Hey, Happy Independence Day to me and all my fellow Americans!



Wikipedia has a cool article about the day.

I'm spending my holiday by: sleeping in late, hanging out at Starbucks playing on the internets, studying for a test that I should have taken a week ago, and then watching Independence Day (the one where Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and an old school Mac Powerbook save us from the aliens). So, pretty much a perfect day.

Except for the studying part... yeah. So basically remember that English class? It was technically for the Spring semester, but it was an online class and thus had a different timetable. It started March 2 and ended June 29. Except that I got bronchitis a couple weeks ago, and then I was in the hospital, etc etc so I still haven't finished the class yet. But I emailed my professor, and it should be cool. I turned in (that is, emailed) my final paper today and plan on taking the final exam on Tuesday, my next day off.

So basically I need to figure out the gist of An Essay on Man and review all the past 3 months of stuff I read & studied about, and take the test, and I'm good. Wish me luck!

Random: one of the things I love about living in Reston, Virginia is that it's very liberal. At least, it's very eco-friendly. This is like, the land of a thousand Prius's. I'm looking outside at the parking lot right now, and I see 3 Prius's and one of those little tiny cars that almost look like golf carts. You know what I'm talking about, those teeny little things that basically have room for the driver, 1 passenger, and like, 2 bags of groceries. I see those cars around Reston all the time. It's awesome.

Of course one of the reasons we have so many Prius's in Virginia is that this state used to let people with hybrids drive in the HOV lane without passengers, but the General Assembly stopped that shit years ago. I can thus only conclude that the reason there are so many Prius's here is because WE ARE AWESOME.

Go DC!

An overwhelming majority on the D.C. Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, sending the District deeper into the national debate and galvanizing supporters on both sides of the issue.

The measure, approved by a vote 12 to 1, now goes to Mayor Arian M. Fenty (D), a supporter of gay marriage.

Fucking Marion Barry voted against it:

Before the final vote, Barry noted he has been a longtime supporter of gay rights but said he decided to stand with the "ministers who stand on the moral compass of God."

"It has been a very agonizing and difficult decision," Barry said. He then added, "I feel comfortable with this position because I know where my heart is. . . . I am representing my constituents. I have thought about it lot and I have been a friend of [the gay] community and will continue to be a friend of this community."

Riiiiiiight. But seriously, can't we get rid of this dude, who just a couple weeks ago got dragged into court for not paying his taxes?

They're actually gonna ban smoking in bars & resturants in Virginia!!! Hallelujah! I never thought this day would come. I have several friends who are gonna be eating crow over this, because they've always said Virginia would never ban smoking in resturants because we're a tobacco state. Which, we still are - whatever the Phillip Morris company is called now (Altria?) is headquartered down in Richmond, our state capitol. But even with that, the anti-smoking tide is finally washing over VA. Awesome.

I remember when the NYC smoking ban first went into effect several years ago, and people said it would be like, the end of going to bars. Instead business picked up, didn't it? It's so much more enjoyable to eat and drink and socialize in places that aren't covered by a dense cloud of poison.

Totally weird, but I had another random smoking dream last night. One of those dreams where I kept puffing on the cigarette but I couldn't get any smoke from it. I'm sure that's representative of something deep and meaningful, but I'm not sure what it is.

++ The McDonald's closest to my house now has free Wi-Fi! AWESOME. What's especially great about this is that starting in July, I'm taking a class at the Reston Center of my school - they have 6 full-size campuses and 2 "centers" which are basically rented out office buildings where they have classrooms - which is only a 30 minute walk from my house. Yes, WALK - not only am I saving the monster 2 hour, 3-buses-and-a-train commute to my regular campus, but I'm getting my exercise in too! Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yeah, so this McDonald's is literally right across the street from the Reston Center. So I can walk to class in the mornings, go to class, and then stop by McDonald's afterwards for lunch and to check my email! SCORE.

