Day 42/365 - Yin & Yang

Took this shot today as I walked over to the 'pay by the pound' cafeteria in the NASA building to pick up some lunch. I've been too busy/lazy to go to the store and get fixin's for lunch this week, so I've been buying my lunch -- which means I'm spending too much money and eating random combinations of stuff that's not particularly good for me. Today it was greasy fried fish (okay), half a turkey chimichanga (really good), wild rice with peas and some dark sort of sauce/seasoning (bleccchh), and bananas foster (delish). Grand total -- ten bones. 'Pay by the pound' tends to be a rip-off. And I didn't get around to going to the store tonight either, so I'm stuck buying lunch again tomorrow.

I like the light and shadow in this shot and the way they diagonally bisect the frame. It reminds me of the Yin and Yang symbol. Plus it's a train trestle and I love pretty much anything having to do with trains. That and 'trestle' is just a fun word to say: T R E S T L E... Not quite as cool as 'susurration' or 'frappé', but still pretty cool.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 41/365 - Pub Crawl

Tonight I went on a pub crawl to some bars and restaurants in the Columbia Heights and U Street areas of DC that are hosting the Pix Tour showcasing the work of local photographers as part of a big photography expo known as Foto Week. Some of the Pix Tour featured artists, like Angela and Marie, came along on the pub crawl.

We started out at RedRocks Pizzeria, site of Marie's show, to see her photos and load up on pizza to absorb the alcohol we were preparing to consume in the name of art. This shot is of the backbar at the second stop of the evening, the Wonderland Ballroom. From there, we wandered on to the Velvet Lounge (scene of Angela's show), Nellie's Sports Bar, and DC9.

The only one of these venues I'd been to previously was DC9, so this was a good chance for me to check out some new watering holes -- not to mention getting to see some really good photos and hang out with some cool fellow camera dorks. The photo exhibits on the Pix Tour are definitely worth seeing, so brace up your liver and go make your own pub crawl to check them out.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 40/365 - Word Games

Just got finished laying the Scrabble smackdown on my computer yet again. Okay, so I only beat the machine by 55 points this time. I've still beaten it nearly twice as many times as its beaten me (274 to 138, with one tie). And then there's the version of Scrabble I've got on my iPod. The computer still hasn't beaten me on that one. I could kick the difficulty level up a notch, but then the computer starts playing utterly ridiculous words no one but lexicographers have ever heard of before, and that takes the fun out of it.

My best score to date is 591 points. I managed to lay down three different seven-letter words in that game, two of them on back-to-back turns. I've never even come close to playing that well against another person, though. I think I've pretty much always loved playing word games. When I was in second grade and the weather was too crappy to go out for recess, we'd play Boggle for money (penny a point). I usually won. Good thing the teacher never realized what we were up to. Having to explain to the principal why I was Boggle-sharking my classmates wouldn't have been much fun.

My brother and sister-in-law got me into playing Scrabble. Whenever I go to visit them we always play. I even bought a travel Scrabble set to take with me when I went on a cruise with them a few years ago. I took it along when we went to Vegas earlier this year, too. I can usually wallop my brother, but sister-in-law clobbers me more often than not. She may have had to drop of high school to get a job, but her lack of a diploma doesn't stop her from cleaning my clock on a regular basis.

There's another game I like to play with words when I'm on the subway. I pick a word off one of the advertising posters or signs on the train and try to make as many new words out of its letters as I can. Helps to pass the time and keep my brain from gathering dust.

I also love doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper and I can usually solve it, although once or twice a week there will be a square or two I can't get filled in. No sudoku for me, though. Numbers are something I don't enjoy, even when there's no actual math involved. I'll just stick to letters, thank you very much.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Atlantic Sunrise

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took of the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean from the beach in Hollywood, Florida. I was down there for the wedding of my friends Chris and Desiree. It had been a while since I'd seen sunrise over the ocean, so I got up crazy early one morning and went down and sat on the beach while I listened to Bebel Gilberto's 'Tanto Tempo' cd on my iPod (it's the perfect soundtrack for sunrise on the beach, btw) and waited for the sun to come up.

It was gorgeous and well worth waking up early to see.

(Taken with my old Canon Powershot S400)

Day 39/365 - Phoebe

This is Phoebe, my pet philodendron. She's named after the character on 'Friends.' I have another one in my office that is named Daphne, after the character on 'Frasier." Philodendrons seem to be the only type of plant my brown thumb and I don't manage to kill off. I've tried my luck with a fern, cactus, bamboo plant, and ivy and none of them lasted very long in my less than stellar care. I even managed to murder my friend Desiree's plant that she had me look after while she was on vacation for a week.

I've had Phoebe for 14 years now. When I first got her she was just four little leaves in the middle of a big pot of dirt. And that's how she stayed for the first year. She didn't start growing until I hauled her off to law school with me and then she really took off. Now she has lots of leaves and long vines that are wrapped all around the legs of the barstool her pot sits on.

So unless you want your plant to die, or unless it's a philodendron, don't let me anywhere near it.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 38/365 - Notre Dame vs. Navy

Took the train over to Baltimore today to attend the Notre Dame-Navy football game. Last year Navy won in triple-overtime after having lost to ND for 43 straight years -- an NCAA record. Unfortunately, Navy couldn't quite make it two in a row today. Guess I won't be getting another commemorative t-shirt this year.

They almost pulled off another miracle comeback, though, after being down by 20 points in the fourth quarter for the second straight game. With the score at 27-21 in favor of ND, Navy had the ball on the ND side of the field with 1:30 left to play, but the Fighting Irish proved to be a tougher opponent than Temple had the week before. Unable to get a first down when they most needed one, Navy turned the ball over on downs and ND ran out the clock.

I got so excited at the prospect of the comeback win that I was hopping up and down in the stands and cheering as loudly as I could. My throat is still sore and hoarse. Most of the crowd had already left at that point, some certain of the eventual outcome and others chased off by the high wind and heavy rain that struck mid-way through the fourth quarter and made it feel like you were being pelted with nickels.

I stuck it out to the end though and hoped for the best. Navy lost, but I'm not disappointed in them. They fought their way back into the game, recovered two on-side kicks and scored two TDs in less than two minutes to put the fear of the goat into the Fighting Irish. They played their hearts out just as they have all season. They might not be the biggest, fastest, or most athletic college football team, but they never quit. Never.

After the game I wandered over to the Inner Harbor to drown my sorrows in beer and hot wings at Hooters. A sizeable contingent of the Brigade of Midshipmen wound up there as well. Some things never change -- wherever you find beer and women, there you'll find sailors.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 37/365 - Hi Ho, Hi Ho

This is my morning commute to work on the Yellow Line train going into DC from Northern VA. At this point the subway pops above ground and traverses a bridge over the Potomac River before ducking back down into the tunnel like a groundhog that spotted its shadow. I have a pretty short trip into the District each day -- I go 3 stops, switch to either the Blue or Orange Line, go one more stop, get off the train, and my office is right next to the Metro station. If I get lucky with the timing it's a 15-minute trip. If my timing is off, it's a 30-minute trip.

Either way, it ain't bad. I'd definitely rather have my commute than that of the poor saps who are usually creeping along bumper-to-bumper on the bridge you can see in the distance. Plus my agency gives me free train fare to encourage the use of mass transit, so it doesn't even cost me anything to go to work.

Even though I've been traveling this route for years without any problems, I still have a bit of an irrational fear that one day the train will derail and plunge into the river. The odds of that happening are probably astronomically remote, but I still worry about it a little bit in the back of my mind just about every time the train crosses over that bridge.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 36/365 - I Wish...

"I wish I was a little bit taller. I wish I was a baller. I wish I had a girl who looked good I would call her..."

This brass oil lamp is one of my many unnecessary eBay purchases. I'm forever buying stuff I don't need but still want off eBay. I use this as an incense burner and I have to admit that the first thing I did when I got it was to rub it to see if a genie would pop out and grant me three wishes. It didn't. I'm such a doofus.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 35/365 - Me, Myself & Eye

For this week's self-portrait we have my right eye (apologies for how gross it kinda looks in large format). My right eye isn't much different from my left, apart from having slightly worse vision.

