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Back to gerritt.net NOTABLES June 29, 2004. 5:50 PM -Catonsville, a suburb connected to Baltimore, has a Fourth of July parade so popular that people started setting up lawnchairs on the sidewalks yesterday just so they can have a good spot for the parade next Sunday. -One would think that it wouldn't take three weeks for the government to buy their new employee a PC, yet here I am going on two and a half weeks of an empty desk. -Through an ingenious balancing act between my Subaru and Melanie's Envoy, I do finally now have both a full sized bed and a comfortable couch in my apartment. -I need to start eating better, and maybe exercising too. -Turns out my drawings for my senior design project were so way awesome that our project was the only one submitted from Tech for the Lisnyk international ship design competition. -Saturday marks the second summer in a row that I'm missing the annual Jimmy Buffett concert in the area, which is okay since I've seen him five times, but I surely wouldn't turn down a ticket if I'm offered one. -Are you counting down the 60 days left until Hokie Football!? -Another entry to the Summer Photo Journal now available. BETTER THAN THE BEST DAY AT WORK June 28, 2004. 12:30 AM So, it was a cloudy day at the beach. But nice to get into the water and do some boarding, and nice to just sit around and not worry about stuff. Well, except for sunburn, board rash, and how bad your girlfriend is going to beat you at minigolf. Pictures and an entry in the summer journal to come soon. If you're like me and not an avid country music fan, you've still probably at some point experienced Tim McGraw's music. I just returned from his sold-out show at Nissan Pavillion (yeah, yeah, I know I swore off it, but it was worth it), and it is easy to see why he is such a popular and wealthy singer. One of the guys in his opening act called him The Elvis Presley of country music, and while I wouldn't quite go that far, he is for sure one of the best performers I've ever seen. Every inch a showman, he does nothing but sing, tell a story or two, dance, and shake hands. No instruments, no songwriting, and no producing, but he has some of the best people in Nashville to back him up, and it shows. About half of his music is irresistably great, well written, brilliant, and easy to relate to. The other half makes you wonder how it ever became popular. The first time I went to see Tim I was about 12 and he was singing with Faith Hill before they were married. She was headlining the tour, and they sang together on a few songs. Now, ten years later, he's sold out a multi-million dollar, Bud-lite sponsored summer arena tour. Oh, but it did sorta seem like a beer commercial the whole time. Definitely a great concert to see, thanks to super-Tim-fanatic Rachael for the hook-up on the good seats, and to Melanie for borrowing her Mom's truck so we could totally beat the horrible Nissan Pavilion traffic by driving over a few curbs. OCEANSIDE June 24, 2004. 10:11 PM I'm headed to Ocean City this weekend for a relaxing couple of days at the beach. What do you call it when you or your family heads to the closest sandy spot for a weekend? If you're not beach people then this can effectively be disregarded, but for us Marylanders and most Virginians, we've spent at least one vacation at a nearby ocean-side retreat. I've been unknowingly in the habit of saying "I'm goin' down to the ocean," only my light Baltimorean accent kicks in and it unintentionally comes out "downy owe-shun." Most people just say they're spending the weekend at the beach or refer specifically to the place itself. But for Marylanders there's pretty much only one place and everyone knows it as the owe-shun. A simple barrier island of entirely sand, packed with condos and hotels and rides and minigolf, but we cannot resist its call. I'm looking forward to spending the next few days on the sand and in the surf, and no matter what you call it, I call it vacation. BAND OF BROTHERS June 22, 2004. 11:09 PM If you read both of us brothers, you may have noticed that we had the same title for our Sunday night entries. Completely unplanned, our minds sometimes begin to work like that after spending a weekend together. Perhaps we're both that creative. . . or uncreative, depending on how you look at it. More added to the Summer Photo Journal. Happy Solstice! A CAPITAL IDEA June 20, 2004. 9:09 AM I'd never been to Adam's Morgan, a hip little neighborhood in NW DC, until last night. Daryl and his friend Mel and I went down for dinner and some nightlife in the three blocks of bars and restaurants that make up this diverse, yet somehow mostly white, nightspot. After eating Moroccan food and walking the strip two or three times, we paid our way into a place advertising John Lee Hooker, Jr. playing tonight. John Lee Hooker Jr! Cool! The place was crowded and we ended up on the roof deck, where after a few hours we were approached by an aging man drinking bud light. "Hey, the Washington Capitals!" he says. "Right, Hockey!" says Daryl. The man now identifies himself as the Capitals' PR guy or something: "Dude, do you recognize these guys? The goalie for the Caps man! The young guy!" And proceeds to tell us all about the young man we've now sort-of met who apparently plays hockey or something for the Caps. And two of the other guys are there too, again without much reaction from us. Yeah. Hockey. Right on. NOT HYDROPHOBIA June 18, 2004. 11:59 PM I have a completely irrational fear of heights. A phobia. Yesterday during a small bout of downtime at work two of the college interns and I decided to go explore the catwalk, which runs just below the ceiling of the hangar-sized facility. Perched on the catwalk one's head is a few feet from the huge hemispherical steel overhead trusses that support the curved plate roof, and at least five floors above the MASK test basin and the rotating arm test basin. The metal grate steps are in the center of the building and take you up turn after endless turn into the altitude. As I felt the height take over, my feet started to feel like bricks, and the feel of fear began pumping adrenaline into my body. Two landings from the top I looked down and froze up. My co-workers were already prancing across the catwalk above the MASK tank and laughing at the rain trickling in through the holes in the roof. They decided to come down when we heard thunder overhead, and met me a few flights down. I never made it to the top. A phobia is completely irrational, no logic involved. I know I'm sure-footed, clutching a railing, and in great shape, but I'm just scared to know I'm that high in the air. I've been to the top of the now-destroyed 115-story World Trade Center Towers, where I scarcely have ever felt so terrified, and to the gift shop at the top of the Empire State Building, where I was so nervous and uncoordinated that I dropped a souvenier glass and shattered it to bits. One place I have gotten over my fear was on the schooner I worked on a few years ago, where I could easily climb up the ratlines and sit on the spreader arms, 65 feet in the air, and scarcely feel nervous. It took me a few tries, but I finally did feel fairly comfortable with it. Maybe eventually I'll get that way with the catwalk. I sure hope so. MY FIRST DAY TOWARDS RETIREMENT June 15, 2004. 