The District

Three Stories

2009-08-07T14:03:00.000+01:00

Winter 2008-09, walking home from the metro:
Waiting for a walk signal I begin to overhear a phone conversation that the guy behind me is having, something about grieving. We cross and begin walking in the same direction and I am either a few steps behind or a few steps ahead the whole time. I'm not intentionally overhearing, I mean, he's having a cell phone conversation in public, but I wasn't able to escape listening either. We were walking in the same direction and there's only one side of the street to be on. The conversation is about someone who has passed away. Most of it is mundane, I don't gather many details, at first I thought a grandparent, aunt or uncle. Then he says "My landlord is calling, I need to take this." That didn't seem like a time to take a landlord's call - until I discover that the person who has died was his roommate and he is explaining to the landlord what has happened. The roommate was on his bike and hit by a car late at night. I can't imagine. I don't understand how the conversation could be so calm, so metered. I listen, hoping that the landlord is forgiving him on a month's rent until he can find - a new roommate? How to move on? Move out? He lives in the building next to me, so I think at least he lives in a condo unit with an owner and not a large building managed by the man.

Summer 2009, on the blue bus
Preppily dressed gay man gets one the bus, talking on his phone. He's doing a sort of phone interview with someone about AIDS support groups. He runs them. The person on the other end is looking for one. He explains how they work, where they'd be, who would be there. Did he just move to the city? Did he recently find out he had HIV? Sometimes I think the world thinks we have passed the difficult 80s-90s when AIDS activism was so front and center.

Yoga class
I listen to the conversation behind me between two girls and a guy, one of the girls who I had seen there before. They are talking about being in the army, holding guns that are too big for their hands. On the other side of the room is a man with one real leg, one artificial one (the kind people run in). It is patterned in stars and stripes. Were guns too big for his hands too?

Awkward and the Real World

2009-07-12T22:30:00.002+01:00

Real World first:
The whiny bitches who live across the street from the Real World house document a fight that goes on outside: http://antirealworlddc.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-fight.html
Yes, I don't like people fighting outside my place either, but the first step is to call the cops, then blog about it (and blog about how you called the cops, because otherwise you look like a douche). What I don't understand is the WSC thing: http://antirealworlddc.blogspot.com/2009/07/use-washington-sports-club-on.html
They're forbidden from speaking to anyone? What? I just find this weird, like often interactions with people at the gym are kind of awkward anyway, so why does it matter if some guy from the Real World asks to work in a set or when you're going to be done with the treadmill? Seriously.
And, a friend of mine ran into some cast members at a bar the other night. Said friend wants to hang out with them but doesn't want to be on camera. Try the gym maybe?

Awkward last:
In college one summer I dated this guy and would stay at his place every so often, but had to leave around 6am to get home. I got really good at public transportation around Boston that summer. Anyway, on my walk to the bus stop I always passed a crew of Hispanic guys sitting on their stoop (at 6am???) and usually got a shout out. At the time, definitely annoying, and if I had to walk past that every day now I would still find it annoying. But there's something I miss about that (discretely leaving at 6am? having to take the bus? the heckling?)... Ok, not miss exactly. More like I live in a quiet neighborhood across from a well-patrolled park that homeless people don't sleep in, and sometimes my walk to work is uneventful. I was reminded of this when I walked out the door the other day and some guy yelled across the street to me, but I couldn't understand what he was saying and ignored him because generally that's what I do when men I don't know yell across the street at me. Anyway, not sure what he was trying to say, but do know that when he finally raised his voice enough for me to hear him he was telling me that he's in the Army and just be polite, man. Oh wait, I'm sorry. If you're in the Army you should be able to raise your damn voice enough that I can understand what you're saying and not think you're just being incredibly sketch.

Rant over. At least I don't live across from the real world house, bitches!

Sarcasm Much?

2009-07-08T15:04:00.001+01:00

"They're great-looking, and good dancers. I think they're going to fit into D.C. perfectly."
Via Reliable Source

Now let's talk about things that you don't see every day in DC:
1. Great-looking people, like stunning, attractive, dashing, gorgeous. Granted, IMHO the cast is not "great-looking" but maybe they're "hot for DC" which isn't that hard to be if you're youknow, normal.
2. Good dancers. Again.... Maybe good dancers for DC. Maybe? Or they just get really drunk and cut loose (footloose, kick off your sunday shoes) and it seems like they're good dancers because you're drunk too?

Sigh.

Get A JOB

2009-07-06T19:58:00.001+01:00

Say Hello to Underachieving

The NY Times writes this article about kids who can't get White House internships who are then incapable of getting real jobs either and loaf around the house. I a little bit don't feel bad for them. I mean, it sucks that you didn't get a job, but maybe you weren't cut out for a White House Internship. Did you reapply with the company you worked for last year? And they didn't take you back? Hmmm...
Well, if you don't want to flip burgers, and your parents can afford to keep you lazing around the house, maybe you could use your time to VOLUNTEER instead.
No, you will not get paid.
But, you could gain not only something that looks good and altruistic on a resume but some valuable experience too.
And you would be "making a difference." It does feel good sometimes.
Try homeless shelters, summer camps/schools, etc.

This article just annoyed me a little. But then again, I always had a (paying) job during the summer in college. Granted, it wasn't real work - it was day camp, but they paid well, so that was more important than answering phones for no cash just to maybe get a leg up.

Why Outlook Sucks - A Common Gripe I'm Sure

2009-07-01T12:49:00.001+01:00

This is how the Ed Sector newsletter looks in Microsoft Outlook:

This is how it looks in gmail viewed in firefox:

This is how it looks online:

Size and colors differ between gmail and web, but outlook? Oh lord microsoft try moving into 2005 at least!
Here is Education Sector's website in case you're curious: http://www.educationsector.org

Owen Wilson + Reese Witherspoon FTW

2009-06-27T16:31:00.000+01:00

Yesterday started out as the worst day ever. I had a horrible morning with the dentist, who is a jerk, because they don't do fillings with silver (seriously) and my insurance doesn't cover composite fillings. Then after being abused for an hour and having a piece of rubber pulled over my face, I got a third shot of novacaine to my f-ing jaw when the dentist decided that it wasn't working out, that the novacaine was not effective and he couldn't finish drilling and he was going to give me a temporary filling and send me home.
Did he just break up with me? Seriously, I was going to have the upper hand in the dental break up. As soon as I got home I called the dentist who I've lined up for my next cleaning and asked if they could fix my fillings. And I'm in. Fifth dentist in less than five years.... And of course a friend of mine had told me that the filming crew trucks were set up down my our office and here I am at home.

Waiting for Comcast.

And then Comcast decided to F with me. I know, I'm not surprised. Basically they were supposed to come by, but the technician called me to tell me that actualy he won't be coming by because the Comcast phone idiots weren't supposed to send someone out for the kind or error our cable had and that he'd have it fixed within 24 hours and I should call his supervisor if it wasn't working. I know, this is not that bad, but someone could have done that 2 weeks ago when I first called them.

And then the day started to brighten.... We decided to go for the usual run, across Memorial and Key (because we'd heard they were filming) and it was going fine until raindrops started to fall and the wind kicked up. By total coincidence, we ended up under the Whitehurst where they were filming as the trees bent backward, lightning struck, and it started to hail. So we stopped to see what was going on.

AND TOTALLY SAW OWEN AND REESE FILMING. The sucky part? I didn't have my camera because we were out for a run....
They were filming a scene where they walked through the park holding a plate of donuts, in the rain. The funny thing was that they used artifical rain to film it and had to wait for the storm to end before they did the walking.
Owen Wilson is super skinny and Reese Witherspoon is super ittybitty. It was pretty exciting though and I wished that (1) we weren't soaking wet and hungry and (2) that I had a camera and of course (3) that I could have hung out and watched it for longer.

Of course, to put the cherry on top, when we got home, half of the power was out (and my internet). It came back on but of course was out this morning, as was the AC and the hot water. I took a cold shower post yoga...

But, dream is somewhat fulfilled!

Own Wilson Watch, filming in Georgtown

2009-06-26T17:51:00.005+01:00

Now onto this movie, we went out on an Owen hunt the other day.
This is Le Pain Quotidien:

Owen was not here.

This is the Four Seasons:

Owen was not here either.

This is Baked & Wired. I love Baked & Wired. Their (barista's) sense of humor suits me perfectly.

Owen was not here either.

(The billboard here is encouraging you to make it 4/20 every day by buying a B&W t-shirt. Hah. The other side said something aout their hippie crack.)

This is where Owen was filming on Wednesday:

Owen was not here. Either.

But his truck was:

So, what have we learned?

Owen is holed up in the Four Seasons eating his Georgetown Cupcakes and going on secret bike rides. Without me. Sigh.

I'm so Right.

