I bought a confetti maker…
July 21, 2006, 8:50 PM
Yes, I bought a confetti maker – in other words, paper shredder – after work yesterday. I figure it’s a good thing to have, so that one can shred all of one’s confidential but no longer needed documents. And I made sure to get the cross cut shredder, thus the “confetti maker” term. I like the cross cut shredder over the strip cut shredder.
I bought it at Staples. Since they had display models set up in the store, I shredded some things with the floor model before I bought one of my own. I think I destroyed about half of their brochures on shredding before I decided to get one. After all, though, one has to make sure that everything gets shredded into confetti to one’s satisfaction before going off and purchasing one.
Now I just need to play with this thing. Just don’t do like Fred Pfisterer wrote about in his “Follow the Leader” column, where he wrote that he shredded, among other things, the instructions to his shredder. I just need to make sure that anything important is locked away and out of sight before I have a shredding party. Don’t want to destroy anything important by accident now…
Categories: Products
Meanwhile, at the Infoshop…
July 18, 2006, 4:32 PM
While on the same DC trip, I made a visit to the Infoshop. The last time that I’d been there was on June 6, and since that visit, DC had a so-called “100-year” flood. And during that flood, the Infoshop, being a basement location, took on some water. This caused the Infoshop to close for a few days. There wasn’t too much damage, but they did lose the carpet. Sis can be seen sitting on said carpet in this photo from the A16 photo set:
Continue reading…Categories: DC trips
Fire alarm at Hecht’s!
July 18, 2006, 4:20 PM
So I was in DC today, and was on the fourth floor of the large Hecht’s department store at Metro Center, which I visited to get out of the heat and make a visit to a men’s room. So while I was washing my hands…
WHOOOOOOOOOOP! WHOOOOOOOOOOP! WHOOOOOOOOOOP!
I initially figured that someone had accidentally tripped the alarm for a fire exit door that was nearby. Coming out of the restroom, I noticed a very old-looking red light on the wall was flashing. The light said “FIRE” on it in white letters. Hmmm, I thought. It seems that the fire alarm is going off. I asked a store employee what was going on, and they had no idea. I was getting ready to leave anyway, and so I took the escalator back down. But not first before reaching into my camera bag and turning on Big Mavica. This was the first time that I’d been somewhere with a fire alarm going off in a LOOOOOOONG time, and so I set it to movie mode and started filming.
Categories: DC trips, Fire alarms
Wait a second… where am I?
July 18, 2006, 12:43 AM
I made what I consider a real doozie on the PA tonight. Like at most 24-hour Wal-Marts, parts of the store, like the Service Desk, close overnight. So I made the closing announcement for the Service Desk. Usually, it goes like this:
Ladies and gentlemen, the Service Desk is now closed, and will reopen at 7 AM. If you wish to make a return before that time, you may do so at any open register. (Repeat once)
As always, we thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart, and have a safe and pleasant evening.
This time, the announcement went like this:
Categories: Walmart
I feel very dressed-down today…
July 14, 2006, 11:22 PM
At work, every Friday is blue jean day. Pay a dollar to Children’s Miracle Network, and wear blue jeans that day. For the past two years, I have shunned blue jean day every single Friday. I’d never worn blue jeans to work, and saved my dollar each week. I did this primarily because I didn’t have any blue jeans that fit right.
However, now that I’ve lost some weight (the same weight loss that lead to the April 26 wardrobe malfunction), I gave an old pair of blue jeans a try. Much to my surprise, they fit, and fit quite well. This pair of jeans was one that was in good condition from a long time ago. I bought these jeans on August 19, 1999, on a trip to Pentagon City and Potomac Mills with my friend Andrea Fox. I was 18. This was the week before I’d started my freshman year of college. In other words, this was clothing bought before the so-called “freshman 15” came on. So I am doing quite well, thank you. And I have room to maneuver in these pants, too. So I am just awesome.
So where were we going with this? Oh, yes.
So I wore the jeans. Add my tie-dye shirt to that mix, which is a few different shades of blue. Then add to that a pair of backless Faded Glory sandals with tan leather straps. And no socks. All in all, I felt rather dressed down today at work.
I’m really liking my new photo feature…
July 13, 2006, 12:32 AM
I’m getting the feeling that the recent reconfiguration of the main page to accommodate a horizontal photo feature is going to turn out to be a great thing. I’ve got a lot of horizontally-oriented photos that could be used as features, but that I’d been unable to show due to format limitations. Now I can do it. So far, though, I’ve not used something really new or daring with the horizontal feature. I’m still getting used to how it all looks on the newly-redesigned page. It will be a lot of fun, though.
