Gas went down eighteen cents in three days?
3 minute read
November 26, 2008, 8:25 PM
Yes, it’s true! If you look about two Journal entries back, you’ll see that gas at the Martin’s in Waynesboro was $1.59 per gallon on Sunday. Now, three days later, on Wednesday, look:
Continue reading…Categories: Charlottesville, Family, Retail
So Katie and I had fun yesterday…
5 minute read
November 26, 2008, 5:23 PM
Katie and I went out and about in Staunton and Waynesboro yesterday, and we had fun. I can’t believe it had been three months since last I saw Katie, but indeed that was the case. But of course, that doesn’t mean we had any less fun.
First thing we did was go over to the nTelos store, since it was just about time to upgrade Katie’s cell phone, and so we were seeing what the scene looked like. I think Katie’s going to get a really good phone this time around – one with an on-board camera, and one that can do all of the cool things that cell phones can do nowadays. And I demonstrated the picture feature on one of the demo phones:
Categories: Blue Ridge Parkway, Katie, Products, Staunton, Staunton Mall, Waynesboro
So maybe someone wants us to just believe that $4.00 per gallon was just a bad dream or something?
3 minute read
November 23, 2008, 7:50 PM
First of all, hello from my parents’ house in Stuarts Draft, where I’ll be for the better part of a week. I’ve set up a little Lappy workstation in the kitchen, which is where I write you today.
And with all the price speculation on oil having subsided with the economy in the dumper, look at these numbers:
Categories: Afton Mountain, Gas prices
So I got to do my commute in the dark this evening…
2 minute read
November 20, 2008, 7:47 PM
Yes, I got to do my commute in the dark this evening. And I don’t just mean dark outside, which it usually always is at this time of year for commute time. I mean it was dark inside the train. Yeah, I got Rohr 1178 at Dupont Circle, and all of the lights were out inside the car, except for over three doors. Then the lights came on while we were going to Farragut North. Then by Metro Center, they were off again. And on and off and on and off and so on all the way to Glenmont. There, they put the train out of service, presumably for repairs.
So here’s what it looked like:
Categories: WMATA
Transit Center?
2 minute read
November 16, 2008, 3:15 PM
It’s been a frequently asked question for a while about when The Schumin Web Transit Center will reopen. First of all, let me restate: I am fully committed to bringing Transit Center back to the Internet.
However, I continue to state a time frame as “eventually”. The main reason for this relates to plans already in the works at the time that the site went down. In the last year before the outage, updates had become fewer and further between because it had become increasingly troublesome to make updates. This was due to flaws in the site’s original structure design. The old design was very hierarchal, and everything was numbered within those hierarchies. In short: Lots of folders, and the file numbering was specific to the individual folders. I was already devising a plan to address this when the site went down by doing the back-end over again. The images would be pulled from a single large pool, and the database would reflect that. The idea was to create the new structure in the background and then cut over to it when it was all finished.
Categories: Schumin Web meta
Having returned to the mother ship between protests…
2 minute read
November 15, 2008, 8:41 PM
The first protest was a smashing success, and I’m now fresh as a daisy after having come home and taken a nap before returning to the streets tonight for the “rowdy” march at 11:55 at Dupont Circle.
For the first march, I cheered. This was our last opportunity to use a lot of the Bush cheers, and use them we did. No longer will we be shouting, “George Bush… you motherf—–! Hey, George Bush, can’t you see, that my body belongs to me!”
And the weather held out. I used Duckie early on because it was looking like it was going to rain, but then switched to the Kodak once I saw sky. That will be fun to put together for the set, going from one set of shots to another. The rain held out, and didn’t start until I was in the final 100 feet to Farragut North station.
Meanwhile, I once again tip my red and black radical cheerleader hat to the goddess of radio, Randi Rhodes, for giving us the phrase “privatizing the profits and socializing the losses”, as we worked it into our cheer and it went over very well.
Categories: Activism
So there seems to be a protest just about everywhere…
3 minute read
November 14, 2008, 10:27 PM
This weekend will be fun, let me tell you. First of all, there is a protest against the meeting of the World Economic Forum, where the G20 will be looking to figure out how to handle the financial crisis. The main demonstration starts at 10 AM at Murrow Park, in front of the World Bank building at Pennsylvania Avenue, 18th Street, and H Street NW. We march to Luther Place near Thomas Circle. There, a people’s forum will be held.
For this event, I will be in radical cheerleader configuration, and cheering. After all, this will be our last opportunity to do the multitude of Bush cheers prior to George W. Bush’s leaving office (and counting the days). My cheer outfit this time around will be nearly identical to the one I wore for October Rebellion, minus the tights. It will be a shade too cold for tights, so I’m substituting jeans. If they weren’t calling for a 90% chance of rain, I might have done the tights, but not with rain in the forecast. As it is, with the foul weather planned, Duckie is being seriously prepped along with the Kodak, since it sounds like it might just get its day in the rain (which is what it was designed for). On days when Duckie is not expected to see use, I just take it along with no special preparations.
