Sunday, October 09, 2005
i'm in DC
Well, no not really in not. I'm Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland. And I'm somewhat drunk, and somewhat surly.
I'm up here for the OWASP web-app-sec 2005 conference. No link because you can just google it and I'm free forming these thoughts, no time to link anything.
I flew in Reagan National. This at first glance appeared to be the crappiest run-down airport I'd ever seen. Then I least the immediate gate area and saw all these vaulted cathedral-style ceilings and that was kinda rockin, but still old and outdated.
The DC Metro has to be the cruftiest, most 1970's-looking rapid transit system around, and I've been on a lot of 'em. The stations all look like rejected designs for Space Mountain. And approximately half the escalators are under repair.
Montgomery County has their own bus system called "Ride-On" that connects with the Metro but doesn't use the same fare cards. The bus is $1.25.
Today I took a very brief walking tour of downtown DC. Basically the beareaucracy tour. I saw the department of Education, Transportation, HUD, DHS/FEMA.. this is where your tax dollars go people, to build a bunch of big blocky buildings in DC. Your city probably has a city hall and courthouse, and if it is a city of a certain size you probably know how monolithically soul-sucking and imprisoning those buildings are. Well, those are just little slices of DC in your home town. On both sides of the Mall, except for the Smithsonians, it's like a whole city of your local DMV.
Gaithersburg, or at least the parts right around this holiday INN, is worse. I had 'dinner' at 'O'Malley's Irish Sports Pub' in the basement of the hotel. An 'Irish' pub that does not serve Guiness. Ginness. Guinues. I may not be able to spell it but they still don't serve it. Their menu lists a location in Auburn Hills, MI. That's about right. Auburn Hills is the other place I've been to that is this bleak and empty of a suburban experience.
I stopped drinking and came up to my room to blog this, but I may just have to go back down there and drink some more.
I'm up here for the OWASP web-app-sec 2005 conference. No link because you can just google it and I'm free forming these thoughts, no time to link anything.
I flew in Reagan National. This at first glance appeared to be the crappiest run-down airport I'd ever seen. Then I least the immediate gate area and saw all these vaulted cathedral-style ceilings and that was kinda rockin, but still old and outdated.
The DC Metro has to be the cruftiest, most 1970's-looking rapid transit system around, and I've been on a lot of 'em. The stations all look like rejected designs for Space Mountain. And approximately half the escalators are under repair.
Montgomery County has their own bus system called "Ride-On" that connects with the Metro but doesn't use the same fare cards. The bus is $1.25.
Today I took a very brief walking tour of downtown DC. Basically the beareaucracy tour. I saw the department of Education, Transportation, HUD, DHS/FEMA.. this is where your tax dollars go people, to build a bunch of big blocky buildings in DC. Your city probably has a city hall and courthouse, and if it is a city of a certain size you probably know how monolithically soul-sucking and imprisoning those buildings are. Well, those are just little slices of DC in your home town. On both sides of the Mall, except for the Smithsonians, it's like a whole city of your local DMV.
Gaithersburg, or at least the parts right around this holiday INN, is worse. I had 'dinner' at 'O'Malley's Irish Sports Pub' in the basement of the hotel. An 'Irish' pub that does not serve Guiness. Ginness. Guinues. I may not be able to spell it but they still don't serve it. Their menu lists a location in Auburn Hills, MI. That's about right. Auburn Hills is the other place I've been to that is this bleak and empty of a suburban experience.
I stopped drinking and came up to my room to blog this, but I may just have to go back down there and drink some more.
