Saturday Night Fever

We re-invited some of our neighborhood friends and their children to a play date at our place. We had lots of leftover food to make from New Year's Eve. We had 3 couples, a visiting friend of one of the couples, and 2 sets of sisters between 0-4 years old. I played with the kids all night while the adults drank their bubblies and played their dancing game. I keep being advised to start a day care. I'd be great at it, according to the parents. I wish I'd get the same kind of encouragement for becoming a diplomat...

Second Time Doing FIRST

FIRST is an organization I volunteered through last year. I participated in the robotics competition helping a failing high school in East New York create a viable entry robot for the regional contest. Today was the announcement of this year's competition and I was there to mee the team and brainstorm some ideas for the coming 6 weeks. Since my schedule is light I am committed to make a bigger difference in the lives of the students this year. Today I met Ruby, Alejandro and Dillon, as well as Ayatunde whom I met last year. You can see some animation of what's expected of the robots this year. You'd be amazed...

Caucusuckers

So, Iowa voters, Yuck-Habee and Mr. Hussein? That's what you're coming back to me with? Have you all gone cookoo? If you want change so bad, why not just overthrow government and pick a Marylin Manson as our head of state? "Change" is such an overplayed theme in this campaign season. Since we have a lame duck president, ANY candidate will be a change. But the question that should be tackled is not whether the next candidate is going to preserve the status quo or be different than Dubya. It should be who will make the most change for the better!

Huckabee is basically a socially conservative Republican with a Fair Tax agenda. As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, I do not currently support the Fair Tax. It seems regressive and may spoil the current economy. As for social conservatism, I have too much to say about it so I will simply note my disdain towards the Marriage Protection agenda. I have issues with the death sentence, pro-life arguments and gun ownership rights, but with all of those there are complex issues. Marriage Protection is simple bigotry. I couldn't possibly endorse such a candidate with good conscience.

Obama's message is that he is not as much of a Washington insider as Clinton. He is different simply because his husband was not in the White House already and because he has not served in the Federal government as long. On issues, Barack and Hillary fall millimeters from each other. But importantly, Hillary comes off a realist whereas Barack seems a bit more ideological - for me, that's not a positive. Sure, you want idealists to serve your country and strive for major changes to improve the lives of all. But without a mix of realism, ideologues can really screw things up. History is filled with great examples - Hitler being the most compelling of this line of argument. I am not comparing Obama to Hitler. That would be a shameless and groundless tactic that can mess with people's good judgments. Promising unrealistic solutions is simply not appealing to me in a candidate. It makes Obama come across as naive. His campaign motif also seems disingenuous - Obama may not be a Washington insider (he's only been there a couple of years), but he was a political insider in Illinois where he served as a state legislator. His politicking there does not appear to deviate much from the vanilla politicking that goes on everywhere for better or worse. So, in summary, Obama comes off as a naive liar. Edwards, an even bigger ideologue is a no-no for the same reasons.

One of the saddest results of the Democratic Iowa Caucus is that Biden was completely ignored and the general weeding out (Dodd dropped out, too; Kucinich will get no press) will now not give a chance for other primary voters to have a say about the upper tier selection of the Democratic candidates. If the first primary/caucus is so important in narrowing the field, shouldn't it be done in a more representative state (except Florida and Texas - that would be a sin...)?

Anyways, if there is one thing you should remember from this read is that Obama is no Hitler...

Slump Update - New Year's Resolutions

Well, it's been over two months since I quit my job and started on a path to a new life. Not much has changed in those two months. I've learned to bake some. I played and beat a few Wii games with my wife. I read large tomes of American History and Government and can recite the Presidents and Constitutional Amendments from memory... But that's pretty much it! No job prospects, no self-evident future, no nothing.

I didn't even take the FSO Exam in December like I planned because at the time I had only read American History frontwards and not backwards, and did not feel confident. The next exam date is March. Meanwhile, I have registered to three more courses at NYU in their Global Affairs continuing education program. The first ones start on February 6. Until then I hope to have completed my FSO exam registration package. I am also going to volunteer with the FIRST Robotics Competition program at Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York - well, the school is now broken into like 5 different high schools, but whatever... The program starts this weekend and the regional competition happens during the first weekend of April.

