The Daily Commute

I have the most scenic commute of anyone I know (save for my coworker, Chris -- the "Ninja" -- who practically has the same one).

Traffic in the Washington Metro Area is some of the worst in the country -- second only to Los Angeles, so I'm told. So I think I've lucked out. My daily commute to Bethesda, Maryland is largely opposite the flow of traffic. Most people are headed inside the Capital Beltway from the outside in the morning, and the other way in the evening. The largest distance of my commute, however, is "outbound" in the morning and "inbound" in the evening.

The largest distance is covered on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The GW Parkway (or G-Dub for short) is actually run by the national parks service, and goes right along the Potomac on the Virginia side. It starts (or ends) at the north side of the Capital Beltway and goes south, finally ending (or starting) in front of George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate. I'd say I travel about half -- the northern part between I-395 and the Beltway. The whole northern stretch is green. By green, I mean, teeming with plant life. Adding to the beautiful scenery is the Potomac, and the many sights of DC.

On my trip I get to see:
The Pentagon
The Washington Monument
The Lincoln Memorial
The Kennedy Center
The Air Force Memorial
The Memorial Bridge
The National Cathedral
The Capitol Rotunda
Georgetown

...pretty much every day. It's beautiful in the Spring and in the Winter (when there's snow, at least), especially. Sometimes, depending on the route I can catch a glimpse of the Jefferson Memorial and the "tippy-top" of the White House.

However, particularly in the evening, I get to intimately know every tree and blade of grass, and especially every pothole. But it sure is purdy. I guess if I need to be stuck in a traffic jam, at least I can enjoy the view.

-Kal

Ubuntu "Feisty Fawn"

Do you like free stuff? I do, especially in the form of full-featured operating systems! Ubuntu 7.04 (codenamed "Feisty Fawn") is being released on Thursday, April 19th. Available in a "LiveCD" format, you can try it on your current computer without actually installing it.

Don't misunderstand, this is a complete operating system - a replacement for even Windows, some may say. It has an office suite (OpenOffice.org), a web browser (Firefox), chat client (Gaim), photo management (F-Spot), image editor (the GIMP), and many other programs available -- for free -- along with it. Just download the .iso and burn it to a CD and reboot your machine to try it.

Visit the Ubuntu website for the details. And especially for Ryan, if he's still using that hunk of junk Windows 95 machine, check out Xubuntu - engineered to run on older machines. So resurrect your old computer into something usable with Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu (my flavor of the week) on Thursday. Let me know how it turns out.

-Kal

School Closings...

The schools around here close for snow (of course), they close for ice (ditto), they close for fog, they close a day early in some cases for snow and ice. They close for cold, they close for flood watches/warnings, for bad thunderstorms and even the occasional hurricane.

After two and a half years in the DC area, I really thought I'd heard everything with regards to school closings. Well, I was proven wrong today when Fairfax County schools closed 3 hours early this afternoon because of the wind.

The education funding in this area seems to be degrading so quickly that the patchwork of trailer (park) classrooms that house a significant portion of the desks in the area schools can't protect the kids from the elements. Fairfax County apparently has enough of these makeshift schoolrooms that it's worth closing school early.

When we have kids they are SO going to go to private school.

-Kal

(So there it is. The first post in over a month. Keep reading. I've got more in the queue, just need to put it to words...and Rich, if you want to give us a daily account of your eating habits, the comments remain open!)