This is my radical cheer costume from Halloween, seen here in a photo taken with Big Mavica, vs. my cell phone before. As you can see, I spent time on this. I bought the arm things at Hot Topic, I ripped the sleeves off the red shirt, I bought the pins at the Infoshop, I got a pair of black tights, and I doodled "RADICAL CHEER" on the shirt with a Sharpie, and put the anarchy sign on the hat with a Sharpie as well.

And I painted my nails black. That was something right there. I'd never painted my nails before, because that's just not something I normally do. I do know some guys who regularly paint their nails, but I'm not one of them. I did think it was interesting how differently that my fingers looked with the nails black instead of flesh-colored. Usually it's the same color all the way across. Then it just looks so different when done in black. I was so taken by it that I photographed it. Take a look:



And a few of my coworkers asked if I did it myself, which I did. And you can kind of tell I did, because I missed the nail in a few places, but still did fairly well. And it's a matter of pride to do it myself, as I actually declined a few offers from some of my coworkers to get it done for me.

After work, I bought some nail polish remover for 97¢ and in about ten minutes, the nail polish was gone, and my nails were back the way I like them.

What was also funny is that a couple of coworkers told me that they didn't even recognize me at first. Such is to be expected, I guess, because radical cheer is not my normal "look". This is my normal look, and add a maroon vest for work. So there you go.

Still, I had a lot of fun. I even got paid a compliment when someone said that they didn't realize exactly how much of an activist I was before they saw me in costume on Halloween.

This advertisement, which ran on page A8 of today's issue of The News Leader, really burns me up:



The reason that it gets my panties up in a wad is because it portrays non-traditional marriages as being something inferior, and makes a large, sweeping generalization about married parents.

First of all, though, let me give you a little background on this whole thing. When Virginians go to the polls on November 7, there will be a question on the ballot about an amendment to the state constitution outlawing same-sex marriage, as well as contractual arrangements that provide some semblance of marriage. The question on the ballot will be worded as follows:

Shall the Constitution of Virginia be amended to state "That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions. This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage."?

I encourage all Virginia voters to vote NO to the proposed amendment. I would say vote HELL NO to it, but as there is no option for "hell no", a simple "no" will do. My belief is that marriage should be defined more loosely. I believe that marriage should be defined as a legal commitment between two people, leaving gender unspecified. Therefore, if you have a man and a woman who love each other very much and want to get married, then great. If two men love each other very much and wish to get married, then more power to them. The state should facilitate their tying the knot. Likewise for two females who are committed to each other. Also realize that in order to provide equal protection under the law for all couples, I would happily propose a ban on heterosexual marriage if homosexual marriage is prohibited, with the idea being that if they can't get married, why should you be able to? Commitment is commitment.

Additionally, the ad I've cited makes a sweeping generalization about married heterosexual couples. While there are some traditional couples that make great parents (mine would be a fine example of great parents), there are some who have no business reproducing, but do so anyway. In making the generalization that a married mother and father is the best thing for a child, they imply that a situation where the father does drugs and sleeps around, the mother is an alcoholic and a prostitute, both parents fight constantly and call the child terrible things, but are still married to each other, is better than a stable, successful couple who happen to be of the same gender. I would say that in this case, children would be more at risk with the married couple of druggie dad and hooker mom than with, say, two women who run their own business raising a child, where the biggest problem is whether they're going to pay the phone bill with the flower-themed checks or the mountain-themed checks. If faced with a choice between the two about where to put children, I'd put the kids with the same-sex couple.

I would also think that children of a same-sex couple would learn to be far more open-minded, having an arrangement that differs from many of their children's friends' parents. This would present a fabulous opportunity to explain that one arrangement is no better or worse than another, and that in each case, the parents love each other very much.

This whole marriage-amendment thing also reeks of older forms of racism, back when those in power needed to feel superior to someone, and African-Americans were the victims. Now that our society (for the most part) generally accepts people of all races as equals, bigots who need someone else to feel superior against are using sexual orientation, and instead of opposition to togetherness as society, the denial is in opposition to legal togetherness by loving couples.

All in all, let's vote NO to the Virginia marriage amendment, and keep discrimination and denial of civil rights out of our state constitution.

I read in the newspaper today that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was convicted of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to death by hanging, pending an appeal.

But what I'd really like to know is, what will we be accomplishing by knocking Saddam off? Seriously, what is anyone proving by knocking him off? So a former dictator will be put to death. If anything, Saddam's getting off easy. He will be dead, and therefore his problems will be over. It's not going to get us out of Iraq any sooner, it's not likely going to stop the insurgency, and it's not going to solve the basic problems of the Iraqi people.

