King of All Remote Controls

Cable Craziness

With millions of customers across the country, any widespread Comcast outage affects a lot of customers.

Wednesday, its service to approximately 1.5 million customers (including me) was interrupted for 6 1/2 hours due to fiber being accidentally severed.  Here's the info I received from my local government's alert system:

An accidental Comcast outage has occured affecting 30% of their telephone traffic, approximately 1.5M customers, and taken down 20 nodes impacting all three services in S. Arlington and Crystal City, Additionally, it has taken out the 6 MHZ channels throughout the Washington Metro region and I-net and school sites are also impacted. Regional/system staff are on site working to make the repairs as quickly as possible, but it is likely to be an extensive restoration... This is a major fiber issue, and no estimated time has been provided as to when service will be restored. 

Somebody didn't pay attention to this notice.

But things here are back to normal now. I can safely get back to the political news and South Park!

I'd like to thank Frank, who I believe is Comcast's primary customer outreach guy on the web, for being so responsive in resolving customer issues.
   

Here's what this year's Washington Nationals tickets look like.

This is a portion of the print-at-home ticket. The people at the gate scan the bar code (not shown) to verify it's valid. Very convenient. I decided not to try the "bar code on the cell phone" option.

And here's a pointless self-portrait of me from a few days ago. It's not a mirror photo - I just pointed the camera at myself.

I'll send an autographed glossy copy to anyone who donates $100,000 to The Continuing KOARC Retirement Fund. I promise to use it to conduct an in-depth international investigation into the differences between Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish whiskeys. Purely in the interest of science, of course.

Nationals Park

The Washington Nationals' new stadium, Nationals Park, near the Navy Yard has been in operation since opening day.

Friday I went to the Nationals game against the Florida Marlins with one of my two brothers.

What surprised me favorably about the operation was how impeccably polite and helpful everyone working there was.

What was not favorable (in addition to the newly-increased ticket prices) was the high price of the food and drink at the ball park, with beer going for $7.50, hot dogs $7-$9, pretzels $6.00, bottled water (1/2 liter) $3.50, and coffee $3.50.  My brother asked me to mention that the Nationals' pretzels aren't nearly as good as the Orioles' pretzels.

But the good news is that there are lots of food vendors and a huge selection of food.  We ran into a little beer stand in an out-of-the-way corner of the stadium that had bottles of Guinness.  And while the woman attending the stand didn't even have a bottle-opener, it wasn't a problem, since I did.

The Nats lost to the Marlins 7-3, and the paid attendance was around 23,600 - which is about 56% capacity. Not bad, really, considering it was a weeknight with threatening skies and cool weather.

Here's the outfield entrance on Half Street.

Either these guys are pimping for members of the U.S. Senate, or someone needs to tell them that the team is called the Nationals and not the Senators. 

 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Monday was Sinko de Mayonnaise, the day on which we celebrate the Spanish Armada's sinking of the French ship carrying mayonnaise to the New World at the Battle of Puebla, and the triumph of Madison Avenue in convincing us we need to drink beer imported from our neighbors to the south.

Not wanting to disappoint the importers or those who voted for NAFTA, I opted to celebrate the fake holiday with some south-of-the-border beverages.

   

And while I was celebrating and watching Comedy Central on Comcast's local Channel 61 Monday afternoon, the signal changed from the usual programming to this.


Channel 61 was the only channel affected.

I didn't bother to call Comcast about it because there's now a Comcast representative on Twitter, the micro blogging platform.  I sent him the info, and he had a technician check the "headend" which was normal, and then my neighborhood "node."

The channel's normal programming came back on about 2 hours later. A bit later, I actually received a phone call from a Comcast service representative to verify that the problem had been resolved satisfactorily.

Any outage is annoying, and although many customers continue to complain about signal quality and outages, Comcast appears to be making a genuine effort to appear more responsive to customer problems.

