RSVP'd

I want an online invitation system where I can set a "Max RSVP Number" so I can put a ceiling on the number of people who come to events that I host. Honestly, I *want* to be able to invite the whole world when I hold desirable events, but it's a matter of logistics that "poker night" can't accommodate more than 8 people and "homemade pizza/sushi night" tops out at 24 and 12 (respectively) based the amount of space needed for eating.

As a host... it's frustrating to only invite a dozen people to an event (like "poker night") where you want between 5 and 8 people to show-up. Too many times I've had 7 people confirm and then three of them drop-out 4 hours before the planned event (luckily, Wii has lots of 4 player games for when this happens). I've also had 9 people confirm and show-up (too many!). For the times where 4-5 people confirm, I like to invite an extra 6 people two days before the event to get closer to the 7-to-8 sweetspot. But the point is, if not for concerns of having too many people, I would have preferred to invite those people at the beginning because I'm not the sort of person who likes playing favorites.

For people who try to RSVP after the "Max RSVP Number" is reached, they can join a waitlist. The optimal situation would be to have a system that automatically e-mailed all the waitlisters when somebody un-RSVPs so they could get a chance to add themselves to the RSVP list.

To my knowledge... no such sophisticated system exists and yet I think this would be a killer feature for lots of people besides me.

Golf 2010

Matt and I signed up for a golf league hosted at the Newton Commonwealth Golf Course this spring and summer. I'm excited. Thursday nights at 5:09pm beginning May 6th and running until August 19th (excluding May 28th for Memorial Day) we'll be teeing off for fun and fortune. Fifteen matches will be played, which is 14 more than I played last year. This is the first time we've done this, so I'm not positive if it's a full 18-hole match or a daylight shortened 9-hole affair. Either way, it'll be exciting to get out there and play everyday. =)

Stress

I think I worry too much. This isn't a good thing. Is it? Jen has been nagging me about a variety of topics ranging from sharing my current feelings to making plans for spending the rest of our lives together. Somewhere there's a happy-medium, but we have yet to find it. Though, it's not just her that's the source of anxiety. There are other influences which are harder to put my finger on.

Anyway, some stress can be a good thing, right? In college, the stress of impending deadlines spurred work on many projects long into the midnight hour. I mean, fuck. Two'o'clock used to be a normal bedtime so all of the basic homework could get done. Is that normal, or did I go to a school (RPI) where an extraordinary amount of hard work was required to succeed?

Sometimes I like to ponder exactly how fortunate I was while growing up. Most of the time, there's the grim realization that I come from a broken home. Part of me is an idealist while a darker part of me understands the futility of the pursuit of perfection. When I started this journal, I used the phrase "altruistic hedonism" which I still believe in, but I think finding a balance has gotten harder as I've matured. Does that make sense?

Are there easy ways to release stress and find a balance? Maybe I should start by figuring out what's important and what isn't. Having priorities certainly can't hurt.

More next time.

Happy Pondering.

Taxes

I had to file my taxes through the United States Postal Service this year. It turns out that the IRS wanted to see a signed copy of my Condo Settlement Statement (i.e. the legal contract between a real estate seller and me, the buyer). This is for my First Time Homebuyer tax credit claim, and there was no support in the tax software I used for scanning this and attaching it electronically to my filing.

It only cost $13 to send both the State and Federal return packages via Priority Mail (including a tracking receipt), yet Tax Software manages to tack on charges as high as $20 to file electronically if the tax package you bought doesn't include the required number of "free" E-file submissions. I'll never understand why things cost more to do electronically. It seems like a very sophisticated racket, to me.

As it stands, I have a copy of H&R Block At Home (formerly TaxCut Pro) that has five *free* Federal E-files and one *free* state of Massachusetts E-file. I will make this is available to the first person who asks me for it. I have not registered the serial number that came with my copy of the software since I didn't need to use the software to process my own tax filing. I got the $60 version of the software that is targeted at taxpayers who have more complex assets than just income from a W2. The version that I have is not recommended for anybody who owns their own business. Simply get in touch with me and as long as you can meet with me sometime in the next month, I'm willing to provide you with a single full license to use this software.

MA Bike Info

MassBike.org maintains a list of organizations committed to promoting cycling at a local level on their website. By my count, there are currently 23 such local organizations.

They've also got this Bike Pike tour which is a 4 day bike vacation in August to draw people from all parts of the state into this immersible community to celebrate biking. This year, they'll be biking a circuit that begins and ends in Amherst with daily trips that range from 30 to 65 miles in length (which isn't that challenging, if you ask me, though I haven't looked at the elevation maps). I think the thing that would keep me from doing this is the price tag that costs $375. I understand that it costs money to run complicated events like this, but I'd rather spend that cash on a plane ticket to visit with family.

On an slightly-related note, there's the ever-present issue with getting Jen a bike. I like Trek because I appreciate superior engineering and there are options. Cannondale also has a nice option. There is a Felt option that would be good. And Specialized has their Vienna Deluxe model.