This Paycheck Dedicated to Car Maintenance

My engine with a new shiny belt

in the lower righthand corner.

Last fall after getting back from Scotland and before driving up to DC, my uncle who used to do a lot of car work helped me replace the battery. That may not sound like a difficult task, but Dodge decided to make the Intrepid engine in such a way that someone who didn't know what he was doing would have to take the car into the shop in order to do something as simple as change the battery. The first time I tried to change the batter I felt like a complete idiot. I was talking to my friend on the phone and asked, "How do I change a batter?" "Easy. Just lift the hood and lift out the battery." I lifted the hood and asked, "Uh, where's the battery?" As it turns out, the battery is underneath the fender. My uncle showed me last fall how to raise the car, take off the tire, open the compartment, remove the air filter, unhook the wires, and then slide the battery out of the compartment. As he showed me how to do everything, I asked him as many questions as possible so that I could understand what everything did. I then asked him if he could put more freon into the air conditioner because it hadn't been working since I got back from Scotland. Sure. No problem. He had a bunch of cans in the garage. He showed me how to hook the cans into the hoses, but the air still wasn't cold. We thought there might be a hole in the pipes somewhere, but before we started to deal with that mess, we noticed that the belt connecting the air compressor to the engine was missing. It must have snapped off while I was driving one day. That wouldn't be as easy to fix, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I would just have to drive with the windows cracked whenever it was hot outside. Since it was getting into winter, I wasn't overlly concerned about air conditioning. The bigger problem was the other belt hooked up to the engine. It was getting dried out and cracked so that it was only a matter of time before it snapped off, too. Then the engine fan wouldn't work, and the car would overheat. I decided that if I could make it to DC without any trouble, I'd find work quickly so that I could then get the car repaired. Until then, I'd just keep an eye out on the engine. I should have been able to get a few more thousand miles on that belt. I didn't think it would take until April for me to get my first paycheck, but alas I had to make a list of stuff I needed to buy. Car maintenance was the first thing on my list. My uncle told me how much a new belt would cost, so I didn't sound like an idiot when I took the car into the shop to get the oil changed amongst other small repairs. The shop gave me a quote lower than what my uncle told me I should expect, so I agreed to get both belts replaced. I think it helped that I was able to show I knew what was wrong, what should be done, and what wasn't necessary to fix. That one trip to the shop still ate up my entire paycheck and then some, but car maintenance is always cheaper a new car.

There are a couple other problems that aren't as serious. For instance, the driver's side window doesn't work. I originally thought it was the power window motor, but I now know that's not the problem because it still works from time to time. The problem is most likely the wiring on that side of the car since I have other electrical problems there. I don't see the point in getting that fixed for now. It would take a long time or be very expensive to inspect all of the wiring, and it might not even help. It might be a little embarrassing that my window won't roll down, but I've stopped caring. Maybe someday in the future when I have the spare time and parts, I'll learn how to take everything apart and replace the wiring myself. Until then, at least my air conditioning works again.

Tidal Basin in the Late Afternoon

Blogger recently screwed up my last post and deleted it, so here it is again. It was mostly some photos that were already saved on my computer, but I can't exactly remember what I wrote. Here's a brief explanation. After going to one of the Nats opening games against the Braves, I took the short metro trip to the National Mall and took a walk around some of the famous landmarks. Here are some photos from that walk:

[Images Deleted: see http://peregrinatorphoto.blogspot.com/]

States of Hockey

Jason Chimera for the Washington Capitals scores the winning

overtime goal against the New York Rangers in a critical

Game 4 at Madison Square Garden on April 20, 2011.

