Nice weather, fire drills, FIOS, and stupid Comcast…
February 16, 2011, 8:22 PM
So I did a Video Journal tonight. And here it is:
Continue reading…Categories: Companies, Fire drills, School, Video Journal
I didn’t realize how much I depended on my watch until it was gone…
February 14, 2011, 10:27 PM
So these last two days were a bit difficult for me. See, my watch fell apart on Saturday evening. Now mind you, I kind of knew that it was getting ready to go, because in January, the band started to rip, having torn about halfway through. At that time, I decided to make some emergency repairs:
Categories: Jewelry
With the president of Egypt gone, the people rejoiced.
February 12, 2011, 11:51 PM
It’s been all over the news by now, of course, but the reign of (now former) Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has come to an end. And as it turns out, my prediction was spot on. Back on February 1, Nicole Sandler tweeted this:
Does anyone really think the #Egyptians will allow Mubarak to stay in power until Sept elections? Me neither
I retweeted Nicole Sandler’s tweet, and then replied:
@nicolesandler Honestly, I doubt that Mubarak even lasts two weeks, let alone until September. #egypt
I said less than two weeks, and ten days later, he abdicated. It was one of those things, I believe, that we all knew was coming but were surprised to see actually happen.
So Schumin Web turns fifteen in a month and a half. How to celebrate…
February 4, 2011, 9:58 PM
Believe it or not, on March 23 of this year, Schumin Web turns fifteen. I think I’ve been tossing around ideas in my head about how to properly celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since the fourteenth anniversary last year. And unfortunately, I’m still at a bit of a loss about what to do for it. I’ve thought of a few things that have been through various levels of experimentation, but nothing really workable came out of it.
First of all, does anyone remember the tenth anniversary celebration? The Photo Feature was changed to this graphic:
Categories: Schumin Web meta
I was so glad that it was not snowing this time around…
January 31, 2011, 9:28 PM
This past Saturday, January 29, was the date of Plungefest, the 15th annual Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge. This was the third polar bear plunge that I had attended overall, and the second time at the Maryland event specifically.
Compared to last year, the basic event was structured the same way, but there were a number of details that differed significantly from last year. While the main sponsor tent was in the same location, the back end was different. Last year, the back of the tent featured live entertainment. Not so this year, as carnival games and multiple moon bounces filled that space. They also had one of those inflatable dancing men dancing up a storm back there:
Categories: Events
Wednesday’s commute home was perhaps one of the most challenging driving experiences I’ve ever had…
January 28, 2011, 9:09 PM
It was also the most unpleasant, for that matter. Wednesday, January 26, you see, the DC area was hit by a fairly large snowstorm. I think the area got about eight inches of snow, which, by last winter’s standards would be just a dusting, but by this year’s standards so far was a major snowstorm.
I think my biggest mistake was that since I had the car with me (due to work-related errands that I needed to run), I decided to wait to leave until it was likely too late. So I ended up getting a six-hour snow tour around Washington DC, watching transformer explosions light up the sky and testing every nerve in my body in the process. And both the car and I came out just fine, thank you.
I left the office around 5:30 on Wednesday, sending a tweet to announce my departure:
I’m outta here: LSMFT @capitalweather: Heavy snow overspreading entire region http://wapo.st/gp0zP2
January 26 5:27 PM
It was in the early stages of being dark, and I figured I was doing fairly well. Traffic was heavy, but moving, albeit slowly.
Categories: Commuting, Driving, Some people, Winter weather
And if all goes well, we will have a freezing cold Potomac in winter for many years to come…
January 23, 2011, 10:53 PM
So Saturday was fun. Katy, a coworker of mine, and her roommate Ryan were going to be participating in a polar bear plunge at the National Harbor. It was sponsored by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), a grassroots group that works to fight global warming.
Of course, the group would pick the coldest weekend of the season thus far to have the plunge. But at least it wasn’t snowing like it was for the Maryland plunge last year. The sky was clear. It was just really cold. But “really cold” is something I can handle, when you consider that I was wearing about three layers, plus warm boots and gloves.
