Medicinal Dreams

I swear either the cholesterol or the blood pressure meds make me sleep more. So last night I had this long-running dream where three female friends and I were trying to go see *Nsync in concert, and it was many years in the future where Timberlake was washed up and they were re-united, but they still looked young. The future was sometimes post-apocalyptic, but sometimes normal. We seemed to be mostly hanging around an area that looked like Conn Ave near Dupont Circle, and we traveled there from C'ville by train, and there was all this detail about train tickets, and getting on the right train, and then when we got there we did not have concert tickets! We made up this elaborate scam to trick these young girls into selling us the tickets... the dream went on and on, despite one break when I got up for some water. WTF

DC in the Summer

I just hate these steamy summer days. And WTF? The Metro was full of annoying tourists at 7:45 AM! TOurists should not be allowed on the Metro during rush our. They are slow, easily confused, and they block the escalators. Though some of the blame goes to Metro for not having very clear instructions, and often unfriendly staff.

I also was rifling through my place for 15 mins this morning looking for my watch. Yes I still wear a watch--it is a nice, elegant black SWATCH that my friend Andreas from Switzerland gave me like 8 years ago. It's not your typical SWATCH; it winds itself with hand movements, so no battery needed. I'll be sad on the day when it finally dies.

So here I am at work, the sweat slowly drying out of my shirt. Bleah!

Oil hits $142 a barrel

I can't even feel all that superior (by walking or riding the Metro to work), because the cost of fuel affects everything. I so wish I was wealthy enough to have a freestanding house in this area that I could have solar panels installed on, and at least have a small garden. Remember when Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House And then Reagan took them down. Yeesh.

Metro Weirdness

At the Rosslyn Metro station this morning, I noticed one of the strange machines I hadn't seen in awhile, which I think are some kind of air sensor to detect poison gases or something... like saren. There were also quite a few Metro Cops in evidence.

At Farragut West going home tonight there also seemed to be far more than the usual number of cops. And (most likely unrelated) as I got out at Rosslyn they anounced severe delays on the Green line because a 'customer was struck by a train.' (I guess that 'customer' term didn't do a whole lot of good).

But I wonder what else is going on? Has Bush raised the terror/panic alert?

White Stuff

While it has been fun (in a weird, flashback sort of way) looking at Shigeki's pictures of his latest trip to Hawaii, I'm enjoying the dusting of snow we're getting here in DC. Of course, traffic is snarled, and the entire Metro system is running at reduced speeds because of ice-on-the-tracks paranoia (this is from the system that refuses to officially acknowledge that people actually walk up and down moving excalators--when they aren't broken of course--because of the liability. Of course it's the same system where a bus drive hit and killed the 5th pedestrian in a crosswalk this year, and I swear the train driver hit 100 mph in the tunnel under the river towards Rosslyn last night.

Though this once again reminds me of this (kinda cool) 'Snow Apocalypse' version of the Metro.

Tuesdays are better than Mondays

As I've said many times before, my commute has its pleasures (as opposed to the hell-drive). The walk down the bike path, punctuated by a steady stream of (usually) very fit young men in very tight bike shorts zooming by me is a daily plus. And there's usually some kind of eye-candy on the Metro. Today: a big hunky white guy (yes, don't look so shocked) in this snug-fitting polo shirt. Then in the random amusement category, here downtown I passed an older man with long flowing grey hair, and wearing a kilt. Um, okay.

Negatives of course include car horns, and getting stuck walking behind someone who is smoking. *Cough*

Yuck

I woke up this morning at 4:00am completely congested. One nostril was completely stuffed up and the other one was partially. I don't like being a mouth-breather! So today the weather is supposed to finally cool down a little, then really drop tomorrow. I can't wait. Now, how long will it take for the temperatures in the Metro stations to go down? Rosslyn and Farragut West were still sweltering this morning. Whya re they so hot anyway? They are deep underground, the trains are electric, so I can't imagine that they generate that much heat...