2009-06-23T22:34:00.002+01:00

Photo of Owen Wilson in the patio of the Four Seasons:

Via www.thehotandjuicy.com.

How do I know this is the Four Seasons? That across the street to the right is where the gas station on M St is. And Four Seasons is the only hotel in Georgetown (minus the Ritz) that has a street level patio. It doesn't look like that across the street from the Ritz.
Seriously. This girl is such a good detective.

This is just not fair

2009-06-23T15:03:00.001+01:00

Georgetown is being mobbed* by these movie stars and they are not hanging out in my office.
From the Reliable Source:

Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal doing the New York Times crossword together over breakfast yesterday morning at Georgetown's Le Pain Quotidien -- gym clothes, shades, baseball caps (Jake's with a Nats logo!). And then, hmmm, what do you know, they just happened to leave the paper behind ... and they filled it out in ink. And mostly got it right! The Monday puzzle, but still. The movie stars (she's shooting here) seem to have struggled with 57 Down, "Workplace watchdog org." (Answer: "OSHA"; a few more weeks in D.C. and they'll ace that stuff.)

I got the OSHA clue but I missed a few others in that puzzle. So Pain Quotidien is across the street from the Four Seasons...

* And by mobbed I mean they've been spotted every few days...

What I Missed in the Blogs this Weekend

2009-06-23T02:13:00.001+01:00

Here's my little blog roundup of the things I missed during this long weekend without internet (long weekend as in 3 days, not the lack of internet that made it long). I was actually at a lovely wedding out in the cellphone boonies. Far away, but overall, fun.

Salon has alarmist reports on ladies as sex workers in the recession. Can we open more topless coffee shops?
This weekend's exciting DC news: the shooting at Columbia Heights involved INTERNS.
This excites me a lot. There's quite a buzz about it. (Oh, punny.)
And of course the obligatory WTF? moment. Seriously. My money's on the elephants.

Owen Wilson Watch: Day Six or so?

2009-06-22T21:41:00.001+01:00

Well, Owen Wilson is not in my office. (Unless he is very small, like in Night at the Museum, so that actually increases the chances that he is in my office, I think.)

But today's Owen Wilson watch update: potential Owen Wilson residences during filming.
Given the number of times he has been spotted in Georgetown, I'm going to guess he's staying in Georgetown somewhere. Here's what google suggests: Georgetown Hotels

1. Hotel Monticello - right on the canal, so probably smells awesome (nope), dedicated doorman, parking, but doesn't have any star quality from the outside, probably desidned for the business traveller
2. Latham Hotel - home of Citronelle, but its 600sqft room is currently available, sooo that's out
3. Georgetown Inn - I couldn't even get to their website to check it out, so either under the cover of darkness or sucktastic?
4. The Ritz-Carlton - clearly a fancy shmancy place, but maybe too stuffy?
5. The Four Seasons - no rooms available for tonight... Interesting

Then again, if so much shooting is up in Adams Morgan, do you think Owen & crew are getting down with Real World Kids in Dupont???

Owen Wilson Watch: Day 1, probably

2009-06-17T20:22:00.000+01:00

Owen Wilson has been hanging out in Georgetown A LOT. Georgetown Cupcake, Sweetgreen, Tackle Box. I totally go to (have been to once or twice, with the exception of sweetgreen) those places! And other places in Georgetown, sometimes I go there too.
So here is Day 1 of Owen Wilson watch, though maybe it should have started a few days ago.
So far: I have not seen him on K St or on the bus or at the gym. Maybe if I frequent.... Dean & Deluca or Barnes & Noble (even Owen Wilson must like to read)?

Other potential suggestions for Owen Wilson:

How about Baked & Wired? That's a location. I'd go there if I were famous. I go there anyway.
Tony & Joe's (because no one would run up to you screaming at the waterfront, kidding!), but how about Agraria?
Foggy Bottom Fresh Farm market, they have good French bakery items and strawberries
Mie n Yu, because that's where celebs go
Cusp or Barney's (I so can't afford that)
Hook, Tackle Box's big brother
My apartment (well that's in Arlington, but I'll make you cupcakes)

Why I Hate DC Sucks, But Remember When It Didn't?

2009-06-17T15:55:00.001+01:00

Remember back in the day (Why I Hate DC iteration 2 or 3?) when there was a massive massive amount of hate for Laura Sessions Stepp? And, well deserved I might add. I read her book (Unhooked). It pained me. Sometimes it's hard to remember that journalists don't know anything about anything. And LSS certainly doesn't know anything about sex. Or research. Or attributing things to sources.
(Like when she said that having more sex causes infertility. Without the connecting pieces, it sounds like if you have sex you are less likely to have babies. What she should have said was the more sexual partners you have and the riskier your behavior, the more likely you are to get an STI which can lead to infertility. Sounds a whole lot different doesn't it.)

Well, a co-worker and fellow LSS-hater just pointed out LSS's new blog Sex.Really.
Let me give you an idea of what you will find here:

On occasion we'll look at what science says about sex. For example, at present, seven in ten pregnancies among single 20-somethings are unplanned. Young women ages 20-24 are infected by the sexually transmitted, human papillomavirus at a higher rate than any other age group. It doesn't take a seasoned journalist to figure out what this means: Too many are simply not taking relationships, sex, and pregnancy seriously enough.

Oh geez. It doesn't take a seasoned journalist to realize that there are some issues with this statement. I just skimmed the HPV study she links to, and here's what they say:

Also, HPV DNA point prevalence will most certainly underestimate cumulative incidence as many infections clear; this assessment only measures current infection and does not indicate past exposure to HPV.

So maybe those older women had a strain of HPV at some point in time which is now undetectable. Oh. Interesting. It's not a surprise that 20-24 year olds are having more sex (hello college) with more partners. This doesn't imply that we're not taking things seriously.

Also, of course 7 of 10 pregnancies in single 20-somethings are unplanned. I'm surprised that's not higher. The DCR report kind of sucks, the graphs for instance. The only ones worth looking at and making comparisons of are the graphs that include rate. And they only do that by race. There is nothing in there to impress me. Or make me want to read it. And here single=unmarried. I have a problem with that. Angelina fucking Jolie. How's that for single pregnancies. (Unplanned or not, she's still unmarried. And they're doing that for a reason.)

Hey also, this isn't what science says about sex. It's what statistics say about sex. And you know what they say about statistics.

Ugh. Whatever. Welcome back Laura Sessions Stepp. We've missed you. Not.*
Also, please get your RSS feed to display the whole post so I don't have to actually click on your link to read your posts. Thanks.

*I've been saying not a lot lately, blogging-wise. Yes, I am 10 years old and it's the 90s.

Walking in Georgetown Rant

2009-06-17T03:27:00.001+01:00

(What else is new?)
Teenagers may be worse than tourists. The two of you stopping in the sidewalk on M St is NOT funny. Yes, I intentionally bumped you. And you deserved it. I know, I know, I was going to catch the bus, which is so not classy, and clearly I deserved to be delayed by you idiots. Yes, it's my fault for working in Georgetown and not Farragut Square or on the Hill. However, I'm totally not plagued by interns!
Rant over, done.

Would you break up with someone over this?

2009-06-16T14:19:00.000+01:00

Just a few things, starting with Capital Pride.
I wasn't in town for the weekend, but good for (some of) City Council for getting into the parade.
Maybe they need a proofreader though:

(Photo from City Desk post)
Ward 1 Dems Supports Marriage Equality? There's an extra S in there people. This is not to say that I don't sometimes screw up grammar, but I try not to do it quite so publicly.

Ever felt like breaking up with someone due to fashion choices? I'm not afraid to admit that I'm not above that, granted said fashion choice was made post-break up so I didn't have the satisfaction. However, Engadget has pointed out an Obama fashion faux-pas that's break up worthy. But I suppose if you're the first president with a blackberry, you can get away with that holster. Maybe.

You've probably already seen this: Lil Wayne

2009-06-16T03:54:00.002+01:00

So you've probably seen this already on DCist or someone's gchat, but clearly it needs to be a best of craigslist. It's a little weird, if money is not an issue, maybe you could shell out for some other rapper?
Young money baby! (Hey is this going to be on My Sweet Sixteen?)

"He was probably just a white collar criminal."

2009-06-15T17:03:00.001+01:00

On our flight from DCA to Albany I totally sat next to a guy with a gun. And I didn't even know it until I was getting ready to get off the plane. FYI - if the flight's totally full and there are only 3 seats left on the plane and one of them is the back row window, you too could end up sitting next to a guy with a gun.

Here's how it happened:
We checked in online a little late in the evening for the flight and I ended up with the back row window. Whatever, this sucks, but at least there were no middle seats on the flight. As I'm getting on the plane (apparently called "enplaning"), I check out - not in a sexy way, but you know, size up - the guy I'm going to be sitting next to. He is generally unexciting, in fact he seems like maybe he's kind of a jerk: spiky gelled hair, jeans and a t-shirt, shades, listening to his ipod. Fine.

