So Long, Salvation Army Homeless Shelter

Well, with about a week to spare, I've found someplace to live after my lease expires on June 30th. If you didn't know it already, my current roommate is going back to grad school at Berkeley, and because our current apartment complex keeps raising our rent, I wanted to find a new place. So this weekend, I signed a lease for a room in a four-bedroom house on N. Wayne street, which is about two blocks away from where I live now.

For the record, searching for a new place on Craigslist blows big time. A lot of the posts lie about things like how close the apartment is to the Metro, and any reasonable ad draws 20-30 people for an open house. Plus, you can't really start looking too far ahead of when you need to move, since most ads are looking for people who can move in no later than the beginning of the next month.

One benefit of moving is that it's a great excuse to have a party; if you're reading this, you're invited to Alex's going-away happy hour on June 23rd, and to my probable housewarming party on June 24th (still unconfirmed).

Speed Trap

Public Service Announcement:

Most Saturdays and Sundays, there's a speed trap on northbound Lee Highway in Arlington, somewhere around N. Cleveland street. How do I know? I've never been caught by it, but I can see it out the window of my apartment. The police car is always unmarked and usually catches about four cars an hour.

The Express

Every morning by the Court House metro station elevator, a nice lady named Wendy hands out copies of The Express, which is the free morning newspaper published by the Washington Post. I'm pretty sure Wendy doesn't like me very much. The problem is, probably 75-80% of the commuters getting on the elevator take a copy of the paper from her. I never do, and I think she's mildly offended by this. There are a few reasons I never take the paper, the primary ones being that I'm usually already carrying my laptop or my lunch, it's usually too crowded on the train to read anyway, and I always read the Washington Post online at lunch. But of course, Wendy doesn't know this, and so every day for the past year when she looks at me and earnestly asks if I'd care for a copy of the Express, I say no and she seems vaguely disappointed.

Now of course, she may not care at all, and may not even have any idea who I am. I've been riding Metro to work four days a week for most of the past year, but I'm sure hundreds of people take that elevator each morning, and I'm sure there are regulars who have been there far longer than I have. One of my favorite quotes is something to the effect that you wouldn't care what others thought of you if you realized how rarely they actually do. So maybe she isn't bothered by me at all. But I still feel kind of bad.

I wonder if I'd feel the same way in Las Vegas if the "Girls To You In 30 Minutes" workers asked me really nicely "Would you care for a graphic flyer of cheap hookers?"

Sunglasses

Now I certainly don't claim to have any fashion sense whatsoever. But I've really got to question this trend of wearing enormous sunglasses that cover 90% of your face and make you look like a mosquito. There were two or three girls who came up to me at Foxfields to say hi, and I couldn't recognize them because so much of their faces were hidden. Doesn't this seem like a trend destined to be parodied by our children, like bellbottoms and leisure suits are? Doesn't anyone realize the last person to wear sunglasses like those was the Unabomber?

VROOM

I finally got my new car on April 12th. It has a black convertible roof, 300HP 4.6L V8 engine, leather seats, and an awesome factor of 1000. If you want a ride, let me know, and I'll let you put your hand on the passenger door handle before I speed off yelling 'So long, sucker!!!'







Note: if you smell something burning in these pictures, that's the car's clutch. I'm still getting used to driving stick regularly.

Prank Call

Occasionally, when we have 15-20 minutes to wait for a train in a Metro station, Paul and I will make prank calls to 1-800 numbers (hey it beats throwing stuff at the third rail). Yesterday on our way out, Paul came up with my favorite call to date:

Gamblers Anonymous (woman): Hello?
Paul: Oh sweet! I just bet my friend $200 that a woman would pick up when I called this number. Dude! Pay up - a chick answered!
Gamblers Anonymous (woman): (Hangs up immediately)

I hope I still find stuff like this funny when I'm 50 years old.

I live at a rest stop?

VDOT, in its continuing brilliance, has recently put up Gas/Food/Lodging signs for some exits on I-66 inside the Beltway (mine, exit 72, is one of them). This may be the dumbest idea I've seen in a long time.

First, do they seriously have nothing better to spend $200,000 on? Because I can give them a list of about 500 projects that would be a more productive use of those funds (repaving Wilson Boulevard in Ballston, for example, or repaving Lee Highway at Danville St.)

Second, who is using these signs? Right now, THEY'RE ALL BLANK. This is one of those projects that doesn't work so well if you only do it half-way. And even if these signs did have accurate lists of restaurants, hotels, and gas stations, who would find this information useful? Probably 90% of the traffic on I-66 inside the Beltway is local traffic; anyone driving farther north would have taken I-495 around the city. So basically, they're there to tell people like me, who live in Court House, that if I want to get off an exit earlier, I could stay the night at the Marriott in Ballston. Gee, thanks. These signs are useful on interstates that cut through the middle of nowhere, where the only places to eat are spaced 40 miles apart. They're not useful in urban Arlington County.

