June 2007 Archives

When we last talked about my trip, I had just checked into the Marriott in Copley Place, threw open the curtains and shades, and gazed on the city lights of Boston. The only place I found to eat in my limited exploration of the area was an Au Bon Pain, though I passed several closed establishments. Before I hit the sack for the night, I bit the bullet and paid for the $9.95 per night Internet access. I had not been able to get the wireless access to work in Bedford, so I had been disconnected all week and hadn't had a chance to plan my Friday like I'd wanted. That, combined with checking e-mail and the standard instant messaging check-in, finally convinced me to do it. I made a quick schedule (just like an engineer, eh?) for the day, making sure I wrote down an approximate cost to go with each stop. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep once I finally crawled into Marriott's new Revive Bed. With a name like that, I was expecting some kind of massage or spa experience, but it was really just a comfortable mattress.

Friday morning, I implemented my super-clever breakfast plan: I'd bought some bagels and apples from a Whole Foods back in Bedford because I knew the cheapest hotel breakfast would have been $12. Turns out I could have stopped at one of the omnipresent Dunkin' Donuts around the city, as well, but this saved a little time and precious money. I highly recommend the strategy. After breakfast, I headed out to walk a few blocks to my first stop: historic Copley Square, home of the Old South Church and Boston Public Library. Walking up Boylston Street, I was immediately engrossed in snapping photos of the architecture I saw, the first of many occasions to do so during that day. After satisfying my photographic urge, I dug out my CharlieTicket and hopped on the T.

My overall impression of the T is that it is fairly reliable and well-used by residents. Compared to DC's Metro, it is certainly older and as such has a more well-worn feeling to it. Read: slightly more run-down, but it's still cleaner than New York's subway. The most interesting thing to me about the T is that each line was developed at different times and, as a result, uses different types of cars in each. From the overhead-electric-cable style of the Green Line to the electric third-rail style of the Blue (similar to the Metro), it feels like you're actually riding several different services depending on where you are in the city. I can't actually rate each line since I only rode three (Blue, Green, and Orange), but I spent the most time on the Green and had no complaints. The only real complaint I would have is there is no way to tell when the next train is coming when you're in the station - short of asking an employee, I guess - so you are riding blind in that regard. I know the Metro's schedule boards aren't the most reliable things, but now I realize that they're better than nothing.

From Monday evening to Thursday evening, I actually wasn't in Boston proper; rather, my co-worker and I spent time in the suburbs, near Bedford and Burlington, where our class was being held. The more time I spent in the New England 'burbs, the more I thought that I could picture myself settling down there - that is, until winter, when everything would be frozen in snow and the quaint two lane, tree-lined roads would suddenly transform into drifts.

I'm probably exaggerating. I'm sure the Massachusetts DOT is very good at clearing the roads. Moving on.

To me, the various towns that are sprinkled around Boston are different from Northern Virginia suburbs in that there appears to be some physical separation between them; maybe it's the extra trees, but I could tell one town from another as we were driving around finding places to eat. One key difference, however, is the lack of road signage. Maybe road signs are no good in the snow, so they just don't bother, but we found ourselves overshooting our turn more than once due to the crucial road sign only facing the other way.

When our plane was on approach to land and I squinted out the window from my middle seat, the features that stood out amongst the patchwork of houses, roads, and trees were the diamonds. First, second, third, and home that is. If the requirement for a town is to have a baseball field, then we probably passed fifty different locales during the week. It's clear that this is baseball country, and the Red Sox Nation plays no small part in that. It was refreshing to drive past so many little league and softball games right in the center of town, realizing that the national pastime was vibrantly alive and well in this corner of America.

Boston was a lot of fun, kids. Even though I compressed my touring into a day-and-a-half and was on my own during that time, I still feel as though I managed to get a good look glimpse into the soul of the city. And if you can do that by walking through the streets, then call me an honorary Bostonian, because I tread from Fenway to Boston Common to the Harbor, up to the Charlestown Navy Yard to see the USS Constitution, and back through the Freedom Trail to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. From the belly of the T to the top of the Prudential Center, I packed as much as I could during my time there. I shouldn't leave out the class I took, which was very educational, and the catering for which took care of all of my New England food curiosities, from lobster to chowda. I also was exposed to suburban Massachusetts life, with a baseball field in every town and trees everywhere.

