For all the trouble I went to…
4 minute read
March 19, 2012, 10:27 PM
So the story of the $150 shoes comes to an end. Kind of anticlimactic, too. Remember earlier this month when I went to Tysons and got those New Balance shoes? Those shoes are now back at the store in Tysons, and I got a refund. So after all of that buildup, and considering I did what my podiatrist told me to do, testing them in the store for ten minutes before buying, why did I never wear them, and ultimately return them?
Well, it’s twofold. First, those shoes cost $150. A hundred and fifty dollars. As I mentioned in the Journal entry linked above, that was more than I’ve ever paid for shoes by more than fifty bucks. That alone made me uncomfortable about wearing them. The fact that they were $150 shoes made me afraid to wear them. So there’s that.
Then secondly, and more importantly, I don’t think now is a good time to buy nice shoes. I have now lost almost 100 pounds since I began this journey a year ago (99 pounds lost as determined at a weigh-in this morning!). In that time, my feet have changed size. Shoes that fit me last year don’t fit so well anymore. I wore flip flops that I wore last summer to the pool recently, and they were too big on me. Likewise, Crocs that I bought during heavier days are now so loose on me to the point that they’re almost unusable. The lined Crocs that I have are also too big for me now, and I only bought those in December. So since I’m not at a stable size right now, it made me even less comfortable with having shoes that cost that much, since my fear was that I would size out of them before getting my money’s worth out of them. It’s happened to me several times already with jeans. First I sized down out of my original jeans, then the jeans I got in August, and now it’s starting to happen again with the jeans I’m currently wearing. Thankfully, though, next time I have to replace the jeans should put me into cheaper sizes – and out of the big and tall store.
Continue reading…The rule on pricing at Tysons II is, “If you have to ask, you cannot afford it.”
8 minute read
March 4, 2012, 4:17 PM
This weekend was certainly a blast. My mother came to visit, and we went to Tysons Corner on Saturday.
The plan was for Mom and I to meet at Vienna. It made sense, since she was coming from Virginia, Tysons is in Virginia, and I could take Metro to meet her, thus only have to take one car out. And Vienna is somewhere that all of us were familiar with from countless visits to the DC area before I moved up here. So my plan was to take the bus to Glenmont and then Metro the rest of the way. First thing I learned was that Nextbus, while useful for the most part, is still very much not perfect. I left the house based on a prediction of a Y8 in 12 minutes, and so I headed down to the corner. It does not take 12 minutes to get down to the corner, but when I got there, there was no bus, and the bus that I was tracking had dropped off the screen, with the next bus not supposed to show up for 45 minutes, which would make me very late. So I ended up walking to Glenmont, because I knew I could walk there in less time than it would take to wait for the bus. I had never walked to the Metro from my house before. I had done from Metro to home many times, but never the reverse. The uphill walk was very good for working the calves, since my legs were sore by the time I got to Glenmont. I might have to do that more often. It was a good workout, and helpful on a week where I had missed a pool session.
Once I got to the Metro, I got a seat on a train, and all was well. Mom, however, for reasons that neither one of us can quite figure out, got turned around a bit, and so my lateness ended up working out for her. I don’t know if she missed a sign for Vienna or what, but she managed to get lost. No idea how. And it’s frustrating when she’s lost in an area that I’m not entirely familiar with myself. Usually, I can guide someone over the phone to get wherever they need to, but I’m not that familiar with the neighborhood around Vienna station. I know how to reach the station from both sides of I-66, I know how to get to Route 123 from Vienna via Nutley Street, and I know how to reach the shopping center with the Safeway and Micro Center in it, and I know that there’s a high school northwest of the station, but that’s about the extent of my knowledge of that area. So I couldn’t help her as much as I usually can, since she didn’t know where she was very well, and neither did I. Somehow, she ended up at Dunn Loring station, and told me as much. My response: “Good. Stay there.” After all, she managed to get to an Orange Line station, and so all was well. None of us quite know how she managed to get to Dunn Loring, though, since I would have expected, if she was going to land at a different Metro, to end up at West Falls Church, which is also very close to I-66 and easily accessed from there. Dunn Loring, not so much. I don’t even know how to get to Dunn Loring by car. Only time I’d ever been to Dunn Loring before is for railfanning, since I think station visits are just as important as riding in the first car.
What to wear on Saturday? Help me decide!
3 minute read
January 18, 2012, 11:05 PM
So this Saturday is the Chesapeake Climate Action Network‘s “Keep Winter Cold” polar bear plunge. As you know, I’m going in this year, and hoping that I don’t freeze to death (but my doctor has given me his approval to go). I am helping raise funds for the event, and so if you want to help sponsor me, I would appreciate it.
But the thing that’s still undecided with two-and-some days to go is this: what to wear? Basically, I’ve got about four different choices for you. There’s the solid black Speedo jammer, the Speedo jammer with a yellow stripe down both sides, a Dolfin jammer with a red and white stripe on both sides, or a black Speedo “solid dive suit”. So I need some help deciding. You should know, though, that these suits are ones I wear at various times when I go swimming. The folks at Olney Swim Center and the folks who do Aqua Zumba in Olney can vouch for this. I didn’t buy anything specifically for this event.
So here are your choices…
First, the Dolfin jammer with the red stripes:
Categories: Clothing
So I believe that the spirit of Patrick’s Christmas lights have attacked my camera…
4 minute read
December 4, 2011, 10:39 PM
Yeah, it’s only been a week since my Thanksgiving trip to Stuarts Draft ended, but better late than never, I suppose. I’ve kicked production work on Falcon into high gear, and just about everything on my Internet life has taken a back seat to that, including Wikipedia (I’m taking a Wikibreak!). I have a feeling that if you look into my eyes, you’ll see that blue squares-in-squares pattern that I use burned onto my retina.
But this is a Video Journal. So that means one of these, which I shot on the drive home from Stuarts Draft along Route 29:
Categories: Clothing, Family, Friends, New car, Schumin Web meta, Video Journal
One year and 70-some pounds later…
4 minute read
November 21, 2011, 10:05 PM
So I shot the splash photo for December today. I was specifically out to reproduce the splash photo from December 2011 in order to show the progress that I have made in slimming down.
So here I am in late November 2010:
Categories: Clothing, Weight loss
So how much smaller am I now, anyway?
5 minute read
September 15, 2011, 10:50 PM
So it’s been six months now since my journey towards physical fitness and a slimmer figure began. Now I’d like to show you some results. Last Friday after work, a coworker and I were discussing how a lot of my clothes don’t fit right anymore, and my coworker wondered how the black zentai fit me these days. I admitted that I hadn’t worn the black zentai in over a year, and so I had no idea, but I was kind of curious as to how it fit as well. Somehow we came to an understanding that I would try it on and see how it fit these days.
So that evening after I got home, I pulled out the tripod, set the camera up on it in the kitchen, pulled out the black zentai, and put it on. Now the benefit to this setup (with the camera on a timer) is that this is pretty much a straight apples-to-apples comparison, with all variables controlled for except the one we’re trying to demonstrate. See, I took a series of photos of myself in the black zentai in July 2008 in the same location and under the same conditions. So here’s a side by side comparison:
Categories: Clothing, Weight loss
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
A number of things to discuss today…
6 minute read
October 14, 2010, 9:48 PM
So I have a few things that I’d like to discuss with you today. First of all, I got a new netbook! I got the HP Mini 210, in black. Looks like it ought to be a pretty solid netbook computer, and for how I do computing on the go, it ought to work pretty well. My biggest complaint about the Lappy is that typing would give me fits, because the keyboard didn’t hold up too well. The left control key broke off, and typing would cause nearby keys to fire as well. This new computer has a “chiclet” style keyboard, which actually kind of reminds me of a Mac keyboard. And this thing weighs about three pounds. And this is what the Mini 210 looks like:
Categories: Computer, Glasses, Mercury Sable, Silver Spring
One would think it wouldn’t be that hard to find aqua socks in the middle of July, but if you thought that, you would be wrong.
4 minute read
July 19, 2009, 8:29 PM
One would think – July is the middle of the summer. Summer is a time when people spend a lot of time in the water. One would think that one would be able to find water-type shoes in the middle of the summer. But no. I went to seven different stores, and found no aqua socks that fit at a price that I was willing to pay.
The reason, of course, is because of the way retail works. “Spring” starts December 26, and runs to roughly Easter. Then “summer” runs from around Easter to the Fourth of July. Then “fall” goes until around Labor Day or so. Then “winter” runs from Labor Day to Christmas. Thus now, on July 19, the aqua socks are mostly gone, and the stock of sandals is dwindling.
