This is the enemy, as identified by the Schumin High Intensity Target locator (I'm not even going to give you the acronym for that one - figure it out yourself):



Yes, the closet. I am cleaning out the closet. Do I realize how long it's been since I last cleaned out the closet? Let's just say that it was WAY before I graduated high school, which was six years ago this week. So it's been a very long time, indeed.

And most of what you see will become landfill, be sold on eBay, or donated somewhere. Right off the bat, I see my cap and gown from my high school graduation that's getting trashed (what do I need with it?), a Dancing Limber Louie puppet that I'll either auction or give away, and very old clothes that I don't have a prayer of fitting into again (which will be given away).

The plan is to get rid of most of the stuff currently in the closet, in order to put the stuff currently in the corner of the room behind my recliner (kind of like a temporary closet in itself) into the closet. It's not like I use the stuff in the closet now anyway.

This ought to be fun, though.

Well, I procrastinated all Wednesday and much of Thursday, but I did get started on Thursday evening. And this is going to be a BIG job. I only cleaned out a little bit of stuff on the floor and ended up with two full tubs of refuse, destined for the landfill, and one tub with the stuff that I'm going to keep, sell, or donate.

It's interesting what I found, too. A lot of it was literally trash. Paper. Empty boxes. Old, dried-up markers and stuff. I did find three new Sharpies, though, which I'm going to keep.

I also found some old clothes that I didn't realize I had. I have an old "CFW Information Services" shirt still new in the plastic. That shirt is going away. Look for it in a thrift store near you. I also found a bunch of old, obsolete computer books, and some old textbooks from when Mom was a teacher before, back in the 1970's. Mom taught in New Jersey from 1973-1981, had me and then Sis, and didn't go back to teaching until 1997.

Speaking of which, today was the last day of school for the county, and Mom tells me that her students all lined up at the end of the day for hugs. How cute!

But anyway, though, I can already tell that this project is going to require quite a few trips to the landfill to dispose of all the stuff that my Schumin High Intensity Target locator (think about that for a moment) came up with.

I can't believe it's been a year since the June 5 anti-war demonstration sponsored by ANSWER Coalition. I can't get over that it's been that long.

Goodness... I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember being excited, but a little bit nervous, since it would be my first time as a true participant, vs. the previous one where I'd stayed on the sidelines the whole time.

I wrote about the June 5 demonstration in the Journal back in June 2004, and it's good reading. I still regret packing Big Mavica for that demonstration, as all the photos I took were taken with my cell phone. It was a good day temperature-wise, as the rain that fell that day cooled things off a bit.

After the march, I found myself near the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan station. I visited a nearby McDonald's, where other participants in the march went afterwards, and I also helped out a girl who was in tears because she was stranded by her boyfriend in DC, hundreds of miles from home (she was from the Virginia Beach area). I provided comfort, and help. She was nice. I hope things worked out for her in the end.

That's also the same day I soaked the undercarriage of my car coming into Vienna on the way up. I'm just glad I soaked it when I was less than a mile away from my destination, because once I hit that puddle, it seemed to be everything my car could do to reach 25 mph. It seemed to strain to reach 25 miles per hour. I left it on level 3 in the North Garage to dry out.

Outside of the march, the day was a normal day in DC for me. I went to Pentagon City Mall, Freedom Plaza, and I even visited the Exeloo at Huntington station.

When I emerged in the evening at Rosslyn in the late evening, I noticed a large picture of Ronald Reagan against stars and stripes on the big TV monitor that WJLA installed on the Rosslyn Twin Towers. I took a guess as to what happened, and went online with my cell phone to find out what was going on. It turned out that I was correct in my guess - Ronald Reagan kicked the bucket. He died at roughly 4:00 PM eastern time, right when we were at Donald Rumsfeld's house (his actual residence on Kalorama Road) demonstrating against the war in Iraq. How strange to have that happen on a day I was being active with the anti-war movement.

Meanwhile, fast forward a year, and this June 5, I was working at Wally World, where a lot of the customers were downright crabby today. It was also hot and muggy outside, and with the humidity, it was just downright oppressive.

And you know what still gets me? People and how they treat their food, and their clothes. People will put their food directly onto the belt. Even fresh vegetables. But they will hold their clothes up over the belt and hand them to me directly, slowing me down, and making a major pain in the behind of themselves. I don't get it. And it doesn't matter whether the belt is perfectly clean or if it's dirty. Same behavior. People will put their food in anything. I could probably spread horse manure all over the belt, and people would probably still put their food, that they will be eating, flat on the belt. But clothes, oh, heavens. Can't put the clothes on the belt. I find it makes no sense, as you would think that one would be more picky about the food that they will be ingesting, vs. the clothes that will be on the outside of their body. Maybe it's just me. Who knows.

Meanwhile, I wish our store had a Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga combo machine. Why? Because I love that machine. I use the easter egg that brings regular Pac-Man up for playing (up-up-up-down-down-down-left-right-left-right-left on the joystick on the game select screen), and I could play the original Pac-Man game for ages. Yay for Pac-Man. Forget my "orange soda break", which is the name for my last break, since I always have an orange soda for that break. My breaks would consist of Pac-Man in the game room. I believe that I personally would be able to keep that machine profitable.

So all in all, an interesting day. I was thinking of the DC trip I did a year ago today for a lot of the day, where I attended the demonstration, and also did my DC thing.

What a hot day it was on Wednesday. But it was a fun day, though I tried to spend as little time as possible in the sun, and outside for that matter. A good day to go railfanning for most of the day, as Metro's air-conditioned in and out, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

But first, some outdoor photography, with an emphasis on vertical photos, so that they would be easy to use in the photo feature on the main page. I spent a little time downtown, since I wanted some new urban photography for use on the Web site. I was successful here, and so I got off at Farragut West and walked down to Murrow Park, across the street from the World Bank. Last time I was down that way was for A16, when Sis and I went to a big demonstration.

