passport stamps

19 June, 2009 in as pretty as an airport by Kevin | No comments

My passport expires in about half a year. While I may be using it in November (we’ll see), I’ll probably have a new one by then. Which is ok, since my passport has an absolutely terrible picture of me in it. Maybe the next one will be better.

Anyway, the stamps I’ve collected over 10 years. Whether or not it gets stamped seems to vary randomly, and it’s only ever happened at airports. (Even when traveling by train out of the EU and the Schengen area, it didn’t happen.)

Stamps I have, in order of how they appear in the booklet.

  • 4 July, 2000 - US Immigration, Toronto (TOR). No, really. Old style red square stamp.
  • 31 May, 2002 - EU Immigration, Frankfurt
  • 10 March, 2007 - EU Immigration, Ferihegy (the Budapest international airport)
  • 4 March, 2005 - EU Immigration, Frankfurt
  • 18 March, 2007 - US Immigration, New York City (NYC). New style Dept. of Homeland Security blue oval stamp. Note the EU is specifying airport names, the US is just using some set of city abbreviations.
  • 31 July, 2002 - US Immigration, Pittsburgh (PIT). Old style stamp.
  • 18 March, 2007 - EU emigration, Ferihegy (pretty sure this is the only stamp I have that was done on departure rather than arrival.)
  • 7 March, 2008 - EU Immigration, Roissy (that’s what the EU is calling Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris)
  • 23 June, 2000 - UK Immigration, Heathrow
  • 10 March, 2005 - US Immigration, can’t tell what the city is. Has to be either NYC or WAS. DHS stamp.
  • 16 March, 2008 - US Immigration, Washington (WAS). DHS stamp. Note this was actually in Virginia, at Dulles, but I guess it’s all the same to DHS.
  • 3 July 2000 - Canada Immigration. Can’t tell if it had a city or airport name on it, but it’d be the Toronto airport.

And that’s all.

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my crib’s in a rough spot, right next to the Whole Foods

15 June, 2009 in sic semper tyrannis by Kevin | No comments

this came out last Thursday; I’m fairly sure by Friday evening every single person in northern Virginia had seen it, to the point where it was in the Washington Post on Saturday morning.

so for those not in Nova, this pretty much describes it.

The Arlington Rap:

I should possibly note that my first apartment down here, in Falls Church, was indeed next to the Whole Foods. (Though Falls Church is not Arlington, of course.) Also a Starbucks.

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oh

6 June, 2009 in speech of angels, who's on first? by Kevin | No comments

the last thing I wrote was that Jonathan Van Every thing? May went by quickly.

Um, I took the GRE (just the general one) this morning and did decently enough. 690 verbal (should be well over 90th percentile… the samples I was working with were giving 95 or 96th for a 690) and 740 I think math (hopefully at least 90 there too — verbal is harder, so the percentile is generally higher for a lower raw score). They grade the writing thing and send it in a couple weeks along with the official percentiles and all.

Started some concerts for the year. Never wrote about last winter’s — Stephen Kellogg at the 9:30 club and Eddie From Ohio at the Birchmere. Both were pretty good. Anyway, so this summer started off with Carbon Leaf at The National in Richmond. Nice venue, good show. They have a new album out, so a lot of the songs were from it, and most of the rest from the previous two, but a couple older songs snuck in there too (including one of my favorites, “Desperation Song”). They were filming it for some video or something, and we’re in the front row, so I guess we could be in it. Opener was the Alternate Routes, who I’ve seen before (with Stephen Kellogg at the Birchmere a couple years ago). I honestly didn’t remember them much from the first time, but I really liked their show this time around, and bought a CD. For one song, the lead singer has a toolbox that is mic’d up and apparently full of tools, and shakes it as a percussion instrument. It’s actually pretty cool. (So he’s singing, has the toolbox in one hand, and a harmonica in the other hand, and is toolboxing(?) at the same time as singing or harmonicaing(??)).

Been to a few more Nationals game. Pretty sure they were all losses, except the one that was called in the 11th due to rain and then they postponed it and plan to finish it in Houston in like July. So guess I won’t see the end of that one.

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awww

1 May, 2009 in who's on first? by Kevin | No comments

Baseball stuff:

Nats game earlier, it was good for about eight innings, tied at 4, then Julian Tavarez came in. Final score, 9-4. Oh well. Did get to see him direct the infielders once (points at the third baseman when he gets the ball, then points over to first to tell him where to throw it), but did not get the chance to see him roll the ball to first base like he sometimes does when he fields.

We saw the other game scores at the park, and saw TB beating Boston 12-0. So figured we weren’t missing anything there by not watching it. Come home, it turns out Jonathan Van Every, outfielder just up from AAA (had his first MLB HR yesterday), ended up pitching the eighth inning! And even better, Javier Lopez, who started pitching the eighth but was replaced by Van Every, had to go play Van Every’s spot in right! Position players pitching is pretty much always awesome, but pitchers playing a position is even better. So, can’t believe I missed out on that. The Globe says the last Boston position player to pitch was Dave McCarty in 2004 (it was in Baltimore; we were actually at that game, which was unusually entertaining for many reasons, not just McCarty pitching), and the last Boston pitcher to play a position was back in 1980.

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obligatory april post

29 April, 2009 in bowls of tapioca, ramble on, who's on first? by Kevin | No comments

We bought a bunch of new furniture. So far we have a cabinet thing of shelves with glass doors, and some end tables. We are getting three (3) bookcases delivered soon. Planning on a new TV as well — time to get rid of the 27″ CRT, I guess. Have to figure out how to upgrade our DirecTV service — we currently have our own satellite dish on our patio, but apparently we can use a dish that’s on the roof? (Which would theoretically be easier.) I don’t know. So we need to get that figured out.

