Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Not quite done

Oh, yeah, Blogger runs on West Coast time- it won't be New Year for a while, on their time.
Yes, and did we all enjoy our extra second too? I can't believeq it made so much news- not much happens at this time of year.

First Post, 09

Mission Acomplished
...8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Happy New Year! Right on the dot. Now what must I do this year?
Jan- Issue JMAG
See inauguration
Win big in school
Sometime later this year- start looking at colleges

Yeah, it'll all come into place.

Blog Book 2008 will be out soon- hot off the press!

Last Post, 08

Under three minutes until the New Year. If I do not type fast enough, then this will be my first post of 2009. But I do not intend for that to happen. As a matter of fact, Luke Russert is hanging around the high profiles on TV, and all eyes are in Times Square. Do you know the words to Au Lang Syne? Get ready.

Ah, 45 seconds...35...

New Year

If one has been following my blog all year, the reader would find its length as long as a novel. It really is. While throughout the years I have been struggling to write the noel (ie taking various writings and tying them together)

Somehow, 2009 is now labeled as the most disastrous year in a long, long time.
And since I'll be up until 2009

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Water and The Working Girl

Working Girl. A great movie about an aspiring secretary (Melanin Griffith-never heard of her name) from Staten Island (supposedly) who speaks with a Brooklyn accent. A ski scene, she becomes 'da boss', plays the Wall Street game, wins over the respect of men in the workplace, gets Harrison Ford and dumps Alec Baldwin. Then she gets a secretary, and they have coffee together. Which reminds me about how important proper hydration is.

Having gone all morning and afternoon without a drink. On a bridge while biking, my head hurt a lot for no reason. I thought I would faint--but soon, I found a water fountain that Little Brother noted. I pushed the little button, and nothing came out. I pushed harder, and ka-bam! Now if someone caught a video of me lapping the water (from a shiny, brand-new water fountain) like a dog...

Sunday, December 28, 2008

360 Around HOT

It was hot I was in short I felt like I was melting I turned on a fan when I did tennis I was loose like a heated piece of taffy

Saturday, December 27, 2008

A Little Holiday

Blog all of three days in six minutes?

After the balmy day of Christmas was half-gone, we headed to Virginia Beach, checking in to a hotel where we had frequent stay points. Pretty nice place, glass elevator.
The concurrent light show was swell, the bike path smooth as always.

Second day, it turned out that one night was not enough. Stay another night, go to the MacArthur Mall and Museum, see Mommy and Daddy's former residence and running grounds, Chrysler Museum.

I'm not that much in the Blog Zone.
I'll save day 3 for later

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Id Faciendum Est

Twas the night before Christmas, and I had a reading at the 6pm. Went totally well, watched Charlie Browns Christmas Special on VHS, played some e-poker with the cyberpals, and will go to bed, to see if presents appear under the tree tomorrow, perchance.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

PTSD in a school setting?

It occurs in soldiers, police people and fire people. But I keep on having these recurring dreams and perceptions of school- 5 days or more per week, four months nearly straight at 6am. It's being nervous of something, something. Report cards don't come out until Jan. 6, but for now, it's relax and do some history.

Monday, December 22, 2008

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.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

An American Way

So Walgreens was selling cans of Progresso soup for $2.99. SOrt of outrageous. Well, they had a sale that brought the price down to 99 cents, and Little Brother found a coupon for $1.10 off the price. THerefore, we could earn 11 cents by purchasing the soup, as sometimes happens. So we did, along with some other stuff. We got home, and I popped the lid. Well, well, it so splattered everywhere in a terrific fashion. Why? A mild dent in the rim. So cleaning was pesky.

But, it was still worth it to take advantage of American Consumerism!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Sort of Tired

Yes, it's finally Christmas break
but it didn't feel like it with the rainy bike ride

I shot some nice videos of ducks lapping water, and planes taking off- but boy was it wet.
Did you ever know that an airport had bike racks.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

TIme Keeps on Ticking

So my little green alarm clock that likes to alaram me at 6am started to stop ticking when I roped around the clock to turn it off. Reseting the clock would get it back in motion. Then, yesterday, I find that the clock would noot respond. I spin, I hit, then I think of the little Energizer Bunny- The battery! Replacing the Rayovac with another off-brand got the clock back on beat with a snappy rhythm.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Little Incident on the Tracks

That was one tough geometry exam.

But, I heard of a person getting hit by a train.
This serves as a reminder to be careful when doing stuff near railroad tracks.
And when driving a train, be careful.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Crime fits a Punishment

Over the weekend, a boy who was unfortunately hacked by an ice pick managed to get on the train, and ride it to the next stop, get out, and flag down the cops, causing a CSI on the tracks. That amazed me. But that was not the only fantastic crime that happened recently. Ponzi scheme- worked for a long time. Apparently, you must have enough cash on hand to pay all creditors back, if you wanted to play that way. Then comes "Pay to Play", and then, the shoe. Wow.

All that and four of seven exams down.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Multimedia Journalist

Post 350, a lot of videos online, and the news comes down to meet me

Picture the sort of fascinating journalism I do. Now imagine instead of you clicking to see my world, you turn on your TV and see me. That is what WUSA 9 is doing- the least viewed news channel around here. They are throwing out the specialists who film and do the lighting and all, even eliminating the sucker interns who do all the work when everyone else is on vacation. What is replacing my aspirations is self-reporting. After ten years of improving e-journalism that now involves real crews, these reporters are going to film themselves. Now I consider how on the film Animal Noises, I left out the usual lighting scheme by accident. I didn't want to redo the whole ad lib show, so I uploaded it it anyway. That is the future of Channel 9.

Friday, December 12, 2008

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.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

It's called a retrocession

The Northwest Current is getting up and at the issue of DC statehood again. The main issue is voting rights. Currently, there is the proposal of the addition of new Congress seats- one for DC, and one for Utah. Whether it will pass or not, or if the Supreme Court approves, ?.
Other options do exist. There are the people who want a state of their own. That requires big stuff- constitutional and all that. Or, what may be the second option is retrocession- the Port Town of Alexandria did it over 150 years ago, so did Arlington. Everything except the National Capital Service Area (That's just The Mall) would be given back from Maryland. It's actually pretty simple- state-level approval and Congress. I mean, it's already been done before. Of course, Maryland could decide to take only the good stuff (Downtown, etc), and leave the rest behind, but I'm getting sleepy, so I'm not going to think too much about Amendment 23, which explains it all.

Or if you want to vote for Congress in 2010, just move to Virginia or Maryland, two self-sufficient, all-American states. Golly, the media is so biased.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Not too bad of a day

Good things like to happen on Tuesdays

Another run-over day in French Class
I got through over 10 Physics problems in less than 1-1/2 hours
I didn't make big mistakes on the French test
Main House dominated Austin
I broke the YouTube hiatus after determining it was safe, loading episode 3!
I performed 5-hit streaks, only to be ended by victory
Yes, I was ostracized for being #15 for the shuttle, but the 80-bus came and delivered me JIT (just in time) to say: "Ben (gasp), you thought you could get rid (gasp) of me!"
Learned the proper pronunciation of "Grosvenor" (in the local Northwest vestige of the Mid Atlantic Pure Dialect)
Found out how great I was at photography as I printed out some digital pix at Walgreen's 30-minute photoshop.

I looked up a self-esteem chart, and it's here:
http://www.midwestlincs.org/Resc/Kansas/psassessment.html

Monday, December 8, 2008

Test and Quizzed and Examed

This is my life

Monday
History, Quiz (Post-Reformation Europe)
English, Quiz (CH. 9, Great Gatsby paragraph)
Geometry, board assignment (Congruent Triangles)
Physics, Quiz (Waves)
French, Test (Crime, Subjunctives, Double Object Pronouns)
Humanities, some had a 10-min Presentation (Post-Renaissance Art)
Latin, Test (Infinitives)
Religion, Prepare Essay (Marriage)

Tuesday
Latin, Quiz (Verbs)
French, Test, cont.
Physics, Quiz (?); Lab Rpt. Due

Wednesday
Physics, Test
Religion, Essay Due

A little nervous about Physics- very comprehensive test.
I got a great tip from a classmate to write out those physics equations on paper- and memorize them cold. As for the other 10 Q+T, exams are next week. Thursday, Friday, hard review.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

The mystery caller

Tonight, I got the second mystery call. Last night, the first had sent me out into the street looking behind the "little green tree". Tonight was more civil: The caller identified herself and the previous caller, with some background information. Pretty nice, though, talking to people. Of course, for the respect of privacy of others, I won't disclose aliases or locations. But they did say about how they liked what I did in the musical. So, my cellphone is starting to get a little workout.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

TFS

Long chat...a phonecall from a distant slumber party...more chat...bed

Friday, December 5, 2008

1 billion for Great Society

Money has been approved from congress for the Silver Line towards Dulles Airport- for the first segment to Tyson's Corner. This will provide easier access to the supermall there, and should spur development. Some groups even say that the area will become DC's skyscraper district. (I know it's Fairfax; Rosslyn is unsuitable because of the 300' height limit due to National Airport, and the feds probably don't want a building towering over the Pentagon, if located in Crystal City.

But will it be above or underground? It still has to be decided. Even if it were overhead, the cheaper alternative, the architectural drawings do make it look not like an eyesore.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Sawatzki Report

The virus is making national news

"YouTube users in virus panic"
http://valleywag.com/5101452/youtube-users-in-virus-panic

"Youtube Virus? Actnsswift"

YouTube Down

I just got a message from the man who runs IT that a very lethal virus is running rampant on YouTube. The forwarded message came from the design manager of the minor wonder, JangooVision News (under atticussawatzki's channel on Youtube). Youtube is the internet home of these newscasts, so episode 203 will have to wait until the virus blows over. That's some sad news for all of democracy.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Let's pretend it's Monday morning

Oh how I hate to get up in the morning
O how I wish I were still in bed
For the hardest call of all
is to hear the trumpeter call
(Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah)
(This is the Army, Mr. Jones; Irving Berlin)

6:07 am. THe little 99 cent IKEA alarm clock goes off for the first time in four days. I was sooo sleepy and loathed how Little Brother would still be in bed during Fourth Period. I take shower, eat some meal, and find that my clock went beserk- it was doing its self-tripping motion. I shook the clock a little, and it caught bak its momentum. Usually, I get some work done while on the 6:58 Blue to Largo and sequentially, the 7:10 Red to Glenmont at Metro Center. But I took a nap...

It's going to be Wednesday tommorow. I have to teach a brief lecture at 12:45 in the afternoon. I hope my listeners are engaged. And to think that one week ago, I had started the journey to New York as I was liberated for several days from the cycle.