Since arriving to DC, I've been trying to follow the Capitals because practically every game is on the local tv sports network. I actually enjoy hockey even though most of my friends hate it. For a few years I watched and followed the Mississippi Sea Wolves, and their old head coach when they won their championship, Bruce Boudreau, is now the head coach in Washington. This NHL team has done well throughout the regular season for the past couple years, but they have struggled to get out of the first round of the playoffs. While watching some of the games from the Caps' first round against the Rangers, I wondered where these players actually come from. Which states produce the most hockey players? Are NHL teams importing players from place that love hockey to places that just don't care? There has been a lot of controversy about expanding the NHL into areas that haven't traditionally played or watched hockey, including Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Carolina, and California. However, most of the big money for tv sports isn't in Canada but in the United States. From what I've been able to tell, many of the American NHL teams are semi-popular within cities with teams (albeit not as popular as the MLB and NFL teams), and most of the games are sold out. However, unlike baseball and football, nobody really follows professional hockey on tv outside the cities with teams. This is perhaps because ESPN doesn't show hockey games. Thus, hockey isn't as profitable or popular as other sports. Yet the NHL is still able to rake in enough money to lure excellent players like Alex Ovechkin away from their home country to play in North America so that the NHL has some of the best players and teams in the world. Still, most of the NHL players are Canadian, which makes sense because most American youth would rather play football, baseball, or soccer. Plus, there aren't the same hockey facilities in the US (including frozen lakes). I was curious, though, to know exactly how many players in the NHL are American and where they come from. For instance, has the Capitals' presence in DC inspired youth from Maryland and Virginia to play hockey and eventually to play in the NHL? I once had a friend from the Midwest who complained about Pittsburgh Penguins fans because Pennsylvanians didn't play hockey and stole all the good players from her state. Upon further investigation, I found that my friend's criticism wasn't entirely fair since her state produced about as many NHL players as Pennsylvania. Minnesota, Michigan, and New York are the top states. I have created a graph below that shows where the American players come from. The 'other' states include Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas. Still, the Canadian provinces produce many, many more hockey players.

Tornado over my Alma Mater

While growing up in Mississippi, I didn't think it was odd that we had so many tornados and figured that everyone else had the same problems. One of my most distinct memories from elementary school was during a massive thunderstorm in first grade in which several tornados passed over my school. Starting around lunchtime, all the students had to hunker down in the hallway against the walls with our heads tucked between our legs until each tornado passed. In between tornados we could sit around and socialize. It was a mix of traumatic fear while in an uncomfortable position for 30 minutes or so followed by a fun break away from our classrooms. I distinctly remember the blackness outside as if it was night even though it was in the middle of the afternoon. We stayed in the hallways until 6pm or later because the tornados wouldn't stop coming. Eventually, my mom had to drive up to the school and take my sister and me because the school wouldn't let anyone leave without a parent's permission. Teachers later told us that they counted at least 6 tornados cross over the school without touching down. Later while at Mississippi College in Clinton, I refused to go into the hallways for tornado warnings. The problem was that there would be a 'warning' if there was a tornado anywhere in Hinds County even though the county was so large that a tornado could be nowhere near us and not coming towards us. I learned to check the weather reports whenever there was a tornado warning to see where the tornado actually was. Then, I would lock the doors because the dorm's RAs wouldn't search the rooms unless the doors were unlocked. Once, there was actually a tornado in Clinton headed towards campus, but it was an incredibly weak twister that would only rip of roof shingles. The news said it was just about to cross campus, so I got up to go into the bathroom and hunker down. Then I saw the twister through the window. It was a pathetic looking thing that barely broke any tree branches. If there hadn't been a tornado siren a few minutes earlier, no one would have noticed anything was different except for a stronger gust of wind during a thunderstorm. I sat by the window and watched it cross campus. Hurricane Katrina did much more damage here, and during that storm I was outside playing football. After spending years around hurricanes and tornados, I perhaps have become desensitized to the storms, but I did learn how and when to protect myself.

The United States has a huge number of tornados between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains because of its unique geography. The Rockies clip storms and winds as they move from west to east, and then a low pressure develops and intensifies the storm. Cold air from Canada mixes with dry air in the Great Plains before colliding with the hot and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. The result is intense thunderstorms that then produce tornados. Many people don't think of places like Mississippi and Alabama or Tennessee and Kentucky as part of "Tornado Alley." Most maps would include Great Plains states from Texas and Louisiana to the Dakotas. Yet the same geography that causes tornados in the Great Plains extends over Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana. Once, a friend from the Midwest was telling me about the huge thunderstorms and tornados they get. I tried to tell her that I had the same weather in Mississippi. She argued that though we got hurricanes it wasn't the same as the massive, lumbering storms rolling off the Great Plains. When I thought about it, I began to wonder if the flatness stretching from the Mississippi River across Louisiana and Texas would create the same type of geography and weather that my friend was familiar with further up north.

When I found this map from NOAA, I was surprised to see the frequency of tornados over what some have called "Dixie Alley:"

The problem with tornados in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee are all the rolling hills and forests. Over half of Mississippi is covered with this type of terrain. Unlike places like Oklahoma and Kansas where the flat terrain lets people see a tornado approaching several miles away, most people in Mississippi can't see a tornado until it is only a hundred yards away or less. That's one reason why tornado chasers do their work in the Great Plains; they aren't going to get many videos if they can't see the storm. Also, absolutely no one has a basement at home. It's not that we can't afford them while others can. The water table in the ground is too high; the ground is so moist that a basement would constantly flood with a slow trickle of water. The basement would be nice for tornados, but for the rest of the year it would be a mosquito-incubator spreading diseases. I only know of a few large buildings in Mississippi, like churches and government offices, that have a basement. I think this surprises a lot of people not from the area. News reporters from other parts of the country often speculate about whether or not someone could have survived in some of the houses they're looking at if they had gotten in the basement, but the locals know this is a silly question. Truth is that if a major tornado directly hits someone's house, there isn't much chance of surviving, even if they hunkered against a sturdy wall with their heads between their legs. Surviving a Mississippian tornado is more about luck than anything else.

Here's a video of a tornado that crossed Interstate 20 in Clinton, MS on April 15, 2011:

The tornado chasers who recorded the video didn't know exactly where they were, so they originally just said the tornado was near Jackson. After seeing a friend post this link to his facebook profile, I clicked to see what was going on in Jackson that afternoon. I thought to myself, "That movie theatre looks familiar, and so does that Applebees." Then again, there are tons of movie theatres and Applebees across the country, so this video could have been anywhere. It wasn't until I saw the Home Depot and Waffle House that I began to realize that this tornado was passing over my old apartment and around my undergrad Alma Mater. Many of the people who commented on this video were stunned that there were still people driving on the Interstate and bridge as the tornado passed over them. I wasn't surprised. First, people were still out and about because the weather around the tornado would have looked like any other thunderstorm. We can't stay at home and wait out these thunderstorms and tornado watches unless we're willing to sit out of our lives for a quarter of the year. Second, the people here probably didn't hear the telltale freight-train sound that tornados are supposed to make. Though I have grown up around tornados, I have never heard this sound even though I hear people on the news say they heard it. Maybe the terrain muffles the sound until it is too late? Third, the people on the bridge and Interstate wouldn't have seen the tornado until it was already on top of them. Those headed westbound towards Vicksburg were coming up a hill and probably didn't see the twister until it was 50 yards away, at best. By then it would be too late to pull up under the bridge and stop. This video is a prime example of what makes tornados over hilly terrain so deadly across this part of the country. I used to live in a trailer in the woods on a hill not far from where the tornado was headed, but my friend told me that the twister missed his grandparents' land and trailer. I'm amazed at how a tornado can obliterate one side of the street while leaving the other side untouched. Like I said earlier, surviving a tornado is perhaps more about luck than anything else.