Of Leeks and Laundry and Bad Music

More on Top Chef, this time actually about the food and not cutie Hung. What's with the Leeks? I admit I don't know that much about cooking, though I was correct in assuming that leeks are related to onions. But it seemed like it was all about the leeks sometimes on Top Chef. And in fact in the final cook-off, Casey was asked why she didn't include them in one of her dishes, and she said they weren't in the offered ingredients selection, and the chief judge said in his most confrontational voice: "Yes, they were." And she made a face, and they played the ominous discordant music-of-doom. One of my favorite soups is indeed potato leek, so maybe I should try to make it some time. Wonder if Hung has a recipe...

Oh I can't resist... For those of you who criticize Hung, you need to read chef Rocco DiSpirito's Online Blog about his experience with Hung when he acted as his sous chef for a day. He has nothing but praise and admiration not only for his skill, but his patience and communication skills, and just as an all-around person. So there.

Yesterday I did class, then went up to Takoma ("tacky") Park to meet an old friend from college for lunch. It was nice to see her again after quite a few years of just emailing back and forth. I took the Metro for the whole trip, partly because I did not want to drive back up again to that place where I had spent several torturous months as a Mac consultant (nothing against the business; it was just the nature of the work and the location and all the horrid driving and stressed clients...). There were also several street closings in D.C. because of the AIDS walk, and that could have delayed me getting to class (like last week). But Metro takes at least twice as long, plus the walking. Anyway, I got home around 2:30 and I was dehydrated and exhausted. I drank like 32oz of water, then another 16oz a little while after. I resisted the temptation to take a nap, but just laid around the house for awhile. Then I had a terrible carb craving. I made pasta. *Burp* I went to bed really (8:00!) early. Today (after class) is food shopping and laundry. And making slow progress on my latest SW chapter (I will finish it today!) and a model I'm building. I should take pictures of that and bore you with them!

Finally, there was an article the other day in the Washington Post about a local DJ who deliberately plays 'Bad Music' at the end of the night. They specifically cited Wham's Careless Whisper as one that he played when the management wanted the place to empty out. Instead, they packed in, loving it. As I've noticed with my spin classes, the 20-somethings love 80's music. I guess much of it would be considered 'bad' by these Post people, but I don't get it. Granted I have absolutely no room to talk, since I liked *N Sync and Backstreet Boys, and I still put Britney Spears in my spin mixes (now with a little sense of irony as I play Toxic and Crazy). But what exactly makes this music bad and other music good? If people like it, is it not good by definition? I think anything else is just snobbery. Sure it's manufactured, none of those people writes their own stuff (Actually Madonna writes a lot of her stuff) and it's light and fluffy with the same kind of lyrics, but so what? I can also appreciate Mozart and Vivaldi.

Eh, whatever.

'Escalumps'

The Washington Post has an article about new announcements on Metro (none of which I have heard). Ridiculous that Metro can or will not come right out and say 'Stand to the right so that others may pass' because they don't want to condone walking on the escalators, maybe because of some strange law, like the one mentioned in the article. Or they are afraid of lawsuits.

Oh and for those not familiar with Metro, ''Escalumps' is just one of these cutesy made-up words on posters with definitions around the system, the others referring to people who take up seats, or eat on the trains. Metro seems to think that they should take this gentle, clumsily humorous approach on one level (which I find insulting) yet on another level they have a police force with a 'zero tolerance' policy toward arresting people who eat or drink on the trains. I'm all for enforcement, but apppareantly they can get, um, over-zealous. I'd prefer to see more signage in prominent areas that clearly says 'NO eating,' etc.

The best line for me in the whole article was of course:

Even as riders welcomed the new announcements, many said they're skeptical that they'll be heard. The messages are being broadcast, after all, on Metro's infamously poor public address system.

