‘capitol couple’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The same-sex marriage debate rages on, as a DC council committee addresses the issue of whether these marriages are legal today. Protesters (many from Virginia and Maryland) made some noise yesterday in Freedom Plaza, demanding that the issue be put on a ballot so DC residents can vote on it. My question is, will that really solve anything? There will always be a group of people who will be unhappy no matter how the decision gets made, and what if putting it on the ballot means the kind of money and advertising influx that Prop 8 in California got? No, thanks.

Brewfest time again! They’ve moved the fall event in a little closer than Summer’s Leesburg, though not a lot: This Saturday and Sunday the event will be going on at Broad Run Park in Centerville, otherwise known as “way the hell out there by Dulles Airport.” I’m interested in going, but unfortunately the options for safe transport stink.

OnTap has an event bus running Saturday, but they’ve already sold out. Vintage 51 will run 6 buses on Saturday as well, but that only helps if you’re in South Riding. No bus options are listed for Sunday at all. Want to stay in a Comfort Suites just to be safe? There’s a $69 deal for Brewfest attendees, provided you can get yourself the 8 miles from the event to the Manassas hotel.

Your only option is to take a designated driver, who will get a $5 discount on the $25 admission fee.

I’m interested in going, but I’m a little underwhelmed by their transport & safety solutions.

‘Woman in cell, playing solitaire’
courtesy of ‘George Eastman House’

The DOJ announced that Gregory William Fair of Falls Church has been sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release. It would seem that peddling “counterfeit” computer software is pretty profitable. Fair has to pay just shy of $750,000 in restitution after already forfeiting $144,000 in cash as well as a whole mess of cars: a BMW 5 series, a Hummer H2, Mercedes CL600 and a 69 GTO.

The repeated use of the word counterfeit is interesting, and a funny reflection on the way software is sold and intellectual property in general. No doubt what Fair’s eBay buyers got was in every way the actual, functional software they were looking for, and it did what the buyers expected. We think of “counterfeit” as being different than the actual thing, but in a case like this the only difference is likely the permission of the rights holder. Sometimes that’s the case with knockoff clothing and accessories too – sometimes that purse you buy on the corner in Georgetown is made in the same factory as the real designer’s products, made on the sly and sold out the back door to knockoff vendors.

Also interesting is just how little Fair might have sold. The press release says he sold about a million bucks in Adobe products, retail. With a vanilla copy of Photoshop at $700 and some of the suites selling for $1,800 it probably didn’t take long to hit that $1M.

‘All quiet on the western front…’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

I ran across an interesting piece in the Post today about Adam Lewis. You’ve never heard of him, but he’s the guardian of the Wikipedia entry on Washington, DC. It seems that under Lewis’ careful eye, the DC entry has gone from a shoddy, decaying entry to a thoroughly sourced, well-researched, and informative article that has actually been featured as a shining example of Wikipedia at it’s best.

Maybe for his next project, Lewis could take over WMATA?

’21.’
courtesy of ‘dharmabumx’

You know you’ve reached a level of terrible horribility when The Onion absolutely nails your press experience. It’s pretty hysterical. And, in fact, the Redskins do only hold their domain through June of next year, which I figure has to be some sort of cruel joke in the face of SEO advice everywhere, not to mention discount domain registration policies that Dan Snyder I’m sure must be aware of…

The Skins face Philly on Monday night. It doesn’t look good.

Armored Car
Originally uploaded by tbridge

As part of the promo for the movie Armored, due out in December, you might spot a beautifully painted Armored car, complete with security guard and redone interior, in the DC area this weekend. I caught it in front of Ben’s Chili Bowl this afternoon, where it will be part of this afternoon. Then tomorrow it’s headed up to the McDonald’s near Howard University, and then on Saturday, it will be part of the Howard Homecoming Parade complete with star of Armored Columbus Short riding along.

The art on the car is not to be missed, it’s a gorgeous graffiti-style artwork, and covers the entire armored car, inside & out. Very, very spiff.

‘DSC_0119’
courtesy of ‘Don Whiteside’

Charley Cooper, Georgetown sophomore, has a problem. He’s just so… busy. Classes, part-time job, lifestyle maintenance, it’s all too much. So he’s advertising for a personal assistant. The successful candidate will do Charley’s laundry, schedule his haircuts, drive him to and from his part time job, gas up his car, etc. For $10-$12/hour.

I’m pretty sure that the whole point of college was to learn to manage your life alongside your other responsibilities without your mom around. Paying someone to be your mom seems like cheating. But maybe I’m just old school like that. What do you all think? A triumph of capitalism? A spoiled brat?

‘The US Coast Guard – protecting I-95 from ________.’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

Just to avoid the bad press and frustration, the Coast Guard has announced they’re going to hold an exercise on the Potomac this morning. Just so a CNN staffer doesn’t make up actual gunfire out of the calm words, “bang bang bang” on the radio again. All the details, courtesy of Arlington Alert:

US Coast Guard – Washington will conduct a boat tactics and maneuvering drill/training in the Georgetown Channel (between Arlington Memorial and 14th Street bridges) today Thursday 22 October, at approximately 1000-1200 local time using two boats with mounted automatic weapons: one the aggressor the other defending the security zone. No live fire or blanks will be used.

”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

It’s kinda nice to know that there’s a whole movement out there that loves the Redskins, but abjectly despises the owner, Dan Snyder. Sure, we could blame the on-field performance, or maybe the coaching, but everyone’s coming right back to Dan Snyder. If you want to hurt Dan Snyder in the only place his blackened soul might feel, then you aim right for his wallet and boycott his properties and things that benefit him. So, enter Hate The Owner, designed to give you all the necessary tools to hate Dan Snyder and love your Skins.

‘Wedding Photos in DC’
courtesy of ‘dcjasmine’

So, you may have heard that DC has more unmarried people than any other state in the country, by a lot! The Pew Research Center released a report showing the the District, when compared to states, comes in a distant last in percentage of people married, and first in oldest median age of residents at first marriage (check out all the pretty graphs here). DC is even out of the range of colors that are shown on the graphs because it’s so different.

This led the Washington City Paper and Newsweek to jump to various conclusions: that DC is home to educated lefties who wait to get married, that the illegality of gay marriage means that that population is undercounted, etc. All valid points, but then Newsweek takes it further and starts talking about the informal apartheid system we have here in DC, where only rich white people live in NW, and all the other quadrants house a “massive underclass”. Umm, have you ever been to Capitol Hill?

The craziest part of all of this is that all of these journalists never took the simple step of looking up comparable cities to get an idea of whether it was really fair to compare an all-urban city to a state. Well, I did. Continue reading →