DC Bucket List

Since arriving to DC, I've been able to do some cool stuff, like seeing a Nats game in Nationals Park, seeing a DC United game in RFK Stadium, going to the Cherry Blossom Festival, eating at Ben's Chili Bowl, going to the Freer Gallery and National Museum of Natural History and Native American Museum, seeing several sites along the Mall including the Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials and WWII Memorial, and 'protested' on the Mall with over 200,000 Colbert and Stewart fans. That seems like a good list of touristy stuff I've done. Still, there's much more I want to do and see. I've created this bucket list to give me an idea of what to do while here in DC. Here's what I've come up with in no particular order.

• Newseum
• International Spy Museum
• White House Tour
• See Caps play in Verizon Center
• National Air and Space Museum
• Capitol Tour
• Fourth of July Fireworks on Mall
• Library of Congress
• Round Robin Scotch Bar in Willard Hotel
• United States Botanical Garden
• National Cathedral
• National Gallery of Art
• National Museum of American History
• See view of city from top of Old Post Office Building (I heard there was a good view from up there)
• Holocaust Memorial Museum
• United States Archives
• Ford's Theatre
• Donald W Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture
• Run along Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
• See performance in Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• Arlington National Cemetery
• Phillips Collection
• US Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima Statue)
• National Zoological Park
• Frederick Douglas House
• Beer-garden my cousin has been suggesting

At least now I'll have ideas about what to do whenever I go into DC. I'm open to other suggestions.

Introduction to My Perspective on War, Peace, and Christianity

Auschwitz, Poland.

May 2008.

I took the photograph in this post in 2008 when I traveled to Poland and visited Auschwitz, where Nazi Germany murdered around a million Jews during the Second World War. Visiting the concentration camp is an emotional experience. Personally, the most dramatic part of the tour was a series of long rooms with a display along each wall. These displays held personal items that the Germans took from the victims before sending them into the gas chambers. The displays included luggage, shoes, combs, and so forth. One display was full of hair shaved from the victims, and this hair would have been used for soldiers’ uniforms and other clothing. Many people know about this display before going, but it is still a shocking experience. I could smell the hair before walking into the room, and this sensation can be revolting. These displays gave a bit of perspective to the crimes that took place here, but the displays only showed one trainload’s worth of victims’ items. There were many more trainloads that had already gone through the camp before the Russians overran the Germans here.

Most people cannot grasp how much carnage took place in Auschwitz and other German concentration camps. Even when exposed to the pure tragedy, the human mind often tries to minimize the events so that it can understand what happened. The brain simply shuts down and turns tragedies into statistics. Whenever movies or plays portray the Holocaust, they often try to put a positive spin onto something that has few positive stories. Sometimes, there is a group of Jews trying to fight against the Germans so that their deaths have meaning. The public will usually not respond to a play or movie about the Holocaust unless there is this type of positive spin. For instance, those screenplays about Anne Frank which were successful were mostly the ones which emphasized her more uplifting passages and ignored the more depressing ones. One successful 1950s play ended with a line about how man was essentially good, but the screenwriter omitted the rest of the dairy entry, which had a grimmer outlook. The public has chosen to ignore the darker side of the Holocaust, perhaps because the senselessness and tragedy is too great for us to understand. It’s like looking into the sun; the Holocaust’s darkness blinds us.

Skeptics of Christianity and other monotheistic religions with a ‘good’ deity use the Holocaust as an example of why a good God cannot exist. Either God is not good or doesn’t care about humans because the Holocaust happened. The point is fair enough, but it comes at the topic with a certain angle that ignores the Judeo-Christian response. Believers in an omnipotent and good deity are not ignorant of tragedy, even if many of them cannot eloquently explain their position. The debate is not new. The first and oldest piece of Judeo-Christian literature, the Book of Job, directly addresses this issue. Yet tragedy, whether it is the death of a loved one or the murder of millions of Jews, still strains faith to a breaking point for many people, which is more than understandable. These events should make us pause and consider our position in the world order. Anyone who sees the stark darkness of war and does not reevaluate life will probably have other problems later. Though the skeptic insists that the Holocaust and other manmade tragedies show God’s lack of power, one Christian response would insist that the Holocaust shows mankind’s deep sinfulness when God has granted mankind the ability to turn against Him. Though there is much more to say on this point, the Christian confesses that we are miserable wrecks. Our mistakes, regardless of size, have a multitude of consequences. These consequences may not affect us as much as it affects others. Ergo, there is war and tragedy.

Yet much of modernity has taught us to think differently. Mankind is inherently or mostly good if only given a proper opportunity to be good. If a man commits a crime or sins, then the structures around his life must have put him into a situation which made him more prone to make these mistakes. Thus, when we see a tragedy like Auschwitz, we’re not seeing the mistakes of man as much as we’re seeing a dysfunctional structure or a broken international system. If only there had been a healthy dialogue, mutual respect, better understanding, fair economics, et cetera, then the Holocaust and wars would not have occurred. Many of my former professors at St Andrews made similar arguments in their works: they argued that the absence of certain factors, such as unjust societal structures, would have prevented various wars. In order to prevent future war, we must change society’s structures so that the mass goodness of mankind will prevent future tragedy. My perspective is a bit different. Even if certain factors did not exist before a war, the war may have still occurred, albeit with some logistical and practical differences. As an illustration, instead of using religion or economics to rally the people for war, the leaders may have used geography and strategic interests. The problem is not with society’s structures before war. The problem is the sins or mistakes of individuals, sometimes millions of individuals or just a few, that lead a society closer or further to war. For instance, many analysts believed that South Africa was doomed to civil war because of the societal structures there, but individuals made wise decisions that led to a peaceful transition of power. Alternatively, many analysts believed that Yugoslavia would remain a peaceful country after the Cold War because the ethnic groups there had become well integrated with many interethnic marriages, but then genocide occurred. Was it nationalism, religion, poverty, the fall of the Soviet Union, or some other force that caused the siege of Sarajevo? I would say ‘no’ because I believe it was the sins and mistakes of individuals that led Yugoslavia into war. Even if nationalism or religion had been different in the Balkans, war would have probably still occurred because the same individuals would have still made mistakes that moved them closer to war.

When faced with manmade tragedies like those in Sarajevo or Auschwitz or now in Libya, we face not so much the ineptitude of our society but the consequences of our own sin and mistakes. Just as the human brain has trouble understanding the darkness of the Holocaust, we often do not understand the darkness of our own sins. A simple lie only hurts a small number of people, or maybe no one at all as far as we can see. Perhaps, but when a large number of people tell small lies or commit other ‘small’ sins, the consequences can multiply and grow beyond our control. Therefore, when I say that the mistakes and sins of individuals may lead to wars, I do not simply mean the mistakes of politicians or rich businessmen. A German father may have heard a anti-Semitic joke from his son without correcting him. This joke and ignoring it may have been a small sin, but given the circumstances, it contributed to a genocide. Even today, a father may hear his son make a lewd joke about blonde women, but permitting this sin and behavior could perhaps lead to future disrespect towards women. It is my belief that everyday, individuals who are not politicians can plant seeds of peace that will someday prevent future wars and crimes. My own hope is that understanding and admitting to my sin and mistakes will create a pocket of peace around me that may spread to others. It’s better than creating a pocket of turmoil. Perhaps it is a naïve hope, but according to my Christian faith, God can take what is an imperfect attempt to bring His Kingdom to Earth and amplify it because nothing done in the name of God is ever done in vain.

When I started writing this post, I wanted to touch on other tragedies, such as natural disasters, but I’ll have to save those thoughts for another day because I don’t want to discuss too many topics in only one post.