Slowly I discover he's probably on business travel and traveling with the guy across the aisle from him as they pass newspapers between each other. I read my book (which is entirely about sex and sometimes that feels a little awkward when you're sitting next to a stranger), have a snack, and fall asleep by the time the beverage cart has reached the back of the plane. Sadly, I wake up to my ears dying from the pressure, but we're about to land in my old hood* anyway, so I drink some water and try to cope. When the plane lands, these to work buddies are checking blackberries, talking about work emails, nothing out of the ordinary (and they got to sit together, so not fair because my travel partner, S, was sitting one row ahead of me but opposite window).

The man sitting next to me stands up and I shimmy my way into the aisle to talk to S and to stand up and essentially wiggle, because one hour of sitting still is too much for me. As I'm looking around I see that the guy in the window seat (behind S, next to my seatmate's work buddy) had his jacket halfway unzipped. Whatever.
BUT HE WAS CUFFED. Yeah. The guy behind S was in handcuffs! And then I realized that my seatmate and his buddy were ESCORTING him from DC to Albany.

As S and I got off the plane (deboarding) I started whispering to him, "The guy sitting behind you was in handcuffs." He didn't hear me. I whispered again. Still didn't hear. We stop to phone our ride and see the prisoner and his two escorts walking off the plane. "That guy, right there. And the guy sitting next to me was his escort. He totally had a gun!" We probably stared, whatever.
I determined that S had been in great danger, had the prisoner decided to get unruly and reach his hands over the seat to strangle him. This is probably untrue, as it appears prisoners need to have their wrists shackled to their waists, so he would have been pretty stuck.

I did some research, apparently "Less than one percent of all flights contain prisoners who are being extradited, deported or otherwise moved – and most of the time, we're talking white-collar suspects, not violent offenders." (http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/con-air-with-kids/)

Well, I know it's probably slightly inappropriate to say this, but when a black prisoner is being transported from DC he's probably not a white collar criminal (Marion Barry not included).
Anyway, this was clearly the most dangerous part of my weekend, though sharing a twin bed does come close, and it made for excellent conversation with people I'd never met before:
"Well S was in the most dangerous seat on the plane and I was sitting next to a guy with a gun!"
(Incidentally, should anything else have happened on that plane, we would have been pretty safe.)

I did some research, below is some info on flying with prisoners:

Law Officer With Prisoner (s) AA policy:

All prisoners - minimum or maximum risk - must have an armed escort (guard or law enforcement officer).

Must be handcuffed at all times, even enplaning, deplaning, and anytime on board.

Handcuffs must be secured to the prisoner's belt or chain around the waist. The prisoner may also be shackled at the ankles.

The escort must be armed, a member of a law enforcement agency, and must have a letter with all required information.

Escorted prisoners and their armed guards must occupy the rear most available seats on the aircraft. This allows for coach travel only. Window exit seating is restricted as well.

*Yes, I lived in Albany for 3 years in the 80s when it was a not so nice city. I'm not sure it's improved that much since then.

My Weekend

2009-06-15T16:15:00.001+01:00

I'm currently writing a post about the most exciting (and dangerous!) part of my weekend.
And yeah I managed not to escape the rain and essentially ended up spending Saturday night in a mud pit (not the Muddy Buddy kind either). Let's hope next weekend's excursion is a dry one.

In the meantime, two new sites I found that are entertaining:
It's Lovely I'll Take It
You Suck at Craigslist

Arlington Rap Party

2009-06-12T15:20:00.002+01:00

Since 4 people have sent this to me the past 12 hours, I just wanted you to know that before Arlington: The Rap

There was Arlington Party:

That's right. A-town did it first.

We're back?

2009-06-12T00:15:00.002+01:00

What with summer in the city not involving 11 2+ hour work outs a week, school or hours devoted to volunteer time, we're back! Let's see how long writing posts only 2 other people will read lasts.*

Oh and yes, I realize that I live life over-extended. As you can imagine, that's why the blog is being resuscitated.

A lot has gone on in the past oh year and a half. I found google reader (it's true love), realized I am obsessed with baking things, and discovered there are a lot more female bloggers out there (talking about sex, natch). It's kind of like girls in rock bands in the 90s, a trend that sadly has died out. (Juliana Hatfield, Tracy Bonham, No Doubt, Tori, etc.)

So I'm here.

*I'm going to say all of 2 weeks and that's after posting daily wanes...

Voting in the Potomac Primary on Chesapeake Tuesday or.. Whatever the kids are calling it these days.

2008-02-12T19:46:00.000Z

I am undecided:
On whether the line to vote this morning was a result of a big number of people voting.... Or total inefficiency on the part of the staff.

But it sounds cool to say that I waited for 45 minutes to vote (part of that OUTSIDE) this morning as a result of over 250 people before me doing there civic duty & voting. We have 2 polling places right next to each other and the lucky folks next door mostly got to stand inside. Well, we were lucky enough to stand inside the fire station once we did, which was pretty cool. (The guy in front of me did a little oogling of the fire truck; I preferred the fire fighters. Hot?)

One, there were some guys with press passes who were filming something, and a girl (looking way unprofessional, so I can't judge who she was) asking questions of some of the people as they left. Note to all the reporters out there: don't wear green & yellow striped gloves and sneakers on the job...

Two, as I showed up, a group of 4 people stood on the sidewalk with big white letters spelling out OBAMA. (Where was number 5? That seemed poorly planned.) And as I left, some girl outside the other polling place, holding a Hillary sign, was asking "Undecided?"

Well. No. I am decided enough to know that's not my decision. Wish I had photos, but I couldn't even hold my coffee cup when I was at the voting booth.

I got a sticker though!

Useless blog fight 2k8 version 2.0

2008-02-07T03:04:00.000Z

Why this guy is trying to start useless DC blog fight 2k8 with this guy, I can't explain. But why it hasn't caught on yet with anyone either a) speaks to self-restraint or b) blog reader's not reading or caring or c) useless blog fight 2k8 version 1.0 was useless and not worth the effort.

I go with C. (Because it's all about me!)

Also, I would like to revise my statement on Don't Be Silent DC's post… I am annoyed that writing about teenage boys outside Trader Joe's was a worthwhile blog post when 11 women have been attacked in Alexandria/Fairfax. Be concerned for your safety, not for teenagers.

Balls.

Oh wow, Project Runway divas from WWE...

Why I feel like starting Useless Blog Fight 2k8!

2008-01-31T20:04:00.001Z

Because even if that post reeked of sensitivity, at least it didn't wreak of sensitivity.

(I'm frustrated from looking at govt sponsored web sites that have typos and no search menus, so I feel like hanging out with Grammar Girl today.)

And, I will admit, I am also being hypocritical. To quote myself, "Basically, something we all learn in kindergarten - just ignore it, because saying anything just encourages the situation..." So yes, I didn't ignore it in the first place and neither did don't be silent dc.

I just want to acknowledge that I am totally being a hypocritical, judgmental, useless asshole.

In response to Don't Be Silent when my comment gets censored

2008-01-31T18:19:00.001Z

See the post here: http://dontbesilent3.blogspot.com/2008/01/13008-dbs-shorts.html that was kind of annoying. Basically, something we all learn in kindergarten - just ignore it, because saying anything just encourages the situation... Anyway, my guess is this gets censored for being insensitive and whatever so here it is:

OK, I'm guessing you wont let this past moderation, but it really annoys me that you turn to the kids & say I don't respond to kissy noises, because DUH YOU ARE. Even by saying you don't, you automatically are. And that encourages them. Also, there are plenty of (presumably homeless) men who say things like hello darling or hi beautiful to all of the women who walk past, and it's one of those things that people need to grow up and ignore, it's not specific singled out harassment of just 1 person.
Maybe you should give this harassment levels like 1) had to call the cops was in serious danger 2) felt uncomfortable and booked it out of there 3) unnecessary not threatening comments 4) useless drivel you want to write about because you are too sensitive
Yeah, totally not getting posted...

Headline of the DUH!

2008-01-09T15:51:00.000Z

Imagine my surprise to see this one:

NOT... I would say this comes as a shock to few.

However, how many people will see that and ignore the issue [because they are too busy campaigning in SC] of improving education in the city where they hold jobs.

DC Rich & Famous Slumming it at Bulk Warehouse

2007-11-28T13:49:00.000Z

The Washington famous (i.e. not really famous at all, a completely un-recognizable group of people with their noses in the air) apparently shop at my Costco. Sadly, the NY Times started doing this "Urban Eye" thing a while ago, and ditched their style e-mails, so I didn't catch this article until this morning.

