Alex's Life

Trip to DC: Tuesday (picture heavy)

2009-01-23T00:01:27Z

Hmm...did something important happen on Tuesday? It's hard to remember. :)

Started my day at 5AM when I woke up. Got dressed in the same outfit I wore to the concert but I added disposable foot warmers to the mix. I walked to the Metro station and got down to the platform at 5:30AM. It was *packed*. Think, 8PM on FirstNight on the MBTA. The sign said the next train was due in 4 minutes with another one just a minute after. I decided to hang back and wait for the second one.

The first train pulls up and it looks like it's one of those Japanese trains where they have employees to push passengers in until there literally isn't any space to move. There are just SO MANY PEOPLE. The train sat there with the doors open like that for about 10 minutes and then a voice comes on the speakers saying it's going out of service and they need everyone to exit the train! Once that's done (which wasn't easy considering how crowded the platform already was and how full the train was) they announced that the next train would be coming in on the outbound tracks so we all needed to go up the escalator and back down to the other side. This was going to take a long time with so many people but the funnel was flowing. I again decided to hang back. About 5 minutes later they came back on the speakers and said "Nevermind, this train is now back in service"!!! So there was a mad rush to get back onto the train and I managed to get in so it actually worked out nicely for me. :)

Even so, there was no room to move. There were multiple delays where the train would just stop for no reason and wait. I decided to get of at L'Enfant Plaza since the Smothsonian stop was closed for the Inauguration and the other stops would either be even busier or would be north of the parade route and they had all those streets closed so you couldn't even walk past them. Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea:

I finally got to the street around 8:30AM - 3 hours after I got to the initial train station. (NOTE: this was a record day for the Metro - they experienced over 1.5 million trips that day: http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=2440) From there I walked with the crowds towards the Mall. Up to the area around the Washington Monument it was already all closed off - even the standing non-ticketed area. So I walked around the Monument for a bit and used a portapotty while I could (and pocketed some toilet paper for later - just in case). I finally found a good place to stand where I could see a TV, the capital, etc... - basically the best view I could hope for given the circumstances. There weren't too too many people there where I went to stand which was good but as the morning wore on of course it started filling in.

By 10:30AM I was really starting to feel the pain. It was brutally cold, windy, the ground was hard under my sore feet, etc.... On the plus side everyone else was in the same state and we were all jumping around to keep warm, talking to each other, interviewing on cameras, taking photos of...each other, and generally in good spirits. Incidentally, there were many more people shooting on film than I expected. Also, some of the people with consumer-grade camcorders were still real news reporters I guess because someone next to me was interviewed and I saw them later that night on the ABC national news.

Also, who in their right mind wears *tights* to the inauguration in that kind of weather?!?!

There were a ton of helicopters just like at the concert but most of these were from the US Park Police. People would send their significant others to the refreshment tents to get coffee or hot chocolate and an hour and a half would go by before they'd get back! Eventually we got pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder but whenever anyone needed to get by people were nice and moved and such. It was really nice to be a part of that vibe. (It was similar at the overcrowded Metro station - people were clearing paths for the elderly and folks in wheelchairs and also helping kids stay with their families.)

I'm sure by now you've all seen the inauguration on TV or youtube or whatever. You may not have seen/heard the crowd booing when Bush came out and making noises for Cheney too. It was funny but at the same time a little embarassing to be a part of that. Say what you will about what horrible leaders they've been, they still had one of the hardest jobs in the world and deserve at least some respect to their faces. I hate what he's done to the country but I still respect "the President".

After the speech (which made me shout for joy on multiple occasions but *especially* when he mentioned athiests!) alot of people started moving out but the majority of us just sort of stood there looking around and smiling. Some people formed dance circles, others just danced in their own little worlds. Lots of pictures were taken, people with signs posed for shots with people without signs, etc....Some people even climbed on top of the portapotties to get a better view:

I took a walk around and after snapping more pics and seeing where the waves of people were going (towards the parade route even though they'd already shut off access by then) I decided to head over to the FDR Memorial. That was really nice and I can't wait to go back on some warm night to see it all lit up and with the water flowing.