DC United: Say Hello to the Dark Side, Beckham

My uncle was kind enough to buy tickets to the DC United game against the LA Galaxy for my cousins and me. None of us had been to a professional soccer game, and I probably should have gone to one while living in Scotland or France. Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States and Canada began in 1996 in order to convince FIFA to bring the 1994 World Cup to America. From what I've heard from some European friends, this league may not be much compared to the best leagues in Europe, but it is probably comparable to the second-tier leagues that are common across the continent. In the first 4 seasons, the DC United won 3 MLS championships, and then they won their 4th championship in 2004. Therefore, they have more championship titles than any other MLS team. However, since then the team has struggled. It's last playoff appearance was in 2007, and the team has had 3 coaches in the last 3 years. Currently, Ben Olsen is the team's head coach after playing for the team from 1998 until 2009 and then being an assistant coach in 2010. Olsen won the 2007 'MLS XI' award for being one of the eleven best players in the league. He also played for the US national team from 1998 until 2007 and had 6 goals in national competitions. We shall see if he is able to bring the DC United from last place last year to a position with a bit more respect. Though the game I attended was early in the season, it was still an important rivalry game with the LA Galaxy, who has had 6 appearances in the championship game and 2 championship titles. The DC and LA teams have bickered and competed for being the league's signature team.

Meanwhile, the actual league has done fairly well compared to past attempts at professional soccer in the United States. Unlike the National Hockey League (NHL), MLS has had a television deal with ESPN since 2006, and most teams have sponsors. For instance, Volkswagon sponsors DC United, which explains why there is a huge 'VW' symbol on the jerseys. In fact, anyone who drives a VW car can park for free at RFK Stadium on game day. Many of the profitable teams earn more than $4 million annually, including Seattle Sounders, Toronto FC, LA Galaxy, and Vancouver Whitecaps. DC United earn about $3.5 million annually. Real Salt Lake is one of the least profitable teams. As a testament to the league's long-term profitability, several cities have recently built soccer-specific stadiums, including those in Columbus, Los Angeles (with 1 stadium and 2 teams), Chicago, Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, and Dallas. In fact, only 5 teams play in a stadium not specifically built for soccer, including DC.

At the beginning of the game, the referees lead out the two

teams with David Beckham (#23) leading the LA Galaxy in white.

The refs in the game were just plain awful. They made multiple

confusing calls, including once when a ref called an offside

on LA and blew his whistle, but the LA players ignored him

and kept playing so that the game just went on.

I did not take this photo. My uncle had his zoom lens,

and I left my extra lenses in Mississippi.

Though the superstar Landon plays for LA, he was injured

and didn't play in this particular game.

That doesn't mean the fans didn't have signs making fun of him.

In the stands across the field from us, everyone stood up

the whole game and yelled constantly. The signs leading to

these seats called this section the 'dark side.'

There were a lot more flags and signs there.

If I go back to another game, I'd like to be over there.

A jersey covering the 'dark side' stands.

A DC United player taking a free kick.

Throughout the game DC looked like they were afraid

of attacking LA, and the United kept kicking the ball

back towards their goalie instead of driving down the field.

Even when they did attack, they only had one or two players

to finish up the play. It was frustrating to watch, but

maybe they were playing keep-away so that the LA

stars wouldn't have an explosive play.

DC taking a corner kick in the 2nd half.

The LA goalie.

My uncle took this photo with his zoom.

DC United player kicking the tying goal off of a penalty kick

at the end of the 2nd half. Considering how DC played,

getting out of this game with a 1-1 tie was like a win.

In 1961, Washington built RFK Stadium inside the District in order to be a baseball and football stadium for the Senators and Redskins. However, like many dual purpose stadiums, it was far from ideal. The stadium owners had to spend $40k every time they switched from one sport to another because they had to change so many seats. While hosting baseball games, the stadium has no lower seats in the outfield. Also, the building has bizarre architectural features that are probably the result of cheap construction methods used in the 60s while throwing up stadiums across the country. There are some unique and cool features. For instance, the section of metal stands across the field from where I sat would bounce up and down whenever a large number of fans jumped. Again, another reason why I'd like to sit in the 'dark side' next time I go.

Though we sat on the bottom level not far from

the field, the upper balcony hung over our heads

and blocked a lot of our view. We could still see the

whole field, but this balcony was still a bit odd.

According to the Washington Post, this game had well over

20,000 fans in the stadium, so it was the most attended

DC United game in over 3 years.

