America This weekend we spent twenty-four hours in Washington DC. What an odd little town the nation's capital is. What is up with the barriers at the White House.. have you seen these? They are all half-assed put together. If I was the president, I'd be down there with a broom swatting people to get it all cleaned up. "I want my barriers to be matching!! Give everything a new paint job!! Tuck your shirt in, mister!!"
It's odd. While walking around I kept thinking that it didn't seem like my hard-earned tax dollars were really being used as well as they should. It's all pretty and nice, don't get me wrong, but a lot of it seems very façade-y and tired and in need of repair.
Boing As a young pup, the family took a trip there once and we hit a few sites like the zoo and the Washington Monument... and, I think that was it. Note to self: I'll have to ask my parents how long we actually stayed there.
I've always liked the Washington Monument with its modernistic monolithic thing. Favorite color: Green! Favorite food: Spaghetti! Favorite monument: Washington Monument!
Why Oh, right. Why we were there. Mrs. Robot her co-hort Don were the winners for the Animal Content in Entertainment (ACE) Grant at the SilverDocs featival in DC. This festival has a number of sponsors, but I believe Discovery Channel is the main sponsor for this grant. Or not. Or something.
It was a fun time.
Wide Lens For the trip down to DC, I rented a Nikon 12-24 lens for my D70 camera. It's wide and it's great fun to play with, although I found it hard not to keep it at the widest setting the whole time and have everything curvy. Also, it is only an F4 yet it costs $1,000. Isn't Canon's similar lens (10-20, right) an F2.8?
Walter Reed Also this weekend we heard about a friend's 19 year old nephew who is currently in Walter Reed after getting his foot blown up. Months ago, everyone was riled up about the treatment that the troops were getting (or not getting) when they came back. I'll save you my armchair ranting since I'm not in the armed forces or injured or have a family member who is or am a doctor... It's just that I get the feeling that nothing has changed. That's its still all screwed up and infuriating and sad and there are still families who when visiting their injured relative are saying, "um, WTF?!"