That’s right folks, we have a first place team here in Washington. The Nats took over sole possession of First Place in the NL East after taking 3 of 4 from The Braves (take THAT, Atlanta) and sweeping the Marlins. The entire National League East could currently be contained inside a small shoebox, given the split between the teams:

The Nats are on a real tear, and this week they’ll face my sometimes hapless, though currently streaking, Oakland A’s, and the Seattle Mariners over at RFK. Tickets are available for both series at the box office.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I was at a cookout last night and heard someone say that in Venice Beach, where he grew up, there’s a strong ethic of “work hard, play hard.” You do your job, you come home, you enjoy your life. But then he came here, and was astonished by the frenetic pace of working life here. Working on the weekends is a badge of honor. His response is, “Get a therapist!”

My response is to try and keep my life a little more organized. I manage my working life by interruption and so trying to keep my deteriorating attention span in check while being productive is a challenge. So I’ve gotten onto an organization kick lately- what tools do I need (and will actually use) to make sure things get done?

At my previous job, I could use my own PowerBook as my work computer, so things were fairly easy. I went everywhere with my laptop and my calendar was always on hand. I had work and personal calendars in my iCal, I subscribed to Tom’s iCal feed for his travel schedule, and stuff was great.

But now I work for a company where the IT department has standardized everyone on a particular computer system and keeps the whole thing pretty locked down for security reasons. I can’t plug anything into the network that wasn’t issued by them. I also can’t sync anything to my desktop that isn’t company-issue.

Now, this seems oppressive to some of you, and being a gadget-dependent geek, it annoys me too. However, since I have always worked for tiny companies with either no IT department, or an understaffed, incompetent IT department in the past, I choose to accept these restrictions gracefully in exchange for the simple joy of having my computer’s function be someone else’s responsibility. When something breaks, I get to pick up the phone and make it someone else’s problem. This seems a small price to pay for giving up the ability to sync a PDA.

But the question I have still had to wrestle with over the 5 months I’ve worked at this company is this: What tool(s) can I use that will allow me to keep the level of organization I became accustomed to when my work machine and personal machine were the same?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

The Washington Post has started a series of 4 article covering our sometimes beloved Metro rail system, covering all the foibles of the system, from mismanagement to car problems to my favorite: Escalator “repair”:

And a $93 million project to renovate 178 escalators has managed to make many of them worse. More than a third have been breaking down more often than they did before, a Washington Post analysis of Metro statistics shows.

Definitely required reading for anyone who takes the Metro all the time or just once in a while.

Update: Metro has responded to their initial story, and the Washington Post has posted their second article on the Metro, this time about Safety Warnings Gone Ignored.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I hate the “popped collar” look. Really, I don’t consider it a popped collar, but rather a sign of douchebaggery. However, it appears that the Georgetown Heckler has a bit different view of the whole thing:

Wearing Your Collar Down is for Poor People

Thank you GTH, I needed that laugh. Badly.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While 395 may be a disaster this afternoon thanks to an accident blocking three right lanes (Thank you DC Text Alert), this weekend could well be worse if you’re headed through the Mixing Bowl or downtown this weekend.

Be prepared, take Metro.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Tonight’s Nationals/Braves was possibly some of the finest baseball (Guzman’s error at shortstop in the 8th notwithstanding) that I’ve seen lately. This team plays with heart, it plays with precision (well, sometimes) and it plays with soul. The third base bouncers were out in force tonight, even after all the Braves fans left feeling triumphant in the middle of the 8th inning (somehow spiriting JennB away with them, perhaps?), but there’s some stuff here we can’t leave unsaid:

• The Real Men of Genius guys from the Bud Light ad campaign were at the game tonight and in the middle of the 6th, they did a “Real Men of Genius” tribute to the Nationals Fans. However, because of the crazy audio system, we weren’t able to make out the words, but man, I’m sure it was hilarious
• What is with dudes in the pink Nats hats? I mean, I know we’ve got the second largest gay population, but I’m not sure they’re hot on baseball. Is this some sort of odd irony statement? I got nothing, but I’m pretty sure I frown on pink baseball hats to begin with.
• Asking me to pay $4 for a hotdog and then insulting my intelligence by calling it a “Super Dog” is pretty galling. Please, rethink the naming. Just call it a hot dog, that’s all it is. And I can get them out front of the stadium for a buck twenty-five. Twenty-five cents more and I at least get a half-smoke. C’mon concessions.
• What is up with having 120123412349492929 beer vendors on the 400/500 level, but only 1 nacho stand? Show me some love for the nachos, please!

The Nats take three from the Braves. Amazing. Hey Atlanta, you may have beaten us in traffic this past month, but we just totally 0wned your baseball team!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

With the town all atwitter with praise and recrimination for W. Mark Felt, folks are beginning to wonder, where exactly did the conversations take place between Felt and Woodward? Well, Woodward gives us a hint. Rosslyn. Now, I’m betting that Rosslyn’s changed a little bit, but I’m thinking that it might be the subterranean garage beneath the former Gannett building. Of course, maybe this might be a job for the Arlington Historical Society. We’ve asked them, and perhaps they’ll let us know.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Adrian Fenty has formally announced his candidacy for DC mayor as of this morning. It’s not real clear who will run, Williams has not announced, nor has Orange, nor Cropp, nor really anyone else. Of course, with all the craziness surrounding this city, it would not surprise me in the slightest if Mayor For Life Marion Barry were to throw his hat in the ring again.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs