summer summer
Summer has made its sluggish, humid entrance in DC. I saw my first firefly of the year on Saturday! This means it's time again for me to see how long I can put off installing my air conditioner, which on days like this means finding free, air-conditioned things to do around the city.
The Library of Congress screens old movies from their archives a couple of times a week, and Friday night I went for the first time. The movies were Queen of Burlesque and Tiger Fangs. They were both delightfully bad, with screaming showgirls, busted plotlines, and man-eating tigers controlled by Nazis. Tiger Fangs dealt with the challenge of making it look like the characters were constantly surrounded by wild animals, namely by flipping back and forth quickly between stock footage of tigers and monkeys. Perhaps the best scene was when the chubby Nazi got trampled by a stampede of elephants, and by stampede I mean that the footage was sped up to make the walking elephants look like they were running.
On Saturday I spent a delightful afternoon at a storage facility in Alexandria, rummaging through boxes left behind by a deceased patent examiner. Judging by the paperwork in the boxes, this guy was a patent examiner from the late 50s to the late 90s. There were ~60 boxes of fantastic old equipment; mostly electronic stuff. Just as interesting were the boxes of papers (patents? patent applications?) with diagrams and notes. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures later this week.
This morning I drank and then promptly sweated out a couple of liters of water while working at the farmers market (in the shade!) and if I could hire someone to bring me a bag of ice every Sunday at around 11, that would be just great, thanks. After the market, I ran home and took a cold shower before meeting up with my best friend from kindergarten and first grade, who I haven't seen in 18 years, and who is now moving to DC. Thank you, Facebook. The rest of the day was wasted in front of the TV sucking on ice and watching a Law and Order marathon with one of my housemates, because the first floor is the only part of the house that's at a reasonable temperature right now (86).
The Library of Congress screens old movies from their archives a couple of times a week, and Friday night I went for the first time. The movies were Queen of Burlesque and Tiger Fangs. They were both delightfully bad, with screaming showgirls, busted plotlines, and man-eating tigers controlled by Nazis. Tiger Fangs dealt with the challenge of making it look like the characters were constantly surrounded by wild animals, namely by flipping back and forth quickly between stock footage of tigers and monkeys. Perhaps the best scene was when the chubby Nazi got trampled by a stampede of elephants, and by stampede I mean that the footage was sped up to make the walking elephants look like they were running.
On Saturday I spent a delightful afternoon at a storage facility in Alexandria, rummaging through boxes left behind by a deceased patent examiner. Judging by the paperwork in the boxes, this guy was a patent examiner from the late 50s to the late 90s. There were ~60 boxes of fantastic old equipment; mostly electronic stuff. Just as interesting were the boxes of papers (patents? patent applications?) with diagrams and notes. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures later this week.
This morning I drank and then promptly sweated out a couple of liters of water while working at the farmers market (in the shade!) and if I could hire someone to bring me a bag of ice every Sunday at around 11, that would be just great, thanks. After the market, I ran home and took a cold shower before meeting up with my best friend from kindergarten and first grade, who I haven't seen in 18 years, and who is now moving to DC. Thank you, Facebook. The rest of the day was wasted in front of the TV sucking on ice and watching a Law and Order marathon with one of my housemates, because the first floor is the only part of the house that's at a reasonable temperature right now (86).
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