Categories: Activism, Black bloc
“It’s morphin time”?
3 minute read
November 11, 2008, 9:24 AM
Okay, try to explain where this dream came from. I dreamed last night that I became a Power Ranger. Yes, a Power Ranger. It was kind of a cross between in-universe and real life, making it pretty weird.
Presumably, we were a new team of Power Rangers. I found this box that looked like a briefcase, that contained these various items. I instinctively knew how to put some of the pieces together, to make a four-segment stick about a foot long. I then shouted, “It’s morphin’ time!” and held it out in front of me, vertically, with both hands. This electronic stick took a few seconds to light up in four different colors, bottom to top, becoming very warm in the process – almost too hot to touch near the top. And then at the end of it all, I became the Yellow Ranger.
The Yellow Ranger costume I ended up morphing into looked very similar to the suits from Power Rangers in Space. It was primarily yellow, and it had the five-color bar across the chest. But unlike the show, since I was a guy, the costume had no skirt (the Yellow Ranger for “In Space” was a female). I was a male Yellow Ranger, following in the footsteps of Tideus the Alien Ranger, I suppose. But there I was – I was the Yellow Ranger, and was as surprised as anyone to be the Yellow Ranger.
So I figured two things. First of all, I must be playing the Yellow Ranger on Power Rangers now. Secondly, those items in the case were morphers. I also briefly pondered why my ranger costume was of the “In Space” style, and how saying, “It’s morphin time!” to morph was so 1990s.
Categories: Dreams, Power Rangers
This is the cutest commercial ever…
< 1 minute read
November 9, 2008, 9:22 PM
This is the world’s cutest commercial ever. Take a look:
It’s so cute, with the dachshund inviting people to rub its belly. Seeing that made me think of Greta, because the dog in the commercial looks similar to Greta, and how she would roll around having a good time.
I miss Greta. That commercial, however, brought back some very nice memories.
Categories: Advertising, Greta
Scientology thinks they can avoid us by having their awards event elsewhere? I think not…
5 minute read
November 9, 2008, 1:50 PM
Anonymous DC had its monthly raid last night, and we had a blast. We started at the Org, and then moved on to the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Woodley Park, where Scientology was having their International Association of Scientologists (IAS) awards ceremony.
Meanwhile, my Anon look changed again for this one. Early on, I went like I would for a black bloc. Then in June, I did that one-off pirate look with the V for Vendetta mask. Then six raids in zentai. With the weather getting too cold for my zentai, I wore whatever and the V for Vendetta mask – with glasses. That was an interesting look, since it made the grinning Guy Fawkes face look particularly scholarly. Take a look:
Categories: Project Chanology
My sister is at the big Obama event in Chicago!
< 1 minute read
November 4, 2008, 10:26 PM
My sister, Ann Schumin, and her fiance Chris, are at the big Obama event at Grant Park in Chicago. Take a look:
And so we enter… end game.
3 minute read
November 4, 2008, 12:01 AM
The day that I’ve been anticipating for a long time is finally here. Election day! Oh, how I am so tired of this campaign. After all, we’ve been dealing with this race almost as soon as the 2006 midterm elections ended. And now it all comes down to this. Now it’s time for everyone to do their thing and vote. After all, umpteen polls by various organizations are in the end, meaningless. It’s the vote that counts.
And now, hopefully in less than 24 hours, we’ll know who George W. Bush’s successor will be. I’m hoping it’s Barack Obama, but we’ll see. If it is John McCain, though, then we’ve got problems. After all, the man has admitted he doesn’t know much about economics, and we’re in the midst of a big economic crisis. Perhaps if he gets elected, we could all mail him various macroeconomics texts to bring him up to speed. But hopefully, that’s going to be a moot point.
Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to look at the Web sites for the two newspapers that serve Stuarts Draft – The News Leader in Staunton, and The News Virginian in Waynesboro – to see what the endorsements were. After all, I may live in the Washington DC area now, but the two newspapers that I did a lot of growing up with still hold a place near and dear to me. The Staunton paper endorsed Barack Obama for president, and Mark Warner for the Senate. Meanwhile, Waynesboro endorsed John McCain for president, and Jim Gilmore for the Senate. Thus between the two, it’s a wash. Many in Augusta County get both papers, and so it’s kind of a toss-up down that way, I suppose. Still, it’s interesting to see what people are thinking.
Categories: National politics
Meanwhile, about Sunday…
3 minute read
November 2, 2008, 9:57 PM
I had fun today, as I completed the field work for my Rosslyn photo set. I have followed 1815 North Fort Myer Drive from operating office building to hole in the ground. Today, I finished up with photos of the completed demolition. Basically, we went from this:
Categories: Arlington, Silver Spring
I won “best concept”!
4 minute read
November 2, 2008, 7:03 PM
So halloween went swimmingly. We dressed up at work, and had a costume contest. We had four different categories: best concept, best execution, “that took guts to wear”, and “most likely to traumatize a child”. I ended up winning best concept, with my 3000-Series Breda. Take a look:
Categories: Halloween, Project Chanology