Posted by Jon Renaut
Wed, 23 May 2007 03:02:00 GMT
I mentioned a book I'm reading earlier. I said I was "looking forward to reading [the book] and understanding a little more about [Islam] and the culture behind it". Sounds like a good idea, right? Islam has gotten a pretty bad rap lately because of a small but difficult-to-ignore minority, and I feel like I know nothing about the religion and the culture.
Well, it turns out I picked the wrong book. I mean, Robert Payne's "The History of Islam" is an interesting read. But the guy makes absolutely no distinction between "This is an event which many historians agree actually happened" and "This is a conversation Muhammad had with the angel Gabriel". None. Both are presented as fact.
The first time I really got the feeling that Robert Payne was a little wacko was page 32.
Soon there came another revelation: it was right and proper for the faithful to kill the infidels.
What? Kill the infidels? There is absolutely nothing in this book between "There is one God, and Muhammad is spreading his word" and "The faithful should kill the infidels". I'm just not buying that. No one in their right mind looks at that and thinks, "Yeah, that's cool."
Later on, in the chapter on the Caliphs of Damascus, he tells of Sulayman, a guy who loved to eat. Maybe a little too much.
He posessed, like many enormously fat people, a steady driving intelligence.
Okay, that's it. I'm going to finish this book, but I'm going to read it as what it is - a work of historical fiction. I still need a book on Islam. The real Islam. Real information on the history of the religion and the culture, not these fairy tales about decapitations and visions of angels.
Posted in Life, Religion | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Sun, 20 May 2007 23:34:00 GMT
Capital One may have saved themselves. I called on Friday to find out if they had started the process of sending my title. The first person I spoke to didn't know much, but eventually I was transferred to a woman in the titling department. Seems to make sense, since I was, in fact, calling about my title.
She gave me the usual, "Oh, it's going to take three weeks" speech that I've heard before. But then she asked if I'd like a request for temporary registration or something like that. I've forgotten exactly what she said, but I have it written down at work. She told me they could send that out in 72 hours, and that would let me get some sort of temporary registration so I don't get ticketed.
Now, I'm not sure why no one told me this the first time I called. Well, the first time I called they thought they'd send the actual title in 72 hours, so maybe that's why they didn't share this option. But certainly the person I talked to last week could have offered this. And it remains to be seen whether the DMV will accept this. It was already 3:30 PM when I found this out, and I figured that the DMV phone line would be hopeless at that hour on a Friday. But first thing Monday I'm going to find out if this will help me. If so, Capital One may safely reach base this time, but not without a stern look from the manager.
Posted in Life, Cars, Parking | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Thu, 17 May 2007 21:56:00 GMT
A comment on this post, wondering how I liked our Vector security system, reminded me that I said I'd update everyone with a review after we'd had it for a bit. I suspect the guy who left the comment works for Vector, but that's okay. He didn't try and flood my site with spam or anything, so I think the comment is acceptable.
Anyway, we have no complaints. We haven't asked much of the system, and we haven't had an alarm, but the system has never done anything it wasn't supposed to do, nothing has broken, nothing has malfunctioned. I suppose the real test is what happens if someone tries to break in, or if we accidentally set off the alarm. Luckily, neither of those things have happened.
So, after almost two months, I would still recommend Vector Security. I'd recommend them even more if they got around to sending us our referral bonus since some of our upstairs neighbors signed up on our recommendation.
Posted in Life, Safety | 2 comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Thu, 17 May 2007 12:09:00 GMT
It appears my brother-in-law (one of them, anyway) is back in Mexico City. You can tell this because he's blogging again. He goes down there to study atmospheric chemistry, but spends all his time talking about Mexican facial hair.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean, I'm not sure I'd read his blog if it were primarily about atmospheric chemistry. Not because I don't think it's important, but because I know nothing about it. Complaining about the DMV is really more my speed. And something I am intimately familiar with.
Although, whenever I talk to people with post-graduate degrees (Which my wife's family has about a million of) I start thinking I should go back to school. I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of sense for me, though. I have a B.A. in math, and all my professors always encouraged us to go on to grad school. But while I enjoy learning, I was never a particularly good student. I did well here and there when I really got into a class or two, but I was never the type to do those things that you need to do to succeed in school, like my homework. I got away with it for a while. My ninth-grade Spanish teacher graded us 1/4 each on homework, participation, tests, and quizzes. My test and quiz average was about 98% (It may have been higher - I think she gave a lot of extra credit, and I knew the Spanish pretty well), and my homework and participation average was about 40%, so she gave me C's. She even kept me after class once to give me a speech to the effect of, "You know the Spanish. If you would put forth even a minimum effort to actually do the work assigned, you'd be getting A's." It didn't work.
So, I generally ignore the urges to go to grad school, and they go away. Maybe I'll go get a PHD in something weird when I retire. I think that would be fun. I would definitely call my professors "Sonny" and refer to my classmates as "whippersnappers".
Posted in Life | 1 comment
Posted by Jon Renaut
Thu, 10 May 2007 00:58:00 GMT
I don't like to throw away food. I mean, who does? But sometimes you're left with some kind of random stuff in the fridge, and you don't feel like going to the store, but you really would like some dinner. What do you do?
Well, if you're me, today, you order pizza.
Actually, I'm just kidding. What you'd do, if you were me this evening, is go to Hi Market and buy a six-pack of Sierra Nevada, two Vitamin Water XXX's (Because you've never seen that flavor - it's all rich in antioxidants and stuff), and some corn tortillas. Then you come home and wait for your wife to get home from happy hour. Late, as usual. And her cell phone died over the weekend, and you haven't replaced it yet, so she couldn't let you know. It's okay, though. You just naturally assumed that she'd be late, and it didn't bother you that much.
Next, you take the leftover onions and green pepper from making veggie burgers the other night. You saute them in some organic canola oil because you just ran out of organic olive oil over the weekend. Then you add some Quorn fake chicken, the spicy black bean salsa you made last week to serve with fish, and serve in the tortillas with some rice.
Your wife might then have to add the tail ends of two bottles of store-bought salsa and a bottle of picante sauce because it's a little dry, but luckily that's not enough to give her credit for cooking, so she still has to clean up.
You might later have to do some work, because you've been spending a lot of the work day checking your site traffic after not one but two links from Wonkette this week (A slow week, you guess. You swear you're not paying anyone on staff there. Really.).
Anyway, that's what you'd do if you were me.
Posted in Life, Food | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Mon, 07 May 2007 11:52:00 GMT
The Metro was empty this morning. Is there some holiday I don't know about?
It still amazes me how different a city neighborhood is from a suburb neighborhood. I lived in my condo in Falls Church, VA, for two years. The only neighbor I spoke to more than once was the guy two doors down who signed for my vaccuum cleaner, and the women one floor down because the seal on my toilet broke and started leaking into their ceiling.
Now, I've been in the city for about two months. I've met a few of the people next door. Someone who lives down the street contacted me through Flickr to welcome me to the neighborhood. And I know everyone in my building, although that's partly because of the condo association meetings.
I find myself feeling very smug about moving into the city. Walking to the neighborhood market, hopping on the bus to meet the wife for happy hour, listening to people talk through the open screen to the cat sitting in the windowsill . . .
In any event, I'm very happy with our decision to move. I'm glad we decided that we couldn't afford anything we liked in Ballston and Clarendon.
I realize that this is a little rambling, and I'm not sure I ever really had a point. Maybe I'm just confused because it's Monday morning and I'm not actually in a terrible mood. There's probably a full moon or something tomorrow.
Posted in Life, Community, Getting around | 2 comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Wed, 02 May 2007 19:30:00 GMT
I've heard many, many horror stories about the DC DMV. In fact, I've heard nothing good about it. So imagine my surprise when I got to the DMV on M St SW this morning, just as they opened, and got my brand new DC driver's license in about a half an hour.
The metal detectors at the door were a little unexpected, but the rest of the experience was totally pleasant. The staff was, without exception, pleasant and efficient. I have had equivalently nice DMV experiences in Maryland and Virginia, but never better than what I had this morning.
So, kudos to you, M St SW DMV. You exceeded all my expectations this morning, and I appreciate it.
The real test will be when I get back from my friends' wedding this weekend and try to get my car registered in DC. I'll be at the Georgetown DMV for that one, because I've heard it's the nicest. I'll report back after that experience.
