Complaint Hub - For all your bitching needs

Get this stupid song out of my head

jrenaut — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:40:07 -0700

Since I can't get it out of my head after inexplicably hearing it coming out of a car window on 16th Street this morning, I'd like to get The Freshman by The Verve Pipe into your head, too. That link up there? It's the first hit for 'annoying song freshmen', although Google thinks I meant "freshman". I guess I sort of did, but isn't the word plural in the chorus? Sing it to yourself, you'll remember.

And now you feel my pain.

The boot doesn't work

jrenaut — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:46:42 -0700

The ridiculous practice of "booting" cars with too many tickets has to stop. Either tow them or let them be. Today is street cleaning day on the main parking side of our block of Harvard. That means that there is no parking at all from 7am to 630pm. This is because Harvard is a pretty busy commuting cut-through, and it's really helpful to have two lanes.

But there aren't two lanes today, because someone decided to boot a van on the open side of the street. I truly don't understand the logic behind this. You are now making traffic worse. Other times people get courtesy tows, an absurd waste of time and money, but we can't tow the van to the impound lot?

I've said before that booting is an explicit admission that parking restrictions in DC are purely for the city's financial gain, not an attempt to keep traffic flowing. This is absolutely infuriating. And, to make matters worse, another car, as I walked by this morning, had decided that if the van was parked there, it must be okay. And the really funny thing is that this car is likely to get towed. Ahh, DC. How I love you.

What is going on with public transportation in this city?

jrenaut — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:17:28 -0700

What in the world is wrong with the buses these days? Are people afraid of the Metro after the crash? It's been one awful commute after another for the last week and a half. This morning, two buses passed without picking up passengers. The one we finally got on didn't pick anyone up until U Street, passing crowded stop after crowded stop.

And on the way home, I don't even know what happened. I Street was a parking lot, so the bus actually turned right on 15th instead of 16th. I saw this, started walking, and actually beat the bus to 16th and L. It turned left on K, right on 16th, and I was at 16th and L when it arrived, and while I walk briskly, I never ran. It looked like something was blocking traffic on 17th - I imagine I could figure out what with a little Googling, but it's not that important to me.

On most weeks, I would just give up and work from home all week. But I actually have to be in the office at least tomorrow, and probably Wednesday, as well.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

The Mayor's Conservation Corps and the DDOE are very responsive

jrenaut — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:01:10 -0700

Below is a copy of the email I sent to the Mayor's Conservation Corps. You may have seen their flyers - they put them up on railings and doorknobs on our street today.

While I applaud the mayor and the DDOE for their efforts towards conservation and a more sustainable city, littering our streets with paper advertisements hardly seems like the way to start. I live on the 1400 block of Harvard St NW, and I just picked up two of your flyers off the sidewalk during a three block walk.

Perhaps your first project could be to collect and recycle all of the trash you left on our streets.

If you have suggestions for projects or questions about the program, they'd like you to email them at mayorsconservationcorps@dc.gov or call 202-535-2325.

And, before I could even finish this post, I received a reply from DDOE.

Good evening. Thanks for your note.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. We will make certain the responsible youth go back to that area tomorrow and clean-up door hangers from the street. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Should the problem not be resolved or if you have any questions, please contact me at [Phone number removed]. Thank you.

Melissa McKnight
Program Director, Mayor’s Conservation Corps
DC Department of the Environment

Who says city bureaucracy doesn't work? My faith in government temporarily restored, I urge everyone to think about projects that could help the city. You can look at the Green DC Agenda website for more information.

My family is okay, I hope yours is, too

jrenaut — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:55:22 -0700

I don't think I know anyone who was on one of the DC Metro trains that crashed today - certainly the wife and kid and I were nowhere near it, and I've already spoken to the two people I know who might have been near that station.

I hope your family and friends are all okay, too.

A former coworker

jrenaut — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:21:16 -0700

Quite some time ago, in trying to explain why I complain so much, I paraphrased a quote from a former coworker into this comma-laden mess.