Now there are certain things that I'm not going to disagree with. I am certainly in agreement with those who say that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who did horrible things to his own people, and allowed other bad things to happen to his people. I'll give you that. I'll also agree that he was something of a wacko. His conduct at his trial confirms his status as a wacko.

But why put him to death? As I mentioned above, I think that lets him off extremely easily, even if the death is by hanging, as compared to something somewhat more humane, relatively speaking, like lethal injection. Hanging just seems so primitive, in my opinion, even for a less-developed country.

Personally, I oppose the death penalty, even for the most brutal offenders. My rationale is twofold. First of all, as my father once so eloquently put it, it's a perfect ending to an imperfect process. I've read of enough cases where people have been exonerated after spending many years in prison to realize that, try as we might, the system is not perfect, and mistakes are inevitable in a system run by humans. And with death being irreversible, the chance of inadvertently putting an innocent person to death is too high in a system run by humans, who by their very nature, occasionally make mistakes. You can free someone who was wrongly imprisoned, but you can't bring a person who was wrongly executed back to life. Secondly, for those guilty of the most brutal of offenses, why are we putting these people out of their misery by killing them? As I mentioned earlier about Saddam, once they're dead, their problems are over. What I'd do would be what I consider a more effective punishment than death. I'd throw them in the slammer for life, in solitary confinement if so desired. Treat them humanely, and ensure that they get proper medical treatment as necessary. In the meantime, they have lots of time to think about their crime, and how it led to their being in their present situation.

I also like to think that we are above such things as capital punishment. In other words, we're better than that. By deliberately killing someone who has deliberately killed others, we're no better than the criminals. We really should not lower ourselves to that level. So thus I believe we should treat our criminals far better than they have treated their victims. To give an example, I consider the sentence that Zacarias Moussaoui received to be proper. You may recall that he was sentenced to life without parole in a Supermax prison. That's solitary confinement for life, and he will die while still in prison. And during that time, he will have plenty of time to think about what he's done.

Thus why I think that Saddam Hussein should not be executed. I'm not at all in favor of freeing him - the man's a wacko, and has done horrible things to his own people, and now is facing the music for it. I just don't think killing him is the right solution.

I also would like to observe that nothing in this trial has at all surprised me. Once Saddam was captured, I figured that they would find a way to put him to death. When the trial started, I pretty much knew what the verdict was going to be. Then the sentence also didn't surprise me - I could have told you that from the get-go that he would get death, though the method of execution did surprise me.

And I still think that the Iraq War was a mistake in the first place, and the best thing we can do is get out before things get worse.

So there you go. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.

All right, folks, the polls open early in the morning, and close at 7:00 PM. It is time to make this person's statement come true, and let the American people reclaim the House of Representatives and the Senate from Republican rule.

I voted a week and a half ago, on October 25. Therefore, my votes have long been cast. Now the rest of you must make your selections.

I make one suggestion: THINK BLUE.

You may remember that previously, the closest that I got to Cindy Sheehan was at the anti-war rally that I photographed at Arlington Cemetery in Octrober 2004. You may recall that this photo was in there, showing a photo of Casey Sheehan. That was before she became a national figure with Camp Casey.

Now, I've met her. I even got someone to photograph us together. That will go up once I get home (I'm currently at Pentagon City). I was doing something I do often on my DC trips - walk from McPherson Square station to Lafayette Park, go past the White House, and then walk to Metro Center station. There was a whole bunch of anti-war activity going on this time, and much to my surprise, Cindy Sheehan was there. I was talking to a Code Pink person, and then I saw a familiar face. I said, "Are you who I think you are?" She replied, "Who do you think I am?" I said, "Cindy Sheehan?" It turned out to be her, and my reaction was just like when I met Dr. Ruth at JMU back in 2003. Lack of words for meeting a famous person.

She shook my hand, and I showed her the photo from that rally, which she remembered well. The impression I got from the handshake was that Cindy Sheehan had very soft hands, and surprisingly warm hands! But she was very friendly, and has just an awesome personality. She even described how a Park Police officer helped her pin a number of "Arrest Bush" pins to her shirt in preparation for a vigil in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Hopefully we'll meet again.

