An afternoon looking at Legos…
6 minute read
August 21, 2022, 7:06 PM
On August 6, Elyse and I headed out to Chantilly for BrickFair, which is a Lego show held at the Dulles Expo Center. This was my second time going to BrickFair, following my previous visit in 2018. Like in 2018, I had fun, and I photographed a lot of Lego creations with my phone, while Elyse checked out all of the vendors. I am always impressed with what I see at these events, because it puts whatever Lego creations that I made back in the day to shame. My stuff was decent, and I always took pride in the way that I engineered things to work with the parts that I had available, but this stuff is worlds beyond anything that I ever did.
There was so much to see here, and while I got around to all of the tables, I definitely didn’t see everything there, because there was just that much to see, and we had only budgeted four hours. Here are some of the highlights of what I saw:
The Chicago Theatre.
Continue reading…Categories: Events, Fairfax County, Ships
My story from an unforgettable day…
8 minute read
September 8, 2021, 10:31 AM
I can’t believe that this Saturday will mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, otherwise known as 9/11. I still remember that day like it was yesterday, even though so much has gone on in the intervening two decades. They say that everyone can tell you where they were or what they were doing when they found out about 9/11, much like the people of my parents’ generation and the Kennedy assassination.
Back then, I was a junior at JMU, and I was working as a resident advisor in Potomac Hall. It was the third week of classes, and everyone was getting settled into a nice routine. Being a Tuesday, I didn’t have any classes until 2 PM, so I was able to sleep a little later. I was awakened around 9:30 AM by a knock on my door, as one of my residents had accidentally locked themselves out of their room. I put on a bathrobe over my pajamas, and we went down to the hall office, where I completed the paperwork for the lockout (everyone got two free lockouts in a year, and any subsequent lockouts were subject to a fee), and then gave them the spare key to their room so that they could let themselves in. I impressed on them to immediately come back down to the hall office after letting themselves back in their room in order to return the spare key, because I would be sitting in there waiting for them to come back so that I wouldn’t accidentally leave any room key business unfinished. My hall director, Mecca Marsh, was a tough boss to work for, and she did not take kindly to any mistakes. She treated any oversight or error as the worst thing that you could ever do, going so far as to bean you in your performance evaluation for even the most minor of errors, so if I suffered a little inconvenience in order to ensure that I wouldn’t have to deal with Mecca over something, that was fine. So I waited down there and found a way to entertain myself, probably for about five or so minutes, until they came back with the key. Then I put everything back as it needed to be and headed back upstairs. At that time, I was still oblivious to any sort of world events. As far as I knew, it was just a normal Tuesday.
After this, I had another matter of business to attend to. The night before, there was a pretty bad backup in one of the toilets on my floor that I had to deal with, as that fell under the scope of my responsibilities. The toilet got plunged a bit, but ultimately, I had to tape the stall door closed and mark it as out of order, because it was beyond our capabilities as RAs to fix. I took the plunger, which belonged to housekeeping, with me that night, in order to return it to our housekeeper, a lady named Kathy. I hadn’t seen Kathy on my floor from the elevator to my room, so I dipped into my room, grabbed the plunger, and continued looking. She wasn’t anywhere on my floor, and so I went up the stairs to the fifth floor. I went down the hall to the TV lounge, and found Kathy in there. I went in, gave her the plunger, and then looked over at the television.
Peep show…
6 minute read
April 15, 2021, 11:41 AM
No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.
On Monday, April 5, Elyse and I went up to Westminster, where we saw the annual Peep show, held in the former Sears store at TownMall of Westminster. There, we saw a number of displays made out of Peeps, those marshmallow rabbit and duck-shaped candies that some people like to eat around Easter. All in all, it was pretty fun, though I admit that the ones that incorporated the pandemic into their theming made me cringe a little bit, because I am so over that (admittedly, though, I was over it from the moment that it started).
In any case, here are some of the highlights from the visit.
Bunny peep made out of bunny peeps.
Categories: Events, Holidays, Westminster
Time to complain about Daylight Saving Time…
3 minute read
April 5, 2019, 1:16 PM
So it’s been about twelve years since the last time that I wrote about Daylight Saving Time (DST). That previous instance was back in 2007, which was the first year that the current date rules were used. That put “spring forward” on the second Sunday of March, and “fall back” on the first Sunday in November. And apparently, I was justified in being a bit on edge about the new time change date, because the next day, when it took effect, I ended up oversleeping and showed up for work late. Oops. But considering that I got fired from that job a few weeks later… oh, well.