I figured I was already out that way and there wasn't a Metro station nearby so I may as well go to the Jefferson Memorial. It was nice - especially the view of the Washington Monument from inside it. I could have done without all the god quotes but I guess that was the in thing at the time...

After that I headed over the river towards the Pentagon. My plan was to see the 9/11 memorial and then catch the Metro from there. Yeah, that would have worked great if the roads weren't closed but not even us lowly pedestrians could cross some of them so I ended up in some back roads and then eventually a shopping mall at Pentagon City.

It was only 5 more blocks to the actual Pentagon but I was done. I hopped on the Metro and headed back home. Amazingly enough I even got a seat on that first train before changing trains a few stops later.

What. A. Day. I witnessed the change happening and was a part of it. I'll have that for the rest of my life.

(Pics are uploading www.savitzky.com/gallery currently and should be done in a few minutes.)

Trip to DC: Monday

2009-01-20T03:58:56Z

So to "celebrate" MLK-Jr. Day my dad and I went over to the Arlington National Cemetery. I've never been there before. I really just wanted to see the Tomb of the Unknown but we got to see a few other things too including the JFK grave. It was a pretty damn powerful trip.

Before we headed out though we hit up a Peruvian chicken place ("Super Pollo") for lunch which was unbelievably tasty. Then we hopped on the Metro and headed out. It was crowded but not overly - other than the thousands of kid groups wandering around in packs.

We stayed until it closed at 5:00 and then headed towards the Memorial Bridge just to look across the river. Thought about continuing onto the Lincoln Memorial but it was late, we were tired, and there aren't any Metro stations near it so we reversed course and went back home.

Had a great burger for dinner but unfortunately we found that the dogs uncovered a half-bag of Butterfinger "Bells" - small bits of chocolate and butterfinger similar in size to a Hersey's Kiss. They ate them all - tinfoil wrapper and all. Yikes! So far so good though - they're acting normal so we're hopeful nothing bad will happen other than some extra tips outside for them to get rid of it all.

So, now I'm uploading the pics I shot today and then hopefully I'll get some rest before tomorrow. I'll probably try to head into DC by about 6AM and it's going to be *cold*. Should be a craaaaazy day. :)

(More pics of course at www.savitzky.com/gallery)

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

2009-01-19T05:46:34Z

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

So, What'd YOU do today?

2009-01-19T04:37:30Z

I hung out with a few hundred thousand of my closest friends:

(more at www.savitzky.com/gallery)

But let's go back to the beginning. I started my adventure after visiting some friends at Alexmas 2009. :) It was nice finally getting to one of those. Got to watch the new Battlestar episode which was cool and then I procrastinated until about 2:30 when I finally got on the road.

I made it half-way through Connecticut before almost passing out and deciding to take a nap at a rest stop. After sleeping for about 45 minutes I was woken up by a state trooper wanting to make sure I was ok. So, I was up again and thus back on the road.

Overall the drive wasn't bad - especially once the sun started coming up. I literally did not hit ANY traffic. Not at the George Washington Bridge, not near the Dulles airport in DC, nowhere. In fact, after getting gas in Jersey I didn't have to step on my clutch again until I got off the highway at the Air & Space Museum!
Don't you wish you were here?:

I was there from about 12:30 to when they closed at 5:30 and then headed to my dad's place (I did take a ton of photos which I'll post soon). Eventually found it though it was a bit hidden. He has two tiny spots in the parking garage but I couldn't fit in the one we planned to use because their car's battery was dead and it was taking up too much room. Jump start it you say? Easier said than done when you're dealing with a freakin' Prius. But eventually we got it done which was a relief.

After a little recovery we headed out for some really yummy Vietnamese noodles, then back to the apartment for beer and much-needed sleep.

I woke up around 10AM this morning and got dressed: thermal pants, thermal undershirt, cargo pants, long-sleeve shirt, thermal vest, thermal socks, new -40 degree boots, gloves/mittens, scarf, trench coat, turtle fur neck warmer, and my Patriots ugly-hat. I was freakin' set. And I'm happy to say it worked - I've never been warmer in my life while standing outside in the winter.