It's also funny... I've made so many efforts to go see Cindy Sheehan. I went to September 24, and hoped I'd see her, though she wasn't directly on the agenda then (I had a black bloc to join). I swung by the White House on November 16 of last year when I heard she would be in town. I didn't see her, but I did see David Barrows doing a small anti-torture demonstration. Then on July 4 of this year, I found out that Cindy Sheehan would be in town for a demonstration. I went around noon, and she wasn't there at that time, but found out that she would be showing up at 5:00 at Lafayette Square. A huge thunderstorm scrubbed that plan, as everyone quickly ducked for cover. And now I run into her on a regular DC trip, when I'm not even trying to meet her.

And I texted EVERYONE about it. Mom, Dad, and Sis all replied back, with Dad and Sis saying, "Cool!" and Mom saying, "Wow!" I couldn't help but to brag.

Otherwise, it's been a regular DC trip, though it's raining out, and I hedged my bet on it not raining, and it did, so I'm without an umbrella today. Still, I'm just tickled that I met Cindy Sheehan…

First of all, just let me say that it was a very challenging ride home from Washington DC last night, because of medium-to-heavy rain for much of the drive home, and wet conditions for the remainder.

However, it was all made more bearable by listening to election result coverage all the way home. On the first half of the trip, I listened on WETA (90.9 FM), Washington's local National Public Radio (NPR) station. There, instead of the usual BBC World Service feed that they run overnight, we got live election coverage from NPR. On the second half of the return trip, since I finally lose WETA completely at Woodstock, I did a little channel surfing on the radio to continue the live election coverage. For those wondering, I can pick up the local NPR station out of Harrisonburg (WMRA 90.7 FM) from at least as far as Front Royal, but they play classical music during off-times, rather than continuous news and talk like WETA does. And I'm not interested in hearing classical music when I'm trying to stay engaged to drive. I ultimately picked up 750 AM, which is WSB out of Atlanta. I listened to them from Woodstock to Harrisonburg, when I finally switched to WSVA (550 AM) out of Harrisonburg, after I realized that WSB was spending more time on local Atlanta elections that I have no interest in whatsoever, than the races for Congress.

The NPR coverage on WETA was EXCELLENT. They know what they're doing on there. I quickly found out what was going on before I'd even completely cleared Vienna: the Democrats carried the House of Representatives, and the Senate was still undecided with six races, including those in Montana and Virginia, considered too close to call. As I followed the election coverage through my long, rainy ride home, they, along with WSB and WSVA, were able to call four of them. By the time I arrived home, Montana was still too close to call, but leaning for the Democratic candidate, and Virginia was on a razor-thin margin, flipping back and forth between Allen and Webb. I learned that Allen's supporters had already gone home with confidence, and Webb's campaign had already declared victory a little bit after that.

Then when I got up today, it turns out that the Montana race was finally called for the Democratic candidate, leaving only one state still as a toss-up: Virginia. And on the radio through the night, I've told that they've already got the FBI investigating potential voting irregularities, so it should be interesting regardless of what the result is.

And this again serves as a reminder that every vote does indeed count (and why you should vote), because sometimes the candidates who get elected are elected on razor-thin margins. In that case, yes, you have a bazillion people voting. However, if only a few hundred or thousand votes put the candidate over the top, that's no landslide. That's a situation where a few votes can change the outcome. Every vote does indeed count.

And I think it's interesting that the state that is the decider, which will determine if the Senate will be evenly divided or if it too will be carried by the Democratic Party, is the state that I've called home for the past fourteen years. Usually nothing surprising happens in Virginia races. But this one was a very negative campaign, which involved accusations of racism, anti-semitism, and sexism. Needless to say, this was not pretty. But the stakes are indeed high, as an evenly divided Senate means that the Republicans will maintain control via Vice President Dick Cheney's tiebreaker role. If Virginia goes for Webb, then the Senate belongs to the Democrats by one seat. And according to the various people on the radio, they say it's likely that this will go into a recount.

All I know for sure is that I voted for Webb, but looking at local election results on CNN, I am very much in the minority there, as Augusta County voted heavily for George Allen.

Here's the photo of Cindy Sheehan and me:



There we are, right in front of the White House. Also notice the new camera bag strap on my shoulder, to replace the one that broke a little less than a month ago.

The woman's sign was right in the end - on November 7, 2006, the House and Senate were reclaimed by the people, as Jim Webb won the Virginia Senate race by the narrowest of margins, but enough to where George Allen conceded. So now we'll be back to the situation in Virginia as it was before George Allen was elected to the Senate in 2000, where we had one Republican (John Warner), and one Democrat (Chuck Robb back then, Jim Webb come January).