One thing that I’ve noticed since the switch is that no one seems to know when it’s time to change anymore. 2019 is the 13th year of the new schedule, and the changeover date still catches me by surprise. It feels random to me. It’s not the first Sunday in March, but the second Sunday. It’s not a new month with a time change, but rather a mid-month thing.
In any case, I would love to do away with the whole charade of changing our clocks twice a year. I would lean towards abolishing DST in favor of standard time rather than adopting DST year-round. Ultimately, standard time is the one that more closely lines up with the sun. “Noon” is supposed to be when the sun is at the highest point in the sky. If you’re going to adopt one time standard year round, ditch DST. Going to DST year-round would essentially mean moving up a time zone, putting the east coast of the United States on Atlantic Time, putting the midwest on Eastern Time, putting the Rockies on Central Time, and putting the west coast on Mountain Time.
Categories: Events
Buses, fire trucks, ambulances, trains, and… moo cows?
7 minute read
October 19, 2017, 11:17 PM
This past Saturday, Elyse and I got together with our friend Dave, and we went to the Public Safety Open House held at the new Montgomery County Public Safety Training Academy on Snouffer School Road near Montgomery Village. Then we went out to Middletown and visited South Mountain Creamery, which is a dairy farm that sells products on site.
The Public Safety Open House event was a lot of fun. There was a little bit of everything for us to see there. We started out by looking at a row of Ride On buses. Apparently, this facility is used to train Ride On operators, because there is, more or less, one or two of each type of bus that Ride On operates located at the facility. We saw two Gillig hybrids, an Orion VII CNG, a New Flyer C40LF, and two Gillig 30-footers.
Ride On 5822, a New Flyer C40LF. We all commented on how the one panel on the front was so faded. No idea why. I speculated at the time that it might be from the diagonal parking at the old Gaithersburg division’s causing sunlight to hit that corner more than others, but after thinking some more about it, while certainly plausible, I don’t know if I’d necessarily go with it now.
Categories: Elyse, Events, Frederick County, Friends, Montgomery County, WMATA
Elyse goes to the inauguration…
5 minute read
January 28, 2017, 8:24 PM
Sometimes, it’s fun to live vicariously. Such is what happened on Inauguration Day. I had to work, and so I spent my Inauguration Day mostly doing support work to help keep trains moving. However, Elyse came down to DC to see what she could see as far as inauguration-related activities went. She and mutual friend Dave went out to see what was going on, and I was able to follow along through frequent updates sent to me on Facebook Messenger. Though this was not intentional, she did a photo shoot in a similar way that I shoot an event that I’m not directly involved in. The official festivities were kind of “meh” (though she did watch the swearing-in live on television, which I didn’t get to do), but she kept up with a lot of the activism.
I admit: I have more or less hung up my activism hat, having not participated in a political demonstration in a very long time. I stopped doing black blocs in October 2010 after a pair of disastrous demonstrations soured me on the tactic, and I haven’t been to a political demonstration of any kind since August 2013. However, I still cheer on and support my friends who are still involved in it, even if I haven’t done it myself in years, and in fact, a number of my activist friends helped organize some of the protests that occurred in DC. So I was delighted to get these updates from Elyse, as well as from elsewhere on Facebook and the Twitter, to see what was up while I was at work.
After I got off of work, Elyse came over and we looked at her take from the day, and the photos were quite good. She also gave me permission to run some of them on Schumin Web, and so hopefully you can live vicariously through Elyse as well, as people came to DC to protest Donald Trump on the occasion of his inauguration.
Categories: Activism, Black bloc, Elyse, Events, National politics, Washington DC
A principal has egg on her face…
6 minute read
June 14, 2016, 6:10 AM
As someone who was on the receiving end of some pretty unfair punishments in school, and having witnessed school officials blatantly flout the rules on a number of occasions, it’s good to see someone get called out for a punishment that’s out of step with policy. This was the culmination of a controversy regarding several students’ drinking alcohol on prom night at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School‘s senior prom, and the reversal of a decision that would have prevented them from attending their high school graduation.
The situation, as I understand it based on a Bethesda Magazine article and a Washington Post article, began with a policy set at the school level regarding consequences for students’ showing up for prom while impaired by alcohol or other various substances, or becoming impaired by the same over the course of the evening, encompassing the prom itself as well as the official after-prom party. The school’s policy was that anyone who either was caught drinking at prom-related activities, or showed up to same already drunk, would not be allowed to walk at the school’s June 1 graduation at DAR Constitution Hall. This is supported by a prom guest application document from the school’s website, where the relevant section, near the bottom of the second page, reads:
Students and/or guests who are suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, inhalants, illegal drugs or controlled substances will not be admitted to Prom or After Prom. Students attending Prom or After Prom who show signs of being under the influence of such substances, or who are found to be in possession of such substances during either event, will be subjected to the consequences set forth in the B-CC Student Handbook, and their parents will be notified. If the student is part of an athletic team or other school-sponsored activity, the coach/sponsor will be notified as well. Note that any senior who is determined to be under the influence or in possession of such substances when arriving at or during the course of Prom or After Prom will not participate in the on-stage distribution of diplomas at B-CC’s graduation ceremony.
