drunken idiot

I found this clip through DCBlogs. The original source is fauxmarc.

drunk guy jumps onto metrorail tracks

clarendon day recap

Ok, so this posting is a little late, but I have a lot of late postings still waiting in the queue. Clarendon Day was a fall neighborhood street festival that took place last Saturday 21 October. Not surprisingly, I was doing homework that morning, but I couldn't stand being inside all day on such a nice day, so on a whim I headed out with my camera just to go practice. I wasn't expecting much as it seemed like a flea market combined with a showcase of local restaurants. Turned out to be just what I needed though: interesting sights, sounds, and tastes with a bracelet for beer. Good beer too -- Magic Hat #9 -- until they ran out and only had Miller Lite to spare. I still drank the Miller Lite though (I've had much much worse before).

The food was great -- unhealthy, but fantastic. I had a gumbo shot topped with a piece of cornbread from IOTA Club and Cafe, a chopped pork barbeque sandwich from Rocklands, and a chili dog from Hard Times Cafe. What can I say, I have a weakness for southern food.

The local music was pretty good too -- I found a couple of bands that I really liked.

Welbilt, somewhere between rock and pop


8 Track Jones, 80s rock and pop



They finished their set off with Journey, Don't Stop Believing. Definitely going to catch another one of their shows sometime.

The Positions, indiepop (with a brass section)

Not my best photo, but the pink trumpet was interesting. The band was so good that I forked the money over for a CD.

And after some beer, one gets a little more creative and finds some shots no one else is bothering to look at, like street chalk...





Lastly, I ran into a friend, a fellow Hoo, who was working the Arlington Virginia Community Role Models booth there at Clarendon Day. Just wanted to give it a plug -- it sounds like something I might get involved in. If anything, this festival was the first time I've felt a real sense of community in all the time I've lived in Northern Virginia. Maybe I've finally found a place around here that feels like it should be home :)

Oh, I ran into both Virginia Senate campaigns and some local Congressional campaigns there too. I'll be back with my official endorsements soon. Only one week until Election Day.

continental size flatware

I picked up a box of Gourmet Settings flatware at Costco two weekends ago -- the 52 piece Soprano set. I needed a set of flatware to go with my non-existient dining room table, so I picked up the first box I saw. The design looks great, which is why it caught my eye to begin with, but I noticed that everything in the set seemed unusually large compared to the flatware I'm used to seeing. The box is labeled Continental Size and I had no clue what that meant, so after bringing it home, I started researching to find out what continental size flatware actually is.

Turns out there's not a whole lot of agreement on the Web as to what the various sizes of flatware are, but for the purposes of this blog entry, there are three sizes: place, dinner, and continental. Place size flatware is the standard size we are used to seeing here in the US. Dinner size flatware has a larger fork and knife than place size, and is considered a little more formal than place size. Continental size is larger than both place and dinner sizes (about one inch longer than standard), so it has slightly different proportions that I think looks cool. Continential size is traditional in Europe, but is apparently gaining popularity in the US. Who knew?

So there you have it, I go buy a box of flatware and next thing you know, I'm researching and sharing a flatware lesson with my readers.

sunday nights

Supposedly everyone gained an hour this weekend in reverting back to standard time from daylight savings time. I'm not sure where my hour went though. It's late Sunday night, I just submitted my second of two midterms, and I am up to my eyes in homework and semester projects. It's all interesting stuff, but I might be starting to do the impossible with physical time.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but it's kind of annoying to me how nothing is open on Sunday nights. I wrapped up my midterm and I'm craving a decent meal, but I can't find a restaurant for the life of me. The only things open are fast food joints and greasy spoons. I'm ok with those places once in a while, but night owls like me end up getting unhealthy real fast. Not to mention, most every store is closed after 6pm so running errands isn't really an option either. Except for Target, which is open until 10pm with a good crowd (maybe that's a hint...). I do believe in Sunday being the calm day, the day where people can go home and do their own thing and not worry about tending the shop. It just sort of sucks for people who only have their free time on late Sunday nights :)

I think the takeaway points I learned today are (1) I need to keep my refrigerator a little better stocked so I can concoct something up on my own in the kitchen on late nights, and (2) I still haven't learned to stop taking on more things than I have time for.

washington photography meetup

As if I didn't have plenty on my plate, I'm now a new co-organizer for Washington Photography Meetup, a local group here in DC that meets monthly and goes out on photo field trips every so often. I've been a member for a few months now and have enjoyed the experience of meeting people who are also into photography, so I figured I'd help out a little :)

Anyway, we're organizing a few events for November and I wanted to extend the invitation for anyone who is interested in meeting up.

Street Photography Exhibit and Lecture
at the National Gallery of Art
on Saturday 4 November, 12:30 PM
(Click on the link for exhibit info, lecture info, and the NPR story.)

Washington Photography November Meetup
at Foster Brothers Coffee, Cleveland Park
on Wednesday 8 November, 7:30 PM
(Bring about 10-15 recent photos to share.)

Historic Covered Bridges of Frederick, Maryland
meeting at Shady Grove Metro Station for carpooling
on Sunday 12 November, 9:00 AM
(Volunteer drivers are welcome.)

