Well, the Sable's in the shop at Lindsay Ford in Wheaton, after I had it towed there late last night. That was not a fun experience last night, but the tow guy was really helpful, meeting me at Glenmont, among other things, making it far easier.

So first thing in the morning, as I'm tying my shoes to go out, I got a call from the folks at Lindsay. They want to know what to do with the remote. I said I just need to get it programmed again, since it quit working when I had the battery replaced back in December. Okay. Pretty straightforward.

Then at around a quarter to two, I got a call from Lindsay's sales department, as a gentleman was looking to see if I was interested in something a little newer. My exact response: "What do you know that I don't?" Once I watched him start doing some major back-pedaling, I realized what he was up to, as service just casually gave my name to sales to try to drum up some new-car business. I nicely told him off, and that unless there's something he knows about my car that I don't, I'm keeping the one I got, thank you very much. And more back-pedaling, and he made sure to give his name again before he said goodbye.

The nerve of these people. I was honestly offended that the sales department called me like that. Maybe if the car was a complete basket case and repairs would cost more than the car was worth, that's another story. Then I would expect the call to come from the service department, and get an offer to transfer me to sales. But that was not the case, and sales was digging for leads. And as it turned out, the service department had not even completely looked at the blasted thing when Mr. Plaid Pants decided to call me. Since about 15 minutes after sales called me, service called to tell me that they looked at the air conditioner, and it would require a complete replacement and a flushing and all this other stuff, and they could do it for a mere $1,900. And they hadn't even looked at all the other things on my list of grievances yet. That's all they've told me so far.

Needless to say, I told them no on the air conditioning, since I wanted to see how it all came together before I decide on any repairs. I want the whole picture, thank you very much. And of course, I told the salesman to go "F" off, in a polite and professional way, i.e. not in such a coarse way. After all, I got this call at work.

I told my father about the $1,900 in repairs that they wanted to do to my air-conditioning alone, and he wasted no time in saying, "No way," and that there was no way it should cost that much. Needless to say, I can't wait to see what else these people are going to try and milk out of all of this. Should be amusing, since I'm getting the feeling that they're out to screw me. I can't wait to see a detailed, itemized estimate of exactly what they want to do and for how much. Like I said, should be amusing...

Looks like there's more than just Breda 3290 and 3291 as a mismatched set in Metro's 3000 series of rail cars. Look at this:



This is Breda 3193 paired with Breda 3218, which I rode from Metro Center to Glenmont this evening. I had previously spotted this odd pair of rehabs last week in Brentwood Yard while on my way to work, but kind of half-dismissed it, thinking that it wasn't a mismatched pair, since I had to have been looking at two cab ends next to each other, but this photo proves my suspicions. 3193 and 3218 are a pair, as these are the blind ends pictured here.

Normally, you see, Metro car married pairs are numbered sequentially, with the even number as the lower of the pair. Thus if I'm on Breda 2008, for instance, I know that Breda 2009 is permanently attached to it on the non-cab end. Anything else would be non-standard.

And the reason this is so puzzling is because all the equipment that is supposed to be mismatched is accounted for. The NTSB report on the 2004 Woodley Park-Zoo accident accounts for every rail car up to that time that is no longer in revenue service:


Source: NTSB

This accounts for the 1982 Federal Triangle derailment, which took 1028-1029 out of revenue service. 1028 later became the feeler car, which is currently sitting at Brentwood. This accounts for the 1996 Shady Grove collision, which took 3190-3191 and 3252-3253 out of revenue service. 3191 and 3252 actually collided with each other and were retired, while 3190 and 3253 became 3290-3291 and returned to revenue service. Then 1076-1077 was pulled from revenue service following 1077's destruction at Woodley Park-Zoo in 2004. 4018-4019, the pair that was hit, was quickly repaired and returned to revenue service. I had 4019 this past May 6, in fact, on the way home from work. Then the 2007 Mt. Vernon Square derailment, not listed on this chart, involved CAF cars, specifically 5152-5153.

So that's what we definitely know regarding out-of-service cars and cars without mates. One of the numbers comes close, but not quite, as 3193 is the odd-numbered car in the set. 3191 was one of the accident cars in 1996 - not 3193. So we can toss out the idea of repairing ten-year-old accident damage during rehab. Likewise I can toss out the theory that 3290-3291 went to rehab and came back with their original numbers. Then 3218 doesn't even come close to coinciding with anything I've got.