Though I'm unpacked and have notes from my trip that I took for the express purpose of blogging, I am focusing on catching up with my Flickr uploads. This week, you'll see the actual flurry of Boston-related write-ups.

I'll leave you tonight with this picture. Oh yes. Indy is back! Even in his 60's, Harrison still looks like he's ready to crack a whip on some Nazi's head. Except this movie will take place in the 50's, and the suddenly omnipresent Shia LeBeouf will be the young guy probably doing most of the stunts. It'll still rock.

Oh, and I finally posted the Guitar Hero pictures Katie was screaming about. Check out Flickr.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Hey, did I mention I'm going to Boston this week for a work-related class?

Well, I am! I'll also be staying an extra day and a half in order to have time to see the sights. My aim is to post my explorations and adventures while on travel, assuming my old laptop can handle the new-fangled hotel Internet connections. If not, I'm sure I'll find a way.

In the meantime, I posted a hundred or so pictures from the May timeframe this weekend, mostly all from one jam-packed weekend of fun. There are more on the way for which some people have been clamoring, but I fear they will have to wait until next weekend.

Good night, chowdaheads!

-First up, Rob Pegoraro's Fast Forward column in the Post this week talks about iTunes' new DRM-free store section (for EMI music), cleverly named iTunes Plus. I mentioned this news before, but I am excited about the potential for the record label pendulum to start swinging in the right direction when it comes to online music. Pegoraro makes two good points: first, this is the most fair offering from a major label yet, so let's not screw it up. Second, if this takes off, EMI will have a clear lead ahead of other labels, who will be scrambling not to lose the digital audiophile crowd even more than they already have.

-Second up, with a Nancy Drew movie coming out, can the Hardy Boys be far behind? Well, according to rumors on IMDB, Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise are talking about becoming the "Hardy Men." Please, no. Get Prince William and Harry to do it before you start making it an explosion-filled, Scientology-fueled action flick.

-We almost did a write-in vote for Josh in this Tuesday's primary election for Fairfax County's Providence District Supervisor, but we were afraid he might actually end up on the ballot. I was in New Jersey regardless, so I missed the vote, but it seems as though incumbent Linda Q. Smyth held on to the office. She didn't blow up the county or anything, so I guess she's doing an okay job.

-Hey Squirrel? You're in trouble. (I know it's not cool to post in-jokes online, but suffice it to say that ever since high school, the Hulkster's been telling wildlife that they're in trouble. At least in my head.)

(Images courtesy of the UK, www.ri.net, and DoD)

Here are a couple of things I learned over the weekend:

1. Paintball can be fun, but it's important to have the right mix of people in your group.

2. If you want to win, it's important to have someone who knows what they're doing, has a better gun, and knows the course inside-and-out. And who has perfect vision and aim. The team with that person will win all the time.

3. If you really don't care and just want to have fun, that's allowed, but you still have to spend money to do it.

An eclectic group of guys and I went paintballing (is that the right verb even?) this past Saturday as a celebration and last hurrah before Brian's upcoming fatherhood. Paintball was quite the craze back in high school, I remember, but I never bothered to go. From what I remember, there were no real rules in the games the people at school played, just free-for-alls in the woods and creeks behind Crum and Fort Gay. People got shot point-blank, and people got hurt.

Now, I'm glad I went this time - it's one more thing I can check off the life list, the weather was nice, and it was an excuse to be outside. My nerves and I quickly realized, however, just how seriously some people take this sport, if the alternating groups of folks in BDUs and nylon supersuits were any indication. I also realize how much money can be poured into it. It really didn't seem like we were out on a field shooting each other for as much time as we paid, though I managed to ration my ammunition pretty well.

