photo courtesy of JoCo

Hey, you got your Coulton in my Annapolis! Hey, you got your Annapolis in my Coulton!

Okay, so they can’t all be gems.

Jonathan Coulton will be performing tomorrow at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis at 1pm. Bob & Storm will be there as well, just like the show they did a few weeks back at Jammin Java (though likely without the Da Vinci’s Notebook mini-reunion). I can’t speak highly enough of how enjoyable a show Coulton puts on, so I’ll let him speak for himself with this delightful tune “First of May,” about the joys of the impending warmer weather. Give it a listen free here… though you should probably wear your headphone if you’re in the office or mixed company.

He brings that same wit and whimsy to the stage, though usually with less profanity.

Hmm, I have almost talked myself into going even after seeing him just two weeks ago…

Rams Head Tavern & Fordham Brewing Co.
33 West Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
(410)268-4545

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Virgin Festival‘s second trip to the DC area will happen at the Pimlico track just outside of Baltimore this August 4th and 5th, and will feature headliners The Police, The Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins, providing an awesome base on which to sell tickets and get people in the doors. Last year’s festival featured The Killers, The Who and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, one could say the festival’s on par. I’m not sure if there’s enough money in the world to make me hang out at an outdoor race track in Baltimore in the middle of August, but I will admit to thinking about it a bit now that the Police are playing…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Late last night I got the call. My bid on a home in Petworth was accepted and I am now on the fast track to homesteading.

And a $450,000 mortgage.

This morning both those realities hit me and you can see the result: crazy fear. Fear of many things, rational, irrational, even imaginary, but rarely financial.

Let me serve as an example of affordable housing in Washington DC. My three bedroom + finished basement house will be just under $3,000 a month with very traditional and conservative financing.

Thats $800 a person as a group house, or as we will do, $1,100 for my girlfriend and I, and $800 for the basement. Quite affordable by DC housing standards.

So to those who moan about the lack of “affordable housing”, I call bullshit. Housing is affordable. Mortgages are pricing out at rent levels.

If you read this and are thinking, “Nice, Wayan, but I really can not afford my dream home,” maybe its called “dream home” and not “reality home” for a reason.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I don’t know where the hell that is, but post-OLPC talk that’s where we’re heading. Ignore the timestamp above – it’s about 8:25pm. So if you’re in Alexandria, c’mon by.

I lied – we’re at Joe Theissmans.

Oops, lying again – at Segars at the King St Hilton.

Hmm, starting to see the possible benefits of Twitter.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve been quiet lately, primarily because my once-beloved job had taken a turn for the torturous and soul-sucking, so pretty much my entire experience of DC was reduced to trudging the few blocks between my office and my garage, thinking, “oh god, another day of this,” and then drinking heavily with the other Metrobloggers. Not exactly the stuff of scintillating blog entries.

But I’ve gotten myself a new job, which I’ll be starting soon, and so my outlook has brightened considerably. Yay! And since the pros and cons of various employment situations have been on my mind lately, I present you with:

Tiffany’s Favorite Things About Working Downtown

• Mini parks. Every time a state street intersects a letter street and a number street at the same time, there’s a park. Some of these parks make fantastic places to eat lunch and get away from the office when the weather is nice. I missed these during the two years I worked in an office in a shopping center in Potomac.
• Street vendors. I’m so lame that I only know what’s fashionable based on which knockoffs are being stocked at the purse vendors.
• A sense of perspective on travel. While my family back home postpones long-desired vacations to Europe because of train bombings and liquids-on-planes scares, I know that I work near the White House. When one of the most attractive targets in the world is four blocks from your desk, you stop worrying about what could happen to you while on holiday, because hey… at least you’d be on vacation instead.

What do you like about the area where you work?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

The latest entrant to the caffeine beverage wars is out in force today.

Chic Energy Supplinent free samples are going fast as heartbeats at 15th and K.

Grab one for yourself if you like overly sweet (sugar free!) caffeine + taurine and inositol water. Who knows what those last two chemicals do but the sin-a-man taste does nothing for me.

