Originally uploaded by thetejon

The concert was, and I don't hesitate to use this word, amazing. The openers, Street Sweeper Social Club, featuring Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, were cool. They put on a good show. If I still ever listened to music, I would think about buying their new album next week. We did not stay for Jane's Addiction, so I can't say anything about them.

When we arrived, having bought presale tickets through NIN.com, we found that not only were we not on the grass, but we were actually on the floor, right in front of the stage. Now, my friend and I are not really the type (Or the age, I guess) to crowd up front, but I could have held a conversation with Trent at a more or less normal volume from the distance we were away. Not with the crowd there, sure, but that's an idea of the how close we were.

By the way, note to other bands - this is how to treat your fans. Presale tickets just required that you sign up at the website. When we arrived, there was a longish line to get in, and a short line to get presale tickets at will-call. I handed them my id, they gave me my tickets. They had my name printed on them. We went straight over to the presale entrance line, where they checked id again. So we couldn't possibly have scalped them, even if we had wanted to, and we barely had to stand in line. Plus we got awesome seats.

Do you notice how this makes you money, makes your fans happy, and works perfectly with or without the horrors of music piracy?

And then Nine Inch Nails came on. This is a text I sent the wife:

This is [expletive deleted] awesome. I'm getting goosebumps every time they start a new song

They played a great variety of stuff. They played the song from The Crow soundtrack, which was surprising. They played "Gave Up", one of my favorite not-as-well-known songs off 1992's Broken. They closed with "Head Like A Hole" and encored with "Hurt", much to the delight of the crowd.

For most of the concert, I was just standing there, thinking, "I can't believe I'm here listening to Nine Inch Nails live". I'm looking forward to telling the kid someday how I left her with the wife to go see them. "Dad, you're old", she'll probably say. But that's okay.

Edit this setlist | More Nine Inch Nails setlists

Our honeymoon registry website recorded its first transaction today for a person we don't know. The registry for our first customers has done well, but we know them. Well, I don't, but the other guy who built most of the website knows them.

Today was the first time someone we don't know had something purchased from their registry. For the record, it was $100 towards "A visit to Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai's most famous temple, located on a hill overlooking the city". Chiang Mai, for those that don't know (I had to Google it) is a city in northern Thailand.

It's pretty exciting. The website we built because it seemed like a cool idea is actually getting some use. Not a lot, yet, but some.

So, remember, if you need a free custom honeymoon registry, you know where to go.

This one happened across the pond, not in DC, but this story is nearly as good as our local hero who beat DC parking enforcement.

They decided to change some parking rules in (near?) London. To do this, they paint double lines on the street right next to the curb. This is in stark contrast to the ridiculous signs they put up here in DC, or sometimes the total lack of markings, requiring you to just know that you can't park within five feet of an alley.

So this woman's car was parked legally before the unpublicized change to the rules. After the change, she would be illegal. So what did they do? They lifted her car off the ground, painted the lines, and put the car back down. Parking enforcement then came by and towed her for parking illegally. The article linked above has an awesome picture.

She eventually got her MP involved and was refunded the 2400 pound fine (I think the exchange rate is better now than it was last time I was over there, but that's still nearly $4000).

By the way, Express, feel free to quote me again, but try to get it right this time.

Here is a story of a man who beat the DC parking enforcement machine.

"Even when there were shootings on my block last year, I wasn't this disappointed in my city," he wrote in one protest email. "D.C. effectively stole my automobile."

After the city gave him a "courtesy tow" to an illegal parking spot, lost his ticket contestation documents, and booted and towed his car, he actually got them to return the car to a spot near his house. Then he had them do it again, because the first time they brought him the wrong car. I talk a lot about my small victories over DC parking enforcement, but this puts me to shame.

I had lunch with his wife on Friday - she works with my wife, and a group was going out to watch some basketball, so I joined them. Had I known her husband was a giant among those of us who joust at the windmills of parking enforcement, I would have bought her a beer.

I've been having a problem with the power supply on my work laptop, a Dell Precision M2300. Rather than charging my laptop, it will frequently beep at me. This makes it difficult to get much done - I'm a software engineer, and all the code and my dev environment is on this laptop. When the battery goes, there is very little constructive work I can do.

So I contacted Dell Pro Support. I believe this is different from what most people get - since my company has a contract with Dell, we get the business-level tech support.

And they're pretty amazing. I told him what my problem was and he arranged to have a new one overnighted. Can't ask for much more than that. And his English was perfect. I don't care if companies want to outsource tech support to other countries, but the person who speaks with me needs to speak my language well enough to understand and fix my problem.

Anyway, I just had to share. I mean, if I write "good experience with Dell Tech Support", that pretty much guarantees a good Google ranking, right? There can't be more than a dozen results for that . . .

Edit to add: Of note - banging the power supply on the floor a bunch of times makes it work again.

A little while ago, I found out about the new 43 bus that goes underneath Dupont Circle instead of through. Today, I rode it for the first time. I almost didn't - my usual S2 came by as I was waiting to cross I Street. I didn't rush because I didn't think I would make it, but then the light changed, and I still didn't rush, and then three people made the driver open the door before the light turned green. So I would have made it with even the slightest bit of extra effort.

But no matter. The 43 bus came by just a minute later. I've been wanting to try it, but unwilling to forgo the S2/S4.

It was wonderful. But I fear it won't last long. I got on at 3:30PM on a Monday, early rush hour, but already busy on the S2/S4. There were maybe 15 people on the bus between 15th and I and 16th and Columbia. Maybe this is normal for the route, but I can't imagine WMATA is happy with those numbers.