Now I've not had a chance to listen to the conservatives on the radio since the election, whom Dad describes as quite entertaining because they're all nuts. I figure that tomorrow while I'm out, I'll get to listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin on the radio. See what these guys think about it all. I was listening to Laura Ingraham on the way home from work tonight, and she suggested that the GOP should realign their leadership.

Meanwhile, going out will involve a Richmond-to-DC trip, since I want to go to Potomac Mills to get a new winter coat at outlet prices. My current winter coat, which we've seen here, here, and here, is getting retired. The reason is because I've had it for five winters, and it's starting to give out. The velcro is starting to come apart, and the stitching is coming out in the armpit. I will say this, though. That was the best winter coat I've ever had, and I will be sad to retire it. But hopefully I'll come up with an even better winter coat, one that will last for five winters or longer. So we'll see. The idea is to come back with a coat. We shall see.

Otherwise, I taped a copy of that photo of Cindy Sheehan and me to my locker at work, and those that knew who she was were quite impressed. A lot of people had never heard of Cindy Sheehan, much to my surprise.

First of all, I had fun on my latest Richmond-to-DC trip, where I go up to Washington DC via Richmond, which takes me east on I-64, onto US 250 near Richmond, through downtown Richmond, and then north on I-95. While on I-95, I take US 1 through Fredericksburg before returning to I-95, then continue on I-95 to Potomac Mills.

Potomac Mills put me a hair behind where I wanted to be on this trip, but it was worth it. I went to the Casual Male store, and got a new winter coat. This one is similar to the one I used from 2001 up until last winter, but is a little bit longer, has different sleeve cuffs, and has a detachable hood, which my other coat lacked. The only thing that I didn't like was the price tag: $99.99. Ouch. Then add another $5.00 in sales tax, and it starts to hurt a bit. But I like the coat, and it feels really good on me. Now I just want a really cold day so I can give it a whirl for the first time.

I also tried on a number of other coats to see what I liked. I even tried on a black trenchcoat to see how it fits. It was interesting, but it was a bit longer than I felt comfortable with, plus buttons to keep it closed seemed kind of cumbersome. Plus I just couldn't imagine it as a "me" kind of coat. I made the Chuck Taylors very much "me", but I wasn't able to pull that same feat off again with the coat. Still, I know what I like, and that wasn't it. But the coat I did pick is just going to be a dream.

I also went through the mall, which I believe I cleared end-to-end in record time. I went past the Disney outlet, and I thought, I thought that store was further down than this! Then I realized that no, I'd just cleared the mall at an amazing speed. Then on the way back down, I visited whatever stores I wanted to visit. First trip to the end is a straight walk, second trip back is to actually shop. Among other places, I stopped at the JCPenney Outlet to look for some new pajamas. Realize I haven't bought any new sleepwear since 2001. So it's time for something new. And I didn't find anything I wanted. So drat. Plus the employees at the JCPenney Outlet weren't too thrilled about actually showing someone around the store. Everyone just pointed in general directions.

So we left the mall empty-handed (Casual Male, which used to be directly in the mall, is now in an outdoor shopping center nearby), and continued on our way. I returned to I-95 for the last time on this trip, and continued north. Since I was behind where I wanted to be schedule-wise, I stayed on 95 to the Beltway, instead of getting off on US 1 to go to Huntington. Then at the Beltway, I took the outer loop to the Telegraph Road exit to reach Huntington station via Huntington Avenue. First glimpse of Metro was while sitting at a traffic light on Huntington Avenue, seeing a Breda rehab leaving Huntington on the elevated track north of the station.

I ended up getting on US 1 and going to the south entrance, since I like parking in the garage on that side. Then I took Metro on what I'd describe as an "abbreviated" trip.

At Foggy Bottom, a fellow Metro rider took it upon himself to tell me that photography was illegal and that Metro could confiscate my camera. Oooooh, did I tell him off. He probably thought he was being helpful, but he came off as uninformed, unhelpful, and a bother. I told him that unlike himself, I have researched this issue, and that the policy is that photography is perfectly legal, but tripods are not allowed. The only part of Metro where photography is illegal is at Pentagon station, and that's not even Metro's doing - the station is on Pentagon property, and photography is illegal on Pentagon property across the board. I'm sure Metro couldn't care less. So I let that person have it. They backed off, and I went down the platform to position myself for Pentagon City, where the mezzanine is at the rear of the train.

Then after Pentagon City, I finished up my Metro trip, and returned to Huntington. I tried to leave Huntington, but couldn't - as it turned out, my SmarTrip card had cracked. I figured that was probably the problem, but to do that, I had to park again, go back down the elevator to the station, and buy a new card for ten dollars (though it came with $5 in value on it). I also now have to call Metro to get the value from my old SmarTrip transferred onto my new one. But the new SmarTrip worked, and I was off!

