How to stop the bounce…
3 minute read
February 4, 2013, 10:54 PM
Remember back in September when I walked over to get that haircut and then ran back? I realized one thing after that exercise: I could run now. And I could cover some pretty good distance, too! I am, as they say, in pretty decent shape now. A far cry from the little butterball that I was two years ago. I’m also more than 100 pounds smaller than I was two years ago.
When I ran home, I was giving running a spin to see how I liked it. And I did like it. However, one thing has kept me from doing it again since then: the bouncing of a certain part of the body (not that part – nor that one). The problem is my stomach. My stomach has hung over a little bit for a very long time. I don’t remember when it started, but it has. It never hung that low, even though it hangs less than before. But it still hangs over. However, despite having lost around 30% of my original body weight in the last two years, the “spare tire” hasn’t gone away. And when I run, it really starts bouncing around. And I hate that. I don’t like that it’s there, and I hate it even more than it bounces around like it does, since it makes a smacking sound as it moves. I realize that this is probably going into “oversharing” territory here, but you know, I don’t think I’m that special here. I’m sure that other people have had a similar problem. Thus I discuss this in the hopes that someone else will leave a comment below (hint hint) and explain what they did in this same situation. All I can find is information about pregnant women’s stomachs bouncing, and there are two problems with that: I’m not pregnant, and I think I can safely say that I never will be. There is no baby inside of me. Just excess body fat. Then if I use the term “spare tire” to describe it, I get car articles. Big help. Not.
Continue reading…Categories: Clothing, Recreation/Exercise
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
This really isn’t rocket science, I promise…
6 minute read
January 10, 2013, 1:28 AM
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the act of placing groceries in bags and giving them back to the customer is really not rocket science. And in Montgomery County, Maryland, a jurisdiction where there is an excise tax on disposable shopping bags, i.e. a financial incentive to use reusable shopping bags, I don’t believe that it is unreasonable of me to think that a grocery store cashier should know how to handle reusable shopping bags. Apparently this is an unreasonable expectation. I went to the Safeway store in Olney this evening after I went swimming, and the cashier did not understand how to handle reusable bags.
This what I bought:
(And for those of you who are wondering, I took this photo in the store with the intention of posting on Instagram.)
Categories: Olney, Retail, Safeway, Some people
The Walters Art Gallery and Great Falls…
4 minute read
January 6, 2013, 9:42 PM
So as promised, this is the photos-from-Baltimore-and-Great-Falls post. Right after Christmas, Mom came up to visit for three days. We certainly had fun while we were out. We went out to Montgomery Mall, we went to Baltimore, we went to Arundel Mills, we went to Great Falls, and we had dinner with friends.
Montgomery Mall was pretty much what you would expect. After-Christmas sales and all that jazz. Mom did, however, leave me a bit scandalized when she went into Abercrombie and Fitch just to pay the five-cent bag tax to get one of the bags with the picture of the guy with the six-pack abs on it. I commented:
This must somehow be payback for all the times that I may have embarrassed her in the past. Especially when I brought the little green reusable bags that I take with me to go grocery shopping.
Categories: Baltimore, Family, Nature, Photography
And if you can’t get your hands on a real waterfall…
3 minute read
January 2, 2013, 7:19 PM
Yes, the old method still holds true. If you can’t get your hands on the real thing, build your own. I went to Great Falls with Mom last week (photos to come – don’t worry), and I was a bit disappointed in how the photos came out. I knew I wasn’t going to get fabulous photos (I usually don’t when I’m with people that aren’t also photographing), but I was still less than impressed with them. They won’t be the next Schumin Web Photography set, that’s for sure. I guess that if I were to put it nicely, I would say that they looked a bit amateurish. But you can judge that for yourself when I post them later.
Acknowledging my lack of great photos from Great Falls, though, I practiced a little bit in the kitchen this evening. Thus I present to you my “waterfall”:
Categories: Photography
Who ever thought that I would be researching, among other things, Canadian mannequin manufacturers?
