Rallying to Restore Sanity and Fear

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We started out expecting a fairly average day in the capital of the nation. That was not to be. Who knew that when you hold a rally with 215,000 people (as estimated by aerial photographers [Citation: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20021284-503544.html]) most of whom were traveling into the city from outside of it, it puts a strain on the transportation systems?

The roads were fairly empty once we got past mile 62 on I-66. According to WMATA, they set a Saturday record of 825,437 trips. That’s compared to 350,000 on an average Saturday. [Citation: http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=4717]

We left Broadway just after 7:30am. Kelly and I and our friend KBru took our car and headed North, making a brief stop at McDonalds in Newmarket for breakfast before getting on I-81. We were right on schedule for the Vienna/Fairfax Metro exit at about 9:15am when we reached the queue. It stretched back about 2 miles, and after sitting in it for 20 minutes we decided to try our luck at one of the next exits. This turned out to be one of the three best decisions we made that day. It proves that prior basic knowledge of the system works in favor of those trying to use it in ways they never have before.

We got to the West Falls Church exit at about 9:45 (literally just a couple of miles down the road). We found a parking space in record time, and proceeded to the station. It was at this point that we went back to waiting, and shortly afterward I started taking photos on my ‘new’ cell phone, received the day before. (It’s a certified pre-owned, and it replaces the Nokia that I washed a few months ago. It also has a camera!)

10:12am: West Falls Church bridge over I-66 East. The bridge is crowded by the line to the ticket machines. The road underneath is practically empty. The view back two miles on the same road is VERY crowded.

10:13am: We got bored and did what we usually do – take photos of ourselves.

10:25am: We’re getting close to the ticket machines. This lady we saw a couple of times, she looked like a white lady, and was wearing a big sombrero that said something like “I-legal, fear me!” on it.

10:29am: This is the set of lines for the ticket machines. KBru has started knitting in line. Kelly is off to the side as per the request of WMATA. She rejoined us not long after this.

10:45am: We made it on to the platform.

It was shortly after this point we made the second of our best three decisions of the day. Every train coming into the station (the third on the line) was crowded. One or two people were getting on. After about three trains we decided to try doing the non-obvious. We got on a train going the other way. This spawned our catchphrase for the day – “Backwards is the new forwards.” Someone on one of the trains had yelled out the door that they had boarded a train headed away from the city and stayed on it. After all, once they reach Vienna they just go straight back in to DC, and the trains were pretty empty going that way. When we got to Vienna we found (as we expected) that the trains were full leaving there.

The journey into the city was fairly uneventful. Almost every stop had someone with a hilarious costume or sign (a couple of Waldo characters, at least one person wearing a grape costume, I even saw a TARDIS cutout. The one sign I remember said something along the lines of “Three words that will solve the economy: Gay Bridal Registry”).

12:27pm: The museum of American History (if I’m reading it correctly). Those of you who know the Smithsonian will know that at this point we are practically there. This guy also has a really cool improvised drum kit, and he plays really well. Unfortunately I didn’t get a video at all.

Here is just a stream of photos I took while on the mall. I don’t remember enough details to caption each one. There are a few doubles of things, mostly cool signs I saw. We took a photo of KBru outside the Canadian Embassy, and there are photos of the several thousand people who just walked up one of the streets (I forget which, it was headed towards Chinatown).

I run out of photos about now because my camera battery died, but we walked through Chinatown looking for a place to eat, but they were all really busy. We walked up to Union Station – not a bad idea but not great. We ended up eating standing up, having been sitting on the floor in an alcove and being asked to stand as we were considered a safety hazard. Being reasonable and understanding people, we complied – there was nothing we could do to change the minds of the people enforcing the rules, they appeared to think the rule in particular was stupid anyway. We took the metro from Union Station back to Metro Center, where we made the third and final “best decision” of the day, taking the Metro towards Maryland a few stops and then heading back through the crowded city.

The trip from there was uneventful – I remember a little girl who was obviously tired who I talked to briefly about “coming out from the ground” – she had said it and then thought it was a silly thing to say, I told her it wasn’t. We disagreed politely.

A brief stop was made outside of DC (I always forget what it’s called, but there’s a Sheetz and a McDonalds right beside each other, and we almost always stop there on the way out of DC either for food or gas or both..). We were all in need of a bathroom break and some snacks for the ride home, which brought as back to Broadway at around 9pm. An enjoyably sane day in the city of Washington DC.

Something Wrong With This Picture?