A friend at work a few years ago, defending me to someone else, said that, while I complain a lot, it isn't quite complaining. It's really just making conversation.

I lost touch with her not long after we stopped working together. Last I saw her was a chance encounter at CVS in Arlington before I moved into DC.

I got an email today from a former coworker of ours telling me that she died a few weeks ago from a brain tumor. I'm not sure exactly how old she was, but it wasn't more than mid-thirties.

We weren't close at work, but friendly. I have her phone number stored in my cell phone, although I don't think I ever called her. And I maybe had a bit of a crush on her for a while. It's strange - I probably never would have seen her again anyway, save another chance meeting. So I won't miss her, exactly, but I think I will miss knowing that there was that chance.

Now I can die happy

jrenaut — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:07:29 -0700

Originally uploaded by thetejon

The concert was, and I don't hesitate to use this word, amazing. The openers, Street Sweeper Social Club, featuring Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, were cool. They put on a good show. If I still ever listened to music, I would think about buying their new album next week. We did not stay for Jane's Addiction, so I can't say anything about them.

When we arrived, having bought presale tickets through NIN.com, we found that not only were we not on the grass, but we were actually on the floor, right in front of the stage. Now, my friend and I are not really the type (Or the age, I guess) to crowd up front, but I could have held a conversation with Trent at a more or less normal volume from the distance we were away. Not with the crowd there, sure, but that's an idea of the how close we were.

By the way, note to other bands - this is how to treat your fans. Presale tickets just required that you sign up at the website. When we arrived, there was a longish line to get in, and a short line to get presale tickets at will-call. I handed them my id, they gave me my tickets. They had my name printed on them. We went straight over to the presale entrance line, where they checked id again. So we couldn't possibly have scalped them, even if we had wanted to, and we barely had to stand in line. Plus we got awesome seats.

Do you notice how this makes you money, makes your fans happy, and works perfectly with or without the horrors of music piracy?

And then Nine Inch Nails came on. This is a text I sent the wife:

This is [expletive deleted] awesome. I'm getting goosebumps every time they start a new song

They played a great variety of stuff. They played the song from The Crow soundtrack, which was surprising. They played "Gave Up", one of my favorite not-as-well-known songs off 1992's Broken. They closed with "Head Like A Hole" and encored with "Hurt", much to the delight of the crowd.

For most of the concert, I was just standing there, thinking, "I can't believe I'm here listening to Nine Inch Nails live". I'm looking forward to telling the kid someday how I left her with the wife to go see them. "Dad, you're old", she'll probably say. But that's okay.

Edit this setlist | More Nine Inch Nails setlists

Our first sale, sort of

jrenaut — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:22:53 -0700

Our honeymoon registry website recorded its first transaction today for a person we don't know. The registry for our first customers has done well, but we know them. Well, I don't, but the other guy who built most of the website knows them.

Today was the first time someone we don't know had something purchased from their registry. For the record, it was $100 towards "A visit to Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai's most famous temple, located on a hill overlooking the city". Chiang Mai, for those that don't know (I had to Google it) is a city in northern Thailand.

It's pretty exciting. The website we built because it seemed like a cool idea is actually getting some use. Not a lot, yet, but some.

So, remember, if you need a free custom honeymoon registry, you know where to go.

The new buses suck

jrenaut — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:41:19 -0700

You've probably seen the fancy new buses the city is using for some of the cooler routes - the new S9 express bus on 16th Street, for example. I was all excited to ride one. They look fancy and clean and new and quiet.

I got my chance today. The regular S2 was a new bus this morning, so I gleefully hopped on.

Wow, do the new buses suck. Not only is it clear that the person who designed the bus has never ridden a bus before, but I'm pretty sure they actually defy various laws of physics. I don't think these buses are very different in length, width, or height from the older buses, but they've somehow managed to drastically reduce the amount of usable space. Both styles of bus are basically rectangular prisms - volume equals length times width times height. So if the length, width, and height are approximately the same, the volume is approximately the same.

