Perhaps a strange source for this news, but I am honestly saddened to hear that Kurt Vonnegut died last night. He wrote some fantastic books, and some equally (perhaps even more so) fantastic short stories. I highly recommend that anyone who reads this should go out and find something he wrote and read it. Cat’s Cradle was one of my favorites.
My source for this news, noted above, linked to this article, which is a nice read.
Fresh on the heels of The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq, a new book arrived today from Seashell books via AbeBooks. While reading The Assassin’s Gate, I realized that it would be much easier to understand what has been and still is going on in Iraq if I had a better understanding of Islam. And, perhaps, of the happy fairy world where George Bush and his band of lunatics live. But I don’t think anyone has yet written a book on that.
So, I wanted a book on Islam. My sometimes-moustached brother-in-law recommended The History of Islam.
It has a nice inscription in the front.
Too bad I’m not Pop. But I hope he enjoyed the book.
Anyway, I have another book to read before I get to this one, but I’m looking forward to reading it and understanding a little more about the religion and the culture behind it.
I don’t have permission on my new work computer to even change the desktop theme from the stupid Windows XP theme back to the “Windows Classic” theme that I much prefer. I’m not sure how anyone is expected to do a job on a computer without admin access. Certainly there are people who don’t know computers well enough to safely be granted that sort of power over their machine. However, I think that computer classes, not ridiculous restrictions, are the answer there.
I honestly can not do my job on a computer without admin access. I just can’t do it. Even if you forget about the convenience issues of being able to install the helpful software, there are real roadblocks that can not be overcome without admind access. It’s ridiculous.
I can’t even use the Windows calendar because they have no “view only” mode. I just want to see whether May 13th is a Saturday, but I can’t.
And I have to use Internet Explorer. The horror.
The gift card mystery has been solved. It was a housewarming present from my mother-in-law, and she has now been thanked. I’m glad we got that cleared up. I would hate to think that someone had sent us a gift and we didn’t thank them.
It’s April 6th. One to two inches of snow are predicted for tonight. Pardon my French, but c’est connerie.
It’s all your fault, Al Gore.
So, the wife and I received a package today, USPS Priority Mail. Inside was a catalog and gift card from Home Decorators Collection. Noticeably absent from the package was any indication of who might have sent it. The pleasant woman who answered the phone when I called them couldn’t look it up without an order number, which wasn’t included.
It looks like they have a bunch of nice stuff, so I’m looking forward to ordering something. But I’d also like to thank the person or persons who sent us the card. So, if it was you, let me know.
I am so glad I made the three block walk down to Hi Market at the corner of Fuller and 15th NW. It may not look like much, but they have a great beer selection, and they have Vitamin Water. What more can you ask for from your local market?
They have the wife’s favorite, Sierra Nevada. They have Red Stripe (Hooray, beer). They have Magic Hat #9. And they have some other cool stuff. Awesome.
International Race to Stop the Silence
I’m really getting into this running thing, apparently. Three weeks from today, I’m going to do my first 10K race. I’ve never actually run that far, so this should be interesting. And the race fights child sexual abuse. I’m opposed to child sexual abuse. I imagine most people are.
My wife is actually not looking at me like I’m insane as I do this, so that’s a good sign. I mean, 10K is not all that far. 6.2 miles. I ran 4.1 today. I can do 6.2. I don’t think I’m going to finish at the top of my age group, but I don’t think I’m going to embarrass myself.
Anyway, it should be fun. And I’ll even have a few hours afterwards before flag football.
Yesterday, we had Vector Security install a system in our condo. We’re on the first floor, so a few of our windows are pretty exposed, and we figured it would be a bit of peace of mind.
So far, I’m very impressed with Vector. We talked to ADT and ASC, and weren’t impressed with either. ADT was okay, but I don’t feel like they were being completely straight with us. ASC postponed the first appointment by calling 45 minutes before they were supposed to arrive, and then forgot to show up for the second appointment. When I called at 4:30, half an hour after the guy was supposed to show, their answering machine told me to call back during business hours, 8-5. So we didn’t expect much from Vector, who actually sent us junk mail that turned out to be good for both us and them.
I wasn’t there for the installation. My wife took care of it, which she’s done a lot of lately, and for which I’m very grateful. She said the install guy was exceptionally polite. He waited to be invited in to enter the house, he swept up the dust from drilling in the closet when he was finished, and just did about everything you’d want from someone coming to your home to do some work. Vector has also been responsive and very pleasant on the phone, and I love their web interface to the alarm. If I forget to turn the alarm on when I leave for work, I can go online and turn it on from there, or see the status, and all kinds of information about the alarm. It’s pretty cool.
Anyway, it’s too early to give a full evaluation of Vector, but so far I’d highly recommend them to anyone looking into a security system.
Tell me if this sounds like a nice Thursday evening.
It’s about 72 degrees out, sunny, pleasant breeze. At about 5:30, I walk to 16th St to catch the S2 bus down to K St and walk over to meet my wife and some coworkers at Bottom Line. A former coworker and good friend who moved to Philly was in town, and another former coworker and good friend who just switched jobs was there, too. We hung out until about 8 and then caught the 42 bus back (Never mind running diagonally across the intersection of 17th and I, that never happened). Around about Dupont Circle, we realized we had no food at the house. No problem, send a text to Google and get the phone number for Radius Pizza, which we’ve been told is some of the best in DC. Forty-five minutes later (A little slow, but tolerable), they arrive with a giant pizza. Wow, was it good. Expensive ($23 for a large), but a huge pizza, and one of the best I’ve had. Then we fell asleep watching the NCAA tournament.
And now it’s my last day at my job. I’m staying with the same company, but moving to a new project. I start the new on Monday (Unfortunately I can’t take some time off in between), and it’s on Metro, which is really cool. I’ve only had one commute in my life that didn’t involve driving, and that was just a winter break job one year in college. So I’m excited.
So, I’m in a pretty good mood. And rambling. You can tell I’m in a good mood when I start rambling about not much in particular.