Where do Ravens go for a beer? Crow Bars!

One of the personal Halloween traditions I have held over the years is a reading of Poe's 'The Raven'. This was always one of my favorite narrative poem that told of the narrators increasingly terrorous night. While I will not quote the whole poem here, I'll end with the opening lines.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;

Only this, and nothing more."

Don't pat certain animals, e.g., crocodiles and scorpions or dogs you have just kicked.

On Friday night I went to the 13 Ugly Men costume party at 'The Underground' in downtown Tampa. This group does a decent sized party every few months and usually has a good turn out of all ages with proceeds going to charity. For Halloween, I was going to dress up at the creepy Burger King guy since I had found a source for the masks used in the commercial, but last weekend I decided to change my costume. Instead, I went at the late Steve Irwin, complete with the khaki pants and short, boots, and stingray. I didn't think it would be completely original, but I did think of it and plan it out before the South Park episode aired on Wednesday. I went to the Fl Aquarium gift shop and picked up the plush stingray toy and sewed it into the shirt and added some theatrical blood. I got a lot of different comments at the parties, but pretty much everyone saw the humor. With his personality, I don't doubt that Irwin would be chuckling about the good natured rub.

The party itself was pretty enjoyable and even though there was a little rain, it really wasn't too cold. I went with a couple of hash friends and had a good time chatting with various people and taking in all of the good costume ideas. We were out until about 3AM or so and were pretty tired, but overall it was good. I had to get up relatively early to go to Lettuce Lake Park for a friend's going away party. Monica got a great job in Atlanta, so will be leaving the Busch Gardens marketing department. She was the one that was nice enough to get me invited on the photo shoot for the Sheikra ride before it opened last year, with one of the pictures even showing up in a brochure. It'll be sad to see her leave, but now at least I might have an extra place to crash next time I head to the mountains for a hiking or whitewater trip. :)

Alarm clock: A device that scares the daylight into you.

Just FYI, but remember that early Sunday morning it will be time to change all the clocks back one hour for Daylight Saving Time. If you're going to be out late partying, then you get one extra party hour, or one extra hour of sleep / recovery. I have always wondered, rhetorically, if the clock goes back one hour, do all the TV shows (or probably infomercials) get replayed?

As a pet peeve, please note that there is no 's' at the end of 'Saving', so please tell people to stop doing it. You wouldn't call the Thanksgiving period 'turkey cookings time' nor Christmas 'presents givings day'. That is almost as frustrating as the people that honestly seem to have no clue (as opposed to just being lazy) as to the difference between 'your' and 'you're'.

I got a sweater for Christmas. I wanted a screamer or a moaner.

Last night was a fun little get together for a few friends for the Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream event. My friend Michelle had some family coming up from Sarasota as well as one of her buddies Chelsea. A couple of my hash friends, Kiddie and VC, decided to come after I made an announcement a couple weeks ago about going. I figured Thursday would be the best night to go since the crowds would be low. Most of us met at my house after work since I had the kegerator tapped, hot tub filled, and grill cooking up some ribs and such.

The weather was gorgeous and the crowd was indeed quite light. We had to wait in line for only one of the haunted houses. The shows were pretty nice. I would have some photos to post, but when I took my camera out for the first shot I saw the dreaded 'no memory card' message. Doh! So instead, I'll just throw up a photo I took 3 years ago when I worked at Busch Gardens for the Halloween event one season in early college. We were there until closing around 1 o'clock and everyone had to turn in soon because of work the next day. If you do HOS, definitely try to hit it on a weekday. Though you may be dragging Friday, it works out better in that you can actually get a chance to experience everything. I cannot imagine having to wait in line 1-2 hours for a house and really missing out on everything else.

Paying alimony is like paying installments on a car that has been wrecked.

I have had a few friends recently get into car wrecks. I read this hint a long time ago and still do it; get a cheap one-time use camera and keep it somewhere in your car (under the seat, glove box, etc). If you ever get into an accident, no matter who you think is at fault, use the camera and get shots of everything; the cars, the people involved, the area around the scene showing conditions, any old damaged spots on the other car, etc. The $4 camera can save you thousands of dollars later if the other party makes a claim. Even if you are sure you are at fault, take the pictures. It is cheap, easy, and can save you an incredible amount of grief.

Edit: This was a blog post that I wrote in January that never got published for some reason and was saved as a draft. Anyway, I thought it was still decent advice.

Jimi Hendrix certainly used Firefoxy as his web browser when surfung with a Purple Hayes modem

For those not keeping up with new software updates in the tech scene, and I wouldn't expect any of you except Jason to do so, then you might want to check out the new release of Firefox 2.0. If you are still using Internet Explorer as your web browser, then I am ashamed and afraid. Even outside the geek bubble, the issues and problems with IE have been often reported in the media. Internet explorer is still extremely weak in terms of security and lacks many features that makes the free and open source web browser so much better. Main advantages would be tabbed browsing and lack of security issues. If you use IE, then at some point you will pick up adware and spyware that take advantage of unpatched exploits. Unless your work absolutely, positively requires IE (generally because of laziness of the IT department or ignorance of the small business owner or employee), then do yourself a favor and switch over. You'll find productivity increases and things will be more clear and easier with which to work.

Here is a website that gives info on tweaking the browser setting even more in order to get the most out of it. While you are at it, definitely bring in a couple of the add-on extensions that make the browser so much more versatile as well as saves time and effort. Specifically, I recommend; ad block, forecast fox, bugmenot, and spellbound.

You can always tell when it's Halloween in the mall, the stores start decorating for Christmas.

This week was spent finishing up the apartment, getting it rented out, as well as working on some garage projects such as a kayak rack and a bit of metal cutting and welding on the teardrop camper batter shelf. Friday I decided to head over to Daytona for their red dress run. I had planned on going to Orlando for the Halloween Horror Nights event, but plans fell through after tickets were sold out with only scalpers on eBay and Craig's List having anything really available.

It was a fun event and I got to hang out with most of the Florida people that were on the cruise this year and see some folks that I had only met a couple of times before, mainly at the Bike Week events in March. We hit a several spots on the run/pub crawl, including a family style restaurant that ended up being a lot of fun with most of the patrons enjoying the spectacle. One of the Daytona hashers used to work at Hooters (hence the name 'Rolling Hooters') and taught me how to do a classic calendar pose. One really can learn something new every day. Here is a link to a bunch of the pictures that I took at the event.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.bgaa51wr&x=0&y=-og19me

I spent the day at Downtown Disney walking among the neat shops and enjoying the beautiful day outside. I might try to hit the parks again in the future once crowds die down, but a lot of the fun and experience of Disney could still be had even without having to go inside the park.

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.

I woke up to another pretty day, though unfortunately I could feel that I was going to soon get sick. I could feel a general body ache and even slight fever approaching, but figured I could make it though the day before it really hit me. I am starting to think that running around in a light rain with 50 degree temperatures wearing little more than a thin material is not the greatest idea in the world. I took the train into the Smithsonian Metro stop and headed to the Washington Monument to get a tour ticket and then head to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I found that they did not open until 10AM, so I took a stroll over to the Jefferson Memorial to get in a couple of pictures and enjoy the view of the tidal basin. I hit a cafe for a quick breakfast and then went through the Holocaust Museum. I had already been here about 6 years when I first visited the city, however the exhibit was not any less moving. I only had about 1:45 to go through, so I didn't get to read through all the displays. One cannot help but leave with a heavy heart and empty, pitted stomach and a want to see the end of that kind of incident forever.

The Washington Monument had usually been closed or the tours filled when I had previously visited. I picked up a noon tour ticket in the morning and arrived 10 minutes early. I was quite pleasantly surprised that the group also had the opportunity to take a tour down the steps so that we could see all the memorial stones that make up part of the structure. Though I probably won't be able to post them all, I think I got pictures of nearly all of them. To me the most unique ones were the Arizona petrified wood stone and the Alaska jade stone. The tour took just over an hour and a half and offered some spectacular views of the entire area from the top windows. After that was over, I didn't have any more time available and had to head back to Dano's place in Ballston to grab my bag before heading off to Dulles to fly home. By this time in the afternoon I was already feeling quite tired and achy and spent the rest of the evening try to rest as much as possible between the layovers and waiting for bags. Hopefully this isn't something that'll hit me for too long since it already wrecked some plans that I had earlier. Over all, it was a god trip and I really enjoyed meeting a many new people as well as see old friends. I learned a bit more about history and myself and will look to make this an annual event, but we'll see what comes up until then.

I went to a strip mall the other day with my friend. Let me tell you,I was disappointed. Everybody else had on clothes.

After getting a relatively late start (since Bonesucker forgot that she had a shower the evening before and took one in the morning and decided to sleep in a tad), we headed to the National Mall to take in the sites before we met up with the other Phoenix hashers and Wolly in the later afternoon. We walked from the Smithsonian Metro stop and covered the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Korean War I (as it may soon be called if this nuke issue with North Korea isn't resolved soon) Memorial before getting a call from the others, wanting to meet us near Union Station that is literally on the other end near the Capitol. It involved a bit of trekking, along with some quick detours through a park or to see a garden, but we finally met them at the Capital City Brewery for some barbecue pizza and some very satisfying micro-brew, along with more games of 'steal the camera and take random pictures'. After eating for a bit we headed out and as we walked by the Department of Labor, Wolly decided to do a quick photo shoot of something he always wanted to set up. After finishing that skit, we decided to hit the National Archives and any other nearby museum as operating hours allowed. We got to see the Constitution, Bill of Rights (though with recent changed to the law, I was surprised to not see sections of the documents crossed out with Sharpies), and Magna Carta along with other various displays that they had set up. Before everything closed, we quickly hit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum
to view the Hope Diamond and some fossilized dinosaur bones and other ancient stuff. Once everything shut down, we hit Kelly's Irish Times pub near Union Station for a guineas or two before deciding to meet Motor Mouth for another boat party. MM had moved his boat for the evening to the pier in Georgetown. We hit the store before getting there and brought forth some chicken, sushi, and other morsels as we enjoyed the evening sitting on the water and talking. We'd chat with passersby and even got a couple of young Polish lasses to join us for a while. They were still there when I decided to leave so I could be sure to not miss the Metro before it shut down for the evening. A quick walk past the Watergate Hotel found us at the Metro station for a quick ride back to the house.

A hangover is when you open your eyes in the morning and you wish you hadn't

I thought I might sleep in after the last day of insanity, but I can hardly stay idle when there is so much to do an enjoy. Just by fortune some of the Phoenix hashers were driving by pretty close to where we were staying, so before anyone else seemed to be stirring (except for Douchberg who had had to get up even earlier to make it to the Army 10 miler run), Bone Sucker and I headed off to meet the others. After more navigational SNAFUs, we were able to make it to the start of the morning 'hangover hash'. These trails are never a running trail and are usually only a few hundred yards with stops for mimosas or bloody mary drinks. The end was on the roof of a hashers apartment building and was a prime spot to enjoy the sunny morning and warm (finally!) weather. It was nice to be able to lounge back and just relax for a bit while downing plenty of premixed mimosas. Well, at least I didn't think it was premixed at first, so I'd add a bit of vodka to the OJ and later wondered why I was feeling so tipsy! Besides a funny circle, we had a great time just playing around and starting stealing digital cameras any time the owner wasn't looking so we could take a lot of random shots that will be totally confusing when they are downloaded later!

We decided to head to brunch so we could actually get some real food into our stomachs and started to head down. We packed into the elevator and the car stopped a floor short as some tenants with bikes wanted to go down. They of course decided to wait since we were already full. Instead of getting out when we hit the ground floor almost all of us waited as the elevator went back up. The bikers were sure surprised when the doors open with all of us still standing there, still trying to get them to pack in with us, though they still politely declined! We headed to breakfast and downed even more mimosas as well as plenty of eggs, pancakes, and other yummy morsels to help drive us for the day. We headed to the metro platform and took the train to where we had to switch to the next line. While I changed behind a pillar, everyone decided to just take a taxi the rest of the way since we were running out of time to make the start of the trail.

We got to the start just in time and were able to place out stuff into the bag vehicles and chat for a bit before we started. One thing I like about hash in the DC is the great turn out that they tend to have as well as the young crowd. It is a lot of fun to converse and run with these folks where laughter abounds more than anything else. Trail was a great mix of solid earth and serious off-road shiggy that included a 80 yard tunnel that went under the road ad railway as well as a beer stop in the middle of a large ditch area. We continued along the high for a while and went through a construction site, road crossing, and finally a large water crossing at the end! Circle was fun as usual with even a humorous naming at the end with the final result being dubbed 'Horny Grail' because of the chalice that the hasher always carried around. Some of us were invited to a boat party and decided to do that instead of the hash on-after event at a nearby restaurant. While the other headed to the fish market, where they got $200 in clams, crabs, and shrimp to steam, Wolly Mammoth and I headed to his place to pick up some supplies. We met everyone at the market and, after waiting for the food to get cooked, went off to the boat. Motor Mouth lives in a marina and has often had parties one his boat, once even having nearly sunk it when there were too many people on board when the bilge pump failed! We hung out there for a few hours before eventually heading back to the house after a completely exhausting day. After getting in, we were directed by the home occupants to head straight to the shower since apparently we were smelling like seafood, it didn't take long to completely pass out.

My blood type? Well red of course!

The morning's weather was not looking a whole lot better than the prior evening. However, one cannot be sitting in a red dress with nowhere to go. The house was used by not only the tenants and visitors, but also a few locals as a place to get dressed. It was a fun morning in helping getting everyone suited up and properly accessorized including nails, hair, containment devices (i.e. purses), and other items necessary to look good. We all walked the .3 mile route to the metro and headed to the bar. It is funny to see the various looks people give as we pass by. Some folks are astounded to see the get-ups while others barely give it a glance. While sitting in the subway station waiting for the train, an old lady strolled by and had a very astonished look on her face (especially when looking at the devil dressed guy in the group) that I wish I had the forethought to capture. Since it was pretty cold out, and for effect, I decided to wear my burqa as much as possible and actually enjoyed being able to be a little bit incognito. While on the run, however, I decide to wear the normal outfit so I could actually see and so I wouldn't get so hot. After what seemed to be a LOT of walking, we made it to the bar and signed in to receive our tags and give-away, a red dress themed buff like they have on Survivor.

After enjoying quite a bit of beer and general socializing and meeting different folks we circled up behind the bar for chalk talk (where the signs used on trail are explained). A couple of hashers won a limo ride in the drawing (one winner was 1 number away from my ticket!) while the rest of us had to decided to do the walker or runner trail. Since I came here for a good time and to hash, I of course took the runners trail since it usually ends up being the most interesting. We were not disappointed and found the trail to be involve a nice set of twists including shopping malls, the White House (see picture), and other local sites. It was fun running right by the base of the Executive Branch and have all the hundred or so tourists milling around completely divert their attention from the landmark to all the runners going by blowing whistles, yelling 'On-On', and in various stages of (un)dress with red outfits. We hit the one bar stop (3 stories of beer!) for what seemed to be a couple of hours before heading back to the start. There was a lot of singing with redentions of 'Yogi Bear', the 'S&M Man', and 'I used to work in Chicago' being sung out. Even the runners trail on the way back had a turkey/eagle split near the end with the eagle trail going through a construction site, complete with rebar, ditches, and other hazardous materials! Thankfully there was a lot of hot food waiting for our arrival and no one waiting long before jumping into line for some chow. The rest of the afternoon was spent meeting with and talking to others with a little bit of dancing thrown in.

Right at the time of venue closing (and their subsequently kicking us out), we headed to an after party at the nearby home of ToothFairy and someone else who's name escapes me. Though it was quite crowded, there was plenty of beer as well as ham and other snacks for everyone. A game of tippy cup was started in the kitchen that was able to hold an astounding amount of people. Everyone was deciding at about the same time to head back, however a couple of us were able to find a ride instead of taking a taxi. It seemed like a good idea at the time since the person navigating got us hopelessly lost. As we started I was making dumb jokes about 2 wrongs not making a right, but 3 rights making a left, and would you believe that after 15 minutes of driving, we literally ended back at the part street? Fortunately the navigator was able to finally figure things out and we were heading the right way within a couple of minutes! Well, at least we had a nice tour of the crack district of DC!

NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts

After an early morning flight of 7AM and a delayed second flight, I finally landed in Dulles around 11:30. Since Bonesucker and Vagitarian were only a few hours behind me, I decided to take the city bus to the new Air and Space Museum at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center that acts as a companion facility to the one at the National Mall in downtown DC. It holds some of the large specimens such as the complete B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay aircraft (dropped the first atomic bomb) as well as the NASA shuttle Enterprise (which was not designed or built for actual spaceflight), a Blackbird, as well as numerous other examples of flight throughout the ages. Though I only had about 1:45 to spend at the facility, I was able to see most of the highlights and read up on some of the exhibits. The facility even included a mockup of a traffic control tower that allowed visitors a view of the airport. Unforunately I arrived to some decently cold temperatures and slight rain, which I heard made for a really bumpy ride for the others that were coming in.

After meeting up with the two Austin hashers, we took the Washington Flyer bus to the Metro station so we could head straight to F'em Dano's place since that would be our crash pad for the weekend. After putting our stuff up for a short while we caught a ride with roommate Senor Douchberg to a Metro station as we headed to the Pre-Lewd part, the lingerie hash near Chinatown. The weather did not get a whole lot better, so we decided to change once we got to the pub. We were relatively early and got to meet the folks coming in and partake in some nectar for a while. I got to meet up with several of the cruise hashers (Is it in yet?, Repeat Offender, Velvet Vulva, Womb Service, Spongebob Squarepants) as well as people I had met last year (Late Nite Drive Thru, Motor Mouth, IHOV, Designer Bush, Rodeo F, Jerkin the Gherkin, etc). The Naples hashers came in from an even later flight, so Dano picked them up at the airport and brought them right to the pub before the run started. Trail was only a couple of miles, so we were done relatively quickly since no one wanted to stay out any longer in the skimpy outfits since it was just to frigging cold!

We arrived to find some waiting food set up and music pumping thanks to music chosen and played by Douchberg. We eventually decided to get back to the house for some much needed sleep since it would inevitably be a very long weekend if the festivities and events of the day were to provide any insight into what was to come.

Washington DC: America's work-free drug place.

I'm heading to DC for the annual Red Dress Run. I'll be staying an extra few days to really explore the city as I reckon this might be my last year to attend this particular event for a while since I'm sure I'll want to check out other events or activities elsewhere next year. I'll be back on Tuesday and if tradition follows, probably won't catch up with the blog for another 1-2 weeks. :)

I am showing up with a sleeping bag, 5 year old guide book, and a few set of clothes that I just started pack, and no real plan. So, it should be fun. On-On

Satisfying morning.

Sometimes themes in literature can be a bit more literal than just academic study in terms of the conflict narrative. I think the movie 'Office Space' contained an excellent example of 'Man vs Machine'. I offer the supposition that indeed, life can imitate art as it imitates life.

I feel much better now.

Our brochure says 'safe beach'. You must have gone into the water

On Friday I went to the Santana concert with my roommate, her friend, and my friend Adrienne's roommate (since I had an extra ticket). We got in a little early and parked for some tailgating before heading inside. I was working on the teardrop camper wiring and wanted to make sure everything worked with the inverter and found that the floor fan made things quite comfortable.

The show itself was quite enjoyable with a pretty large crowd in attendance. I liked how there were many different instruments including quite a bit of brass and even an organ. There was a good set list covering the decades Carlos Santana has been playing and towards the end the tempo really picked up, which got me to do some dancing even! After the show ended, we returned to the trailer to wait out the insane traffic and relaxed in relative comfort as the gridlock worked itself out. After about an hour we packed up and were able to pull out without stopping, which made for some stress free riding back home. Saturday was spent doing some house work and more painting at the apartment before heading to the hash run that evening. The trail was set by a some hares that are training for a marathon, so I knew we were in for a good trail that ended up covering a little over four miles. We hit Po Boys cafe as the on-after and then a few of us had an impromptu pool party at SLF and BS's place. Since I had to be back at the apartment around 9 in the morning, I decided to not even bother driving home and just slept in the camper in my office parking lot since I was just a couple miles away. Though it is a bit tight in terms of roominess, I think it'll work perfectly for my intended uses, namely a quick and comfortable place to crash when on road trips and place to cook a few personal meals.

Sunday was spent doing a little work in the morning before I met Dad at the residence of someone selling a small camper. Apparently he found a tiny pop-up style camper and was considering getting it when the bigger camper is just overkill. While we were looking over and discussing it someone else pulled up and after they conferred with the owners, we were told (while we were standing right next to it mind you) that it was no longer available and had just been sold. That is a pretty pissy thing to do, but what can one do about it? I headed over to the beach since I wanted to take Kinda out for some exercise and since I hadn't really been able to lay out on the beach during the day in quite a while. The weather was awesome and I sat out while catching up on some reading for a few hours. Before taking off I walked around Fort DeSoto for a while and then drove over to the point closest to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to take a few pictures of the Carnival ship heading out to sea. Kinda decided that even after the bath she wanted to play a bit more and ran out to lay in the water. While I grumbled at having to dry her off *again*, it did make for a couple of decent shots. This week will be spent finishing with the apartment, office financials (bleh) and packing for the upcoming weekend in DC. It should be fun.