Wednesday January 30 2008 ~ back to the old new world

I was so proud of myself, being Tyra-free for a full seven weeks now, and then Melbaccino has to go and drop this bomb on me today:

At least they're back in New York. I guess it was kinda hard for Tyra & the CW gang to preach about "going green" while they're shuffling people around in stretch Hummers.

Monday January 28 2008 ~ giving myself the beatdown

Sleeping in for an additional ten minutes or taking too long of a shower can put my whole morning out of whack. Such was the case this morning, when my 7:09 bus zooms by as I'm putting my shoes on. Ok, I'm not gonna sweat it, I can catch the 7:16.

As I'm heading outside, I glance down C St and see that the bus is on its way, but it's still got a few lights and stops to make before it gets to mine. I realize I've left my headphones inside, and in the time it takes me to immediately turn around and get them, the bus is zooming by yet is stopping at the red light. I think I can make it, but I've got to bust up the block in order to do it.

That was my mistake.

I get out on the sidewalk and start running, and even though my leg is feeling somewhat better, I'm still not up to full strength with no pain. As I'm running, my left leg decides to give out and I'm headed down towards the pavement, for the second time in as many weeks. How I managed to fall on the outside of my shin I can't imagine, but that's exactly what was happened. So now in addition to the headling front-on shin and knee damage, I've got a huge lump and bruise on the outside of my right leg, along with a new scrap along the shin. But this isn't the worst of it.

As I'm falling I've managed to hook my elbow around a streetsign; I'm assuming I was trying to brace myself or even stop the fall. So the pole lands in the crook of my elbow, on my forearm, and now I have a huge scrap and bruise about the size of a peach, there.

Of course all of this happens with bumper-to-bumper traffic also stopped at the light. This, and the searing pain, is what's going through my head as I lie on the sidewalk, trying to stand on a left leg that is giving me problems and a right leg that now has been banged up twice.

I still made the bus, though.

UPDATE: here is a pic of my left interior forearm, just below the elbow:

Sunday January 27 2008 ~ heath ledger love/short wait

Saturday January 26 2008 ~ 815

I've just barreled through the last two discs of Season Three of Lost, in time to be caught up for Thursday's Season Four premiere. Phew! Seven episodes in less than 24 hours. A wonderfully campy yet thorough rundown of Seasons One–Three can be downloaded here.

And here's supercutie Jack Maxwell, who was in the episode "Catch-22" (First aired: 4/18/2007, Production Code: 317). He was on air for eight seconds, but then I spent about 40 minutes online googlestalking him.

INFORMATION: "815" is the flight number of the plane that crashes in Lost. It's also the length in minutes, 8:15, of the Seasons One–Three recap. It's also the stamp I received on my hand to gain entry into the 5th Anniversary of Blowoff this evening.

Friday January 25 2008 ~ i may as well live in the h8st8

The next time I move, I think I will move to Buhginia. Now I don't like the H8ST8 as much as the next conscious-minded person, but it simply makes sense to do so. Let me explain:

Yesterday I spent one hour twenty minutes commuting to work, and one hour fifty minutes getting home. That's a total of three hours and 10 minutes to go to Alexandria which, according to the Google, should take 35 minutes to drive in traffic (23 mins non-rush). That sounds about right.

With an average one-way commute time of 90 minutes, I could live in Leesburg and still get to work in the same amount of time. Hell, I could live where my Dad does, in King George, and probably make it in the same amount of time. Here is where I posted that basically I could work in Philadelphia and still have the same commute time.

A three hour round-trip commute is 15 hours a week that I'm spending underground or on buses. While some of this time is spent finishing Soduko puzzles, now is it any wonder why I need an iPod with video iPhone? I'm sure the Steve Jobs God will shine upon me soon and grant me a 16-gig iPhone that I may purchase. But I digress. Okay—so that's 15 hours that, if I lived closer to work, that I could be doing other things. Like sleeping.

So let's say I get an apartment in the H8ST8 that while still on a busline, gets me to work in 45 minutes. That's still an extra 45 minutes I could sleep and also an earlier 45 minutes that I would be getting home in the evening.

And the catch is, is that I don't really go out that much. For dinner, drinking, shows, etc. So why live in a place where all that is accessible yet never take advantage of it? Example: tonight's hothothot event: Watching Lost DVDs and ordering pizza. Even if I'm going out to Dupont or wherever for the evening it's still going to take me 45 minutes on a bus/train to get there, and another 45 to get back, which is probably just a hair shy of the time it would take me to get in from across the river. Let's look at the numbers.