My intention was to take US 1 over the 14th Street Bridge and follow that to M Street, where I would then take the Key Bridge into Rosslyn. Not so, as it would turn out. I accidentally missed the turn for the 14th Street Bridge, being in the wrong lane, and realizing it too late to do anything about it, and so I took an exit to reach Arlington National Cemetery and Memorial Bridge instead. So that ramp dumped me in front of Arlington Cemetery Metro station, and I knew exactly where I was, having been there before. I went over Memorial Bridge and ended up behind the Lincoln Memorial. I drove north, and eventually ended up going east on Constitution Avenue. I turned left on 18th Street NW, and had a nice drive. I went past the World Bank and Murrow Park, and past the intersection with K Street, which was my vantage point for the last part with that protest that I went to in 2003. Two blocks later when I reached M Street, I made a left. I followed M Street for a long way. I drove past the St. Gregory Hotel and the Fairmont Hotel, where we'd demonstrated last April. Then not long after that, I crossed a bridge, and the character of things changed dramatically, for now I was in Georgetown!

Of all the times I've been to DC, I'd never been to Georgetown. The reason is because it's not as accessible as other areas, because Metro doesn't go there. Back in the 1960's, Metro wanted to go there, but the area shunned it. So no Metro to Georgetown. But that's a photo set worth doing, particularly for at night. Beautiful section of town.

I did finally find the Key Bridge, and rode right into Rosslyn. I quickly found Fort Myer Drive, and turned onto Wilson Boulevard to head west. I followed Wilson Boulevard for a while, until the turn for I-66 near Ballston. I made a stop at that little IHOP restaurant in Ballston right by the Metro. That was weird, driving up to this restaurant and parking, vs. walking from the train. But we did. Service was fast and friendly, and I was through there in no time.

And then I got on I-66, following the Orange Line. I saw only one train moving on the K Route (by this time, Metro had closed for the night), but I did see a work car between Dunn Loring and Vienna. Then at milepost 43, I switched to US 29 for the ride home. That ultimately drops you in Charlottesville to catch I-64 to go over the mountain.

And after the mountain was the most challenging part of the drive. Let's just say that F-O-G spells FOG, which is what I got. The Charlottesville side of Afton Mountain was clear as anything. But once you cleared the top of the mountain at Exit 99, it was VERY thick. I turned on my fog lights, and slowed down considerably. Thankfully, I knew the rest of the drive very well, since most of it is the way I go to work.

It's funny how things work with the mountains, though. It was foggy in the morning when I left, too, and then when I crossed the mountain, it was all clear on the Charlottesville side. But that was during the day, and daytime driving in fog is much easier than nighttime driving in fog.

But all in all, it was a really fun trip. I had a lot of fun, and got that new winter coat that I needed. I don't know what I'm going to do with the old winter coat, but I'm thinking about patching up the spots where it's coming apart, and giving it to Goodwill.

Check these out:





That's the storm that was going on yesterday morning. Something else. There was a lot of wind, and very heavy rain. No thunder, though, and no lightning. And then from this, with water pooling in places and such, it was clear skies again in half an hour. Amazing...

Sometimes I can't get over what people will do in order to be the first to get something. Check this out:



What you are seeing is a group of people camped out in Layaway in Wal-Mart, watching a movie on someone's laptop while waiting for the Sony PlayStation 3 to come out, as I was leaving work at 11:00 at night. On their fingers, they're holding up the number that they got to reserve their PlayStation 3 before it came out. Thus the gentleman in the right front is number one, and the guy in the back is #5, among others. These people began their camping trip at 7:00 AM on Wednesday, November 15. The system did not hit the streets until 12:01 AM on Friday, November 17. My coworkers were able to verify that this was the case, that they really were camped out in Layaway for two days. I was off on Wednesday, so I didn't get to see Day 1.

And what gets me is that this happened in Wal-Marts all over the place. The News Leader showed a group similarly camped out in the Staunton Wal-Mart, though based on the floor in the photo, it appears that they camped out in Garden Center rather than Layaway.

I just cannot personally imagine camping out in a Wal-Mart store for two days, spending two days inside Wal-Mart. Of course, it's the perfect place to go camping, I guess. You have everything you need right there - sleeping bags, personal care items, and aisles and aisles of grub. Plus there are restrooms right there to take care of whatever, like changing into some fresher clothes, and hiding that not-showered-in-two-days scent. Then of course at the end of it, you drop $600, get a video game machine, and leave, to return to the outside world beyond the Wal-Mart checkouts. And I'm told that some of these people were going to resell them on eBay, and make a tidy profit on it.