This particular day, it was, as expected, normal. I got a few pictures, and then slipped into the Starbucks across the street from the World Bank. Now you want to know what was downright bizarre? Wherever there was a fire alarm strobe, there was not one, but two. A Gentex strobe was to the left, and a Wheelock strobe to the right. Like this:



Additionally, there were red bells. Still, it was quite strange to see two strobes from different companies next to each other like that. And it was consistent with the strobes, both in the main restaurant and in the restrooms.

After leaving the Starbucks, I passed through Farragut Square, and arrived at the Farragut North Metro station, on the Red Line. I caught a train to Shady Grove, and visited Cleveland Park, Tenleytown-AU, Bethesda, Medical Center, Grosvenor, and Shady Grove on the way up. On the way back, I visited Van Ness-UDC and Dupont Circle.

At Dupont Circle, I walked around a bit, taking photos, while attempting to avoid direct sunlight. I then went over to the nearby Books-A-Million on Dupont Circle, where, you may recall, three other people and I all took a time-out from the inaugural festivities. From there, I went around to the CVS across the circle, where my intention was to get a large bottle of water to cool off and replace lost fluids. Things didn't quite work out for that, as the lines were going way back into the aisles, and I didn't want to wait. I ended up putting the water back and getting a juice from a street vendor.

I also got a shot of the new canopy at Dupont Circle's south entrance:



From there, I was ahead of schedule. I was finished with my "official" objectives, but still had time to spare. So I figured I might as well do a little more photography. So I rode to Gallery Place-Chinatown (where there was broken glass on the floor, which I reported to an employee), transferred to the Green Line to L'Enfant Plaza, and headed up to the surface. I went to L'Enfant Deli, where I got an Orange juice, and then sat on the patio there for a bit. Then I got back on the train and went to Smithsonian station. I did a little outdoor photography as I walked from the Independence Avenue entrance to the Mall entrance. Re-entering the station on the other end, it was fully rush hour, with some congestion on the Blue and Orange Lines, likely due to a Blue Line train that was accidentally routed to the Orange Line at Rosslyn, and related maneuvers to get that train back where it should be (the train turned around using the interlocking at Clarendon). As such, trains that passed through were totally full, but that worked out, as it worked out to sit out a few trains. I was able to test a few camera settings on some trains as they came in, plus was trying to capture the exact color of the LED displays on some of the newer cars.

From there, I went back to L'Enfant, and from there to Pentagon City.

At Pentagon City, however, before I settled into my Washington-Post-and-smoothie routine, I went over to the Aqua Massage place. There, I was contemplating getting a massage in their big massage machine, but first the lady running the place wanted to show me a few things. First thing was the Massage Mouse, that used pads placed on your shoulders to send electrical stimulation to your muscles. Very weird feeling. After the lady let me try it out for a bit, she asked me if I wanted to get it. "How much?" was what I wanted to know. Turned out that it was $100. For that much, they can keep it. Besides, going online on that Web site that I linked you to above, we find out that the place at the mall is gouging you on it.

Moving along, after I rejected the Massage Mouse, on to the next sales pitch - the heating pad. Basically, it's like this device, but a different brand. Press the little activator button, and voila - instant heat. Just boil the pad to bring it back to normal, and you're ready to go again. How much? $80, and $100 if you want the belt. Again, pricey.

The next sales pitch was for a vibrating massager. So the lady ran it all over my shoulders and back. How much? Also pricey.

So after three high-pressure sales pitches in a row failed to get me to buy something, I said I was interested in using the big Aqua Massage machine (you know, their flagship product?). I ended up getting the 15-minute massage, which was, as always, wonderful.

And then the last high-pressure sales pitch: Would I like to buy the package deal? A whole bunch of Aqua Massages for around $100. My response: No. As a rule, I do not buy from people giving me a high-pressure sales pitch.

I have to say, the Aqua Massage place at Pentagon City was better when they kept their focus on the big Aqua Massage machines. Once they went to the big high-pressure sales tactics with all the secondary junk, it gets to be a real turn-off.

And then I went to One Stop News on the bottom level for my Washington Post, and then to Mr. Smoothie for my smoothie. They were out of lemons, thus a lemonade freeze, which I was after today, was not available. A pity. So I got my old standby, a peach/strawberry Fruity Freeze. I had to remind them, as sometimes happens, that it was the no-ice-cream version that I was ordering, and had to stop them once they started dispensing ice cream into the blender. Turns out that the ones with the ice cream (called "Fruit Smoothie") was more popular than the one without, so it was force of habit. But they happily fixed it, plus I'm quick at stopping them when they go to the ice cream machine. But once it was done, it was a good smoothie, as always.

And I went out to enjoy it.

Also, while at the mall, I got a photo of what Pentagon City looks like during the tourist season:



All the yellow people in that photo are tourists as part of a school group, from, according to their shirts, Gainesville, Florida. Some of them even wore belts that said AAA Safety Patrol. And as is usually the case with school groups, they visit all the monuments and museums around the National Mall in DC, and then can be found (to quote a Metroriders poster) "stampeding through their most cherished of Washington monuments - Pentagon City - on their annual invasion."

So yeah, there's a reason that I enjoy my newspaper outside.

From Pentagon City, I caught a Yellow Line train to Huntington, where, on the way down, I played Pac-Man on my cell phone. Then at Huntington, I walked around a bit outside the north mezzanine, contemplating taking a bus across to another station like Van Dorn Street or Franconia-Springfield, but decided against it this time (perhaps another day).

I missed the train I came in on, and caught the next one, which ended up being a CAF. That worked out well, as the CAFs have good A/C on them. It was COLD when I got in there, which was just what I wanted. And while I waited for it to leave, I played Pac-Man on my cell phone. We actually sat at Huntington with the train turned off so long that the lights went out, which they do on their own after so much time. My comment to the other passengers was, "Mood lighting!"