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I bought a car this week. Kelly and I now have two cars (ironically, the car I’m driving is in Kelly’s name and the car she is driving is in my name..). They are practically exactly the same, though I’ll post more about that probably next week after I take some more photos. But because there are certain things I like to have in my car, I have been wandering the aisles of the auto sections of stores grabbing the couple of things I really really like to have. While I was there, I noticed ‘racing pedals’ to replace (or cover) the ones that came with the car. Fair enough. What I don’t get is the idea of racing pedals for automatic transmissions:

This may just be my full-of-crap opinion, but I don’t think that using an automatic transmission to race should count at all, and to that end I think that racing pedals for automatic transmissions are off the horrible end of cheesy when it comes to mostly pointless car ‘upgrades.’

The Greatest Form of Flattery …

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From Wikipedia:

Flattery (also called adulation or blandishment) is the act of giving excessive compliments, generally for the purpose of ingratiating oneself with the subject.

Historically, flattery has been used as a standard form of discourse when addressing a king or queen. In the Renaissance, it was a common practice among writers to flatter the reigning monarch, as Edmund Spenser flattered Queen Elizabeth I in The Faerie Queene, William Shakespeare flattered King James I in Macbeth and Niccolo Machiavelli flattered Lorenzo II di Piero de’ Medici, ruler of Florence and Duke of Urbino, in The Prince.

They say that the greatest form of flattery is imitation. I hope so, because I’d like to introduce my brother, ZeKeSbRo. He started a blog recently, and the similarities between his and mine are remarkable 😉

I’m sure he’ll have some interesting things to say and things that bore the poop out of you, just like mine. Only time can tell.

In other news, my wife and I are looking at buying another car, probably purchasing on Monday.

It’s a 1997 Subaru Outback, it’s black, it’s a 5-speed manual, and ran great when I test-drove it. It is the limited edition – leather seats and a few other things I probably haven’t spotted. It’ll match our 1998 Subaru Outback nicely!

Of the Feline Persuasion

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EDIT: I wrote this two days ago, and while I could swear I clicked “Publish,” apparently I didn’t..

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Olive “Fishy” “Stanky the Bulldog” “Bolivia” Gilbert died last night, assumed to have been hit by a car at some point between 7pm and 1am on South Sunset Drive in Broadway, VA, aged 1 (human years). Olive was a friend to most, albeit from a distance, and the only cat in the house to really like Crash, her ‘brother.’ Found by her dad on his way home from work, collected and placed in a paper bag and cardboard box by her grandpa, to be buried in a small ceremony this evening.

I don’t really like cats. They are kinda weird. But they have grown on me, and while it seems odd to think about, she was my cat. The last memory I have of her was her laying on the couch in the living room, resting. I kicked the end of the couch a couple of times and she just glared at me, knowing I was the cause of the sudden vibration that was disturbing her sleep. I passed her in the truck when I got home from work, some time just after 1am, and wasn’t sure it was her. I came inside the house and ran a quick sweep, looking in vain to see if I could see her somewhere. When she was nowhere to be found, I let Kelly know that I thought I’d seen her on the road. After we checked the house a little more thoroughly, I got in the car to go and take a closer look. I don’t like dead things, so I didn’t get too close, but from the first side it looked like a generic tabby cat, but slightly Olive-like. So I got back in the car, and turned around and took a look from the other side, and I saw it. The mitten. The single feature of her body that would allow us to identify her to anyone, anywhere. Not wanting to touch her, I drove home to deliver the bad news. At about 1:30 my inlaws were woken, and my father in law and I walked down the road to collect her. She was rather stiff, so it had been some time. Judging by the way she had been laying on the road, it had also been a quick death – a small consolation to a terrible event.

This afternoon I dug a hole, about 1.5 feet deep before I hit too much clay and rock to get past. She will be buried tonight. RIP, stanky kitty.

Diary, Model Railroad, 7, etc..

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This is really stretching out! Anyway, since the last post I’ve done little but prepared much. Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

What I’ve achieved: Completed painting both sections.

Yes, that’s all.

That said, I have ordered more ballast (since I have one pack of light and two packs of dark – not very close to meeting my requirements), I have ordered more terminal blocks (so I can rewire the second section much more cleanly), I have ordered a 20->24 pin ATX adapter and a 24->20 pin ATX adapter – this should give me both male and female sockets for 20 and 24 pin. I’ve also ordered DPDT switches and momentary on switches – enough to build a control panel. I’ve also printed onto paper some cardstock buildings, and I’ll be gluing those to the poster board that I also acquired at some point in the near future.

