Taxes Done Right

Everyone hates taxes, not just paying them, but the laborious task of actually doing them. I've filed in both Canada (with the help of an accountant) and the USA (on my own) and both processes have put gray hairs on my head. Everyone stresses and complains but finally the taxes are filed and you try to erase all memory of this process until the following year. Ahhh but there is a better way. In ireland, all that is required is to fill out a very-easy-to-understand 2 page document when you beginning working. The main pieces of info are you social security number and your employer's. Once that link is made, taxes are automatically deducted (based on your income bracket) from every paycheck and YOU NEVER HAVE TO FILE TAXES!! ...unless of course you have other sources of income. You also check a few boxes like: im single, i rent, etc and any tax credits are factored in. So at least in my case, i don't have to deal with accountants, i don't have to learn H&R blocks new web interface, i don't have to install any tax software on my non-existent computer and i don't have to print and mail pages of tax forms which i don't understand (but am required to sign as if i do).

Lessons learned from Marketing

Great post about marketing that can be easily transferred to the software world. Next time your boss asks you for yet another version of the UI for the product you're working on and says they'll "know it when they see it" respond:
Actually, you won't. You didn't know it when you saw the first iPod or the first iteration of Google. You didn't know it when first exposed to email or JetBlue or the Macarena or Britney Spears....

...ok...i must confess, i knew britney was going to be huge from the first time i saw her ;)

Say at my place!

One of the things that i really enjoyed about my recent backpacking trip was being able to meet, converse with and party with people from various parts of the world. It's always interesting to get a different world perspective: speak to a dane about the cartoon fiasco, a ukrainian about the revolution, a french student about job security, etc. But if you're not traveling yourself, how can you facilitate this? Actually, it's easier than you think :) There are plenty of websites on the internet that allow you to "host" travelers as they come through your town. It's free, you're not obliged to host anyone unless you want to and there are various ways to ensure the people who are coming to stay at your place are credible and won't steal your italian sofa. The two most popular sites are Hospitality Club and Couch Surfing. Of course, you can also use this while traveling...instead of staying in an expensive hotel or a hostel filled with typical backpackers (canadian, american, australian & english), use one of these sites to hook up with locals. Im currently hosting people at my place in dubin, we've had lots of interesting people so far, including Syrun a crazy french guy who is on his 5th year of a 12 year trip. Give it a go!

Football

All these posts about sports, you'd think i was a big sports fan. Outside of north america, football (errr soccer) is _the_ sport. a couple days ago i was walking down the main street in dublin looking for stores that sell maps (im looking to put a world map on my wall...but that's another story altogether). finally someone points me to a large bookstore. i walk inside and it's absolutely packed with people...my immediate thought is, how on earth are they going to prevent people from stealing books? anyway, all of a sudden i hear a loud cheer from the back of the store where most of the people are concentrated...so i go over for a look, and sitting down signing copies of his new autobiography is Pelé. Yes Pelé. So there i am, Mr. Pelé is a few steps away, but im hungry, and instead of picking up a copy of his book and waiting in line like the rest of the lemmings, i went home to eat lunch...told you i'm not much of a sports fan.

To redeem myself, today after work im going to a Chilé vs Ireland football match. Yes, both teams didn't even qualify for the world cup, but the tickets are free.

Calling all Java Devs

My company is looking for a senior java developer to lead a team of java developers in creating our flagship product. Check out the monster job description and send your resume today! mail to: bkunowski at vision.com

Munster Madness

It has been a really random weekend. It started on friday night when I met up with Edd, an English friend who i met in slovenia a while back. Although he's traveled more european countries that any other person i've met, it was his first time in ireland. it was great seeing him again, hope he makes it out here more often. half way through the night, i had to leave and meet up with a polish girl that was staying at our place for the night. another late night in dublin. the following day, was the european rugby championship were Munster (a team from south west ireland) won the cup. this was huge deal for ireland, unfortunately i couldn't celebrate saturday night because early sunday morning i drove up to Belfast to meet with a client (from work). now the weekend is almost done, im not rested and it's raining, but life is good.


dublin @ night

Jaywalking

When im in a city walking down a busy street, i do my best to fit in with the crowd. Being spotted as a tourist just makes me cringe...and the easiest way to tell Dubliners and tourists apart is to see who crosses on a red, and who gets left behind. You see, they drive on the left side of the road...so even a seasoned jaywalker from new york will think twice before making the dash. it really is a sign of cool, a status symbol, and i'm proud to say, that im jaywalking with the best of them.

F1 & Futbol

It's been a great week for spain. A few days ago Spain's own Fernando Alonso won the F1 Grand Prix in Barcelona. This was followed up by yesterday's Barcelona 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Euro Cup Final. I watched the game in an overcrowded sports bar. I thought the game would provide all the night's excitement but i was proven wrong when five or six Arsenal fans started a full-out brawl with 4 bouncers in the middle of the bar. Im sure someone was hurt. Current weather in Madrid: sunny and 29C.

Chillout Radio

On a recent trip to Lithuania I met an American guy who was really into techno. Since i never really understood the different forms of techno we started a fairly lengthy conversation. After a while it was quite clear he himself didn't the ability to explain the difference between Acid Jazz, Euro Funk and Break Beats (just to name a few). Finally we found a great site that shows how all these styles are related, provides full descriptions and music samples. It turns out there's a form of techno that really appeals to me...chillout. I haven't had the energy to look for MP3s or the money to buy CDs but I have found a great webradio site called OverXposure.FM which I've been listening to on a regular basis for the past month. It's based out of Seattle and supports MP3Pro...give it a listen.

