| Sunday, August 30th, 2009 |
| 11:43 am |
Be it ever so humble...
Happy to be back in Arlington, after an epic cross country journey. Flew out to Seattle by way of Atlanta, where torrential rain in Washington turned what should have been a two hour lay over into an eleven hour layover. Fortunately made the standby flight to Seattle, where Monday morning set out for parts east. Had a wonderful day in Yellowstone, and another wonderful day in Badlands, before starting a cannonball run from South Dakota through MN, WI, IL, IN, OH, PA, MD & DC back to Virginia. This morning was a prime example of what I had missed about Arlington. While enjoying my coffee at the local farmer's market, the next woman in line is asking for samples of the different coffees. She asks if there are any politicians about to bother, and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) baranoouji helpfully points out the Arlington County Democratic Party booth. She says that she is a Democrat, but if they are the only folks about, she will bother them on principle. When I express my approval of her bothering the local Democrats, she incredulously asks if I am a Republican. I admit to her that I am, and in fact am one of the last three in the county. She expresses surprise that Chris Deeds is down in the polls to Bob McDonnell. I point out that she has just illustrated why Creigh Deeds is down in the polls as no one in Northern VA knows anything about him. After I make a few more points about the political geography of the state her jaw drops lower and lower. She had apparently been under the impression that Republicans were as a rule incapable of intelligent discussion. I finally admit that there were actually four of us at the last Republican meeting, but one was actually a Libertarian, and beat a hasty retreat, coffee in hand. |
| Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 |
| 11:05 pm |
I've solved it!
If President Obama just nominates 72,000,000 more former Senators with tax problems, we'll be able to retire the national debt. |
| Friday, January 16th, 2009 |
| 9:55 pm |
Happy Lee-Jackson Day
I was driving back to work from a site visit out in Sterling when I passed the Tyson's DMV, parking lot empty. A couple of years ago Virginia's state government finally got with the times and Split Lee-Jackson Day off from Martin Luther King Day. What an embarrassment Lee-Jackson-King day was. One of these things is not like the other. This afternoon I got to tell a network guy that not only would Verizon not be able to get a fiber optic cable into his building in three weeks, we might not be able to make three months. Then I had lunch at Wegmans. |
| Thursday, December 18th, 2008 |
| 5:03 pm |
Wave of the future...
I've meant to post about a number of things over the past couple of months, but haven't for one reason or another (laziness, mostly). Yesterday I went out and got a digital TV tuner. I had been watching over the air analog broadcast. The digital tuner doesn't pull in the Baltimore stations, but I think the multicast more than makes up for it. I now get 4 channels from WETA 26. One of them is dedicated to the cooking shows I like so much on Sunday afternoons. We are also getting two Prius hybrids for our vehicle pool at work. So tomorrow afternoon I'll get to drive out to Sterling in an ecologically friendly sort of way. |
| Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 |
| 11:11 pm |
What could possibly sooth my weary soul after John McCain's defeat last night? Perhaps a new computer. So I am now in the middle of setting up my new quad core desktop. It will probably take me a little time to get used to the six gigs of RAM and the 600 gig hard drive. I think I am already used to the 22" widescreen monitor. Consider this my contribution to helping our new president-elect Barack Obama fix the economy. |
| Thursday, October 30th, 2008 |
| 10:50 pm |
For the past couple of weeks, rumors have been flying around work about impending layoffs. Between 10% and 30% in each organization. During the quarterly update Monday, the CEO mentioned that there would be 2700 people RIFed/downsized. This morning my boss was fired. She will be on the payroll through the end of November, but that is a hell of a Christmas bonus. Makes me glad I haven't been promoted into management over the last couple of years. As many bad things as there are with a union job, at least you have a little job security. In other news, Verizon will be buying Alltel for 28.1 billion dollars. |
| Monday, September 29th, 2008 |
| 10:45 pm |
|
| Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 |
| 9:10 pm |
Absolutely.
Does anyone have $700,000,000,000.00 I could borrow? No? Are you absolutely sure about that? |
| Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 |
| 12:51 am |
Not on strike!
Verizon and the CWA/IBEW have stopped the clock, meaning that they will continue to negotiate and that I will go to work as normal on Monday under the existing contract. I was ready to strike. In fact, I was almost looking forward to a strike. However, I sure do like getting paid. Current Mood:  relieved |
| Monday, July 21st, 2008 |
| 11:54 am |
Live from the other Washington...
Touched down safely at 12:01AM Saturday. In the last two days baranoouji has taken me to the company picnic (bigger than the Arlington Co. Fair) and up a freaking mountain. The park ranger claims that snow-bound hiking trails are unusual for July, but I'm not sure I believe him. Current Mood: happy |
| Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 |
| 4:57 pm |
How Meta...
Washington Post article about an online spat about an espresso over ice at Murky Coffee in Clarendon. The incident was posted on a blog and then picked up by a couple of web sites. When I saw it posted on Metafilter on Monday there were already close to 200 comments. Kinda neat to see someplace I've been known to drink a latte in the news, but shouldn't the Washington Post should have something better to write about. |
| Thursday, June 19th, 2008 |
| 9:58 pm |
|
| Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 |
| 5:42 pm |
|
| Sunday, June 1st, 2008 |
| 3:09 pm |
Free time...
So now that I am done with school and baranoouij is off to the Pacific Northwest, I have some time on my hands. So far this weekend I have been out to the Four Provinces in Falls Church to listen to folk music and drink Guinness. I went for a walk this afternoon down to the Air Force Memorial and tried out my new camera. It's an Olympus FE-310, not particularly powerful, but it seems to be about my speed. I've never been a big picture taker, so a lot of my experiences have gone undocumented. Maybe I can change that now. Now I just have to figure out how to upload the pictures. And remember to comb my hair before I have someone take my picture. |
| Monday, May 12th, 2008 |
| 7:44 pm |
It's official...
I have passed all my classes for this semester. That means on Saturday I will be graduating with a M.S. in Telecommunications. Given my experiences as an undergrad, I think I can be forgiven for not not taking anything for granted until I actually saw the grades posted on my transcript. I am really looking forward to having free time. For the last couple of months (...years?) my free time has been the kind where I was just blowing off studying or writing papers. So what am I going to do with myself now? Current Mood: accomplished |
| Thursday, March 6th, 2008 |
| 7:52 pm |
Done with midterms for the week. Just going to work tomorrow will be almost a vacation. I came up 50-50 on the definitions part of the test. I missed nadir totally but was able to pull superheterodyne from somewhere. We'll see if got the rest of the test right (or even used the right equations) in a couple of weeks. |
| Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 |
| 9:39 pm |
One down, one to go. Midterms are the devil. I think I did ok. I guess I'll find out in a week or two. Now just one more exam to cram for. This week, anyway. |
| Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 |
| 10:12 pm |
in local news...
Gene Nichol resigned today as President of the College of William and Mary. The Board of Visitors decided not to renew Nichol's contract for another term, thus Nichol decided to resign immediately. |
| Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 |
| 9:39 am |
A quiet morning.
Woke up early this morning (relatively speaking) after midnight mass last night. I hope every one enjoys a peaceful, blessed Christmas. |
| Thursday, December 13th, 2007 |
| 5:57 pm |
|