Then the operator showed up, turned the train on (which automatically turned the lights back on), and we were off. I transferred to Blue at the Pentagon, and then rode over to Rosslyn and then transferred to an Orange to go to Vienna. I missed an eight-car Orange Line train at Rosslyn, and the next Orange train was a six-car train. Drat. But I did get the railfan window the whole way to Vienna, which was nice.

And then, on the way back, I had a special mission to accomplish. At work, we collected money and ordered a shirt for an assistant manager of ours who transferred to the Dayton Wal-Mart. Then when it arrived, we all signed it. So since this particular manager was working overnight, and as I was doing most of the legwork for the project anyway, I took it to her on the way back from DC. The shirt was really cute, too. It had the Metro on the front, and the back said, "Thanks for keeping us on 'track'!" It was cute. So along with my usual stops (Sheetz in Haymarket and Wal-Mart in Woodstock), I stopped at the Wal-Mart in Dayton, and dropped off the shirt, and made her day. That Dayton store also has a lot of memories for me, as that's where I shopped when I went to JMU.

And that was my day. I got 225 photos, making this a great photo day, and I'm sure you'll see a lot of them before it's all said and done.

Today was a good day. It was also a long day, but a good day nonetheless. The customers were nice, and seemed to do fairly well today on the self-checkouts, compared to a weekend, where people seem to have trouble on them.

All in all, it was quite a pleasant day. It seemed to be a long day, too, but it was a good day. And we were comfortably busy. Not bad.

And then otherwise, I realized that I'm nearly two weeks late writing this month's newsletter. I guess with everything going on lately it just totally slipped my mind. Well, I'm going to rectify that just as soon as I finish this Journal entry.

Today was also an interesting head-music day for me. I had the weirdest songs floating through my head today. I had Marzipan's scroll buttons song running through my head. I had the Crying Kitten song in my head today. I had the I Love You Kitten song stuck in my head. I had Yatta playing on a loop in my head. Today just seemed to be a day for all the different "Internet Songs" to take over my mind.

That reminds me of the "Netculture" bulletin board I did in Potomac Hall one time. I took characters from Flash animations (specifically Animutations), and printed them out and put them up against a white bulletin board, and the wooden backboard behind the bulletin board. Check it out:



I really outdid myself on that one. I arranged them all in kind of a collage, all mixed up. And it had no less than three Colin Mochrie references (one from Hyakugojyuuichi, one from Irrational Exuberance, and one from Dash). Plus I included Mr. Nice, Peanut Butter Jelly Time, the three characters from the Hi-HO commercials, "Cats" from All Your Base Are Belong To Us, and even George W. Bush playing the drum from the War on Terror-themed parody of the Banana Boat song.

I even included a few text passages, too, like these:

Noses do NOT waste bandwidth. They are a necessicary (sic) component for smileys. Without them, smileys would be forced to live a life without the joy of experiencing scents, and with a total lack of good looks. Do you think a disembodied face will get laid if it doesn't have a nose? Of course not. I rest my case.

Alan Greenspan is not frumpy and lovable enough.
Ed Asner for Federal Reserve Chairman!
Or maybe Dave Thomas.
No, I mean the real Dave Thomas.

I love that bulletin board. It brought me such joy, and I did it under cover of darkness, too, very early on a Sunday morning, so that it could surprise everyone with its out-there-ness. The rule of thumb for dorm bulletin boards is never to put them up on Friday or Saturday, since that's when they're most likely to get damaged by drunks. Sundays are best, since most are sober on Sunday and getting ready for a week of class.

And I found out today that Michael Jackson was acquitted of all ten counts regarding his child-molestation case. I expected this, and would have been quite surprised if they'd gotten a conviction. It just seemed like the prosecution's case had too many holes in it. The whole case also reminded me of the last episode of Seinfeld, where they brought practically every past character into court to testify. When they went for people from the past, it just seemed so Seinfeld-like. Or maybe it's just me.

I was reading an article in the Staunton News Leader today at work, talking about John Kerry's grades in college as compared to those of George W. Bush. I was reading the article, and the question came up again and again - what does this have to do with anything? John Kerry graduated Yale in 1966, and George W. Bush graduated in 1968. As of Election Day 2004, that would make John Kerry's college days 38 years in the past, and would make George W. Bush's college days 36 years in the past. Since then, both men pursued their various careers.

I consider career accomplishments better performance indicators than grades, which I consider along the lines of the old saying, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." Call it what you will, but I find grades to be rather meaningless, as I've seen so many professors play with the numbers to make the grades look the way they want them to look. Besides, what's important in the college experience? I quote from Dr. Stillion's Student FAQ:

Since THAT is the very, very valuable thing for which you are investing all this money, time, and energy, you should study with the goal of learning ALL of the material to the best of your ability - and NEVER MIND the grade. In the end, you are NOT learning this stuff for a grade (I know that may seem strange, but it is nevertheless TRUE). Ten years from now, NOBODY will care what grade you made in this course - NOT EVEN YOU ... . However, ten years from now, somebody's LIFE may depend upon how well you comprehended and retained this material with the ability to APPLY it to their situation. ... This is true for Psychology classes whether or not you ultimately work in a Psych-related field. Even if you ended up working picking strawberries somewhere, your ability to recognize, for example, a depressed co-worker and get them the help they need could make the difference between life and death for them.

The same page also talks about rendering a grade meaningless via statistics. It's a good read.

