Sunday, May 31, 2009

Summer Early

4:45 am. That's when I'm getting up to go to work with the Park Department as a entry-level Lifeguard tomorrow. This is going to be a great, exciting adventure. So to insure I get my 8 hours of sleep, I should go to bed at... 8:45pm. But I always function on 6-7, so, not a big deal. Now this harkens back to last August when we left on vacation. I got a 3:30am phone call- from Little Brother's alarm clock. A thunderstorm was rolling by. I dozed off. I got up at 4:30 when my alarm clock went. We left at 6am to go up I-83 to I-81. What a memory.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

End in Sight

Why do my most recent posts look as if I twittered them? Final Exams. And yes, one more (long) exam to go, then off to the broad summer.

Average time per exam: 1:46

1:20
2:10
1:30
2:10
1:45
2:10 (cut off)
(>2:05)- Tomorrow's physics exam- it always takes me a little longer to do it.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day

I am indebted to say thank you for those who defend our free world freedoms.
In a world of oppression, I and many others would not be here today.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Vanilla Mint Listerine

The first time I came across it was at St. Thomas Church, and the only consideration I gave to this priest's mouth freshener was to potentially light the thurible with its alcoholic properties when there was no WD40 accelerant for the charcoal. But the Verger insisted that the concentration was too low. But, I came across this last weekend while doing the occasional task of choosing mouthwash at the store. I chose it because P+G (or is it CP?) gave a free little bottle with a liter purchase. But it's now my favorite. Mild and cleansing, tastes like vanilla.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Main House does it again

Call it "Harry Potter", but house is a big matter here.

So consider the first Main-3 kickball game. Holding a 1-1 tie, until the last inning. 1-3. We keep untamed softball field. Next game, we advance to the real field. We win, and stay. Last game, top of the third, last play. I got a call to run on anything. A good kick to far right as I was on first. I found 2nd base (a tiny orange speck on the infield grass), but after turning270 degrees, just could not find third base. I think I reached the runner's path as turned towards home. Skipped a base!? By some rule, the other guy was out (a sacrifice play, I presume), so I could not back to third, even though I was not tagged. Anyway, it should not have mattered as there was no bottom of the inning.

Dodgeball. Main wins again. second game, a last-second save by freeing all prisoners by making a half-court shot. (Victory was done by prisoner count after 12 minutes)

Flag Football- a giant heads towards me. I fend the quarterback by retreating to a side collision than head on. In retrospect- it might have made me look queasy. "Atticus it's just a matter of collision", says the physics teacher.
So our group of mostly little kids fared well. We supposed the other two teams fared even better. They did.

Whole-school activities- not for Main, in general.
Super relay. Greased watermelon, chair hop, wheelbarrow, and our grade's (virgin)'jello shots'. All tied up until this point. Our four chuggers, in relay, spun around a bat 10 times and jogged to the 2 cups of jello, each. The goal was to get that done, asap, and dash and tag your house head so he could cross the finish line. Some of our guys fared well, but some guys weren't able to chug. I mean, as a moral supporter, I chugged one or two myself. No biggie. As I asked and received, it turns out that the spinning really made it hard to swallow. We did fine.

Capture the flag. Four quadrants for four houses. Objective: Nab as many of the other six flags as you can, w/o losing your two. More complex tough, with lots of cheating. Strong defense was key. Main one one game out of three, with super defense and an administrator to monitor cheaters.

Relay. 5 of each grade, each house, except for including every 6th grader (in Potter speak, form A). It held us back quite a bit though, throughout most 29 of our runners. But Mikey really pulled us far ahead to third place in the relay...

Ice Cream and results.

It was really, really close (suspense builds)
Fourth Place- Austin- 195 pts
Third Place- Alban- 198
Second Place... (Main or Moore?)-199
Moore, (therefore), Main won with 208 points.

For a third year? Special vetting rules take place for consecutive champs- no one's won three in a row. Nevertheless, it may be time to make up for 13 years of lost time.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Field Day Tradition

(In a singing way)Field Day I don't know what's in store
Whether it be tag foot ball, pickleball, capture the flag, or dodge the ball there's a high level of intrinsic fun that can't be removed.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Per Se

I know of only one person who has patronized this ultra-high-end mini restaurant in New York at Columbus Circle, and it was a business expense. Now here is a 15/16 year young from the Philly Area who made the reservation precisely at 10am from the bathroom, and paid for the trip on his own cash, thrice.

To put this in perspective, my most expensive plate was somewhere around $40, on a business card. For me, Per Se would be an experience at the $298,000 income bracket (even so, that's 1/1000th of your yearly budget), possibly at $149,000, it's so tantalizing.

"Why would I spend half of my yearly income on a restaurant? Well this is no ordinary restaurant. I would not even degrade my time at this restaurant to the title of a "meal." Experience is much more appropriate." (f@15)

So, here is his site:
http://foodieatfifteen.blogspot.com/2008/12/per-se-2.html

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

2 Days+ 4 Day 'Weekend'+ Exams = Summer

For seven weeks now we have gone without a progress report. That is, I haven't kept up-to-date numbers on numerical performance, a figurative bridge being built without a pillar on the other side. From daily testing in Latin to a Geometry test in advanced precalc on the grading block, it's a mystery. But things can be pulled together in the end, like I successfully did last year. Thanks much for the 3-day weekend plus house day. So if it goes well, I'll be able to have a pretty nice feeling vacation, if things come out as the apocalypse, it'll be a 12-week dread. Colleges are looking at this sheet of paper. More A's :), Less B's :&, One C in Physics :( (Honors, unweighted). And kudos to the 10th grade year of horror - 'too much work' as it is put, to a year of forced free periods and class choice privileges. So two more days, two papers, a quiz or two,a Humanities final, a weekend of hard-core review, four days of exam, and Little Brother arrives within 4 hours of when I get home.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Jiayue and Her Friends

Over the creek and winding through the woods
to the Church of LDS we go
The signs point the way until we pass under the beltway
Then follow the pinnacles to the gate and find a parking spot
and read the book of Mormon through

before watching this concert sponsored by the munificent Sid Foulger, local real estate developer from the 1960's and beyond.
Beautiful songs in Chinese, arias in Italian, and songs from The Phantom...and Over the Rainbow. Great singing. Midway through, Sid, who looked about 75 or so was introduced, and on went a film of his exploits at the age of 83. Climbing through the rugged terrain of China. He sponsored a school and road, and stimulated the villager's well-being. Amazing. His age today: 89. And, on short noticed, he played some song on the piano "This is really not on the program", announced the MC.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Phantom Tollbooth

A Great production with movement and props! As a person who has never read the book, it was a thorough boggling experience. Great job Tock the dog.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Turandot

A fascinating opera with love and sacrifice, with the added spice of China. Mr. Ping, Pang and Pong, lovable magistrates provide some action as the emperor comes from the sky on occasion, and the princess and the lover have it out as his father the deposed king and his loyal slave look on.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Six Flags; Largo, MD

Dan Snyder charges people $15 to park in his parking lot. Then he charges $50 per head (1/2 price at $25 if you're aware of your surroundings). Then, you enter into a place where there are no water fountains, rather water can be bought at 17 1/2 cents an ounce, or $3.50 a bottle. Or get a hold of a $15. Personal Pizza from Papa J's on site. Is it the epithet of capitalism? Hopefully not. But other than the cash drains I tried hard to avoid (I got out at $6.51, $6 on 3 games of skill and 51 cents on a flattened penny). At least it was not the $22 a comrade lost trying to get that PSP. But the rides were great. We started with Mind Eraser, a bottomless upside down type. Kept my eyes closed. No sights to see. Roar a wooden coaster, Joker's face, a maglev launch type, 0-60mph in 3 seconds that gave a mild sensation for that time but none else other than thrill. And I didn't loose my hat, although I might have lost some change on Batwing, a prostrate- ridden coaster. Three rides on the massive Superman: Ride of Steel. By this time I enjoyed staring down at that angle. Got soaked in Nantucket on my boat. Now I come home with red arms and nose. So I use aloe vera gel, and some papaya. Worked well to ease the mild discomfort. Take a C-series Metrobus from Addison Road or Largo? and keep your parking money for yourself. And don't buy food there, either. Oh, and there were no lines at all- that was the best part...can't stand those things.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

DMV Rant, #3

I got up at 7:05 am on a Saturday, again, to again address the DMV. I got the eye exam done yesterday, left 6 people out of a class of 18 for religion class. And, my eyes are fine. So guess what DMV did? Lost my papers. Fortunately, they had an electronic copy of the knowledge test results, that new enhanced thing. So in good time, I submitted all the documents in a pile that resembled the federal budget. Nice Lady did it. They typed it in, and soon, they took a picture. Nice guy too. Not too bad, I must say, and gave me the card. So I don't have to deal with them for another 6 months.

After that, I finished the big history project on the Cold War (that's top secret for now!). Happy to have a legitimate,G.I.'d portable form of identification.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

KFC

Memory card may have been found. Hold for update.

By the way, www.unthinkfc.com is giving away free KFC. Get to it now or forever hold peace!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Cinco de Mayo

Back about 20 years ago, Canada had a $2 bill. You may have gone there multiple times and never come across one. That's because it was replaced (not just 'phased out')by the bimetallic tooney. That won't fly in America regarding $1 coins. For some reason, Americans love the Washington greenbacks, even though they aren't very pristine after a few transactions. Green with Envy? Or is it just that coins are all heavy and everything in the pocket.

Think of this: 5 dollar coins versus 20 quarters. That's what DC Metro farecard machines gave out as maximum change. Half a roll of quarters. Positive change?
And anyway, it makes one feel more international. Few countries have bills for 1 unit of currency anymore.

At least $1 coins make it through the wash pretty well.

Now is that $1000 Mexico coin worth $10 or a cash cow at $100?
Now about those half dollar coins and two dollar bills...

Now onto more serious and pertinent business:

Let's Find Atticus Sawatzki's 1 GB USB Plug-in flash drive.
It's a classic. And there's a $5 cash reward fund to find it and compensate the returner, thief or not.

Taken from a computer in the early afternoon hours of 5/4/09, and being handled like stolen property- no geribund piece of technology deserves to be treated that way!
So, let's find it!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

H St. NE

Get this. Private industry has decided to run an express bus service along an existing transit corridor (street cars and all to be started soon), and right on top of an existing line. There really shouldn't be such an uproar. I mean, Alexandria did it. No, the real fear is that the general public and not the bar crowd will start taking advantage of free rides, making the X2 bus the elite mode of transport at $1.25.
I just don't get it.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Course Selection

We only got the packets Tuesday night. Then, on Thursday, we turn them in. Juggling four semesters in a few hours of work. Well. Get as many requirements out of the way, make it so that there isn't too much AP in 12th grade. So I'll see how it comes back in a few weeks.

Italian ducks- they look sort of different than our American variety. More slender. I have to ask Little Brother more about those ducks. Were they mean like Australian squirrels or what? And the sound they make. So I'll ask him sometime.