Current weekly round-trip commute: 15 hours.
Average going out one weekend night round-trip: 1.5 hours.
Total: 16.5 hours traveling time.

H8ST8 weekly round-trip commute estimate: 7.5 hours.
Average going out one weekend night round-trip estimate: 2.5 hours.
Total: 10.0 hours traveling time.

Are you hearing what I'm playing?

Thursday January 24 2008 ~ descending

—I've hurt my leg. Or my ass. Or my femur. I'm not really sure which. I'm not even sure when it happened. It's not like I tripped down some stairs or was hit by a bus or anything (more on being hit by a bus below) but I'm last week's Big Spill of '08 didn't help matters much. If I stand up too quickly, I get a jarring pain shooting through my leg. This also happens when I'm running, as in this morning when I was running hobbling to catch the D6 Crosstown while it was stopped at the light (I made it). And sometimes it will send me this glorious sensation when I'm simply walking.

Even Miss Bernice's class was difficult last week (jumping up and down is no picnic either) and this Tuesday I couldn't stand it so much during the day that I opted not to go to class. And to those who know me, know that is a rarity. I didn't think I'd be up for going tonight, either, and I didn't, thinking that I should take a week off or so and get some healing time in. I celebrated this decision by going to Wendy's for lunch today. But I started icing my leg and lower back two nights ago, and tonight I think I'm going to try some heat on it. The internets said cold therapy was good for an injury right after it happens, then hot therapy is better for the long run. Any armchair docs out there with any opinions?

—I'm starting to notice a lot of people out there on the public transpo' that have the white earbuds with the little clicker descending from one earbud, signifying they're using an iPhone. The clicker is used to pause/play a song, and answer a call while keeping the iPhone in your pocket. Fuckers. I want one!

—Here's a videoclip of the new Cylon Metrobuses we have now (note the horizontal flashing yellow eye at the top). After Metrobuses ran over about a fifty pedestrians last year, Metro has decided to added these "I'm chasing you down" lights, as if the accidents were the pedestrians fault. If I remember correctly, all the pedestrians were in crosswalks and had the right-of-way. Personally I think they should add a slight electric jolt to the driver's seat, just to keep them alert. By the way, I had the sweet bus driver tonight, who called me "darling" and "baby". I hope she's my bus driver more often.

Tuesday January 22 2008 ~ text alert

Heath Ledger, Joker to a new generation and America's favorite non-committal gay cowboy, is dead.

Saturday January 19 2008 ~ dc is neither northern or southern. nor is it the best of both.

Case study: Safeway (415 14th St SE), Friday 7:20 PM.

To prepare for today's impending snowstorm (which didn't happen, of course) I decided to pick up chili fixins from the grocery store on the way home from work. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to Eastern Market in time, to talk to the butcher to get the right grind of beef for the chili. I figured the Safeway on the way home would do. My conversation with the butcher:

Me: Can I get three pounds of chili grind ground beef, please?
Butcher: Chili ground?
Me: Chili grind. Do you have chili grind ground beef?
Butcher: Chili grind?
Me: Yes, it's a chili grind of ground beef. Do you have that?
Butcher: [puzzled look] I don't think we have that. All we have is out here.

At this point I'm ready to set the basket down and walk out. I would be able to find chili grind ground beef in Houston at the Kroger, Randalls, Fiesta, Appletree, probably even at the Stop-N-Go. I guess I'm a little too far north now.

So I gather the rest of my ingredients (with regular ground beef) and head to the checkouts where I find a nice helping of southern hospitality:

Brianna: Are you ready to check out?
Me: Yes, thanks.
Brianna: You makin' chili?
Me: Yes, ma'am.
Brianna: I thought so when I saw the hamburger and the sausage. Then when I saw the Scoops, I knew. I like those too.
Me: They're really the best for scoopin'.
Brianna: You makin' this yourself?
Me: Yup.
Brianna: Alright then.
Me: Mm hmm.
Brianna: Enjoy your chili!
Me: Alright then.
Brianna: You have a good evening. Stay warm out there.
Me: Alright. You have a good evening now, too.
Brianna: Alright then.

Here are my ingredients:

Thursday January 17 2008 ~ slide away

Without looking at today's forecast, I hoped on the bike and headed into my first leg on the commute to work, since tonight is a Miss Bernice night and I'd need to have transport to class. The Fantastic Four (Ateya, Bernice, Buck & myself) were going to go out for some knosh and a cocktail after class, since it had been so long since we'd gotten together and hung out. But the snowy weather kinda put a damper on that and we were forced to reschedule.

