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Suzie and I were taking a weekend trip to Florida to meet up with Mike and Kacey in Orlando with a few stops along the way.  We had both slept poorly and before we had reached DC on our way to Atlanta were both punchy.  The National Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the blooming of the cherry blossoms given to the US in 1912 and while I had seen these trees before I had never seen them so fully in bloom.
Blossoms
Suzie had taken a bloomed sprig and put it in her hair causing an older women to comment to the effect that doing so would have her brought up on war crimes or some non-sense.

Long Day
The blossoms were everywhere along the Potomac across the Jefferson Monument and the canopies of the trees laced together to create a white sky with burgundy highlights when walking beneath.  They also absorbed sound quite well and there was a quietude to being there.  We walked from one end of the grove to another and took a few pictures.  It was lovely.
Blossom Pano

On the way back to the car, we passed a dead body.  That was a first.

The next 11 hours were a blur of music, rain, and fatigue.  We both finally snapped about 15 minutes out from Reuben’s house at the comment “WAFFLE TIME IS PRIVATE TIME” and the final sign of my mental desolation was pulling into the wrong driveway.  We were at Reuben’s house for the second time in the same year and had made the 800 mile trip in a day without dying.  This blessed life.

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A problem had occurred in the CDN that supplies images to the online store I maintain for my firm so I spent today re-uploading pictures of undergarments.  It was straight forward and necessary and had no problem doing it but at an irreducible level I had spent my day looking at underwear.  I’m not sure if I should feel dirty or lucky.

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My first attempt at running 10 miles was sweaty and involved me walking for a stretch.  Today, I was going to try running the whole distance aided by my secret weapon of The Walking Dead.  The show had recovered from the mid-season doldrums and things were again happening and at a pace where they’d probably distract me from foot pain and side stitches so I saved the episode for the last five miles of my run.  I hopped on the treadmill and began at a pace of about six miles per hour up a two degree incline and listened to This Week in Tech.  After each 2.5 miles, I dropped the incline a degree and eventually slowed down the treadmill to a little below 6 MPH.  The fast-pace of The Walking Dead season finale allowed me to ignore my environment and when the bodies had finished falling, I hit the “STOP” button on my treadmill.  I looked down and saw that both of my shoes had become untied.  Not just a little untied but “three year-old waiting for mommy” untied.  My food foot was being held in by the swelling of my feet and the increased friction brought about by the pool of sweat that had soaked my shoes and socks and pruned my feet.

Well done, Mr. Darabont.

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The son of someone I know through Ockanickon asked me to serve as her son’s Eagle coach, a new position in Scouting with the goal of guiding a Life Scout through the steps required to get Eagle.  When I arrived, the kids were largely sitting and the adults were woodworking away building the project and I cringed a bit.  The Eagle Scout in question passed me his workbook and the number of cases where “my mom” or “my dad” was the answer to the question of “who will do x?” made me somewhat uncomfortable.  I could find nothing wrong with his work except for a few insignificant misses and signed off on the section verifying his prep work and oversight of the project.

Leadership is a cornerstone of the values of Scouting and the rank of Eagle is a milestone in its training.  Leadership to me is best shown in one of two ways: dealing with a problem or opportunity that popped up facing a group or building something over the course of many years.   Neither of these scenarios is conducive to the timescale of Scouting rank advancement so the Eagle Project is used as a proxy for it.  An Eagle Project must be lead by the Scout, help a non-Scouting community, and be both tangible (something gets made) and definite (not ongoing).  Sometimes this works as a platform of leadership but often the only skill proven is that a Scout can navigate paperwork and cooperate with multiple people.  I’d say this is an important skill but it is not quite Leadership.

A debate in Scouting rages over whether or not one can be “too young” to get Eagle.  I don’t necessarily believe this to be the case but I have found that older Scouts tend to be more ambitious with their projects which in turn requires leadership.  They focus on the outcome rather than completing the project as a check box and I believe that creates a more impactful project.  Do I hold anything against this Scout for how he’s getting his Eagle?  No.  Do I wish there were a bureaucracy-friendly way to create a crucible of leadership a la the Kobayashi Maru of Star Trek?  Hell, yes.

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Reading Terminal Market

The previous evening ended late and today started early so it was in a bit of a cloud when Mike, Suzie, and I started on the Reading Terminal Market tour.  This was the first site I saw on the way there.
Everyone's Irish

The tour itself was informative and seemingly profitable for the operator and I ran around taking photos afterward.  I’m a sucker for juxtaposition:
Taking a Moment
After the tour, we headed to Chinatown for lunch.

Chinatown

Chinatown in Philadelphia has been up until now “the place we went to eat after Grand Prixs and Pro Tour Magic events with people who were douches about chinese food”.  We ate at Lee Ho Fook’s and Warren Zevon thus played in my head during any lulls in the conversation.  The best of the four dishes was Ben’s salted squid.  It was fried, salty, and squiddy.  I never considered squid much of a distinct flavor but either the spicing or the sizing was enough for me to go “yup, that’s cephalopod”.