Categories: DC area local news, Events, Montgomery County, School
No DriveCam to set off this year…
2 minute read
February 2, 2016, 6:46 PM
This past Wednesday, Elyse and I went to the Washington Auto Show. We checked out the cars, and then went down to see the Metrobus display. This year, Metro had an Xcelsior artic on display. Remembering last year where I inadvertently set off the DriveCam on the demo bus, I was surprised to see that there was no DriveCam on the demo bus this year:
Categories: Elyse, Events, Washington DC, WMATA
I can’t believe I set off the DriveCam…
6 minute read
January 28, 2015, 7:57 PM
I had a good bit of fun on Tuesday. I went down to the Washington Auto Show at the Washington Convention Center with Elyse, and we wandered through, seeing all sorts of interesting things. We took the Red Line to Gallery Place, then took the 70 bus up to the Convention Center (and we got an artic).
Unlike most car shows that I’ve been to in my 33 years, this was primarily for auto manufacturers to show off new cars. As such, it was heavy on the marketing, and you could touch and interact with most of the vehicles that were there. If you go on a Tuesday, as we did, the place was pretty quiet. No wait for tickets and security, and no wait to see or do anything, and more time to chat it up with people.
Right off the bat, with its being a slow day, Elyse and I could tell that the people working the event were in a good mood. When I purchased my ticket, the guy mentioned that admission, normally $12.00, was only $10.00 with a SmarTrip, or $5.00 with a student ID. My old JAC card from my college days still lives on my keychain over a decade after I graduated college. I said, “I still have my old student ID from when I was in college.” The guy sold me a ticket at the student rate, and justified it by saying that it just says “a student ID”, and not that you had to be a current student.
Categories: Elyse, Events, Washington DC, WMATA
“It should be legal to push tourists into the Tidal Basin when they don’t watch where they’re going.”
4 minute read
April 28, 2014, 1:22 PM
One tweet just says it all sometimes, doesn’t it? Such describes my experience on the 13th seeing the cherry blossoms on the Mall. It was my first time doing that, and, as long as I don’t forget about this experience, it will also be the last time that I do that. I was reminded once again that large crowds of tourists tend to get on my nerves very quickly. I was also reminded that I have springtime allergies, as I discovered that putting myself in close proximity to cherry blossoms activates my seasonal allergies.
That said, all of this made my cherry blossom experience something that I was very interested in getting over with not long after I got there. I took Red Line in, and walked over from Metro Center. I believe that this sight, near the Holocaust Museum, should have been my warning that this would not necessarily be a pleasant experience:
Categories: Events, Some people, Washington DC
Car show!
5 minute read
April 20, 2014, 8:34 PM
On Saturday, April 12, I got together with my friend Matthew, and we went to a car show in the Sterling area. I’ve always enjoyed a good car show. I used to go with my father when he would bring his Mustang to car shows in the 1990s. I met Oliver North at a car show at Wright’s Dairy Rite in Staunton back when he was running for the Senate in 1994, in fact.
Thus I was quite pleased to go to this show with Matthew. I had been to this show once before, in 2012, and had a lot of fun, but for whatever reason (possibly related to the ongoing site conversion at that time) never really featured all of the neat cars that I saw, save for one. I’m not about to miss this time, because I saw some really neat cars. I also remembered what I like when photographing cars. I like seeing show cars as they might appear while being driven. Thus I like it when the hood is kept down. For whatever reason, I’m not that interested in looking at the engine. And then if it’s a convertible, I love seeing the top down.
That said, this is not the way I like to see a car when it’s on display:
Categories: Events, Matthew, Photography
Brace yourselves…
5 minute read
January 29, 2014, 12:22 PM
On the morning of Saturday, January 25, I started the day with this post to Facebook:
See, January 25 was polar bear plunge day, i.e. the day that I would head over to National Harbor and go for a quick swim in the cold Potomac River in support of climate change work with Chesapeake Climate Action Network. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with my practice on these things, it should be noted that I follow my own advice, which I first gave in 2010, and thus I wear a speedo when I do the plunge (and if you don’t like it, don’t look).
