So there was a weird light in the sky last night right around 9p.m. I envisioned aliens or some some apocalyptic event, but turns out it was an Iridium Flare, which is a sunflare from a satellite in orbit.

The Iridium communication satellites have a peculiar shape with three polished door-sized antennas, 120 degrees apart and at 40 degree angles with the main bus. The forward mirror faces the direction in which the satellite is travelling. Occasionally an antenna will directly reflect sunlight down to the Earth, creating a predictable and quickly moving illuminated spot of about 10 km diameter. To an observer this looks like an extremely bright flare in the sky with a duration of a couple of seconds or longer.

The Cherry Blossoms here in D.C. will only be in “full bloom” for two more days. I say THANK GOD! I’m sick and tired of everyone having stupid cherry-blossom-fever. Sure they don’t hurt to look at, but they aren’t the most beautiful thing EVER like EVERYONE makes them out to be.

I got a post card in the mail last week from the Post Office saying my local DC branch was holding an open house. The card mentioned some random postal factoids and seemed lame, but I thought it might be fun to actually go to the open house and see all the behind-the-scenes stuff you don’t normally get to see.

Boy was I disapointed. 1) they wouldn’t let me take pictures with a camera becuase of terrorism. 2) Sure there was tons of coffee, food, and the processing of passports for free… but there was no actual “Open House.” They wouldn’t show any of the cool/neat stuff they keep behind closed doors. Grrrr.

Since I live so freaking close to it, I decided to walk down and take a few pics at the National Cathedral. As for the pic above, click it to enlarge. It’s crazy that you can see most of down-town DC from the Cathedral. (Read on …)

I absolutely love zoos. I have no idea why, but Sarah and I have gone to them in multiple states and I never visit a city without seeing its zoo. But out of all the zoo’s I’ve been to the DC Zoo has to be my favorite and I make sure I visit it at least once a year. Since the last time I went was on my B-Day a year ago I decided it was time to visit again. So here are just a few pics from my recent trip… (Read on …)

The portrait of Stephen Colbert will only be on display at the National Portrait Gallery till April 1^st. So if you want to see it make sure you get there in the next two weeks. I went to see it on a weekday and even though I was only there for about ten minutes there were four other groups of people there just to see the painting. 

Below are some random pics I took at the Natural History Museum the same day I checked out Colbert’s painting. (Read on …)

A strip club about a half mile down Wisconsin Ave ((basically one block away from me is The Russian Embassy and a block past that is the strip club)) caught on fire yesterday and it was chaos. Roads were shut down. They had over 120 fire fighters. Anti-Terrorist people were here because the fire was so close to the embassy. It was just nuts and I had a horrible time trying to get home (from being out of town)because all the streets near my apartment were closed.

I was so excited about the snow I woke up at 6a.m. today! So far we’ve only gotten a dusting but the news is saying we should get 2-5 inches. I know thats not much but it still makes me happy because last year we didn’t have our first snow until January 21st!

It rained in D.C. for the first time in 34 days!

I have a new appreciation for Desmond on “Lost.” For several years he had to punch in the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 into a computer every 108 minutes. So he could never sleep for more than 108 minutes or do anything else without being interrupted.

You see that’s the problem I had with my car. I had to go move it to a new parking space every 60 minutes between the hours of 7a.m. and 8.p.m. So no matter what I was doing I would have to drop everything every 50 minutes, walk to my car and move it. It was horrible and honestly driving me insane. So I seriously have a new appreciation for Desmond and what he want through. I’m also sooooooooooo freaking happy to have a parking permit so I can legally park in D.C.

I’ve had tons and tons of car-drama in the past month. Basically you can’t park anywhere within a 5 mile radius of my house unless you have a special kind of permit from DC. If you are a student you have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops and have like 10 odd documents. After a month of trying to acquire the documents, there is only one more I need. So tomorrow I’m going to the MVA (Maryland) to get that final document and then I’m going to the DMV (Washington, DC) to get my parking permit. The whole thing could turn into a day-long event so there may be no posting tomorrow, so to hold you over here is a precious picture of Edit.
Updated@4:42p.m. I left my place at 6:55a.m. and I just got home. I’m beat and there will soooo not be any updates today, sorry. P.S. the DMV and MVA suck donkey balls. That’s right. Donkey BALLS.

“Walking on the streets of D.C. on the East Coast where I live…” That’s the opening lines to a Good Charlotte song and its just weird cause I’m actually living in Washington, D.C. now. Even weirder is that I live a block away from the National Cathedral, which is the building in the pic above. The neighboorhood is super nice and I’m really liking it here. (Read on …)

As long as everything goes ok, I’m supposed to be signing a lease tomorrow. Then I’ll be doing packing! I should be moving Monday and Tuesday. Then by Tuesday night I should be all settled in at my new place in D.C. Of course I won’t have internet for at least a week because Comcast sucks and take days and days before they install stuff. But as soon as its on I’ll be posting regularly again.

