Big Brother knows when you travel the Intercounty Connector…
4 minute read
March 24, 2011, 11:01 PM
On February 23, the first phase of Maryland Route 200, otherwise known as the Intercounty Connector (ICC), opened from Shady Grove station to Norbeck Road, with an interchange at Georgia Avenue.
Taking advantage of the fact that tolls were waived on the ICC for the first week and a half of operation (it’s normally a toll road), I rode the ICC for the first time on February 26, riding from Georgia Avenue to I-370, and then I turned around somewhere on Sam Eig Highway. Basically, for those not following the designations, it’s one road with three names. My trip going west started at Georgia Avenue on Maryland Route 200 (Intercounty Connector). At Shady Grove Metro, the MD 200/ICC designation ends, and I-370 begins. Then at I-370’s interchange with I-270, the I-370 designation ends and the road becomes Sam Eig Highway, and goes for a while longer as an arterial, and then as a regular surface road (but whatever, I’ve never traveled Sam Eig Highway beyond where I turned around).
The ICC is certainly a nice-looking road, with the concrete sound walls designed to look like natural stone, and stained to match. Plus they also did a lot of work on the landscaping, and there is even a short tunnel along the route, covered in bright white tile (seriously, this is like the-color-of-your-toilet white, and lit brightly).
Continue reading…Categories: Roads
And Schumin Web is officially fifteen years old…
3 minute read
March 23, 2011, 10:44 PM
Fifteen years old, today. Really. If you want to put things into perspective, I have had this site for more than half my life. I started the site at age 14, and I am now 29. Wow.
And so this evening, we celebrated! After a remarkably stressful day at work (at least for me), a number of us from work went out to El Tamarindo in Adams Morgan to celebrate, where they have some really great margaritas. My coworkers certainly managed to surprise me, having secretly signed a birthday card for the site, with some very sweet comments in it. Take a look:
Categories: Schumin Web meta
What a strange place to have a demonstration…
5 minute read
March 20, 2011, 11:21 PM
This weekend was pretty fun. Two demonstrations in two towns in two days. Saturday was the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and an anti-war protest was held in front of the White House. Then on Sunday, everyone piled into their cars and in buses and headed about 35 miles south to Triangle to have a “Free Bradley Manning” demonstration outside the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Prince William County, Virginia.
Saturday’s event was pretty typical for an anti-war protest in DC. The only major difference was the lack of younger folks. Seriously, this march had a large showing from the over-40 crowd, and while there were people in their twenties present, it was definitely less so than other marches. And no red-and-black flags flying this time, no SDS, and no black bloc.
Somehow I sensed what the tone of this event was going to be (I must have a sixth sense for these things), and planned accordingly. Usually when I go to demonstrations, I bring a backpack, and carry supplies. I carry water, I carry items to protect from pepper spray, and I also carry extra clothes in case I have to ditch the ones I’ve got on due to getting sprayed. I’m not one of these people who will change clothes at a demonstration in an attempt to make themselves untraceable. I have always considered that a waste of time. But I would take extra clothes with me in case things got hairy. But this time, the backpack and all of the extra supplies stayed at home, and I just brought my regular camera bag with me. Trust me when I say that was much easier to handle than the backpack with all of its contents. Plus on a day with weather like Saturday’s, I wouldn’t need to bring water along.
Categories: Anti-war
“I can only hope that the movement learns from its complete and utter failure in the fall of 2010, but unfortunately, I’m not holding my breath.”
4 minute read
March 15, 2011, 7:15 PM
In watching the various anti-World Bank and anti-IMF events get announced online at imfresistance.org for the weekend of April 15-17 (what do you know – a third A16!), one event stood out among the rest. And here it is:
What: Music to Smash Capitalism
Where: Freedom Plaza – 14th & Pennsylvania Ave NW
When: 7-10pm
Details: Free Outdoor Punk Show!
And then immediately below that:
What: Nocturnal Anti-Capitalist Action
Details: TBA
Sound familiar? This sounds suspiciously like what happened on Saturday night for the World Bank and IMF protests last fall. And we all know what a resounding success that was, heh heh.
Categories: World Bank
So there you go. My body officially abhors the springtime.
3 minute read
March 9, 2011, 6:23 PM
Yeah, there you have it. My body abhors the springtime. I am allergic to pretty much everything related to the spring, and this was all confirmed by a doctor that specializes in allergies. So I have proof of it.
By the way, allergy testing is pretty interesting. What I’m allergic to in the spring is kind of irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion, but the process was interesting. They checked my blood pressure, temperature, pulse, heartbeat, and breathing, and then they offered two options for the actual allergy testing. One was a blood test, and the other was a skin test. I opted for the skin test, since the little applicator for that was better than getting my finger pricked or having them take a little vial of blood.
For that, they came in with a tray full of samples of different allergens, with the little skin applicators ready to go. They did the testing on my upper arms, which seemed agreeable enough. I’ve heard of people getting these kinds of things on far less preferable places, and so I wasn’t complaining. Plus I could watch the process, since it was in a spot that I could see.
