The wife and I took the bus today (Stupid rain on Bike to Work Day), thinking that would keep us dry. We slept with the window open, and it was raining pretty steadily when we woke up. When we walked out of the house, it really wasn’t raining much. We could have walked, but then we would have had to go back inside so I could change. So we continued on to the bus. Three of them came right away, so we managed to get a seat together, and were off. Then it started to drip. Inside the bus. Luckily, we were wearing our handy matching raincoats, so that wasn’t too big a deal. Then we got off the bus and went our separate directions. I turned onto 15th, and just before I crossed New York Avenue, I stepped on a loose brick in the sidewalk. It splashed a substantial amount of dirty rainwater onto my right pant leg and shoe. The moral of the story is that rain sucks and we should have just walked.
Month: May 2008
I have powers you can’t even imagine
It’s been about three and a half hours since I complained about the lack of 64 bit Flash for Linux. Just a minute ago, I was checking out the latest on my RSS feed, and there was a Flash video on BoingBoing. Firefox popped up the little message, asking if I wanted to install the plugin. I figured it wouldn’t work, but I did it anyway. The package manager installed flashplugin-nonfree, and it worked! I can watch YouTube videos! I can use Google Analytics! Even MLB GameDay works! It’s amazing! So, I apologize, Ubuntu. You’ve been so good to me, and I nearly kicked you to the curb just because Fedora put out a new distro. But I’m back now. I’m right back on the Ubuntu bandwagon. On a side note, I’m available for freelance complaining. This is not the first time I’ve complained about something that was magically fixed soon afterwards. For a very reasonable hourly rate, I’ll complain about something that you’d like fixed. Results not guaranteed. Nor even expected.
Oh, Ubuntu, you make me laugh
I tried out Fedora for a few minutes. The Gnome desktop looks just like Ubuntu. I’m going to do some research and see what the real differences are. When I rebooted into Ubuntu, I had some upgrades to install, which I did. One of them popped up this message:
A security certificate which was automatically created for your local system needs to be replaced due to a flaw which renders it insecure. This will be done automatically. If you don’t know anything about this, you can safely ignore this message.
That’s pretty awesome.
Is anyone else annoyed by Ubuntu 8.04?
I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by Ubuntu 8.04 – Hardy Heron. I upgraded from 7.10, which I was pretty happy with, and I’d kind of like to go back. I haven’t been getting crashes or freezes or anything like that, but it’s not more polished and stable than 7.10. Also, Firefox 3 Beta is annoying. A couple of the plugins I really like for Firefox 2 don’t work yet, and the new features aren’t cool enough to make it worth the upgrade for me. I also suspect some of my dissatisfaction is not 8.04’s fault – the lack of 64 bit Linux support in Adobe’s Flash is a huge pain. There are some websites that just don’t work without Flash (Some of them, like Google Analytics, are actually useful). And I can’t get Flash to work anymore. But it wasn’t working in 7.10, either. Anyway, I just downloaded and burned a live cd for Fedora 9, and I think I’m going to try it out. I don’t know if I’ll replace Ubuntu, but it’s worth a try. I can still be a smug Linux convert with Fedora. Maybe even smugger because Ubuntu is more mainstream than Fedora.
Awful website, great restaurant
The wife and I had dinner at Rumba Cafe in Adams Morgan last night. It was a 1000 point reservation at Open Table, which puts us almost to a $50 gift certificate to any restaurant that deals with Open Table, which is awesome. The Rumba Cafe website seems to be under maintenance this morning (I think it should be euthanized, personally (And did you know that “euthanized” isn’t in the default Firefox dictionary? Weird)), but no matter. We sat outside, since it was so nice last night. The service was very good, the beer mediocre, and the food was excellent. I had the steak with a fried egg on top, served with rice and black beans and a fried plantain. Reminded me of Costa Rican “casados”, which I love. The wife had some kind of fish, I forget what, but it was good, too. I highly recommend Adams Morgan when it’s not overrun with kids (By kids I mean 23-year-olds). 8PM on a Tuesday it’s alive with people (Plenty of kickballers and others just out for dinner or a drink) but doesn’t have that “everyone around you is wasted” vibe that it gets on the weekend. It was just a nice spring evening.