I suppose it's possible that the merchants who will be listed on these signs are paying for them in their entirety; if that's the case the program would be marginally better, but would still be a colossal waste of manpower that could have been doing something else. Not to mention a fairly stupid use of profits for any store that wants to put its name up there.

The last possibility, of course, is that VDOT is trying to appeal to crazy protesters who come to Washington on the spur of the moment, then get close to the city an realize they have no place to stay. I guess that IS a growing demographic.

What are they smoking?? (Oh...right)

Update: 2-13-06
Apparently after I posted this entry, the DC council jumped on my blog, read my strong condemnation of their actions, felt remorse, went back to work, and passed a revised lease just four hours later. Good for them. Except, of course, the new lease contains a hard cap on construction costs, which "deeply concerns" Major League baseball. This doesn't bother me too much, since the fact that they passed SOMETHING makes it pretty clear that they'll probably eventually get a deal done. And as I mentioned before, they do have a valid argument in that the owner of the team that will be using the stadium is usually responsible for at least some of the cost. But the fact remains, the DC council has been extremely flaky on this issue, and their latest actions only perpetuate their reputation for disorganization and childishness.

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The DC council voted 8-5 to reject the stadium lease agreement proposed by Mayor Williams. What are they holding out for? Free foam fingers? The dispute is probably going to go to arbitration now, which will most likely benefit Major League Baseball. Personally I think they already got screwed by being forced to build a brand new stadium without any help from the future owner of the team, so I don't really understand why they're trying to take a stand this late in the game. In any case, the best case outcome from this is that an arbitrator steps in and settles things quickly, which would still mean the team would be without an owner (or much of a payroll) for a few more months. Worst case, the team leaves after this season. If that occurs, the entirety of the District of Columbia should be immediately retroceded to Maryland, and the city government disbanded.

Updates

My Alito prediction was pretty damn close - he was confirmed 58-42 instead of 59-41. And the only reason I didn't hit it dead on was that Sen. Chafee, who I assumed had to vote yes because it would be easier to defend that vote in the general election than a no vote in his primary, voted no anyway. What an idiot (unless he can survive the primary, in which case it will probably help a decent amount). Also, the reason the Dems that did vote in favor of Alito was almost uniformly not because they wanted to return civility to the judicial nomination process, but because they were Senators from really Republican states (Sen. Byrd's motivation was the exception, I believe).

Lots more songs with people's names in them - Jeremy by Pearl Jam, Jenny Says by Cowboy Mouth, and a couple from the Killers' first album (one for each side I think). Anyway the list could go on forever; my point is still valid.

Didn't realize "Hard to Handle" by the Black Crowes is a cover of an Otis Redding (I think) original. That's a huge improvement right there.

Less than a year after WHFS bit the dust, Z104 has followed suit. 104.1FM is now a classical station, and 103.5 is now news radio (I could have that reversed). Now I'll be honest, I didn't really listen to Z104 that much, and it certainly didn't remind me of high school like 99.1 did. But the DC area is already terrible in terms of rock radio stations, and it's annoying to lose a station that at least played rock sometimes. I have six preset buttons on my car radio, and right now I really only use four (Classic Rock 94.7, DC101, 98 Rock from Baltimore, and 88.5 for when I plug my iPod into my iTrip FM broadcaster). Pretty sad stuff.

Cover Songs

After hearing the Counting Crows awful, awful cover of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" on the radio the other day, I started trying to think of covered songs that I thought were better than the originals. Not surprisingly, there aren't very many:

- All Along the Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix covering Bob Dylan)
- With A Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker covering the Beatles)
- Landslide (Smashing Pumpkins covering Fleetwood Mac)
- Live and Let Die (Guns 'N' Roses covering the Beatles)
- Come Together (Aerosmith covering the Beatles)
- Blinded by the Light (Manfred Mann's Earth Band covering Bruce Springsteen)

Ok that's pretty much it - this post didn't have much point other than me putting up that list. Although I suppose it's interesting to wonder why so many bands try to cover old songs when they're probably just going to sound bad. And to appreciate the timelessness of the Beatles' songwriting.

Side note: The all-time unquestionable worst cover ever is Kid Rock's version of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes".