Posted in Life, Cars, DC government | 3 comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:32:00 GMT
Washington Post: Eastern Market: What We've Lost
It's all over the news, so you've likely heard, but Eastern Market burned down last night. I'm very glad that I finally made it out there for the first time a few weeks ago. I don't think I could hope to retain my DC resident status, parking tickets notwithstanding, if I had never been to Eastern Market.
My fear now is that it won't be rebuilt without some kind of "anchor store", like a chain grocery or a Starbucks. That would certainly ruin some of the feel of the market. I can't claim to be a regular visitor, or claim any nostalgia at the market being part of my life, so it's hard for me to talk about the feel of the market. But even my one visit was nice, and I can't imagine it being reborn as something like Dean and Delucca in Georgetown.
Posted in Life, Community, Shopping, Things to do | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:36:00 GMT
My grandmother died last night. She had not been well for a while, and they couldn't really figure out what was wrong.
I think she was ready to go. She had been in a rehabilitation center for a while, and then staying with my dad. She hasn't been able to walk for months, and she wasn't responding in any long-term sense to the treatment.
I last saw her the weekend before last. She didn't really want company, but I went anyway, and I'm glad I did. Our last conversation wasn't very good. She was upset, and wasn't terribly pleasant. I'm sad that the last time we talked ended with her upset with me, but I know she didn't really mean it. We've always had a good relationship. I used to spend the night with her and my grandfather when I was very little. She loves to tell the story of how I asked for toasted cheese one night for dinner. She cooked me a grilled cheese. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but in our house when I was little, "toasted cheese" was really just a piece of bread with sliced cheese stuck in the toaster oven until the cheese melted and the bread browned a little bit. I'm not sure I'd ever had a grilled cheese at that point, and there was NO WAY I was eating it. I was a pretty picky eater until sometime in high school. My grandfather apparently made me sit in my chair for quite some time, staring at the grilled cheese.
"You asked your grandmother for this, and now you're going to eat it." He said.
"No." I said. Allegedly. I was probably three years old. I deny this ever happened. I certainly don't remember it.
I out-waited him, though. She never told me how the story ended, except that I never did eat the grilled cheese. It's too bad - I probably would have liked it.
In college, I lived about 20 minutes from her, and I used to take her to the grocery store a few times a month. She never drove, and my grandfather died in 1986. Kind of amazing that she lived in the suburbs of Baltimore for 20 years without a driver in the house.
Anyway, I knew exactly where everything she ever bought was in the Pikesville Giant. She would always buy me a sandwich for lunch, and serve something for dessert. Often it was Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. Occasionally it was something she made. She was a great cook, and her specialty was old-fashioned New England desserts. Her Christmas cookies were fantastic, too, but I think that may be partly nostalgia.
So, my recommendation to all of you is to go and spend time with the people you care about. Some of them may be difficult sometimes, as I know my grandmother could be. But it's funny how quickly you can forget the little difficulties.
Posted in Life | 2 comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:40:00 GMT
Washingtonpost.com: High School Senior Killed in Northwest
An 18-year-old kid who lives on my street was shot about three blocks from my house late Saturday night. Maybe it was gang-related, but they don't seem to have much in the way of details.
When we moved into the city, some people thought we were crazy. Why would we move from the nice, safe suburbs into the scary, busy city? People wondered about Columbia Heights, too. It's not the most dangerous place in the city, but it's also not Georgetown (Thankfully. I don't want to live in Georgetown. It's a nice place to go shopping if you have too much money on your hands, but I don't like the feel of the area. Not quite sure why.). But this is the first major crime I'm aware of in the area since we moved.
I have not yet felt unsafe at any time in Columbia Heights. Sure, I've passed some people talking loudly to themselves, and I've been asked for money. But I've never had to cross the street because I felt threatened or anything like that.
We were out at a bar on P St Saturday night, and we were just walking home shortly before this happened. I guess that makes this a bigger deal. I've probably scared my mom and my mother-in-law by now. But I've talked to my wife, and we think we're going to be more inclined to take a cab home if we're out late. I still don't feel unsafe, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful.
Posted in Life, Safety, Community | 6 comments