Well, that's it on the personal note. But I have a word I'd like to say about the FAIR tax, since today is the Iowa Caucus and Mike Huckabee is in the lead in some polls and he is a big proponent of the tax. My first assumption when dealing with this is that we all agree we want a progressive tax - rich people pay a bigger percentage of the tax burden as a percentage of their assets (be it earnings, capital gains, rents, grease, or passive appreciation of property) than poorer people, and the poorest should not be taxed at all. I am not a communist, or even a socialist. I do not believe in special entitlements for the poor or punishment of the rich. I just think this is fair. Now if you don't agree with me on this, don't bother reading further. Anyways, the question is whether the FAIR tax is progressive. The idea is that everyone will get some kind of a minimum refund for the tax burden they would have to incur with the blanket %23-30 sales tax. This refund will make the poor come out even (no tax burden); richer people - who supposedly consume more - will come out negative with some tax burden on a linear relationship with how much they consume. The idea is that the richer you are the more you consume and the more tax burden you will have, hence his is a progressive tax. However, rich people consume smaller percentages of their assets than poorer people. That is, if I were in the middle class bracket and earned $75k a year, I probably would consume %50-90 of these earnings. If I were further up the ladder and making $175k a year, I could probably consume only %40-60 of my earnings and so my tax burden as a percentage would be lower on average than my poorer counterpart. This is not progressive. If you think Bill Gates and Warren Buffett spend more than half their assets and earnings on consumption, then wow, where do they put all their stuff?

Besides being a regressive tax, the FAIR tax also seems to be a consumption dampening force. Since the tax is applied at the till, market forces would probably lead to a higher savings rate - I say probably because we Americans seem to have consumption in our blood, and I'm not talking tuberculosis. A higher savings rate is probably a good thing in a macroeconomic and long-term perspective since it will eventually lead to a decrease in our current account deficit. But in the short term it could also send the economy further in its current downward spiral. This is not a good time to introduce such a tax into our economic system. During a peak, maybe, will help the cooling process. But during a near-recession? Come on, this is a silly populist platform from a guy who besides this crazy tax would revoke your right to choose to have a safe and sensible abortion, and take away your right to hope to marry whomever you choose, but protect the rights of psychos to get a lethal weapon whenever they so please. Iowa, if you want to do your nation proud with your crazy first primary/caucus, do the right thing and say no to Huckabee and yes to someone who really does want to protect your right to the pursuit of happiness, like Ron Paul. Or at least someone not so crazy, like Rudy.

Disorientation

After 7 years at Bloomberg, I resigned on Monday. The day was surreal, anticlimactic and a long-time coming. Everything felt right until I was on the train home around 5pm and I couldn't think of what to do next. I have been living a comfortable routine being distracted all day long with work-related trivia. Now, I had a whole afternoon with nothing work-related to worry about. I have some interviews to prepare for, and of course the Foreign Service Exam to study towards, but these require a formidable self-motivated drive to get accomplished. This is not one of my fortes. I'm more of a laid-back procrastinator than a time-charting, self-organizing machine. And I am panicking now, 2 days into my new-found, scary freedom.

So, I did what any guy going through an early-mid-life-crisis would do - I bought a car. Only it's a Passat station wagon and the colors Connie wanted are non-standard and it will take months to get it. But, we are closer to having a car, which we've been planning to get for over a year now. Our new place has a parking garage under the building. I was unwilling to play the mad parking game in our previous neighborhood. So getting the cable hooked up properly, and getting a car, and pulling out my last two wisdom teeth have been keeping me busy (read: distracted). But what's next? The options are laid bare on the table. Spend two months studying hard for this pie-in-the-sky job with the U.S. State Department, or get another softwrae job (still have a shot with Google and Goldman Sachs next week). I need to hunker down and get into a routine. I need to have three meals a day and looks like I have to arrange for them to be preapred as well. I need to continue unpacking the boxes and making the guest room/office and kitchen more habitable. I need to prepare for interviews. I need to create a study plan. And I need to rent a car until my rare-color Passat arrives. I hope writing this down will make it easier to follow through. There's a part of me tempted to get used to watching TV and playing viedo games all day - I'm still waiting for my first Gamefly Wii game to arrive...

Anniversary I & Boston Breather

Monday, October 8th was our first anniversary. Connie reserved a table at Jean Georges (complements of Dimitris & Susan - gift certificate was a wedding present), but I made sure they knew we were celebrating, and I bought a little something at her favorite Jewelry store. However, the real clincher that night was my greeting card. I made her cry, which is always a good sign of successful mush-prose. Hey, what can I say? I love her! There were two things that went wrong that evening: 1) foie gras with passion fruit seeds. I mean, why ruin a perfectly good, silky-smooth piece of goose with sour, black, crunchy bird food? 2) Yankees lose to Indians ending their season and our already-unlikely chance of getting World Series tickets through the post-season ticket lottery scheme. Regardless, we had a fantastic evening. We needed it.

The next day we rented a company car and drove off to Boston. Due to a reservation issue - Seinfeld was onto something - they couldn't give us a normal sedan so we drove off in a Ford Edge SUV beast. It was brand new and smelled awful, but at the same time it was luxurious and I enjoyed driving it. The only thing that wrinkled the smooth ride was Connie insisting on playing the book on CD version of Harry Potter 7 the whole way. We just finished reading the book a couple of months ago (after standing in line with some kids at midnight)... Sometimes she drives me crazy with these obsessions of hers. Other times I find it cute.

In Boston, we had a nice room overlooking the Charles and Cambridge from Copley. I drove her around during the day from one campus to the next, and helped setup a few info sessions when my help was needed. But we ate lunches with Scott or Cris, and had dinners with Scott & Marissa every night. They were really good sports as they were staying up late with us every night and going to work at 6am the next day. Connie's work days didn't start till noon. We had an unfair advantage. They are gracious hosts, though, and we had great times at their immaculate (and almost done) apartment, gay dbar in Dorchester, and exquisite Oishi in the South End.

We spent a night at Cris and Margo's new place as well. It was the first time I stayed with Cris at his place rather than mine or Scott's his parents' cottage in Thousand Island Park. Margo has really done a great job of settling him down and I was surprised to feel cozy and comfy in his apartment. We spent Saturday night watching an amazing Indians/Red Sox game. As Yankee fans, we have to cheer whoever is playing the Red Sox. Cris was not amused by that, but teh game itself was fantastic and lasted past my bedtime. Connie kept waking me up to announce updates until the Indians finally clinched it with a 7-run 11th inning :)

I spent much of our conversations with friends, colleagues, and strangers that week convincing myself that quitting was the right thing for me at this time. This was supposed to be a week of relaxation for me so that I could calmly take the big plunge and resign on Monday. It worked!

Moving In

We somehow managed to get through the last two weeks with only a few permanent bruises. We got everything packed on time, as I was home alone for half the week and had nothing better to do. The moving day was predictably chaotic and Connie was at her worst/best. She was overly stressed out and unpleasant to be around, but getting things done right and not giving up on the small stuff. By midnight, we had our bed made, and the toilets were usable. It didn't take longer than the first night to realize that we had made a terrible mistake on picking this apartment. We knew it was on Queens Blvd (the Boulevard of Death - a ten lane road serving as the main east-west artery of the borough), but somehow thought the air in-between ground and 12th floor would filter out the noise from the sundry vehicles making their way along it. The two times we visited the apartment it seemed quiet enough. It was a hoax. There are moments of near-quietness but they are far and few between. And the between is a mess of bus screeches, sirens, un-mufflered vibrations on loudspeakers, motorbikes on crack...

On the upside, we can't hear each other from one room to the next because the place is gigantic compared to our last apartment. I can't wait to get a car and a space in the garage. Laundry is also working out well, because there's a valet service in the building. You just call them up, leave your dirty bags in the lobby, and pick 'em up the same or following day clean as a whistle. Also, the neighborhood is nicer with more non-Hispanic shopping and dining options. Our first night in the apartment, we got hungry at 10pm. After a worrying episode of being turned away from several eateries - places close early in this family-oriented neighborhood - we stumbled upon a Greek taverna. The host was charming, and the grilled octopus made our month.

So there are good and bad things here in our new home, but we are doing our best to try and get it up and running and enjoy it to the fullest. We know we will only be here for two years max. Now I have to make sure I survive my project without making too much of a mess, and then I have a week off cruising Boston with Connie (another recruiting trip) and making peace with my scheduled resignation.