Categories: Personal health
Metro cars with black floors, wool seats, and overly “busy” patterns…
4 minute read
March 2, 2011, 10:57 PM
One of the people I work with, when taking the Orange Line, happened to get Alstom 6027 for their ride into Washington today, and was surprised about the seat patterns being employed there. For those who don’t know, Alstom 6027 is one of two Metro cars (the other being its mate, Alstom 6026) that have been outfitted with some new materials that Metro is testing for future use on rail cars. Specifically, Metro is testing out certain types of resilient flooring and different patterns for wool seat pad covers on this car, having first outfitted the cars like this in late 2008.
On the resilient flooring, Metro seems to be primarily testing colors across the 6026-6027 pair. 6026 has a black floor:
Categories: WMATA
Lack of personality is a problem, indeed…
3 minute read
February 27, 2011, 2:38 PM
You may remember the site design concept that I tossed around about a week ago. It used a three-column layout, and significantly changed the above-the-fold look of Schumin Web.
Since I doodled out a site layout with a Sharpie, I did go ahead and produce that hand-drawn concept using CSS, in order to see how it would look when built. Here’s version one:
Categories: Arundel Mills, Schumin Web meta
How many Scientologists does it take to fix a roof?
2 minute read
February 27, 2011, 12:23 AM
It could start out a particularly bad joke, but the question still is, “How many cult members does it take to fix a roof?” Well, it turns out that the answer is nine. Here’s how it breaks down:
One to fix it…
Categories: Amusing, Project Chanology
So how would you react to a Schumin Web that looked something like this?
2 minute read
February 18, 2011, 11:15 PM
In my quest to reinvent how Schumin Web looks and ultimately port it all over to the WordPress platform, I did some doodling this evening and came up with a design concept:
Categories: Schumin Web meta
Nice weather, fire drills, FIOS, and stupid Comcast…
< 1 minute read
February 16, 2011, 8:22 PM
So I did a Video Journal tonight. And here it is:
Categories: Companies, Fire drills, School, Video Journal
I didn’t realize how much I depended on my watch until it was gone…
4 minute read
February 14, 2011, 10:27 PM
So these last two days were a bit difficult for me. See, my watch fell apart on Saturday evening. Now mind you, I kind of knew that it was getting ready to go, because in January, the band started to rip, having torn about halfway through. At that time, I decided to make some emergency repairs:
Categories: Jewelry
With the president of Egypt gone, the people rejoiced.
5 minute read
February 12, 2011, 11:51 PM
It’s been all over the news by now, of course, but the reign of (now former) Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has come to an end. And as it turns out, my prediction was spot on. Back on February 1, Nicole Sandler tweeted this:
Does anyone really think the #Egyptians will allow Mubarak to stay in power until Sept elections? Me neither
I retweeted Nicole Sandler’s tweet, and then replied:
@nicolesandler Honestly, I doubt that Mubarak even lasts two weeks, let alone until September. #egypt
I said less than two weeks, and ten days later, he abdicated. It was one of those things, I believe, that we all knew was coming but were surprised to see actually happen.
So Schumin Web turns fifteen in a month and a half. How to celebrate…
2 minute read
February 4, 2011, 9:58 PM
Believe it or not, on March 23 of this year, Schumin Web turns fifteen. I think I’ve been tossing around ideas in my head about how to properly celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since the fourteenth anniversary last year. And unfortunately, I’m still at a bit of a loss about what to do for it. I’ve thought of a few things that have been through various levels of experimentation, but nothing really workable came out of it.
First of all, does anyone remember the tenth anniversary celebration? The Photo Feature was changed to this graphic:
Categories: Schumin Web meta
I was so glad that it was not snowing this time around…
7 minute read
January 31, 2011, 9:28 PM
This past Saturday, January 29, was the date of Plungefest, the 15th annual Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge. This was the third polar bear plunge that I had attended overall, and the second time at the Maryland event specifically.
Compared to last year, the basic event was structured the same way, but there were a number of details that differed significantly from last year. While the main sponsor tent was in the same location, the back end was different. Last year, the back of the tent featured live entertainment. Not so this year, as carnival games and multiple moon bounces filled that space. They also had one of those inflatable dancing men dancing up a storm back there:
Categories: Events
Wednesday’s commute home was perhaps one of the most challenging driving experiences I’ve ever had…
9 minute read
January 28, 2011, 9:09 PM
It was also the most unpleasant, for that matter. Wednesday, January 26, you see, the DC area was hit by a fairly large snowstorm. I think the area got about eight inches of snow, which, by last winter’s standards would be just a dusting, but by this year’s standards so far was a major snowstorm.
I think my biggest mistake was that since I had the car with me (due to work-related errands that I needed to run), I decided to wait to leave until it was likely too late. So I ended up getting a six-hour snow tour around Washington DC, watching transformer explosions light up the sky and testing every nerve in my body in the process. And both the car and I came out just fine, thank you.
I left the office around 5:30 on Wednesday, sending a tweet to announce my departure:
I’m outta here: LSMFT @capitalweather: Heavy snow overspreading entire region http://wapo.st/gp0zP2
January 26 5:27 PM
It was in the early stages of being dark, and I figured I was doing fairly well. Traffic was heavy, but moving, albeit slowly.
Categories: Commuting, Driving, Some people, Winter weather