My coming plans involve forming a road (I’m thinking a paved road and a dirt/gravel road or two) through part of a section. The problem I’m having is deciding where. I thought I had left space in the track layout, but it seems there are some tight spaces where I’m thinking of putting buildings. It would also be cool to have a rail-in-road space somewhere, I’m thinking along the back where I was planning on putting a one-car container terminal, and building a fence around the facility for security etc. Lastly, I realized that I hadn’t made any account for uncoupling magnets, and I don’t like the idea of them being incredibly visible (unless they can be disguised as something else in some way?) Therefore I either need to lift pieces of track just enough to squeeze magnets in underneath (perhaps thin magnets?) or use stronger ones under the baseboard.

These problems and more to be found and hopefully resolved, soon. Here are some photos.

The messy module is seen above a Lighting Direct box (all the way from New Zealand). It is also the one with the least paint (although it is now finished – no photos as yet.) The other module is facing the wrong way, but is otherwise ready for the next step, whatever that may end up being.

Diary of a Model Railroad, part… 6?

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I think I’m up to part 6, at least. Anyway, there was a long period of no-development on the layout mostly due to finance. I now have a job (cheers, applause, etc, etc) which means in addition to being able to pay all our bills, we have enough spare money that I can devote a little more to the trains.

A while back I picked up a cheap terminal block on eBay, and will likely need another one soon for the other half. Also, I bought a sampler-sized pot of brown paint yesterday and I utilized both the terminal block and the paint this morning.

So today there were three things achieved, albeit small. Firstly I replaced a section of track that had been bothering me for a while, ever since I laid it and it didn’t really work out. So today it was removed and replaced with a better job. I’m yet to test it, but it looked fine to the eyes.

The second job was rewiring the underside of one module using the terminal block. It now looks a lot tidier, and I just need to run the master feeds back to the end and work out how I’m going to connect the two modules electrically.

The third and final task completed today was painting around the track with the brown paint. The idea behind this is that when I put down grass or whatever other scenery, if it becomes chipped or I miss a spot, it looks more like dirt than just a piece of real-sized hardboard. It probably needs a second coat, but that will have to wait.

That leaves my to-do list rather short: I need to figure out the electrical connections (20/24 pin ATX connectors?), I need to figure out how I’m going to cover or otherwise hide the turnout motors (long ones, sitting along the straight-leg of each one) and I need to actually wire the turnouts, even if they don’t go anywhere. I’m also planning on ballasting track soon, so my t0-buy list is slowly growing again: another pack of lighter colored ballast, another terminal block, some DPDT switches and some momentary switches for the atlas turnout motors.

Looking for a Christian chat server?

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I’ve been using IRC since the late 90’s. Starting with ChristianCHAT.com (when they were still using IRC, and still based on WebNet), I moved to CCNet, then to ChristianWorld, then back again, and then it became a big blur as I discovered a large number of Christian IRC Chat servers. But that was over 10 years ago – the world of Christian IRC has changed several times since then, and the number of Christian Chat servers is in decline.

Especially with Christian-Chat.net closing their IRC server in the last month or so, the users have spread or just stopped chatting. This is my attempt to review as many of the Christian IRC servers I can find, as fairly as I can, although it is also entirely based on my experience as a more-experienced-than-average user. I also try to list the website, the IRC address, and the average number of users at peak. Peak time is usually considered to be weekends or evenings, ranging from about 7pm til 12am ET, and chatters may or may not be active outside of these times – this is just typically when things tend to become active. Lastly, if I’ve missed any – please let me know so I can check them out and add them to the list. I’d appreciate it, and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the free advertising.

Let’s start with the one I am most biased towards, and then move on with the rest.

UCCN – the United Christian Chat Network. (irc.unitedchristianchat.net, irc.godsirc.com, irc.christian-irc.com, irc.i-al.net)

UCCN is the largest network in terms of servers and services. Using 3 client servers (4 if you count the IPv6 server), UCCN is almost entirely redundant, allowing for any one server to fail and still serve the users. The staff are nice, and the policy is for as much self-government by channels/rooms as possible. Average of around 25-30 real users at peak.

JesusFreak-IRC – the Jesus Freak IRC Network. (irc.jesusfreak-irc.com)

JFIRC is the server that seemed to pick up most of the CCNet users, and is run by former CCNet staff of various capacities. Undying (Jeremy) is the official owner, with Ducky hosting the network on his home server. At the time of writing, the server is unavailable due to hardware failure. JFIRC are a lot more like the old CCNet, using a closed channel registration model, and a much tighter level of control from the server staff. Averaged around 20-30 real users at peak.

RGC-Chat – the RGC Ministries server. (irc.rgc-chat.net)

I haven’t spent a lot of time at RGC’s server, although they seem like a nice enough group of people. Channel registration is also closed, requiring a request to be made for opening a new room. Average seems to be around 20 real users at peak.

aBlazeNet – the aBlaze Network. (irc.ablazenet.org, irc.ablazenet.net, irc.ablazenet.com)

I used to work as an IRC Administrator for aBlazeNet, back around 2003 or so. Not a whole lot has changed – still an open registration model, meaning anyone can register a new channel, and the staff are rather easygoing and don’t interfere with channels unless they need to. Average seems to be around 20-25 real users at peak.

SalvationsCorner – Salvations Corner (irc.salvationscorner.net)

Once a hopping place, Salvations Corner is now one of the quietest and most desolate IRC servers I have seen in recent history. With 2 users, not much goes on. I’m sure they’d appreciate some new people! Average maybe 5 real users at peak.

CalvarysLove – Calvary’s Love (irc.calvaryslove.ca)

A while back, Colin (SeekHim) was an active member of the staff at UCCN. One day, some disagreements happened that apparently were unresolvable except by him leaving, and he elected to start his own IRC server. I took a brief look today, and he seems to be averaging the same number as he did those years back. Average maybe 5 real users at peak.

JROI – Jesus Rocks on IRC (irc.jesusrocksonirc.net)

To be honest, this one I can’t give an unbiased review towards, because I have been a ban-on-sight user for as long as I can remember. This means I can’t be on the server for more than about 5 minutes before I am shunned (meaning I can’t do anything – noone will see what I say, I can’t join channels, etc), I am force-parted (meaning a staff member forces me to part any channels I’m in, so that it appears I voluntarily left), and then banned from the server. As far as the users see, I join, I say hi, I part, and don’t come back.

The funny part is, I’m not entirely sure why. I endeavored to find out once, and was told (via a third party) about some event where I tried to steal the server. I vaguely recall the event in question, although my recollection appears to be completely different to GadFires (the owner of JROI). I would be happy to discuss this with him, except he refused to respond to any of the attempts I made to talk to him about it.This would also surprise me, except that his reputation precedes him as being a kick/kill/ban first, ignore questions later kind of admin.

As I recall, from the few times I was able to evade bans long enough to actually chat, the users are all rather nice. The staff aren’t always technically literate, but they are very friendly and somewhat happy to chat. They are a younger group, most of them are teenagers, so this should be taken into consideration also. According to SearchIRC’s listing of JROI, they have around 50-60 users. Taking into account services, this has a reasonable average of around 40-50 real users at peak.

On Muslims and Ground Zero

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Do I think the attack on the twin towers and the pentagon in 2001 was right? No.

Do I think those who think in the way those who attacked the United States on September 11th should be punished for any action they take in line with those thoughts? Yes.

Do I think that every muslim is a terrorist? No.

I grew up in a Christian home. I made child-like commitments when I was young, but it wasn’t until I was in my mid-late teens that I actually began to understand and feel what I’d said I believed for so many years before. I believe in Jesus, and I do everything I am able to strengthen my relationship with him. I identify myself as a Christian.

I also like T-shirts with messages, some are humorous, some are from events, some have more serious messages. I don’t always think about the t-shirt I’m about to put on in the morning, and today was one of those days. I took a quick trip to 7-11 and the girls at the cash register asked me what was on the back of my shirt. I turned around for them so they could read it, and then commented “Well, that’s right!”

See, today I am wearing a shirt that has a little cross on the front, and the message says “This T-shirt is illegal in 40 countries.” On the back it has Romans 1:10, and reads: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” My heart and my mind believe that this is the truth, that there is one way to heaven, to the father, and that is through a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

But not everyone believes that. Some believe that they must follow hinduism. Or buddhism. Some believe that they must follow the laws of the old testament, and disregard Jesus as the Messiah. And heaven forbid, some believe that Mohammed was right, and that Allah is the one true god.

Herein lies a problem. These are all religions with similarities and differences. And so we come back to the arguing point, and that is the constitutional right for every individual to be able to freely practice their religious beliefs for so long as it does not violate any other laws. The baptist church I attended for nearly 2 years would pray every Sunday morning, thanking God for the opportunity to freely practice Christianity, unlike in so many other countries in the world where Christians face ridicule (real ridicule, not just being pointed at and laughed) or even death for what they believe.

All over this country, Christians are free to practice Christianity. Hindu’s are free to practice Hinduism. Buddhists to practice Buddhism. Pagans to practice Paganism. Jews to practice Judaism. Why should Islam be restricted differently? Because a few extremist muslims took several thousand lives on one day? The problem in any society usually isn’t the vast majority – it’s the extremists. The extremists who bomb abortion clinics. The extremists who discuss or attempt assassinating the president. The extremists who seek to destroy a group of people based on their race, or hair or eye color. The ultra liberals who will kill in order to allow change, and the ultra conservatives who will kill in order to prevent it.

By refusing to permit law-abiding citizens their otherwise constitutional right to practice religion simply because of what that religion is, and because it is what other extremists claimed theirs to be, we open ourselves a whole can of worms. Do the Christians stand by the actions of the Crusaders, who killed thousands upon thousands in the name of Christianity? Do the Christians stand by the beliefs of the Westboro Baptist Church, who picket the funerals of fallen soldiers (because they believe the war is an act of God against the USA) as well as synagogues (because Jews don’t accept Jesus as the Messiah), catholic churches (because every single priest is a child rapist), the list goes on. Judging Islam based on the actions of the 9/11 hijackers, based on the actions of the London bombers, based on any other extremists acts, is not only hypocritical (for those of us who disagree with the actions of groups like WBC) but stupid, and sets us up to be exactly like the countries where I could be imprisoned or even die for wearing my t-shirt today.

And so, to the group of muslims who wish build a mosque close to the ground zero site: So long as the site would be otherwise permitted to have a Christian church built on it, and so long as you are as peaceful as the average Christian, I support you.

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” — Robert F. Kennedy

Diary of a Model Railroad, Part Five

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Alright, alright. Yesterday I promised photos. But today I’m too excited to wait until I’ve uploaded them all – it’s done!

I once heard on a video that “a model railway can be finished, but it is never completed.” This is very much true for mine, which is presently nameless. I finished up the wiring this morning and tested it all, and all tracks work electrically, and I was able to fix most of the problems. I have a couple of pieces that I will need to pull out and actually fix (including a very sharp turn that I was aware of when laying, but ignored. Now I get to fix it.)

It is a very operationally intense layout. To get any of the cars from storage to a business requires the loco to run around them, and with one exception requires at least one switchback. I’ll draw up a diagram later and probably post tomorrow (with photos?) to show where things are and how it is intended to work.

Once I fix the couple of minor track faults I’ll be ready to consider scenery. I also need to create a control panel which will also involve tidying up the wirings underneath, then I can look at wiring turnout motors (and hoping they all work electrically). Another pressing issue is the electrical connections between the two sections and the control panel. The right side needs to have 4 blocks plus ground (so 5 pins) and the left needs 6 blocks plus ground (7 pins). Additionally, the left side has 5 turnouts that need to be switched and the right side has 8. Some of those can be combined, but I still need 4 pairs of circuits (9 pins – 4×2+ground) to the left and at least 4, possibly 5 or 6 to the right.

Such questions can wait to be answered tomorrow. I have more practical things to do tonight, like socializing!

Diary of a Model Railroad, Part Four

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I had hoped to have some more photos ready for this post, but they’re on my camera and that’s in the car, 20 minutes away. Maybe next time.

Anyway, I have very nearly completed the first half of the layout. The right-hand side has all but two pieces of track laid, and all but one set of track feeders in place. I’ve begun laying the matching track pieces on the left hand side, and this is basically where I’m holding myself up. 4 pieces of track cross the line between the two sides, and of these 2 are done and dusted. The third needs me to lay a curved piece of flex track across the line, and this is where I lose excitement. I want to do this section first, because the fourth and final section to cross the line is the one that actually has a useful purpose on the left hand side, rather than just being sidings to store cars for businesses that the model will ‘serve.’

I divided the whole layout into several sections. I doubt I’ll ever operate it with more than one person, but in theory it could be operated with two engines, and with the split sections that becomes a little easier with basic DC power (since I’m underfunded for DCC right now..). For now I’m tying all of the feeders for the sections to each other and then I’ll link those to a single pair of wires to the controller until I make a real control panel with switches etc. I also need to find some 3-way wire to wire the turnout motors, but again that can wait. My goal is to be able to drive on at least part of it by the end of the week.

In other news, I’m fast running out of solder, so I may need to hunt down some more..