I use “chase” very loosely with respect to tomorrow when a cold front pushes across the Old Dominion. GFS and NAM still disagree a bit on timing as well as the amount of instability so I’m not expecting a lot. It will be a chance to iron out a few more…
I know a guy that knows a woman that works in the White House, and she generously gave up a Saturday afternoon to take us on a tour of the West Wing. The West Wing tour is not a public tour, the only way you get to do it is to be a big time donor, celebrity, or know somebody that works in the White House. Clearly, I’m in that last category. It starts with a background check several weeks in advance. Security to enter the White House is actually less of a PITA than the airport. At no time did I have to remove my belt and shoes, and my wife’s insulin pump, which always causes all kinds of drama at the airport, was a complete non-issue. I think that mostly speaks to the difference between hourly TSA agents and uniformed Secret Service agents.
My wife at the Big Red One memorial just outside the White House visitor’s entrance.
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Main entrance to the West Wing
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Me in the mud room / entrance hall to the West Wing. No pictures allowed beyond this point.
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The walls inside are lined with poster sized photos that depict the day-to-day life of the President. My favorite was probably the selfie with President Obama, Bill Nye, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Also on the wall was the original bell from the USS Constitution. We were at the door to the Situation Room at this point and somebody walked into that room, giving us a quick glimpse inside as the door closed. We also got to hang out in the Rose Garden for a few minutes, which was interesting in that it was completely devoid of roses. It’s a little early for roses to be blooming in DC, but I didn’t even see any roses bushes. The tulips were in full bloom, and gorgeous though. The Oval Office was also open and empty, so we got to look in from the door, where technically part of my foot crossed the threshold, thereby giving me the title to this blog post. I don’t want to criticize the decorating, so let’s just say I really hope that coffee table in the Oval Office is a family heirloom. The Oval Office is also much smaller than it appears on TV. We also got to look into the Roosevelt Room, where we could see Teddy’s Medal of Honor, and Franklin’s Nobel Peace Price, and the Cabinet Room, complete with cell phone caddy outside the door. No cell phones allowed in Cabinet meetings. That was pretty much it for inside the West Wing, so we stepped outside.
While we were out there we saw a shift change or something among the rooftop snipers, and two of them walked right by us. Those are some bad-ass looking dudes. They looked like they had body armor under under their uniforms, and the very large bags slung across their backs probably didn’t have a change of clothes in them. A minute later another sniper came from the opposite direction, headed to the roof with take out from the White House mess. His rifle was just slung across his chest, and it was a little intimidating. After that we hung out in the White House Press Room for a few minutes. It’s about 5X smaller than it looks on TV.
Selfie in the press room.
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We ended the day with an expensive, but very good, dinner at Old Ebbit Grill.
Previously – bowling at the White House.
AND in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, ro…
The first match of the year at the Cedar Mountain Youths range was this morning. The group has changed the format somewhat from previous years; the round count is low, there is little movement, and no steel. At first glance, an avid USPSA sho…
Given that SDS is rampant this month while awaiting the spring severe season to kick off I thought I’d repost this northern Virginia chase account from 2005: …
Indeed.
[ This content originated at Musings Over a Pint ]
The last stop during my trip to Orlando, was dinner at Ragland Road Irish Pub, located in Downtown Disney. Getting there required a ride on the free shuttle busses run between Disney properties; a ride complete with a vomiting kid who apparently overdi…
The last time I thought about my social media set up for long enough to bother writing about it was in 2012. I’m still using the same services, although the way in which I use them has changed a bit.
Facebook is still Facebook. It’s 100% personal for me. I don’t really do anything business related on Facebook. I’m pretty sure that I have less FB friends now than I did in 2012. I’ve thinned the herd a bit. I don’t use FB for photo storage at all. Other than mobile shots when I’m out and about I generally don’t post many photos on Facebook. I’m not happy the corporate America and the NSA are mining my Facebook content for who knows what, but since everything I post there is stuff I consider public, I don’t stress over it too much. I have all push notifications turned off. If you need to get in touch and time matters text or call me. My mobile number is on my profile page.
Online photo sharing is a constant source of agony for me. I’ve bounced back and forth between various self-hosted options, Google+, and most recently I’ve gravitated back to using Flickr. However, I post on average a couple of pictures a week, if that. I’m not life streaming so it probably doesn’t really matter that much.
I was sick of Twitter back in 2012. I’m sort of back on the Twitter bandwagon. I use it mainly for amusement, it’s sort of short form blog for me where I share interesting stuff, and snark among friends. I feel no obligation to follow anyone back on Twitter. If you follow me I’ll peek at your profile. If anything grabs my interest I’ll follow back. I’m constantly amused at the people with tens of thousands of followers that follow me, then unfollow a week later when I don’t follow back. Twitter is not a numbers game, it is a communication tool. If you want me to consume your content you have to say something interesting. However, I’m not thrilled that it seems to more and more like Facebook with every update.
I’ve given up on Google+. I’m allegedly in 800 circles, yet most updates that I post there get no interaction, not even a plus one. It’s not like I need to be adding to the Google dossier on me anyway.
LinkedIn is annoying, but kind of required for professional purposes. I have made some friends in two groups that I participate in, so there is that.
I’ve never even set up an account with Snapchat, or Pinterest, Instagram, or anything that came after Google+. A new social network is going to have to be damn compelling to get my interest.
And then of course there is this website which as been online since 1995. It’s my original, and still favorite social network.
