Good Timing

Going to an
amusement park when the weather forecast predicts about a 50% chance of
rain is the best time to go. Really. The park is less crowded, the
weather is cooler, and you can do a lot more stuff within less time.

Yesterday
a few of us went down to King's Dominion in Virginia. Plenty of fun,
and the park was relatively uncrowded--partly for the reasons there,
and partly 'cause next week is the Fourth of July weekend when everyone
else is going. Plain and simple economic principle: you always win out
if you want to do what nobody else does.

Bad Timing

The
only thing I had to prepare for was the two World Cup matches on
Saturday: Germany-Sweden and Argentina-Mexico. I set my (borrowed) VCR
to record both, but due to the length I knew I'd miss the last 30
minutes or so of the Argentina game, ah well.

But yeah, I got
back home successfully avoiding the media, so I didn't know what the
scores were and could watch the games in peace. I watched
Germany-Sweden and enjoyed that, then watched Argentina-Mexico. After
the first 11 minutes the score was instantly 1-1 tied. I happened to be
on the phone with my sister then...

Me: Yeah I'm watching the ARG-MEX game...
Me: Oh *(#@U% J@)! Mexico just scored...
T: -continues conversation-
Me: -continues conversation-
-five minutes pass-
Me: Yes! Argentina just scored!
T: You should see when they get into overtime.
Me: ...... -hangs up-

No point watching the rest of the tape after that...

I
caught the highlights thereafter, and Hernan Crespo scored one killer
goal. So no doubts now that the Albiceleste will go all the way {^^}.
Just it would've been nice to see it for myself. KF

Un mensaje breve:

Un mensaje breve para los anunciadores de la Copa Mundial:
El
no está "besando el suelo", el está mandar gracias a Dios, porque Ghana
ganarse contra el Czech Republic parace como un milagro.

Eso es todo.
And go Black Stars! KF

Vacation and a Wedding II

Seems
that the only time I go back home is for a wedding these days. This
time was one of those occasions. My cousin's son (he's 5 years older
than me, if you're wondering) was getting married, so it was time to
leave DC for Nashville and then Huntsville for the actual wedding. It
was nice getting out of semi-Yankee Territory for "God's Country" once
again, where the waitress will get you sweet tea if you ask instead of
looking at you funny and pointing at the sugar.

It was also great timing, since I was able to catch over half of the World Cup matches for the first week.

Anyway,
the game plan was to arrive in Nashville on Wednesday evening, leave
for Huntsville on Friday afternoon, then head back with my dad to
Murfreesboro on Saturday evening, go up to Cookeville to visit my best
friend back home on Sunday evening, return to Nashville on Monday
evening, and finally head back to DC on Wednesday afternoon.

WHEE!!!

Gate Ceremony

I'm not gonna go into great details about the wedding itself. For those of you familiar with Indian or Bengali weddings, there are typically several ceremonies and weddings will be anywhere from 3 days to a week. My personal favorite part is the "Gate Ceremony".

The
objective is to get the groom through the entrance to the wedding hall
as intact as possible and with both his shoes. On the other side is the
bride's family, who prevents the groom from entering until he pays up
(usually enough to treat them all to dinner). Typically negotiations
will start between representatives of the groom and bride, which end
with the groom's shoes stolen and some money passing hands. This time
we were a bit more successful: under our limit for the "entrance fee" and the groom kept his shoes. Or sandals. Or whatever.

Negotiations
were... interesting. It ended up being the groom's brother and me (plus
a few uncles) representing his side, and some other family friends /
relatives representing the bride's side. Something like:

Keep in mind, all that is a dramatization. Actual events were longer, though the general idea is constant.

Anyway,
other stuff's still been going on, so I got more material for updates
coming up. Perhaps not as interesting, though. 'Til then anyway. KF

Starting Over Again

Several weeks ago, I signed up for Introductory Chinese at the USDA Graduate School.
I've heard great things about their language-teaching methods, and so I
was looking forward to seeing that for myself with a language I've been
meaning to start learning for quite some time now.

I've also been
looking forward to 'starting over' again with learning another
language. Really, the initial stages of learning a language can be
quite fun... There's that first year or so where you're learning things
real quick, and really expanding what you can do with the language on a
regular basis. Then you hit a plateau where you have to drill down on
grammar and finer points. Then you can understand enough to where you
take off again by being able to use the language in-context.

Because
it's been so long since I started studying either Japanese or Spanish,
starting all over with another language is actually proving quite
enjoyable. I mean, yeah, pronunciation and the tones are killing me,
but since the characters are incredibly easy to learn I got more time
to focus on those parts.

Though my mother still now and then gets
on my case about not knowing Bengali. Me and my sister I think are the
only two people in the entire extended family who can't speak a lick of
Bengali. Well, it's next on my list...

So one of these days maybe all these linguistic studies will help me communicate with my folks a lot better. KF

Rare News Comments

I rarely comment about news on here. Just because I've always believed that blogs were a lousy source of getting your news. I'll just comment on something recent real quick.

Around May 2nd, a laptop was swiped with about 26 million SSNs from folks in the US Department of Veterans Affairs systems (C|Net Link).
The news wasn't announced until around May 22nd. Due to where and with
whom and what I work, this is something that I gotta be concerned with
as well (it could've been anyone in that situation, after all,
including myself). But it's not the theft itself I'm concerned with.
But the fact that the FBI did something quite smart: they waited 2-3
weeks before notifying the public of the stolen computer.