So why am I so worked up about finding a pair of aqua socks? Well, I’m going tubing on the Shenandoah River in Luray next weekend with a bunch of my coworkers, and the Web site for Shenandoah River Outfitters, the company we’re going through for this tube trip, recommends that shoes be worn on the river for safety purposes. Makes perfect sense to me – there could be rough bottom terrain, sharp rocks, or other kinds of hazardous debris, and I don’t want to get hurt on the river. Even more so when you consider that I’m one of the drivers for this outing, and thus my feet will be doing a bit of work beyond the river, and injured feet on the pedals is a Bad Thing.
Categories: Retail, Shoes, Video games
“Priceless, Johann!”
2 minute read
April 24, 2009, 7:34 PM
I think that says it best, because my favorite left-wing radio talker, Randi Rhodes, is finally returning to the air on May 11, after which will, by then, have been be a three-month absence from the radio. The last few months have been full of chatter about unfulfilled contract negotiations with Rhodes’ old syndicator, Nova M Radio and wondering when Rhodes would return, and I’ve been filling my commutes with The Mike Malloy Show due to lack of Randi Rhodes.
And let me tell you, I’m glad that Randi Rhodes will be back. I missed the various features of the show. I missed the “pop” sound effect for first time callers, and her various other sound effects. I missed the various comedic bits at the top of the second and third hours. Hell, I even missed “Bounce Your Boobies” on Fridays.
I will, however, miss listening to Mike Malloy, though. Malloy was good to me during the last few months. Randi Rhodes was replaced on Nova M with Nancy Skinner, whom I found almost unlistenable. She just didn’t have “it”, whatever “it” is. But Malloy provided a great show to listen to, though his style is just a tad too coarse for my tastes.
Categories: Clothing, Power Rangers, Radio
“Triceratops!”
2 minute read
April 17, 2009, 9:20 PM
So this Friday, I wore my new Power Rangers t-shirt to work. And here I am, at my desk, as seen with my office Mac’s camera:
Categories: Clothing, Power Rangers
Two demonstrations in three days?
3 minute read
March 18, 2009, 4:50 AM
Yeah, I’m going to two demonstrations in about three days’ time, which is something unusual for me. Usually things aren’t spaced so closely, but this is what happens sometimes.
Thursday is the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, and that day will be full of activism in DC for it. I’m planning to attend another Funk the War demonstration with DC SDS, and hopefully, unlike last year, all my equipment will come out intact this time. The Canon didn’t get to come out for the Anon raid last weekend, so Funk the War will be its first protest, provided the weather cooperates. According to AccuWeather, it will be in the mid-50s, and raining on and off throughout the day. Thus it might be Duckie’s time to shine again, but hopefully I’ll get to see how the Canon does in the bouncy conditions of a protest. Duckie, meanwhile, is a known quantity at protests, and does quite well in the daytime, as it was pressed into service, by necessity, as the primary camera for the NSM Counter-Protest last April.
Then on Saturday, March 21, there will be another march on the Pentagon, sponsored by ANSWER Coalition. This hopefully will not be a repeat of the March on the Pentagon from two years ago, but we shall see, I suppose. Recall that I described the previous Pentagon march as a poor idea, since it was in not-very-visible locations, and the final rally was in the Pentagon’s somewhat-isolated north parking lot – in front of an office building that would be mostly empty on the weekend. Of course, what a difference two years makes otherwise, though – last time, I had received numerous threatening messages from right-wing wackos just ahead of the event, and this time, I seem to have slipped in under the conservative radar. And when you consider that the de facto leader of the Republican party is Rush Limbaugh, of all people, they have more pressing matters to worry about than threatening activists. And with the right-wing wackos safely back on their medicine, AccuWeather indicates that it will be sunny and again in the mid-50s on Saturday. Excellent!
So how’s the new haircut look?
2 minute read
December 9, 2008, 11:06 PM
And the hat showed up today.
2 minute read
October 2, 2008, 8:14 PM
My Gatsby cap showed up today. So how does it look?
See how much better the smile looks after coffee has been had?
Categories: Clothing
So here are the new glasses…
< 1 minute read
October 1, 2008, 7:06 PM
So this is what I look like in my new glasses:
As you can see, these are a bit squarer than my old glasses, which were themselves a bit squarer than the pair before that. It’s a nice progression there.
My father said I look handsome and smart in my new glasses. Meanwhile, I was not too pleased with the smile in this photo. It looks forced, doesn’t it? I took it on my office Mac first thing in the morning, and I had not had coffee yet.
But those are the new glasses, and so far, I like them, but they still need a minor adjustment, as they’re slightly up on one side, and I’m noticing it. But I think we have a winner.
Categories: Glasses