With that in mind, back to the original topic. Bush and Kerry's grades. Do we care? I'd much rather hear about their positions on foreign and domestic policy (particularly domestic policy, personally) and how they intend to implement their goals than the number of "D's" that a candidate got more than thirty years ago. It makes no difference to me that Bush and Kerry were "C" students. It makes no difference to me that John Kerry got four D's his freshman year, and Bush got only one. I got a "D" myself my freshman year, in MATH 205 - introductory Calculus. I got a D in the course, and am grateful to Dr. Sal Liriano for giving me that D, because I probably deserved to fail the course.

When I'm looking at a presidential candidate, I'm looking at their stands on issues, their voting records, and actions taken in the past. Let me form an opinion on the person's performance, vs. looking at a grade from over thirty years ago, which essentially already have an opinion attached to them.

For that matter, character issues don't carry any weight for me, either, like how Bill Clinton was a philanderer. It really doesn't concern me.

So all in all, I don't see the big deal in looking back at the candidates' grades, and I don't think it should be an issue.

On my lunch break, I went to our in-store McDonald's to get lunch, since our lines on the front end were backed out the wazoo (even the self-checkouts!). McDonald's wasn't busy. So since they weren't busy, I decided to see what their reaction would be. I came up to the counter, and said that famous line of Wimpy's: "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

And the reaction?

*crickets chirping with blank stares*

Yeah, none of the people at the counter got it. The manager, however, did get it, and got a kick out of it.

Sometimes throwing pop culture references around is fun. Also amusing is that today was Thesday, so "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" was rather odd. Of course, I did gladly pay them Tuesday for a hamburger today, since it was Tuesday and all...

It's really amazing what I found in this wing of the closet. First of all, I managed to fill up two tubs' worth of crap that's getting hauled out (and I'm not even finished with this corner yet).

I did, however, find a whole bunch of pictures (a few of which may end up on this part of the Web site), three cents, and, of all things, the Grimes Good Egg pin that I got in May of 1989 (second grade).

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Good Egg Award is basically a student-of-the-month kind of award, given to one student in each class at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School. Officially, the award is given for "good citizenship". Though it really was more of a "teacher's pet" award. And you could tell, too, because the same faces got the award every year, and those kids would wear ALL their Good Egg award pins at once, which always irked me, since until the end of second grade, I'd never gotten the Good Egg award.

And let me tell you... I managed to accomplish that the last month of my second grade year, and I had my lips FIRMLY planted on my second grade teacher's behind the entire month. And yes, I do hate unsolicited recognition. But when I want recognition, I'm not exactly subtle about it, and am not afraid to kiss a little butt to do it. But in this case, it worked!

But never again did I manage to get a Good Egg award, as relations between the school and our family got downright stormy, but that's another story that I'm not going to get into right now. Still, back in 1989 when I got the award, they gave you a certificate and a pin. Then they started giving you a bumper sticker that said, "My Child Is A Grimes Good Egg". Then they added a frisbee. At the rate that they were adding prizes that went with the Good Egg award, now all the Good Egg recipients probably get a new car or something.

And I also found a vintage Wal-Mart bag in the closet. My guess is that it came either from the Wal-Mart in Rogers, or the old Staunton Wal-Mart. Either way, it's definitely early 1990's. Weird.

A few days ago, in a similar cleaning stint, I found my old bowling ball from when I was in a children's bowling league. A nine-pound "Brunswick Junior Black Beauty" ball. I got it for my eighth birthday. My father and I spent an hour or so with a guy in the back room in the bowling alley using a machine to get the fingering right so that the ball could be correctly drilled. Best I ever bowled with that ball was a 99 game at Dixieland Lanes in Rogers (I understand that it's now called "Rogers Bowling Center"). I was MAD about that game, since I was one pin short of 100. One lousy pin. I was mad at myself for that one. Still, I found the ball. It even has "BEN" inscribed on the top of it.

Still, we're getting closer to the halfway mark (getting the bottom completely cleared out), and then getting the entire closet completely cleaned out. This is interesting.

I thought I'd try one of those Email surveys. You know, the ones all your friends send you (you know, the ones that won't be your friend much longer because they keep sending you all those annoying forward-this Emails). I'd gotten the idea that I wanted to do one on here, and you know me... I tend to be a little long-winded. So let's take it for a spin, using this survey that I found online.

So, as Strong Bad might say, "Let's get this train wreck a-rollin!"

WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR KITCHEN PLATES?
The plates in my kitchen are green and white, with an ivy theme on them. They're cute, but when I find a real job and move out, I'm not getting anything like that. My dinnerware is going to be black, which is really shaping up to be a color I really like.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Right now, I am not reading a book - I'm writing in my Journal.

WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
My mouse pad is actually a Schumin Web logo mouse pad, from the 2002 "Minimalist" site design. It's got my logo in the center, and has a light blue background.

FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Monopoly. Something about crushing your opponent financially just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It's like crushing your enemies without any emotional strings attached, since it's just a game. I mean, if I financially crushed someone I knew in real life, where they were so in debt that they had to sell all their buildings and mortgage all their property and still not have enough money to settle things, I'd feel really bad about it, and would probably forgive some of it to keep them from completely crashing. But being just a game, one can be totally ruthless, and just look out for #1.

FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Definitely Newsweek. Just lose all the blow-in cards and other heavy-stock inserts. I'm really particular about these things, and will actually go in and remove all of the stuff printed on heavier card stock from the magazine before I read it, even if they're stapled into the binding. I will actually carefully tear them out around the staples before I will enjoy my Newsweek. I don't care how lucrative they are for the magazine. In my copy, they are removed and discarded.

FAVORITE SMELL?
I actually like that new-equipment smell. Believe it or not, I really like the smell that the Rehabilitated Breda Cars have when they first go out on the railroad after coming back from Hornell. I call that the "new train smell".