Then my transit log shows that since I started logging in August 2005, I rode 3193 on August 31 and November 16, 2005 in its original configuration. I have no records at all of riding 3192. Then my records show that I rode 3218 on April 8 and October 23, 2006 in original configuration, and on June 26, 2007 post-rehab. And I have no records of having ridden 3219.

So with all the information I have in my collection of train-geek type documentation on my computer, I've got nothing. So the question consists of multiple parts. First of all, why are Bredas 3193 and 3218 paired together? When did this unusual pairing happen? And lastly, what happened to Bredas 3192 and 3219, and when? That's really strange, and I don't have an answer. And I want one, too...

That just blows my mind. Two Metro employees are accused of running a prostitution ring out of the Dupont Circle Metro station. According to the July 10, 2008 Examiner article called "Metro manager accused of prostitution agrees to life skills, education program", station manager Sharon Waters, dubbed the "Metro Madam", and custodian Pam Goins were accused of "arranging sexual trysts for money", even going so far as to use the station's PA system to "facilitate an arrangement".

You may recall that Dupont Circle is my work station. I go through Dupont Circle station twice a day every day, and have seen both female station managers and female custodians at the station. So now I wonder if it was anyone I know, since I occasionally talk to personnel in the station, especially if I worked late and I know there won't be a Glenmont train for a number of minutes.

Of course, the PA system part really gets me. Have you ever heard Metro station PA announcements? They're not exactly the gold standard for clarity. In fact, most of them are downright unintelligible, particularly the ones piped in from Central Control. The announcements that originate from the station manager's kiosk are a bit better than the ones that come from Central, but still not exactly crystal clear, especially since the primary construction material in most stations is concrete. Too many announcements sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, i.e. completely unintelligible. Maybe those hooker announcements sounded a little better, but who knows.

Still, all this went on in one of the stations I see every day. Weeeeeeird.

Speaking of hookers, though, I still get a chuckle about the hoax article about the 13-year-old kid from Texas who hired hookers using his father's credit card. In that article, the kid got a copy of his father's credit card, and used it to book a hotel room, buy loads of snacks, and hire two hookers - to play video games with. According to that article, when Ralph Hardy was "[a]sked why he ordered two escorts, Ralph said he thought it was the thing to do when you win a 'World of Warcraft' tournament." It's funny because it seems so innocent, even if the article is a hoax.

Of course, my mother and I both agreed when discussing that article that hiring hookers to play video games with sounds like something that I, nerd that I am, might do. The hell with sex. However, I admit that Super Mario Kart is more my idea of a good time than Halo.

And then to take it to its [il]logical extreme, if we'd known about it before it got busted up, maybe nerdy boys like myself could have used the Metro Madam's services to get some new opponents for video games. Oh, now that would have been funny. Prostitution service being run out of Dupont Circle station, and rather than selling sex, it would end up being people arranging video game matches with opponents wearing short skirts, high heels, and fishnet tights. Plus you can't get an STD from casual Super Mario Kart.

I find the taking of the two concepts to their conjoined extreme to be quite amusing. Of course, it's also WAY too late when I'm writing this, so at this hour, the mind begins to do strange things. Still, funny.

I felt so honored today when I got home after work and found a letter at my door. I took a look at it. The letter was dated July 9, 2008, and was from the law firm of Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns. The letter indicated that their firm "has been retained by the Church of Scientology International in connection with a series of terrorist threats against Church leaders and parishioners made by an internet group known as 'Anonymous'."

My favorite part is near the end:

We are sending you this letter because we have reason to believe that you are associated with and have been assisting Anonymous in its campaign against the Church. In particular you were identified as participating in "Anonymous" activities against the Church in Washington, DC on June 14, 2008.

The purpose of this letter is to place you on notice that the activities of Anonymous in inciting violence against the Church and its members and engaging in acts of terrorism [...] violate State and Federal law. We demand that you immediately cease all such activities. Should your organization continue inciting and/or engaging in violent acts against the Church or its members, we are prepared to take any and all steps necessary to protect our client, including referring the names of persons to State and Federal authorities.

And it's signed by F. Wallace Pope, Jr. Your Dianetics dollars at work. I believe that Scientology is not happy that we're exercising our right to free speech and preventing them from making scads of money off of the gullible.