Salted Squid

As we walked back to the car and jumped into stores and curiosity shops there was a man at one corner painting a picture of the intersection.  This is the fourth or fifth time that I’ve seen this in Philadelphia and, where possible, I try to take a picture of the work and what they’re focusing on.  I’ve spent more raw time in New York City and Chicago than Philadelphia and I’ve never seen this happen in either of those locations.

Uncluttered Square

This shot is a tone-mapped HDR.  Normally the car sides or the sky would be respectively dark or blown out and the sun streaking across the building sides is present but not overbearing.  I am happy with it.

Eastern State Penitentiary

The final stop was after a long walk to Eastern State Penitentiary, a prison that opened in the 1820s and housed both Al Capone and Willie Sutton.  It is notable for its “recovery through silence” philosophy as well as the state of disrepair it fell into in the 1970s.  The facility is slowly being restored and we took an audio tour which was narrated by Steve Buscemi.  One can still walk around the unrestored areas and entrance is only barred to areas undergoing restoration or that are obviously dangerous.  Here’s one of the unrestored cell blocks.  For reference, the grates are about 3 feet high.
Hallway
Again this is a tonemapped HDR.  I have a more striking version where I dicked with the color and contrast but it didn’t seem right to nudge what was otherwise a documentary photograph.  A side benefit of being ensconced in tons of masonry was that the facility was quite cool.

We then walked to the Art Museum steps and saw Philadelphia’s almost skyline.
From The Art Museum
Mike had driven Suzie and I into the city and was headed south, Suzie was headed west, I was headed north, and Ben was headed home.  I took SEPTA to Trevose and then walked the three miles home from there.  When I got home I was tired but not sleepy so ran a bit.  My Fitbit (pedometer) tells me I walked 36890 steps today for a total of about 22 miles today.  I believe it.

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Me: Do you mind if I just take a roll?
Cashier: Rolls are free with food.
Me: But I’m not buying anything else.
Cashier: Buy something else then.
Me: How about saying it came with the breakfast I had this morning?
Cashier: But you’re not buying breakfast now.
Me: Well, I’m here to pick up the roll I forgot from breakfast.
Cashier: Breakfast doesn’t come with rolls.
Me: Then how much is just a roll?
Cashier: 50 cents.
Me: No.
Cashier: 25 cents.
Me: Fine. *pulls out a quarter, the amount I had planned on paying if it came to this*
Cashier: Alright, 25 cent roll *hits register buttons* that’ll be 27 cents.
Me: *holding quarter* Nothing is ever simple is it? *Hands cashier a 20*

I now have enough change for 74 more rolls…

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Secure File Transfer Protocol, SFTP, is a common method to move files across networks without letting other people snoop on them.  A 3rd party wanted to use SFTP to drop inventory files on a computer and I put in a request with the in-house technical team to do this.  My ticket to our desktop support person was “please open port 22 to SFTP traffic.  I need move files securely and port 80 will not do.”

Later, I was called by a very confused networking person who after some talking sent me the original request made of him from desktop support.  My original request  had been recorded as “Please open 22 additional ports so SFTP traffic can move files securely.  80 ports will not do.”

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Boss #3: Terry, we need to update user fields to include some referral information, that’s why I asked you to stop by.
Me: Ok. I’ll add that to the information we collect.
Boss #3: Good. Thanks for stopping by.
Me: If you need anything else just email or message me.
Boss #3: Nah, I like when you stop by, you should do it more often.

Noted.

About six hours later, I decided to give a try at casually stopping by so I found reasons to be in that other wing of the building and repeatedly walked by that person’s door. Each time, my boss was either on the phone, meeting with someone, or looking out the window. On the fifth pass he saw me.

Boss #3: I guess I never realized how much time you spent on this side of the building.

At least I was on the clock for what I’m now going to call my Communication Attack Runs.

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A coworker returned to work after recovering from a leg injury and we talked in the mail room. She lamented not being able to walk to the lab for baked goods so I offered to bring her down a sample tray. She was excited about this and we started talking.

Her: I’ve been away for a few weeks, it looks like you’ve lost weight.
Me: I lose about 1.75 lbs a week.
Her: But you’ve lost more than that overall.
Me: About 165 from my peak.
Her: Interesting, where did you have your surgery done?
Me: Surgery?
Her: Bariatric surgery.
Me: None.
Her: Oh.

I’ll take that as a compliment.

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Who We Are

No one died.

After Thought:

We know each other because of video games but after that we are unavoidably people.  Some people were there for friendship, some were there for escape, some were there for romance and I’m not sure entirely why I was there.  Not to say I didn’t enjoy myself or didn’t want to be there but to a certain extent I felt like my presence was right.  Team Interrobang is something I helped found and I would have a hand in its social life for as long as I could manage.  One of my core values is to promote human connection.  It doesn’t take a lot for me to feel alone and part of me thinks that if I create a social group large enough that feeling will simply disappear.  Either I haven’t or it doesn’t but other people are ultimately the source of all my avenues to happiness.  This is something that I don’t believe I can re-tune in the same way I won’t be able to convince my lungs to work on methane so I will continue to hold out my hand and say “may we have an adventure?” to those in my life.  Chad, Alex, Ryan, Ken, Suzie, Dallas, Cody, Ty, Mike, Steve, Rachael, Chris, Ben, John, Audrey, Marcus, and Peter took that hand and for that my life is richer.