I don't shower after class, since it's still raining and nasty out and I would end up just as wet when I got home, so what's the point?

I'm biking up North Carolina between Eastern Market and Lincoln Park, and a car is coming to the stop sign on 9th or 10th, and I have a stop sign too. I brake, in the slush, and start sliding. Sliding and trying to steer and trying to retain one's balance is not an easy feat. The front of the bike is kinda sliding over to the right and tilting, while I'm still heading forward (and tilting) and I have no idear what the back tire is doing. There comes a time when once has to stop steering, let go of the handlebar and brace for impact. I was at that point.

The ground comes quickly when you're falling down. I don't remember which way the bike was heading, if it was going sideways, under me, behind me, on top of me. All I knew was that I was going down. //insert joke// Since it's winter I have my gloves on, which I'm thankful for. My hands are out in front, cushioning my head and face from hitting the pavement. The rest of me and the bike fall in a collapsed twist. The car that I was stopping for, of course, continues on its way. As do several other cars on North Carolina headed in the opposite direction. Thanks, neighbors!

It takes me a good minute to untangle myself from the bike, while moving slow because my right knee and shin are in screaming pain. Finally I'm able to stand up and as I do another cyclist stops and asks if I'm okay. I recognize him as Tom, a friend of my neighbor Sherif, whom I met back when the weather was a little warmer and us cyclists didn't have to worry about slushy snow. He looks more prepared for winter cycling than I do, which is probably why he's still on his wheels and I'm picking myself up from the wet pavement.

As of now I've got a bruised/swollen knee a scraped (even through the jeans) shin which is developing quite a nice knot, which I'm sure is going to feel really lovely in the morning. Note the lump in the shinbone (which is connected to the anklebone).

Is this a coincidence that this bicycle accident happens the day after I stop cataloging MEtRoday train numbers?

UPDATE: I've got a big ol' bang up my left knee, too, that I didn't realize last night.

Wednesday January 16 2008 ~ the polls are now closed

MEtRoday: 1117, 6081, 3094

By a vote of ten for and twelve against, the results are in: 55% of the voters said "Give it a rest. I never understood this whole damn concept anyway." Therefore, today is the last day I shall catalogue my MEtRodays. Thank you to everyone who voted, including the ballot-stuffer who shall remain nameless yet works at a certain government space agency (who voted against, btw). I guess this person didn't have cookies active in their browser, therefore enabling multiple voting. Maybe I should have stated a "Please vote only once" policy. But if one wants to pull off an online coup them who am I to stop them? I'm a lover, not a fighter.

There you have have it. This whole wacky notion started as an idea on my first day back from vacation in Bavaria over 180 days ago. It was really nice on some days when all the numbers came together. And then other days they all seemed kinda random. Maybe there were connections there that I just couldn't see.

So it's on hiatus for now. Who knows, the stars may align or I'll feel the urge start tracking them again. But now I'll have the peace of mind of not having to fight through a crowded traincar just to check what its number is. Plus considering the bus-riding that I've been doing a lot of lately threw a wrench into the train plan, and I ain't gonna start gettin' all dem damn buses' numbers.

Tuesday January 15 2008 ~ there's something in the air

MEtRoday: 3134, 3174, 3010, 2038

Let's all chant together: "16-gig iPhone! 16-gig iPhone!! 16-gig iPhone!!!!" Repeat.

Post-MacWorld Update: The Macbook Air is cool and all, but the iPhone updates were disappointing. So Disappointing.

Monday January 14 2008 ~ translation

MEtRoday: 1110, 3067, 3199

Here's a movie from Zippy. Here's an explanation from Zippy about the movie from Zippy:

jj sent me a big box full of goodies and i made him a movie of me being happy and unwrapping the gifts.

I like how she floats in the air.

Sunday January 13 2008 ~ say goodbye to hollywood

Following the the footsteps of the Outer Circle, Inner Circle and The Foundry, The Dupont 5 movie theater is closing tonight. To quote David S. Crowley, who is brokering the deal with the new tenant, "It's a national chain with a new, exciting concept going in," is all he says. "It's retail. It has nothing to do with movies."

Sunday January 13 2008 ~ "the incident"

MEtRoday: none

Yesterday, still recovering from Friday night's Halo Martini Marathon, Goldy wanted me to accompany her on a major electronics shopping spree for advice and to explain what gigabytes, software applications and megapixels are all about. For supplying my advice, she offered to treat me for lunch. This offer of lunch fulfilled one of my life's objective: to eat at a chain restaurant that I had never been to, yet intrigued by the pull of their happy-crowd commercials and general wondering of what the fuck was it all about. My choices for the day were between Outback Steakhouse and Olive Garden. I know both of these restaurants are generic and craptastic, but I can't quite feel like a flag-waving American until I've visited them.

