samer/thoughts

May 01, 2005

Not Enough Time

So, I know I promised you all updates about my trips to London and Iceland, but I've been really swamped. I've got too many things going on, I'm partly too depressed to do much writing, and I'm certainly not in a happy place to go through all the happy pictures I had planned on posting.

It sucks, but I will get to them. Just not in the next couple of weeks. I'm off to Toronto for a couple of days, mid-week.

Posted by Samer at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2005

Sadly back

So I made it back last night. A nice trip back from Reykjavik and London. I don't want to be back. I don't want it to be in the 70s. And I really don't want to face the piles of laundry and mail.

I've got a few posts and a bunch of pictures to put up, so I will try to get to those over the next week and weekend.

Posted by Samer at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2005

The Future

So we went to the Future on Saturday. Yes, the future is a shiny techno club, what of it?

The reason we went was to see an "old fashioned" burlesque show. The show itself was not too bad, but four sets over a three hour period was just not what I would call value for money. But the people who came out, well, they were the stars of the show.

There was "Bondage Pants" Man. He was wearing a nice pair of black pants with red accents to them. Oh, and they had buckles and belts between each of the legs, making it hard to move. He was dancing like your typical white male: flailing arms and legs going to different beats.

Then there was "Pseudo Army" Man. This guy was dressed in leather pants, an Iraq themed T-shirt and an Australian/desert-type leather hat. And he was dancing like a man possessed. Just not with the music we were listening to.

Of course, no techno party would be complete without a geek boy. Geek Boy was just that: geeky, tall and wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The T-shirt read "Foo" on the front and "Bar" (in big huge letters on the back). Go look it up, but suffice it to say, I'm not geeky enough to wear that.

Lastly, well, there was "Cane Man". Cane Man was walking around looking to all the world like a late 1800's dandy. Longish hair, tapestry for clothing, long coat, and, of course, a cane. He was walking around the entire time having a very long and involved conversation. With himself. It was hysterical, except that he kept swinging the cane and I was worried we'd get hit.

Fun night.

Posted by Samer at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2005

No Flight Attendants

It must be Monday.

I'm at Hartsfield airport and I hear the following announcement:

"For those of you on Delta Flight 271 to Columbus, OH, I'm sure you are aware that we should be boarding right now. Unfortunately we don't have any flight attendants. As soon as we can locate some flight attendants and get them on the plane, we will begin boarding."

Just the thing you want hear when you've got an hour and half to catch your connecting flight.

A few minutes later: "The flight attendants are in the building. They are in concourse B and should be here [concourse A] in a few minutes."

Posted by Samer at 11:33 AM | Comments (1)

March 12, 2005

Eye Candy

Tiger is coming out soon and this is a really good example of it's power: an RSS reading screen saver. Download the video and watch it. It's really breathtaking.

Posted by Samer at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2005

It's Coming

The snow is coming. Trust me. It's just started here in Arlington.

This is the first winter storm forecast that I've been confident in. There will be a minimum of three inches in the immediate area, but my hunch is we'll get more than that.

I'f you're home, settle in, light a fire and make some hot chocolate. That's what I'm doing!

Posted by Samer at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

One of the Great Ones

Jef Raskin has passed away. He died of cancer last night.

Who is Raskin, you ask?

Raskin is probably the person who has had the most influence on your daily life with out you ever having heard of him. In the early 1980s, Raskin started a project at Apple Computer which he later named for his favorite apple, The Macintosh. That computer, along with Raskin's Human Interface Desgin guidelines, made computing accessible to everyday people.

Jef Raskin was one of the Great Ones. He will be missed.

Posted by Samer at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Life on Mars?

Space.com has an exclusive story about a couple of NASA scientists that have submitted a paper to the journal Nature on the existence of life on Mars currently:

WASHINGTON -- A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

The scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, told the group that they have submitted their findings to the journal Nature for publication in May, and their paper currently is being peer reviewed.

What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth.

I don't know what to make of this, but I can't wait to see if Nature publishes this and what the scientific community will have to say about it at that time.

Posted by Samer at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

Mr. Lebanon

A couple of days ago, the former prime minster of Lebanon was killed by a huge car bomb. He was buried today, at a mosque that he built to replace one that had be destroyed by years of civil strife.

Rafik al-Hariri was, mostly, a good man. He put his money where his mouth was and built up the country and Beirut after the civil war. His billions were made in the construction industry and it seemed fitting that his money went into rebuilding.

No one is really sure of the motives for his killing. Responsibility for the assassination was taken by a little known group claiming to have murdered him for his support of the Saudis (his wealth and business got it's start in Saudi Arabia). But many also blame Syria and the Lebanese government.

Whatever the motives, whatever the reasons, the people who do these acts rarely think on their impact. They've got a target and they eliminated him. No thought is given to the grieving wife, the brother or sister, the four children. No thought is given to those relatives left mourning him. No thought is given to the hundreds of thousands that showed up for his funeral. No thought is given to the dreams and aspirations that this one man managed to bring back to defeated and torn country.

He was known as "Mr. Lebanon", a title fitting for a man who had the means to live anywhere he chose to, but came back to his country to help put it back on it's feet. Let's hope Mr. Lebanon's violent passing does not spell the end of the Lebanese dream.

Posted by Samer at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

Doughnuts are too good for them

The lights at 14th and H streets were blinking red all the way around today. Maybe it was a Valentine's thing, but it didn't matter. I've got little love for the useless cop who was at the scene.

There was a bit of confusion, it seems not everyone learned that flashing red means stop. More importantly, it's hard to synchronize four or so lanes of traffic in one direction and three by three lanes on the other side. It's even harder when you add into the mix pedestrians who have the right of way at four way stops.

So, mid-morning (and this had been going on since before I got to the office at 10) I went out and was crossing the street. Lo! Over yonder! A police officer. He was a bicycle cop, and was dismounted and standing on the corner. He seemed to be watching the traffic, but not doing anything to direct it.

As I approached, I said, "nice job you're doing." He sorta smiled and went back to looking at the traffic. When I added, "really nice job," he turned, hopped on his bicycle and sped off. Thanks, Mr Policeman!

And, yeah, before any of you write in -- I don't care what branch he was with. If they are allowed to patrol DC streets looking to keep us safe, they can dismount and direct traffic. His outfit was yellow and said "police" on it. He could be DC or he could be Secret Service, I'm not sure and nor do I care. Part of patrolling a beat is that you make sure everything that needs police action gets police action, especially when you are just standing around doing nothing.

Posted by Samer at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

Happy Valentine's Day

It's that time of year again. And, thankfully, we have the Onion to protect us.

They've created some pretty funny love coupons taking the piss out of traditional love coupons that people give out (or is it that marketers and sappy books hope people give out?).

.

Posted by Samer at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

One by one

For years I've been singing the praises of the Macintosh and of Apple. Mostly no one listens, but when they do they tend to get religion. Recently, my boss (JCA) started listening. He asked a few questions here and there, and then watched the SteveNote from MacWorld. That renowned reality distortion field bit and he bought an iBook for his wife and daughter.

He loves it, as you can tell:

Well, there is nothing I don't like about it. It is the embodiment of
"living right" and the ease with which tasks are performed only
reinforces how idiotic the Windows world is.

There's no good place to start or finish, but I fired up iSync and it
did everything a sync utility should do. The first time. Using
Bluetooth. No questions asked.

For that matter, Bluetooth just works. No negotiating, no setup. It is
no wonder that BT had such a rocky start with 97% of first impressions
being on PCs. I almost gave up myself.

Safari rocks -- is is faster even that FireFox? And within 30 minutes
or so I got the feel of where settings were and how to customize.

The girls just LOVE the profile swapper. And trying that on XP is ...
well I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

There is a lot of junk on my sidewalk right now. It used by be my
Windows network. I'm definitly getting a Mac mini and might let [my daughter]
keep it.

And then I start thinking about me ...

And then I cound the days until Dashboard.

This from a man who was a diehard Windows user and could run circles around most people's daily use of that operating system. Why don't you join the Cult?

Posted by Samer at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2005

Spam from Moran

Congressman Moran has deemed it necessary to send me spam. I thought I'd send him a friendly note and find out why.

Unsolicited e-mail from your office

Dear Mr Moran,

Today I received two e-mail messages from you that were identical and sent to different addresses that I own. I've never signed up for your newsletters, and the addresses are such that they indicate they were purchased or harvested from the ACLU and Consumer's Union.

Having never given your office permission to contact me via e-mail except, possibly, in reply to actions by the above organizations, I'm very disappointed that you and your office have chosen to engage in what can only be called Spam.

I'd ask you or your staff to please let me know exactly how you got my e-mail addresses (listed below), and what steps you are taking to prevent this from happening again.

The addresses are:
numberportability_consumersunion.org [munged]
aclu-action [munged]

I sincerely hope that this address is not going to wind up on your spam list, as well. And while Listrak seems to have a good reputation, I hope my addresses do not wind up with other spammers. If you purchased the addresses from a third party, I would request their name and contact information so I might remove myself from their clutches. If not, you might want to consider that people who contact you do not want your spam unless they've agreed to it.

Thank you for addressing this issue.

Samer

Let's see if my congressman responds.

Posted by Samer at 08:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2005

Snow!

Well, we finally got some snow yesterday. Sadly it wasn't as bad as predicted, only about four inches or so. Still, it was fun while it lasted. Now the cars are turning it into slush.

Posted by Samer at 07:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2005

This is your brain...

... This is your brain on Gmail.

A very interesting article from Digital Ocean about managing information in your life by creating a Gmail account strictly for the bits of info you need to do something with. Tag it with a reasonable tag and then have Gmail do the filtering. See something you want to read later, send an e-mail with "READ: something cool" and some information about what it is. Make a new contact, drop yourself a "CONTACT: " note.

A very interesting concept, and I think it might help me out a lot. Or it could give me a ton of snippets of stuff I will still have no time to look at.

Posted by Samer at 09:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Major Security or Major Headache?

Brian put together a nice summary of the insane levels of security being readied for the inauguration, but last night's massive interagency response took the cake. A man in a van threatened to blow himself up near the White House in what the FBI is calling a domestic disturbance. The entire assembled mights of the US Secret Service, the Park Police, the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department descended on him and the area around 15th and Pennsylvania. For all I know, even the subway police were involved.

The response to this threat was what I would call "overwhelming", and that's a damn good thing. Tens if not hundreds of cops, three DC mobile command centers, robots, and tactical strike units. The closure of blocks of roads, obviously to protect people in case of an explosion, quickly turned Downtown into a gridlocked tangle of cars. I'd venture to say that within an hour, certainly by 5.00 PM or so, the threat was known to be limited, and MPD should have reopened roads. Maybe it was only known to a TV audience. I'm not going to second guess this, though, except to say that MPD should investigate if everything was done in as expedient a manner as it should have been.

The thing that does get my goat, though, are the lazy assholes that are the officers of the various departments. I'm pretty sure between SWAT, MPD's negotiators, the FBI and a few others, the need for every single cop to be in the area standing around doing nothing is just ridiculous. As I walked by the scene, I saw cop after cop sitting in their cars blocking roads as people gridlocked the streets. Why were these guys not out directing traffic? I, for one, don't buy the "We're Park Police, traffic is not what we do" argument. Traffic could have been kept flowing (albeit slowly) had these other cops, as well as MPD's traffic cops (who seemed to just vanish after a while), got off their lazy asses and got things moving.

Posted by Samer at 08:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 06, 2005

Metro Sucks (Five in an Ongoing Series)

I'm walking home and feeling tired. I decide to hop on the Metro at Rosslyn. I noticed the train had some difficulty pulling out of the station, but then we were on our merry way to Court House. Two minutes, that's all it will take. Right.

The train stops in the tunnel. Not unusual, happens when there's a backup. But this was at 19.25 or so. No real reason for a backup. The train does the normal "unlock the breaks, roll backwards a couple of feet, engage the motors, move forward". Well, except for the move forward part.

The train was making all the right noises, but just kept rolling backwards. "We're experiencing some technical problems. We'll be moving shortly," says the driver. For values of shortly that include 15 minutes and another train. A couple of minutes later, he comes back on to tell us that "we're going to need some help."

This is the "Metro Sucks" part of this: There's no explanation of what is going on. Nothing other than those two announcements. I knew it was bad that I'd turned my iPod off so I could hear the announcements. And all this time, with every few feet we would slip backwards, the thought of what happened a couple of months ago, with one train slamming into another, kept entering my mind.

