Some folks were playing with a TV-B-Gone at the Shmoocon after-party at Adams Mill.
Why do people think this shit is clever? I reached past them and turned the basketball game commercials back on.
Because I’m a tool of the system oppressing the individual and dumbing down the populace, obviously. Or something.
Amanda and I are mashing google-found vows with vows that our good friends have used, for our wedding. Aaron and Kathy filled in the gaps with our first effort, I rearranged some stuff.
What do you think?
The site has been hosted on my powerbook at home for a while. Hopefully not
for long.
ProTip: Do not. I repeat. DO NOT use the oil that the ancho’s soaked in to
rinse the seeds off the inside because it looks like water in a dark bowl.
That water is full of chili oil. Chili oil penetrates the skin and if not
rinsed off will burn for a long time.
It hurts typing this.
Ouch.
Hardware failure took the site offline for a while. I’m hosting from my powerbook for now until we put the new server in place.
Thom Yorke’s The Eraser is great for noodling along to for guitarists of limited ability.
I should really get the wedding website working again.
The day the server failed was the day my boss’s boss’s boss sent out the formal welcome to the company e-mail ghostwritten by my boss, including a link to the site. Nice.
Thomas Oriani was a police Washington DC Patrolman from August 1, 1888 through June 30, 1931. A photocopy of a photocopy of his policy record is in the family history I’m documenting, and it is interesting enough that I thought I’d share it with you.
Items of note:
Check out [the orignal, I scanned it to pdf](/files/Thomas-Oriani-WDC-Police-
Record-1888-1931.pdf). This picture above is from the Library of
Congress.
Textpattern is pretty rad and Wordpress seems to be large target for malware,
so I have abandonded ship.
That means I’ll lose some of the music sidebar trickery, so I logged into the
last.fm account I thought I’d never use. They’ve developed into having a
pretty nice flickr-ish API that should work nicely.
Jokerbone is a pretty large site, blogs considered. Textpattern blew up trying
to import so that will be the next focus.
A bumper sticker seen in traffic:
WARNING: In case of RAPTURE this car will be unmanned!
Me: Ha. In-case-of-rapture-this-car-will-be-unmanned. Nice.
Her: What?
Me: The bumper sticker on that car.
Her: What’s that mean?
Her: Maybe it’s a Jurassic Park reference?
Me: What?
Him: It says rapture, not raptor.
Me: In case of raptor, stay the fuck in the car!
Her: Shut up! I didn’t know!
Him: I hear they hunt in packs!
Her: Ha!
Me: Oh look at that empty car! I wonder if they were eaten by dinosaurs!
Him: In case of rapture, hide in the kitchen cabinets!
Et cetera, to wit’s end…
A family history of the Italian side of my Mom’s family was assembled in the 1970’s. Aunts and Great Aunts of mine got copies of it at some time between now and then and fleshed out their generations. My mom made me full copy and gave it to me in a 2" three ring binder last weekend.
It would be neat even if I wasn’t related to these folks, and that I am doesn’t define me in any way. I’m not Italian.
That out of the way; I hope to digitize this collection and somehow get access to the original photos that are still accessible as I’m looking at what has to be sixth generation photocopied prints and typed copy. That the text of the history is typed dates it.
Gist: Relatives of mine took passage from from Mariscovetere, a village in southern Italy. In the history it is written “Marisco Vetere”, likely an error. They landed in New York and then immediately traveled to stay with another Italian family in Washington, D.C. - the Oriani’s. They lived at 205 B. St. NW according to the 1870 city directory. The Oriani’s has just moved down from Baltimore and were also originally from Mariscovette.
Neat. Look at this modern map of DC and try to figure out where that would have been:
Notice how 1st street is directly in front of the Capitol building, then the map shows 395. 395 is underground here. Next over is 3rd street. I would have to guess B St. would be about where Constitution Avenue is, putty them just north of the top 395 shield on the map.
Future posts: My Great Great Great Grandmother’s Will, my Great Great Grandfathers official record on file as a Washington D.C Police Officer, how in the late 1800’s they ran the concessions at the National Theatre, rented houses near the above described area to congressmen, making bathtub booze, Baltimore connections to Little Italy, and of course, pictures!