I’ll take my caffeine the right way: as an espresso in a French cafe.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Apparently the Washington Post (both in print and in the online edition) has decided to spontaneously rename Penn&Teller’s Showtime series “Bullshit!” I wonder if they bothered to tell the producers?

I don’t have access here to the Chicago Manual of Style (which I believe the Post purports to follow) so I don’t know what the approved method of redacting an ‘offensive’ word might be (Bull—-? Bull****? Bulls*it?) but I am pretty sure that simply altering it – and leaving accuracy behind – isn’t it.

screen grab of The Washington Post Online

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of RoadKillBuddha

Jenn F wrote about a disconcerting experience she had over in the Eastern Market area a week ago and I wanted to bring it to your attention. Call me nuts – or just a person with low expectations – but I find it a somewhat uplifting story. Jenn took the time to find a cop and report it. The transit cop responded expediently and clearly some action was taken.

Forgive me for being trite, but I think its during these million little 60 second encounters every day that our city gets better or worse, not as a result of the Big Things or sweeping heroic gestures. Thanks for being one of the ways the city got better that day, Jenn.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of the Red Cross

The supply is critically low and the Red Cross has been smacking their speed-dial button to my number like a monkey lookin for a heroin pellet. So go donate – why should I be the only one to suffer?

The addresses and service times of permanent donation centers can be found here and you can search for drives and other locations here.

And yes Wayan, we know you’re not allowed to donate and that you think it’s stupid. You too, Mik. Thanks in advance.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

OLPC Children’s Machine XO

Have you heard of the One Laptop Per Child program? Nicholas Negroponte’s efforts to create a “$100 laptop” for children in the developing world?

If you are international development, technology, or education, you should. I have, and I write about it daily on OLPC News, a website I started to track OLPC efforts.

Better yet, if you are in the technology field, specifically a new media professional, then join me tomorrow night at Refresh DC, a community of new media professionals working together to refresh online trades in Washington, DC. There, I will be speaking about:

OLPC XO: Design Environment for 10 Million New Web Users

In the next 12-18 months, OLPC plans to distribute 5-10 million laptops (the single largest computer monoculture ever shipped), and children in the developing world will be consuming and producing educational content on a grand scale.

What will the Internet look like? What should it look like? How will OLPC impact web design, content generation, information consumption, the entire “average user experience” online? The OLPC Sugar UI is just the beginning of the revolution.

Join me in discussing the rest of the revolution in computing at the Washington DC headquarters of The Motley Fool (map) | (metro) Thursday night.

The party starts at 6ish, I start yapping at 7pm, and this should be one lively discussion!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m looking forward to seeing The Pillowman this Friday night at Studio, and while I had by no means forgotten that my season tix were for that night I certainly appreciate the helpfulness of Studio sending out a message reminding me. “Dear Patron, This is your courtesy reminder that on Friday, March 23, 2007 at 8:00pm you are scheduled to attend: THE PILLOWMAN.”

A nice little feature, but as I am quickly skimming down the mail I see this next-to-last paragraph.

Please Be Advised that this production of THE PILLOWMAN contains the use of strobe lighting, haze effects and smoking of non tobacco products on stage.

Uh…. huh? Not that I actually think you’re going to spark a doob, dude, but what the hell does that mean? Is this a content warning a la “sexual situations and simulated drug use” or that there’s going to be a smoke machine running? Fake tobacco? Juggling of flaming torches? Self-immolating buddhist monk?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’m sure those of us who regularly ride the Metro have seen them: playful teenagers who engage in rough and vocal horseplay on the train after school, to the general amusement and/or dismay of passengers in the immediate vicinity. Why, just a few nights ago on the Green Line I had the privilege of watching a local whippersnapper in the full bloom of youthful vibrance, playing hip-hop ringtones on her mobile device at a formidably high and distorted level of volume, while chanting along and flailing her limbs wildly to the blare of rhythmic lyrics, all to the earnest yells and eager whoops of a trio of compatriots who had loudly sequestered a full section of the train car to stage their impromptu cultural performance, for the listening and viewing pleasure of classmates and fellow riders alike.