I took the Metro for the first time and headed into DC. Got off at a station not too close to the Mall so I could avoid the crowds but that meant I had to walk a bit. Not too bad though and the weather was nice to me. Cresting the hill where the Washington Monument stands was pretty incredible. At that point it was still an hour before showtime so the crowds weren't too bad up there. No way could I get down near the reflecting pool though - that place was nuts and officials had it blocked off already. But there were jumbotrons everywhere so it was fine. And I borrowed my dad's 18-200mm lens which was a lifesaver - I got some really cool shots which I've already posted in the gallery mentioned above. I called Dad to let him know the crowds weren't too bad and he should head down.

He did, but we didn't end up finding each other until after the concert. Our cell phones worked, but never at the same time. What a pain that was. Plenty of circuits but the cell towers just didn't have the capacity to keep up with the volume of all those people trying to make calls.

The show was great. If you missed it on HBO look elsewhere for it. Really great performances, nice speeches, and just an amazing event. I got chills a few times and teared up a bit too - very emotional to be there surrounded by such a sea of humanity. Early estimates say there were over 750,000 people there and amazingly enough there were no major incidents or arrests. Everyone was nice to each other and it was just a great vibe overall.

After the show, Dad and I found each other and decided to go eat at Zed's - a famous local place serving Ethiopian food. It was about a mile and a half walk and fortunately we go there *just* before most of the crowds arrived so we didn't even have to wait for a table!

The food was great and then we headed down the 4 block walk to the Metro station (I had originally planned to go down to some monuments to take pictures of them at night but I was just too tired). There were tons of police and passengers going into the station but when we got down to the train it was very empty - we not only got seats but there were even free seats still when the train left the station!

So, now we're home. We watched the first encore showing of the concert on HBO and then I hopped in the shower. It felt *SO* good!

Now I'm getting ready for bed. I think tomorrow I'll be checking out my dad's office and then head into DC for some museum time. Then tomorrow night hopefully I'll finally get to the FDR Memorial. Tuesday of course is the inauguration. What a week!

No strike for me

2008-03-20T02:28:25Z

I don't know if the community at large is going to cancel the planned boycott on the 21st but I'm not going to participate in it anymore thanks to LJ admitting their mistakes and apologizing: http://community.livejournal.com/lj_2008/3846.html. Bravo to them.

Check it out

2008-03-19T02:14:56Z

http://oasis6028.livejournal.com/15033.html

Check the link for details. I normally don't do stuff like that but this is important to me no matter how trivial it is in the grand scheme of life and the internet.

And FYI, for us on the East coast this is starting at 8:00PM on Thursday night.

And yes, I'm aware of the irony that everyone posting about the strike is just generating even more traffic on the site. :)

Distant Music in Lowell

2007-04-18T14:52:26Z

The latest play I'm working on opened this past Friday night. Saturday
night there was a reviewer from the Globe there and the review just came
out today!

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/04/18/an_intriguing_blend_of_spirit_wit_at_a_real_bar/

Photos from Julie and Mark

2007-04-07T21:44:30Z

Sexism at Rocky?

2006-10-31T17:30:28Z

Jimmy made a post recently http://jrising.livejournal.com/25259.html that others have linked to which is how I found it (since he's not on my friends list - it's too long as it is). It honestly shocked me. Much like the complaint we got about a couple of preshows from an audience member. The two she complained about both ended with the "objectified woman" killing the objectifier and "winning". How is that sexist? It's showing sexist themes that get beaten down by a strong woman in the end.

Do we love naked women? Of course we do. And believe it or not we love naked men too. I seem to recall that last month's preshow featured JD and Denny kissing and that got louder applause than any other part of the preshow. Do we tell women at the show they can't have a particular role or be in charge of something just because they're women? Of course not. We've had women in charge of every single tech crew at one point or another and we've had a woman play every single role on stage at one point or another.

Let's look at this. We have four crews. Two of them are led by women. If that isn't considered equal then I don't know what is. It might be sexist if they had to sleep with me to get those jobs but they didn't - no matter how much I begged Ruthie.

I guess I just don't understand how wanting to see women as sexy eye candy while at the same time *respecting* them is sexist. The people who join our show for the former without the respecting part are weeded out eventually and leave. Do we expect everyone at the show to be sexy? Actually yeah - in some form or another. I think every single person there is sexy and I have no problem telling them.

TESTING via JABBER

2006-10-13T03:10:36Z

I'm posting this via the JABBER plug-in on Trillian through my LJ account. Pretty slick. Check out the details at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=270

Will you have your towel tomorrow? I will.

2006-05-24T23:05:30Z

asavitzk @ 2006-01-01T18:08:00

2006-01-01T23:09:04Z

Happy new year!

How should we celebrate? I know! Let's have no heat and have to pay overtime to the oil company to come out and replace the controller box on our burner.

Yeah! That sounds like fun. :)

At least they got here really quickly and were super nice. And they gave me a brief tour of my heating system so I can do more of the work on it myself in the future (and I finally understand how the hot water tank gets filled...).

Oh yeah, and I'm sore as shit and orange too.

What a fun weekend though!

Anyone want to come over tonight for some hot tubbing?

I win

2005-12-25T06:49:52Z

Email is back up and running for Savitzky.com. The website/photo gallery will be down until I get time to move all that data over.

I built a new (well, old but new...) server and started a whole new savitzky.com active directory domain. A bit complicated internally but easier in the long run than any of the other alternatives. Plus, the old savitzky.com was created about 4 years ago when I knew alot less so this one is set up much better anyway.

I'm now running on a dual processor box (the giant IBM Netfinity 5000 with the window I put in it if anyone remembers that from my house) with a ton of ram and a nice RAID5 with hotswap drives. It's got Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 - both enterprise version.

I'll be attempting to load Windows 2003 Server R2 sometime tomorrow or Monday I think. No fear. ;)

If anyone had anything sitting on my server please let me know soon (other than Fang - I know about your shit). And if anyone had an email account on my server and still wants it, please remind me so I can check on it for you.

Oh yeah, and Merry Xmas/Happy Hannukah/Joyous Festivus to all.

no mail :(

2005-12-24T23:04:13Z

FYI, my email/web server has been down since yesterday morning. If you have something important for me please call. The rest of this weekend is being spent rebuilding it in the name of jesus. ;)

So what did you do on Saturday?

2005-12-13T02:10:56Z

I hung a new porch door:
http://www.savitzky.com/gallery/albums/album08/12_10_05_new_door.sized.jpg

What a pain in the ass that was...

asavitzk @ 2005-11-16T01:03:00

2005-11-16T06:03:28Z

I got mail today from Broadway In Boston.

My tickets to Wicked.

I just filled the cup.

Up and Down we go

2005-11-09T06:01:05Z

Up: Got the new CRM database at work going well - should meet the target live date.
Down: After making some changes to it, it crashed bad and couldn't be recovered - then found out the hard way that without the SQL Agent, Veritas BackupExec won't backup SQL database files.

Up: Had a guy walk in off the street yesterday looking for an entry-level tech support job. He was cheap and had Posi experience.
Down: He emailed me tonight saying he changed his mind.

Up: Went to the NIN concert tonight curtesy of Diana. Yay! It was most excellent.
Down: After wearing ear plugs for half of the first song I decided they made the concert sound like utter shit so I took them out. Now I have the typical post-concert-fishbowl sound ringing through my head.

Up: Me, right now. Way too late.
Down: Where my head should be going now since I have to be at work early for a 10:00AM interview. Dammit, I'll fill these positions no matter what!

Up next, final dress rehearsal at Turtle Lane and then the outside show in VT where I play on getting completely shitfaced at the afterparty.

Directions to Devin's Game

2005-10-30T08:00:04Z

For Joy (and anyone else who might be able to make it).

Devin's last game of the season - versus Chelmsford at 9:30AM.

McCarthy Middle School
495 North to the Rt.4 exit in Chelmsford. At the top of the ramp take a left (over 495). Go about 3/4 to a mile and the McCarthy School is on the left. Turn left in the second driveway and parking is available on both sides of the school.

asavitzk @ 2005-10-28T14:40:00

2005-10-28T18:40:55Z

Can't wait to go!