The real question is do they go themselves all the time, or do they send their lackeys? I'd love to send someone to Costco for me. 1) I would not be distracted and browse and buy a lot of unnecessary crap* 2) Have you seen that place? It's absolute madness, so crowded! And I have a gift for picking the slowest line anywhere.

Anyway, better Costco than one of the others, considering they treat their employees very well (see here).

About those Washington elite, though. I wouldn't recognize them because I have the fortune to not work on the hill, and with the horrendous policy decisions going on right now, I don't think I'd WANT to recognize them. Heh. :)

*The wool socks I bought recently were totally not unnecessary, but I wouldn't have seen them if I hadn't be dawdling in the aisles of Costco.

If only I had this much spare time in the office

2007-11-14T03:04:00.000Z

If I had this much spare time at work I would probably do the same thing.
Check this out:
http://www.jamphat.com/rap/

A little NSFW - not in terms of the graphs (yes, there are graphs! and charts!) because they are graphs, but maybe the text of some of them. Nice links to the videos on YouTube too.

Props to people's links on Gchat for this one.

Other fun things to do to keep busy:
Free Rice (if you haven't heard of this by now you probably don't have enough spare time in the office to play with it)
Throw Paper (only after you've given at least 50 grains of free rice)

The 38B

2007-11-10T03:30:00.000Z

So generally taking the 38B is a pain in the ass* because it's occupied by a bunch of f'ing crazies. Today however, the not-single girl sitting behind me had the 38B's best conversation ever.

Scenario: she's reading some crazy book about design, and the guy sitting next to her starts talking to her. In. A. French. Accent.
They had some language barrier issues, but I learned that he came here from France (Provence possibly) 2 weeks ago to work at a new framing store over by Cady's Alley. He's also a sculptor. As we got into Arlington I think the conversation got a little more intimate... I think he might have asked her if they could meet up in the future, since he gets off of work at 6. I was stalling and waited until the stop after I usually get off (when she got off too) to see if anything interesting was going to happen.

So I was thisclose to saying to her "So I guess you're not single" when we got off the bus. But I wasn't going to be taken as snarky (it wouldn't have really been snarky, I was curious). So not-single girls, if you see the maybe-cute** Frenchman on the bus, make sure you let a single girl get a bit of a thrill on the way home.

*compared to the blue bus...
**I only saw his reflection is the plastic barrier that separates the part of the bus up the stairs from the rest of it.

2. I am a not-single girl, so I'm not saying that she should have let me sit next to him, but you know, girls go for those accents... He probably had pretty manly hands too.

Cab strike update

2007-11-01T23:47:00.001Z

So yesterday leaving work the traffic was pretty light from my point of view. And the DC cab traffic was waaaay light.
Here's a non-striking DC cab (usually there are 5-10 of these in this lane):

Here's a VA cab (there were a whole lot):

Taxi Strike Tomorrow

2007-10-31T01:48:00.001Z

Thoughts that came to me while standing on the corner of M & Wisconsin on my way home from work:

1. 6 cabs just turned right from westbound M onto northbound Wisconsin. Several more waiting in queue as the light turned red.
Would a taxi strike ease a little congestion in the district? It could actually make traffic better.

2. Wouldn't a strike be more effective if it was from Halloween until a) the drivers got what they wanted b) they realized they wouldn't make enough money not driving and gave in?

3. This is from earlier... Can you call a VA/MD cab to pick you up in DC? Then the strike could be sort of moot on Halloween. Also - sober ride is operating 1 (800) 200-TAXI, so there is that option.

Oh well. I've been in two DC cabs over the past two days. The first one was from AMorg/Mt Pleasant to Rosslyn on my way home late Saturday night - $13.25 - It was a realistic price and I tipped up to $15. Even though the driver almost killed someone on Roosevelt Bridge. But he didn't. So I tipped him...
The second was from Rosslyn to the Kennedy Center to get to the ADL concert last night. (Yes, I know, did we really need to take a cab... Ehh.) Actually, more on that - it is $16 to park at Kennedy Center and we figured about equal to take 2 cabs, granted we caught their shuttle to metro on the way home. ::rambles:: The cab that picked us up in Rosslyn was a DC cab, which I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to do... Then he went the wrong way... Then the trip cost us $10. For about 2 miles. That man did not get tipped.

Update

2007-10-28T22:56:00.000Z

So checking the Marine Corps site tonight, they have posted the phone number for Active Network Customer Support (yeah, that wasn't up at 2pm), so obviously there was some sort fo glitch. Did anyone get that resolved through them? How'd it go?

Uh yeah, and redskins fans should just be kind of embarrassed right now. Yikes. 52-0... Hang your head DC!

Sports Sunday

2007-10-28T22:34:00.000Z

NOW: I am watching the Patriots absolutely CRUSH the Redskins right now. (38 - 0 with 12 mins remaining in the game.) Earlier this week there was a lot of talk about the "Skins" having a chance to win this one. At least around here. I was too busy at work to actually read the articles, so if someone can fill me in that would be good.

LATER TONIGHT: Sox Rox on Fox? The BoSox will be taking on the Rockies in game 4 of the World Series with a 3-0 lead. Get f-ing ready. I will be a little bummed should they win w/Youk not being played, but he got in last night so looking good Youk, looking good!

THIS MORNING: Ran around the city chasing a marathoner. Got text message alerts from the Marine Corps Marathon Web site. BAD IDEA!!! Somehow the alerts got fucked up after mile 22 alert & I got probably 100 of the same alerts in a row. When we came home I called the MCM number but they were closed, then I went on the site (active.com) that was sending the alerts and couldn't figure out how to turn contact anyone there. The MCM site also locks up on marathon day so you can only access the results section, you can't get to anything else. THEN I tried logging in to vtext.com, but I had apparently already registered & couldn't remember my password. So I called Verizon customer service, but they could only block all texts, and couldn't do it specifically, directing me back to vtext, where I tried resetting my password BUT they text you a password & that wasn't coming through because my mailbox was full and anytime I deleted a text more Mile 22 texts would show up. YUUUUUCK.
I finally got it figured out & blocked active.com, but goodness what a mess.

If anyone reading this had the same problem let me know, and let me know how you resolved it. Now I have to see if Verizon will reverse those charges.

PS: Pats game is now 45-0. What now DC? C'mon!

PPS: He ran a 2:45!

Metro

2007-10-28T22:29:00.000Z

Saw this one via DC Blogs: Bad Metro Information Design. I guess I don't think about how confusing that map is since I am pretty familiar with metro, including what car to get on on orange/blue to make changing at metro center easiest. I still get absolutely turned around inside the stations, and certainly don't ave anything close to instinct in terms of going in the right direction after the fare gates because IT IS NOT CLEARLY MARKED. Exception - Smithsonian - has signs for VA/MD or something that are easy to see, you don't have to check out the little lists on those silly polls.
I still vote for inbound/outbound but that will never happen.

YAY

2007-10-18T19:36:00.000+01:00

Republicans who voted to pass SCHIP & override the moron's veto: Mary Bono, Vern Buchanan, Shelley Moore Capito, Michael Castle, Tom Davis, Charles Dent, Vernon Ehlers, Jo Ann Emerson, Philip English, Mike Ferguson, Vito Fossella, Jim Gerlach, Wayne Gilchrest, David Hobson, Mark Kirk, Ray LaHood, Steven LaTourette, Tom Latham, Frank LoBiondo, John McHugh, Candice Miller, Jerry Moran, Tim Murphy, Thomas Petri, Todd Platts, Jon Porter, Deborah Pryce, Jim Ramstad, Ralph Regula, Dennis Rehberg, David Reichert, Rick Renzi, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Christopher Shays, Michael Simpson, Christopher Smith, Pat Tiberi

