Photo by DC Metroblogger

Check out the digital arrival board at Dulles Airport, D Terminal.

Dr Watson was not able to attach to the process and now the arrivals screen is a wack.

When Windows 2000 returns error code 87 and the parameter is incorrert does that mean flights will be delayed?

Maybe Max knows the answer? I know Linux would attach the process right ever time.

To follow up on Mr. Whiteside’s post from the other day regarding stupid things on the road and the government’s reaction. It seems that when the Maryland legislature said they dedicate more time on transportation issues, the voting populous had no idea what they would actually do. Well, it seems the Washington Post has covered one of the more, appealing/apalling extras rednecks and truckers add to their vehicles. But really, do politicians have nothing else better to concentrate on?

Yes, we’re talking about novelty testicles for your trailer hitch. I prefer the old classic lady recline art on the mud flaps, but, obviously, the kind of folks that utilized them wanted to move up from the Ugly Kid Joe/Calvin peeing on said “brand” stickers, and go directly to anthropomorphizing their vehicles. I’ve seen these on just about most vehicles… except for low-riders, which, well…you get the picture. I just wished somebody would add fake hooters to the “headlights” on cars… at least they’d stick with the nickname.

photo courtesy of UUMickey

While this lacks the juvenile joy of last week’s burnt-out sign discovery, it makes up for it by sending exactly the wrong kind of message to your customers. Good find, Mick.

The next time you are approaching Shaw/Howard University Metrorail station, put an ear out for these two WMATA Green Line Rappers.

Lyrical masters, with tongue twisting rhymes set to their own jams, the two wordsmiths are captured by Jkid4 in this video:

Not a rap aficionado, I don’t know if they’re throwing down their own routine, or if its stand-up karaoke, but either way, Metro should sign them up for the coming musician corners in Metro stations.

D.C. Flickrite DottieBoBottie likes taking pictures, lots of pictures and it just so happens this week that she’s been taking plenty of pictures of flowers, more speicifally the bouquets on offer by our lovely street vendor over on 19 and L NW.

People like you and me pass street vendors constantly during the day-to-day, we may even have a few favourites that we frequent but how many of us actually stop and take the time to strike up a conversation with them? Perhaps we stop for a hotdog before dashing to that next meeting but how about stopping for a hot dog and some conversation? Just so happens that Dottie did just that whilst taking pictures of this street vendor’s blooming offerings and the vendor asked Dottie to take his picture.
(more…)

While inebriating ourselves during the DC Metblogs happy hour (more details to be released soon, if not already), we got to recapping some current news regarding our venue of choice, the newly opened Old Dominion Brewhouse at the DC Convention Center. Much fun was to be had and many beverages were consumed (as well as many plot conceived). I was also, with a heavy heart disclosed (as covered recently in the Washington post as well as the DC Beer List) that Old Dominion, one of the original “new brewers” of the D.C. beer Renaissance was sold to Anheuser-Bush and Fordham Brewing in a 49/51 split. What was more unconscionable in the discussion was the news disclosed that the old guard brewers were dismissed (as were many other staff) without as much as severance pay, let alone being kept on to familiarize the new owners with “how things worked” at Old Dominion. Do we want to drink beer (or root beer)`, now, from a company that behaves in such a fashion?

While this may be old news in the brewing community, the acts purported to have happened due the the relatively haphazard take-over of a local institution of brewing in the DC Metro area raises some alarm. Are we to loose such a unique fixture as Old Dominion to the faceless macro brewery conglomerate, known unaffectionably as A-B? Will the known Old Dominion Ale and other local favorites as Tupper’s Hop Pocket Ale go the way of the Do-Do (or at least the way of Foggy Bottom Brewing)? Voice your opinion here, on the possible overthrow of the evil overlords that may possibly erase a tradition in DC that has just celebrated it’s 15th Anniversary of life. Will D.C.’s brewing history start to fade away as many other traditions that are uniquely D.C. as globalization and big-business eat up countless local flavors?

photo courtesy of aron Edwards

I hope Max will forgive me for treading on his usual domain, but when searching for an image on flickr to join my commenting on the gales outside I came across this shot. I expect that with gusts up to fifty mph we may see some shots tomorrow that look more like this, but I loved this shot from Aaron Edwards of a rippling flag around our monument.

A good friend of mine, when visiting DC, is always tickled by the sight of the Capitol dome. To her that’s the quintessential DC image. For me it’s the Washington Monument, and it’s hard for me not to smile when I catch sight of it, however distantly. Is there any one sight that, for you, is the epitome of DC?

Photo by DC Metroblogger

When you are standing in the men’s room of new Old Dominion Brewery in the Convention Center, look up.

Is that loud TV blaring down at you, disrupting your quiet piss point? Then do a Metroblogging moment: pull the power cord.

Urination should be free from commercial interruption corruption.

Even if you have to stand on the urinals to reach the electrical outlet.

Normally it takes idiot homophobia for our government to make me ashamed to live in Virginia, but both the judicial branch and the legislative branch are conspiring to make me frustrated with driving law too. Maybe the two groups can come together to ban homosexuals from driving, call it the Fighting Against Gay Driving In the Exurbs act or something – they like clever names.

On the “your choice of ice storms” front, the judge in my favorite reckless driving case has reduced the reckless jackass’ punishment to, effectively, time served. I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that someone who thinks nothing of endangering the lives of other drivers also thinks little of the laws that govern paying for the things you purchase. When the time came to release her they discovered an open warrant for her arrest since she “was wanted in Hernando, Miss., for “insufficient funds,” or writing bad checks in July 2005.” Here’s hoping she actually paid for the drink she threw.

Over at the legislative end of the short bus, we have lawmakers pushing a bill to put penalties in place for teens who use their cellphones when driving. Through some mechanism that I do not understand, driving while using a cellphone is perfectly legal and okay unless you have an excess of hormones and are going through puberty, in which case it’s dangerous and should be punished. Obviously this is the case, since if it was just a matter of experience the law would instead specify people who have less than two years driving under their belt rather than teens.

Or maybe it’s only dangerous when it’s done by people who are 15, 16 or 17 and therefor not yet old enough to vote out cowardly lawmakers. If driving while using your phone is dangerous – and I am open to being convinced – then it should be banned, period. This kind of thing is just chickenshit posturing at the expense of the one group powerless against you. For shame.

Did anyone else hear that monstrous round of thunder that just tore across the area? I was home doing some writing with Throbbing Gristle’s “Assume Power Focus” blasting on the stereo, totally in the zone, when I hear a sound like the world is coming to an end! I’m sure to the rest of you it sounded like your basic thunder but to me it sounded like TG’s noise had torn a hole in the universe.

Scared the be-jeezus out of me!