Livin the vida loca

I just finished my first week of work. Im working for Ecceleration, a small software company which is owned by a larger consulting company called Vision. This is my first full time role as a technical project manager. Although im only a week in, im enjoying it already. Although i can't go into the details of my project, i will say that there's some good work to be done and i think I can learn a lot in the process. Working hours are fairly standard 9 to 5:30 with an hour lunch, but as will most software companies this is just a guideline. My commute to work is acceptable, first a beautiful 15 minute walk along the Grand Canal to the train station. Then 15 minutes on the DART and a 15 minute shuttle bus to the east point business park.

After a week of work, it was time to have some fun. Me and my roommates, along with other guests pre-partied at our house until 4:30 after which we went to crackin' house party till 6 (when the Garda decided it was time to finish the spanish/italian bash).

Spanish Lessons

My roommates and I are getting along just great. The spanish are a very social people, so there always seems to be guests over. Once in a while we cook a house dinner, it feels like the beginning of year 2 in uni. I've made a deal with a couple of the girls in my house, a few times per week we'll be having English/Spanish lessons...last night was the first. Soon i'll be speaking with a Catalan accent, not my favorite of the various latino accents, but they won't "acthept" anything else.

Boat Ride

Yesterday after moving into my new house i went for a stroll in my new neighborhood. When i came to Grand Canal, Dublin's prettiest canal, i noticed boats making their way through it. The canal has a series of locks which are all manually operated. That is, you need to jump of your boat, raise/lower water levels using a big wrench that raises/lowers water barriers and then manually push/pull the locks open. After seeing the Panama canal in action only a few months ago, it was cool to see it done the old fashion way. I arrived when the first of thirty boats where coming through (this happens once a year, so was very lucky) and noticed that they were having trouble opening one of the locks, so i offered to help and five minutes later i was on the boat with 3 Irish gentlemen cruising down the canal. Great way to spend an sunny afternoon in Dublin.

Got me a home

I've been in a mad rush over the last couple of days trying to find a place. There are lots of rooms going up for rent but I have quite a few requirements. I want something central, in a cool neighborhood with lots of shops and cafes. Also, I want to get by without a car, and since traffic is really bad in the city, buses are also out of the question. This leaves the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) line as my only option which only has 3 stops in the city. Plus i want cool roommates that will let me have guests and yadda yadda yadda the list continues. The biggest factor has been time, i start work on monday and i don't want to be worrying about this or living in a hostel. Finally, i found a place, it's not perfect but good enough. Here is the house graded:
Location 10/10 - just of Baggot Street...lots of little shops, cafe's, best night life, beautiful Georgian arch and close to DART
House 4/10 - think student house without students
Room 2/10 - very, very small
Roommates 10/10 - of course i just met them once and this score can easily change, but i'll be living with 5 Spaniards in their 20's (3W & 2M + me)...this means a year from now i should be fluent in Spanish :)
Rent 6/10

Guinness

Sooner or later I would have to dedicate a post to this wonderful black beer, so here it is. Last night I went out bar-hopping trying to get a feel for the night life here. I had my first Guinness in Ireland...I don't think it actually tastes better than in other parts of the world (although Im sure many Irish would argue) but they do serve it at the 'perfect' temperature, with the right amount of head, etc, etc...so i does taste good. Another interesting observation is how beer is priced a pubs. First off, brands don't matter...beers are categorized and priced by the type (ex. Stout or Ale). The price of a beer also goes up later in the night and even more interesting is that the increase in price is not uniform. For instance, a stout would go up by 50c while a lager by 10c. Regardless of the pricing scheme, lots of beer is drunk every night. It's funny to walk around town in the morning as Guinness trucks unload kegs and kegs of the stuff...you get a feel for how much they love it. I also visited St. Patrick's Cathedral today, and guess who had a statue next to the church? Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness...but he did a lot more than just run a beer company (like donating lots of money to restore the church). Another popular beer here is Smithwicks which with an Irish accent is pronounced "Smidicks"...if you wanna fit in with the crowd you just gotta do it their way.



My first guinness in ireland

Just walking around

Dublin is a beautiful city. I spent hours and hours walking around (with an umbrella of course), passing countless Irish pubs, beautiful churches & parks. It's very clean compared to most European cities despite the crowds of people walking down the main streets. There's lots of money here, high-end shops and expensive cars abound. The economy has been so great, many people (like myself) has moved here from all over the world...i heard many languages today, and Polish is one of the most common. I even found a Polish food store...i will not go hungry :)

Welcome to Ireland

I've been in Dublin for under 2 hours and I'm already blogging :) This is the first of many posts from my new home on the Emerald Isle. So far so good, I had a nice chat with the cab driver to the hostel...getting my ears used to the Irish accent. He tells me Dublin has good "night-life and good people" which is consistent with what I've been told numerous times. Im expecting a busy first few weeks: finding an apt, getting a bank account, starting a new job, etc. So for my first four days I have been secured a hostel in Dublin 1. For those interested, Dublin 1 & 2 are in the city center and postal code numbers increase as you get further from the city (kinda like Paris). My hope is to find a place in Dub 1, 2 or 3. It's late, I'm tired, so off to bed...