NAY

2007-10-18T19:34:00.001+01:00

Republicans choosing to fuck over poor children: Robert Aderholt, Todd Akin, Rodney Alexander, Michele Bachmann, Spencer Bachus, Richard Baker, J. Gresham Barrett, Roscoe Bartlett, Joe Barton, Judith Biggert, Brian Bilbray, Gus Bilirakis, Rob Bishop, Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Jo Bonner, John Boozman, Charles Boustany, Kevin Brady, Paul Broun, Henry Brown, Ginny Brown-Waite, Michael Burgess, Dan Burton, Steve Buyer, Ken Calvert, Dave Camp, John Campbell, Chris Cannon, Eric Cantor, John Carter, Steve Chabot, Howard Coble, Tom Cole, Michael Conaway, Ander Crenshaw, Barbara Cubin, John Culberson, David Davis, Geoff Davis, Nathan Deal, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, John Doolittle, Thelma Drake, David Dreier, John 'Jimmy' Duncan, Terry Everett, Mary Fallin, Tom Feeney, Jeff Flake, Randy Forbes, Jeff Fortenberry, Virginia Foxx, Trent Franks, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Elton Gallegly, Scott Garrett, Phil Gingrey, Louie Gohmert, Virgil Goode, Bob Goodlatte, Kay Granger, Sam Graves, Ralph Hall, J. Dennis Hastert, Doc Hastings, Robin Hayes, Dean Heller, Jeb Hensarling, Wally Herger, Peter Hoekstra, Kenny Hulshof, Duncan Hunter, Bob Inglis, Darrell Issa, Sam Johnson, Tim Johnson, Walter Jones, Jim Jordan, Ric Keller, Steve King, Jack Kingston, John Kline, Joe Knollenberg, Randy Kuhl, Doug Lamborn, Jerry Lewis, Ron Lewis, John Linder, Frank Lucas, Daniel Lungren, Connie Mack, Donald Manzullo, Kenny Marchant, Kevin McCarthy, Michael McCaul, Thad McCotter, Jim McCrery, Patrick McHenry, Buck McKeon, John Mica, Gary Miller, Jeff Miller, Marilyn Musgrave, Sue Myrick, Randy Neugebauer, Devin Nunes, Ron Paul, Stevan Pearce, Mike Pence, John Peterson, Chip Pickering, Joe Pitts, Ted Poe, Tom Price, Adam Putnam, George Radanovich, Thomas Reynolds, Mike Rogers, Hal Rogers, Mike Rogers, Dana Rohrabacher, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Peter Roskam, Edward Royce, Paul Ryan, Bill Sali, Jim Saxton, Jean Schmidt, Jim Sensenbrenner, Pete Sessions, John Shadegg, John Shimkus, Bill Shuster, Lamar Smith, Adrian Smith, Mark Souder, Cliff Stearns, John Sullivan, Tom Tancredo, Lee Terry, Mac Thornberry, Todd Tiahrt Bobby Jindal,

BREAKING NEWS

2007-10-17T16:12:00.000+01:00

THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!

Dunkin Donuts gives police officers a 10% discount.

WHOA. WHOA.

Yes, I stopped to get an iced coffee this morning & a woman was buying a bunch of ice cream (DD/BR) and the little screen that records the order had the containers of ice cream and then:

1 POLICE 10% (21.00)

(Being $21 was 10% of her order of a ton of ice cream for the po-po.)

Doesn't this just explain, like, EVERYTHING?

And I left my celly in the car so I couldn't snap a picture, but I'm off to look for proof online...

YES! Good work Mayor Fenty

2007-10-17T15:52:00.000+01:00

Hehehe! Here's to Fenty giving a big fuck you to the taxi cab commission aholes...

And yes, I am a Virginian so I am especially happy that I wont have to bargain cab fares anymore.

Really?? For serious??? Oh geez...

2007-10-17T01:47:00.000+01:00

The car was from Florida, but this was in Alexandria. Guess what kind of car it was?
Mercedes s350 or something - the suv. It gets better - there was another one exactly like it parked next to it.

But without an asshole license plate cover.

Today's news... No surprises here.

2007-10-16T14:21:00.000+01:00

So recap of DC events of note via the Washington Post:

Tomorrow is the meter vs zone decision. I am pulling for meters and turns out a lot of other riders are too: Many D.C. Cab Riders Are Eager For Meters

We finally find out who stays in New York Avenue hotels - Europeans! Judge Shuts Down Hotel, Calling It a Health Threat
(Maybe they just didn't interview the prostitutes?)

NPR is for hipsters

2007-10-11T19:54:00.000+01:00

Anne Coulter does it again!

2007-10-10T16:38:00.000+01:00

That's right, she says something so unbelievably stupid, you have to wonder how she manages to still exist...
From truthdig:
“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president,” Coulter told The New York Observer. “It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.”

Gosh, she's special.

As a woman AND a democrat* the only way I will vote for Hilary is if she gets the nomination. I hope she does go down in the primary, because for as many people that love her, an equal amount really really don't.

*Good lord, tie me up, lock me in the closet, and take away my voting rights! A woman AND a democrat. God forbid I support insuring poor children too! ::gasp::

Conversations to maybe NOT have on the bus

2007-10-05T00:12:00.001+01:00

*my computer is being weird, so excuse the lack of apostrophes*

So on the way home today the guy sitting behind me on the bus was on the phone with someone, telling them about a visit to California where he met up with his father. In terms of things to overhear on the bus, this wasn't an entertaining overhear (see DCist, eavesdropDC), in fact it was ind of sad. Apparently he had dinner with his dad a few times in CA, ended up paying for dinner & giving his dad some money because his father was having trouble getting some social security checks. This is all well and good as a conversation, and not particularly notable, until he said, "Maybe if my dad had got our of jail and turned himself around..."

Whoa dude, your dad was in jail? And that's not the kind of personal information you'd be hesitant sharing out loud on the bus?

Then he said, "Maybe the social security problems are because of something that's held up from being in jail. I know he is out of probation in 3 out of 4 states, I'm not sure about Texas..."

At that point I almost stayed on the bus past my stop, the conversation was getting a little intriguing, and I honestly wanted to see if he would talk about HOW his dad ended up in jail and on probation in four states...

Not that this is funny, it was a pretty depressing conversation, but given that his dad was some sort of criminal (in the sense of criminal being a person who was in jail), here is this guy on the bus, who's talking about his grad program and his girlfriend-wife-fiances dissertation. So not a sketchy character talking about things like that.

It was just... WEIRD!

TOLD YA SO!

2007-10-02T01:02:00.000+01:00

Celebritology reports:

The Associated Press is reporting that Britney Spears has to turn over custody of her children to Kevin Federline by Wednesday:

Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon ruled that Federline will take custody of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, beginning Wednesday "until further order of the court."

Oh Thank God! FINALLY! I knew K-Fed would get those poor babies! (Just go back a whole bunch of entries.) Told. Ya. So. Hah!

Reference: http://ihatethedistrict.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-was-wrong.html

http://ihatethedistrict.blogspot.com/2007/08/nit-wit-brit.html

House Votes Tonight... Stay Tuned

2007-09-25T21:34:00.000+01:00

Nice clips from this article:
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), one of the leading sponsors of the children’s health bill, added a nice soundbite, arguing that “it’s a bizarre thing that a president who believes in testing kids for math does not believe in testing kids for measles and mumps.”

Survival of the Richest

2007-09-25T16:08:00.001+01:00

Or why I think Bush is being a moron...
Read the Mathematica brief on SCHIP. The funding proposed in this bill is equal to 41 days of Iraq War.
Link to firedoglake to call your representative.

Anyway, clearly Bush hopes for survival of the richest and not of the fittest.

More on SCHIP

2007-09-24T14:46:00.000+01:00

And another reporter has this to say: Bush, Democrats Duel On Children's Insurance

So this reporter is neglecting to mention that there are a good deal of Republicans supporting this bill and that BUSH is characterizing it as a partisan disagreement with the Dems.

The man is just uneducated... AP's more detailed take on his veto's here.

SCHIP

2007-09-21T17:51:00.000+01:00

Just posting a link to this one: Veto Threat Angers Republicans
Read through, then check out the link to the comments. I'm pretty sure you can guess my opinion on the matter.

(If you don't know what SCHIP is, check Wiki.)

I was wrong...

2007-09-19T17:16:00.000+01:00

Reliable Source says this:
A court commissioner ordered Britney Spears (left) to hire a parenting coach to show her how to raise her children, according to documents posted on TMZ last night. The L.A. court scolded the pop singer for "habitual, frequent" drug and alcohol use -- but also denied her ex-husband Kevin Federline's request to have more custody of their two kids, now shared 50-50.

I totally thought he'd have those kids by now. Keep trying K-Fed. How long can Britney really last on twice a week random drug & alcohol screenings?

Call Laura Sessions Stepp!

2007-09-18T14:57:00.000+01:00

"I think I do sleep better now," she said. "And it's definitely much easier to have another person in the bed if the occasion arises."

I read this article and had an immediate reaction of 'why did I just do that?'
Uhhh what a WASTE of newspaper space. Also makes me feel old in an 'when I was your age' type of way. Like, when I was your age, we slept on crappy twin xl's because that's what you do in college. I don't think colleges are supposed to encourage sharing beds. Plus, that's a good way to gain spacial perspective: how do you fit to fully grown adults into one twin bed? GRE practice, I think so!

(Anyway, Laura Sessions Stepp might want to write a rebuttal to that article, since now colleges are clearly ENCOURAGING girls to hook up with guys by giving them big beds. Watch out for grey rape.)

Update on the Orioles

2007-09-13T16:39:00.000+01:00

We were at the Sox game Sunday, in pretty awesome bleacher seats. Our dear friend in the daisy dukes was definitely up in the stands, same seat, same shorts.... I think he kept his shirt on, but I tried to take a photo from far away, coming soon.

Meters vs. Zones vs. Meters vs. Zones vs....