Penelope: you have reduced me to a fat man in speedos

Scene from the play Penelope.

Photo by Niall Buggy.

My cousin had an extra ticket for a Sunday afternoon show at Studio Theatre in DC near the U Street metro stop, and I always love going to the theatre when there's a chance. From time to time theaters give actors and others in the industry free tickets in order to get word out about the play. Neither of us knew anything about the play before going, but in hindsight there were some clues that the play would not be spectacular. Theaters usually give away tickets when the show starts, but this play was in its last weekend in DC. This giveaway would indicate that the play wasn't able to get any buzz in the community and couldn't sell tickets. Normally, Studio Theatre is known in DC as being a very good and prestigious venue, but this play was an exception. Still, I'm glad I went.

This play was part of Studio Theatre's festival celebrating Enda Walsh, a Dublin-born playwright who now lives in London. The theatre will also perform Walsh's The Walworth Farce in early April and The New Electric Ballroom in late April/early May. Penelope, the first play in the festival, first debuted last year after a German theatre commissioned Walsh to write a play based upon The Odyssey. Instead of writing about the more popular adventures that take place across the Mediterranean, Walsh concentrated on the men who had accomplished nothing but stayed at Odysseus' house trying to woo his wife. Over the past twenty years, the number of suitors had dwindled from over a hundred to only four, and now these men live in the bottom of a drained and dirty swimming pool while lounging around in speedos and bathrobes, presumably because Penelope wants them to play this game in order to win her heart. The swimming pool and set are shown in the photo above. Every day the suitors will give speeches to her as she watches from a tv set in a room overlooking the pool. However, last night every single man had the same dream about the grill in the pool: even though it has been broken for a while now, it suddenly ignites in order to symbolize her husband returning home in order to kill all of them. Today is their last chance to win Penelope's heart. They have to work together so that one of them woos her. The rest of the play focuses on each character's romantic monologue to her. The first character's speech is a bit too crass even though he considers himself an accomplished poet. As she walks away, he yells at her, "I have given my life to a possibility of love with you! But you have turned me into this, this notion of a man who begs! I am worthy of this house, of this prize, but you have reduced me, Penelope, to a fat man in speedos!" Each of the other characters also have their chance to win her with an eloquent speech, but then they begin to fight each other because they cannot stand letting someone else have Penelope. The dialogue then turns into a political/philosophical debate about man's character, whether or not someone can do 'good' for the right reasons. The debate between the characters sounded a bit like what I would have heard between some friends in a coffee shop in St Andrews, but the play's philosophy wasn't as well developed or as well delivered as I would have heard over lattes and teas in Scotland. Overall, there wasn't much of a plot and minimum character development.

For most people in the audience, Penelope was a huge disappointment. While leaving many said quite loudly that the play was awful, that they almost left before the end. Some people did leave early. I could see several faces that seemed to say, "Uh, did we just waste our time watching that?" Personally, it wasn't my favorite play, but I didn't hate it as much as everyone else. Then again, I didn't have to pay to see it. If I had paid full price, I'm sure I would have been upset. I do have to say that the actors' skill, the set, and the overall delivery was very good. It was the playwright's awful script that was disappointing, which makes me wonder why Studio Theatre has a whole festival dedicated to him.

This character was the closest to winning Penelope,

and his long monologue probably went on for about

10 minutes. At least it felt like that long. This was

supposed to be the first time she ever turned to face

the men in the pool, which begs the question as to

why these men were still putting up with her.

Penelope doesn't say a single word the whole play.

Exciting day in the ballpark

While having dinner with a couple friends from Mississippi, they told me that they had an extra ticket to a baseball game the next afternoon. Their favorite team, the Atlanta Braves were playing the Washington Nationals in the second game of the season. The one guy flew from Mississippi specifically to see this game. I'm generally not one to turn down a baseball ticket, even if the weather report is dismal. They didn't tell me where the seats were, though. Once we walked around the lower section of the stadium and then stepped down the stairs to the seats, I began to realize that these seats were going to be good, but I didn't realize just how good they would be. Finally, we stopped on the first row and sat down. The ball girl was right next to us so that we could talk to her the whole game. I could lean over the railing and touch the field's dirt. If there was a foul ball that rolled towards the stands, we could lean over and pick it up.