And there’s still room for vertical features. I figured out how to use the space that was recently by the menu to fill what otherwise looks very empty. That will be visible as of the next vertical feature.
And I figured out how to make it where I can change the page design using a database switch. Part of the page’s design is supplied by the database, which has the HTML to render the filler material for the vertical features, or the HTML to leave it out.
Categories: Schumin Web meta
Always make sure you read the warnings before you use something…
July 12, 2006, 10:16 PM
I went to Water Country USA in Williamsburg on Tuesday, and it’s doubtful that I’ll be going back any time soon, since I didn’t have that good of a time, plus it just costs too much money anymore.
I think part of the reason I didn’t have that great of a time was because it was so crowded. It seemed like everyone and their mother was in that park and trying to get everywhere. As a result, all of the lines just about everywhere were insanely long.
Additionally, they’ve gotten worse over the now-six times I’ve been there in regards to how badly they get you money-wise. Of course, food and drink is expensive as hell. In fact, a 20-ounce bottle of Aquafina, which I can get at Wal-Mart for like $1.10, cost $3.00 at Water Country. Then there’s the parking. It’s $10.00 to park your car for the day. That’s pricey. Then it’s $15.00 for “preferred”, which is parking up close next to the entrance. Then the fee to actually get inside the park is $37.95. Locker fee is $10.00, with $4.00 refundable as a park voucher. It used to cost $6.00, and they gave you $2.00 back in cash. Now they give you what basically amounts to store credit, which you can only redeem in the park. So that’s $57.95, not counting the bottled water.
Categories: Companies
Vacation’s over…
July 10, 2006, 7:06 AM
Unfortunately, my vacation is over, and has been over for a few days now. As I write this, I have three post-vacation workdays under my belt, and am going to start another one in less than two hours. However, the vacation did do what it was supposed to do – it left me refreshed, and not feeling like I want to strangle someone by the end of the day.
Otherwise, I’m just tickled about the new Transit Center design that I’m implementing. I’ve already got the section on the rail pages, and I’m getting ready to make the changeover for the buses. It’s got a tan-colored background, and the Transit Center logo is now orange. And you know how I describe the color scheme? I refer to it as the “Breda” color scheme. For those of you who are unfamiliar, I based the color scheme here on Metro’s 4000-series cars, which were manufactured in 1991 by a company called Breda. I was tempted to add “Made in Italy by Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie S.p.A.” to the page somewhere, complete with horse logo, but I don’t want anyone to think that the page was actually made in Italy by Breda.
And then as far as reconfigurations go, I’m also launching a new main page design. This reconfigures the photo feature so that I can carry horizontal images on the site, and also sweeps the sidebar menu off the main page to make room for it. Losing that side menu isn’t too much of a loss because the main-page menu just carries information that’s linked to the bottom of every page. So we’ll still get along fine if we lose it. I’m just tickled, though, to be able to run horizontal photos in the main-page space.
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Travel
Twenty-three different trains!
July 5, 2006, 6:14 PM
I chose to go to Washington on July 4 to do a little railfanning, since Metro runs a special service pattern on that day, which means that some of the lines go to different places.
In the final accounting, I rode twenty-three different trains. That breaks down to four Rohrs, four Breda 2000s, three classic Breda 3000s, four rehabbed Breda 3000s, three Breda 4000s, and five CAFs. That also breaks down to ten Orange Line trains, seven Blue Line trains, four Yellow Line trains, one Red Line train, and one Green Line train.
One Metro employee tried to give me a map of the July 4 service, and I did not take it, because I admitted I had the whole thing committed to memory. I really impressed them when I then rattled off the entire service change, including no service to Smithsonian, and shuttle bus service from L’Enfant Plaza to the Pentagon.
All in all, it was a lot of fun railfanning Metro’s July 4 service. It’s all a matter of remembering that one cannot catch a Blue Line train before Rosslyn, and that every westbound train from Washington to Virginia goes to Vienna.
“This is the Orange Line to Largo Town Center.”
July 4, 2006, 3:47 AM
Hey, it’s the Fourth of July. That means once again, and for the first year with Dan Tangherlini as General Manager, Metro is running the special July 4 service. So today, Orange goes from Vienna to both New Carrollton and Largo Town Center. Blue Line starts at Huntington (vs. at Franconia-Springfield, aka “FRANC-SPRINGD“), and goes to Rosslyn. Yellow Line goes from Franconia-Springfield to Mt. Vernon Square. Then Red and Green run their regular routes, but will turn back some trains at Silver Spring and Fort Totten, respectively. And then Smithsonian is closed all day.
So all in all, I think I’m going to have a good day. See you when I get back.