Eventually, I notice a light from behind our train, but I'm far enough away, I don't really know what's going on. Until the loud and jarring collision. Another train or vehicle of some sort was now connected to the rear of our train and was going to give us a push. After one or two false starts, and still no information, we get moving. Slowly. Really, really slowly. Eventually, I can feel the motors in my car catch and we move a little faster.

We enter Court House, but then have to wait another several minutes before the doors are opened. We step out and I saw something I was not expecting. The vehicle that was pushing us was another Metro Rail train. With passengers. I think it is pretty cool, and the obviously have a procedure for this sort of thing. I just hope that train driver told his folks what was up before pushing our train.

Posted by Samer at 11:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 04, 2005

The Million Year Old Cat

Meet Moe. He's a million years old.

Seventeen is a long time in cat years. It is also a long time in human years. A long time to get attached, a long time for the cute little kitten to become a best friend. Moe was LVH's friend.

I met Moe in 2003. It is safe to say I was not looking forward to it. I didn't like cats, and I was going to be staying with LVH for a few days. She had three cats and they would be checking me out.

Moe made me comfortable. He wasn't afraid of me, seemed to like me and want to be around me. I was smitten with the kitten.

He's had his rough spots over the time I've known him. Diabetic, he's needed shots every day, twice a day. He has to deal with two other cats that won't let him rest. He's been through a lot.

I saw him again on my trip out west. LVH was off teaching and I had an hour or so to kill. Surfing the web, Moe jumped up and sat next to me on the comfy chair. He laid there, comfortable with me, and me with him. Like two old souls, we sat in silence, enjoying the moments.

LVH called me yesterday to tell me she was going to have to put Moe down. He'd been unwell, and she took him with her to Ohio on her trip. His health had been deteriorating since Christmas, and there was nothing to be done. He was in pain, not eating and looking worse.

She had told me that Moe would let her know when he was ready to go. She'd be able to see it in his eyes. I asked her what she saw in his eyes. "I don't think I want to see what he's telling me."

She cried, of course. How could she not? He's been her cat for far too many years. He's been her buddy, always there for her, and she for him.

I'm going to miss that cat. In a way, he was my friend, too.

Posted by Samer at 09:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The New Year

So far, 2005 has been odder, if not better, than 2004.

I'm not sure what to make of it, really.

Posted by Samer at 09:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 31, 2004

"Annis Horribilis"

In 1997 Queen Elizabeth lamented her annis horribilis after Princess Diana's death. This year has been, in a way, my own annis horribilis.

It started off bad with a relationship gone sour in the ugliest of ways, followed quickly by my dad's bypass surgery. The year progressed at its glacial pace, adding heartbreak to sadness as a lovely neighbor, a former boss and my uncle passed away. Of course, the year ended with two resounding crashes as my job changed dramatically (never for the better) and a tsunami showed us that you really should live for the moment. I've not even made my annual pilgrimage to London and Iceland.

It wasn't all bad: that sour relationship is now a solid friendship; I got to go see the west coast by train; I got to know that in my heart I'm not just a drone.

And so I look towards 2005 with some hope and not a little trepidation. As bad as 2004 was, 2005 is going to be better. I think there are going to be good things on the relationship front, on the job front and on the location front. There's a lot brewing, maybe it winds up being nothing, but the journey is going to be worth taking this year.

Cheers to all of you, and may you all have a great new year.

Posted by Samer at 05:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tsunami Relief

I'm sure you've all seen the destruction and loss of life that a 9.0 earthquake unleashed when it started a tsunami. That killer wave has claimed over 100,000 lives and destroyed cities, islands and communities.

If you've got a spare few dollars, I'd suggest helping out. Amazon is taking payments for the Red Cross, and Google and Apple have links on their home pages to disaster relief organizations.

A small donation might make someone's life a little better and end this awful year on a positive note.

Posted by Samer at 02:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A book and a Phone Call

bOINGbOING publish the harrowing story of Pearl, a guy who is living in Thailand:

Our house was 150 feet from the beach, that is THE hardest hit beach in Thailand. As water rushed into our house and then ripped open the second story wall, I leapt off our second story roof and swam and swam and swam, riding the wave deep into the jungle, as it destroyed building after building, ripping up trees and spinning diesel trucks into the air.

It is a very moving tale of survival and quick thinking. A very personal look at the death and destruction wrought by this tsunami.

Pearl, an American citizen, tried to get the help of his government, our government, in an effort to get out of there:

The U.S. goverment offered me a phone call, a toothbrush, a paperback book and a temporary passport. No hotel, no food, no flight home. I was told that I could take out a loan if I could list three people who would vouch for me at home. The process would only take a few days. I was alone, injured (superficially - but I sure did look bad), no possesions, no money and my government offered my a book.

"A phone call, a toothbrush, a paperback book and a temporary passport." Seriously, is that the best we can do for our people? Ostensibly, even when you live overseas, you pay taxes with the idea that your government will come and help you when the shit hits the fan. A paperback novel is not help.

Maybe (hopefully) there's another reason for this than plain idiocy, but you never know.

Posted by Samer at 02:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 20, 2004

A little chill

Wow, this really is an Arctic cold front! Currently it is 11°F (-12°C) with a wind chill of -8°F (-22°C). Even I think that's cold. And we did get a dusting of snow, but I am sure it blew away.

Posted by Samer at 08:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 18, 2004

Winter is Here

"ARCTIC COLD FRONT SWEEPS EAST OF THE CWA SUNDAY EVENING..." reads the long term forecast discussion, today. You know what that means? Cold. And lots of it. Teens for Monday morning.

Finally, winter is here.

Posted by Samer at 05:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 09, 2004

Law School

I have two good friends who are in law school. One, AB, recently started blogging on her PIEL blog, which I talked about a few days ago. The other, law-rah as she calls herself, also writes a blog called WonL. They've both been prepping for finals, and they are both a little stressed by the immersive experience of studying.

On WonL, law-rah's been keeping a list of things that she's learnt while studying (for the record: I love that word). An example or two:

4) my roommate really doesn't care about UCC 2-207..but found Williams v. Walker Thomas extremely interesting (could've been due to my theatrical performance of replevin...perhaps as an encore, I will throw large pieces of lumber off of the 2nd floor at my other roommate below)

11) I think I have an unhealthy obsession with collecting markers and highlighters

I've found the series amusing, myself. Check them all out. Of course, I think number 15's pretty good.

Good luck to both of them, and hope they kick some law school ass.

Posted by Samer at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 04, 2004

"We're Moving"

I thought it slightly amusing and not a little bit ironic to get one of those "We're Moving" postcards. What's so amusing or ironic about it, you ask? It was from my post office. They are moving across the street. And while they are happy to tell you to give them a month's notice for moving, this arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and the move is today.

Posted by Samer at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 02, 2004

The ABlog

One of the coolest and funnest people I know, my friend AB, has gone out and got herself a blog: "PielBlog...My Life In Interesting Tidbits". Piel, she explains in her first entry, is public interest environmental law, in case you were wondering.

I like the way she writes, and I like that I can keep up with her more often. If you like following someone through the trials of law school, reading about some law stuff and seeing how passionate she is about the things that matter to her, then take a look.

Posted by Samer at 09:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 27, 2004

Smoke

After being out on the west coast, where smokers are mostly shunned (or at least forbidden from smoking indoors), I've found my reaction to smoke to be rather strong. Last night, at Dr. Dremo, I couldn't take it as it made me feel ill. I had to leave, it was so bad.

The odd thing is, a few days ago in Vancouver, I went to a place called the Cambie which had a smoking room. We spent a good deal of the evening in the smoking room, and it didn't really have an affect.

And Dremo was not the only place where I had this... When I got back on Thanksgiving I went to Whitlow's and the smoke there really got to me. Wonder if this is a trend.

Posted by Samer at 07:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 23, 2004

Ed Crane

Here I was wandering the Pike Place Market in Seattle when I spotted a nice view out a window. I walked down there, and an affable older gentleman was sitting sipping on some coffee and reading the paper. He welcomed me with a booming voice. It was the sort of voice you don't forget, you know? Deep and authoritative. A broadcast voice.

He asked where I was from, and I told him "DC". He smiled and told me he knew DC quite well. He'd been the traffic reporter for a bunch of radio stations, including WTOP, WMAL and WRC. We talked for about ten minutes, and he shared the story of the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue, and how he basically broke that story that sad morning in 1995.

It was pretty cool to hear his stories and remember the old days in radio and TV. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Crane.

Posted by Samer at 03:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 21, 2004

Traveling Alone

I enjoy traveling alone, at least I have prior to this trip. I've met up with some friends on this trip and it's been a lot of fun. But as soon as they leave, I get a sad feeling.

I don't know why, but I'm really down when alone, lately. Probably has to do with all the stress recently, but I really have been craving human contact. In some ways, while this is a fun trip and I am enjoying myself, I sort of want to be home.

Posted by Samer at 11:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 14, 2004

One thing

If there's only one thing you should do before you die, well, I'd highly recommend putting walking across the Golden Gate Bridge up there.

I took a bus to Golden Gate Park on Saturday. Hopped on a different bus and wound up at the foot of the most magnificent piece of architecture and design, all in one. To see this monster of a bridge spanning across the Golden Gate is almost as moving as seeing the aurora. A living, breathing monument to what we, as a people, can do when we decide we need to. The whole thing was built in 52 months. It opened in 1937. 1937.

I walked across the bridge and took some good pictures, and when I got to the other side, I climbed up into the Marin County Headlands. I stood there, with most of the bridge beneath me. One of the most beautiful and amazing sites that I've ever seen.

Posted by Samer at 04:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 11, 2004

Fly Naked

Security was a breeze at Dulles. Well, the line moved quickly.

Honestly, there's just no dignity in flying anymore. You want to know why airlines are losing money? Just go to a major airport an see the cattle call that airport security is. "We recommend you take off your shoes because we're scanning for thickness," said the TSA drone. What the fuck does that mean? Is there an approved thickness for shoes? Did she mean we're scanning for explosives? Say what you mean, dammit.

So, shoes, jackets, sweatshirts, belts, laptops, keys, phones and everything else gets tossed on the belt. slowly, ever so slowly, it moves past the disinterested x-ray technician. Oooh! She's spotted something. A small keychain Swiss Army knife. These things are dangerous items. Very very dangerous. So much so, the supervisor had to be called over to explain to the fine gentleman what a grave danger to national security it was to bring that along. For crying out loud, you can't cut through duct tape with that thing, much less take over an airliner.

His options were to have it confiscated or to go back out and check it into the hold. Why is there not an option to fill out a card and have the item shipped to you, at your expense if need be? Why is there forfeiture without a trial, without a judicial order? Why are airports special?

Well, mostly it is because what I've heard referred to as "security theater". The visual of trained officials doing something, anything, is apparently what we want. Meanwhile, we're not any more secure, just a lot more harassed. Airlines are sinking into mounds of debt and when they go under, some of the blame surely has to go at the feet of the "security at any cost" crowd.

One woman, who was getting dressed after going through the line, noticed me doing the same and said, "we should come naked to the airport, next time." Not a pretty image.

Posted by Samer at 07:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2004

Whirlwind Vacation

I'm off to see the west tomorrow. I'm headed to San Francisco then to Eugene and Portland, OR and Seattle before winding up in Vancouver. All this, and I'll be home for a very late Thanksgiving day dinner.

Follow along here and over at the new photo blog to see where I am.

Posted by Samer at 09:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 08, 2004

Let Go

Again, clarity comes to me from a friend and a song. My friend Nikki gives me the best slaps of reality of anyone, and I sought her out and talked to her for a bit this weekend. And just as things were becoming clear(er), Frou Frou come along with the song "Let Go":

So, let go
Jump in
Oh well, what you waiting for?
It's all right
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So, let go
Just get in
Oh, it's so amazing here
It's all right
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown

There is beauty in everything. Sometimes, the breakdown is even more beautiful. Everything devolves, everything entropies, why not see the beauty in that?

Posted by Samer at 09:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 06, 2004

ecto

I've been blogging a lot, lately, and you might have wondered why. To be honest, it comes down to one thing: ease of use.

Blogging through a web interface can be tiresome: you have to log in, wait for the server to load stuff, etc. And, no matter how nice the tools you use are, like MovableType, the interface is still not all you would like it to be.

Enter ecto. This is a very well thought out and written application that lets you blog on your desktop and does the rest of the stuff in the background. It supports a number of blog publishing tools, it has a very simple and nice interface, it will do linking and images for you, it will let you add your own markup and HTML. I'm sure there's tons more features that I've just not figured out yet.

Ecto's got a free two week trial, so go try it out. I've been using mine for a week or so, since I noticed it on bOINGbOING, and I just paid the $18 for it. This software really rocks. Oh, it it even works on Windows.