One of the cool parts of the game was sitting next to a friend who had been a pitcher back in college and knew a lot about baseball strategy. I only know the basics like hits, strikes, home runs, and so forth. He basically gave me a play-by-play analysis of everything that was going on. I learned phrases like 'manufactured run.' At one point the 'Nats' (Nationals) had a man on third base and only one out. My friend told me that the batter could bunt towards third base while the other player would try to steal home. That would be a 'squeeze' play, which is very difficult and rarely done in professional baseball. However, during the next pitch the Nats did the squeeze play and got a run out of it.

The Nationals came to DC from Montreal back in 2005, but they played their first seasons in RFK Stadium (originally built in 1961 for the Washington Redskins) until Nationals Park opened in 2007. It's a nice outdoor stadium not far from the Capitol. In fact, the upper deck has seats with a view of both the field and the Capitol dome, and those tickets only cost about $10. Though this team is new to the city, DC has had many other baseball teams. A team popularly known as the 'Senators' played here until 1971. However, though the fans called this team the 'Senators,' the official name the owners and players used was the 'Nationals' for many years. Starting in the 1870s and 1880s, professional baseball teams called the Nationals played in DC. In the 1890s, the first team officially and popularly called the 'Senators' played in DC for the National League. In 1901 the National League kicked out the less successful teams, including the Senators, from the league in order to reduce the league's size from 12 to 8 teams. However, a businessman decided to pick up these dropped teams in order to create a rival professional league, the American League. Washington's owners changed the team's name back to the Nationals so that fans wouldn't confuse them the new AL team with the old NL team. However, the fans still called the Washington team the 'Senators.' After the team tried to put 'Nationals' on the uniforms in the early 1950s, the fans reacted negatively so that the ownership officially changed the name to 'Senators' in 1956. Since there hasn't been a professional team here for more than 30 years, I would think that the new generation of fans won't think it's too weird that the Washington Nationals are in DC instead of the Senators.

Larry Freaking King threw the first pitch for the game.

Since I left my extra lenses in Mississippi, including the zoom,

this was the best photo I could get of him.

The pitch wasn't half bad, though.

Seeing Larry King at the ballpark made me so excited that

I spent the rest of the day telling my friends.

Wilson Ramos (#3) and John Lannon (#31) walking onto the field.

Dan Uggla (#26) runs to pick up ball that was still in play.

I think the hit was a double.

Shirt cannon.

Jayson Werth (#28) throwing ball he caught in right field

back towards the diamond. He's the new star for the Nationals

because he just signed a 7 year contract for $126 million.

Before this season he had played for Philadelphia.

He's a good player, but many have wondered if he's really

worth what Washington is paying him. Since my friends

are lifelong Braves fans, they kept saying he was 'werth-less.'

During the game he had a home run but later couldn't catch a fly ball.

Many other Nats players have a better bating average.

Presidents Race.

We were apparently on the scoreboard

screen as I was taking this photo.

Teddy lost the race. He was upset and stormed of the field.

Jason Heyward (#22) in right field.

The weather was absolutely crazy this Saturday.

The game started an hour late because a storm came

through, but during the 5th inning a hail storm caused

the game to stop again. In this photo the hail is visible.

The clouds came and went all day so that I had to adjust

my camera settings constantly.

Shirt toss.

We told her to give us her number instead of a shirt.

She didn't pay attention to us. Go figure.

Relief pitcher.

Dude just caught a foul ball a few rows behind us.

Another guy was trying to catch the ball but then

flipped over the railing and landed on his back.

Teddy likes to dance.

View of the ballpark after the game.

The Nats won.