Not even knowing where either of these restaurants were located, since we live in a city that doesn't support their clientele and we were going out to the suburbs to hit the box stores and malls anyway. Desperate in my choice to go to Outback we called 411 and they GPSed us south of Alexandria, outside the beltway (gasp!), even further past the Krispy Kreme with the light-up sign. Finally, we found it, amidst a sea of other chain restaurants.

Of course a Bloomin' Onion® had to be ordered, just because I'm wondering what the fuss is all about. Once it's delivered, me and Goldy are able to finish about 1/4 of it before we're just disgusted. The rest of the meal did not go much better. We both left there feeling like we were going to hurl, pass out or have to run to the bathroom. Yuck. It was so bad that for hours afterwards we couldn't even mention the word "Outback", we just had to refer to our dining experience as "the Incident". At least I can cross that off the list of things to do. Now I just have The Garden to visit but it may take a while before I'm up for that.

So now on to the fun stuff. We proceed to moan and groan (because of the dinner sitting in our stomachs) our way to Best Buy, to check out computers and cameras. I'm desperately trying to convince Goldy to move away from The Dark Side and get a fabulous new iMac. We compare the pricing at BB and the Windows systems aren't any cheaper than the iMac, contrary to popular belief. Plus the Windows systems all came with Vista, and even Goldy was so afraid of that without me having to warn her about it. A camera is purchased and we're making our way to Pentagon City to hit the Apple Store.

The Apple Store is packed on a Saturday night! Wow. While I've been explaining to Goldy that the base iMac is going to have everything that's she's going to need; I think the free (after rebate) printer/scanner/faxer seals the deal. Ten minutes after we're there, we're walking out the door with an iMac box and the p/s/f.

Since she's bought the iMac I'll help her unbox it and set it up. If she'd bought a Windows system, she'd be on her own, I'm not touching that mess. So after easily setting everything up and a quick tutorial on the new OS (which is gorgeous, I may have to run out and get my own upgrade to that) she's in love with it, saying that "It's so pretty and everything is so integrated." 'Natch.

Then we took goofy pictures with the built-in cam:

Saturday January 12 2008 ~ morning shuffle

MEtRoday: Thursday: none; Friday: 2019, 1213; Today: none

Wednesday January 09 2008 ~ 38 reg

MEtRoday: 3146, 6101

Former DC Interim General Manager of WMATA Hottie and current DC City Adminstrator Hottie Dan Tangherlini rode my bus on the way home work tonight. I thought I spotted him when he got on and he sat in the front, but then definitely stalked recognized him when he moved to the back of the bus, where I was sitting. I knew it was him when he said "Hi, it's Dan." But he didn't say this to me, because like all white male suited bougie men riding a city bus wearing London Fog trenchcoats (38 Reg, I spotted on the tag) he was talking into his BlackBerry the whole time.

For über-stalkers, he got off at the Maryland and 6th St stop and makes $195,000 annually (a paycut from his $235,000 at WMATA—life sucks, huh?). He was glancing around across the skreets towards the 600 block of D NE so he might live there. There's a nice triangle park out front if you're thinking of camping out.

Clik-da-pik for a video from my phone. It will play immediately and has sound of some crazy lady who was also riding my bus, so you might want to turn your sound down. I think that's him talking at the end, though.

Tuesday January 08 2008 ~ geek news is good news

MEtRoday: 5092, 2075, 3130, 3083

A full week ahead of the juicy secrets to be revealed by Steve Jobs @ Macworld Expo 2008 Apple has announced speedbumps to its high-end Mac Pro line. Normally this is one of the mainstays for a Macworld keynote, but full details of all the geekiest "fastest Mac ever, the new Mac Pro has eight processor cores and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of its predecessor. It combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2 GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage, offering the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists."

What does this mean? It means that it opens up more time next during next Tuesday's keynote to announce iPhone hardware upgrades (16 gig, 16 gig, 16 gig), iPhone software upgrades (2.0) and maybe something even as magical as this rumor, which proposes a mini laptop which slides into the side of an iMac frame, turning it into a full-fledged desktop when needed yet still remains an ultra-portable when necessary.

Now where's my drool cup?