My final takeaway from the experience is that I tend to be an impatient player, wanting my paintball matches to be like a Bond game, where everyone is constantly running and dodging. I could've done that, but I would've likely broken my ankle on a stump or rock if I did. I'll take hunkering down in a sand pit or behind a pile of tires if it means not giving myself any more permanent injuries than the few bruises, welts, and scuffed knees I was expecting anyway.

In short, I would do this again if we got more time out in the field for the money. As it stands, I couldn't make it a hobby - I'd rather spend all of that cash on guitars or something.

The past two evenings, I've been transferring my core group of albums to a new Giant CD Binder. This one goes with me on any moderately long car ride. I still don't put a lot of faith in FM iPod transmitters, and my car isn't wired for an MP3 player (I missed that boat by a model year), so I still have to "make do" with those crazy CDs the old people are talking about. I'm just dreading the day when CDs are thought of as obsolete, because I still think there are a number of problems with a completely digital music industry (namely sound quality and backups), but Steve Jobs' recent decision to offer copy-protection-free music on iTunes is a small step in the right direction. I do, however, think that digital-only releases are the future and are a positive for up-and-coming musicians everywhere. Even so, I will still prefer to have a hard copy in the form of a CD for as long as they'll sell them.

Which brings me back to the Giant CD Binder. It's a big deal for me, and I wonder if anyone else has one. I think it's absolutely crucial to have the right mix and amount of albums available for any kind of situation or mood on the road. I follow three simple rules:

1. The latest purchases go up front.
2. Always have the location of my favorite bands memorized for emergency switch-outs.
3. The binder's size and proportion filled must be disproportionately larger than the length of the trip.

Simple!

I've spent the last two days in a self-imposed quarantine brought on by the onset of the worst allergy attack I've had in years, with a case of some form of conjunctivitis thrown in for good measure. This area is slowly breaking down my defenses, one by one! I knew it was a bad place for allergies, but this borders on the absurd.

As my red Hulk eyes have slowly returned to normal thanks to some lovely eyedrops from my new doctor, I've done what I normally try to do in sickbed situations: read, work on my website, and try to decide the best strategy for getting these drops to stay in my eyeball. It's been a silver lining for me, because I've finally taken the time to do these necessary upgrades.

The other silver lining - nay, the platinum lining - in all this is that, as I manually transferred the lost entries, I realized how much I missed writing and blogging in general. I scanned through some of the highest points for Ramble On, some posts that I was really proud of. Sure, I kept up with my Flickr posts fairly regularly over the last few months, but that's not the same (and even that dropped off here lately). I think it was a snowball effect that kept me away: first it was the usual suspects in grad school, database errors, and travel. Before I knew it, I was making excuses not to post until I had time to fix everything, and as you might have guessed, that time did not come.

Subconsciously, though, I was making another realization: I just wasn't happy with the quality of what I was able to post. When I didn't even feel like really commenting on the tragedy that was April 16, I knew something was amiss. As many of my friends and colleagues demonstrated, writing can be a form of healing. I suppose that after so many "I promise I'll post more" posts and high-level recaps that never get fleshed out, a blog gets stale, and nothing will kill it quicker.

Well friends, I will not make a promise I cannot keep about posting frequency, but I will say that I have re-discovered how much this outlet means to me. It's good to be back.

I love it when a plan comes together! With virtually no hiccups, I have Ramble On's new home set up. Now, you'll notice that the site currently has nothing post-December 2005 on it, but that's due to a database corruption. The data and entries themselves are not lost, but it will be much harder to recover them, so it may be a while before they're back online. For now, do a happy dance that this all worked and Ramble On is slowly coming back to life!

I doubt anyone is going to read this during the timespan under which it will occur, but Project BS will be down for (hopefully just) a few days while I switch webhosts and do some upgrades. My current plan is to bring it back up the way it was so the site won't be down for too long, then do all the little upgrades I've been thinking about, because it should be much easier to do that where the site will be going. Wish me luck! This is sort've like that scene in Jurassic Park where they have to turn off everything to reset the security system, and they're not sure it's going to work, and then Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten by a raptor. I hope that doesn't happen here.