Life is a State of Mind

The company I work for has had an Office Administrator whom we all like, but he is leaving us soon (for a job much closer to his home in Woodbridge). We need a new Office Admin. I think computer office application skills (MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) are wanted, as are the ability to accept packages from UPS/Fedex/USPS/DHL and occasional runs to Costco/Price Club and very rare lifting and cleaning. I have no idea what the position pays, but can put you in touch with he hiring manager and HR person if you are interested.

More gorgeous weather got us off to a good start today. Erci started writing a paper while I went to the Fortune District (Soka Gakkai) discussion meeting on “What is Kosen Rufu and how can we achieve it in our lifetimes?” that Mike and Steve lead us in. I particularly liked a passage Steve had selected from the SGI website about separating people from their victimhood so they could find happiness being a key to stopping violence. I am trying to find the passage, because it was so very good.

Then we headed out to Gadino Vineyards where dance teachers from The Ballroom Studio taught some basic Salsa and we did the Gadino wine tasting. We liked their “Sunset” blended white wine, that had characteristics of a light Gewurztraminer and their Cabernet Sauvignon and bought a few bottles of each. The drive out and back was gorgeous; it had just rained, and the mountains were shrouded in a blue mist.

On our way back from little Washington, Virginia, we stopped at Blue Ridge Seafood for some lobster, snow crab legs, and gator tail. Very informal and very good eats.

I must be dreaming. Three days in a row with no need to close windows nor run the air-conditioning. Gorgeous weather, can it really be August near Washington?

Temperatures are still getting up to 90 in the afternoon, but there is so little humidity that it’s comfortable to be active, work, or even exercise without being drenched in sweat in a few minutes. Very unusual, very welcome. The cats have been enjoying more outside time with us, and I have been pulling weeds and doing a little yard work. Erci is still prepping for her RHCE/RHCT class and exam, and writing papers for her MBA financial class. Yesterday she got out for a couple hours of errands and I enjoy turning the music up and catching up on some house-cleaning.

Scott get’s pedantic for audio geeks after the fold…
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There is something very, very wrong with a society that thinks it is acceptable for police to violently kick down the door to a private family’s home, shoot the family dogs and physically restrain the family while they conduct a search for drug dealer materials or other incriminating evidence, all because a large package of cannabis sativa was discovered in the postal system with their address on it.

Let’s suppose for a moment that this family actually is part of a massive Cannabis distribution ring. In a sane and just society, the police would have to get a warrant to search the premises. No violence is called for in any way because Cannabis simply does not imply violence. Ever meet a violent offender who is stoned on Cannabis? It just does not happen. The use of violence against Cannabis users and dealers is completely unjustified and should be punished to the maximum extent of the law. The very nature of Cannabis being a controlled substance needs to be called into question. The discovery of this stuff in the postal system is a problem too, but that requires a whole story all to itself about the privacy of the United States Postal System.

All of this becomes much, much worse when the news reports that the family were completely innocent, had no knowledge that this package was coming to their house, and basically had no idea what hit them until police broke down their door, shot their dogs, and tied them up while an illegal and warrant-less search was conducted at their home. We probably would not have heard about it if the family did not also happen to be the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland and his wife.

Why was violence justified?

NewsChannel 8 Story

Just fiddling about with Wayfaring.com, I started putting together a map of local vineyards near my home.

Local Vineyards:

Locations we visited in Japan in 2005:

My latest favorite music fascination is Rodrigo Y Gabriela, metal/rock inspired flamenco and classical guitar influence original music by two guitar virtuosos. I am a little sad that I do not think it will be practical to see them live, but want to share the information that they will be touring this area of the East Coast of the United States soon!

Rodrigo Y Gabriela are playing The National in Richmond, Virginia on Friday, August 8th at 9:00pm. Tickets are $25 each; and a good show is pretty much guaranteed. The following day, August 9th, they will be playing the V Festival in Baltimore. That festival is more money for each ticket ($99 and up I think), but you get to see the Foo Fighters and many other bands as well.

In case you have not figured out how awesome they are, this is from their website:

If you are interested, but not local, check out the list of Rodrigo Y Gabriela Tour Dates to see what location and date will work for you.

Just got back from lunch with my co-workers. We ate at Cafe Antonios (Herndon, next to where Bamyan used to be and near the K-Mart). I had a seafood salad special an garlic mashed potatoes, and it was remarkably good. Every one I was with was a member of the clean plate club, and the arrival of the food brought conversation to a halt because it was that good. Most of their menu is online, and they do half portions to help the calorie and budget conscious. I will be going back.

It is astonishing that our Virginia Republican controlled House of Delegates is willing to continue to refuse compromise and block any sort of transportation relief for Virginians stuck in traffic. Perhaps they believe that voters will forget by November 2009 when they are up for election again… Heck, perhaps they are correct and voters will have forgotten. They had short memories last year when progress-blocking Republicans won re-election in 2007.

Please prove them wrong and remember this fiasco:
http://raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=14920

Remember how much this legislature cared about the hours you spend stuck in traffic when you vote in November of 2009. Throw the bastards out of office, please.

Last Sunday, and I picked up fellow SGI member Ros in Centreville, took her to Vienna Metro and we rode in to Farragut North, then caught a bus to the brand new Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Washington, DC Cultural Center at 3417 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.

It is a lovely building, and we had an inspiring meeting there with experiences shared and some chanting, though I foolishly got the start time wrong and we missed opening chanting (gongyo). Ros is fascinating and we enjoyed the whole trip in and back with her talking about life experiences and jobs. Parking in the area around the new cultural center was not nearly as bad as we’d assumed, and I suspect I may carpool, but drive all the way in next time as the busses were unpredictable and slow.

I still want to sing the praised of the DC are public transportation planning site though:
wmata.com/
The trip planning site is very useful for planning your trips. You can prioritize on time, transfers, or money; it includes information about competing (non-Metro) busses and trains, and it is very informative. If you plan to drive part of the trip - just skip that leg of your journey.

There are more photos of the new cultural center at my .Mac gallery.