It definitely gets easier once you’ve done it before…
6 minute read
January 26, 2013, 10:28 PM
And the 2013 “Keep Winter Cold” polar bear plunge is done! That was a lot of fun. And it was also a very different experience from last year. While the event followed the same format as before, my experience was very different. Last year was my first time going in, and as a result, I was very nervous and uptight about the whole thing. This year, I knew what to expect. No problems. I was cool as a cucumber.
Driving in was a little bit interesting, though. It had snowed on Friday, and I took Metro to work that day. So I hadn’t seen the roads. I was fairly confident that the roads would be fine, but the parking lot in my apartment complex was still snowy, and I had never driven the Soul on snow before. Getting out of the lot ended up being fine. Good. Then going down, rather than take the Beltway all the way around to get to National Harbor, I took the Beltway to B-W Parkway, which then becomes DC 295 before becoming Interstate 295. It’s a more direct route than taking the Beltway around, but I couldn’t go this way last year due to an accident that shut down part of DC 295 that I got wind of before I left. This year, no problems. This route took me past Minnesota Avenue station and Anacostia station, and also past two separate speed cameras each way. DC apparently is trying to turn 295 into a toll road via the speed cameras and an unreasonably low speed limit (50 mph? Seriously?). It is far too easy to speed on that road, and DC robo-ticket fines are high. As far as I know, I did not get nailed by a robo-ticket. And then like I did last year, I listened to the Today’s Special album on the way down. Not to keep me calm, but just because I wanted to. And it filled the trip down perfectly. I started it up when I left the house, and it ran out as I arrived.
I got there insanely early. I knew this was going to happen. The folks running the plunge weren’t even entirely set up yet. But again, no problem. I was early. So I ended up checking out The Awakening to pass the time while they got ready to go. The last time I saw that statue was when I photographed it for a Photography set nearly ten years ago, back in March 2003 when it was still at Hains Point in DC. It was later bought for the National Harbor development, and was moved there in 2008. And now, here it is.
Take that hope for an unseasonably warm January day and toss it out the window…
4 minute read
January 24, 2013, 12:39 AM
So this Saturday is the big day: the 2013 “Keep Winter Cold” polar bear plunge at National Harbor. And they’re calling for snow on Friday. Which means it’s going to be plenty cold for Saturday morning’s polar bear plunge. And I so hoped for a nice, warm day. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. That said, though, it still ought to be a lot of fun. Katy is going again, and Ryan should be back this year, too. Plus if all goes as expected, RaQeeba and Davette will be there again to take photos.
Now going into it this year, I have some experience. I know what it feels like to walk into water that is very cold. And no – a cold swimming pool has nothing on this. I don’t care how cold you think that the competition pool at Germantown Indoor Swim Center is. This is a lot colder. And I have also promised a few people that I won’t be taking a movie of my experience this year. That’s something that we only need to hear once. I am, however, going to take Duckie in with me for still photos.
Also, you remember last year, where there was some discussion about what I should wear to the plunge? This year, there’s no question about what I’m going to be wearing. Like last year, I’m wearing a suit out of the suits that I wear to the pool for swimming. That’s how I came up with last year’s selections for you all to vote on (and the jammer with the yellow stripes won). I last went shopping for suits in mid-October. I bought two polyester Tyr jammers: one with red stripes, and one with blue stripes. But then what I didn’t mention at that time is that I also got a third suit on that trip: a black Tyr racing brief. It’s part of the rotation just like the other two. Day one is the red stripe jammer. Day two is the blue stripe jammer. Day three is the brief. Then back around to red. I do this since, as I understand it, giving your swimwear a “rest” period between uses extends their life. And since I swim every day, that means multiple suits. Plus the polyester suits are supposed to last way longer than lycra. And get this: based on my swim schedule and the suit rotation, the brief comes up as the next suit for Saturday. So even though I was going to wear it anyway, it actually does come up in the schedule on its own.
Categories: Events, Photography
First it was cold, and then it was colder…
8 minute read
January 21, 2012, 7:49 PM
I think that about describes today. Upper forties, my foot. It was bloody cold today. And of course, today would be the day that the Chesapeake Climate Action Network would have its seventh annual “Keep Winter Cold” polar bear plunge, which, you may have heard, more than once, that I signed up to participate in over at National Harbor. I had a lot fun, though I was certainly excited about things.
Going down to the event, I decided to do a Video Journal to talk about it, since I was a little nervous and needed to distract myself:
Categories: Activism, Events, Friends, Today's Special, Video Journal