Metro Musings

Summer in DC brings tourists on the Metro. I have to say though that for the most part they have been pretty well-behaved. You rarely even need to ask them to stand to the right when walking down the escalator; they generally move out of the way without prompting. This is a far cry from the scene I vividly remember from a couple years ago when some beefy middle-aged man from the midwest stood on the left with his arm around his equally beefy wife and pointedly ignored
the young woman behind him (and in front of me), who said "Excuse me, may I pass?" politely several times. He looked over his shoulder then looked back a couple of times; he seemed to find it amusing that he was blocking her. Asshole.

And this brings me to Metro PDA. Yes, I know the drop-off area is called "Kiss and Ride" and that's fine. However, I don't know what it is about the long escalator at Rosslyn Station that for some makes certain couples feel... amorous. Frankly, I'm not a fan of flagrant PDA anywhere. Holding hands: cute. A hug and kiss goodbye: sweet. Making out for minutes on end: gross. Even if these couples were attractive (and usually they are not) it would be offensive. It's just showing off their insecurity and/or need for attention... which always makes me wonder what Miss Manners would suggest I do: 1) ignore them, or 2) stare at them with a look showing the disgust that If feel seeing them shamelessly groping and playing tonsil-hockey in a public place.

Meanwhile, unrelated to tourists, Metro management is slowly but surely destroying the 'special' nature of this beautifully designed system. Ads are increasing all over the place, including cars fully wrapped in lurid advertisements. Besides the unfortunate addition of more security cameras, they are adding more and more direct lights where Architect Harry Weems did not intend them. (Most of the lighting throughout the system was supposed to be indirect and was designed to be dramatically so.) In particular, they have begun putting in these blindingly bright blue-white ceiling lights in the lower level of Foggy Bottom. Hideous. And there is conduit running between the coffered concrete panels all over the place. At Rosslyn they've added these ugly speakers all over the Escalator shaft. And you know what? You still can't understand anything they say on the speaker system. Finally, they are talking about pulling the carpet out of the cars. Already some of the new cars have awful ridged rubber mats around the door areas. There has been talk of replacing the cushioned seats with smaller hard plastic ones. Soon Metro will be no better than riding the bus.

Friday Miscellany

I've been watching the construction going on in Rosslyn, and they are about finished with this huge new building right down by the 66 ramp. One thing that I always wondered about: how do they assemble those big construction cranes? I finally looked it up online, but it wasn't as cool as actually seeing them taking this one apart: They have this frame that rides up and down, and as the frame braces the tower, they insert/remove sections, then raise/lower it, and insert remove another. Yes, I am a nerd.

I am excited that WETA-FM (Now 'Classical WETA') is going to start airing From The Top again on Sunday night, though I've only heard them announce it once, and it appears nowhere on their website. They have been very slow to get themselves in gear online, taking forever to finally put up a crappy 32kbps MPEG audio stream to go with the (annoying for us Mac users) Real Player and WMP streams. I could do a better job keeping that web site up to date! Anyway, I hope they add Performance Today and Sunday Baroque soon, and get rid of the radio broadcast of the Newshour. I like Newshour but it is weird on the radio, and doesn't belong on an 'all classical' station.

Work has been brutal lately: staying late, no breaks yesterday, and just a constant barrage of stuff. I am hoping today will be better, but since we sent out a ton of proofs yesterday, it promises to be another killer. On the plus side, there might be more bonuses on the way! Bonuses! What a concept.

I dreamt last night that I had driven downtown to meet people for dinner (how often do I do that? Never.) and the meter ran out while I was there. I came back out to find my car had been towed. I hate that. That's a recurring fear of mine, and the dream was probably somehow related to last night having to take a stinky cab home (I hate cabs) because I worked to well after 1 am and the Metro was closed. On the plus side, they pay for the cab. And yes, I didn't go in to work until 2 pm, but still, it screws with my internal clock.