Updated@2:01p.m. 8/24-2007: Lost the apartment to stupid technicalities and nothing I can do. Now I’m really frustrated and in a bad mood. So back to apartment hunting.

Today I drove to DC, handed in a security deposit and finished initial paperwork for an apartment. The apartment becomes available tomorrow and thats when my paperwork will be processed. Now here’s the catch… chances are I won’t pass a credit check and if so I need a co-signer (Last year at Sarah’s and my place she had to get her mom to be a co-signer. Since Sarah has like beyond perfect credit and finances I’m sure I’ll need a co-signer at my new place). So I’ll know by 10a.m. tomorrow about if I need a co-signer and then I’ll have all weekend to find one (my parents won’t be able to).

The apartment is perfect for me. It’s actually a studio-apartment, but the walk-in closet is JUST big enough to use as a small bedroom. I can fit a dresser, my bed, a night stand and still have some room. That way I can use the main living-room for just a living room/dinning room. The only thing I’m not sure about is WHERE I’ll put my massive library of novels and graphic novels.

The apartment is technically in Silver Spring but its right on right on the border with Bethesda and overlooks Rock Creek Park (I’ll post a view of my window once I move). I’m fairly confident its a nice and safe area. The “bad” parts of Silver Spring are more to the south, north, and east. The good news is that I’m about 2/3rds closer to school than I was last year and I’m on the other side of Georgia Avenue so traffic shouldn’t be anywhere near as horrible as it was last year.
So anyway… as long as I find a co-signer I’ll be packing this weekend and moving on Monday. My classes start Thursday and I’ll have internet whenever Comcast decides to hook it up so it may be a few days. But once they get it up and going I’ll be posting again on a daily basis.

Man I’m really excited about the place… just sucks I’m not getting it with Sarah.

I guess I’m moving up in the world. The first four and a half minutes of Pop Candy’s weekly podcast is a phone conversation between me and Whitney. If you aren’t familiar with USA Today’s blog “Pop Candy” or Whitney Matheson you should be. Whit is one of the few people in the mainstream press who covers comics. She regularly visits conventions, covers indy stuff as well as the big two, and was a judge for this year’s Eisner Awards.

But anyway if you want to hear Whit and I talk about phone sex and the pressures of blogging, you can find the podcast here� or go onto iTunes and just do a search for “Pop Candy.”

Now that I’m back home at the beach, I must say I really miss mine and Sarah’s old apartment. I’m not sure if I miss it ‘cause I miss living with he or Bean. I don’t know if I miss it because when there I had everything I own and now 95% of my stuff is in storage. I don’t know if I miss it cause it was just “our place” and now I’m back at home. I don’t know if I miss it cause now everything is at least 15 minutes away instead of a few blocks. I don’t know if I miss it just because I miss our lake (which is above). Who would’ve thunk (intended typo) I’d ever miss Greenbelt?

Ok fine it’s all of these reasons! …plus its hard to go from living with your best friend to living 18 minutes away. You go from seeing them multiple times a day to just mulitples times a week. But anyway, isn’t our lake (in the photos above) pretty? Now I just have stuipd beach with stupid tourists. I HATE tourist.

We’ve had power outages and the heat has been going off multiple times a day. I’ll get back into the swing of things with posts tonight or in the morning, once I’m caught up on work I couldn’t do becuase of no power.

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Sarah is in Puerto Rico. Kevin is in Vegas. Scott is home alone in the apartment, which means� PARTY TIME! And by �party time� I mean turning the heat down (I hate being hot) cereal for meals other than breakfast (sarah hates when I eat it too much) and not posting on the blog because I�ll be busy editing �An American King� and doing another re-write on �Nice Guys Finish Last.� Have a party-licious weekend!

We got hit by an ice-storm yesterday and have had power outages. Once power is back (keeps going out again) I’ll be able to post a crapload of posts.

Sarah and I spent the day today doing �free stuff� as she likes to call it. We packed a picnic using free-food she got from work. Then we drove to the National Arboretum. We spent a freaking HOUR waking around in the 70-degree-heat and then sat down and ate lunch.

It�s been years since I�ve been to the Arboretum. The last time was when I was a little boy and I found it very very boring. I guess I�ve not changed because I once again found it very very boring. (Read on …)

When Sarah and I went to the zoo in December �05 we saw that they were building a new section called �The Asian Trail.� Ever since then I�ve been super excited to go see it! Well Samantha and I went on Thursday and we were thoroughly disappointed.

