June 2002 Archives

This Saturday, Sarah and I went to the Herndon Festival. We basically went to see Mark Erelli, who we'd seen open for Lucy Kaplansky a short while ago. He was great and so was most of the other music we listened to. It was extremely hot out and Sarah got extremely burned. I actually burned surprisingly little and most of my burns have faded to tan already.

We got there around 12:30 or so and stayed until 3:00 or 3:30. We went to see Star Wars Episode II, then puttered around until around 8:00 or so. We went back to the festival in time for the fireworks. The display was actually rather impressive. A lot of fireworks pretty much non-stop for 15 minutes, choreographed well with the music they chose. A good, crispy time.

Posted on June 3, 2002 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I started my training today for my new job. I've been sent off to learn Microsoft stuff, since most of the people working there now know mostly Novell and don't really know much about 2000 Server and all that. So far, the class has been fairly boring and I haven't learned anything new, really. But it's only been one day and I figure things will pick up soon. Hopefully.

I've added a comment feature to my MP3 of the Week thingy that I don't think anyone's listening to anyhow.

That's about it for me. It's damn hot out, so I'm glad the place I'm getting trained is heavily air conditioned. Woo!

Posted on June 10, 2002 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'd mentioned this before, but it's coming up soon, so here's a link to some great information about this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Sounds awesome.

Posted on June 11, 2002 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One class down, one to go. It's too bad this isn't going to get me any type of certification or anything, but that's a bit more expensive. Or a whole lot more expensive. But anyhow... the first class was pretty good. Seemed to go a bit too slow in some places and maybe a bit too fast in others. But the fast places seemed to be designed to make you take the next class or the next two in the series, so I understood. Hopefully this will arm me with the knowledge I need to do what needs to be done in my new job. I'll find out soon enough.

I wish I wasn't such a slow reader. I honestly don't know why I'm so slow. I read a lot as a child, fiction and non-fiction both. But it hasn't helped my reading speed one bit. Even a comic book takes me longer than I feel it should. The point is, I have a stack of both books and comic books I haven't read yet. Dammit.

Posted on June 16, 2002 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sorry I've been a little quiet lately. My computer's been acting up lately and I haven't been able to figure out why. I might have it pinned down now, but we'll see. Until it's fixed, I'll probably continue to be rather quiet.

Computer suck.

Posted on June 25, 2002 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today, Sarah and I went to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It was incredibly hot out today, but we still had a great time. And neither of us got sunburned TOO badly.

The food was rather expensive ($8 for a stromboli and $6 for a thing of pasta), but I guess we sort of expected it at something like this anyhow. The other food areas may have been a bit cheaper, but I doubt it. One thing that was probably worth the price was the Frozen Silk Road Punch or whatever it was called. At $5 for a 20 oz. cup, it seemed expensive, but... it was so very yummy, so I didn't mind so much. I don't think I've ever tasted a better fruit drink. If you get a chance to go, try it.

Anyhow... the festival was really enjoyable. We didn't see everything and we didn't watch each performance we went to in its entirety, but that gave us a chance to see a variety of acts. We never managed to find the dervishes that were supposed to be there somewhere according to the above-linked page, but that's O.K.

When we first got there, the throat-singing had already started, so we rushed over. Luckily, the place they were at was right by the metro stop. I couldn't see too well, but I could hear just fine. It was really interesting to hear. It just sounds like it has to be incredibly painful to do, but it's just so... fascinating. The music they were playing was great, too, and I really loved the female singer in the group.

After that, we pretty much just wandered all over the place, searching for stuff to see. And there was plenty. I think, for me, the highlight was the Asian mask theatre act at Nara Gate. It was very cool.

I'm definitely glad we went. There was a lot of great music and dancing to see. And great crafts in the craft area, too. There was this one woman doing silk work that was just amazing. The fine detail must've taken forever to do. Watching her work on even a small area was cool.

The crowds were pretty heavy today. But I expect they'll be worse on the weekend. And especially the following weekend, when it'll be a holiday weekend. So I'm definitely glad we went on a Thursday. I can't even imagine how bad it'll be on other days.

We managed to avoid any rain until we were heading home, so that was cool. :)

All in all, it was a great time and I'm glad we got to go. I highly recommend it to anyone in the area who has the chance to go. And now I'll stop rambling.

Posted on June 27, 2002 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I hate Netscape. I really do. Version 6 seemed neat. It was faster and seemed to have a smaller footprint. Things seemed great.

Last night, I accidentally hit the "compact folders" option on the mail menu, since it's right beneath the "empty trash" selection. Suddenly, 4 or 5 of my mail folders vanished. My inbox was still there. My sent folder with about a year's worth of sent mail was gone. Also my mail about any outstanding orders I had, mail about mailing lists I'd joined, and all of the miscellaneous saved mail I had was all gone. I checked for the files and they were no longer there. But the index files for them were still around, so I can at least see the headers for the mail I no longer have. Yay.

Stupid Netscape.

Posted on June 30, 2002 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, this week was supposed to be my first week at my new job. But I'll be taking another class before I start. This one should be great for my new job, since it's about integrating Novell and Windows 2000, which is the type of environment I have to deal with at work. This should definitely help me feel more confident about being able to perform my duties. The class runs until Wednesday, then I get the 4th off, so my first day of work will be Friday. :)

I'm keeping the latest MP3 of the week up for a day or two longer, since I put the last one up so late. Yay!

Posted on June 30, 2002 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)