Also, I signed up to take the GRE. I don’t really know what’s going to be going on with that either, but I am sort of looking at grad school things, so I figured I should do that. Currently looking at going to GMU, to get an MS in either computer science or computer engineering. CE might require undergrad prereq things, though; my WPI transcript is light on, you know, real engineering. (My favorite description of WPI said that it specialized in “science, engineering, and computer science”, because of course CS is neither science, nor engineering. This follows from the principle that if you specifically have to call it a “science”, it probably isn’t one.)

Did I write that we got part-season tickets to see the Nationals? I guess not. I really did used to be pretty good at this updating thing. So we got part-season tickets to the Nats. Nine (9) games. Went to one already (when the Nats started out 1-10 or whatever, we saw the one win). Going to another on Thursday, and another on Tuesday. The games are a bit clustered towards the early season, I think the breakdown was two in April, two in May, two in June, one in July, one in August, and one in September. Supplementing that with one game in Baltimore, I think in August. The season-ticket seats are really good (if you ignore the fact that you’re watching the Nationals! *hey-ohhhhhh*), second row right up front next to the Nats dugout by 1st base.

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there must be some kind of way out of here

21 March, 2009 in bowls of tapioca by Kevin | No comments

So the finale to Battlestar Galactica. (not really spoilers)

I thought it was great. While that ending is a place you might expect a show like BSG to go… it is a semi-common sci-fi “trope”… after the mid-season finale it certainly appeared to me that that was not going to be the ending after all. They faked us out in that regard, or at least me. It also kind of tied back in with the mythology of the 1978 version. (And they finally played a bit of the original series theme music again too! I still love that theme.)

After thinking about it, I figured there were going to be a lot of people who hated the ending, and reading some reviews there are some, but actually there are a lot more people who liked it than I thought there might be.

At the moment I would rank the series ahead of any of the Trek series. The jury is still out on whether it beats Babylon 5 as my favorite sci-fi show. I’m tempted to say yes, but that’s probably just because I just watched BSG so it’s fresher in my mind, combined with B5 being very obviously “early nineties” so it seems dated in parts. Taken in context though, I’m not sure.

Speaking of B5, though, I was kind of expecting the BSG finale to be a little sadder… I mean the last scenes with Adama, on the Raptor and on the hill, were sad, yes, but it didn’t measure up to “Sleeping in Light” (the B5 finale) as far as that goes. (As far as “scenes from movies or TV that I will fully admit I cry at”, the list goes: 1. end of Saving Private Ryan, 2. end of “Sleeping in Light”.)

And again contrasting with B5, BSG has proven (to me anyway) that the fully planned out approach of B5 isn’t fully necessary to make a good show. B5 was meticulously planned out from the beginning. (Well, after season 1 they (or “he”, really, the entire show was basically the work of one guy, J. Michael Straczynski) made some fairly big changes, but re-planned it out from that point and more or less stuck with it.) The writers of BSG winged it a little more. So it was suprising to me how well it sticks together. There is the perhaps valid complaint that after winging it for four years, the only way out at the end was, let’s say, deus ex machina. Perhaps, but I think it still worked.

I still don’t know what to think about the Caprica spin-off. At some level it seems a bit pointless. I will probably give it a chance though.

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cats

22 February, 2009 in felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature by Kevin | No comments

What’s the point of running a webserver if not to put pictures of your cats on it?

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roy g. bv

16 February, 2009 in bowls of tapioca, many blood-sucking insects, ramble on, sic semper tyrannis by Kevin | No comments

1. This was a holiday-filled weekend. Saturday, the 14th, of course, was Hans Day, the celebration of the birthday of Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein. We celebrated in the traditional manner: watching several hours of Battlestar Galactica. (We are almost, but not quite, caught up to the rest of the world in said show. The goal is to be ready to see the new episode that will air on Friday; we are currently three episodes behind.)

2. Today is Washington’s Birthday (Observed), a.k.a. Presidents’ Day. In honor of the day, the next list items will be stories about possibly my favorite president, Calvin Coolidge.

3. President Coolidge was commonly invited to Washington society dinner parties, and often attended, though he rarely seemed to especially enjoy them or really talk to anyone. When asked as to why he bothered attending, he replied “Got to eat somewhere.”

4. This one is more apocryphal, but: President Coolidge arrived back at home one Sunday morning after attending church. His wife asked how the sermon was, and what the minister had spoken about. Calvin responded, “Sin.” Mrs. Coolidge, trying to get him to talk more, pressed him for more information; what did the minister have to say about it? Finally Calvin responded, “He was against it.”

5. Speaking of presidents, go to this link and try to name all the presidents in 8 minutes. I already gave you one name. Another hint: when they say “Updated January 20, 2008″, they actually mean “2009″. I got all but six.

6. Did taxes last weekend, and are getting way too much money back yet again. Last year there was a lot coming from the IRS and a bit from Virginia too, this year there’s some from the IRS and a whole lot from VA. I have no idea why. Add “don’t have to deal with a second set of tax refunds” to the “pros” list of “pros and cons of moving to New Hampshire”. (”Cons: Road slush.”)

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who’s going to drive you home

5 January, 2009 in life and how to live it by Kevin | No comments

My car is now being fixed, so I have a rental car: a Chevy HHR. It is kind of big and silly-looking, but I fit in the driver’s seat, which is key.

At some point I would like to own a different car, and I keep thinking I want a hatchback or a wagon something. I don’t know what though. At this point it is probably better to not buy a car though, and pay the mortgage instead.

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he’s trading in his chevy for a cadillac-ack-ack-ack

2 January, 2009 in life and how to live it by Kevin | No comments

we are cooking chicken cacciatore for dinner, and I find it impossible to mention it, or look at the recipe in the book, without immediately wanting to start singing Billy Joel.

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