Random News

1. I'm happy to report that my weight is back down to 165 lbs (about 75 kilos?) after an unhappy belt-tight period of being up to 172 back in January-Feb. I'm not sure what I did, except maybe eating/drinking a little less in the evening (thanks Shigeki!). The 'experts' are divided on whether eating in the evening is worse than another time of day, but if you are reducing your overall calories, of course that is going to help. And in the last few weeks I've started doing some upper-body weights work again, which I'm proud of. I get stress-relief from a good 30 mins of cardio at lunch, but I need to build some muscle. Not getting any younger!

2. I now have enough Amex points for a round-trip flight to Europe. Now, what to do with that?

3. They are hiring a new night guy at work, which is a bit of a relief for me, making it less likely that I'll have to stay late for some emergency or if one of the other guys is out (assuming of course they aren't planning to ax one of them...). My position is apparently okay right now, partly since the department head just told me that I was one of the two people he wanted to send to training for this new high-tech printer gadget (yay!).

4. Have I mentioned lately how much less stressed I am, even though this is supposed to be (and it is, believe me) a 'high-stress' job? Still some stress, but nothing like that consulting job. Oh, I have mentioned it? Well I'm mentioning it again! :-)

5. It's Friday! Much to do this weekend. I think I'm going to try to clean up this blog, among other things.

6. No one is warning me against bamboo sheets, so I'm gonna give them a try. I need something pretty in my bedroom. ;-)

And We're Walking...

I walked six miles today. Worship me! It was so nice and sunny, even if it was only in the 30's/40's. I thought, ''Eh, why pay for Metro when it will take me about the same amount of time (40 minutes) to walk there, including across the Key Bridge and through Georgetown and West End?" With my trusty iPod and FM tuner I listened to Saturday Morning Edition going in, and NPR Technology podcasts going home. Technology rocks. By the time I got to work downtown I was so warm I had my coat unzipped and flapping.

Anyway, the reason for going in to work was that today was the one Saturday every 5 weeks I had to work for 5 hours at the regular job. It was pretty painless, no PIA* people walking in at 2:59 when we close at 3. I ran a few errands around town on breaks, and even did some writing.

*Pain In the Ass

Brrr

It's cold.

Friday I worked until midnight. Good thing the Metro runs until 3am on weekends. I didn't get to sleep till 1:30, cause when I get home it takes a little time for me to wind down. I wanted to sleep a little late but of course I woke up at 7:00. I kind of dozed for awhile before getting up around 8:30 and shuffled around before heading off to class.

The rest of the day I did laundry, wrote a little, cleaned up, read, and watched some TV. What do you know, the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was on TCM! So of course I watched some of that, even though it seems silly to watch a super widescreen broadcast movie on a little 20" regular set when I could watch the DVD on my 50" widescreen tv...

Anyway, I actually watched an episode of Naruto last night. Weird stuff, and definitely more dark than what I prefer (unless you want to go real dark, like Akira). The X-Play crew sure hates him though. Here's Shirtless Eric as Naruto:



Speaking of weird stuff, I had really creepy dreams last night. One involved me being in D.C. while all these Chinook helicopters were hovering over the city. Chinooks are the military's big dual-rotor troop carriers:

So anyway, these helicopters were all over the city, and they kept getting shot down (hmm, perhaps a reflection of recent headlines? Not only were they getting shot down, but the burning wreckage always seems to almost fall on me. Sometimes it did fall on me, and the dream would do this strange reverse & re-edit where I wouldn't die but just be pinned and be able to crawl out. Also, the scale on the helicopters was all strange; sometimes when the rear fin section fell, it would look like the central support pylon of the Starship Enterprise:

Obviously this was much larger, and imagine that in flames and falling out of the sky! So, much of DC was on fire. The helicopters were being shot down by unnamed terrorists, in retaliation for some attack by the US.

Next in the dream followed some twisting terror-ride on the Metro...

Needless to say, I'm feeling a little unsettled this morning.