Posted by Samer at 10:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 05, 2004

Too Low to Find My Way

This has been the week from hell. Without a doubt, this has been the worst week of my life.

I recently saw "Garden State", and I bought the soundtrack. On it is a great song from Thievery Corporation called "Lebanese Blonde". The first bit of the song is:

Too low to find my way
Too high to wonder why
I've touched this place before
Somewhere in another time
Now I can hear the sun
The clouds drifting through the blinds
A half a million thoughts
Are flowing through my mind

A half a million thoughts are flowing through my mind. What a shitty year.

Posted by Samer at 10:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Death in a connected world

On the DCRTV site the other day was a notice that a college buddy had passed away. If it wasn't for one of my coworkers seeing that someone at WJLA had passed away, we might not have known for a while.

Mike Bayus was a funny, great guy who really took his job, even when it was at a campus TV station, seriously. He always had a smile and he would sing various TV theme songs all the time. He was a great guy, and it is a loss to everyone that knows him.

The really sad thing is that I never really stayed in touch. I'd hear his news every now and again. But, while I knew he was at WJLA, which is only a mile down the road, I didn't even know he lived in Arlington. It is a shame that, in this interconnected world, we often don't have the time to stay in touch with the good people of the world.

Rest in peace, Mike.

Posted by Samer at 10:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One Twelve

I really never thought that this week could get worse. It did. Tremendously worse.

There's some seriously bad work shit going on, and it is driving my stress levels very very high. How high? I went and saw the doctor today for a regular visit. He was a bit concerned that the nurse measured my resting heart rate at 120 and he got 100. He decided to do an EKG.

He found nothing wrong, but my resting heart rate was about 112. For those playing along at home, that's fucking high for resting. That's what it should be if you run.

His explanation, after I told him what had happened this week, was that it was stress. Stress from my job, my life and this election. In that order. That should tell you what a shitty week it has been.

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A few funny (sorta) links

They'd be really funny if they didn't sum up how I feel.

This site tries to apologize to the world in pictures. If that link fails, try this one.

You want to move to Canada? Did the sites I put up the other day not do it for you? Try marrying a Canadian. That could be fun, too.

Lastly, I saw this on Flickr the other day, and loved it. Kinda sums up this election.

Posted by Samer at 10:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 03, 2004

Where to?

Excellent tongue in cheek (or maybe not) article in Harper's on how to emigrate from the US and your options on November 3.

From "Electing to Leave":

Perhaps the most elegant solution is to join a country that exists only in one’s own—or someone else’s—imagination. Many such virtual nations can be found on the Internet, and citizenships in them are easy to acquire.

Kinda fun to consider. For those really looking at going to Canada, check out the CIC Canada site. Perhaps Scandinavia is more your speed? No problem.

Posted by Samer at 10:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Depressed and angry

This election has me depressed and angry. Why? From all accounts, it seems that a good portion of the country are bigots and want the government to be your nanny. Another large portion seem to be morons, easily frightened into voting for someone who has done more to make them insecure. There also seems to be a rather large and fanatical fundamentalist Christian population. You know what the difference is between Muslim and Christian fundamentalists? Let me know.

I also think there's some really bad stuff going on in various election locations, including vote rigging. No, I don't have proof and I don't know if it would have made a difference. But the story of the numbers remains to be told.

The one heartening thing is that a lot of people did go out and exercise their right to vote. Yay us.

Posted by Samer at 10:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 02, 2004

The Election

This is it. Time to vote. Do what you have to get to a polling place. Be heard.

Why? Because this is the most important election we're going to see in our lifetime. If Bush wins, the course of our government, and the world, is going to a turn for the worse. His party and the country will move to the right, the conservative Christian fundamentalist right. If Kerry wins, the Republicans will have an internal civil war. One the fundamentalists can't win. Oh, and this country might actually become secure and have a good name among our allies, again.

I'm heartened by the statistics that Electoral-Vote.com has up today. Kerry gets 298 votes, with 270 needed to win. I think his methods are fair enough, but polls are polls. We get the final poll tomorrow. The thing I did enjoy on EV today was finding out that the Votemaster was none other than Andrew Tanenbaum, famous for Minix and other computer science stuff.

He wrote a great piece on why he did this:

Let me tell you a short story. When I was in elementary school, the school was plagued by a bully. He was the biggest, strongest kid around and would beat up anyone he didn't like. We were all exceedingly polite to his face, but hated his guts behind his back. One day he was chasing some poor kid and he tripped and skidded a considerable distance, scraping his face on the rough asphalt of the playground. He was bleeding and in pain, screaming for help. But nobody came to help him. We all just walked away. George Bush is the world's playground bully. The world sees him--and by inference, America--as arrogant, self-centered, and mean. I spoke to Americans from dozens of countries at the DA caucus. Everyone told the same story--the world hates America. When talking to foreigners, I can tell them about the Bill of Rights or freedom or World War II, or whatever I want, but all they see is this big, stupid, arrogant, playground bully and a stolen election in Florida last time. I think America deserves better. I want America to be respected in the world again, and John Kerry can restore the respect America deserves.

So, go out and vote. Do the right thing. I hope it does not end in court.

Posted by Samer at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2004

Redskins Lose! Go Kerry!

So, apparently, for the last 80 years or so, if the Redskins lost the game before an election, the incumbent lost the election. I hope the Supreme Court sees it that way.

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October 12, 2004

Vote for Change Concert

Well, my ears are still ringing.

I got a call early yesterday from a friend of mine wanting to know if I wanted to go to the hottest ticket in town, America Coming Together's Vote For Change concert. This thing sold out in about 30 mins. Seats were $175 and down. And the talent on display was pretty amazing. Of course I wanted to go. And for free, too.

Our seats were great, just to the right of the stage and about 14 rows up. I could see the artists on stage without the need to squint, look through binoculars or at the big screens. And the speakers were right on top of my head.

It was, no doubt, the best assemblage of talent I've ever seen on one stage. I'm not the biggest fan of music out there, and, in fact, I dislike some of the bands that were to play. I was really there only for R.E.M.

The concert started at 7p with John Mellencamp, who really really rocked. He was quite strong and really brought the crowed up to cheering and chanting. He was followed by Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds who had the shortest set of the evening, singing "If I Could Change the World".

Jackson Brown, Bonnie Raitt and Keb' Mo' did a trio of songs together and were followed by hip-hopping Jurassic 5.

R.E.M. then hit the stage and just brought down the house. At one point they had Eddie Vedder come up and play a song with them, and followed that up with Bruce Springsteen singing along to "Man on the Moon". This was a great set and I was thrilled to see it and would have been happy to go home at this point. But there was more. Much more.

Pearl Jam, and their brand of grunge, was up next -- they had Tim Robbins (yeah, him) up on stage to sing. I am not a fan of Pearl Jam, but they did rock. I can't say I'll go out and buy any of their albums, but they were pretty damn good. Keb' Mo' on the other hand...

James Taylor came out for a couple of songs, but was not as good as I would have expected. He brought the Dixie Chicks up for a couple of duets, and then they took over solo. They were pretty good.

The Dave Matthews Band, another band that I'm not big on, blew the roof off the joint. They really rocked, and I was impressed by the quality of the musicians with him. Matthews was a bit drowned out and incomprehensible.

So, the concert is supposed to be over at 11.30, but around 11.10, the Boss came along. Springsteen and the E Street Band. Holy shit is he good. Still. I've always liked Springsteen, but never enough to be into his music or go to his concerts. I can see now why some people think him god-like. He did do a funny televangilist bit, exhorting people to "change". It was very good. He brought out John Fogarty for a couple of songs and then Michael Stipe. Amazing.

The concert finally ended a little after 12.30. It was broadcast on the Sundance channel, live, and will supposedly be run again. Worth catching if you have Sundance. If not, Rob Glaser was apparently kind enough to host it all on RealNetworks: vfcfinale.com

Not sure if it still plays, but it is worth watching if you like some of the musicians.

As a final note, Joe Lockheart, former Clinton spokesman, was sitting behind me and had a married woman hanging all over him (her husband did not seem to mind too much). And I ran into, literally, Ben Stiller as I was leaving the men's room and he was going in.

Thanks, PT!

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September 27, 2004

At the Car Wash

Took the car for a much needed wash today. It was a nice day -- cloudy, cool, nice breeze. The car goes into one end of the tunnel and by the time it comes out, clean as a whistle, the rain has started.

Story of my life!

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September 25, 2004

Regis Sings

So, I'm minding my own business, watching a nice little show on the television, when I am slapped across the face with an ad for something called "When You're Smiling".

Apparently, Regis Philbin, not content with his shtick in the morning or with harassing us with "Is that your final answer?", he's taken to crooning out 12 classics.

You know the best part of this $18.95 (+$4.95 s/h) offer is? The free gift, of course: "FREE Collectible Regis Philbin Photo (4" X 6") With Paid Order!"

Posted by Samer at 10:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 13, 2004

Life

My uncle, who was suffering from pancreatic cancer, passed away quickly and rather unexpectedly last night.

All signs had shown an improvement and a good response to the treatment. Over the weekend things started to deteriorate, and he passed away last night. Apparently he had a blood infection and could not fight it off.

He was a very kind man, and his family just wonderful people. I wish them the best in his absence. He will be missed.

Posted by Samer at 08:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2004

Thirty Five

Who would have thunk it?

Thirty five years old, and I never would have imagined making it this far. This last year has been filled with love, hope, despair, triumphs and tragedies. To good friends, new and old, a hearty thank you for keeping me sane (well, sane enough).

Cheers!

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August 11, 2004

After the last one, is Toronto really that far?

I met someone new last week. We met at a bar and we hit it off instantly. Lots of fun and games were had over the following week but, alas, she had to go back home.

Yes, that's right: Another long distance one. I know, I know. But, honestly, I did not go searching this time. I was just at a party when she hit me over the head. Apparently I also struck a chord, seeing that she decided to skip a couple more cities on her tour and hang out with me.

All this a mere week before I turn another year older.

Posted by Samer at 09:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 05, 2004

Spam via the mail

I'm going through the mail the other day, and in between the tons of advertisements for clothing stores and credit cards, I see a letter from India. It has a 400 Rupee stamp on it and the return address is obviously from a stamp and says "POST BOX No. 122, AJMER(INDIA)". The other side, the side that does not have the stamp, has my name, address and zip plus four, as well as a "BY SEA/PRINTED MATTER" stamp.

I open it up, curious as to what it might contain, as I no longer know anyone in India since my cousin moved back to London. Inside were four papers and an envelope. The envelope was addressed to "M. Syed Fakhar Rahman Burraqui Chisty" at the above address.

My favorite thing in the envelope was the small yellow piece of paper. On one side is some Arabic script text that I still can't make out and the other side has, well, it has this:

Why Delay on your Problems & Miseries ? If you are worldly unhappy like loss of business, not getting success in your family life by shortage of love & peace or your children misguided by your relative and enemies and not successful in Education or Driving and you suffered from disease and any type of Jadu, Tona, Bhoot Aseb not marriage of your children any suit is going on court against you, you may kindly contact me in Telephone in connection of your problems and tell me your full details. My Phone are :- 0091-145-2431849 & 0091-145-2423759 Mobile No. 0091-98290-09817. I shall do the needfull and try to solve you all problem by prayer, strong Tawiz and type of purified treatment to follow the path of Islam. as my ancestral who solved all problems of suffering people since long time through the meditation and spiritual blessings of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz (R.A). If you are ignored by children please let me know.

I was quite amused by this and for reasons I don't quite get. I might frame that little paper, too. I wonder how many times it ran through Babelfish before it came out that poor?

Posted by Samer at 08:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 13, 2004

Offline

I got hit by a massive blog-spam attack a week and a half ago. My host's server was choked by the attack and they locked me out of my blog.

I finally got everything running again today, and deleted the spam. But it is a pretty big problem.

Of course, in the time I was offline, I had a bunch of stuff to write and now I can't remember what any of it was. Bah!

Posted by Samer at 09:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 23, 2004

A Special Person

There are people who enter our lives daily. Some are there for a fleeting moment. Others make a lasting impression. Some are mere acquaintances, others the closest of friends.

But every now and then, someone enters your life and you know they are a special someone. The mere mention of their name makes you smile. And the longer you go without direct contact, the more you crave it.

Last Summer I met just such a person. We dated for the three weeks she was in town, and then we tried a long distance relationship. She expanded my mind. Hell, she blew my mind.

She showed me that I could love again. She made me see that a long distance relationship should not be feared. She was a challenge to my routine, in the best way possible. She was astonishing. She was "crazy fun".