Categories: WMATA
I don’t know where that hand has been…
July 3, 2006, 8:35 AM
I’m going to say it straight up: I don’t like handshakes. And here’s why: I don’t know where that hand has been, and most people aren’t as meticulous about their hand washing as I am. Whenever someone shakes my hand, my first instinct is to find a restroom and re-wash the hand that was shaken. I also have to suppress the urge to smell the hand that they just shook (to see how dirty that hand was) right in front of them, and to wait until after they’re out of sight before going into “damage control” mode.
I don’t know why it is, but I don’t like handshakes for that reason. I don’t know whether the person whose hand I’m shaking washed their hands when they last used the restroom, or what that hand has been up to and into since the last time it saw soap.
The reason I mention this is because I was over in Charlottesville on Sunday night, doing some night photography over in the Corner District, which borders the University of Virginia. The bars and restaurants in the Corner are popular places for UVA students to go to get “polluted”, shall we say. Now when I’m photographing with the tripod, I’m far more noticeable than when I’m photographing without it, since I take up more sidewalk space, and have to be more stationary as a result. So I get far more attention than otherwise. And the males, some of whom smell of beer, more often than not want to shake my hand. It would be quite rude to say, “I’m not touching that!” and so I just go ahead and shake. And then I feel unclean afterwards.
Categories: Charlottesville, Myself
I visited Foamhenge, and it was…
July 1, 2006, 6:25 PM
I visited Foamhenge in Natural Bridge today. It was interesting. Realize that Natural Bridge itself is something interesting. It’s a little collection of roadside attractions on US 11 in basically the middle of nowhere. There’s the natural bridge itself (for which Rockbridge County gets its name), plus there’s Natural Bridge Zoo, a wax museum, and probably other stuff I’m not remembering.
But this is Foamhenge:
Categories: Photography, Places
If you really want to know your WMATA information…
June 30, 2006, 8:55 PM
I just found out that the full report about the November 3, 2004 accident at Woodley Park-Zoo came out on the NTSB’s Web site. And I’ve been reading the 66-page report for a while now. I’m on page 18 out of 66 total. So I’m getting somewhere.
And it’s great to finally read exactly what happened in this accident. You may recall that I was in Washington the day after the accident happened, and actually got to see the accident scene firsthand. It was something.
I was amazed, though, about how the first several feet of Rohr 1077 were just plain gone. In my photos, the roof was hanging down from what remained of the car. I received an interior shot of 1077 after it had been taken to Brentwood, but it wasn’t quite the same as seeing it in the accident scene. The NTSB report had a photo of 1077 in place at the accident scene:
Photo: NTSB
Categories: WMATA
I would like to know what I was thinking…
June 30, 2006, 10:48 AM
I would like to know what I was thinking back in 2003 when I was laying out these “Photo Essay Blitz” sets. Usually, I try to make the final photo numbers go in order down the page, even if the pictures aren’t arranged in chronological order. This, however, is ridiculous. And it makes my current work retrofitting captions onto these older sets all the more complicated since I have to hop all around the database to find the entries for these photos.
This is why the 2003 set A Protest Against the War received an update last night. I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. The numbers were all out of order, plus the navigation didn’t flow logically. I fixed the numbers by renumbering all the photos. Now they start at 1 and go to 122 in exactly the order that they appear on the page. I fixed the navigation by going from the old descriptors (Freedom Plaza 1 and 2, McPherson Square, Farragut West) to straight parts (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4). The navigation also bugged me because the descriptors were inaccurate, which I noticed in becoming more familiar with DC. The “McPherson Square” section was a block or so away from the square, and then the “Farragut West” section was at 18th and K Streets NW, a few blocks from Farragut Square, though only one block from the Metro station.
I can tell you why I did it that way originally, though. I set it like that because I picked out the photos, numbered them, and put them on the page, and then laid them out on the page like a big storyboard. Thus the numbers ended up all out of order. Compare to now, where I sort them in CompuPic, and don’t pin them up on the Web site until it’s nearly done.
One thing I have to say is that it certainly makes maintenance and updates easy if the numbers go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. It gets to be a real bother if it goes 1, 7, 23, 15, 12, 34, etc.
Categories: Schumin Web meta
I didn’t know this existed!
June 29, 2006, 8:21 PM
I had no idea that there was a place called “Foamhenge” near Natural Bridge, which is a little ways south of where I live. And with my being on vacation this week, and with the weather forecasted to be nice all the way through the weekend, I might just have to pay Foamhenge a visit, and perhaps do a photo set on it (as if I’m not backlogged enough already).
And no, this is not some cheesy substitute for a visit to the real Stonehenge. I went there in June 1998. See?
Eight years after visiting Stonehenge, a visit to Foamhenge should be fun.
Categories: Places