++ The only bad part about this brilliant plan is that it involves the evils of McDonald's. You have no idea how much I love their french fries and apple pies. Hello, diet killers. Luckily, there's a couple things on the menu that I can eat - today I had a diet coke and the Asian salad with grilled chicken, which according to their website is just 300 calories (plus 45 calories for the half packet of sesame ginger dressing I put on it). The only thing that really bugs me is that eating healthier at McDonald's is totally more expensive - it was like $6.50 for the salad and diet coke, while getting a regular crispy chicken value meal (which I would get when I'm not trying to eat healthier) is less than $5. That's lame.

++ Thanks to everyone for leaving me useful tips and hints about flying on my last post. My flist is most helpful and resourceful. I think I'm gonna aim to get there 2 hours before my flight, because better safe than sorry. I'm planning on bringing several books and my iPod along, so hopefully I won't get too bored. Also, I'm planning on just napping the night before, since I'm gonna have to get up at 3:00am and all, and hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the plane. If not, that's why God invented Red Bull.

++ I don't know how I missed this, but my flight is actually *not* nonstop to Chicago, but has a 2 hour layover in Detroit. I knew it was too good to be true. Oh well, I don't mind, considering how cheap I'm getting this flight for.

++ It's only like 87 degrees right now, which is heaven compared to how it's been lately - in the upper 90's and even breaking 100 a couple times. Humid as fuck too. I am really not meant for this kind of weather. I think I was a Viking or something in a past life, because the heat kills me. You'd think since I've lived in the DC area for most of my life that I'd be used to the heat and humidity by now, but I'm totally not. Every summer I'm miserable. The only thing I really like about it is that the days are longer. I love having more daylight.

++ Okay, I've finished eating and McDonald's is getting their lunch rush, so I better stop hogging this table and go. I'll talk to you guys later!

Hey, the Redskins won a game! By like, a whole bunch - 34-3. I'm not a big sports person, but it always makes me feel all warm & fuzzy when the Redskins win, because everyone in DC is just a little bit nicer to each other the next day.

In other news, could the tech-savvy people look at this laptop that I'm thinking of buying? It's an HP with 160 gig hard drive and 1 gig of memory (which, I'd perfer 2 gigs, but for this price...) and it's on sale for $549.99. It's also got a something called a AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Processor instead of Intel Pentium, which kind of worries me... what's the difference?

If I buy it I'm gonna probably buy it this week, so any advice would be much appreciated.

Thoughts on the Virginia Tech Massacre: ( Cut because I know you've got tragedy burnout )

Political thoughts I've been saving up (because I don't have liberalrage anymore): ( Look away, conservatives )

And now I'm off to watch American Idol in the vain hope that Sanjaya will finally be voted off.

is this horrible school shooting at Virginia Tech in which 33 people were killed and 24 were injured. Blacksburg is just a couple hours from here; several people I knew went to that school years ago. Thank god no one I know goes there currently.

I was at work when this happened... me and my coworkers were sitting in the breakroom watching the local news coverage and just going "OH MY GOD" in shock. The very first thing that came to my mind was that the anniversary of Columbine is in just a couple days, and what is it with school shootings and April?

Maybe I'll have some more insightful commentary about this tragedy later, but right now I just want to curl into a ball and hate the world.

++ It's snowing, and as phillyexpat pointed out, DC is going crazy. I think it's compounded this time because this winter has been so mild, people are like OMGWTF SNOW WHAT IS THAT?!? after weeks of 70 degrees weather.

++ You know, those 100 Calorie Packs are a good idea in theory, but when you're like me, they totally backfire. I just ate 4 of them in a row! Now, an apple is about 100 calories too (I think?) and I sure wouldn't eat 4 apples in a row.

++ Last night I saw Final Destination 3, which is quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It was so bad, it wasn't even bad in a funny kind of way, which I was hoping. GAH, I want those 2 hours of my life back.

++ OTOH, this new Fall Out Boy cd is fucking AWESOME, y'all. Seriously, I think it's their best one yet. Even if you're not a FOB fan, you should give this one a chance. I have it uploaded to lunatunes here, but if you're not on that community, just lemme know and I'll upload it here too.

Linkspam:

++ What happens to your body when you drink a coke? "Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? It’s because it gets you high. They took the cocaine out almost a hundred years ago. You know why? It was redundant."

++ Surf safely from work with WorkFriendly.net. Makes any web page look like an MS Word document!