All I have to say is that I hope everyone got what they wanted, because that's just above and beyond what I'd ever do to get something…

I also can't believe that I accidentally erased the first version of this Journal entry as I was getting ready to post it. Let's see if I can remember everything I wrote before as we begin "take two".

But yeah, Greta got a new bed, and it's quite nice. It's all memory foam. Greta's old bed was a two inch thick piece of foam rubber with a cover on it. The bottom of the old bed's cover had cow spots, and the top part was some sort of fleece. Now, memory foam is where it's at.

Compare to my bed, which I've had since 1988, back when I was in first grade at Grimes Elementary. The mattress is slightly newer than the bed itself, but now, 18 years later, it's no longer as nice as it once was. To put it nicely, it sucks. To give you an idea of how not-fond I am of my bed, I had actually seriously considered taking the bed that came with my room in Potomac Hall home with me, and letting Residence Life bill me for it. So many people complained about the dorm beds, but compared to my bed at home, the dorm bed was living large.

I still remember when I first got it. The bed was bunk beds back then, but in 1998 or so, I finally dismantled the top bunk as being of no use to me anymore. I remember that I put a nice gash in the wall when I accidentally hit one of the parts against the wall, which I then had to fix.

So there you go. And when I mentioned it to Dad and Sis, they good-naturedly told me that I could get a doggy bed for myself just like it...

It's been about three months since the last time I gave you an update on the Outlet Village, presented in my Building 7 Burns photo set. Since then, the fire training exercises have ended, with Building 1 also being torched for training purposes. Now, work is underway to prepare the site for the new shopping center that will be going up in its place, which will house a Target and a Kohl's, among other things.

I took all these photos from the car with my cell phone while I was out running an errand on my lunch hour. So here are the photos:



This view is from a similar vantage point that most of the Building 7 photo set was done from. As you can see, the remains of the buildings are gone, and dirt has started to rise over the place where Building 7 used to be. My guess is that either Target or Kohl's goes here, but what goes where is still anyone's guess at this point. Note that the access road that ran behind Building 7 still exists, though whether it ends up being incorporated into the new shopping center remains to be seen.





In these views, you can see that most of the buildings are gone, leaving only Buildings 14 and 17 intact, plus the faux-silo, and the big Outlet Village sign (the last of which is out of frame). From what I've gathered, 14 (blue roof) is being used by the construction crews for the time being, because when I go to work in the early morning, a look towards the Outlet Village reveals that the lights are on in that building. And when I drive home in the evening, the lights are off. The shrubbery is even still intact around it. So I'd say it's in use for something. What, I don't know. Then Building 17 has a large garage on it (see?), and so I'm guessing that it's being used to park equipment for the time being. Then my guess is that the silo and sign just haven't been demolished yet, because I'm guessing that no buildings will be constructed on those locations.



And lastly, it's kind of funny that the Outlet Village's entrance drive remains completely intact, complete with the springtime banners that were up when the facility closed still hanging from the lampposts.

So there you go. I also hope that with this new "Waynesboro Town Center" shopping center coming that they also take the opportunity to improve Shenandoah Village Drive, because right now, I can't see it handling the traffic that a large shopping center with popular stores in it will generate. Right now, it's only two lanes, and is also quite curvy. I just hope that they don't screw with the Park and Ride lot, which is an institution all to itself.

Every so often, as you know, I like to give updates on photo sets, like when things have changed. I think the most notable update has to be in my Afton Mountain photo set, where the Skyline Parkway Motel was torched ten months after I did the set.

This time, though, it's a DC area update. You remember when I did Urban Demolition? That showed 1117 North 19th Street in the process of being demolished. Then when I did If These Streets Could Talk about a month and a half later, the site was simply a hole in the ground. The most recent update on that site that I provided was in Part 2 of my Year In Review photo set. There, it was still mostly a hole in the ground, but new structural elements were starting to take shape.

Now, check this out:



As you can see, the new Waterview building is going to be pretty tall, and as I see no flag (to indicate that they've topped out the building), I presume it's still growing. That will be some building when it's done. It's definitely going to dwarf the RCA building next to it, and I believe it's also going to make 1801 North Lynn Street, which is immediately to the right of the new Waterview building, look somewhat small, though not as much as RCA. Rosslyn Center (where I took this photo from) and the Rosslyn Twin Towers are too far away to be made to look small by comparison.