Why do I bring this up? Well, I was having a shitty day. Nothing seems to be going right in a lot of ways. Then, out of the blue, someone IMs me to tell me that we know someone in common.

They make me guess at who it is, and eventually I figure it out. And this person mentioned that she had been talking about me, saying nice things about me, recently. We've been out of touch, and apparently this conversation happened when we hadn't talked in months.

I know it is silly and strange, but this cheered me right up. I everyone can have someone like that in their lives. Someone that brings a smile to your face at the mere mention of their name.

Thanks 'A'.

Posted by Samer at 09:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pancreatic Cancer

I found out yesterday that my uncle has pancreatic cancer. I'm very saddened by this news.

I just wanted to share a great site, which has helped me as I learn more about this type of cancer. It is the Pancreatic Cancer pages from Johns Hopkins Pathology. The site really has a lot of very good information for those who need it.

I'm keeping my uncle and family in my thoughts.

Posted by Samer at 12:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 11, 2004

Potential

A piece of paper
A slice of nothing
Wood, pulped and bleached

Thinner than a millimeter
Wider than all of history
Longer than the breath you take

Ink slices the white
Laying down the path
The story begins

The paper holds it all
Every possibility
Every feeling

You ask me
What I see in you
Why I love you so

You are my paper
I am your ink
The potential is great

Posted by Samer at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 07, 2004

Joy and Sorrow

Gibran Khalil Gibran is probably best known for writing The Prophet. That book, and his others, are very moving, spiritual books.

What most people don't know about Gibran, though, is that he was also an artist. A painter. In 1997, I made the pilgrimage to Bsharri, where his museum is located. There, I saw his manuscripts, his artifacts, his tomb. But what struck me most was his art.

It was striking and beautiful and disturbed. It was obvious some of it was done by a man in love, maybe broken hearted. Or, just possibly, I was trying to read something into it. One particular art work resonated deeply with me.

The painting is called "Joy and Sorrow". It features two people, a man and a woman, sitting on a rock, a boulder. The sky is a mix of blue clarity and grey cloudiness. The earth is made of the darker tones of blues, blacks and browns. The two are possibly on a beach.

The woman sits on the right of the rock. She faces us, comfortable on a reddish blanket. She leans on the man, her right shoulder on his, her red hair almost touching his head. She is mostly white with some grey in the shadows. She is smiling, happy as can be.

The man sits on the left side of the image, looking crowded onto his sliver of rock. His left shoulder faces us, his face looks down with a sad expression. The dark brown hair is the most color this man has seen, he is more grey than white. More sad than happy.

The two of them are bound together. Tied at the wrist. Joy and Sorrow, Sorrow and Joy. Inseparable. That hit me like a ton of bricks.

Today, I look at that painting every now and then. It mirrors how I feel often. Chained to the red headed "Joy", waiting for my stint as "Sorrow" to be over. Those bonds will never break, but I keep hoping that joy will find its way to the other side of the rock.

But does that mean sorrow will have to move over, as well?

Posted by Samer at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 06, 2004

The Good Doctor

My good friend 'L' did her dissertation defense on Friday and she passed.

For the last few weeks, I have been helping her with her data and giving her constant encouragement. I've seen her become giddy with joy when some complicated test on her data resulted in something unexpected. I've seen her become morose when she would see the enormity of the task ahead of her.

But I believed in her. I knew she had the data, she had the knowledge. And I knew she could put the two together. I stayed up with her, sometimes until 5a, sometimes until 8a. I wrote programs for her, encouraged her. Many a sleepless night ensued.

But all of it was worth it. Worth it to see the text message saying "I passed!". Worth it to know I had a small role in helping a friend conquer a big challenge. But what really made it worth it was talking to her the last couple of nights. She not only thanked me for the help with the data, saying that words cannot describe how much she was thankful for my help and for me being in her life.

She told me she could not have done it without my help. As flattered as I am, I doubt she's right on that count. But then she said the most unexpected, most emotional thing. She told me that she took strength from my encouragement. That she was able to continue when she thought all was lost, in part, because I believed in her.

I don't know about you, but that is a powerful statement. That's something amazing to me. Someone, my friend, on the verge of giving up, took strength from what I could offer her. That's just too powerful for words.

I wish, still wish, I could have been there on Friday. She did a great job without my being there, but I wish I could have witnessed it. The culmination of 28 years of education.

Congratulations, Dr. Van. Congratulations, my friend.

Posted by Samer at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 03, 2004

Googlewar/Googlefight

When you search with Google they tell you about how many results there are. Well, there are two sites that take that information and let you find out the winner between two choices.

Who wins between Googlewar and GoogleFight? Why don't you go and find out...

Posted by Samer at 09:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 01, 2004

A Giant Has Passed

I found out today that Joe Rizzo passed away May 27.

Joe was the News Operations Manager at WTTG's "Ten O'Clock News" when I was working for Fox News Network. When Fox laid us off, Rizzo, as he was known, immediately offered to hire me as a freelance editor.

He was a joy to work for: sarcastic, funny, a great teacher and occasionally hot headed. He took pride in helping out people new to the world of television, guiding them and bringing out the best in them. Rizzo, more than anyone, taught me how to get it done under pressure.

He was a master at everything he did, winning a couple of Emmys as a producer. He started his at WTTG when it was still part of the DuMont Network and worked there for over 40 years. He produced, he edited, he kept that station on the air through sheer will power.

No one who knew Joe could imagine anything going wrong that he could not fix. I thought of him often, though I've not talked to him in years. He was a great force in my life, and I will miss him.

Posted by Samer at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hives

I'm covered in hives. Apparently an allergic reaction to something. No clue what that something is.

For food, I had pineapple, cashews, mint chocolates and a fried chicken sandwich. I ate pineapple all last week. Cashews I love and eat regularly, but this was a new brand. The same thing with the chocolates, never had these before. And I have that chicken sandwich once a week from the same place.

I also had a couple of Advil because my back hurt like hell. Not been a good day for me.

The doctor said it does not have to be something I ate, but I can't imagine what else it might be. There's nothing that I can think of that is different in my atmosphere. Or anything that I came in touch with that I've not been in touch with before.

This is a miserable way to spend the day.

Posted by Samer at 10:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 27, 2004

Brood X

That's what they call the cicadas that come out every 17 years.

They are finally here. Not quite as massive and impressive as I was expecting. I still want the skies to darken with the critters. And I want to hear their singing.

At least I am not cicada obsessed like some people are.

Posted by Samer at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 19, 2004

Metro Sucks (four in a continuing series)

Heard a new Metro ad on the radio. A guy is obviously agitated about his date being late. She tells him a sob story about not finding parking. When he says he had no problems getting there, she says something about him having magical powers.

So the guy responds that he took Metro and got there early. Fine so far. Then he adds, "I wouldn't call it magic". Right. Cause it sucks.

Why, when they are millions in debt, are they spending money on these awful ads? And why are they spending money adding a holding bar on the second generation Breda trains?

The new trains have these holding bars that stretch from the pole closest to the inside of the car at the far doors for about three feet. So, since we don't want cars that don't have the same aesthetic, it seems they are now retrofitting the older cars.

If they are going to make changes, they should be changes that make getting on and off the train easier. Like moving the poles away from the doors. And putting poles on the backs of ever seat so people will move inside.

Sigh.

Posted by Samer at 08:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 16, 2004

Cicada Watch

Well, I've just seen my first live one. It is hanging on the screen of my window. Has been for hours.

Prepare for Armageddon folks. The cicadas are here.

Posted by Samer at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 14, 2004

Directions

I went to a BBQ joint this evening for some fine pulled pork. I got messy as all hell, covered in sauce. To the rescue comes the moist towelette. Or, as the packaging says, in three places, it is a "MOIST TOWELETTE". Huh, it actually looks better in all caps.

But, the thing that bugs me about the MOIST TOWELETTE is not the caps. Nor is it the thanks they give for my patronage (how does one patronize a MOIST TOWELETTE anyway?), or the reason to use the MOIST TOWELETTE, nor even the "pleasing lemon scented lotion".

What gets my ire is that they have to put directions on it. I quote: "Tear open packet, unfold MOIST TOWELETTE and use." Really. Honest, that's what it says. I mean, if I need those sorts of instructions, I could probably use some help in figuring out how to use a MOIST TOWELETTE to begin with.

Posted by Samer at 08:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 12, 2004

Missing A

We dated for a very short while, a couple of months. But 'A' opened my heart and she touched my soul. Her smile was infectious and her concern for her causes was very deep.

I don't talk to her a lot these days, her law schooling and all these time zones make it a bit difficult. And I miss her, because of it.

Posted by Samer at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Metro Sucks (three in a continuing series)

So I see this ad on the side of a Metro Bus. It has a woman checking out some information on some sort of hand held device. The tag line is something along the lines of "She's Making Sure Her Red Line Train is Running On Time."

Shouldn't people expect that the trains will just run on time. Why should we need to check? Having to advertise that people do this, seems to imply that the trains don't actually run on time a good deal of the time.

Oh. Right. They don't.

Posted by Samer at 08:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2004

March for Women's Lives

I went to the March for Women's Lives today. I've not seen anything like this in the 17 years I've lived in DC. It was pretty amazing. The organizers claim 1,150,000 people. I think it was higher than the 500,000 they were expecting, just not that high.

I spotted a guy there who was wearing a T-shirt that said "I'm only here for the ladies". It was the best slogan, because it really did explain why I was there. I was there for the women in my life. The women who may need an abortion one day. The ones who might become the victims of violence.

But I was there for the ones that have been through these things. I have a couple of friends that have had abortions and far too many who were raped or assaulted. I was there for them: to honor them, their choices and their pain.

I was there to help ensure that when others go through what they did, they will not find it as difficult. That they will be able to get the treatments they want without the stigma. That they can find help when they need it, not after it is too late. That they can get honest answers from practitioners that care about them, not about staying on the right side of the law.

I hope the people who were there today remember one thing: they must vote. Protests marches are great at raising awareness and letting people know you are pissed off. But nothing changes unless people vote. And if it means getting rid of a popular local congressman, so be it. If it means dumping a president in the middle of a war, so be it.

Vote so that other don't have to go through the pain my friends went through.

Posted by Samer at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 21, 2004

Death

One of my neighbors passed away last night.

A stroke. While she slept.

We talked every now and again. She lived on the other side of the building. I had not seen her since December. She had been in California, wintering. Ran into her a couple of weeks ago.

We had a meandering conversation. Like all of our conversations, it was about nothing in particular. Jobs, life, travel. She looked and sounded fine, life was treating her well, it always seemed to.

She had been in a wheel chair as long as I've known her. She never let that slow her down. It always seemed like a natural extension of her.

She was always friendly with people, helping folks out. She knew everything that was going on in the neighborhood. She was, in many senses, an activist.

Susan will be missed.

Posted by Samer at 10:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 20, 2004

Who Turned on the Heat?

When I left Maine yesterday it was a balmy 46° F. By afternoon it was 91° here in Washington. For the record, I thought it was too hot while hiking in Maine when it was 61° the night before.

Posted by Samer at 07:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 04, 2004

Daylight Saving Time

Time to save some daylight. Hope you remembered to set your clocks forward. Check out this cool site for all the low down on why we do the daylight saving dance and why it is Daylight Saving Time not Daylight Savings Time.

Posted by Samer at 10:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 01, 2004

Transportation

There was a 30 mile backup today on the Beltway. 30 miles.

Let me put that in perspective for you: The Beltway is just over 60 miles around. Just about half of it was backed up.

You want to know the reason? Rain.

When did we turn into Southern California?

Posted by Samer at 10:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 23, 2004

Sedna

So, NASA's got us a new planet. People who were bitching that Pluto is too small to be a planet (and I was on that side) were already bitching that Sedna is too small to be a planet.

Well, planetary scientist Alan Stern has written a good article explaining why it should be a planet after all. And you know what? I am convinced. Gravity does rule.

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March 20, 2004

'Would you erase me?'

I saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" last night. I highly recommend this movie. If you want to know more about it, take a look at Yahoo! or at IMDB.

This movie is a powerful and very thought provoking movie about two people who try to erase each other from their memories. In this movie, that is done through a medical procedure that this doctor does. We follow as the main character comes to grips with what it means to lose all of those memories.

It is brilliantly done. Well written, well directed, well acted. It fucks with your head and it plays with your emotions. It is more romantic than comedy.

Having said all that, the question in the subject line is posed in one of the posters for the movie.

If you could erase someone from your memory, would you?