9:15 PM I cannot actually tell you what I do at work. In fact, I don't even have my security clearance yet, so I'm not even sure what I can see or not see. What I know is that I am a model tester for US Navy surface ships. My division works in the MASK (maneuvering and seakeeping) basin and the rotating arm basin with precisely scaled hullform designs of different ships. I got an office with a big window, they're letting me pick out my own brand-new computer, and I work a compressed 9-day 80-hour pay period (every other Friday off). So far, its looking very cushy and interesting. They say I'm practically guaranteed to stay busy for at least the next year with all the new designs coming through soon. I guess I just hit it at the right time. Welcome aboard the federal government. Next stop: retirement. CANNING IN CANTON June 13, 2004. 10:05 PM From high atop an old canning-factory-turned-apartment-building in Canton, you can look out past a fancy new stripmall and marina at the inner harbor. It is the up and coming neighborhood in Baltimore, with an artsy nightlife, fancy restaurants, and charmingly restored old warehouses. I remember being stranded there one night when my boat broke down on the Fourth of July a few years ago, but my impression of it was much different this time. Lots of swank new apartments and condos now encircle that part of the harbor, most of them built in old train warehouses and factories. Three of my friends from high school just moved into a penthouse suite on the fifth floor of what used to be a tin mill, which is where I found myself Friday night. Their deck looks out on the Patapsco River, and were it not for a number of other apartment buildings in the way, you could look west and see Fells Point and the Inner Harbor from up there. Their building seems like a fortress compared to my suburban apartment complex, with two different remote control gates and an elevator key before you even get into the building. It makes you feel safe, as safe as one can feel in Baltimore I suppose, but it still seems overkill. I start my new job tomorrow. Wish me luck! ONE OF THE CROWD June 11, 2004. 11:05 AM  At 3 PM yesterday, during the hottest part of the day, people lined up throughout the National Mall in DC to wait their turn in the Capitol Rotunda to see the coffin and pay their respects to former president Ronald Reagan. Melanie and I didn't wait in the line, but instead showed up to see the crowd and to be there during a historic event. Few presidents' bodies are laid "in state", meaning placed on public display in the capitol rotunda, and Reagan is the first since Johnson was laid in state three decades ago. The city of Washington, ever prepared for huge crowds, was very kind and in some ways too safe, forcing us to walk around three fenced-off sides of the Capitol before we were even able to see the crowd. All access to the building was cut except for one very heavily guarded gate and a narrow aisle for the public to file through. The Red Cross disaster service was there handing out Band-Aids and Sam's Choice bottled water at every turn of the long line to walk through the rotunda. As the day got hotter, we ducked into the Air and Space Museum and saw a 3D Imax movie about the International Space Station, then walked through the brand new WWII Memorial tucked in between the Washington and Lincoln Monuments. I'm glad to now live in the DC Metro area. Trips to the city almost make it worth dealing with the traffic and hustle of the suburbs. Four new sets of pictures to come soon! DSL-evated June 9, 2004. 3:25 PM And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I just got myself a computer desk and DSL hooked up in the apartment, and I can now go back to updating my website anytime I want to. Be on the lookout for two or three new sets of pictures uploaded soon. I also now have everything except a bed and a couch in my new place, but they'll be here soon. In this, my last week before I start work, I have been finishing all of those things I need to do while I still have time during the day. I sat in a dentist chair, a barber chair, and a waiting room chair at the emissions check station. I sit in a lot of different chairs when I think about it. Someday I'll be able to buy my own chairs for my dining room table, but those'll come eventually. Maybe when I get paid. MOVING RIGHT ALONG June 3, 2004. 10:15 AM Its been more than two weeks since I began the move into my new apartment, and I still haven't finished. My belongings and my furniture are coming from five different places, and I've just now finished painting over the sterile-white walls to make it seem a litte warmer. I have all of my bedroom furniture, but my living room is just a pile of boxes right now. This weekend I head back to Blacksburg for Jen and Stephen's wedding, where I'll be a groomsman, and I'll be filling my car one more time with stuff to bring here. Sometime next week I will have DSL hooked up in my apartment so I'll be able to update this website regularly again. Overall, it's a really exciting thing to have my own apartment. I can't wait until it all comes together. Last night I went out and saw the first of the silly action-packed special-effect movies of the summer, The Day After Tomorrow. It was written and directed by the guy who did Independence Day, and it shows. The 15 or so characters they try to develop each get about 30 seconds of story and dialog, which of course is enough for a nod and a grunt and some line like "Mr. Vice President, it may be too late!" Also, as all attempts at adhering to science were tossed out the window, the movie features scenes in which the characters are litterally running from the cold as a storm eye passes over them and temperatures drop suddenly, icing over everything. The special effects are amazing, very realistic, and show much of the major landmarks in LA and New York being destroyed. It was an entertaining flick, but hardly worthy of the expense of the special effects just for a silly disaster movie. |