2007-09-13T16:30:00.000+01:00

In 1996, the commission voted to require meters in all cabs by 1998. The decision was made after a city-financed study concluded that the zone system charged too much for short trips and not enough for long ones. The meters were never installed.
Read article here

Well, my personal opinion is that we need real meters, I just don't understand why DC keeps trying to be different and "individual." As the nation's capital shouldn't it set a bar for the rest of the country? Isn't that why they have such a great educational system? Oh... Wait...

I have in the back of my head something we studied in econ (of law maybe) about whether the cab driver is better off cheating & wasting time to get a higher fare or taking the quickest route.
Economics says: Quickest route - may be a lower fare but then you are able to start looking for a new passenger.
(If anyone has read this & has a reference for it I'd much appreciate the help.)

"I don't need to walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in..." - Soul Coughing
(Listen here)

From the station that brings you Loveline...

2007-09-06T14:21:00.000+01:00

I ended up walking to work this morning because traffic was a little backed up and I had clearly just missed a blue bus. I wish I had been paying a little more attention to my surroundings because I could have snapped a picture on my cell of this situation:

On the sidewalk on the inbound side of Key Bridge there's a girl in a itsy bitsy yellow bikini holding a sign for 106.7 Talk radio, and a guy snapping photos.

So who does that? Come to find out that 106.7 is the station that hosts Opie & Anthony (ohhh) and Loveline. I guess it was promotional, but what girl thinks that's a good idea?

Can I get satellite NESN pretty please?

2007-08-29T16:13:00.000+01:00

Here's the deal: Red Sox/Yankees was NOT on ESPN last night! So I called 4 Courts & of course they were playing it. Then I called the Continental (because their food's better) and the guy who answered the phone asked me what station the game was on! He didn't even know it was being played! GASP. Apparently, if I can't watch it on my ESPN at home, I can't watch it at the continental - just for future reference. Thus we went to the 4 Courts.

Now here's what I don't like:
a) No NESN here. I swear next year I am ordering MLB extra innings...
b) cigarettes! Yuck. I love smoke free DC, and smoke free Boston, and even smoke free NY, and smoke free Canada (yes, Ontario is indeed smoke free).
But the VA probably will never accept this as a good idea because tobacco is a big crop. Have you seen the Phillip Morris complex on I-95 south of Richmond... Unbelievable. (Oh yes and for those of you saying, so why didn't you just go into DC to watch it? Have you been to Rhino bar? Grossssss!)

So thank god it's on ESPN2 tonight, and I won't have to deal with the girl who smoked 3 cigarettes in a row practically on me.

Look at them girls with the daisy dukes on

2007-08-27T18:27:00.000+01:00

Actually, look at that old man with the WHITE daisy dukes on, sans t-shirt.
OK, he spent most of the game without a t-shirt, which was a slightly more disturbing sight than this photo because his beer belly flopped over those short shorts, and yes, we were convinced those were tightie-whities until he stood up.

What a sight at the Orioles game yesterday! After encouraging us to take this picture, security guards said that he comes every Sunday afternoon in similar scantily clad outfits and that he's not even an O's fan. (You can't see the Red Nationals cap in the photo - but here he is singing God Bless America.)

Orioles lost yesterday, Nationals lost yesterday, f-ing yanks lost yesterday, but the Bo Sox won & are back to 7 1/2 games up in AL East. Yeah baseball!

Just the headline you DON'T want to see:

2007-08-23T15:58:00.000+01:00

Thanks, Washington Post. Live Chat at 11, yay!

PLEASE give K-Fed the kiddos already!

2007-08-01T17:41:00.000+01:00

Wow. Just read that new issue of US Weekly said Britney Spears put soda in her baby's bottles. Then you read the text and it says: Britney just shoves a bottle of juice in his mouth all the time to stop him from crying.
Juice might be loaded with sugar, but it sure isn't soda, I know that much. Also, then she tried to get a dentist to whiten the babies' teeth! She does know that those are going to fall out eventually, right?
2 things here: Clearly, Britney Spears is a train wreck, US Weekly has about as much brain power as Miss Spears.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think K-Fed could (and should) get custody of those kids.

J. McLaughlin (again)

2007-08-01T14:27:00.001+01:00

This morning I spotted: lime flesh green bow-tie with blue starfish.
How ~~nautical~~ nauseating.

I hope if you wear that in public that you are with your own kind, because I will laugh at you for looking like an absolute preppy goofball.

HBO

2007-08-01T02:55:00.000+01:00

Part 1
OK, just need to comment, turned on HBO & found Little Miss Sunshine. So awesome. My favorite part is when Steve Carrell says "He's colorblind, he can't fly."

Part 2
Sunday night's Entourage. HILARIOUS. And such good work with the craigslist tie in. I loved it.

Yuck, movies...

2007-08-01T01:48:00.001+01:00

I'm watching "The Last Kiss," you know, Zach Braff's other movie. It's not bad, but I just can't believe it. Not that it's unbelievable in the "irreleastic" sort of way, but that it's just fucking unbelievable how much of a shitshow everyone's lives are. Two notes - irreleastic obviously is my recent replacement word for unrealistic, yeah GREs; it's worse than a shitshow but I can't find the right word.

Maybe emotional trauma? Watching how everyone's lives play out it's totally ahh horrifying. And depressing.
HOWEVER, not in a girly sappy yucky movie way (ahem, "Catch and Release"). Thankfully there aren't any emotional relationship movies coming up on my Blockbuster queue.

Ok, and also like watching a train wreck. I'm going to have to write about Laura Sessions Stepp coming up.

Photos of RTB

2007-07-30T14:37:00.000+01:00

ZDLR on the right in redStage & crowd

Stage bathed in yellow

Flava-Flav & his clock

Fuck you I won't do what you tell me!

2007-07-30T14:02:00.000+01:00

So, I was at Rage Against the Machine Saturday night and it was fucking amazing. ZDLR can rally 35000 fans to scream along to anything he says. And generally, he's worth listening to. Now more than ever they need to come back to the scene & make noise about the political situation. While some lyrics were written 15 years ago (yes, "as we move into '92"), they're still absolutely applicable to today.
I think that people give us ("young people") a lot of grief because we fell out of the protest movement. We volunteer a lot, we sign petitions, we're generally concerned with the state of the world, but we've lost the inability to rally ourselves and protest something, regardless of how strongly we feel about it. But I think RATM could mark a solution. Just imagine a protest on the mall against the war- speakers like politicians, activits, celebs, etc (Jim Webb I'm looking at you) that brings in hundreds of thousands of people. The way to bring the young people is akin to bribery - have a band show up and rock out and watch what happens. Come on, if we had like "Rage Against the War" as a protest, we'd finally see civic involvement from those of us who seem to have lost hope.

I'm not sure why we feel that way either - disenfranchised and hopeless and like our actions don't matter.

BUT ANYWAY, MORE ABOUT THE SHOW!

So after yesterday's weather I am pretty glad that I bought tickets the minute they went on sale for the Saturday show, because Sunday was pretty nasty. And I heard that Erykah Badu canceled anyway, so it was pretty much the same groups.
Flava-Flav was ridiculous, he brought 3 of his kids on stage and sort of hemmed & hawed for a while. The Roots were good, Talib & Mos Def were good, and Cypres Hill was a waste of my time (kind of like the last time I saw them at a festival, it's like everyone here is already pretty stoned so we don't need you around to get them to smoke more, right...). Wu-tang clan wasn't nothing to fuck with, and that was fun because I didn't appreciate them the last time I saw them (at age 13).
And then... The moment I'd been waiting for for months - or longer, a long time ago I was supposed to be at the Rage/BBoys concert that got cancelled, so I hadn't seen them in about 10 years.... Rage comes on stage. The press of the crowd was ridiculous - people surged forward, mosh pits broke out to the left and right, I could have picked my feet off the ground and been supported by so many strangers that I would have still been standing. It was pretty ridiculous. Nice part was not a lot of crowd surfing during rage. Just AWESOMENESS! Lots of awesomeness. It was amazing. ZDLR made an intense statement about the White House's resident idiots and every single thing that they played moved the crowd. We were all there for Rage, it was clear. It was fucking awesome.... Ahhh, I'll post some more photos here too although they aren't that great. AWESOME!

Street Smarts

2007-07-13T14:36:00.000+01:00

So apparently a 22 year old woman gets into a van with a strange older man who offered her a ride to Crystal City, and then is attacked and assaulted. I just don't understand how this girl's street smarts could be so non-existent...
Situation - you're at a party & drunk & the metro is shut & you need to get home. Do you a) hail a cab b) get hailed by a strange man. From the men I've seen around here he probably hollered out the window to her in a pretty crude way too.
I don't know, I guess she was from Dallas and maybe that made her a little more trustworthy, but HONESTLY?

Don't ever do something so stupid as to get in a ~~car~~ van with a stranger.

Read about it.

Dear Ms. Erway...

2007-07-03T13:54:00.001+01:00

From Washington Post: "During the whole campaign, he was hugged-up on black people," said Michelle Erway, 26, a black federal government contractor from Northeast, whose 3-year-old son will enroll in a charter school this fall. "Now that he's in office, he's hugged-up on white people. I lost a lot of respect for him after he was elected."

Oh, seriously! You think he's flip-flopping on his race choices? Let Mr. Mayor choose the best (wo)man for the job, regardless of the color of their skin or whatever.

How would you feel if Hilary was "hugged-up" on women during her campaign, then wins the election (god help us) and gets "hugged-up" on fellows. FELLOWS. MEN. Good lord, but there are more women than men in this world, what is she doing? What if all the women are incompetent?

(Disc. I'm white & female. I think Hilary is shady & that Fenty should fix this city with the best resources available. They could be green kitten-eating aliens for all I care, but if they can make DC magic happen then let it be!)

Hillary

2007-06-20T15:20:00.000+01:00

Well, here's proof of the type of woman voting for Hillary Clinton - her campaign song is by CELINE DION! (A Canadian!)
That's disgusting.
There's still some reason why HC is just a little sneaky, I'm not quite sure. My vote is with Edwards right now, but I can only imagine what would happen if BLOOMBERG ran.

Foodstamp Challenge

2007-05-16T14:37:00.000+01:00

I think this is cool: Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries (Washington Post).
Cooler still: they are keeping blogs -
http://foodstampchallenge.typepad.com/
http://timryan.house.gov/

FASHION

2007-05-08T20:50:00.000+01:00

Turn to the left?

Ohmygod, everyday when I go through Georgetown I go past that super preppy store (J Mclaughlin or something?) and see the most drunked excuse for clothing. (I couldn't come up with a better adjective.)
-Pink chinos with skull & crossbones embroidered.
No, really. They are hideous, but if you're in G-town worth checking out - the store is next door to Dean & deluca.

Another thing I read this morning: Big-ugly-bug-eye sunglasses?
They're out! According to the Express, it's way cooler to wear normal shades than ugly ones. They did in fact quote my favorite song about sunglasses (Cory Hart), which some girl sang on the street Friday night while walking into GW hospital, trying to convince someone that it does indeed exist.

Iced Coffee

2007-04-23T15:28:00.000+01:00

Yeah, weather here is finally somewhat normal (so, not cold), and today was perfect for iced coffee. Of course, my proximity to the Rosslyn metro and my lack of driving to work made it totally impossible to get a DUNKIN DONUTS coffee. So after missing the bus by about thismuch I wandered into McDonald's (note: saw a md iced coffee commercial on today show while getting ready to leave the house) and got myself a coffee.
I'd say it would be 10 times better with 10 times less sugar in it (make that no sugar, none at all). In fact, it's sitting on my desk getting watery right now... I'm a "creme no sugar" type, so the sweetness is surprising.

Anyway, really the problem is that DD are not located central to any metro station, which is just obscene. I am convinced that setting one up right by the Rosslyn metro would create a huge amount of income, natch. I'd be there every freaking morning just about.

Why can't DC get the coffee right?!?!?!

VT

2007-04-17T14:39:00.000+01:00

Jay Matthews is a fucking idiot. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600834.html?hpid=topnews

Because he said Tech had a good reputation, but this will tarnish it. Of all the articles to write immediately after this tragic event, one that suggests that the school will suffer in rankings is absurd.
I absolutely believe that that campus community will band together and maintain all reputations they had.

Again, Jay Matthews is a fucking idiot. This column is another one that makes me want to smack him!

Clearly you're joking, right...?

2007-04-12T15:57:00.000+01:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/interactives/shopper/030107.html

The ins & outs
In: TSA
Out: Privacy

Wait, those two go hand in hand.
And in my hand, well, I will not be sporting the so-called fashion of see-through purses. See italics from article below. How ridiculous. If you follow the link, the article has a photo of the bags from Coach & Chanel, along with the price... If you can find me someone willing to pay $500 for a plastic bag, we'll I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.
COME ON!!!!!!!!
Clear lucite accessories might be ok, but the "plastic" bag thing? It happened a few years ago and it didn't stick! I wish I could find a reference for that, if I do I'll post it later.

"Blame it on MySpace. On Facebook or YouTube. These oh-so- popular social-networking sites have changed us all by issuing a societal decree: Your life isn't real unless you bare it for all to see. And all this new technology has led to a staggering amount of transparency among us.

Now the concept has snaked its way into fashion. How else are we to explain the proliferation of all things invisible this spring?

Citing inspiration from the zippered plastic bags used for carry-on liquids on planes, designers including Karl Lagerfeld and Oscar de la Renta have crafted handbags from see-through polyvinyl chloride (PVC to you and me). Of course, for decades department stores have required employees to schlep their stuff in clear purses--but that's to discourage internal theft, hardly a positive story line to parade down the runway.

Also striking in their clarity: Accessories made from clear acrylic (trademarked under such familiar names as Lucite and Plexiglas) abound this spring. A revival of a mod '60s sensibility for see-me '07, they're luxury products for a new class -- one that has no need for a silly thing like personal privacy.

-- Cory Ohlendorf, The Washington Post"

The Onion

2007-04-05T02:45:00.000+01:00

Don't cry, the ONION is in DC. I picked one (ok, actually grabbed 2) up outside of the Dupont South metro tonight. Boy is this exciting, because the Onion is hilarious, and DC really needs to lighten up.

GRE

2007-04-03T20:43:00.000+01:00

So the GRE is NOT changing in Sept! (yay, procrastination)

No calls...

2007-04-03T20:42:00.000+01:00

Please?
Does "no calls" mean no calls or no calls unless you are really serious, serious enough to track down a phone number and ask for an extension....?
Maybe it's no calls unless we don't respond to your emails EVER.... Persistence.

Rockin' the Bells

2007-04-02T14:36:00.000+01:00

Well, apparantly GA tickets for Rock the Bells NYC are sold out as of I checked yesterday. That presale made me happy as a clam, and the 4 tickets I bought make life fabulous. I am so looking forward to the Wu-Tang/RATM reunion (since I saw them together in 96 or 97).

Regarding this summer's music: I don't know why modest mouse isn't hitting md/va/dc, they are going philly to nc, which sucks a bit.
I would like to go to Virginfest to see the pumpkins & my beasties, buuuuuut I don't want to pay for a 2 day event, and I will probably be way out of town that weekend... Besides, I've seen them both before too.

I would like to add that if any of these reunions act like RHCP did on tour (i.e. played a bunch of new crap) I will be pretty pissed. Granted, Rage has been broken up for years, so we should be good there!!!!!!

karma

2007-03-27T18:32:00.000+01:00

I would say I believe that karma is the result of Tony Snow's cancer & the Dick's DVT. Not wishing death or disease on anyone, just thinking about it.

Anna Nicole

2007-03-26T20:39:00.000+01:00

Poor Anna Nicole... Remember when my car was named after her?

So why is the news so focused on tragedy lately? Is everything that tragic right now, or is it just the way the media is spinning things. I don't know, but chew on this:

Could the John Edwards family be the next Kennedy's? (see politics, tragedies)

Free Coffee

2007-03-21T14:53:00.000Z

Dunkin Donuts has free iced coffee today, if you are lucky enough to live near one, drink one for me. I can imagine back in Mass that you could get your coffee fix on the free cups - just go DD hopping and get a few on the way to work.
We are not that blessed down here, until I can open a franchise the closest one is 1.2 miles from the office, and it's not warm enough to go that far to get it.
Boo.

-Medium Iced Vanilla, Cream No Sugar

Because Lewis 'Scooter' Libby taught us nothing

2007-03-21T13:42:00.000Z

I love that Bushie (aka President Bush's son) is letting his aides testify. Sort of.

WaPo (& the Merideth Viera clan) says "The White House, however, limited the kinds of questions the aides would answer and said the interviews may not be conducted under oath or transcribed. The conditions enraged congressional Democrats, who vowed to go ahead with plans to issue subpoenas as early as today that would compel the aides to testify."

Good for the Congressional democrats.

In other news, PB's son also plans to veto a bill to give DC a vote in the house... Because it is... UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/ AR2007032000111.html

"Islam doesn't mean peace, it means killing everyone for peace"

2006-09-13T15:31:00.000+01:00

Teacher Charged After Uproar Over Arabic

A substitute teacher was charged with disorderly conduct Monday after she allegedly lashed out at a group of Gaithersburg high school students for using words in Arabic while practicing a commemorative speech to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/ AR2006091201401.html

assalamu alaikum :)

Oh goodness, what an idiot. Honestly I would love to meet someone of her caliber and spout lovely arabic poetry just to get her riled up or something.
I bet she still eats freedom fries.