LEAST FAVORITE SMELL?
Definitely sewage. Especially a strong smell of it. You want to experience the awful smell I'm describing? Take Interstate 81 in either direction, and cross milepost 239 in Virginia. There is a sewage treatment plant east of the highway, and when they're working on the stuff, the smell carries over to the Interstate, and it smells absolutely awful. It is wise to practice how long you can hold your breath before traveling that stretch of highway.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
Usually cursing the fact that I have to get up so early, and why can't I go back to sleep.

FAVORITE COLOR?
Blue, with black at a close second.

LEAST FAVORITE COLOR?
I can't say I have any one single choice for a least favorite color combination. Though I can tell you that certain color combinations, usually from the 1970's, should never be used together ever again.

HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE?
It really depends. I check my caller ID before I answer the phone. If I want to answer, I'll do so quickly. Otherwise, you're getting screened by the answering machine.

FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
I do not intend on ever having children at this point, and so that renders this question moot, doesn't it?

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE?
Definitely being satisfied with where you are in life.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA ICE-CREAM?
Neither. I like strawberry.

DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST?
I don't like to drive like some people do on the Interstate, sailing past me at very high speeds, but I also don't drive so slowly as to irritate all the other drivers. Funny story, speaking of speeds. There was one day I was running a little behind schedule on my way to work, so I drove a touch faster than usual to try to make up those few minutes. I get to work, and a coworker comments to me about how slowly I was driving! I was just like, "You're kidding, right? I was pushing it this morning!" and so this earned the two of us nicknames from each other. Me to them: "Hey, speedy!: Them to me: "Hey, slowpoke!" It's so clever.

DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Nope.

STORMS - COOL OR SCARY?
Depends on the storm. A regular thunderstorm is fun to watch, as long as you're indoors, in a safe location. Hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. creep me out a bit, and that's where you're going to find me being a little nervous. Of course, while Hurricane Isabel was going on outside, I was sitting up here, working on the Web site. But I had to drive through part of Hurricane Isabel to get home from JMU, and that was exciting.

WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
1991 Toyota Previa LE. I learned how to drive on that car, and my parents later transferred the title to it over to me. Unfortunately, my first car is still also my current car. But this is the car that will not die, and it will be fifteen years with our family next month. Once I find a real job and move, I plan on getting a nice, new, smaller car. I have no need for a minivan anymore.

IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE WHO WOULD IT BE?
Probably Grandpa Bowman, on Mom's side of the family. I'm told he was a great person, and very smart, but he died when I was like two years old. As such, there are pictures of him with me, but I have no memory of him myself, since I was too young.

FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK?
Margaritas. Those things are good. Though that one I had at the beach back in August 2004 was stronger than I usually take them.

WHAT IS YOUR SIGN & YOUR BIRTHDAY?
My birthday is May 30, which makes my sign "Gemini". Of course, if you believe what the astrologers tell you, I should let you know that the 14th Street Bridge in DC is for sale for a very attractive price.

DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI?
I don't. I like the crowns, but not the stems. Not the right texture for me.

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB WHAT WOULD IT BE?
One that makes a lot of money and that I enjoy a lot. I'll know it when I see it.

HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR?
Well, any hair that grows out of one's head is a color. I've never deliberately dyed my hair any particular color, though. So I've always had the color that comes out of my hair follicles. Though I have tried to imagine before what I would look like with different kinds of hair colors...

IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?
Definitely half full. I like to think optimistically, even when faced with monstrous evidence that things are turning to the contrary.

FAVORITE MOVIE?
Spaceballs, directed by Mel Brooks. I love that movie.
Dear me, what are those things coming out of her nose?
Spaceballs!
Oh, s---. There goes the planet.

DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?
I type, and I can type without looking. And I can type pretty quickly, too. Though I usually only use my index and middle fingers on each hand to type. So if by "right keys", you mean using the "touch typing" method where you have the home keys of ASDF and JKL;, then no. I only use four fingers instead of eight to type. But it still gets the job done, so who's to complain?

WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
A monster. His name is Bill. No one names things "Bill" enough anymore. A coworker had a rubber lizard on her shoulder. I said, "Nice lizard. What's its name?" She said "Lizzy". Lame name. Everyone names their lizard "Lizzy" or something like that. I would have named it Bill. It's just a good, solid name, and no one names their animals Bill. No one ever does that. You never hear, "This is my fish, Bill." It's always something like "Bubbles" or something.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?
I'll watch just about any sport, on one condition: If it's friends of mine playing. I can't stand watching professional sports. I can't stand watching college or high school sports. I have no emotional connection to the game, and I'm kind of ambivalent. But if I know who the people are, like with The Ball Wackers, I get pretty involved.

WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR?
Staying with Wal-Mart for an extended period of time.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS.
I found this online using a Google search. Kind of makes this a moot point, doesn't it?

FAVORITE TV SHOWS?
I love Today's Special, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls. All great shows. As far as current shows go, I enjoy Trading Spaces, where they redecorate a room in someone's house. That's always a lot of fun.

KETCHUP OR MUSTARD?
Ketchup! I'll put ketchup on just about anything. And it is spelled "Ketchup" with a K, not "Catsup" with a C.

HAMBURGERS OR HOT-DOGS?
Depends on my mood. If I feel like a hamburger, than we'll get a hamburger. If I feel like a hot dog, then we'll have a hot dog.

FAVORITE SOFT DRINK?
SURGE! I love Surge, and miss it dearly. I also like dnL, which is the upside-down version of 7up with caffeine. It tastes so good, but I fear it's headed in the direction that Surge is.

THE BEST PLACES YOU HAVE EVER BEEN?
Places in and of themselves are inert. But surround a place with an event, and then you've got something. The most fun I had in 2004 was the Million Worker March at the Lincoln Memorial. That was fun, and was one of the best places I'd been. Interesting, though - me in a touristy part of DC. Still, it all is a matter of places where things happen. Not just places by themselves. Since you go back to a place where there was an event when there's nothing going on now, and it feels like a totally different place.