6 minute read
December 25, 2012, 1:35 AM
So I’m working on creating my new Today’s Special wiki, and I’m “deep in the weeds” in fleshing out what articles and other titles should exist, and creating the categorization scheme. If it tells you anything, I have titles for nearly every character that was on Today’s Special (though most of the one-off characters will be redirects to the episodes where they appeared), and did a lot of research on filming locations that were used.
By the way, for those of you who aren’t familiar with Today’s Special, you may get a tad lost in this, because I’m about to get very detailed. For a basic overview of Today’s Special, check out my existing T.S. site, which this wiki is going to replace.
Probably the biggest bit of research that I’ve done for this so far is the filming locations. I quickly discovered that almost all of the location filming done for Today’s Special was done in the Toronto area. I believe that the furthest afield that they ever went for a location shoot was the Trent-Severn Waterway, for the episode “Sam“. Just about everything else was done right in Toronto. In researching locations, I looked into any public place that I had a good chance of locating. Thus I did not bother to research location scenes shot in private homes, such as the home of Jodie’s Aunt Millie in “Being Alone“, nor did I research places like the doctor’s office in “Soup” or the barber shop in “Hair“. The likelihood that I would never find them was too great. But I did have quite a bit of success in other areas.
Categories: Today's Special
ZooLights!
7 minute read
December 23, 2012, 2:10 PM
You can tell that my life has been busy lately. This happened a week ago and only now am I finally getting a chance to write about it. Nonetheless, though, I had fun last weekend. I got together with my friend Melissa, who I know through a few Anons, and who I first met at the Silver Spring Zombie Walk in 2011. We went around the mall in Wheaton a bit, and then headed into DC for ZooLights at the National Zoo. That was a lot of fun.
First of all, I had not been to the National Zoo in ages. I think that the last time I was at the zoo was, I believe, the summer of 1996. Back then, Mom and Sis and I went on a weekday, and I remember its being my first time ever making any sort of Metro transfer, and my first time on the Red Line. Prior to that trip, we had been to Washington a few times, but never before had we done anything other than one train. I took the Blue Line on my first trip, and several Orange Line rides. That first transfer was interesting, because I had never been to Metro Center before, nor had I ever transferred. It had never crossed my mind that one line crossed over the other. Then when we got to the zoo, I recall our being not so impressed with it at that time. But at the same time, it was also really hot out and I was not doing well on the hill that the zoo is built on due to my being somewhat out of shape.
Back in the present, though, I’m in really good shape, and it’s time to see Christmas-themed lighting. I will admit that I had some fun (in a mean way) with the identity of the main sponsor for ZooLights: Pepco. Pepco, you may recall, is the for-profit utility that has the notoriously unreliable power grid in DC, Montgomery County, and PG County, and that keeps asking for permission to raise rates. My comment was that with Pepco sponsoring it, I was somewhat surprised that the lights were even on, considering that they often have problems with that.
Categories: Christmas, Melissa, Retail, Washington DC, Wheaton
“Where is this train going?” takes on new significance with Rush+…
5 minute read
December 18, 2012, 9:37 AM
So in reading the Express this morning, I looked at Dr. Gridlock’s column on the DC Rider page. There were three questions: two about escalators, and one about destination signs at Franconia-Springfield.
I took issue with the answer to that third question, which went as such:
Q: I am a regular rider at Franconia-Springfield and am adjusting to most parts of Rush Plus. However, the problem remains that trains pull into the station, turn off their destination signs, and you are left to guess whether it’s a Blue or Yellow Line train until about 30-45 seconds before they close the doors. It’s particularly frustrating when it is cold outside and there are two trains waiting with their doors open. Is there any way to persuade Metro to leave the direction signs lit?
A: I don’t see a good reason a train operator would need to turn off the destination signs, unless just maybe Metro isn’t sure where to send the train till the last minute. What I’m thinking of here is that the operations center monitors the crowding on the platforms and could alter a train’s route – though unlikely.
Categories: DC area local news, WMATA
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have just defeated Metro’s bag inspections.”