I'm not sure where the volume went on the new buses. Perhaps they've somehow raised it up - there seems to be enough head room for an entire basketball team, but they better be built like Kevin Garnett, not Lebron.

And don't get me started on the painted yellow floor by the back door. It actually tells you not to stand on it. Are they insane? I mean, sure, it would be nice if no one stood there - most bus crowding problems are due to inconsiderate and clueless people who stand by the door and block everyone else from moving to the back of the bus.

But who is going to obey the painted floor? The bus driver will yell at you if you leave that much space open during crowded commuting time. The other people on the bus will yell at you because they're packed in like sardines while you leave that space open. You do have to leave some space, though, because the idiotic back doors open in.

I'm going to go email WMATA right now and complain. I suggest you do the same.

What a kick in the teeth

jrenaut — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:47:02 -0700

Just as he pronounced himself, "ready to pitch in the majors again", the Braves released Tom Glavine. Now, I understand that this is their right, and the guy is 43 years old. But he won 20 games for the Braves five times. For the vast majority of baseball fans today, it doesn't get much more "Braves" than Tom Glavine.

I don't know if there was a good reason for doing it this way - waiting until he worked his way back into shape doing rehab in the minors - but it sure comes across to the fans as a terrible way to treat a guy who has been really important to your franchise since 1987, save the few years he spent as a Met.

I'd love to see him come to Baltimore. Or Washington - I'd definitely find a babysitter for an evening if I could go see Glavine pitch.

As an aside, some awesomeness from the article:

Glavine described himself as "very surprised" in a text message to The Associated Press.

The idea of a 43 year old man texting the AP is almost surreal. I hope he used an emoticon or two.

Thanks, Trent

jrenaut — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:26:02 -0700

I think I posted a while back that I'm going to see Nine Inch Nails next week. I've been a fan ever since I saw the video for Head Like a Hole on MTV a million years ago, but I've never been to a show. This is their last tour "for a while", which maybe means forever, so I just bought tickets.

I just found out today that Jane's Addiction, the worst band in the history of the Universe, is actually going on after Nine Inch Nails. This is the best news ever. Now, I don't know if there are Jane's Addiction songs that don't suck - the only ones I know are the few that got on the radio back when I was actually listening to the radio. But the ones I know are truly and amazingly awful. Sorry if you're a fan, but that just means you have bad taste in music. It's really your fault.

In any event, I'm pretty excited.

At what point is it okay to cry?

jrenaut — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:43:53 -0700

Crying is acceptable for men in certain situations. Certainly during Field of Dreams. Insulting a man for crying when Kevin Costner plays catch with his dad is actually a valid legal defense for murder in 29 states.

But what about spilling a beer? I maintain that if that said beer is a Bell's Two Hearted, and if it's Sunday after 8pm so you can't buy any more, crying is totally acceptable. The wife disagrees, but it wasn't her beer.

Fortunately, I didn't spill it. I told her I almost did, and that I would have cried. She said she would have called me the "P" word.

I'm not sure where to draw the line, though. If it were just a regular ale? What if it had spilled on my computer (Which it probably would have)? What if it were my work computer? Does the amount of beer (1/3 bottle, in this case) make a difference? How many left in the house (At that point just one more with my name on it)?

Move over, Sean, we've got a new jouster

jrenaut — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:42:26 -0700

This one happened across the pond, not in DC, but this story is nearly as good as our local hero who beat DC parking enforcement.

They decided to change some parking rules in (near?) London. To do this, they paint double lines on the street right next to the curb. This is in stark contrast to the ridiculous signs they put up here in DC, or sometimes the total lack of markings, requiring you to just know that you can't park within five feet of an alley.

So this woman's car was parked legally before the unpublicized change to the rules. After the change, she would be illegal. So what did they do? They lifted her car off the ground, painted the lines, and put the car back down. Parking enforcement then came by and towed her for parking illegally. The article linked above has an awesome picture.

She eventually got her MP involved and was refunded the 2400 pound fine (I think the exchange rate is better now than it was last time I was over there, but that's still nearly $4000).

By the way, Express, feel free to quote me again, but try to get it right this time.

Adam Dunn owes me big

jrenaut — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:34:34 -0700

I've been to three Nationals games this year. I went to the home opener against the Phillies, I went to see the Cardinals in my second failed attempt to watch Albert Pujols, and I went to the Orioles game because I'm actually a fan of the Orioles, despite Peter Angelos' attempts to the contrary.

I just realized that Adam Dunn might wish I came around more often. Not only are the Nats 2-1 in those three games, but Dunn is hitting .455 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. His OPS is 2.175. Small sample size, sure, but I have yet to see him play a game in which he does not hit a home run, and he hit two against the Orioles, one a game-winning grand slam.

If only I were a Nationals fan.

Doing a little gardening

jrenaut — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:35:43 -0700

Originally uploaded by thetejon

Up until this afternoon, it could have been argued that I lived in a dentist's office. The front yard, such as it is, was clearly designed by someone who didn't want to offend anyone.

Unfortunately for him, I was offended. What are those grass-bush-things? They're ugly. Especially after they got a little brown over the winter, and then they started growing again this spring. They looked terrible.

I've been saying I wanted to replace them with something else pretty much since we moved in over two years ago. Today, I put my sweat where my mouth is. The wife, the kid, and I went to Garden District and got plants and mulch and a little spade. They were quite helpful there.

Originally uploaded by thetejon

We picked out a rose bush, some blue flowers, another bush that should flower late in the summer, and some marigolds. I don't remember all the details, but I know I had a marigold garden when I was about four years old. I'm sure I did most of the upkeep work.

In my opinion, clearly unbiased, it looks amazing. We'll have to wait and see if anyone else in the building acknowledges my genius. One already told me it looked good, but he ran into me while I was cleaning up, so he pretty much had to say nice things. It remains to be seen if anyone else will do it unprompted.

Luckily for me, a much improved garden is its own reward.

My kid is way cuter than that

jrenaut — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:35:40 -0700

I found out today that Parents.com is having a contest to get your cute kid on the cover of their magazine. No offense to little Trevor, Cover Model 2008, but my little clownfish is a bazillion times cuter.

We have no plans this weekend beyond her first baseball game (Orioles at Nationals on Sunday). So I'm planning to take some really cute pictures. What I need from you, readers (All of you who are still paying attention after the lack of updates these recent months), is suggestions on cutening up my daughter. She's already off-the-charts cute, but I need more. I need photos of her that will literally make your eyeballs melt with cuteness. Like a puppy raised to the kitten power. I want to make Anne Geddes' babies look like little gargoyles.

How do I do that? Any suggestions are welcome. She's a very smiley baby, so that isn't an issue. What makes a cute baby photo?

Has Columbia Heights turned a corner?

jrenaut — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:27:11 -0700

The wife and kid and I went to D'Vines yesterday to get beer for the Celtics game (Probably should have gotten more considering the end result). Out in front of the Columbia Heights Metro were beggars from Greenpeace! While avoiding eye contact as much as possible, the wife and I were secretly thrilled that these organized panhandlers had branched out from the fancy spots like the P St Whole Foods to come to our neighborhood.

Of course, now I'd like them to go away. I don't like being accosted for my wallet every time I go near DCUSA.

Do you need a free custom honeymoon registry?

jrenaut — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:42:19 -0700

When I got married, we had a honeymoon registry. We had both been living on our own for a while, and then together for a bit, and so we had a lot of the things that people typically put on a wedding registry. It was fantastic for us - because so much of the honeymoon was paid for, we felt free to splurge a bit on things like a helicopter tour of the Twelve Apostles and mass quantities of wine in downtown Melbourne.

A friend and his wife did the same thing for their wedding. It was easy for us because both of us are software guys, and know how to build a website.