++ PC World lists the 25 worst tech products of all time. AOL is #1. Heh.

++ Liberal blog Daily Kos has compiled a list of public-domain image links, but don't worry conservatives, there's nothing political in this one post. :)

++ citibyrd has compiled a "Worst of" Jensen picspam. Ahahahaha! Good times, y'all.

++ elke_tanzer has a neat meta poll on del.icio.us up at her journal. Also, hey, if I don't have your del.icio.us name, lemme know and I'll add you to my network!

So today I went out to Skyline Drive with my godmother to do the dorky Leafer tourist thing. It wasn't really a great day to do it, what with the overcast sky and fog all morning, but this was the only day both of us had free for the next couple weeks, so we sucked it up. Actually though, it turned out to be a great trip, and it wasn't crowded or anything, so that was a plus.

( Couple pics of the day trip )

Oooooh, one really cool thing that happened? We saw a black bear. I'm not even ashamed to admit, the first thing that came to my mind was OMG SOULLESS RAMPAGING KILLING MACHINE!11!! Hee. No, but it was totally gentle and just stared at us blankly. Thank goodness!

DC's beloved panda Tai Shan turns 1 year old today. *boggles*



AWWWW!!!! ( 2 more pics )

Next year, he has to go to China, because even though he was born here, he's really just a loner panda. So not fair!

I'm so fucking sick of this torrential rain & thunderstorms. It's like a storm of Biblical proportions here! The power has gone out 3 times today, my phone service died for an hour, and the yard outside looks like a flooded swamp. At least it stopped with the cats & dogs rain - now it's only raining, like, kittens and puppies. Shuddup, I'm too tired to come up with clever metaphors tonight.

I should probably stop complaining, or else the power will go out again, and I'm really not in the mood. Grrr.

So how are the other DC/Mid-Atlantic people on my flist faring?

This is so fucking true.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The dark suit is impeccable, the hair conservatively cut, the shoes a refined statement of solidity. But the outfit isn't complete for a Washington insider without an identity tag or two -- or more.

While some know this city as "the capital of the free world," its denizens recognize it as Tagtown.

Virtually everyone in downtown Washington wears some kind of credential during working hours. For some, it may be a simple pass that unlocks a garage or an office security door. But for those who work with the sprawling U.S. federal bureaucracy, it is literally a badge of honor.

There are tags for Congress, the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Treasury, the Justice Department, the Supreme Court, individual trials, museum openings and even some news conferences.

And instead of taking off the tags when the workday is done, as people elsewhere might do, Washingtonians tend to keep them on, especially if they hint at a close relationship to power.

Anthropologist Edward Smith recalls that when he worked as a White House speechwriter, there was a rule against wearing the White House tag after work. He also recalled it was widely flouted.

The willingness to be labeled fits with the Washington mindset, said Smith, a professor at American University and a third-generation Washingtonian.

"People wear these things as if they were bars on their uniform," Smith said. "I think that some people, particularly young people, want that extra patina of prestige. In Washington, you are much more recognized as a position than as a personality."

I had to laugh at this, because I LOVE MY TAGS LEIK WOAH. Every job I've had that required me to wear a lanyard, I wore my tag with pride. I remember my very first tag (cue sappy music) when I was 19, working as data entry drone at SAIC (a federal contractor). My picture was horrible - eyes were half closed, name misspelled, etc - but I wore it for like, 5 hours after I got off work that first week. It was kind of sad, actually.

I had a blast today with bailunrui and her brother, even though an exhibit I was looking forward to was closed - and even though they had to leave early because her brother wasn't feeling well. (Poor baby! Hope he's feeling better now.)

Here's a couple pics of our unfortunately truncated day... ( Click! You know you wanna! )

Hey, DC peeps? If anyone is interested, me & bailunrui are meeting up with her brother this weekend to bid adieu to the American History Museum before it closes for repairs in September. It's going to be totally fun - me and Lauren are masters of geeky tourism, for serious.



After that, I'm not sure how long we're going to be downtown, but if anyone wants to avoid the musuems but see me (because I'm totally adorable like that!) we could always meet up for lunch/drinks.