The first problem was that we didn�t see any animals! Yes I know its �January� but when we went it was almost 70 degrees out. Also, these animals are the kind that stay out doors year round. (Read on …)

I am now an employee of (Greenbelt) TGI Fridays. I am very very unhappy about it. After quitting Bahama Breeze I never wanted to work in a restaurant again. I�ve paid my dues and find it emotionally distressing. However I need to pay the bills and I�m having a hard time finding another job.

Training lasts five days and I work every day for the next seven days, except when I�m in class. After that and after I have enough money to pay for my rent due on Dec. 1^st I�ll be dropping down till 3 days a week.

Hopefully I�ll find another job quickly, but its not looking good.

Went and saw my sister play rugby today. Well� I went with the intention of watching her play, but once I got there she told me she wasn�t going to unless someone got hurt. So I stayed around for two hours watching and pretending to be interested while I was bored out of my mind.

I mean the idea of someone getting hurt seemed very slim. I figured there was no chance in hell that Kaitlyn would get to play. �then I actually saw how rough the game was. I don�t understand why these girls do this! I�m a big tough guy and I wouldn�t want to knock around or get knocked around like that.

After two hours my fingers were cold and I was bored so I left, but Kait was going to give me a call later and we were going to hangout.

I was excited to show her my apartment because no one has visited me since I moved to D.C. …Of course, 15 minutes ago she called saying she wasn�t coming over cause she doesn�t feel like driving. But that�s Kaitlyn for you.

Last Saturday, Sarah and I went canoeing. She made reservations and we were really excited about it. The two of us have been trying to go canoeing for three years and five months, but literally every time we tried it rained.
(Read on …)

    Last night, after being on campus for almost 14 hours, I settled down to watch “Grey’s Anatomy.” Then all of a sudden there was a LOUD crash and books flew out of my closet.
    I went to investigate and learned that my cheap bookshelf and fallen prey to all my novels and toppled over. It seems the bookshelf isn’t one that is meant to be used for holding books.
    Of course Sarah gave me an “I told you that would break when you bought it two months ago.”
    It took me a good forty minutes today just to pick up all the novels and to stack them. Right now they are just stacked in my closet next to my graphic novels and clothes. I really need a new book shelf, and I guess I’ll have to invest into something that is sturdy enough to handle all the weight.
    Part of my problem is that I have so many books and graphic novels that I need a whole bunch of shelves to hold them all.

     Remember Witch-Girl? Sarah and mine’s third roommate? She’s moving out. LIKE right away and someone new is moving in on Sunday! Get this… the person moving in is KEVIN MEEHAN. That’s right. I will be living with Mayor of Ocean City’s son. [Above: Kevin is the one pushing the wheel chair]
     Sarah and I have known Kevin since high school and he went to college with us. He’s a film guy like me but into all the artsy crap I would never want to watch. He just got a job here in D.C. working as a professional editor.
     It should be interesting having the three of us live together. I can already see problems arising. I’m also mad cause I wanted to get a hot college girl to live with us and Sarah wanted Kevin. And the reason Sarah wanted Kevin is because he doesn’t cook! This means he doesn’t buy groceries which means she has more room in the fridge!

   There is a nation-wide campaign for free theater tickets. That’s theater as in “plays” not movies, but they’re free so if you near one of the cities doing it you should check out some plays.
   The official website is here. Sarah and I are doing it and I’ll probably see if Samantha or anyone else wants to come. You get two free tickets per emails so we can easily get a lot of tickets.
   Man I feel cultured. Living in D.C. is cool

A Hispanic man climbing the tree outside my window. I have no idea why. He was up there for about thirty minutes and it sorta freaked me out.

   I came home from class last night to find out that our third roommate, Kat A.K.A. “Witch-Gil,” had finally come back to our place. After literally three weeks she decided to pick up her evil cat that she left with us. I really don’t get how a pet owner could leave their animal with people she hardly knows for such a long period of time.
     Even crazier is that Witch-Girl told Sarah that she is going to move out. She finally convinced her neo-Christian boyfriend to allow her pagan alters in his apartment. So they are going to be living together and she is going to move out sometime by November 1st. Other than her evil cat, she’s been the best roommate ever. I mean in the six weeks I’ve been here I only met her once. So now it will be weird having a third person really living with Sarah and myself.
    We aren’t even sure where to look for a third roommate. Well I mean there is stuff like Craig’s List and places like that… but we aren’t really sure if we want one. Sarah mentioned the idea of moving to a two bedroom apartment. She also mentioned the idea of splitting November rent and then finding a new roommate in December when it will be easier to find one.
    I have no idea what we’ll end up doing. I’m more or less just going to let Sarah figure it out and then do whatever she tells me.