process and file my returns for last year was H&R Block. As far as I can tell, I have access to the same state and federal online filing program as if I paid them $40 (and I don't have to pay the IRS e-filing charge either).

I haven't gone through the entire process yet, but since my taxes for last year should be a breeze (for the first full year since college, I wasn't a freelance employee), I have no problem saving $50 on the filing process.

Posted by Daniel at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)