Anyways, yeah. Comment here, email me - lunalore[at]gmail.com - or shoot me an AIM, etc.

::so excited omg::

I just went out walking in my neighborhood, and reinforced four important things:

1. I really do love Reston. It's just such a beautiful little slice of a region that has become overpopulated, overdeveloped and over-urbanized.

2. I especially love this neighborhood I moved to in December. It may be a ten minute walk to the nearest bus stop, but there are so many gorgeous trees and walking paths that on days like this, I cherish having to walk farther.

3. I love springtime. Even though I'm a bit sniffly and congested, the flowers and blossoming trees make up for it.

4. I need to walk & exercise more often, for real. I get such a great rush of endorphins from even a little exercise - I can only imagine what I'd get from doing this every day or more. Stupid laziness!

---

Look, Disney is winning the poll! ::is pleased:: If you're hoping for another music post, don't worry - I'm probably going to do the other themes another week. :)

I got interviewed by zarq!

1. How in the world do you keep up with the folks on your flist? Any secrets you'd like to share?
It's all about the filters, baby. I have my primary filters - Communities, Music communities/feeds, people only, etc. Then I have it further divided into political blog feeds, general interest blog feeds (like Lifehacker & Gothamist). Then I have the people only filter divided into different groups depending on how often I read them.

It sounds complicated, but it's the only way I've been able to manage past 100 LJ friends.

2. Forgetting party lines for a moment, what do you look for in a political candidate? Are you a single issue voter or does a politician have to fulfill multiple criteria before you'll vote for them?
My most important criteria to vote for anyone these days is simply, do they have a (D) next to their name? If so, then I'm voting for them! No, but other than that? I look for a few main things: sincerity, experience, credibility, and most of all electability. I might support the dark horse candidate in the Primaries (like I am currently with Jim Webb, candidate for VA Senate) but in the end I'm practical and will vote for whomever seems most likely to actually beat the worst of two evils.

3. What is the best thing about living so close to our nation's capital? Worst?
Best thing by far is the diversity - of the people, of the geographic region, and the economy. When I lived in Upstate New York, I knew barely 5 non-white people, but when I moved here, there were 64 languages spoken in my high school. It's awesome. I have a much better perspective of the world than someone in Smalltown USA. My second favorite thing? World famous (and free!) museums, plus history in every direction you look. Third favorite: the economy rocks, especially since the Bush administration is spending like drunken sailors on leave. Bad for America, but good for DC! Heh. Fourth: I never would have become so intensely interested in politics, government and the military if I didn't live here, so that's a bonus.

The most annoying thing would have to say is the traffic. GAH, THE TRAFFIC! Northern Virginia & the DC area has the 3rd worst traffic in the entire nation. Second most annoying thing: Everyone either assumes I live in a boring city of policy wonks (which is kinda true) or I'm in the middle of backwoods, redneck land because I technically live in Virginia. But I really don't - I live in NoVA or the DC area! It's totally different.

4. What books (or tv shows/movies/music) have profoundly changed your life and why?
Oh wow, lots of books have been important to me, but I think the Little House series had the most affect on me. They were the first chaptered books I'd ever read (starting at age 8 & 9) and I remember how they made me really WANT to read more, not just read for the pretty pictures or because I was supposed to. They also set up my life-long fascination with historical psuedo-fiction and biographies. :)

5. What do you do to relax?
Watch silly stuff or DVDs that I don't have to think about, like Robot Chicken, Family Guy or Gilmore Girls. Light girly scented candles. Take unneccesarily long showers and use ridiculously expensive body wash. Doodle in my Moleskine notebook. Surf LJ!

Remember not to do any of these things while visiting NYC in June.

Or, any of these things. Heh.

Oh, and anyone planning on visiting my fair city this tourist season? Don't do any of these things. Please, please please.

::smiles sweetly::

So, the National Museum of American History, my favoritest museum in all of DC, is going to close in September for 2 years for renovation and construction.

This makes Baby Luna very, very sad.