Monday January 07 2008 ~ hannah montana heats up the pop charts and burns the underground too

MEtRoday: 5060, 1285, 3006

Tonight on my way home as I sit underneath the National Archives on a stalled yellow line train, I'm pondering all the DILFs on the train with their young daughters and their daughters friends in tow. What the hell is going on tonight? Where are the wives? Where are the sons? The longer we sit there, with the conductor announcing delay after delay, something about a "track failure" as trains that pass north of Archives suddenly go powerless and have to be towed to the next station to be rebooted.

Then I realize that Hannah Montana is playing tonight at MCI's Verizon Center, and the shear excitement from all the tweens descending upon downtown DC is starting to overload Metro's electrical system. Fuck this.

I bail on the train at Archives and plan on walking up the block to E St to catch the D6 Crosstown, because this is my city and I know I where I'm at, even when I'm underground. And I'm all about making a transfuh connexion. The DILFs with daughters in tow is even crazier on the sidewalks of downtown. I'm wondering how much Billy Ray Cyrus is going to bank tonight. And I'm wondering what the Moms are doing; if this is their night to get together with their secret boyfriends.

Total commute time: one hour, forty-two minutes.

Sunday January 06 2008 ~ potential titles of future posts, v2

MEtRoday: none

silence tells me everything i need to know
love + 1
a melody always finds me, whenever the thoughts reminds me
12:10
time & space
howling at all this corrosion
it's so lonely in the dirt
turning minutes into hours
don't turn this way, don't turn that way
we are on the same high, you and i
you can leave right now if you're feeling doubt
multiplied by 7, multiplied by 7 again
this is a new day, this is the faith
one entry per ticket
bumpin' booties, havin' us a ball, y'all!
skip this ad
you rhythm has the power to move me
things get damaged, things get broken,
life doesn't care about your vision
costs right smart
amenable for coercion
playing with uranium

Saturday January 05 2008 ~ breathing in fumes

MEtRoday: none

Here's a Photo Booth shot of me in the new office @ The 1526. Please to be noting the stairway-cum-library and newly purchased Ikea paper lamp.

Friday January 04 2008 ~ some like it hot

MEtRoday: Thursday: 1215, 3037, 3044, 2012; Today: 2054, 3198, 6038, 1047

It's a crisp 58° in my apartment when I get home from work tonight. Good thing I'm lugging my newly-arrived portable heater on trains, buses and across state lines tonight, just so I can be toasty for the weekend. I plug it in and crank it up and by the time I'm going to bed the temp has risen ten degrees or so.

It kept a sufficient heat level running through the night, but this morning I turned it down so it could cool off and recharge a bit, I didn't want to overload and melt the darned thing on its first day at the races. This morning I noticed that one of the globules in my glass thermometer (you know, the ones with the multicolored glass balls suspended in liquid that rise and fall to tell the temperature) had finally fallen, the 68° one, so it's at least that warm although the therm on the heater still says it's 65°. So one of them is off and I can't tell. Regardless, it's a little warmer round my way now.

Oh, I've totally forgotten to 'xplain the reasoning behind all this. My new apartment, the basement, shares one heating source with the J/T landpersons upstairs. So there's one thermostat that controls three floors of heat distribution. Of course hot air rises so the upper floors are naturally going to be warmer than mine. I could especially feel that I was on the bottom level of the air-rising physics phenom later into the evenings. But hopefully this means that I will be the coolest during the summer months, without having to output much a/c.

Wednesday January 02 2008 ~ i don't g@ @

MEtRoday: 3148, 3010, 3010, 1211

I've been tracking my MEtRoday trains on my daily commutes and weekends for about the last 18 months. Obsessive/Compulsive/Anal much? Don't answer that question.

Since it's a brand new year and all, y'all, I'm thinking of maybe giving this whole tracking and cataloging of Metro train numbers a rest. What do you think?

NOTE: This poll will remain open for two weeks; after Jan 16 I will agree with the verdict chosen.

Tuesday January 01 2008 ~ domestic box office remains the engine that drives the train

MEtRoday: none

Since I did absolutely nothing today but watch movies (The Breakfast Club, Ratatouille) eat homemade sweet & sour chicken and take a nap on the couch, there's nothing really to report on today. I contemplated placing the video cam on the television and film me watching it, but that would have been incredibly boring. Which is maybe why I took that nap.

Any resolutions? Not really earth-shattering ones, just the same ones people make all the time: to go to the gym more, to take my lunch into work instead of buying it, that kind of thing.

One thing I did do yesterday, however, was go down to the gym and pay $1917.60 upfront for the next two years of membership so that instead of the increased monthly fee of $97 per month (hefty, ain't it?) it works out to a discounted $79.90 per month. So now that I've paid that, I'll have an extra $94 (the previous monthly fee) in my pocket monthly. Nice.