I hate Tuesdays in the summer at my apartment complex because that is normally when the landscaping company comes in. The lawn mowers and blowers are so loud it is ridiculous. To make things worse, the company milks the situation often by mowing and blowing the same plot twice. There is no apartment management representative around to observe what is going on. Of course, were I working, I wouldn’t be present to observe the shenanigans myself…
Last Tuesday, I watched three guys, two with man portable gas powered blowers on their backs and another guy with a wheeled gas powered blower clearing the debris out of the parking lot, onto the dog walking/pooping area below my balcony, and then into the tree line. The blowers are so powerful that they flatten out the grass for about a 1 x 2 foot area.
In truth, I bet the three guys manning these gas powered tools could have raked all the debris to the tree line sans noise and petroleum burnt pollution in the same time it took them to blow the debris away. Meanwhile they stirred up a dust and pollen storm that forced me to close my balcony door and apartment windows.
Is it time to get back to the basics of yard work and employ some college kids for the summer? I don’t want to put any “immigrants” out of work but WTF?
I was recently reminded of a work incident that occurred a few years ago whenn I needed to retrieve a forgotten password. The coworker/system, instead of generating a new password and emailing it to me and forcing me to immediately change it, brought the password up in the clear. I use, shall we say, racy, embarrassing passwords. They haven’t been compromised and I remember them but I don’t want others to know what they are for the obvious reason that they are passwords but for the less obvious reason that the might be construed as very weird.
So it is weird and bad enough if one of your coworkers pulls up a password which embarrasses you. The other day I was at the library and…yep…you got it. I ask to see if I can view a history of books that I have checked out and the female librarian asks for my card number. I give it to her and as she is saying “the default password is “111111” which I had changed at first logon, she is somehow pulling up my account with my “not for public consumption password” and telling me that I have such and such checked out.
Well I know what I had currently checked out. I wanted to see a history of all of the books I had checked out. I think that they can’t keep that info for privacy reasons though I may be wrong about that. NTL, the librarian said that they might not be able to store all that info due to storage limitations. I kind of doubt that because all you need are a few fields like a card number linked to a user name, and every book that had been checked out on that card number. That database would not require that many fields and take up that much disk space in my estimation.
The bottom line is why do we still have major databases systems out there that store passwords in the clear? If you are a system administrator and can reset passwords, whether or not the password is in the clear is no matter. But if you are a hacker, it is a different story. No serious computer system should store passwords in the clear!
In the process of buying food, I wind up with more reusable bags and containers than I can possibly use. I am admittedly not a regular dishwasher which is not to say that I leave a mess of dishes in my sink or all over the counters. I carefully rinse everything and set things aside to wait for a good washing.
As such, I often find myself washing a combination of more than 30 reusable (in my estimation) containers and plastic bags. It is a pain in the ass drying out the bags and ensuring that they are sanitary. Is it worth it in the big scheme of things? Is it a waste of water? I don’t know but it is worth it to me.
I am also terrible about the use of tissues, paper napkins and paper towels…and when I say terrible I mean I keep and use them until they are totally useless. I go through lots of tissues due to allergies and such but not nearly as many as most people might. I think that in the 4.5 years I have lived in this apartment I haven’t had to buy any napkins and might have bought one additional roll of paper towels due to that which I had already on hand.
Is a fetus any more viable, and accordingly less likely to be aborted, just because the expectant mother sees it on an ultrasound? This is what regular Washington Post Op-Ed contributor Kathleen Parker would lead us to believe. I have much respect for Ms. Parker…her opinions are well thought out and moderate. However, I don’t follow her logic on this one.
In the Washington Post opinion piece, Images of Choice, dated May 2, 2010, she describes herself has “both pro-life and pro-choice” noting that “Once a pregnancy is viewed as a human life in formation, rather than a ‘blob of cells,’ it is less easy to terminate the contents of one’s vessel. I ponder the description of a woman’s uterus as a “vessel” but that is really not the issue for me.