Everything about them would be gone. Every moment. Every painful memory. Every single bad thing they ever did to you. Every bit of fun you ever had. Every happy thought. Every lesson learned, every tear cried, every laugh. All of it gone. Nothing left but emptiness.

Would you do it?

My first instinct is to do it. There are two women who I let into the depths of my heart and they hurt me in different ways and at different times. One of them, the pain was so deep it was almost fatal.

But I had some great memories with the both of them. I had some wonderful times. I learned some amazing things. And all of those good things, the things that got diminished because of the pain, would be gone. I don't want that.

And one of these women, still in my heart, has fixed things. So much so, I consider her one of my best friends. And, while I would be able to move on and find someone else to give my heart to, I would not have my best friend.

So, my long winded answer is "no". I would not want the pain gone, because I would also lose so much more than the pain.

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March 19, 2004

Mmmm. Meat.

Tasty.

That made me laugh. Now I am craving meat.

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Gay Apocalypse

I don't often post political content on this blog, because most politics these days just pisses me off. But I read this last week and I just have to share.

The column, by SFGate's Mark Morford, is titled "Where Is My Gay Apocalypse? Over 3,500 gay marriages and, what, no hellfire? I was promised hellfire. And riots. What gives?"

My favorite bit:

I believe I have been misled. I was told repeatedly in extra-glowing terminology by multiple raging Bible-quoting drones that The Good Book expressly forbids gay marriage and gay sex, and to engage in either spells imminent doom and instant social bedlam and there are specific verses all about it.

Is this true? Are there actual verses decrying gay marriage? Are they anything like those other Biblical verses, about the rules and regulations surrounding marriage that are making the rounds on the Net right now? Real verses. Actual verses. Verses o' sanctimonious fun. Have you seen them?

Like this: "Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take multiple concubines in addition to his wife or wives." (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21).

Or maybe: "A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be stoned to death." (Deut 22:13-21) Isn't that cute? Isn't quoting Bible verse fun? Ask your local pastor about that one.

And later, this parenthetical:

(Oh, and while we're at it, God also really hates shrimp. Maybe you didn't know. Shrimp are evil, as are all shrimp eaters. Clams, too. Hey, it's in the Bible. You can look it up. Why the Right is attacking homosexuals in love and not, say, Red Lobster, remains a mystery.)

Go read the rest, it is quite entertaining.

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March 18, 2004

A Cigar

Remember the poem I wrote a couple of weeks ago? A lot of people told me they thought it was about a woman. About 'L' to be exact.

It isn't. Honestly. It is about a cigar. An Avo XO Intermezzo, to be exact.

Yeah, I know all about a cigar not being a cigar. Shut up.

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March 16, 2004

She's Baaack, part deux

Y'all remember Skarlet, don't you? She's the one who inspired me to blog.

Well, she's not been doing too well recently and has been doing her blog in an on-again, off-again fashion. Hopefully, she's back to being on-again for a while. And hopefully she's doing much much better.

Go read her stuff, she's brilliant.

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March 15, 2004

In case you missed it...

... I'm back and I've got an attitude.

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The Thick White Line

If you are going to drive, you need to know a few things. One of those things you should know is why there are all sorts of lines and markings on the roads.

Now, you might think they are there because someone had a lot of extra paint and decided to have some fun. You'd be an idiot.

You might actually know that they are there to tell you something about where you car can and should go. If you ignore that knowledge, then you'd be a fucking idiot.

Let me be perfectly clear: Someone put that thick white line there so that when the pretty little light turns red, you will stop your car before it. That way, the nice little pedestrians won't have to walk around you and walk in the middle of the freaking road staring down on coming traffic.

Now, if after all that you still can't figure it out, then you must be a Washington area "professional" driver.

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February 14, 2004

Pleasure

I begin to unwrap you
Tightly wound, your thin outer layer unravels slowly
Your scent, earthy and musty, teases my nostrils
The luscious brown body, revealed to my touch
Firm to the fingers, yet yielding

I light a fire under you
White hot, the flames tease your very core
Your glow, red and bright, ignites my senses
Flickering red flames, brought on by my touch
Hot to the skin, yet so delicious

My lips touch you
Tenderly soft, the wind opens your heart
Your breath, full and dark, fills my soul
Wisps of smoke, teased from your depths
Sweet to the core, such a bitter end

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January 25, 2004

What to do?

What do you do when you feel you are skidding toward depression?

What do you do when, despite the obvious truth, you feel like life has handed you a bum deal? What do you do when you have been in a rut for weeks? What do you do when nothing excites you any more? What do you do when you are just going through the motions because it is easier than giving up?

What do you do when self preservation clashes with your sense of not wanting to do anything at all? What do you do when your coping mechanisms tend to border on the self destructive? What do you do when you can't even use those self destructive things to get out of your state of mind?

How do you cope?

What do you do when the last six months seem to have been one trial and tribulation after another?

When the relationship you got into because it would be a good "summer fling" turns out to be more than that. More than you could have hoped for. And yet, due to distance and personality, a good thing had to end.

What do you do when the IRS sends you a letter because they think you made a mistake? Seeing a letter addressed from them is enough to make your heart sink. Turns out the mistake is not on my end.

What do you do when your beloved grandmother passes away? She lives too far to make the trip for the funeral. What then? Does her passing make you wonder about your future? You are aging.

What do you do when your months planned trip to Europe is about as exciting as stale bread? You want to go, you love it there. You know you are going to meet old friends and new. You know you are going to have a great time. Hell, you've even managed to drag a couple of folks with you to Iceland. And yet there is no looking forward. No excitement. It is too mundane.

What do you do when the woman of your dreams turns out to have her own dreams, and you are but a supporting actor in them? What do you do when the one thing, the one person, that has been able to instill a sense of excitement in you, turns out not to be as interested in you? What do you do when you travel 3000 miles to be with someone, only to be turned away?

What do you do when your father has to have open heart surgery? A quadruple bypass. A world away, you've never even entertained the thought he might not be around for you. Now what? Feeling mortal yet?

What do you do when your overwhelming sense of indifference starts to take its toll? When you don't cook because you can't bear to clean the kitchen? When you can't stand being home because you can't stand living in the dump you are in?

What do you do when you are alone? Friends and relatives all around, but alone. A rock. An island.

My initial thought this weekend was to lock everyone out. No one gets into my world and no one gets out. I'd clean, I'd make things better. I'd stay offline. I would lie on the couch and do nothing for hours.

I did most of those things this weekend. But I did more. I let my friends in. I let them listen to my moaning and groaning -- again. I let them cheer me up. I let them take me places. I let them worry my mind with their problems. I let them help me.

I looked back at all the things that piled up. At all that caused me pain and distress. And I realized that, in the end, I am a lucky man. The world has been kind to me in ways I don't appreciate. But even these last six months, when things have looked bad, it turned out okay in the end.

The "summer fling" was damn good and healthy. And despite how things went at the end, we are still on speaking terms and she's very much still a special person in my heart.

The IRS turned out to owe me money.

My grandma's passing and my father's operation have allowed me to focus and think about the things that matter in life. My dad is recovering quickly and well.

The trip to Europe turned out to be one of the best in years. London finally felt like home after almost two dozen trips there. It was a blast.

The woman of my dreams is now in a supporting role in my life. Despite everything, we have come through it as friends. And, in the end, that's important.

So, what to do? Listen to your friends. Let them help you. Let them guide you. Be there for them.

Thank you, all of you. I am feeling much better this weekend. Something I did not think I would.

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Snow!

Finally! It is snowing. We are supposed to get about four or five inches. And I am quite excited about it. I'll be headed out to frolic in it in a bit.

I've been waiting for a decent snow fall since my Iceland trip. We had a bit of snow when I was there, but only enough to whet my appetite.

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Plumbing

Plumbing is not hard. Well, at least not the average type of plumbing -- leaking sinks, broken faucets and the like.

But plumbing is expensive. To replace the cartridge in my sink and to replace the plastic handle it cost $55 in parts. The plastic handle (did I mention it is made of plastic?) cost $25.

But it is good to be able to use the sink again.

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January 18, 2004

Progress

Dad is doing quite well. He's out of the hospital and resting well at home. Apparently, on Thursday, he went for a run on the treadmill.

Let me repeat that: On Thursday, four days after open heart surgery, he went for a run on the treadmill.

I guess when you unblock four arteries, you get a whole lot more energy!

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January 12, 2004

Operation Success

My dad's operation went well. He's recovering in ICU right now, and should be home by Friday.

Thanks all for the well wishes.

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January 11, 2004

Quadruple Bypass

I found out yesterday that my father is in the hospital for a quadruple bypass operation. I'm worried and upset. I hope that things will go well for him.

My mom seems very calm, but neither my sister or I are. The doctor is one of the best in the country, and the operation is only supposed to take 2.5 hours, which means they expect it to be very straight forward.

My doctor cousin has heard of the doctor doing the operation. He's helped reassure me that there is little to worry about.

Keep your fingers crossed on Monday.

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All Done

Remember my "over wrought" entry about how it feels to rebuild trust? It felt like it was going to take so much longer than I wanted it to. It felt like maybe it might never get done.

Last night I talked to 'L' for hours. After my little epiphany the other day, I decided that I do trust her.

We've had long talks. She's apologized time and time again. She knows what she did that was wrong, and she has made all the right moves to show me she does not want to ever do that again.

My epiphany had to do with how I view the world versus how someone else might. And it helped me see how she could feel the way she did and not be lying to me.

And so, we are, officially, patched up. We're friends, and close friends at that. That's not to say there will not be residual issues, but we will deal with them when they come up.

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January 10, 2004

Epiphany

Sometimes you know the answers. They are staring you in the face.

You talk to a friend and she listens. She pokes and prods, asking the right questions. And while you are trying to answer, trying to make yourself clear, you hear the words you have been saying for a while and they mean something different from the last time you said them.

That's an epiphany. And it helps you decide that something is worth having. And that the problems, and the difficulties, they are just a bump on the road.

I've had an epiphany of sorts and it will help me trust again. For it is time to trust again.

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January 06, 2004

Rebuilding

Trust is an easy thing to give. You only need to be honest and decent and trust the other person. They will pick up the baton. But when that trust is damaged, it is a lot harder to rebuild.

Imagine if a tornado hit your house. An F5. Everything is gone. Destroyed. The home you lived in is nothing more than matchsticks. Your life, your future, your past, all of it seriously damaged. You are lost and confused. Everything is out of your hands, and everything is so emotional.

What can you do, but to rebuild? You can't just give up. You might be angry, dejected, sad. But you have to restart your life. It isn't easy at all. You might decide you can't live there any more. You might decide, "Screw this place, I don't need to be here." And you might be right.

But sometimes, something draws us to try and carry on our life in the same space. With the same people. And so, you must rebuild. There are steps that you have to go through, of course. They are not easy, but they get progressively easier.

You start off by picking through the destruction for those items that might have
survived. The photographic memories, the object that was given to you by someone special, the history of your life. All in the rubble.

Then, and this can emotionally kill you, you have to clean up the lot. Wipe the entire existence of your home away. Dig up the foundations that you had laid down. Remove every last thing from the grounds.

Now, finally, you have a clean slate. An old lot, an old space, familiar, yet oddly empty. You are torn along with it, but you know the worst is behind you. You know that you are ready to move forward. You have the plans, the contractors and everything ready. But you are still sad at the destruction.

Eventually, the empty lot starts to resemble a house. The foundation goes back in, the frame starts to give it shape, the walls make it solid. It takes time. The work stops when it rains or snows. The going is slow as equipment fails or supplies arrive late. Eventually it takes its final shape. Eventually.

And when it does, you stand back and look at your new house. And you are filled at once with pride and with sadness. But hope is the most palatable emotion now. Hope that you are at the end of the long painful process of rebuilding. Hope that this house will soon become home.

Comfortable now, having lived in your new house for a little while. The new furnishings are finally wearing out their newness. The place begins to feel familiar and relaxed. And just like that, it is now home. Just like you left it, but with a little too much drama to tell the grandkids.

I think that's the best analogy I can come up with for rebuilding things with 'L'. I've never been through something like this, and for a while I did not know that I could go through with it. But now that I see it as a "small steady steps" thing, rather than needing to get it all hashed out at once, it is looking manageable.

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Dive Right In

'L' and I had a great call yesterday. We talked a bit more about our feelings. About the difficulty I am finding in not questioning everything. She knows that this is not going to be an easy thing to do, and she still wants to do it. I think that shows commitment to our friendship.

I do have to learn to trust again. And she needs to keep showing me some patience and she needs to make sure that she just keeps building the trust. One little bit at a time.

