Back to DC

Well, my vacation in Ann Arbor is almost over. I'm flying back to DC this afternoon, and next week, it's back to the daily grind. As I type this, I am at the Espresso Royale, drinking hot chocolate, and getting ready for my day. The week has been going well, and I've managed to stay reasonably productive all week. Yesterday, I even had the time to replace one of the ceiling fans at my house. Hopefully, all of my current house projects should be finished by the end of January.

I hope that everyone enjoys their New Year's Eve celebrations. Stay safe!


The Burton Memorial Tower at Night


The Diag Uncharacteristically Quiet

Christmas Eve Dinner

For being a Sunday, it was a very busy day for me. I spent the morning and early afternoon running errands, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing Christmas Eve dinner. My parents are in town, and so my brother's wife and I agreed that I would cook Christmas Eve dinner, and she would make dinner on Christmas Day. Cooking dinner in my tiny little kitchen was a bit of an adventure. I only have four square feet of counter space, so food preparation gets spread between the kitchen and the dining room table. This can make it rather challenging to juggle multiple dishes at the same time. I managed to fit all five of us around the table in my apartment, and dinner went well.


Merry Christmas!!!

A visit to Turkey Run

I spent most of today running errands and getting ready for Christmas. However, I did manage to take an hour out of my day to visit Turkey Run Park, which sits right next to the George Washington Parkway. Despite having commuted past the park on many occasions over the past ten years, I had never visited the park. So I took my camera with me, and walked through the park down to the Potomac Heritage Trail, which runs right along the Potomac.

I didn't have much time to hike the trail, since I had to get back home to meet my family for dinner. I definitely want to go back again at some point when I have more time, and perhaps hike the Potomac Heritage Trail from Rosslyn to the Chain Bridge. I also want to make a point of visiting some of the other parks along the Parkway that I pass all the time, like Fort Marcy. I have realized that there are a lot of obscure parks hidden away in the DC area, and some potentially great hiking trails too. I need to get myself some real hiking boots though. Running shoes don't quite make the grade on muddy and rocky terrain.


A small creek running through Turkey Run Park


Twilight settles in over the Potomac River

Inconvienent laws

\Who would have ever thought that President Bush and the University of Michigan had so much in common?

On the right side of the aisle, we have President Bush. President Bush decided that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillence Act (FISA) was inconvienent, and didn't want to follow it. Despite the clear language of the law, which provides instructions for when electronic surveillence can be performed without a court order, the President claimed that being Commander-in-Chief trumped the law, so he disregarded it.

On the left side of the aisle, we have the University of Michigan. The University decided that Proposal 2 was inconvienent, and didn't want to follow it. Despite the clear language of the law, which states that it takes effect December 23, the University claimed that it was "unfair", and persuaded a court to allow it to disregard the law, at least until next July. The University is currently studying ways to disregard as much of the law as it can.

The right side of the political spectrum believes that President Bush is doing the right thing in disregarding the law, because President Bush is doing it for a good cause -- fighting terrorism. The left side of the political spectrum believes that the University is doing the right thing in disregarding the law, because the University is doing it for a good cause -- promoting diversity. In other words, both sides believe that the end justifies the means.

I find it a very disturbing trend that government entities are attempting to circumvent the law because the law isn't what they want. First of all, the government is there to implement the law. Second, while I don't like the idea of government lobbying to change the laws for its benefit, the government can lobby the appropriate parties (Congress for Federal laws, voters for state constitutions) to change the law. Going around the law because the government doesn't like it undermines the very nature of our Constitutional system of government.

US Courts undermine Michigan law

A Federal judge has agreed to allow three Michigan universities (UM, MSU, and WSU) a six month extension from implementing Proposal 2, which banned the use of affirmative action in Michigan state government. The universities claimed that it would be "unfair" to change their admissions processes in mid-cycle. In addition, the city of Lansing has gone to court to request that it be exempt from Proposal 2 until July 1, since they don't have "enough time" to implement changes to their policies.

Of course, when the University of Michigan implements new fees in the middle of the year (which they have done), that's perfectly fine. When the government implements new taxes retroactively to the beginning of the year, that's also acceptable. And when the government decides to outlaw something it doesn't like, it can implement laws that take effect tomorrow.

But despite the fact that Proposal 2 is now part of the State of Michigan constitution, because it would be inconvienent for the government to implement the law, the courts are giving the government an exemption from the law. This is a total disregard for the rule of law in the State of Michigan, and as a Michigan voter (and taxpayer), I find it very disappointing. The government should be a government "of the people, by the people, for the people", and should abide by the same legal framework that brought it into existence.

Perhaps the courts would like to give me an exemption from paying taxes, since I find them to be very inconvienent.

Fixing cable franchise rules

Kevin Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is seeking to implement rules that would simplify the franchising process for new entrants to the cable TV market. Of course, the cable TV providers are upset that someone might tinker with their cozy monopoly. In response to Martin's assertion that cable TV rates have climbed 93 percent since 1995, the president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said that the statistics were "deceptive" and "manipulated."

In the past eleven years where my long-distance bills have fallen by more than half, and where technology has greatly improved, my cable bills have gone up by 125%, and the signal is still provided through 1970's technology. In 1995, monthly cable service in Ann Arbor was $24.20, including the box rental. In 2004, monthly cable service in Ann Arbor (same provider, without the box) was $45.03. In 2006, monthly cable service in Virginia is $56.25 per month. In all three cases, my choice of content has been the same: extended analog basic cable.

In contrast, digital satellite TV through DirecTV currently costs $44.99 per month for the standard package, has more channels, and is a much higher quality product. Unfortunately, because satellite TV requires exterior access to a southward-facing location, it isn't an option for many people. And as a result, the cable companies keep gouging customers. In addition, local governments aren't interested in seeing lower cable rates. If cable rates were to significantly drop, like they did for telephone, then revenue from franchise fees and taxes would decrease. So local governments have no incentive to fix their franchising laws to attract new providers. Hopefully, the FCC will approve rules streamlining the process, and maybe we'll see some competition in the local markets.

Connectivity restored ... for now

My unreliable Comcast Internet service went down again last night. I called the problem in to technical support, and a technican showed up this afternoon. The technician removed an attenuator (installed by the last Comcast technician who came to my house), and changed a splitter at the main cable box in the complex. My Internet connection is back up, and for once, my cable television looks reasonable. The television signal is still not DirecTV quality (I miss my DirecTV), but it's no longer the fuzzy excuse for a television signal that I previously had. Hopefully, the wiring changes will allow my cable Internet to remain fairly stable.


My Comcast router searching in vain for a signal
Other than having to take time out of my day to deal with Comcast, I had a very productive day. I accomplished a significant amount of Christmas shopping, and even braved Tyson's Corner Center. Even in the middle of the afternoon during the work week, Tyson's was extremely busy. I feel sorry for anyone who needs to go to Tyson's this weekend for last-minute shopping.

Random DC Photos

I played tourist again today, as my brother, his wife, and I went into DC to hang out on the Mall. My brother's wife had never been to see the majority of the monuments, so we decided to show her around. One of the weird things about the DC area is that it is possible to live here, but not see any of the popular tourist places.

I took a lot of pictures today, and I have created a page with some of them.

On the twelfth day before Christmas...

Only twelve more days until Christmas! I'm not done with my Christmas shopping yet. To be honest, I'm barely started on my Christmas shopping. I'm hoping to get it all finished this weekend. I'm still working on my plans for the holidays. According to my brother, my parents are coming up to DC to visit over Christmas. So that means that I'll be in DC for Christmas weekend. I still might be able to get back to Michigan for at least part of the holidays. So stay tuned.

Would you think of the children?

Sen. McCain (R-AZ) has introduced a bill entitled "Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act of 2006". It should be called, "Turn Everyone Hosting Online Services Into a Snitch". Officially, the purpose of the bill is to help law enforcement combat child pornography. Everyone wants to stop child pornography, right? But the language of the bill is terrible. First of all, it applies to anyone running an online service. So if you are running a personal blog on your own server, or host your own e-mail, the bill will apply to you. Second, it requires anyone suspecting that something could be child porn on their site to not only submit a report to law enforcement, but you have to keep the suspected child porn, all of your server logs, and any other relevant information for a mininum of 180 days, and possibly indefinitely.

So why is this bad? For example, if a friend posts a picture of her niece in the bathtub on your blog, you better make a report, or face fines of up to $150,000 -- just in case some law enforcement official somewhere thinks its child porn. Never mind the fact that the picture is innocent - it might violate sections 18 USC 2251-2260. And now law enforcement will be scrutinizing the naive actions of your friend. Further, you can't delete it, move it, or do anything that would potentially tamper with the logs. Heaven forbid if your nightly cron job deletes the log files. So you are pretty much left with removing the hard drive, buying a new one, and reinstalling your system.