WHAT SCREEN SAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW?
Right now, my screen saver is off, because I'm writing stuff on the computer. However, when I go idle, the generic "Windows XP Professional" logo screen saver will come on.

BURGER KING OR MCDONALDS?
Definitely Burger King. McDonald's doesn't have nearly as much flavor in their burgers. It's because Burger King flame-broils their burgers, and McDonald's cooks theirs on a griddle.

When I shot the photos that comprised the two-part photo set Afton Mountain: Victim of Progress, I never really thought that what I was documenting would disappear so quickly. The focus of the photo set was threefold, if you recall:


Howard Johnson's Restaurant


Skyline Parkway Motel


Skyline Parkway Motor Court

Since September 10, 2003 when I took the pictures, things have changed. The Skyline Parkway Motel was torched in July 2004, leaving it a charred ruin, completely destroying the roof, the portico, and heavily damaging the central portion of the building:



Now, according to a June 18 article in The News-Virginian, the Skyline Parkway Motel is going to be demolished, with a crew out there on Friday prepping it for demolition. Additionally, according to the article, Phil Dulaney, the Charlottesville businessman who owns this cluster of businesses on Afton Mountain, has plans to also demolish the Skyline Parkway Motor Court and also the Howard Johnson's.

Now here is where the article presents a touch of ambiguity. In past articles about the mountain, The News-Virginian seems to have been unable to understand that the Howard Johnson's on Afton Mountain was a stand-alone restaurant, and that there was no Howard Johnson's motor lodge up there. They have in the past referred to the Skyline Parkway Motor Court as the "Howard Johnson's Motel", which we find a bit odd. The ambiguity comes in because the article says, "Besides the Skyline Parkway Motel, Dulaney said he planned to raze the adjoining lodging properties, including the Howard Johnson's, to make room for a multimillion-dollar renovation." So the question is will they demolish the Howard Johnson's restaurant, which is not a lodging property, and what about the still-operating motel known as The Inn At Afton, which is located above the Skyline Parkway Motel?

My gut feeling is that with this redevelopment, the days of the Howard Johnson's restaurant on Afton Mountain, closed since 1998, are officially numbered. As for The Inn At Afton, I really can't say, but considering how dumpy the place is (I've been inside before), I kind of hope it goes away, too.

The article leaves out details about what the big renovation will entail. New restaurants? A shining new motel property? The only thing it says is that there will be a new tourist information center up there, presumably replacing the one that currently operates beneath a row of abandoned motel rooms.

I'm kind of excited to see what goes on up there. I'll be interested to see old things as they come down, and new things as they go up. But it will be sad to see the vintage properties go, and a shame that it seems that the Howard Johnson's won't be renovated and incorporated into these plans.

It reminds me of the time I went up there in October 2003, a month and some change after I did the photo set. Someone had taped a newspaper article on the door that had a photo of the restaurant as it appeared when it first opened in it, talking about vintage architecture, and also a handwritten note that said, "Please buy me and open me up". A shame that it is not to be, as I would love to have seen it reopened. Especially since, while I was up there that day, an older couple stopped at the Howard Johnson's to use the restroom, only to discover that it was closed. I, being the nice person that I am, directed them up to The Inn At Afton for a restroom.

So there you go. I had no idea that I would be documenting history with my photo sets, in what I would honestly consider a rare local photo set, as most of my Photography sets are done in the Washington DC area.

After publishing the last Journal entry, where, at the end of the article, in the "Quote" part, I spoke about the demolition of the former Howard Johnson's motor lodge in Harrisonburg, I learned from a friend that the motor lodge still exists!

So I went into JMU's Facilities Management master schedule online, and found out that a lot of different scheduled projects are listed as being on hold. All sorts of projects are marked "ON HOLD", such as:
Renovating humidity controls in the ISAT/CS Building
Reconfiguring the old WMRA space in Anthony-Seeger Hall for JMU Police use
Building a turning lane into the Convocation Center
Asbestos abatement and demolition of Lincoln House, Shenandoah Hall, Smith House, Wellington Hall, and Zirkle House
Demolition of Rockingham Hall (the old HoJo's)
Replacement of UREC astroturf

As you can see, a lot of stuff is on hold. And it seems that ALL the demolition projects are on hold, for that matter. I really have no idea why all of these projects are on hold, but they are. By the way, all the other demolition projects aside from the HoJo's are all on the same block, to make way for a new performing arts center.

So maybe the old Howard Johnson's motor lodge will be with us for a tad longer than anticipated. Not like it will be of any use to us, though, as it will more than likely remain closed, as it has been for the past year.

Now to clarify, I am referring only to the MOTOR LODGE complex (guest room buildings and the gate lodge). The restaurant had already been demolished in June 2004. I describe my discovery that the restaurant had been demolished in the June 29, 2004 Journal entry.

As anyone who read my away message on Wednesday saw, I was in the DC area. And things went smoothly. Very smoothly. The kind of so-smoothly that makes you start to wonder where the kinks are going to show up. I got up right on time before my alarm clock (unlike the late start I got last time), and got out without a hitch. My cruise control held up for the entire trip (it's been known to cut out from time to time), and I encountered no major traffic jams on eastbound I-66 coming in. Usually I encounter traffic at around milepost 41 (just past the Haymarket exit), and it usually doesn't clear until milepost 46 (just before the Manassas exit). Clear sailing right on in. Traffic only really got thick right around the Nutley Street exit, which is the one I take to access the Metro station. Beyond Nutley Street, and approaching the Beltway, however, was where the traffic was. I've often contemplated skipping Vienna and driving a few miles further to park at West Falls Church (where I noticed the new parking garage was underutilized), but all that traffic kept me at Vienna.