But the good thing was that we were able to put those issues aside for a good part of the night and talk about other things. Mundane things. Things friends talk about. And it was good. And comfortable. There was nothing there that required trust, but it was a good testing of the waters.

Maybe it is time to dive back in. Or wade.

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January 05, 2004

Good Start

I talked to 'L' last night. We talked for two hours. We thrashed around a whole lot of things, we covered a lot of ground.

She had to go after those two hours. I was a bit disappointed that we could not keep talking, but it was good to step back and see what we had talked about. It was a bit overwhelming.

I can understand why she did what she did. Understanding it does not mean I approve of it, or think it right. It does mean that I can see the reasons behind it. And it means I can forgive her.

There is a long way to go before we can be the friends we once were. One thing is certain from our conversation last night: we both want this to work. We both want to be friends again. We both know it won't be easy at first, but we both think it will be worth it.

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January 03, 2004

Apologies

With all the stuff that's been going on in my life recently, a post titled "The Art of the Apology", on how to apologize and and how to accept an apology, struck a nerve with me:

Making an Apology

1. Be Sincere
2. Be Calm
3. Clear Up Confusion
4. Be Specific and Don't Exaggerate
5. Take Responsibility
6. Don't Take TOO Much Responsibility
7. Invite Discussion

Accepting an Apology

1. Acknowledge the Apology
2. Encourage Conversation

It is all pretty much common sense, but she really lays it out with examples and the such. Really nice and well written. Go read it if you need to apologize or are looking for an apology. That means all of you.

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December 31, 2003

Happy New Year

Hope you all have a happy and productive 2004.

Posted by Samer at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Goodbye

Our condo management team's last day is today. They have both been great managers, and good friends over the years.

I wish them well in the new year and at their new jobs.

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December 24, 2003

Ready

Well, all the help from friends is finally making me feel much better.

I am ready to forgive and ready to rebuild. There is some residual anger and more sadness. But I am ready.

I want her to ask for my friendship back, and to understand why I felt the way I did. And I hope that comes in the next few days.

But I am ready to start again.

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December 23, 2003

'Devastated'

One of my friends told me that I look "devastated" about the way my Oregon misadventure went. I can't really agree to that, but I can't really deny that I feel that way on some level.

I am sad. Very sad. Sadder still that we have not been able to talk and figure out things and what happened and see if we can salvage the friendship.

I guess I am somewhere in between devastated and sad.

Posted by Samer at 05:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Healthy As A Horse

Where does the phrase "healthy as a horse" come from anyway? Is it because unhealthy horses are shot, so any that are around must be healthy?

Regardless, according to my doctor, I am very healthy. Apparently, I am surprisingly healthy. I have a residual cough from my pneumonia, but my lung capacity is 20% better than the last visit.

I've also lost eight pounds since my last visit. This is a bit of a surprise, though I am trying to eat better and walk more. I suspected I might have lost a couple of pounds, but eight is great.

Posted by Samer at 05:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 20, 2003

Long Letters

I wrote 'L' a letter today. A very long, very draining letter.

I talked about my anger and my sadness. About my hopes and how they were dashed. It took three hours to write it. It numbers ten pages when printed out.

It is raw and full of emotion. It is me.

I hope she reads it and I hope she understands where it comes from.

I hope we can work things out.

Posted by Samer at 07:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cigars

Back in the day, whenever I would get upset, or just needed my head cleared, I would go out and take a long walk while smoking a nice cigar. I figured they were cheaper than the cost of a psychiatrist.

Last night I had a cigar for the first time in ages. Thanks to 'A', I also had some good food and good chocolate, as well as some wonderful companionship.

But the cigar was special. An Arturo Fuente Hemingway Signature Series "Short Sotry". For those of you that are not familiar with the Hemingway line, this is one of Fuente's prestige cigars. The Short Story is just that, a short, stubby cigar with a pyramidal shape. It is easy to light and easy to smoke.

All I needed was a twenty minute break in the rain. And I got it. Sweet, lovely, amazing tobacco. What a wonderful smoke that was. Head clearing and mind numbing.

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December 19, 2003

Trust

What is trust? Webster's says:

\Trust\, n. [OE. trust, trost, Icel. traust confidence, security; akin to Dan. & Sw. tr["o]st comfort, consolation, G. trost, Goth. trausti a convention, covenant, and E. true. See True, and cf. Tryst.] 1. Assured resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship, or other sound principle, of another person; confidence; reliance.

You want other definitions, and there are plenty, go here.

'L' broke my trust in her. I am no longer sure anything she's told me was told with integrity. There can be no reliance on her at this time. I trusted her implicitly. Everything was right with the world.

Every time I saw something odd or out of place, I would question her lightly on it and get answers I was OK with. But I didn't delve deep into the questions. I trusted her not to lie to me. Not to tell me things that were untrue. Not to hide things from me that she knows would hurt when finally seen.

How do you rebuild that trust? What do you do to fix that problem? How do you learn to forgive and how do you forget enough that you are not questioning everything. Right now, every statement she's made to me is clouded over with doubt. Every word she has ever said in confidence and in friendship is tarnished.

We had a fantastic five days. I don't want to look at them with doubt and remorse. I want to remember them for what they were: the best five days I've had with someone in a really long long time. The only way to do that is to rebuild. The only way to rebuild is to forgive.

I hope I have the strength to do that.

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Guilt, Anger and Forgiveness

I'm not ready to forgive her.

We talked this morning and she apologized. She was sorry, she said. Sorry for hurting me. Sorry for not being honest. Sorry for damaging my trust in her.

I'm a very forgiving person. But this time, I am not feeling very forgiving. Trust is a very very difficult thing to pin down, and we had it in droves. And now, my trust of her is diminished. How can I forgive that? Time, I'm sure, is the answer.

For now though, she feels guilty and I feel angry. Forgiveness is going to have to wait its turn.

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Scratch

Remember where I said that there was still a "chance at romance" with 'L'? Well, not only has that evaporated, but I never really had the chance.

I'm angry and confused. She touched me in ways that no one else has, and it hurts. In one sense, I was lied to. Not a big lie in the grand scheme of things: somewhere on the scale of "the check is in the mail" and "I'll call you in the morning". Bigger than "those pants don't make you look fat", but no where near as awful as "I need to tell you I am married". But it completely gutted me.

Our trust in each other was shattered. It may not be gone, but it is severely dented. I'll talk more about that in an upcoming post.

I hope we can recover though. She is still someone I like a great deal. Admire even. We had five of the best days of my life together, and I don't want to throw it away.

Posted by Samer at 01:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

My Portland Girl

Saw 'A' yesterday (for background do a search on "'A'"). She lives in Portland and is going to law school.

She called me up on her way to study for exams and we met up for ten minutes. It was a really good feeling. We managed to stay friends and it felt good.

Later she joined me for a beer before heading off to finish studying. We talked for a while, and she helped me deal with the 'L' issues. We talked about how talking on the phone seems awkward to both of us, but there was none of that in person.

Posted by Samer at 01:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

She's baaack!

Skarlet is back baby! I've been waiting to get more doses of her! Hope you are doing OK, and I want to see more posting.

Posted by Samer at 01:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 15, 2003

The Delightful 'L'

Well, I finally met 'L' on Friday. What a day, what a night.

She's every bit as delightful, as smart and as sexy as I thought. We've had some great moments already, and we've only known each other for a couple of days.

The down side, and there always is a down side, is that she is not sure that she likes me as much or in the ways I like her. I saw this coming, but it still is not the easiest thing to hear.

There's still a chance at romance. That's not out of the picture. But this was not love at first sight. Or even second. Who knows where things might go from here, but I do know that we will be friends. Really, honestly, damn good friends.

Posted by Samer at 09:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 12, 2003

The Moment

Well, I am in Portland. In an hour, 'L' will be here.

Like I said earlier, I should be nervous. I am not.

A mixture of confidence and excitement course through my veins. I am ready for this, come what may. Ask me in a year if I was foolhardy or if this was the best gamble of my life.

Tonight we will drink to life, and all the adventures it holds.

Posted by Samer at 08:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 11, 2003

Countdown

In just about 24 hours I will be on a flight to Portland, OR. I'll be meeting 'L' in just about 33 hours.

I really should be nervous. I was last week. Very nervous. I wanted everything to go right. I wanted all the plans to fall in place. I wanted her to be extremely thrilled to meet me. I wanted a big musical flourish when our eyes met.

But over the last week, as we've talked and become even more familiar with each other, I've become much more relaxed. Now, instead of nervousness, I am thrilled. I'm excited and really looking forward to meeting her.

No matter what transpires, this is going to be a great trip.

Posted by Samer at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 08, 2003

Ready To Go

Had a little issue with "L" last week and we hashed it out over the weekend. Now I feel much better about my coming trip. I know where I stand with her, and my comfort level is even higher than before.

Last week I was nervous. Very nervous about making sure it all goes smoothly. But I realize that's a bit much to ask. Things go wrong, plans change.

Now, I am thinking about this trip as going to see a friend. If there is something more, it will happen. If not, she's going to be a great friend to have. And just like that, a change in attitude has lifted the lid off the pressure cooker.

I can't wait to go out there.

Posted by Samer at 08:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 05, 2003

Winter Wonderland

Another year, another early snowfall. It is fantastic out there. But I only know that because of the TV pictures. There is not a whole lot of snow here in my area of the world.

On the plus side, we expect more tonight and tomorrow.

Did I mention I love snow?

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Not My Finest Moment

The company holiday party was last night. I had way too much gin. Gin and nothing but gin in my martinis. The ride home on the Metro was bad. Really really bad.

Hint: When you have just had a fairly rough day at the office and you have had a fairly rough night talking about some serious problems, it is probably not advisable to drink. Certainly not when the alcohol is free. Or when it is gin.

Ugh.

Posted by Samer at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 24, 2003

A Little Down The Road

I've finally finished my plans for going to Oregon. The tickets are bought, the hotels are booked, and the plans are in place.

I'm nervous to meet "L" and, at the same time, I am extremely happy. I really cannot wait for December 12 to roll around.

Here's hoping it all turns out well. Cheers!

Posted by Samer at 04:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 19, 2003

A Date

Talked to the delightful 'L' last night. Well, chatted on IM.

She offered up a range of dates for me to come out and see her. Looks like sometime in mid-December. Gulp!

I'm coursing with emotions right now. I'm obviously elated at the chance of meeting this woman who has made my life a little more lively and fun for the last couple of months. I'm happy to finally meet this person that, despite not having met, I miss by virtue of being half way around the world.

But I'm scared. Scared of failure, of screwing it up. Scared she might not like me as much in person. Scared that the opening moments when the best impression is made will be awful because of a bad flight or something.

But, I think the emotion I am in touch with the most is hope. I'm very hopeful that this will be everything I think it can be. Everything that I think it already is, just taken to a more physical level.

Posted by Samer at 08:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 13, 2003

Good News

The girl I'm interested in just heard today that UVA is very interested in her application to be a professor there. They want her to send them some materials by next Thursday, including a chapter from her dissertation.

She's obviously a little nervous about it. But I know she can do it. She knows she can do it. And the job sounds like it is right up her alley. As an added bonus for, if (when) she gets it, she'll be a lot closer than she is now.

This is truly a very good piece of news.

Good luck L!

Posted by Samer at 08:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wind

There were some freakishly strong winds today in Washington. Immensely powerful, they were wreaking havoc all over town.

Amtrak trains were stopped between Washington and Baltimore because of power lines downed on the tracks. I got to meet some fun people who decided to take Metro to Greenbelt and then the bus to BWI. From there they would take the train up to Baltimore. What a hassle. But they were talking to their coworkers on their cell phones, and some of them were still stuck at Union Station.

The wind also gave me considerable grief in getting to the airport. The short walk from my apartment to the Metro almost ended in me losing my phone. Apparently, as I stopped to button up against the wind, I dropped my cell phone. I went on to get on the Metro, but stepped off as soon as I noticed it missing.

I went back home and called the number. Seems a nice gentleman had picked it up and was very happy to return it to me. He met me down the street, I thanks him and gave him a small reward. And after all that I still managed to make it to the airport on time.

Posted by Samer at 08:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 11, 2003

Online Relations

I've met someone new. Well, newish.

I've known her online for over a month. We've been talking on the phone for a couple of weeks. And, more than anything, I really want to meet her.

She's got a lot of what I like and want: she's smart, a geek, a Mac geek, a Unix geek, and a beer geek. She's sexy. She has the coolest laugh. I get this amazingly powerful energy when I talk to her, online or on the wire.

Two big downsides, though. First off, she lives all the way over in Oregon. Yes, the first long distance relationship I had was with a wonderful girl from Oregon. Yes, it was because of her that I think I could do a long distance thing with someone else. Yes, I think this could work, if it gets that far.

Secondly, she's not really looking for a long term relationship. I doubt she would walk away if there is something there, but I don't think she wants the hassle, nor is she ready, for a full time relationship.

I hope she and I do meet, and soon. I think this thing has a potential. I'm not sure a potential for what, but I'm certain it will be something good.

If this is meant to be, it will find a way to happen. I'm certain of that.

Posted by Samer at 09:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Metro Sucks (two in a continuing series)

So today is a federal holiday. Metro, of course, ran on a holiday schedule. Not really sure what that means other than the normally stupid train scheduling becomes really stupid.

I waited at the Rosslyn station for over twenty minutes for an Orange Line train. Two six-car Blue Line trains came through, both mostly empty. Guess what? No one wanted to get on those trains. Two Orange trains come by, but they are both four-car trains. And they are packed to the gills.

Just when you thought Metro couldn't suck any more, they find a way.

Posted by Samer at 08:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 19, 2003

Chopper

Well, that was fun.

A helicopter has been flying very very low overhead for the last hour or so. How low? Low enough for me to be concerned that he might hit the top of my 13 story building. Low enough for me to call the cops after the fourth pass.

According to the Arlington Police Department, the chopper belongs to the Department of Energy and is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Apparently, at the behest of the Pentagon, they are doing a radiological survey of the Pentagon and surrounding Arlington County.

According to the police officer I spoke to, they will be flying between 150 and 300 feet, and will be doing so until around four o'clock. It seems they have gotten a number of calls about this, as she had a paper to read from.

Wish they would have put the info up on the website.

Posted by Samer at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 11, 2003

News and Technology

News spreads so fast today. Bad news doubly so.

When my grandma passed away yesterday, I first found out by an SMS to my phone from my aunt in Beirut. That was quickly followed by an e-mail from my father telling me the plans had all been made.

This morning I woke up and went to the An Nahar newspaper, published in Beirut. There, I could read the obituary placed for her (at right).

Ten years ago, none of this would have happened. I would have gotten a phone call. Maybe. The phones being what they are from Beirut, it is likely I would have heard about her passing through a cousin or someone else. They, in turn, might have heard about it from others or been the one person lucky enough to get a call from Beirut.

Technology helps those of us separated by miles and miles to keep in touch and to keep informed. Even when the news is bad.

Posted by Samer at 04:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 10, 2003

Teta

My grandmother, my mom's mother, passed away today. She was old and had lived a full life, and I hope that she is resting a long way away from the pain of old age and a failing body.

She was a wonderful woman, my teta. She always was happy to see us, to spoil us.

I remember going to her house as a kid and spending the night. We'd wake up in the morning and go across the street to get some milk and eggs. Fresh from the farm and delivered to the heart of Beirut before we even woke up. A fantastic breakfast.

Being around her meant being well fed. She could cook like a dream. Fantastic Lebanese food, seemingly made from anything available. She was tireless in the kitchen. You had to eat, for not eating was not an option. She would feed us as if she knew that our parents were withholding meals.

It was always a joy to see her when she would visit us in Kuwait. I loved her stories, her way with us, her mannerisms and everything. She would sit on the balcony and enjoy her arguileh, smoking a wonderful honeyed tobacco.

But these last few months have not been easy. Constantly in and out of hospitals, she eventually succumbed. I talked to her last Sunday. She was out of the hospital again, and she sounded good and full of life. But, in a way, I'm glad she does not have to suffer anymore.

I'm going to miss her, my wonderful teta. She was a fighter, she never gave up. She taught me a lot. I hope I can make her proud some day.

Goodbye sweet teta. Goodbye.

Posted by Samer at 09:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 09, 2003

Moonrise

Let me paint you a picture:

Walking across the Key Bridge from Georgetown to Rosslyn. I'm walking on the side where traffic is headed into Virginia. I'm looking out over the Potomac at aircraft coming down their flight path toward the airport.

I look across the lanes of barely moving traffic. The Washington Monument stands guard over the landscape. The Kennedy Center is there, as is the Watergate. And between them and the Georgetown Waterfront is this bright yellowish orange ball. Big. Wonderfully silent and just hanging there.

I can sort of see where people thought the moon was made of cheese.

Posted by Samer at 11:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 05, 2003

A Chill Is In The Air

It is downright cold this morning. Forty-something degrees.

Wonderful really. Makes you feel alive.

Nothing like sleeping with the windows open and hiding under your comforter.

Posted by Samer at 09:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 21, 2003

Awkward

I love words like awkward. The word implies what it means. It is an awkward word to pronounce and to type. It sums up how you feel when you feel awkward.

Like when you call someone in the hopes of building a friendship. Of connecting on a different level than before. And there's a whole lot of nothing going on. You have very little to say, she has even less. Neither of you know where to start or what to delve into.

"Anything going on?"
"Nah, just a hurricane. You?"
"Preparing for a party. You?"
"Uh."

Awkward. Maybe I should try to build things up with e-mail. Drop her a note when I've got something to say or something to ask her. Maybe I should just drop it all together. Argh.

Posted by Samer at 08:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 19, 2003

Isabel

The image on the right is of Isabel's progression from September 13 until early today.

Isabel blew through here with some high winds and heavy rain last night. Not quite the storm it was early on (then a category five hurricane), by the time it hit Washington sustained winds were only in the mid-40 MPH range. The highest wind gusts were around 58 MPH. We get that for short bursts during severe thunderstorms, but this lasted for hours.

Other than busted travel plans and a lack of sleep, Isabel did no damage to my area of town. Buildings across the street were without power, but we were fine.

----
_{Images from NOAA and Goddard Space Flight Center at NASA}

Posted by Samer at 05:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 06, 2003

Fear

Everyone has something they fear. Not just a healthy fear of a loaded gun, but something that, on the face of it, should not be fear inducing. Most people have a fear of rejection and a fear of failure.

For some, they shrug it off and plod on. For others, these dual fears shadow them through life, slowing things down. And for a group of people the fear is so palpable that they freeze, unable to function for fear of something going horribly wrong.

I'd say I was somewhere between the last two groups. I'd pass on things or take the easy way out because I was afraid of failing. Or of being rejected. I almost always take the safe and sane path in anything. So it is, especially, with relationships.

But something changed in me with 'A'. I was not afraid to take the risks involved in getting things started. More importantly, every time I thought that something might be wrong, or that the relationship might crash and burn, instead of letting it and moving on, I pushed forward.

Early on, she thought that this three week fling might not be the right thing. Instead of just agreeing, I managed to talk to her about her fears and, it seems, managed to tame them for a while. Why did I do that? I'm really not sure, but I think that 'A' brought out the best in me. She made me feel good about myself and that made me feel good about her.

She's also damned creative, beautiful and smart. Instead of thinking myself not worthy of her attention, I dove right in, figuring (correctly this time) that it would not really matter if I failed or if she rejected me. Tossing off these dual fears, I felt more free than I ever have.

When she said that she did not want to talk to me in order to get over me, I thought it through. The safe and sane route would have been to let her go. And I did that for a few days. But that I realized that I wanted her and I overcame my fear of the unknown, of failure, change and rejection, and I wrote her a long letter telling her I wanted to give it a go. Telling her I would certainly consider moving for her. Anyone who knows me knows how big of a step that is. I'm comfortable here after 15 years. Moving, changing jobs, buying and selling homes, these are not things I want to do.

But I hope I treated her in a way to ease her fears. I know I did for a while. But this wide gulf, this 2800+ miles between us, makes it difficult to have the talks about our fears. I'm not even sure that she's afraid of anything other than incompatibility, but the distance and the amount of work required to bridge it makes it difficult to do anything about it.

I miss her deeply. Of all the amazing things she showed me in such a short time, the gift of being able to challenge my fears is one I hope I will be able to use time and again.

Posted by Samer at 01:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 05, 2003

Alone

I was a big fan of loneliness.

I travelled the world alone. I drove up and down the East Coast alone. I enjoyed being by myself to read, to write, to eat, to be. Just to be.

Then 'A' entered into my life. And for a brief, but astonishingly intense, moment I was not alone. I no longer craved being alone. I no longer needed to be alone.

When she left, I felt at a loss. I wanted to go home and relax, but my mind was craving human interaction. I would go out for nights in a row, or spend hours on the phone (an activity I hate).

I let her into my world and she pulled me out of my cocoon and made me want to be with people again. And now she's gone physically from here and the budding relationship we had is over. And I am, once again, alone.

This time I fear it. I don't want it. And while I have bunches of good and great friends, and while my folks are coming to town soon, and my family will be all around me, I still feel very much alone.

I want another 'A'. I want to be not alone. I want to be understood. She understood me, I think (hope).

Posted by Samer at 11:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Regrets

My relationship with 'A' started very very fast. We went from not knowing each other to 60 in about two days. It was the most intense start to a relationship I've ever been in.

I thought it was to be nothing more than a Summer fling. A fun time. It turned out that those ugly things, feelings, got somehow involved. When you have an intense relationship, it is very hard to turn that off.

Here's the thing though, I just don't regret for a moment how it got off the ground. I don't regret for a moment how fast or intense or deep it got. In fact, I would not be bothered to do it all over again, with out any changes.

But if I could change one thing, and only one thing, I'd want her to not be leaving after those three weeks were up. I think that if she lived here, or if I lived there, the long term possibilities would be a lot less bleak than they are now. Of course, if we lived in the same town we probably would not have been off to the races like we were.

So, no regrets. What good would they do?

Posted by Samer at 11:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 03, 2003

Empty

So it seems that this chapter is closed.

'A' called tonight. We talked about all sorts of things, but there was a bit of uneasiness in the air.

She's decided that she can't put in the effort required for a relationship that she's not sure that she wants to be in. Yeah, I know, not quite what I was expecting either. She could not tell me why the change from just a couple of weeks ago.

All she could say was that it was easier to want to be with me and feel the emotions and have this relationship when it seemed an impossibility. But it scared her now that it was a reality, that I might be out there some day soon. Kind of ironic that I've been missing her so much the last few days that I could tell you the prices and departure times for most airlines going to Portland.

I don't know where we went wrong. I'm not sure that incompatibilities, socially and politically speaking, couldn't have been bridged. All I know is that I could not be the man she wants in those areas, and the only way to change that would be to change me.

And yet, after all that, I still want to watch her, be with her and see her triumph. I want to know that I will someday hear that voice of hers sing and read more of her poetry and prose. If we cannot be in a relationship, then I do want to be in a friendship. And we will give that a whirl and it will settle in and work for us eventually. I hope to be a damn good friend for her. And I hope she for me. Eventually.

Right now though, I'm feeling kind of empty. It is a strange feeling. I should be sad or upset or angry or something. Anything.

Instead, I am just empty.

Posted by Samer at 11:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 25, 2003

Giving it a Go

Spoke to 'A' at the weekend. We are going to try a long distance relationship. Yeah, I know they are hard. Yeah, I know they often fall apart. Yeah, I know blah blah blah.

I really like her. I want this to work. I know it won't be easy. Far from it. I'm already confused about somethings, while planning to visit her and more. My head is swimming.

Posted by Samer at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 19, 2003

This Changes Everything

I sent a letter to 'A' yesterday. I don't know how she'll react to the contents. Don't know how she'll feel. If she replies as I hope, then my life might change in a very dramatic way.

I wonder what Portland is like...

Posted by Samer at 07:54 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 16, 2003

Electric Air

I went for a ride in the thunder storm. Needed to clear my head, to think.

Simon & Garfunkel playing some of the most wonderful music.

The lightning was everywhere. Powerful. Bright. Immense.

It lit up the night sky. Almost too bright for my eyes. It filled all the gaps in the tree tops, all the gaps between the Earth and the sky, with an eerie light.

The electricity was palpable. The air was electric. These were the forces that kick started life.

But "my mind is distracted and confused, my thoughts are many miles away"^*. The air, when she was around, was also quite electric. Almost like something was being kick started.

----
^*From "Kathy's Song" by Simon & Garfunkel

Posted by Samer at 11:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2003

Happy Birthday to Me

I'm 34. Mid-Thirties. Feels good, for once.

Posted by Samer at 08:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

If You Love Somebody...

... Set them free.

Or so goes the saying. I finally know what that means. Really means.

Posted by Samer at 08:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 05, 2003

Bronchial Pneumonia

Been sick for over week. Finally (despite advice from 'A' and several friends) I went to the doctor.

I've got the early stages of bronchial pneumonia. A couple of chest x-rays, breath test, strep test, two taxi trips, a trip to Eckerd and $180 later, I'm on an anti-biotic, an inhaler and Sudafed for congestion.

On the plus side, the treatment is straight forward and apparently very effective, but it might take until the weekend before I feel better. Washington's 90% humidity isn't helping.

Posted by Samer at 07:41 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 01, 2003

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

As Robert Burns said, the best plans often go awry.

The lovely and wonderful "A" was supposed to fly from Tennessee back through BWI on her way to Portland. She was going to have a multi-hour layover at the airport. Tonight.

I fussed and thought and planned and schemed. I booked a room at the Sheraton BWI. I made her some hummus and got her some bagels for her flight -- knowing BWI's catering would be dead during her layover. I even bought flowers! It was all to be a surprise.

Awry the plans went: Her flight from Tennessee to Houston got delayed, and she would miss her connection. So Northwest rebooked her. On a different flight. Tomorrow. Through Detroit. Not BWI.

I'm more than a little heart broken that I wont get to see her.

Posted by Samer at 08:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 29, 2003

Cough. Cough.

Not feeling well. Left the office early yesterday, and NyQuil is only good if I just want to sleep all the time.

Must find food so that I can take some DayQuil...

Posted by Samer at 10:43 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

July 27, 2003

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Took 'A' to the airport yesterday.

The last three weeks have been the most fun, the relationship we had was the best of any I've had. Three weeks. The deadline probably helped push us -- no time for the preliminaries, no time to think things through, no time to slow down, no time for shyness, no time to worry about feelings.

Those feelings are what came back to bite me in the ass though. I never realized how quickly I could become attached. And yet, I would not trade in a longer relationship if the start of it could not have been as fast, as strong, as amazingly mind blowing.

She wrote me a poem. Did I mention she is extremely talented? I'll cherish it, just as I will these last few weeks. Her smells, her noises, her pretty face, all indelibly etched into the substrate of my mind.

Stay in touch, sweet angel.

Posted by Samer at 01:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 22, 2003

'Crazy Fun'

Wondering who "A" is?

She's the girl I'm seeing now. I really like her, despite the fact that we're like oil and water: She's a vegetarian, I am a committed carnivore; she's going to law school so she can make the world a better place, I am a "yuppie"; she's crunchy granola and laid back, I'm nothing of the sort; she's creative (sings like a bird), I'm not so much.

And yet, we are having a great time. I'm having a great time. But a deadline looms: she leaves this town (a town she's not very fond of -- another place where we differ) and heads back to law school in Portland on Saturday. We both knew the timing when we started this, and yet I'm still not looking forward to it.

This is probably the best relationship I've ever had, mentally and physically. As she puts it, we're having "crazy fun".

Crazy, crazy fun it has been for three weeks. Crazy fun memories. Crazy fun times. And, hopefully, a crazy fun friend for life.

Posted by Samer at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 20, 2003

Toothpaste

I went to the drug store the other day to pick up some toothpaste. Since when have we all decided to be like Ross on "Friends" and need to make our teeth so brilliantly white that we scare people?

They had a wall of Crest toothpastes. All I wanted was Crest MultiCare. Easy, right? Oh no. MultiCare Whitening, Extra Whitening, Dual Action Whitening, Crest Whitening Plus Scope. What the hell? Who needs all that whitening?

Ugh.

Posted by Samer at 07:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 12, 2003

Crash

I'd just dropped A off in Greenbelt and was headed home on the Beltway. I went the southerly route, and was doing fine up until shortly before exit 11B.

A guy on my left and slightly ahead of me accelerated a bit and started to head for the far right lane. I thought, "There is no exit there" and immediately hit the brakes.

He crashed at a 35 degree angle into the Jersey barrier and bounced off. Spinning, out of control, he cleared four lanes of the Beltway and bounced off the other side.

The car almost flipped twice. He went across the travel lanes again and came to a rest in the high speed breakdown lane.

I'm just sweating bullets at this point, having managed to slow down enough to avoid being caught up in his wreck, but still going fast enough so the semi behind me did not go through me.

911 transferred me to Maryland State Police, where a sleepy sounding operator took the details and hopefully sent help. I really have to stop driving on the Beltway: this is the second crash to happen in my view on that blasted road.

Posted by Samer at 02:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 14, 2003

Broken Down

Went to a Bowie Baysox game last night. It took an hour and a half to get to the stadium from Roslyn. In the middle of the game, the skies opened up and the game was called due to swimming in the outfield.

On the way home we saw no less than 11 cars broken down and abandoned at the side of the road. Eleven cars! It was a mighty storm, but I can't believe that was the reason for these cars being left like this.

Posted by Samer at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 04, 2003

On Sorrow

I was lucky to talk to Skarlet today before she went off to Florida. Her father passed away yesterday, and I've been thinking how mere words cannot do justice to the pain and sorrow that we feel.

I always look to the amazing Khalil Gibran and his phenomenal work The Prophet, for my words pale next to his in times that try my soul:

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

I'm saddened and pained by your loss Skarlet, I hope these words help you through the days ahead.

Posted by Samer at 10:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 01, 2003

One Month

So it has been one month since this journey started. One month of on-again, off-again blogging. I know I have at least two readers, at least those that comment.

But, as we bloggers tell our selves, it is not about the readers, it is about the writing. This gives me a chance to write and unload my opinions, and if someone should read it, particularly on a regular basis, all the better.

Blah. I want people to read and enjoy what I've written. I want them to become addicted to my blog. There are number of blogs, some that I read regularly, others not so much, that I feel let down by when I go there and there's nothing new. It blows when I hit four or five places in one sitting and nothing has changed on any of them. Yeah, I gotta get out more.

Of course, I am just as guilty. I rarely post more than a couple of items a week. Part of the problem is I have no vision for this site, unless you think my ranting about things is a vision. I hope to address this in the coming month.

Meantime, hope you'll leave a little hello in the comments section so I can get to know you.

Posted by Samer at 10:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 27, 2003

Target

Never ever go shopping on a holiday. There are too many people out there. And they all think that the world will end if they don't get into the store right this minute !

Just as Skarlet made it to Boutique Target on Saturday, I went today. What a zoo. The place was packed and there are all sorts of strange people shopping there.

Like me.

Unlike Skarlet, though, I did not get years taken off my life by coming home and finding someone there. Heh :)

Posted by Samer at 12:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Books I'm Reading

I've decided I need to do more reading, more writing and more photography. This blog is a step toward more writing. I'm hoping to buy a new digital camera soon and set up a photo blog, and that should take care of the photography bit.

This is the list of books that I am currently reading. By currently reading, I really mean "I intend to finish them at some point, really." Or start them.

• Sauces: Sweet and Savory, Classic and New by Michel Roux
• Learning Unix for Mac OS X by Dave Taylor and Brian Jepson
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Overseas Press Club Cookbook edited by Sigrid Schultz

That last one I found in my storage unit, and I just don't remember buying it. Sauces was a gift that came all the way from Scotland (via Ireland) and was purchaced at the still living Fat Lady's book shop. The Unix book I'm looking at because it has some interesting information I did not know and to see if I should recommend it to my Unix-newbie friends.

Posted by Samer at 12:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 26, 2003

Unexpected Memories

I've been working on getting the G3 I bought up and running. It has a SCSI controller and, after learning about VueScan, I decided I needed to make a run to my storage lot and get my old Nikon film scanner.

While there, I went through a box of stuff looking for some cables. Instead I came across my old Green Card. How old, you ask? It was green and not pink. And it had the cutest picture of me when I was six. No, you can't see.

There was also a roll of undeveloped film. I'm going to get it developed tomorrow. I hope it comes out, but I'm not counting on it -- the canister has some rust on it.

On the way home I decide to go for a nice long drive, as I had not really been on one in a while. Shortly after turning off Georgetown Pike, I remembered that I had trashed my car and been in an accident that changed my life in 1996 down that same path. That crash forced me to rethink a number of things, and I eventually told my best friend how I felt for her. Sadly, my love was not reciprocated.

After I got home, I popped open the scanner and there was still a strip of film there. Some black and white pictures from when Cal Ripken broke the Iron Man record. And who else should be on that strip of five negatives? That's right: the same friend that I loved so much back then.

But the worst part came when I decided to see if this G3 would read my old Jaz discs. Sure enough, it did. And there were tons of memories on these things. Old writings, love letters, and pictures galore.

On the plus side, there were four rolls of digitized pictures that I had all but forgotten about. They were from a trip to Dubai and Belgium. I need to get back to Belgium soon.

Posted by Samer at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 23, 2003

The Mothership

This is pretty cool: the first picture of the Earth taken from another planet. You can see the moon in the very highly tweaked image. This is amazing really.

There is also a picture of Jupiter and some of its satellites, turns out Earth and Jupiter were lined up -- as seen from Mars.

The site is extremely slow to load, but worth the wait.

Posted by Samer at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 07, 2003

Growling Squirrels

Okay, I thought that only Skarlet had funny ass squirrel stories (1, 2, ...), but alas, no.

Another of my friends tells me that a squirrel kept her trapped in her home. You heard right: trapped!

It seems the squirrel, Chippy (that's right, she named it), apparently climbed up the screen on the front door and sat atop it. When she went to step out at 10pm, Chippy growled at her. Growled. Squirrels growl? Who knew?

So she went back inside thinking that Chippy would be gone by morning. Apparently not. Standing guard all night, Chippy watched over the newspaper delivery. And Chippy apparently thought it was his paper, for when my friend tried to go out and get it, Chippy growled again.

A call to animal control had the "trained" expert on the other side saying "Yeah, squirrels are going to growl. Just use a broom handle ma'am." WTF? Did he expect my friend to hop on it and fly out? Oh! You mean poke at the rabid animal until it goes away. Ah, yes. Of course. I'm sure the animal rights people would like that.

The story ends well, with Chippy having left the perch atop the door, and my friend managing to leave without having to resort to hurting the bushy-tailed rat! Or setting her cats loose on it.

Posted by Samer at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 05, 2003

Metro Sucks (one in a continuing series)

I have a Metro SmarTrip card. It is an electronic card that can hold up to $180 of value and allows you to breeze through the turnstiles because it is a proximity chip card.

I also have some slightly used Farecards.

The Farcard machine will normally let you put the value of your Farecard onto your SmarTrip card. But not if the Farecard has been used and its value is above $7.

I figured that someone really dumb had programmed these things, so a quick trip to the Metro store at Metro Center they should be able to do it for me. Bzzzt. Wrong.

"The rule is $7 dollars, sir. Nothing we can do."

"Why is it limited to $7?"

"That's the rule sir. I don't make the rules, Metro makes them."

Repeat ad nauseam... The worst part about this, is that after I took the Metro Customer Service Form (e-mail on the form:csvc@wmata.com) and walked out, I realized that if I had told them the cards were not working, they probably would have issued me three new cards. At which point, I could have moved the value onto my SmarTrip.

This has been a Metro Sucks entry.

Posted by Samer at 07:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 04, 2003

Denali

Just saw a pretty funny ad for the GMC Denali. This is one big honking SUV. Huge. It has XL in the name.

The touts the "small" turning radius of this beast. They say words to the effect of "the smallest turning radius of any vehicle in its class". Fair enough.

But WTF is its class? Eighteen wheelers? Christ.

Posted by Samer at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tires II

Finally getting used to the new tires. They are fantastic Dunlop tires, and it really astonishes me how much of a difference tires make to the drivability of the car.

The car seems to drive much smoother and turning is really smooth. It feels like I'm driving a new car, not one with 75K miles.

Posted by Samer at 08:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 01, 2003

Strangers in Odd Places

Ever run into people you don't know, but see regularly, in a place or way you've never seen them before?

I'm used to seeing this guy on CNBC. I saw him jogging in my neighborhood this evening. I've only ever seen him in a suit. Kind of strange to see him in sweats...

And later on I drove by a guy I always see on the Metro. It was late, but he was jogging as well...

Posted by Samer at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New Tires

Bad news: Had to get new tires for the car. $500 after installation. Damn. Each tire was $80.

Worse news: A coworker points me to Tire Rack. Same tires for $50 a tire. Damn!

And yet worse news: Guy tells me I need a whole set of new struts as there are two leaking -- one on the front and one on the rear.

Maybe it is time to buy a new car?

Posted by Samer at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hello? Anyone out there?

Hello world.

I finally have a blog. And I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it.

I'm going to write about a number of things that interest me, and you will see that reflected in the categories I have chosen. Beer and Food will be major topics. So will be my thoughts on the Macintosh.

I hope you like what I write about and see fit to come back and include me in your life.

Posted by Samer at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack