(no subject)
Wow, what a weekend! I had a blast and have many stories to tell... so lets get to it! Not all of this is reality, for my mind gets a bit fuzzy at times :)
This weekend Emerson, Tim(Emerson's cousin), and I went to Washington DC to attend the National Conference on Organized Resistance. We left around 5pm on friday, after I got off work(4:20pm). We arrived in DC(after we stopped to eat) around 11pm. We parked at the Pentagon City Mall($16/day parking fee... and only $16 parking fee if you lose the ticket!) which had a Metro entrance in the basement. Hoping onto the metro, we head to our hotel, getting a bit lost a few times, eventually getting to our hotel around 12:45am.
The hotel we were staying at was the Marriot(emerson's sister works at one, so we get Marriot hotel rooms for $85/night.) We enter the hotel lobby, dressed as the bums and radicals we are... Emerson gets to work getting us our keys and such while I grab a 2 cookies(that are free on the counter) and go sit down in the lobby to log online to check a few things for tomorrow. Emerson comes over to Tim and I and tells us we can't get a room due to not having the original hotel order(though we had a confermation email that said we only needed to show our ID.) The guy at the counter was not helpful at all, he rather disliked our presence and was being an ass; of course, all three of us were courtious. After a bit of back and forth, we eventually decided to give up and try to find another hotel(at 1:30am.) Due to being slightly annoyed by the situation, before I leave, I go grab 3 more cookies(one for each of us.) The guy behind the counter says I can take a few more(with a bit of sarcasm in his voice.) I politely reply "No thank you." and head towards the door. The guy behind the counter mumbles and groans as I exit, clearly calling me a "Bastard"!! :) The guy was about 45-50 yo and called me a bastard... I feel proud and honoured :) I decided there was no point to a confrontation and headed out.
Hoping onto the metro again, we head over to a road where emerson knows there are some hotels, eventually finding ourselves(after watching a 2 guys help another fellow around, while that other fellow was COMPLETELY trashed) a Holiday Inn for $99. We head up to our room, figure out what workshops we want to attend in the morning and fall asleep.
We get up early around 8am, grab showers and food, and head to the metro. First stop is the marriot from the day before, to talk to a manager... which was pointless for it seems that the hotel didn't have a manager on hand over the weekends!
So we head to the car, dropping off our night stuff. We then head to the conferences that is located upon the American University campus. While on the way over, we meet a few people also going to the conference and chat with them. We eventually get to the conference and look around for registration($12 for the entire weekend, though it wasn't exactly needed to be paid, we decided we have the money to help sponsor the event), taking us 30 minutes to eventually find the registration table and we pay.
The conference consisted of between 500-600 radicals, all in assorted punk clothing and awesome hair styles. Awesome! Plenty of booths to look at, plenty of things to learn, and plenty of people to talk to! We head to a few conferences, along the way finding a few interesting characters. The first one was a chess professor who wanted to create a community driven resource network, using a team-based chess game to demostrate. He was a bit of a looney, but he seemed to be trying to do good. Two others we met(at that workshop) was Pugsly and Lisa. Lisa seemed pretty cool, Pugsly on the other hand was past loony. This fellow saw a conspiracy in everything and seemed to see everything as an enemy. He was odd and entertaining(for the most part.) After the conference we ran into these two again and decided to hit the town, stopping first at their hotel room to drop some things off and for them to smoke up a bit.
We head downtown and wander around looking for a place to eat, eventually stopping at a sushi bar. Absolutely wonderful sushi, if ever in DC, check out "Uni" over by Dupont Circle. Emerson even tries raw quail eggs ontop of raw fish eggs! :)
Finishing up, we head out again, meeting up with two of Pugsly's and Lisa's friends. The four of them just wanted to get wasted, so we split, deciding to find a Jazz Club. We eventually located an awesome place called Columbia Station, which had live jazz every day of the week, playing to a house of between 40-50 people just hanging out and listening. We arrived at 10pm, but the band didn't start until 10:30, so we went down to a cafe and got some drinks and hung out for a bit. Heading back in, we find the band setting up, the band being Audiofix. Consisting of a set of turn tables, a drum kit, a walking standup bass, and a trumpet, they rocked(jazzed?) the night from 10:30 to 2:15am. It was such a blast, Emerson and I stayed for the whole thing, Tim decided he wanted to go to sleep and left around 1am. We chatted with a few of the people in the club, along with tipping the band... who then gave us a free cd :)
Emerson and I decided to head to the place we were going to stay, which was a church(St. Stephen's Church) that offered its floor to everyone who attended the conference. The church had 2 levels for people to sleep, the main room, upstairs, was where the actual church was, people were scattered around sleeping on the floor. Tim went up and went to bed. The basement is where Emerson and I went, for they were still partying(3am.) We hung out with two different groups, the first was from New Jersey I believe. They were sort of eh-cool, heading to bed soon after we started hanging out. The second group was from New York(Ithaca) and were pretty damn cool. We all hung out until around 4am, just chatting and such. Its always such a blast to find and talk to like minded people.
We eventually headed to bed, sleeping in what we wore on the cold, hard tiled floor. Emerson got about 3 hours of sleep, I got 2 hours, before waking up shivering(I don't have enough body mass to keep warm!) We got up and left around 8am. We gave our contact info to the people from NY(hopefully they will contact us) and headed out to find a place to eat, taking Tom(from the group from NY) as our guide. We eventually found a cafe a few buildings over from the Jazz Club and ordered food/drinks, though Tom had to head back because they were going back to the conference on sunday. Due to the super bowl, we decided we should hit up the national monuments and such.
So we hop onto the train, heading to the car to drop off some more stuff and head over to the national mall. (though on the train, we got a bit turned around and took the wrong train... you haven't had fun on a subway until you get off one train as the one of the other line opens its doors - sprinting up a set of up escalators, across the tracks, then back down an up elevator(wee!) and getting in with less then a second to spare....) Once getting there, we check out the Washington Monument, the WW2 Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and then the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
At the museum, we got to see the White Knight, the first privately sponsored space entry vehicle! We looked at other assorted displays and viewed both an IMAX film(about the Mars Rovers) and a planetarium about space/galaxys. It was fun :)
After a long day of all this, we decided we better head home(we all had aching legs.) Due to spending a lot of money this weekend, I called up Aly and had her find directions to the closet Cici's Pizza($4.50 for an pizza/salad buffet.) (Thanks Aly!) We went and got the car, headed over to eat, and then headed back home, getting in around 10:20pm.
NCOR was a blast... but DC and the people at the conference were even more awesome. The highlights were the Jazz club and hanging out with the people from NY. I love radicals! :)
This weekend Emerson, Tim(Emerson's cousin), and I went to Washington DC to attend the National Conference on Organized Resistance. We left around 5pm on friday, after I got off work(4:20pm). We arrived in DC(after we stopped to eat) around 11pm. We parked at the Pentagon City Mall($16/day parking fee... and only $16 parking fee if you lose the ticket!) which had a Metro entrance in the basement. Hoping onto the metro, we head to our hotel, getting a bit lost a few times, eventually getting to our hotel around 12:45am.
The hotel we were staying at was the Marriot(emerson's sister works at one, so we get Marriot hotel rooms for $85/night.) We enter the hotel lobby, dressed as the bums and radicals we are... Emerson gets to work getting us our keys and such while I grab a 2 cookies(that are free on the counter) and go sit down in the lobby to log online to check a few things for tomorrow. Emerson comes over to Tim and I and tells us we can't get a room due to not having the original hotel order(though we had a confermation email that said we only needed to show our ID.) The guy at the counter was not helpful at all, he rather disliked our presence and was being an ass; of course, all three of us were courtious. After a bit of back and forth, we eventually decided to give up and try to find another hotel(at 1:30am.) Due to being slightly annoyed by the situation, before I leave, I go grab 3 more cookies(one for each of us.) The guy behind the counter says I can take a few more(with a bit of sarcasm in his voice.) I politely reply "No thank you." and head towards the door. The guy behind the counter mumbles and groans as I exit, clearly calling me a "Bastard"!! :) The guy was about 45-50 yo and called me a bastard... I feel proud and honoured :) I decided there was no point to a confrontation and headed out.
Hoping onto the metro again, we head over to a road where emerson knows there are some hotels, eventually finding ourselves(after watching a 2 guys help another fellow around, while that other fellow was COMPLETELY trashed) a Holiday Inn for $99. We head up to our room, figure out what workshops we want to attend in the morning and fall asleep.
We get up early around 8am, grab showers and food, and head to the metro. First stop is the marriot from the day before, to talk to a manager... which was pointless for it seems that the hotel didn't have a manager on hand over the weekends!
So we head to the car, dropping off our night stuff. We then head to the conferences that is located upon the American University campus. While on the way over, we meet a few people also going to the conference and chat with them. We eventually get to the conference and look around for registration($12 for the entire weekend, though it wasn't exactly needed to be paid, we decided we have the money to help sponsor the event), taking us 30 minutes to eventually find the registration table and we pay.
The conference consisted of between 500-600 radicals, all in assorted punk clothing and awesome hair styles. Awesome! Plenty of booths to look at, plenty of things to learn, and plenty of people to talk to! We head to a few conferences, along the way finding a few interesting characters. The first one was a chess professor who wanted to create a community driven resource network, using a team-based chess game to demostrate. He was a bit of a looney, but he seemed to be trying to do good. Two others we met(at that workshop) was Pugsly and Lisa. Lisa seemed pretty cool, Pugsly on the other hand was past loony. This fellow saw a conspiracy in everything and seemed to see everything as an enemy. He was odd and entertaining(for the most part.) After the conference we ran into these two again and decided to hit the town, stopping first at their hotel room to drop some things off and for them to smoke up a bit.
We head downtown and wander around looking for a place to eat, eventually stopping at a sushi bar. Absolutely wonderful sushi, if ever in DC, check out "Uni" over by Dupont Circle. Emerson even tries raw quail eggs ontop of raw fish eggs! :)
Finishing up, we head out again, meeting up with two of Pugsly's and Lisa's friends. The four of them just wanted to get wasted, so we split, deciding to find a Jazz Club. We eventually located an awesome place called Columbia Station, which had live jazz every day of the week, playing to a house of between 40-50 people just hanging out and listening. We arrived at 10pm, but the band didn't start until 10:30, so we went down to a cafe and got some drinks and hung out for a bit. Heading back in, we find the band setting up, the band being Audiofix. Consisting of a set of turn tables, a drum kit, a walking standup bass, and a trumpet, they rocked(jazzed?) the night from 10:30 to 2:15am. It was such a blast, Emerson and I stayed for the whole thing, Tim decided he wanted to go to sleep and left around 1am. We chatted with a few of the people in the club, along with tipping the band... who then gave us a free cd :)
Emerson and I decided to head to the place we were going to stay, which was a church(St. Stephen's Church) that offered its floor to everyone who attended the conference. The church had 2 levels for people to sleep, the main room, upstairs, was where the actual church was, people were scattered around sleeping on the floor. Tim went up and went to bed. The basement is where Emerson and I went, for they were still partying(3am.) We hung out with two different groups, the first was from New Jersey I believe. They were sort of eh-cool, heading to bed soon after we started hanging out. The second group was from New York(Ithaca) and were pretty damn cool. We all hung out until around 4am, just chatting and such. Its always such a blast to find and talk to like minded people.
We eventually headed to bed, sleeping in what we wore on the cold, hard tiled floor. Emerson got about 3 hours of sleep, I got 2 hours, before waking up shivering(I don't have enough body mass to keep warm!) We got up and left around 8am. We gave our contact info to the people from NY(hopefully they will contact us) and headed out to find a place to eat, taking Tom(from the group from NY) as our guide. We eventually found a cafe a few buildings over from the Jazz Club and ordered food/drinks, though Tom had to head back because they were going back to the conference on sunday. Due to the super bowl, we decided we should hit up the national monuments and such.
So we hop onto the train, heading to the car to drop off some more stuff and head over to the national mall. (though on the train, we got a bit turned around and took the wrong train... you haven't had fun on a subway until you get off one train as the one of the other line opens its doors - sprinting up a set of up escalators, across the tracks, then back down an up elevator(wee!) and getting in with less then a second to spare....) Once getting there, we check out the Washington Monument, the WW2 Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and then the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
At the museum, we got to see the White Knight, the first privately sponsored space entry vehicle! We looked at other assorted displays and viewed both an IMAX film(about the Mars Rovers) and a planetarium about space/galaxys. It was fun :)
After a long day of all this, we decided we better head home(we all had aching legs.) Due to spending a lot of money this weekend, I called up Aly and had her find directions to the closet Cici's Pizza($4.50 for an pizza/salad buffet.) (Thanks Aly!) We went and got the car, headed over to eat, and then headed back home, getting in around 10:20pm.
NCOR was a blast... but DC and the people at the conference were even more awesome. The highlights were the Jazz club and hanging out with the people from NY. I love radicals! :)