But worry not, ye huddled, intimidated, annoyed masses! Metro, in their infinite wisdom, have come up with a solution: Notecards! Yes, surely the “Respect, Give It, Get It” notecard campaign will inspire a disposition of silent, noble dignity among the urban youth who ride with us daily. Perhaps these written reminders will do what our own stern glares and head-shakes and occasional futile endeavors at vocal reprimand have failed to do — chastise these rough-housers into contemplative stillness.

Then Metro will be a joy to ride. Every day. All the time.

Respect.

Give it.

Get it.

Amen.

Update: Here’s a copy of the card itself, courtesy Metro:

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Check out Mayor Fenty’s State of the District speech going on live now.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

In a move that surprised exactly no one, Tim Kaine & the Virginia Legislature have extended the HOV exemption for Hybrids on I-66 and the DTR until the middle of next year. The Hybrid Exemption is a bit oddly composed in Virginia: if you’ve owned your hybrid since before June 1st of 2006, you can use your hybrid without meeting the HOV criteria on 395 and 95, as well as I-66 and the DTR. But, if you bought your hybrid after June 1st of 2006, you can only use the HOV lanes on 66 and the DTR, not on 395 or 95.

The question becomes, are we extending the privilege to get more people interested in Hybrid cars? Are we rewarding existing Hybrid owners too greatly for their purchase? Is this actually a commute-faster-if-you’re-wealthy thing?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Gregory Schoenborn, husband of a woman fatally struck by a Metrobus, is suing the transit agency for $100 Million in damages. With the driver up on charges of negligent homicide, and witnesses at the scene saying that the driver was too busy staring at the cabs instead of looking at the road, it looks like he’s got a pretty decent case. The embattled transit authority is reeling from the number of accidents already on the books in 2007. With six fatalities in the system in just three months, Metro’s looking a bit beleaguered these days.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Welcome to DC, my new school friends from Oregon! Welcome to an education in government and group-effect traveling.

Obey your “Core Knowledge School” headmaster and the haggard parents chaperoning you. Be focused on the sights before you.

The White House, which you are on your way to see today, the Capitol tomorrow, the Smithsonian all week long – these are national treasures, even if their occupants might be fools.

Be solemn at memorials, respect Arlington’s tombstones, and don’t try to jump the Eternal Flame.

And if you do happen to use Metrorail, where us city-dwellers are rushing on with our lives, don’t be a turon – stand to the right on the escalators.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Circus is in Town! No, no, not that circus, I mean the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey, who marched their elephants down E Street today, from Union Station to Verizon Center, for the Greatest Show on Earth. (No, no, not those elephants, I mean these elephants.) I managed to grab some fuzzy video as the parade tromped by my apartment:

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

More effective than “please don’t tailgate” I suppose…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

When it comes to photography, there is a natural tendency for your eye to line up your subject in such a way that it’s framed perfectly in the center, or perhaps off to the side a bit using the rule of thirds. You try to capture as much of your subject as possible, or at least the interesting parts. I suppose this is because this is how our eyes work in the real world. When you’re talking to someone, do you look at their left shoulder or straight into their eyes?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But sometimes it makes for an interesting shot to go completely against your instincts like local photographer Josua Yospyn has done here. I love how the bike rider’s head is cropped right out of the scene because it would only serve as a distraction. It forces your eye to go from his shadow to the interesting geometry of the white tennis court lines. I don’t know about you, but it makes me reminisce about being a kid, riding my bike around the neighborhood, and not having a care in the world. Ah, those were the days. Slurpee anyone?

So next time you’re out shooting, try to break free from “the rules”, view your subject in a different way, and let your viewer imagine the things that they can’t see.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A full third of DC is listed as functionally illiterate according to a recent survey conducted by the State Education Agency. Functionally illiterate means unable to read maps, bus schedules or fill out job applications, according to the WJZ article. The Post’s article is far more complete and includes the figure of $107M in lost revenue due to a lack of qualified applicants in the District. The most sobering part? This breakdown of where the problems are:

.

So, what are we going to do as a city to fix it? It looks like money needs to be redistributed to literacy programs in the affected Wards, but who’s going to take the lead?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs