Where Are We?

22 May 2009 / PE

A Facebook friend recently posted a set of Washington DC photos. Almost all of the photos show people standing in front of easily recognizable landmarks, but all of them are dutifully captioned — White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, etc.

The one exception is a photo of two people in an ornate lobby with the caption: “I forget where we are here.”


A Gay Mexican Guy with a Mohawk

11 Dec 2008 / Hostile Witness

I went to get my hair cut at lunch. There was one guy waiting ahead of me and two stylists — a woman, and a gay Mexican guy with a Mohawk.

Am I a bad person for praying that Mohawk would finish first (he did) and take the other guy?

My son says when he was in Washington, D.C., he saw shops where all the hair cutters were men.

“That’s different,” I explain. “Those are barbers. Barbers don’t mess around with you like stylists. I don’t want a gay guy with a Mohawk running his fingers through my hair. Note the fact that he’s a Mexican doesn’t matter at all. I mean, I’m not a racist or anything.”


Casey Goes to Washington

24 Apr 2007 / PE
Washington Monument

Pictures from my son’s 8th grade trip to Washington, DC.


Online Map Shootout

12 Apr 2007 / PE

The competitors: Windows Live Search, Yahoo! and Google.

Shootout

I was looking at some really nice maps of Washington, DC, last night on Live Search. I’m not totally up to speed on the latest advances in mapping technology, so I wondered if Live Search had totally leapfrogged the competition with this stuff, or if I could do the same thing on the other map sites.

Here’s what I found:

This is the best view I could get of the Jefferson Memorial on Yahoo!

Google is able to zoom in quite a bit closer.

But Live Search can do this!

Thank you, Bill Gates!

The killer feature (obviously) is that Live Search gives you an oblique view into the scene, instead of just a flat, looking-straight-down view. Plus the image resolution is a lot better.

Final Ranking:

  1. Live Search
  2. Google
  3. Yahoo!

The Geometry of Politics

6 Apr 2007 / PE

On the heels of my kid’s discovery that his tour group will not be break dancing their way across our nation’s capital, comes another disappointment — his tyrannical math teacher has been added to the list of chaperones.

“She’ll probably say, ‘Oh, Casey, I’m glad you’re here. Why don’t you calculate the volume of the White House?’”


I Have a Dream 2007

5 Apr 2007 / PE
Washington, DC

My son’s going to Washington, DC, next week with a group from his junior high school. Once there, they’ll hook up with a group from Martin Luther King High School for a 5 day, 4 night Discover DC educational tour.

Despite the name, MLK High School is not a predominantly black school, a big disappointment to my kid, who was looking forward to his travel companions “breaking out the cardboard mats and spinning on their heads.”

I Have a Dream, indeed!