Paz, paix, peace, an, siochain, friede, shalom, salaam,
amani, santeepop, heiwa, hoa bihn
That's "peace" in twelve different languages: Spanish, French, English, Korean, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Swahili, Thai, Japanese, and Vietnamese. In this time in our history, with a war going on in Iraq, I'm reminded of the song whose lyrics are reproduced above in all those different languages.

I first learned the song in 1991, when I sang a duet with Laine Virtue in the fourth grade for the school chorus. Back then, there was another war going on in Iraq: Operation Desert Storm. Laine and I sang that song, whose only words were the various translations of "peace" as quoted above. Then the next fall, the whole chorus sang a song, "Let Peace Begin With Me", which was a really neat song (and I can't find the lyrics for it online).

And with Christmas exactly one month away, I'm holding out hope that we can come up with a peaceful end to the current conflict, and bring our troops home alive very soon. I think this photo says it all...

Whenever I go to Washington, this line spoken by Elwood in The Blues Brothers comes to mind. Reason I mention this is because, aside from the cigarettes and the sunglasses, it's fairly accurate for me. When I leave on my bi-weekly trip to Washington, it's dark, I have a full tank of gas, and it's 100+ miles to DC.

If you want to get somewhat specific, it's roughly 150 miles. That accounts for four miles on I-64, 79 miles on I-81, and another 62 miles on I-66. That comes to 145 miles right there. Then when you consider the distance traveled on local roads, meaning the distance from my house to I-64, as well as the little bit of driving on Saintsbury and Vaden Drives in Vienna to reach the North Garage, it comes to slightly over 150 miles. I've been meaning to actually measure the distance with the Sable's odometer, but by the time I think of it, I'm too far downrange for it to be worth setting at that point.

The only time I've actually reset the odometer to measure the distance was for my August 31, 2005 DC trip, which meant that it was the Previa's odometer and not the Sable's. You may recall that the August 31 trip was characterized by a confrontation with some Metro employees who basically wet their pants when they saw me photographing trains, which led to a meeting with a Transit Police officer. Regardless, it didn't work out. The reason was twofold. First, I forgot to take the reading at the end of the trip, and made a few trips to work and back before realizing this. Secondly, even if I had remembered to take the reading, it wouldn't have been accurate, since there was a detour around a work zone on westbound I-66 on that return trip, as well as the next one. Traffic was funneled off I-66 at exit 47, sent down some dark local roads, and then funneled back onto the highway at exit 43.

Still, one of these days I'll do it. And depending on the way my work schedule ends up falling, my next DC trip will be either this Tuesday, November 28, or some time two weeks from now. Next week, which is my regular DC week, my schedule is such that I can't make it up. I need either another day off following a DC trip, or a shift the next day that starts in the afternoon to make it happen. After my two nonconsecutive days off in that week, I have early-morning shifts the following days. And if I tried to pull DC out of that, I'd get either no sleep or very little sleep. Either way, it's no condition I'd want to be in while working. One of my days off is followed by a shift that starts at 6:00 AM. That's early by my standards. If I did a DC trip and then came back to that, in a worst-case scenario where the return trip runs long, I would basically have to go to work directly from Washington, and not go home until after work. And that would be a bad idea.

By the way, the longest return trip that I've ever had was on my March 30, 2005 trip, which ultimately became the linking material for If These Streets Could Talk. I wasn't feeling the best on that trip - I was recovering from a cold, and didn't have my full voice, and that's evident in the movies. On trips that I make when I'm sick, the illness usually adds to the fatigue level, and I have to stop to take a nap on the way home at one of my stops. On that trip, I left Vienna at midnight (as usual), and had to take two naps. I took one nap at Sheetz in Haymarket, locking the doors, reclining the seat, and taking a snooze in the car. Then I had to take a second nap in Woodstock. I didn't get home until 6:30 in the morning. That was an awful trip home for that alone. And it's often a sign of a rough return trip to come if one has to take a nap before one's even out of Northern Virginia.

Here's a page that's a great candidate for a rewrite: the Introduction page. I just checked it out tonight, since someone had mentioned to me recently that there's presently nothing obvious for first-time viewers of the site on or linked from the main page. This page was linked from the main page prior to the main page's last redesign this past July. With the elimination of the menu on that page to support wide images on the photo feature, there's now nothing to show.

I will be the first to admit that the "center section", which consists of the main page, that intro page, the contact pages, and the privacy statement, needs some serious reworking due to the current main page's kind of cutting things off in spots. The question turns on what to do. I'll have to think about that one.