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/news/dinner_and_a_show_18226.asp

One more game

2005-10-23T19:54:27Z

Devin has one more football game this season. It's an away game this coming Sunday - October 30th. It's in Chelmsford and I believe it's at 9:30 though I'll firm that up as it gets closer.

All you people who said you would come to a game - this is your last chance this year. :)

After the game I'm going to CT for my grandfather's 80th birthday party and then coming back home for that night's Patriots game so if anyone wants to meet me back at my place that night to watch you're more than welcome.

Damn mice

2005-10-10T16:00:23Z

(geek mice, not real ones)
So for the last Idon'tknowhowmanybutabunchof months I've suffered at home with a weird mouse problem. The forward/back buttons on the side wouldn't work and the scroll wheel would only scroll down. If I tried to scroll up it would either refresh the page or move go back or forward at random.

Pissed me off but I couldn't find any button mappings that were wrong. Most sites I found via Google for this suggested to me it was related to my KVM but I didn't have an option there since I have a server as well.

So this weekend I reloaded my PC and holy crap - the mouse worked again! I was so happy it was silly. But then last night the inevitable happened - everything went back to the way it was.

But now I knew I could fix it because I had seen it work properly the day before - there was hope!

And it actually didn't take me very long to find the setting either. In the Device Manager I went into my mouse settings and to the Advanced Settings tab. There's an option there called "Fast Initialization" which was checked. If you right-click on that and choose "What's This?" the popup tells you:
"Enables or disables fast initialization, which increases or decreases the time it takes the operating system to start up. If your mouse is behaving erratically (moving in random directions or acting as though you have clicked buttons when you have not), clear this check box."

So I cleared the box and rebooted and now everything is right as rain.

Thus ends our geek sharing lesson for the day.

Nano goodness

2005-10-10T03:07:24Z

Thanks to overstim I now have my first iPod ever with a screen - the 4gig Nano in black. I'm happy. :)

So I went searching to see what cool shit I could get for it. I was having problems getting iTunes to sync it with my Outlook calendar which apparantly is a pretty common problem so I found a program called iPodSync. It syncs the calendar, contacts, notes, and tasks from Outlook into the iPod. It also grabs the latest local weather, movies, any other website/rss feed you tell it to, and email if you want.

Then I also found (from the same maker of the sync program) a cool utility called iAlbumArt. It analyzes all the songs in your iTunes library and downloads albumart for them - and loads them into the MP3's ID3 tags as compressed images so now when I play the songs either in iTunes or on the iPod it will have the proper album art as if I bought them online through the iTunes music store. Rock.

This feels like a drug. I have a slight twitch and a feeling that as soon as I fill up this 4gigs I'll be clamoring for the 60gig fullsize model next. :)

Oh yeah, and as of version 5 of iTunes there's now a tab on the get-info for each song to paste in the lyrics for that song which you can then view later on in the iPod. Someone needs to make a utility to automatically search those out and load them in just like the iAlbumArt thing.

Ahhh, sweet Serenity...

2005-09-28T02:48:56Z

Yeah, the movie kicked ass. Lots of surprises, lots of predictables. It gave some nice backstory to the series and of course furthered it along quite a bit.

AWESOME dialog and action scenes. VERY well acted and filmed.

Can't wait for the return of the series. ;)

Serenity baby!

2005-09-27T16:56:24Z

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

Check it out at www.serenitymovie.com and then be jealous that I'm seeing it tonight and you have to wait until Friday. ;)

Give Devin money!

2005-08-18T19:46:17Z

Since Devin's playing football now, he has to do fundraisers. The first one they're doing is a discount card. Basically, you buy one for $10 and then you get discounts until the end of September of 2006. Some of the stuff is local to the Marlboro area (like "Classic Pizza" I think) but others are chains like McDonalds and Burger King that I know you all go to. Check out the discounts here (and yes you can use it over and over again):
www.savitzky.com/other/panthers_card.pdf

If you want one just give me your $10 at the show and I should have the cards for you on the 27th. Let me know if you have any questions.