For an event that opposes climate change, though, it’s kind of ironic to have it at National Harbor. It’s not very transit-accessible (only one bus route serves it), and as a result, from what I could tell, most people drove there. I suppose a better place might have been the Tidal Basin in DC, being closer to Metro. But the National Harbor seemed to work.
Categories: Events
This morning’s commute was a time that I would have liked to have been Luigi.
January 18, 2011, 11:08 PM
Yes, that Luigi.
You have to realize, you see, that when it comes to Mario games, I am in the minority on which one I like best. My favorite of the early Mario games is Super Mario 2, which, based on what I see on the Internet, most people don’t like. So when I say that today would have been a good Luigi day, I’m thinking of that version of Luigi. I’m talking about the one who kicks his legs when he jumps way further and higher than everyone else.
See, coming to work today, it was icy, being on the heels of a bout of sleet, snow, and freezing rain (in that order) overnight. And so getting to the bus and then to the office were both a little treacherous this morning. So if I were Luigi, you see, I would look like this going to the bus on a morning like this morning:
Categories: Commuting, Video games, Winter weather
My hand is now forced on a little bit of computer rehab…
January 16, 2011, 10:23 AM
And it’s off to Best Buy for me today. I’m doing a clean install of Windows 7 on my regular computer (the Netbook already has 7 on it), and so I’m taking this as an opportunity to archive stuff. However, when I went to start burning stuff to disc, my DVD-RW drive was so far gone that it won’t burn anymore.
I’d been having issues with both of the optical drives on this computer for a while, and now that I really need them, they won’t work. One drive doesn’t like to stay closed, and so you have to hold it closed to make it stay closed. And sometimes it doesn’t want to open, either. The other drive doesn’t want to open, meaning that in order to open it, you have to use the pinhole override. Then in opening, it makes some really strange noises before finally deciding to open. And it won’t burn anything. So both of them are a waste of time if they won’t do what I need them to do.
Thankfully, though, this isn’t something I hadn’t planned for. I was planning to replace the drives anyway for exactly this reason, and so this just forces the timeline.
Now, though, is when I wish Best Buy in Wheaton was already open. They do not open until 11:00 on Sundays…
Categories: Computer
So why don’t you just tell us what you really think?
January 11, 2011, 10:02 PM
So I drove to work today, and then going home, I put the phone in my GPS mount and did a Video Journal entry from the driver’s seat. And here it is:
Categories: Driving, Middle school, Video Journal, Wikipedia, Winter weather, WMATA
No better day for a Metro ride… without pants.
January 10, 2011, 11:30 PM
Yes, you heard that correctly. Without pants. See, Sunday was the day that Capitol Improv did its annual “No Pants Metro Ride”. It’s the exact same idea as Improv Everywhere‘s No Pants Subway Ride in New York City, but this was in DC, on our subway.
The group met up at Hancock Park in DC, which is on the next block from the north entrance to L’Enfant Plaza station. As demonstrated in this photo, we had a good amount of people participating:
A particularly amusing spelling mistake…
December 31, 2010, 6:38 PM
Anytime someone makes a spelling and punctuation error in public, particularly on materials printed professionally, it’s funny. For instance, on the South Mountain rest areas on both sides of I-70 in Maryland, a sign indicates where “RV’s” should go. It should read “RVs”, since it is neither possessive nor a contraction for “RV is”. In English, we don’t add apostrophes when pluralizing. One can correctly write, “The apostrophe’s going to be placed here,” or “The apostrophe’s tail is beautiful,” but one cannot correctly write, “I am putting six apostrophe’s in the sentence.” That would be correctly written as “I am putting six apostrophes in the sentence.” If you want to really get on my nerves, just be sloppy with your apostrophes. It drives me crazy.
But this one is actually kind of funny, spotted at the 7-Eleven on Frederick Road (MD 355) in Rockville near Shady Grove station. Take a look:
Categories: Amusing
Happy Generic Capitalist Holiday to you…
December 25, 2010, 4:20 AM
Yes, a happy Generic Capitalist Holiday to you. I will be glad to see another one of these pass, that’s for sure. This year, I was just totally not into the whole Christmas thing, and almost outright opposing it, as evidenced by my many comments about it on the Twitter in the past month:
People need to boycott WASH-FM until after New Years when they stop playing that annoying #Christmas music!
Wishing that “criminally bad lighting displays” was a citable offense: http://twitpic.com/3egpdi #xmas #christmas
My idea of Christmas spirit this year: http://twitpic.com/3f3suv #scrooge #christmas #holidays
After all, “#Christmas” is really just a celebration of #capitalism and materialism, and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves.
@Slate Considering #Christmas has no meaning whatsoever, why not? Just one more thing for retailers to sucker you into buying. (Note: This tweet was in response to a question from Slate about whether Jews should own Christmas trees)
How much would I have to pay the man playing #Christmas music on his trumpet to get him to stop?
Why don’t we just refer to #Christmas as “Shameless #Capitalism Day” and get it over with already?
Is it rude to refer to people who post “Happy birthday Jesus” status messages as delusional? #christmas #birthday #jesus
Happy Generic Capitalist Holiday to all.
Categories: Christmas, Schumin Web meta
I never thought someone would actually want to work in a purple office…
December 23, 2010, 6:27 PM
So I saw a chiropractor today for some neck and lower back pain that I’d been having lately. I chose to see a chiropractor as opposed to a regular doctor because of a couple of matters that happened some years ago. In the summer of 2001, I had a bout with some pretty severe lower back pain. I saw a regular doctor about it, and they prescribed muscle relaxers, which did nothing except cost money. Then one day in March 2002, after months of the back pain coming and going, I sat down on my couch in my old Potomac Hall dorm room, and… *pop* – instant relief. The pain was completely gone. I don’t think I had felt that good in a long time. Went from about a six on the 1-10 pain scale to ahhhhh in one short second.
So when my neck started feeling a little stiff a few months ago, as well as some lower back stiffness when standing for extended periods (like at demonstrations and such), remembering that feeling of relief from a while back, I started doing some research on chiropractic. I read up about what it entailed and what it was about, and also went on Quackwatch to see what kinds of red flags to look out for. I read plenty of horror stories about chiropractors who did way more adjustments on people than were necessary, who routinely x-rayed when it wasn’t necessary, and pressured patients with a lot of hard-selling.
So having done a whole lot of research on what to look for and what to look for as warning signs, I started looking for chiropractors in the Wheaton area. Ultimately, it came down to Dr. Peter McPartland and Wheaton Chiropractic. Both facilities took my insurance. While McPartland was closer to my house and within walking distance of Glenmont station, I ultimately chose Wheaton Chiropractic for a few reasons. First of all, McPartland was a storefront office at Glenmont Shopping Center, while Wheaton Chiropractic was in a medical office building (Forest Glen Medical Center). Then on McPartland’s new-patient forms, which were available for download, I read this passage: “This is to certify that I am not pregnant and Dr. Peter McPartland or Staff has my permission to take x-rays of me.” Compare to Wheaton Chiropractic, which said, “Current research does not support routine imaging, especially for uncomplicated cases. We are conservative about ordering studies for patients, and will order them only when clinically indicated.” That was the grabber there – one asked for blanket permission up front to x-ray, and the other one said they wouldn’t x-ray at all unless it was really necessary. So I went with Wheaton Chiropractic.
Categories: Personal health
Obviously, the date and time would be too useful to display…
December 19, 2010, 1:59 AM
Coming back from a Christmas shindig in Northern Virginia this evening, I encountered this sign on the Beltway:
Basically, the sign encourages people to report “terror tips” to the authorities at the aforementioned number. A little research indicates that the number goes to the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, a state counter-terrorism agency.
Categories: Driving, Photography, Security, WMATA