By the way, I currently am comfortable in driving to two Metro stations: Vienna and Franconia-Springfield. Vienna of course is my Metro station of choice. I always start at Vienna. Out of all my trips to DC, I've only not originated at Vienna twice (and one of those is only half a non-originate at Vienna). Once was my first trip ever to DC, back in 1994 at the age of 13. Our family went with friends, and we stayed over at another friend's house. We ended up driving around to Pentagon City in Arlington, interestingly enough, and parked at the parking garage at Pentagon City Mall. That's how I learned of Pentagon City Mall's existence, and I still go there all the time, as I love Pentagon City, though for differing reasons over the years. I used to actually seriously shop there, but now the mall is more like a hangout, where I spend about $5 there to get something quick to eat and get a newspaper and then park myself somewhere to enjoy it all. I have no idea how to get to Pentagon City by car (I wasn't driving), but could probably figure it out.

The other time was July 28, 2001. And that was only halfway not originating from Vienna. That, by the way, was my first day really railfanning the Metro in DC, riding the Metro for its own sake and photographing. My earliest photos of the Metro are from 2000, but this was my first time railfanning. The railfanning occurred with my wanting to explore around on the Metro before heading over to Pentagon City (and Potomac Mills later on). At Pentagon City, at the Babbage's there (which is no longer there, by the way), I found a DVD-ROM drive that was far superior to my existing one, which was giving me problems. This was also while I was rehabilitating my computer in the summer of 2001, so it worked out. I didn't buy right away, though. That happened later, because I wanted to see if I could get it for less at Potomac Mills. I ended up spending so much time railfanning that Potomac Mills was a QUICK trip. Seriously, in, look, and back out. I didn't want Babbage's to close on me before I could get back over. So to speed things up, instead of going from Vienna, where I normally would, I got the Metro at Franconia-Springfield, and took the Blue Line directly to Pentagon City. I bought the DVD drive at Babbage's, as well as a USB expansion card (which added four additional USB ports to the computer) at Electronics Boutique (now EBGames) to replace the old decoder card that I didn't need anymore. And then from there, I left as quickly as I came, taking the Blue Line back to Franconia-Springfield. And back home from there via I-66. And it was on that trip where I encountered this at the Franconia-Springfield parking garage:



Anyway, though, back to the present. At Vienna, things still went without a hitch. I found a parking spot on the top level of the parking garage, and rolled on into the station. A touch of normalcy again: I finally got a Breda for the first train of the day again, after having gotten everything else for a first train the last several times I went. Seriously, I got CAFs, Rohrs, and Rehabs, but not classic Bredas. Getting a Breda for the first ride of the day became such a regular thing that I started saying I was catching my "first Breda of the day".

Then I did my Rosslyn thing, where I got a message on my phone from Oren about what he was doing that day (he would be at Shady Grove). After that, I was off! My route was less than direct to where I wanted to go, since I tried to go for variety over directness. And if this sounds like what I did on J20, you are correct. I took a Blue from Rosslyn to Metro Center, took a Red from Metro Center to Gallery Place-Chinatown, and then took a Yellow to Mt. Vernon Square. From there, I exited, since I was going to the Infoshop, mainly to grab a few phone numbers off the Internet that I had failed to bring with me that I needed to call that day. I also checked bus schedules and routes for crossing over from one end of the Red Line to the other.

So from the Infoshop, I walked over to the Shaw-Howard University station, and grabbed the Green Line towards Greenbelt. This was one of only two trains containing CAF cars that I would get all day, and this was the only one that was a solid six-car CAF consist. Otherwise I didn't ride a rehab all day, and thus except for two rides on CAFs, all I got all day were Rohrs and Bredas.

I got off of Green at Fort Totten, and transferred up to Red. Before going to meet Oren, I decided to zip around up the eastern end of the Red Line and then take a bus across (which is faster than taking the Red Line all the way around, which I have done before). I actually visited Forest Glen, Glenmont, and Wheaton, in that order. Lots of railfan photos of the stations there, including this gem at Wheaton:



There you have it - the longest escalator in the Metrorail system, seen all at once, bottom to top, all 230 feet of them.

Then from there, I caught the Q2 to Rockville, which is a Metrobus route (last August, I took a Ride-On route similar to this from Rockville to Wheaton). I rode an Orion V, specifically #2122. If I had been just a few minutes earlier, I would have gotten a Flxible, but the Orion worked out well enough.

From Rockville, I caught a Red Line train to Shady Grove, which was my other CAF ride of the day. The front two cars on this consist were 4000-series Bredas.

I met Oren at the Ride-On 100 shelter at Shady Grove, and we talked and I got some Ride-On photos. It was a nice day, for the most part. The sun was out, but a little later on, off in the distance, the sky became VERY dark. It wasn't long before this darkness reached us. The temperature dropped a bit. Rain started to come down. Thunder. Lightning. Wind. Thank goodness for bus shelters.

And when they said scattered thunderstorms, they meant it, too. Since this storm seemed to come out of nowhere. Seriously. When I left the bus at Rockville, this was the weather:



And when I first got to Shady Grove:



Note the clear skies all around. The storm came from this direction as well. Not long after, this is what the weather was:



But it didn't take too long to blow over, and things ultimately cleared up nicely. After visiting with Oren, I took the Red Line back into downtown Washington DC, transferred to the Yellow Line at Gallery Place-Chinatown, and headed to Pentagon City.

I left Pentagon City later than usual, around 10:15 or so (compared to 9:30 normally). I also knew I had some time to kill in order to properly time my return to Vienna. So after my transfer back to the Orange Line at Rosslyn, I determined to head over to Ballston.

At Ballston, I used the time to collect my thoughts, and also have the Coke that I couldn't get at Pentagon City due to problems with the vending machine. I ended up going over to the 7-Eleven across Fairfax Drive from the station to get that soda, and briefly contemplated asking for a paper bag for the soda, but ultimately decided against it. Why? To see what people's reactions would be if I was drinking my Coke out of a paper bag. Sophia on The Golden Girls once said, "You drink out of a bag in the park, and all of a sudden, everyone's your friend!" Like I said, I ultimately decided against it. Though on my June 8 trip to DC, I did for the first time see a person drinking out of a bag in the park, specifically at Dupont Circle. But like I said, I ultimately decided against it. Which was probably a good thing.