According to the article, “Oklahoma passed a law….that would require women to have an ultrasound, though,…they are not required to view the images.” Apparently they have to “…hear the doctor’s description of the images.” Murder of humans and killing of animals goes on daily. Surely in the majority of those murders and killings the murders and killers are looking at what they are killing realizing that they are sentient beings not “blobs of cells.” You are either taking a life or you are not taking a life.
I honestly can’t think any women, or pregnant teens, who are so stupid that they don’t realize they are taking or preventing a life, even in the first trimester. I believe that most women will have an abortion based on financial, emotional, and mental factors rather than the picture of a fetus or “blob of cells.” The option seems too traumatic to think that forcing one to have an ultrasound really makes a difference in the decision making process.
I’ll never know though… However, a woman should have the right to make the choice without the interference of the state or federal governments.
The 22d Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup takes place from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM on April 10, 2010. My brother-in-law, Ed, and I are going to meet up with a group, at Bull Run on Rt. 28 about 2 miles south of Rt. 29, sponsored by REI in Fairfax, VA, (21 people have signed up) to pull trash and garbage out of the river and surrounding areas.
Get more information here. Please sign up and come help us out! Green Day, Green Earth, Green Thumb, and all that. They are short of gloves because of an inordinately large turnout this year so bring some gardening gloves, or even better, oyster shucking gloves. They protect your hands against sharp objects and drain the water from your gloved hand much better than other types of gloves do.
What madness! I took the Metro into town on Thursday, April 1, to see the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin. Last year I rode the scooter down to check them out but the area was so packed with people I just cruised through for a quick look and headed home. This year, I wanted to walk around and get some pictures so the Metro was the way to go. I got on at the Vienna, VA, station and off at the Smithsonian station. From there it was a reasonably short walk to the Tidal Basin where all the action is. I ended up walking all the way around the Basin at a leisurely pace snapping pictures of the trees and the Jefferson and Washington Memorials.
There were people all over the place. The advent of digital photography has not boded well for tourist destinations since now everyone thinks they are a photographer. Walkways were blocked by phototogs trying to get snaps of their friends, family, and the monuments. I believe that I can assuredly say that if all those people had to pay for film and developing, most of them wouldn’t be taking pictures. I certainly take many more pictures using my digital camera than I would using my analog cameras. At least I have a history going back 26 years of taking analog photos and have four analog cameras to my two digital cameras.
That being said, I think I got a few decent photos. I went into town late with the intention of staying through sundown. I did do that but ended up shooting sunset photos on the mall of the Capitol and the Washington Monument rather than of the cherry blossoms. This was mainly due to the fact that I had to pee and was thirsty as hell. I walked down the south side of the mall near the Capitol looking for an Irish bar that I had been to years before but haven’t been able to find for the past few years. I am not even sure it is there any more.
What is really odd is that it is so hard to find someplace to just stop and get a brew or quick bite to eat around the mall. There are huge government office buildings everywhere and people have to drink and eat. D.C. is very much a commuter city so perhaps the government workers are just in and out for work and there isn’t a good restaurant business environment. I ended up going to Capitol City Brewing Company on Massachusetts Avenue just of Capitol Hill. It is adjacent to Union Station which is a good venue for getting chow and such, not sure about brews, and also catching the Metro.
After making my bladder gladder, I managed to find a seat at the bar in the very packed restaurant. I was so thirsty from walking around for four hours in the sun that I pounded down a pint of Kolsch and a pint of water in no time. Since the sun was setting, I had to get back out on the mall, about 5 blocks away, snap some pictures and get back to the Smithsonian Metro station. Even though it was about 8:15 PM, I just barely managed to get a seat and was hemmed in by people as the car reached standing room only a few stops later. That lasted until about four stops before the end of the line where I disembarked and headed home.
When I got home, I realized that I hadn’t eaten the sandwich I brought with me so I showered the city off of me, scarfed a quick brew, ate my sandwich, and chased it all down with more water. Meanwhile, I was downloading 203 pictures from my camera to my computer.
Here are a few of those pictures. More will be posted in my photo album in the not too distant future. Once that is done, I’ll make a note and put a link to them here in my blog.
Below is most of what I sent to my apartment manager regarding illegal dumping of waste on our apartment complex. Names and such are redacted to protect those presumed innocent until proven guilty.