I have to visit Archie Bunker's chair and Julia Child's kitchen one last time, preferably before the really bad crush of tourists arrives in June. Oooh, and I wanna see this exhibit muchly. Who wants to come with me? I was talking to darthrami last night, and we thought the first weekend in May would be perfect - May 6th and 7th, if you don't have a calender handy. That gives us enough time to coordinate, but not too much time that we'll forget.

So, yeah, DC people? Who wants to come be a history dork with me? girlfromsouth, ktnb81, bailunrui, I'm lookin' at y'all especially. :D

"Four Things" meme nabbed from Kottle, with a few tweeks. ( Click! )

In other news...

++ I saw Underworld: Evolution last weekend - gah, it's been that long since I updated?!? - and was pleasantly surprised at how decent it was, considering how often sequels blow. I could have done without some of the gratuitous violence & gore, but the plot was good, and Kate Beckinsale was so fucking hot in that pleather getup. Mmmm, pleather.

++ I rented the Sky High DVD tonight & was again pleasantly surprised. The previews made this movie look like a cheap X-Men ripoff, but it was so much better than that. Now I get why there were a thousand Sky High fics earlier this year!

++ I am vehemently boycotting this Annapolis movie, which was filmed in Philadephia (not Annapolis!) without any cooperation or consultation with the Naval Academy. One of my big pet peeves is when they don't even try to match the scenery to the real location, and from the reviews, this film is littered with inaccuracies. Bleh.

++ Because I'm still on dial-up, I've been using Adblock to get rid of most Blogads and buttons (in addition to the regular ad images I had blocked before)... but now I've also been blocking all LJ icons, because it was taking an ice age for my friends page to load with all the icon images. Also, because a lot of the people in my favorite LJ communities are prone to offensive, totally NSFW icons, and that was just insult to injury. (One person on teh_music had an icon with the Tampax logo, and the caption "Because blood is gushing out of your cunt!". I mean seriously, WTF is that?!? I'm getting too old.) It's weird seeing LJ without the icons, because they're one of those things that really defines LJ for me, but... meh. It's a small sacrifice to be able to actually load a page on this pathetically slow connection.

++ I have nothing to say about this whole Oprah-Frey-lying thing, but this Gawker recap is freaking hilarious.

++ AP talks about the history of celeb sex tapes. Gah, I forgot about Rob Lowe's sex tape with the 16 year old at the Democratic National Convention. *shakes head*

++ Um, I was asleep for this whole WB + UPN = The CW thinger, but I'm sure y'all heard enough about it already.

++ Ooooh, DC Art Calender 2006! I better go before the tourist hoards decend in April. *shudders*

Random Observation: one of my roomies, I'll call her "K", reminds me so much of maggiesox. Like Maggie, K is a huge sports fan - except instead of being obsessed with the Red Sox, K is obsessed with the Washington Redskins. Now, I can understand being obsessed with a sports team, especially a team that's actually pretty good like the Red Sox. But the Redskins, who haven't been good since the early 90's? The Redskins, who actually lost a game THIRTY-SIX TO ZERO earlier this year? Of all the teams to be obsessed with. I know they're our local team, but I just don't get it. Don't even get me started on the team name, which is the most racist and vile in the history of racist & vile American sports team names, and don't even try to tell me it's a nod of respect to Native American bravery & glory because BITCH PLEASE and I should probably shut up before I go into a hissy fit. *deep breath*

I guess everyone needs something to believe in, and sports are kind of our society's modern religion. So whatever.

But it's still kind of eyeroll-y to see K decked out in her head-to-toe Redskins logo clothing (she even has Redskins SOCKS for fucks sake!) all camped out on the couch, waiting for kick off in 2 hours. Silly, silly roommie.

It's especially eyeroll-y for me, because I like the other team we're playing against (The Philly Eagles) a lot better. I have a ton of friends from that the Philly region, so I feel like I should cheer for them out of loyalty, ya know?

ETA: I just found out that Terry Crews, who plays the dad on Everybody Loves Chris, used to be a Redskin player in 1995. Huh!

In other news, Malfoy the Kitty has jumped on my lap and is now MEOWING pathetically for more kitty chow, so I better go. I'm so pussy whipped! (Sorry, couldn't resist. *g*)