30 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 30 June 2008


The picture of the line of port-a-johns didn't come out as well as I thought – see it on flickr – so you get a touristy shot. All of the pictures were taken right after a rain storm I walked through and before the Dips alumni softball game, which took place in the shadow of the Washington Monument. We blew a big lead, came back to tie it in the bottom of the seventh (game is seven innings), only to lose it in the eighth. Ouch. My third sporting event in three days is tomorrow – soccer, softball, and softball.

I hope I don't have to run home through a thunderstorm tomorrow night. This daily humidity rain is getting very old.


_John

29 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 29 June 2008


Exhausting day with a tough soccer match under the unrelenting sun. A long nap ensued after getting home and it was still way too hot to go out for a stroll for an outdoor picture. The evening light in my apartment was interesting, so what you see is what you get today. Flickr has been updated with yesterday's pictures including the map.


_John

28 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 28 June 2008


Early morning errands and road trip to get some high quality Q led to a long, but completely fulfilling day. Plenty of pictures on flickr tomorrow.


_John

27 June 2008

Thoughts before bed


Today was the run-off election for president in Zimbabwe, and tomorrow the results will be released. Wonder who is going to win? And just in time to make a difference the African Union is holding a special session focusing on Zimbabwe on...wait for it...Monday. Not much they can do after the election since economic pressures really can't do anything because Zimbabwe's economy is already ruined, and it is too late to put peace keeping troops in place to make sure the election is fair and legitimate. Here's to failed states. I will try to find the reaction of Bush, Obama, and McCain, as well as Mandela and other notable heads of state concerning the election results tomorrow.


I watched and listened to majority of David Addington and John Yoo giving testimony on the Hill yesterday. Crazy stuff from, let's face it, people with crazy ideas about law and the U.S. Constitution. The best headline that I read is from Andrew Sullivan, who quotes from Dana Milbank's piece in the Post. Both are short and very much worth a read if you want a thumbnail sketch of how the Bush administration came up with legal justifications for torture and other seemingly mind numbing Executive branch legal dictates. Good quote from Addington's testimony here.


Oh and keep an eye on the goings on with the salmonella outbreak. With more people getting ill, the CDC ain't so sure it's the tomatoes that are doing it. LA Times has the latest on the story.

Sweet dreams.


_John


images: Addington and Yoo by Melina Mara – The Washington Post; tomatoes from flickr Oz Baby

Picture of the Day -- 27 June 2008


Ahh...more weather. There were a few good shots today, so don't forget to head over the flickr and let me know I am an idiot and made a bad choice. And I updated my flickr map, so you can see where I took the majority of my pictures.


_John

Today's mental break


howispentmystimulus.com is an interesting group-sourcing site on what people did with their stimulus check. As you can imagine some of these will make you want to spike your coffee. Judging by the stock market yesterday, I am not sure how well these checks are stimulating the economy. How hasn't supply-side economics been completely discredited by now?


_John

image from flickr The Adventures of Kristin & Adam

Picture of the Day -- 26 June 2008


It wasn't as dark as it seems before the Dips alumni game on the Mall – white balance was a mess again. Dips win! Dips win! It was our second win of the season (we are 2-don't ask). We had a good night out on the town after the win. We have games on Monday and Tuesday next week, and I have a soccer game on Sunday. I have the ice packs in the freezer and the ibuprofen at the ready.


_John

26 June 2008

Happiness is a warm gun


Time for the dc militia to arm themselves to the teeth and to let the bullets fly.

Thanks Scalia, and god bless the 2nd Amendment. Glad that District of Columbia v. Heller could clear things up.

More as it comes out later today.


_John

image from flickr Fluff on the lens

25 June 2008

And you will know me by the trail of...


...photos that didn't turn out to be Photos of the Day. I decided to upload all of the ones that I took on each day to a flickr account. (Why didn't google buy them, so this could all be easier?)

Behold & enjoy.

web address is [http://www.flickr.com/photos/athreadbearlife/] for those of you like manually typing in URLs instead of clicking a link.

Feel free to let me know if you thought I made a bad choice on a given day. The names of the photos on the flickr site are the date they were taken and the order – designated by the letter (a-z). (ex. 20080625a is June 25, 2008 and it was the first in order.) The Photos of the Day do not have a letter designation.

Yes, I don't like taking pictures of people. Never really have.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 25 June 2008


Daisy in del ray.


_John

24 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 24 June 2008



National Portrait Gallery. Go visit, you won't be disappointed.


_John

HOT laughs



The road construction plans in the dc metro area either make me want to hide my head in shame or make me laugh in a "you have to be shitting me" kind of way. This is the latter.

