December 31, 2004
Yellowstone River Ice
Ice chunks on the Yellowstone River in Eastern Montana. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Yellowstone is “the longest undammed river in the contiguous United States.” It's possibly prettiest at its source in Yellowstone National Park, but you can find great views (and great fishing, I'm told) all along its length.
December 30, 2004
Big Guy
My parents' dog isn't too sure about the camera. He only weighs 5-6 pounds, and that's full grown, so he's small enough to be intimidated by lots of things, including his toys, his food, and his water bowl. But he's sweet and lovable and makes a great lap blanket when you find yourself taking a late afternoon holiday nap.
December 29, 2004
Fruitcake
Freshly-cut fruitcake for the holidays! Fruitcake has such a bad rap as the cliched gift that no one wants to receive, but my mom has a friend who continues to make it every year and it's actually pretty good. Very filling, that's for sure.
December 28, 2004
Super Scrabble
The Super Scrabble board in mid-game. L. gave this game to my mom for Christmas, and since my mom is a long time Scrabble fan, the “super” version was a big hit. I played the game with my family just about every night for four or five nights, and I'm hooked. The game comes with twice as many letters as the original, and something like double the playing squares. It also includes extra bonus spaces, such as quadruple letter and quadruple word scores. This means the game takes longer (it took us close to two hours per game), but hitting 400 points is much much easier than with the original game.
December 27, 2004
Plow
An old plow waits for restoration on my dad's land. My dad collects parts from old farm implements, including rakes, plows, and wagons. He hopes to restore some of them someday; meanwhile, they make interesting decorations along the road to his little “farm.”
December 26, 2004
Box of Chocolates
Nutty chocolates make a tempting gift at holiday time. These were a gift from one of my dad's parishioners (he's a Methodist minister). At right you can also see one of the stained glass windows in his Montana church. If you'd been in church today, you would have heard a somewhat spirited sermon about how the Iraq war is not righteous or Christian. Of course, you would have had to listen fairly carefully to pick that out; discretion is sometimes the better part of spiritual guidance.
December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2004
Christmas Carols
December 23, 2004
Stroopwaffles!
The Dutch Brothers Bakery in Billings, home of the best stroopwaffles (caramel cookie waffles) you'll ever taste. It's also one of the best places for lunch in Billings; for about $5.00 you get a tasty pastry filled with chicken, beef, spinach, or something else (can't remember), a large cup of terrific soup (often chicken noodle or potato, but it varies), a stroopwaffle, and a small drink. It's a delicious deal. Really, this place is not to be missed if you passing through Billings. Highly recommended.
December 22, 2004
Iron Peacock
An iron peacock sculpture sits outside a business in downtown Billings, Montana. The thumbnail at right shows the entire sculpture. I believe this was on Montana Avenue, and the business may have been called the Secret Plum, but I can't remember exactly. I do know it's a few doors down from the Log Cabin Bakery, a coffee shop and bakery that advertises free wireless internet access. I haven't tried it yet, but I may have to before my stay here is through.
December 21, 2004
Transportation Safety?
Transportation Safety Administration workers do their thing at a small Michigan airport. This airport is not large enough to have baggage x-ray machines, so all bags are simply checked by hand. They also test for chemical or explosive residue using these little cloth pieces on the ends of wands that they rub around the zipper handles and other openings of your bags. The cloth piece is then run through some sort of scanner that tests for unknown things. Sometimes the workers also run the cloth around the inside of your bags, but they didn't do it this time. Maybe that's one of those extra precautions for when we're on “orange” alert or something.
The thumbnail picture at right is just a view of the clouds above Montana that I thought created a neat texture.
December 20, 2004
Ohio Winter Driving
Snowy interstate highway somewhere in Pennsylvania or Ohio. L. and I drove from D.C. to Michigan today and snow was falling for about half the trip. I think it was in Ohio that we saw the worst stretch, including about a dozen cars off the road (some smashed up, but most just victims of sliding into the ditch) along a 10-20 mile stretch where you couldn't see the road at all because it was covered with snow. Fun!
December 19, 2004
Luna
Luna rocks the house at the 9:30 Club last night. Much better pictures of the band available here, and hear sample stuff here. They played most of their new album, “Rendezvous,” plus old favorites from Romantica and miscellaneous other albums I couldn't keep track of. Very good show. Thanks so much to L. for buying me tickets!
December 18, 2004
Mourn : Honor
December 17, 2004
Second Frost
Frost crystals on a car window yesterday morning after D.C.'s second frost of fall 2004. It certainly hasn't felt like winter here yet, so the weather seems to be following the calendar this year—winter doesn't officially start until December 21st.
December 16, 2004
Test Messages
Stickers covering the lid of my test-taking laptop. These stickers were gifts from good friends and I thought they were appropriate messages to send out to members of the law school community. The only time they're ever seen is when I have to take a computer-based exam; the rest of the time, I use an iBook.
Finals are now over, so the test machine has gone back into the closet for another four months. Three more rounds of testing (1 per remaining semester) to go before I've purchased a J.D.
Pic I Wish I'd Taken (PIWIT): night at blue mountain from daily dose of imagery. Such vivid colors and perfect blanket of snow over everything; it looks like a photo of a fantasy scale model of a mountain resort in winter.
December 15, 2004
Extegrity
A starting screen for Extegrity, the exam software GW uses. Extegrity bills itself as “the armored word processor” because it locks down your computer so you can't access any other programs while it's running. It allows you to do one thing, and one thing only: Take essay and short answer exams. GW passes out a floppy to everyone who takes their exam on a computer and you have to save your exam to the floppy and that's what you actually hand in. Extegrity auto-saves your exam to your hard drive every few minutes in an encrypted format that you'll never be able to access again except through some arcane Extegrity process that requires more mojo than I know, but it's supposed to allow you to hand in a backup copy if something happens to your floppy. Extegrity is now also offering a floppy-free option to allow users to turn in their exams over a wireless network, but GW would apparently rather deal w/floppies.
Whateva. The big problem w/Extegrity is that it's Windoze-only. I hate that.
I took my last Extegrity exam of this semester last Monday. Today's exam is 80 multiple choice questions in three hours—machine-scored. That means I'll be filling in 80 little bubbles with a #2 pencil, so no computer necessary.
Extegrity
A starting screen for Extegrity, the exam software GW uses. Extegrity bills itself as “the armored word processor” because it locks down your computer so you can't access any other programs while it's running. It allows you to do one thing, and one thing only: Take essay and short answer exams. GW passes out a floppy to everyone who takes their exam on a computer and you have to save your exam to the floppy and that's what you actually hand in. Extegrity auto-saves your exam to your hard drive every few minutes in an encrypted format that you'll never be able to access again except through some arcane Extegrity process that requires more mojo than I know, but it's supposed to allow you to hand in a backup copy if something happens to your floppy. Extegrity is now also offering a floppy-free option to allow users to turn in their exams over a wireless network, but GW would apparently rather deal w/floppies.
Whateva. The big problem w/Extegrity is that it's Windoze-only. I hate that.
I took my last Extegrity exam of this semester last Monday. Today's exam is 80 multiple choice questions in three hours—machine-scored. That means I'll be filling in 80 little bubbles with a #2 pencil, so no computer necessary.
December 14, 2004
CueCat
A “neutered” CueCat USB barcode scanner. I bought this on eBay for about $10 and plan to use it to build a book collection database in Books. I've tested it out and it works great. It's not like a grocery store scanner where you can just wave it in the general direction of the barcode and it will scan. Instead, you have to drag the CueCat across the barcode from left to right. Here are the directions that came with it:
Hints for Swiping a Barcode:- Hold the barcode reader between your thumb and forefinger like a pen or pencil.
- Place the nose of the cat in the white area on the left side of the barcode, not within the barcode itself.
- Align the cat's paws with the bottom of the barcode. Move the barcode reader smoothly from the left to the right across the entire barcode and into the white area past it.
- Keep the reader in contact with the barcode throughout the swipe for an accurate read. Be quick! The faster and more constant the speed of the swipe, the better your results.
- If the barcode doesn't read, swipe in a back and forth motion a few times. Be patient. It may take a little practice to get the hang of it. Once you have it down, it becomes second nature.
December 13, 2004
Exam Schedule
Chalkboard at GW with this morning's list of finals and locations. This board tells you where I met my doom in Corporations. It was very not good. Possibly my first C... or worse. On the 30 multiple choice questions, I was pretty clueless and had to guess according to my corporate law rule of thumb, which is: When in doubt, assume the court will defer to the corporation. I guess I'll see whether that strategy worked. The lesson for the future: Pass/fail is a good option for classes that you're not really that interested in in the first place.
December 12, 2004
Crock Pot
Beans and potatoes in the crock pot as L. prepared a meal the other day. Fall is when the crock pot comes out of the cupboard for relatively easy and tasty hot meals.
Did I mention I'm studying for finals and haven't been able to take any really fascinating pictures recently?
Pic I Wish I'd Taken (PIWIT): Escalators: The escalator leading to upper stages of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, by Photomoteur, a photoblog. I was at the Pompidou Center in 1995, but my pictures then were analog, and probably weren't much good.
December 11, 2004
Burned Bulb
Ceiling of one of the exits at the Friendship Heights metro station. The picture at the right shows the ceiling in context. L. and I went shopping last weekend at Friendship Heights; specifically we headed to the Borders book store there, armed with coupons printed off the web for 15% off any item. Even with the discount, it was hard to find anything that was cheaper than ordering from online, and that's even adding in the cost of shipping for the online stuff. Sad. Amazon really has become the Wal-Mart of bookstores.
December 10, 2004
Sunset Spotlight
A late fall sun hovers on the horizon.
(I've been too busy studying to take many interesting photos recently, but I hope that will change soon...)
December 09, 2004
White House, Protest, Cannon
The White House and an anti-nukes protest from behind a cannon in Lafayette Park. I believe this woman, the protester, has been stationed here or near here every time I've been by the White House in the last, oh, three years. I've never spoken to her, but her signs warn of the risk of another Chernobyl, I think. I need to pay more attention.
Pic I Wish I'd Taken (PIWIT): 210 Fedex at Daily Dose of Imagery. What a great shot.
December 08, 2004
Smart Trip
The magic swipe spot that allows you to charge up your SmarTrip card for the D.C. metro. Now it appears you can get a combined credit card and fare card combined into one piece of plastic that I assume you would never need to recharge. Interesting. Bad if the Metro people are selling rider info to the credit card company, and bad if the credit card company can track a user's comings and goings, but still, interesting.
December 07, 2004
Chess
Sculpture of two men playing chess near Judiciary Square between federal court (I think) and the Canadian embassy.
December 06, 2004
Good Jobs
AFL-CIO Headquarters in downtown D.C. I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, but it seems appropriate now as I study for a labor law final coming up Wednesday. This banner hangs about two blocks from the White House.
December 05, 2004
Terrorista?
A poster from a small town in Wyoming. My sister sent me this picture yesterday. In case you can't read the small print below the image, the poster says “Distributed by: Team Enemy Counter Propaganda Project.” A quick search didn't turn up anything on the web about the group, so I'm guessing it's just a local thing. As my sister and I read it, he three K's in “Amerikkkan” suggest the poster is accusing Bush of acting in some sort white supremacy, and “terrorista” is Spanish for terrorist, I believe; therefore, the message may be from a Hispanic or Latino group. I'm just guessing.
Pic I Wish I'd Taken (PIWIT): viva la fête II, by fredrik, a photoblogger from Stockholm, Sweden.
December 04, 2004
K Street Both Ways
Top: K Street looking westerly toward Georgetown.
Bottom: K Street looking easterly toward Capitol Hill.
Both pics were taken last week near the corner of 17th and K St.
December 03, 2004
Two Weeks
Top: A late pumpkin and fiery tree two weeks ago.
Bottom: The same pumpkin and a leafless tree yesterday.
December 02, 2004
Where is Harry Potter?
Great bumper sticker I saw yesterday. I just wish we would have had someone as resourceful, powerful, and likable as Harry Potter to vote for in opposition.
Some bright blooms wave their heads before the first snowfall in downtown D.C. I took this picture just last week at the corner of K and 17th streets. We're still waiting for the first hard freeze here in D.C., but I expect it will come soon.