 

Channel 61 dropping out was bad, but Comcast's response was good. However, there was also an ugly aspect to my TV experience Monday.

I made the mistake of switching to NBC and ran across this train wreck.

Yes, you are correct. It's a guy's worst nightmare. At least this guy's. As Marlon Brando would have said, "The horror. The horror."

Weekend Wrapup

Sunday was an interesting day. With temperatures in the mid-70s, it was just about perfect for any outdoor activity.

My neighborhood (along with many others along the route) was taken over by a bike race, the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic.

After an adequate period of spectating, I drove down to a golf driving range, Top Golf that was new to me.

Unlike most driving ranges, scoring is automated. The range knows which balls belong to whom and how far they're hit. And the distance of each ball hit (that is, those which land in the large circles with the sensors) is displayed on a screen next to the player.

Kinda cool, but I think I prefer the usual non-automated driving range.

But as nice as Sunday was, I also spotted this poor critter Saturday afternoon.

It was in good condition so it hadn't been there long, but it was definitely beyond help.

First Weekend in May

Yeah, it's the first weekend in May, and that means that Memorial Day weekend is just 3 weeks away. Swimming pool openings, bikinis, etc.

First here are some beverages sighted around Chez KOARC recently. Three malt liquors, and a white russian.

Next, some flowers spotted in the neighborhood this past week. Tulips, I believe.

Here's the current status of the reconstruction of the old Crystal Plaza 2 office building. It's slated to be condos or apartments when completed.

Next, here's the scene after a Loomis armored car broke down. They brought another armored car in and backed it up to the first car's back door and transfered the contents.

And finally, we have a study in contrasts. I think everyone can agree that Jared Fogle's Subway diet weight loss and subsequent weight maintenance is inspirational. Here's Jared in "before" and "after" pictures.

And in contrast, here's a gentleman who is embracing his girth.

I've got to admire both both guys' attitudes!

Picture Potpourri

Here are are some pictures I've either taken myself or found elsewhere recently.

These are close-ups of two of the bridge underpass mosaics that I posted last week.

That kid might be too young for this.


One thing both Windows and Mac users can agree on.


No comment required...

Pretty close to 16 oz!

Exactly 16 oz!

 

Some flowers I noticed today. Are they maybe Azaleas??

Another Neighborhood Art Project

Today I spotted a few artists decorating the U.S. Route 1 underpass on 18th Street.

I'm sure that when I next walk by there, there will be even more of these works of art on the walls.

        

To see the larger sizes, you can check out them in a Flickr set here.

Warmer Weather This Way Comes

Outdoors

While the weekend was rainy and cool, the past week here was mostly sunny and warm.



The trees were leafing and flowering, and the caterpillars were busy building their little structures.

It was perfect weather for lunch in the park.

       

   

Indoors

The whiskey was flowing like... whiskey.

The cheese was Fancy! ("Fancy"?)

The cute feline was acting cute.

And these two were on TV doing their thing in Nevada.

On Bizarre Foods

Two of my favorite TV shows are Tony Bourdain's "No Reservations" and Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Channel.

Both Bourdain and Zimmern are the real deal, traveling around the world and eating the local foods.

   

Both of these guys have ingested some pretty disgusting and/or bizarre items from around the world, including worms, cockroaches, fertilized eggs, armadillo, geoduck clams, warm bull blood, testicles and a few items I can't mention without making myself ill.

The Bizarre Foods web page is particularly fun, with a couple quizzes. Check it out here.

And here are just a few screen shots from that website, including a couple that you may recognize from the TV ad for the show.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

And speaking of curbs, here's the construction in front of my home. They're apparently getting serious about fixing the street-sidewalk interface.


I'll try to remember to post pictures of the finished work. Yeah, I know... nothing's quite as exciting as curb work.

And here are a couple more pictures of the airplanes in the neighborhood.



These and other new airplane photos can be found in the Flickr photo set here. Any additional pictures will also be posted to that location.