But the very obvious work that must be done is to write a new introduction page, and link it more prominently from the main page. My goodness... the present introduction page is rather dated. Without going into the update records, it looks like the present page was last revised in 2004, but that most of the writing is older than that. First off, the photo of me is around five years old, taken in December 2001. I don't wear those glasses anymore, I look younger, and the background is obviously Potomac Hall. It seems a new photo is in order. Then I mention the quote changing with regularity - the quote's been gone for more than a year and a half. I also mention the Online Store, with "all kinds of nifty Schumin Web merchandise". Several problems there: First, the store has a more adult-oriented selection of merchandise than it used to. And I mean "adult" as in grown-up, not pornographic, before anyone takes that the wrong way. Then I also mention the shirt I'm wearing in the photo - my "Schumin Out" hoodie. It was one of many designs to get the axe during the recent store revamp.

So yeah, that page is no longer a fitting introduction to the site. It makes me glad that, at this juncture, the page has become somewhat marginalized. Give me an hour or so, and I can turn this page into a beautiful, current, gleaming example of what The Schumin Web has to offer.

Hello from Pentagon City. This trip was supposed to happen on December 5, but since my work schedule didn't work out, it ended up happening today, a week early. That makes four consecutive weeks where I ended up in Washington.

And I spent the day railfanning for the most part. I went out to Largo, New Carrollton, and Greenbelt. I got two of my favorite operators, and have ridden twelve trains thus far. Add another two to that, and it will about do me for the day (those being Pentagon City to Rosslyn on Blue, then Rosslyn back to Vienna on Orange). And I got to use the emergency intercom on CAF 5191 to report to the operator that the lights were not turned on in the train. She fixed the destination code, which was initially displaying Blue Line to Greenbelt on the side destination signs, to the proper destination code for the Orange Line to Vienna before I could call. Though that one I wouldn't have mentioned, because I wanted photos of the odd message. Blue doesn't go to Greenbelt station! I remember that on a Richmond-to-DC trip, I saw a Breda rehab at Gallery Pl-Chinatown showing Blue Line to Glenmont (for which a destination code does not exist), but the train left the station before I could snap a photo - drat! I remember another time a while ago, a CAF train arrived at Vienna signed as a Red Line train to Farragut North. The destination signs turned off seconds before I was ready to take the shot, so no photo there, either.

And I got my two SmarTrips linked. The five bucks that were on my old, cracked SmarTrip will go to my new SmarTrip, and all shall be well again. The lady on the phone was very nice, and incredibly helpful. And I also hope I don't lose my farecard at Pentagon City this time around. Last time, I lost my day pass somewhere at Pentagon City, and so I had to use my SmarTrip to get back to Vienna. That was $2.35 in fare I didn't want to have to spend. But it's either that or walk to Vienna, I guess. Of course, I can't complain TOO much... more often than not, I leave Vienna after LAZ Parking opens the gates for the night, ending parking revenue hours, and so then I don't have to pay for parking. So this is payback, I guess. Of course, we wouldn't have this problem if Metro would hurry up and institute passes on SmarTrip...

I also had the realization while on Metro that my Transit Center site needs a BIG redesign. Not just a change in color scheme and minor details like in the last update. We realized with that last update that the site was a real pain in the you-know-what to update, and so we're going to go about changing that with the next crop of photos. Hopefully I'll find something really workable...

Does anyone know the location and/or purpose of a beacon or searchlight in Rockingham County, Virginia just south of Harrisonburg? I first noticed it in 2003 when I was commuting to JMU, and I gave it some more serious thought about what it was last night when I most recently saw it. And I see it on most trips through that area at night.

It appears to originate west of Interstate 81 and US 11, appearing to originate from Bridgewater, or just south of there. I've never actually seen the device that this light originates from - just the light itself. The beam of light is white, and it moves in a clockwise direction at a fast speed. If you've ever seen the way a lighthouse's beam moves, it's about the same.

To see the area I'm referring to, here's a map. The beacon appears to originate from west of the highway (left on that map). The furthest north I've been able to see it is at Exit 240, which is the Mt. Crawford/Bridgewater exit on I-81, the junction of I-81 and Friedens Church Road. The furthest south I've seen it is just north of the Augusta County line. The boundary between the two counties is not marked on the map, but to give you a general idea, it's a straight northwest-to-southeast line just north of Fadley Road and Weyers Cave Road (Route 256).

So my question is, has anyone else seen this particular bit of light? Does anyone know where it's actually located? Does anyone know what its purpose is? If you know what it is, I would like to know!