Then from Ballston, I rode four stations down the line to Vienna, and that was that.

Also, at Ballston while waiting for the train, I noticed something. I noticed that this was not a night that the Nationals were playing. You can usually tell when the Nationals play by looking at what's running on the Orange Line. On a normal late night, the display screen might look like this:



But on game nights, it looks like this:



I'm exaggerating just a little (these are manipulated photos), but still, longer trains and more frequent service are what you'll find on the Orange Line on game nights.

All in all, though, the trip went very well, and I got a lot of good images, which will probably end up somewhere on the site eventually. And I'm still amazed about how few CAFs I got, and that I got no rehabs all day. Like I said, my riding was mostly Rohrs and Bredas all day.

Yes, tonight, dinner consists of what I call "cheap dish pizza". In other words, Great Value is the name of the game. Store brand pizza. Whoopty-doo. Of course, on a Wal-Mart income, that's what it's about. Still, that ought to be pretty good.

Meanwhile, Mom's been organizing and rearranging things in my bathroom lately. I have two words for it: BAD IDEA. She completely rearranged all the stuff in my bathroom that I use on a regular basis. In fact, it's been in the same place for so long in there that I can reach for it all while still half-asleep (and sometimes do end up doing just that). So Mom rearranged. A big handful of my Q-tips ended up in a container on top of the toilet. My blue toiletry tote that sits on the counter and contains all my toiletries was missing, and the contents scattered all around the bathroom. My toothbrush was in a holder elsewhere in the bathroom. My flosser was in there, too. My deodorant was in the closet. So was my dental floss on a string. And then while the flosser was in the aforementioned holder (that had always been known for being downright nasty), the floss clips that fit it were in the closet. All on different shelves all over the bathroom. And my toiletry tote was in the bottom of the closet, empty.

Needless to say, this rearrangement of my stuff without even so much as telling me was not wanted nor appreciated. My Q-tips went back in the box. Q-tips are for cleaning ears, not for display. That little container went back in the closet empty. My tote came back out. And all the stuff that went in it went back into it in the proper places. Everything I needed to use regularly went back where it was before. When I am ready to rearrange, then I will rearrange. And for someone who doesn't even use that bathroom to come in and totally rearrange it really irritates me.

Aside from the rearrangement of the man's domain (the bathroom, of course), my day went fairly well. I didn't get caught by a red at EVERY traffic light going to work, which has happened to me on a number of occasions, and I also showed off to my coworkers the photo I took of the "executioner" happy face trash barrel at the Manassas Wal-Mart on Wednesday on my way up to DC:



And yes, the "executioner's hood" is really just a black garbage bag. Still, I found it quite amusing.

Yay! The closet is clean! It only took me a month to do, but the closet is completely devoid of all of my crap. And I took no prisoners. Sixteen tubs' worth of crap went to the landfill. I have one tub's worth of stuff that I'm keeping/selling/donating. Not much came out of the closet that was of any worth, though.

I did find some interesting stuff, though. One was an old videotape of early-1990's television that I had been looking for on and off for years. Turned out it was in my old toy box the whole time. How it got there, I don't know. But that tape was a lot of fun to watch again. It contains, among other things, a re-airing of the original 1990 pilot of America's Funniest Home Videos. Let me say this about it. The pilot was awful, but it showed great potential.

Speaking of my old toy box, we found it, and it's in pretty good shape. I cleaned it completely out, and Mom and I are going to refinish it. Right now, it's got some splinters in it, mostly around the edges, it's got some weird marks on it, and some discoloration. So we intend on sanding it and painting it before it sees a new life storing whatever it is that I choose to put in there. It could hold a lot of stuff.

I also found a lot of old pictures of me and the family from years past. I will be scanning in most of these and using them as the basis for a revamping of my Childhood Days pages. I even found pictures of Greta as a puppy way back in 1994, and also quite a few pictures of the dachshund we had before Greta, who was also named Greta. You'll get to see Greta the first, as well as the Greta the dog that we all know and love as a puppy, soon enough. I was waiting to start until I cleaned out the entire closet, so I could see just what I had to play with. This will be fun.

Speaking of playing with things, I finally got a YaBB 2 installation to run on my site - kind of. It won't let me log in or out, but at least YaBB 2 RC 3 is running. It's not the production version of The Schumin Web Community at this point. Right now it's just a test forum to see how things work. But we'll see. When we get things working, and when YaBB comes out with the full YaBB 2 release, we'll switch the forums over to the new version.

Still, I'm just amazed about what I found in the closet. I also found a bunch of old video game magazines that were falling apart. Old issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly. I still can't believe I used to buy that magazine and at one point actually subscribed to it. Of course, I used to be interested in console gaming during the 16-bit era. I left it behind when the Playstation, Saturn, and such came out, since I wasn't about to drop all that money for a new system and related new games, etc. My old original-design Genesis did just fine for me. Nowadays, the Genesis collects dust, though Sis wants to take it to VT with her this fall. I got both add-on systems for it - the Sega CD (second version), and the 32X. Now the Genesis, in all of its Genesis-ness, was a classic system.

Let me tell you, though, this was quite a trip down memory lane, and I'm glad I spaced it out over a month, though this could have probably been done in the space of one weekend if I pushed it. But capacity issues prevented that, since I only had but so many tubs. Plus I only could haul so much at once with the van. Bottom line, though, is that it's done.

And now I just have to look forward to my vacation, which is a little less than two months away. August 23-25 will see me in Virginia Beach...