It may not be easy for you. That's why he and I created After the I Dos. It's a totally free (except for Paypal fees) honeymoon registry site. You can set up a registry and let your guests help finance your honeymoon. I mean, do you really need another set of towels? Wouldn't you rather let your guests help pay for your skydiving adventure, wine tour, resort, or whatever you plan on doing for your honeymoon?

All you need is a few minutes to set it up and a (free) Paypal account. You'll get a website you can send out to your guests, and you can even show links to your other registry sites, or maybe your wedding site at The Knot or whatever.

An added benefit is ease of thank-you notes. All you need to do is take a picture of you and your spouse doing whatever it is the person helped pay for, print a copy for 12 cents at Target, and write a quick note about how much fun you had. No more making excuses for why you haven't used that expensive food processor that Aunt Greta bought you.

Guest post - Baltimore sucks, too

jrenaut — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:00:46 -0700

I do a lot of complaining here about the DC government. Turns out Baltimore has its share of problems, too. Here for your reading pleasure is a guest post from Gary at Vinotrip.

Baltimore has a lot of problems. What big city doesn't? I've lived in or around the city for most of my life and, as most Baltimoreans do, I give the city a pass on the problems that it faces. Sure, some things are nuts and don't make sense, but it's a good town.

Two weeks ago, City Councilman Edward L. Reisinger (who represents me and my district) sponsored a bill to raise off-leash fines for dog owners from $100 to $1000. To little fanfare, the bill passed. Along with the good men and women of the Baltimore Police Department, Animal Control swept down on Riverside Park and started handing out $1000 fines. Needless to say, everyone is bitter.

Smart move, Ed. Pass a ten-fold increase in fines targeted at dog owners in your district, then hold a neighborhood meeting about it.

I get that dogs have pretty much taken over Riverside Park and if you are afraid of dogs, God help you because you're going to fear for your life in this neighborhood. There is a leash law in the park, and that leash law should be enforced along with the law about picking up after your dog. Got all that.

But the problem is sending several police officers and Animal Control officials to the park for days at a time. In Baltimore City where we probably have more important things to do besides extort taxpayers in a park.

Well, city officials, your free pass is over. My self imposed gag-order on bitching about Baltimore has been lifted.

Early last week, on Tuesday April 28th, a water main ruptured underneath a major downtown street. Water poured out, shut down streets during morning rush hour, closed businesses, and pretty much ruined the day for lots of people. They still haven't gotten it fixed. Finally today, an entire week after the main broke, the city got up a sign on the major freeway heading into downtown regarding the major crosstown street shut down.

For a full week, people rolling into the city found out the hard way that Lombard Street was still closed. The city can't fix it. The city can't put up a sign about it. The city can only bitch and moan and pander for Federal stimulus dollars.

The best part is the quote from Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon at a press conference

"This is an example of what happens when you having a very aging infrastructure system," Dixon told reporters.

You. Are. The. MAYOR. Don't tell me we have a problem. I know we have a problem. GO FIX THE PROBLEM.

Were I Dixon's speechwriter, her news bite would have sounded something more like

"This is an example of what happens when you having a very aging infrastructure system," Dixon told reporters. “But things aren't all bad. We have a per capita murder rate so bad that if we had New York City's population, there would be over 4,000 murders per year. Property taxes are 2.2% but we still can't get water mains to stop exploding underneath downtown. We couldn't even describe what a fully funded school looks like. Half the homes in low-income neighborhoods are boarded up and vacant. We send out Traffic Officials to stand under the traffic lights and direct traffic like we're in North Korea. As your mayor, I'm riding around in a hybrid taxi trying to smile while being indicted for fraud But don't worry everyone, we have that Riverside Park dog problem handled. I am on top of the dog issue. I'm sending more units down there as we speak.

It's enough to make you cry. For all the problems going on, we get $1000 tickets dished out for having a dog off-leash. Maybe they can put that money toward fencing off a dog park, or the schools, or more police, or the water mains, or the traffic light timing...

Pedestrians should know their place

jrenaut — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:41:29 -0700

Have you ever been driving down 17th Street NW, getting ready to turn right on E to head out to Virginia, when some guy in an ill-fitting suit talking on his cell phone jogs across the street against the light? Have you ever given him a look and thrown up your hands in frustration? Has he ever had the audacity to flip you off in return? This didn't happen to me this afternoon just after five, in case you're wondering.

I pride myself on paying attention to pedestrians and right-of-way. I know, what do I want, a cookie? But really, many, many people in this city, especially Maryland drivers (You know who you are) pretend that pedestrians don't exist, and crosswalks are merely warnings before stop signs or red lights to run.

So when I'm treated like this by pedestrians who think they are much, much more important than they really are, it bothers me. When you have the right of way, I'll gladly wait. But when I have the right of way, I expect you to be on the sidewalk where you belong.

The Opposite of Community

jrenaut — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:06:18 -0700

Internet forums are often wonderful. They can take a group of people who are spread across the globe, joined only by a common interest, and bring them together to talk and make friends.

Or they can be terrible. You can have something like the Columbia Heights Community Forum, which takes people with common interests who are already co-located in one DC neighborhood, and drives them apart.

At least someone notices my struggles with the forum. It's really an unbelievable amount of hate and rage and incoherent ranting. Some go around pushing buttons, and others simply wait to have their buttons pushed so they can scream about it. It's really too bad that something that could be a positive force in the community is actually driving people apart.

Although, like a train wreck, I just can't look away. I can't even stop posting there.

eBay is Dangerous

jrenaut — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:30:29 -0700

The wife has been going a little crazy on eBay lately. If she was spending more than $5 at a time, I'd probably intervene, but she's just buying clothes for our daughter, and she's barely spending anything, so I figure it's not a problem. I'll be keeping an eye on her, though.

Whenever someone mentions eBay, I invariably get an urge to buy something, because you can buy pretty much anything there. And every time I look at eBay, I end up searching for a nice Triumph TR6 in good condition for a reasonable price.

I'm going to own one someday. I'm going to get some money together, buy one, get a one-way plane ticket to wherever it is, and drive it home. It will be glorious. I'll do it when the weather's nice so I don't have to put the top up.

How I love the English language

jrenaut — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:44:56 -0700

I was reading this movie review, and had no idea who Harold Faltermeyer was. So, I did what any normal person would do, and Googled him. His wikipedia page offers up a serving of the English language that just made my day.

[The theme from Top Gun and the theme from Beverly Hills Cop are] both often imitated, highly influential instrumental hits that to some extent practically redefined action film scoring in the '80s

Read that fragment a few times and just bask in its glory.

Compare and Contrast

jrenaut — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:12:42 -0700

Original

Had I known her husband was a giant among those of us who joust at the windmills of parking enforcement, I would have bought her a beer. (Source)

"Quoted"

Had I known her husband was a giant among us who jousts at the windmills of parking enforcement, I would have bought her a beer. (Source)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when one quotes another source, one generally doesn't edit the quote to change the meaning, right? I mean, I didn't study journalism in school, so I might be crazy here, but I always thought you were supposed to write exactly what the other person wrote or said, unless you make it clear that you've changed the wording. And even then, you change the wording either to clarify the context or to fit in the allowed space. You don't change the meaning of the quote.

Also, the wife maintains that "tilt" is generally used instead of "joust" when making that particular reference. She also feels that the analogy is slightly flawed - parking enforcement is an actual enemy, so to speak, unlike the windmills. We had a nice discussion about it, and we decided that she should just let me handle the references to classical literature.

At least, that's what I came away with. And she doesn't have a blog, so that makes me right.

This man is my hero

jrenaut — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:11:52 -0700

Here is a story of a man who beat the DC parking enforcement machine.

"Even when there were shootings on my block last year, I wasn't this disappointed in my city," he wrote in one protest email. "D.C. effectively stole my automobile."

After the city gave him a "courtesy tow" to an illegal parking spot, lost his ticket contestation documents, and booted and towed his car, he actually got them to return the car to a spot near his house. Then he had them do it again, because the first time they brought him the wrong car. I talk a lot about my small victories over DC parking enforcement, but this puts me to shame.

I had lunch with his wife on Friday - she works with my wife, and a group was going out to watch some basketball, so I joined them. Had I known her husband was a giant among those of us who joust at the windmills of parking enforcement, I would have bought her a beer.

Why don't I listen to many female artists?

jrenaut — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:15:07 -0700

Where Are The Women, Esquire?

Not good enough, Esquire. So what are you really saying with this list? Either, that women aren't making much of anything you deem essential, or that men can't handle music written and/or performed by women.

Sarah totally ripped off my Facebook comment for that sentence.

This got me thinking. I don't listen to a lot of female artists, and I'm not sure why. I like Garbage a lot, and any music collection should contain Version 2.0. The wife is a big fan of Alanis Morissette's Under Rug Swept. I had only heard her one big hit record, and if that's all you've heard, try this one, it's like it's by someone else. You know, someone talented.

And there are some other female artists who are pretty good, but I just don't listen to them. It's partly because I feel like a traitor to my beliefs every time I think about giving money to a record company. I haven't bought a cd outside of Nine Inch Nails in at least two years. I thought about buying a Jill Sobule cd because of how awesome what she did with her last cd was, but I've never knowingly heard a song by her, so I didn't buy the cd.

Anyway, if you know a female artist that I absolutely have to hear, let me know in the comments. Whichever sales pitch is best, I will buy that cd. Unless the wife owns it. Bonus points if I can legally obtain the music for free while paying money from something that I can't copy instantly and perfectly.

Update to add: I downloaded the four songs Jill Sobule is currently sharing and will listen to them tomorrow at work.

Update again to add: Meh to Jill Sobule. I didn't like the songs. I still think she's cool for her business model, though.

Street cleaning resumes March 23, 2009

jrenaut — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:11:54 -0800

For whatever reason, it's never easy to find this information, so maybe I got lucky. I have no idea if this link will work beyond today, but the Washington DC DPW says street cleaning will resume on March 23, 2009. So get ready to start moving your car once a week again.

This is why I live close to work, Part 2

jrenaut — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:31:12 -0800

A friend once told me that, when considering two more or less equal candidates for a job opening, you should choose the one with a better commute.

Wait, where was I?

Oh, right. Today my commute involved tiptoeing past my daughter's room, hoping not to wake her, and sitting down at the table to get to work. There's, like, a blizzard, or something, going on out there. I have no meetings, and no one is really expecting me in the office, so I'm staying put. Daycare is opening three hours late, and since the snow is still coming down hard, they may not open at all. So I may have to watch her this afternoon anyway.

If you're going in to work today, or going out anywhere, be careful.

The system is down. Er, was down.

jrenaut — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:27:34 -0800

Usually reliable Dreamhost had a file server go down on them, knocking this site offline pretty much all day today. Good thing the only people reading here on Sunday are crazy Vector Security haters and people unhappy with their credit card.

Isn't that what you're supposed to be fixing?

jrenaut — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:43:32 -0800

Metro Use A Rarity For Half Of Board | WashingtonPost.com

[Ward One Councilman Jim] Graham said frequent night meetings make mass transit inconvenient.

Taking transit is not convenient for their jobs, [Metro board members who don't actually use Metro] said.

So, what they're saying here is, "We're so grossly incompetent that we can't even make Metro work for ourselves. Good luck to all you poor schlubs!" What kind of schedule do these people keep that Metro isn't convenient? I don't believe that they have Metro board meetings at 4AM on Sundays.

Seriously, this is like the CEO of Bank of America keeping his life savings under his mattress because the branches are too inconvenient. Maybe the reason that Metro has a $29 million deficit is because it's not serving the residents of the DC Metro area. And maybe the people responsible for fixing it could actually use it and see for themselves what the problems are.

Instead, they'll probably just raise fares again, making it less convenient for everyone. Next year we'll have a $40 million deficit, and more people who don't use it will make more bad decisions.