I've Been Inclined

When I was little, I was always kind of jealous that my sister had her own song (Sweet Caroline), and I didn't. Later on, I found out that there IS a song with my name in it (Hey Joe) but it's about a guy killing his wife and running away to Mexico after she cheats on him. So I don't know how much of an improvement that is. Anyway, that got me to thinking that there are a ton of songs out there with girl's names in their titles, but almost none with guy's names. Here's the list I came up with off the top of my head:

Girls:
- Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)
- Gloria (Van Morrison)
- Jessica (Allman Brothers)
- Melissa (Allman Brothers)
- Maria (Green Day)
- Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel)
- Allison (Elvis Costello)
- Josie (Blink 182)
- Jane Says (Jane's Addiction)
- Janie's Got A Gun (Aerosmith)
- Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
- Roxanne (Police)
- Michelle (Beatles)

Guys:
- Hey Joe (Jimi Hendrix)
- Daniel (Elton John)
- Vincent (Don McLean)

Now certainly, not all of those songs with girls in the title are exactly flattering (Janie's Got A Gun, I believe, is about child abuse). But the fact remains that there are a lot more of them. Is this just an anomaly in the type of music I listen to? Maybe. But I think the real reason is just that girls are more inspiring.

Alito Prediction

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Samuel A. Alito, Jr. for a full Senate confirmation vote today. The committee vote was 10-8, party line, which was expected. The full vote should come sometime this week, and it too should fall roughly along party lines. If I had to guess, my prediction would be something like 59-41 to be exact, since he shouldn't lose any Republican votes (if he does, it will probably be Collins or Snowe since Chafee has a tough primary challenge coming up this summer), and my hope is that there will be at least a few Democrats who recognize that the parties need to go back to almost always giving each other deference on nominations (the only Dem publicly announced as voting yes is Ben Nelson, which isn't surprising since he's been holding the Zell Miller Memorial DINO award for a few years now).

Anyway, don't expect this nomination to cause a major seismic shift on the Supreme Court. While Alito is certainly conservative, he isn't any farther right-wing than Scalia or Thomas, and the fact that he's replacing a more moderate Justice in Sandra Day O'Connor is offset by Anthony Kennedy's recent transformation from "reliably moderate conservative" to "swing vote". The real thing to watch for is whether or not 83 year old John Paul Stevens keels over before Bush leaves office. Stevens is a solid liberal, and even a moderate replacement for him would dramatically alter the balance of the court. Supposedly though, he's in great shape (for being, you know, 83 years old).

Milk

The first time I bought milk in 2006, the carton I got had the same expiration date as the one I had purchased four days earlier (I think I caught Giant in the middle of a weird holiday season delivery schedule). But this got me thinking: who ever buys the cartons of milk with the earlier expiration dates? Why would you ever do that? The cartons certainly exist - there are always two or three different groups of dates in the display case, even among the same type of milk (skim, 2%, 1%, etc.). But who ever says "oh, poor Safeway, looks like they're overstocked - I better take some of this not-as-fresh milk today, or I bet it won't sell at all!" Even if you're going to drink it before it expires, why not get the freshest carton you can? Maybe those jugs never sell, and they're just there to fill up space on the shelf?

The one exception to this rule, of course, is Harris Teeter Homo milk, which obviously should be avoided whenever possible:

Screen Name

I'm thinking about changing my screen name. Seinfeld has been off the air for a while and in a few more years, I might not want the year I was born in my screen name. Update to come; opinions welcome.

"Birthday" Party

My roommate Alex and I were originally going to have a joint birthday party when we got back from China at the end of October, since my birthday is in September and his is in December. However, we're really lazy, so we didn't actually get around to planning it until now. So if you're in town on Saturday January 28th, you should stop by the Adams Mill bar in Adams Morgan. We've got the top floor reserved from 8pm to 11pm, and everyone who comes can get dollar-off beers and mixed drinks. After 11, you can't get the specials any more, but you should still buy us stuff anyway.

The Sun Also Rises

I just finished reading The Sun Also Rises last week, and I'd say it's probably one of the top five or ten books I've ever read in my life. Hemingway has the ability to say a lot with a very small number of words, and I always enjoy reading clear, concise prose over meandering, verbose stories. Couple that with an interesting plot and some fantastic descriptions of bullfighting, and it would have been worth reading outright. However, what made this book so interesting for me was the number of times that I literally tapped the page after reading a quote or paragraph that elucidated EXACTLY what I felt about a certain situation or type of person. The book was published in 1926 and deals with the generation that came of age during World War I, but many of the observations Hemingway makes are timeless, and I think they can be understood now just as well as they were back then.

The downside of finishing a great book, of course, is that I now don't have a whole lot to read, and probably won't read anything that good again for a while. Ah well, maybe I'll go back to my list from a few months ago.

Side note: If ever there was proof that the best way to write is to write what you know, it's Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was an expatriate American writer who lived in Paris and traveled frequently in Spain when he wrote The Sun Also Rises, which is about an expatriate American writer who lives in Paris and travels to Spain. His other most famous novel (which I haven't read) is A Farewell to Arms, which chronicles the life of a badly wounded World War I ambulance driver in Italy. When Hemingway was 18, he volunteered to drive ambulances for the U.S. Army in Italy, where he was badly wounded and discharged.