This Friday, I taught myself how to play the waterglasses. This is when you take a set of drinking glasses, and fill them all up with different amounts of water, and run your finger around the rim to play a note. I tuned a set of eight cups to E Major. I would've preferred C, but the lowest note on the cup (when empty) was low E, and the highest (when full) was high E, so I didn't have much choice. I should've used taller cups. I can play quite a bit, but for faster songs it's easier to just hit them with a pair of chopsticks, like a xylophone. I also need something to hold the glasses down so they don't slide around on the table. Suggestions?

You know, Death in Venice reminds me of American Beauty... middle-aged dude sick of his job, finds meaning from a divinely beautiful person who also happens to be grossly underage, undergoes a positive change, then dies.

Also went to White Flint Mall. Hurray for Metro.

Because on any given Friday in downtown Rockville you will always see shitloads of people you know..

-Mr. Thomas and Mr. Evans at CalTor. I spent a lot of time avoiding them.
-Kira, Alex D, and Pouya at Potbelly's.

Yup. Greek Wedding was good. But I got to Regal early because I was taking the bus, so I spent 30 minutes before the movie in the arcade shooting strange zombie things, and innocent police officers. I hate those stupid 'hostage/innocent' types in FPS's. I mean, GEEZ! These people ought to know that I'll shoot anything that moves!

I'm going to watch "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" at 12:10 on Friday at the Regal. Anyone want to come?

Excellent. Went to the field in front of the Washington Monument last night to listen to the US Army Band play. The 1812 Overture with live cannon fire! (and that live cannon fire smell.) That's some uplifting music for you. I never knew that classical music had this capacity to put crowds on their feet.

I've taken the liberty of signing Nick up for an e-mail newsletter that sends him a Shakespearean sonnet every day.

Don't thank me.

Let me tell you about Friday.

Went to the Natural History Museum with Shpachee, because museum-hopping is a hobby of mine. The elephant statue in the entrance hall had been renovated, so that you could no longer pick up a phone plugged into the plinth and listen to the audio documentary about pachyderms.

Had a precursory look at the modern Mongolia exhibit, mostly because we had to walk through it to get to the Dinotopia exhibit, though there were interesting reconstructions of yurts. The Dinotopia exhibit seemed more like a total plug for the miniseries instead of an actual point of academic interest worth being in a museum. Even so, the parts of the exhibit unrelated to the semi-crappy miniseries were great; James Gurney really deserves his reputation as an artist. The architectural miniatures were really shoddy, but the paintings.. it was great to recognize them from the books, except the originals were so much richer, and at their original size, you could pick out an amazing amount of detail. Of course, the best ones in the exhibit were the best ones in the books.. Waterfall City, Canyon City, World Beneath. And Chandakar, which isn't in the books. I think it's sort of strange and a bit disturbing that I get a more spiritual experience from reading fantasy books and walking through Rock Creek Park than from going to church. Though if atheists are to be believed, it's only a matter of picking the best work of fiction.

Uh, some Southeast Asian history stuff and the African cultures section. And the pre-Ice Age mammals exhibit, which I thought Alex would have liked. It was quite a novel experience, because as a little kid on field trips I'd only look at the dinosaurs. Giant sloths! Giant elk! Mammoths! Giant armadillos! Pigdogs! Thin rhinos! Tiny horses! I saw the dinosaur exhibit too, which I've seen once or twice before, but it was still awe-inspiring when you're actually aware of the size of these things.

We would have watched Cirque de Soleil (with Shpachee mocking my bad French) on the IMAX, but it aired at 5:45, so we just left and went to Dupont Circle by Metro. We were trying to walk to Georgetown but we got lost, but it was still pleasant getting lost in a non-touristy part of DC. It was actually quite quaint, with brick houses and windows with shutters and gardens, and we went into an actual general store, the type that sells everything. Shpachee said it was like being in a book because it was so quiet. But we did get to Georgetown eventually after getting a bunch of retarded directions.

Chili fries at Johnny Rocket's, a retro diner with a soda fountain and jukeboxes and oldschool "Coca-Cola" posters plastered over the tile walls. Chili fries get really squishy and gross halfway through, and they are possibly the unhealthiest food product in existence, but they were still good. Shpachee wondered how they could be considered a side.. who'd be hungry enough to eat anything else? I ordered some Mr Pibb (with no dot after Mister) because it's a running gag on 8-Bit Theater, then realized that a webcomic was affecting my consumer decisions. Freaky.

Went shopping (or Looking, since we're too poor for Georgetown) at Commander Salamander and Urban Outfitters and United Colors of Bennetton and American Eagle and other places that sell useless but expensive articles of clothing, such as....

-Sweaters knit from really thin material. Too thin to actually protect from the cold, too thick to wear by itself, liable to fall apart 30 seconds after you buy it.
-Shirts you wear over your actual shirt. So.. not really a jacket.. but not really a shirt..
-Halfling shorts. Known as such because maybe they'd be decent on a hobbit. If you combine two of these shorts to create a pair of SuperShorts, you'd maybe have a pair of shorts for human girls that'd come down to the middle of your thighs.
-Teenytiny TankTop. I thought it was a purse, until I picked it up and realized the bottom was open. You could stitch it closed, and it would be a purse.
-Pants That Are Too Tight On Me. Pretty self-explanatory.

Tried to walk back to Dupont station, got lost again, collapsed in a Starbucks near the station after we found it, drank some super expensive tea, went home, got picked up by my mom at Twinbrook, went home and ate corn on a cob and generally hung out.

And that was my day.

Quotes of the day:

"Let's have phone sex with the elephant!" -Me about the old elephant statue in the Smithsonian with those phones. Maybe this is why they renovated it.

"Is this the way to Reagan National Airport? I need to get off at Gallery Place. Is this the way to Gallery Place?" -Old out-of-towner on the Metro with luggage, despite repeated instructions to just get on the damn train when it comes, and get off when the station says "Gallery Place." It's not that hard.