I know
the FBI bugs my calls, so they know how rarely I actually praise them
for stuff. But yeah, they made the right choice by not caving in to PR
concerns.

Many of y'all know that my own laptop was stolen over a year ago. When that happened, I ended up finding a lot about what happens when a computer gets lifted...

Thieves
ain't concerned with prying into your personal life. Identity theft is
a targeted thing, a thief won't go after a computer to jack someone's
identity because there's such a lousy risk-to-reward ratio (which is
why they'll go after credit card records instead). They go after a
computer for money. A thief's main concern is wiping it clean,
scratching off the serial number, and re-selling it ASAP. (Don't
believe me? Try searching for stolen merchandise at a seedy pawn shop,
that'll prove my point.)

Now, likely knowing this, the FBI kept the lid on this information until it was reasonable to assume that the thief of this
laptop did what any other thief would do: wipe it and liquidate the
computer. Coming out right after would've been extremely idiotic; every
thief who stole a laptop on May 2nd in Arlington (which can't be many)
would then know they're sitting on a gold mine.

I'm sure whatever
poor guy they got monitoring me at the FBI now has a lot of footnotes
to add to my file. So I'll leave this at that. KF

Go~l!

There are two
occasions where I actually care about sports. One is the Summer
Olympix. The other is the World Cup. I'm really looking forward to it
this year, but I got two soccer-related things here.

DC United

Last week, our supervisor at work treated the entire team to dinner and a DC United game over at RFK stadium. I'm not gonna bother with talking about the MLS versus, say, other leagues around the world. All I'll say is that I did considerably enjoy it. It was DC United versus Columbus Crew, and, well, Columbus Crew got trounced. As in, 5-1 DC.

2006 World Cup

Not a whole lot to say on this, really. Since I don't regularly
follow sports, I'm not much on specific players, clubs, etc., and how
they perform elsewise. So I just gotta do a spot of research beforehand
for that.

Last time I was going for Senegal. I'm really up for
seeing an African team advance up to the Semifinal or Final round one
day, and I more than enjoyed seeing Senegal upset France in their first
match in 2002. This year, I'm mostly going for Ghana. They're in the
same group with the USA, Italy, and Czech Republic; I'm hoping they'll
manage to beat the US and perhaps the Czechs, and then advance onto the
Round of 16--likely against Mexico. It's an uphill battle much of the
way.

Admittedly, my allegiances change, though. I figure (albeit
amateurly) the most likely Final match will be Argentina vs Brazil, and
I'll be going for Argentina if that happens. I know, I know, Brazil has
all the well-known power players and they're the favored team to win,
but I got those personal ties to Argentina, you know, so I gotta go for
them.

That's about it... Now all I have to figure out is how to
watch these mid-day games while I'm at work. Well, more accurately, how
to get my work done while watching these games. KF

End of a Season

I
won't burden y'all with the details of the plot. But there were some
great moments here and there, mostly 'cause of how everyone was playing
{^^}. For instance (Tack (female) is played by L, Gaz (male) is played
by A, Ronan (male) is played by E, and the rest of the characers are
narrated by me. Keep in mind that Tack, Gaz, and Ronan are all on the
same crew together.):

In retrospect, these probably sound a lot less amusing in text. Ah well.

Anyway,
with folks all moving in different directions now, it's uncertain that
we'll ever get around to a "Season Two" after the climactic finale for
"Season One" there. But if we do, I'll be ready for it. KF

I'm Still Here!

Wow. It's
been a month since my last update. May was something; it was either
drab and nothing was going on, or I was too busy to make an update.

Rather
than making one big update, I'll spread out what I would've ordinarily
said over several posts. Probably an update per day for the next week I
think. Unfortunately, since my camera's batteries are dead, it'll be a
tad light on the photos. KF

New Home

I posted photos
up a while back when I first moved into my place. If you didn't notice
then, it was rather... empty. Even after getting furniture in. Now that
I feel pretty much all settled in, I finally up and went to Ikea a
couple weeks back and bought some more furniture. Just a few pieces,
but it ended up making my apartment feel less like a temporary stay,
and more like an actual home.

Now I get what all those stats in The Sims are supposed to mean. Figure how these two stack up, comfort-wise...

Old:	New:

About
the wall space, still slightly empty. But, tacking up the posters I
have would just make it look like a dorm room again, and I don't want
to feel like I'm gonna be moving out again next May, so posters are
out. Scrolls, paintings, that sort of thing is what I'm going for...
It'll be a while in coming. KF

If Glue Can't Fix It...

...then
it ain't worth fixing. The other day I was driving through GW, down H
street with a lot of parked cars close by on the narrow road. Suddenly,
I hear a
-crunch-
and look over to see my side-mirror missing.

...bloody hell...

I park on the side and examine the side of the car. Not so bad: the
frame's still intact, just torn from the side of the car and staying on
by the thing that holds the mirror in place. I backtrack, find the
mirror on the pavement, and examine the cars along the line closely. I see nothing... apparently, since the mirror'd been loose already, it just gave without much pressure.

So that's where glue comes in. I had two options: take it to a repair
shop for $300 to $500, which I was dreading, or try to stick it back on
myself. Simple math there...

+

=

...'cept for the crack in the mirror
itself. But hey, for saving $395, I ain't complainin'. And if it
survived last night's rainfall, I know it's good to go.

Side Note: Anyone know why Krazy Glue starts steaming and hardens like Ice-9 when mixed with epoxy cement? KF