Read, and try to not feel too bad for those poor NIMBY fairfax county residents.

Now explain to me again why it is such a fight to expand metro rail?

In other road news. I dig what Philly is doing to curb speeding. More here, if you are interested in optical illusions as a way of effecting driving habits.


_John

23 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 23 June 2008




Picture fest today. I had a soccer game on the mall (polo fields) and walked down from foggy bottom. A few lines of showers were moving through, but not enough local rain and lightning to halt the game. The sky was amazing before and after the game in completely different ways. The pictures are looking down the walk to the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument bracketed with a double rainbow. They are all color pictures, the only edit I made before posting wasto photoshop out a piece of an ugly fence in bottom left corner of the last photo. Otherwise I have not cropped, touched, or changed the color or contrast of the photos. Sometimes the cellphone camera amazes me with whatever it decide for white contrast. Enjoy. (We lost the game by the way. I scored our lone goal for what it's worth.)


_John

22 June 2008

Picture of the day -- 22 June 2008


Rosslyn metro station. Unexpectedly a lot of weird people here beyond the tourists.


_John

Democracy in inaction


Glad our president is supporting democracy around the world. Tsvangirai announced today that he is out and Mugabe will completely destroy his country. I really think 29% support for Bush and his actions around the world is very generous, and because South Africa's years of inaction/tacit support, Mbeki is going to have nightmare on his hands very soon.

Update: Dubya decided that he shouldn't talk about Zimbabew on his weekly radio address. The White House did, however, have a statement delivered by Assistant Press Secretary Carlton Carroll – democracy on Sundays doesn't even rate the Press Secretary's attention I guess. Money quote:

"The government of Zimbabwe and its thugs must stop the violence now," said Carroll. "All parties should be able to participate in a legitimate election and not be subject to the intimidation and unlawful actions of the government, armed militias and so-called war veterans."


Powerful words indeed. Maybe that'll show Mugabe we mean business this time. Looks like the U.S. isn't even going to make a half-hearted attempt to stop Mugabe's "thug life" anytime soon. Behold the Bush Doctrine's spread of democracy around the world.

Later Update: Andrew Sullivan has some links to pictures from Mugabe's peaceful democracy. Do not even bother to look at the pictures if you are eating or have just eaten.


_John

21 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 21 June 2008


It was a beautiful morning and the cell phone camera was well...a cell phone camera. Top notch quality today. If you look closely enough you can see Congress between the sailboat and channel marker.


_John

20 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 20 June 2008


A nice way to start the weekend.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 19 June 2008



Late again. Long day at work and then a function afterward that was long, boring, and without food. Got home and had to eat, then realized that I didn't take a picture of the day – the inside of my office, really? I do, however, have two pictures taken after the June 18 Picture of the Day post when we had a pop-up thunderstorm with the sun still shining. An oddity more than a rarity for the summer in the dc region. Enjoy two and note the man with the umbrella still out and in use in the bottom photo.


_John

18 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 18 June 2008


Our National Archive. On my sojourn today my cell phone battery was too low to take a picture, so here is one I took yesterday.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 17 June 2008


On the corner of Pennsylvania and 17th Street, NW. Placement of the sign seems oddly appropriate because of its proximity to the head honcho at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Building.


_John

16 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 16 June 2008


Another early summer thunderstorm that again took out my power.


_John

15 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 15 June 2008


Happy Father's Day. The weather and light here could not have been better.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 14 June 2008


The weather was not kind to taking pictures, just kind of hazy before the rain. I ended up walking around foggy bottom for the majority of the rain. A bit of bad timing, but the rain was not much heavier than a drizzle.


_John

13 June 2008

Pictures of the Day -- 13 June 2008




Two to get the weekend off to a start.


_John

Picture of the Day -- 12 June 2008


Sorry for the delay, last night was crazy (and not in a good way). I was hoping to snap this Anacostia waterfront picture with a bit more sunlight. Didn't happen.


_John

12 June 2008

10 June 2008

Picture of the Day -- 10 June 2008


I should have taken one earlier, but with the rain seemingly imminent I made haste to the metro and then from the metro to my house. So this one is from that storm at my front door. The lightning was bright and often, but it is a cell phone camera and I needed additional light to keep it from becoming a blurry mess. The odd striping in the foreground is due to the screen on my door.


_John

I'm back

After a long tough year with many personal changes, I have decided to return to blogging once more. Not sure yet what I am going to post as to content, but for now I am going to try to post a daily picture from my cell phone camera with everything else as a bonus.