So what is this letter? A mark of honor. We are doing something right. It completely validates Project Chanology, which is Anonymous's campaign against Scientology. Why does it validate it? I believe it's because the Scilons are hearing us loud and clear, and they don't like what they're hearing. And so rather than actually address our concerns directly, they have decided to take the low route and resort to harrassment. Nothing in the letter directly relates to me, aside from (correctly) indicating that I participated in "Operation Sea Arrrgh" outside the Founding Org on June 14. And that's no shocking revelation to find out that they knew that. After all, I told you that I went back on June 24, according to records in the Journal. So yeah, big secret. It must have taken a WHOLE LOT of digging to turn that one up, heh heh heh. I'm surprised they didn't bring up any of the other raids that I've participated in. After all, I've been to AnonyCon, Operation Reconnect, Operation Fail Game, Operation Sea Arrrgh, and Spy vs. Sci, plus a few flash raids.

So all in all, am I worried about what Scientology will do? No. Can they do anything about my activities? Not bloody likely. Will they sue me? I think not. Scientology is trying to use their Fair Game policy against me, and if this is the best they can do, they need to go find Xenu and get him to bring some thetans with better legal talent in his DC-8's the next time he comes by.

And what did I do with the letter? Take a look:



Yep! I framed it, and hung it up in the kitchen, right over the garbage can. Right in the place of honor, after all. My mother's coming to visit tomorrow, and I've already promised her she'll get to see it.

And you know, now that I'm a confirmed Suppressive Person, I might as well advertise it. I should get one of these Suppressive Person stickers or something.

Either way, the Scilons have honored me, as I am enough of a pain in the Church of Scientology's butt to be sent a threatening letter. I am a Suppressive Person, after all...

This week, I'm not at the office as I usually would be. I'm at American University all week at Plone Bootcamp along with two of my coworkers. It's been very interesting, as I've been learning about Plone, an online content management system that's somewhat similar to a few things I'm used to, but on a far deeper level than anything I'm used to. It's interesting, and I'll get the hang of it. And I've been taking the Lappy along for this, and so we've been bonding all week. I figured that rather than borrow one of the Mac laptops from work, for this week, I'll just use my own personal laptop, a Dell Inspiron.

And then meanwhile, there's the lunch hour. I've had a wonderful time getting to know various other people in the class. There's an Einstein Bros. in one of the buildings near where we're having the class, which is where I've been getting lunch. And obviously, they didn't hire the woman with the mustache working behind the counter for her personality. She is not a pleasant person. Her style is almost confrontational in asking us what kind of sandwich we wanted. After all, who are we to be asking for a meal from her? Puts me slightly on the defensive as soon as she says it. And I don't even get a custom-built sandwich. I get the Italian chicken sandwich, where the only question I get is whether to get lettuce and tomato on it, and then I get a fruit cup with it.

And then there's the drink. That's what's inspired this Journal entry more than anything. As you know, at Food & Water Watch, we oppose bottled water. And this place has a LOT of bottled water for sale, and I refuse to buy it, and for perfectly valid reasons. I ask for a cup of water. They charge ten cents for the cup, and then the woman with the mustache gives me this really dirty look when I ask for the water cup. She acts like it just pains her to get that cup and fill it with tap water. My goodness. Even if it's a colossal pain to go do that, you're not supposed to show the customer your disdain for their request. Getting a receipt for my card transaction obviously pains her, too, since I get a dirty look for that, too. If looks could kill, I'd be dead twice over.

Of course, you have to remember that this is on a college campus. Thus you have outrageous prices and hideous service. That's because colleges have a captive audience and thus know that they can (A) charge anything they want, and (B) they can provide any kind of crappy customer service that they want because they know you're a captive audience. After all, at American, there aren't any eateries adjacent to campus. The nearest off-campus eateries are over by the Tenleytown-AU station, which is a little more than walking distance away. So they've got you. No fun. Still, you have to wonder where they find these people to work behind the counter, though. Geeeeeeeeeez...

But at least the company I'm keeping at lunch makes up for the poor service at the counter. Absolutely wonderful folks. Still, if I had given that kind of customer service when I worked at CFW, Telegate, and Wal-Mart, I'd have been tossed out on the sidewalk in short order.

But at least this is only for a week. Next Monday, I'm back in the office, and back to making my boring turkey sandwiches. See, I can't take a lunch for this week, because first of all, I don't have any room in the Lappy's bag to carry a lunch. And secondly, no refrigerator where this class is located. Not good. And I also realize how much I miss Metro Cafe (in the basement of our office complex) this week, since they have really reasonable prices and great service. I love the folks at Metro Cafe.

Yeah, it's time for a change of scenery. After all, I've been living in Silver Spring and working in Washington for a year and two months now. Amazing how time flies. But yeah, in a little more than a month, I'm taking my vacation! I'm going to Virginia Beach, and I'm excited. You do realize I've not been on a get-out-of-town vacation in three years, don't you. The last time I went was in 2005.

This one ought to be a lot of fun, though. Usually when I go to Virginia Beach, I go by myself, and tend to concentrate on my photography, with a bit of a change in scenery. And this year... new equipment! While we certainly miss Big Mavica, its optical zoom sucked. And that was a real bummer in 2004 and 2005 when I hit the beach with it, and I couldn't get close-in ocean shots from the hotel balcony. Now mind you, I think Atlantic Sunrise in 2004 was a great photo set. But I didn't get a lot of the close-in detail that I really enjoyed in Sunrise at Virginia Beach from 2000. The close-ups really made the earlier set special, and technical limitations prevented me from doing that again in 2004. Now I've got a 12x optical zoom, and different nighttime settings, so we'll see what happens this time around.

But what really excites me is the idea of using my waterproof "duckie" camera. I'd love to take that one out into the surf and see what I can get. After all, the thing is waterproof, so we might as well make good use of it. Big Mavica, to quote Fenton Crackshell from Ducktales, was "more gizmo than duck" when it came to water. So taking "duckie" in the ocean really ought to be fun. Might even cause me to spend a little more time in the ocean than I did last time. I think last time, out of four days, I spent a grand total of three hours in the water. But yeah, with "duckie", it ought to be fun.

Yeah, I can't wait until August 24...

After the final day of Plone training at American University, I rode down to Dupont Circle - not to go to the office, mind you. Anonymous was holding a "flash raid" ahead of tomorrow's "Over 9000 Anon March" in front of the Lincoln Memorial. That usually involves a handful of people in Guy Fawkes masks or other kinds of masks protesting Scientology. They're called "flash raids" because they're quick and often called on very short notice.

So leaving the house this morning, I grabbed a hat and a bandanna and stuck it in my bag for the flash raid. However, I had a revelation around 2:00. What's the point of my masking up for this one? The reason why participants in Anonymous wear masks in the first place is to protect against the Church of Scientology's practicing Fair Game on them by concealing their identity. However, I received the cease-and-desist letter from the Church of Scientology's lawyers. So they know about me. I'm "outed". They know I'm part of Anonymous. So what's the point of masking up? I didn't see one, so the bandanna and hat stayed packed.

I also got to take a moment to celebrate my cease-and-desist letter with another anon who goes by "Heidi", who also got a cease-and-desist letter. Same law firm, and same letter except for the last two paragraphs. And we had a quick strategizing session on how to capitalize on that. What we came up with was a little play on the classic Anonymous sign that reads, "Ask me why I'm wearing a mask." We went unmasked, and our signs said, "Ask me why I'm NOT wearing a mask." Check it out:



And quite a number of people took our lead and asked us why we weren't wearing masks at the Anonymous raid. And we got to explain about Scientology's "Fair Game" policy to them, and how we both got cease-and-desist letters from Scientology's lawyers. And of course we handed out flyers for tomorrow's big raid on the Mall.

My favorite was when a father and his two children approached me. The little boy asked the question the sign was requesting, about why I was not wearing a mask. I got to explain to him what "Fair Game" was all about and the cease-and-desist letter. I also pointed out the other person who received a letter. Then the little girl asked me why I was wearing the tie-dye shirt. That one kinda stumped me for a second, because I wasn't expecting it. I just told her I that didn't really plan that, and it was just what I happened to pull out of the closet this morning.

So all in all, it was a great flash raid! We had a great time, and we put a great new twist on the "Ask me why I'm wearing a mask" concept, considering the circumstances. And I hope to see everyone at the "Over 9000 Anon March" at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow at 11:00 AM. Hoping for EPIC WIN tomorrow!

This is perhaps the weirdest thing I've heard come out of Metro's door speakers ever:



This is Alstom 6047, which I had on the Yellow Line on the way to the Over 9000 Anon March afterparty in Crystal City. The usual WMATA door messages are being played here, but they're at least twice as fast as usual. It makes Randi Miller sound like one of the Chipmunks rather than the serious door-chime voice that Metro was going for. And as you can tell, some of the passengers on the train were thoroughly amused by it.

The people I was riding with wondered if it's a matter of someone tampering with the recording or what have you, but actually, I'd guess it's just something where someone screwed up the programming somewhere in programming the chime into that particular car. I would be interested to find out how the door announcements are programmed in, and what format the audio is in. And especially since I had previously assumed that the door announcement was done across the pair, but considering that 6046 was playing the correct announcement, that might not be the case.

You know, though, I am wondering if, once these chimes have a few more years on them, whether Metro will introduce an alternate version of them on new cars and cars that go through rehab. Recall that midway through the life of the Sandy Carroll door chimes, Metro introduced an alternate version of the announcement, first on the CAF cars, and then on the Breda cars as they were rehabbed. The way the words were spoken was different, and the two-tone chime was a higher pitch, while the Rohrs and non-rehabbed Bredas kept the original version.

I finally got the opportunity to scan the letter, and so here is the Church of Scientology's effort to try and silence me, reprinted here in its entirety:





Additionally, here's the letter in PDF format for your enjoyment.

So as you can see, how much of this letter applies to me? Maybe my name and address (the latter which I have redacted here), and the next to last paragraph. And all of that information is not that hard to find if you know where to look. Heck, I have a picture of myself from Operation Sea Arrrgh posted on the Web site. And I looked pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The rest of it has nothing whatsoever to do with me. Does anyone even have any hard proof that the acts described there are even true, and if actually true, does anyone have any hard proof that the acts described are by someone actually connected to Anonymous? I'll bet they really have no idea.

So all in all, what do we say about the Scilons' attempt to intimidate me by calling me a terrorist to try and stop me from participating in events with Anonymous? EPIC FAIL, that's what. I didn't even get the "brief documentary" that they allegedly enclosed, for that matter. All I got was the two-page letter, rolled up and placed at my door. In fact, I'd say I've gotten more "epic lulz" out of this than I've gotten in a long time, and I've been getting some serious mileage out of this, using the whole concept of the letter to educate folks about the Church of Scientology's "Fair Game" policy, which appears to be alive and well no matter what the Scilons say. And once again, it completely validates Project Chanology, which is Anonymous's campaign against Scientology. The Scilons are hearing us loud and clear, and as you can tell, they don't like what they are hearing.

So there you go...

Here's Metro's latest innovation on their rail cars:





Yes, these are nylon straps along the center grab bar on Rohr 1127, which I had yesterday morning on the way to work. I tried them from Farragut North to Dupont Circle. And the verdict is...

NO!

No. The straps did not provide any better support for hanging on, and in fact, the straps moved a little bit too loose to be of much use. Metro trains, with their higher speeds and such, don't do that well with straps. You need a little more support while holding on. Metro was more on the right track when they installed the metal ceiling handles on the carpetless Alstom pair and the experimental Breda cars. The metal ceiling handles retract up out of the way when not in use, plus they provide better hang-on support than those nylon straps.

Let's hope this "innovation" hits the wastebasket pretty quickly in favor of other things they've already tried.

As you may remember, Chris Core was let go from WMAL as part of a round of layoffs by Citadel Broadcasting back on February 29 of this year. Since then, Core seems to have landed on his feet, as he now works as a guest host on POTUS '08 on XM Satellite Radio, as well as a featured commentator on WTOP, a local FM radio station that provides news and comment, where Core has a daily one-minute commentary segment called "Core Values".

I'm not a subscriber to XM, so I can't speak about Core's performance on POTUS '08. However, I did find the WTOP podcast, and have been listening to it for some months now. That's the Chris Core we all know and love, talking about national issues at times, and also talking about local issues. But there's something missing. "Core Values", by design, is very one-sided. One of Chris Core's strong points was his interactions with callers. Core knew many of his repeat callers well, and very often it was a wonderful place for the community to discuss the local issues of the DC area.

This is why I so wish Chris Core had a three-hour show again. While it's great to hear him on the radio again, I miss the interactions. The one-sided "Core Values" segment is all right, but he needs a full show again. Perhaps he'll eventually find a home on WWWT, aka "3WT", an all-talk station owned by the same company that owns WTOP. That would be optimal. I'd hate for the lion's share of Core's talent to be on satellite radio. He needs to be back on a DC-area station again, talking about local issues full-time.

I guess you could say that having The Chris Core Show or something similar to it back on the air talking about local issues... is a Core value.

You have to admit, with this being my kitchen week at the office, that this is a cute way to announce that the dishwasher will be running soon...



Yes, the concept of the Lolcat is alive and well. I got the original image from Gumuz on Flickr, and then lolcatted it up using the Lolcat Translator.