6 minute read
December 12, 2012, 10:40 PM
As summed up in this tweet, this evening’s commute was definitely a memorable one for me. The ride itself was uneventful, but the events leading up to it demonstrated major flaws in Metro’s random bag inspection program (which has been discussed in this space in 2008 and in 2010) and proves that it will never catch anything. Ever.
My evening commute got started as it usually does. I packed up my stuff, walked over to Dupont Circle station, and went down the brand new south escalators. Coming down the escalator, I noticed signage at the bottom that indicated that Metro was doing its random bag inspections. That was a first – I’d never seen one of those happen in person before. There were two Transit Police officers standing behind a table, swabbing people’s bags. No one said anything to me. Then as I headed toward the faregates, the female Transit Police officer standing in front of the kiosk stopped me and said that I had been selected for screening.
I was a bit surprised about that. I figured this would be just walking by and watching as Metro unnecessarily slowed people down on their way home from work. I never imagined that I would be the one getting chosen for extra scrutiny. I knew that I wasn’t going to take this one lying down. My exact words to the officer were, “I am refusing the search,” and I went back up the escalator. According to a quote from Metro in a 2010 Washington Post article on the subject, a person who “refuses to submit their carry-on items for inspection will be prohibited from bringing those items into the station.” Note that. Since I refused the search, I was, based on information provided to the public, prohibited from bringing my blue work bag onto Metro, which contained an umbrella, my by-then-empty lunch container, my transit log book, a set of keys, and a few various odds and ends (mostly junk – I really need to clean out my bag).
So I’m at work modernizing websites again…
6 minute read
December 11, 2012, 1:07 AM
So I’m at it again, working to modernize a Schumin Web property. You may recall (and it’s pretty hard to miss) that Schumin Web proper was converted to WordPress over the course of a year in 2011-2012. Then College Life was converted to WordPress last month in a process that took about a week and a half to do. That leaves the Today’s Special site and Transit Center left to be upgraded.
The current project is to convert the Today’s Special site to a content platform of some sort. However, unlike Schumin Web proper and College Life, this one isn’t going to be where the site is ported to a content platform but looks the same to the user in the end as it did before. This is going to be a big project for different reasons. I am finally going to take the Today’s Special site and bring it into the 21st century. Here’s a little secret for you: I have been unhappy with that site’s design and structure for a little over five years now. The site last received a major redesign/overhaul in 2005 (while I was out of commission due to some minor surgery), and that mainly improved the writing and the layout, while keeping the general structure the same. When I converted the site to PHP with the move to Dreamhost in 2007, I had wanted to do a big overhaul on it, but ultimately ended up converting it more or less the same as it was before, owing to time constraints and also my own capabilities at that time.
Now, my long-dreamed-of overhaul is coming. I have the time, and I now have the technical knowledge and the maturity to bring my vision to reality. The Today’s Special site is going to become a wiki. It’s going to move away from fansite and more towards being a knowledge base – the source for all things Today’s Special. Using Homestar Runner Wiki and Muppet Wiki as inspiration, my plan is to greatly expand the depth and breadth of coverage of the Today’s Special site, and be as extensive as I can get it. And with the wiki format, this can and should be a collaborative effort. I want other fans to join in. I hope that Today’s Special alumni will contribute. I hope that TVOntario joins in, too. I think everyone with an interest in the show has something to contribute, even if it’s just correcting a typo, or removing a stray comma.
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Today's Special, Wikipedia
New fins means new things to try in the pool…
3 minute read
December 3, 2012, 11:40 PM
Categories: Swimming
Driving in Virginia on Thanksgiving morning…
6 minute read
November 22, 2012, 7:04 PM
First of all, greetings from Stuarts Draft, where I will be through Sunday. And so far, so good. The drive went surprisingly well, and then Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely wonderful.
Considering how well my drive went today, though, I don’t know why anyone would want to go driving on the day before Thanksgiving. Seriously, this was one of the easiest drives to Stuarts Draft that I’ve had in a long time. I left the house around 8:45, and it was more or less smooth sailing the entire way. Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, from my house to the Beltway, was no problem.
On that note, by the way, does anyone know what’s going on with the Freestate gas station on Georgia Avenue at Layhill Road? This is how it looked this morning:
Categories: Clothing, Driving, Family, Kia Soul, Language, National politics, Sheetz, Silver Spring, Thanksgiving, Weight loss
Walmart worker strike on Black Friday?
5 minute read
November 20, 2012, 1:29 AM
So like many people, I got wind that there are strikes planned at Walmart stores this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. These leave me with very mixed feelings. First of all, some of you may recall that I am a former Walmart employee, who worked for the company for a little over three years, from late 2003 to early 2007. My employment ended there when I was fired for what I would consider to be questionable reasons. And then I have made it no secret that I am quite pro-union. I think that Walmart employees need a union badly, because Walmart is not looking out for its employees’ interests, no matter what kind of anti-union propaganda they throw at their employees, and their anti-union manuals prove it. Thus employees must stand up for themselves. But at the same time, I’m not sure about these tactics, because I fear that the groups behind these actions may, though well-intentioned, be leading these people off of the proverbial cliff.
First of all, on the matter of Walmart and what they provide their employees, I don’t think I ever made more than $7.50 per hour the whole time I was there. For the first six months of my employment there, the insurance was a joke. Full-time employees were eligible for the real insurance only after six months’ service, and before that, you were offered coverage through a company that I’d never heard of, and it was basically a reimbursement plan. In other words, you had a plan where you would go to the doctor, pay out of pocket, and maybe – just maybe – the insurance company would pay you back for it. I never had to use that insurance, thankfully, so I can’t speak for how well it worked out. But it felt like a scam from the get-go. After six months’ service, I got the real insurance, which was Blue Cross. That was better than the junk insurance that they offered the new employees, but not by much. If I recall, the package for one person was around $15 per pay period, and it came with a $1,000 deductible. Yes, before the insurance would actually pay for anything, you had to spend a thousand dollars. Thus in most years, you paid $390 per year for the privilege of paying out of pocket for all of your health care expenses anyway. The only time the insurance actually paid for anything was in 2005 when I had that pilonidal cyst taken out, and I hit my deductible in February (yes, $1000 in medical bills in a month’s time). And even then, it didn’t cover much, and the copays were pretty ridiculous. I will say that I don’t know how much Obamacare will affect what Walmart provides its employees, though, and this information comes from my experience from several years ago.
Categories: Walmart
My thoughts on the election now that it’s finally over…
6 minute read
November 9, 2012, 12:35 AM
First of all, aren’t you glad it’s just over with now? Our election cycles run for far too long, especially when you consider that the New Hampshire primary was on January 10 this year, which meant that candidates started running well before that. The 2012 election cycle started up right after dust settled from the 2010 midterm elections. That’s far too long, in my opinion. Considering that this year, Mitt Romney became the presumptive nominee in May, I think we could safely adjust the schedule a bit. Basically, imagine the primaries in the summer. Have New Hampshire in May. Then have nominees by September. Skip the conventions, because all they are is a coronation for the nominee that is known months ahead of time, and then vote in November. The goal in this compressed schedule is to give the American public some peace and quiet in between elections.
Now as far as the contest itself goes, I think this was the biggest dog and pony show that I’ve ever seen. The moment that I laid eyes on the Republicans’ field of candidates, I knew that President Obama was getting a second term. Realize that the Republican Party didn’t want to “put out the good silverware” for a race against a popular incumbent president. I’m sure that’s really why the likes of Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, etc. didn’t run. The party didn’t want to dirty up its better names on a race against an incumbent. Then once the crazies that did run on the Republican side actually opened their mouths, I really knew that they had no chance. Thus I felt confident for just about the whole season that the end result of the contest was settled. Basically, barring a major scandal or a major blunder on the Democratic side, President Obama was in, bottom line, end of story. Thus my view that the whole campaign was basically a dog and pony show. I was pretty sure that the Republicans knew that they had no chance in 2012, but they still had to put on a good show and run someone to at least make it look like they were interested to keep their faithful engaged.
Categories: National politics, State and local politics