Asia Trail and Giant Panda Habitat
at the National Zoo
on Saturday 2 December, 2:00 PM
(Bring a jacket ::grins::)

Click on the links for event details and to RSVP. There's no charge to register with meetup.com as a participant, and RSVPs would be much appreciated. If you have any questions feel free to send me an e-mail or reply to this post.

reunion recap

Ten years since high school. I'm not sure which is more unbelievable, that it's been ten years, or that I actually went to the reunion. Glad that I went though. It was definitely a good time seeing everyone in good spirits. Props definitely go to the reunion committee -- really a well-organized event -- it surpassed any expectation I had about the reunion.

It was interesting meeting and chatting with my former classmates. Ran into some old friends, locker neighbors, familiar faces from the hall, Wahoos from the college reunion last year, some fellow IT contractors, and a blogger too -- totally a trip! I especially took delight in talking to people that I never really had a chance to talk to during high school (I was a really quiet kid). So many interesting stories -- and did I mention everyone looked fantastic? I was just hoping my beginning of a beer gut wasn't showing through the suit too badly :P

I actually checked my camera as I didn't want to carry a bulky SLR around a social event, but after a while I caved and retrieved it from the front desk. I couldn't help but be up for the challenge: really low light, people in motion, and besides, someone's gotta take some pictures. Because it was so dim, even for my 30mm/1.4, I used my on-camera flash for the first time. (I don't have a hotshoe flash yet.) Tried to work it as best I could, but one can only do so much when learning on the fly :) I still had some issues with the depth of field being so shallow -- but I'm glad I got some photos. For any CHS 96er that might be reading, enjoy the photos!

Aperture wide open at f/1.4 (I like the resulting background blur), no flash.


With flash at f/2.8, but signs of the flash relatively concealed.


Aperture wide open, no flash.


and the rest of the photo set...

For those that don't know my photo policy... If you appear as a subject in a photo, I am always happy to e-mail you the original high-resolution file or send you a print (up to 8x12) in the mail as a thank-you for being in the photo.

crafty bastards recap

Two Sunday mornings ago (1 October), I took a break from shuttling my possessions across town and headed down to Adams Morgan to practice some photography at the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair. I showed up early to meet some other photographers, but either turnout fizzled or we couldn't find each other. Nevertheless, it was a pretty interesting fair. Eclectic arts and crafts, eclectic people, and actually some pretty good entertainment in the form of bands and breakdancers. The majority of the vendors were selling women's apparel and accessories, but I found a good sampling of witty t-shirts, paper/print presses, and photography to check out. Some of the textile arts were pretty interesting too.

Photography-wise, it was pretty challenging. I didn't feel comfortable taking street-style portraits, so I focused on the products instead. (Although I found a good breakdancing photo from the fair on flickr.) Anyway, here's what I came up with. (Click for larger detail and info.)

Art/Pencil Case


Absurdity


Most everything else I took either had random people in the frame or was just blasted by bright sunlight overhead. Don't get me wrong, it was a gorgeous day to be out -- just a tad bright for photos. For a while, I was using a flyer to try to create some sort of makeshift sunshade. That didn't work so well.

My favorite photo from the day wasn't taken at the fair, but rather on 18th Street from the sidewalk. I walked in front of Felix and snapped this one.

Placesetting


If you're curious, here's a documentary shot to show what the scene looked like from the sidewalk before I sat down on the concrete in the middle of the foot traffic to get the photo above.



Oh, and as a new feature, I'm setting up a list of stores that are "on warning" and "on boycott". I am a firm believer in expressing my market preferences or dissatisfaction with my feet and my hard-earned dollars. It's my way of helping well-run businesses flourish and poorly-run businesses flounder. As of that particular day, Caribou Coffee and The Reef are on warning.

To Caribou: Having a line ten people deep and only one person working on a busy Sunday morning (and having your second person stacking pastries and cups) isn't going to work well for business. This was a real disappointment because I actually prefer your coffee to Starbucks. I'll probably give you another chance because I'm so hooked on . I'll have to blog sometime about my somewhat humorous experience extracting caffeine from tea leaves in organic chemistry lab back in college. Do you like how I used a graphic as a noun there? Galileo did it in 1613 and today we're still trying to get it to look as nice as how he did it.

To the Reef: Cool bar with the aquariums (or aquaria). Pitiful Sunday brunch service. You had a big sign out front luring people in with your crab cake sandwich special. Too bad only one person was waiting tables for the entire restaurant. My stance is if you are understaffed, don't seat people. Just close up brunch for the day and serve drinks and small eats at the bar instead. I sat for 15 minutes before a menu showed up my way -- the same menu that was passed between three different tables of people leaving because the service was so bad.

I will take care not to turn my list into a big complaint-fest on the blog though. That wouldn't be fun or interesting to read.

october update

Now that I'm back from a short hiatus -- not a vacation -- I guess I have quite a bit of writing to catch up on. Coming soon:

• Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair Recap
• Capitol City Brewing Company Oktoberfest Recap
• 2006 DC APA Film Festival Recap (well, at least opening night)
• Washington Photography Meetup
• Second Lenses for Your SLR
• Camera Buying Guide for the 2006 Holiday Season
• Diet Coke, Mentos, and Science Fair Projects
• Dot-Com Era Books
• The Senkaku Islands
• Various Musings on Systems and Software Engineering
• and much more...

Hopefully I still have some readers out there. If so, it will be a pleasant surprise given my erratic frequency of postings.