Hurry, watch this video before Warner Bros pulls it for copywrite infringement.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Next Door to Chili
A bit ago I went to a fundraiser for Martha's Table. Martha's Table is a great little organization which raises hunger awareness. Did you know that if you lived on food stamps you'd get $3 a day to live. $3 bucks.
So a group of us went to the little shin-dig and decided collectively to go out for a bit to eat after (curiously enough they don't feed you at hunger awareness events). And there we were right across the street from Ben's Chili Bowl.
For my faithful readers not of DC (all 2 of you) Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC institution. Among others, President Obama made it one of his first stops after he was elected. Your DC experience just isn't complete if you haven't had a half smoke.
I have to admit though, it's always been a little too...something for me... I'm almost a vegetarian and I would have to be really hungry or tired to down pretty much anything that comes off the grill. Maybe someday.
However, thanks to Next Door, which is owned by the same folks who run the Chili Bowl, and literally next door to Ben's, I can have my chili and eat it too. (Actually I had mac & cheese, but it was fab.)
So we all went Next Door and MAN is the food good. A definite MUST TRY for DC foodies.
So a group of us went to the little shin-dig and decided collectively to go out for a bit to eat after (curiously enough they don't feed you at hunger awareness events). And there we were right across the street from Ben's Chili Bowl.
For my faithful readers not of DC (all 2 of you) Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC institution. Among others, President Obama made it one of his first stops after he was elected. Your DC experience just isn't complete if you haven't had a half smoke.
I have to admit though, it's always been a little too...something for me... I'm almost a vegetarian and I would have to be really hungry or tired to down pretty much anything that comes off the grill. Maybe someday.
However, thanks to Next Door, which is owned by the same folks who run the Chili Bowl, and literally next door to Ben's, I can have my chili and eat it too. (Actually I had mac & cheese, but it was fab.)
So we all went Next Door and MAN is the food good. A definite MUST TRY for DC foodies.
Monday, May 25, 2009
I want to be an Army Ranger...
Last week I went down to Ft. Benning, GA. Otherwise known as home of the Army Ranger, also known for Basic Training and thus called Benning School for Wayward Boys or Ft. Beginning. Charming isn't it?
So, a dozen of so of my fellow Congressional staffers with a few Army liaison folks hauled down to GA. As an aside, it rained the entire time we were there.
I don't believe I had ever been to Georgia, other than the Atlanta airport and I just don't think that counts. It is lovely, and I hear they make a mean sweet tea, although I was eating in the Mess Hall and MREs, so I didn't get any sweet tea.
Army Ranger training is pretty much two months, 61 days, of hell. They take you out into the wilderness (a variety of wildernesses actually, swamp, mountains, desert) and see if you can survive. (My sources tell me that no one has died lately, you just get sent home from Ranger school, which is a fate worse than death.) Also part of Ranger training, repelling off REALLY high cliffs, jumping out/off of things and getting over any fear you may have to do about anything, including killing another human being with your index finger and so forth.
Being sure to make our experience as educational as possible, we all got to jump out of a 34 foot tower, simulating jumping out of a plane. We repelled down a wall that I don't even want to know how tall it was. AND the best part, was climbing up a 72 foot tower and taking a zip line across a lake and then dropping into the lake. (See video below) A few people didn't do this, not sure why. Fear I guess (more on that later).
A particular highlight was the plank walk. You climb up a 55 foot tower, and then walk across the suspended plank from one end to the other and 3 steps in the middle...over water. Just think of walking along a curb 55ft in the air knowing that if you fell it would be one hell of a long way down, into water. After you get done with the walk, you shimmy down a rope, give the RANGER sign a good wack and then FALL into the lake. Thusly...
So, other than playing around and taking zip lines into the lake, we were able to watch a class of Rangers graduate. This included a demonstration of skills the newly minted Rangers now posses. It was really cool to see what a person can do if they apply themselves. It was kind of like watching a cross between a Jacki Chan and Luke Skywalker. These guys are serious. But the point to it all is self discipline.
Our Colonel escort and I were chatting as we were waiting for the others to jump (or not jump, as it were). He said everyone is afraid of something. Most people are afraid of walking across a plank over water. The point is not the fear, the point is what you do with it. Army Ranger training is figuring out your weakness (fear, hunger, pain, exhaustion) working through it and coming out the other end stronger.
It was a very enlightening 48 hours.
RLTW.
So, a dozen of so of my fellow Congressional staffers with a few Army liaison folks hauled down to GA. As an aside, it rained the entire time we were there.
I don't believe I had ever been to Georgia, other than the Atlanta airport and I just don't think that counts. It is lovely, and I hear they make a mean sweet tea, although I was eating in the Mess Hall and MREs, so I didn't get any sweet tea.
Army Ranger training is pretty much two months, 61 days, of hell. They take you out into the wilderness (a variety of wildernesses actually, swamp, mountains, desert) and see if you can survive. (My sources tell me that no one has died lately, you just get sent home from Ranger school, which is a fate worse than death.) Also part of Ranger training, repelling off REALLY high cliffs, jumping out/off of things and getting over any fear you may have to do about anything, including killing another human being with your index finger and so forth.
Being sure to make our experience as educational as possible, we all got to jump out of a 34 foot tower, simulating jumping out of a plane. We repelled down a wall that I don't even want to know how tall it was. AND the best part, was climbing up a 72 foot tower and taking a zip line across a lake and then dropping into the lake. (See video below) A few people didn't do this, not sure why. Fear I guess (more on that later).
A particular highlight was the plank walk. You climb up a 55 foot tower, and then walk across the suspended plank from one end to the other and 3 steps in the middle...over water. Just think of walking along a curb 55ft in the air knowing that if you fell it would be one hell of a long way down, into water. After you get done with the walk, you shimmy down a rope, give the RANGER sign a good wack and then FALL into the lake. Thusly...
So, other than playing around and taking zip lines into the lake, we were able to watch a class of Rangers graduate. This included a demonstration of skills the newly minted Rangers now posses. It was really cool to see what a person can do if they apply themselves. It was kind of like watching a cross between a Jacki Chan and Luke Skywalker. These guys are serious. But the point to it all is self discipline.
Our Colonel escort and I were chatting as we were waiting for the others to jump (or not jump, as it were). He said everyone is afraid of something. Most people are afraid of walking across a plank over water. The point is not the fear, the point is what you do with it. Army Ranger training is figuring out your weakness (fear, hunger, pain, exhaustion) working through it and coming out the other end stronger.
It was a very enlightening 48 hours.
RLTW.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Oh, school.
And school started for Summer Semester. Methods. (Whatever in the world that is - I'll let you know in 12 weeks.)
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about insecurities and how everyone has them. It's the human condition, well, that and suffering. Although, really, they are kind of the same thing.
Me: Everyone has insecurities.
Friend: Oh yeah, what do you have to be insecure about?!
WELL, one of my insecurities is not being smart enough. Subsequently, I really like to learn things and understand them. If I don't understand something and I want to, it sort of drives me nuts. It's usually a good thing because then I buckle down and figure it out. (Good for someone who procrastinates.) But MAN if it isn't a pain to get there sometimes.
So Methods... 2nd night of class last night... I just kept thinking WTF?
Everyone is insecure in their own special way...and for me, reading this sh*t doesn't help.
Strategic evaluation is a methodology for analyzing U.S. national security policies and strategies. It is employed to help analyse how the United States can best shape its strategic conduct for managing the high politics of global security affairs and defense preparedness. As such, it has a more macroscopic focus than systems analysis or operations research.
Oh, yeah. Right. Clear as mud.
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about insecurities and how everyone has them. It's the human condition, well, that and suffering. Although, really, they are kind of the same thing.
Me: Everyone has insecurities.
Friend: Oh yeah, what do you have to be insecure about?!
WELL, one of my insecurities is not being smart enough. Subsequently, I really like to learn things and understand them. If I don't understand something and I want to, it sort of drives me nuts. It's usually a good thing because then I buckle down and figure it out. (Good for someone who procrastinates.) But MAN if it isn't a pain to get there sometimes.
So Methods... 2nd night of class last night... I just kept thinking WTF?
Everyone is insecure in their own special way...and for me, reading this sh*t doesn't help.
Strategic evaluation is a methodology for analyzing U.S. national security policies and strategies. It is employed to help analyse how the United States can best shape its strategic conduct for managing the high politics of global security affairs and defense preparedness. As such, it has a more macroscopic focus than systems analysis or operations research.
Oh, yeah. Right. Clear as mud.
Blog blog blog, facebook, blog.
Ok. It's been a busy week...er...weeks.
It's funny, I'll be driving down the road and have some great thought and think, I shold blog that... and then I don't. I run out of time or whatever or mostly I forget my great thought.
Work has sort of been weird. There is lots of upheavel in my little neck of the woods and it's sort of a mess. Interesting how things never really turn out how you think they will. Oh well. The FY09 Defense Supplemental was passed by the House today, so that was good. And don't worry all you who listen to talk radio and FOX news - we are not going to let GITMO detainees wander around the streets of Virginia.
Back to the blogging or not blogging.
I've been facebooking lately. I joined Facebook a while ago, after my bff told me I needed to get with it. So I joined and friended my high school peeps. Then work people friended me and now I have lobbyists calling me by a name that I don't like being called unless I like you - among other things.
Another thing about facebook is that people actually know what you are doing. (I mean, if you tell them.) And that kind of weirds me out. The blog is anonomous. Or I just don't think about the people who read the blog. Probably no one reads it and I'm just talking to myself - which is fine too.
It's a fine line telling people what you are doing just for kicks and having an online forum to share your thoughts and musings.
Not sure what it all means. Other than the fact that I think I really need this bracelet....
It's funny, I'll be driving down the road and have some great thought and think, I shold blog that... and then I don't. I run out of time or whatever or mostly I forget my great thought.
Work has sort of been weird. There is lots of upheavel in my little neck of the woods and it's sort of a mess. Interesting how things never really turn out how you think they will. Oh well. The FY09 Defense Supplemental was passed by the House today, so that was good. And don't worry all you who listen to talk radio and FOX news - we are not going to let GITMO detainees wander around the streets of Virginia.
Back to the blogging or not blogging.
I've been facebooking lately. I joined Facebook a while ago, after my bff told me I needed to get with it. So I joined and friended my high school peeps. Then work people friended me and now I have lobbyists calling me by a name that I don't like being called unless I like you - among other things.
Another thing about facebook is that people actually know what you are doing. (I mean, if you tell them.) And that kind of weirds me out. The blog is anonomous. Or I just don't think about the people who read the blog. Probably no one reads it and I'm just talking to myself - which is fine too.
It's a fine line telling people what you are doing just for kicks and having an online forum to share your thoughts and musings.
Not sure what it all means. Other than the fact that I think I really need this bracelet....
Friday, May 01, 2009
Call it.
How many episodes of Grey's Anatomy can you watch before
A. your brain turns to mush
B. you decide that you're never setting foot in a hospital EVER or
C. you are a certified RN...
Because thanks to 2 and a half sick days on my couch, and I think I'm getting close on all three.
A. your brain turns to mush
B. you decide that you're never setting foot in a hospital EVER or
C. you are a certified RN...
Because thanks to 2 and a half sick days on my couch, and I think I'm getting close on all three.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)