My eyes used to be plain solid brown, but as I've gotten older they've changed color until now they're a kind of hazel that has brown, green, and yellowy parts all mixed up together (the little brown splotch at about the 8 o'clock position on my iris is the color my entire eye used to be). I'm curious to see if they'll keep changing color and eventually wind up green or something.

I used to think my Pops was a bit batty because he has always said that his eyes changed color as he got older and my Mom always told him we was full of beans because eyes don't change color. Turns out they do.

Chalk another one up for Pops.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 34/365 - Veterans Day

I went to the wreath-laying ceremony that was being held at the U.S. Navy Memorial today in observance of Veterans Day. I wound up in the Navy by default -- I didn't have anything better to do at the time (which is also how I wound up in law school, evidently I'm not much for career planning). I left college with a bachelor's degree in journalism and no desire to be a journalist, so I figured 'what the heck, I'll go in the Navy and get paid to travel for four years.'

Plus I was curious to see if I could hack being in the military. I enjoyed the first three years of my enlistment, but by that fourth year I was ready to go and I think they were ready for me to be gone. At that point I was probably more trouble than I was worth. I knew that I didn't want to make a career in the Navy and I wasn't realistically going to advance further in rank or get any real increased opportunity for learning, development, or responsibility for about another four years. That meant it was time to go. I was a Second Class Petty Officer by the time I got out. That's equivalent to a sergeant in the other branches of the service (Navy ranks are very different from the other three branches), but that rank actually carries far less authority and responsibility than a sergeant does.

I was stationed aboard the USS Mississippi CGN-40, a nuclear powered guided missile cruiser. As an Operations Specialist my job was largely to sit in a dark, air conditioned room for 12 hours a day and watch a radar screen, but I also occasionally got to do more interesting stuff like navigation, communications, shore bombardment plotting, and managing the Navy's version of a wireless data network.

Right after I went to boot camp Operation Desert Shield started and then while I was home on leave between boot camp and advanced training (or A School as it's known) Operation Desert Storm commenced. By the time I left A School Desert Storm was already over, so I missed out on the action. When I got to my ship she had just entered the shipyard for upgrading and repairwork. I spent my first year in the fleet chipping, grinding, sanding, painting, mopping, waxing, and cleaning the bathroom (known as the 'head'). So much for the 'it's not just a job, it's an adventure' sales pitch.

After we finally left the shipyard, we had about five or six deployments to the Caribbean -- two in support of the UN mandated blockade of Haiti following the overthrow of the Aristide government and the rest as part of counterdrug operations. We never did bust any drug smugglers. One time we stopped and boarded a suspicious vessel we thought for sure would yield a big haul of cocaine coming up from South America, but instead it turned out to be an undercover DEA agent who told us to go away and leave him alone.

Being in the Navy allowed me to visit a half-dozen Caribbean Islands and a couple Central and South American countries, netted me a trip through the Panama Canal, and gave me the chance to be hoisted up into a hovering helicopter from the deck of a pitching ship at sea. All things considered, it was a pretty good bargain.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 33/365 - 'Twas a Dark and Chilly Night

I set out to walk home from work tonight, but I didn't realize just how windy and chilly it was outside. I wimped out after about four blocks and ducked into the nearest Metro station. Before I did that though, I did manage to snap this shot of a closed refreshment stand on the National Mall.

I really liked the way it looked huddled there in the dark in a puddle of light with the Washington Monument lit up in the distance. Getting this shot made me feel a little better about chickening out on the walk home tonight.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Shamu

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a picture I took at the Sea World Shamu show when I went to San Diego earlier this year. Hurray for continuous shooting mode. I took tons of pictures at that show but a lot of them didn't turn out so hot. This one I was very happy with. I had a big print made of it and it's now hanging on the wall of my office.

Day 32/365 - Collage á Moi

Whenever I go to a peforming arts production, museum, zoo, sporting event, or historic building, I save my ticket stub and program or brochure and then I make collages out of them. This is seriously nerdy arts and crafts type stuff, but I enjoy it and it gives me a free souvenir. I don't have to buy a t-shirt, mug, or fancy booklet and I wind up with a cool memento of the places I've gone and the things I've seen.

This is my 16th collage. I used to hang them all up on my walls. Now though I've got so many of them that they would monopolize all the wall space in my apartment, so I just hang up the current collage. The others are all stacked up in my closet. I've got them going back to 1994, so I guess this was an early form of 365 Project for me. The current collage covers stuff I did from February 18th to September 6th of this year and encompasses things I went to in DC, as well as trips to Las Vegas, San Diego, Charlottesville, Branson, Dodge City, and Kansas City.

This collage is all full now and I need to get started on a new one. I've already got a stack of tickets and programs sitting on my desk that I need to get glued to a new posterboard.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 31/365 - Boom

Tonight I went to see the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's production of 'Boom', by up-and-coming playwright (and marine biologist) Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. I did my usual trick of getting my ticket through Ticketplace for half-price, which left me more money to splurge on dinner and drinks before the show at Café Atlantico (two passionfruit martinis, scallops and coconut rice appetizer, jerk chicken mofongo entree, cappuccino, and warm chocolate cake with banana dessert -- damn, it was good).

This was my first time going to see a Woolly Mammoth production. They specialize in quirky, funny, more daring, off-Broadway type plays. I think one of the reasons I'd never been to one of their shows before was because of their ridiculous name. Unlike Smuckers, with a name like Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company I thought they had to be bad and that they would put on pretentious, inaccessible, annoyingly experimental, avant garde solely for the sake of being avant garde, too cool for school type productions. Nope. They just do odd, small, funny, smart plays that you'd be hard-pressed to see anywhere else. The name is still stupid, though.

WMTC has a new theatre in the Penn Quarter section of Washington, DC and it's a very well-designed space. The theatre itself is small but doesn't feel cramped. It's a bit like a modern, cinder-blocks and exposed wiring version of an Elizabethan theatre with a U-shaped seating area (both groundlings and balcony) around three sides of the stage. It's a good space with good sightlines, good acoustics, and good seats and it doesn't detract or distract from the productions in any way -- which is really all you need in a theatre.

Now, onto the play itself. Boom was funny and excellent. Excellently funny, funnily excellent. It's a one-act, 90-minute long play with three cast members -- two of whom (Aubrey Deeker and Sarah Marshall) are brilliant in their roles and one of whom (Kimberly Gilbert) starts out a little awkward and stilted but definitely gets better as the play goes along. The plot involves a biologist who becomes convinced the world is about to end in a catastrophic natural disaster and who then places an ad for a sex partner in order to lure a woman to his lab/apartment/fallout shelter.

The summary makes the plot sound a bit creepy, but it's not. The writing is excellent with sharp and clever dialogue and in 90 scant minutes it manages to serve up a primordial soup incorporating adaptation, natural selection, the Garden of Eden, the persistence of life, the survival instinct, intelligent design, evolution, mutation, fate, destiny, free will, determinism, the nature of sexuality, deism, deus ex machina, the Wizard of Oz, chaos, justice, obsession, sex, love, and dating.

Sticking with the soup analogy, it's 'mmm, mmm good', so go and see it. It runs nightly through December 7th and most days Ticketplace has seats available for $25-30.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 30/365 - Cirque du So-So

I went to see Cirque du Soleil's new touring show Kooza with my friends Chris and Desiree tonight. Des liked it, Chris gave it a 6 out of 10, and I just thought it was okay.

The picture is of CdS' 'Le Grand Chapiteau', which I think may be French for 'the big top' but don't quote me on that. CdS comes to the DC area just about every year with a new touring show. Normally they pitch the big blue and yellow striped tent that houses the show in downtown DC, but this year they decided to hold it at the National Harbor over in middle-of-nowhere Maryland instead. Not the best idea ever. I'm sure they got a great deal out of it from the folks that run National Harbor, but it means (1) everyone attending the show has to deal with the traffic on the Woodrow Wilson bridge, (2) there are no meaningful public transportation options, and (3) there are no decent places to eat or get a drink either before or after the show seeing as how the National Harbor complex is basically a wasteland of dead bars, chain restaurants, and pay parking garages.

Kooza is more like traditional circus than most CdS productions. Instead of the interpretative dance, big production number, elaborate sets and staging approach of many CdS shows like Love, O, Varekai, and Corteo, Kooza is mostly just acrobats, tight rope walkers, contortionists, and jugglers. Generally speaking I love to see that kind of stuff, but I expect more than just that from CdS. When I go to a CdS show, I want to see stuff I've never seen before and stuff that really knocks my socks off. There were a couple of performance pieces like that in Kooza, but they were few and far between.

This was the least original CdS production of the eight different ones I've seen (Love, O, Varekai, Alegria, Corteo, Saltimbanco, Kooza, and Mystere -- which I'd rank in that order). There really wasn't anything very novel or creative about Kooza. The performance pieces weren't anything you couldn't see done (and oftentimes done better) at a traditional circus or a Vegas or cruise ship variety show for about half the price. Even the costumes seemed unoriginal and appeared to have largely been cribbed from various Dr. Seuss books and 'Nightmare Before Christmas.'

There were only two truly noteworthy production pieces in Kooza -- a trio of phenomenal contortionists in the first act and an impressive troupe of teeter-totter tumblers in the second act. There was a chair-balancing guy whose act was fairly cool, but even his routine was more 'hmmmm' than 'whoaaa.' Des really liked him, but I think that was largely because he performed shirtless and in tights. She's a hussy like that. (Kidding!)

So the final verdict from me for Kooza was that it was an adequate night's entertainment, but a CdS show should never just be adequate. It should be amazing. I can't really recommend it unless you're a hardcore CdS fan or you've got money to burn. Otherwise, I'd suggest saving your ducats for one of their other shows.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 29/365 - New Jersey(s)

Today the Washington Nationals baseball club unveiled their new road jersey, alternate home jersey, and special occasion home jersey at a lunchtime ceremony held at the ESPNZone in Downtown DC. I was there along with about 100 other sad loser fanboys. It was a bigger turnout than I'd expected. Usually the autograph sessions they hold at the ESPNZone during the baseball season only draw about 20-30 people. Today though it was standing room only and the place was packed.

Pictured above are Nats centerfielder Lastings Milledge, Manager Manny Acta, and team radio broadcaster Charlie Slowes. I got Lastings to add his signature to an autographed baseball I keep on my desk at work.

I've been a Nats season ticketholder since they first moved to DC from Montreal in 2005. That first year I had a full season ticket but since then I've opted for the half-season plan instead. Eighty-one games is a lot of games to have to attend, especially during 10 game homestands. All you have time to do then is sleep, work, go to the game, sleep, work, go to the game... No time to do laundry, go to the grocery store, or anything else. The half-season plan is much less demanding.

I've really only been a baseball fan since the Nats came to town. Before that I'd largely ignored baseball. The idea of getting in on the groundfloor as a fan of a franchise was appealing though and going to the games gave me something to do, so as a result I've become a great fan of a less-than-great baseball team. There's just something about sitting outside next to a big green field and eating a hotdog and drinking beer and cheering the good plays and groaning at the bad plays that holds a lot of charm for me.

The Nationals may be a lousy team, but they're my lousy team and that counts for something.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 28/365 - Yes We Can!

I haven't the words to express how pleased and proud I am today.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, and I'm feeling good.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 27/365 – I Voted/Yo Voté

Hopefully you did as well. Now comes the nervewracking part... waiting for the outcome. I have a bottle of my favorite champagne (Nicolas Feuillatte) chilling in the refrigerator. I'm really hoping to be able to drink it tonight in celebration.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 26/365 - Barack the Vote!

Little Barack says 'Make sure you vote tomorrow!' Even if you're not going to be voting for Obama (although Little Barack and I both hope you will be), get out there and let your voice be heard tomorrow.

Democracy is not a spectator sport, so get your butt in the game!

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Twilight Kayaker

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took last Fourth of July while I was standing around on the bank of the Potomac River waiting for the fireworks to start. None of my fireworks shots turned out to be worth a damn, but I really like the way this one came out.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)