I did run into a problem with the stop request strings and buttons - none of them worked. I thought perhaps standing by the back door would work, or maybe that the requests were being relayed to the driver but not displayed on the big screen. But I was wrong. Luckily, a kid who wanted the stop after the one I wanted pulled on every string in the bus until one of them worked, and the bus stopped just one stop later than I wanted, and I didn't even have to go up and ask the driver.

I will definitely ride the 43 again. I won't pass up an S2/S4, but if the 43 comes first, it's a great alternative.

The wife and I took the kid out for her morning walk this morning and decided to stop in at Pan Lourdes, the new-ish coffee shop/bakery on 14th Street just north of Columbia Heights Target. It was great - they have a big refrigerator that makes a lot of noise and even vibrates the floor just a little bit. The kid slept like a rock in her stroller. She stirred a little bit when it cut off, but then went back to sleep.

The coffee is nothing to write home about, but the baked goods are pretty awesome. I think they all come from the big bakery on 11th Street near Wonderland, but I'm not sure. It's funny - I imagine someone from Central America would recognize most of the baked goods, but I sure didn't. I mean, if I go into a Dunkin Donuts or something, I recognize what most of the things are without needing a sign. Maybe I can't tell the difference between raisins and blueberries from across the counter, but at least I'd be close.

At Pan Lourdes, nothing looks familiar. And they have nothing labeled. I suppose I could have asked the guy behind the counter, but that's not as adventurous. I had something with a stripe of red frosting, and the wife had something with lemon. Both were good.

We'll definitely go back, for the fridge if nothing else. Everything is really cheap, too - four dollars and change for two pastries and two coffees.

The Orioles came back from an early 3-0 deficit last night to beat Josh Beckett and the Red Sox. I'm sorry I missed the game, but I was having dinner with the wife (Post to come) and then watching basketball.

The game puts the Sox a half game back from first place Tampa Bay (Never thought I'd write those four words) and keeps the O's in third, 3 back. Not a bad place to be for a team expected to win 65 games this year.

Now, I've complained about the hold before. It's a stupid stat that rarely measures anything of real value to a baseball team.

But there was an interesting hold credited last night to an Orioles pitcher.

So, top of the seventh, Boston leads off with two singles, so we have guys on first and second with no outs. It's 5-3, Baltimore. Jamie Walker relieves Jeremy Guthrie and promptly throws a wild pitch and walks Ortiz to load the bases for Manny.

Pretty much anyone who has ever heard of baseball knows that no outs, bases loaded, and Manny Ramirez at the plate is bad times for the defense. This could be very ugly, very soon.

Jim Johnson relieves Walker and Manny grounds into a double play, then Mike Lowell pops out to end the inning.

THIS IS A HOLD. Bases loaded, no outs in the seventh, two run lead, and the 4-5-6 hitters coming up - allowing no runs here is a really nice pitching performance.

I have no problem giving the guy credit for a hold here. But I do have a problem with the next inning, where with one out, Johnson walks two and gives up an RBI single before getting lifted for the closer.

So, we have to try and get to the root of the hold. Is it given for getting out of a jam, regardless of the next inning? That is, let's say he had given up a two-run home run before getting lifted, making the score 6-5 Sox. Does he still get the hold for the previous inning?

Maybe my real problem here is my reaction to pitchers issuing walks. I think it's because I feel like, if the pitcher allows a hit, then the batter beat him. It sucks, but it happens.

But if the pitcher allows a walk, then he beat himself. I mean, sure, some guys are better at drawing walks than others, but in the end, the pitcher still has to throw four pitches that don't go through the strike zone and don't provoke a swing. Maybe my initial reaction to Johnson's night would have been better if he'd just given up two hits and the run instead of the two walks.

Anyway, I still hate the hold stat. But at least Johnson earned it this time.

So how's this for a great Friday evening:

I'm sitting on the couch. To my left, the windows are open because it's a gorgeous spring evening. Right next to me on the couch, the wife is napping, waiting for the Celtics game.

I have a kitchen full of beer and wine left over from my birthday party last week. We have the ingredients ready for dinner, pasta with tomatoes and asparagus, plus some cauliflower poppers.

In front of me is my brand new work computer, on which I've just installed Launchy, which everyone should install on their Windows machine. It's similar to Gnome-Do for Linux and Quicksilver for Mac - I've been using Gnome-Do for a while and I love it, and wanted something like it for my Windows work machine.

And speaking of Linux, my personal laptop is currently downloading and upgrading to the latest version of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron.

So, I have sports, food and drink, computer geekishness, and my fabulous wife. I have no idea what more I could possibly want.

So, I'm trying to think of something I want to write about rather than rehash yesterday's Orioles game. No one wants to hear about it - O's fans will just get depressed, and the Rays don't have any fans. Maybe the players' mothers. Anyway.

So I thought I might write about Quacker of the House Nancy Pelosi advising the President to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies to protest China's all-around unpleasantness, but then I was reading the article and my eyes started to glaze over. No one cares what advice Nancy Pelosi has for President Bush. She'd be more likely to get a reaction out of a large rock.

Then I thought I should say something about IBM's temporary suspension from getting federal contracts for some horrendous thing they did to EPA that no one will explain. This is huge news, but until we get some more details, it isn't all that interesting. Or maybe it's not interesting because my mind is refusing to grasp the massive incompetence or malice necessary to actually be disciplined by the government at all.

But really, the most exciting thing about today is that I plan to go meet Charles Stross at the Brickskeller tonight. He's one of my favorite authors, and he's in town for something or other. He claims he's trying to fend off jet-lag, but anyone going to a place with a beer list like this is merely fending off sobriety.