Tag Archive for DC

Assorted Updates: Discworld Convention, Health, and Camping Without A Tent

July 3, 2013 / / No comments

This is a picture of a turtle on the sidewalk outside my apartment complex. It has a black shell with yellow splotches.

As the title of my blog implies, my life is chaos. I’m hitting the road, or gently caressing it with my car’s tires, once again to head up to a con in Baltimore. I’ll be spending the weekend within spitting distance of the Baltimore harbor at North American Discworld Convention, which revolves around Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

The man himself is not coming anymore, but the con should still be a lot of fun. I’m volunteering, so I imagine I’ll be running around a fair bit. Don’t count on there being many updates to this blog or my Twitter feed. I may get some time to write, or I might not. My schedule is a mystery that I will soon solve.

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Category: My Chaotic Life / Tags: , , ,

Spaworld Chooses $$$ Over Discrimination

March 4, 2013 / / No comments

I was appalled to learn on Friday that Spaworld, my favorite day spa, kicked out a transgender individual who was minding her own business.

Then I was beyond appalled when Spaworld’s president, Sang Lee, responded with this horrid statement:

 

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Category: Random Chaos / Tags: ,

On Robins and Their Impending Extinction

February 28, 2013 / / No comments

Don’t be alarmed bird lovers. This isn’t a post about the adorable red-bellied birds that crop up during the spring time. The Robins I’m referring to are the joke-cracking, high-flying sidekicks that keep Batman young.

And if you have no desire to know this week’s biggest comics spoiler, then you definitely don’t want to read this story from The New York Post, and you definitely don’t want to keep reading this post.

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Category: Random Chaos / Tags: ,

The WSFA Small Press Award: What It Is And Why Writers Should Nominate Their Stories

January 30, 2013 / / No comments

Despite leaving the wonderful world of Washington DC, the Washington Science Fiction Association still has their hooks in me. I am the sole long-distance member of the WSFA Small Press Award Committee.

And that’s why I might regret writing this post.

Because I’m encouraging writers who have published stories in a small press anthology or periodical in 2012 to nominate their stories.

Or if you’re too humble to nominate yourself, have your publisher nominate you, or corner a member of WSFA and offer them cookies, free lawn care, or a foot massage to nominate you.

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Category: Random Chaos / Tags: , , , ,

Echoes of 2000?

November 6, 2012 / / One comment

I’m a little apprehensive about how this day is going to end. Because, for whatever reason, this election gives me a Year 2000 vibe.

I was sixteen and a sophomore in high school in 2000, so I had no say in the actual political contest. But our teachers couldn’t resist the opportunity to teach us lessons in civic duty by holding a faux election. Bush won in a landslide, and because I was still in the zealot phase of my political growth at the time, I had no problems expressing my displeasure with my conservative classmates.

I picked a fight with one of them in homeroom. It was a debate rife with emotion and rhetoric rather than logic and reason, but there is one thing I said that has stuck with me all these years.

“I voted for Gore because at least he won’t get us into a war.”

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Category: My Chaotic Life / Tags: , , , ,

Hurricane Reflections

October 29, 2012 / / No comments

Sandy is an enigma. Scientists, despite all their convoluted computer models and fancy equipment, have no idea what to make of her.

As Sandy bears down on DC, my most recent home, and Avon Grove, my childhood home, my thoughts are mainly on the well-being of my friends and colleagues. But I can’t help thinking back to 2005 when another storm that threw meteorologists for a loop popped up on the radar.

Her name was Katrina.

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Category: My Chaotic Life / Tags: , , , ,

So Long City of Dreamchasers

October 21, 2012 / / No comments

Oh DC!

It’s hard to stare at an empty apartment and not be emotional. You’ve been good to me in many ways. And downright nasty to me in many other ones.

Okay, so a fair number of the supremely bad experiences I’ve had here were the fault of one of your neighbors (I’m glaring at you College Park). But DC, you got a long way to go when it comes to the functionality and punctuality of Metro, your rush hour is the nightmare that other city rush hours wake up from drenched in sweat, and despite your ridiculously high rents, people trample over each other to be first in line to throw down a check for a $2,000-a-month Dupont Circle studio the size of a pantry closet.

Yet, despite your faults DC, you’re a city full of dreamchasers, and for that, I will always respect you.

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Category: My Chaotic Life / Tags: ,
 
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