To Make a Tag Day

It seemed like people were nowhere to be found. There was a fire drill, 8:35am. The results and observations will be reviewed by the School Safety Comittee. At least 70% of students came in 'Tag', and were levied $5 a head. No cut-arounds, though. All entrances were made into obstacle courses to help discern the people who think levy hooky is a fun game. All in all, well over $600 would have been collected, with a very good profit margin, that we as students should see in coming months. FYI, I don't do $5 tags. I point out that at $3, more people would be akin to paying, and that would result in more money? No, the market saturation is complete. Maximum revenue has been gained. Not to say I'm not charitable: I plan to make a contribution to the Model UN Fund, which I encourage all students who have a stake in the club, or in the free world for that matter, to do.

L"Hippo Lemonade

As I was going to finish I never did a lemonade stand before, in real life, that is, so I thought I'd do some 'entrepreneurship', as it is called when older kids are involved. So since it was not raining yesterday, I went out.It didn't net big with soda cans and water bottles, probably because it wasn't that typical Washington summer day, everyone else got their drinks from the vendor near the Subway entrance, and the low-visibility cooler didn't help much. Maybe once I find the big blue one I'll try again, but the main point is that I finished L'Hippo the comic book- 7 years after Santiago and his Adventure of the White Blood Cell King.

Short story- A French Hippo comes to America and has it out with the Nigerian Embassy over a lottery scheme.

Considered 16

A little chilly for a great game of outdoor Capture the Flag, then, it really heated up. Every April 17th, warmer than the 14th.

OK, so I got my Library of Congress card. Somehow, I thought I could get down from Brookland to Capitol South in 1/2 of an hour. Not possible. So therefore, I'd have to give the trip a little more time- like 15 minutes more. After a long run with a heavy pack, I got on the train for 3 stops- then took a 6 block walk. This is supposedly faster than riding 24 blocks out of the way to Metro Center. Sweaty, but made it 5 minutes short of the 4:30 deadline. Getting the card was a simple matter- fill out a simple form, and- government photos- I looked organic, and not done up. Well.

To avoid an innumerable amount of punches, I kept it on the lowdown. Anyway, anyone who really cared about govong me punches would have asked or done research.

My Awesome Church Adventure, Part 2

Over supper, which was a snazzed up frozen lasagna, with those brownies that make life worth it, we were fed a pop quiz on what we learned over the past five months- indeed, I got the second highest score, at 60% (top was 65%). Since we all talked, we all zeroes, and the curve brought us all up to 100. Then, we got to expend our breath on blue and white balloons while having a kitchen reality show to see who could make the best hollinadaise sauce.Blowing balloons- gotta remember to blow from the abs. My sauce came out just by the book, until the yolk started to turn into scrambled eggs. And I never knew one could burn butter. The thing didn't come together correctly- lumpy texture. Burn.

Somehow, it was midnight.

My Awesome Church Adventure, Part 1

Just a briefing:

Pop Tarts for those 5-minute lunches are great.
On such a meal, it was a Main House supervictory- undefeated in every qualifying game in volleyball. Well, we did falter on championship game 2, and it was looking sad, "If you don't want to hit the ball, then don't be on the team". The tough love that was used surely secured victory rather than the normal rotation that forces good players out as often as the bad. Main pulled off the 3rd game to be #1.

So Saturday, 2:15 pm. I just got back from orchestra as I ran and packed bags. I siad I would be there at 2:30pm, so I had to rush. Well, I got there at 3pm, but that was fine anyway, as I had the alibi of having to scour the church for the group. Yes, they were already hard at work in the kitchen. After some stop-and-go moments, the kitchen was at full swing for two hours, poaching 220 eggs in six small pots, one at a time.

So the survivability rate rolled around 87%, much better than the previous 50% of 2007, including breeched yolks, and one-eyed monsters that lost their albumin in the pot. The time passed quickly by...

Wet Socks and Lots of Essays

It rained a lot on Wednesday. In fact, it was just so wet it was a downer. Not to mention it was just above the freezing mark- exactly. Terrible news for drivers- patches of black ice rather than a day to avoid all ice at home...in simple terms, a snow day would have been better for society. And then lots of essays that took me away for the past two days...

So then, after burning out, I took the 80 all the way home from school- it was a 1 hour 5 minute ordeal...it went fine until New York Avenue on North Capitol. Just a lot of red lights. So I arrived at 25+Virginia and sort of regretted it, until I found out about the Red Line- just a minor track dinky that broke camel's back...I do applaud Metro about how fast they do resolve these problems when they happen.

Blue skies for miles tomorrow, I think.

Here I am posting on random forums

"Is this even constitutional? While congress has full power over DC, I don't think that they have the authority to close roads in Virginia for this purpose. And anyway, Rich Joe wants to get from McLean to a party in Palisades. He normally would use Chain Bridge, but now he must use the American Legion, wasting let's say a gallon of fuel and lots of harm to the environment. PS-Metro is not an option for Rich Joe, yet.

But on the upside, Congress wanted a transit-oriented city by the early '70's. In the chance that forcing people out of their cars at the suburban stations and onto the one-day BRT and Metrorail works, we might have an utopia. However, it won't work for the long term. DC People are Americans at heart."

Pooks Hill Station

Grosvenor Station. Grosvenor. The least American metro station name after L'enfant Plaza. I got schooled on its pronunciation about a week or two ago. Is it gros-ve-nor, grovs-ner (as the conductors say it), it actually is Gro-venor, with the Norman French silent 's', according to a native. Since 1984, the name has been tripping everyone up. Pooks Hill, the name in the original plans, would have satisfied the American desire of easy. Then the station had Strathmore added to its name. Unlike such stations as Woodley Park/Zoo-Adams Morgan, or U Street/Cardozo/African-American Civil War Memorial Station, people actually use the new part of the name.

Well, that leads to what Little 'Borther' had me do yesterday. He had me ride the entire Metro system. We boarded at 2:10pm, took the Orange Line out to New Carollton, doubled back to the Blue to Largo, headed off to Green to Branch Ave, reversing towards Greenbelt. But, by then, it was 5:30pm, and Mommy called us to come back home for supper. On the Red Line from Fort Totten home, I asked whether he was still recording the train times, as it pulled into each station. "No, never again on Sunday". Indeed, we spent well over an hour waiting for trains, as it was Sunday. We put our farecards through the exit gate at just about 6pm.

Lots of Videos

By popular request, I started putting more mundane videos online to YouTube. But, then, after on a Metro ride home, a static ensemble of producers asked me to do "Animal noises", noticing that I was unable to do the oink of the pig. Along with that came some videos from our e-library that were never placed in a JangooVision episode, and the definite cancellation of the "Dari" series, it being an epic failure. So I had to craft the Animal oises film carefully so I would not be humiliated. Well, it has been relatively sucessful, being spread around Facebook and all- 62 views the first night.

"never give up"
-ipolomarco43

To see JangooVision and all the other e-films I produce, look up atticussawatzki on YouTube.

My Brainchild

No, passengers will not appreciate being sent from their local airport to the Dulles (VA/DC) passenger sorting facility and back to their final destination. This is not overnight mail. People want to reduce their time in the air, no matter how luxurious it may be, to spend more time on the ground. Anyway, three airports got new runways today- Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, and Portland. DC's strip was the most economical, at $350 mil, the cost of 6 Boeing 737's. The Portland runway somehow cost $1 bil. How did that happen? Anyway, cheers to the future of air travel from these smart cities.

Sponsored by Northern Express Airlines. Coming to an airport near you.

668-2008

Go out and vote tommorow. Vote for and, most likely, somebody at the state level as well. Even if you are not qualified to vote, and you have nothing better to do, cast a provisional ballot. Whether Remember, I don't want to become a commie subject because of some irresponsible 20 year olds' choice to be apathetic. First thing to go- freedom of speech, and this website will disappear. So please do excercize your right as a citizen of the free world and I'm not- by law I'm too young, but I've been making sure that the barely-legal crowd is going to do so. Boy, do I feel sad for the arranger of the mock debate. Almost 18, but not quite yet. Take away votes from the people who don't need them (those apathetic 20 year olds who don't understand why they got a day off from college) and give them to 17 1/2 year old leaders of CSO teams.

Now a word about afrimative action in the Mr. Obama is poised to lose up to about 5% of potential votes on the single factor of race. Do we add 5% to his tally and give him a sure victory? Or do we give McCain several points because he has 72 years on his back? In the world of success, you don't need AA, so what's the big point of it then?

So go and vote for Obama/Biden, McCain/Palin, Nader/Gonzales, or for yourself. It should be your right not to vote for anyone, but it shouldn't be your right not to show up, though.

That Lame Duck!

George Bush made a rare appearance to a national audience tonight, and begged us for our $2333 each ($700bil. bailout). What do I think about it? hmmm... giving lots of money to rich people... if I were one of them...
What I do have to say is that it may be unnecessary; a shares swap could work like it did in Sweden. Or the Bush I bailouts of $150 billion wasn't too painful? That amount, inflation adjusted, and doubled, is about $400 bil.

The tax plan
Now suppose next year I got $1 million in income. According to the Obama plan, I'd have to shell out $35K more. Parting with that dear cash! That's the price of 1) a cabin or small house somewhere 2) a new semi-luxury car 3) a pre-owned aircraft.

But if using the McCain plan, I would pay $6500 less, but it would put the USA into more debt...
too many numbers?

If it applies to you- VOTE 4 ATTICUS on House Day.
You'll get your value for your buck.

(WSJ)

The worst night ever

Last night was the worst night I ever lived through! This all-youth lock in at the cathedral could have been the fraud of the day. You see: They showed pictures of happy children on their website. The real faces were those of people who did an all day long test. Exausted faces emerging into the sun for the first time in more than 14 hours. These high school age group leaders just could not manage anything. For example, we had to wait a whole half hour in line just to get a bagel! and not to mention the warm orange juice. The disrespect of the church- how terrible! Sleeping and eating in the nave of the cathedral! Not like I could get to sleep; there were people screaming and stomping all night, waking me up at regular intervals. After all, the light was on over my head all night. Between 7pm and 1 am these big children stuffed us with propaganda- they actually did traumatize more than one person about what they said about how there was no justice in the world. That was from 7 to 10pm. Then we had a Woodstock-esque christian revival song event. They can be fun, but I don't have to tell you about this one. Then we had a midnight mass of the most sacred sacrament of Holy Communion while we sung improvisational church music. In sleepwear on the altar of this high church- How dare they! So with less than 2 hours of sleep in all I slouched over to my orchestra event. These big children destroyed at least half my weekend.
Main problem- too many people!How were you supposed to meet people when there were 440 paying participants? Each participant paid $38. Go figure. The diocese recieved $16,720 (Nearly all the staff were volunteering.) while apparently the majority of the participants were in misery. I would have happily given 2 $20 bills to support whatever nice mission the church was trying to achieve. This was unnecessary, I thought. A few people, however, liked it and want to go back again next year. It just must not be our parish's style. Don't take me wrong- Most Christian sleepovers are great fun and whatever this sleepover was trying to claim they did. For example, I would have preferred watching a DVD in a cozy sleeping bag with people I knew at my local parish over the cathedral's own movie theater and that rock band that was there.