In addition, because this applies to e-mail too, I can see this as being an inviting target for hackers. If a hacker wanted to cause widespread disruption, they could send spam mail with a child porn image. Every ISP would have to quarrantine their logs, the image, etc. They all would have to submit reports to law enforcement. And how many small businesses would be aware that they could be criminally liable if they deleted that e-mail from their server? A single hacker could cause a million dollars of economic disruption overnight.

For the large service providers with lots of content, the consequences are worse. If somebody were to actually post real child porn somewhere on the ISP's site, and nobody catches it, the ISP can be fined $50,000 for "negligent failure". Do you think that YouTube has the capability to manually review every video that gets posted on their system?

I hope that Congress comes to its senses and rejects this proposed legislation. Unfortunately, who wants to be seen as voting against something that "protects the children?"

A Souped Up Dinner

One of my favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor, Grizzly Peak, has a great cheddar-ale soup. I'm not ordinarily a big soup fan, but I love their cheddar-ale soup. So I searched the web to see if I could find a good recipe for cheddar-ale soup, and I found this recipe online from another Grizzly Peak fan. I had never made soup from scratch before, but tonight I tried it out. I cooked up a batch of soup, and it wasn't too bad. It's not Grizzly Peak's soup, but it's pretty reasonable. I think I'm going to work on adapting the recipe a little bit.

My soup simmering on the stove:



There was an amusing article today in the New York Times about how how the financial community just doesn't "get" Craigslist. They don't understand why the company isn't interested in becoming a financial behemoth, but is more interested in providing a useful service to the Internet community.

Sunday Randomness

Today was a pretty productive day, despite being a Sunday. Since the weather was beautiful this afternoon, I went out running. I reversed my usual route, and went out towards Arlington Cemetary and came back by Key Blvd. from Rosslyn. That turned out to be a mistake, since the steep hill up Key Blvd. ended my run prematurely. Still, I managed to get a little over three miles in, which wasn't too bad.

I had to do some shopping at Target (the middle-class Wal-Mart) today, and when I got to the full parking lot, I realized that I had forgotton that everyone was out doing Christmas shopping. (Yeah, how did I manage to forget that?) Still, I was suprised at how quickly I got in and out of the store, despite the store being mobbed. They had enough checkout lines running that people were getting out the door pretty quickly. I wish every store was as good at dealing with crowds.

Today's picture of the day, from the Iwo Jima Memorial:

Playing tourist

I spent the afternoon playing tourist in downtown Washington DC today. I was testing my new digital camera, and familiarizing myself with the various shooting modes. Despite chilly temperatures (I'm glad I dressed for the occasion), the weather was bright and sunny. I wandered around the Mall, and checked out the National Christmas Tree. It's a big tree, but I didn't think it was particularly impressive.



One of the local cheerleading squads (I think someone said they were GMU) was performing on the Ellipse.



A couple of the guys were able to hold the girls above their heads using only a single hand. Now that's some impressive upper-body strength!



The sun behind the Washington Monument made for an interesting picture.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Two days ago, we passed the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This afternoon, I took the following photograph at the World War II Memorial, and it seemed appropriate for the occasion:

Measure twice, cut once

The DC Metro has provided us with a great example of how not to do an engineering project. According to this Washington Post article, Metro spent half a million dollars renovating a bus terminal at the Friendship Heights station. Unfortunately, Metro did not take into consideration the fact that its newer buses are taller than the old ones. As a result, the new bus terminal is mostly unusable. Now Metro is looking at ways to walk away from its half-miliion dollar investment.

Catching up

Well, it's been a rather busy time since my last post. I spent last weekend in Ann Arbor, and had a great time. I had the chance to catch up with friends, take care of the house, and enjoy being away from the DC sprawl. I even managed to get to Grizzly Peak and Ashley's while I was there. My house is doing quite well, and the new carpet I installed in the family room looks great. I still have a lot of odds and ends that need to be dealt with, such as trimming doors and replacing some windows. But overall, the place is looking pretty good.

The work week was rather unproductive. For some reason, I really can't wait until Christmas this year, and I think I'm going to take a fair amount of vacation. I was originally planning on heading out to Colorado for part of it, but the airfares to Denver were ridiculous. It is likely that the flights are full of people heading out to go skiing over the holidays. So now I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do over the holidays. Hopefully, I will get a chance to get back to Ann Arbor for a few days.