Orioles beat Beckett and the Sox
The Orioles came back from an early 3-0 deficit last night to beat Josh Beckett and the Red Sox. I’m sorry I missed the game, but I was having dinner with the wife (Post to come) and then watching basketball. The game puts the Sox a half game back from first place Tampa Bay (Never thought I’d write those four words) and keeps the O’s in third, 3 back. Not a bad place to be for a team expected to win 65 games this year. Now, I’ve complained about the hold before. It’s a stupid stat that rarely measures anything of real value to a baseball team. But there was an interesting hold credited last night to an Orioles pitcher. So, top of the seventh, Boston leads off with two singles, so we have guys on first and second with no outs. It’s 5-3, Baltimore. Jamie Walker relieves Jeremy Guthrie and promptly throws a wild pitch and walks Ortiz to load the bases for Manny. Pretty much anyone who has ever heard of baseball knows that no outs, bases loaded, and Manny Ramirez at the plate is bad times for the defense. This could be very ugly, very soon. Jim Johnson relieves Walker and Manny grounds into a double play, then Mike Lowell pops out to end the inning. THIS IS A HOLD. Bases loaded, no outs in the seventh, two run lead, and the 4-5-6 hitters coming up – allowing no runs here is a really nice pitching performance. I have no problem giving the guy credit for a hold here. But I do have a problem with the next inning, where with one out, Johnson walks two and gives up an RBI single before getting lifted for the closer. So, we have to try and get to the root of the hold. Is it given for getting out of a jam, regardless of the next inning? That is, let’s say he had given up a two-run home run before getting lifted, making the score 6-5 Sox. Does he still get the hold for the previous inning? Maybe my real problem here is my reaction to pitchers issuing walks. I think it’s because I feel like, if the pitcher allows a hit, then the batter beat him. It sucks, but it happens. But if the pitcher allows a walk, then he beat himself. I mean, sure, some guys are better at drawing walks than others, but in the end, the pitcher still has to throw four pitches that don’t go through the strike zone and don’t provoke a swing. Maybe my initial reaction to Johnson’s night would have been better if he’d just given up two hits and the run instead of the two walks. Anyway, I still hate the hold stat. But at least Johnson earned it this time.
DDOT is a pain
The parking saga continues. A response today from DDOT, and the email I sent back are here. The wife wrote the email that I sent back. I may be the complainer in the household, but she’s better at snippy. We make a good team.
DDOT doesn’t answer my question
An unacceptable response from DDOT:
There are 5 “Emergency No Parking” signs posted in 1400 block of Harvard Street, NW. The developers Eagle Bank have a valid permit that is valid until May 20, 2008. They will be taking up 5-feet on the north and south side of Harvard Street.
And another email in the chain, ostensibly from me but composed by the wife:
Thank you for getting back to me, but your reply is not responsive to my initial request. My concern was whether there is any oversight in doling out the “Emergency No Parking” signs. The signs were initially posted on May 6 (when I emailed originally), with an effective date of May 6. There should be a 72-hour notice period for residents, which means the signs should not have been effective until at least May 9. (I understand that they’re effective now, but that is because it took you a week to tell me that there were no parking signs on my street). That was my concern – not whether they contractors will have five-feet of space reserved on both the north and south side of Harvard, which incidentally is not what they have “reserved”. They have secured at least four car lengths on both sides of the street – which unless you’re driving a really small car far exceeds five feet. Your “response” therefore begs a further question – in addition to who is overseeing the proper posting of the “Emergency No Parking” signs, does anyone actually oversee whether those with a valid permit are using their permit validly? Forgive me if this sounds a little snippy – but we have been dealing with restricted parking on our street for over a year now with dumpsters and other “Emergency No Parking” signs and it is frustrating that no one seems to give a thought to those of us who live and park on that street. Just to be clear on what my request is – could you please let me know about any oversight that is in place and with whom I can raise any future issues regarding timely “Emergency No Parking” notifications or other concerns over similar parking restrictions on my street?
Guess who’s getting foot surgery
If you guessed this guy, you win! Your prize is that you get to come by and ice my foot for 48 hours after I have a bunion removed from the joint of my left big toe. No, my foot doesn’t look like the one on the Wikipedia page. Mine isn’t nearly that bad. The joint is just a little red and sticks out a little more than it should. I’ve been having some pain in my foot for a while. I thought it was related to running, but it turns out that running was just making it uncomfortable, not causing it. Bunions, it turns out, are hereditary. My sister had one removed maybe last year, and says the surgery wasn’t too bad. I’ll be off my feet for two days, then I get to wear some special shoe/sandal thing for 4-6 weeks, and then I’m fine. It doesn’t sound too terrible. And in the meantime, I’m free to do what I want on it – I can run and jump and dance and all that. Not that I do much dancing. But the only restrictions on what I can do before I have it removed are my own level of comfort, which is nice.
Wet socks
At the wife’s request, I did not take the bus this morning. She might not have made the request if she had, as I did, gone outside to take out the trash. If she had taken out the trash, she probably would have decided that it was raining too hard, and that we should take the bus. But she didn’t take out the trash, so we walked. For those of you not in or near DC, it’s been raining for a while now, and things are starting to flood. Not serious floods, but minor property damage and hydroplaning cars kind of floods. So, we bundled work clothes and lunch and whatnot into bags, put on our raincoats, and set off. It wasn’t as bad as I had feared. There weren’t that many people walking, so there weren’t too many umbrellas to avoid. Umbrellas and puddles are the scourge of the city rain walker. Especially those giant golf umbrellas that take up the entire sidewalk. So I arrived at work, slightly damp but okay otherwise. I changed my clothes, and realized that my backpack is not entirely waterproof. The two things that got wet – my laptop power supply (Although not badly – I wiped it off and it’s fine) and my brown socks. So now I’m wearing brown slacks, brown shoes, a brown belt, and little white athletic socks. Oops. Perhaps the brown socks will dry, or perhaps I will just wear these all day. Only time will tell.