Football

2006-07-10T15:08:00.000+01:00

Someone out there knows: What did Materazzi say to Zidane????

Edu-BORING

2006-06-30T16:44:00.000+01:00

The edu-bloggers are slacking because of July 4th holiday... This makes my life at work boring because trolling the edublogs usually takes a nice relaxing chunk of time from my day. Granted, they're not really exciting on a day-to-day basis, and I tend to find the same info on like 8 different sites, and they get into petty eduwonk cat fights.

And they're still going nutty about mentos & coke--it was on letterman last night, let's get over it.

Yawn.

Read this if you have the time.

2006-06-23T14:43:00.000+01:00

Interesting city paper article on a school in Dupont.
Most brain-tickling part of the article is in the last paragraph re: closing the school because of it's size.
DC obviously is not in on the small schools argument.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cover/2006/cover0616.html

HAH

2006-06-19T16:57:00.000+01:00

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/06/18/oranges_to_oranges/?page=1

Don't go organic. a) there's no proven positive effect
b) the more people going organic, the more overtaxed organic systems will be... thus causing... something something i read a while ago. :-/

(And the whole foods lobster thing, totally PR, no one cares)

I must be hearing things

2006-06-19T14:14:00.000+01:00

The acoustical society of america says not to use voice amplification in schools, instead renovate to fix the acoustics. Read about it here:
http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060615-042818-1064r

Where should the schools get the money to renovate poor classrooms to adjust acoustics?

That might be buried somewhere in their policy on noise here:
http://asa.aip.org/amplification.pdf

intern season

2006-06-19T14:12:00.000+01:00

Wow, probably the dumbest article I've ever read. Interns paying $1250 a month for a tiny bedroom in a shared apartment?
You are very very obviously getting ripped off.
And another one complaining that $250 is too much per month for a dorm room?
WHAT IS GOING ON!?!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501963.html?nav=hcmodule

troglodites

2006-06-15T16:46:00.000+01:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402155.html?nav=hcmodule

YES. I think this is a good idea, and a way for metro to generate revenue, because they could charge people to apply for permits to play in the metro. Use just about any other subway system in the world and you will find people playing music. Oh DC, get with the times baby.

english immersion

2006-06-13T21:19:00.000+01:00

Bob Slavin weighs on on Ron Unz... I think Unz is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and I wrote a paper about what a bad idea this was a few years ago for public administration with Prof Nostradamus.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0613/p01s01-ussc.html

I am an ISTJ.

2006-06-12T18:17:00.000+01:00

Whatever that means.

More for the Edu-Sationalists

2006-06-06T18:33:00.000+01:00

How Bad Do You Have to Go?

At Some Schools, It's Bathroom Breaks vs. Grades

The Washington Post does it again, fueling the edu...blogger crowd and chastising NCLB for making us bring lice to school and pee our pants and not protest...

But if there's a kid in an AP class who can't respect class enough to only pee when necessary, s/he is probably not mature enough to be in a "college level" class, let alone go to real college......

"It should be like college, especially for seniors. We can vote. We can go to war. We should be able to pee whenever we want."

More on the gym

2006-06-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060500826.html?nav=hcmodule

I did used to get up at 4:30 for practice, but this is insane...

election-year ploy to placate conservative voters

2006-06-05T20:11:00.000+01:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060500085.html

Oh Bush reviving gay marriage... Ahhh bringing this up again?
Can't we all be pro-choice on gay marriage? (Hey, and less abortions right?)

sadly we won't all agree to disagree when John Roberts is in charge of the Supreme Court

"Be realistic, demand the impossible."

2006-06-05T15:33:00.000+01:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/world/americas/05chile.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Read this article about students in Chile, then think about what you could be doing!

Imagine if students in the US staged a walk-out because they didn't agree with NCLB--And schools would have to deal with lower attendance rates (Sensationalism in the News to all the Edu...Bloggers for their recent posts about lice and recess and all that nonsense) which would undermine the NCLB deal on attendance.

In protests that began in mid-May, more than 700,000 teenagers have walked out of classes at public high schools, demanding the overhaul of an education system they say is inferior and discriminatory. They have occupied several hundred schools, sleeping there overnight with sympathetic parents bringing them meals, and last week thousands marched in the streets of the capital here and in other cities in this nation of 16 million. ... Since the return of democracy, financing for public education has tripled and poverty has been reduced by half. But inequalities persist, both among regions and between public and private schools. On average, according to one recent study, private schools spend at least five times more per pupil than the poorest public schools do.Since the return of democracy, financing for public education has tripled and poverty has been reduced by half. But inequalities persist, both among regions and between public and private schools. On average, according to one recent study, private schools spend at least five times more per pupil than the poorest public schools do.

girl's got weltshmerz

2006-06-02T15:33:00.000+01:00

Aww, poor Canadian girl with a German speaking father, spelled weltshmerz wrong by 1 letter, she put a v instead of a w (sound phonetic with v, like veltshmertz i think)... rule 1 in german (i made it up as rule one, but) v sounds are w's.... f sounds are v's.
I really wanted them to battle head to head and be co-champions.

haha

2006-06-01T18:31:00.000+01:00

About the Gym.

Wow, this is ridiculous.

2006-06-01T18:23:00.000+01:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/us/nationalspecial3/01traveler.html?th&emc=th

OK, yes, I'm a girl, I'm white, I don't look like a terrorist.
But I think this profiling is WRONG. When I carried Arab text books on the plane I didn't get even a double take like I thought I might. Did anyone watch season 2 of 24? We all could be "terrorists" "jihadists" whatever.
See below though:
"It is an apt comparison, Mr. Ahmed feels, noting that after the 1995 Oklahoma City terrorist bombing by a white former soldier, Timothy J. McVeigh, not every blond with a buzz cut was pulled over."

And we didn't really profile white men for the unabomber thing.

I was recently marked for special screening at the airport because I had a 1 way ticket to upstate NY. I had to go through the air blast machine. A blonde girl in heels 2 people before me set it off (it picks up gun powder/explosive residue) and it took over 5 minutes for them to clean off & reset the machine. Apparantly we can't all get the special treatment because it would be a waste of time... Or would it catch explosives? How sensitive is this machine................................

the gym

2006-06-01T14:36:00.000+01:00

It's weird how solitary the gym is... You go, hop on your treadmill/elliptical/bike/erg/etc, plug in your ipod, open a magazine (or at nice gold's or wsc watch tv on your treadmill) and solitary confine yourself to the machine.
The classes are so close to almost the same way, usually you show up by yourself, yoga, and go. So many people are say-nothing-to-no-one types.
And then there's cardio kickboxing, which just amuses me. Yes, I enjoy it! Fun to do something completely different, but oh it's so funny.

Generally a mix of girls (women) ranging from the college kid home for the summer to post college to awkward mom age to old & uncoordinated. And the occasional awkward middle aged man who I usually see as a spectacle (but even more so in yoga). Yesterday was a mix of post college/awkward mom. I'll get the awkward mom thing out of the way because they sometimes seem completely discombobulated, incapable of getting any of the sequences right, unable to kick an inch off the floor, have to get water every 2 minutes... Hope I am never an awkward mom but good for you for going to the gym with all the skinny pretty gym-addict girls.

Then there's the we all look alike crowd. And it's so amusing these girls who punch and kick like they are fighting some imaginary enemy who is always on the right right right right right left left left left left right left right left.... No room for elbow-kick him in the nuts-right-left-left-left-right-left randomness like a real fight. No, this is a pink robot we're atttacking. Oh all these Yoshimi girls left block right kicking.

And bless you for knowing right from left. I see cardio kickboxing as a mental exercise: remembering my right from left, following crazy little kicking sequences, shuffling, bobbing, it's really hard on my head since work is such a brain drain. Some girls (who go to ckb way too muuuuuch) get so tough and into it like "I am ready for you pink robot do your best right left right left right left double speed"...
I am not so much like that, considering I can't be ready for the pink robot with it's alternating right lefts because I might just start out left right left left right left right don't stop paying attention because you'll go right left ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Haha.

The Internship

2006-05-30T16:01:00.000+01:00

More backing for why I never did one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/opinion/30kamenetz.html?th&emc=th

About damn time

2006-05-30T15:20:00.000+01:00

"She was more comfortable with the brighter side, she said. It made her feel safer."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/29/AR2006052901180.html

WELL DUH METRO!

bad college poetry contest

2006-05-15T19:01:00.000+01:00

http://hatemongers.mu.nu/archives/176636.php

it's amusing

dead babies, condoms, and fishy economics

2006-05-12T14:55:00.000+01:00

Low Newborn Survival Rate

Honestly, I think this ties into the whole NYT contraception article (read it here)
And if you've read that chapter of Freakonomics (which this link says may not be so rigorous evidence) your brain might start making some connections. (I think... I could just be being nuts.)