“I am sorry to bother you since I understand you are out of town but I need to cover my bases on this one as I am know I have pissed off one of your maintenance staff. I viewed him earlier today emptying the contents of a carpet cleaning unit on the lawn below/in front of my apartment. I surmised that this was not legal and subsequent research has shown that my suspicions are most likely true.
I wanted to talk to you about it but when I went in the office I found not only that you were not there but that the maintenance staff in question was so I deferred reporting the incident at that time. Later in the day as I passed by the office, I just couldn’t let go of it and in hopes that the maintenance staff member was not there, I decided to tell your office staff about the incident.
Unfortunately, the maintenance staff member was in the office and I put myself in a spot where it would have looked weird if I walked out again without saying anything. Accordingly I brought the subject up to your assistant manager, the office assistant and the maintenance man. Needless to say it was an uncomfortable situation. Your maintenance man was on the spot and obviously disgruntled with my revelation.
According to the maintenance man, disposing of carpet cleaning waste on the lawn is commonplace if not the norm. It however should be disposed of through a home/business sewer system and where not applicable at an authorized disposal facility. It should not be dumped on lawns, pavement, or storm sewers. I do not have pictures of the action but do have pictures of the residue from the dumping of the waste.
I want ….. Apartments to take action to come up with a legal and ethical means of disposing said waste and I do not want to be a victim of retribution by the management or staff of the organization for reporting this incident. Please assure me that you will follow up with me on this.”
According the Washington Post article, “As Marja assault progresses, coalition considers challenges in rebuilding area,” dated 20100221, the commanders of the 5000 U.S. Marines inserted into the Marja area of Afghanistan (long standing Taliban stronghold crisscrossed by impassible canals (built by the U.S. after the Soviets left) and center of opium production) expected, based on overhead imagery, to find a functioning local government and police force.
However “…when Marine officers reached the area, they discovered that two-dimensional images can be deceiving. What they had thought was the flat roof of the municipal building turned out to be a concrete foundation, and the police station was a bombed-out schoolhouse.” I worked in military intelligence (yes, oxymoron, I know) many years ago. One tenet we followed then and I assumed, probably erroneously, we followed now is that we should base significant actions on intelligence that can be confirmed by at least two sources.
The U.S. military has been in Afghanistan since 2001. Now, as I stated previously, Marja has been a Taliban stronghold for some time. Presumably it is not an easy area to insert a U.S. intelligence officer or a Special Forces team without detection. Nonetheless, I find it very hard to believe that there was no intelligence on the ground in Marja (human intelligence, HUMINT in the vernacular of the U.S. intel community) that couldn’t verify the status of the local government center or police station. The Marines did not go in there without warning…in fact there was plenty of warning…to give civilians the opportunity to evacuate.
That unfortunately gave the Taliban plenty of opportunity to set a bunch of IED’s to welcome the Marines. What a blast to have you here, eh? Here is the bottom line for me; use multiple sources to verify your intelligence and work with the Afghan government to verify your intelligence. If the mission to Marja had been a secret, and one that had not been shared with the Afghani government to avoid leaks, I could understand this intelligence failure. However, it was not a secret and I find it hard to believe that there was no one on the ground that couldn’t tell the U.S. that what were thought to be functioning organizations, the local government and police force, were in fact shells of their former selves.
As such, an occupation/pacification strategy was initiated based on the false assumption that there was a functioning local government and police force to take the place of the Taliban.
I am watching the Women’s Half-pipe…not sure the specific event, if this isn’t it. I think I read that they made the top of the half-pipe 22ft which, according to this article on ESPN online, Riders still rock halfpipe despite Pearce injury, is 25% higher than at the last Olympics.
As I watch this, women are crashing all over the place…they can’t get enough air. To “air” is human? Just saw some shots from the Turino Olympics in 2006. The pipe was not that fat or tall but they were getting some serious air there compared to Vancouver.
Some woman just wiped out horribly and is walking away from it smiling. I can’t watch this anymore. And they just keep wiping out. The top of the pipe is too high. The limits are being pushed by the IOC and people are getting hurt and killed Damn, just watched some woman tear it up …USA..Kelly Clark…awesome she was.
